Chapter 3: A quiet day?

When Harry awoke the next morning, nothing seemed unusual. Neville was still snoring loudly, Dean was mumbling incoherently, Ron was still spread in his bed and Seamus was already gone, no doubt in order to avoid him. Harry rolled in his bed and for once decided to skip breakfast to spend more time under the shower.

By the time he finished his shower and his morning routine, it was already time to go to his first class.

Every thing went relatively well, comparing to the nightmare that had been the day before. Harry shuddered remembering the awful hours spent in Trelawney's class, the hours with the toad...herm... with Umbridge and finally the dreadful double Potions with Neville as a partner

Harry shot a glance at Neville, who seemed to be in heaven with his hands in the dirt to replant their new project in Herbology. Neville was not so bad, Harry decided, it was just that he could not seem to be able to do a correct potion, no matter what. That was frustrating in a way, as he was pretty decent and hard working in DA, which had just started and which Harry was very proud of. But when it came to potions, nothing seemed to work. Perhaps Snape also had his part of responsibility, seeing how he was always breathing on his and Neville's neck. Still, that could not be the only reason. Harry shook his head. No way was he going to understand this guy.

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The rest of the day went on without any incident, except for the huge amount of homework given to them. Said homework was threatening to become overwhelming if he did not do something about it fast. They were finally heading to the Great Hall for dinner.

"I'm starving!" Ron exclaimed

"How surprising of you..." Hermione muttered while Harry rolled his eyes with a grin on his face.

"Hey! It's not my fault if I'm undergoing a growth spurt AND having a hard day at the same time", Ron said while stuffing his plate with roasted potatoes and beef.

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"He's still not here..."

"I wonder if something happened to him..."

"That'd be great!"

"But he was there to teach us this morning..."

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Hermione frowned.

"What's all this whispering?"

Harry diverted his attention from his best friend to the whispers going on at the Gryffindor table... and on all the other tables too.

"Who are you talking about" Harry asked Dean, who he was still in good terms with.

"About Snape of course. Didn't you see that he missed dinner yesterday, breakfast, lunch and that he's still missing?"

Harry looked at the head table and true enough, Snape was not at his usual place, not anywhere in fact; and his colleagues seemed a bit worried. When he thought about it, he had not seen him at lunch either, but he had had a verbal sparring with Malfoy at the time, so he had not been paying attention.

"And that's not all", Dean continued, "Those who had him in class said he looked ill and was awful!"

"Whoa, now that's something new!" Harry said sarcastically

"Ok, but they say it was even worse than the usual: dark circles under the eyes, hair even greasier... And he missed three meals!!! Have you ever seen Snape missing meals?"

"Perhaps he's sick" Ron said, hoping not to have double potion on the next Monday.

Harry's brow creased. He suspected that, with Voldemort's rebirth, Snape was spying for the Order again. After all, he knew that he had been at Grimmauld Place several times during the holidays. Could it be that Snape's activities as a spy for the Order were responsible for these absences?

"Well... speak of the devil..." Ron said through clenched teeth, probably still brooding over Harry's detention on a quidditch practice day.

As a matter of fact, Snape was making his entrance and he did look awful. Hair greasier than ever, yellow teeth even more stained, skin sickly white... He looked everything like a living corpse.

He made his way to the head table and sat down while he acknowledged Dumbledore with a nod, the other teachers visibly relieved. Conversations started again, in hushed tones as if everyone believed they would not be heard by Snape while speaking of him.

MacGonagald passed a dish to him, obviously nudging him into eating a bit (Harry even thought he heard her saying "you look dreadful, Severus"). Snape sneered at her, and swept the room with his glare, baring teeth at every gossip. His eyes finally met Harry's, who had been looking at him since he had entered, trying to understand what had happened to his teacher. Then something happened that nobody was able to comprehend as it was too surprising and much too fast.

Snape's eyes widened considerably and he suddenly looked as if someone had just punched him in the stomach. He opened his mouth a few times as if in pain or as if having great difficulties finding his breath. A little red came colouring his cheeks for the briefest moment and after that he went even paler than before (if it was possible). Then Snape abruptly stood up, knocking down his chair, and left the room so quickly he was almost running. SNAPE almost running...

Harry was so astonished that he was unable to move for several minutes; even his eyes remained stuck to where Snape used to sit only seconds before. Snape's eyes, while looking at him, had held something that Harry could not even begin to grasp, but it had been mixed with hopelessness and fear. After Snape left, the Great hall remained utterly silent... and then exploded.

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"Have you seen that?"

"Yeah, he ran away as if he'd seen a ghost!"

"Don't be ridiculous, he sees ghost everyday..."

"Have you seen his eyes?"

"And his hair! My god, even greasier than usual does this man even know what shampoo is?"

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"You've seen Harry?!" Ron asked excitedly, looking quite astonished himself. "He was looking at you when he ran away, did you do something?"

"I...I don't know" Harry said, clearly at a lost for words. "Our eyes met and then, suddenly...pouf, he became crazy!"

Hermione seemed to be in deep thoughts for a few seconds. Then she motioned them to come closer and said in hushed whispers:

"Maybe You-know-who... I mean maybe Voldemort's been calling him. Remember the mark on his forearm!"

Ron's eyes lit up in understanding.

"Yeah, that must be it! Hope he will get useful information for the Order for once..."

Harry remained silent in concentration and then said:

"No, I don't think so. It can't be. My scar didn't even twitch. If it had been Voldemort's calling, I would have at least felt it..."

"Perhaps you overestimate your connection with him..." ventured Hermione.

Harry shook his head. "No, I'm sure of it. I've felt something a few times since the beginning of the school year. Remember when I was in detention with Umbridge, when she touched me..."

Hermione looked thoughtful. "Then" she said slowly "I really don't know what could have caused professor Snape to leave like that."

Ron shrugged, obviously uninterested by the current topic, as to say Snape. "To tell the truth, I couldn't care less about what made him lose it, except if it prevents him from making us suffer next Monday."

He stifled a yawn. "I think we should go get some sleep, I'm getting tired"

Hermione jumped "You can't think of it, we have tones of homework to do... Well, at least I want to take care of it before it becomes too much and I'm certain Harry agrees with me, right Harry?"

Harry looked uncomfortable under Hermione assured stare. Truth be told, he had expected to go to bed as soon as he had got back to the Gryffindor common room, as he had not got much sleep the week before with all his detentions with Umbridge.

"Herm... Sure 'Mione, but..."

"Great! Let's go to the library together. With your detention with professor Snape on Friday, you won't have enough time to do everything if you don't start now."

With this, she got up dragging a reluctant Harry with her, under Ron's amused eyes.

.

"Please, Hermione, I think it's enough for tonight. I'm exhausted!" Harry whined, pushing his book away in a tired gesture.

"Let me see what you've done... Ok, so you've finished divination and care of magical creatures, but you haven't done your potion essay yet."

"I know, but I'll do it during the week-end. With a bit of luck, Snape'll let me do it during detention..." Harry saw Hermione's doubtful expression "... well, I guess I can always hope..." Harry muttered dejectedly.

Harry then got up, his homework and books under his arm. "Well, if you stay a bit more here, I'll go to the common room now. See you there" Harry said while going slowly towards the exit.

"Um um..." Hermione hummed while still looking at her book and waving her hand to mention to him that he could go. Harry smiled at this display so Hermione-like and left the library. He was just about to turn at the corner to get to the stairs when he ran into someone. Due to the quick pace he was walking at, he lost his balance and fell on top of the person.

"Ouch!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going. I didn't hurt you, did I?" Harry said urgently while getting up and giving a hand to... Neville, who seemed more shocked than actually hurt.

"No that's all right Harry. I was just looking for Hermione, she was supposed to... well... to help me with potion work" Neville said, blushing a bit in embarrassment.

"Oh. She's still in the library. Though she didn't mention having to tutor you, I think she'll have enough time to give you a hand"

Neville seemed visibly relieved and smiled a little.

"Thank you Harry. By the way, how is your hand?"

"My hand?"

"Yes. You know, you got hurt yesterday in potion class. I'm sorry, it really was my fault and..."

"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt at all" Well, certainly less than what that toad of Umbridge made me suffer during detentions. "And it wasn't really your fault, I wasn't paying attention again" Harry said, whose turn it was to be embarrassed.

Neville smiled nervously "Well... you certainly have a lot on your mind... with last year and all..." Seeing Harry's face fall, Neville quickly added "I better get going if I want this potion homework done, see you later Harry". And he was gone.

Harry stayed shocked still for a bit. That was unexpected from Neville. He couldn't say that it didn't hurt to be reminded of what had happened, which also reminded him how he had been left in the dark during all summer, but somehow he couldn't feel anger towards Neville. Not when he knew where and how Neville's parents were and how the courageous boy put up a brave front even though he must be suffering deeply from the situation. Harry shook his head. No need to dwell on the situation. Looking at his watch, he decided it was late enough for him to go to bed and he hurried in direction of the Gryffindor tower.

He was almost there and hurried a bit more when suddenly he was knocked down by someone who was walking as fast as he had been, but in the other direction. So there he was, lying on the cold floor with that someone on top of him, complaining in his head that it was the second time he ran into someone in less than ten minutes. Then he smelled a strange thing, a mix of herbs and potion fumes. At the same time, he felt something greasy on his cheek. God, I ran into Snape! Harry thought, slightly panicked and disgusted.

"I'm sorry sir. I didn't watch where I was going... I didn't mean to make you fall... I..." Harry stopped his babbling. Something was wrong. Through all his little speech, Snape had not said anything, not even an insult, nor had he even tried to get up. He just stayed there, on top of him, breathing deeply as if catching his breath.

"Sir? Are you hurt?" Not that he was really worried about his teacher's health, but if Harry had accidentally hurt him, he could not begin to imagine how many points he would lose to Gryffindor. Snape still did not move and Harry really started to worry about him. Also, being under his second most hated teacher (Umbridge had won the first place a while before) was not his favourite position. He was about to call him again when he heard footsteps and voices coming from the corridor. Immediately, Snape stood up and sneered at him.

"Well, Potter, are you so incompetent not to see where you are going?"

Harry was speechless. It was as if Snape had never stayed on him and as if they had just ran into one another.

"Five points from Gryffindor" Snape continued.

Harry felt anger rose in him and was about to protest when suddenly Snape looked at him in a peculiar way. There was a strange gleam in his eyes and when he took a step in his direction, Harry could not help but feel fear. He took a step back and Snape took another step forward. He raise his hand towards Harry's trembling shoulder and was about to touch it when suddenly Ron rounded the corner and called him.

"Hey! Harry! I was wondering when you would come back from the library, so I came looking for you. What's the matter?"

Harry stayed stunned. Once again, things had gone too rapidly for him to follow. When Ron had come, Snape had hastily snatched his hand away and he had disappeared in the shadows, probably using a secret passage of some sort. But what made sweat falling from Harry's brow was the look in Snape's eyes. It had been the look of a madman ready to pounce and kill. Harry shuddered.

"Nn...nothing Ron, just a shadow that looked like Snape. Come on, let's go to the common room"

Ron looked a bit doubtful, then shrugged and followed Harry who was fervently praying that he could forget this eerie encounter.

To be continued.

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Phew... finished. I am so sorry not to have posted sooner, but I had a lot of personal (and financial...) problems, so I could not do it before. I'll try to write more regularly from no on, but I cannot promise anything.

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Elehyn, merci de tes encouragements. Je te promets de ne pas laisser tomber cette fic, même si je mets du temps pour la finir.