As Potter is to Snape

Chapter 50

 Harry watched from his bed as Severus moved about his room, straightening up the desk and putting books and dirty clothes away. Harry rolled his eyes.

"You don't have to do that every night, you know?"

"If I don't, I'm afraid it will surely look as if a troll has come through here by the end of the week."

Harry shrugged. "The house-elves just take care of it in the tower."

Severus turned a steely gaze toward the teenager. "Harry James, you had better not be expecting the house elves to do all of your work for you. They have plenty of other things to do without having to constantly pick up after you as well."

"I was just saying," Harry pointed out as he pushed himself up into a sitting position at the head of his bed.

Severus continued to glare at him for a moment before nodding his head. "You're right though," he said as he dropped Harry's shoes back on the floor where he had left them. "I don't have to do this every night and I really shouldn't in the first place. It should be your responsibility to keep your room clean and from now on it will be."

Harry opened his mouth to assure Severus that it was actually perfectly fine with him if he wanted to clean up at night but before he could say a word, Severus continued, "Thank you, Harry, for bringing it to my attention. I hadn't realized that I was actually keeping you from doing one of your most important chores. Especially since you're the one getting the allowance every week."

"Great," Harry muttered under his breath as he studied the top of his blanket, completely missing Severus smirking at him.

Deciding that now would be a good time to change the subject, Harry looked up at his guardian and asked the question that had been weighing heavily on his mind for the past couple of days. "Dad, why are you still so mad at Uncle Remus?"

"What makes you think that I am?" Severus asked.

"You're not talking to him. He sat beside you at lunch yesterday and you didn't say a word the entire time. Then, today, he tried to talk to you in the hallway and you made up an excuse about being late for a meeting with a student but then you didn't even go to your office."

Severus raised an eyebrow. He hadn't realized how much Harry had been pay attention to him lately. He sighed, he didn't want to discuss this with Harry, but he couldn't lie to him either.

"He lied to me, Harry."

Harry shrugged. "So? I've lied to you before and you don't stop talking to me."

"You're my child."

Harry pushed aside the urge to smile at Severus's words and instead attempted a glare. "He's your brother. You should forgive him."

"No one said I haven't forgiven him. I'm merely still upset with him. He put you in danger by keeping information from me, Harry, and that's not something easily forgotten."

"That's not fair!" Harry argued. "I had that map first, remember? He took it from me! If he hadn't, you might still not have known."

"That's hardly the point—"

"Sure it is. You're just being ridiculous. You're mad at Remus for hiding something when I hid it from you in the first place. Even though he already apologized. Once you apologize you should make things right again. And besides, you both got into a fight and that should have taken care of it all. You should be even now. You would never let me and Draco go this long without talking."

Severus opened and closed his mouth as he tried to form a reply but nothing came to him. He could grudgingly admit that perhaps Harry had a point, but he wasn't ready to tell him that. Instead, he settled for holding the blankets up so that Harry could lie under them once more.