Chapter Summary: Ron demonstrates how much he has matured over the last year and tells Hermione how he feels about her.
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A/N: Next chapter Harry and Sev finally get some good news and I've got time off work to write it :)
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BTW the MPREG stuff is coming up REALLY soon.
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Beta by Kristine Thorne
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I wonder if ffnet are getting a bit weird about the replies to specific reviews in a story entry, a entry on the homepage seems to indicate that. I will be deleting the notes at the bottom of past chapters so only the current chapter has notes at any one time. Then I can still post replies without the word count significantly being affected by notes. If any of you have stories posted it might be worth checking the homepage.
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Chapter Fourteen – Release
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The rest of the open day had gone really well, Harry thought as he lay awake next to Severus the next morning thinking about everything that had happened. To Severus it had all been old news, once he had got over his rather intense flashback panic attack anyway, the swords had helped to lay the experience to rest and McGonagall had got rid of the culprits, for the time being at least. Harry's mind however, was going round in circles thinking about his father and what he might have done.
Severus hadn't seen very much of what happened after he was given the drug, nothing reliable anyway, since one of the things had been a giant rabbit. Harry couldn't believe that his father had been responsible for the worst of it, the plan had been to drug Severus and leave him to be found breaking curfew, to get him expelled for being a druggie. No, Sirius had insisted that his father didn't hit Severus, so they couldn't have then decided to do the more heinously violent things afterwards, it didn't make sense and Harry certainly didn't want to believe it.
There had been plenty of students there, some who may have stayed behind to take advantage of Severus' vulnerable state after his father had left, Harry reasoned in his mind. It was most likely the same men that had approached Severus and triggered the flashback in the first place. His father had been very cruel to Severus, Harry decided as he snuggled up to his Kin, but he hadn't been responsible for the worst of it, couldn't have been.
Harry squeezed Severus a little and he must have been nearly awake anyway because Harry found a hand clenching his very soon afterwards.
"You're not usually awake before me," Severus mentioned his voice still sounding sleepy.
"Just a bit restless," Harry dismissed.
Severus lifted Harry's hand and kissed it.
Harry could think of many questions to ask his Kin but none that would help them get over the traumatic incidents of the previous day better than just letting it be.
Harry responded to Severus' attention to his hand by planting a number of kisses along his Kin's shoulders and neck.
"Since we're both awake," Harry began, a mischievous tone to his voice.
"And it is far to early to be getting up?" Severus answered, saying Harry's next words before he had the chance.
"Hmm, yes," Harry replied easing up on an elbow and tugging on Severus' shoulder in an attempt to get him to roll over.
Severus obliged by turning onto his back, still looking adorably sleepy.
Harry leant over his Kin and kissed him on the neck and along the jaw and he got no protests.
"Lie still," Harry instructed, "I'll just amuse myself."
Harry and Severus were sat at the Great Hall table for breakfast once again though they were wishing that they had just stayed in their quarters. Nothing had been said, but Hermione still had the hump because Harry hadn't visited Gryffindor tower like he had said he would on the day of the open day and Minerva had had to leave with the Death Eater orphans.
The awkward silence was broken by the arrival of the owl post and Harry noticed an owl heading his way carrying a small package. It had been exactly a week since he had received the new broom. Harry wondered if Severus was going to make a habit of sickening the residents of the castle by providing his Kin with thoughtful little presents every week.
The owl landed and waited for Harry to take his parcel. It wasn't very big this time and Harry was deeply intrigued. He took the parcel and the owl flew off, he opened it and pulled out two completely blank sheets of parchment. Harry stared at them for a few minutes trying to interpret them into something other than blank parchment but to no avail.
"What are they?" Harry eventually gave in and asked his Kin.
"You haven't had your coffee this morning," Severus commented, "Since when has a blank parchment been merely a blank parchment?"
"Most of the time," Harry responded, glaring at his Kin to make him explain further.
"I am a strawberry," Severus said as if that explained everything.
"I am a strawberry?" Harry repeated hardly able to believe his ears.
Severus merely smiled his barely perceptible smile and gestured to the parchments that now lay on the table.
When Harry looked down one of the parchments now had Hogwarts represented on it, there were line drawings of each floor, rather small but they were all there. Severus reached out a hand and touched the parchment with a finger, the level he had chosen enlarged to fill the whole parchment and in a room labelled the great hall were two red dots and the names Harry and Severus next to them. Severus touched the parchment again and all the floors became visible arranged orderly in a grid across the page.
Harry grinned, "One each?"
"Yes, when we start teaching, even in the few months before, it will become necessary to complete tasks separately."
"I wasn't looking forward to that, I might not see you for hours on end," Harry said leaning closer to his Kin as if even mentioning it created unwanted distance between them.
"I was hoping that you would feel this way because I wasn't looking forward to it either, with a pair of maps we can both know where our Kin is and you can come straight to me if you need me and I can find you," Severus explained.
"Should have got a full ranging one, then we wouldn't have to patrol at night, we'd just swoop in and catch curfew breakers even if they did use an invisibility cloak."
Severus was amused; "There is nobody more strict than a reformed troublemaker, one of the unscheduled lessons of any school is to teach the art of bending rules without being caught, it exercises the mind."
"Sev!"
"Of course one puts up a suitable challenge to such activities to make them work for it, a quite enjoyable part of the job," Severus added.
"And scare them out of their wits."
"Exactly, that's the most fun part, but to have an overwhelming and unfair advantage would stifle any creativity and imagination."
"Oh Sev, you are funny."
Severus suddenly stiffened up, he had been recklessly letting his mask slip, letting Harry know all this was one thing but he still needed some defence against the rest of the world and they were in the hall. "However," Severus then continued, "Should any magic or violence be used to compromise the well-being of another student the culprit can expect to find themselves running from the castle with my sword not far behind them."
Harry put an arm round Severus in understanding, "Shall I thank you for my little present now?" He asked.
"If you wish," Severus replied as haughtily as he could without making Harry laugh.
Harry put both his arms round Severus and gave him a hug; he really enjoyed these little shows of affection.
Partly with the intention of testing out the maps Severus decided that he would spend the morning tutoring Hermione whilst Harry was going to check out the Defence classroom's bookshelves simultaneously instead of waiting for Severus to finish.
As they reached the section of the corridor where they had to go their separate ways, Harry was feeling a bit nervous. He couldn't say much however, as Hermione and Ron were only a short distance behind.
"Do the dots change colour when you get angry?" Harry asked.
"No, regrettably," Severus replied keeping an eye out for Hermione and Ron as they approached within earshot.
"You will be all right?"
"If things start to deteriorate I will leave and find you," Severus offered briefly taking Harry's hand and giving it a squeeze.
They had been afforded this time together because Hermione and Ron were making very slow progress. Ron was better than he had been a week ago but he was still finding it more difficult than usual to walk. Hermione held onto Ron tightly and he kept one hand on the wall but Hermione's centre of gravity was not its usual self either with her advancing pregnancy and she didn't look very confident about their progress.
This was part of the reason that Harry was taking Ron with him to the defence classroom. Ron didn't want to be stuck up in Gryffindor tower all the time, but it was clear that he needed somebody else to help him while he was going through what he assured Harry was just a bad patch which would pass.
Hermione left with Severus and Harry would have watched him go but he couldn't turn around. Ron had his arm round Harry's shoulders and Harry was holding onto his friend firmly. They hadn't begun to walk but Harry could feel the pull on his hold as Ron tipped and he had to pull him back upright. Harry tried to control his breathing so that it wasn't obvious that he was nearly panicking, Ron was so much closer to him than he ever wanted anybody other than Severus to be but he had to do it.
They made their way slowly, Ron not saying a word but without a tense atmosphere, Harry assumed that he was concentrating on not falling and taking Harry with him. Ron's situation reminded Harry of a year old toddler taking his first steps, except that Ron was a little taller than he was and much heavier than a child.
It wasn't far, which Harry was very grateful for, they even managed the short flight of stairs to the Defence classroom office but then Ron leant up against the wall and looked tired already. Harry pushed the door open.
"There's a chair behind the desk, just have a seat there," Harry suggested.
"Can you just let me down onto the floor?" Ron asked.
Harry didn't question it but did as Ron said, once on the floor Ron shuffled over to one of the bookcases and pulled himself up to a sitting position against it.
"No distance to fall if you're already on the floor," Ron explained, "We have muggle bean bags up in Gryffindor now."
Harry smiled at the idea, Gryffindor being full of beanbags reminded him of Will's living room at Sgoil Dhubh, except that Gryffindor didn't have a 48-inch plasma widescreen, a DVD player and surround sound.
Harry went to the fire and ordered some hot milk and coffee; whilst he was speaking to Dobby he asked the house elf to bring them some cushions as well.
Harry abandoned the desk and the chair too and joined Ron on the floor. Dobby arrived very quickly and took Ron's coffee over to him and laid everything else on the floor in front of Harry.
"Is Professor Severus not with you today, sir?" Dobby asked.
"He's with Hermione for a while," Harry explained.
"Oh," Dobby said frowning.
Harry smiled at the little house elf as he disappeared again. He then passed Ron a cushion to sit on and one to lean against.
"Hot milk again Harry?" Ron queried.
"I've had one coffee already this morning," Harry replied by way of explanation before reaching for a book on the bottom shelf of the bookcase nearest to them.
Ron raised an eyebrow at Harry, he had had a coffee already too and he didn't follow the logic. Helping Harry look through hundreds of Defence books all morning was going to require as much coffee backup as he could get, or something else if he could get it.
"We could have a drink," Ron suggested, "Fire whiskey, order something muggle even."
"In the morning?" Harry asked rather alarmed at the suggestion.
"Oh come on, I can't stand anyway, what difference would it make?"
"It is the morning, I am the Headmaster and I have a Defence teaching position to prepare for," Harry insisted.
"You're no fun anymore," Ron grumbled before going back to his coffee.
"I can be fun," Harry insisted, recalling with a smile to himself that Sev didn't think that he was 'no fun', "I just don't want to get shitfaced."
"Can't I even have a smoke?" Ron whined.
He must have got used to having to beg for everything, being stuck with Hermione, Harry thought.
"All right," Harry reluctantly agreed, he didn't really want to be breathing smoke either but Ron was starting to get rather pathetic, "If you help me rate these books you can have a smoke."
"That's easy," Ron grinned, "They're all crap."
Harry was amused but he attempted to maintain a teacher like air, "It won't take us very long then will it."
Harry got Ron his smokes and then sat on the opposite side of the room. He took two books from the nearest bookshelf and handed one to Ron.
Ron flicked through his book quickly, "Crap!" He announced before taking a long draw on his smoke.
"I didn't seriously think you were going to persist with that attitude," Harry responded.
"Bloody hell, you even sound like him now," Ron answered holding up the book.
Harry looked at the cover and noted that it was one of Gilderoy Lockhart's works, "You're right, it is crap. Why do we even still have that?"
"Beats me," Ron shrugged as he tossed it to the side, rather closer to the door.
Harry passed over another book to Ron and continued to rate those on the lower shelf of the nearest bookcase.
"So why don't you want a smoke?" Ron asked, since he had his old friend alone for once he was determined to get to know him again, he had so many questions in fact, he hardly knew where to start.
Harry tensed a bit, he knew Ron was being curious and he had a right to be considering how much had changed, however Harry didn't feel like he wanted to tell him what was going on. Quite apart from anything else, the shock would probably kill him. Harry chose to shrug, "Just don't want one," He replied vaguely.
"Snape smokes," Ron stated, "So it can't be because he has forbidden it."
Harry was surprised; Severus hadn't smoked since they had got back, "How do you know?"
"He used to smell of it all the time, you never noticed?" Ron responded.
"I didn't make a habit of getting that close," Harry answered, twisting his nose at the memory of his former teacher.
"Hmm," Ron responded as if thinking something over, "You don't want to smoke, or drink and you don't want more than one coffee."
"That's right," Harry answered, throwing another couple of books over and hoping that Ron would take the hint and shut up.
"And you still remember how much you didn't like Snape, you do realise that the Snape you are living with now is the same man?" Ron persisted.
"I know, but I didn't really know him then and he was just being like that because he thought it was best," Harry responded.
"You do know that nobody else can tell the difference between Snape now and Snape then, only you seemingly."
Harry suddenly wondered if it would ever end, if they would ever leave his Severus alone, a wave of sadness passed over him and a tear threatened to break from his eye. "How can he even begin to be different in front of you all, when you treat him like this," Harry responded, "Just leave him alone."
Ron sighed in defeat, "What is the matter with my life?" He lamented, "I thought that leaving school would open up a whole new world of possibilities and that I would at least have a small amount of time to spend getting out of my tits with my friends. But here we are, still at bloody Hogwarts, Hermione wouldn't join in even if we were speaking because she's pregnant and you won't either, it just isn't bloody fair."
"Smoking and drinking isn't the answer to anything," Harry said thinking of all the time he had spent smoking with Severus, thinking that it helped.
"I don't want answers," Ron stormed, "I want out of my head, it isn't a very nice place to be anymore."
Ron fell to silence after his outburst, no matter what they said about Severus, Harry couldn't quite bring himself to forget his old friends and he wished that there were something he could say or do which would help Ron; he ordered him a bottle of whiskey instead.
Ron made a good job of half emptying the whiskey bottle and Harry switched to checking all of the books and only handing him the ones that he knew were useless anyway. Ron would then announce they were crap and throw them in the general direction of the now open office door. Sometimes he even managed to get one out of the door. Ron had rolled over onto his side and broke off book vetting every now and again to smoke another smoke and take a sip of his drink.
Harry wasn't quite sure how they were going to get Ron out of the defence office.
"Ronald Weasley!" A woman's voice suddenly shrieked from the doorway to the office as a book came hurtling towards her and she had to deflect it from hitting her in the face.
"Oh bugger, Hermione," Ron responded to the presence, instantly looking deflated of spirit.
"What do you think you are doing?" Hermione demanded to know, taking in the sight of the half empty bottle on the floor and the cloud of smoke in the air.
"Getting shitfaced," Ron replied simply.
Harry could see that Severus was behind Hermione and he directed a withering look at Harry.
"I can see that!" Hermione stormed, "But it's before lunchtime."
"So what," Ron replied, "I don't care, so you can stop you're ranting. That's all you do, blah blah blah, the whole fucking day, I'm sick of it, you are driving me fucking INSANE."
Silence followed as Hermione stared in horror at Ron's behaviour and wondered what to do next. She finally opted for the teary approach and turned to Harry, "You allowed him to get in this state, you can keep him," She said before turning to leave.
"Fine, leave me with them," Ron called after her as she left, not knowing if she heard him still and not seemingly caring one way or the other, "I would rather put up with their weird Kin shit any day. Even watching Harry hanging on Snape's every word is less sickening than having to be near you and your grotesque belly."
Harry tried his very best to mentally turn Ron's words into a compliment and nearly succeeded.
"Weird Kin shit Ron?" Harry queried, trying to look kindly on his friend.
Ron stared into his drink for a minute before his shoulders began to shake. Harry looked to Severus and he understood what was required of him and retreated into the classroom out of sight.
"I love her," Ron sobbed pathetically into his drink, "She's the closest thing I have to a family and I love her."
Harry leant over and rubbed Ron's back until he relaxed and seemed to fall asleep. Then he went outside to consult with Severus who was still waiting in the classroom.
"What am I going to do with him now?" Harry asked.
Severus was the last person who should be giving out lectures on not getting mind numbingly drunk, so he didn't. "Sober him up I think."
"No," Harry replied, "He really wants to be where he is."
"Then replace it with something else, in his condition the hangover is going to be a living hell."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, a sleep potion would be appropriate, he's only going to get a few hours of oblivion now anyway and we'll be able to leave him to sleep it off without him throwing up all over our quarters."
"Why are we going to need to leave him?"
"Because," Severus replied with displeasure at the prospect clear in his expression, "We have to go get a large amount of potion supplies, the hospital wing is in desperate need of restocking apparently. Nice of Meg to mention it before she got down to the very last phial."
"And then we'll have to spend days making the stuff," Harry grumbled.
"Well I will anyway."
"I can help," Harry offered.
"I suppose you can cut things up," Severus answered, "Now, what are we going to do with your friend?"
"Levitation?" Harry suggested.
"I have a better idea," Severus announced before leaving for the hospital wing.
Severus returned barely minutes later with a blanket. Harry had gone back into the office to look over Ron and gave his Kin a puzzled look when he saw what he had come back with.
"How is that going to help?" Harry asked.
"This is a lightweight cloak, renders whatever is wrapped inside it virtually weightless."
"Cool," Harry said taking the cloak from Severus.
With some effort they managed to get Ron cocooned in the cloak, he wasn't weightless until it was completely round him. Then Harry lifted him up into his arms and they descended to the dungeons.
"You do have a suitable potion at hand?" Harry asked as they walked past the potions classroom.
"I have some sleeping potions in my rucksack, turned out I didn't need any with you around," Severus replied with almost a smile.
Harry placed Ron on his side on their couch while Severus dug around amongst the things in his rucksack, after a few minutes he had what he had been searching for. Severus sobered Ron up with a swift 'bi sobarra', and as he began to come round Harry got him to swallow the potion before he was awake enough to get grouchy about what they were doing to him.
"Have a sleep," Harry said gently as Ron's eyes began to close again.
"Right we can go now," Severus announced, obviously keen to get the shopping trip over with.
"It was just a sleeping potion you gave him?" Harry asked as he noticed a faint smile upon Ron's face.
Severus shrugged, "It might have contained a dream element," he admitted.
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TBC very soon
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Chapter Fifteen Summary - Potions and Psychic Healing - Hermione, Ron, Harry and Sev have to restock the hospital wing's potion supplies, Harry becomes worried about Sev when he seems to be rather distracted from his duties despite Hermione's disapproving stare.
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A/N: Next chapter Harry and Sev finally get some good news and I've got time off work to write it :)
.
BTW the MPREG stuff is coming up REALLY soon.
.
Beta by Kristine Thorne
.
I wonder if ffnet are getting a bit weird about the replies to specific reviews in a story entry, a entry on the homepage seems to indicate that. I will be deleting the notes at the bottom of past chapters so only the current chapter has notes at any one time. Then I can still post replies without the word count significantly being affected by notes. If any of you have stories posted it might be worth checking the homepage.
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Chapter Fourteen – Release
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The rest of the open day had gone really well, Harry thought as he lay awake next to Severus the next morning thinking about everything that had happened. To Severus it had all been old news, once he had got over his rather intense flashback panic attack anyway, the swords had helped to lay the experience to rest and McGonagall had got rid of the culprits, for the time being at least. Harry's mind however, was going round in circles thinking about his father and what he might have done.
Severus hadn't seen very much of what happened after he was given the drug, nothing reliable anyway, since one of the things had been a giant rabbit. Harry couldn't believe that his father had been responsible for the worst of it, the plan had been to drug Severus and leave him to be found breaking curfew, to get him expelled for being a druggie. No, Sirius had insisted that his father didn't hit Severus, so they couldn't have then decided to do the more heinously violent things afterwards, it didn't make sense and Harry certainly didn't want to believe it.
There had been plenty of students there, some who may have stayed behind to take advantage of Severus' vulnerable state after his father had left, Harry reasoned in his mind. It was most likely the same men that had approached Severus and triggered the flashback in the first place. His father had been very cruel to Severus, Harry decided as he snuggled up to his Kin, but he hadn't been responsible for the worst of it, couldn't have been.
Harry squeezed Severus a little and he must have been nearly awake anyway because Harry found a hand clenching his very soon afterwards.
"You're not usually awake before me," Severus mentioned his voice still sounding sleepy.
"Just a bit restless," Harry dismissed.
Severus lifted Harry's hand and kissed it.
Harry could think of many questions to ask his Kin but none that would help them get over the traumatic incidents of the previous day better than just letting it be.
Harry responded to Severus' attention to his hand by planting a number of kisses along his Kin's shoulders and neck.
"Since we're both awake," Harry began, a mischievous tone to his voice.
"And it is far to early to be getting up?" Severus answered, saying Harry's next words before he had the chance.
"Hmm, yes," Harry replied easing up on an elbow and tugging on Severus' shoulder in an attempt to get him to roll over.
Severus obliged by turning onto his back, still looking adorably sleepy.
Harry leant over his Kin and kissed him on the neck and along the jaw and he got no protests.
"Lie still," Harry instructed, "I'll just amuse myself."
Harry and Severus were sat at the Great Hall table for breakfast once again though they were wishing that they had just stayed in their quarters. Nothing had been said, but Hermione still had the hump because Harry hadn't visited Gryffindor tower like he had said he would on the day of the open day and Minerva had had to leave with the Death Eater orphans.
The awkward silence was broken by the arrival of the owl post and Harry noticed an owl heading his way carrying a small package. It had been exactly a week since he had received the new broom. Harry wondered if Severus was going to make a habit of sickening the residents of the castle by providing his Kin with thoughtful little presents every week.
The owl landed and waited for Harry to take his parcel. It wasn't very big this time and Harry was deeply intrigued. He took the parcel and the owl flew off, he opened it and pulled out two completely blank sheets of parchment. Harry stared at them for a few minutes trying to interpret them into something other than blank parchment but to no avail.
"What are they?" Harry eventually gave in and asked his Kin.
"You haven't had your coffee this morning," Severus commented, "Since when has a blank parchment been merely a blank parchment?"
"Most of the time," Harry responded, glaring at his Kin to make him explain further.
"I am a strawberry," Severus said as if that explained everything.
"I am a strawberry?" Harry repeated hardly able to believe his ears.
Severus merely smiled his barely perceptible smile and gestured to the parchments that now lay on the table.
When Harry looked down one of the parchments now had Hogwarts represented on it, there were line drawings of each floor, rather small but they were all there. Severus reached out a hand and touched the parchment with a finger, the level he had chosen enlarged to fill the whole parchment and in a room labelled the great hall were two red dots and the names Harry and Severus next to them. Severus touched the parchment again and all the floors became visible arranged orderly in a grid across the page.
Harry grinned, "One each?"
"Yes, when we start teaching, even in the few months before, it will become necessary to complete tasks separately."
"I wasn't looking forward to that, I might not see you for hours on end," Harry said leaning closer to his Kin as if even mentioning it created unwanted distance between them.
"I was hoping that you would feel this way because I wasn't looking forward to it either, with a pair of maps we can both know where our Kin is and you can come straight to me if you need me and I can find you," Severus explained.
"Should have got a full ranging one, then we wouldn't have to patrol at night, we'd just swoop in and catch curfew breakers even if they did use an invisibility cloak."
Severus was amused; "There is nobody more strict than a reformed troublemaker, one of the unscheduled lessons of any school is to teach the art of bending rules without being caught, it exercises the mind."
"Sev!"
"Of course one puts up a suitable challenge to such activities to make them work for it, a quite enjoyable part of the job," Severus added.
"And scare them out of their wits."
"Exactly, that's the most fun part, but to have an overwhelming and unfair advantage would stifle any creativity and imagination."
"Oh Sev, you are funny."
Severus suddenly stiffened up, he had been recklessly letting his mask slip, letting Harry know all this was one thing but he still needed some defence against the rest of the world and they were in the hall. "However," Severus then continued, "Should any magic or violence be used to compromise the well-being of another student the culprit can expect to find themselves running from the castle with my sword not far behind them."
Harry put an arm round Severus in understanding, "Shall I thank you for my little present now?" He asked.
"If you wish," Severus replied as haughtily as he could without making Harry laugh.
Harry put both his arms round Severus and gave him a hug; he really enjoyed these little shows of affection.
Partly with the intention of testing out the maps Severus decided that he would spend the morning tutoring Hermione whilst Harry was going to check out the Defence classroom's bookshelves simultaneously instead of waiting for Severus to finish.
As they reached the section of the corridor where they had to go their separate ways, Harry was feeling a bit nervous. He couldn't say much however, as Hermione and Ron were only a short distance behind.
"Do the dots change colour when you get angry?" Harry asked.
"No, regrettably," Severus replied keeping an eye out for Hermione and Ron as they approached within earshot.
"You will be all right?"
"If things start to deteriorate I will leave and find you," Severus offered briefly taking Harry's hand and giving it a squeeze.
They had been afforded this time together because Hermione and Ron were making very slow progress. Ron was better than he had been a week ago but he was still finding it more difficult than usual to walk. Hermione held onto Ron tightly and he kept one hand on the wall but Hermione's centre of gravity was not its usual self either with her advancing pregnancy and she didn't look very confident about their progress.
This was part of the reason that Harry was taking Ron with him to the defence classroom. Ron didn't want to be stuck up in Gryffindor tower all the time, but it was clear that he needed somebody else to help him while he was going through what he assured Harry was just a bad patch which would pass.
Hermione left with Severus and Harry would have watched him go but he couldn't turn around. Ron had his arm round Harry's shoulders and Harry was holding onto his friend firmly. They hadn't begun to walk but Harry could feel the pull on his hold as Ron tipped and he had to pull him back upright. Harry tried to control his breathing so that it wasn't obvious that he was nearly panicking, Ron was so much closer to him than he ever wanted anybody other than Severus to be but he had to do it.
They made their way slowly, Ron not saying a word but without a tense atmosphere, Harry assumed that he was concentrating on not falling and taking Harry with him. Ron's situation reminded Harry of a year old toddler taking his first steps, except that Ron was a little taller than he was and much heavier than a child.
It wasn't far, which Harry was very grateful for, they even managed the short flight of stairs to the Defence classroom office but then Ron leant up against the wall and looked tired already. Harry pushed the door open.
"There's a chair behind the desk, just have a seat there," Harry suggested.
"Can you just let me down onto the floor?" Ron asked.
Harry didn't question it but did as Ron said, once on the floor Ron shuffled over to one of the bookcases and pulled himself up to a sitting position against it.
"No distance to fall if you're already on the floor," Ron explained, "We have muggle bean bags up in Gryffindor now."
Harry smiled at the idea, Gryffindor being full of beanbags reminded him of Will's living room at Sgoil Dhubh, except that Gryffindor didn't have a 48-inch plasma widescreen, a DVD player and surround sound.
Harry went to the fire and ordered some hot milk and coffee; whilst he was speaking to Dobby he asked the house elf to bring them some cushions as well.
Harry abandoned the desk and the chair too and joined Ron on the floor. Dobby arrived very quickly and took Ron's coffee over to him and laid everything else on the floor in front of Harry.
"Is Professor Severus not with you today, sir?" Dobby asked.
"He's with Hermione for a while," Harry explained.
"Oh," Dobby said frowning.
Harry smiled at the little house elf as he disappeared again. He then passed Ron a cushion to sit on and one to lean against.
"Hot milk again Harry?" Ron queried.
"I've had one coffee already this morning," Harry replied by way of explanation before reaching for a book on the bottom shelf of the bookcase nearest to them.
Ron raised an eyebrow at Harry, he had had a coffee already too and he didn't follow the logic. Helping Harry look through hundreds of Defence books all morning was going to require as much coffee backup as he could get, or something else if he could get it.
"We could have a drink," Ron suggested, "Fire whiskey, order something muggle even."
"In the morning?" Harry asked rather alarmed at the suggestion.
"Oh come on, I can't stand anyway, what difference would it make?"
"It is the morning, I am the Headmaster and I have a Defence teaching position to prepare for," Harry insisted.
"You're no fun anymore," Ron grumbled before going back to his coffee.
"I can be fun," Harry insisted, recalling with a smile to himself that Sev didn't think that he was 'no fun', "I just don't want to get shitfaced."
"Can't I even have a smoke?" Ron whined.
He must have got used to having to beg for everything, being stuck with Hermione, Harry thought.
"All right," Harry reluctantly agreed, he didn't really want to be breathing smoke either but Ron was starting to get rather pathetic, "If you help me rate these books you can have a smoke."
"That's easy," Ron grinned, "They're all crap."
Harry was amused but he attempted to maintain a teacher like air, "It won't take us very long then will it."
Harry got Ron his smokes and then sat on the opposite side of the room. He took two books from the nearest bookshelf and handed one to Ron.
Ron flicked through his book quickly, "Crap!" He announced before taking a long draw on his smoke.
"I didn't seriously think you were going to persist with that attitude," Harry responded.
"Bloody hell, you even sound like him now," Ron answered holding up the book.
Harry looked at the cover and noted that it was one of Gilderoy Lockhart's works, "You're right, it is crap. Why do we even still have that?"
"Beats me," Ron shrugged as he tossed it to the side, rather closer to the door.
Harry passed over another book to Ron and continued to rate those on the lower shelf of the nearest bookcase.
"So why don't you want a smoke?" Ron asked, since he had his old friend alone for once he was determined to get to know him again, he had so many questions in fact, he hardly knew where to start.
Harry tensed a bit, he knew Ron was being curious and he had a right to be considering how much had changed, however Harry didn't feel like he wanted to tell him what was going on. Quite apart from anything else, the shock would probably kill him. Harry chose to shrug, "Just don't want one," He replied vaguely.
"Snape smokes," Ron stated, "So it can't be because he has forbidden it."
Harry was surprised; Severus hadn't smoked since they had got back, "How do you know?"
"He used to smell of it all the time, you never noticed?" Ron responded.
"I didn't make a habit of getting that close," Harry answered, twisting his nose at the memory of his former teacher.
"Hmm," Ron responded as if thinking something over, "You don't want to smoke, or drink and you don't want more than one coffee."
"That's right," Harry answered, throwing another couple of books over and hoping that Ron would take the hint and shut up.
"And you still remember how much you didn't like Snape, you do realise that the Snape you are living with now is the same man?" Ron persisted.
"I know, but I didn't really know him then and he was just being like that because he thought it was best," Harry responded.
"You do know that nobody else can tell the difference between Snape now and Snape then, only you seemingly."
Harry suddenly wondered if it would ever end, if they would ever leave his Severus alone, a wave of sadness passed over him and a tear threatened to break from his eye. "How can he even begin to be different in front of you all, when you treat him like this," Harry responded, "Just leave him alone."
Ron sighed in defeat, "What is the matter with my life?" He lamented, "I thought that leaving school would open up a whole new world of possibilities and that I would at least have a small amount of time to spend getting out of my tits with my friends. But here we are, still at bloody Hogwarts, Hermione wouldn't join in even if we were speaking because she's pregnant and you won't either, it just isn't bloody fair."
"Smoking and drinking isn't the answer to anything," Harry said thinking of all the time he had spent smoking with Severus, thinking that it helped.
"I don't want answers," Ron stormed, "I want out of my head, it isn't a very nice place to be anymore."
Ron fell to silence after his outburst, no matter what they said about Severus, Harry couldn't quite bring himself to forget his old friends and he wished that there were something he could say or do which would help Ron; he ordered him a bottle of whiskey instead.
Ron made a good job of half emptying the whiskey bottle and Harry switched to checking all of the books and only handing him the ones that he knew were useless anyway. Ron would then announce they were crap and throw them in the general direction of the now open office door. Sometimes he even managed to get one out of the door. Ron had rolled over onto his side and broke off book vetting every now and again to smoke another smoke and take a sip of his drink.
Harry wasn't quite sure how they were going to get Ron out of the defence office.
"Ronald Weasley!" A woman's voice suddenly shrieked from the doorway to the office as a book came hurtling towards her and she had to deflect it from hitting her in the face.
"Oh bugger, Hermione," Ron responded to the presence, instantly looking deflated of spirit.
"What do you think you are doing?" Hermione demanded to know, taking in the sight of the half empty bottle on the floor and the cloud of smoke in the air.
"Getting shitfaced," Ron replied simply.
Harry could see that Severus was behind Hermione and he directed a withering look at Harry.
"I can see that!" Hermione stormed, "But it's before lunchtime."
"So what," Ron replied, "I don't care, so you can stop you're ranting. That's all you do, blah blah blah, the whole fucking day, I'm sick of it, you are driving me fucking INSANE."
Silence followed as Hermione stared in horror at Ron's behaviour and wondered what to do next. She finally opted for the teary approach and turned to Harry, "You allowed him to get in this state, you can keep him," She said before turning to leave.
"Fine, leave me with them," Ron called after her as she left, not knowing if she heard him still and not seemingly caring one way or the other, "I would rather put up with their weird Kin shit any day. Even watching Harry hanging on Snape's every word is less sickening than having to be near you and your grotesque belly."
Harry tried his very best to mentally turn Ron's words into a compliment and nearly succeeded.
"Weird Kin shit Ron?" Harry queried, trying to look kindly on his friend.
Ron stared into his drink for a minute before his shoulders began to shake. Harry looked to Severus and he understood what was required of him and retreated into the classroom out of sight.
"I love her," Ron sobbed pathetically into his drink, "She's the closest thing I have to a family and I love her."
Harry leant over and rubbed Ron's back until he relaxed and seemed to fall asleep. Then he went outside to consult with Severus who was still waiting in the classroom.
"What am I going to do with him now?" Harry asked.
Severus was the last person who should be giving out lectures on not getting mind numbingly drunk, so he didn't. "Sober him up I think."
"No," Harry replied, "He really wants to be where he is."
"Then replace it with something else, in his condition the hangover is going to be a living hell."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, a sleep potion would be appropriate, he's only going to get a few hours of oblivion now anyway and we'll be able to leave him to sleep it off without him throwing up all over our quarters."
"Why are we going to need to leave him?"
"Because," Severus replied with displeasure at the prospect clear in his expression, "We have to go get a large amount of potion supplies, the hospital wing is in desperate need of restocking apparently. Nice of Meg to mention it before she got down to the very last phial."
"And then we'll have to spend days making the stuff," Harry grumbled.
"Well I will anyway."
"I can help," Harry offered.
"I suppose you can cut things up," Severus answered, "Now, what are we going to do with your friend?"
"Levitation?" Harry suggested.
"I have a better idea," Severus announced before leaving for the hospital wing.
Severus returned barely minutes later with a blanket. Harry had gone back into the office to look over Ron and gave his Kin a puzzled look when he saw what he had come back with.
"How is that going to help?" Harry asked.
"This is a lightweight cloak, renders whatever is wrapped inside it virtually weightless."
"Cool," Harry said taking the cloak from Severus.
With some effort they managed to get Ron cocooned in the cloak, he wasn't weightless until it was completely round him. Then Harry lifted him up into his arms and they descended to the dungeons.
"You do have a suitable potion at hand?" Harry asked as they walked past the potions classroom.
"I have some sleeping potions in my rucksack, turned out I didn't need any with you around," Severus replied with almost a smile.
Harry placed Ron on his side on their couch while Severus dug around amongst the things in his rucksack, after a few minutes he had what he had been searching for. Severus sobered Ron up with a swift 'bi sobarra', and as he began to come round Harry got him to swallow the potion before he was awake enough to get grouchy about what they were doing to him.
"Have a sleep," Harry said gently as Ron's eyes began to close again.
"Right we can go now," Severus announced, obviously keen to get the shopping trip over with.
"It was just a sleeping potion you gave him?" Harry asked as he noticed a faint smile upon Ron's face.
Severus shrugged, "It might have contained a dream element," he admitted.
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TBC very soon
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Chapter Fifteen Summary - Potions and Psychic Healing - Hermione, Ron, Harry and Sev have to restock the hospital wing's potion supplies, Harry becomes worried about Sev when he seems to be rather distracted from his duties despite Hermione's disapproving stare.
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