A/N: Sorry this is late, I've been feeling depressed lately, and I had this stupid Duke of Edinburgh thing to go to last night, and all in all I feel like locking myself in some very dark, cold silent room and telling the world in general to piss off. But right now that's just not an option, so I'm sorry if the last few and probably next few chapters seem a little forced.
Thanks for the reviews (broken record much?) But seriously they have done wonders for cheering me up.
This Chapter is dedicated to Cat Samwise my 100th reviewer! I never though Id get 10 for this story let alone 100! Thank You!
Chapter twelve: Truth is a Four Letter Word
As the black unicorn drew near Severus searched franticly in his robes for a vile of invisibility potion, as a spy he had learned to carry round a small set of vials including a healing potion, an invisibility potion and a nice little number that caused one hell of an explosion.
Finding the precious little bottle he flipped out the cork and drank it. The potion was soft, it didn't really taste of anything, it tasted as ambiguous as it made you. The stronger the potion, the more tasteless it became.
He was free to watch Harry with out having Harry watch him back. He didn't know why he liked that idea, but it seemed as if he didn't know a whole lot of things as of late.
Harry was in his element, the wind whipped round him and he felt as free as he had ever been, the ever present restrictions of the wards were the only thing stopping him from soaring of into the dim light just to see how far and high he could go.
He shivered slightly, not with the cold but with something else like someone was watching him, burning holes into him they were watching him so hard, he looked around and his eyes caught on a black shadow. He looked again but it was gone. Great, just great, he was getting as paranoid as Moody.
Severus leaned against the hard stone of the wall, his eyes still trained on Harry. He had watched the boy grow up, from the gangly eleven year old who looked so terrified of the sorting hat to the imposing seventeen year old who had cast aside his fears, faced terror and torment and yet retained the will to laugh and smile like there really was something left in the world to laugh and smile for.
Did Severus really deserve to be a part of that? It was probably not even an option. Harry probably didn't like him like that. Severus still didn't remember the kiss. He knew there was something of that night he was missing, but he never knew what, and had only ever dared hope it could have been something like that. Hope was one of those things that he never trusted though.
He watched Harry and the unicorn dance in the sky for an hour before the potion started to wear off. Slipping back into the shadows of the castle he walked silently back to his rooms. He would see Harry tomorrow; they had lessons, until than he could be content to sit in the dark of his dungeons where no one could see him being human.
Harry was getting tired, and his legs were killing him. Steering Dusk down he landed lightly on the grounds lead her over to Hagrid to be tied up and fed.
He had missed diner so he went straight to the kitchens, he was due to visit Dobby anyway. He went down the twisted corridors until he met with the painting, tickling the pear he walked in to the busy hustle of the house elves clearing up after dinner.
"Harry Potter Sir!" A familiar high pitched voice squealed.
"Hey Dobby, how've you been doing?"
"Very well Mr Harry Potter Sir, Dobby has knitted a scarf for winter!"
"That's great Dobby, I was wondering, I kinda missed diner, could you whip me up something to eat?" Blissful looks spread round the nearest House elves and soon Harry was surrounded by plates of all sorts.
He ended up staying there for a lot longer than he had expected, the food was excellent and afterward he hung around to talk to the ever eager house elves about anything and every thing, Dobby about knitting and socks and Quidditch, the others about his favourite meals and things like that.
It was about 10 o'clock Harry finally left; exhausted he started up the stairs back to his dorm. Exhausted from lack of sleep and riding he stumbled into the common room and made a B line for his bedroom. His irregular hours of training had gotten him his very own room and he thanked what ever higher power was responsible, he just wanted to go to sleep and not have to listen to Neville's snoring.
No such luck, Hermione and Ron were waiting for him.
"Harry mate, why didn't you tell me about you and Ferret?"
"Ron, please, I am not going out with Draco, I really can't put it in any plainer English than that."
"Harry." Hermione interjected in her usual calm collected but very much in charge voice, "Ron and I have been talking. We understand you and Draco are close, and if you have decided to take it," She swallowed, "further, with him, then that's fine with us. But we are sad that you didn't tell us, we're sorry if we haven't been around much lately. It's really our fault."
Harry stared at them like they had gone mad. They had completely lost it, never mind a few crackers short of a full packet, they'd never even heard of a full packet, they were loopy as hell. They were off in there own world.
"It's alright Herm, I haven't been around much either." Harry very nearly burst into fits of hysterical laughter before realising too late that he actually hadn't contradicted the claims of him and Draco. "But I'm not, you know, going out with Dray."
"Harry, if you're not ready to admit it fine, but I warn you, most of Gryffindor and probably the other houses have guessed already."
"Oh." Harry wasn't sure what the hell else he could say; they were obviously going to ignore any form of truth. "Thanks for the heads up." Harry knew he was probably going to have to go see the Slytherin some time soon, in fact if he had really been on top form he should have gone then and there, but he just couldn't be assed. Any way, the Silver Prince knew every thing going on in the castle, he was better aware of the grape vine than Albus sometimes so he probably already knew, and would be dealing with it in the best way he saw fit. Harry trusted him, well, on this he did anyway.
"Night guys!" Harry left quickly ignoring their funny looks.
When he got into bed Harry found he couldn't sleep, his body was more than willing, but his mind was buzzing wildly. He tried to remember the song Sev had been singing but only managed to hum a few bars; it had a sort of sad, haunted feel to it. Eventually Harry drifted off to sleep, the sad melody with out words invading his dreams.
~*~*~Tbc~*~*~
