.

Harry's stomach growled angrily when he woke the next morning. He had regretted his decision to not eat dinner that night when he woke up at three in the morning with the same problem but he didn't have anyone to blame but himself. He had of course been on the receiving end of several of Severus's messages via the bracelet for not showing up and Hermione had barged into the boy's dorm that night as well. He refused to neglect his stomach again for the rest of the year, not because everyone was on his case but he didn't think his stomach would be very happy. Like now, for example.

So getting himself ready earlier than everyone else he slung his bag over his shoulder before heading out into the corridor. It was a cold and quiet walk down to the hall for breakfast but when he arrived his mouth watered and he sat at the first available seat grabbing bacon, eggs and toast before shoveling them in his mouth. He had managed to eat what was on his plate when he heard footsteps in even strides coming towards the hall and his heart skipped in recognition, it was Severus. He turned his head to see the man walk in and Severus glared at him when he was spotted and came over to stand behind him. There was only a handful of people in the hall at this time so there was hardly any audience and it was typical for Harry to get into trouble therefore their cover was in tact.

"Skip another meal and you'll be sorry." He hissed placing his hands on the table beside Harry as he towered above him.

"I know. It won't happen again."

"Make sure it doesn't or I'll give you detention and force you."

"What? You can't do that?" Harry said without thinking about it and the students sitting just in front of him to the side at the other table looked up.

"Watch me." He said and then stalked to the front of the hall to take his seat.

Harry looked back at the two Hufflepuff's who's attention was on him and they gave him a sympathetic look regarding Harry's frown. He sighed and then started picking at the rest of his eggs that were on his plate before pushing the plate away and crossing his arms in front of him on the table.

"Harry." Blaise said quietly and quickly sitting down in front of him.

"Hey." Harry replied softly still frowning from his interaction with Severus and Blaise mistook it.

"Look I'm sorry about the last couple of days." He said with his brows knitting together to show he was sorry.

"Yeah, well… What's going on anyway?" Harry said pulling his plate back, his appetite coming back a little.

"I don't really know to be honest with you, Harry." He said taking a piece of toast.

"You don't know?"

"Yeah."

"Is it Malfoy?" Harry asked and Blaise nodded slightly.

"He's been quite… weird the last couple of days. He came over to visit over the Christmas break for a couple of days and that's when I noticed it."

Harry frowned again and then his mind got working.

"Does he know that I know he's gay?" Harry asked all of a sudden and it took Blaise by surprise.

"Uh, no? I don't think so. Why?"

"He could be jealous." Harry said smirking and it made Blaise smile.

"But we're friends." He pointed out and Harry smiled.

"He doesn't know that." He offered and Blaise narrowed his eyes as he mulled over what Harry was implying.

"Morning you two." Hermione said stiffly coming to sit down next to Harry.

"Hey, Hermione." Harry said and Blaise nodded.

"So has he told you what's got him distracted?" Hermione said to Blaise just as Harry saw a flicker of black robes pass them and he saw Severus walk out of the hall when he turned around.

"There's something wrong with you?" Blaise directed at Harry and he shrugged.

"Honestly, I thought I was your friend." She said suddenly and Harry focused on her.

"You are." He said seriously and she huffed.

"Whatever." She said as she buttered her toast and picked up the Daily Prophet.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked to Blaise, he saw Blaise looking at him as if to say 'tell me' but Harry shook his head and looked down. He wanted to curl up into a grey ball right about now and ignore the world around him. With that in mind he covered his wrist with his hand and sent Severus a message.

Have a good morning.

He knew it was lame, but he just wanted a little bit of conversation with him seeing as they couldn't spend any time together. As always, he didn't have to wait long for a reply and he smiled sadly at the message.

And you, Harry. I will see you in the Great Hall at lunch.

Even though they couldn't see each other, it was still obvious that Severus cared about him so he was glad that that hadn't changed. His head whipped round to see an angry Hermione and she grabbed his wrist pulling the sleeve so she could look at the bracelet.

"You keep smiling distantly when you are holding this. Are you sure a Muggle gave it to you?" She accused and he tore his arm out of her grasp.

"Yes. Yes it was from a Muggle. You very well know that I was at my relatives for the summer so who else would have given it to me?" He snapped and stood before stomping out of the hall.

He walked straight into Ron as he turned towards his first class and he tripped, falling to the ground only to be pulled back up. Ron patted his shoulder and went to ask if he was okay but Harry pushed past him and briskly walked down the corridor.

When the first class started, Harry found that he was sitting alone. Hermione and Ron were sitting at the front, much to Ron's protests and Harry sat up the back. In a way he was glad to be alone, it meant that if he had a message from Severus, even though that was highly unlikely, he could answer without scrutiny and he could forgo paying attention in the lesson. He was able to get away with it for the first twenty minutes.

"Mr. Potter? I asked you a question." McGonagall's voice reached his ears and he cringed when he saw the whole class was looking at him.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening." He said quietly and Hermione shot him a look from up the front.

"See me after class, Potter." She said before she moved on and he sighed, resting his head on his table as he listened to her.

After class, Harry delayed his packing of his books as he waited for everyone to leave and once he was alone with his Head of House he walked up to her desk and looked down at his feet as she sat behind her desk.

"I'm disappointed, Potter. You were doing so well last term what's changed?" She said as she sat watching him and he looked up.

"Nothing, Professor." He said and she pursed her lips.

"Did something happen whilst staying with Professor Snape?" She asked concerned but he shook his head confidently.

"No, Professor. It's just something between my friends. Nothing really." He said quickly and she narrowed her eyes before nodding.

"Fine, however your lack of attention in class needs to be addressed therefore you will report to me after dinner for detention." She said and Harry sighed before nodding.

"Good. Off you go, here's a note for Professor Sprout."

"Thanks." Harry said taking the piece of parchment and walking briskly off to class.

Lunchtime rolled round and Harry had bumped into Blaise on his way to the hall. They were chatting for a few minutes with Blaise asking Harry what Hermione had been talking about but he refused to talk about it. It's not that he didn't want to talk about it, it was just that because he was effectively seeing his teacher in a less than appropriate way. Not only would they not understand but he knew that Severus would get into serious trouble and he would probably be expelled. As he reminded him of this thought he didn't really see it being that big of a deal, being expelled from Hogwarts that is, because the only reason he was here was because he had to and Severus was there as well.

Harry looked up to the Head table when the two of them walked into the hall and Harry begged Blaise to come and sit with him even though he could see Blaise was a little tense when he spotted Malfoy sitting at the Slytherin table.

"I'm sorry, Harry but I really should sit with the Slytherin's." He said and Harry nodded.

They split off and Harry spied Hermione and Ron sitting at the Gryffindor table but Harry walked straight past them and found a familiar spot at the head of the table by where the staff were. He could see the looks from the both of them but he ignored it in favour of slyly checking Severus out, he wasn't disappointed. Severus eyed him as he walked towards him and leaned back in his chair, a couple of fingers coming to rest over his lips as he rested his elbow on the arm of the chair, his look complete with an intrigued eyebrow lifting. Harry sat down and was only able to grab a sandwich before he felt his wrist tingle and he smiled as he pulled back his jersey.

And what pray tell has landed my Harry in isolation away from his friends?

Harry snorted but at the same time his heart warmed as he read over the words. His Harry, the recurring warmth started to spread through him like it always did when Severus was being caring and dare he think it, loving.

Hermione is asking too many questions.

He sent back and he glanced at Severus as he waited for the man's reaction. When Severus read it, he frowned and Harry knew that wasn't a good reaction.

What kind of questions?

It was a blunt question and Harry knew that the man would be thinking that she'd put two and two together.

Relax, she doesn't know anything. She just can't accept my story about Christmas.

Harry could feel a mild heat emitting from the bracelet which meant Severus was on edge so he tried to calm the man with his response. It seemed to work because the bracelet cooled and he took another couple of sandwiches.

Good. Although I am curious…

Severus was fishing, Harry could tell and he smirked. He clearly had piqued the man's interest and he knew he'd want to know what the cover up story was.

Well it's kind of a long story, so I guess you'll have to wait till the weekend.

He felt satisfied that he'd played the man at his own game, although he knew Severus wasn't playing with him when he spoke about the consequences of being found out.

Touché, Harry. See you in class.

Harry smiled and then saw Severus walk past him, his cloak clipping him as he walked past and Harry decided he would go to class early. He waited a few minutes so it wouldn't look suspicious and then he left the hall, turning towards the Dungeons with Severus at the front of his mind. He wasn't joined by Hermione, not that he was really surprised, and walked from the hall.

When he got to the classroom, the door was locked and he realized that he hadn't thought about this before hand so he was now extremely early for class and was going to look like an idiot. He sighed and went to take a seat against the wall in front of the door whilst he waited.

He waited for at least ten minutes before the first students started arriving and he stood when he saw them forming a line outside the Potions classroom. Hermione and Ron came not too long after but he was ignored by Hermione, much to the confusion of Ron and Blaise as well who was standing next to Harry as Malfoy hadn't shown up.

"Move it, poofter." Malfoy said barging past him and Harry stumbled as he lost his footing.

Harry sighed, he didn't want to have to deal with this right now, but as always, Severus opened the door at the right time and barked at them to enter. Harry made a beeline for the front of the room and again found that he was alone. He couldn't understand why Hermione was so put out by his reluctance to share something personal, it was a little uncharacteristic of her to hold it against him so much but he told himself to stop thinking about it as Severus stood in front of the class and started to lecture.

Harry managed without incident in this day's lesson unlike the day before, but it still bugged him and was starting to get on his nerves how much his reactions had changed towards Severus. He had to now be careful that certain looks weren't sent between them because someone was bound to notice, Slytherin's and Hermione noticed everything and if he wasn't careful someone could say something.

He did however thank himself for the times that he sat with Severus brewing because there were some tricky elements to the potion today and he knew that had he not spent time in the private lab his potion would have failed today. He smiled as he bottled it and when he went to put it up the front, Severus looked at him pleased before Harry turned back round to take his seat.

"As always, a dismal effort from all of you on the assigned work." Severus said standing at the front of his desk.

With a wave of his hand he sent all the scrolls shooting around the room and Harry looked at his in apprehension, he thought he'd done above average on his assignment. He sighed and shoved it in his bag without looking at it and packed away his other books.

"Class dismissed." Harry heard and he stood to make a quick exit.

He found himself walking towards the library and setting himself up in a corner so he could do his homework. He'd never been in such a dark corner of the library before and he found it oddly comforting to be away from everyone else. He had just settled into his homework when he felt his wrist tingle and he looked down.

I take it you haven't read your assignment?

Harry frowned and then pulled out his Potions work he'd had returned and slowly unrolled it. He had wondered why the man had mentioned it but once he scrolled to the bottom his jaw dropped to the desk as he saw the mark. Top Mark to be exact and Harry was astonished, he never thought the day where he got top marks would ever happen and here he was with an Outstanding scrawled at the bottom of his paper. He smiled and sent a quick message back.

Thought I'd failed.

Harry sent back and the reply was immediate.

I don't know why, I would have told you before you went back after I read it.

Harry snorted; of course he would have read it when Harry wasn't looking. He then rolled his eyes, the man was rather predictable once you worked out his little habits.

Thank you.

Harry sent back.

It was all you. Now stop talking to me and get to work, McGonagall tells me you have detention tonight.

Harry cringed, he wasn't proud of getting a detention on the third day back but it had happened and he now had to face the consequences. Then he thought about what the man said and wondered how the man knew he was studying, was he really that predictable? He turned around, conscious of the man that could be standing behind him but he saw no one there and turned back around.

She told you about that?

Harry bit his lower lip, he didn't know why he was nervous about the man being angry with him about it.

She did. See you at dinner.

Harry pulled his sleeve down and picked his quill up to start writing.

Harry made his way to detention after dinner, his feet dragging. He didn't feel like detention tonight not that he had a choice and could have done with laying in front of the fire. He hadn't done this in a while, but he realized it was some kind of substitute because he couldn't be with Severus. Choosing to ignore his thoughts about Severus he went back through what had happened at dinner where Ron had sat in front of him, not saying anything but making the move to be with him. He suspected that an apology may be coming in the next couple of days but knowing Ron, he'd just hang out and then blurt something out totally random and hope they would be friends again. Harry shook his head, his friend really was stubborn but then again, he was as well.

His feet stopped him walking into the door to the Transfiguration classroom and he pushed the door open quietly and walked towards McGonagall's desk.

"Evening, Potter. There is paper on the desk there for your lines."

"Yes, Professor." He said and took a seat, choosing from one of five places set and he realized that she must have been covering the detentions for that night.

He sat quietly for ten minutes and a couple of Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's walked in and took their places. They were then assigned lines to write and Harry groaned at the task, his hand was already sore from the intense writing he'd done for his Herbology homework so writing lines seemed so arduous.

Harry blocked everything out and was about halfway through his line writing when the door opened and someone walked in. Harry didn't see who it was, he didn't even know someone had walked in until black robes flicked past him and made their way to the front of the room. Harry looked up and seeing it was Severus looked back down again, but his line writing basically came to a halt as he tried to hear what he was saying to his Head of house.

"Yes, I need some help and seeing as you have five willing participants for your detention I thought you could spare one." He heard Severus say but didn't dare look up.

"Fine. Potter?" McGonagall said and Harry's head snapped up.

"Go with Professor Snape, you will finish your detention with him."

Harry just looked at her in surprise. He would have thought that she would choose anyone but him, although perhaps she was being lenient. Never, he chided himself.

"Uh, yes Professor." He said quickly and stood waiting for Severus to walk in front.

When he walked past Harry followed closely behind and he could see the envy in the other students, he knew that he wouldn't be writing lines and the students would have thought he'd be doing something hard like cauldron cleaning. That was always more exciting than writing lines anyway.

They walked in silence and Harry was getting excited, he was sure the man pulled him out so they could spend some time together and this pleased him immensely.

"Change." Severus said and Harry frowned before clicking to what the man meant and he changed into Jade.

He was picked up at that point and he closed his eyes at the feeling of the man's warm hands on his belly.

His excitement grew as they passed the classroom and then the office, not stopping until they reached the man's quarters.

Severus put him down on the rug in front of the fire and Harry immediately changed back and turned towards the man who was taking a seat on the couch. He felt a sudden urge to jump on him so in a one large step he straddled the man's lap and grabbed the back of his neck to pull him into a heated kiss.

He had almost expected the man to push him away and say no more but it never came and Harry jutted his hips forward, grinding their groins together and creating friction. Harry took the lead and licked the man's lips, provoking him to part his lips so they could battle tongues. He pulled his hands away from the man's neck but they went straight for the buttons on Severus's black robes and he went about undoing them quickly. He left the last three or so buttons and broke away from the kiss to attack Severus's neck and his hands pushed the clothes off the man's shoulders so they sat at his biceps.

Whilst Harry was doing this, Severus had grabbed onto his ass and was kneading it with his hands and gently pulling Harry closer to him. They soon moved though once he felt Harry pushing his robes off his shoulders and he set about pulling Harry's uniform off him as well. It meant that they had to break away for a second so he could take Harry's jersey off but once the offending piece of clothing was off Harry's lips were on Severus's collarbone and sucking gently on his way down to a nipple.

Harry had learnt this from Severus during his stay at the man's house and he found that one was more sensitive than the other so he used this knowledge to his advantage and soon he had Severus moaning at his touch. He was so caught up in this action that he had failed to feel Severus playing with the zips on both their trousers until he felt the warm hand wrap around his erection and this time it was he who moaned, sitting up straight, his head falling backwards and his mouth open a little.

He then felt a sharp pain on his chest and when he looked down he saw that Severus had taken one of his nipples between his teeth and was working it gently. He moaned and growled in sexual frustration and took Severus's erection in his hand, pumping it hard and fast.

Their moans and their breathing got louder until Harry couldn't hold back any longer and he tensed whilst nuzzling into Severus's neck to ride out his much needed orgasm. Severus wasn't far behind as Harry's orgasm had caused Harry's grip to tighten around his erection harder than he should have and the sensation had pushed Severus over the edge. He growled into Harry's ear before his head fell back against the top of the couch as he then set about trying to catch his breath.

Surprisingly, Harry was the first to recover and he sunk into Severus's body, sighing in content. He felt a tickling sensation as a cleaning spell was placed over them and Harry moved back a little so he could put himself away and start doing up his buttons whilst Severus did the same.

"I needed that." Harry said as he started on his shirt buttons.

"Couldn't agree more." Severus said smirking and Harry kissed him gently before pulling away.

He moved Harry so they were sitting side by side and Harry rested his head on the man's shoulder.

"So… what happened to waiting until the weekend?" He asked casually and Severus snorted.

"I guess I missed you." Severus replied absentmindedly and casually to which Harry turned to look up at the man.

"I guess I missed you too." He said dreamily, still coming down from his high and Severus smiled down at him.

"I guess I have to go now, don't I?" Harry said after a beat and he found an arm around his shoulders.

"It is getting late, however I would not be adverse to you staying a little longer." Severus said softly and Harry snuggled down further.