A/N: Thank you so, so much for your reviews. You can't possibly know how happy you've made me. I wish I could write and update every day, but that's just impossible. Once a month is the best I can do, but I hope you still enjoy reading my story. Do know that I will keep uploading, I won't abandon my stories.

Chapter 5

So wontcha, So wontcha c'mon. -OK Go

~~~~SS/HP~~~~

Harry couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to do so since friday, and though his body felt tired, his mind wouldn't allow him to close his eyes and rest properly. It was sunday evening, just after midnight, and he was staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to come almost desperately. It was futile, the brief walk and following kiss with his chemistry professor evaded his thoughts as soon as he buried himself under the duvet. His mind kept wandering to the dark haired man, how he'd smelt, he'd tasted. He stretched and turned, smiling into his pillow as he remembered how Severus had pulled him close to his side, like he'd wanted him to melt against him. Whenever Harry tried to picture Severus in his mind, images flitted through his mind, flashes of his professor bending over chemistry equipment, the smell of dusty old books, the ones hidden deep into the shelves of the public library, flooded his nose. He could taste dark coffee made in very modern coffee machine on his tongue. Harry almost howled in frustration and buried his head under his pillow, pulling at his own ears in an attempt to get the images out of his mind.
He was so tired.
He rolled over to his other side and stared blankly at the stack of books beside his bed. The other nights he'd read a book to prevent his thoughts from overwhelming him. Harry sighed and grabbed 'The Andrews Affair', a thick novel he'd borrowed from Remus, from the pile and searched for his flashlight. He was going to regret this in the morning.

The next morning, Harry was regretting it very sorely indeed. Somehow, he'd still managed to fall asleep, only to wake up with a sore neck and a splitting headache. His first periods had passed in a blur, Harry had dozed in his seat during English and spent his free period outside with Susan, whose class had been canceled because of an unfortunate accident involving her German Professor and a skateboard.
The wind blew especially ferocious that day and the two students stood huddled against the south wall of the building seeking protection from the draft.

"You look really tired" the redhaired girl said, offering her friend a can of apple juice which Harry gladly accepted.

"I didn't get any sleep" Harry mumbled, "book.."
Susan grinned knowingly.

"Did you finish it?"

"Almost. I didn't bring it today though."

"And how was the dinner?" Susan rolled her eyes, "My mother was really impressed with Umbridge's speech, she adores the man. I suspect it's because they both like to ski, he brought it up during one of the parent-teacher talks and she heartily believes that no one who likes to ski can be that bad."
Harry snorted.

"That, of course, is a complete misconception. There are a lot of villain's who like to ski too, in fact, in my last book there was a conspiracy concerning villains who forced children to ski in front of their sleigh to keep them moving through a blizzard. It was a bizarre plot."

He sighed wistfully before answering Susan's question:

"And the dinner, the dinner was awful. But I had a great evening nonetheless. I just wish Sirius would stop with the idiot nickname."
Now it was Susan's turn to snicker and they almost missed the faint ringing of the bell inside the school building.

"Time for chemistry." Susan chirped, pulling Harry away from their warm corner. Harry yawned and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"You better stay awake during this class." Susan warned playfully, "It seems like professor Snape likes you."

Harry blushed at the comment and quickened his pace, his stomach fluttering at the thought just how much Severus Snape seemed to like him. He felt nervous all of the sudden, his heart thumped heavily in his chest and his palms started to tingle.
Almost too soon they reached Belfort's basement and Harry fiddled with the hem of his shirt, not knowing what to do with his hands. He spotted the open door of their classroom he felt his heartbeat accelerating. The teen entered the empty classroom and his eyes were immediately drawn to the black clad professor. He stumbled, tumbling over his own feet and fell almost headfirst into Susan, who was walking in front of him. Severus looked up from his position behind the large polished desk where he'd been correcting their homework and nodded into their direction, one corner of his mouth curling up in a small smile. Harry smiled shyly and gave a short wave, his tense nerves relaxing when Severus' eyes held his gaze for a few seconds before the man redirected his attention to the papers in front of him.
Harry sat down on the chair beside Susan, sighing a relieved sigh, his heart slowly calming down. Other students filled the classroom and Harry rested his head rest on his arm, suppressing another yawn. He raised his eyes to sneak a glance at his professor just to find Severus already looking at him.
The man stood from his chair and cleared his throat.

"Quiet." He said sternly, and the few whispering voices stilled.

"Titration," He lectured, moving from behind his desk to pace up and down the first aisle, "Is a laboratory method of quantitative chemical analysis that is used to determine the unknown concentration of an identified analyte."

Harry felt his concentration slip as he watched his professor move past his table. Snape's baritone voice was strangely soothing and the raven haired boy felt his eyelids grow heavy. A few sharp jabs in his ribs from Susan every now and then prevented Harry from falling asleep completely. After the seventh poke from his friend, Severus told them they would start on the assignment

"You are going to do this practical in pairs. I have selected the teams, as I will do from now on until the end of the semester." Professor Snape said. Ron's voice rose to protest, but the redhead snapped his mouth shut after a warning look sent in his direction.

"Any questions?"

A few students mumbled amongst themselves, not quite comfortable with their professor's decision, but no one raised their hands. Harry threw a nervous glance into Susan's direction, who tried to reassure him by giving him an encouraging smile.

"I expect all of you to hand in your assignments by the end of this lesson." Professor Snape eyed the students collected in front of him and paused briefly. "I want everyone to take an equal" he emphasized the last word, "part in the assignments. If I see one of you slacking off, I will let you redo the practical on a free friday afternoon."

"Bones and Finnegan, first table. Macmillan and Weasley, second. Zabini and Thomas, third. Malfoy and Potter, last table. The instructions and assignments are on the workbenches." Severus recited, and with those words he opened the double doors that led to the connected laboratorium.

Harry cursed under his breath and stood from his chair, eying his blonde labpartner with obvious contempt. Malfoy didn't seem too happy about their chemistry professor's decision either, he raised his eyebrow and moved to stand beside Harry. They slipped into the long lab coats and made their way over to the back of the classroom,
"How about you read the instructions and tell me which equipment we need?" Malfoy said almost tonelessly. Harry agreed wordlessly by picking up the various sheets laying in front of him and scanning the contents.

After only twenty minutes, Harry was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Everything had worked out just fine at the beginning, he'd been able to follow the instructions printed on the sheets and the both of them had worked in peaceful silence, not speaking to each other except when necessary. Professor Snape appeared at their side about halfway through the assignment. He'd watched them work and asked a question Draco answered immediately and correctly.
But as soon as the instructions told them to do a titration on their own, where they had to make up their own experiment to get to a certain result, Harry was lost, much to Draco Malfoy's frustration.

"No, Potter, Idiot! Don't pipette this salt solution before you've diluted it." The blonde fumed and grabbed the measuring cup from Harry's shaking hands.

"Set up the equitation, I'll do this part myself." Draco sneered.

"What equitation?" Harry asked nervously.

Draco shook his head in disbelief. "Are you fucking stupid, Potter? Look at my notes and do what I did. We need a calculation to measure how much vitamin C this orange contains" Malfoy pointed towards the oranges they'd pressed and continued to dilute the solution.

Harry stared blankly at the page where they'd made a few notes during their practical and closed his eyes in defeat. This practicall was going to be disastrous.

~~~~SS/HP~~~~

The sharp sound that signalled the end of his lessons startled Severus from his musings and he watched the students leave the classroom whilst Harry stayed behind. The boy was packing his bag very slowly, deliberately stalling and telling a hasty Susan he would wait for her in front of the Ladies'. The boy looked tired and pale, when he noticed Severus observing him he shot him a insecure smile, which Severus returned fully. He waited until the boy finished packing his things and after he'd made sure the hallway was empty, Severus closed the door and strode towards the teen, who was eying him almost nervously.
The boy's green eyes were truly mesmerizing and Severus studied them, gently pulling his student a bit closer.
Harry stared back, their faces very close, until the shorter boy stood on his toes and pressed his lips against his professor's.
Severus immediately pulled the boy fully towards him, kissing him hard, letting his tongue taste the boy's lips before entering his mouth. He waited patiently until the boy's own tongue met his' and stroked it softly. The slow strokes changed rhythm when Severus felt Harry's hand on his forearm and he moved his lips harder over Harry's wet ones. His tongue danced past a row of teeth and he stroked his students arms with both hands, suddenly lifting him up into a sitting position on his desk. Their lips parted but Severus kept holding the boy close and he felt Harry take a deep breath against his ear. He pressed his lips on Harry's again, shorter this time. Harry buried his nose into his black pullover and sighed happily, cuddling into his professor and taking a few deep breaths. Severus stroked his hair and his shoulders until their eyes met and their lips connected. Harry closed his eyes, but Severus kept his' open, savouring the look of long fluttering lashes.

~~~~SS/HP~~~~

If Susan was surprised to see Harry walk out of the classroom with a smile on his face, she didn't show it. She was standing next to Theodore, who'd turned up unexpectedly and had been waiting for Harry and Susan to return from their practical.

"Theo" Harry's smile grew bigger and he jumped his friend in an unruly hug. "Have you been ill?"

Theodore chuckled tiredly and patted Harry on his shoulder

"Ill? I'm never ill. Only a bit tired. Missed anything interesting?"

"Lots." Susan said, grabbing Theo's arm in one hand and Harry's in the other. The three of them made their way upstairs and outside, immediately heading for their spot, one of the lower brick walls.
The weather was still freezing cold, every day seemed to bring new chilling winds and the leaves were slowly decaying changing their colour from a healthy green to a dull brown.
It was only autumn, but it felt like winter, the cold fronts chasing away the cozy sight of red, golden and yellow leaves that usually adorned the trees around Belfort.

"I don't like it, it feels like we're bypassing my favourite season" Harry sighed. He liked autumn, sunny days especially.

"Cheer up, there will be snow in a few months. We could hit Umbridge with a snowball and pretend it's an accident" Theodore joked, digging around in his pockets.

"Or Lockhart" Harry continued enthusiastically.

"Flint seems like a nice target to me." Susan said. "He was bothering Harry, there was a fight." she added when Theodore shot her a confused look.

"What?" The skinny boy's eyes narrowed and he turned his inquisitive gaze at Harry.

"Nothing happened to me, Cedric was the one who was fighting him."

Theodore nodded approvingly.

"I hope he broke Flint's nose."
"He didn't, but Flint has detention with Umbridge for a few weeks." Susan smiled wickedly.

Harry sat back, leaning on the wall and closing his eyes tiredly. He listened to his friends talk until their conversation ended and Susan left to meet up with Dean in the library. Theodore remained outside, finishing his cigarette.

"I really don't want to sport." Harry mumbled.

"Then don't" came Theo's fast reply. "You could skip, you know."

Harry opened his eyes and sighed.

"You have physics."

Theodore sat down beside him and shrugged, closing his eyes in turn.

"If you're cold, you can warm your hands on my lighter." He suggested and Harry noticed his own teeth were chattering softly. They sat together for a while, Harry observing nothing in particular and Theodore smoking another cigarette.

"Want to try it?" Theo suddenly asked, stretching his arm, holding the Lucky in front of Harry's own hand. Smoke curled upwards in little clouds, dancing around his nose and eyebrows, and Harry blinked, not used to having a burning cigarette that close.
Theodore had never offered him a cigarette before and Harry took it carefully, eying it and scrunching his nose at the smell.
His friend was giving him an unsure look, and Harry sucked hesitantly. Smoke assaulted his tongue and Harry opened his mouth again.

"How do you inhale it?" He asked. "It tastes bad."

Theodore shrugged. "You have to suck, use your lips a bit. Then, when the smoke's in your mouth, try to inhale it into your lungs by breathing in."

Harry tried it and failed for the first time, the second time he succeeded and it resulted in a few coughs. He handed the burning cigarette back and shuddered, feeling slightly nauseous. The faint sound of a whistle startled them both and Harry peeked over the wall they'd been sitting against.

"I should go inside, they'll pass this wall during the warming-up"

"Stay clear of the library though," Theo said, also pushing himself upwards and stretching his back, "Lupin probably knows your schedule."

Harry nodded, a bit disappointed since he'd planned on doing exactly that. He watched Theodore disappear inside, probably still heading for physics, and contemplated what he should do. Without a book with him to read he felt strangely lost, but the sight of an orange flash nearing from the distant football field spurred him into action and he jumped towards the entrance, figuring he could decide whatever he wanted to do when he was inside.

As soon as he was inside he backed up a few steps and almost squeaked when he heard a voice near his left ear.

"Shouldn't you be in sportsclass?"

A/N: 'The Andrews Affair' is another fictional title, named after a character from a detective bookseries and one of my childhood heroes.
A/N: This time I copied parts of Severus explenation from Wikipedia, I couldn't bring myself to do research myself, I have had enough chemistry for the rest of my life.

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