Drowning

After watching Harry stare dreamily into the distance and then scribble on his parchment, then stare some more, Snape finally reached his breaking point. "Class dismissed", he growled suddenly. Instead of jumping as most children did, Harry stayed in his seat, closing his eyes and running his finger over his lips. Snape stalked over, and snatched Harry's parchment when his eyes were still closed.

The boy's eyes snapped open in fear and he frantically reached for it. The class stopped its rush towards the door to stare at the scene unfolding between the professor and his most hated student. Snape began to read the scrawls out loud.

"I watch my love everywhere, every moment I spend in thought of..." here Snape paused, his eyebrows raised. He continued, "...him. Every moment in spend in thought of him lying here beside me; I want nothing in the world but S..."

Snape paused. Repeated the words in his mind. Severus Snape. He spun about and snarled at the students paused, breath abated, in the doorway.

"I said class dismissed!" he snarled. Harry made to run. Snape grabbed his arm, "Not you, Potter!"

"Sir, I-I. It was a joke. I'm s-so sorry"

"A joke?"

"Yes."

"And, you intended me to find this note?"

"Y-yes"

"And you expected to get detention for this"

"..."

"And you wished to be punished for this?"

"No"

"Do you find this amusing?"

"No sir."

"Very well. Detention this afternoon. Report to my office after your classes."

A distraught Harry dragged himself to Snape's door. He opened the door to the office to find it empty. Moments later Snape swept through the bookcase, closing it behind him.

"Oooh, a secret passageway" Ivy thought. "This could be a plot point! Or not. Hmm" she frowned as she typed random verses frantically into the computer. Her long red hair falling into her eyes as she types. "It would be so much easier to write if only they would take off this straightjacket." She thought to herself. Her nose was starting to get bent.

"Sit." Snape said softly. Harry sat. Snape's lips curved in a small smile. "I meant in the chair."

"Oh." Harry said, embarrassed, as he got up off the floor.

Harry sat in the chair in front of Snape's desk as Snape stood behind the desk, hands resting on the polished mahogany, looming over the young boy.

"Mr. Potter," Severus said coldly, "I can do nothing about this ridiculous affection you seem to have developed for me, however, do not allow it to interrupt my class again."

"It was a joke, sir. I don't really have a crush on you, it was just a dare."

Snape smiled and leaned closer, "If you intended me to find the note as part of your prank, then why didn't you sign the note on the roses."

Harry went pale. "I-um, w-what roses?"

"I do not care" Snape said coldly, "whether you want to acknowledge this as a joke or some...crush. I simply want your attention in my class to improve before I am forced to fail you. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. You are dismissed."

"An amusing child, despite his incompetence in potions." Snape thought to himself. The bookcase door opened to reveal Lucius dressed only in black silk pants. He lounged in the doorway. "Are you ready to come to bed or do you wish to play with the boy longer." The blonde drawled. Snape smiled and the bookcase snapped shut behind them.

Harry hurried down the hall Ivy breaks into insane laughter. Harry hurried! She yells as she bounces across the room. Some poor child has fed her sugar to the common room. There Ron was waiting for him. "Bloody hell" Ron whispered. "You look a wreck."

"Thanks" Harry said sarcastically.

"Sorry, mate. What happened?"

"He knows about the roses, and he knows it's not a joke"

"Shit."

"Yeah" Harry agreed, then repeated softly "yeah."

"You should have invited the boy to join us" Lucius murmured into Severus' neck, "He was obviously dying to"

"He's a child!"

"And?" Lucius responded suggestively.

"I do not share your...tastes. It would be wrong to take a child's...innocence."

"I doubt he's a virgin" Lucius stated.

"Not another word." Snape growled, covering Lucius' mouth with his own.

"Harry, are you sure about this?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"What choice do I have?"

"To take a fucking cold shower" "and forget about it." Fred and George answered.

"He's gonna kill you, mate." Ron said sagely as he moved pawn 2 to square H3.

"Goodbye then" Harry whispered.

After Lucius left, Snape pulled on his cloak and walked to the forbidden forest. He leaned against a tree and stared up at the stars. "So far away, so bright and uncaring. Cruel and distant. Just as I am.", he thought to himself. So lost in his dismal musings that he did not notice the small figure steal up behind him.

"P-professor?"

"What are you doing out at this hour? And in the forest, Potter!" he snapped, annoyed at being caught off guard.

Harry stood there in his school sweater and jeans, the red and gold offsetting his tan skin and dark eyes, black in the moonlight. His hands jammed in his pockets, he shuffled his feet. He then moved forward quickly and pressed his lips to Snape's, wrapping his hands around the teacher's neck. Snape slipped out of his grasp and pushed Harry away from him, onto the grass.

"What the fuck are you doing Potter!" he yelled at the prostrate teen.

"I'm sorry- I just-...sorry."

"Stay away from me, and go back to your tower, now." He snarled coldly, before turning and walking away. Harry stayed sitting and stared at his retreated back, only allowing himself to cry when Snape was only a blur on the horizon. Soon he disappeared entirely, and salt tears stung his eyes.

What was that? He did not understand anything anymore. The feel of Harry's lips against his, the sweet tentative touch, his hands around his neck would not leave him alone. He kept walking, unwilling to look back. Afraid he would see the boy crying or worse, staring at him. Part of him wanted the boy, to hold him in his arms before a warm fire and watch him fall asleep. The part of him that he was smothering, slashing at with his knives and beating until it was locked away inside his frozen will. The boy was slowly melting him inside. And he hated it.

Harry dragged himself back to his room, his friends fallen asleep waiting for him in the common room. He threw himself into bed and drew the curtains around him. To die. To sleep, no more.

Snape's thoughts flew as he paced the grounds, unwilling to step inside. He suddenly realized it. Why had he not seen this before? He had loved the boy's father. Still did. Harry was almost the mirror image of James. Part of his mind wanted to relive his last truly happy months with this boy. Insane. Now that he knew what the feeling was, he could crush it. Forever.