A/N: Sheesh you guys work fast in the reviews. I really appreciate the nice
ones! Really I do! I started writing this chapter in my American Musical
Theatre class today which is my usual class to write since I don't actually
have to take notes and the class is an hour and 15 minutes long and I
already know most of the shows that we cover in there anyways. Oh and
Lauren, Draco isn't Harry's brother, I don't know the relationship of
godparents and kids and kids of godparents since I don't have godparents
myself but he's not Harry's brother, at least not yet. I'm not sure if I'm
going to have Severus ask Draco if he wants him to adopt him. But I'll get
on with the chaper since all of you guys are just so anxious to read it. I
never anticipated this fic to go on as long as it has but this is just what
my brain told me to write and it's just taken a while to get where I want
to go.But here's the chapter and I hope it doesn't suck too much.
ENJOY!!!!
Chapter 32
While Severus was talking to Draco, Harry was in Defense and couldn't concentrate. He could tell that the Slytherins were up to something and knew that he would have to watch his back from now on. He also noticed the Malfoy hadn't come to class yet.
Before Harry knew it Defense was over and he was headed to the Great Hall for lunch. He wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings until Hedwig nipped him on the hand. Harry snapped out of his daze and said while taking the letter,
"Oh, thanks girl."
Harry opened the letter and instantly recognised his father's handwriting. The letter said to come down to his rooms that night at 8 o'clock. Harry shrugged and put the note into his robe pocket. Harry looked at his watch and realized that it was time for Double Herbology. After getting thoroughly dirty in Herbology the Gryffindors headed up to charms.
Harry had a hard time concentrating in Charms as well. He didn't even notice that Ron had been calling his name until he was lightly tapped on the side of his head. This was a bad thing since Harry still slipped up and let his guard down and forgot where he was. He immediately threw his hands up and cowered back, thinking he was back at the Dursleys. He caught himself and lowered them and looked into his friend's worried eyes.
"Sorry, forgot where I was."
Ron raise his eyebrow and said,
"Okay mate, let's go class is over."
Harry picked up his stuff and followed his 2 best friends out into the hallway. Harry and Hermione made their way to Ancient Runes and Ron headed for Divination.
After those classes were done they made their way to the Great Hall for dinner. Harry ate his meal in a sort of daze. He finished his meal and mumbled something about going to his room and left.
Harry arrived in his room and got out his homework. He sat at his desk and tried to concentrate but couldn't. 'This is really getting annoying.' Harry thought to himself. He lowered his head onto his arms and banged it in frustration. After he'd had enough of that it still didn't make him feel any better about how he was currently feeling.
At 7:45 Harry left his room and made his way down to his father's rooms. He entered the rooms to see Draco Malfoy sitting on the couch and his father sitting in an armchair. Severus motioned for Harry to sit down and Harry sat on the couch as far away from Draco as possible.
Severus watched the two fifteen year olds for a moment, took a deep breath and said,
"Now Harry I'll bet you're wondering what exactly Draco is doing here."
Harry nodded and Severus continued,
"Well Harry I never told you but I am Draco's godfather. Since his parents were killed in the battle and he's still underage and has no other living relatives I am his legal guardian and he has to live with us."
Harry was completely shocked but his father wasn't done talking,
"I think it is about time that you two got over whatever it was that made you two have such an animosity towards one another. You two will have to live with eachother and I will not tolerate the behavior that you two exhibit when around eachother."
Harry looked over to Draco and Draco looked over to Harry. Neither made any move to start talking so Severus decided to step in and said,
"Harry I told him what happened this summer."
Harry looked over to his father with a look of hurt and betrayal in his eyes and said,
"Dad! How could you?! Why?! I can't believe you did that!"
Harry stood up and made to run from the room but was grabbed around the shoulders by his father from behind and whirled around. Harry for the second time that day forgot where he was and raised his hands to protect his face, squinted his eyes shut and cowered back.
Severus' heart ached when he saw Harry's reaction. He pulled the boy close to him for a hug and said as the boy tensed,
"Harry I'm not going to hurt you. It's all right."
Harry relaxed and said,
"Sorry. It happened earlier with Ron too."
Severus released Harry and said,
"It's okay. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
Harry nodded and Severus said,
"I told him because I felt that it was important for him to understand."
Harry looked over to Draco and said,
"So, you happy now? Now that you know what I had to deal with when I was at 'home'?"
"Actually no, because my father would hit me too sometimes. It wasn't often but he did."
"Well I guess we were both wrong." Harry admitted
"Yeah I guess so too." Draco supplied
Severus was very happy that this was going the way it was. He cleared his throat and said,
"All right boys. Now that that's out of the way I hope that there won't be any more problems. You both are almost adults and it shouldn't matter what happened back when you were 11."
Harry shrugged and stuck his hand out and said,
"Sorry, I just thought you were an arrogant jerk when I first met you."
"Well I do admit that I was pretty arrogant at that age. Call it a defense mechanism if you will." Draco said with a shrug then took the hand and shook it.
Severus was now very happy at this and said,
"Now boys, we need to talk about what we're doing for Christmas. Since my manor is not completely habitable yet I was planning on staying here. You both are welcome to stay down here if you want but if you want to stay in your dormitories you can. Draco you'd be sharing Harry's room since obviously I only have 1 other bedroom in here besides my own."
The boys nodded and Harry said,
"Well I know that I'd rather stay down here. I don't think there's going to be any Gryffindors staying for this holiday, at least that's the rumor going around the Tower."
"I think I'd rather stay here too. I might as well get used to this before the summer. I assume that we're going to be living at your manor this summer Sev?"
"You would be correct Draco but I have to make it habitable again. Nobody's lived there in over a decade so it needs a very big cleaning job done."
Harry and Draco nodded and chuckled a bit. Severus then said,
"You two should be getting back to your dormitories, it's getting late."
Harry stood up and said,
"You're right Dad. Besides I've got homework to do. Night."
Harry left the room and Draco said as he moved towards the door,
"Of course you're right. I'll see you later then. Night."
Draco left the quarters as well. Severus sat down in his chair, very pleased with himself. He had hoped that it wouldn't be too bad with the two of them. He had been right, thankfully. He then realized that Harry didn't have anymore potion for his nightmares and would be needing it.
Severu bottled the rest of the potion and made his way up to Gryffindor Tower. He entered the common room and shot a glare at the students who gave him a look and went to the prefects area and quietly entered Harry's room after not getting an answer from his knock.
Severus quietly closed the door and couldn't help but smile when he saw his son asleep over his homework at his desk.Severus knew that Harry had had a long and busy day and still got tired fairly easily
Severus easily picked up Harry, who opened his eyes a bit for a split second and closed them again, and brought him over to the bed. He got Harry into his pajamas and bedded him down. He poured a gobletfull of the potion and rubbed Harry's cheek lightly and called the boy awake. Harry slowly opened his yees and sw his father and said softly,
"Huh? What?"
"You need to take your potion for your nightmares." Severus simply responded.
Harry nodded and Severus helf the goblet up to Harry's mouth and the boy drank the potion down. No sooner had he swallowed it than he was fast asleep. Severus looked at the sleeping form if his son and smoothed back his bangs and laid a soft kiss on the lightning bolt scar and quietly left the room.
As soon as he closed the door to Harry's room he saw Hermione entering her room. She did a double take as she saw her professor and said,
"Oh good evening Professor. Is Harry already asleep?"
"Yes he is. He was when I got here and I just put him in bed and gave him a potion to fight his nightmares."
"All right Professor. Have a good night."
"Good night Miss Granger." Severus responded
Hermione disappeared into her room and Severus left the Tower and made his way back down to his dungeon quarters to get ready for bed himself.
***********************************************************************
The next few weeks passed by very quickly and before Harry knew it it was the practice before their quidditch match. Harry was very pleased about how practices were going and felt they had a very strong chance for the cup that year.
The Gryffindor team made their way back to the Tower very cold and stiff but happy and feeling good about the next day's match. Harry made his way to his room with Ron right behind him. He sank onto his bed, still in his quidditch robes and closed his eyes.
Before he knew it he was asleep and dreaming. Harry had run out of his father's potion the night before but he was too tired to go get anymore. Harry was dreaming again and it wasn't pleasant.
Down in Severus' rooms he had just finished brewing a new batch of Harry's potion. He knew that the boy had run out and would need more but wasn't sure if Harry would remember to ask for more. He bottled up the potion and made his way up to Gryffindor Tower.
He entered the prefect's area where his ears met yelling and he instantly knew that it was Harry. He ran the rest of the way to Harry's room and gave the password. He entered the room to see Harry on the bed, still dressed in his quidditch robes, thrashing around and screaming. Whenever he wasn't screaming he was wheezing.
Severus bolted over to the bed and grabbed Harry's shoulders to still him and yelled
"Harry, Harry wake up! It's just a dream!"
Harry wouldn't wake up though and Severus tapped the boy's face and Harry immediately stilled and squinted his eyes shut, his body tensed and his breathing remained sporadic and ragged. Severus loosened his grip on Harry and said,
"Harry calm down. Breathe. It's your father. I'm not going to hurt you."
The tension from Harry's body left and he warily opened his eyes but nothing changed in his breathing. Severus grabbed Harry's inhaler off of the bedside table and handed it to Harry who took a dose of it. A couple of tense minutes later and Harry's breathing had returned to normal. Harry turned his pensive green eyes to meet his father's understanding black ones and said,
"Sorry."
"No need to apologize Harry. I knew that you'd run out of your potion so I brought you some more up. I figured you'd be too tired after practice."
Harry quirked a smile and said,
"Yeah. Thanks Dad."
"You're welcome Harry now why don't you get ready for bed since you're clearly exhausted."
Harry nodded and got changed into his pajamas and got back into bed and snuggled down under the covers since he was pretty cold. He took the proffered cup and downed it and downed the potion and was quickly fast asleep. Severus extinguished the light and quietly left the room and made his way back to his rooms.
The next morning dawned clear and bright without a cloud in the sky. Harry got dressed in his quidditch robes and made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Ron and Ginny was already there. Harry sat down and tucked into a bowl of porridge. He looked over to Ron who wasn't eating, and said,
"You'd better eat something Ron. You're gonna be regretting it later if you don't."
Ron nodded and then started to eat a little bit. The rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team joined them. Before they knew it it was time to go down to the pitch. Harry wasn't sure wht to say and said,
"Well, we've had an interesting couple of months." The team snickered at this statement
"But I know we've got a good team. Ravenclaw should be a pushover if we play the way we've been practicing. Now let's go."
The team made their way out to the pitch and stepped out to thunderous cheering. They saw the Ravenclaw team in blue robes approaching from the opposite side of the pitch. They met in the center and Madame Hooch told captains to shake hands which they did so. She released the bludgers and snitch and blew her whistle and 14 brooms rose into the air and the quaffle was thrown up and the game began.
Harry flew above everybody else and started to watch for the snitch. In the back of his mind he heard Lee Jordan's commentary. Soon Gryffindor was up 50 to 10 and there was still no sign of the snitch.
Suddenly Harry saw a glint of gold at the Ravenclaw end of the pitch and pushed his firebolt into action. He was almost there when a bludger hit him in the back and shot tendrils of pain through it. He was not going to let that get in the way and kept going forward and had his hand closed around the snitch.
The crowd erupted into cheers and the team landed. Harry's back was in a lot of pain and the slaps that he was getting on it wasn't helping. Harry saw his father pushing his way to him. Finally his father snapped out,
"If you would like Harry to continue to be able to walk I suggest you stop slapping him on the back."
Harry smiled gratefully at his father and Severus put a supporting around Harry and helped him back to the hospital wing. There they were met by Madame Pomfrey who gave Harry a potion to diminish the bruising and to numb the pain and said to stay in bed for the rest of the day.
Severus then helped Harry to his room. Upon entering the common room the Gryffindors there cheered and applauded and Harry obligingly smiled and waved as he slowly continued on his way to his room.
Once in Harry's room Severus helped him into a pair of red plaid flannel pants and red t-shirt then sweater then into bed. Severus brushed Harry's sweaty bangs off of his forehead and said,
"Good flying today. You put together a good team."
"Thanks, you really think so?"
"I do. The Weasleys especially are good flyers despite their brooms. They definitely push their brooms to the limit." Severus responded
"Yeah, I've been playing quidditch with them at their house since before my second year. Their parents can't really afford better brooms for them but the ones they have they do fly very well."
"I've heard some rumors at the ministry about Fudge. Even up to the day of the battle Fudge denied that Voldemort had returned. Now that Voldemort's been defeated but attacks continued had happened on a constant basis Fudge's name has been severely discounted and people are calling for his resignation."
"Who do they think will get it?"
"I've heard Arthur Weasley's name floating around a bit. Because he played such a prominent part in the fight against Voldemort and his line is one of the purest wizarding lines. Almost as old as the Malfoy's."
"I hope he gets it. I can't think of anybody more deserving. He's always worked really hard and gotten almost no recognition for what he does."
"I agree Harry. I know that Dumbledore is going to back him up completely and he has a lot of pull in the Ministry for obvious reasons."
Harry nodded and his eyes drifted closed from exhaustion. Severus ran his fingers through Harry's hair and said,
"Sleep now, you've earned it. I'm not going anywhere."
Harry slightly nodded and his breathing evened out as he fell asleep. Severus got up and went over to Harry's bookshelf and selected a book and sat in the armchair and started to read.
Harry woke up a few hours later because the numbness potion had worn off and his back was hurting again. Severus was prepared though and had more since Madame Pomfrey had stopped by to drop off more since Harry would surely be needing it.
Harry took another gobletfull of the potion and Severus had summoned a house elf to bring some dinner for Harry since the boy hadn't eaten since breakfast and needed to eat. Harry ate the dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes and peas and contented himself to do the reading that he needed to do for homework since he wasn't tired at the moment.
The rest of the evening whiled away and it was time for bed and Harry was tired again. He took his potion and was asleep. Severus kissed Harry's forehead and silently left the room and Tower, where the victory party was still raging, and made his way back down to his rooms.
A/N: I thought that was a good stopping place. I hope that chapter didn't suck too much and now things are going to speed up hopefully. I think the next chapter will put us into the christmas holidays but I'll have to see. I've got thanksgiving break starting on tuesday and going until sunday so I'll be able to write some more, hopefully. I'll have to see how much work I get done on my project and if my neice and nephew will leave me alone long enough to write. Now push that little button and leave me a review. Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out but the LAN connection that my school is on has been down for over a day now so I got this chapter up as soon as I could. So tell me what you think but you all know that flames will be used to roast marshmallows for s'mores. TTFN!!
Chapter 32
While Severus was talking to Draco, Harry was in Defense and couldn't concentrate. He could tell that the Slytherins were up to something and knew that he would have to watch his back from now on. He also noticed the Malfoy hadn't come to class yet.
Before Harry knew it Defense was over and he was headed to the Great Hall for lunch. He wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings until Hedwig nipped him on the hand. Harry snapped out of his daze and said while taking the letter,
"Oh, thanks girl."
Harry opened the letter and instantly recognised his father's handwriting. The letter said to come down to his rooms that night at 8 o'clock. Harry shrugged and put the note into his robe pocket. Harry looked at his watch and realized that it was time for Double Herbology. After getting thoroughly dirty in Herbology the Gryffindors headed up to charms.
Harry had a hard time concentrating in Charms as well. He didn't even notice that Ron had been calling his name until he was lightly tapped on the side of his head. This was a bad thing since Harry still slipped up and let his guard down and forgot where he was. He immediately threw his hands up and cowered back, thinking he was back at the Dursleys. He caught himself and lowered them and looked into his friend's worried eyes.
"Sorry, forgot where I was."
Ron raise his eyebrow and said,
"Okay mate, let's go class is over."
Harry picked up his stuff and followed his 2 best friends out into the hallway. Harry and Hermione made their way to Ancient Runes and Ron headed for Divination.
After those classes were done they made their way to the Great Hall for dinner. Harry ate his meal in a sort of daze. He finished his meal and mumbled something about going to his room and left.
Harry arrived in his room and got out his homework. He sat at his desk and tried to concentrate but couldn't. 'This is really getting annoying.' Harry thought to himself. He lowered his head onto his arms and banged it in frustration. After he'd had enough of that it still didn't make him feel any better about how he was currently feeling.
At 7:45 Harry left his room and made his way down to his father's rooms. He entered the rooms to see Draco Malfoy sitting on the couch and his father sitting in an armchair. Severus motioned for Harry to sit down and Harry sat on the couch as far away from Draco as possible.
Severus watched the two fifteen year olds for a moment, took a deep breath and said,
"Now Harry I'll bet you're wondering what exactly Draco is doing here."
Harry nodded and Severus continued,
"Well Harry I never told you but I am Draco's godfather. Since his parents were killed in the battle and he's still underage and has no other living relatives I am his legal guardian and he has to live with us."
Harry was completely shocked but his father wasn't done talking,
"I think it is about time that you two got over whatever it was that made you two have such an animosity towards one another. You two will have to live with eachother and I will not tolerate the behavior that you two exhibit when around eachother."
Harry looked over to Draco and Draco looked over to Harry. Neither made any move to start talking so Severus decided to step in and said,
"Harry I told him what happened this summer."
Harry looked over to his father with a look of hurt and betrayal in his eyes and said,
"Dad! How could you?! Why?! I can't believe you did that!"
Harry stood up and made to run from the room but was grabbed around the shoulders by his father from behind and whirled around. Harry for the second time that day forgot where he was and raised his hands to protect his face, squinted his eyes shut and cowered back.
Severus' heart ached when he saw Harry's reaction. He pulled the boy close to him for a hug and said as the boy tensed,
"Harry I'm not going to hurt you. It's all right."
Harry relaxed and said,
"Sorry. It happened earlier with Ron too."
Severus released Harry and said,
"It's okay. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
Harry nodded and Severus said,
"I told him because I felt that it was important for him to understand."
Harry looked over to Draco and said,
"So, you happy now? Now that you know what I had to deal with when I was at 'home'?"
"Actually no, because my father would hit me too sometimes. It wasn't often but he did."
"Well I guess we were both wrong." Harry admitted
"Yeah I guess so too." Draco supplied
Severus was very happy that this was going the way it was. He cleared his throat and said,
"All right boys. Now that that's out of the way I hope that there won't be any more problems. You both are almost adults and it shouldn't matter what happened back when you were 11."
Harry shrugged and stuck his hand out and said,
"Sorry, I just thought you were an arrogant jerk when I first met you."
"Well I do admit that I was pretty arrogant at that age. Call it a defense mechanism if you will." Draco said with a shrug then took the hand and shook it.
Severus was now very happy at this and said,
"Now boys, we need to talk about what we're doing for Christmas. Since my manor is not completely habitable yet I was planning on staying here. You both are welcome to stay down here if you want but if you want to stay in your dormitories you can. Draco you'd be sharing Harry's room since obviously I only have 1 other bedroom in here besides my own."
The boys nodded and Harry said,
"Well I know that I'd rather stay down here. I don't think there's going to be any Gryffindors staying for this holiday, at least that's the rumor going around the Tower."
"I think I'd rather stay here too. I might as well get used to this before the summer. I assume that we're going to be living at your manor this summer Sev?"
"You would be correct Draco but I have to make it habitable again. Nobody's lived there in over a decade so it needs a very big cleaning job done."
Harry and Draco nodded and chuckled a bit. Severus then said,
"You two should be getting back to your dormitories, it's getting late."
Harry stood up and said,
"You're right Dad. Besides I've got homework to do. Night."
Harry left the room and Draco said as he moved towards the door,
"Of course you're right. I'll see you later then. Night."
Draco left the quarters as well. Severus sat down in his chair, very pleased with himself. He had hoped that it wouldn't be too bad with the two of them. He had been right, thankfully. He then realized that Harry didn't have anymore potion for his nightmares and would be needing it.
Severu bottled the rest of the potion and made his way up to Gryffindor Tower. He entered the common room and shot a glare at the students who gave him a look and went to the prefects area and quietly entered Harry's room after not getting an answer from his knock.
Severus quietly closed the door and couldn't help but smile when he saw his son asleep over his homework at his desk.Severus knew that Harry had had a long and busy day and still got tired fairly easily
Severus easily picked up Harry, who opened his eyes a bit for a split second and closed them again, and brought him over to the bed. He got Harry into his pajamas and bedded him down. He poured a gobletfull of the potion and rubbed Harry's cheek lightly and called the boy awake. Harry slowly opened his yees and sw his father and said softly,
"Huh? What?"
"You need to take your potion for your nightmares." Severus simply responded.
Harry nodded and Severus helf the goblet up to Harry's mouth and the boy drank the potion down. No sooner had he swallowed it than he was fast asleep. Severus looked at the sleeping form if his son and smoothed back his bangs and laid a soft kiss on the lightning bolt scar and quietly left the room.
As soon as he closed the door to Harry's room he saw Hermione entering her room. She did a double take as she saw her professor and said,
"Oh good evening Professor. Is Harry already asleep?"
"Yes he is. He was when I got here and I just put him in bed and gave him a potion to fight his nightmares."
"All right Professor. Have a good night."
"Good night Miss Granger." Severus responded
Hermione disappeared into her room and Severus left the Tower and made his way back down to his dungeon quarters to get ready for bed himself.
***********************************************************************
The next few weeks passed by very quickly and before Harry knew it it was the practice before their quidditch match. Harry was very pleased about how practices were going and felt they had a very strong chance for the cup that year.
The Gryffindor team made their way back to the Tower very cold and stiff but happy and feeling good about the next day's match. Harry made his way to his room with Ron right behind him. He sank onto his bed, still in his quidditch robes and closed his eyes.
Before he knew it he was asleep and dreaming. Harry had run out of his father's potion the night before but he was too tired to go get anymore. Harry was dreaming again and it wasn't pleasant.
Down in Severus' rooms he had just finished brewing a new batch of Harry's potion. He knew that the boy had run out and would need more but wasn't sure if Harry would remember to ask for more. He bottled up the potion and made his way up to Gryffindor Tower.
He entered the prefect's area where his ears met yelling and he instantly knew that it was Harry. He ran the rest of the way to Harry's room and gave the password. He entered the room to see Harry on the bed, still dressed in his quidditch robes, thrashing around and screaming. Whenever he wasn't screaming he was wheezing.
Severus bolted over to the bed and grabbed Harry's shoulders to still him and yelled
"Harry, Harry wake up! It's just a dream!"
Harry wouldn't wake up though and Severus tapped the boy's face and Harry immediately stilled and squinted his eyes shut, his body tensed and his breathing remained sporadic and ragged. Severus loosened his grip on Harry and said,
"Harry calm down. Breathe. It's your father. I'm not going to hurt you."
The tension from Harry's body left and he warily opened his eyes but nothing changed in his breathing. Severus grabbed Harry's inhaler off of the bedside table and handed it to Harry who took a dose of it. A couple of tense minutes later and Harry's breathing had returned to normal. Harry turned his pensive green eyes to meet his father's understanding black ones and said,
"Sorry."
"No need to apologize Harry. I knew that you'd run out of your potion so I brought you some more up. I figured you'd be too tired after practice."
Harry quirked a smile and said,
"Yeah. Thanks Dad."
"You're welcome Harry now why don't you get ready for bed since you're clearly exhausted."
Harry nodded and got changed into his pajamas and got back into bed and snuggled down under the covers since he was pretty cold. He took the proffered cup and downed it and downed the potion and was quickly fast asleep. Severus extinguished the light and quietly left the room and made his way back to his rooms.
The next morning dawned clear and bright without a cloud in the sky. Harry got dressed in his quidditch robes and made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Ron and Ginny was already there. Harry sat down and tucked into a bowl of porridge. He looked over to Ron who wasn't eating, and said,
"You'd better eat something Ron. You're gonna be regretting it later if you don't."
Ron nodded and then started to eat a little bit. The rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team joined them. Before they knew it it was time to go down to the pitch. Harry wasn't sure wht to say and said,
"Well, we've had an interesting couple of months." The team snickered at this statement
"But I know we've got a good team. Ravenclaw should be a pushover if we play the way we've been practicing. Now let's go."
The team made their way out to the pitch and stepped out to thunderous cheering. They saw the Ravenclaw team in blue robes approaching from the opposite side of the pitch. They met in the center and Madame Hooch told captains to shake hands which they did so. She released the bludgers and snitch and blew her whistle and 14 brooms rose into the air and the quaffle was thrown up and the game began.
Harry flew above everybody else and started to watch for the snitch. In the back of his mind he heard Lee Jordan's commentary. Soon Gryffindor was up 50 to 10 and there was still no sign of the snitch.
Suddenly Harry saw a glint of gold at the Ravenclaw end of the pitch and pushed his firebolt into action. He was almost there when a bludger hit him in the back and shot tendrils of pain through it. He was not going to let that get in the way and kept going forward and had his hand closed around the snitch.
The crowd erupted into cheers and the team landed. Harry's back was in a lot of pain and the slaps that he was getting on it wasn't helping. Harry saw his father pushing his way to him. Finally his father snapped out,
"If you would like Harry to continue to be able to walk I suggest you stop slapping him on the back."
Harry smiled gratefully at his father and Severus put a supporting around Harry and helped him back to the hospital wing. There they were met by Madame Pomfrey who gave Harry a potion to diminish the bruising and to numb the pain and said to stay in bed for the rest of the day.
Severus then helped Harry to his room. Upon entering the common room the Gryffindors there cheered and applauded and Harry obligingly smiled and waved as he slowly continued on his way to his room.
Once in Harry's room Severus helped him into a pair of red plaid flannel pants and red t-shirt then sweater then into bed. Severus brushed Harry's sweaty bangs off of his forehead and said,
"Good flying today. You put together a good team."
"Thanks, you really think so?"
"I do. The Weasleys especially are good flyers despite their brooms. They definitely push their brooms to the limit." Severus responded
"Yeah, I've been playing quidditch with them at their house since before my second year. Their parents can't really afford better brooms for them but the ones they have they do fly very well."
"I've heard some rumors at the ministry about Fudge. Even up to the day of the battle Fudge denied that Voldemort had returned. Now that Voldemort's been defeated but attacks continued had happened on a constant basis Fudge's name has been severely discounted and people are calling for his resignation."
"Who do they think will get it?"
"I've heard Arthur Weasley's name floating around a bit. Because he played such a prominent part in the fight against Voldemort and his line is one of the purest wizarding lines. Almost as old as the Malfoy's."
"I hope he gets it. I can't think of anybody more deserving. He's always worked really hard and gotten almost no recognition for what he does."
"I agree Harry. I know that Dumbledore is going to back him up completely and he has a lot of pull in the Ministry for obvious reasons."
Harry nodded and his eyes drifted closed from exhaustion. Severus ran his fingers through Harry's hair and said,
"Sleep now, you've earned it. I'm not going anywhere."
Harry slightly nodded and his breathing evened out as he fell asleep. Severus got up and went over to Harry's bookshelf and selected a book and sat in the armchair and started to read.
Harry woke up a few hours later because the numbness potion had worn off and his back was hurting again. Severus was prepared though and had more since Madame Pomfrey had stopped by to drop off more since Harry would surely be needing it.
Harry took another gobletfull of the potion and Severus had summoned a house elf to bring some dinner for Harry since the boy hadn't eaten since breakfast and needed to eat. Harry ate the dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes and peas and contented himself to do the reading that he needed to do for homework since he wasn't tired at the moment.
The rest of the evening whiled away and it was time for bed and Harry was tired again. He took his potion and was asleep. Severus kissed Harry's forehead and silently left the room and Tower, where the victory party was still raging, and made his way back down to his rooms.
A/N: I thought that was a good stopping place. I hope that chapter didn't suck too much and now things are going to speed up hopefully. I think the next chapter will put us into the christmas holidays but I'll have to see. I've got thanksgiving break starting on tuesday and going until sunday so I'll be able to write some more, hopefully. I'll have to see how much work I get done on my project and if my neice and nephew will leave me alone long enough to write. Now push that little button and leave me a review. Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out but the LAN connection that my school is on has been down for over a day now so I got this chapter up as soon as I could. So tell me what you think but you all know that flames will be used to roast marshmallows for s'mores. TTFN!!