kbinnz - Harry's New Home

Harry bit his lip. "I don't think so. I mean, he's always saying that he's not hitting to really hurt, and if he whacks you on your cut, it would really hurt, right?"

"Yeah!" Ron said feelingly. "A lot. Not that Perce would careтАж Well, I guess he'd care, but I think he'd still whack me."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, you can't say that Percy doesn't care about you anymore. Not since the Battle."

Ron grinned back. "Yeah, though the twins say that maybe it was all a show to impress Jones."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "They say that?"

"Yeah, but not really loud. They're pretty scared of Jones."

"Everyone is scared of Jones," Harry pointed out.

"Even Percy!" The boys dissolved in sniggers.

"I am glad to see you are taking your disgrace so lightly," the cold tones of Professor Snape halted the merriment. "Now that we are here," he went on, opening the portrait to his quarters, "I expect you to wash and change into nightclothes. Mr Weasley, as the guest, you may shower first."

"Yes, sir," Ron scooted straight into the bathroom.

Snape glared down at Harry, who hung his head and played with the hem of his sleeve. "Did you have dinner?"

"ErmтАж Ron was going to bring me a sandwich. With salad in it!" he added quickly.

"Hmf." Snape huffed. "Get into the kitchen. I will call for something."

"Y's'r." Harry hurried to do what he was told, his heart full of happiness. Even when Snape was completely disappointed in him, he still cared enough to worry if Harry had eaten. Harry knew he was going to be soundly punished тАУ the second he'd seen Snape's panicked face in the corridor, he'd known he was in for it тАУ but he didn't really care. He figured the scolding was going to hurt a lot worse than the smacks, and he suspected that this time Professor Snape wouldn't be satisfied with merely assigning lines as punishment, but it was all okay, because now he knew that his professor still cared about him.

Harry turned from washing up at the sink to find the professor sinking into a chair, a plate already on the table with some shepherd's pie and broccoli, along with a big glass of pumpkin juice. "Sit down and eat," Snape snapped.

This horrible little brat was going to be the death of him. Snape was quite certain he'd burst several vital blood vessels during his terror-filled sprint through the castle. How on earth was he supposed to survive Potter's adolescence? The brat had already tried to obliterate himself on a broomstick and had taken on a full-grown troll. At this rate, he'd be challenging Voldemort by Christmas! He wondered if he could take a Calming Draught without the little horror noticing. Never let them see your fear тАУ wasn't that one of the key rules of parenting? Or was that for rabid dogs, not children? Was there a difference?

Dear Wizarding Parents Monthly, I find myself the guardian for an abused and neglected child who also happens to be prophesied to battle the most powerful Dark wizard of our time. When I find said child engaging in potentially life-threatening activities should I (a) give him a smack on the bottom and tell him not to do it again, (b) give him a smack on the bottom and tell him not to do it again until he's standing in front of the abovementioned Dark wizard, or (c) tell him to live it up because he's doomed anyway?

Snape sighed. No withholding food. No painful corporal punishment. No cleaning chores. No confinement to his room. What on earth was he supposed to do to punish the Potter brat for such an insane act of folly? And Weasley? Why in Merlin's name was he having to punish the youngest Weasley boy? He'd never agreed to that, no matter what Minerva and Molly might think. He gloomily decided he was lucky Granger had hurt her wrist and needed to be taken to the Infirmary, or he might have been landed with her as well, and he was not going to start swatting female students. Oh no тАУ therein lay madness, or at least angry fathers and Ministerial investigations.

He became aware of a presence at his elbow. The Potter brat was standing there, solemnly watching him. "What?" he demanded grumpily.

"I'm really sorry I scared you before." Harry said quietly. "I was just trying to get us back to the Tower."

"It was not your goal, but your method of achieving it, that caused the problem, Mr Potter," Snape said sternly. "In dangerous situations, it is imperative to avoid panicked actions. Tonight, you had the luxury of time to plan, yet you did not make use of it. That was very foolish, and I will not accept foolish behavior from such a bright child. It demonstrates intellectual laziness, which I will not tolerate," he finished sharply.

Harry blinked. 'Bright child'? Him?

"Your clever use of Wingardium Leviosa demonstrates that you can think ahead and use your magic in an offensive fashion, but had you taken the time to think things through, rather than having to improvise on the fly, you might have been able to send the troll over the stairs on his own, then made good your escape in the meantime. And just what exactly were you planning to use to stop the troll when you attempted to send your friends on without you? Your sparkling personality?" Snape demanded.

Harry managed to stifle his giggle. "Sparkling personality"? His professor was awfully funny. Harry could just see it now - trying to engage the troll in a conversation. "And which is your favorite Quidditch team?" "Urrr!" "Oh, I see. And what do you think their chances are this season?" "Urr urr urr!"

The mental image having significantly lifted his spirits, Harry sighed happily. His professor always managed to make him feel better, even when he really didn't deserve it. And Harry was well aware that, even though he made it sound like a scolding, Professor Snape was saying very nice things about him. Harry was smart? And levitating the pikestaff was clever? Harry couldn't believe how, even as his professor was pointing out the things he'd done wrong, he still didn't call him names like "stupid" or "freak". And considering how much Harry had scared him, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for him to be really nasty.

"I'm really sorry, Pr'fessor. I won't do it again. Honest." He put his hand on the man's arm, trying to convey how much he appreciated the man's kindness towards him.

Snape huffed silently. Trying to ingratiate yourself before a punishment? You should have been sorted into Slytherin. "You're an impossible, insufferable brat, clearly placed on this earth to torment me," he retorted stonily. "Now eat your food before it gets cold."

Harry nodded obediently and then тАУ ignoring the perfectly good chairs ringing the table тАУ had the effrontery to climb onto the man's lap to eat his dinner.

Snape gasped in astonishment and fury. How dare the little monster expect to sit in his lap like that? As if nothing was wrong! As if Snape wasn't going to discipline him in just a few minutes! As if everything was fine!

He growled and went to move the fiend to another chair, when Harry glanced back over his shoulder and smiled shyly at him. As always, the look in those green eyes pinned his soul, and Snape found his hand gently rubbing the boy's back instead of roughly dumping him in a different seat.

Harry let out a sigh of contentment тАУ or was it relief? тАУ and settled down to eat his food. He was nearly done by the time a well-scrubbed Ron appeared in the doorway, wearing a set of Harry's pyjamas. Luckily, the sizing spell worked so that they fit the larger boy without a problem.

Ron grinned at the professor. He had Harry on his lap, and he was absently patting the boy's shoulder while Harry finished up the last of his shepherd's pie. "Shower's all yours, Harry," Ron said.

Harry started to hop up, only to find the hand on his shoulder holding him down. "Finish your broccoli, young man," Snape said sternly.