Feelings under the dark robes

Soon the school week had arrived with its silly hustle and bustle that had Harry running all over the place, asking for notes (which he foolishly knew had information he already knew), and trying to remember absolutely everything about Quidditch. He quickly realized that he shared all the classes with Ron and some with Hermione, which allowed him to be aware of everything they had going on not only academically, but also gossip, another of Harry's tastes, to be informed of everything that was going on around him.Although he had really taken it easy mentally, physically he was doing his best not to sit on the floor and take a break, he didn't remember that his dad had put him on a tight schedule with no hours off that was strict, however, he had done well in his two quizzes for the beginning of the week and was already a few days behind.

Lunch was really delicious and he could contemplate the penetrating look of his father from the high table of teachers, for all was really expectant that kind of look and obviously as it was typical, saying that "Professor Snape sure this year brought more hatred against Harry than usual". While Ron and Hermione played unnoticed, but the trio knew perfectly well that the act was going great and only Harry knew that slight movement of the eyebrow that expressed concern for him.

As soon as Harry finished his exhausting academic day, he saw the path to the Quidditch stadium for the first time. He was really tired and wanted to sleep, but not even five minutes had passed before he saw the Huffelpuff and Gryffindor players going down the path on their broomsticks. He would have to go standing up because of the punishment Severus had given him. 

He had been really resourceful and hadn't allowed him to touch his nimbus, he could only use the school brooms that did the job ( although he could tell it was really well below the real potential of a regular broom) , the thing was he could only use a school broom on the playground and couldn't take it out of there due to a spell, and yes, Fred and George had already tried that in the morning , in fact they had already broken 3 in the process. As for the flying class , he hoped that Madame Hotch would take pity on him, and allow him to use his own (although he seriously doubted it). 

When he arrived he saw with disappointment that everyone was already finishing their warm-up and just the walk to the changing rooms had left him even more tired and cold. He really didn't want to change clothes, he didn't want to go out flying in that cold, today was not the day to play, but he had a commitment, besides he had already reduced his Quidditch hours too much to come and waste them even more.

He cast a heating spell that honestly didn't meet his expectations and as he left with his broom in hand, he was met with a tug on his left arm from a large hand. 

"I'll be keeping an eye on you Mr. Potter" Said the recognizable voice.
"Of course, erm, Professor Snape." 

With that, Harry pulled up his red scarf and mounted his broom high up near the hoops where Oliver was talking about training with the other house today. He secretly smiled to know that his dad would be looking out for him.

"Hey, is he bothering you again? That son of a.." Oliver asked him, as he showed him the next strategy on a piece of paper as they flew.
"No, he...he just told me he'd be keeping an eye on me "Harry answered him.
"You know what, if you need anything, I can talk to Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you Oliver, but you know, I just think it's, it's Snape, being Snape. He's trying to scare me and I just won't let that happen. Just like that as usual ( I was hoping Severus seriously hadn't heard Oliver's bad word)"
"You know if you need anything you can tell me, you understand right?"
"Yes Oliver. I know."
"Come on, I think we need to score some points against our yellow friends."

Harry smiled at him in a complicit manner and they streaked across the sky in a swift fashion.

After finishing practice, Harry went downstairs and swore on Merlin's beard that he needed a hot bath after today. He just gave Severus a nod and ran out into the rain to the tower, so he could get cleaned up, change and go downstairs to eat, only to be consumed with doing the pile of work he had piled up.

Severus was making an internal force not to hug the boy and ask him if he had enjoyed it and if he was all right, however the whole quidditch team was entering the changing rooms with mud up to their eyebrows shivering from the cold, even he himself could feel the fierce wind , The moment he passed to get out of the tent he heard Harry coughing and had to internally beat himself up for not turning to look, but he remembered that Harry was no longer a two year old and would have to be a little flexible as Poppy had said. 

The good news for Harry was that it was now possible to attend the dining hall at night in his pajamas, which was actually kind of curious, as not everyone had the official pajamas but really colorful ones, which were very original.

Harry, entered the dining room and saw Hermione who had a very quilted pajamas and Ron with a big shirt with pants that apparently was made of a very spicy material and with a giant R on the front. Harry hid his laughter. In his defense he had the pajamas his dad had given him in black with gold detailing on the silk edges, it was really fancy.

"Harry! Where did you get those, they're really...you know" Ron grimaced at how really expensive the sleepwear looked.
"Ron! You know who gave it to me."
"Well I definitely didn't think that was his style."
"Don't worry Harry, it's really beautiful. It's a very fine silk."
"Thanks Hermione, it has a fluffy lining inside for the cold"

Hermione just laughed and proceeded to chat about how she had heard that they would be modifying the curriculum of subjects to integrate the Muggle ones with the magical ones. More things to study, great.

The next morning, when he had his post-sickness class, Harry really wanted to run away. At breakfast he just oozed nervousness all over the place, wiped his hands on his trousers and had to admit that he was shaking like a Chihuahua from the very possible overdose of albuterol. 

Although Hermione tried to calm him down and tell him that everything would be fine, to just study like he always did, it didn't calm him down at all. He couldn't wait for Malfoy, Goyle, Crabble or some other Slytherin to come up with something up their sleeves and just ruin the situation even more. Although Ron had told him to relax and that they would go to Hagrid's hut afterwards, however, it all went down the drain after he remembered that he had the doctor's appointment with Poppy and he didn't know what was going to happen today. 

Herbology class:

Professor Sprout: Morning, everyone.  Good morning, everyone.
Good morning, Professor Sprout, said the little wizards energetically.

Harry felt his chest tighten a little more and inevitably decided that he had to take a puff of his inhaler for the 47th time this morning, he didn't know if it was just the tension of the situation or if it was really the smell of wet earth from the mandrakes and the fertilizer chemicals. He coughed a little and moved away from Ron's side to get his medication out of his dressing gown in the corner out of sight.

" Hey buddy, everything alright?"
" Yeah Ron, just ... never mind" .

"Welcome to Greenhouse Three, Second Years. Today, we will be re-potting Mandrakes. Now, who here can tell me the properties of the Mandrake? . Hermione raised her hand very confidently as always.

 "Yes, Miss Granger."

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is used to return those who have been transfigured to their original state. It's also quite dangerous. The Mandrake's cry is fatal to anyone who hears it."

"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor. As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet. However, they will knock you out for several hours. That is why I have provided each of you with a pair of earmuffs. If you would then..."

After Professor Sprout made them suffer through an agonising chorus of shrieks from the floor and an obvious fainting spell from Neville lying stretched out on the floor, they all proceed to get on with their work and relocate the squeaky things.

By the end of it all, Harry was properly in agony with a constant but incessant cough that definitely wouldn't go away with Hermione's spells, nor the Weasley brothers' menthol water and certainly not Ron's honey candy, next on his list was survival, he couldn't afford to stop at the infirmary for a silly cough, even though his entire sense of responsibility screamed at him that he needed stronger medication. By the mid-morning homework break he had noticed that he had developed a rather obvious rash on his hands, arms, neck and chest that was slowly driving him mad (not to mention the itchy feeling on his lips). 

"Say it. I'm doomed." Said Ron , as he tried to tape his wand with clear muggle tape.
"You're doomed." Harry told him as he tried not to scratch his hand and finish his writing.

After being badgered by Colin to take a picture which had finally been taken by Hermione, as Ron had resisted trying to take a camera for fear of breaking it, Dean Thomas shouted near the chair where they were sitting: "Post is here!
 One after another, the birds swoop gracefully down, clutching letters from home. All except one, who plops beak-first into Ron's dish. Errol.

After the Howler shouted at Ron about what was going to be the reason for Ron's death, Harry decided that he was going to have to stop by the bathroom to try and put cold water on his arms and face, because he was stinging like hell. Harry said a brief goodbye to his friends and told them he would see them in potions.

While in the bathroom he took off his cloak, coat and shirt and proceeded to really scratch his arms and anything else that itched, when he stopped to analyse he could tell it was hives, great, he had deactivated a new allergy. He quickly took out his small packet of medication and took two cetirizine tablets for emergencies, and although fortunately it didn't come with an asthma attack included, he waited for it to really take effect, otherwise Poppy would find new ways to torture him.

But hey, nothing was easy, guess what, he was already late for potions class and when the clock struck the next hour, he wasn't even halfway there. He had been concentrating so hard on washing his face over and over again and between the dichotomy of being red from the itching and trying to tone down the colour so as not to look like a tomato.

He rushed into the classroom and entered through a gap just as Snape was sealing the door to begin his lesson.

"But look who we have here. Mr. Potter deigns to brighten everyone's day with his presence," Severus heard with a truly believable hatred as he folded his arms in the middle of the classroom.

"I'm sorry sir..." Harry managed to say lightly, trying to get himself situated, not cough, control his breathing pattern, not scratch and look properly decent.

"Is his need for attention so great that he dares to show up to class without his uniform completely on? Is it so much disrespect and ego that you have to feel superior?"

Hermione was in the front seats and Harry could barely meet her gaze and pointing out that his clothes were a little dirty and that he was without his coat, with a dressing gown tied up with eagerness . 

"I'm sorry sir, I don't mean to..."
"You do and you pretend all the time, now have the dignity to dress like a decent person and sit down without saying another word."
"Yes sir, I'm sorry I..."
"I'll go and if you keep interrupting me I'll have to send you more hours of detention. Oh! No. Wait, you've already got enough hours of detention."

After such an intervention and with such venom, Harry felt his eyes sting and it wasn't exactly because of the fumes, but because it had really hurt and he had felt a little hurt, tears were coming. He just sat up quickly and quietly picked up the page they were reading as an introduction.

If he knew for a single moment everything that had happened to him since the morning, his dad wouldn't be treating him like this, and it was a mixture of silly feelings where he wanted that hug, but he also remembered that he couldn't let himself be carried away by the wave of wanting to be pampered like Malfoy, because... if he wanted to be the saviour of the magical world he couldn't afford such stupidities. He also felt that one thing he had definitely learned with Vernon was to make as little noise and keep a low profile as possible, he would have to do it and pick it up again, it was a good trick after all. 

As he looked down at the page reluctantly, he had done about five rehearsals on the subject with his father without lying, that they had made a pact and although he knew those words were not true and his daddy loved him very much, he wanted to throw a tantrum (although it would be unthinkable to throw one on the dungeon floor) because it wasn't fair that Malfoy could be coddled and hide nothing, while he had to go around hiding everything and always be the victim. 

It was finally over without mentioning how much it had sucked, it had been hell to retake the potions class and it had been a poop, especially not to run out and scratch like an animal against a wall. He didn't know what was worse, whether it was the bag of bad words, hints and unimaginable things that Severus had been holding in for today, the points that he had surprisingly taken away from Slytherin and that he knew he would pay for (because apparently it was his fault for being better than Colventel in Potions) or the allergy that was now consuming his soul and the last normal cell in his body.

"Mr. Potter, your behaviour today was less than acceptable for the worst student in this institution. Don't leave and don't pack your things so quickly."
"But professor, I have class and..." Harry could feel the pressure in his chest to speak and his smooth skin boiling from the hives already spreading down his neck.
"In few hours, isn't that right Mr. Weasly?"
"Mmmm, yes sir, we have DADA."
"Perfect, then you'll be staying with me. Everyone out NOW!"

The cherry of the cake!