Awkward Situations 3: Daring
Title: 30 Awkward Situations
Author: stupidmuse_hatesme
Prompt: 31 drabbles for the month of May. Any fandom allowed, one chapter per day (no posting ahead!), gayness required :) 100-1000 words per drabble.
Drabble #3: Daring
Summary: Harry has no idea how he always gets himself into these sorts of things...
Warnings: Absolutely none. Well, yeah. maybe cursing. And possibly sexual type activities. Who knows :D
Rating: For now? PG-13 for cursing.
Length: *coughs and looks other way* 1,279......
Spoilers:(Highlight to see)** Uhm...Sirius is dead so I suppose it's cannon with OoTP But around HBP it goes wonky...Snape and Dumbledore are alive, but Voldie is not!**
Professor Snape has officially caught Harry Potter's attention.
Which is probably a dangerous thing, now that he thinks about it.
He's come to realize that the Potions Master has quite a multitude of masks. His personal favorite is the simmering rage he shows Harry when he accosts him in study hall, or in the corridors after curfew. Which doesn't happen as often as it used to, admittedly.
Actually, it doesn't happen anymore at all.
Harry is no longer satisfied with only tampering with Snape's rooms, and considering that Snape finally convinced Dumbledore that someone was truly harassing him Harry decided that it was time to skedaddle before he got caught in a truly brilliant trap created by the powerful headmaster.
Now he just observes.
This is not as simple as it sounds, actually. Harry does things in class to see how the teacher will react, and catalogs each and every reaction he manages to provoke. Sometimes it's just a sneer at Malfoy, other times he explodes a cauldron, or chats with Ron. He has a list that he's placed so many concealment charms on he has to squint to read the diary he uses just for this purpose: Snape Watching.
One thing doesn't sit right with Harry, though. He thinks often over the first time he, accidentally, brushed against Snape's personal wards and wonders at an incongruity he never thought of before: When Snape advanced on his supposed intruder, his footsteps echoed loudly. But any other time he's surprised Harry after curfew with or without his invisibility cloak he was as silent as a ghost.
So Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived To Be Stupid, ups the ante and follows Snape.
This is a pretty dangerous past time for numerous reasons.
Reason number 1: Snape has the unfortunate ability to sense when Harry is nearby under his cloak.
Reason number 2: Harry has never been the greatest at sneaking and stone floors are not the most conducive things for walking silently.
Reason number 3: Snape is a spy. Enough said.
Needless to say, Hermione is so ecstatic at Harry's new interest in the library that she doesn't even ask what he is studying. Which is a gift horse he chooses not to examine too closely.
Task number one is to find out how Snape knows Harry is there. He is well aware that this is probably not a tangible ability, but he scours the shelves regardless. Finally, after a few days of frustrated searching, he snaps and asks the pinch-faced Ms. Pince about how one could sense another without a spell.
She wordlessly stabs a bony finger and he scurries in that direction.
Auras.
Hm. That's interesting.
So Harry looks up a way to...dim his a bit. In his fervor he finds all sorts of interesting things in this topic and even scribbles in his diary all the books he found useful, pertinent spells, and fascinating information. A revealing spell shows that he has a lot more power than he thought he did, so he sidetracks a bit into another section to see if he can feel this power more intimately. His attempt at meditation fails miserably, but he resolves to figure out how to tap into his raw power at another time.
Next he looks up neat spells for skulking. Like ones that encourage grace with one's movements, or to muffle his footsteps. He even finds one to calm his breathing so that he doesn't give himself away with excited puffing as he follows his quarry.
Dimly, he thinks that he should probably feel bad for thinking of a professor as his quarry, especially since the Professor has done nothing to him all year, but he pushes that thought back when he realizes that he's painted himself into a corner.
Even if his aura and power is dimmed so that Snape couldn't sense him, he has so many spells on himself that it makes Snape twitchy. He notices this right away, and after 3 days of consecutively following the teacher on his nightly rounds Harry calls a halt because all the spells are making the spy extremely paranoid.
He tamps down the guilt he feels at this and researches more.
His magic is...dazzling, he's found. He actually has to ask Hermione about it, and luckily she's so excited about his thirst for knowledge that she doesn't look too deep into it.
"Well Harry, even if your presence is concealed, from sight and senses, your magic almost....glimmers. Which is interest, because in theory the magic dimming spell should take care of that, but all the extra spells are like coating you with glitter. The dimmer makes it so no one can see this glitter, but it's like faerie dust!"
He blinks, amused, and tries not to laugh when she splutters and coughs because of the dust from a tome she flips open a little too enthusiastically.
"Faerie dust?"
"Yes! Like something you can see out of the corner of your eye, but not directly. It might feel like a feeling like someone's standing right there, or goosebumps. Likely it's unique to each person who experiences this phenomenon." She snaps the books shut. "How did you come up with this interesting combination of spells?"
He leans over Hermione's shoulder and glances at the list he wrote for her to give himself a moment to think and answers carefully. "I don't think I'm going to win this war with guts and glory, Hermione."
She blinks. "Well, that's not what I meant, Harry!" She twitters. "A dimmer, a specified muffling charm, a grace charm, a soothing breathing charm, what are you doing Harry? Burgling?" Her eyes glint with good humor before she continues. "No, but why these spells Harry?"
So he explains more of his research and wonders why he didn't do this in the first place. She loves it, of course, and directs him towards many more books and within a week he's satisfied enough to try again.
Snape doesn't even pause when he stalks silently by the one-eyed humped witch's statue. Neither does he notice when Harry fluidly steps around the witch and follows Snape. Now he's armed with a magic signature blocking charm instead of the dimmer, and a complicated ritual that hides the...scent of his magic. It's very specific and he suspects that it only works on Snape. The professor relies on his sense of smell the most, he realized, and worked with Hermione to block the scent of his magic. As a direct result, Snape's nose no longer twitches when he's alone with Harry.
He only hopes that Snape's talent with his aquiline feature is very much subconscious and that he doesn't notice the change.
The work was worth it. His body now knows how to follow the tall man smoothly, and without rush. He's glad of this because he'd rather not botch it all up and tread on the man's robes. Excitement bubbles in him and he takes the rare moment to observe the man without any of his masks present. He's not weary. He seems...Alive. Not bubbling with good humor, per se, but in tune with himself, and his surroundings. He does not rush. His steps are slow and measures and he pads along without anymore purpose than to enjoy Hogwarts.
Like Harry, he occasionally reaches out with his hand to touch the castle and feel her for a moment. Harry can't wait until he can sense magic himself, and maybe see Snape a little more clearly. Maybe feel what he is doing.
His heartbeat spikes and he struggles for a moment to tamp down his excitement.
Yes, his daring was very much worth it.