"I'll never leave you alone Harry, never." Severus's voice echoed in Harry's head as the warm water cleansed his skin and relaxed his muscles. He sighed, he didn't believe in never, there were no nevers, just long periods of not now. He had given up in never when he had killed those people, that was something he would never do yet he had.
Still, Severus not leaving for long periods of not now was enough right now, it was all that was keeping him going.
Harry had finished his shower and was lost. Wandering through Severus's rooms he returned to the entrance room and sat down on the love seat in front of the fire. The room was very impersonal, more like a blank canvas really. There were no personal items in it bar some odd looking smooth, black stones on the mantel.
He picked one of them up, it was abnormally cold, he ran it round his palm, it fit perfectly, round and sort of egg shaped. Harry wondered if it was made of Onyx maybe, but then again wasn't Onyx usually white? He looked at them again and sure enough there in the middle of about six black ones sat a white egg. All of them were flawless and breathtakingly beautiful.
"Harry." A stern voice broke his contemplation.
"Albus?" Harry was stunned by the angry look in the usually placid mans face. "Um sorry headmaster, what are you doing here? I didn't hear you come in."
"I think the more appropriate question would be why are you down here?"
"Um well," Harry realized he couldn't very well say he'd spent the night with a teacher. "I was wandering around and found this room. I was chatting to the painting and she suggested I come in. Why is there a fire burning in a deserted room?" Harry fiend ignorance, playing up to the Headmasters belief that Harry was insignificant in comparison to him.
The headmaster was being, to put it mildly, cold to him, and suddenly Harry got it. Dumbledore thought of Harry as a tool. Now that he had failed there was no reason for The Old Omnipotent Coot to be nice to him.
Harry even got the impression that the Headmaster, either looked down on him for using black magic. Or perhaps... Could it be that this harmless old man was jealous? Harry had wondered about the saintly façade the Headmaster showed every one since his fourth year.
"This room is not deserted. Now please leave, Poppy requests your assistance in the Hospital wing."
Harry was exhausted, he had drained a hell of a lot of his magic in the battle, he had spent hours wandering the halls. The time he had spent with Severus for the most part had not been restful, and he hadn't slept for long either time he had tried to this morning. Once Severus had left Harry hadn't dared go to sleep, he didn't want to risk it, didn't want to go to sleep and have no one there to soothe him if he had a nightmare, he was also afraid that if any thing happened to his lover while he was asleep he wouldn't find out about it, he only hoped his new pillow would be back soon, and preferably in one piece.
Dragging himself up and to the infirmary he cast a Pep charm on himself, the affects would only last a few hours and once they had he would have to sleep or run the risk of passing out.
"Harry."
"Madame Pomfry." Harry had studied advanced medical magic for a while in 5th year along with advanced DADA. He wasn't as good as Pomfry, but in a jam he came in handy.
Harry walked through the ward, the beds were full of people, some were crying, screaming, talking but the most disturbing ones were the ones not making a sound, whether they were just quietly staring or passed out, the ones who were silent scared Harry the most.
Harry did his best but being so low on magic he had to rely on potions and bandages and leave most of the spell casting to St. Mungo's officials. Most people he met treated him with the same cold indifference, however some people refused to be treated by him. They claimed he was evil and unhinged, most of those people were the ones who read Skeeter's articles in 4th year.
Harry was fighting not to break down. The only thing that kept him going was the thoughts of Severus burned into his mind. The man was strong in more ways than one, and Gryffindor Golden Boy wanted nothing more than to feel himself fall into that strength and be let by it. To let go of his titles and responsibilities and just be loved.
"Get that insane Death Eater away from me!" Harry was standing over a Ministry official, not an Auror, he looked more like an office worker or personal assistant.
"Leave him alone!" Harry jumped, the voice was familiar.
"Oliver?"
"Hey Harry." Oliver looked badly beaten up, but still he stood looking violently powerful, as a Quiddich player he was well built and even without his Keeper toning the Scot was intimidating. "And you! How dare you say Harry is a Death Eater! He saved hundreds of lives yesterday, he fought with You-Know-Who himself. Did you fight him? Did Fudge fight him, hell did Dumbledore fight him? No. So let him heal you, you should be grateful."
The man glared but nodded and Harry poured down him some healing and sleeping potions down his throat. Once the man was asleep Harry turned through his old captain. Keeper and Seeker regarded each other with fond but sad smiles.
"Hey Ollie, are you ok?" Oliver swayed slightly.
"Yeah, maybe you know, I should lay down." Harry guided him to a vacant bed and sat down on the end of it.
"Thanks for, well you know, sticking up for me, but well, I don't deserve people defending me, what I did was, well, I just don't deserve it."
"Harry, I was at that fight. I'd been beaten up pretty bad, I was hit by a curse of some sort and bam! The next thing I knew I was on the ground at the Wand point of a Death Eater. He got through, Ava of the AK curse before you, well did what ever you had to, I would have died. You saved mine and so many other lives today. They just don't get it." Poppy came over and dosed Oliver with his 11pm sleeping potion before anything else could be said.
Harry, feeling the effects of the Pep charm where off left the Hospital ward and snuck down to Severus's rooms, after a couple of words with the snake and a promise that Albus was not in the room, however neither was Severus, Harry walked through the living room and as he passed through picked up the lone white egg as he found it oddly comforting. He dragged himself t his lovers bed.
He slipped between the black silk sheets, they felt cool against his bare skin. He still clung to the white stone, it reminded him of the man whose bed he currently occupied. He couldn't close his eyes, every time he did he saw the faces of the dead from the battle. He therefore settled on mapping out the patterns of the stone on the ceiling, to exhausted even to blink
After an indeterminate amount of time, Harry had no idea how long it was, he felt arms encompass him. "Hey," Harry murmured.
"Shhh, you look beyond collapsing."
"Stay?" Harry felt warm lips on his neck and the arms around him tighten protectively.
"I'll be here as long as you are."
Harry felt one of Severus's hands capture his, the odd stone between them felt curiously warm for the first time.
~*~ TBC ~*~
A/N I cant be bothered with disclaimers and such, they are in the last 2 chapters if your life depends on them.
Wow, I'm happy people reviewed! OK here's the deal, Its getting annoyingly hard to bluff a plot, so if you do read further I cant be held responsible for your brains turning to mush due to the mind-bending crap I use in place of a 'plot'.
Mikee: Thank you! I'm having fun making Sevie all sweet and caring. He's secretly just a big huge teddy bare in side I think.
Neo-NaziGuy24: LOL, I can see your point, I guess I should of tried harder with the summary but I was coffee deprived and that does not help my brain. Thanks for reading even though you had low expectations.
Kate: Yeay! I got another email! (Small minds are easily amused.) Here's the next chappy.
Snape coolgirl: Thankies,
I'd like to thank Katy999, cos she has beta read this chapter for me, cos I've lost my other one. (If your out there Violet, sorry I lost your email address) And so this chappy is the first one beta read, hopefully it'll make more sense.