He reached out blindly and grabbed one of his friends' arms, drawing his wand with his other hand.

"Harry, what is?" he heard distantly, but was focused on the figure leaning casually in an alley. A corner of Malfoy's mouth twitched up, and his eyes sparked at Harry. In the next moment, he had turned on the spot and disapparated.

"Was that Lucius Malfoy?" Ron asked.

Harry, mouth dry, nodded.

"What's he doing here?"

"I don't know, but I can guess."

"You think he was watching you?" Hermione sounded worried, eying the alley.

"What else?"

"Maybe he was visiting mini Malfoy," Ron said, not sounding very hopeful about it.

"Well then, where's dearest Draco now?"

"We better get up to the castle," Hermione urged. "Keep to the crowds, and don't get separated."

The three of them joined a large group of people trekking back up to the castle. Ron and Hermione were careful to flank Harry on either side. He tried not to be irritated at them for it, knowing it wasn't worth the petty argument to bring it up. All three let out a sigh of relief when they felt the castle's wards pass over them.

"We should tell somebody," Hermione said as they walked into the entrance hall.

"I will," Harry promised. "You two go on up to the tower."

"Who-" Ron began, but Hermione grabbed his arm and began tugging him away. She looked over her shoulder and gave Harry a stern look.

"Tell him everything, Harry."

He swallowed and nodded. He watched them go, Ron obviously asking what she'd meant and Hermione saying something about waiting to hear about it soon.

If she thinks I'm gonna give her a full report of me and Snape's heart-to-heart, she's wrong, Harry groused as he turned to the dungeons, knowing she was absolutely right.

The walk down the dungeons was a lot shorter when your head was spinning with worries and reservations. In what seemed like no time at all, Harry stood in front of Snape's office door. It was the middle of the afternoon, and he hoped that the man wouldn't be somewhere else or, worse, in the middle of a meeting with one of his Slytherins.

He knocked hesitantly. Instead of flicking the door open immediately with his wand, Snape seemed to hesitate. Harry heard the sounds of footsteps rounding the desk and approaching. Then the heavy oak door was partially opened, enough for Harry to see the man himself, but little else.

"Potter?" Snape looked closely at his face, then corrected, more gently, "Harry?"

"Professor, please," Harry pleaded, needing something more than to be allowed inside, not quite sure what he was asking but sensing that a part of him would break if Snape said no.

Snape only hesitated for another heartbeat before opening the door wider and stepping aside to allow Harry entrance. He walked past him into the dim room.

The distressed teen sat in his usual chair. He turned to Snape, only to see the man leaning against the closed door and staring at Harry with a crease of worry in between his brows. "What is the matter?"

Harry cleared his throat, trust in Snape and desire to confide in him clashing with their recent animosity. "I… something happened today, in Hogsmeade."

Snape's demeanour shifted from passive worry to immediate anxiety. He stepped forward quickly, crossing the office to Harry in three long strides. He made an aborted movement with his arm, as if about to reach out but thinking better of it. "Are you well?"

"Yes," Harry was quick to assure him. "I'm alright, so's everyone else. It was just something I thought you should be aware of. When Ron, Hermione, and I left The Three Broomsticks this afternoon, we saw Lucius Malfoy watching us. He disappeared a moment later, and nothing else happened. It was just… strange."

"I see. And that was all?"

"That's all," Harry confirmed.

Snape watched him for another moment. Apparently finding what he was looking for in Harry's face, he nodded and sat behind his desk. As he lowered himself into his chair, his face smoothed into deliberate stoicism. "Thank you for telling me."

Harry waited for him to say more, but it seemed that he was dismissed. Bullshit. He was done with this awkward tension.

"You don't have anything else to say?" he burst.

"Unless there is more, I see no reason to discuss it further. I will alert the Headmaster. You may go waste time with your friends until tonight's Occlumency lesson."

Almost anyone else would have believed Snape's calm act. He knew better, knew the man's tells. Snape's fingers tapped a frantic rhythm on his desk, an obvious sign that he was worrying about something. Harry reflexively reached out and grabbed his wrist to still them.

"Did none of it mean anything to you?" Harry demanded, meeting surprised dark eyes. "How can you sit there and act like those months never happened?"

Snape's eyes widened further, then he pulled his hand free of Harry's grip and cast a strong privacy ward around them. "What do you mean?" he asked cautiously.

"Are you serious right now?" Harry's frustration peaked. "You know exactly what I mean! So stop dancing around the issue and answer the damn question!"

Snape scowled. "Language!" Harry glared at him until he huffed out a sigh. "No."

"'No, it didn't mean anything'; or 'no, Harry, you're right, it did happen, so sorry for ignoring you for a stupid mistake'?"

"I was not ignoring you," Snape said, face pinched, like he was fighting to keep his temper in check.

Harry's reply was sullen. "Sure felt like it."

Snape slowly crossed his arms. "I was under the impression that you were tired of my interference."

"Tired of- no." Harry stood and started to pace back and forth. Snape's eyes tracked him as he did. "I don't know about you, how you felt about it all or anything-" since you're about as good about sharing your feelings as I am at Divination, he mentally complained, even though he knew it wasn't quite true, "-but for me, it felt like there was finally an adult I could rely on. Was I wrong?"

"I…" Snape looked away, staring at a shelf of potions ingredients with a face so flat it must have been forced. "Of course I wish for you to feel that you can come to me if you have an issue."

"If I have an issue," Harry repeated, disbelief colouring his voice.

"I do not know what you want from me!" He sounded distressed now, as though Harry were the unreasonable one.

This was it. Now, or never. A Hermione-like voice in his head said It's best to just get these things out in the open, you know. It was immediately followed by something distinctly more Ron. Just get it over with.

"I want you to care."

He cringed as soon as it was said. This was not the nature of their relationship. Even before the argument, back in the village when it seemed so much easier to be open and honest with each other, their emotional discussions tended to be more about one or other (although it was usually Harry) of their problems and worries. Their evolving feelings about each other were never on the table. The closest they had ever gotten was Snape admitting, in a very roundabout way, that he had been wrong to mistreat Harry because of his father. Saying something like this so frankly felt awkward and wrong.

Snape must have felt it too. His face blanched. Harry wished the floor would swallow him whole. He looked away, anywhere but at Snape, who had ducked his head so that a dark curtain of greasy hair swung down to hide his face.

"I do."

It was so quiet, Harry at first thought he had imagined it with wishful thinking. He turned back to stare at his professor, but couldn't see anything besides dark hair and white knuckles clutching the ends of armrests.

"I'm sorry about the Quidditch thing," Harry whispered. It was the one thing he hadn't said during their argument.

To his surprise, Snape gave a short, humourless laugh. "I do not care about your Quidditch stunt."

"Then why-"

"It was different, in the village," Snape mused aloud, almost as if lost in thought.

"I know." And he did. It was hard for him to put words to it… but not, apparently, for Snape.

"Everything extra had been stripped away. No Order, no Hogwarts, no Dark Lord. No magic. Just us, alone, forced to make the best of a situation neither of us wanted to be in. And somehow, in the midst of it all, I found myself thinking that I did not mind."

Harry felt a pang in his chest as he thought about those peaceful months. Clumsy and weird at first, as they learned to navigate living together. Both confusing and illuminating, once they had.

"It was easier there, as well. To know what I should do." Snape lifted his head then, and Harry was taken aback at the somewhat lost expression he saw there. "There were no other teachers or students around, other than the villagers who knew nothing of the real situation and were fundamentally unable to step up. Here, my role is less… clear." The adriftness was gone, much to Harry's relief, eclipsed by frustration. "I continue the Occlumency lessons, although those have been less than productive lately. I teach Potions. Otherwise, what am I supposed to do? Discipline is your head of house's responsibility. Your friends are able to lighten a bad mood. The elves and castle itself fulfil your basic needs."

"But you didn't start acting all… professor-y until just this week."

"'Professor-y'?"

Harry crossed his arms.

"I am still your Professor, Harry."

"Yeah, but you're more, too."

There was a pause, both considering what to say to guide the conversation towards what they each needed to talk about.

"I do care," Snape finally repeated. "But that still does not mean I know what you want from me."

"What do you want to do?" Maybe it was too much to hope that some sort of latent parental instincts would kick in for Snape, that he would suddenly figure out exactly how to be what Harry wanted (and what did Harry want? He wasn't even really sure he knew) on his own. "It's not like I have a lot of experience with this either, you know."

A clock on the wall ticked away the seconds. Several went by before Snape sat forward slightly and answered. "I want to be the person you need."

It was a big admission. Perhaps a huge one. They both knew it, too. Snape's face began to flush with embarrassment, but to his credit, he didn't look away. He seemed to have come to a resolution to be as vulnerable as Harry had made himself. It was something too valuable to waste.

"I need someone who cares," Harry immediately said, because at his deepest level, that was most true.

A tilt of amusement lifted one of Snape's brows. "Then I am afraid, Mr. Potter, that we are right back where we started."

Harry rolled his eyes, but smiled a little. "I think we actually had an argument like this, you know. You were being stubborn about something, I can't remember- oh, yeah, the bed. I was sleeping on the coach, which you thought was a big deal for some reason, and I told you that where I slept wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that you cared enough to do something about it." Legs getting tired, he sat back down in his chair. He pulled his feet up and rested his chin on one knee. "That was the main thing, I think. You felt like you had to actively do something to fix my problems, and I just wanted somebody to care."

"In my experience, true proof of care comes from action. If I see something that needs to be taken care of, I am inclined to do so myself."

"Like traumatised orphans?" Harry joked. Snape gave a pained sigh.

"Like a teacher using dark artefacts on her students."

Harry smirked. "How did you do that, anyway?"

Snape leaned back in his chair and gave a shrug with one shoulder. "If I were to ever teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, I would have more to share with my students than theoretical knowledge."

"You should poison her and take her job," Harry nodded, only half joking.

Snape snorted. "That's a fine thing for the hero of the Light to say."

They lapsed into silence again, but it was far more comfortable than the previous one.

"You could make sure I keep up in my classes," Harry offered, still thinking about what having a responsible adult in one's life was supposed to be like. Then he had an image of Snape reading over his History of Magic essays and making him redo them until they were O quality and immediately backtracked. "Or, like, the studies on wards and stuff."

Snape, evidently, had followed this whole thought process. He looked decidedly amused. "I believe one of those extra studies was on proper defence."

Harry stared at Snape blankly until the words sank in, when his feet dropped back down to the floor and he straightened in excitement. "You would teach me defence? Like, duelling and stuff?"

Snape inclined his head, then jabbed a finger at Harry. "Do not take this as a reward for your poor decisions last weekend," he said warningly.

"I thought you weren't upset about that. I know it was stupid."

"Perhaps the 'person you need' has to ensure that you receive a few reminders."

"I take it back, I want to stay a neglected orphan."

Snape ignored this. "Now that Umbridge has cancelled the league, I suppose you have your whole Saturday free?"

"Yes," Harry said slowly.

Snape nodded. "If we restrict the Occlumency to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then Saturday can be a practical day for Defence and brewing."

Harry had forgotten about making up the potions he'd missed. He groaned and slumped in his seat.

"With, of course, ample breaks for you to work on your other homework. It wouldn't do for you to fall behind."

The automatic, sarcastic response of Yes, Dad, was one he quickly stamped down. He wasn't sure how well it would be received after their emotionally charged conversation, and was still highly aware of the difference between the village and Hogwarts. Snape was right. Things were changed here. The dynamic felt swapped from a tentatively new rapport to something more complicated. The stakes were higher now.

Well, that wasn't quite right. The stakes were the same as they always had been. It was just harder to forget them here than it had been in the village.

As he and Snape talked over plans for defence and duelling, Harry felt himself relaxing for the first time in a week. Strange how Lucius Malfoy's appearance could result in the two of them getting back to friendly terms.

He was still figuring out what he needed, but had learned enough to know that he wanted this to stay.

A/N: The argument Harry references here is from Chapter 20 of Travelling Companions, if you want to go read it again :)