Chapter Two: Prologue: Summer Arguments about Ink

That summer flew by for Harry. Sev, Moony, and Hermione all turned out to be great helps in making lesson plans, etc. The hardest years were fifth and seventh because those were O.W.L and N.E.W.T years. It turned out there were books about what was on those tests!

Harry decided he was going to take after Moony's style of teaching, and once every two weeks he was going to bring in some exotic animal to show the class. Hermione maintained that if he was going to bring in animals, his students would have to write essays about them. That way, they would remember them. Her logic seemed infallible, but he hated giving his students 'unnecessary' work. If Harry had it his way, his students would never have to write a single essay, but to Hermione that was unacceptable. Even Moony seemed to agree with her, so Harry reluctantly gave in.

It was mid-June when most of the lesson plans had been finished, and Hermione insisted the she and Harry take a trip to Diagon Alley. After a quick stop at Gringotts, Hermione made her way to the quill store.

She grabbed a basket, and shoved it into Harry's hands. Bewildered, he followed her. The first thing she grabbed was two fistfuls full of quills, and dumped them into the basket. Harry raised an eyebrow to her, but she was already moving. Sighing, he grabbed half, and put them back.

Catching up to her, he said, "I put half the quills back."

Her back still to him, she said, "Nonsense," and turned around. Looking into the basket, she scowled at both it and Harry, but didn't say anything further on the subject.

Harry realized they were at the wall that was covered from floor to ceiling with bottles of ink. Hermione grabbed two in each hand, and put them in the basket. She grabbed four more. "Umm, Hermione what color is this you're getting so much of?" he asked as she grabbed four more and put those in the basket as well.

"Red," she replied absently as she grabbed four more to put in the basket. "Why?" She grabbed four more, and Harry gently caught her wrist. She finally looked at him. "What?" she asked innocently.

"I don't think I'm going to need that much red ink."

Hermione bristled. "Of course you will. Some people write absolutely horrid essays. You're going to have to correct them."

"I get that much of it. But why does it have to be red? I hated it when teachers used red," he said.

Hermione sighed. "What color would you rather use?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Green? Yellow?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Harry this is ink we're talking about here, not stop lights. Pick a color."

Harry tried not to smile. "Green," he said.

"But what if someone wants to write in green ink?" she countered.

"I'll tell all of my students at the beginning of the year to only write in blue or black ink."

"Fine," Hermione said. She began putting the red bottles back four at a time, but left four in the basket.

"What are those for?" Harry asked.

"Just in case," Hermione said, and turned around, looking, he supposed, for green.

"Just in case of…what?"

Hermione stopped and turned, facing the shelves of ink. She grabbed two in each hand like before, and while she was placing them in the basket, she sighed and simply said, "Harry." He rolled his eyes skyward, as though praying to whatever deity who happened to be watching to watch over his wretched soul.

When she was about to put 24 bottles into the basket, Harry finally spoke up. "I don't think I'll need that many bottles of green ink, either, Hermione."

She paused, her hands hovering above the basket. She finally stood up, looked at Harry, and then back at the basket. "Oh. Point taken." She put two of the bottles in the basket and the other two on the shelf, and continued on to the next group of ink. This time she only put eight in the basket. "What color was that?" Harry asked.

"Black," she said as she made her way to the parchment.

"How am I going to tell all of them apart?" Harry asked.

"I'll put a piece of parchment on each with either a R, B, or G," she said while piling parchment into the basket. When the basket could barely hold any more, she grabbed a couple of boxes of chalk and tossed those in the basket as well.

As they were waiting in line to pay, Harry got an idea. "Why don't you come in sometime during the first week, or so, and teach my first years the proper way to write an essay. That way, I won't have to use that much green ink."

Hermione turned around, her eyes wide. "That a brilliant idea, Harry!" she said throwing her arms around him. When she pulled away, she said, "I'll work it into the lesson plans right when we get home."

Harry smiled to himself. It was sure going to be an interesting school year.

OOOO

One fine summer day in the middle of July, Harry and Sev were both in the library at Snape Manor, when Sev brought up an interesting subject.

"So, Harry, where are you planning on staying during the school year?" Sev asked.

Harry paused, his quill hovering above the parchment he had been writing on. He finally looked up. "Umm, staying?" Harry asked right back.

"Living! Where are you planning on living?"

"Living?" Harry asked. He idly scratched his ear, his face scrunched up in thought. "Well, I hadn't really thought about it. What are my options?"

"You could stay in the traditional Defense teacher's quarters, which are actually located not too far from the Gryffindor tower. You can stay in your room in my quarters, or Snape Manor and just come to Hogwarts to teach."

"That's allowed? Not living at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, incredulous.

"It's frowned upon, but there's no rule specifically saying it's not allowed," Sev said.

Harry pondered his options. Living in the Defense quarters would be nice, if only for the fact that he would be so close to Ginny. But, even though he hadn't been in them when Moony had lived in them, he would still unconsciously think of them as Moony's.

So the question remained, would he rather stay at his room in Sev's quarters in Hogwarts, or his room at Snape Manor. It was then when it occurred to him that he considered his room, Sev's quarters in general, at Hogwarts more 'home' than his room at Snape Manor. Even though he'd probably spent more physical time at his room in Snape Manor, he'd always known that his room in Sev's quarters was open to him during the school year. So much had happened in Snape's quarters, both good and bad. Somewhere down the line, it had become home.

A small smile formed on his lips. "My room at Hogwarts. If that's alright?" Harry asked, suddenly unsure.

Sev frowned. "If it wasn't alright, I wouldn't have offered. We'll go there a couple days earlier than usual and get you settled."

Harry grinned. "Thanks Sev!"

"Of course," Sev said, grinning as well.

Both went back to what they had been doing.

A/N: I would like to thank my beta, HarryEstel, for everything she has done. She has several great LOTR and one HP story you guys should all read!

A/N2: For everyone who didn't read my other story, if you don't want to read all of it, which you should because it has a lot of backround info, at the very least read from chapter 68 on. That will help you understand some of whats going on in this chapter.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed (who I didn't email): Quillian

Replies to reviewers:

Miss Daae: Another PotO fan! HORRAY!