Penance is the Play

Chapter 2

Even though Harry's morning tasks had become routine by then, they didn't feel familiar at all. Everything felt different, because with everything Harry did he kept remembering what had happened the night before.

He stood under the shower and remembered how Snape's fingers curled around his cock. He brushed his teeth and thought of the way Snape's eyes smoldered. He put on his clothes and kept thinking about the unexpected smile around Snape's lips at the moment of his climax.

Breakfast was no better. In fact, when Harry left the kitchen to go down to the cellar, he didn't even recall eating anything, though his stomach was full.

He knocked on the cellar door with a trembling hand.

"Enter."

Snape stood at his worktable, appearing as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Harry walked to his side of the room, and for a few seconds he allowed himself to think that perhaps it had all been a dream.

Until he saw four stoppered vials standing in the middle of the table.

"That's your work from last night, Potter. I thought you'd be able to find a use for it."

Harry gently put the vials to the side. "Yes, sir." Snape remembered. Of course Snape remembered, but Harry didn't understand why he seemed so...normal about it.

"Pay attention!"

Startled, Harry looked up. Snape stood on the other side of his table. Harry hadn't even realized he'd been staring off into the distance.

"This is the list of the potions you'll be brewing." Snape placed a sheet of parchment between them on the table. "Some of these potions will take only a few hours to brew. Others weeks, but that shouldn't be a problem, since you have the rest of the holidays to brew them."

"Yes, sir." Harry picked up the list and read it carefully.

Snape reached behind him and produced a large, dark wooden box, which he placed in front of Harry. "You'll be creating your own private potions supply. Potions which will aid you. Later today, I'll show you a spell to guard this box, so you, and only you can open it."

Nodding, Harry kept his eyes on the parchment. There were at least five different healing potions on it, a burn-salve, a blood-replenishing potion, two poisons Harry hadn't heard of before, Draught of the Living Dead, a few potions Harry wasn't familiar with at all, and there, at the bottom, Polyjuice Potion and Veritaserum.

Harry blinked up at Snape. "Veritaserum? You're letting me brew Veritaserum?"

Releasing a deep breath, Snape kept quiet for a moment, and then seemed to choose his words with care. "Potter. All these potions serve very specific purposes and may aid you during this war. As I already said, this will be your private potions supply, and you are not to share it with anyone. You are not even to tell anyone of its existence. I'm well aware a potion such as Veritaserum can easily be abused. However, should you ever abuse any of these, you will answer to me personally."

There was no heat or arousal in Snape's black eyes this time as he stared at Harry. Only cold calculation, and Harry nodded timidly.

"Yes, sir. I'll be very careful with them."

Snape hooked a finger around the lid and opened the box. "Inside you'll find instructions on how to brew each of those potions, plus all the ingredients you need for them. Some of the instructions of these potions, such as Veritaserum, aren't available in any public literature. Keep these instructions safe, understood?"