The Boy Who Lived A Bit [Snarry]

Chapter Ten

'I do wish you'd consider discussing your concerns with me, my boy.' Dumbledore sat at the foot of Snape's bed, peering over the top of his spectacles and twinkling.

Snape glowered at the vase of flowers beside him. 'Again, Albus, you have my apologies for my substandard behaviour in school this past week. I will see to it that it won't happen again. But my... Rather, the mitigating factors behind that behaviour are not something I wish to discuss with anyone at this time.'

Dumbledore nodded a little sadly. 'You are a strong man, Severus. Life has put so much into your path and you have not only coped but blossomed.'

Snape snorted loudly. 'Please, Albus! "Blossomed"? Do you honestly see any resemblance between myself and one of these?' He jabbed a finger at the centre of a sunflower whose head hung perilously close to his own.

The old wizard chuckled, his blue eyes watering with mirth. 'What flora would you compare yourself most with, Severus? A black orchid? Belladonna? A carnivorous pitcher plant, perhaps?' Snape crossed his arms haughtily and tried to not let his amusement show. Dumbledore wiped at an escaped tear of laughter. 'Ah! Forgive me, I shouldn't make sport of you when you're not feeling your best.'

'Indeed. Was there another reason for your visit, Headmaster?'

A last chuckle allowed Dumbledore to sober sufficiently. 'I was merely worried about you, my dear boy. Your decline over the last few days was... painful to witness. Are you quite sure there is no issue you wish to raise? Troublesome students, perhaps?'

'Imbecilic, unruly children are hardly enough to give me a nervous breakdown, much as they may like to think they can. And frankly, Albus, if I could cope with attempting to educate The Boy Who Lived and his fan club, I'm surely more than capable of dealing with the hoard of quiet little nobodies we have this year?'

'Quite right, quite right.' Dumbledore folded his hands in his lap and fixed Snape with a penetrating look. 'I hate to bring it up, but could that possibly be a contributing factor to your malaise?'

Snape's eyes flashed. 'Whatever do you mean?'

'Well, perhaps life at the post-Harry Hogwarts is not quite so, ah, action-packed or even interesting as it had come to be? A war still raging notwithstanding, of course.'

'Are you – ' Snape snapped his mouth shut again while the stab of indignant outrage pierced through him. He took a deep breath. 'Are you seriously trying to suggest that I made myself ill because I miss Harry bloody Potter?'

Harry bloody Potter chose that moment, of course, to poke his head around the doorjamb to enquire as to how popular a suggestion of tea might be. All three men fell silent. Snape became suddenly very interested in the various botanicals that made up the bouquet Albus had brought. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he noted the Headmaster cast a fatherly look first in his direction and then in Potter's. Interfering old witch, he thought as he flicked a fingernail at a sturdy protea.