7 days - 7 fics Challenge: Snape/Draco Fic
Okay; my first fic for these 7 days I'm going to attempt to post daily. And look; it's actually two fics!
Fandom : Harry Potter
Pairing : Snape/Draco
Time Frame: mid-HBP and early DH
Warnings: none - except maybe some loose treatment of canon
Summary: Two fragments out of the relationship between Snape and Draco.
A/N: I love Snape, I love Draco; writing about those two at the same time is always great. Thanks to dark_kana for the prompt ( Winter Night ).
Word Count : 2229
Winter Night
The soft fire made shadows flicker ominously on the cold brick wall of Snape’s chambers. His face was warm from sitting close to it for such an extensive amount of time. Draco tried to empty his mind of questions as to what he was doing here.
He could pretend it was the cold and lonely feeling of a Christmas without presents that brought him here, the only attention of his mother’s a two-word card: ‘make haste’.
Draco did not want to make haste. True, he wanted his little ‘task’ to be over with as quickly as possible; but for now, on this Christmas night; he wanted nothing more than to stare into the dark red fire.
‘You’re brooding Draco. It’s so loud I don’t have to bother reading your thoughts to hear what you are thinking.’ Snape’s voice sounded from behind him.
Draco shook his head softly, once again trying to shush the voices inside his head. He bit his lip imagining what Snape would have heard if he had entered his mind. He knew the professor respected his privacy too much to actually invade his thoughts.
‘Of course, thinking is wise before acting. Recklessness might lead to regret.’ Added Snape.
Draco swallowed. The desire; the sheer desire to be close to him… Too close. He’d woken up feverishly hot despite the cold of the Christmas night. Woken by memory of their lips, Snape’s and his own, almost brushing together. Almost. They had been fighting when it happened.
‘I do not need your help. I’m doing fine.’ He tried to sound decisive.
‘You’re too slow. I can help you. Let me go into the Room of Requirement with you.’
Blood streamed to his face and coloured his usually pale cheek as he realised the Snape knew about his trips to Room.
‘At least tell me what you are trying to accomplish.’ Snape’s voice was strained. The professor tightened his grip on Draco’s robes when he saw how his student struggled to leave the room and the conversation behind.
‘I will be ready soon.’ Draco defended, sounding more sure of himself than he felt.
‘How soon?’ Snape’s voice had dropped to that low, hushing sound.
‘Too soon.’
Draco had said it before it had any meaning. He wanted something to shut Snape up; something to take him off guard. It worked. But he could not read the expression on the professor’s face. Somehow Draco had struck home. There was a trace of fear, gone the second it had appeared as the professor guarded his mind again.
It could have been nothing more but a natural proximity brought about by the heat of the argument. Both of them panting and eyes locked in a battle. Tasting each other’s breath on their mouths. As soon as Snape was aware of the closeness he backed away.
‘You’re bluffing. Talk to me again when you’re sane.’
Did Snape know how he’d imagined their lips brushing together every night since it happened? Had he read his mind when he knocked on his door earlier that evening? The professor’s mind was always closed. Unreadable. Draco couldn’t find a way to know what he was thinking. He didn’t know whether or not his presence was wanted as Snape sitting at the desk behind him was correcting DADA-exams while allowing Draco to sit by his fireplace.
He snorted occasionally, usually accompanied by the tearing and ripping of parchment. He said so very little and Draco could not find any urge to talk as he followed the red-light sparks and stared at the shadows the fire formed on the stone dungeon walls.
‘It’s after curfew. You should go.’
Snape’s soft voice sounded bellowing in the silence of the room. Draco had nearly dozed off. He shook off the sleep and the heat of the fire that had engulfed him. He stared at the professor who stood right behind him. Draco hadn’t even heard him move away from his desk.
It had been after curfew when Snape had let him into his chambers. Clearly Draco had extended his welcome and the old potions master wanted to be alone. Feeling suddenly flushed and embarrassed Draco got up quickly finding his way to the door. Sudden dizziness made him lose his balance. He’d been sitting in front of that fire for too long, too little blood streamed through his sleep-laden legs. Snape reached for his arm and held him steady until he regained his balance.
‘Careful.’
Careful. The word and its meaning echoed in his mind. They were both playing with fire. Why not give into it completely? Draco leaned forward trying to find the heat the fire had provided him with in the professor’s embrace. Perhaps it was the sleep lingering as a fog in his mind that made him act without restraint. Or perhaps he’d planned this all along, waiting for the right moment. For the moment Snape would let him. Now, the proximity allowed Draco to hear the irregular heartbeat beneath his ear.
But the moment evaporated.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’
Draco backed away so quickly he almost lost his balance again from the blood rushing to his head. His fists clinched. But in a surge of defiance he managed to look Snape directly in the eye.
‘Trying to kiss you. What did you think you were doing entertaining a student in your private chambers after curfew?’
He didn’t really know where he got the courage. He took himself by surprise; finally proving he did have the guts he always said he had.
Snape could have hit him. But Draco wasn’t even sure the latter even wanted to. The professor’s face wasn’t as composed as it was before; in fact it came as close to a storm cloud as ever the impassive pale face could ever be.
‘Once again you have no idea what you are talking about.’
Draco tensed even further. ‘Don’t I?’
‘You don’t if you’re implying that I’d seduce innocent schoolboys to spend the night with me. Now leave. Before I lose my patience with you.’
Draco was only vaguely aware that he was being pushed towards the door.
‘I’m not that innocent.’ He said when he was standing out in the hallway.
‘Oh but you are,’ Snape said, ‘and it will become your undoing.’ He looked away. ‘And mine.’ He added softly.
A moment later all Draco could do was stare at the closed wooden door before him. He stayed there, on that spot, for what seemed like hours. Until all of the warmth of the fire had left him and the nightly chill had taken over his body completely.
Summer Night
‘The breakout was successful. You’ll soon be reunited with your family.’
Draco didn’t respond. It was easy enough to guard his mind from letting out what the word ‘family’ did to him. He had learned the art of Occlumency from the best.
He sat on the wooden steps on the porch of Snape’s father’s house. Spinner’s End was a disgusting place. It smelled of moulds and moist and all things muggle and devoid of magic. But it made a good hide-out for two fugitive wizards. Snape disapparated in and out to ‘meetings’ with the other Death Eaters. Draco had yet to join him. He had failed them and he didn’t want to read the contempt in their eyes, not to mention deal with the mockery and taunting. He didn’t know how he made it through the hours when his professor was away. But he knew he did somehow. The loneliness was no longer suffocating or painful but there was always a sense of relief when he was in the quiet company of Snape.
‘Dinner is served.’
Leaving his previous statement hanging in the air. Snape dropped a grocery bag next to Draco before returning to the house to get plates and cups. Draco glanced at the bag and recognized shapes of bread, fruit and vegetables. Dinner… He looked to the setting sun and saw the last day of June quietly creeping away. It had been the last in a series of long, hot days. Now the weather was shifting and a storm was tangible in the air. Somewhere in his body an empty stomach growled, but he felt no real hunger.
Snape returned and sat down next to Draco, the grocery bag in between them. He handed Draco a plate. ‘Eat.’
Draco put the plate down next to him. ‘I’m not hungry.’
Snape raised his eyebrows. ‘More eating, less sulking.’
Draco always found there was no way he could win arguments like that with Snape. He slowly brought a loaf of dry bread to his mouth. It tasted sour. They finished their meal in silence. By the end of it, the sun had nearly completely disappeared and the darkness was growing. They could still make out the shapes of the softly rolling hills on the horizon.
‘You’re attendance is expected at the next gathering.’
Draco involuntarily grasped his left forearm, knowing very well what Snape was alluding to. It had been surprisingly easy to ignore the callings.
‘Your father will be taking his place again. If you as his son and fellow Death Eater aren’t there to ‘welcome’ him back, it will be regarded as impertinence and disrespect.’ Snape continued soft but firm.
Draco stared at a woodworm crawling at the bottom step. ‘Welcome him back... The way they ‘welcomed’ me in when I took his place in the first place?’ The question hung in the air. Snape knew it was rhetoric. ‘Looking forward to it.’
Draco didn’t bother to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Screw Occlumency.
‘Your father will be fine. They still have some use for him. With his connections… His aptitude for the Imperius curse and blackmail…’
‘What about me? What use can they have for a fugitive failure?’ He hoped he sounded bitter rather than desperate.
Snape hesitated for a moment. ‘Stay close to me. They won’t hurt you.’
Not breaking his head over the myriad of things that ‘hurt’ could mean in that sentence, Draco tried to grasp the meaning of what Snape was really saying. He stared at his old Potions master trying to read the blank face.
‘Completing that little task in your stead did help me… rise the social ladder.’ Snape stated avoiding Draco’s glance.
Draco shivered. The sun had gone and the nightly chill had taken over more suddenly than the nights before.
‘Let’s go inside. You’ll catch a cold.’ Snape rose and started to mount the steps up to the house.
Draco rose but stood still on the steps looking up at Snape. ‘Stop this!’
Snape stared at him; surprised at the way Draco had raised his voice.
‘What are you doing?’ Draco continued, ‘Taking care of me? Offering me protection?’
As a sudden growl of thunder rolled over the valley Snape looked up at the clouded over sky distractedly.
But Draco’s gaze had remained intent on his professor. ‘You fulfilled your end of the Unbreakable Vow. Nothing binds you to me. You owe me nothing.’
Snape met Draco’s gaze again, taking a deep breath before replying, ‘So you’re upset that I’m taking care of you even though I don’t have a death threat hanging over my head?’ He masked his incredulity under a mask of earnestness but Draco did look through it.
‘Yes. Why would you protect me? You hate me.’ Draco felt bile rising in his throat.
‘Seriously Draco, where is this coming from?’ Snape sneered, as he laughed away Draco’s words. He turned around to open the back door.
‘But you do,’ the hoarseness made Draco’s voice sound pleading. It made his professor face him again. The latter was now looking at his student apprehensively. ‘It was my fault. It’s because of me you were forced to kill the man I know you’ve always admired.’
Suddenly Draco felt a sense of realization dawn upon him. The constant lump in his stomach, his lack of hunger, the way each day seemed more numb than the one before ever since that night at the Astronomy tower... It was guilt. Something had been lying heavily on his heart. Snape on the other hand had paled, his eyes looking at Draco darkly.
‘What are you insinuating?’
‘Dumbledore… You cared about him. You didn’t want to kill him but you had to because I chickened out!’
In very few strides Snape had covered the distance between them and grabbed Draco’s robes in one hand the other held his wand close to Draco’s face. It happened so quickly that momentarily Draco forgot how to breathe. ‘Say those words again and I swear you will see the opposite from my ‘protecting’ nature. How dare you suggest I’m on their side!’
Draco’s breathing still wasn’t operative but he did remember to swallow even though the lump of saliva got stuck somewhere down his throat. ‘I’m a Malfoy’, Draco stated breathlessly, there was a tinge of sadness in the way he pronounced his own name, ‘I couldn’t care less what side you are on. As long as you’re on my side.’
Snape hesitated for a moment before he let go of the boy, still looking at him calculatingly. ‘We’re both on the same side.’
Draco instantly believed him, but for the first time in his life he wasn’t sure what side it was.