Silver and Gold 10/? DH Spoilers
SPOILERS FOR DH


Title: Silver and Gold 10/?
Author: Eriador117
Rating: NC-17, Snape/Harry, other pairings.
Spoilers up to and including Deathly Hallows
Summary: Things are never quite what they seem. Epilogue, what epilogue? ;)
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse, I'm just playing in it.
Beta'd by Rakina, many thanks :)
Warnings: AU, Angst, Mpreg. There are some other things I am not warning for as it will give away the plot and I myself don't exactly know where the story is going yet.



Earlier Parts

Part Ten

Severus had always hated staff meetings and even with a new Headmistress that was still the case. Why Minerva felt this need to have everything planned out down to the last detail eluded him and he wasn't prepared to risk asking. Two trips to Hogsmeade as a chaperone in one term were plenty. At least Minerva held all of the meetings in the staff room and not the Head's office.

Severus hadn't been up there ever since he'd discovered the truth of what Harry's life with his relatives had really been. He wasn't sure what would happen if he came face to face with Dumbledore's portrait these days. Could you hex a wizarding portrait? Or would that only destroy the frame? How could the man have just let such abuse go on unabated when he first discovered it?

Whether Harry had housed part of Voldemort's soul or not, no child should have had to put up with such treatment. Harry had been an innocent in all of it; it wasn't as if the infant Harry had wanted Voldemort's soul inside him, now was it? Where were Wizarding Family Services? Why had no one bothered to check up on Harry while he was with those people?

Time after time Dumbledore had led Harry into danger, trying to temper his perfect weapon and Severus felt sick at the manipulations. Both of them had been used. Who was it who'd protected Harry time and time again? Not the precious Order with all their waffle about doing what was best. Not Dumbledore with his twinkling eyes and false smiles. It was Severus who had looked out for the boy and was still looking out for him. Severus. A Death Eater. A torturer. A murderer.

Severus was abruptly brought out of his reverie as Sybill Trelawney rattled one of her many bangles in an effort to gain Minerva's attention.

"Yes, Sybill?"

"I still don't see why we need two Divination teachers. I am perfectly capable of handling all the classes!"

Firenze, who'd been standing at the edge of the room, lifted his face to Minerva. "If I am no longer welcome in this castle, you only have to say."

"You are more than welcome to stay, Firenze. In fact, I would be grateful. It's not that I don't think you're capable, Sybill, but we do have some larger classes this year and I thought you would appreciate the help."

Sybill sniffed and flung one of her gauzy shawls back over her shoulders, almost hitting Severus in the face with it. That would teach him to arrive late to these things. The only empty seat had been next to Sybill. He and Sybill got along as well as oil and water, both of them not forgetting that fateful night in the Hogs Head which had led to the Potters' downfall. Although Severus supposed he shouldn't really be holding a grudge against her for something she was unaware of. Sybill Trelawney still didn't know she was the person who had made the prophecy about a child who would vanquish the Dark Lord.

"Right then, I think that's everything."

"Minerva, I wonder if I might have a word with you in private?" asked Severus as everyone else started gathering up their things and departing.

"My office?" she suggested.

Severus shook his head. "Here will be fine." He waited until everyone else had left before casting strong silencing and warding charms on the door.

"It must be serious."

"I would like to talk to you about Harry."

Minerva paled and clutched a hand to her chest. "He's not... he's not tried it again?"

"No, nothing like that. In fact, I do think he is getting better." Over the past month, with both his counselling sessions with Madam Pomfrey and Severus' training regime, Harry seemed to be coping with things fairly well and had even shared a few jokes with Severus while they were both in the gym. He had stopped taking the Hearts-ease Potion a few days ago but Madam Pomfrey reckoned he still needed to take the Dreamless Sleep for a while yet. Severus agreed; after what the young man had been through, no one could begrudge him sleep that was free of nightmares.

With his training and his new healthy eating, Harry was starting to look more like a normal teenager and not an underfed waif. His muscles were filling out on his chest, his arms and his legs but some of the damage was more permanent. The Dursleys' starvation had stunted his growth; he would never grow as tall as his father. Not only that, because he had suffered years of malnutrition, his bones were as brittle as those of an old man. No wonder his arm had broken so easily in his second year. Normally a bludger hit like that would have meant a sprain, not a break. It was lucky that Madam Pomfrey had been on hand so quickly to undo the damage that idiot Lockhart had caused.

"I wondered what you knew of Harry Potter's home life before he came to Hogwarts."

"Not a lot. Just that he lived with his relatives until he came here, his mother's sister. I was there the night Albus left him on their doorstep."

"Didn't it ever strike you as odd that Dumbledore wanted to hand the Boy Who Lived over to Muggles?"

"Well, of course it did! I said as much to Albus at the time. But he assured me that having Harry stay with them was for the best. That he would be well protected there rather than with a wizarding family."

"He wasn't."

"He wasn't what?"

"He wasn't protected at that house, Minerva. At last not from them."

"What are you saying, Severus?"

"I'm saying that from the moment he arrived there until the moment he left, Harry Potter was treated appallingly. Do you know what those Muggles did to him? He was beaten, starved, locked in, humiliated and berated time and time again because he was a wizard! Not to mention the mutilations!"

"Mutilations?" Minerva's face, already pale, now turned the hue of day-old porridge.

"He was abused for years and Albus knew all along but refused to do anything about it!"

"Abused? There must be some mistake, Severus. Albus would never have let such a thing continue."

"There's no mistake. Go and ask Albus' portrait if you don't believe me. Or do you want me to summon Potter so you can see his scars first-hand?"

"Harry hasn't got any scars. Well, except for the obvious one. I've seen him undressed in the infirmary enough times."

"Don't be dense. He's been using a glamour ever since he figured out how in his first year. I only saw them because he permitted me to see them."

"Oh, my God! They really did those awful things to him?"

"Yes, they did, but what's to be done about it? They can't get away with it. They have to be punished."

"Yes, Severus. They do."

***

Harry knew Snape was attending a staff meeting on the Saturday morning, so he wasn't too surprised when he entered the gym and discovered his professor hadn't arrived yet. The gym was in one of the lower dungeons, down below the Slytherin dorms and even below the Potions department. One wall was clear, showing the depths of the lake, but the rest were bare stone like the rest of the castle.

As well as the usual gym equipment of treadmills, weight machines, steps and exercise bikes the gym also housed a small pool which was fed by the lake but kept at a warmer temperature with various charms. Harry had not been very confident in the water at first: there were too many bad memories of Dudley trying to force his head under water, but once he realised that Snape wasn't attempting to drown him he'd relaxed and was now quite a confident swimmer, if not a good one.

Snape didn't want Harry using the weights on his own, or going swimming alone and those facilities had charms on them to make sure that if Harry was there on his own, he couldn't do anything to damage himself. Harry didn't want to waste time though so he decided he'd ride for a couple of miles on one of the exercise bikes until Snape arrived. Their weekend sessions started at eight rather than six but Harry had no idea how long the staff meeting might take.

Harry made his way to the attached changing rooms and set his holdall down on one of the benches before pulling out his shorts and t-shirt along with a pair of ankle socks and trainers. As Harry unbuttoned his shirt; his eyes caught the blue t-shirt on the bench and he couldn't help remembering their last session when Snape had worn a t-shirt as well for the first time. Normally, he had just been wearing a loose dress shirt and ordinary trousers and he was just supervising Harry rather than exercising himself. Instead, yesterday, the man had been wearing a tightly fitted black t-shirt that sort of moulded to his body. The sleeves were short and showed off bulging biceps and it was so tight across Snape's chest that Harry could see every visible muscle straining across it. And there were plenty of muscles! The teaching robes and normal clothes had been hiding a lot.

Harry had found himself staring, unable to tear his eyes away from the man's chest and biceps. While Snape had been teaching Harry to swim, he had been wearing some sort of old-fashioned one-piece that had done little to show off the man's body, covering him from neck to ankle. The t-shirt was another matter. Harry hoped Snape would wear it again today and he had a strange jolt in his midriff as he thought about it. His face heated as he hurried to get changed, hoping against hope that Snape wouldn't use Legilimency on him and discover what Harry had been thinking about.

When Harry came back out; he found Snape already there and oh God, he was already wearing the t-shirt and a pair of jogging bottoms that seemed to cling to his legs. Harry's mouth went dry. What was wrong with him? Why was he noticing these things about Snape? Snape had pulled his hair back into a pony-tail, and it made his cheekbones seem sharper and more prominent.

"Ah, Potter. You're here. Excellent. I thought today we might try you with a bit of extra weight, see how you cope."

"Yes, sir," said Harry, his heart thudding as if they'd been training for hours already. After this session, he was going to have to have a talk with Hermione.

A very long talk.

TBC