Chapter Fifty-five

Harry drowsily walked down the flight of stairs the next morning, rubbing his eyes in the process. When he had woken up that morning, he planned on going right back to sleep, but his stomach suggested otherwise. So, still half-asleep, Harry had reluctantly got up and now made his way down the stairs to see if Severus was up yet.

"Harry? You're loud when you get up," Nathaniel's voice murmured from the top of the stairwell, a yawn following afterwards.

Harry, surprised at the sudden voice, slipped on the penultimate step and landed on his arse. A sharp pain quickly shot through his spinal column, but instead of doing anything else, he sat on the step and started to laugh.

Nathaniel blinked a few times at the boy that was currently sitting on the stair and laughing, then gave his head a slight shake and mumbled, "What are you doing?"

"Sorry," Harry said as he held onto the banister and pulled himself up. "I'm still a bit tired."

"Well, are you going to go back to sleep or are you going to stay up?" Nathaniel asked before covering his mouth with his hand and yawning.

"I'm gonna stay up," Harry replied.

"Good. I'm stealing your bed, by the way." Without waiting for a reply from Harry, Nathaniel turned around and disappeared into Harry's room.

Harry went down the remaining step, giving a quiet chuckle. He didn't know why he found falling on a step so funny, but he somehow he felt that it just was.

"Is Jacobs not gracing us with his presence this morning?" Severus asked as Harry passed the living room. Harry stepped into the said room and approached the sofa, resting his head lightly on Severus shoulder after he sat down.

"No," Harry replied, closing his eyes and feeling that he could fall asleep again in that spot. "He's tired and sleeping."

"As you should be," Severus concurred. "I admit that I'm fairly surprised that you are up. It's only seven."

Harry groaned, keeping his eyes closed. "Seven? On a Sunday?" Harry let out a sigh and opened his eyes. "Did Morwen make breakfast this morning?"

"Usually he starts it at eight or so, sometimes depending on when you get up," replied Severus. "But, if you desire, he can get started now."

"Actually," Harry said hesitantly, "I was wondering if I could make breakfast this morning. I'm up early and don't know what I could do … so could I? You can stand behind me and keep an eye on me if you want, but I know how to make breakfast and I want to."

Severus peered down at Harry. "You genuinely want to make breakfast?"

Harry nodded.

"Very well, then. Follow me to the kitchens."

Harry jumped up from the sofa, following the Potions master out of the living room, past the stairwell and dining room, until they reached the kitchens.

It was a rather large kitchen. The counter was pushed up to one side of the kitchen, a stove placed in the middle. The sink was right beside it, the fridge and freezer right beside that. The color of the counter and cupboards were all in a rich oak.

"This is a nice kitchen," Harry said. He had never seen the kitchens before, until now. They were very clean … it all seemed to shine.

After Harry asked Severus where everything was, Harry was then able to get to work on making the breakfast that he was planning. First, with Snape standing behind him and making sure that he didn't blow the house up while he made the breakfast, Harry had to decide what he'd make. Maybe he'd make sausages … but did Severus have any sausages?

After a bit of thinking, Harry decided to make pancakes. After all, he had made them many times before for the Dursleys, and was very positive that he knew the recipe off by heart. Now, all he had to do was find out of Severus had the proper ingredients.

"Severus," Harry started as he got a bowl, and some ingredients he found in the fridge for the pancakes. "Do you have any … um … flour?"

Severus stayed quiet, his eyes connected with Harry's as he thought. Then, finally, he said, "I think so." He walked over to Harry and opened a cupboard up overtop of the smaller boys head, pulling out a bag of flour and setting it down on the counter. "Is that all you need?"

"Erm… Baking powder! And salt."

Harry grinned at Severus as he passed the baking powder and salt to Harry. Once all of the ingredients were placed in front of him, Harry just stood in his spot and gazed at them.

"What's wrong?" Severus asked as he watched Harry stare at the ingredients that had been placed in front of him. "Are you feeling ill?"

Harry grinned faintly and glanced at Severus over his shoulder. "Nope. Just thinking of how it all went."

He bit his lip, hesitantly sifting together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. After that, he bent down and got out another bowl, combining the egg and milk in that; then adding that to the flour amalgam.

"Severus?" Harry started as he stirred that mixture. "Do you have … um …" With his extra hand he scratched his forehead, trying to remember the name. "That … thing? It almost looks like a plate and it heats up? Erm … a girdle? Girder? Gird - something. Grid … griddle?" Harry still looked befuddled, but shook it off. "I think it's a griddle."

Severus shook his head, telling Harry that he did not have a griddle.

"I think we can use a frying pan instead." Harry found the pan, set it on the stove and let Severus turn it on. Harry turned back to the batter. "I have to take this stuff and mix with melted butter."

Harry, with Severus's help, managed to get out a little cup to melt the butter in. To make things hastened, Harry watched as the Potions master took out his wand and muttered, "Confervefacio." The chunk of butter instantaneously started to melt into a bright yellow liquid, bubbling.

With a grin on his face, Harry poured a bit of the batter into the frying pan and watched it sizzle as the batter hit the hot pan.

"Don't burn yourself," Severus cautioned, standing at Harry's side.

"I won't. I've done this loads of times," Harry reassured the older man. "My very first time I burned the side of my hand, but after that I never burned my hand again. But I'll be careful," he quickly added. "I'm always careful around stoves."

Then Harry opened a drawer and pulled out a spatula, ready to flip the pancake on the other side. While holding onto the handle of the frying pan, he slipped the spatula underneath the pancake, but it didn't budge. It was stuck to the pan.

"Oh no," he moaned, setting the spatula down. "I forgot to grease the pan!" he glanced at Severus. "Can you hold this handle while I try to get this pancake off the frying pan, please?"

Harry waited until Severus had grasped onto the handle like he was asked, then, stepping to the side so he was in front of Severus, with both hands held onto the spatula and tried to scrape the pancake off. He did manage to accomplish just that, although the pancake went up in the air. Harry's eyes widened with each second that passed that the pancake was in the air, slowly making its way down … on Severus's face.

As soon as the slimy, batter part of the pancake landed on top of Severus's head, then slowly slid down his face, Harry closed his eyes shut. In his head, he repeated to himself again and again that he wouldn't start to laugh. No matter how funny Severus looked, with having a pancake on his face, he would not laugh.

But, that was harder than he thought.

A snort came out of Harry, followed by suppressed giggles which he wasn't able to suppress for long.

Then, suddenly he felt something on his head. Managing to stop his giggles to see what it was, Harry's mouth widened as batter from the pancake that Severus had put on Harry's head started dripping onto the floor. He looked up at Severus in a shock, and scowled as he noticed a satisfied smirk on the Potion masters' lips. The scowl was soon replaced with more laughter from Harry. He couldn't keep a scowl on his face forever, since the batter that was throughout Severus's hair and smeared on his face was too funny to restrain.

"You look funny," Harry said as he pulled some of the batter from his own hair. "And sorry about … that, Severus. I didn't do it on purpose."

Severus glared at Harry, but went to go get some towels so he could clean himself up, Harry following behind. Once they passed the dining room and entered the bathroom, Severus passed a towel to Harry while keeping another one for himself.

Harry wiped his face, and then his hair, with the towel. When Severus had Harry both managed to get as much batter as they could out of their hair, they both went out to clean up the mess, only to find that it was spotless.

"Morwen cleaned kitchen up for Masters. I is making breakfast for good sirs, too," Morwen said as he spotted Severus and Harry.

"All right," Harry agreed with a nod of his head. "Thanks." Subsequently, he looked up at Severus. "Can we go sit down somewhere? I want to talk to you about something."

Though Severus's face was impassive, his eyes reflected slight curiosity. "Certainly." As they both left the kitchen, to go back into the living room, Harry continued on thinking that he should tell Severus about the dream that he had two days ago.

Harry plopped down on the sofa, staring at the wall in front of him, gathering his thoughts. But Severus seemed to get annoyed as every second passed with silence. He obviously expected, once they sat down, for Harry to get right to the point.

"Are you going to start speaking, or are you going to sit on the sofa all day, wordless?" Severus finally asked, eyeing Harry's expression with impatience.

Harry, who was staring at the wall like he was in a trance, instantly came out of his abstraction and glanced up at Severus.

"I wanted to talk about the dream I had two nights ago. Remember—?"

"I recollect it. Continue."

"Well … I know you wanted to know what it was about," Harry started. "Do you still?"

Severus gave Harry a look, and Harry knew that he did still want to know, and that it was a foolish question to ask. So he continued on.

"I … I don't know where to start," Harry admitted. "We were in this house; a woman was over and … and killed you. She turned out to be Aureus."

"That was your dream?"

Harry's brow furrowed briefly as he frowned. "Er - yeah. That was it."

"I'm supposing that your mind was on Aureus before you fell asleep? That's why you dreamt that she was the murderer? Are you sure...?"

Harry shook his head. "It was definitely an ordinary nightmare. No visitations. At that time, I think … I think that I was thinking of when Quirrel threatened to kill you, and I just can't get Aureus out of my mind …"

Harry let out a sigh, feeling happier to have told Severus the dream, two days after it had happened or not.

"Hello," Nathaniel's voice said from the doorway cheerfully. Harry looked up to find him awake and dressed, looking particularly happy.

"Going somewhere?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised, looking at Nathaniel with a small smile. He wasn't sure if Nathaniel was going out or not, but he looked like he was.

"That I am," Nathaniel replied. "Guess who's outside on her lawn in a chair reading a book?"

Harry laughed. "You were spying on Amaryllis?"

Nathaniel looked taken aback, then tried to look innocent. He failed miserably.

"I wouldn't call it spying. That's too much of an intense word. I happened to glance out the window and see her on the lawn, in a chair, reading a book," he defended himself.

"What happened to you being so tired?" Harry asked.

"Well, I was tired. Then when I went to get up and come downstairs, I glanced out the window and saw her. I really like her hair today, too. You know what she did to it? She put it up in an elastic. It looks really good, too. Oh—do you think I should tell her that? Or would that—"

Harry's groan interrupted Nathaniel in the middle of his rambling. "Just go out and say hi or something!"

Nathaniel grinned sheepishly. "Yes, I think a nice hello would do. Thanks, Harry. I'll be back after."

"Sure," Harry muttered, turning back to Severus, only then to have Morwen come into the room.

"Morwen is letting Master Snape and young Master Potter-Snape know that I is done making breakfast and it is on the table in the dining room," Morwen said.

"Thank-you, Morwen," Severus said, with the House Elf giving a nod of his head afterwards.

Harry got up, only to have Severus grab his arm and lower him back down. Giving the Potions Master a quizzical look, he stayed still as Severus took batter that clung to some of his strands of hair out of his hair.

He gave the Professor a smile. "Oh, thanks."

-

Nathaniel still didn't return, and it was an hour before supper, Harry found. That wasn't a bad thing, actually, since Harry was able to have some time to talk with Severus.

Which was what they had been doing that whole day, except now Harry felt content just sitting on the sofa with a comfortable silence throughout the room.

Harry, who was resting his head on Severus's shoulder, stifled a yawn. "Severus?" Harry looked up, blinking his eyes a few times to keep himself awake, and saw that the Potions Master and fallen asleep, which at that moment didn't seem like a bad thing.

Harry leaned back into the sofa, resting his head back on Severus's shoulder and closing his eyes shut, since he couldn't keep them open any longer.

-

"Sorry I'm late," Nathaniel called, shutting the door. "A lot late, but guess what, Harry? Could you believe that I was out with Amaryllis the whole time? It was actually pretty fun. First—"

Nathaniel cut himself off, frowning as Harry didn't show up in front of him.

"Harry?"

Nathaniel cautiously walked forward, peering into the living room to see if Harry was there. He was, although he was fast asleep; his head was resting against Severus's—who was asleep as well—shoulder. Both looked content and peaceful. There wasn't really any need to wake them yet, was there?

Nathaniel gave his head a shake and chuckled. Since it was almost supper time, and Severus and Harry were asleep, it wouldn't hurt to start eating without them, would it?

Nope, Nathaniel decided, starting off towards the kitchens to see if the House Elf had finished making supper. He would let Severus and Harry sleep, only to show them how kind he was being. That, and because there was going to be a table full of food all to himself. And he wasn't going to pass up that opportunity.

-

A/N: Thanks everybody!