Title: The Love Potion
Author: Sprinkles
Rating: PG-13 just to be sure…
Archive: Sure, just ask me first.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry or Snape or anyone else from the Potter-verse. They either own themselves or belong to JKR
Summary: Harry comes to Snape and confesses to being in love with him. Snape in turn believes that Harry is under the influence of a love potion and attempts to identify and cure it.
Snape spent the rest of the day preparing a batch of a potion that would test for the presence of Barely-infatuated Beverage. He'd decided to start with the least difficult to brew potion and work his way up to the most difficult since the potion had probably been made by students anyway and students were, in his experience, extraordinarily lazy.
Harry, for his part, sat on his hands and knees for the rest of the day scrubbing as hard as he possibly could at the cauldrons in Snape's office. He seemed to take personal pride in how clean he could get them, almost as if to say: See? I have some use! I'm not a complete idiot!
It was sort of pleasant, in fact. There were very little words, just the soothing swish swish of Harry's scrub-brush, the chop chop of Snape's knife and the quiet crackle of the fire under Snape's cauldron. Snape became lost in his thoughts about what the most likely Love Potion was. He had to suppress another smile at the memory of the hopefulness in Potter's face, waiting for his expected kiss. Silly boy. He glanced over at Harry, who was bent double over the rim of an almost man-sized cauldron, with his top half completely inside it and his arse staring Snape in the face.
Snape's eyebrows shot upwards. The brat's probably doing that on purpose, too.
I notice you're still looking, though… Snarked another little voice in his brain.
Ignoring the voice resolutely, he went back to chopping.
He didn't think about anything else until late that evening when, in the midst of the swishing and chopping and crackling, came:
"Holy Christ! What the hell did you have in this damn cauldron, anyway?" Harry, it seemed, had been scrubbing at one of the crusty blobs inside a particular cauldron for about two hours and now, flushed and sweaty, he was on the verge of giving up.
"Hm?" Snape looked up from his dicing and paused for a moment as he lifted another amused eyebrow. "I believe the last potion I brewed in that particular cauldron was Bicorn-Glue Potion."
Bicorn-Glue Potion was one of the most adhesive substances in the Wizarding world and the only way to get it off was by means of a spell. There was nasty silence as Harry thought about his wasted two hours.
"And you couldn't have told me that earlier, why?"
Snape was entirely far too amused by the whole situation. "Oh, I could have, Mr. Potter, but you, in fact, did not ask." Snape put down his knife and walked over to the cauldron, peering inside. "However, Boy-Hero, since you have put in an admirable effort, I will come to your aid this time." Snape picked up his wand and vanished the crusty blobs instantaneously.
He stood next to Harry for a moment, scrutinizing him carefully as if considering something. It was a long moment before he spoke.
"Mr. Potter, I believe that you should be getting back to your dormitory."
Harry wondered whether to beg for a few minutes more, but after a moment said, "Alright, Professor. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
Potter retrieved his robes from the coat rack and stood hopefully for a moment in the doorway, as if to see if Snape would come over and give him a goodbye kiss, or goodbye grope at least.
Snape, who had gone back to his chopping, looked over and saw him still standing there. He rolled his eyes. "Well? Do you need me to carry you, Potter?"
A pause. "Well actually– "
"Don't answer that!"
And Harry left.
Shaking his head, Snape walked back over to his simmering cauldron, ladled out a cupful of the mixture and set it to cool for a moment on the counter-top. Next he retrieved Potter's vial of untouched-by-an-intentional-curse blood from his drawer (of course, the fact that it was untouched-by-an-intentional-curse was completely inconsequential, but he had to come up with something to tell the boy, didn't he?).
Indeed, he answered himself as he unstoppered the vial of Harry's blood. The way a potion-tester worked was it would detect an ingredient specific to the potion in a sample of blood. If there were traces of the ingredient in the sample of blood, the potion would turn blue. If not, the potion would turn green.
He added the drop of blood.
Green. Negative.
One down, forty-seven potion tests to go.
He poured out the remaining potion and cleaned his instruments, lost in thought.
Should he tell Potter that he suspected a Love Potion and was testing him for them? After all, testing someone without their consent was illegal (not that he had ever really cared what was illegal) and Potter probably had a right to know what his blood was being used for…
But then again, what if it wasn't some student prank? What if it was some Death-Eater scheme to catch him (again)? And what if he went blabbing to those two parasites he called his friends about the suspected Love Potion? What if some Death-Eater over heard him and having been suspected, they decided to accelerate their plans, but this time with a poison?
Considering how easily he was drugged with the Love Potion, Potter would probably be dead in a heartbeat.
Snape went cold at the thought.
True, all these ideas were a leap of logic, but, even still, there were too many risks.
Besides, Snape continued in his cleaning, what would Potter do if Snape told him now about the suspected Love Potion, having already deceived the boy?
Well, he may react the same way he did when I accused him of playing a prank… Or… the fool in his besotted state, deeming this deception a 'betrayal,' might run off and get himself into more trouble.
Snape placed his tools and Harry's blood in his drawer and moved his cauldron into the corner of the room where the dirty cauldrons had stood that morning.
No, it isn't really necessary to tell the boy – no need to make him go running off in an emotional state.
Snape walked into his bedroom, undressed himself and tossed on his grey night shirt.
In fact, he should, perhaps, stay under surveillance from someone, in case he has any odd effects from this Love Potion…
Snape smiled slightly at the thought of Potter suffering from more effects than he already was.
And who better than a Potions Master who knows what odd effects to look for?
The other little voice spoke up again: That's actually quite caring of you…
Snape quickly shut it up: Besides, I need my cauldrons cleaned.
Or…Perhaps you are finding that it is rather pleasant having him around…
No, it's just because of the cauldrons!
Fine. Said the voice right as Snape was falling asleep. Be that way.
"All done for today!"
Harry stood up from cleaning his last cauldron and stretched his aching muscles. And I thought Quidditch was a workout. Oh well, at least this one didn't have Bicorn-Glue Potion in it, like the one yesterday.
Going over to the sink, he started rinsing out the cauldron and his scrub-brush.
Speaking of which, how does the guy go through so many cauldrons in one day?
He grabbed a towel and started drying the now-clean cauldron.
Yesterday he had like ten, and today he has like –
A pair of hands descended on his shoulders, holding him firmly rooted to the floor.
His head snapped around. "Professor?" Okay, what -
The hands started sliding down his back and sides until they encircled his waist.
"Hm?" Snape moved closer behind him until Harry was effectively pinned against the counter.
The hands started to untuck Harry's shirt and the body behind him pressed firmly against Harry's back. Harry flushed and gasped for breath – he couldn't seem to get enough air. What is he – Oh God! It was quite difficult to concentrate on anything, let alone speech or thoughts.
The shirt was pulled off over his head and tossed to the side. The whole situation was surreal. What is he doing! He felt the rough fabric of robes and the heat of Snape's body against his skin. The hands slid all the way up Harry's chest and pulled him closer, if that were possible, against the unyielding chest behind him.
"What does it feel like I'm doing, Mr. Potter?"
That voice, smooth as silk in his ear, ruffled the hair at his temple and sent shivers down his spine.
Snape could read minds!
Harry couldn't believe this was happening – it was too odd. What was going on? Since when could Snape read minds? No amount of Occlumency could ever have prepared him for this. If Snape knew his thoughts, what else did he know about him?
Snape spun him around and threaded his fingers through Harry's hair, holding his head to face him. "Everything, Potter."
What?
Snape yanked Harry away from the counter and began to back him against the wall. Harry's skin tingled at the contact. "I know everything about you."
One hand was now traveling over his collarbone and down his chest, efficiently holding him immobile. The other hand cupped Harry's chin, forcing him to hold Snape's burning gaze. Snape pressed against him with his body and a foot between his legs kicked them apart.
"Everything, Potter. I know exactly what you want." Harry shivered as the hand on his chest slid over his ribs. "Exactly where you love to be touched." The other hand began to trace his lips with a thumb. "Exactly how much and how fast and how hard." The last word, hissed next to his ear, was laced with suggestion and punctuated with a sharp bite.
Harry gasped with the enormity of the sensations that were coursing through him. His pulse pounded in his ears. His skin tingled everywhere those hands touched. He would surely die from pleasure if this kept up. With great effort he gathered his speech capabilities. "W-Wait, Professor."
A hard kiss shut him up while the hands moved to his upper arms and held them in an unbreakable grip against the wall.
"Hm?" Snape's lips were moving down his neck.
Harry felt like he was on fire. Everything was perfect – this was exactly what he wanted: to be taken by Severus Snape, to be held tightly in those incredible hands, to have that hard body press against him again. But why was Snape acting so differently, today?
He desperately tried to gather his words from a moment ago. "What made you – Oh God, don't stop – f-finally believe me? Why did – ah! – Why did you change your mind from yesterday?"
Snape laughed low against his ear and moved away from him. A hand tilted his chin upward again. "Why did I change my mind from yesterday?"
Snape, looking down at him, lifted an ironic eyebrow; his black eyes, glowing with lust, began to glitter with amusement. Harry closed his eyes and felt Snape move in closer again. Hot lips pressed against his ear and Snape's voice came out in a low growl of raw silk:
"Because this is a dream, you presumptuous brat."
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Harry's eyes flew open.
"DAMN IT!"
Annoyed, he rolled over, slammed his hand down on his alarm clock and rocketed out of bed. It was 6:45. He had only fifteen minutes to shower, dress, dash downstairs for some breakfast and dash down some more stairs to arrive at Snape's office.
Fourteen minutes and thirty seconds later found Harry raising his fist to knock on the Snape's door, thinking about what Ron would say if he knew that Harry had had just fifteen minutes for his morning routine and still managed to show up early.
He knocked. A couple of seconds later, Snape opened the door and wordlessly, albeit with a raised eyebrow, took in Harry's unkempt appearance: His hair was sticking out (more than usual) in every direction, his face was flushed, glasses slightly askew, and to top it all off, the top three buttons of his shirt were undone and there were crumbs of toast around his mouth.
"Look, I was in a hurry, okay?"
Snape's lip curled. "Obviously."
But he stepped aside to let Harry in.
Harry hung up his robes on the coat rack as he had done the previous day (hoping Snape wouldn't bark at him to put them back on) and sighed heavily as he looked at the eight cauldrons which were huddled together in the corner. He stretched his arms and seized his scrub-brush. Even if there were no crusted bits of Bicorn-Glue in any of them, it would still take most of the day to scrub them all.
Taking a brief moment, he stole a glance across the room. Snape was bending over his counter, his hair tied at the nape of his neck, and a look of intense concentration on his face. For once, he was not wearing his robes: his shirt clung to his back and the sleeves were rolled up. The Dark Mark had vanished (for good, he hoped) with the defeat of Voldemort in the final battle. The hands that Harry loved so much were busy slicing some indefinable ingredient.
He remembered how they had felt on his face and chest.
Shivering slightly, Harry looked back at the huddled pile of a hard day's labor awaiting him in the corner and began to smile.
He's definitely worth it.
A/N: Hi there, girls (and guys). I thought it was time to break up some of the sweetness with a bit of passion and sexual tension. But never fear: the next chapter will bring back the humor and fluff. As always, please feed the author! BTW: If anyone has any suggestions or questions, etc., I'm always delighted to hear/answer them. – XOXO Sprinkles
A special shout out and thank you to ch3 reviewers: chocolate, lillyseyes, Amanda Saitou (Speaking of love comedy, did you see Alan Rickman in Love Actually? Sorry this part wasn't so fluffy, but I didn't want it to get too repetitive. Hopefully, more fluff is coming in ch5), Clodia, willowtree16, Chrissy (Thanks for your awesome suggestions! Can you spot where I used them?), peacockgal17 (Thanks so much! Actually, the thing I'm working on in this story is getting the characters to actually be IC, but trying to get them to follow my own plot!), seabiscuit0810 (Yeah, but what's love without a little suffering? Besides, I think the last line in this part says it all.), Claggart (The dream sequence was for you! How was the sexual tension this time? Lustful!Snape is only slightly less fun to write than evil!Snape.), Iaurhirwen (Yeah, I love my evil!Snape, he's hysterical to write. This is a slightly longer chapter all for you but I think I'll keep them shorter in the future or have to risk more infrequent updates. Thanks for your kind words!), Wraith79, King Mana, Anime Monster (Yeah, love-sick!Harry is hilarious and almost as fun to write as evil!Snape.), Dark-Lady-Devinity. Thank you all!