Chapter Nine
A/N: I know today's is small but tomorrow's could be bigger. I'll make sure I upload daily within this week. Stay tuned. I'll give you a hint (To those who truly do read the Author Notes) there's going to be loads of battles in the future.
"Harry there are a few things me and the professor's would like to speak to you about. Are you up for it?" asked Dumbledore looked down at him in a very sympathetic look on his way.
What was he thinking? Sure, he wasn't feeling too well but would he ever miss a chat with Dumbledore. This was one of his favourite things about Dumbledore. He would always answer your questions before they got you lost in a world of their own. And Harry loved to be in Dumbledore's presence where he felt he was being cared for, wanted and above all, safe. It was that sense of security that made him so attracted to Hogwarts. It was why he called it his home.
Harry looked at Madam Pomfrey who he was expecting to snap at Professor Dumbledore telling him how much rest he needed but for some reason she was quite and gave him an encouraging smile. Something told him that everybody here knew something important that he didn't. He turned to Dumbledore and nodded.
"Good!" he said and turned to the group of Professors who were at the foot of his bed in the Hospital Wing.
" Lupin, get the old batch into the conference hall" said Dumbledore.
Lupin nodded and left the room at once.
"Minerva, Go get the Weasley's and Miss Granger in there"
Professor McGonagall too nodded and left.
"Severus, why don't you escort Harry to the conference?" he asked with a small grin seeing the horrified look on their faces.
Both Snape and Harry looked at each other stunned for a few seconds but quickly looked away when they realized what they were doing. Seconds ticked away but none of them took the first step.
"You better get going. We must take care of some business before we meet you there"
Harry jerked out of his terrifying daydream of walking to the conference hall, wherever it was with Snape. Then with one swift move Snape grabbed his hand and started to pull him towards the door. Harry to allowed himself to be dragged. Snape was relatively quiet. That was until they reached the empty conference hall.
The conference hall had a very large oval shaped oak table in the centre of it and had been very gallantly decorated with a touch of Victorian. As soon as the both of them arrived at the conference hall, Snape looked a bit tense. He quickly closed all the windows in the room and then moved on to check the corridors out side and close the doors after that. Harry watched with his mouth open. Had everyone got some kind of insane curse? First Fudge now Snape?
But what happened next was a complete surprise. Snape rushed towards him and pushed him against a wall. Harry stared at him still surprised. From the way Snape's face looked he had a feeling Snape was fighting an internal battle with himself. Was he in danger? Had Voldemort cast the Imperius Curse on him? Harry wanted to run as far away from Snape as he could but something deep down kept him there.
"Potter" he said with an extremely serious look on his face that he hadn't seen before.
"I mean Harry"
Harry nearly gasped. Had Snape just called him by his first name?
"Harry, I must thank you for sticking out there for me," he continued.
What was going on? Had he truly lost his head?
"Professor, I did what I thought was right" he managed to stammer out.
He gave him a sympathetic look. "I know Harry, that's so much like your mother. Lily would be proud of you," he said.
Since when was did he care what his dead parents would have thought. But he was fighting an emotional battle himself. He had to decide whether to trust Snape and stick around now that Snape had opened up. Or should he just run away as far as he could from him?
Before Harry had to decide the doors to the conference hall were swung open and in came Dumbledore along with the rest of the Hogwarts professors, the Weasley family along with Hermione and finally his God Father, Sirius. Snape suddenly backed away from him, but hadn't been fast enough. The group had noticed him. Ron and Hermione gave him very dirty looks and Harry extremely sympathetic looks. It was obvious that they had thought Snape had been bullying him around as usual, but he hadn't. Dumbledore gave him a confident smile. Harry too walked towards the table and sat between Ron and Hermione.
All of a sudden Harry was attracting sympathy from all around the table. Before long he was fed up of it.
"Harry, my poor boy. Are you alright?" kept on asking Mrs Weasley.
"How did you do it Harry?" "How did you deflect the Killing Curse?" Fred and George kept on asking him how Harry had deflected the Killing Curse. He tried to explain that he didn't know himself but that didn't seem to believe him. He too had been looking for some answers.
He couldn't say how happy he was when Dumbledore spoke out taking the attention away from him. Ron and Hermione taking use of the opportunity started to question him and fulfill their curiosities.
"Harry what was that greasy haired idiot talking with you? Bullying around I guess" asked Ron trying keep his voice down as possible.
"Actually no, he was telling me how proud my mother would be about me" he said. He received the gasps he had expected from his two best friends.
"What?" Ron and Hermione said out loud but soon apologized to the table and lowered his voice.
"What's that flee bag planning now? Couldn't be anything-good Harry. I'm telling you, I think he's gone to the other side. You better watch your back," he said looking rather worried.
He nodded silently.
"I intend to. But something tells me he wasn't faking it" he said moving his attention to where the meeting was going.