Hello! Back a bit earlier than expected, so here is the new chapter for you all. Off you trot.
Harry stopped dancing. It seemed that so had the rest of the pub, the shout had been so loud.
"What," asked Snape, in his usual sneer, "are you talking about, you drunken buffoon?"
The man who had shouted jumped off the table, landing with a thud because of his large set frame and muscled figure and advanced towards Snape and Hermione.
"Is that the best you could come up with?" jeered the other man, his deep voice harsh, cutting through the silence like a knife.
"No, I just thought that it would be kind to not expose the French to the more vulgar parts of our language."
The music stopped and the bar maid looked at them with a glare that told them 'If you dare disturb my bar I will personally hang you off the apartment balconies by your toes.'
"Look here buddy..." started the man, but he didn't manage to finish his sentence as Snape raised an eyebrow and cut across him.
"What are you going to do? Beat me up? Because it worked so well last time," said Snape, the sarcasm and scorn dripping off his words, "and don't call me 'buddy'."
"Last time was a fluke; in a fair fight I would beat you."
"Is that so?" asked Snape silkily, his other eyebrow joining the first as it slid up his head.
"Well, we can always see – now."
"Get ready for more stitches to join the ones I gave you last time," Snape leered and Harry saw Snape's' hand flick quickly towards his belt where he would have kept his wand. When he remembered that he didn't have anymore, his mocking expression didn't falter, but Harry could swear he saw Snape's face whiten slightly as he looked up at the massive figure standing before him.
The other man (who was at least two heads taller than everyone else in the room) strode out looking confident. Snape followed him, his sneering face set in place but the colour slowly draining from his features like a dripping tap.
As the door swung shut behind the two the music started again and everyone continued bobbing up and down to the beat.
"We need to go help him," said Toni, pulling on Harry's hand.
"No -" said Harry, but Toni cut across him.
"What do you mean 'no'?! That guy has never lost a fight, and I am inclined to believe him when he says Severus won by a fluke. I know him; he's lived here for three years. He isn't a man to be messed with. Come on!"
"No!" said Harry, butting in. "I meant let me go, I'm not going to let you and Hermione get mixed up in this just because Snape is stupid enough to make an enemy that is 5 feet taller than him, and if it gets nasty I will have to do something I don't want you to see."
"Okay." Toni was giving up suspiciously easily.
"I mean it," said Harry, and he left the pub.
Hermione bounced up to Toni, "You're not really letting him off that easy, are you?"
"Who do you think I am?" smiled Toni. "You see, this is the perfect way for them to realise their feelings for each other."
"Care to explain how getting Severus turned inside out is going to help?"
"Don't you at least think it's really hot that Harry is running to his rescue?"
"Hot wasn't the word that sprung to mind..."
"Anyway, if they win they might kiss in the heat of the moment, then they can't deny their feelings!"
"And... if they don't win?"
"Let's hope our boxing lessons pay off. Come on; let's keep an eye on them."
SSSSSSS
Harry rounded another corner. Where had they gone?
"You'll pay for what your old man did."
"So you admit he beat you?"
"He beat me. I didn't say he did it fairly."
Harry could hear the voices coming from near the forest, up the road from the top apartments.
"What do you think he did?" jeered Snape, "A harmless old man, with no weapon? How do you think he beat you?"
"He picked up that stick, and poked me in the eye with it while I was lunging at him. As I said, it wasn't fair."
"You and an old man, yes, the odds were really against you."
"Shut up! Let's get this over with. The faster it is the sooner I can get back to my drink."
Harry made his way up the road and hid himself behind a tree. He peered out from behind it and saw Snape and the nameless man standing facing each other, feet apart, knuckles raised.
"So you actually think you'll get back?" asked Snape, forced confidence straining his voice as he stared up at the man who could have easily stepped over him.
"Oh, I've no doubt," growled the man, and he pounced.
Harry didn't know what took over him. He was suddenly filled with dread and fear, so he did the first thing that came to mind, he mimicked the man's movement and sprung. He hit the other man as he was flying through the air.
Snape had drawn his hand back. His eyes widened as his attacker fell to the ground in a ball.
"What are you doing?" he screamed at Harry.
"I'm saving you," Harry shouted back as he jerked his head to avoid the fist that came flying at him.
"No, imbecile," Harry thought it was weird that, despite their situation, Snape still found time to insult him, "Use your w-thing!"
Harry was about to act on Snape's words when he found his wrists were pinned to the ground. He tried to move his legs but they were straddled by the anonymous attacker and he couldn't.
He felt lips brush his ear and hot breath that stunk of stale alcohol sweep across his skin, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Harry closed his eyes, not wanting to look into the large man's blunt face.
"Remember this name – Rick. I want you to shake every time you hear it, you little SHIT!" The mass that was holding Harry to the ground keeled over and released Harry.
Harry opened his eyes to see Snape kneeling over him, a large bloodstained rock in one hand. "Are you alright Harry?" Snape asked, bending down further to check if Harry was okay, "Did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine. A little shocked though," said Harry, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.
"Good. Well then," said Snape, and he brought his hand back and slapped Harry around the face.
SSSSSSS
"This isn't going quite as I planned," Toni whispered to Hermione, who was peering around the other side of the tree.
"You think?" asked Hermione. "Shh, listen."
"What was that for?" demanded Harry.
"You scared me shitless, you little brat."
"You wanker...Wait a second, you were scared for me?"
"No," said Snape, a little too hurriedly, "What do you think? See the situation from my point of view- Very angry, very big man about to pound the only person with a weapon on my side into the ground and said man fully prepared to pound me into the ground afterwards."
"I must say," said Hermione, "if he's denying his feelings, like you say, he's doing it pretty well."
"Shut up," Toni whispered back, "their having a moment, you know, like a married couple before they have passionate make-up sex."
Hermione was just about to reply when Harry started talking again.
"Then why did you call me Harry?"
Snape was silent for a second. He appeared to be racking his brains, trying to remember when he had had a moment of insanity.
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did. You said, 'Are you alright Harry?' when you hit that guy over the head with a rock."
"Didn't."
"Did."
"Didn't."
"Did."
"I did not, Potter!"
Harry couldn't help it, he burst out laughing from Severus' pout (well, as close as Snape could get to one) and crap childish antics.
Wait a second- he did not just call Snape by his first name. He would have to watch out or he would be taking a leaf out of Snape's book.
"Well," said Harry, still spluttering, "You can't get out of telling me what you were doing here now." Harry straightened out his face, his voice stern. Snape could see he wasn't getting out of it this time. "Dumbledore can't have been here, he died. You killed him."
"Now Potter, there you are wrong. I didn't kill him, I killed Mosag."
"What?"
"Aragog's mate. I assume you knew them, as I remember. Hagrid got drunk when he got back from Azkaban and he told me the whole story about your nasty encounter in second year, just as you had told it to him."
"What's this got to do with Dumbledore?"
"You idiot," said Snape, slapping Harry on the back of the head. "It wasn't Dumbledore that night, it was Mosag. After Aragog died she didn't have anything to live for. We needed a substitute for Dumbledore's death and she said she would do it."
Harry's mouth fell open, "How did you do it? Mosag isn't exactly... the same as us."
"A little Hocus Pocus. Remember this is Dumbledore we're talking about."
"But I was with Dumbledore all the time, they couldn't have switched."
"But they did Potter. When you were flying over the forest towards the school, you were looking up at the Dark Mark. Dumbledore swapped with Mosag, then climbed down a tree into the forest to wait at the edge of the wards for me so we could apparate here. Meanwhile you and Mosag arrived at the tower and I killed her, thereby convincing you and the Death Eaters I was on their side, as no one had anyway of knowing I wasn't. I told the Dark Lord Dumbledore was hiding a weapon here, but I couldn't speak of it. I came here with Dumbledore under the pretence of finding a weapon to kill you, and coming back occasionally with false information or the Dark Lord, but mainly staying here to plan with Dumbledore."
"What were you planning?"
"Dumbledore was assumed dead, I was assumed the ultimate arsehole. We were keeping track of you through the locket you got from that chamber by the sea- Dumbledore put a quick tracker on it while you were fighting the Inferius. We could see what you were doing and knew where you were. We were planning to come in at the last battle and help as it would catch everyone off guard and give us a huge advantage, but we couldn't tell you any of this because you never learned to close your mind!" Snape hit Harry on the back of the head again.
"What the hell are they talking about?" Hermione whispered to Toni.
"I don't know, but it sounds to me like this Mosag chick had a hell of a lot of plastic surgery."
Hermione snorted into her hand. "We'll talk about it later, but can we go now? My legs feel like they died about 10 minutes ago."
"Shh," Toni put her finger to Hermione's lips. "Look," she pointed at Harry and Snape. Harry was still lying on the ground, propped up on his elbows, obviously fascinated by Snape's story. Snape himself was leaning over Harry, still holding the rock in one hand. What neither of them seemed to have noticed was that Snape's other hand was inches from Harry's own.
"If you can believe such a wild story," Snape continued, staring at Harry.
"I believe you," said Harry, staring back at Snape.
"That's the problem with you Gryffindors, always trusting."
"Don't complain. If I didn't believe you I would have tied you up again," smiled Harry. At the same moment Hermione slapped Toni as she appeared to be having over-excitement spasms.
"Oh no, I'm not complaining," said Snape, his mouth attempting a half-hearted twitch.
"We're moments away from the passionate sex," Toni whispered causing Hermione to raise her eyebrows.
"Come on, let's go back to the pub," said Harry, "Toni and Hermione will be wondering if we've been pounded in to the ground yet. You can tell me the rest later."
"They have such little faith," said Snape as they made their way back down the mountain.
Hermione heard a loud noise behind her; she turned from watching Harry and Severus to see Toni banging her head against the nearest tree.
SSSSSSSSS
Harry and Snape entered the pub to a shocked gasp, then a round of applause. They both suddenly found themselves being pulled on to the dance floor and numerous drinks being pushed into their hands (which they couldn't drink because they were being clapped on the back so hard if they had tried to even sip them they would have snapped their teeth)
They spotted Toni and Hermione at the back of the pub and made their way over to them.
"Why are you out of breath?" Harry asked, suspiciously.
"Dancing really takes it out of you," said Hermione. Just at the same time Toni said, "Don't know about you Hermione, but that felt like that guy was eating my face."
Snape raised an eyebrow.
"What? You can pull and dance at the same time," said Toni, "You obviously need to get out more, old man."
If Snape hadn't been an expert at hiding his emotions his jaw would have cracked when it hit the floor. Before he could say anything in his defence Toni had started talking again.
"Anyway, us two are shattered from all that multi-tasking we've been doing, and you to look like you need to loosen up after that fight, so why don't you two go for a dance." It should have been a question, but it came out as more of a statement.
"I don't dance." Snape's tone was just as firm as Toni's had been.
"Well, you were looking pretty good with Hermione earlier," said Toni, raking her eyes over Snape's heavily clothed figure. If his ears hadn't been covered by his hair Hermione would have seen the red tinge and if she had been looking at Harry she would have seen the momentary flash of red in his cheeks. What she did see was a figure wearing a black cloak with a black hood floating past the pub.
For a moment the music seemed to dim, and the glass in her hand stuck to her fingers with cold, then Hermione blinked, and it was gone.
The next thing she knew she was pushed onto the dance floor with Severus once more, and the next morning she didn't remember a thing.
Thanks for the reviews. Let's try to outdo ourselves for the sake of mine and my editor's sanity (We live in crazy houses – we work off praise. It keep us going.)
Please, don't ask me any stupid questions, I won't answer them.
The next update might be a little late, but I will do it as fast as possible. Toodle Pip.