Harry woke feeling a hand slide back into his. Slowly he realized that for the hand to return, it would have had to have left in the first place. He opened his eyes to find Severus fully clothed and sitting up leaning against the headboard with a quill in his right hand, parchment on his lap, and his left hand holding on to Harry's.
"Morning." Harry said quietly. Severus looked up from his marking and offered a small smile.
"I see you found my soul."
"Er, what?"
"My soul. You being the ever nosy Gryffindor are clutching it like a teddy bear." Harry's eyes went wide as he inspected the white stone in his hand. Had he really kept a hold of it all night? Had he really even fallen asleep still holding it? He hadn't meant to.
"Um, sorry."
"Well, I suppose you are the first person bar Albus to see it for years, I shouldn't mind so much really."
"Er, do you? Mind I mean."
"No, I don't at all." Harry decided that was about as close to approval as he was going to get out of the guy so he went on.
"What did you mean by it was your soul?" Snape gave a long suffering sigh like he didn't really want to talk about it and slipped into teacher mode.
"It's a *Cor Onyx, A soul stone, every Snape has one. When we die the stone goes black, when we are happy, contented," Snape shifted his eyes slightly, almost imperceptibly, but it didn't escape Harry's notice and then he continued, "or when we find our true love they heat up. Same the other way round, when we lie, are sad, or in pain they go ice cold. Its why Snape's cant get the Dementors kiss"
"Oh. . ." Harry said looking at the stone with awe. "well I guess I have no right to be holding this then." Harry reluctantly handed over the stone only to have it pushed back.
"Keep it." Severus said it as if it were an Ice Cream and not his Soul, his life force, and his happiness. Harry was floored by the gesture, it was obviously a huge thing, yet the Potion master handed it over without ceremony or show. The man wasn't about flamboyant gestures. When he trusted or loved someone he would let them know, but not by chocolates or sky-writing but with things that were obvious and unmistakeable.
Harry cradled the stone in his hand and then leaned over and kissed Sev, not the usual desperate, hungry kisses they usually shared, this was slow, gentle. They had all the time in the world to be with each other. Harry tried to put into the kiss what he couldn't put into words, just how much this meant to him, how much he loved Severus.
He felt the stone burn. He pulled away and went to get dressed, slipping the stone into his shirt pocket, feeling it rest against his chest heating him up in the cold dungeons.
A thought struck him, all the other stones were black, did that mean that all the other Snape's were dead?
He inspected himself in the mirror, not really caring but knowing everyone else would expect him to be the figurehead of collected strength and calm for all those who still believed in The Boy Wonder. He was dressed in a pair of tight black jeans he had gotten a house elf to bring from his room and a loose, dark blue shirt with his hair falling across his face, which made him look half wild, dangerous, and dead sexy. His glasses were long gone, they were no use in fights because they were too easily broken. Instead he had gotten contact lenses in the fourth year holiday and realized that he could get Muggle clothes in Hogsmeade. Therefore he bought himself a wardrobe and a half of stylish clothes to make up for his lack of them as a child. He had also gotten a large amount of foreboding-looking black battle robes.
Harry went over to Severus who was looking at him approvingly, "Is Albus likely to ambush me again today?"
"The Headmaster ambushed you before?"
"Yes, down here yesterday. I had to say that the portrait told me to come in and that I had no idea whose room this was."
"I wonder what the old bastard was doing down here without me being around, he knew where I was." Severus eyes darkened a shade and he bore an extremely pissed expression.
"I seem to have fallen from the Old Man's graces, but why did you call him a bastard? I thought you trusted him."
"Harry, the old man is a cold calculating bastard. I hold a lot of respect for the man, but he is fighting a war and he has no room for niceties. Don't pay attention to him, he has had a wand up his ass with regards to me ever since he found out I was better at the Dark arts than him. For someone so clever, he seems to fail entirely to see that dark magic is not necessarily evil, but just very powerful. He has had many Aurors kill people because of them using dark magic, without finding out why they did it." Severus looked angry, "The only reason he stopped me going to Azkaban for it was because he needed a spy with my 'talents'. It's also why he won't give me the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. He's frightened I will teach the children too much. I think he is just angry that his protégé has surpassed him, and in something he can't even do."
"But he didn't train me, you, Poppy, and McGonagall did."
"Yes, but he taught us. He hated that I became stronger than him, and that Voldemort did as well. That a sixteen year old would surpass him probably wounded his ego beyond repair. Don't beat yourself up over it, all you Gryffindors hold him on such a pedestal. He is not the saint you think he should be, you are just too bloody trusting."
"Typical. Yet another reason why I should have agreed to go in Slytherin and kept my big mouth shut." Harry snuggled up to Severus, who resolutely didn't snuggle back but pulled Harry closer and rested a hand on his back and rubbed it in reassuring circles, sensing that the Gryffindor needed the reassurance that what he was saying about the headmaster wasn't wrong. He decided he wouldn't comment on the Slytherin thing right now but filed it away under the "Things for further investigation" category in his brain along with Albus poking around his private quarters. That was certainly something to research.
"So how'd it go with Voldie?"
"Interesting nickname."
"Well, fear of the name increases the fear of the thing, but maybe I took it a bit too far." Severus gave him a cynical chuckle.
"Perhaps. Voldemort is severely wounded. He has strong protections surrounding his base; however, only dark magic beings can enter it, it's one way of preventing Spies. The thing is a bigger fool than Albus with his magical prejudice."
"The Thing? I think that's as bad as Voldie at least."
"Yes perhaps."
"Do you ever commit yourself to anything?" Severus gave a superior but teasing smirk and then swept into another kiss with Harry, running his tongue across the younger man's top lip making a request for entrance that was immediately answered. This kiss was hungry and passionate. Both battling for dominance, Severus eventually winning, happily Harry submitted to Severus's administrations and suddenly noticed that they were both wearing far to many clothes however tight-fitting they were.
~*~*~TBC~*~*~
A/N Well here is chappy 4, its faster than Id planed, but I was having fun and so here it is. The 'plot' was very confusing when I was trying it to work it out, I even had to draw a diagram, and still even I can't get my head round it let alone put it into words so please be patient with me.
Ok, the next chappy will explain why Dumbledore is being such an ass probably, and I want your opinion, should Oliver stay? He will only be a side character if he does, but I realised I killed a hole lota people off and Harry doesn't have many people he can call a friend so should Ollie stay?
*Cor, Latin for soul
Mikee: The whole Dumbledore thing is a big part to the story, I kinda explain it in the next chappy. About the not hurting Sevie thing, I'm gona try to keep it that way but no promises.
LunarMist DarknessEclipse: so many questions, well no, there is gona be quite a bit more (Hopefully) Its up to you guys if Oliver stays or not and the rest would just be to confusing to answer right now =) thanks for reviewing!
Misty Waters: yeah I know isn't it! I'd love to be able to speak it myself!
WittchWay: Thank you
xikum: yeah, I hate to write clear cut black and white stories. They just seem a little hard to believe.
Moraco: lol, writers block sux! Yeah, I was going to have every one being mean to Harry but I just couldn't make it, so I had to get Oliver cos every one else close to Harry is either dead or just not Oliver. The stone does actually have a point but at the moment it's just for fluff benefit!
And as ever Big round of applause and thankies to my new beta Katy999!
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