The Boy Who Lived A Bit [Snarry]

Chapter Eighteen

'What day is it today, anyway?' Potter, for someone who had just been bent over a desk and soundly debauched, looked remarkably composed as he watched Snape begin ladling cooled enhancement potion into a series of glass vials.

'Thursday, Potter. How can you not know what day it is?'

Slouching shoulders shrugged. 'One day pretty much bleeds into another when you're hidden away in a hidey-hole.' Something seemed to occur to the boy suddenly and he stared at the door that led into the Potions classroom. 'There isn't a class in there, is there? They wouldn't have heard – '

'Albus has suspended all classes until further notice in light of the current situation, and many students have returned to their families for the time being. Those remaining are under Flitwick's charge until the Headmaster returns.' Snape attempted to give his young lover a withering look but his heart just didn't seem in it anymore. 'Do you honestly think I'd be in here brewing and buggering while my First Years sat around twiddling their wands in the next room?'

'Yeah well – I was gonna say!' Potter gave a very adult, throaty chuckle. 'Do you want some help with that?'

Although Snape's first impulse was to decline, he held out a spare ladle. The boy came to stand on the opposite side of the work bench, picked up an empty vial and took the proffered implement. Potter had ended up achieving a passing grade in Seventh Year Potions, Snape considered. So he supposed he could trust the younger man with something so simple as brew apportioning.

'Gee, actually being allowed to touch one of the Professor's own potions! Hermione'd faint with envy!'

'Shut up and ladle, Potter.'

Part-way through a potion-pour, the little bugger actually blew Snape a kiss. It was a moment before Snape could force himself to stop staring and resume bottling.

In silence, and in half the time it would have taken Snape to do on his own, they decanted all of the enhancement potion into neat rows of red glass vials. Snape kept two samples aside and asked Potter to put the rest away in one of the cabinets while he Scourgified  his cauldron and bench top.

'Thank-you, Potter.'

The boy grinned sloppily. He certainly looked a lot more relaxed since being bent over Snape's desk. 'Anytime, Professor.'

Snape tried for a glare but decided not to bother. 'Are you hungry? Perhaps a visit to the kitchens...'

'Brilliant idea. Hey, is there still a house elf called Winky working here?'

'Do I look like Miss Granger to you?' Snape pocketed the two vials he'd kept aside and headed for the door. ' How should I know what creatures infest this place?'

Potter didn't seem in the mood to rise to the snark bait though as they left the laboratory and Snape warded it behind them. Harry headed for the dungeon stairs but Snape grabbed his arm lightly and propelled him in the opposite direction. 'Short cut's this way, Potter.' He guided the boy toward a bare stone wall that revealed, after one tap of his wand, a narrow staircase leading up to the level above the dungeons.