for hours afterwards. And thus, Severus could hardly say no to his repeated pleas to play again. Even he had to admit that Harry had a gift for Seeking out the snitch, but he still watched his son carefully, whenever his feet left the ground.
Harry seemed to get along well enough with Ron, though the red head was a bit more volatile than Draco, and louder as well. As long as they were outside, Severus didn't mind, but he could not abide shouting in his quarters. Aside from his screaming nightmares, Harry was really a very quiet child. Severus supposed it was yet another result of his upbringing, and a desire to go unnoticed. Severus couldn't bring himself to mind that particular trait, though he often had to cajole his son into making his needs known.
What was a surprise to Severus, was how completely Harry took to Charlie, tagging along after him whenever possible like a duckling following its mother. He looked more and more to Charlie for approval or praise when they played Quidditch, or even 'Esploden Snap' and accepted the older boy's opinions as if they were inviolate.
Seemingly aware of the admiration he'd inspired, Charlie doled out praise and approval whenever possible, and Severus spoke to him about it over hot cocoa one evening after the two younger boys had gone to bed.
'Well, I have four younger brothers, sir,' Charlie said. 'So I'm kind of used to it.'
'Still,' Severus told him, 'I appreciate how kindly you've interacted with Harry. He needs people . . .'
'To trust?' Charlie guessed.
'Indeed.' Severus peered at the fourteen-year-old shrewdly. 'How much has your mother told you about Harry's background?'
Charlie shrugged. 'Not much. I mean, everyone knows Harry Potter . . . er, well, Snape now, but Potter before you adopted him, but she didn't say anything except that he'd had a rough time of it. I could tell that on my own, just watching him.'
'Oh?'
'Yeah, well, he watches a lot, doesn't he, before he'll enter into a game or even take food from the table, like he's checking to make sure he's doing the right thing or that he'll be accepted. And the looks he gets sometimes . . . Ron snuck up behind him once when we were playing outside, and tickled him, and I thought he was going to faint dead away, he looked so scared.'
Severus nodded. 'Thank you for helping out with him this week. We both owe you a debt.'
Charlie grinned. 'No way, sir. I liked being here, and Harry's a lot of fun to be around, even for a little kid. He even introduced me proper to Hagrid, and we had the best chats about dragons. I mean, Harry's shy and stuff, but he's a really good kid.'
'He is indeed,' Severus agreed, and was gladdened again that Molly had brought the boy with her.
Once the Weasleys had gone home, there were only a few days left before term started. Severus was all nerves, and found himself being rather more short with Harry than he would have liked. To try and mitigate any trouble, he pressed Nelli, Bitti and Fran into taking the boy almost around the clock, while he dealt with his pre-teaching jitteriness on his own.
After two days of this, however, Nelli alerted him to the fact that he couldn't just
Harry was distraught at not being able to spend time with his father, she reported, though the words Nelli used were, 'Master Harry's sobbing bad now, Master Snape. He's crying that youse don't want him no more.'
'Show me,' Severus said, and Nelli brought him to a little used bathroom on the second floor. The bathroom's wooden cubicles were worn and ill-maintained, and even the stone sinks were pitted and chipped. Harry was tucked under one of the sinks in the row under a cracked mirror, scrunched into a tiny ball, his thin frame shaking silently.
