kbinnz - Harry's New Home

"Harry James Potter!" Snape thundered at him. "WHERE ARE YOUR SLIPPERS?"

Harry looked down at his bare toes. "Oh. Erm..."

Snape rolled his eyes. It was winter, in Scotland, and they lived in a stone castle. In the dungeon. And this little dunderhead was wandering around with neither a robe nor slippers as if he were trotting around a grass shack in Tahiti. "Get up here," he ordered, flipping back his blankets before the idiot child caught pneumonia and Poppy hexed him for inadequate supervision.

Harry straightened up with a broad smile. His da was so nice! He scrambled into the warm bed.

"FU-" Snape managed to bite back the rest of the oath as the brat shoved his icy toes under the duvet. He grabbed for his wand and cast a warming charm on the boy before he could do any more damage.

Harry relaxed, flopping bonelessly onto his da's large bed. It felt so good when the charm's heat curled around him!

"Potter!" Snape poked the boy in the ribs when the child showed an alarming tendency to doze off. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh!" Harry bit his lip. "I - I couldn't sleep," he started, haltingly.

Snape felt guilty. Of course the boy couldn't sleep. He'd come face to face with Voldemort's familiar! Naturally he kept worrying about what might have happened had Nagini chosen to attack him instead of fleeing. "You need not worry," he said as gently as he could manage at 2 AM. "The snake is dead as are the other, ah, inhabitants of the Chamber. They can never harm you."

Harry twisted around to stare at him in shock. "I'm not worried about me!" he protested with the unconscious arrogance of an 11 year old (and a Potter, Snape snarled to himself). "I keep thinkin' of what that snake nearly did to you." At Snape's look of utter shock - the boy was being kept from sleep by fears about his welfare? - Harry elaborated. "I mean, I keep remembering how mean it was an' how it had already scratched up your throat an' what would've happened if I hadn't come back right then an' what if it hadn't been playing with its food first an what if -"

"Diction, Mr Potter. This casual slurring of your words needs to stop," Snape said automatically, cutting off the flow before it could give him the willies. He had managed to stop the worst of the shaking in the shower by brutally suppressing all memories of that encounter, but the boy's words were too evocative and once again he could feel Nagini's fangs stroking lightly down his throat.

"Sorry," Harry replied, just as automatically, "but it was just really scary," he ended with a sniffle. "I mean, what if something had happened to you?"

Snape stopped rubbing his throat and looked down at the brat. "You need not worry," he reassured him. "You will never have to return to the Dursleys, remember? You would likely go to live with your godfather and -"

He was nonplused when Harry's eyes filled with tears. "I don't want to live with Padfoot!" Harry wailed. "I want to live with you!" He hurled himself at Severus and the Potion Master felt his breastbone creak in protest.

"Yes, yes, of course you will live with me," he tried to reason with the sobbing child. "We were only talking about what would happen if I were to die." Oddly enough, this only made the brat cry harder. Obviously there was more to calming children down than he had realized - not that he had ever really tried very hard before. "Potter. Potter! Harry! I assure you that I will do my utmost not to die," he offered.

That seemed to help a bit, so he continued in that vein. "I am well aware that your dogfather is hardly likely to provide an environment conducive to proper discipline and nutrition. Do you suppose I would willingly permit you to reside with him?" Harry managed a tearful chuckle, and heartened, Snape pressed on. "Not to mention the amount of grading I still have to do. I doubt I would be allowed to die whilst dunderheaded children still exist at this school."

Harry managed to wipe his eyes and unlock his death grip on his da enough to look up. "But I w's a terrible son," he confided miserably. "I don't know why you want to keep me."

Snape struggled not to let his emotions show as Harry referred to himself in that astonishing way. "What are you blithering about?" he demanded sharply, his confused emotions expressing themselves, as always, as anger.

Harry sniffled again. "After the snake. When it left, I just ran after it," he whispered, hanging his head.

Snape frowned. "Yes, and you were smacked for such foolishness." Was the boy angry about the swat? He hadn't thought that in all the excitement, any of the children had particularly noticed the correction.

"Well, yeah," Harry admitted. "But that's not the bad part. I mean, I left you. You're always worried about me and if I'm okay, and you always make sure to check on me. Even in the lav, practically the first thing you asked us was if we were okay. But I didn't. I only asked after you asked me. I shouldn't have left like that. I should've stayed and made sure you were okay and called Madame Pomfrey for you and stuff like that." He started to snivel again. "It's not that I don't love you; I was just bein' stupid..."

The warmth that blossomed in Snape's chest at Harry's artless, casual declaration of love was impossible to ignore. He pulled the boy close, his voice rough as he said, "Foolish child. Why would I be cross with you for doing what I had told you to do? Have I not repeatedly told you that I am the adult and that it is my responsibility to look at after you; it is not your responsibility to look after me. I do not want you to feel that caring for me is an obligation. You are a child," he ignored Harry's half-hearted, reflexive bristling at the term, "and you should not feel you must be solicitous of my welfare. That is what I do, not you."

Harry wiggled closer. His da always knew what to say to make him feel better, though he still wasn't sure he shouldn't have some role in caring for his da. "Can't we look after each other?" he asked plaintively. "I mean, when I get bigger an' all, then I could take care of you, yeah?"

His da gave him another squeeze. "Idiot," he grumbled, but his voice was all scratchy and soft, so Harry knew he really meant something very different. "Did you not save my life today? You are a very powerful wizard, Harry."

Harry beamed. "I am?" he repeated, wanting to hear his da say it again.

"Yes. And that is why you will have extra lessons over the summer to ensure that you are learning how to control your power," Snape informed him drily, certain that this would direct Harry's attention away from the day's terrifying events and into a completely new stream.

It did. "Daaaaaaaaaa!" Harry howled in protest. "No! No summer classes!"

"Yes," he said heartlessly. "All summer long." At Harry's pout, he smirked and said, "Think how jealous Miss Granger will be."

That perked Harry up briefly. "Yeah," he agreed, but then his face fell. "But Ron an' all the guys will take the mickey."

"Perhaps not when they realize all the Defense spells, hexes, and weaponized Potions material you will be learning," Snape retorted coolly, even as he lay back down.

Automatically, Harry followed suit. "Hexes? I'll learn hexes? And DADA stuff too? Really? And weaponized Potions? Wow! That sounds really cool! An' dueling? Will there be dueling?" he asked excitedly, snuggling beneath the blankets.

"Mm. If you work hard."

"Wow. The guys will be more jealous than Hermione when they hear that," Harry gloated. "Erm, Da - d'you think maybe sometimes some of my friends could come over and be part of the lessons too?" he asked hopefully.

"If your behavior warrants such a reward." Snape's eyes were closed.

"Huh." Harry's eyelids started to droop too. "That'll be a - a - " he had to pause for a wide yawn "- a fun summer... Da, will we see Padfoot an' Moony at all?" he asked drowsily, a thought striking him.