You Can Live: Chapter 21
Alright, so, I have put a poll up on my profile for you to choose which White Collar plot I will do next. If you like that fandom or read my WC stories, please check it out. **(It's a tie! Help me out!)
Again, the rating has changed to M. Heed this, but there will be no graphic descriptions of the sexual abuse.
Also I apologize. The wifi here on vacation is crap and I couldn't update yesterday, though I tried 3 times. :( Anyway, here you go! Finally.
This might make the story seem a bit dark, but I will through in some sunshine and rainbows to give you all, and myself, a break every so often. :)
No slash here, only guardian/ward psuedo-parent/child relationship and friendships.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, except for the plot. I would be able to afford school if that were the case.
Warnings: SEE CHAPTER 1 FOR WARNINGS AND OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES!
Meant for Me
Harry watched Severus in fascination as the man stirred and added ingredients expertly. Every so often he would ask a question of his guardian, or Snape would test him by asking him which ingredient he should add next. It was comfortable and the two of them were completely at ease compared to earlier. Harry didn't even feel any pain, which was always a plus.
"Harry, I must ask." Said boy looked up from the cauldron to Severus's face when the man spoke. "Potion making is not unlike cooking, and as has been noted, you are quite adept at that. Why then did you not do as well in my class?" It wasn't that hard of a question to answer.
"Well, to be honest, I didn't like you all that much, and it seemed that whatever I did in class you would mark me down or insult me. After a while, I just decided I didn't really care. So much other stuff was going on, and it didn't seem too important." Snape nodded his understanding. He had figured it was something like that. "You're book helped though." Severus knew to which book he was referring.
"My old potions book." Harry smirked.
"You were a lot better teacher in writing than in the classroom then. Though this last year you helped me a lot. Thank you, Sir." Snape nodded in welcome but kept his eyes on his cauldron. He was on his last potion at this point, and it happened to be a great deal more difficult than the others, though it was not really all that hard for the potion's master. It just required a bit more focus than the others.
"How are you feeling, Harry? You are not going to faint in my lab are you?" Harry gave him a weak glare at the tease, but then shrugged.
"A lot better than earlier, that's for sure. I feel tired, but in a way that I know I wouldn't possibly be able to sleep, you know? Like I could be exhausted, but I would lay there for hours, not getting a minute of sleep."
"I would give you a sleeping draught tonight, if you hadn't been given all of those other potions by Draco. I would hate to wake up and find you had fallen into a coma from a potion overdose." Severus spoke in a dry humor, but Harry could also tell how serious the man was. He understood.
"That's just fine, Sir. I feel like I've been doing nothing but get into trouble and sleep lately. And then getting into trouble while I sleep." Snape did not like the sharp, self-deprecating edge to Harry's voice.
"Harry-" Snippy popped into the room just then, interrupting Severus.
"Master Harry has a call in the living room fireplace." Harry seemed a bit surprised at that bit of information, but looked to Snape for permission to go upstairs.
"I am nearly done, Mr. Potter. Go answer your call." Harry smiled and carefully took the stairs one at a time, before he was out of the basement and into the living room. He crouched down in front of the fireplace and suddenly Ron's head popped out.
"Harry, Mate, I'm not sure I can do this." His friend seemed frantic, and if possible, Harry would say he looked pale in the fire. However panicked his best mate might be though, Harry did not have any sympathies for him.
"Ron, it's Hermione. You can do it. You two have practically been having a long engagement for about a year now. All you have to do is make it official." Ron blew out a breath, spraying Harry with some ashes, and didn't seem to be calming down at all.
"But, I think Hermione already knows. Knows that I'm going to ask her, I mean." Harry snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Of course she does. It's Hermione. If you don't hurry up and ask her, she's going to get down on one knee and do it herself." Ron's brows pulled up and together in worry at that.
"You're right. But it's just…Mum's always hanging over us or looming in the corner. I can't ever seem to get her alone to ask, and I want it to be perfect. Cause this is Hermione. She deserves perfect, cause she's perfect. And I love her and she's like my best mate besides you and-" Harry huffed out a sigh as his friend babbled on.
"Ron! I get it. What about…would it be easier if you came here? Just the two of you? I could invite you over for dinner, then you could take her out to the garden and pop the question she knows has been coming this entire time. No Mrs. Weasley breathing down your neck, not interruptions. Just don't start snogging out back. The professor wouldn't want you to start swallowing each other in his back yard." Ron beamed in the fire.
"That would be great, Mate!" Harry smiled back.
"Alright. I'll take to Snape and owl you with a day and time. It'll be soon, I promise. Can't keep our girl waiting." Ron nodded.
"Oh, yeah, Harry.." Ron turned a bit unsure. "How are things goin', with him? He apologize?" Harry nodded.
"Yeah, he did. And I did too. This whole thing is…new to both of us, and it's never going to be perfect. But, it's working, and honestly, besides the times I've stayed at the Burrow, this has been the happiest I've ever been living. He's nothing like the Dursleys and actually cares and talks to me. He understands a lot. I'm surprised- I just…I never thought, it was meant for me." Harry didn't hear Severus walking into the doorway behind him, and didn't know that he had heard most of what he had said.
"What wasn't meant for you, Mate?" Harry shrugged, feeling young and small. He had given up dreams of having a family that cared when he was old enough to get the belt (four). Hogwarts was home, but the teachers weren't like parents. Arthur and Molly treated him like a son, but with so many children, he felt like he was just a burden to them.
"Parents. A family. I barely got to know Sirius, but you know how I thought he could be like a father. When I lost him, it was like fate telling me I would never get to have that. Now, though, I feel like I actually have a chance." They were both quiet for a few moments, before Harry shook his head and smiled.
"Sorry if that just took all the sunshine and unicorns out of our conversation." Ron shook his head.
"Nah, Mate. Despite my feelings towards him, he's good for you. Even I can see that." They chatted for a little while longer, and then said their goodbyes. Harry stood when the fire went out and turned to find Severus standing in the doorway. A spike of panic flooded him when he saw him there, worried he had heard him and thought he had crossed a line. However, Severus just smiled at him. (Pretending he had just gotten there)
"Has Mr. Weasley proposed to Ms. Granger yet?" Harry shook his head, and sat on the couch, still facing Severus.
"No, he's panicking. He thinks she already knows he's going to ask, which she obviously does, and feels like he can't do it with his Mum always watching. I thought maybe we could have them over for dinner one evening and then he could take her outside. Ask her then without his Mum in the background." Severus nodded.
"That is a good idea. Then we can move on to frantic fire-calls and letters about wedding preparations." Harry barked out a laugh, and Snape smiled. Harry didn't laugh enough, or smile. It was nice to see him relaxing and just being happy, especially after the morning they had.
"Is tomorrow night, okay?" Snape shrugged.
"The sooner they come, the sooner he will ask, correct? I think that is best for all parties involved." Harry smiled and hurried to pen a letter to Ron.
"Walk, Harry!" The young wizard slowed his pace, on the stairs at least. This would be his first time using Albus to send a letter. He chuckled at the thought of his large bird showing up at the Burrow and scaring Pig.
Snape, meanwhile, sat in his armchair, and thought about what he had overheard Harry say about him. He had his mother's heart, certainly, not just her eyes. The boy loved so easily, and yet it seemed he was cursed to lose just as much. Harry had practically raised himself, and the only guidance he did get was from an old man that would manipulate him for the greater good as much as he cared about him, a werewolf and a man-child godfather that only saw his best mate in Harry. And Harry had lost them all. Severus also knew that Harry would never go to Arthur and Molly in fear of burdening them or putting them in harms way. Harry saw it as his job to protect everyone he cared about, to the point where he forgot about himself. He didn't recognize how much those people that he protected, loved him and would have done the same for him.
Severus shook those morose thoughts from his head, when the boy in question came down stairs, a bright smile on his face.
"I think I want to cook for them tomorrow. As sort of an engagement gift." Severus nodded once.
"I think they would really appreciate that, Harry. Are you to be joining them for dinner, or will you come up with some excuse to leave them alone together?" Harry frowned at his guardian.
"Well, I was thinking we would join them for dinner, you know, keep it a little bit of a surprise. Then I could suggest that we go for a walk outside, and we find an excuse to go back inside, leaving them alone then." Snape raised a brow.
"You wish me to be present for such a special dinner with your friends?" Harry sat down across from the potion's master.
"Um, yeah? I mean, if you don't want to, I get it, I just thought." Severus held up a hand.
"I understand, Harry. I will be at the dinner, and I will refrain from making any degrading comments about Mr. Weasley, until after he has proposed." Harry let out the breath he was holding and smiled again.
"Great. Um, did you want to go back down to the lab or.." Severus shook his head, and lifted a book next to him.
"No. I finished my last potion for the day. I trust you can entertain yourself until-" He was interrupted by a snap, and Snippy popped into the room.
"Lunch is ready for the Masters." Snippy poofed back out, and Severus checked the clock.
"Well, it seems time has gotten away from us, Mr. Potter. After lunch, then, I trust you can entertain yourself. I plan on catching up on my reading list." Harry nodded, and they walked to the dining room.
"How much do you have to catch up on, Sir?" Severus huffed, and placed a sandwich on his plate.
"Considering I started the list before Voldemort, quite a lot, I imagine." Harry smiled, and they ate in content quiet. Snape was pleasantly surprised to see Harry had eaten a normal portion for a young man his age, without hesitation. Apparently so was Harry, though he was rubbing his stomach.
"I think I'm going to go read in my room." Severus nodded in acknowledgement, and they went their separate ways.
He had been reading for a solid hour and a half, when a fire burst to life beside him. He didn't startle, though he was apprehensive to answer the fire-call. Rarely anyone called his private home, and he highly doubted it was Mr. Weasley again. Approaching with caution, he cast the identification spell. He was immediately on guard when it came back as a ministry official, nevertheless, he allowed the call through.
The employee seemed displeased with being kept waiting, not like Severus cared, and his greeting was not exceedingly cordial.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of a call from the Ministry. I was under the assumption that we would not be bothered unless there was a matter of great importance that only we could handle." The man sneered.
"Well, Mr. Snape, you were wrong. I am calling to inquire as to Mr. Potter's health. It seems someone has seen Mr. Malfoy, an apprentice of Madam Pomfrey, frequently coming and going from Hogwart's infirmary and your home." Snape ground his teeth and made a note to immediately send a note to Headmistress Mcgonagall that someone was reporting to the ministry in her school.
"I did not think it was any of the Ministry's business to keep tally on how many times my godson wishes to come and visit me and my ward." The man, who had yet to identify himself, kept his sneer firmly in place.
"It is our business to keep track of everything that goes on around the Savior of the Wizarding World. We want to make sure he is being properly taken care of. I'm sure you can understand that." Snape had had about enough of this man's attitude.
"That sounds all well and good, but you have yet to identify yourself in an official capacity, and as far as I know you could be a Death Eater after my ward. Have a nice day." Severus promptly shut down the floo on the man, forcing him to scramble and pull his head back. He knew the man worked at the Ministry, but he unsettled him in a way that few really did. The potions master did not fear any serious repercussions, but still. Someone had told the Ministry that Draco had made multiple visits here, or their government truly was spying on their every move. He could not see Minister Shacklebolt approving of such a thing, but…if the Minister of Magic had a problem with Snape cutting a call with a ministry official, he could come talk to him himself.
And until that time came, Harry was under his care, and nothing would change that.
Hey, let me know if this was a bit too much. Adding another issue. Too much? Besides that, thank you for your lovely reviews already. But as you know I always ask...
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