Better Be Slytherin!

our hearts.' He paused and kept from looking at the mirror himself. Nothing good would come of it. As gently as he could, he said, 'I imagine you see your family standing around you when you look in.'

The boy gave the mirror another guilty look, then turned back to Severus, tears glittering on his lashes, which he hastily blinked away before they fell. Severus could understand, intimately, how he must feel. For his own part, he had seen family, too, when he found the mirror in his fourth year, but they gathered around him in a way which had never happened in true life. His father had clapped him proudly on the back and his mother kissed his brow . . . and then, Lily stood close by his side, their hands clasped tightly together, even when they kissed. . . .

'Yes,' Harry breathed.

'I know,' Severus said. And he truly did. 'But a wise man once told me, this mirror will give neither truth nor knowledge. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.'

'Is it possible?' Harry whispered. 'Can it happen ever? What I see?'

Wondering what the boy could see in the mirror besides his dead family gathered around him, Severus shook his head. 'No, Harry. There is no way to bring back the dead. Not even with magic.'

The boy's face fell, and Severus took a step closer to him, not sure what he could do, but feeling like he should try to ease the boy's pain somehow. But all he could say was, 'Professor Dumbledore will move the mirror tomorrow, and he asks that you do not try and seek it out again.'

'The Headmaster?' Harry looked up at him, green eyes shining. 'What does he care?'

'He cares for all the students here,' Severus replied, even though he was not completely sure of the truth of the statement, given how shabbily his snakes were often treated, in comparison to his favored Gryffindors. 'But more importantly, I care, Harry, and I do not want you to waste your life chasing after dreams. As I was told, when I found the mirror, it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.'

He waited until the boy nodded slowly and gathered up his cloak before speaking again. 'I shall expect you to stay after Occlumency tonight, to discuss this with me some more. But for now, you'd best go and work on your holiday essays, hm?'

Without meeting Severus' eyes, the boy shook his head. 'I've finished those, sir.'

'Then perhaps you'd like to come and have a game of chess.'

The boy gave a tiny shrug, then said, 'All right. Thank you, sir.'

'Come along, Harry.' He gestured to the door and followed the boy out.

Later that evening, as Severus had assumed he would, Harry said, 'Sir, may I ask you a question?'

'You just did,' he pointed out. 'But you may ask another.'

Harry gave him a lopsided smile, the first Severus had seen in days. 'Can I ask, what do you, er, I mean, what did you see in the mirror?'

Severus graced him with a small smile of his own, even as he looked away and took a long sip of the glass of wine he often enjoyed on winter evenings. He did not want to answer. Nor did he want to lie. In the end, he said, 'Can you not guess?' and was gratified when the boy nodded, blushing slightly. Even if Harry could never know the whole truth, he could probably guess a portion of it.

--HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS--

After the holidays, Severus' schedule was once more filled with preparation for his classes and teaching during the days, then correcting assignments and exams and holding frequent detentions for Gryffindors -- especially Weasleys -- at night. Whenever possible, he squeezed in extra hours with his five Seventh Year NEWT students to prepare them for their upcoming exams. He still met with Harry two nights a week for Occlumency lessons, and once a week or so for chess, but all of their meetings were after Slytherin Quidditch practices, as Marcus had the team out on the pitch almost every evening.

The weather had turned rainy, wet and cold. Fortunately, wizarding children were less likely to take sick than their Muggle counterparts, and thus Madame Pomfrey required no more Pepper-up Potions than usual, even when various Quidditch teams re-entered the castle from practice looking more like drowned kneazles than school children. If not for Filch's determined whinging about the state of the Entry Hall, Severus might have found the sight tremendously amusing . . . bollocks to that; he did find the sight amusing. Not that any of the little brats would ever know; Severus always made sure of his sneer before they saw him.

He noticed, however, during their various meetings, that Harry seemed quieter than he had been before the boy went up against the Mirror of Erised. Occasionally, he appeared embarrassed. Severus brought up the issue once or twice, but Harry refused outright to say what was bothering him, and Severus refused to abuse his trust by discerning the truth during their Occlumency lessons.

Still, they were not as comfortable together as they had been at the beginning of the holidays, and Severus, for one, felt the loss keenly.

He refused to consider why.

A few weeks after Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in their late-February Quidditch match, Severus insisted on refereeing the upcoming bout between Slytherin and Hufflepuff, over Minerva's objections of favoritism.

'Favoritism!' he shouted, incensed as much as he had ever been before at the insinuation. They stood nose to nose in Dumbledore's office. 'This has nothing to do with Slytherin's chances! If you believe you can protect the boy in the air better than I, then do so!'

McGonagall drew herself up. 'I'm not much of a flier anymore, Severus. You know that.'

'Of course,' he agreed. 'That's why it is left to me to make sure no one tries to kill him this time.'

'I'm sure you're over-reacting--' the elderly professor started.

'I had to chant counter curses for a quarter hour during his last game,' he said stiffly, 'without pause. You saw what his broom was doing. He was lucky he didn't get bucked off. If I had been in the air, I could have aided him far better.'