4.

Severus tamped down his emotions down firmly, keeping his mind as coldly logical as he could, under the circumstances.

What was it about the Potter boy that wrecked havoc with his equilibrium? He was a spy, a double agent, reporting two powerful wizards who did not have his interests at heart, who were entirely capable of breaking into most peoples' minds. Controlling himself was Snape's specialty. It had kept him alive.

But that when he saw Potter he was suddenly 15 years old again, helpless fury tearing him up inside like a thousand flying razors, thinking that he was going to die at any moment because a human being couldn't be so full of rage and live.

He looked back at Potter. The boy was slumped halfway out of his chair, his face smeared with mud, his eyes huge and luminous. He looked very young, and at that moment, he looked nothing at all like James Potter. He was just a 16-year-old schoolboy drugged to the eyes, with no idea where he was or what he'd been saying.

Snape sighed and fetched the antidote. He pulled his chair next to Potter's, and steadied the boy on his chair with surprising gentleness. He held the back of Potter's head with one hand (Potter's hair warm and slippery under his fingers, soaked through), unstoppered the antidote with his teeth, and held it too Potter's lips. Potter closed his eyes to drink, his lashes strikingly dark against his pale cheeks, glistening droplets of sweat suspended between them. He tilted his head back, exposing a pale length of throat, his Adam's apple bobbing delicately as he drank.

There was a strange intimacy to the moment, and Severus was surprised to feel a pang of something like regret when Potter stiffened and flinched away from his hand.

Severus felt his eyes narrow and his mouth twist into familiar menacing, mocking lines. Potter jerked upright and turned to stare at him, wide-eyed, blinking.

"Get out, Potter," he sneered, "and for Merlin's sake, take a shower." He leaned against his desk to scratch out a terse excuse and thrust it into Potter's hand.

Then he rose with as much dignity as he could muster and stormed into his office, slamming the door behind him.