Writer: Azure K Mello
Title: A Bond Never Dies
Part: 77 of 82
Words: 230
Warnings: Angst. Non-canon.
Thanks, Angel, for listening to me bitch.
James walked calmly through the halls he had once thought of as his. They had seemed so large when he was eleven and then so damn confining when he'd been seventeen. But now he was back and he saw that the place was huge and yet so familial it ached. He wasn't sure why he was there and why he'd brought his son along with him. Minerva was expecting him but really she was just going to babysit Harry while he spoke to the Head.
Even more unfathomable then why he was here was why he'd entered through the dungeons. He couldn't've faced walking in through the gates but he knew other routes and wasn't sure why he'd chosen this one. He felt as though he had to see something down there. And as a familiar sallow face came around the corner James damned himself. Intuition was not something he should have trusted.
"Well, well, well. James Potter. I thought you were dead."
"I thought you were a Death Eater and the old coot would have more sense than to have hired you."
"Apparently not." He studied Harry who looked at him with wide fearful eyes.
The boy didn't know what to make of the man. He was cold and was mean to his dad but he unconsciously read the man's aura and felt safe with him.
Staring into a face with green eyes and an upturned nose Snape felt himself falter. He saw the scars that were dotted all over the boy; they would fade before his first year. He saw the fear and the desperate courage that was trying to hide the fear in the sinister, chilly dungeon. He saw the boy bite his lip and think and saw him make a decision. Harry smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Harry."