Friendship and Beyond 26/?

Rated: R contains mentions of rape and torture, although not actual scenes. Possible HP/SS in later chapters, also HG/RW.

Authors Notes: I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters, that would be JKR. Subject matter not for children, although nothing too graphic, but be careful when reading just to be on the safe side.

Comfort in a Snake

During the night Harry had rolled so that he was practically lying atop Severus. Most likely if he had been the one on the bottom of their tangle of body parts, Harry would have panicked. As it was once he woke up it was a very near thing.

Without even taking recent weeks into account, Harry had no experience being so close to another person. Growing up in the environment in which he did, Harry became accustomed to the lack of affection; so that by the time he entered Hogwarts he no longer expected it. He was affection-starved and did not even realize it.

The only signs of caring and love he got were from Ron and Hermione, she being the more physically demonstrative of the two. Surprisingly Harry was more comfortable with hugs and casual touches from his best friends now, than he ever had been in years passed. They had all been through something, which although traumatic, served to tighten their already strong bond. So, while Harry became accustomed to physical contact with his friends, the situation he found himself in now was a far cry from the affectionate hugs Hermione bestowed upon him at random times.

It took Harry a few seconds to realize that he was lying on someone's bare chest, having nothing to compare it to. The events of last night came back to him quickly as he listened to Severus' heartbeat under his ear. The sound soothed his frayed nerves and he relaxed his body, letting it rise and fall with his professor's breathing.

Harry assuming that his prickly professor was still asleep under him 9seeing as his head was still attached to his body), decided to explore a bit. The position that he was in seemed non-threatening to the green-eyed young man who nuzzled his cheek into his professor's lightly haired chest.

Ever since Harry got over his schoolboy crush on Cho Chang soon after that 'wet' kiss, he started to realize that he was looking at some of his dorm mates as more than simply roommates. Once he came to realize that he found both women and men attractive he quickly got beyond his crush on Cho, having half the population of Hogwarts to drool over that he never would have looked at the year before.

He started noticing that even though Draco Malfoy was still an arrogant git, he was a git with a surprisingly nice ass. This thought was singularly horrible enough to cause Harry to avoid Malfoy for the last month of sixth year due to his annoying tendency to blush when it the blonde's presence. Thankfully after he got back from summer break with the Dursley's he had realized that even if Malfoy did have a rather well-shaped bum, Harry wanted more from a possible relationship that just meaningless sex, which with Malfoy is all it would surely be.

When he finally told Ron and Hermione why he had been acting so strange around Draco last year they had both been alternately amused and appalled. Ron used any excuse to tease him about it, so when Harry came to his senses and stopped blushing constantly around the obnoxious prat, the trio breathed a collective sigh of relief.

[I don't think they would still be relieved that I got over my infatuation with Malfoy if they could see me now though.] Without realizing it, Harry had been carding his fingers gently through Severus' chest hair for the last few minutes while his mind was elsewhere. If he weren't such a complete innocent Harry would have realized the effect he was having on his 'sleeping' professor. As it was the young man wouldn't remain ignorant much longer, which caused Snape to take action in his embarrassment.

"What the bloody hell do you think you are doing, Potter?" Snape growled menacingly causing his chest to rumble underneath Harry's head.

Harry hastily sat up, resting most of his weight on his arms so he could look down on his professor. The expression on Snape's face did nothing to reassure him. He had a most peculiar look on his face, looking quite scary. Harry reared back and quickly moved to get up, but Snape seemingly had the same idea and they ended up falling in a twist of legs off the bed landing with a thump on the floor.

Harry lie gasping for breath with his back to the floor, Snape's weight heavily on top of him with his face scrunched into Harry's shoulder. This time however being as Severus was lying on top of Harry with nary an inch of space between them, he noticed the state of arousal that Severus had tried so hard to hide earlier. Upon realizing what exactly he was feeling Harry froze in fear, his breath coming out in panicked gulps.

Noticing Potter's reaction, Severus quickly moved away from his student's stiffly held body underneath him. So it was that he found himself in a reversal of the position Harry was in a few seconds before. Not wanting to get up in case the young man tried to make a run for it, Severus merely lifted most of his weight off of his student.

"Calm down, Potter." Severus successfully managed to sneer, sounding amused albeit annoyed as well. "I trust that I don't need to explain the biology behind waking up with an erection, boy."

"Um…" Harry mumbled turning a beguiling shade of red.

"I assure you my current predicament has nothing to do with your presence in my bed." Snape continued doggedly in an effort to reassure Harry of his intentions. [Thank god for all that experience as a spy. Hell, if I could convince Voldemort that I worshipped the ground he walked on, surely I can convince Harry bloody Potter that I don't desire him. Let's bloody well hope.]

"Okay." Harry said breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing on the floor. Surprisingly though, Harry felt a little sliver of disappointment as well but he categorically refused to even think about it.