Title: Harry Potter and the Summer From Hell

Author: Ladye Black

Rating:

Disclaimer: If I begged hard enough, do you think they'd let me have Snape?

Notes: Heheheh…I was grounded off the computer. Bad me. But, now I'm back…dun dun duuuunnnn…

Chapter 15

Harry groaned as the morning light hit his eyes. I hate mornings, he thought, shielding his eyes sleepily. Suddenly, Harry bolted upright in his bed. That's right! Dumbledore's coming today! Jumping out from under thecovers, he quickly dressed himself and headed down the stairs, hoping that Dumbledore had not yet arrived.

He was in luck, the only in the kitchen was Snape, who was calmly reading a week old newspaper. When he entered the room, the older man looked up from his paper, watching Harry with amused interest.

"Amazing," he drawled. "You're up before nine a.m."

Giving him a quick grin, Harry helped himself to coffee. "When's Professor Dumbledore supposed to get here?"

Snape glanced at the clock for the time, 9:02. "He will be here in approximately two hours."

"So, what do you want to do for two hours?"

For a moment, Harry swore he saw a flash of something…unusual in his professor's eyes. Dismissing it as a trick of the light, he sat down across from the older man. "Well?"

Snape folded his paper, taking Harry's question seriously. "I believe we should study that spell Albus had you put on me."

"What're we gonna do?"

Resting his elbows on the table, Snape thought out his plan of action. "The best way, is to see exactly what happens when you concentrate on the spell. I assume that you do not have to be thinking of the spell all the time for it to work?"

Harry nodded, confirming Snape's guess. "Dumbledore implied that it was an intuitive sort of spell. That is responded to what you needed to know, instinctively sending me messages that are relevant."

The older man raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Read a dictionary recently, did you, Potter?"

Harry blushed at the older man's amused tone. "I've been thinking about what little Professor Dumbledore said to me, and the things that the spell has been able to do so far."

Snape nodded, thinking on what the younger man had said. "I believe you are right," he stated finally. "Your assumptions meet closely with my own."

Harry grinned brightly at him, pleased to have the man's approval in some small way. Draining the rest of his coffee cup, Harry stood to put it in the sink.

Snape caught himself before he stared openly. He hadn't noticed it before, probably because the boy rarely smiled in the first place, but Harry's smile made him look quite handsome. His green eyes lit up in a way that many people's couldn't, making them seem lighter and full of life.

He groaned inwardly to himself. You don't need this right now, Severus, he reminded himself. It'd been years since he had a serious relationship, and now he was considering a boy almost twice as young as he was.

But perhaps, not so young, an inner voice whispered. Snape respectfully told it to shut up and go bury itself; respectfully, because it had sounded uncannily like his not-so-favorite Headmaster.

He watched Harry wash his cup then put it on one of hand towels they'd laid out to let things dry on. That done, the boy preceded to raid the refrigerator, which didn't seem to have what Harry was looking for judging by the frown that appeared on his face.

"Hey, Sev," Snape grimaced at the short form of his name. Where had the boy come up with that? "What're we gonna make for lunch? I mean, the Headmaster is coming and all, we should have something."

Snape frowned, he'd conveniently forgotten about that, and he'd rather hoped Harry had too. He got up from his chair and went to stand beside the younger man. "Let me see what we have."

He peered into the refrigerator and discovered with dismay that they really didn't have much. It was almost time to go shopping in that near by Muggle town.

"Perhaps, today will not be the day we will get to study that spell."

Harry frowned at him, and Snape still felt slightly startled that Harry was able to look him directly in the eye. "What d'you mean?"

"I believe we will have to make use of that automobile thing, and go shopping." He was not happy about the prospect. He'd been to Muggle stores before and the experience he'd had with them had been…unpleasant, to say the least.

"You don't look too happy about that." Snape was brought back to awareness, and realized he was still standing close to Harry, who didn't seem to mind.

Gathering himself, Snape stepped back and said, "I've never liked going into Muggle stores. The crowds are generally unpleasant, and I don't like the way things are set up."

Harry seemed amused. "Are Muggle and Wizarding stores so different?"

"Yes."

"Really? How?"

"Well, for one thing," Snape started, brushing out his robes, "there aren't any lines."

"Really?"

"Yes."

The older man headed out the back door, toward the automobile thing. Harry followed, interested in the bit of information on Wizarding society that he had just received.

TBC…

Yes, I'm leaving off there. There's a storm coming and I wanted to have something out today. Hopefully, since I've actually prewritten some, the wait for the next chapter will be shorter.