"I blew up the potions classroom with Professor Snape still inside…"
Expected Silence…
Now for the remaining time for the information to sink in…
Three… Two…One… Ze-
Tom Riddle spilled his tea across the table. "WHAT?"
Harry sighed. "I blew up-"
"I heard that part!" Tom said as he reached for a napkin to clean up the mess he had made.
"Oh…" Harry shrugged.
Tom raised an eyebrow waiting for him to continue. This seemed to make Harry nervous. The boy got up from his seat and walked to the window. Tom knew that whenever Harry distanced himself from his conversation partner it was for two reasons. Either he was not really able to face Tom right now and look him in the eyes while he explained what had happened or the boy was hiding something. Whichever it was, Tom knew he was not going to like it either way.
So the best thing would be to press it out of him as any good Slytherin would.
"Why?" He asked in a low and demanding voice.
Harry shuddered unwillingly; he hated it when Tom did that. The voice of a teacher that would not even consider lowering itself to the same level as his students. The voice of authority that was never at a loss for words while Harry had always been the opposite. The voice of Snape!
He clenched his hands to fists so hard that his fingers turned white. Tom registered all that, and damn him, for knowing. How Harry hated it to be read as if he were an open book. Nevertheless, Tom was the only one he could talk to about this, Draco would probably strangle him outright and his friends… Never mind his friends, they had no idea what mess he was in right now…
Dear Lord when had he started to use Tom as an advisor? When had he forgotten to see past the youthful and amiable face, the darkness of Voldemort? To start treating him as a friend? To let him become part of his... family? How the hell had he gotten caught up in this war game? Trapped no matter where he turned? When had his life become more complicated than he dared it to be? When? … When indeed?
"Why?!" Tom brought him back to the actual problem with the same voice. "Or better yet, how did it happen?"
Harry took a deep breath. "I had detention again…"
"That's no surprise, but no reason to blow up a TEACHER!!"
He looked at Tom. Was the boy getting a little hysterically? Wasn't that supposed to be Harry's reaction? "Well… I…" He struggled to find the words. Damn it Potter! This is the easy part, if you're already chickening out what will happen when you get to the part after the explosion? Try to get Tom to do another Avada on you and see if it works this time? "I have no idea why this is so hard…" He passed a hand trough his hair and walked back to his seat. He leaned back and started to talk…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry tried to control the rising heat of anger in his stomach. Hell, Snape knew it hadn't been his fault!! But no, who to blame if not Harry Potter? Why not pile every stupid thing that went wrong in the world on Harry's shoulders? Snape treated him as though living was the biggest mistake he had ever committed!!
"Potter, 30 points from Gryffindor!" He muttered, mimicking the older man annoyed. "Oh, Potter why are you so terribly dense not to understand something so easy as an Invisibility Potion?" He snorted cleaning the cauldron furiously. "Detention Potter!" He whipped the sweat from his face with the back of his hand. "Potter, can't you do anything right?" He let a small sarcastically laugh escape his lips. "And stupid me for even giving in!"
"What are you whining about, Potter?" Snape's voice came from behind him.
Calm down boy, he's your teacher; you don't want to lose anymore house points. "Nothing, Professor Snape." Even Harry could feel the lie trickling down from every word.
"If you have a problem, spill it out!" Said the low and demanding voice.
That was it! Harry threw the sponge into the cauldron and turned around angrily. "What could be my problem?!" He snapped back. "You know it wasn't my fault that Goyle's potion went up in his face! I know you know it!" He pointed with his finger at his teacher. "But you had to blame me, just because I was standing near by. You always blame me!" He stepped closer. "Why don't you simply make it easy on all of us and go ahead and rip my head off for even surviving Voldemort!!" Suddenly he realized whom he was screaming at. He cursed, frustrated and turned back to his work. "I'm sorry Professor, I got a little carried away there…"
"…Indeed…"
There was a moment of silence that just killed Harry. Why didn't Snape say anything back? He wanted to be screamed at to have a good reason to release all that boiling anger inside of him. But who to count on when one needed it if not Snape? And Harry knew he was not going to be disappointed on this one…
"Potter, you seem to have a problem controlling your anger and frustration." Snape said. "It might be right that I overreacted a little back there."
Harry stopped his current movement. Had Snape just agreed to being wrong?
"But that gives you no right to talk to me in the way you did just now. " Trickling poison in every word. "Therefore you will get another hour of detention and another 10 points from your house." A hand rested on his cauldron next to his. "And this time I will have you do the potion correctly!"
Harry growled annoyed. He knew nothing good could come out of Snape when it came to him.
"Yes, sir." He replied rolling his eyes in angry frustration. He let another annoyed growl escape him; maybe he was spending too much time with Sirius…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tom suppressed a smile, but failed miserably.
"I knew you would find that funny!" Harry snapped.
Tom raised a hand. "Calm down, what did you expect? You have an outburst like that and you don't want him to punish you?"
"Hmpf…"
He sighed. "But that doesn't explain the explosion…"
"No, but it's part of what caused it!"
Tom nodded for Harry to continue, he had a felling he should enjoy this while it lasted. Something in the back of his mind was whistling annoyingly that the end of Harry's story would complicate some of their plans…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Silver… 1.5 gram… " Harry mixed it into the cauldron checking carefully on the time he had to keep it on the fire. Then as he saw the color of the potion change he lowered the cauldron from it's place on the fire and started to stir it clockwise.
"Potter, you're stirring the wrong way!" Said Snape who was watching everything from behind him.
Harry made a face and changed the direction. Then he reached for the eagle feathers and the Magnesium and poured it in.
"WAIT!" Snape's warning came to late, the potion made a small 'thud' noise and purple smoke rose around them. Snape let out a frustrated cry. "I told you to add them after five minutes not five seconds!!"
"No you didn't, you said to mix it when I took it from the fire!" Harry countered as he turned around and stepping away from the smoke.
"Didn't you read the chapter of the book as I told you?!"
"… No…" There was a frown. "But you as teacher should have told me I was wrong earlier!!" He looked angrily at Snape. "Are you blind or what? Didn't you see me reach for it?!"
"I did! But I didn't believe you were just as incompetent as Longbottom!!"
"Well, now you know it!!" He screamed back. "I hope you're happy! Why don't you go ahead and take house points!" He pointed a finger at Snape accusingly. "You seem to enjoy it!"
While they continued arguing and screaming the potion continued spilling over the cauldron's edge to the ground, slowly making it's way across the room. Expanding with every second. Making amusing 'thudy' noises, which were ignored by the only two people in the room, since they were much busier screaming and being at each other's throats to pay any attention. So it continued its way, getting in contact with the fire, boiling up a little, and now making happy 'bloby' noises. It started to give itself some funny yellow-green color and to fume some more of the purple smoke. Amusing itself with the fact that it had managed to fill the floor with it's slimy presence and rejoicing in the air throughout the room it decided it was probably time to make the two noisy ones listen to it.
"…YOU THINK THAT B-" Snape stopped in mid-sentence and sniffed the air.
Even Harry stopped; the air was thick and … purple? …
"Damn it!!!" Snape took his wand out. "It's going to explode!"
"What?!" Harry starred at his teacher.
Snape cast a shield around the room, one that would hinder anything to be damaged outside these four walls and hinder anyone from coming in. Harry added a silencing spell, no need to let the whole school know about this. Snape grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him away but slipped on the slimy ground. Harry barely managed not to crash against a table but landed on his teacher instead.
The potion decided it was time and … BUMM… it was happy…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tom couldn't stop laughing. Harry glance at him annoyed.
"I'm telling you about the tragedy of my life and you're laughing?"
"Sorry." He hid a giggle behind his hands. "Continue."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry opened his eyes slowly, there was too much light. He closed them again. It was probably late anyway so he could sleep a little longer. He curled up to the warmth beside him… It felt nice…comforting…home… He snuggled closer and he felt something wrap around his waist pulling him closer. Harry decided he liked that. So why bother checking what it was?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Wait!" Tom interrupted Harry raising a hand. "Nice? … Comforting? … Home??" He narrowed his eyes.
Harry glared at him. "I find it hard enough already to confess this and you interrupt me?"
Tom glared back, his mind working at high speed. Invisibility Potions, some ingredients were used in the same amount for some other ones… The ingredients… His mind catalogued them into different areas and effects they had, trying to figure out by Harry's description so far which one it was. He was no Potion Master like Snape, but he was good enough to know that those ingredients Harry had used in specifically that order could cause…
He blinked… Impossible…No way… There was no way that could have happened… But what if…
"Tom?"
He starred at Harry. "Please, tell me you didn't wake up naked in his arms."
The blood shot into Harry's face.
Tom closed his eyes leaning his face into his hands. "…And you hurt?"
Harry gagged some reply. It was enough for Tom to know. He leaned back in his seat, his ruby eyes showing a great deal of concern for his friend.
"Let me get this straight, okay?" He waited for Harry to nod. "You scream at your Potion Master, you lose 40 house points, you get detention by him twice and you blow him up with his classroom? So far correct?"
Harry nodded slowly.
"Then the next thing you know you wake up naked in said person's arms, who probably was naked too, and you were hurting when you tried to walk?"
Harry looked away, his face red like a tomato.
Tom bit down on his lower lip trying to calm his breathing… breath in… breath out… his breathing came a little shorter now…this was not helping!
"YOU SLEPT WITH SNAPE??!"