Chapter Nineteen
August 7th, 1990
Today's the day that the Dursley's come home, isn't it? Slyther said on the seventh of August, the day the Dursley's were returning. The day Harry was leaving.
"Yeah," Harry said glumly, not looking at all excited that his relatives were returning. He folded his arms across his chest and lay back against the leather couch in Snape's chambers, almost exactly matching the ones in his office. "I don't want to leave, though. I like it here."
With the greasy human? Slyther said, sounding shocked.
"We've been getting along pretty good," Harry said. "We haven't been fighting that much, either."
I've noticed that, responded Slyther. Amazing, but true.
Snape strode into the room, carrying a goblet in his right hand, sipping a bit as he sat down beside Harry on the couch.
Still leaning against the black, leather couch, Harry just looked at the blank, stone wall in quietness. He tried to come up with some ways to start up a conversation with Snape, but none came to mind. "What time are we going to be leaving, Professor?"
"Whenever," Snape replied briefly. "You'll get another one of your 'feelings', will you not?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. That just happened, so I can't tell for sure if I'm going to have one."
"Well, like I said, whenever," Snape said. He tipped the goblet up to his lips, sipping on the contents inside.
"I can't believe I'm leaving today," Harry said conversationally. "It just seems like I came here yesterday, doesn't it? Do you think things will be different around Hogwarts while I'm gone?"
"You sound as if you're only leaving for a week or two," Snape observed, looking at Harry. Harry gave his shoulders another shrug.
"I'll be here when I get my Hogwarts letter, right? And that's when I'm eleven… so it'd be in a year. But do think so, Professor?"
"Yes," Snape replied. "I do think that things will be different." Harry grinned.
"Good or bad?"
"Well," Snape responded, "I won't have an impertinent brat annoying me all of the time, will I?"
Harry just gave his eyes a bit of a roll. "Come on, Professor. I'm helpful! I helped you make those potions, didn't I? I bet it'll be different without me to help you make the potions from now on, huh?"
"Oh, yes," Snape said sarcastically. "Every time I add a rat spleen to a shrinking solution I'll be thinking of you, Potter."
"Harry," Harry corrected the professor immediately. "Out of those times you called me Harry, you'd think that it'd be… what's the word I'm looking for…?"
"Consistent?" Snape offered. Harry grinned.
"Yeah. You'd think that you'd be saying it 'consistently' now."
"You'd be surprised," Snape said sarcastically. He finished the rest of the contents in the goblet, setting it down on the glass coffee table in front of them gently.
Harry, as he found that he and Snape were going back into another relapse of silence, suddenly had a nagging feeling inside of him. Like he did that day that he had found out that the Dursley's were extending their vacation in Mexico another four days. Like he needed to be somewhere…
"We should go now," Harry said, looking at the Potions Master. "I think they're on their way home."
"Very well," Snape said, standing up from the couch. "Go collect your things, including that owl of yours." Harry nodded, he too getting up from the couch to go to the Owlery to pick up Ember.
"But, Professor," Harry started, turning around as he reached the door, "I don't think the Dursley's will let me keep Ember. What—"
"Don't worry, Potter," Snape said. "I'll talk to them." Slowly, Harry nodded, and opened the door.
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"Why so nervous?" Snape questioned as he eyed Harry sit on the Dursley's couch, fidgeting every once in a while.
"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I just feel… antsy."
"Antsy," Snape repeated, in a tone that showed that that was all he was going to say. Harry just scanned the room, waiting for the Dursley's to walk through the front door. They should be there any minute.
"Wait!" Harry cried, jumping up from the couch. "You can't be here. What'll the Dursley's say when they see you here? They'll get mad at me for 'letting you in', when I didn't even let you in—"
"Potter," Snape said calmly, giving Harry a look that told Harry to 'settle and sit down.' Harry let out a small sigh, reseating himself next to Snape.
Yes, Harry, Slyther spoke up. Settle down. They're just your relatives.
"I know," Harry said. "I don't know why I'm so nervous. I just am."
"Would you prefer if I went back to Hogwarts?" Snape asked. "I am of no use here, anyway."
"No," Harry exclaimed immediately. "No. You stay here. It's better with you here, Professor."
"Very well," Snape replied tersely. He hesitated before saying to the ten year old. "Don't get any ideas, Potter, but, I do have something before you go."
Harry, who was fiddling with his thumbs nervously, glanced up at the professor curiously. "You do?" He asked. "What?"
"Well," Snape said slowly. Harry watched him quizzically pull something tiny out of his pocket. Holding it in his left hand, he dug out his wand with his right and muttered a spell, and the tiny object soon grew.
"It's—" Harry couldn't finish, as a wide grin slowly settled on his face. "T—thank you, Professor." His eyes still scanning the black cloak, he held out his hands and gently took the cloak from Snape. "Thank you so much."
Snape looked emotionless, and Harry couldn't tell whether Snape was embarrassed about it or not. "It saves me from listening to your whines of wanting one now, doesn't it?" Harry smiled.
"You won't have me that much longer for me to do any whining," Harry replied with a smile. The antsy feeling inside of Harry was getting stronger, almost as if the Dursley's were getting closer than before.
"I can't do this!" Harry exclaimed out of the blue, the cloak clutched in his hands as he jumped up in the air. "I don't want to go back to the Dursley's! I want to stay with you, Professor, at Hogwarts with—with Albus Dumbledore and—and magic!" Harry cried, trying to fight back the lump in his throat that was growing wider with every breath he took. "Please, let me stay with you, Professor," Harry begged, his voice growing quieter and softer. "I don't want to stay with the Dursley's. I've grown on you and you've grown on me, we both know it! Can't you… do something? C—can't I come live with you, Professor?"
Snape looked at Harry as if he were a crazy mad-man who had escaped from Azkaban. "Surely the Dursley's aren't that bad, Potter."
"It's Harry!" Harry insisted, his eyes filling up. He blinked them back. "And I'd choose you over the Dursley's any day, Professor."
But it was too late. The door swung open to reveal all three Dursley's, their happy attitudes changing immensely as they saw Harry standing in front of a complete stranger, looking out of breath and almost in tears.
It was too late.
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