Defending Heart

Chapter 12: Christmas Eve

Harry walks into the train carriage where Severus already sits, hands on his knees and sitting stiffly, staring out the window to avoid acknowledging him. Harry clears his throat, irked at the lack of engagement. He quickly meets Harry's eyes when he enters. "Um, hi," he greets quietly, keeping his face blank. Harry smiles back and sits opposite him.

"Hi there," he puts his own satchel on the seat beside him. "Sorry this is all so sudden - blame Dumbledore for that," he chuckles, as if expecting Severus to understand the joke.

"Um, excuse me Professor...?" Severus begins, still not entirely sure what to call Harry. "Why did you invite me?"

Harry's smile doesn't falter, he just hilts his head and seems to consider he question only distantly. Like it's been called from afar and not even directed at him. Then he suddenly snaps into it. "Well, spending Christmas at Hogwarts can be amazing - we both know that. The food and the professor's, it's a time of merriment of course. But I remember when I had to spend every Christmas at Hogwarts, if Ron - er, Ronald Weasley, you won't know him. If my best friend had asked me to spend Christmas with him and his family, I'd have said yes in a heartbeat. Even if t meant losing the grand experience of a Hogwarts Christmas,"

Severus nods slowly, it makes sense. But that's his best friend, Severus is his student and a confidant at best. "So you're doing this just to be kind?" he asks sceptically, eyeing Harry without bothering to hide his suspicion.

"Is that so bad?" Harry sighs, just earning a glare from Severus. "Okay, if you don't want to think of it as kindness, think of it was me settling a debt. You kept my secret, so I'm giving you a wholesome family Christmas for free, with food and presents and the whole works. Just try to enjoy yourself, okay?"

Severus scoffs. "I can't enjoy myself in the same house as James Potter, the whole school wasn't big enough to keep that prick at bay,"

Harry frowns, disappointed in this. He'd hoped Severus would try to understand James more, and the converse of course. He doesn't expect a Christmas miracle or anything, but does have the small hope they'll learn to exist in the same house without too much bloodshed. "Please don't talk about my son that way around me. You can think what you want, but you don't make an effort with him either. I'm still your teacher, please respect me,"

"Whatever," Severus crosses his arms and resumes staring out the window, confined to a long silence as the train tears through the countryside. About an hour later, the sweet woman with the trolley appears at their window.

""Anything off the trolley dears?" she smiles especially at Harry, remembering him from his school days. Such a pleasant boy he always was, if a little crude at times. Harry looks over at Severus and his crooked trunk with patched tears and drab black clothing too big for someone even his height, hand me downs from likely his father. He is warmly reminded of Ron. Grinning at the woman by the trolley, he pulls a handful of coins from his pocket, remembering what Severus tends to bring back from Hogsmead trips and scrounge from the Great Hall desert table.

"Yes please - a box of Peppermint toads and Honeydukes white chocolate honeycomb, please?" he asks sweetly, handing over the exact change in gold coins. Severus twitches just a little, an action Harry thinks is adorable when he's trying to resist temptation. Harry himself orders some chocolate frogs and keeps the cards for James, who still collects them. Oh, what do you know? It's a Boy Who Lived card, another weird celebration of an accomplishment that belongs more to his mother than him. He pockets that one, intending to burn it.

"Here," he tosses them onto the seat beside Severus. "They're for you - don't worry about paying me back,"

Severus stares at them honestly conflicted between accepting them out of temptation and rejecting them to keep his pride. He is a proud person and the thought of accepting charity from Harry Potter feels uncomfortable, kind of a forbidden betrayal to his long-held beliefs. Until Harry starts eating his own candy and Severus realises he isn't betraying anything because Harry isn't the arrogant dickhead he;s always pictured and his beliefs were wrong anyway. Eventually he compromises with himself to take the candy, but he sure as Voldemort isn't saying 'thank you'.