Oh wow I am so amazed to see how many people have already been taking an interest in my story! Thank you so much everyone. I have been investing a lot of thought and time into this. My last story didnt seem to get a lot of attention which I thought was due to my writing style so its nice to see "Love's Reign" gather the attention of many readers.

Thank you to MyEventually, Griffincat and Asphodel21 for your reviews. You guys made me really excited to post this after my long week!

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Harry knocked on the door of Severus Snape's house. He waited as patiently as he could will himself to, all while gazing at a cob web above his head. The spider had a magnificent home that stretched a foot or so long and obviously had been able to feed itself well as it had a particularly large abdomen. Harry amused himself with the idea of how his best friend Ron would react if he were in his own shoes. The diversion of the thought was only momentary relief from the situation as he hoped the door would be open before the spider moved. Harry heard the click of the door and it widely opened up to Severus clad in a black dress shirt and slacks. He looked odd without his usual robes, but Harry could see how it wasn't necessary to wear for their meeting.

Snape immediately noticed Harry flinch at the spider above his head as the vibration of the door moving sent a jolt to it's web "The blasted beast isn't poisonous you fool, hurry inside," he snapped, then stepped aside so Harry could enter into the hallway.

Harry willingly rushed inside the little home. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust but once they did so, the young man ascertained his surroundings. He wasn't surprised to see the sitting area surrounded with numerous bookshelves. It was common knowledge that along with the frank snarkiness of the man- also came a vast knowledge (though it was with great effort that anyone other than from Slytherin would admit this). Leather furniture seemed to be his preference and was placed strategically to face both a brick fireplace and the bay window. Surprisingly, for a man living by himself Snape was rather clean and had the contents about the home organized. Harry noticed the color scheme of the home appeared to consist of browns and dark red.

"Not fond of green and silver, I see?" He implored this with a grin but immediately thought against the comment when a scowl spread across Snape's features.

The older man rolled his eyes then brought his attention to a pile of books upon his entrance table. Harry candidly admired the sureness Snape seemed to have within himself being back in his natural environment- teaching. He opened the top most book and scanned the front page. Harry brought his attention elsewhere while waiting patiently to be addressed in the unfamiliar environment, though he was sure this was tactical of Snape to make him feel as uneasy as possible.

"Our lessons-," his loud voice startled Harry and he flinched at the sound behind him. Snape rolled his eyes yet again but continued, "... If I would of sought to harm you I would of done so a considerable amount of time ago." He snapped the book shut. "As I was saying, our lessons will begin discussing what you have already gone over in training." He motioned for Harry to sit on one of his couches.

Harry nervously sat down on the longest of seats as Snape took the seat of the single chair placing the pile of books next to him on the end table. He felt awkward being in the home of a former Professor, especially the one that had sought to make his 6 years at Hogwarts horrible. He reluctantly recalled the time which Snape had kicked him from his office from looking into the Pensieve which contained some of his worst memories. Harry cringed at the thought and forced himself to change his attention away from his own embarrassing memory.

The Slytherin examined the younger man from across the room as he sat with one leg crossed over the other and rested a finger under his bottom lip. After a vast amount of time he finally said, "Tell me, Potter, what have you covered in the last few years? I am not familiar with Auror training so I reluctantly admit I am at a disadvantage."

Harry who had been nervously shifting on the couch finally found a comfortable spot on the edge of the cushion. He cleared his throat, "Well, in the last three years I have become certified in Tracking, Stealth, Concealment, and have received my certification in antidotes for poisons."

Snape scoffed, "This has taken three years?"

Harry blushed. "It's very thorough studies."

He glared his baring eyes. "Very well then. Anything else?"

"Oh yeah, and some defense."

"How about your history of dark magic? I assume they have touched basis with principles that influence one to chose amongst evils?"

"Well, no sir, not very much has been covered about history." He unconsciously bit his lip.

"Hmm." Snape removed the touch his fingertips from his lips and curiously looked at the bookshelf behind Harry's head. "We will begin with that then." He took out his wand and ordered, "Accio, "Dark Ages Through Wizarding History"". The book zoomed just past Harry's left ear and flew into the man's waiting hand. "This book you will study. I expect you to read front to back within the next week." He set the old book down on top of the others and held his wand to the air again." "Accio, "Social Dimensions; Cause for Foe". Again, another book freed itself from the bookshelf and found its way into Snape's hand with exact precision. "This, you will consider with immense detail. Social conventions are very important to understand while examining what partitions a person good from bad. Whether or not your curriculum imposes on this, it is essential to understand your enemy from all angles."

Harry found himself nodding his head at everything the man said. The extra reading was not preferred, but he couldn't help but feel an excitement to get started on the second of the books.

"Now, what can you tell me about what you know of dark wizards in the past? Are there any similarities you can distinguish?"

Harry rubbed his hands on his knees. "I can name one in particular to be precise," he commented sarcastically.

"Save the humor, Potter."

Harry ignored the annoyance in Snape's voice. "Well there's... Voldemort of course, but uh, beyond him, the fore-runners of dark wizards would include Grindelwald as well, Herpo the Foul and another famous one is Morgan le Fay."

'Mm. Good. What about similarities between the group? What do you think intrigued them with Dark Magic?" Snape brought his hands in front of himself and placed each finger tip together. He looked in deep concentration as his eyes drilled into Harry's.

Green eyes reflected back into Snape's while he pondered the question. "I think power was the main goal which everyone shared."

"Ah, yes, the infinite answer for evil is 'power'. Though this answer hardly dwells into what the group share. Think deeper Potter, abandon ignorance for a change," raved the ex- Death Eater.

Harry immediately tensed with frustration. "Erm, ok then. I guess that their childhoods could be similar-"

"You're getting closer Potter, but this may be obvious now as to why these books are of importance. When you have finished reading you will undoubtedly understand the connection each share. That is, if you abandon your arrogant mind for a change and are willing to accept what is of importance while understanding social dimensions."

"Why do you still hate me so much?" Harry pressed. His comment came without hesitation and very much so contained his irritation.

"I assumed this conversation would have been dead long ago," Snape sneered.

"No it's not dead. You just enjoy constantly accusing me of ignorance and arrogance. It's a common formula with you."

Snape observed him deeper from his chair across the room. He appeared to be taking in the statement with heavier thought- analyzing the truth in the words thrown at him. A long moment of silence went by before Snape muttered, "We will continue with our lesson." He used his wand and forced yet another book fly into his hand. "This book is of my personal preference. You will spend your time reading it slowly, digesting the words, and upon our last lesson we will discuss it."

"What book-?"

"It's name is not relevant to our lesson. This stack of books are all of importance and I expect you to have each partially read by our next meeting. I will focus our meetings on history and the central themes following evil. Next meeting we will discuss this and I expect you to contribute more thought than given today."

Harry silently ground his teeth in frustration.

"I presume you must have a question?"

"No."

"I also expect while in lessons, that though I am fortunately no longer a teacher of yours, I will temporarily remain the right to be addressed as 'sir' or 'professor'.

"Yes, sir." The comment tasted like vinegar. He fully knew Snape's intentions were to get under his skin and purposely tick him the right way for his own personal pleasure.

"Good."

The complete absence of sound took over the room. From the distance beyond the house the sound of a cawing raven could be heard in the distance, reminding the couple of their incapability to keep a conversation moving. Harry's eyes glanced at the clock. "Is their anything else?"

"Perhaps." Snape once again brought his fingertips to his bottom lip. "Tell me Potter, out of all the professions indispensable to "the boy-who-lived", why be an Auror?"

The question had never been thrown at Harry before. Mostly by now- three years into his training, those around him had accepted his inclinations to be one. Though the answer had not been asked before or even considered in what felt like ages, the answer rushed from his lips as it were recited many times. "I just want to make a difference. My whole life I have been essentially fighting against evil and have seen the lives it can take, as well as the lives changed because of dark magic. It's not that I like to fight, because really I can't stand feeling the threat of death, but knowing that I am making a difference to prevent that from happening again or to someone else. makes the thought of being an Auror something I'd pursue to do, no matter the challenges I face in getting there."

Snape frowned, "How "lionhearted"...Potter."

"Yeah, sure I guess it is." He refused to let the sly comment perturb him. He was well enough consciously aware that the efforts of the older man to hinder him or push him to the edge would be in vain as he refused to let himself lose his focus and explode. As much as it took, as hard as he had to try, he would not let the man get under his skin.

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I have to say that I am so sorry this chapter is short! I have been having an off week that started with the keyboard on my laptop breaking which may or may not have involved peppermint schnapps. I should be getting my new one in the mail this week and after that updating will be much smoother for me but I wanted to post at least something since I have had such awesome followers!

Just so this is cleared up, I plan from now on to update every week to two weeks, depending on my workload that week regarding homework. This is a "filler" chapter and I really hate them but they need to be done.

Thank you so much for your time reading this :)