… upcoming separation…

After the Christmas break, Hermione had watched their House welcome Harry back with cautious delight. Perhaps because she had seen him at his almost worst she had forgotten how alarming his current frail frame was. He no longer seemed fragile, and had a delicate touch of colour to his cheeks that actually made him even more handsome than ever, but the rest of their House reacted as if he was going to fall to the ground dead at any moment. Harry clearly didn't appreciate this, though he was very patient with them for the first hour or so.

It seemed his ordeal had not increased his patience, nor his desire to be fussed over and attended to. Harry was evidently as retiring as ever, which made the over-anxious response of their house even more of a burden. Ron helped as much as he could, mainly by sticking to Harry like glue. The House deferred to Ron's orders, clearly under the impression that the redhead was Harry's nurse. She got a few funny looks from one or two of them, who were apparently wondering why she wasn't being as adamant as Ron, but as the Headmaster had seen fit to suddenly saddle her with a lot of extra Prefect duties they reasoned that she couldn't give Harry the care and attention he obviously still needed.

Luckily Harry himself dispelled this notion by the last class of his first day back. His casting was stronger and quicker than any that Hermione had ever seen - though his control lacked a good deal of finesse and the results he got could be very unpredictable to say the least. Professor McGonagall informed him that he would need to start at the very beginning once again and had him practicing first year spells in class. Malfoy hadn't so much as twitched at that - last year he'd have been laughing his poncy arse off and making Harry's life even more difficult than it already was.

The other Houses were rather mixed in their reactions. Slytherin was fairly unsure of Harry, several of the members seemed to be expecting him to hex them at any moment and certainly weren't looking to the staff for protection. Those must be the children of Death Eaters, though several were wondering why Malfoy was able to be in the same room as Harry and not even rate a second glance. They had even been seen exchanging neutral polite words with each other, something that Hermione had thought impossible.

Ravenclaw were curious. In fact several of them were so curious that they started following Harry around and listening intently to his discussions with other people. Harry was definitely aware of this, though there was no real way to stop them. Using charms against his fellow students to ensure his privacy was tempting, but would probably be frowned on. Not to mention making everyone think that he had something to hide from them all, thus exciting further curiosity and defeating the purpose of the charms in the first place. Ron was a lot more vocal in his opinion of this matter than Harry, and there were several heated exchanges on the matter.

Hufflepuff touched him. Every single student made a point to hug, shake hands with, pat on the shoulder or back, or tousle Harry's hair during the first of the three day cycles he would be spending at the school. There was even one pat on the bum, but Ron soon saw that opportunist off and after the word got around no one made that mistake again. Madame Pomfrey was able to reattach the hand in question so that was all right and Ron only lost the House 10 points.

The teachers smiled at him. One or two made a point of saying welcome back at the start of class, and Hagrid hugged him in front of the whole school, but on the whole their teachers were much more rational about the whole situation. Maybe it was because they'd had time over the Christmas break to get used to Harry and his dreadful appearance, the teachers appeared quite sanguine about Harry, even those that were offering him private lessons.

Of the whole school, not counting Filch of course who would never be happy to see a student come back to Hogwarts no matter what the circumstances, there were two notable exceptions to the 'love fest' as Ginny had so crudely described it. Harry had nearly choked to death on his pumpkin juice when his honorary little sister had felt the need to share that particular gift of description with them over dinner, and she had been mortified when the over-protective and slightly hysterical House had screamed for Madam Pomfrey along with accusations of Ginny killing 'our Harry'.

Exception number one to the 'love fest', as Ron now repeatedly called it to Harry's mortification, was Professor Slughorn. He had been brought in to teach Potions in Snape's place, and was rather gifted at it. Hermione found him a little difficult to bear as he seemed to put as much store by a person's family name and connections as their ability to correctly brew an assignment, which was almost as bad as Snape favouring Slytherin as far as she was concerned. Slughorn had approached Harry on his first day back in front of almost the whole school and had stated rather loudly that he had noted that Harry had failed to sign up for Potions.

"…Which is really fundamental, young man. Not to worry, I am sure that I can accommodate your schedule. I understand from Albus that you're only here on a part-time basis and I will be happy to give you the extra tutelage you'll need to catch up."

Hermione had expected to see the temper that was simmering in Harry's eyes to be let loose, but he had managed to keep himself under control. He had drawn himself up and in an eerie imitation of their usual Potions Master had informed the man that he was being privately tutored by a well known master and had no need to pursue Potions 'in the format it was being offered at Hogwarts'. The blow to Slughorn's' pride was almost a mortal one, and Hermione privately thought the man would rather eat bubotuber pus than accept Harry into any classroom of his in the future.

Harry was not taking Defence Against the Dark Arts either, and Professor Jones was not too pleased about that. Evidently the Welshman felt that it would be something of a feather in his cap to be known as the man who taught the Boy-Who-Lived Defence, but Harry had not even looked twice at the ex-Unspeakable since he resumed classes, and Jones was not about to repeat Slughorn's mistake. After all, he was much more dignified than Slughorn, and seemed to make it a point of pride to never have so much as a hair out of place. His opinion on the subject was blatantly clear in the way he ignored Harry so completely; even Filch was warmer in his regard of Harry than Jones.

What surprised Hermione most was the way Snape reacted to the two teachers in particular. The golden Phoenix that Hermione had seen with Harry over Christmas brought the man to the doors of the Great Hall at the beginning of dinner on Harry's last evening in the castle. He would be travelling away with Snape once dinner was finished to wherever they had spent the summer, and seemed to be looking forward to it, if regretting the upcoming separation from Ron.

You didn't need to be a Ravenclaw to figure out that something had changed in the boy's friendship. Hermione was almost sure she knew what too.

Snape had nodded to Harry in passing, sweeping up to take his usual seat at the teachers table. Slytherin had welcomed their Head of House none too subtly with nods and whispers, though a dark glance soon had them back to their usual composure. Harry had chuckled, but she wasn't sure why. Slughorn had obviously heard of Snape and had tried to engage him in conversation for several minutes, which Snape had scotched with a few of his vicious one word answers and biting glares that the student body were all too familiar with. It was sort of fascinating to see them directed at an adult for a change, certainly the difference in age made no difference to their impact. Jones was treated with complete indifference until the Professor clearly mentioned something about Harry. Albus had been forced to confiscate Snape's wand with the kind of look you would have expected to see levelled at an errant first year. Not that Snape was in any way deterred from quietly and efficiently decimating his opponent verbally. It was almost a pity tat the Headmaster had waved his hand and erected a spell to prevent the Hall from hearing what was being said.

After that, both disgruntled teachers left Snape alone, and in the following three-day cycles they made it a point to leave Harry alone too.

That was a point in Snape's favour.

0o0o0o0

Albus was not surprised to see Severus slumped in his best armchair, sipping tea and idly flicking through Harry's latest Arithmancy effort. For someone who had never studied the discipline the boy was markedly quick at picking up the basics and very intuitive in his grasp of the algorithms and diagrams that were being taught. Harry played with magic almost the same way a baby played with blocks, fitting it together in a way to suit him, and sometimes in ways that no one had thought possible.

"A passable effort," Severus tossed the essay onto a nearby end table, "Though there are several points that he needs to clarify."

"Yes," Albus smiled, taking his seat opposite and taping his ever-present teapot, "That is merely his first draft. He had asked me to cast an eye over it. How are you Severus?"

Ink chose that moment to announce its presence by clawing its way out of Severus' hem and tumbling onto the rug. The kitten had grown into a young kneazle, thin and spiky furred with little of the grace that the breed usually had. It would be at least a year before it reached that stage, and in the meantime she would be discovering several of her birth powers, namely the one that let her appear and disappear at will from all sorts of unlikely locations.

"Plagued," Severus scowled, "If I ever catch up with the idiot that keyed the love potion directly to me I will leave him wishing I had treated him as well as I do a potions ingredient."

Albus chuckled and handed across a teacup, with a shortbread tucked into the saucer. He knew the Potions Master actually enjoyed the shortbreads, and always made a point to have some on hand. The besotted creature clambered up the leg of the armchair and stole into Severus' lap, settling quickly and hooking its claws into his robes, as if stating that Severus would have to wear ribbons home if he wanted the thing out of his lap.

"I take it that young Harry has been progressing well in his lessons with you?" Albus kindly gave his protégé a conversational gift, ignoring the kneazle that was now purring away happily as a long finger absently ran over its back. The Headmaster was beginning to think that Severus was warming to the little thing, despite himself.

"He has," Severus inclined his head, "Even his Potions work has improved. I need only demonstrate a spell once or twice for him to grasp the basics, and I have yet to see him require more than five attempts to fully master the spell to a good standard."

"And his attitude? Forgive me dear boy, but the two of you have quite the history in a classroom setting," Albus sipped his tea and Severus smirked in reassurance.

"He pays attention, completes assignments on time and manages to refrain from asking too many inane questions," the dark eyed man reported, "All in all his attitude is satisfactory and his application to his studies all that is required. We spend some time devoted to subjects that are not included on the normal curriculum - things that Harry is curious about and has negotiated for. He is becoming quite skilled at arguing without offending his opponent, a very subtle art form."

And one that Severus was no doubt enjoying. The irascible man was not above enjoying an argument for arguments sake, and a well-crafted argument was as potent to him as some of his own potions. The news that Harry was learning quickly was no surprise either. The one on one attention the teen was receiving wasn't something to be abused, and Harry would be very careful to show his appreciation in the only way that Severus would allow it - by learning quickly and learning well. That the teen was thriving on the challenges Severus was setting was evident - Harry had good colour, energy and was gaining weight finally, though the teen had moaned to Albus in private that his potion now tasted like a dead toad, and that he would welcome back the dead mouse flavour.

"What sort of things?" Albus asked curiously, hoping he wasn't going to regret leaving those two alone together. As much as Harry might resent the comparison there was a certain amount of his father in the boy, though it was expressed as a very quirky form of curiosity when it came to learning new spells and forms of magic.

"The Animagus transformation for one," Severus sighed, "As you know it was not something I ever mastered, though Potter seems convinced that he can learn and then teach me."

There was an element of hope hidden beneath the layers of sceptical disbelief and ungraceful envy in Severus' voice that Albus very kindly didn't call him on. He merely smiled into his teacup and settled into his chair as Severus detailed how far Harry's studies in that field had progressed.

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