CHAPTER 18

A/N:
Source of Silence: about your question regarding who will be submissive and who will be dominant. Well – if the two of them do end up getting together…maybe they could take turns at being dominant and submissive :-D On the other hand, my friend told me that she had read that dominant people liked to be dominated in bed. Ahem.

Maybe you guys could help both me and Source of Silence out…Who should be the dominant resp. submissive guy?

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Harry went for his next Duelling lesson with trepidation. Snape would be there. Scores of butterflies suddenly began to flap around in his stomach.

"Pull yourself together," he muttered to himself. He opened the door to his classroom. Snape was already there, sitting comfortably in a chair, a long finger playing with a strand of long black hair.

"Wow. Early. Ready to belittle me in front of the student body?" Harry asked him crossly.

"Yes, Potter. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to doing just that."

Harry sighed and sat down next to Snape.

"How's your piano-playing going?" he asked.

"Trying to make small talk with me, Potter?"

"No. I am genuinely interested, especially after hearing you play when the piano was tuned."

Silence. Then:

"I, uh, actually wouldn't mind hearing you play some more."

Snape's black eyes travelled slowly across Harry's face. Harry stared back determinedly.

"I usually don't play to an audience."

"You made an exception in Enchantments. And I wasn't there to witness it."

"I am sure even someone like you must be knowing about sound storage media – the Muggle and the wizarding types. The difference is rather small."

"It's not the same thing. The piano player can't be seen."

Snape inclined his head towards Harry.

"May I ask you something, Potter?" His voice was eerily soft and velvety. Familiar. Close. Confidential.

"Yeah, go ahead," Harry answered, feeling uneasy.

"Are you, as is said in informal parlance nowadays, trying to hit on me?"

Harry went red and left his chair at once.

"Wh-what?"

Snape laughed mockingly.

"Come on, Potter. I am sure you are not as hard of hearing as you pretend to be."

"What makes you ask me such a question?" Harry said, trying to get more time.

Snape rose and came close to Harry, who refused to back away.

"Answering a question with another question is not my preferred line of discourse, Potter."

"Look, I can teach this Duelling class on my own," Harry said furiously.

"Ah now, Potter. Remember that I discussed this with the Headmaster."

"How come he didn't discuss it with me? I am no longer a student!"

"Why don't you ask him that?"

A group of students entered the classroom, and Harry quickly stepped away. They were both silent, Harry trying not to pace up and down while the room filled rapidly. Snape watched him, his mouth curved in a smile which bode no good. As soon as everyone was present, Snape stepped next to Harry and addressed the class, thus undermining Harry's authority.

"I am simply here to watch how you, and especially how, ah, Professor Potter perform."

Harry gritted his teeth and somehow managed to smile lightly at the class. Keeping Snape's words from their last meeting in mind, he made sure to separate friends and pair people together with fellow-students they were not familiar with – he didn't know as yet who didn't get on well with the other.

Snape watched on with narrowed eyes. The lesson went off very well. Harry started with a few theories before moving on to the practical part. There were a few accidents caused by wrong spells or the occasional misaimed jinx, but this was entirely normal and Snape did not interrupt once. Harry heaved a sigh of relief, praised their efforts, told them what to pay attention to and dismissed the class. As they gathered their bags, Harry turned to walk back to his desk and bumped into Snape instead – for the second time during the same week.

"I know your preference for men, Potter, but there is really no need to walk into me in order to expand your flirting strategies," Snape said loudly.

There was a ringing silence in the classroom. Students stopped what they were doing and stared, looking from Snape to Harry and back.

Harry went pale with fury. He rounded on the class.

"I said that the lesson was over."

A rapid shuffling and scuffling ensued. The students hurried away, leaving Harry and Snape face to face.

"Right," Harry said in a low angry voice. "Thank you for exposing me like that. Thank you so much. I thought we were starting to get along together. You know, I could have told the class that you prefer young wizards in their twenties. Lucifer was the name, wasn't it?"

"And you didn't do it. You're supposed to be a Gryffindor, Potter. Where's that bravery?"

Harry's eyes flashed.

"Yes. I could have exposed you. Except that I didn't want to sink to your level of the bad taste you just displayed."

"How noble, Potter. True. That is a Gryffindor trait. I am sure you know that there is nothing…wrong…with your preferences," Snape said, clearly enjoying Harry's anger.

"But not everyone views it that way, damn it! There's homophobia everywhere, Muggle world, magical world – everywhere! You can be sure that it'll be splashed over the newspapers the next day!"

Snape cupped Harry's chin in his hand.

"Potter, you are famous. Be happy that another wave of attention is coming your way."

He released Harry.

Harry stared at him, his eyes suddenly stinging with tears.

"And…I was hoping we could put aside our differences. I was even hoping that…we could become friends…"

Snape's smile faded and he turned his eyes away from Harry's face abruptly.

"Why did you do it, Severus? Why did you…out me like this?"

Snape began to laugh.

"Famous Harry Potter. Professor Potter," he spat. "I'm sick of it. Everything just falls into your lap, doesn't it?"

"You did it because you're jealous? That has to be the stupidest joke I have ever heard!" Harry shouted. "You know that I've not had a fairytale life! Tell me, who would want Voldemort as an enemy? If you're sick of my fame, then you ought to know that I've always been sick of it as well!"

He gave Snape a hard stare before picking up his bag.

"I was beginning to appreciate certain traits of yours. Fuck you, why did you have to smash up our truce?"

He stamped out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him.

Harry's fears were right. The very next day, The Daily Prophet bore the crushing headlines: HARRY POTTER OUTED AS GAY: SHOCK FOR WIZARDING WORLD!

Harry flung down the paper and glared at Snape at the staff table.

"This is your doing, Severus. Thanks a million!" he hissed.

Dumbledore suddenly looked very tired.

"Severus, Harry, please come to my office before dinner."

The session in Dumbledore's office was one of the most humiliating ones Harry had ever undergone; but it was Snape in whom Dumbledore was principally disappointed.

"It is best if the Duelling Club is shut down and the project scrapped," Dumbledore concluded. "I have realised that there is no way you two are ever going to put your differences aside. Severus, you are obviously never ever going to let go of the past. I was mistaken in my optimism. Mea culpa, gentlemen. I don't wish to dismiss either of you. Therefore, you and I and the rest of Hogwarts will just have to manage with your conflict. Good night."

His gaze was sad as he got up slowly and went into an inner room, quietly shutting the door. Fawkes, too, left his perch, thus showing his disapproval about the whole situation.

Snape and Harry didn't dare exchange any glances or words.

They retired to their respective beds, ashamed, unhappy and confused.

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