Harry sat down on the bench with Snape, who'd bought his coffee for the first time since this had begun. He'd mastered his wandless casting, thanks to the previous day's painful inheritance, and he sipped at his coffee, which he'd cooled to just the right temperature. He watched as a teenage boy he'd never seen jogged past with his dog.

"Muggle."

"Wizard," Snape corrected lightly.

Harry looked closer and saw the handle of a wand sticking out of the bouncing pocket of the older boy's shorts. "Fair enough." They fell into a comfortable silence as they waited for the next jogger to round the bend in the path.

"It's your birthday."

Harry winced. "Don't remind me." He was slightly grateful that the man hadn't said 'happy birthday', and at least his knowledge explained why he'd bought both of their coffees again.

"I doubt you need me for that. You're legally an adult in our world. A year older, a year wiser, as the saying goes," Snape pointed out, sipping at his own coffee.

"And a year richer," Harry muttered darkly. He ignored the fluttery feeling in his chest when Snape said "our world". "I got a letter from Gringotts telling me just how much money I've got from my parents and Sirius, now that I'm a legal adult. Apparently, I'm officially supposed to meet the executor of my 'estate' when I go to get my school things. I didn't even know I had an estate, and now I've got an executor, more money than I've ever wanted anything to do with, and half the Wizarding World wishing me a 'happy birthday' while asking for a handout. And, I still can't stop Hermione's parents giving me money for performing chores."

"You could stop doing the chores," Snape suggested idly.

"That wouldn't really solve my problem," Harry argued. He didn't know why he was telling Snape, of all people, about his problems, but it felt good to tell someone.

"Explain," Snape said, still watching the path.

Harry sighed. "I started doing the chores out of a sense of duty. A nice way of saying I started doing them in an attempt to pay back some money Hermione's mum and dad gave me at the start of the summer. I can't tell them I'm trying to work off my debt, because they don't believe there is one. And I can't refuse the money, because Hermione told me it's rude. I've tried more than once, anyway, and they just laugh me off."

"I take it you're not used to receiving such things?" The Potions Master inquired carefully.

"No," Harry answered. "I've received the random gift from strangers through the post, because of my supposed heroism, and I usually wind up giving those away to people who need whatever it is. But money for chores, or just to spend when I go out? Except what I've gotten from my parents and Sirius, I've never received anything like that. My relatives were more likely to give me a heavy hand than a reward for finishing my chores. Hermione keeps telling me to think of their generosity as a gift, but I have trouble with that. I don't see myself as having done anything to deserve their generosity. And now they want to take me out this afternoon to pick my own birthday present. It's apparently a tradition of some sort with them, that you choose your own gift when you come of age."

Snape was silent for a moment, then, "Have you in some way earned the other birthday presents you receive each year? Or the Christmas gifts?"

"No," Harry said again. "But I have just as much trouble accepting those. I'm no less appreciative, I just…I don't understand the concept of giving without expecting something in return."

"Do you only give when it benefits you?" Snape asked.

"No…well, yes, actually," Harry said, furrowing his brow. He smirked when Snape looked at him for the first time. "No one gives without getting something in return. Call me a cynic, but I really believe that. Everyone either gives out of a sense of obligation, real or imagined, or because it makes them feel good to do so. Either way, the act of giving benefits the giver as much spiritually as it does the receiver physically."

"You're a cynic," Snape said with a smirk of his own. Harry couldn't help a small chuckle. "If that is how you view it, Potter, then I credit you for your insights. However, the principle applies to you as much as it does everyone else. You give to feel good. It makes the Grangers feel good to give to you. If you have no moral or ethical reason to deny them this, then why would you want to?"

Harry frowned. "Because it makes me uncomfortable?" He offered.

"I'm sure it makes your friends of lesser means uncomfortable when you buy them expensive presents. You cannot help that it makes them uncomfortable, that they feel guilty when they cannot buy you things as nice as you give them, but you do it because it makes you feel good. You would feel bad if your friends suddenly refused your gifts. Why, then, would you ask of the Grangers to not give to you, just because it makes you slightly uncomfortable?" Snape pointed out, turning back to the path and park.

Harry frowned guiltily. "I hadn't thought of that. I suppose it makes sense." He sipped at his coffee for a moment as he thought of what Snape was trying to say. Finally he sighed, realizing the man was right. "I hate you sometimes."

"The feeling is mutual, Potter."

Harry didn't know why, but a small part of him doubted that that was entirely true anymore.