I am posting this ahead of time because I plan on spending a week with the next chapter and want to solely focus on just it. Here you go as a gift, this chapter is early! Sorry for any mistakes I may have glossed over, but I think I managed to catch them all.

000ooo000ooo

The next week went by smoothly. Not much of sorts happened as it progressed without commotion other than Snape's snarky comments during their lessons. Harry had done as Snape requested while at home and read the books he was instructed to read. He found "Social Dimensions; Cause for Foe", to be less interesting then he had hoped, but none the less it was informative towards his career. It's context educated the reader about all angles of how a person could be shaped from society, and ways in which their course in the future could be altered just by their city or even their financial situation at an early age.

It was essentially speculation, but it made damn good sense.

When he and Snape had met for their second meeting, they primarily focused their discussion on financial influences on Wizards and Muggles. During their discussion, Snape brought up the Malfoys and compared them opposite end of the spectrum- the Weasley's. Since the time Harry had met Ron, he was always aware of his tight budget which included his secondhand books and supplies, and his hand-me down clothes. Even his pet rat Scabbers had the appearance of worn use.

Harry was at first skeptical to have a conversation about his best friend's lack of wealth during his childhood, but found that for once it went without being slandered. Snape had actually brought up that the values which Ron carried within him (bravery was even mentioned to his own astonishment) had to do with the beginning of his financial status. His parents unconsciously taught him that wealth was not of importance and he likely sought to find values within himself, where as Draco Malfoy relied on money for a value which his parents sought him to understand. So when put in dire situations to stand up for himself and his beliefs, he had no grounds to fall back upon.

For the second time in Harry's life he realized he actually admired the man and his wisdom. There was much more that was beneath the dark 'greasy' hair that curtained his face.

Aside from that conversation, not much else had progressed within his training, but they were off to a good start. Their second meeting of course involved the same tone of disrespect from Snape, but for as much as he actually taught Harry, it was worth it.

Later when Harry had gone home after their first meeting, he found the book which Snape had instructed him to read was about the Nazi era. This subject Harry had been aware of from his History lessons in school prior to Hogwarts, but he questioned the reason Snape had wanted him to study this book. Snape though, refused to get into a conversation about it whenever Harry tried to bring it up.

Snape would usually retort, "Nevermind that now-" or "Onto the next subject-" without giving Harry any reasoning as to why he was instructed the specific novel. But regardless, he read the first quarter of it anyways and slowly tried to take meaning upon the book. It was ultimately straight-forward though.

The savior of the Wizarding world stood before himself in his reflection in the bathroom. He analyzed his features and observed the calm expression his face wore when he was relaxed. Lifting a finger to his forehead, he brushed the scar and softly smiled. If only Derrick knew the true meaning of the scar.

Tomorrow was the anniversary to their one year relationship. Harry anxiously planned the event surrounding his plan to come forth with his true identity- a Wizard. At this point he was still unsure how Derrick would react and at times considered waiting another year before telling him. But despite the sinking feeling in his gut, he knew he had to reveal himself.

Derrick was by far the best person to come into his life. Their wasn't a quality about him which bothered Harry. He was very kind and always listened to him. Their sex life was fantastic, and at that Derrick was Harry's first and only person he had made love to.

Both shared a lot of the same interests, such as sports. Though, Harry's sport that he had in mind was exceptionally different, he was still able to convince Derrick that he enjoyed watching the same amount of football and soccer. Sadly though, that meant he was forced to watch it on television, and neither sports were as exciting as Quidditch. In fact, it made him miss his favored sport more than he had willingly admitted to himself. He would give anything to show Derrick his talent on a broom. But at this, he knew how foolish it would seem to a Muggle.

Harry turned on the sink and splashed the cool water on his face. It was the weekend and he had the day to himself as Derrick was away visiting his mother. Derrick had left the night before since the distance to travel was so far. He always left in the evenings and would return the evening of Sunday. This weekend though, Derrick promised to return home before afternoon so they could celebrate their one year together.

Harry finished rinsing the night away and used the towel to dry the droplets from his face. Stepping into his room, he stretched his arms above his head and glanced around. He optioned that he could take to reading some more rather than do nothing at all.

Harry strode over to the bedside table in his room and sorted through the stack of novels. He had cast a charm upon the Wizarding books to turn their contents into fiction literature. All he had to say was a simple incantation and the books would reveal their true contents for him to read when Derrick was not around. Immediately when Harry would set the book down, it would return to it's secret form.

Sitting on the edge of the bed he chose the book which was titled 'The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald'. From the outside it looked like an original piece of American literature. The pages were thick and frayed along the edges. Brown binding for the cover was still in great shape, but the unique antiquness was easily noticable.

"Librumque revelare," he breathed.

The book's front lettering immediately changed to the Wizarding literature about History. He opened to the bookmarked page he had last left off from and carried on in hopes to read more than a chapter for once.

Some time had passed while he flipped through the pages in silence. For the first time he was completely content with placing his mind elsewhere within the book since the thought of his plan the next day gave him an immense sense of discomfort.

Harry flipped the next page over and saw a piece of paper fall onto the floor. He knelt down to pick it up and momentarily pondered if it would be nosy for him to read it. Snape probably wasn't even aware he had left it in his book, likely this was a long forgotton bookmark. The letter was folded up neatly and hardly fit in his hand. No one would notice if it were opened and then refolded. Harry sighed as he decided against reading it and so set the folded paper on the table.

Focusing back to his reading he picked up from where he had left off at. A minute had gone by before he realized he had been reading the same sentence multiple times. He bit his lip anxiously and looked back at the letter. Harry knew it had been tempting his thoughts away from studying.

Consequently, every time he had looked into Snape's personal life, he had always found out something prodigious which Snape hid from the world. The last time he had intruded on Snape's personal life had been at his home which led him to discover the man was interested in men, and had once fancied a particular lover. The time before that he had come to find out that his own father, Lupin and Serius were nothing but bullies and tormented the man, calling him "Snivelous" while they were students at Hogwarts. And with that, he had watched a scene of Snape as a child cowering down- frightened of his own father.

No, he would not look this time. With his luck, if he were to read it Snape would use legilimens and see right into his treachury. He had come so far not to distrupt their newly founded "friendship", if you could call it that.

He forced his eyes to pry away from the letter and back to the book. Immediately his eyes betrayed him and wandered back to the folded... notebook paper?

All of the letters he had seen from Snape were written on parchment. And at that, he wasn't sure he had ever seen notebook paper used in the Wizarding world. He considered the temptation. Maybe if he never gave Snape the reason to use legilimacy it wouldn't be an issue.

Taking a deep breath and feeling the pounding of his heart, Harry picked up the letter and began unfolding it on top of the opened book. Once it was unfolded, his heart jumped in his throat when he saw it wasn't titled to Severus, it was titled to himself- Harry. Had Snape slipped a letter for him to read?

His eyes narrowed as he immediately looked at the signature... Derrick.

Dear Harry,

I have something that I want to talk to you about but I can only think of doing it this way. I realize that for the last year you have been beyond an incredible person.I was not looking for a relationship when I met you and I honestly wasn't planning on this going on for so long. I feel selfish that I have stolen a year of your life, time and love away from the world. There are so many great memories with you and I feel that in our relationship I had found myself a great friend. I think for my own selfish reasons I kept you at home with me because you made me feel better when I would feel down when no one else was around. I hate to tell you this, and it is horrible that I do it this way, but I have been seeing someone else for some time. We started out great in the beginning but I think we fell apart sometime in the middle. I didn't plan on this, but I have become much closer with the other person than I had ever planned. It's not you though Harry, it's always me in my messed up world. You know I am horrible at talking about my feelings and emotions, and each time I tried I couldn't get the words out. I am hoping you find this soon, so I put it in the books you are reading for Mrs. Figg. Please, when you find this, you can leave me a message on my voicemail and I will be sure to not return home until I can come get my things when you go to work.

I can't help but get the sinking feeling there is more to you so I am doing this so you can find that for yourself.

Sincerely,

Derrick.

The only sound that came from the room was the thud on the floor and wrinkling of pages. A book lay on the floor, the title "The Great Gatsby", lay facing upwards.

ooooo Snape's Perspective ooooo

Snape woke in the morning with a feeling of apprehension in his stomach. He couldn't gather an idea of what gave him this feeling, but regardless he pushed the feeling aside and rose to his feet. His warm bed beckoned his return, but his betrayal to get the day started was much stronger. The mornings had ever so grown cold calling him to start the fire in the fireplace before attending to his morning routine.

Once he had poured himself his cup of coffee, he then went to the room which was now warmed from the heat of the flames.

Relaxed in his chair with the heat of the flames dancing upon his body, Snape felt the dosing of his eyes toying with him to return to sleep. This urged him to drink his coffee and settle his attention with the rising sun just behind the trees. Frost covered most of the ground and the remaining of leaves upon the branches. Mounds of dead orange and yellow covered the ground.

Time seemed to move slowly this morning. He looked to the clock, 5:48.

His thoughts drifted to Potter. Their last lesson had gone particularly well, which honestly surprised him though he knew it shouldn't of. Any person who had spent three years of their life dedicated towards a career would have the motivation to be interested in various, but relative subjects. Unfortunately Potter's past track record regarding school had given him a bad reputation, but it was easy to see he really was enthusiastic about being an Auror now that Snape had witnessed it first hand.

He was intrigued with the young man for several of the comments he made during their discussion actually showed he had a pinch of intelligence.

A mere pinch, but something insightful was behind his scarred forehead.

Snape lifted the steaming mug to his mouth and looked at the clock from the corner of his eyes, 5:55.

Surely he did not miss Potter run by? Perhaps the man was late this morning. Possibly sick?

He shook the thought away considering that he had never known Potter to miss school from anything that wasn't related to being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They had a lesson in hours so if Potter were sick, he would of sent an owl by now. He decided that the man must be late and would run by any time.

But Potter never ran by. After an hour had passed he knew for certain to stop wondering if he would.

Snape found himself growing uneasy. He was a man of routine, and this was in fact part of the routine. Potter would run by and he would grumble to himself and pretend the man didn't exist. It was as simple as that.

He almost laughed out loud to himself at the thought of realizing that the absence of Potter, distraught him just as much as his appearance did in the beginning. Though once their lesson came about today, life would return the same and his vacation would be at complete peace once their training was complete. This moment would be a mere memory in Snape's head that he would never let on to anyone else, that he actually concerned for Harry Potter over a mere incident of him not running in the morning.

No, he would never admit it. He cared not for the boy.

000ooo000ooo

Hey guys, thanks for keeping up with this if you have been!

I finally got my keyboard in the mail and am happily typing once again. This week was really challenging for me because it was one of those where 'one-thing-right-after-another' happens. My keyboard broke (this is pretty big for me since I have online classes), my car was broken into and to replace everything cost me about $100. The same day I had to buy new car insurance and found out that because we were hit by a drunk driver last year that we cant get the best deals because of how picky the companies are. It was a little bit of a let down but what can you do? And then last night my newer tv decided to go poo for no reason. Gahh. I cant win this week lol.

Enough about me though, I just needed a quick vent.

Thanks for your time, I appreciate everyone's kind thoughts and encouragement!