A/N: Reviews are always welcome. If you have any suggestions on how to make this story better I would love to hear them, or if you would just like to let me know what you think of the story as this is the first i've written. Sorry if the grammer isn't very good but I haven't got a beta. Cheers ;)
Dark Arts
Harry made his way to the dungeons feeling a little bit nervous. 'He's going to kill me. I know it, he's going to kill me' Harry thought to himself. 'The way he looked at me at breakfast, was the same way he used to look at me in potions class, just before he shouted at me in front of the whole class. Why did I agree to this?'
Just then he realized he was standing outside Snape's rooms. 'Maybe I could fake being ill?' Harry thought 'No best not, knowing my luck he'd give poppy a potion for me saying it'll cure me and it would be a death potion. Might as well get on with it before he whines that I'm late too'.
Harry raised his hand and knocked on Snape's dungeon door. "Enter" Snape called from inside. Harry walked in and was surprised not to see anger etched on Snape's face.
'He looks calm and not like he is about to murder me at all, I wonder could Hermione possibly be right about him?'
"Ah Mister Potter, glad to see you made it here on time. One of the things you'll need to master is punctuality if you are to become a professor. After all with the pupils in this school, the last thing you want to do is let the class you are meant to be teaching run amuck because you didn't turn up to teach your class on time."
'Wow he even said that in a calm voice, what's he up to?' Harry couldn't help but think Snape was up to something.
"Come through my office to the lounge, its warmer and more comfortable in there for us." Snape gestured with his hand as he showed Harry the way. Harry followed the older wizard into the lounge.
"So where are we going to begin today then sir?"
"My Mister Potter, you are keen to learn today. Have you been taking some potions you shouldn't have?" Snape sneered.
"Come and sit down, would you like a drink before we begin? I know I could do with another coffee this morning before doing anything else." Snape hasn't been sleeping well lately, he's been going to bed late, after marking papers and making potions with Hermione's help, and getting up early after having nightmares about the war.
"Could I have a coffee please sir? I could do with being a bit more alert. With you as my personal tutor again I want to be able to do my best, so I get punished less often." Harry replied with a smile.
Snape laughed, the first time Harry had ever heard the old git laugh, and said "Was I really that bad while I was teaching and training you for the war?"
Harry wasn't too sure if he should say, but knew Snape preferred honesty. "Well you were a bit hard on me, but I did need that from you to get me ready to defeat the Dark Lord. I just wish you didn't talk to me like I was a child."
Snape called the house elf, Dobby, asked him for some coffee and seconds later Dobby re-appeared with the coffee, then pop he was gone again.
Harry picked up his coffee off the table, where Dobby had put it, and started to drink it, waiting for Snape to say something.
The potions master looked at Harry for a moment and said "Well I can't really treat you like a child anymore can I? As Dumbledore couldn't help but point out, you will soon be a member of staff here just like me. I don't have to worry about treating you different from the other students now either, as I am no longer classed as your teacher since you have finished your exams. I am merely helping you to become the best DADA teacher we have ever had here at Hogwarts. But don't think you'll be getting any special treatment." He added in a cold voice.
Harry was a little shocked at how well Snape had taken his comments.
"Besides I think really you will be classed as a member of staff when you move into your new quarters this weekend, will you not?"
Harry hadn't even thought about the fact he'd be moving all his stuff soon. "I don't even know where my rooms will be. That was one small detail Dumbledore had forgotten to tell me."
"Well that's typical of the old coot to forget to tell you where you will be staying. I will show you to your new quarters tonight when we've finished here. I don't see any reason why you can't move into your new quarters tonight either, if you wanted to take your things there? It hasn't been occupied for the last month anyway."
Harry smiled a genuine smile at Snape and replied "Sure, as long as you really don't mind? Might be easier to get the move out of the way, so I can concentrate properly on all that you've got to teach me on DADA."
"Now that that's settled, and we have finished our coffee, what do you think about learning what I can teach you?"
"Spose we had better get on with it, hadn't we" Harry said.
"Come along then, stand up" Snape snapped at Harry.
"Um…. Sir, you aren't gonna try to hurt me by throwing curses at me for me to try to rebound are you?" Harry asked feeling a bit worried at what Snape could throw at him.
"Harry, you can call me Severus as we are now equals, and I wasn't planning on hurting you, no. It's more than my life is worth if I so much as hurt one hair on your head. Dumbledore would probably feed me to the wolves!
How about I let you read your way through some of the dark books I have? You would have to be very careful while reading them, but they have everything in them that you could possibly need to know. And at least the Dark Lord has been killed so you shouldn't need to know the more serious stuff, it's just to teach the students.
"But we will do some form of dueling at some point wont we? So I can teach the students better."
"If you are sure you want to go up against the master" Severus said with an evil grin.
"Hey I'm the boy who lived remember, if I could kill the Dark Lord, I'm sure I'll have no problems kicking your arse" Harry replied to Severus' comment with a huge smile across his face.
"Hmmmm is that a challenge then Potter?" Severus asked cocking an eyebrow.
"Sure it is, it'll be fun dueling with you, and beating you" Harry said with confidence "I'll give you a fighting chance though 'cause I'm not a nasty git like some." Then Harry asked "I know I hated the occulemency lessons when you were training me, but 'cause of the class I really think it would be a good idea to teach me properly, considering I never did get any good at it, would you please?"
Severus smirked and answered "You would have picked it up a lot easier and mastered it by now if you actually tried, but as it is you are asking to learn this time, then I know you'll at least put in the effort. I suppose when, or should that be if, you master occulemency you will want to learn to cast legilimens?"
"Well it would be a good idea Severus, unless you want to turn up in my class when I want to teach occulemency lessons because I wouldn't know how to cast legilimens?"
"No thank you, I have enough work to do, so I think we'll add that to our little to do list shall we?" Harry nodded his agreement and looked at Severus.
"So what we gonna do now then Severus, in way of training?"
"Well I can show you where those books I told you about are, and you can read them while I do some potions during the next couple of weeks. Of course if you have any questions feel free to ask me, and don't read the books out loud, I don't want you hurting my rooms or me for that matter!" He said with his death sneer."
"I'm not that dumb, Sir" Harry said with a glare to match Snape's.
"I hear off Hermione you have quite a large collection of books on all sorts of things, would I be able to have a look some time? I am a bit of a fan of books."
"Never would I have thought that Mister Harry Potter likes to read books. You never really seem enthusiastic about anything. But feel free to look at them any time you like, it might keep you out of trouble, they are in my library, you'll need to know the password for the vault with the dark books in, just make sure no one else gets the password ok?" Harry nodded and Severus continued "Follow me and I'll show you to my personal library."
They walked to the far end of the lounge, through the door, and along a smallish corridor, where they past four doors, two on the right and two on the left. They carried on walking right to the end of the corridor where there was another door straight ahead of them. "This is my personal library where you will be able to look through books at your leisure as well as sit comfortably while reading the dark arts books."
They walked through the door and Harry's mouth dropped open. "What's the matter Potter?" The room was massive with books on every wall except for a gap on the far wall where there was a portrait hanging.
"You must have more books in here than what's in the school library!" Harry exclaimed, never believing any one person could own so many books.
"Well reading is a hobby of mine, and many of these books are very rare indeed" Severus told Harry.
Harry noticed that there were quite a few muggle books in Severus' collection too, ranging from books on herbs to romance novels. 'Severus reads romance novels? I can't believe it' Harry thought.
Harry noticed Severus was standing in front of the portrait. "Mister Potter, this is where all my dark books are kept. Now I'm going to open the vault and all you have to do is remember the password, got it?" Harry nodded and Severus proceeded "cursed to hell." Then the portrait swung open showing all the books inside.
'What a lovely password' Harry thought to himself while smirking 'it'll be hard to forget that password.' And Harry snickered quietly. But not quietly enough so that Severus couldn't hear him with his perfect hearing.
"Like the password I take it" Severus said with a smirk. Harry nodded saying "The amount of times I've said that phrase when something has gone wrong."
"I know Harry, it was you I got the little phrase from in one of my potions classes, and I thought it would be the perfect password for the vault containing the dark books."
Harry couldn't believe it. "Right well there's the books, read up on the curses and counter curses and as I don't have any potions to do today and no classes, I'll keep an eye on you." Severus said with his usual sneer he kept especially for Harry.
Harry picked up one of the books, sat down on one of the comfortable couches and started reading. Snape picked up a muggle novel and joined Harry on the couch at the opposite side. They carried on reading till it was time for lunch, then walked to the great hall together, Severus with his usual mask, that no one could read, plastering his face, and the sneer that was always there to make people feel uncomfortable.
Harry talked to Hermione and Ron about what he was going to be doing in his lessons and admitted that Severus wasn't that bad now he considered him as a fellow professor "At least he aint calling me names anymore.
Hermione looked hopeful before it was dampened out by Harry. "No 'mione I still haven't changed my mind about 'going for it' as you put it. We aren't even friends, ok so we are on first name terms, well I call him Severus, he seems to prefer to call me Mister Potter or Potter, but that's just to make me feel a bit more comfortable around him while learning, I'm sure."
They carried on talking while eating 'til dinner was over, then headed off to where they had to go, Harry following Severus back to the dungeons.
They carried on the rest of the day exactly the same, Harry reading his dark arts books and Severus reading the muggle novel, stopping for tea.
At 7pm Severus said "Right then Potter, lets get your belongings and move you to your new quarters so I can get rid of you for the night." They walked to the boys Gryffindor dorms and Harry gathered his things, shrinking them so they could fit in his pocket and they both walked to Harry's quarters which also happened to be in the dungeons.
"My quarters are in the dungeons? So there's no getting away from you even at night huh?" Harry was a bit put out by this.
"Well the other DADA professors that we've had here in the past all happened to be in Slytherin. And you aren't exactly in the next room to me are you, you're down nearer the end of the dungeon corridor, so you won't be smothered by my presence." Severus said with some amusement in his tone, liking the thought that this pissed Harry off a bit.
They entered Harry's new quarters and Severus said "You can chose your own password and wards as you see fit for your quarters; none have been set up yet." Harry nodded and took his belongings out of his pocket and cast them back to their original size.
"Well I'll leave you to it for tonight; see you in the morning, and don't be late!."
"Night Severus." And with that Severus left Harry's quarters in a whoosh of robes.
'Wow what a day, better put my things away' Harry thought. He looked around his new rooms as he put his things away, not believing how big the rooms were.
He made his way to his bed chamber, climbed into bed and thought about his day.
'Merlin I'm tired.' And with that Harry fell asleep.
TBC