Sorry! I know it took a while, but first I had exams, and then there was a compulsory camping trip, for which we were given broken tents so we got no sleep and it took me a couple of days to recover from that ::wipes sweat from forehead::. And then it was the usual end of term pandemonium, the fight for boxes to take things home in, the crazy running around to check if you HAVE picked up all your stuff. And on top of all of that I get home to discover my internet has broken, so I am unable to send anything to my editor – let alone post::Collapses from stress:: Anyway its not specially long or anything, so another apology for that!

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't earn money from this, even more sadly I don't even own it! (except for the plot and a few bits and pieces) I don't even own the title of this chapter, yes, i did steal that too.

Snape raised a slim eyebrow, and viciously ripped off a piece of bread with his teeth.

Harry sensed he should leave that question for later when the soup wasn't hot, therefore decreasing chances of third degree burns if Snape threw it at him.

"Fine, I have suspicions about you, what was with that thing you did in the cafe up there?"

"I did many things in the cafe, Potter, please elaborate."

Trust Snape to try and get out of it by degrading me, thought Harry.

"With my scar and... you...scar...you pushed it and..."

"Come on Potter – think! Some of what Dumbledore said must have rubbed off on you!"

Harry stared at him blankly like he was raving mad.

Snape sighed, "What was Dumbledore always on about?"

"Sherbet Lemons?" Harry asked timidly.

Snape looked in the verge of suicide, in a very calm collected Slytherin way...

"No Potter- LOVE!"

"What has that got to do with anything?" Harry demanded, "I am sick of hearing about love, and in the end it didn't even help!"

"But it did Potter!"

"What the hell! Snape you weren't even there you cow..." Harry was just about to call Snape a coward, but then remembered what had happened last time he had done that, and decided against it. (Editor: See Book 6 for a reminder)

"What was that Potter?" Snape asked, livid.

"Cow, I called you a cow."

Snape raised his eyebrows in disbelief but didn't say anything else.

"So did love do anything I didn't notice?" Harry asked unable to contain his curiosity.

"Yes." Snape replied shortly. When he didn't say anymore Harry persisted.

"Care to tell me?"

"Work it out yourself Potter. Surely even your brain has managed it by now," spat Snape, sounding like a snake that has been stepped on. That was generally regarded as the tone that said 'Don't push it', but Harry couldn't help it. Curiosity got the better of him, so he asked again, despite the fact it injured his pride and the soup was still boiling slightly in the bowls.

"I don't have your Slytherin mind, professor; please spell it out for me."

Snape's wicked grin couldn't have been more evident, "Beg me."

"What?"

"You heard Potter, the golden boy has to beg a Death Eater for something he wants."

"I won't beg, I'll curse you first."

"What are you going to do Potter? Kill me? Your conscience would never allow it, and if you killed me you will ever know what I have to say."

Harry was tempted to tell him what odd kicks he got, but then he remembered he wanted something. Odd as he might be, he sure could pull the right strings.

"Please sir, I beg you. Tell me what you know," Harry said in a flat voice.

"I'm not convinced." drawled Snape.

10 minutes later

Harry brushed his lips against the hem of Snape's trousers. They smelt of soap and fresh snow. "Please," he begged weakly.

The smirk clearer than the sun on Snape's face as Harry stood up, he finally agreed.

"First I have to assure you Potter, I am not the Dark Lord, as I know that crossed your mind..."

"Then how...?"

"Shut up or I might change my mind," snarled Snape, sipping his soup. (Editor: yet another read aloud challenge for those with a lisp)

Harry didn't say another word; he hadn't kissed Snape's trousers for nothing.

"How many people do you hate, Potter?"

"Voldemort...but he's dea..."'

"Carry on."

Harry took a deep breath, "Scrimgeour, Bellatrix, Umbridge... but they're dead. What can they do?"

"Just carry on Potter."

"Lucius and you."

"That it?"

Harry wildly searched his mind and couldn't come up with another name. "Yep that's it."

"Squid, Potter! I knew you were good but even I thought you hated more people than that!"

Harry opened his mouth to tell Snape that because he wasn't a snarky bastard people were generally nice to him, giving him no reason to hate people, but Snape cut across him.

"Regardless, what did Voldemort do to you many times?"

"Try to kill me?"

"Apart from that."

"Killed my parents, his death eaters, pushed Sirius into limbo, made my life hell, gave me a scar that makes me look like a stupid twat, a fair few injuries..."

"Back track to the scar, Potter."

"What does that have to do with it? It just makes me look like an idiot."

"Apart from that Potter, it is cursed! The Dark Lord gave it to you and you hate him, with every fibre of your being." Snape bent over the table, brushed a few strands of Harry's hair out the way and tapped the side of his head, "Use this, for once in your life."

"Voldemort made my scar hurt, not because it was connected to him, but because I had a strong hate for him?"

"You haven't quite hit the nail on the head Potter," sighed Snape, exasperated, "Voldemort was connected to the scar and the hate you felt was only part of that connection. But Voldemort dying wasn't the end of the curse, far from. You still have it, you were connected by your bond with Voldemort and that is what gave you insights, but the hate is what fuelled the pain in your scar. And if you didn't have the ability to love, your scar would hurt all the time, very badly. You would die from the agony."

"So you make my scar hurt because I don't like you. That really does explain why Umbridge made my scar hurt... Dumbledore never thought to tell me that..."

"He didn't tell you many things Potter, you were never the best Occlumens, making you a weakness as well as a strength. We couldn't divulge anything that important to you, not with your visions and your inability to think." at this point Snape leaned over the table again to poke Harry's head earning a small stab of pain, "You could have given anything away."

"So you kept me in the dark... because I had visions, not because I was stupid, but because I had visions!" A huge bubble of happiness welled in Harry's chest and he was shocked to find it was because Snape didn't think he was stupid.

"I was always convinced it was you stupidity that was part of the reason," needless to say, the bubble deflated fast, "but Dumbledore always insisted it was the visions."

Harry scowled, "Why do you always talk to me as if I were something particularly nasty you scraped off the bottom of your shoe?"

"I don't generally talk to things I scrap off the bottom of my shoe, Potter,"

"You know what? I'm sick of yo...

"It really took this long?"

Harry was becoming homicidal. He glared at Snape as the man elegantly sipped his soup, pink tongue poking out to lick a splash from the corner of his mouth.

Harry stood up and stormed in to his room, he snatched up pen and paper and stormed back out again.

He sat on the sofa and scribbled a letter to Hermione.

Dear Herm,

I know you said not to try and contact you, but if I don't I'm afraid I may slit my own wrists.

I have found Snape; he was sneaking about the Muggle ski resort you sent me to.

Anyway he is here and driving me up the wall, so I need you to send some form of back up and information. If you don't I will come and find you danger or n. I am worried Hermione, please send me some news.

Harry.

"Let me guess," sneered Snape, "You wrote to one of your little bum chums, requesting some form of escape route?"

"Something like that," Harry replied curtly, rolling up the letter.

He wanted to question Snape more but he was sick of being insulted and he was really tired. He had had a long day.

"What happened in the last battle?" Harry looked up to see Snape staring intently at him from the sink.

"We fought, we won," Harry replied shortly, sticking out his left arm. In the middle of the war there had always been a need for more owls than you could take around with you, so Kingsly Shacklebolt had devised a means of getting more. It was like the Night bus, you stuck out the respective arm and in this case, for any Order member an owl would fly to your assistance immediately.

"I figured that out for myself Potter, if you had lost you would be dead, but, sadly, you are alive and well standing right before me."

"So you wanted Voldemort to win then?"

"No, slim as the chances were, I was hoping both you and the Dark Lord would die. Anyway that is beside the point, what happened?"

Harry sighed at Snape's jibe but other than that ignored it, "It was at Godric's Hollow. I had just found the last Horcrux, Rowena Ravenclaw's voice, encased in a box."

"I expect it was hard to destroy something so precious. Her voice you say, amazing." said Snape, with no trace of a sneer.

"Yes, it was quite. I heard it just before I destroyed it, she was singing about something or someone she had lost. It was enchanting, I wanted to hear the whole thing but I knew it was only a matter of time before Voldemort got there, so I destroyed it and turned around and Voldemort was just emerging from the woods, wand raised. Green light shot past me and I sent up red sparks to call for the other order members and Voldemort touched his left forearm with his wand and sent up The Dark Mark, so presumably he thought he would have no problem killing me." An owl flapped through the window and landed in front of Harry.

"Take this to the order, and don't leave without a reply," Harry told the owl, which immediately flapped out of the window.

"So the whole Order arrived, and the Death Eaters too, we all silently assembled, the quiet before a rather violent storm. The silence was deafening."

"Evidently dumbing as well," Snape drawled.

Harry ignored him and carried on, "Then Voldemort said 'So Potter, you found one of my Horcruxes? I would be impressed were it not for the fact that Rowena's voice is one of 7! But now I am going to kill you here so you will never get the others.' And then I realised that Voldemort didn't know that I had already destroyed the rest of his soul, but I couldn't think any more because the battle had started, everyone was fighting and sending hexes. I watched Voldemort through the battle." Harry sat on the sofa Snape with him still intently staring at him, Harry stared back into his deep eyes and continued.

"I sprinted at him sending stunning curses at him. I didn't send a killing curse at that point just in case I hit any of the order members, but Voldemort didn't seem to mind if he caught a Death Eater with a curse so he was sending green light at me all the time, I saw him hit Wormtail, Crabbe senior and Molly. Then one of my curses hit him and he was so busy sending off killing curses he didn't see it. He was blown off his feet and into the wood behind, but it didn't occur to me at the time that the blast I had shot would have only been enough to knock him down, so now I realise he wanted me to follow him into the wood," Harry gulped and his eyes watered, going into the wood had been his biggest mistake ever.

"What happened in there Potter?" Snape asked impatiently, bringing Harry out of his reverie.

"I...killed," Harry choked slightly.

"Of course you killed him, Potter, that was the point," said Snape, exasperated.

"No...I," he hated doing it, especially in front of Snape, but he couldn't hold it back. A tear slid down his cheek and came to rest at the corner of his mouth, then more tears began to spill. Harry looked away ashamed.

Snape grabbed his shoulders and turned Harry back to face him, "Tell me Potter."

Harry hung his head and shook it from side to side, more tears erupting from his eyes. Snape shook his already trembling shoulders.

"Tell me Potter," whispered Snape, but, to Harry's surprise, it wasn't a harsh whisper. This caused, if possible more tears to spring forth.

Snape took Harry's chin and lifted his head up to face him. He used his other hand to brush Harry's tears away, his index and middle finger stroking his cheeks, his thumb brushing the corner of his mouth where his tears had come to rest.

When Harry still didn't say anything Snape withdrew his hand.

"Another time then, but now bed, I don't wish to be a zombie for skiing tomorrow."

Anyway I should up-date soon, but the more reviews I get the faster I update::Grins:: I notice that most of the people who have me on favourite/alert lists don't actually review me. Thanks for the compliment of being favourite, but please let me know my best areas and where I can improve. :D

Thanks again to Hermione for editing:Kisses: (Editor: Eugh:Wipes face:)