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Friday.
Potions.
Last class.
Double period.
With teacher that despises him.
Harry wanted to turn invisible before Snape had a chance to spot him amongst his peers. Of course, he isn’t fond of Snape’s snarky comments nor his unmissable repulsion, but today he’s particularly repulsed by it.
The whole week has been quite stressful and the term has only begun. The exams are months away from him, yet he’s already bombarded by tons and tons of homework, especially essays. Even Hermione seem to struggle, which is odd. Hermione never struggles with it, expect maybe in their second year when she used Time-Turner. How did she had the energy and will to go to all those classes is still beyond Harry.
Both Hermione and Ron seemed in a similar mood to Harry’s. Quiet, barely talking, everyone in their own world waiting for the door of the classroom to dramatically burst open.
Malfoy, as usual, spat out yet another insult Harry’s way while his goons, Crabb and Goyle, followed him to where a group of Slytherin’s was. Harry wanted to hex him so badly but both Hermione’s and Ron’s hands were stopping him, looking at him in disapproval.
The door of the classroom slowly, almost cautiously, opened and there he was, Harry’s list favourite teacher – professor Snape. Although, he didn’t bother to find Harry amongst the red as he usually does. He just got back inside with noticeably less energy in his walk than usual and stood in front of the board. At least his habit of monitoring the room hasn’t change, but his gaze never lingered on Harry, not even for a second.
Snape’s change in demeanour rubbed Harry the wrong way. He is, off course, pleased that Snape doesn’t seem to notice him, but Harry cannot but wonder what caused such behaviour.
He jerked his head to Hermione. She too realized that Snape is acting differently today. Ron also understood that something is going on when he took a look at a board in front of them. The black board that Snape always scribbles top to bottom with his tiny crammed handwriting, writing instructions for that day’s potion, stood blank.
Before they could voice their confusion, books landed in front of them without much precision. Hermione opened her mouth to talked to Snape, but he started talking over her.
“Turn the page to 493.” His voice only reached few students closest to him. Others eventually found out what potion they were brewing today from other classmates. By that point, students, especially Gryffindors, were having a full-blown conversation amongst themselves. Most of the Slytherins were only exchanging a few words at a time. Malfoy was the quietest of them all.
“Professor” Malfoy tried to out-spoke the loud crowd “aren’t you going to tell us what potion we are brewing today?”
Snape either haven’t heard him or decided to ignore him (which he never does). After all, Malfoy was one of his favourite students. Instead, he just sat in his chair looking absently at the desk in front of him.
So, most of the students took the opportunity to do absolutely nothing for the first time in Potions class while others pressed on with brewing potions like everything was as it always is. Harry, Hermione and Ron were the latter. Harry tried to make the class for himself as similar to how it typically is, Hermione for the sake of knowledge and Ron because the two of them were to occupied to talk to him so he grew bored.
During the whole class Snape barely moved a muscle. Whenever Harry looked at him, he was just sitting at his desk, his mind somewhere else. Students didn’t exist for Snape and Snape didn’t exist for students.
Only few minutes were left before the end of the class and Snape didn’t even once sweep the class to see their progress. The ones how had already finished with their potions poured them in the vials and put them on Snape’s desk. When Harry did the same, he was hoping for any kind of reaction from his potion’s teacher, but Snape did absolutely nothing. Not even a quick nod or glance at the vial.
Harry felt oddly relieved and even more worried at the same time after he left the dungeons. He spoke to Hermione and Ron about it, but in the end, they couldn’t draw any conclusion as to why Snape was being like this. Snape always seemed like a type of man who could not be easily shaken from his high horse or even if he was, he would never let it show.
With those thoughts Harry went to bed. He couldn’t wrap his head around it no matter how hard he tried. Hermione didn’t have a single clue or suspicion about what could possibly bother Snape so how, for the love of everything that’s good in this world, could he know?
He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t think about anything besides Snape. And he bloody hell couldn’t found out why. Why all of a sudden does he care for Snape that much? Or did he always did just never notice it before?
It was clearly pointless trying to fall asleep so he decided to go for a stroll down the castle’s corridors. He purposely left his Invisibility Cloak behind. He really didn’t see much use for it nowadays since he finally became Animagus. It was also convenient that he was small, quick and black in his Animagus form so even Mrs. Norris had a hard time catching him.
Without thinking about it, Harry ended up in the dungeons. Even his subconscious was thinking of Snape. Since he’s already here, he walked up to the Snape’s office and pressed his long ear against the door. He could hear glass clinging of each other followed by the loud and fast breading and restless walking. Then it just stopped and everything went silent. It stayed like that for what felt like eternity to Harry.
He wanted to open the door, but he was afraid of what he would find on the other side of it. Gryffindor in him was sleeping like a baby and he wouldn’t be waking up any time soon.
After couple quick steps door bursts opened. Harry only barely dodged the blow. Snape was rushing down the hall and Harry followed him as stealthy and quickly as he could.
Harry thought that he’s lost Snape when he spotted him sitting by the lake under the tree. He approached him slowly, while going against his primal instincts, trying to be loud enough so Snape wouldn’t be startled by him. Harry could now be seen in Snape’s peripheral vision yet Snape still didn’t notice him. Only when Harry gently bumped his snout against him did Snape realised that he wasn’t alone.
Dark green eyes were looking at him with a glow of concern. Its fur was almost invisible under the night sky expect for the red patches scattered all over it.
Fox. Snape was looking at a fox. How did a fox end up in school grounds? There were some students whose Animagus form was a fox, but none of them were ink black as this one. Was someone trying to pull a prank on him? He didn’t think so. Although, foxes are known to be mischievous creatures, but this one didn’t look like is up to something. It looked rather curious and somewhat worried.
Harry had no idea what to do next. Snape was just staring at him, actually, more like through him. Right about now, Harry regretted his attempt at… comforting Snape? Merlin, is that really what he’s trying to do?
Before Harry could spiral down his train of thoughts, hand touched his head. Warm hand. Snape’s warm hand. Harry was a little bit taken aback by this. It makes perfect sense that Snape’s hand, just like any other human’s, would be warm, yet it surprised him so much that it took him a few seconds to process and understand what just happened.
Snape was absent-mindedly stroking Harry’s head. Harry closed his eyes. It felt good, almost relaxing even with sudden twitches in Snape’s fingers.
Harry slapped Gryffindor in him awake and plopped himself onto Snape’s lap. Snape’s whole body was very, very tense and stiff. Harry wasn’t sure how to comfort him so he just curled himself up in a ball and lay there, slowly and deeply breathing.
Snape’s hand followed him and resumed stroking his head. His shallow and shaky breathes slowly became steady and calm. His muscles started to ease up and unwind.
Snape moved on to scratching Harry behind his ears. Harry let out a small sound of content. It felt so good. How could such a small act feel so good?
Snape, noticing that he found the perfect spot for petting his newly obtained furry friend, continued now with both hands, each one for one ear. Harry felt like he was magically transported to haven. His body vibrated from purring.
Harry opened his eyes to look at Snape. Although, his professor has calmed down, worry didn’t leave his features. His problem was still present. Harry titled his head to the side, wondering what could bother him so much. Well, whatever it may be, a walk could never hurt. He jumped from Snape’s lap, took a few steps and look back at Snape.
Snape’s hands were still phantomly petting Harry. He lowered his hands in confusion, not knowing why did fox left his side when it was clearly enjoying itself.
Harry jumped few meters in the air and looked now at Snape, now at the road, trying to gesture to Snape to follow him. Snape got up, dusted the dirt from himself and took a few steps towards the fox.
Harry took few steps forwards while still looking at Snape. He pointed with his head towards the path.
Snape finally understood what was the fox trying to do and started following it.
They walked side by side, Snape putting one foot after the other and Harry walking slowly besides him. Nothing but their footsteps could be heard. Silence around them felt peaceful and serene.
As they’ve walked, Harry glanced a few times at Snape, his expression was always somber. Harry was so used to Snape’s emotionless face that he felt a bit uneasy. Was this really the same person who he knew all these years?
Snape was lost in his thoughts, not bothering to hide his emotions as he usually does. Apart from his own troubles, there was also this fox. No regular fox behaves like that. It must be a student in their Animagus form. And although Snape knew who to reveal the true form of the fox, he had no plans on doing so. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but the fox provided him with the comfort he desperately needed.
They continued to walk like that, seemingly going nowhere, just walking for the sake of walking. Snape made a turn back towards the lake and Harry followed him without hesitation and a smidge of curiosity. Thus far, Harry was the one how chose where they were going.
Snape sat beside the lake once again, looking at his reflection in the water. A tired and somber face was looking back at him, its features rimed by a subtle light of the moon.
The reflection of black eyes full of pain were replaced by a bright green eyes that looked at Snape with concern. Snape give the fox a barely noticeable smile and pat its head.
Harry attempted to get back to Snape’s lap, but Snape grabbed him by the scuff of his neck and placed him gently next to him.
Harry was surprised as he lost the ground beneath his feet and even more surprised when he was gently put back down. He was stunned for a second as he looked at his potion’s professor. He understood that Snape didn’t want him in his lap. Probably because he was wet from stepping into the lake to stand in front of him, but the thing that he couldn’t wrap his head a round is the way that he moved him. Harry didn’t feel the pain, not even a little bit. Transfer was slow and deliberate. Harry couldn’t believe his senses. He shook his head as a thought entered his mind. No, Snape couldn’t care about the fox, could he? He only ever cared about himself and yet here he is. Running his hand over Harry’s back like he was massaging the fox and calming down his nerves in the process.
“Stay.” Snape’s voice was stern and a bit commanding, but there was also a tinge of gentleness in it, as if word please was on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t want to say it.
Harry twitched his ears at the simple word. Stay? Of course, he’ll stay. That’s the least he could do. And- Wait, wait, wait. Bloody hell, he actually cared for oily hair hag. Well, that’s because he’s a bleeding heart. He would care for just about anyone. Yeah. That’s what’s going on here. Nothing less, nothing more.
Snape continued to run his hands through the fox’s thick fur. His fingers going deep into the fur and slowly moving back and forth. Harry closed his eyes and let out a content sigh. Who’d knew that Snape could give such good massages? Definitely not Harry.
Harry opened his eyes and looked up at Snape who was lost in his thoughts yet again. Dark eyebags were under his eyes, his skin paler than usual. He looked human like this, almost vulnerable.
Harry didn’t know how else to help him so he just put his head on Snape’s thigh, hoping that would be enough to at least somewhat soothe his troubled mind.
They stayed like this until sun started showing its first rays of light. Snape gently cupped fox’s snout and move it away from his thigh before standing up.
Harry jerked awake. He must have fall asleep at some point. He shook his head to get rid of the fatigue and followed Snape that was already heading towards the main gate.
Harry followed him all the way to his chamber. Snape turned around to look at the fox. Both of them felt like they should now go their separate ways, but were hesitant to end their unexpected meeting.
Harry awkwardly shuffles away and lets out a yip before disappearing behind the corner.