Chapter 6
Just after lunch Harry talked Severus into lying on the bed, then he massaged oils into Severus’ body and by the time he finished Sev had dozed off, but Harry never moved, just cleaned his hands they lay beside him, watching him sleep. Severus woke a few times with grunts or groans of pain, Harry knew he had been dreaming about his terrible treatment inside the wizarding worlds prison. After a few hours of restless sleep, Severus woke to find Harry still staring at him.
‘What are you looking at Potter?’
Harry chuckled, ‘I missed hearing that and the way your voice sounds.’
‘More dribble, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to use the bathroom.’
‘I’ll help,’ Harry scrambled off the bed.
‘I am perfectly capable of pissing without help.’
‘You can pull out any part of the snarly professor Snape you want, but until you regain your strength you’ll just have to put up with me helping.’
‘You’ve changed.’
‘I grew up, I’m not that naïve kid anymore Sev, I’m twenty three now.’
‘Oh so ancient, does wisdom come with such age?’ Severus spat sarcastically.
‘Yes, put up with it,’ Harry kept his face calm as he slipped his arm around Severus and walked towards the bathroom, ‘I’ll keep my back to you if that makes you feel better.’
‘All this is fun for you I’m sure, but I do not require help.’
Harry sighed, ‘Fine, I’ll be in the bedroom.’
Severus could see the defeated look on Harry’s face, ‘Harry.’
‘It’s fine Sev, just be careful.’
‘Stay, just remember I’ve never required help nor asked for it before, so I am not used to having anyone help me.’
‘I know and normally you can do anything you put your mind to, but you’re weak, you have breaks and lost so much weight I’m worried you might pass out on me. You might have suffered badly in that place Sev, but I suffered as well so helping you is helping me.’
‘I know you would have suffered, I saw your face that day in court,’ Severus went about his business, when he cleaned up he allowed Harry to help him into the living room, ‘You’ve grown taller and you’ve filled out, a lot, how did you not starve?’
‘I learned to cook, it’s a lot like potions really, so once I was able to master the basics I found I enjoyed cooking. So I’ll start dinner, why don’t you sit, just until you gain your strength.’
Severus sat and watched Harry move around the kitchen, ‘When I first got there I was concerned that something might happen to you, not just your mental state either. I heard talk from inside, it seems they were going to make you suffer since they figured you couldn’t die.’
‘The only suffering I went through was how much I missed you and worried what you were going through inside that hell hole.’
‘You mentioned your friends got hurt, haven’t those idiots at the ministry found them yet?’
‘No, I could help but I won’t, I just don’t care enough to help.’
‘What do you mean you could?’
‘On the other side of those thick trees is the death eaters hide out, Salus told me,’ Harry could see confusion at the name but he also looked wary, ‘Salus is one of the snakes, the first one I met, he told me about the strange people that wear masks that live over there, he said that no rats were around anymore and that he heard screaming. I told him to tell his family to keep away that I will supply food for them until the rats return. I have to take some food down to them soon.’
‘Why have you not told the ministry where they are?’
‘Do you really need to ask Sev?’
‘Yes, I know how they worked punishments was wrong, but those people will kill and they don’t care who they kill. They need to be caught and locked up.’
‘They do kill, but I just couldn’t seem to care anymore. It was like when they took you from me they took my feelings as well, took my humanity. It wasn’t until I met Salus that I started to feel anything and it was because I wanted to keep a family of snakes alive.’
‘You wanted to keep a family of snakes alive because you lost your family, then lost me.’
Harry turned to face Severus, ‘That sounds like romantic dribble.’
‘Oh now you’re being that brat I had to put up with. But Harry, you can’t let people die just because you’re hurt.’
‘Maybe now you’re back I might, but not yet. I want to concentrate on getting you well then fucking you against the wall or on my desk, maybe even in the potions room.’
‘That will be a definite. So apart from Minerva you haven’t seen anyone?’
‘I saw Hagrid while I went to Hogwarts to get all your belongings. Minerva packed them up and stored everything in her room when the governors said you would never be allowed to go back to teaching,’ Harry placed two plates on the table along with juice, ‘Do you know that Minerva said if they would allow you back that I would take up a teaching position, she saw that they hesitated like they might decide to let us both go back to Hogwarts.’
‘You were going to be an auror, I guess when you turned you back on everyone it meant your career as well. But teaching, do you really believe you have the temperament to teach?’
Harry raised his eyebrows at Severus earning a scowl from his lover, ‘I think more than you have love, at least I wouldn’t frighten the first years into hysterics. Tell me the truth though, if you could return to Hogwarts, would you?’
‘I would need to think about that. I only took up the teaching position as Albus believed it would be a perfect place to hear news from the Slytherin students. Once the dark lord returned, he wanted me to stay on to spy on Albus, so it did work for both my roles.’
‘Yeah, pretend to spy on Dumbledore when you were really spying on the kids of death eaters, at the same time pretending to be a death eater so you could pass on information to Dumbledore. I know he was good at looking into your mind, but you never gave yourself away, it was dangerous and courageous. I know why you said you felt like you needed to do that, as punishment for what happened to my mother, but you could have been killed.’
‘I could have, but I didn’t. When Lily died I promised to do everything I could to protect you and also do whatever I could to stop that mad man.’
‘So it seems while you are healing and resting, you have some thinking to do, we both do.’
‘It’s not like we haven’t got time. So where did you put all my belongings? I hope they are all in one piece. With the way you lived for years, you could easily leave stuff lying around and never find it again.’
‘Oh Sev, it’s so good to hear your voice even when you’re being a prat,’ Harry kissed Severus’ scowling lips before he started eating, but he made sure his eyes never left his lovers for more than a few seconds at a time.