kbinnz - Harry's New Home

Snape fought against the warm gooey feeling in his chest that the brat's words had caused тАУ not to mention his sorrowful puppy dog eyes. "And you will doubtless be even more repentant after the three hundred lines," he retorted firmly.

Harry's eyes widened. Three? But hadn't he just said five? He caught the hint of embarrassment in his guardian's eyes and the pink tinge to his ears and beamed. Yup, his professor was doing his 'nonymous benefactor' thing again. "Y'sir. Three hundred lines, sir," he echoed quickly. "I'll start them this afternoon." His eyes lit up at the thought of how the other students would gawk. "We're going to fool everyone," he added excitedly.

"That is the general idea," Snape agreed, taking the irrepressible boy firmly by the shoulder and pushing him out the door.

Their arrival in the Great Hall caused quite a stir. Students stared, some going so far as to rise from their seats to see for themselves that Harry had all his limbs. Harry gave Snape a sulky glare before heading off to join his friends, while Snape stepped over to the staff table. There he pretended to ignore the looks of relief on Hagrid and Flitwick's faces, as well as the poorly hidden amusement on Minerva's. "Good morning, Severus," the elderly witch said demurely.

"Hmf," he grunted, reaching for his morning coffee. He was startled when a house elf popped up in front of him, glared at him reproachfully, then snatched the coffeepot out of reach. "What the тАУ " he looked after the disappearing elf with astonishment.

Minerva managed to force down her snickers. "Well, Severus, it would seem the house elves are not very pleased with your treatment of their favorite student. Apparently you have lost your coffee privileges."

He stared at her in outrage. "What! How dare they тАУ"

"You know how protective the little creatures are," she cut in calmly. "And they obviously feel you deserve it." She nodded to Harry's table.

Snape's gaze followed hers and he was gobsmacked to see Harry тАУ that overdramatic little fiend! тАУ slowly lowering himself onto the bench with a painful grimace. The surrounding students looked on with expressions of mingled sympathy and awe while Harry gingerly shifted position, as if he found it acutely uncomfortable to sit.

Why that duplicitous, conniving little schemer! Snape snarled to himself. No wonder the house elves were furious with him. To all appearances he had thrashed The Boy Who Lived to within an inch of his life. Snape was now receiving looks of dread and terror from most of the students in the Hall, and more than one of the faculty. Even Dumbledore was gazing at him in sorrowful disappointment.

Beside him, Minerva hid her twitching lips behind her teacup. "This is perhaps the first time I've seen so much of James in Harry," she commented to Snape, so quietly that even Sprout, on her other side, couldn't hear.

Snape removed his glare from the boy long enough to demand, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you recall, Severus? James тАУ and Sirius тАУ were always happiest with an audience. Until now, I had felt sure Harry had inherited Lily's more private nature, but this morning is quite a change, don't you think?"

Snape blinked as McGonagall's words penetrated. Of course. The brat wasn't doing this merely to make him look like an ogre. Harry was playing his role тАУ and doing a much better job at it than Snape had ever imagined.

He knew тАУ better than most тАУ just how much Harry hated the spotlight. He kept his famous scar covered by his fringe and had turned purple with embarrassment when he'd been recognized and fussed over on that trip to Diagon Alley.

In addition, Snape recalled, Harry had gone to extraordinary lengths to successfully conceal how sore he'd been after that whipping from his uncle. The only reason he'd now pretend to a discomfort Snape knew perfectly well was feigned, and thereby attract everyone's attention to himself, was to do as Snape had instructed and convince the rest of the school of the fiction that Harry had been soundly disciplined by his furious guardian.

Such effective misdirection wasтАж quintessentially Slytherin. Snape felt himself swell with pride at his ward's talent and, like Minerva, he found it necessary to hide his expression behind a teacup. He would miss his morning coffee тАУ tea never provided the jolt he needed in the morning тАУ but the house elves' disapproval was a small price to pay if Pettigrew were lulled into a false sense of security.

Harry found himself surrounded by a rapt audience of avid faces as soon as he stepped into the Hall. Here we go, he told himself, forcing his features into an angry pout, as if he'd just received another ticking off from his guardian. He stormed away from his professor as angrily as he dared, heading for the table where Hermione, Draco, and the others already sat. He could feel practically every eye upon him, and he squirmed internally, hating that sense of being gawked at. But he reminded himself it was all part of the plan, and his professor was counting on him to make everyone believe that he was in deep, deep trouble.

He started to sit down, then had a brilliant idea and jerked to a halt, as if in pain. He saw his friends' eyes widen in shock as he slowly and stiffly lowered his bum onto the bench, grimacing as if he'd been smacked raw.

"Blimey тАУ are you still sore?" Ron burst out, so stunned that the toast in his right hand was momentarily forgotten. Vince took advantage of the redhead's distraction to successfully steal the remaining sausage on his plate.

"I'm fine," Harry replied quickly, and he barely suppressed a giggle as he saw the disbelief on every face.

"You really caught it this time, Potter," Draco observed, but his lazy drawl contained a note of genuine admiration. "No one's ever seen Professor Snape as furious as he was last night."

Harry snorted. "You didn't see anything," he retorted, shooting a dark look at the staff table where his guardian appeared to be in an argument with a house elf.

"Merlin, Harry," Katie Bell put in. "What were you thinking to go after the snitch like that?"

"Yeah, Potter," Flint chimed in. "D'you have a death wish or what? How did you manage some of those turns?"

"It wasn't that hard," Draco argued. "I bet I could have done it!"

There was a moment of silence, then Flint leaned forward. "You really want to make that bet, Malfoy?" he purred.

Draco gulped, glancing from Flint to the staff table and then to Harry. "Erm, no. I guess not," he admitted, coloring.

"I thought you were done for when you lost half your bristles along the wall," Katie continued. "How'd you pull out of that one?"

Harry animatedly began reliving the flight, and soon even Draco had gotten over his sulk and was asking questions.

"Hey, what if we were to set up an obstacle course тАУ outside, I mean!" Katie added hastily. "That might be a great training aid for the team."

Flint's eyes lit up. "That's not a bad idea, Bell."

"How come all the cool stuff is only for the Quidditch teams?" Ron whined. "It's not fair that we can't do any flying first year тАУ except for those dumb classes with Madame Hooch."

"Yeah тАУ those are useless," Draco agreed petulantly, too caught up in his grievance to realize he was publicly agreeing with Ron. "It's not fair!"

"Well, why not build an obstacle course that anyone can use?" Hermione asked sensibly. "We could have competitions to see who can get through it quickest."

"You could have some routes that were easier than others, so that first and second years wouldn't be competing against sixth and seventh," Neville offered.

"That's a good idea!" Ron said excitedly. "Otherwise it'd just be the Quidditch players who'd win each time."

"You wouldn't even need to have teams," Hermione said. "Just let everyone compete as an individual without all the silly House rivalries."