Harry Potter gets smart and takes control - The Goblet

Chapter 87 Snape & Harry pt 3 of 3

"I am not being nice. I don't do nice. I am, however trying to treat you right, to keep you safe and to give you the tools to keep yourself safe. Because it is my job, both as your teacher and as someone who sees- saw" he corrected around clenched teeth, "Lily as their family. Because it's about bloody time someone did. You've been let down too much. I promised your mother I would do everything I could to keep you safe."

"I know," interjected Harry dully.

"And I have let her and you down." He said his voice sounding pained, and Harry got the sense that the man was highly mortified.

"Not really, you've saved my neck several times," Harry said hollowly suddenly very, very tired.

And suddenly his Professor was on his knees in front of Harry taking his hands in his own, looking up at him with shining black eyes that screamed urgency and sincerity.

"Yes, but you should not have to flinch in fear around your teachers, or around your mother's closest friend." The man said bitterly.

"I made a vow to your mother when we learnt she was pregnant with you, to look after you and protect you." Professor Snape said still holding Harry's hands gently, but firmly in his own, "I meant every word of that vow."

"I do not want to hurt you," Snape continued, "I will do everything I can to protect you. I will not let you down again. I am on your side."

It was too much for Harry. It was all too much. He couldn't understand this sudden change of heart, couldn't trust it, be couldn't afford to. It felt like an aching chasm had opened in his chest, and if he wasn't careful harry would drown in it.

Harry yanked his hands-free, and something unreadable flashed across Professor Snape's face, and for a wild moment, Harry thought it felt like pain and regret. Harry hunched his shoulders, and looked at the floor, not wanting to see what he was sensing from the Professor on his face.

"Why are you helping me now if you hate me? You've never gone out of your way like this to help me before. Sure you did your duty and made sure I wasn't killed, why care now. What changed? Why do you care now?!" Harry pressed, trying desperately to hold all the pieces of himself together.

"You are basically the son of my heart's sister, of course, I care!" Snape said, standing in his agitation.

Harry snorted, standing as well. This was rich, now he claimed to care when he never did before?

"You never did before, you hated my guts because I'm his spawn. Being her son didn't matter before!" He spat.

"Not everything is so simple, child!" Snape retorted. "And I cannot tell you any of it until you can protect those secrets or lives will be in danger. There was more at play before! Which is something I am sure you understand."

"I was forcibly blinded to it before, but not any more." Snape went on, "I was foolish and blind and wasn't able to see things anything different, and I'm sorry! I should have seen it but couldn't. I should have done better but couldn't. Now I can, and I do. And I am appalled and will amend it. You are Lily's child, not just Potters spawn," Snape affirmed, his magic rising under his skin again, bubbling and boiling, flaring and leaking out into the room like fog rolling in off the lake.

"I may have been lied to and blinded by more than just my own bitterness. But you are a student in my care, and my sister's son!" he said hotly, "that is everything. You are my sister's son!"

Harry laughed harshly. A sudden bark of a sound. The emotions he'd been working to surprise suddenly bubbled up like hot puss. Now, after 14 years, someone finally decided to care.