A/N: So here's a new chapter!

As usual, let me know what you think :D

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Severus was up at the crack of dawn, which wasn't unusual but during the breaks away from school, he found that he usually allowed himself a few extra hours of sleep. But now Harry Potter was sharing his living quarters and he was responsible for training the boy so he supposed nothing was actually normal currently.

There was also the potion that he was going to brew today. While he was certain that he would be able to brew it to perfection, he knew that this was his first attempt, with it being an experimental potion, and he was sure there would be a few bumps along the way.

Thankfully though, Harry seemed to be an early riser this morning as well, so breakfast was already waiting for him when he entered the living area.

Harry, to Severus' great relief, didn't try to make any more conversation beyond the good morning greetings and Severus was immensely grateful.

Although, it seemed that having his attention elsewhere, severely reduced his appetite and he stood up before Harry had even got halfway through his breakfast, "I apologize, Harry, but I need to leave you to your own devices today as I will be working on the potion that I am hoping will be able to enhance your senses."

"Oh, I thought that you'd need to do a whole lot of research about it first…"

Severus couldn't help his chuckle, "Yes, but I have been experimenting with potions for longer than you have been alive, Harry. Besides, once you understand the properties of the various ingredients, you are able to have some idea of how they would react when paired together; that in itself makes potion making much simpler."

Harrys' eyebrows drew together, "I hope that one day I'll be as good at potions as you are…"

Severus inclined his head, "You would be interested in potion making? We'll see if you still feel the same once you learn about Defence Against The Dark Arts."

Harry looked like he was about to ask more questions but Severus spoke again, "I really do need to get started now. You are welcome to wonder the castle only and only if Tinky is by your side at all times."

Harry grinned, "Thank you."

Xxx

Severus threw himself headlong into the brewing process.

It had actually been so long since he had to experimentally develop a potion that he'd forgotten how immersed you get in it.

And the fact that this potion was being particularly troublesome was not helping him.

He had to restart the process two more times after the first and second attempt erupted in fumes while he barely managed to contain it enough to not splatter all over himself and the lab.

Clearly, having a number of highly volatile ingredients mixed together to form a single potion wasn't as easy as combining five different potions together. Not that he had thought so, but after his planning the previous night he'd hoped that the process would have run much smoother.

But once he got going on this attempt and hadn't had any looming disaster, all other thoughts went out the window. It was like nothing existed beyond him creating this potion in his lab.

The knock at the door startled him enough that he almost knocked a vial off the worktop.

"I asked to not be disturbed," his frustration was evident as she shouted at the closed door.

"I'm sorry," Harrys' voice came from the other side, "But you didn't come out for lunch and it's nearing dinner time. I brought you something to eat."

Suddenly, the potion started to bubble more than it should have been, to the point that it threatened to boil over.

Severus lowered the flame but he only had about a minute to act before the entire potion became useless. He needed to counteract the volatility of the ingredient he added previously and so he rifled through the various jars in front of him.

He'd completely forgotten about Harry at his door until there was a much softer knock, "Professor, can I come in?"

"Potter, I need you to leave me alone! I am a few ingredients away from perfecting this potion and I cannot be bothered about dinner at the moment."

Severus upended an entire jar of ingredients into the mortar, crushing them more haphazardly than he ever would on a normal day before adding it to the potion- which thankfully settled immediately.

He took a moment to breathe deeply, and listen for any noises outside the door when he remembered that Harry hadn't responded to him.

There was silence and Severus took that for compliance as he continued with the potion.

Xxx

His estimate of how long more was left to complete the potion turned out to be vastly inaccurate as he found himself standing there for several more hours, adding ingredients to counteract adverse reactions until he finally added the last ingredient, turned off the flames and waved his wand over it.

He spent the time while he waited for it to cool by putting his unused ingredients away and cleaning up. Finally he decanted the potion into different vials and stored them safely, ready to be taken by Harry tomorrow.

He allowed himself a sigh of relief. That had taken longer and a lot more effort than he had planned for, but now that he was done the exhaustion slowly started to seep in.

He made sure that all of his notes were safely filed away before opening the lab door and exiting.

Severus was stopped in his tracks when he saw Harry sitting against the wall beside his lab entrance, fast asleep with a tray of untouched food next to him.

Severus' heart sank in that moment. He knew that he had been more than a little rude to the boy who just wanted to show he cared. He hadn't thought about his actions in that moment when he had dismissed the boy but it all came crashing back when he realised that not only had Harry kept food aside for Severus but in his concern, he'd decided to wait for the man and had fallen asleep on the hard, cold floor in the process.

He knew that he could just as easily wake the boy and ask him to go to bed but he was compelled to lift Harry into his arms and carry him to his bed instead.

The boy snuffled a little in his sleep and burrowed into the warmth of Severus' robes but he didn't wake- giving Severus a chance to lay him in bed and tuck him in.

He took one last look at the boy before he exited the room and then remembered the food outside his lab.

He cast a quick warming spell and sat down to eat, wondering at the same time how he was going to make it up to the boy.

Xxx

When Harrys' sleep broke, he was sure that nothing else but the delicious smell wafting in from the living area was responsible for it.

He felt a bit groggy and certainly couldn't remember when he'd crawled into bed last night but he slowly slid out of bed and counted the few steps to his bedroom door before pulling it open.

"Good morning, Harry," came the Professors' voice.

There was something forced about the tone, a strain in the usually smooth baritone.

"Morning, Professor. Did you already get breakfast? It smells great," said Harry as he followed the direction where he'd heard the Professors' voice coming from.

He reached out a hand and came into contact with one of the chairs at the small table they usually ate at.

He'd just sat down when he heard the other man clear his throat, "Harry, I wanted to apologize for the way I spoke to you yesterday. I was under strain but that isn't an excuse, especially since you were just checking up on me."

There was the sound of something being set down in front of him and then cutlery was placed in his hands, "So you're feeding me to make up for not wanting me to feed you?"

"Harry-"

"Professor," interrupted Harry, "It's okay, really… I get that you didn't want to be mean to me."

There was a pause in which Harry thought that the Professor was going to bring up how he'd gotten to his bed last night but then all he heard was a sigh and then the clink of a fork against a plate.

They ate in comfortable silence until Professor Snape spoke, "What did you spend yesterday doing?"

Harry could feel the smile forming on his face as he thought about the previous day, "Well I called Tinky not long after you'd gone to your lab and she took me exploring around the castle."

"Exploring…" repeated Professor Snape, sounding suspicious.

Harrys' smile grew further, "Yeah, she showed me where the other common rooms were but she didn't let me go inside… and then we went outside to the Black Lake where Tinky says there's a giant squid. And then I went to the quidditch pitch but that wasn't as exciting because I couldn't actually fly but then Hagrid joined us and took us to his hut where he has this huge dog called Fang and I actually thought I was going to break my teeth on those rock cakes."

Xxx

Severus listened intently to Harry recounting the activities of his day and he couldn't help but smile at how happy the boy sounded. Yes, there were times when he'd frown or sound wistful- like when he spoke about flying, but his child-like excitement made Severus want to do things to make Harry feel like this more often, Merlin knew the boy deserved that.

"I'm glad you managed to have an eventful day, Harry."

"Yeah, it was great!"

Severus thought for a moment, "You enjoy Hagrids' company, don't you?"

"He's brilliant," replied Harry with as much enthusiasm as when he was talking about his day.

"Well I believe that the headmaster is soon going to ask him to accompany you to go purchase your school supplies," explained Severus, "I need to make sure that you feel safe around him."

"I do." It was said without any hesitation, "He was the one who brought me here from Privet Drive, the first person that I'd felt safe around in a long time… and then I'd met you afterwards, and everyone else here of course."

Severus nodded even though Harry couldn't see it, but then the boy asked, "Why aren't you taking me?"

"I cannot make the trip unfortunately however," Severus stood up and took out a vial from one of his pockets, "I have the potion that I was working on for you to try out."

"Right now?"

"No time like the present, especially if I am going to need to make any changes to it. I would prefer for it to be perfectly functional before your supplies trip with Hagrid."

Harry nodded and stood before walking towards Severus' general direction, "Okay, I'm ready."

Severus unstopped the vial and handed it to Harry, "Drink up."

Harry downed the contents and handed the empty vial back, "How long does it take to work?"

"It shouldn't take more than a few seconds," replied Severus and almost as if on cue, Harrys' eyebrows shot up and he said "Woah!"

Severus studied him intently, "What is it?"

Harry flexed his fingers and slowly turned his head from side to side, "It's all so- so much…"

"Tell me what you're feeling Harry. Tell me what is happening."

Harry stopped his fidgeting and looked at Severus so intently that for a few seconds it seemed like he could actually see the older man.

"I can hear more clearly, like any disturbances are non-existent… I can hear your heartbeat," Harry reached out and placed his palm directly over Severus' heart, "Here…" he paused for a while then bunched up Severus' robes in his fist before letting go again, "That feels weird."

"Your sense of touch?" guesses Severus.

"Yeah, I feel kind of prickly… like I can feel everything…"

Severus nods, "And the others? Smell?"

Harry took a deep breath, "Well it's strong… like I can almost taste whatever I'm smelling… but right now, all that's filling my nose is- I think it's cedar wood."

"I need you to taste something," said Severus, "Here is one of those chocolate biscuits you like so much."

Harry took a bite of the biscuit and Severus watched him barely conceal a cringe.

"What does that taste like?"

"It's not exactly horrible but it's like I can taste every single ingredient if I really concentrate but not even that strongly… it's just like I can taste the biscuit down to-"

"Down to the very last molecule," filled in Severus, "That is inconvenient."

"It's very strange," agreed Harry.

"I am going to have to make a few modifications to the potion. Come with me to the lab, I'm going to need to record exactly what changes need to be made."

Severus placed a hand on Harrys' shoulder to guide him towards the lab and checked his response to see if there was any adverse reaction to his touch in his heightened state. There was none, so he led them to his lab and got Harry to sit on a stool as he grabbed his notes from the previous night.

Harry stood up and started walking towards the supply cupboard, "Where are you going?" asked Severus.

"I'm just…" he walked a few more steps and stopped a few inches in front of the cupboard. Without reaching out to feel what was in front of him, he said, "There's something here, I can feel an obstruction in my path and I can tell that it's tall. It's like because my senses are enhanced, I can feel if there's anything in my way or just get a general idea of how much space it's occupying so I get a feel of how big it is…"

He turned and walked towards the workbench and without touching said, "I can feel that this doesn't obstruct my senses all the way up high…" he reached a hand out to the table top, "It's a table…"

Severus is still watching him when he rounds the table with minimal guidance of touching it to navigate and stops beside where the older man is standing.

"And I can tell that this is where you're standing, mostly because besides me, you're the only other person in here that I can hear breathing and whose heart I can hear beating... plus there's that cedar wood smell again that I'm assuming is you."

Even though there was still work to be done on the potion, Severus couldn't help the surge of pride he felt seeing the potion do what it was designed to.

"Harry, you are doing so well however I am going to need to make those changes, especially if you want to still be able to taste your food when you eat."

Harry nodded immediately, "Yes please!"

Severus chuckled, "I can reduce most of the ingredients used for your sense of taste but I would still need to keep a small amount of the ingredients as a base to help balance the potion out," he scribbled a few notes as he spoke, "I can reduce the sense of touch by a small fraction so as to make sure that you do not feel extra sensitive as an effect and I can do the same with the ingredients for your sense of smell otherwise pungent smells will be even worse for you."

Severus saw Harry making a face at that but the boy didn't comment so Severus asked, "That leaves us with your hearing. How do you feel about its enhanced state?"

Harry thought for a moment, "It's intense but nothing I can't handle. I'd like to keep it at this level if that's okay?"

"Harry, at the moment it is just us two and you can hear my breathing and heartbeat, can you imagine how overwhelming it will be in a room with more people. Not to mention a full castle of people."

"This is something I can control though, or learn to at least… it'll just take some concentration. Please, my hearing is very important to me. I've learned how to use it to make up for my sight and now that it's at this level, I almost feel like I can see again."

Severus sighed, "Harry, you don't have to beg but you need to inform me the moment that you feel too overwhelmed. I can always make changes to the potion."

"Okay," agreed Harry.

"Perfect, I can get started now," said Severus.

Harry started to move away but Severus thought about the previous night and how he'd gotten so absorbed in his work, "Harry, if you would like to stay, you may. You cannot physically do anything to assist at this point but you can still learn while I am working."

He expected the boy to refuse and back out of spending time in the lab but instead Harry surprised him by smiling and perching on a stool, "That would be great, thanks Professor."

TBC

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