Benign

Chapter 6: The Conversation

The bell signaling the end of the class sounded, and Draco and Harry started to gather their things so they could head out of the room.

"Malfoy, Potter, stay after class." Snape said, giving his godson a pointed look, one that clearly told him to tell Harry what he had said because he wasn't looking.

Draco did just that, shooting the professor another glare. They waited for the rest of the class to file out of the classroom, before walking up to Professor Snape's desk, Draco with a question in his eyes and Harry with slight fear in his.

"Why don't we go sit in my office?" Snape suggested, figuring that the conversation would go better if they could speak in private and they could sit in more comfortable chairs in front of his desk.

Draco pressed his lips into a thin line, but nodded. He looked over at Harry as they followed Snape and wished he could touch him to comfort him, but from the few times he'd tried he learned that it would have to opposite effect.

They sat down in the two armchairs in front of his desk, while Snape sat in the desk, looking at him in anticipation.

Harry abruptly remembered his new friends telling him that it was okay to ask questions and that his aunt and uncle were wrong about that, and gathered up all his courage. "Why are we here, Professor? Did I do something wrong?"

Snape's normally cold, hard eyes softened at the shy boy's soft and polite tone, further proving to him that this boy was very unlike his father. "No, nothing of the sort. I actually, wanted to-" he cleared his throat, "apologize for being very rude during class today, it was wrong of me."

Harry looked at him in complete shock, normally fairly well kept mask falling from his face. An adult was apologizing to him for something? He couldn't believe what he was 'hearing'.

Draco was also mildly surprised--his godfather didn't apologize to people often.

"You- you're apologizing to me?"

Severus was really, really, beginning to question what the boy's homelife was like if he was that shocked over an apology. "Of course, I have wronged you so therefore I have apologized."

Harry frowned, confused now. "Uncle Vernon says that I am very stupid and that I deserve to be punished if I don't know something. You aren't going to punish me?"

Draco and Severus shared a very concerned look, and all pretence of the boy being like his father faded entirely. "No, Harry, I am absolutely not going to punish you."

He looked slightly unconvinced, but he didn't say anything further.

Snape sat in contemplative silence for a moment, burying his anger at the little boys relatives for the moment and Draco ended up being the one who spoke up next. "Harry doesn't have any school things, Severus."

Severus had to work harder to shove his anger back as he looked at Harry, who didn't have any idea what Draco said and was fidgeting nervously.