Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.
Web of Lies: Revelations.
Alec arrived at his uncle's office five minutes before eight. At first he had wanted to wait till eight before knocking on the door, unwilling to face the man yet, but when he saw several Slytherins approaching, he changed his mind. He didn't know what reaction they had had to Dumbledore's words, but he wasn't willing to find out just yet.
A strong voice ordered him to enter as soon as he knocked, and he didn't hesitate to obey.
Severus watched as the teen closed the door after him, he seemed to be a bit pale, and his hands were trembling a bit, making him frown. Was Alec scared of him? Or was he just tired? Storing those questions for later, the Potions Master stood up as the boy walked closer.
"Why didn't you go to your lessons?"
At first it seemed like the teen would just shrug the question off. The Potion Master was about to press the matter again when the teen sighed. "I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I had too many things on my mind; it would have been a waste of time both for me and for everyone else."
Severus frowned; at first he wanted to retort that that was not a good enough reason to skip class, but after remembering just how distracted Alec had been in his own class, he decided to keep quiet; Dumbledore would probably take him to task about that. "You weren't at lunch or dinner either, have you eaten anything today?"
This time Alec shrugged. "I'm not hungry."
Snape frowned, but before he had the chance to press the matter further the teen spoke again. "I'm tired, Uncle, I would like to get this over with."
Pressing his lips together, the man nodded towards a group of cauldrons. "Those need to be cleaned, get on with it."
Inwardly wincing at the cold tone, Alec walked over and started to clean. He had done this more than enough times for his motions to become completely automatic, and his mind started to brood again. Without meaning to, his mind went once again to the matter of the letter. At first he had been angry at Dumbledore for not warning him about it, but then that anger had faded or rather it had changed. How could the old man think that he would ever argue with his supposed parents to the point he didn't want to see them? If he had parents he would love them and cherish them, he would do everything in his power to help them, and if they thought it was best for him to stay elsewhere, he wouldn't complain about it, well, not much. The anger had turned to hurt as the day flew by; couldn't Dumbledore have thought of any other reason that he was with him? In other circumstances he would have been so happy to receive that letter, even if he would have been upset with Dumbledore; he would have enjoyed pretending at least to have parents. He had dreamed about it for a long time, and yet, now that he had the chance, he had been placed in a position that he was supposed to be angry with the pair.
Severus, who had been correcting essays at his desk, looked up from time to time to watch the tense back of the boy cleaning. He had been slightly surprised to see the confident movements from the boy's hands; he hadn't expected him to be so casual about cleaning something up. When he looked up for the fifth time in two hours, he noticed that Alec had been cleaning the same cauldron for about half an hour. Wondering if there was something wrong with it, he stood up. The Potions Master had made sure that the cauldrons were not impossible to clean up so he was a bit surprised that the teen was taking so long. Walking over to the teen, he had to fight back a gasp when he saw the child's raw hands scrubbing furiously at the clean cauldron.
"Alec!"
The teen was forcefully wrenched from his thoughts when strong, gentle hands closed around his wrists, pulling his hands out of the cauldron. The hurt that had been flowing through his mind intensified when he finally noticed how much his hands had started to hurt and tears started to gather in his eyes. Shaking his head slightly, he tried to pull his hands out of the Potions Master's grip to dry the tears, but the man didn't let go of him.
"Sir, please, let go."
Narrowing his eyes at the formal address, Severus tightened his grip a bit and looked him over carefully. Seeing the tears, he gently drew the teen to his arms.
"Alec, what's wrong?"
Pressed against the man's chest, Harry couldn't do anything but shake his head, still fighting his tears. "Nothing's wrong."
Sighing, the Potions Master looked down at the head pressed against his chest. "Of course there's something wrong; you wouldn't have done this to your hands without reason, and you wouldn't look like you were about to start crying any second now." When the teen didn't answer, Severus started to gently rub his back. "Do you want to go to your Grandfather?"
Alec vigorously shook his head; that was about the last thing he wanted right now. Frowning, the older man carried Alec with him until he was sitting in his chair with the teen comfortably settled in his lap. They both stayed silent for a long time, Alec trying to get a hold of his emotions and Severus doing his best to calm him down without words. When he finally felt Harry relax against his shoulder, Severus took a look back at the small hands. They were red and looked raw. Sighing, the man took Alec in his arms and stood up before turning around and placing him back in the chair.
"Stay here, I'm going to get something for your hands and something for you to eat."
When Harry opened his mouth to argue, the man just raised a hand to stop him. "No arguments; you need to eat something and those hands are not going to stay that way, no matter what you say."
Not giving the teen time to answer, Severus turned around and went to the small door that led to his room. He needed to speak with Dumbledore besides doing everything else he had said. After taking a healing salve from his stores and calling a house elf for food, the man went to the fireplace and called the headmaster.
"Severus? Is there something wrong?"
The Potions Master nodded and quickly told the older man everything that had happened. Dumbledore was frowning when he finished. He had known that Alec would be upset, but he simply hadn't had the time to warn the teen. Even so, he couldn't understand such a reaction; he had expected to see Alec in his office, screaming at him or demanding explanations. The fact that the teen didn't want to even see him worried him more than he cared to admit. Finally, sighing, he rubbed his eyes with his right hand.
"Do you mind taking care of him right now, Severus? Give him something to eat, and you can bring him to his room to sleep. I won't try to talk to him if he doesn't want to, but I would feel better to have him close."
Severus nodded in agreement and cut off the communication. When he turned around, he saw the food he had asked for standing on a nearby table. After quickly gathering, it he returned to his office where Alec had curled up on his chair. He looked very small and vulnerable, and Severus' heart went out to him, wondering what had happened to the small, happy child. Silently, the Potions Master put the food on his table and went to kneel in front of the teen. He quickly took care of the hands, wrapping them in a soft bandage after covering them with the salve.
After putting the bandages and the salve away, he went back to Alec and forced him to eat a bit; the teen did so reluctantly, and after eating half of the food Snape was offering, he refused to eat more. Sighing and knowing that he would just upset the teen more if he pressed him, Severus took Alec into his arms and went to the secret entrance that led to the Headmaster's tower. Noticing where they were going, Alec started to struggle.
"Let go, I don't want to go there."
Severus sighed and put the teen down, taking him gently by his shoulders. "Alec, you don't need to see your Grandfather if you don't want to; he promised to stay away until you wanted to see him, but we would all feel better if you stayed here for the night."
Alec rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Why? I'm fine."
Gently taking Harry's hand in one of his', Severus sighed softly. "You're not alright, you're upset about something, and it's so bad that you've skipped the whole day of lessons."
The teen frowned. "I'm sorry about that, I'll make up all the work."
Shaking his head, Severus drew the teen into his arms, thinking of some way to make him understand that they were concerned about him. "Alec, can you please listen to what I'm trying to say? We're worried, I don't like seeing you this sad, and I want to keep you close to me in case you need to talk to me. I would keep you down in the dungeons if I had a room for you there, but since that's not the case, we'll both stay up here. Come on now, you look exhausted, let's get you to bed."
Knowing that further arguments would be useless, Harry followed the man to his room. Snape waited patiently outside until he had changed into his pyjamas and then returned into the room and tucked him in. Closing his eyes tightly, Harry tried to ignore the gentle, comforting touch from the usually cold-hearted man. Once he had tucked the teen in, Severus sat down next to him on the bed.
"Uncle Severus? You don't need to stay."
The man gently started to pet his hair. "Hush, try to get some sleep."
Frowning the teen closed his eyes, soaking the comfort coming from that hand. At first, he thought he wouldn't be able to sleep with the man sitting so close by, but to his surprise, he drifted off within minutes.
To be continued...
A/N: Sorry for all those who thought this was going to be a long chapter, for the first time ever I'm going to answer to all the reviews send to the last chapter. For all those who don't have the patience or don't want to read everything (which I suspect are most of you) please go to the end and read the bits written in italics, there are a few things I would like answers on. And before I forget, thanks to Vinnie for her beta-reading, I appreciate all the work she does for this fic ;)
Jewls5: Don't worry, I will, I love it myself so I don't think I'm going to stop anytime soon.
Hye em yes: Thanks, and I'll try to update as soon as possible.
Chips Challenge: chuckles I couldn't have Harry not go to detention, after all he still has some sense.
Night-Owl123: As soon as possible.
Adenara Yatman: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.
Sakurakawaiicherry: I'm glad you like the fic and I love their interaction just as much as you, Sev makes such a good father figure when he wants to.
Rachel A. Prongs: laughs well, it could be worse, he could have chosen not to go to detention, that would have been getting in trouble.
Mrs Alfred: Thank you that was a very sweet review. I had never thought my stories were very angsty, but you might have a point anyway. I love to focus on their emotions, it's so much more interesting that way. And I agree that having Harry attacked at every turn can be tiring. About ignoring everyone else, don't worry, I don't think it will affect my fic, but it might prompt something like this I'm doing now, if you want to understand what I'm talking about go farther down, it's explained there.
Insanechildfanfic: Thanks you, I'm glad you liked it.
Lyss33: I hope you liked the detention, I had fun writing it.
Starangel2106: Thanks for the points, I'll make sure to keep them close ;)
Azntgr01: I hope I can keep making it good.
Lady FoxFire: smirks Albus should think a bit more about doing things like that before jumping them on Harry, but then again, it wouldn't make this so much fun ;)
Padawan Jan-AQ: Laughs I'm glad you liked it and I hope you liked the detention scene, Snape wasn't that hard on Harry, was he? (Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I think he's gone soft ;))
EriEka127: I hope the chapter was worth the wait, I certainly loved writing it.
Insanely procastinating: I hope you liked the detention scene, I'll update again as soon as possible.
Cindy Evans: I agree that twists are good for a fic, and don't worry, this won't be the end of the letter or rather the ones who wrote it.
Jeanne2: Not only depressed, but also angry, although I hope you understand better why I think he would become depressed after this chapter.
Serenity C: maybe you did, you see, Salazar's response when Harry went down to the chamber unannounced was a bit sharp and it made Harry feel insecure about being allowed to go there when he didn't have lessons. So when he did go there in last chapter he decided to keep quiet rather than interrupt Salazar. The ghost was a bit upset because he hadn't meant to make Alec feel that way, he had just been surprised to see him down there the first time. Hope it makes sense.
Charmedsisters: chuckles I'll try to do my best on that, the next few weeks will be rather relaxed so there shouldn't be much trouble updating.
DxInsider: Don't worry, at least Snape is going to find out soon, the others I don't know yet. We'll see how it comes out.
Enb2004: Thanks, I hope you keep liking it.
Eleanora: Well, if anyone was going to notice it would be Snape, wouldn't it? And the less-"nice" Harry thing, I don't know how much I can do that, but I'll try and give him a bit more spunk.
Aewnaur: Well, Snape is going to be pretty pissed yes, and you'll see just how much in a few chapters, he's going to be the first one to find out. I'm glad you like the fic.
Pris: laughs me? Evil? Naaaaa, well maybe a bit ;) or at least Leena tells me I am, I hope you liked the continuation.
Nemi Jade: Hope this reassured you that things will be ok... for now ;)
Midnightstar: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it, and Alec is in trouble, yes, but he has good reasons so it's not that bad.
Dana: I hope you liked it ;)
Von: You're welcome, it was my pleasure. laughs poor you, I hope this placated the suspense.
Usagi No Megami: As soon as possible.
Shadowsylvia: I'm glad you liked it, as for the updates, I could tell you the same ;) And while I agree that all the acting may be taxing, Harry is probably enjoying it too.
Sam sam: I'm glad you like it, I love it too.
Beauty78900102: I hope you liked this chapter and don't worry, the next one will be up soon.
Gaul1: Hope you enjoyed the detention scene as much as I did.
Liamslil1: laughs well, today is a good week for you since I've updated both fics, hope you enjoyed them.
Silent planet: Thanks for the review, it was very nice. I'm glad you like the way the characters act, I love it myself. And the whole young Harry thing smiles it always seems to turn out like that, I like it very much myself. I try to keep the fic as much out of standards as possible, it's what makes it fun to write. I don't think we'll be seeing much of the pair, but now that you've mentioned it, I might write a one-shot about them, it could be interesting.
Kyzara: Oh, I do understand very well, I'll comment further a bit later, go to the text written in italics.
Krylancelo: I'm glad you liked it, hope this one was good too.
Lady Nicole Malfoy-Potter: I'll try, I'm glad you liked it.
ZSlyth: First of all, don't worry, I'm not insulted and I'm glad you like the fic. I know what you mean about people reading lots of fics and forgetting what they are about, happens to me all the time, but I don't think that has anything to do with the length of the fics rather than with how often they're updated. I try to keep a regular schedule updating my fics, the problem is that I'm writing a few at the same time and that means spending time writing them all, meaning that I can't just start updating one fic more often because that would mean I wouldn't update the other ones.
Lets talk about the length of the chapters, I've come up with I way I think I could please people who want longer chapters that wouldn't influence in my way of writing. That would be simply be done by me writing the chapters just as I do now but updating them two or three at the same time. Of course, that would mean it would take me longer to update because in effect I would be writing several chapters. For those of you who want to comment on this, I'll be putting a poll in my yahoo group to see what you prefer, you can also tell me what to think through reviews.
NateP: Chukles I hope you liked the consequences of Harry's actions, about the mom and dad, I don't think it will go further than show, after all I don't want to lose the relationship Harry has with Severus, but don't worry, we'll be seeing more of Amanda and Chris soon.
Cocopops: The argument will come up in the next chapter or the other one, don't worry.
Alexandria Wood: I'm glad you liked it, and don't worry, it certainly won't take me six months to update :)
Blip-dragon: I'm glad you liked it.
Katherine: I hope you got my e-mail on that.
Coconut-ice agent h/h: you know, you've got a good point there, I'll have to see if I can put such a conversation in there somewhere.
Aljake: I'm glad you like it that much, I certainly enjoy writing it.
Mitchell: I'm glad you liked it and don't worry, the next one won't take long.
Lets see, now for the review that prompted this whole thing. I'll be citing parts of it so you know what I'm talking about when I answer.
Nikolai:
Somebody told me this was a good read. They're a bloody liar. Last time I checked, everybody was entitled to have their own opinion, if you don't like it that's fine, but don't insult people for having different opinions; that's just childish.
There is little characterization. Can you really picture Professor McGonagall saying "Okay" or Snape sounding so insecure as to say "I'm not sure I did the right thing by giving him detention." I can't even picture him saying that about Malfoy (who is his favourite student in canon). If you were looking for cannon characters you're certainly in the wrong fic and I've never pretended otherwise, but fanfiction, to my understanding, is not only about making characters do this or do that, I prefer playing with their emotions, and that results in poor cannon characterization which doesn't mean that there is little characterization, it's just different than the cannon one.
The grammar is off. Way off. I can't even begin to start on that topic or I'll be here until kingdom come. Firstly, you may take into account that I'm not English, I learned it at school (let me assure you that in Spain the learning of English is horrible) and through reading and writing fanfiction. The comment is petty; because while I know there are mistakes I'm also sure that it's not THAT bad. And if you disagree, why don't you bother correcting it? That would be much more helpful than stating it's bad, at least that way I could learn how to do it correctly, don't you think? Oh, and please, tell me if you're using British grammar or American, while I might not grasp the difference (sorry people, english is english to me, no matter where it comes from, I know there are differences but I don't think I'll ever manage to get them straight) I'm sure people would appreciate knowing.
The word teen is used in every other sentence to describe Alec who is supposed to be eleven or twelve and therefore not in his "teens" (which is thirTEEN to nineTEEN hence the word). snorts Oh, sooooo sorry about that (not), as stated before I'm not English, the term teen for me means anyone who is old enough to change from primary school to high school, that would be around twelve years old here. But truthfully, I never gave a thought about writing the word teen and won't stop just because you say so, after all I can't keep calling him boy all the time, and while I enjoy calling him child from time to time it would get tedious if I used that all the time.
And while I read the whole thing (so that I had a better understanding of the story by the time I reviewed) and therefore am capable of giving a far more in depth review (In depth? Na, you're just insulting, you didn't need to read the whole thing to say what you did which leads me to another point, why on earth did you read it if you didn't like it to start with? That's just plain stupid and I'll shut up now before I say much more) there's that niggling feeling that the author doesn't give a damn what you say in the review section because they don't seem to answer any of the questions that the reader asks with their cold "Thanks for all reviews" at the end of every chapter. Well here you go, an answer to every review send to my last chapter. Now tell me, how did you feel when you saw the square to your right becoming smaller, thinking that you finally had quite a long chapter, only to see than more than half of it are answers to reviews? And if I add to that that it took me an hour to answer them all? An hour which, in my opinion, would have been better spend as doing other things, such as writing the next chapter. So tell me, do you really want me to answer all reviews? Or should I just answer those that have questions, spoiling further chapters and discriminating against people who don't have questions and just want to give their opinion? I don't really care one way or the other, I only would like to point out that answering reviews can be very tedious, specially for the short ones that just ask to update or say they love it (don't take this the wrong way, that's perfectly fine with me), and that I don't like doing things I don't enjoy in my free time, meaning that knowing myself pretty well I would likely postpone it quite often. If you really want me to answer them... shrugs I can try.
While the whole answering to the reviews was to state a point I would really like to have your answers on the length issue and the review one, hope you keep reading the fic anyway ;)
Hugs, Star Polaris.