In detention the following week, Alice managed to avoid talking about anything personal. Severus was frustrated with her stubbornness but decided it would do no good to force her; all he could do was try to show her that she had his support and keep a close eye on her. And so Severus had her help him brew potions for the hospital wing, and as they worked he drew her into casual conversation about other things - the potions, her classwork, never anything too serious.
This pattern continued every Friday for several weeks. Severus found he enjoyed working with the girl – he had taught so many dunderheads over the years that he was usually satisfied if his students could simply follow basic instructions and produce passable potions. It was rare to have a student who understood the theory behind the brewing and could ask intelligent questions and make educated suggestions.
It was during one of these detentions that Harry Potter stopped by the potions lab unexpectedly and asked to borrow a book. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were busy, but I'm trying to work on some lesson plans and that book would be a big help," Harry said.
"Really, Potter, I find it terribly sad that you have nothing better to do on a Friday evening than work on lesson plans."
Harry blushed, hoping the Potions Master had seen through Harry's excuse for coming to see him. "Well at least I'm not spending my Friday doing … what exactly are you two doing?" Harry answered, looking at Alice curiously.
"Ms. Murphy is here serving a detention, I'm sure you're familiar with the concept."
"I seem to remember my detentions involving a lot more cauldron scrubbing."
"Yes, Potter, but Ms. Murphy is a far better Potions student than you ever were and her help is actually useful to me." Severus turned to Alice and said, "I will be gone just a moment to retrieve the book for Professor Potter. I am trusting you to keep a close eye on him and not allow him to move a single step further into this room. He is a walking disaster in potions lab and I do not want any explosions."
Alice had watched all this, silent and wide-eyed, a bit stunned by the praise as well as the comfortable banter between the two professors. Now, as Severus swept out of the room, she looked nervously at Professor Potter.
"He was joking, you know," Harry said. "I mean, I really was abysmal in Potions and he certainly will murder me if I touch anything in here, but he doesn't really expect you to guard the room." Harry grinned at the girl, who smiled tentatively back at him. "I mean what could he expect you to do really, tackle me if I make a move towards a cauldron?"
Alice pulled out her wand and cast a shield charm that the young DADA professor had taught her class just that week. She expanded the shield around the entire room, bending it around the professor to leave him a small crescent of space to stand against the door.
Harry chucked and said, "Very good, Ms. Murphy, I'm impressed. It's good to know you were paying attention in class." Harry could of course break through this shield easily enough if he wanted to, but the girl had made her point that she was willing to defend the lab if necessary.
Severus reappeared in the doorway behind Harry and smirked as he took in the scene before him. Alice quickly dropped the shield when she saw the Potions professor. "I see you kept Potter in line, Ms. Murphy. Ten points to Ravenclaw for a job well done." Still smirking, he handed the book to Harry and sent him on his way.
xxxXXXxxx
Outside of detention, Severus kept as close an eye on Alice as he could and he continued to worry. Now that he was watching closely, he noticed the girl was often absent from breakfast in the Great Hall and several times she arrived to his morning Potions class only barely on time. She looked tired all the time; most Fridays after her 'detentions' they shared a cup of tea in his quarters and she ended up falling asleep on his couch. And while her classwork was still excellent it was not quite up to her usual standards. While she appeared as usual to the casual observer, Severus felt that she was beginning to show more and more signs of strain and he feared she would soon reach a breaking point.
That point came on a Wednesday night in early November. Severus Snape and Harry Potter were sitting in matching armchairs in Severus' private quarters, grading papers in comfortable silence. Severus wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but this had become something of a routine between them since Potter had returned to Hogwarts to teach Defense the year before. Somehow, Potter had invited himself in and Severus had never quite gotten around to uninviting him. He would never in a thousand years admit it, but he had come to enjoy Potter's company.
Severus was in the middle of scrawling scathing comments on a particularly atrocious third year essay when a loud buzzer sounded in his ear. It took him a moment to realize what the sound meant, then Severus was racing for the door, not noticing as his stack of essays scattered across the floor. "I must go, see yourself out," he snapped at Potter.
"Wait!" Harry cried. "Do you need any help?" Harry couldn't imagine what would induce the suspicious Potions Master to leave him unsupervised in his private quarters.
Severus paused for an instant, surprised by the offer. "I don't believe so, but I will send a message to you if that changes." Then Severus turned and ran.
He found Alice at the top of the Astronomy Tower, staring out into the darkness with a bleak look as the wind whipped through her dark hair. She hadn't noticed his approach and jumped when he spoke her name from his place at her shoulder.
"Professor Snape! I'm sorry, I know I'm not supposed to be up here."
"Alice, are you okay?" It didn't seem to be quite the crisis he had pictured, and Severus felt a bit calmer.
"What? I'm fine, sir."
"Alice, what do you think brought me up here just now?" He had told her early on about the monitoring charms he had placed on her. "I don't believe for a moment that you have been 'fine' all term, but it wasn't until tonight that something triggered my monitors."
"Oh. Well I wasn't going to jump or anything if that's what you're thinking. I mean I may have thought about it in an abstract sort of way but I would never do something like that." Severus just stared at her, not convinced, so she continued. "Even if things kind of suck right now, I've always believed that the future will be better, that things will be different. Of course, it hasn't been true so far, but I've never stopped hoping." She smiled at him, but it was full of bitterness.
"Hope is a precious thing, but it can be difficult to live on hope alone. How are things in the here and now?" Severus asked softly.
The darkness and the wind made Alice feel a little wild and somehow it was easier to be bolder and more honest. "Not so great. Everything is hard this year. I want to stop thinking about what happened but I can't. My stepfather … he's been sending me letters. He goes on and on about everything he did to me and how he can't wait to see me again. He's trying to force me to come home for Christmas."
"Alice, I wish you could have trusted me with this sooner rather than worrying over it. I really do want to help you. Even if you won't admit what happened to the authorities, I can keep you from having to go back for Christmas and I can stop his letters from reaching you."
"Richard says that since he's my guardian no one can stop him from insisting I come home for Christmas. I won't be 17 until spring."
"That may be true legally speaking, but I can't imagine he will call in the authorities on the matter. I can simply inform him that you need to remain at Hogwarts to complete a special Potions project. I don't believe I will have any difficulty convincing him." Severus wouldn't tell the girl, but he would relish a chance to threaten the man. "Can you trust me to take care of this, please?"
Alice was still doubtful, but it was worth a try. "All right, thank you."
"Do you still have his most recent letter?"
Alice pulled a letter from her pocket and handed it to the professor. "This came today," she said.
Severus suspected the girl's distress over the letter had been what triggered his monitoring charms. When Severus opened the letter, it contained an innocuous note inquiring about the girl's studies and asking politely about her plans for Christmas. It looked like a perfectly ordinary note from a caring guardian. It took Severus only a few moments to break the spells on the paper, allowing him to read the true message. It contained shockingly graphic reminiscences of the events of the summer and threats for the future that made Severus shake with rage. The man was truly a monster and Severus could think of several suitable curses he would love a chance to use on him, but for now he would stick to threats and work on convincing the girl to turn the man in to Magical Law Enforcement.
"I do believe you will feel better once you are no longer receiving this poison," Severus said after reading through the letter, "but you and I are going to talk a great deal more than we have been about what has been troubling you this term. I have left you alone with your thoughts for too long and you are too isolated. I am not averse to assigning you more detentions if you will not come see me willingly." Severus raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"I don't think that will be necessary, sir," Alice replied. "I'll come."
xxxXXXxxx
After that night, Alice began visiting the Potions Master's office several times a week to talk, in addition to the weekly detentions. Severus had no success convincing Alice to talk to someone more qualified about her problems, but he consulted a number of Muggle psychology books to help muddle his way through. He also shared more with her about his own childhood than he ever had before. Severus felt completely unqualified to help the girl, but she did seem to be doing better. She was certainly sleeping better and seemed better able to focus on her schoolwork.
It was almost December, several weeks after this breakthrough, when Severus obtained Alice's permission to invite Harry Potter to join the two of them for tea. He thought letting another person in on her secrets might help Alice to eventually admit what had happened to others. And while Potter was no more qualified to counsel abuse victims than he was, Severus thought he could provide a unique perspective based on his own experiences.
"I brought Professor Potter here to help make my point. All of us here suffered abuse at the hands of our families, and I want you to see that this doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with you or that you are doomed to a life of failure. Potter here was starved and kept locked in a cupboard by his aunt and uncle, and he turned out to be the hero of the wizarding world and the youngest professor in Hogwarts history. And while I am perhaps not the best role model, I am at least gainfully employed and not in Azkaban."
"Don't be ridiculous, Severus, you're the hero here," Harry said, embarrassed. "He's right about some things though," Harry said to Alice. "Some people are just shitty human beings and our relatives happened to be some of them. It doesn't say anything about you and it certainly wasn't your fault. And they say living well is the best revenge and all that."
So Harry became a regular participant in some of their meetings, although never the ones that involved potions. Since he was closer to her age, it was easier for him to be more of a friend than a professor to Alice. He also arranged in his classes for her to work with another girl he thought would be friendly to her. "I didn't know how to make friends when I first came to Hogwarts," Harry told Alice one day. "I was just lucky I stumbled into meeting Ron on the train. What I don't think is obvious from your side of things is that shyness is often taken for aloofness and if people think you aren't interested in being friends with them, eventually they'll stop trying. There's no way around it; you have be willing to take a risk and just ask to be included."
It was terrifying, but Alice worked up her courage enough to ask another Ravenclaw sixth year, Hannah Meyer, if she wanted to study together. To her surprise, the girl was immediately receptive to her overture, and Alice soon found herself invited to all manner of group study sessions and Hogsmeade outings. Hannah became her closest friend of the group over the next several months and Alice told her little bits and pieces about her past, explaining why she had been so reserved over the years.
"I always kind of thought you just didn't like any of us," Hannah said to Alice after one of these admissions. "Back when we first started school, we would ask you to do things with us and you would always refuse so eventually I guess we just accepted it."
"I can see that now, but at the time I was just very shy and I couldn't see why anyone would want to be friends with me. I didn't want anyone to find out about my family either."
"Well I'm glad you came around. I think you're all right. And since you're so friendly with Professor Snape you can keep him from being too hard on us in Potions," Hannah said with a grin.
Alice laughed and said, "Don't get your hopes up, I don't think anyone could manage that."
xxxXXXxxx
There was a Valentine's Day ball that year, part of an ongoing postwar effort to 'brighten up the student's spirts.' To Harry and Severus the whole thing was a rather sickening reminder of the Gilderoy Lockhart debacle, but Alice was excited to be attending with her new friends. She met the two professors in the halls before the ball – both had volunteered to patrol the halls in order to avoid being forced to attend the actual event.
"You look very nice, Alice," Harry said. "I hope you enjoy yourself."
"Do you really think so?" she asked shyly. "I feel a bit silly." She was wearing dress robes in a bright turquoise blue and was wearing her dark, wavy hair down instead of in its usual messy ponytail.
"You look lovely," Severus assured her. "Of course, you probably shouldn't take the opinion of two gay men too seriously when it comes to female beauty."
Harry blushed bright red. He hadn't even been sure Severus was gay, and hadn't known Severus knew he was, so he was completely shocked to hear the other man mention it so casually. There was a long, tense moment of silence between the two men, then Severus said, "I have wayward students to terrify and house points to take. Enjoy your evening, Alice." He turned and strode away, leaving a stunned Harry behind.
xxxXXXxxx
By the beginning of April, Alice felt life was going pretty brilliantly, well enough to turn her attention to something else that had been bothering her for a while. She still had regular meetings with the two professors where they talked about anything and everything, and she still helped Severus brew potions at least once a week even though her detention sentence had long since expired. She had never been busier, but she had also never been happier. Severus had become almost a father figure to her, and Harry was like an older brother. Alice had a strong suspicion, however, that their feeling for each other were not so platonic. In fact, she was quite sure of Harry's feelings for the older man. Severus, as always, was harder to read, but Alice felt a growing tension between the two of them whenever they were together and she felt she would go mad if they didn't do anything about it soon.
She approached Harry first, alone in his office after class. "Harry, when are you going to tell Severus you're in love with him?"
Harry stared at her, stunned. "You know, I almost miss the days when you were too shy to speak outside of class," he joked. "What gave you that crazy idea?"
"Don't play dumb, it's obvious. And I'm pretty dense about that sort of thing so if it's obvious to me it must be really obvious."
"All right, I hope it's not that clear to anyone else but I'll admit it. But I'm really not planning to tell him. I think it's utterly hopeless, don't you?"
"No I don't think it's hopeless. He clearly likes you a great deal, I just can't tell if it's just friendly or something more."
Harry scoffed at this. "He only barely tolerates me."
"Really, you are a bit dense. You think he only 'tolerates' you spending half the evenings each week with him? And he only tolerates talking with you at every meal, even though he never used to speak more than a few words to anyone at meals?"
"Well maybe you have a point, but what am I supposed to do about it?"
"I thought you were a Gryffindor, Harry. A true Gryffindor would do something bold and courageous and not be a pansy about it." Alice gave Harry the same raised-eyebrow look Severus often used to make his point. Harry felt the two of them were getting to be entirely too similar.
"I suppose you're right," Harry said with a sigh. "I'll have to turn in my Gryffindor membership card if I keep up with this much longer."
xxxXXXxxx
Alice was slightly more subtle in her approach with Severus later that same day. "I think Harry has a crush on someone," she told Severus.
"What on earth makes you think I'd be interested in discussing Potter's love life?" Severus answered.
"He's your friend isn't he? Most of what I know about personal relationships I learned from you so I may be hopelessly confused, but I think people generally express some interest in their friend's lives?"
Anyone else would have been shocked by the warm smile on the Potions Master's face. "I think you're doing just fine on the personal relationship front," he said. He had grown very fond of the girl over the last few months, and so he tried to humor her. "What about Potter?"
"He asked me for my advice," Alice fibbed. "He wanted to know what I thought a person should do if they liked someone - just go for it and hope for the best or try to be sure they returned your feelings first."
"That is an interesting dilemma. What did you tell him?"
"I didn't know what to say. I can't imagine ever being brave enough to even be in that situation."
"Well any Slytherin will tell you that you should always be sure before you act. But Potter is undoubtedly better suited to rushing in blindly, full of Gryffindor courage."
Alice smiled and said, "It seems to me that if everyone were a Slytherin no one would ever get together. Someone has to do the risk-taking."
"Perhaps you're right."
xxxXXXxxx
Alice found Harry still in his office, lost in thought. "I talked to Severus – you're going to have to just go for it."
"What! What did you tell him?"
"I didn't really tell him anything. I posed it as a philosophical question. He said a Slytherin would always have to be sure their feeling were returned before making a move and that a Gryffindor would take a risk and hope for the best."
Harry eyed her suspiciously. "Now that both of you have called my Gryffindor courage into question, I suppose I really will have to do something."
Harry was a straightforward sort and had never been one to waste much time once he had made up his mind to do something. He approached Severus in his rooms the next evening. "Severus, I have to tell you something."
Severus waited silently.
"I've been in love with you for ages and I just can't keep it to myself any longer," Harry said, and then he grabbed Severus by the shoulders and pulled him into a clumsy kiss.
Severus stood stiff and frozen until Harry had just about given up, then he suddenly began to kiss Harry back. Severus took over the kiss, pushing Harry back against the door and pressing against him. When they finally broke apart, Harry said, "Should I take this to mean you don't find me completely repulsive?"
"Yes, Potter, it should be abundantly clear I don't find you repulsive."
"I guess I'll have to thank Alice for this," Harry said.
"Is that what that conversation yesterday was about? She was trying to gauge my feelings for you?"
"I certainly didn't ask her to. She was hounding me about when I was going to say something to you. She actually called me a pansy," Harry replied, still a bit affronted.
Severus actually laughed. "I will definitely have to thank her for that," he said, and then he pulled Harry into another kiss.
A/N: That's the end of my first ever attempt at writing fanfiction. It didn't turn out like I expected and it makes me sick with nerves to imagine anyone reading it, but it was fun to write. I hope someone enjoyed it.