A/N So I was talking to myself (I know, strange), trying to figure out how this chapter will work. So, here we go!
Disclaimer: Do I write like JK Rowlings? Do I look like JK Rowlings? Do I sound like JK Rowlings? Then STOP ASKING IF I OWN HARRY POTTER!
Lol, that was epic! On with the story!
Save Me, No One
Chapter 3
Harry was feeling like a first year again (terrified of the towering dark man), despite him being an adult.
For one, the glare he was receiving almost made the young man forget about what he saw in the Pensieve!
Plus, the man was STILL taller than him. That irked Harry to no end.
And the silence. Harry was SURE, this is what Muggles meant when they used the phrase, "deafening silence". For thats what they were suspended in.
The teen bit his lip slightly, disturbed by the lack of silver spinning objects, noisy Phoenixes, talking hats, and snoring portraits. In all truth, it was so still in Dumbledore's old office, that one would think it was frozen in time.
"I see you haven't changed his office much..." Harry spoke up, trying to break the silence. He figured when Snape said, "Lets talk," he'd have something to talk ABOUT.
"No," was his only reply. Harry sighed, starting to get annoyed.
"Okay then."
Snape was still looking at him expectantly, but Harry wasn't sure what to say, so he looked at the only present portrait: Dumbledore, who was watching the two men like a table-tennis match.
"I assumed you had a reason for interrupting my busy schedule?" Severus ground out, finally. Harry couldn't help but think 'What schedule? School is over!' But no, there was no paper work on his desk. Snape had been expecting him.
"Uh, yeah. How did you, um, live?" Harry stuttered.
"A skin-knitting spell, a blood replenisher, and an anti venom," was answered curtly. Harry blinked, dazed.
"But how? I saw you die! You even died with your eyes open!" Harry exclaimed, exasperated.
"A stasis spell. Simple." Harry nodded his acceptance. That WOULD give the appearance of being dead. These short answers were starting to get on the younger man's nerves, though.
"And you just, what? Come strolling up here? Were you suicidal?" Even though Harry knew everyone heard his little shouting match about Snape with Voldemort, Snape didn't know that.
"Yes, and yes." Well that answer took Harry by surprise.
"Huh?"
"Eloquent as ever, Potter," Snape sneered, then sobered. "Yes, I did want to die. Whether it be at the hands of the Dark-Volde-Tom Riddle, or the Aurors, I didn't care."
"So why the precautions to not die by Nagini?" Harry asked, for he didn't understand. Why go to all the trouble to heal yourself, just to get killed anyway?
"My job was unfinished." At the younger man's raised eyebrows, he said quietly, "My job was to take care of Voldemort. Finish him off."
That did make sense. And how ironic would it be! "All right... So, after I, um, defeated him, why, uh..." He didn't want to say it.
"Why didn't I kill myself? Simple. You."
"Me?" Harry exclaimed. He felt a bubble of happiness bloom in his stomach. He was the reason another person wasn't lying lifeless in the Great Hall!
Snape rolled his eyes. "I thought you had died, so I had no purpose to live. My duty is to take care of you."
Anger and hurt replaced the happiness. "Your DUTY? What am I, paper work?"
"I am to make sure you don't get yourself killed, Potter, it is my duty to honor Lily's sacrifice. Maybe you should do the same sometime!" Snape snarled, rising from his chair as Harry did.
Words flowed through Harry's mind:
'But this is touching Severus. Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?' Dumbledore asked, eyes twinkling.
'For him?' Snape stared, before bellowing, 'Expecto Patronum!'
'After all this time?'
'Always,' Snape whispered...
When Harry watched, he thought Snape meant him. 'After all this time' of Snape hating him and berating him, he still cared? And Snape said he 'always' cared.
But Harry was beginning to doubt that.
"You said you cared!" Harry growled lowly and menacingly, feeling hurt that Snape thought he didn't care about all his mother did for him.
"I care about one person, and she has been dead for SIXTEEN YEARS!" Snape bellowed, turning red in the face.
Hurt flooded through Harry. What Snape said in the pensieve, THAT had been what gave him the drive to defeat Voldemort, the power to walk to his death. And now that feeling of being cared for so strongly... It was gone.
Harry glared fiercely at his former professor, before barreling down the staircase and as far away from his mother's ex best friend as possible.
A/N Don't hate me! Their fight needed to happen! So put down your chainsaw!
I'll update as soon as possible. Just need to figure out a place for Harry to run to...
And about that whole After all this time, Always thing. I never understood it. Did Snape care for Harry, or not? ^_- Oh well...
Review!