Chapter Twenty-two

Harry woke up, and a small smile settled on his lips as he felt the silk sheets rub against his arm. This was the type of bed he was used to.

Good morning, Slyther greeted with a lazy yawn. What are you going to do this morning, Harry? Bug the greasy human? You know, I've been working on some things that we could do to annoy him—

"Nope," Harry said, interrupting Slyther in the middle of his explanation. "I'm not gonna bug Professor Snape today, I'm going to talk with him!"

Talk, Slyther repeated blankly. Talk? What could you possibly talk with him about? Why not bug? Bugging is more of my thing, definitely not talking! I hate talking, can't we bug?

"Slyther," Harry said slowly, giving Slyther a look. "You can't possibly 'hate' talking, since you're doing so much of it now."

How rude, Slyther hissed, and Harry could almost hear his scowl. Well, what are you going to 'talk' to the greasy human about?

This time, Harry scowled. "Would you please stop calling him that, Slyther? I'm just going to talk to Professor Snape about… some things. Dealing with the Dursleys, and what's going to happen now." He pulled the blankets off of him and stood up, walking towards the door. "Professor Snape," Harry started, "I wanted to talk to you about—"

"Yes, I know," Snape interrupted with a wave of his hand. "I heard." Harry walked over and peered into Snape's goblet, and he frowned.

"Is that—" Harry paused, surveying the cup again. "Coffee?"

"Well," Snape said blandly, pushing the goblet farther away from him, "I can't believe muggles actually imbibe this."

"Then why are you drinking it?" Harry questioned, sitting down in the chair that stood on all four legs in front of the right corner of the table. "If you don't like it?"

"I'm not drinking it," Snape replied, "I found it on the table when I came out. It was from—"

"Albus Dumbledore?" Harry interrupted with a grin. Snape gave his head a sharp nod.

"Precisely. He wants 'all staff to try some of the delicious things that muggles have invented.' If it isn't lemon drops, then it's coffee."

Harry frowned, his brow furrowing. "Are you positive that it's from Dumbledore? What if it's not, and you drank poison?"

Snape sighed. "I doubt that there is poison in that, Potter. I know Albus Dumbledore's handwriting, so you needn't fret."

"Anyway," Harry said, "can I talk to you?"

"What do you think you're doing now?" Snape asked with raised eyebrows. Harry gave Snape a look.

"You know what I'm talking about," Harry persisted.

"I do," Snape said. "What is it that you want us to 'talk' about, Potter?"

"What I'm going to do," Harry explained. "If I'm going to stay here, or go back to the Dursleys, or… what."

"Well, I went back for you, didn't I?" Snape said. "Doesn't that answer your question?"

Not really, Harry thought to himself, and continued out loud. "But, are you saying that I don't have to go to the Dursleys? Are you going to… adopt me?"

Snape kept his same bland expression as he looked at Harry. "I suppose," he said. Harry tried to fight back a smile.

"Will there be some sort of procedure to it?" Harry inquired, his eyes full of curiosity.

Snape frowned. "I don't think so. Just the papers; why?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Curious."

When are you not? Slyther said, the corners of his mouth turning up in almost a smirk. Harry had never seen a snake smirk before, and thought it looked pretty funny.

"The Dursleys won't even care that I'm gone," Harry said, resting his chin in his hand. He looked at Snape curiously as an odd expression crossed the Potion Master's face. "What are you reading?"

With a scowl, Snape tossed whatever he was reading to Harry. Picking it up, Harry turned to the front cover and saw the title, The Daily Prophet. Flipping back to the page that Snape was reading.

"Wow," Harry said, his eyes wide. "I didn't know that people knew the adopting thing so soon! Who wrote it?" He skimmed the page, stopping at the word 'abuse.' "Abused?" Harry read out loud. "I wasn't 'abused' by the Dursleys! How could they write that?" Finally, underneath the title, Harry found the name Rita Skeeter. "Rita Skeeter? Who's that?" Harry didn't stop for an answer as he continued reading through it. "That's a bunch of lies," he finally said as he finished. "I was not abused by the Dursley's, though I was going to spend two weeks in a cupboard." He shook his head, getting up from the table.

"Where're you going?" Snape questioned.

"I'm going to write a letter to the Daily Prophet to complain about that article!" Harry announced with a frown.

"I don't think that'll work," Snape said. Harry sat back down and picked the Prophet back up and began flipping through the pages. He stopped short, a sudden pained look crossing his face.

"They did it," Harry said quietly, setting the Prophet down on the table. He pushed his chair back and stood up. "They killed Sirius last night."

Almost in a trance, Harry walked back to his room, shutting his door behind him. He flopped down on the unmade bed, staring at the floor.

"They killed Sirius," Harry said in a disbelieving voice. "He's gone."

Harry... Slyther faltered. I don't know what to say to you. How exactly do you share remorse with somebody? Do you just say, "I feel your pain. I cannot possibly know what you're going through, and I wish I never would. Hope you feel better." And that's it?

"I don't know," Harry said softly. "You know, I've been trying to forget about it. Thinking... if maybe I forgot all about Sirius, that it would hurt less when they do kill him. It doesn't. It hurts just as much."

Hey, let's talk about something else, okay? All this sadness is making me... well... sad. Um—so, I heard you out in the kitchen. I can't believe that everybody knows that the greasy human is adopting you so quickly.

"Well believe it," Snape snapped from the kitchen.

Ooh, grumpy in the morning, Slyther observed.

"Stop it," Harry said with a faint grin as sat up and pushed back until his head leaned against the backboard of the bed. "You two argue too much."

Us? You two argue nonstop, which is beginning to acerbate me, Snape said in Harry's head, causing Harry to frown.

Get out of my head, Harry instructed.

Harry—are you feeling better now? Slyther questioned. Another faint smile crossed Harry's lips as he nodded. Then, a look flickered across Harry's face. He decided to do what he had been doing since Sirius had been captured and not think about it. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "Professor?" He called as he made his way back into the kitchen. "Can you teach me something?"

Snape gave a chafed sigh as he lowered his book and glowered at Harry, who stood in front of Snape as innocently as he possibly could. "What is it, Potter?"

"Can you teach me the thing that you were talking about?" Harry questioned, and he hadn't a clue what it was called, so he couldn't explain it by name.

"What thing was that, Potter?" Snape demanded. Harry sighed.

"Harry. What happened to 'Harry'?" He shook his head, realizing that he was beginning to get out of the subject. "That thing. You know, a long time ago. You said that you could not listen into a conversation? I want to learn how to do that, and I want you to teach me."

Snape gave his head a firm, swift shake. "I don't think so, Potter," he said. "Now, can you go find something to do other than being plague and annoying me?" He raised his book back up, once again ignoring Harry's presence

"But I want you to teach me," Harry insisted. "Please?"

"I agree with Harry," Albus Dumbledore spoke up from in front of the door to Snape's chambers, startling Harry. "Maybe if you teach Harry, it'll give you two some more bonding time."

"Bonding time?" Snape repeated, with a look of aversion towards Harry.

"Yes," Albus confirmed. "Bonding time."

Snape gave his head another firm shake. "No, Albus. How were you able to come in? That's twice already."

Albus, pretending that Snape didn't try to change the subject, continued on. "I think it'll do you two some good, since you're going to be adopting Harry," he told Snape. "You two need a good bond with each other. You can't go adopting Harry if you loathe him for some differences that you've had with his father."

"Yeah," Harry agreed with a firm nod as he looked at Snape. "We need a bond, Professor. So… can you teach me?"

"Do you want something, Albus?" Snape questioned in irritation, ignoring Harry. Albus kept his eyes on Snape before replying.

"Just wondering if you liked the coffee." Snape scowled, his lip turning in disgust at the thought of the hot drink that muggles had imbibed.

"It was horrid," Snape replied. Albus just smiled, turning around and leaving Harry and Snape alone—with Slyther, too, of course.

"So?" Harry pressed, looking at Snape eagerly. "Can you? If it's anything like making potions together, I think it'll be fun! Please?"

"Stop your whining," Snape snapped. "It's becoming annoying."

"Why won't you teach me, then?" Harry asked with a frown as he pulled up a chair and sat down. "You know I won't leave you alone until you agree to teach me. So why don't you just say yes and get it over with, then you can finish your book and we can get started. It'll be so simple," he explained.

Snape surveyed Harry intently. "Fine," he reluctantly agreed. "But none of this 'bonding' nonsense, understand? I'm going to teach you how you can not listen into a conversation between parseltongues, but only because you won't stop bothering me."

"It's understood!" Harry cried out happily, with a bright smile.

"Why do you want to know, anyway?" Snape asked, almost inquiringly. "It's not as if it's that snake and I are incessantly talking, and you need to block the conversation out." Harry shrugged.

"Good knowledge," he replied shortly, glancing at the book that Snape had abandoned on the table in front of Harry. "Well, finish your book so we can get started."

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A/N: I just decided to give you guys this extra chapter for the VERY short last one. So, until Monday, thanks!