Rauma: How long has it been? Sorry. btw. to Snarky B. Whoever you are, grow up and pull the stick outta yo' ass, I'm a Canadian girl, who is 16 now and well you're dumb lol I hate ignorant frozen-hearted people like you who can't see the passion I put into working on my story. Also, you're a racist-fuckface.

Chapter Six:

The Truth Hurts Like A ....

'All I want to do is lie here forever' thought Harry.

The stars and moon were twinkling and the lion looked down at the professor. The man had his eyes closed. The nighttime air was filled with the scent of green grass, flowers and what seemed to be a soft cologne mixed with the musty smell of a hard worked man. Harry love it and it sent a chillingly warm ripple across his fur. Harry love the way the smell entered his nose and filled him with a calmness and serenity that he was starting to only recognize it as his time with Severus Snape. Then, the man lying against him stirred, as though he was being forced to get up when he'd rather sleep in. He raised his whole upper body off Harry so that Harry could still feel him but not the pressure. Then the older man gave up like it took too much out of him and fell back against the lion.

XXX

'There is a time when some is too much and there are situations when one cannot judge to the extent that their usual self would rationalize situation such as this, that is a description of intoxication, then again, that damned four-lettered word can also go under the heading of intoxication, I am NOT intoxicated...'

Severus blinked once and recalled the night in the past night as though to remember them forever. It may have not been spent in the most human of company, but Severus himself hadn't felt human at all the last few hours neither.

XXX

"It's late Potter, we have to get inside" said Snape. Snape, with a heave and a groan, got up and gave the leash a small tug. Harry got up and stretched.

'Alright, although it's not like I want to' said Harry and as he did, a feeling awoke somewhere in him. Like wakening from a dream that you'd so badly want to remember but even for the life of you, you can't. It almost felt, like there was a cool wind blowing inside his body, making the ground beneath his feet even more velvety smooth. It made everything in that moment okay.

Then again, when you remember a dream and it's not about something you should be dreaming about...

'Wait a minute Harry, that's SNAPE, GREASEBALLIN GIT WITH A POTIONS KIT! Pull yourself together' roared Harry to himself. Snape had been jolted by the sudden freakout of the Potter/lion and was knocked to the ground by the young but strong teenage feline.

"What in the name of Merlin's cat are you going nuts for?! Calm down Potter!" said Snape. His hair was in his face and he pulled a face at the lion.

Harry seemed to catch himself and started to walk, though shaken by his recent thoughts, back up to the castle. Instead, he watched his and Snape's shadows and silhouettes against the starry, moonlit night. The sun was going to come up soon and Harry sensed it. The world around him was waking up from either sleep or a trance that the night's beauty had settled upon them. Now everything was waking up. Fresh for another day's survival and search for food, love, territory and fun. Harry felt the creatures around him in the forest and closer lift their energy up and shaking the night's sleepy spell off them like snowflakes. For Harry, this was all so much, it gave him energy again.

Harry disregarded his feelings before and assumed they were as the same type of what he had just experienced.

In the entrance hall they were taken aback. For it was McGonagall walking briskly towards them. Her face told them it was grim news.

"Professor Snape, I've been meaning to speak with you" said McGonagall as she came walking quickly towards the two.

"Yes Minerva? -," Snape looked down to Harry, "Potter, I'm going to leave now, go off and, well, just don't get your fur caught in something"

'I guess I'll keep my poofarama away from the clockwork then eh?' said Harry as Snape un-hooked the leash. Harry went off. Snape stared after the lion, obsidian eyes contemplating a foggy future...

XXX

Once the nosy little lion was gone around the corner...

"So what is this about Minerva?" asked Severus. He whipped around so that his billowing cloak swirled gracefully around his body. He towered over Minerva, yet the way she smiled made Severus feel about two inches taller. She gave a small smile to the ground that told him that the news didn't bode well. He shook the black hair out of his face. All the while scowling like nobody's business.

"Well, on the nice side, the Headmaster has managed to find someone who knows a fair bit about Wyverns" she said. Severus looked at a picture on the wall of a wizard giving a fairy a piece of apple, finding it quite interesting as this piece of information wasn't agreeable to him for some reason. He felt like the rug was being pulled out from beneath his very feet. The air around him was getting uncomfortably hot. There was a knot of fear, and pure loathing and...sadness forming in his throat. Making it painful to swallow and talk.

"Uh...excuse me Professor, I have to uh- go find the boy and tell him the news" stammered Severus. The knot was getting painful that he felt that he was going to choke.

"Oh alright go on then, are you alright? You look feverish, are you sick?" asked Minerva. Severus managed to choke out,

"I'm fine!" as he went around the corner.

Severus ran all the way down the corridor and ran all the way out of the castle.

XXX

'Stupid centaurs, it's not their forest' growled a disgruntled Harry after being chased to the outskirts of the forbidden forest after having a sniff at a centaur yearling.

"Aggh!" yelled a voice from not far off.

'What the? What now?' wondered Harry, though to satisfy his curiosity, he ambled off to find the person.

Once he got there he saw that Snape was standing there, holding a bit of his ripped robes that had obviously snagged on some branches nearby. There was something different though. Snape looked like a lost man, and his hair was windswept and he was breathing heavy. Like he had just run a mile. Harry scented out salty tears. Had Snape been crying?

'Why would the grumpy bugger be crying?'

"Merlin I hate you Potter" said Snape in a ragged voice. Harry put his head down as though he had been spotted, but he knew and saw that Snape had not. There was a hollow feeling in Harry, he'd found out something he never needed to know. Then the booming came, like a the boom before the cracking, splitting lightning in a dark storm. At first slow, then building up and louder and louder. His breathing slowed and came in small bursts like a small spark of a fuse in the dark.

It hurt more than he would've thought when Snape said those words. The pain and rage passed over Harry like an angry wave upon a wizened rock. Only the hollow void of loneliness was left, Harry had always felt lonely, but not now, as he felt he wanted to protect and be protected. It was gone, wished away, willed away and destroyed.

He should have known better, Snape would never change, he'll never open up. Noone will ever get on the vulnerable inside that made him who he was. He wouldn't be Snape then, he'd be the man that Harry thought he'd been with the past few days.

Apparently not.

'I'll keep on walking then' thought Harry. He went off silently, brooding over the harsh, unexpected words. Harry then ran far away from Snape, so he couldn't hear or smell the very man who had just absolutely crushed him.

And his heart. The truth had been revealed as soon as Snape said those final words. As final as death, Harry knew he had feelings for Snape. Feelings that passed his understanding and entered into a place where you don't understand your feelings, you can't.

You can only feel them, and the truth hurts. Harry walked back to the castle.

XXX

'Why?.....The boy is at least ten years my junior, he's just some scrawny little boy with a half-witted mind and stupider friends' thought Severus angrily.

The feelings wouldn't go away though. The wrenching sadness in his stomach, like a rock dragging him ever downwards into a pit of sorrow. This boy, this teen, could make him feel such emotion just at the mention of him not able to be around anymore.

"Well of course he'll still be around" said Severus to himself, but some obscene little voice coming from somewhere in his mind shot back.

'but just not around you anymore'

The very minute the voice said its part, another thought came just as vexing as the last.

'The Boy Who Left.....for good?'

"No" said Severus to himself. The words came out of his mouth, yet his mind didn't follow. Severus walked back up to the castle, looking up at the stars as wish he could disappear like them with the rising sun. He wouldn't have to face the truth.

'No, not going to happen, won't do it, can't happen, he doesn't even feel the same'

'He couldn't...'

Severus walked down the stairs to the dungeon.