Part VIII

Snape held the door to the classroom open for Potter to precede him. 

"Tell me again why we're here?" Potter said, looking around. "This is the room of requirements, isn't it?"

"Yes. Did you think only students knew about it?" Snape smirked at him. 

"I never thought about it." Potter walked slowly around the room. "It's changed."

"Hence the reason they call it the Room of Requirements."

"Are our requirements such that we need to be using it instead of your classroom or office?" Harry asked.

"I need a place we will not be disturbed."

"For what?" Potter stopped in front of him. 

"We are going to start to share magic."

Potter gave him a disbelieving look. "Just like that? No lead up? No nothing?"

"What kind of lead up where you expecting?" 

"Something more than you just dropping it on me."

Snape exhaled and tried to glare at him. Harry had no patience at all. "You did realize this was the culmination of the bond?"

"Yes." Potter blushed.

It was too obvious what he was thinking. "That is a byproduct, not a part of the actual bond."

"Yeah, right. It would be more convincing if I wasn't feeling it more than I am your magic."

"That is not my fault." Snape folded his arms over his chest, and stubbornly told himself that Potter's blush was not at all cute. Unfortunately, he was finding it more and more difficult to believe himself, especially with Potter looking at him with those big green eyes filled with... 

Snape closed his eyes and took a breath, letting it out very slowly, willing himself to think cold thoughts. 

Eight months. That was all it was. He was not an animal enslaved to his baser instincts; they could wait that long

"It is your fault," Potter said, his voice low as he looked at him from under his lashes. "You know it is."

"Stop. We have work to do." 

"We could do other things..." 

Merlin, when had the brat learned to flirt like that? "Mr. Potter. Now is not the time for this." His voice sounded stern, or as much as he could muster. This was Potter after all.

The tone must have gotten through. Potter straightened up. "Fine. We'll do it your way. No fun at all."

"Not for some time to come, at the least." Snape faced him. "Now, what we're going to do is similar to the Occlumency lessons in that we'll touch each other's mind. Not attack and defend as before, but a gentle touch following the bond."

Potter looked up at him, expression puzzled. "How? Do you know where the bond is?"

"I can feel it, can't you?"

"No." Potter bit his lower lip. "I can feel you. Or rather, I know you're there. I can't feel a specific connection to you, which is what you mean, isn't it?"

"Yes." Snape focused inward, finding the connection and following it to Potter. He deliberately poked it hard.

"Hey!" Harry said, giving him a dirty look, which shifted to confused after he realized it wasn't a physical touch. "I felt that."

"That was the bond."

"Really?" Potter sounded like he didn't quite believe him. "Wait. Let me..."

A moment later, Snape felt an answering touch from Potter, not nearly so hard as his. "Very good."

Closing his eyes, Potter traced the bond into Snape's mind with the lightest touch. "I can't actually hear your thoughts."

"If you pushed, you'd be able to come into my mind, but don't. It's an invasion of my privacy." Snape felt him stop moving. "Now, I'll do the same thing." Reaching out, he consciously moved through the bond into Potter's mind. "We will cast the same spell, at the same time."

Potter looked nervous. "What will happen?"

"Hopefully, our powers will join and it will be cast with twice the power." Snape picked up his wand. "Let's move that ball from one end of the room to the other."

Raising his wand, he pointed it at the ball. "Agicedo"

The ball slammed against the opposite wall so hard it burst and the plastic that was left was embedded in the wall.

"Oh! That was brilliant." Potter smiled widely, glancing at the remains of the ball. "Though um... maybe we should pull it back a bit."

Ignoring the smile and the effect it had on him, Snape tried to scowl. "Your comments are, as always, lacking in eloquence. Shall we try it again?"

"Do we have another ball?" Potter held out his wand.

"Accio Ball." Snape caught it as flew towards him and nodded towards the balls piled in a corner. "Do you ever notice anything?"

"They weren't there when we came in." Potter's look said he wasn't sure.

He couldn't help smirking at Potter. "They were indeed, Mr. Potter. You weren't paying attention, as usual." 

Potter blushed again and didn't meet his eyes. He held up his wand and Snape did the same, repeating the command.

The ball hit the wall with less force this time, but it was still enough to burst it.

"Well, this is going to take time, isn't it?"

"I suspect so." Quite a bit of time, Snape thought. "Shall we try it again?"

"Sure."

It took several hours to get the ball to move to the wall and bounce and return to them. By the time they had accomplished the task, both he and Potter were exhausted. 

Sitting against the far wall, Potter breathed out heavily. "Well, at least we did it."

"After a fashion." This was going to take a phenomenal amount of work. Snape wondered where they would find the time. "Don't look so put out, Mr. Potter. It was a good night's work, but we have a long way to go."

"Yes. It was fun, though."

"I'm not sure I'd categorize it as that, but if you wish to, don't let me stop you."

"Ha ha." Potter smiled at him again, with that charming, easy smile he hadn't noticed before a few weeks ago. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About the bond?"

"No, about what you've been avoiding every time we're together." Potter's smile changed from easy to smug. "Since that's every night, I thought I'd bring it up."

"If I haven't mentioned something, then you should be aware by now, that it might mean I don't wish to discuss it." Snape glared at him. Damned boy. Couldn't ever leave well enough alone, could he?

"What if I want to talk about it?" Potter wasn't smiling any more, indeed his expression had a definite stubborn look to it. Never a good thing with him. 

Snape exhaled and closed his eyes. "Do you? Are you confused by something? Or do you just wish to torture me with it?"

"I wouldn't do that."

"Wouldn't you?" Snape knew very well that he wasn't above a bit of teasing, or worse. Nothing that would do more than prick, but even that could draw blood. 

"No. I've been waiting for this." Potter pushed himself to his feet, and leaned against the wall. "I was afraid it wouldn't happen."

"Why were you afraid of that?" Snape could not imagine what went through Potter's mind sometimes. "You're a normal healthy young man. You knew..."

Potter shook his head. "No. I didn't. Aside from that crush on Cho, I never..." he trailed off, blushing.

If he said that Potter was young, Snape knew the reaction he'd get. So, he simply remained silent, waiting for Potter to finish. Which he hoped would happen soon. This could degenerate quickly into something he was not prepared to deal with.

Potter stepped up to him. Closer. Too close. "You feel the same way I do." 

Snape took a step back. With Potter, sometimes he had to give ground. He didn't like it, but he understood intrinsically that Potter would not back down. 

"You don't even know what I'm going to do." Potter reached up and slid a hand down Snape's arm.

"I can guess." The hand on his arm burned down into his guts, and Snape tried to suppress a shiver of pure pleasure at the touch. "And I do wish you would not."

Potter leaned up and kissed him, anyway. Pulling back slightly, he smiled and then kissed him again. "Nice."

Breathing out, and forcing his eyes open, Snape shook his head. "Please do not." Even to himself, his voice sounded strained and raspy.

"I'm not pushing it. I promise. Nothing until I'm out of school. But I need..." He blushed again as his hands tightened on Snape's arms. "Please."

Trying to clear his head, Snape could hear something in Potter's tone that wasn't a whine or a demand. "What do you need? Tell me."

"I need to be closer to you," Potter whispered against his lips, moving slightly to kiss him again. 

As much as he would have liked to pull away, Snape could not. He actually leaned in and brushed another kiss across Potter's mouth. 

They both sighed as he pulled back enough to look Potter in the face. "You need this?" Snape asked.

Meeting his eyes, Potter nodded. "Yes. I need it. I can't explain better than that. It's more than want. Something says I must..."

Letting his mouth quirk up into some semblance of a smile, Snape tried to find an answer that was reasonable. "Did you ever think it is simply teenage lust?" 

Potter shook his head. "I don't think it is. Besides, I've learned with this bond that I have to listen to it. It's telling me to be closer to you."

"I'm not going to sleep with you."

At that, Potter laughed. "You already sleep with me."

Point, Snape conceded. "I meant fornicate."

"Yes, I did know what you meant. That is not what I'm asking for." Potter pressed another quick kiss to his mouth, but drew back before he could respond. "But speaking of sleeping, I'm tired of sleeping in my clothes."

"You could return to your dorm." Even as he said it, Snape knew it wasn't being fair. It wasn't as if Potter had any more of a choice than he did. It wasn't enjoyable to sleep on the sofa. Unfortunately, it was a fact of their lives. 

Glowering at him, Potter shook his head. "You know as well as I do that I try to leave almost every night. That sofa is not very comfortable."

"It's not," Snape agreed. "However, it is the best we can do for now."

"We could sleep in your bed." Potter's expression turned earnest. "Would it help if I swore I wouldn't try anything?"

"It's not a matter of that," Snape said. "It's a matter of what it looks like."

"How much worse could it be than spending every night sleeping on your sofa?" Potter sighed. "Who is going to see anyway?"

"That's not the point."

"No, the point is that we have to sleep together, and you won't let us be comfortable to do it."

The brat had a point. Not to mention that he hadn't had a good night's sleep since Potter had started to stay. Was the idea of sleeping with Potter in his arms so overwhelming that he would try any way he could to justify it? Snape wasn't sure what he was doing and that annoyed him. "I'll think about it."

"Do that." Potter stalked to the door and pulled it open. "I'm hungry. I'll see you later."

When he was gone, Snape let out the breath he'd been holding. *****

"Harry!" Ron called, following him after class. "Haven't seen you for a while, mate."

"Yeah, I know with the endless detentions that greasy git has been giving me." Harry made himself sound right put out for those listening. "I've no time for anything other than revising for my NEWTs."

"You're not playing Quidditch, You should have more time," Allison Newbury, one the people added to the Quidditch team last year said, as she passed. "I mean, even with Snape giving you all those detentions."

"I wish I could play." He looked at her. "You know as well as I do that Umbridge's decree is still being upheld by the ministry." Harry had no time for Quidditch this year, but he was still angry that Umbridge's legacy hadn't faded completely from the school, nor from the back of his hand.

"Can't Professor Dumbledore do anything about it?" Allison persisted, folding her arms over her chest, and looking personally affronted. "I mean, if you asked him? We need you on the team."

"You don't think I have already?" Harry glared back at her. "The headmaster has better and more important things to deal with than me being on the Quidditch team. Sorry. I won't bother him again."

"Yeah," Ron put in, standing up next to Harry and towering over her. "It's not like we've got a bad team. We haven't done that badly."

"No, you haven't," Harry agreed, giving Ron an encouraging smile. "I'm proud of the team."

"Fine," Allison snapped, and turned away. "You've obviously got better things to do."

"What's with her?" Ron asked, putting his hand on Harry's upper arm and leading him out of the corridor into the main entrance. "Let's take a walk."

"Don't know. She's not usually like that. What's going on?" Harry shook off Ron's hand, and followed him down the steps. This wasn't like Ron and he was concerned. "Ron?"

"Give it a second," Ron said, nodding to several other students and they crossed the greens towards the lake. 

Neither of them spoke until they were on the far side. It was wet and slushy; their shoes made squishing sounds in the mud. 

"What?" Harry couldn't take the suspense any more. "What is going on?"

"People are starting to talk about you and the fact you're not around at all any more. Not in the common room, not at night. No one has seen you all term. The charm works fine in the dorm, but when someone actually looks for you..."

"I know you're covering for me, and I appreciate it." More than he was going to be able to say. "Hermione, too."

"S'what friends are for." Ron smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

"God, what should I do? You know that I have to be around him." Harry looked at Ron, at a loss. "It's literally painful for me to go too long without seeing him."

"I know, mate." Ron shrugged. "I don't know what you can do. But I do know that my excuses aren't going to hold for much longer. It's been months. Can't you spend a night or two in the common room?"

"I could. I'd still have to go to him at night," Harry trailed off. He could feel the blush on his face. 

Ron looked uncomfortable, and then sighed. "I wish there was something I could do to help you. There isn't, is there?"

"You're already doing more than you should have to." Harry felt grateful to have such good friends.

Ron shook his head. "We should ask Hermione about it, but I don't think anyone suspects the truth of where you actually are at night."

"God, I hope not." Harry shuddered. "He'd kill me if anyone found out."

"Why? I mean, aside from the fact he's a greasy, mean-spirited git," Ron smirked. "Oh, that would be the reason, wouldn't it?"

"Ron. Come on." Harry knew Ron understood how he felt about Snape, but it was pretty obvious that he still hadn't quite accepted it as fact yet.

Grimacing for a moment, Ron squared his shoulders. "I'm your friend, no matter what happens, Harry. You know that."

He did, beyond a doubt. "Thanks, mate."

"I got some news of my own." Ron looked away and then back at him. "Hermione and I are going out."

"Where?" Harry wondered why Ron was making a big deal out of going somewhere with Hermione. They went places all the time.

"No." Ron smiled and shook his head. "I mean we're going out. On a date."

"A date?" Harry asked, masking his surprise. It wasn't as if he hadn't known it was coming. "I hadn't realized you'd finally plucked up your courage."

"You knew how I felt about her." Ron blushed. "I mean, I told you I wanted to kiss her. Well, I did."

"She liked it, I take it?" Harry watched him smile as he nodded "Well done, mate. So, what happens next?"

"Dinner. She and I, the next Hogsmeade weekend." Ron seemed a little hesitant. 

"That should be in a couple of weeks, right?" Harry saw the worry in his face and put a hand on his arm. "Is something..." 

"No. Just, you know...." He looked away, his face flushing. "This is important to me, and I don't want to bugger things up."

"She's already your best friend, how could they get messed up?"

"That's how. I don't want to stop being friends with her."

"You won't." At least, Harry hoped they wouldn't. He could see a potential for a lot of things going wrong with this. There was also the potential for his two best friends to find what he was pretty sure he'd found. "It will be fine."

"Thanks." *****

"Albus," Snape said, sitting down in the comfortable chair in front of Dumbledore's fire. "Did you want to actually talk to me about something or was this an enforced social call?"

"No." Dumbledore smiled infuriating at him, complete with eyes twinkling merrily. "I did want to know how things are going with you and Harry?"

Bugger all, Snape thought. Merlin, how he hated the impromptu status sessions. They always left him feeling like he wasn't quite measuring up and he was never sure why. "We spend an inordinate amount of time together. Far more than is proper."

"Given the strain that has been placed on the bond, I'm not surprised." Dumbledore sounded like he approved of the situation. "You don't sound any worse for it."

Which, as far as Snape was concerned, he shouldn't do. "You know how I feel about the brat."

"I do indeed." Dumbledore's eyes positively twinkled with his pleasure. "Now Harry seems to be returning those feelings."

Snape found his amusement most irritating when he was trying to have a serious discussion. He shouldn't be surprised that Dumbledore knew of Potter's nascent feelings, nothing got past him. It was the way of the world. He didn't have to like it, however. "Yes. It would appear so."

"You don't seem very pleased with the occurrence. Is there another problem?" A note of concern had finally slipped into Dumbledore words, but it didn't overlay the cheer.

Glaring at him, Snape wondered if Dumbledore actually grasped the seriousness of the situation. "You certainly sound to be pleased enough for both of us. Why is that?"

A bit more of Dumbledore's good spirits drained away. "I should think you would be happy about this as well." 

"Why should I be?" Snape glared at him, glad he was finally seeing there was a problem. "It's seven more months before I can do anything about it. All it does is prolong our--"

"Yes, yes." Dumbledore waved his hand to stop what Snape was about to say. "I'm sure you're right."

"Furthermore," Snape growled. He was tired and annoyed and didn't care any longer. "I doubt Mr. Potter has slept in his own bed more than once or twice since the beginning of the term."

"Severus," Dumbledore said in a tone he rarely used, one that commanded attention when he did. "I don't need to know the details."

Despite the warning tone, or maybe because of it, Snape sneered at him. "Oh, but don't you want them? Don't you want to hear about--"

"No. I do not." Dumbledore's tone was stern and his expression grave. "Should I find out, in any official capacity that a professor was spending the night with a student, I might be forced to take some action on that. It is, as you know, against any number of rules."

Snape looked hard at him, knowing his comment had crossed the line, even if he hadn't. "That would be unfortunate."

"Indeed. For all concerned, I'm afraid." Dumbledore stroked a hand along his beard, his face intent. "As I have said, I trust you to do the right thing for Harry and yourself."

"What are you saying?" Snape was good at reading people; he had to be given both his natural inclinations and his secondary profession. "I'm not sure I understand."

"I thought I was being quite clear on this."

He hated when Dumbledore was deliberately obtuse, never quite sure if the man knew it and was playing with him or not. "You were not. Please spell it out."

"As I said, if I were to know officially," Dumbledore stressed the word, "of activities that were in violation of the rules, I might have to act on it."

He still didn't understand it and he shook his head. "I know this. Is there something you've heard that I should know about?"

"Only that Harry has spent a great deal of time away from his friends this term." Dumbledore sounded troubled. "The children of Gryffindor have started to speak of it."

Snape sighed. "I'm not sure it can be helped."

"I expect not, but consider it when you're keeping him close to you." Dumbledore looked at him and smiled. "Tell me, what if anything have you heard from Voldemort?"

Sometimes the way Dumbledore changed topics gave Snape whiplash. "I've heard nothing since I was summoned in October. However, I think I'll be called again during the winter break. I am not sure things are going well for him right now."

"No. I suspect that they are not. We've had several very successful operations recently." Dumbledore was looking quite pleased with that.

Indeed, Snape would have been pleased as well, except, "I didn't know about that."

"The Order hasn't met recently to allow the exchange of information." Dumbledore looked more cagey than usual. "How are the magic sharing sessions going for you and Harry?"

Letting it go, Snape knew he'd have his answers when Dumbledore felt like telling him and not before. "When the brat bothers to concentrate, he's quite adept at using the combined magic."

"And you?"

"I manage. I haven't as much raw power as he has." Snape shivered. All that power in Potter. It amazed Snape that he was on their side. Most people would be corrupted by it, but it seemed as if Potter didn't even have a concept of what he could do with it. Snape sometimes wondered what would happen if he'd told Potter the truth. "It requires more energy for me to control his power than for him to control mine." 

"Because he will face Voldemort, that might not be so bad a thing."

"All things considered, probably not." *****