Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Breaking Forwards	By : lastcrazyhorn Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > General Views: 13749 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Not mine. J.K. Rowling's fandom. She's makes money off these stories and I do not. Nor will I ever. Harry Potter is all hers. sniffles But the weird twisted shit? Muahahhaa.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Chapter 11 – Aftermath
Harry's resorting was announced at dinnertime that same night, to the utter surprise of most of those present.
Shocked silence filled the hall, and then was broken with a shout from Ron Weasley, "Yeah! We don't want him anyway!"
Cheers erupted from the majority of the Gryffindor table, and then were quickly silenced by an irate McGonagall.
"SILENCE!" Her much magnified voice broke through the chaos.
Harry, who was standing next to Professor Snape at the front of the room, realized that his anger was causing the silverware to rattle around them, and forced himself to become calm. When the rattle had subsided, he sneered back towards his former housemates.
"Detention, Mr. Weasley," she said, speaking in clipped tones that only served to further illustrate the extent of her anger with the red haired boy.
"You have all shamed Gryffindor house with your actions tonight," she spat into the almost complete silence of the hall. "Now get out of my sight! All of you!" With a wave of her wand, the food that had been present atop the Gryffindor table abruptly disappeared, followed shortly by its students.
Harry noted with wary interest that Ron had not reacted after being reprimanded in front of the entire school. Rather, his face had become much stiller, his eyes the only part of his being that still looked alive as they stared straight at him.
. . .
On their way out of the Great Hall, Severus Snape tapped Blaise and Draco on their shoulders as he and Harry passed them. With a nod of his head towards the doors, he indicated that they should follow him out. His two fifth years obeyed without a word, neatly falling into step next to Harry, who was behind him.
He led them to his quarters, and then wordlessly motioned for them to go in. Once they were all inside and the door was shut, Severus began unbuttoning his outer robes; a sure indication that whatever they were there for was likely going to take awhile.
With little hesitation, first Draco, then Blaise and finally Harry followed his lead, hanging their robes on the pegs next to his own.
He ushered them to his sitting area and then went to his kitchen to make tea.
. . .
Harry sat down next to Blaise on the couch, and watched carefully as Draco took a seat in one of the armchairs. The blond boy sank into it easily, as though he was completely at home there in their professor's quarters.
Hell, maybe he is, was his slightly bitter thought.
Harry swallowed and looked away from his long-time rival.
"Hey, you're looking pretty good," he heard Blaise say softly from beside him.
"Was that a come on?" He shot back half-jokingly.
A snort came from their blond haired companion, and Harry smirked.
"Don't kid yourself," Blaise answered, stretching his hands behind his head comfortably. "You are so not my type."
"Standards, Blaise?" Draco Malfoy interjected with a wry grin. "I wasn't aware that you had those."
"I wasn't either," Harry added, raising an eyebrow at his now spluttering friend.
"Hey, no fair. You're not allowed to gang up on me like that," Blaise argued, sitting back up defensively.
"Is it considered 'ganging up' if we simply have the same agenda?" Harry asked, looking speculatively at the other two Slytherins around him.
"I don't know," Draco looked at him with a thoughtful expression. "What is your agenda, anyway?"
Snape interrupted the conversation as he walked back in-between them, a tray of tea and other related sundries floating behind him.
Harry jumped up to help him with the tea, only to be waved off by an irritable looking Snape.
"I believe I know how to do this myself, Harry," his professor answered bit testily.
Harry sat back down. He wasn't offended by Snape's tone, if only because the man had continued to use his first name.
"Yes sir," was his automatic response. He shifted a bit uncomfortably as both Draco and Blaise glanced at him oddly.
"What?" He asked when they didn't speak.
"Harry, as a Slytherin, you needn't use titles for me when we're in my quarters," his professor informed him.
"So his name is 'Severus,' Harry. Try it out," Blaise said with a smirk.
Harry grimaced, and looked at the other three carefully to see if this was some kind of joke.
"So Severus," Blaise started, finally showing pity for his friend.
"Yes?"
"You think I have standards, don't you?" Blaise asked with an innocent expression, even while his companions broke out into laughter. Severus raised an eyebrow at them, and then turned back to the dark skinned boy beside Harry.
"Of course you do," their professor answered with a straight face.
"See?" Blaise crowed, looking smug.
"For instance," Severus continued without so much as a pause, "all of your pursuits," he cleared his throat, "are almost always alive and usually even humanoid in some form or fashion."
"Hey!" Blaise retorted with a blush while his classmates cracked up. Snape, on the other hand, merely leaned back with a cup of tea and an even broader smirk.
"Would you like me to continue?" The dark haired man asked with a small grin lighting his sallow face.
Blaise chose to respond in a very un-Slytherin fashion and stuck his tongue out towards Severus.
After the laughter had died down, Harry once more found the others' eyes on him.
"I think that Draco's earlier question was a valid one," Snape—no, Severus said. Harry wasn't sure if he could get used to that just yet, but it didn't stop him from trying.
"What's my agenda?" Harry asked slowly.
He received nods from the other three present.
"Survival, first and foremost," he said softly after a few moments of silence. He looked down as his hands suddenly became very interesting again.
"Harry," Blaise said from beside him, causing him to flinch in surprise. "Slytherin rule #1 – We never just settle for anything."
"Who's settling?" Harry whispered, as he stared off into space.
"Hey, none of that," Blaise said, punching him in the arm hard enough to jerk him out of the trancelike state that he had been falling into.
"Geez Blaise," Harry remarked ruefully, rubbing his arm and avoiding the steady gazes of the others in the room around him.
"Slytherin isn't a house to hide in," Draco stated, breaking up the uncomfortable silence that was beginning to build between them.
"I'm not planning on hiding. I'm merely going to be biding my time," Harry replied with a sneer towards the other teen.
"Until?" That was Snape—no, Severus, damn it, peering at him with those dark inquisitive eyes of his that seemed to bore into his very brain.
"Until I have an appropriate response," he answered with a scowl.
No, I won't be hiding,he thought coldly; a certain ex-best friend in mind as he brooded.
. . .
Draco Malfoy looked at the Boy-Who-Lived appraisingly as he tried to combine what he knew about Harry Potter with what he now could see.
This Harry was bitter, yet uncertain in his actions. He was shy, almost to the point of being withdrawn. He flinched when someone moved around him and there were dark circles under his eyes that were likely because of nightmares.
Merlin knew that he probably had enough reasons for them, between what Draco knew of his home life and the Dark Lord's quest against him.
"Potter," Draco began quietly.
"Draco," Severus said reprovingly from his right.
"Okay sorry, Harry," he amended.
"No, Draco," Severus was still looking darkly at him and he shook his head in confusion.
"What?"
"Look at his nametag," his godfather suggested.
Evans? Draco thought wildly after taking the man's suggestion. He looked across at Blaise and saw surprise on his face as well.
Well at least it wasn't just me.
"He still gets his inheritance, right?" He peered closely at Severus and received a raised eyebrow for his trouble.
"He is still a Potter," Severus confirmed in a low voice.
"I just don't want to be known as a Potter anymore," Harry explained quietly.
"Good grief Harry," he responded, not bothering to see if Severus was looking on approvingly or not. "There are plenty of people at this school who would prefer not to be known by their families," he sneered at the thought of his father's dark legacy and the frequent trouble it had caused him throughout the years.
Deciding to go out on a limb for the sake of their newest snake, Draco admitted something that he had been thinking about for a while.
"I've even considered going by my mother's maiden name of Black," he said, looking carefully at the other boy.
He watched in trepidation as the other boy flinched and lost the little color that he had in his face.
"What?" He asked with another sneer, a bit hurt that Potter of all people would be judging him for this.
"Please don't," Harry croaked out, his eyes flicking back and forth nervously between him and Severus.
"Why do you say that?" Draco bit out testily, steadily ignoring his professor's warning look.
Harry agitatedly ran a hand through his long hair, and refused to meet his gaze as he stuttered out an answer.
"I don't want to have to hear that name while at school."
This confused Draco, and he didn't like it.
"Am I not good enough for you then? I know Black's your sainted godfather, but—," he didn't get any further. Instead he suddenly found himself on the opposite side of the room, his back pressed painfully against the wall with Harry's hand clenched around his neck, cutting off his air supply.
"Let me explain something to you," the other boy growled, squeezing his neck tighter. Draco didn't know how the smaller boy was doing it, but somehow Harry actually had him off the floor far enough to cause his feet to dangle.
He saw Severus and Blaise behind Harry, and he saw his godfather's mouth moving as he tried to get past the wards that the other boy had apparently thrown up around them.
"I hate him. I hate him more than I thought I ever hated you. I hate him more than my uncle or even fucking Voldemort," Harry spat at him, his green eyes burning dark with fury.
Draco couldn't breathe. Bits of black were pushing in around the edges of his vision, and yet Harry kept ranting at him in that fearfully quiet voice that somehow managed to remind him of his godfather on a bad day.
"I want him to rot; I want him to bleed. I want him to die," Draco barely heard him say harshly. Blood was pounding achingly in his head, and idly he wondered if his face was turning red.
Harry adjusted his grip on his throat, and he managed to grab a rasping breath before being cut off again.
"I would kill him myself if I thought I could get away with it. I'd take out a hit on him if I thought I could get away with it. I'd gladly torture him in a heartbeat if I had the chance."
Draco couldn't see anything of the other boy except his burning dark green eyes.
And then suddenly he found himself on the floor, coughing up bile in an uncultured way, while he gasped for air around the obstruction that was his throat.
Distantly he heard a door slam once, and then moments later slam again.
He didn't know what was going on. He just wanted the room to stop spinning.
. . .
Harry ran after dropping Draco on the floor. He didn't know where he was going; only that he had to get out of there before Snape took him out for attacking his beloved godson. He felt sick knowing that he had already screwed up his chance at a new life within the house of Slytherin.
He wasn't at all prepared to be yanked backwards by his irate head of house.
Snape had him by one arm and was dragging him backwards, causing him to stumble over his feet and nearly fall.
"You stupid boy," the man growled at him in a voice so low he almost couldn't hear it.
The portrait to his professor's quarters burst open without so much as a word from the older man, and Snape dragged him back through the place that he just escaped from.
Maybe it would be better for everyone involved if he just let Snape torture him to death.
. . .
Blaise watched in some surprise as Severus manhandled Harry back through the room. Blaise was crouched next to the still gasping Draco, but his heart went out to the defeated look that was on Harry's face.
Another door slammed and Blaise realized that Severus had taken them back to his bedroom, presumably to have some privacy.
At his feet, Draco groaned and clutched his head tenderly.
"Can't they stop with the door slamming already?" The blond haired boy moaned quietly.
Blaise smirked down at his friend.
"Looks like not."
. . .
Severus threw the idiotic boy down on bed and took a step back before beginning his reprimand.
"You stupid, foolish boy," he spat angrily, his fury enhanced by the fear he had felt when he realized that Harry had blundered out into the corridors by himself.
"The entire house of Gryffindor has declared war on you, and yet you ignore that in favor of your immature need for drama," he sneered down at the boy before him.
At one point it would have made him happy to see the lad flinch in response to his words, but that time was long past. He needed to make this child understand the seriousness of his situation, and he needed to do it quickly before he ruined the small amount of trust that they had managed to build between them over the last couple of days.
"Maybe it'd be better that way," the boy muttered from his perch on the side of Severus's bed. He watched in quiet unease as the child hugged himself tightly; likely trying to conceal the level of his body's trembling from his professor.
"Suicide by homicidal classmates," Severus sneered derisively, roughly pushing a sweat damped hand through his own dark locks. "Yes, I'm sure the newspapers will love that nearly as much as the Dark Lord will."
The boy cringed again and he silently cursed himself. The lad's face was nearly as pale as his own, but unlike Severus's features, this was an unnatural shade on the boy that made him look sick—broken even.
He sighed and walked slowly over to the bed. The boy twitched again, but he ignored it as he sat down beside him.
"Harry."
There, that got the lad's attention. Hesitant green eyes flickered towards his dark amber ones, and he couldn't help but sink into them a bit.
Terrible fear that Severus will hurt him, punish him, turn his back on him in favor of his beloved godson.
Wretched remorse for his actions accompanied by a deep self-loathing for everything that made up Harry.
Hopelessness.
Loneliness.
Misery—depthless pools of horrid misery and pain; all tempered by very real expectations of betrayal and rejection.
"Oh child," Severus whispered sadly, raising a hand and placing it gently on the boy's still too thin shoulder. Harry flinched, but he didn't remove his hand, and soon he felt the lad's tension release a bit under his still fingertips.
"Draco can be a fool. It is an unfortunate side effect of being a Malfoy, I'm afraid," he said quietly, still not letting go of the boy's shoulder.
"He's your godson. You lo—I mean, you care for him," Harry's voice shook.
"I care for all of my snakes," Severus said gently, moving his arm out to encompass both of the boy's shoulders.
The teen's tremors were more pronounced now, and Severus instinctively pulled Harry in closer to rest against his much larger body. The boy stiffened at the new position, but relaxed when Severus didn't move again.
"I think you should know," Severus said in a calm voice. "I have put in a great deal of effort trying to keep you alive. I shall be very annoyed if you die now. Just think; all of that hard work would have been for nothing. You know better than most how much I hate to waste my time," he gave the fifth year a rare grin.
"Yeah," Harry responded in a forlorn voice.
Severus watched in interest as the boy slowly inched slightly closer to him, until finally leaning over and resting his head on Severus's shoulder.
"I'm not saying that I don't want you to apologize to my idiot godson, but rather that the fool needs a few real world lessons in what can happen when one is unable to keep their mouth shut."
. . .
Snape—no, Severus—smiled down at him again and Harry felt himself relax just that much more into his professor's warm side. No one had ever held him like this, not even Molly Weasley. She had hugged him on multiple occasions, but not just held him. Never had he been able to relax into another's side with the knowledge that no harm would come to him if he did.
It was nice not to be rejected.
It was nice to just be able to sit and not worry about putting on a face for the others around him.
Several hours later, Harry awoke to find himself back in his own bed, the covers tucked in securely around his body. He thought back onto the tail end of the previous night and vaguely recalled Severus carrying him to bed.
The memory simultaneously warmed him and embarrassed him.
Using his wand to cast tempus, he realized with a start that it was already half-past six. He threw the blankets from his body and ran to the bathroom to take a hasty shower. Within ten minutes, he was bathed, dressed and had his bed made. It was only as he prepared to step through his door that he paused.
Intellectually, he knew that Severus was not like his uncle, but deep down he wondered whether or not his professor would want some form of payment for his caring actions the night before. He already felt guilty that he had not had enough wherewith to muster up a thank you to him for putting him to bed like some kind of child.
These were his thoughts as he hesitantly made his way into the main room of his professor's quarters.
The first thing he saw was Severus sitting at the dining room table, drinking a cup of tea. Harry's heart swelled uncomfortably within his chest as he realized that there was already another cup sitting at the place next to him.
Without turning around, his professor greeted him calmly with a, "Good morning Harry. Come, join me for a cup of tea, won't you?"
Harry didn't need any more encouragement. He quickly made his way over to the table and filled his own cup with the spicy aromatic tea that his professor favored. He brought it up to his mouth and breathed the steam in gratefully before taking a small sip. It was hot, but not to the point that it scalded his mouth.
It was lovely.
"Any longer and I was going to drop a house elf on your head," Severus said with a wry grin on his face.
"I can think of worse ways to wake up," Harry admitted softly, thinking of his uncle.
He watched Severus's eyes narrow and he felt another short burst of guilt for causing the man to feel anger—even if it was simply on his behalf.
Once again, Severus's arm found its way around his shoulders, and just like before, he felt himself relax into the warmth that seemed to emanate from his professor's side.
Well, even if he does want something in return, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he keeps this sort of thing up, he thought to himself.
"Your uncle will pay for the crimes he has committed against you. I promise you that Harry. I will make sure that he and Black never have even the opportunity to touch you again. Do you understand me?" His professor growled against him.
Harry felt tears pinprick his eyes, but he blinked them away.
No, giving himself to Severus wouldn't be too bad at all.
. . .
Severus started when he felt the teen's smaller hand reach out and touch his upper thigh.
"Harry? What are you doing?" He whispered; his eyes wide.
"Thanking you," was the boy's whispered response.
Only seconds before the lad's fingertips reached the top of his pants, Severus's paralysis broke. He grasped Harry by the wrist and stopped him, pulling his hand up to rest on the table.
Wide green eyes stared at him and internally he cursed that whale Dursley down to the pits of hell where he belonged.
"I don't need—nor do I even want payment in that form. Not from anyone, but particularly not from you," he said, speaking quickly. He surmised that if his other arm had not still been around the boy's shoulders, Harry would have already bolted, based on the blush forming on the teen's thin cheeks.
. . .
Harry clenched his jaw down against his renewed urge to cry and turned his face down in shame.
He had thought—well, it was obvious that what he had thought had been wrong. Merlin, he was disgusting. Snape would be right to dump him and get rid of him while he could.
Stupid, worthless idiot freak, he mentally berated himself. Dumbass shithead, he continued until he felt two long fingers forcing his face upwards. He tried to steel himself against whatever he would find looking down at him from Snape's face. He tried to shove himself back into the wasteland that had served to protect him so long from his uncle.
"Quit blaming yourself," were his professor's surprising words. "The blame belongs entirely on your worthless relatives' shoulders. I stand by what I said before; you need do nothing to repay me."
"But how else can I—," he cut off, unsure as to how to ask his question.
"You don't need to do anything, Harry," Severus looked at him with a thoughtful expression on his face. "But if you want to think of it like that, you can do this for me; stay out of trouble as much as you can, and don't ever wander off by yourself. All right?"
That was it?
His uncle had never given him so much as the time of the day, yet he had demanded so very much from him through the years. Now, in direct contrast, Severus had given him nearly everything that he'd ever wanted, and yet had demanded so very little.
It hurt Harry's brain a bit.
"Come, we must make an appearance in the Great Hall, and I want to see you eat, understand?" They stood up and went to retrieve their robes from the pegs next to the door. Harry picked up his backpack and put on his shoes, and they left.
As they walked, Severus explained to him that he wanted him to continue staying in his quarters for the immediate future.
When he asked what he would say to the other Slytherins, Severus calmly told him that if anyone asked, then he would tell them it was because of Harry's violent nightmares.
"I can tell them that you're to be staying for observation. However, it is rather unlikely that anyone will ask. My students understand about extenuating circumstances, and many have needed to stay for increased supervision' throughout their years here. Slytherins tend to come from homes that are often lacking in some form or another; which is why they learn the skills that are needed for being place in this house to begin with."
They walked in silence for a bit longer until Harry broke the silence.
"The hat initially wanted to place me in Slytherin," he said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
Harry didn't know that Severus had already been informed of as much by the Hat itself. Severus had no intention of letting go of that piece of information either. He knew about it, but he didn't know why.
"And it did not do so, because?" Harry's professor prompted.
"Ron had convinced me that it was a dark house. Plus, it was right after I had met Draco, and he had been a right arse to me. I begged the Hat not to put me there, and instead it put me in Gryffindor," Harry said with a shrug.
"Let me guess; you regret your decision now."
Harry barked out a bitter laugh.
"Understatement of the bloody year," he spoke with a dark look at the corridor they were still walking down.
"There is a muggle saying that I think applies well to your situation: 'Hindsight is 20/20,'" Severus told him.
Harry blinked up at him, surprised that the man had heard that phrase, considering its origins.
"Yes, I know about the muggle world," his professor said with a smirk after correctly interpreting his look.
Harry wondered if he could get the man to further expand on that statement, but before he had a chance to ask, he realized that they were standing at the entrance to the Great Hall. It was still early enough in the morning that there weren't too many students moving around them yet. For the moment, Harry and Severus were alone.
"Remember what I asked you to do?"
"Stay out of trouble and always stay with someone else," Harry repeated dutifully.
"A Slytherin someone else," Severus corrected softly. "After classes, I want you to go to the Slytherin common room. The password is Basilisk gaze. From there, go to dinner with the others, and afterwards we shall go back to my quarters together."
"What if we get separated and I get there first?" Harry looked up at him critically.
"Unlikely, but you're right, it could happen. In that case, you are to give this password: Ashwinder feet," Severus told him in a very hushed voice.
Harry smirked up at his professor and was rewarded with a return one.
Ashwinders didn't have feet. They were snakes, just like—well, just like them.
- 10
- 11
- 12
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Breaking Forwards