Confusion

Warning: See First Chapter (Slash, abuse, self harm)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

This chapter has been edited by jharad17

Chapter 3

"Perhaps, Potter, if you explain to me how you know how I act during these meetings, as the whole reason we wear masks and cloaks is to hide our identity, I might be kind enough not to embarrass you further. However, may I remind you that you often have that dim-witted look on your face, particularly whenever you happen to walk into my classroom."

'Ouch,' Harry mentally winced. Just because the Professor was in his body didn't mean he couldn't use his acidic tongue on Harry. "It took me a while, but I eventually figured out who's who, their voices, the way they hold themselves and move and the actual hierarchy of the Death Eaters. It also helps being in the Dark Lord's head," he dead panned. He didn't want to bring up the fact that he first recognized Snape when his preoccupation with the man's hands began. Long, elegant, and with an evident strength and control behind their movements, Snape's hands were easy to recognize.

Harry didn't know he could pull off a mildly impressed, slightly annoyed-while-still-appearing-superior look. Though the Potions Master was in a different body, he still had the same small quirks, the slight lift of the eyebrows or the half curved lip drawn back into a sneer. Harry hadn't studied body language so much as he had been forced to pick it up, due to having such a volatile friend as Ron, who seemed to enjoy Harry's company one minute and despise him the next. But once he realized what he had been doing, Harry had looked up a few books on the subject. Eventually he'd learned to 'read' other people, and it had helped him through times such as the 'Slytherin Heir' episode, and when his name had been drawn out of the Goblet of Fire. It also helped to sort out the posers who were after the fame, from those who actually wanted to be his friend, as the posers were incredibly expressive through their actions.

Harry, of course, had transferred this talent into a game of sorts. Working his way through people who were easy to read before he started on the harder ones, he'd found out that many of his initial perceptions of people hadn't always been right. Other times, he was forced to remember that 'reading' people wasn't always entirely a correct way to learn about others, since people could also be 'read' wrong. However, he'd discovered that everyone held up a front to an extent, and the most fascinating of them all was Severus Snape.

Harry wanted to know what was behind the high walls the man had built up. It had become something of a personal goal, a principle of sorts, which had all been blown out the window with his Occlumency lessons and his untameable curiosity.

His curiosity, however, was a fair rival to his denial and his ability to repress and ignore. He'd been tiptoeing around the subject of his sexuality after he realized Cho Chang wasn't so much as beautiful as she had long, dark, straight hair which he admired, and she didn't do much for him otherwise. The idea of Ginny as a potential girlfriend made his back teeth ache; she'd always be his kid sister to an extent. Anything else would seem like incest.

Hermione, though attractive now that she'd grown and filled out, was more a source of answers to hard school problems, rather than a source of nighttime fantasizing. which had been rather sleepless when Ron had forgotten to put a silencing charm up. He hadn't lived that down for weeks after. ß Not sure to what this sentence and a half is referring. Whose nights were sleepless? And who hadn't been able to live what down?

Harry's fan girls, with their giggling, hair tossing, and pouting lips, their low tops and short skirts, made him want to run and hide. He knew he wasn't attractive, with his constantly messed hair, his glasses and lanky body, or the fact he was way too short, now that everyone in his year had shot up and now towered over him, so he just figured they were after the fame. Thus, he had to make very important decisions on his choice of 'partner'. He wanted someone who wasn't after his fame, and he wanted privacy, the knowledge that whoever he chose would not go to the papers, so that whatever they did together would not be splashed across the front page of the Daily Prophet.

This thinking brought him full circle, back to the man who definitely was not impressed with his fame, who was, in fact, repelled by it. A man who treated him no differently, or even worse than others, and who also happened to have a thing for secrecy. Neither did he giggle, hair toss, pout or wear low tops and short skirts, although the mental image provided hours of entertainment for Harry, followed by denial and repression. Harry, however, never forgot the silencing charms.

Shaking his head to get rid of these thoughts, Harry frowned.

He did not, in any way, fancy Hogwarts' resident Potions Master and teacher.

Its male teacher.

Its male teacher whom Harry seemed a little obsessed with… even his denial could only stretch so far, and the fact he wanted to 'get to know' what was behind the man's defences didn't help either. However, Harry, had been managing to ignore the subject very well.

Until the potion incident.

Tuning back into the conversation, he managed to catch the last of the headmaster's request: "…it would only be for a few weeks until you can return to your respective lives. What do you think, Harry?"

Harry blinked at the headmaster. "Um…" He tried to figure a way out of this without having to resort to asking for the man to repeat himself.

Snape snorted. "Obviously the brat doesn't find the next, most crucial days very important."

Harry winced under the jaded glare, and the amused blue eyes peering at him from over the half moon spectacles. "Sorry, sir." Harry ducked his head sheepishly, the veil of dark hair hiding his eyes. "I didn't hear what you said."

"That's fine, Harry. I was saying that, over these next few days, we will have to try and convince everyone that nothing has changed. It's crucial for the safety of both of you. I was also saying, if it were necessary, there is a second option for the holidays. I've had a small house set up where you would stay, and Severus could set up his potions in the basement, popping around every now and then."

"Every now and then?" The sneer in the voice was obvious.

"Of course. Now, Harry, I think it's time I let you two get some rest. Maybe you should get to know each other a little. Your friends will be coming around in the morning, and we want to see how well you can play your parts." With that he ignored the glare sent in his direction from Snape, and the shocked one from Harry and disappeared.

The silence that followed was fragile, and Harry didn't want to break it. Instead, he stared at his hands -- Snape's hands -- which were folded in his lap, and were stained lightly at the fingertips. They would never succeed at this. He didn't want to teach his professor how to act like himself. It would be too much like unveiling himself, and revealing the act he put on for others.

"Well, Mr Potter, what do you suggest?"

Harry swallowed, still staring at the hands in his lap. And, naturally, the other man would never even consider revealing anything about himself, let alone to Harry.

"Um."

"Articulate as ever."

"Maybe…maybe we should get some rest. Sir." A raised eyebrow was sent in his direction, and Harry shrugged. "You're the spy." The man winced, and Harry pretended to ignore it. "You'll be able to pick it up easily."

"I suppose it shouldn't be too hard to fool your imbecilic friends," the professor sneered, and Harry suddenly felt too tired to rise to the bait.

"We'll see in the morning, sir." He lay back, turning away from the other man sitting in his body. His head was starting to ache, and his eyes were slipping shut, but the burn in the back of his head, the sense of his own eyes watching him, kept his eyes open.

There was shuffling behind him, sheets ruffled, and he felt the pressure of that stare leave him. He slipped into the darkness that would hopefully make everything clearer in the morning.

A/N: Everything's finally catching up to poor Harry, and I think Snape's still in shock, so we'll leave them like that till the morning when the fun REALLY starts!

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