The next day Harry sat at breakfast with his glamour in place as he noticed the mail coming in. Hedwig dropped a few letters in his lap along with something that Snape recognized to be a potions magazine, he laughed to himself as Harry quickly shoved it in his school bag. He opened a letter from Remus asking how he was doing; Remus told him that he would be substitute teaching for a week as the DADA teacher. Harry showed the letter to Ron, Hermione, and Neville who all smiled in turn. Harry was on cloud nine and didn't even notice a large black bird swoop to his table just a few moments before. Harry was rereading Remus' letter as the bird pecked his hand.

"And who do you belong to beautiful?" Harry asked stroking the birds back between its wings. The bird hopped onto one of Harry's hands as he used his other hand to untie the note from his leg. The bird then hopped to Harry's shoulder as he read over the letter

"Potter,

You will come to my chambers after your last class. I believe that the potion is of your choosing.

Professor Severus Snape"

Snape looked at Potter in awe as his Raven stayed perched on the boy's shoulder. Severus believed that his bird must have lost it; his bird hated everyone, including Snape! He stared at Annabelle Lee as she nuzzled the boy's cheek, hearing Dumbledore chuckle several seats down.

Harry giggled as the black bird nuzzled his cheek and nipped at his ear, he grabbed a glass and filled it with cold water and held it up to the bird as he took several drinks before nipping at his ear. Harry's friends stared at him in amazement as he played with the black bird. Harry reached into his back and pulled out a bird treat.

"I don't believe that your owner will mind." Harry said as he held the treat to the bird, which in turn just tilted its head. "Go, on, take it" Harry said as he gave the treat to the bird who took it and flew off.

"What a sweet bird…" Harry said absentmindedly

"Okay…" Ron spoke "Now that Harry's gone blimey, are we ready for Transfiguration?"

The day went by slowly, in Harry's opinion, but he took a deep breath as he knocked on his professor's door.

"Evening, Potter, come in." Snape spoke as the door closed; he put up a silencing charm. "You may remove your glamour." Harry flicked his wand as the glamour faded away. Severus' breath caught in his throat as Harry hung his cloak on the hook near the door.

"Good evening, Severus." Harry said as he nodded to the older man in front of him.

"Harry." Severus said as he returned the nod

"I was hoping that we could brew Veritaserum today."

"I believe that it my be a bit complicated for you, but if that is what you wish." Severus said as he as greeted with a smile from Harry. "Gather the ingredients from my private store room."

Harry watched a Severus grabbed a cauldron from across the room, noticing that the man's trousers were tight against his ass as he bent to retrieve something. Harry mentally reprimanded himself as he went to the storage cabinet, grabbing most of the ingredients for the potion that he needed. He took them back and set them on the table.

"Harry, perhaps you have forgotten an ingredient?" Severus suggested as Harry bent down to retrieve something from his bag.

"Not at all professor. I had a feeling that you would ask me to use your personal potions ingredients, so I brought my own Dragon Blood and Lionfish Spines, that way if I do mess it up, it won't cost you an arm and a leg to replace." Severus looked stunned at the young man in front of him. "Is…is that alright professor?" Severus laughed

"Yes, that will be just fine, Harry." Severus turned to retrieve a cutting board for the man. "Now, the potions text book complicates the third step by stating that you need to crush the Lionfish spines immediately before adding them to the potion, when in fact, you can do it up to an hour ahead of time. The text also fails to mention that you will need to drain the poison out of the spines before you crush them, if you fail to do this, the potion will make the person vomit the potion up before the effects can sink in. I will watch you perform the first four steps tonight, then next week, when it is done steeping, I will help you with the addition of the Dragon's Blood."

"That sounds great. Um, since the first four steps will only take half an hour can we work on an advance version of a Boil-relief potion?"

"We can, but why that specific potion? It is a rather easy one."

"Neville had an accident in Herbology today, and I prefer not to brew my potions with Moaning Myrtle watching over me. He's to embarrassed to ask Madam Pomfrey for help and I told him that I would brew it for him."

"I believe that can be arranged, it shouldn't take more than an hour. I can even teach you how to improve it so he only has to take two doses, instead of the usual four." Severus said as he watched Harry pull the Lionfish Spines from the case. He watched as he drained the poison into a vial. Harry finished and began to snap them into smaller pieces before putting them into the mortar and pestle. Harry looked up, smiling, after Severus spoke.

"Thank you, that means a lot to me." Harry said

"Yes, but I imagine that it means even more to Mr. Longbottom." Severus said before both men burst into laughter.

"I'd imagine so." Harry said after several minutes. Harry put the pestle down and rolled up his sleeves as he began making the potion, only minutes later adding the Lionfish spines.

"Great," Severus said "now let it simmer for fifteen minutes while we begin out next potion." Severus grabbed another cauldron as Harry turned the heat down. His eyes watched the man snap, to find that all of his potions ingredients were flying back to the cupboard from the exact spot that they came from.

"How long have you been able to do wandless magic, Harry?" Severus asked striking up conversation.

Harry began setting a low fire for the Boil-cure potion, "Well, I began teaching it to myself during 3rd year, but I wasn't able to get any real results until 4th year. After that it just came as a second nature. I find mind-only to be far more difficult, but it is coming along as well as could be expected I suppose."

"You are a sixth year! You are not even expected to do simple wandless spell until later this year, and yet you are telling me that you have accomplished wandless magic, and are practicing mind-less?!"

"Well, yes and no. I can only do about two thirds of all the spells I know as wandless, so I can't say that I've accomplished it. But as far as mind-only, I can only to the more basic defensive and offensive spells." Harry said as he kept adding ingredients to the pot.

"Two thirds of your spell knowledge is more than most certified wizards can do wandless, I think you may be tied only with Albus in that regard." Severus looked at the man in front of him in awe of the power he had, which he apparently didn't even know was amazing. "I'm only slightly more surprised at your mind-only magic ability. Now even Albus can do offensive mind-only magic, he can only do defensive. And if Ms. Granger's outburst the other night was any indication, you have far more powers than you're letting on, Harry."

"Yes, well, Hermione is just easily impressed by my simple charms creations. She thinks I should write a few books and publish them."

"Why don't you?" Severus asked.

"I hardly have time to focus on a book. My sole focus is on my studies and defeating Vol-The Dark Lord. Besides, I don't believe that it would be a terribly great idea to let You-Know-Who know that my powers have grown exponentially. Last thing I need is another offer to join-" Harry realized what he had said and changed topics "So, no, I just don't have time to publish a book. Besides most of my charms become flawed when anyone else tries to use the more complicated ones. I tried to teach Ron how to jinx Malfoy's hair, and he ended up setting his own on fire." Harry laughed at the memory, the looked over noticing how serious Severus looked. Harry sighed "Go ahead and ask…I knew that hoping you had noticed my slip up was just wishful thinking."

"You were given an offer to join the Dark Lord?!" Severus growled

"Yes, last year at the Ministry. When he entered my mind, he got a slight glimpse of how much my power had grown, before I could block him." Harry's shoulders slumped as he continued to talk. "After taunting me, he offered me a position by his side, as his equal." Harry laughed; it would have sounded hollow if it were not filled with so much disgust. "That piece of garbage. 'we can do great things together' he said. I knew he was lying, of course. He would never allow anyone to have as much power as he has, but it was tempting."

Severus was shocked, to say the least. "Power that great would be temping to anyone, Harry" Severus said trying to console the man.

"It wasn't the power, or the status. It was something else entirely. I told Albus and Remus, once we got back to the safety of the Headmaster's office, of course. They were somewhere between disbelief and blinding anger. I don't think it was at me however, but Albus helped teach me more advance offensive spells after that." Harry diced peppermint root for the potion hoping that the question had been answered enough for Snape.

"If you hate the Dark Lord so much, and if it wasn't for power, then why would you consider joining him?" Severus asked pulling his chair closer to Harry's. Harry stiffened at the question as his face paled.

"He told me that he could bring back…Sirius…from inside the veil." Harry's voice broke "I remembered something before I was able to push him out of my mind completely. 'Death is the next great adventure', that's what Albus told me once." Severus noticed a tear fall down Harry's face as he pulled the man close to him.

"That's why you were so broken up after the incident at the ministry. It was not so much the fact that he died, but that you could not bring yourself to bring him back?" He felt Harry nod in his shoulder. "Harry, there is no bringing someone back after they have fallen through the veil. If there was, I would help you find it." Severus said as he looked into the man's dark eyes.

"Thank you." Harry said with a smile.

"That's more like it; now let's talk about something a bit happier, hmmm?"

Harry chuckled and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"So, you subscribe to Potion Makers Monthly and Weekly Brewers, do you?" Severus asked with an arched eyebrow as Harry blushed then laughed.

"Perhaps. You have a friendly Raven?"

"I assure you that you are the first person she has ever been friendly with. How did you know that she was a raven? Most people confuse her with a crow."

"Crows are not that intelligent. So she isn't that friendly normally?" Harry asked adding ingredients to the cauldron.

"Let me put it this way, if I do not keep Annabelle Lee in her cage, she sits on top of my head and pecks me to death." Severus said jokingly, to which Harry bent over laughing, barely managing to keep stirring the cauldron. After a few minutes Severus spoke up.

"Would you kindly stop laughing now?" Severus put on a scowl, but he was rather amused at seeing Harry laugh like that. Severus felt a warmth in his chest at the sight of Harry's long hair begin to fall in his face

"I can't. The image is just too humorous." Snape rolled his eyes, knowing that the image the man was imagining must have been funny to cause such a reaction. Snape took some of the vials back to the cupboard, hiding the smirk on his face; he took several moments to sort them back into their original spots. He looked at Harry, realizing that he must have been stirring in the last ingredient at this point and,

"Oh, Harry," Severus rushed from the closet "don't forget, 20 clockwise stirs and 22 counter clockwise." Severus said as he noticed Harry put the last ingredient back on the table. Harry looked lost in his own world, so Severus stood behind him counting his stirs. He noticed that Harry was about to make a 21st clockwise stir which would partially negate some of the stronger ingredient properties. Severus rolled his eyes as he put his hands on the large oar-like spoon that Harry was stirring with. He felt a heat rise in his stomach as he realized that his hands were on top of Harry's. The young man was brought out of his daze as he realized that Severus' hands were on top of his, stirring the potion. Harry slowly moved his head and dared to look up as he noticed his professor's dark eyes staring back down at him. Their faces moved closer together.

"Severus…" Harry all but whispered before the older man brought their lips crushing together. Harry cast a mind-only stirring spell as the men brought their hands to tangle in each other's hair, silently begging to be closer.

*YAY! I'm sorry for the cliff hanger. I hate them too. But it was either that or wait several more days until I'm nearly done with chap 6. In the next chapter, Remus will be returning! (And If you review, i may have him walk in on a nice juicy scene between Sev and Harry. *wink*)