Hi - Sorry for the long delay. Hope this makes up for it.

As always, comments appreciated, especially thoughts about where this story is/should be going (plotwise). Getting Harry and Snape together is, of course, on the agenda.

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Heart of Glass - 6

--||--

Harry looked up as Ron walked into the room, slammed a few drawers open and closed again, then threw himself down on his bed.

"What's wrong?"

Ron shrugged.

Harry went back to reading his book. Ron sighed loudly.

Harry let his Arithmancy text fall to his chest. "*What*, Ron?"

Ron opened his mouth to deny anything was wrong but reconsidered at the expression on Harry's face. "It's Hermione," he grumbled.

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"She keeps disappearing. I think she's secretly meeting with someone." Ron frowned at the ceiling. "It's bad enough that she's studies all the time, now she has to go disappearing and..."

"Ron, why not just tell her you like her and be done with it. It's only been seven years, after all."

Ron frowned as he sat on the edge of his bed. "I don't see what feelings have to do with it. It's just that-"

"You like it better when we're keeping secrets from her, not the other way 'round," Harry said drily.

Ron shrugged. "Maybe. But still."

"Still what?"

Ron flopped backwards. "Ginny said that she's been studying with Levi Krassner in Ravenclaw."

"Right. Nothing to do with feelings, Ron." Harry rolled his eyes.

Ron tossed a pillow at Harry's head. Harry grabbed it and used it to prop himself up and, ignoring Ron, went back to studying for his Arithmancy exam.

--||--

Two days later, Hermione walked into the common room, head held high.

Harry gaped. "Hermione?"

Hermione looked down her nose at him. "It will wear off." The other in the room Griffindors exchanged glances, but said nothing.

"Will it?" Harry stared in amazement at her hair. It stood on end, and tiny sparks jumped from strand to strand, undulating gently as a result. "Are you all right?"

"Fine. It was just - I tried something and, well.... It went wrong. I'll be fine."

Harry nodded uncertainly, still gazing raptly. "Um, an experiment doing *what*, exactly?"

Hermione shrugged. "Just some extra credit." She looked at Harry and relented. "Look, I can't tell you. But if you figure it out on your own." She grinned. "I know. Let's go to dinner."

Harry walked into the hall and looked around. Hermione wasn't going to tell him, but there must be some connection between 'figuring it out' and 'going to dinner. He stared at the occupants of every table, but everyone's hair seemed normal. Well, not that he'd noticed hair much before, but nothing out of the ordinary. And no one was wearing a hat as a disguise, so far as he could see. He glanced at Hermione, but she just smiled primly and ate her dinner, loftily ignoring the stares of those around her.

Harry looked around again, wondering what-*who*-he'd missed. And so he looked where he hadn't before. He looked at the teacher's table. And suddenly he knew. He knew that if he hadn't been so determined to avoid noticing Snape he would have noticed right away.

True, Snape's hair was somewhat more. lank. than Hermione's, and so the effect didn't show up quite so noticeably. And yet, there were telltale sparks flickering among the dark strands. Harry flicked a questioning glance at Hermione.

"I don't give hints," she said out of the side of her mouth.

"I take it you collaborated on your ' experiment'," Harry said hotly.

"I didn't think you'd understand. I know Ron wouldn't." Hermione looked up at the teacher's table and caught Snape's eye. Her brief smile wasn't acknowledged by more than a flicker of Snape's eyelids.

Suddenly Harry found himself seething with anger. "I'm your new assistant," he said decidedly.

Hermione turned to look at him, mouth hanging open. "What?"

"Fascinating stuff. Glass. Light. Power." Harry nodded. "Yes. Need to find out all about it. Who knows? It could be the key to defeating Voldemort."

"Well, yes, it *could* be, but I didn't want word of the experiments getting out until it looked as if we had a chance of succeeding."

"I get it. Mum's the word." Harry plunked himself into his seat and refused to think about why the idea of Snape and Hermione working together.irritated.him.

--||--

Harry ignored Snape's frown as he trooped into the dungeon's on Hermione's heels. He smiled and chirped "good afternoon, Professor," as politely he knew how. Snape's grimace of annoyance turned into a snarl. And the snarl made Harry feel rather. odd. though he wasn't sure why. Or in what way. Harry's brief expression of befuddlement seemed to appease Snape somewhat; he merely straightened and turned his forbidding scowl on Hermione.

"Miss Granger. What is the meaning of all this." Snape had more-or-less recovered from the poison gas attack, but he still had a gray-greenish tone to his skin. And he was thin. Thinner than before, and he really hadn't had much excess flesh to lose, Harry thought to himself.

"Harry's figured it out and he wants to help."

Harry shook himself and returned his attention to the conversation, attempting to look both hopeful and diffident. Snape's frown, meanwhile, grew deeper. "I have to deal with enough incompetence in the classroom, Granger. I had hoped to be free of it in my few precious off-hours."

"I'll stay out of the way. Just think of me as your fetch-and-carry man," Harry said brightly. Snape turned to look at him, and then said with a slow smile. "Why Potter. I do believe that's an offer I can't refuse."

And this time the smile, and the words, left Harry in no doubt of how he was feeling. He gulped and nodded.

"Well, if you're determined to fetch and carry, I need a load of firewood brought in. You'll find it outside Hagrid's hut."

Harry sighed, took his wand out, and turned to leave for Hagrid's.

"You'll have to bring it over without using magic, of course," Snape said.

Harry kept his face blank, but couldn't help glancing in Hermione's direction. "'Fraid so, Harry," she said. "We don't want any residual magic tainting the wood."

Harry nodded, and Snape smirked. He was still picking splinters out of his hands two days later.

And for the next few weeks, fetch and carry was what Harry did. He grew to know more than he thought there was to know about glass, and the magical properties of various wood, and the temperatures at which they burned. And he had traveled by flu to Diagon Alley so many times, seeking supplies, that he'd had to buy a new set of robes. His "old" ones, barely three months old, if that, had a distinctive smoky odor. He also frequently came back with treats, ostensibly for himself. He was, after all, a seventeen- year-old boy which meant, of course, he was supposed to be a bottomless pit.

Snape sniffed and muttered and complained, but gradually Harry figured that Snape could be tempted to eat manchego and guava paste, and that, although he pretended to turn his nose up at hot and steaming fish-and-chips, he managed to eat at least his fair share.

But even if Snape held firm on keeping Harry out of the experiments proper, his participation was appreciated-by Dumbledore at least. He approved of the apparent cease-fire between Snape and Harry and, as a result. Harry was more frequently invited to meet with the other members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Although the first time that happened, Harry was completely surprised at his own reaction.

--||--

Harry sat down at the table, and looked up to meet Remus's eyes. Remus smiled welcomingly, and a distant part of Harry was aware that he was happy- very happy-to see Remus alive and looking so well. But the rest of him flinched. The dreams of being attacked by a werewolf were back, and suddenly more real than ever. He blushed and looked up again at Remus.

"Er, sorry, Remus. Just wasn't expecting to see you.

"Yes, well. Glad to see you. You've been officially admitted to the Council of War, eh?"

"I suppose."

And then Severus Snape swept into the room. To Harry's surprise, he nodded civilly to Remus, and even managed to maintain his equanimity when Sirius Black barged into the room.

"Hello all!" He made a beeline for Harry's seat and grabbed Harry up and into a fierce hug. "Harry. I don't know that I agree with Dumbledore that you should be here but." he pushed Harry slightly away again and grinned madly into Harry's eyes, "I'm so damned glad to see you I can't argue the point. How are you?"

"Uh, good. Yes, I'm doing well, and. and. and you?" he stuttered.

It was bizarre. Two layers of feeling. One part of Harry relished a hug-the first in years-from the closest thing to family that Harry had. The other bristled with resentment and distrust, and a consciousness that no matter what he did now, he'd never be forgiven for then. Harry pushed his way out of Sirius's arms and shook his head.

"I'm good Harry. Much better for seeing you. And now that you're here, we'll soon have old Voldie on the run, right?"

"Right. Um, sure." And Harry looked around the room helplessly and caught Snape's eye. But instead of the expected sneer, Snape's gaze was measuring. But the moment was lost when Dumbledore bounced cheerfully into the room and called the meeting to order.

--||--

It had been another unsuccessful day in the laboratory. Two wands had shattered, and the others had been duds. They glowed-they were still glowing-and as a new light source they were a great success. But as a more powerful wand, they were a failure.

Harry walked in the gardens, idly kicking at the tufts of grass. At least Snape and Hermione were letting him help, now. In fact, his hair was now sparking and waving. Hermione was so used the sensation that she could ignore it. Harry found himself uneasy inside. Touching anything-furniture, another person-led to mini-shocks and Harry found them unpleasant.

As he rounded a hedge and made to turn back to the castle, he heard voices. Dumbledore. Dumbledore and Snape, to be precise.

"Severus, my dear boy, it's too dangerous," Harry heard Dumbledore say.

"A walk to Hogsmead for a drink with a friend... that's too dangerous?"

"A drink with a friend? Is that all it is?"

Snape drew himself up to his full height and thrust out his jaw defiantly. Harry, meanwhile, felt his stomach twist at the idea of Snape with. someone.

"A liaison at this point would be... inadvisable," the headmaster continued gently. "We simply don't know who we can trust."

"So I'm to sit in my dungeons until the war's end when for the first time in..." Snape broke off, evidently unwilling to say how long it had been.

"Have --"

"If you tell me to have patience," Snape spat, "I swear I'll..." Snape whirled away from Dumbledore and strode, robes swirling, back toward the dungeon.

Harry stood quietly in the shadow of the hedge until Dumbledore headed back to the building as well. And then, thoughtfully, he made his way back to his rooms.



Thanks again for sticking with me.