Thank you to the beta of this chapter- Born-of-Elven-Blood
Chapter Twenty Two - Listen to Me
"It's about time!" Severus grumbled, still rubbing his jaw as Minerva came through the floo.
"Severus, you called ten minutes ago," Minerva explained, exasperated. "I had to get someone to take over my class."
Severus ignored her. "I expect you've seen the papers?"
"Yes I did," she sighed sadly. "The poor dear."
"Don't do that!" Severus snapped. "The last thing the boy needs is your pity."
Minerva shot him a withering look. "Well, what does he need? I assume he's why you called for me?"
"I need you to watch him until I get back. Don't," he emphasized with a hard look of his own," take your eyes off him. He… threatened to take his own life."
"He what!" Minerva gasped, her Scottish brogue thickening with shock. "He said that? Merlin's bloody beard… are you… quite sure he meant it? No doubt he's upset… but after everything he's survived so far, I never would have thought..."
"Honestly… I don't know. But I don't want to take the chance of leaving him alone."
They turned to stare worriedly at the boy in question, still asleep on the couch with a deep frown still on his face despite the potion. With a sigh, Severus stepped to his side.
"Harry?" he said softly as he gently shook him awake, ignoring Minerva's penetrating gaze. The boy groaned unhappily and his eyes cracked open. "I have to step out for a while, but Professor McGonagall has come to visit with you while I'm gone."
"Take the memories away" Harry murmured, still waking up from the potion's effects. His head felt fuzzy, his senses distant, as though someone had shoved cotton into his ears while he was sleeping.
"I've already told you why I can't do that. The damage that could be done..."
"I don't care," Harry interrupted. "I don't want to remember, I don't care about the aftermath."
Severus let out a long breath. "Even if I was willing to take the risk, it won't change what is in the papers."
"Then use the time turner… make it so it never happened," Harry said. The false peace of the potion was slowly evaporating, and he couldn't bear the thought of returning to the claustrophobic crush of his new reality. All he wanted was for these memories to be gone, no matter what it took.
But Snape was already shaking his head. "It's too far back."
"Then go back to when you broke down the wall in my mind and make it so you never uncovered the memory," Harry said, his eyes wet with unshed tears.
"I can't -"
"You mean you won't!" Harry snapped before turning away to bury his face in the couch cushions. "Just leave me alone," came his muffled mutter.
Severus frowned but allowed Harry to have his space. Backing away, he turned towards the floo, but was stopped short by Minerva's hand on his arm.
"And where are you off to?"
Severus considered lying, but found he didn't want to. "To . To see who opened their big mouth."
A stern, measuring look passed over her features, pressing her mouth into a thin line, and for an instant he thought the deputy headmistress would forbid him. But after a moment, her hand dropped away from his sleeve.
"Give'em one from me."
Severus said nothing, only gave her one last look before stepping through the floo.
…
Minerva stood there for a moment, hesitant, before sitting down on the edge of the coffee table. She refrained from reaching out and touching the boy, not wanting to spook him. She couldn't imagine how hard this was on him, or his friends. After the events of last year… well, she'd hoped that this year would be better.
"Harry," she said gently.
"Don't call me that!" Harry snapped. "We aren't friends! You're just my professor."
Minerva narrowed her eyes at the boy's back. "Now you listen here, Harry Potter!" she snapped in her best professor voice.
.
Harry turned his head to look at her for the first time since she had entered the chamber, eyes wide with surprise. She reckoned nobody had spoken to him so sternly since this whole sad business began.
"I know you are hurting, but that doesn't give you the right to speak to me like that. You may not want to believe it but I care for you very much… everyone does."
Harry let out a long breath before turning back to face the couch. "Not enough to stop it."
"If I had known what was going on, I would have done more than stopped it!" she replied fiercely, the accusation cutting deep. "If any of the professors had any inkling, there wouldn't have been enough left of him to feed to the dementors!"
Minerva meant it too. This wasn't merely a matter of moral outrage. It was personal. The bastard had done something so utterly reprehensible to one of her students right under her nose. It shouldn't have been possible. Prospective professors were interviewed and magically screened before they were considered for employment at Hogwarts. It baffled her that someone like Lockhart could have slipped through the cracks. But more than that… Minerva felt she somehow should have known.
"It... should have never had happened..."
"...I just want to be left alone," Harry whispered after a long beat of silence.
"You know I can't do that." Minerva sighed and rose, brandishing her wand in a wordless summoning charm. "I'll be at the table marking papers. If you need anything all you have to do is ask." A flurry of student essays came jostling under the door to the chamber, fluttering into a neat stack on the table as she made her way into the kitchen.
Harry laid on the couch listening to the scribble of her quill, finding the sound soothing as he drifted back to sleep.
