50

CHAPTER FIFTY:

To Harry's surprise, not a single student attacked him that morning. He had honestly expected at least one Slytherin to attack him over breakfast, but apparently Severus's presence had confused them sufficiently – or maybe they were living up to their House's name and waiting for a better opportunity to off him. Unless they actually acknowledged that he was most likely more powerful and experienced than them… Harry had never stopped to consider the bonuses of killing Voldemort beyond that it would save Britain.

That didn't keep him from watching his back in the hallways, however, a fact that didn't escape Severus's notice.

"They are hardly about to attack you in the corridors, Harry," he said in exasperation. "They're students."

"Yeah," Harry grimaced, "Because I've always been so safe at Hogwarts." Seeing that his comment had given Severus pause, he laid a hand on the man's forearm. "I'm not really worried; I've just grown used to being aware of my surroundings." Giving Severus a sidelong look, he chuckled. "You should have seen me in Diagon Alley the other day – everyone was watching me, but I was watching them, too, so it kind of evened out."

Severus snorted. "I suppose." He didn't tell Harry to relax – the younger man had valid concerns, after all, and being on his guard was certainly for the best. "You will find your way on your own?" he asked with a small quirk of his lips as he stopped in front of the Potions classroom, ignoring the students waiting there.

Harry just laughed and started walking away. "I do remember the way to your quarters, yes," he called over his shoulder. Whistling a jaunty tune, he disappeared around the corner, and Severus couldn't help but smirk when his students immediately broke out into speculation about their relationship, whether Potter-Black really knew the password to Snape's private quarters, and that surely, surely they weren't more than friends at the very most?

"Well?" Severus barked, smirking at the way they jumped in surprise. "Get in," he drawled, opening the door and gesturing for them to enter before him. None of them met his eye as they scrambled inside the classroom.

OoOoO

"You know Potter-Black?" Cho Chang hissed to a smaller Ravenclaw in the hall after breakfast.

Big silver eyes looked up at her guilelessly. "No," Luna replied absently, "but he knows me." With that the petite Ravenclaw walked on to her first class of the day, leaving the older girl standing in the hallway. "It seems that the Wrackspurts have gotten to her," Luna mused quietly. Chang did look like she didn't know quite what to think, after all.

OoOoO

Harry sank slowly onto Severus's couch and stared at the fireplace.

"That was weird," he announced to the room. Not the newspaper articles – those had been wonderful. Not the students' reactions to his closeness to Severus either; no, it had been sitting in the same hall as during his student days, with all the people he had been surrounded by in those same days. Seeing the Golden Trio sitting at the Gryffindor Table had brought a pang to his heart, surrounded by so many familiar faces… And once Harry had sat down at the Head Table and finally let himself look over at the Slytherin table…

Harry dropped his head into his hands. Seeing Daphne sitting there and looking at his younger self with such a coldly calculating look had hurt more than he could say. She's still under Dumbledore's spells, he reminded himself again, but it didn't help. In that moment she had looked so… Slytherin. It was the first time he had seen her under the spells – Harry had never noticed Daphne during his school years, not until Dumbledore's spells wore off, the war really began, and they were thrown together as partners in a game of 'kill or be killed'. By then she was no longer affected by the spells and held no particular feelings against Gryffindors, but the way she had looked at Harry this morning…

A tearful smile found its way onto Harry's face. His Daphne had been very reserved; quiet in public but with an inner steel and the dignity of a true Pure-blood. Some had considered her cold because of it. She had kept out of the political conflict until her parents had been assassinated, after which she joined the Light side with an unshakeable conviction that this was the direction her life had to move in. A girl with fairly plain looks, Daphne had features that had let her blend in at school – though once Harry got to see her properly, he decided that she was the most beautiful woman he knew.

She was a person who had known when to give him space, when he needed her there, when to talk to others for him and, above all, how to keep their private life private. It hadn't happened in his time, but Harry had a feeling that if she were hounded by reporters wanting to know about their private life she would find a way to answer the questions in a way that let the reporters believe that she had told them everything they wanted to know while actually revealing nothing. Their wedding day continued to be one of Harry's happiest memories despite the heart-wrenching sense of loss he felt whenever he thought of her.

Sighing heavily, Harry leaned back against the backrest and looked up at the ceiling. Will it turn out differently this time? he wondered. The circumstances were very different now, after all, and she and Harry might turn out to be very different people this time around than last time. Perhaps Daphne had found that inner strength only through the loss of her parents, and maybe Harry never would have the opportunity to get to know her properly. Oh, but the temptation to play matchmaker was strong…

Maybe Hermione can do it again, Harry thought with a fond smile. She had managed, after all, to get them together the last time, despite the troubles of war and terror; surely she could do so again? Apparently she already knows, after all; sometimes Severus is really bad at keeping secrets, isn't he? With a quiet chuckle Harry heaved himself to his feet and brushed invisible lint from his pants. There really were more important things to do than fret about a single person's love life, no matter how important it may be to him.