Great scot.. people actually liked that last chapter! ! Excellent, I'm so pleased.
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If you're interested, I'm starting a new story entitled 'sleep of the dead.' It's slash hp/ss, but not for a very long time, and it won't be graphic or explicit in the slightest. Blech. I could not write a smut scene if it hit me in the face and started writing itself…
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Read on!
~~**~~
Harry watched as a myriad of emotions fluttered across his professor's face. What in the world was the man thinking about?
And when he smiled- Harry seriously considered passing out.
Snape raised an eyebrow in a decidedly playful manner at his son, who looked completely dumbfounded. It was an entirely hilarious look on him, to be sure. Of course, he really couldn't blame Harry for being a bit surprised. It wasn't every day that one caught Severus Snape smiling in the middle of a courtroom. Or really, when one found him smiling at all. The action was so foreign that he was actually surprised that he remembered how to do it.
Those green eyes were staring oddly at him again.
Erm, Professor?
Harry?
What is.. did you just call me 'Harry??'
Yes, I suppose that I did.
WHY??
Well, you're not exactly a Potter anymore, now, are you?
No, but-
So there's really no logical reason for me to continue calling you as such, is there?
Trust the man to resort to logical when Harry's mind was threatening to go into overload. Snape smiling, and calling him 'Harry?' Had all of hell frozen over?
Severus smirked down at Harry, who had a look of utmost shock plastered across his face. Well, he certainly wasn't a Slytherin for nothing. If he was going to go off the deep end and actually start some sort of bond with the young man, he was at least going to go about it in a perfectly Slytherin manner.
Sir? I mean, are you feeling all right?
Yes, Harry, I'm feeling perfectly fine. How are you?
Harry turned back to the front of the courtroom, his eyes wide. That was it. Snape had finally lost his mind.
The judge spoke. "Okay, everyone, we're done for the day. I'll see you all tomorrow morning at nine AM."
Severus took pity on Harry and directed the boy's gaze back over to him.
"I'm not insane, I promise."
Harry snorted. Hell really had frozen over.
"Really, Harry."
Harry blinked. Was the man being serious, or just toying with him? It was entirely possible, wasn't it? Snape was so unpredictable, so unusually hard to judge.
But Harry was absolutely certain that Snape had never, ever acted like this before.
He knew of Harry's feelings, of his need for family and support. What if he were just playing with Harry for a laugh?
Harry snarled. "Look, Professor, don't attempt to fool around with my feelings. Stop pretending to be nice- I'm not so foolish that I'm just going to walk blindly into your little trap. So you can drop the act, please."
Snape was taken aback. "Harry, I'm not-"
"Look, okay? You've never, ever been nice or even remotely affectionate with me at all. And I'm supposed to believe that you're just suddenly being kind? I'm not that stupid!"
Remus was looking over with badly concealed interest, but Snape silenced him with a glare.
"Harry, I'm not trying to trick you-"
"So I'm supposed to believe that you've just mysteriously had a change of heart?"
Snape cringed. Perhaps bringing this on all at once had not been a good idea. He should have realized that Harry would think this was a trap.
"Look at me, Harry."
Harry turned and glared at him, and Snape sighed.
"I'm sorry. I guess I should have been more careful with how I approached this."
How long would it be before he stopped making such simple mistakes? Here he was, knowingly the father of this boy for mere days, or was it weeks, now, and he had already apologized all over himself time and time again..
Harry was looking at him doubtfully. Snape could hear the crowd of spectators leaving the courtroom behind him, and his colleagues talking in hushed voices just to the other side of the table, but they didn't really matter right now. They could wait.
"I had decided that it was pointless to keep denying the fact that you were- you are- my son."
Harry nodded and Snape took a deep breath.
"It's just, Harry, that when I actually thought about the issue, I found myself.."
Snape trailed off. Merlin, he hated sounding like such a sap. He was ready to accept, ready to start something between them.. how was he supposed to put that into words?
"What I mean to say is-"
He was stuttering! Severus Snape, at a loss for words! He felt heat rise in his face as he blushed at his own incompetence.
Harry was smiling an odd half-smile. He was fairly certain that Snape was not acting, now. Severus Snape would never, ever stutter if he could help it at all.
So that meant.. what? That Snape actually wanted him? That he wanted him as a son? That he would have family?
"I.. Merlin. Never mind."
"Never mind?" asked Harry incredulously. "Never mind, Professor?"
Severus just blinked at him through a mass of long, black hair.
"I don't think you mean 'never mind,' Professor."
Was the foolish boy being impertinent?
"Shut up, Harry."
Harry smiled. "I don't mind, you know."
Severus looked at him and saw truth in those green eyes.
"I'll accept it, if you will. Is that what you're trying to say? That you're okay with.. this?"
When had the boy taken control of the conversation? And when had he become so perceptive?
Snape managed a small nod, and was relieved to find a huge smile spreading across the face of the Boy-Who-Lived.
"So you- I mean- you'll be my father?"
Snape gagged. "Give me time, Harry. It'll take a while, you know. These things don't happen all at once."
Severus found himself with an armful of thoroughly ecstatic Harry, who had unexpectedly enveloped him in a hug.
"Erm.." Snape awkwardly patted Harry on the back and glared at Dumbledore, Lupin, McGonagall, and Draco, who were all giggling merrily.
"Shut up, you lot," Harry said to them, though the sound was muffled by folds and folds of cloak.
Of course, this only worked to make them laugh harder, finally breaking out into extremely loud 'guffaws.'
Snape could already feel his face turning bright red again, but did didn't really matter, did it? After all-
A hand reached out and roughly grabbed Harry by the collar of his robes.
"Come on, Potter," Fudge spat, tearing him away from his father.
"To the cell we go, Potter," Fudge taunted, shaking Harry madly.
Snape stood up and snarled before ripping Fudge's hands away from Harry.
"Get your hands away from him," he hissed into the frightened face of the minister.
Severus growled as Fudge tried to pull away from Severus's extremely tight grip on his arm.
Snape looked down at the arm he currently held in his hand and gasped.
Cornelius Fudge, the 'honorable' Minister of Magic..
Was a death eater.
