[From Samhain to the Solstice]: Chapter Thirteen of 'Adagio'- Respect and Safety

[lomonaaeren]

“I am taking lessons in the Patronus Charm from Lupin. It seemed like it might be useful.”

Severus just nodded. He knew he had a more profound connection with Harry than any Lupin could resurrect at this late date, and also that he would have to explain more than he felt confident doing if he demonstrated his Patronus for Harry.

It should not have been so, when he had told Harry so much about his friendship with Lily and how that friendship had ended. But so it was.

“Why did you want to see me, sir?”

Severus stifled a sigh as he looked at the young man in front of him—sometime in the last few months, he had begun to think of Harry as a young man and not a boy. He might not be as tall as even some of the second-years yet, but no one could look into his eyes and see a child.

Except for Lupin and Albus, perhaps.

“I wondered when you had begun gathering power to yourself, and why I did not notice.”

A small smile darted across Harry’s face. “You’re talking about the thing with Nott?”

“Yes.”

Harry took a long moment to answer. Severus went on gazing at him, and finally Harry inclined his head and spoke softly.

“I need to make sure I am respected.”

“Yes. But I thought your fellow Slytherins respected you already.”

“In a way. They know now that I’m not spoiled or adventurous the way they expected me to be, and that I’m not a Gryffindor in disguise. But they were content to ignore me for most of the last two years. I had to remind them of why they should do more than that.”

Severus frowned. “Did someone start spreading a rumor about you?”

“No, sir.”

“Then I confess myself at a loss for the reason.”

“You truly believe that the Boy-Who-Lived’s fame is enough to protect me for the rest of my life?”

Severus breathed out slowly. “Are you trying to become a new Dark Lord, Mr. Potter?” He wondered where he had gone wrong if that was the case, and if it would be so wrong. At least Harry wasn’t sadistic or mad like the Dark Lord. Maybe it would be all right if he wanted power.

He had simply seemed so uninterested in it before that this had taken Severus by surprise.

“No.”

Severus paused. Oddly, he believed Harry. The denial had been flat, and the look in his eyes was so truthful.

And there was Severus’s passive Legilimency, which did not indicate a lie.

“Very well,” he said slowly. “Then may I inquire as to the purpose?”

“Respect. And safety.”

Severus studied his ward intently. Harry looked back, and his eyes were as open and bright as they ever got anymore.

Severus finally nodded, conceding defeat. He supposed that Harry was looking to the future, when a Death Eater’s son like Nott might cause trouble for him when the Dark Lord returned. Severus could not blame Harry for being cautious about that, even if he thought that Nott was one of the least likely people to do so. Severus was no longer present in the Slytherin dormitories the way he had been when he was a student and seeing all the subtle interactions between people.

“Very well. Good luck in your actions, Harry.”

Harry smiled at him, and this smile seemed to go all the way under his skin.

“Thank you, sir.”

Severus hesitated, and then poured forth a part of his soul that he had never extended to any student. “If you wish, when we are in private, you may call me Severus.”

A pause long enough to make Severus wonder if he had misjudged the tenor of their relationship, and then Harry gave an even wider, brighter smile that made Severus remember Lily without pain or the twisting of a breath in his chest.

“Thank you—Severus.”

*

In the end, it wasn’t enough, all of Severus’s caution and attempts to make sure that Harry was safe. In the end, Black still sneaked into the castle and kidnapped Ron Weasley, and he grabbed Harry on the way.

Only later could Severus hear the story from Harry and piece together that Harry had been walking down a side corridor on the way back from “studying” with Nott and Draco and a few of the other, younger Slytherins. He’d been alone, Black had loomed up in front of him, and suddenly Harry was bound and Silenced and floating behind Black, along with Weasley, as Black fled through a secret passage.

The only reason that Severus was even out of his office was because he had been taking Lupin his potion, and Lupin opened the office door and then tried to run straight past him.

Severus flung a blast of wandless magic instinctively. Lupin went reeling back and into the far wall of his office.

That didn’t appear to faze him. He simply staggered to his feet, gasping, “Sirius!”

“Black isn’t here.”

“No—you don’t understand—I took a map of the school back from Filch that we made a long time ago, the Marauders—I saw Sirius on it—”

Severus contained the swell of hatred at the name of his most loathed tormentors. “I don’t care. You’re not simply dashing after him.”

“I don’t want to curse you, but I will if I have to, Severus.”

“Not until you take the potion.”

Lupin gave the goblet only half a glance, most unlike the reaction that he’d had all year. “There’s no time! Sirius has Harry and Ron, what happens if I’m too late—it won’t matter then if I transform—”

Severus Stunned Lupin with brutal efficiency and leaned him against the wall, then tipped up the goblet and cast a charm most often used by Healers to force the idiot to swallow. Lupin did, and looked furious when Severus cast Ennervate.

“You shouldn’t have done that—”

“Are we going to stand here and argue, Lupin, or are we going to go?”

Lupin shook his head, looking as if he did want to stay there and debate morality, but he did start running. Severus kept up with him easily. For all that Lupin had some gifts from his werewolf side, speed wasn’t one of them in his human form.

“Where is Black?” Severus asked, when they had emerged from the school onto the grounds and Lupin showed no sign of slowing.

“In the Shrieking Shack.”

Severus took a breath against the terror that surged through him, and merely nodded. He did ready his wand, since for some insane reason Lupin hadn’t drawn his yet. Lupin dropped to all fours and wormed in through the tunnel after he’d pressed the knot on the Whomping Willow, but Severus stood for a moment, feeling sick from the pace of his heartbeat.

Then he pressed forwards.