Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Severus sought to hide his and Harriet's awkward interaction at breakfast under a cumbersome pile of work.
Harriet had arrived on Thursday and the first classes of the new academic year started on Monday.
The prefects had already come to the castle but the rest of the students wouldn't arrive for two more days, which meant that Severus and Harriet had a bit of time alone.
That seemed to annoy Severus to an intolerable degree.
Throughout the day Friday, from immediately after breakfast until nearly midnight, Harriet found herself buried under vast amounts of various menial tasks that her new boss levied on her.
Harriet cleaned the chalkboard, she stocked supplies, she made copies of assignments, she sorted Severus's books........as soon as she finished one assignment, he had no issue finding another to replace it.
Severus had to admit, he was impressed by the fact that no matter what he asked of Harriet or how exhausting the duty was that she performed, she never complained.
"If only your work ethic had been this impeccable during your school years, you would have been a model student, Potter." Severus quipped later that evening as Harriet handed over the massive stack of letters that she had spent the better part of the previous two hours reviewing for him.
"I suppose you're right, sir." Harriet politely agreed.
Severus slowly placed the stack of parchment on the left side of his desk.
He was well aware that Harriet was standing in front of him, obediently waiting for him to dismiss her for the night.
Instead of letting her go, Severus chose to delay her departure from his side as he inquired, "May I ask what's changed?"
Harriet chuckled and shrugged her shoulders, "I dunno......the war? Perhaps maturity that comes with age? With all due respect, sir, I think everyone is rather different after the Battle.....you know, the-"
"-Yes, I know it very well." Severus interrupted her with a curt nod.
He wanted to keep Harriet lingering in his office longer, but he failed to find an adequate, believable reason that wouldn't appear obviously contrived.
"Will that be all then, sir?" Harriet asked respectfully.
"No, that will most certainly not be all, Potter! You have an entire year's worth of work ahead of you! Don't....think.....that I will drop my guard because you've provided me with a few hours of decent service." Severus snipped.
"Of course, sir." Harriet blinked, "Sorry....what I meant to ask was, will that be all for tonight?"
Severus stared at Harriet with an unreadable expression. The alpha's dark eyes bored into hers as if he were both trying to communicate something and also trying to pry something from inside the confines of her mind.
Harriet shifted on her feet after a lengthy pause passed between them.
".........Yes." Severus replied finally, "That will be all for tonight, Potter."
Without saying another word, Harriet nodded, turned, and left the room.
Severus's gaze followed her until the door closed behind her.
Once Harriet had left, Severus stared after her for some time.
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Saturday was more of the same.
Severus and Harriet ate their breakfast together and then they both began their work, diligently handling all of the many tasks that stood in their way of preparing for an entire year of academic instruction.
By that afternoon, Severus had assigned Harriet to help him brew the many different potions that he liked to use as examples during the first days of class.
By preparing the mixtures ahead of time, he could easily preserve them for a week or more.
Severus knew between all of the staff meetings scheduled on Sunday that he had to both lead as Headmaster and now attend as the potions professor, he wouldn't have the opportunity to do any brewing then and he didn't trust Harriet to get everything exactly right.
As they both stood together in the otherwise empty dungeons classroom, Severus watched Harriet work closely. She had kept glancing over at him during the past hour, fascinated by how skillfully he could command the cauldron beneath him.
Had his hands always looked so elegant while he added the leaves and other ingredients?
Harriet had been dismayed by how quickly Severus had finished preparing the potions he was responsible for while she struggled to finish her final one.
"Don't you have other tasks to tend to, Headmaster?" Harriet asked without looking up at Severus as she nervously stirred the cauldron in front of her.
Amortentia.
Harriet wondered if Severus had assigned her such a difficult concoction on purpose.
"I can spare the time to ensure my assistant's work is correct." Severus replied dryly, "An erroneously brewed potion won't make much of an impression on the first years."
"Have I made a mistake, sir?" Harriet asked as she glanced up at Severus.
Between them, the cauldron fizzed but it was left forgotten for a moment as Harriet and Severus locked eyes.
"No, Potter." Severus replied as he held her stare in his, "You've made no mistake."
Harriet watched as Severus walked around the long wooden table and her heart fluttered when she realized that he stood behind her.
"However......." Severus purred in his low voice.
Harriet gasped as he leaned forward and placed his strong hands over hers on the ladle, "Amortentia needs to be stirred with more.......feeling."
Severus remained torturously respectful.
Although he was behind Harriet with his hand on hers and his breath at her ear, she was aware that he wasn't pressing against her at all. In fact, he took great care to make sure that their bodies didn't touch in any way.
That didn't stop him from inhaling a deep breath of the lovely omega's delicious scent while she was so very nearby~.
"You have to put your heart into it, Potter." Severus purred in Harriet's ear as she tightened her grip on the ladle and he tightened his grip on her hands.
In silence, with the amortentia's sweet fumes encapsulating them both, Harriet and Severus worked together in a moment of unspoken but acknowledged tension while they stirred the cauldron full of love potion together.
Harriet swallowed dryly and she thought back to her dream.........she imagined Severus placing his hands on her and turning her around to......
Severus thought about his dream too....he envisioned Harriet giving him that same look..... her spreading herself to allow him to......
In front of them, the cauldron startled to bubble as silvery spirals and a pearly sheen erupted across the surface of its contents, as their stirring efforts came to fruition.
Harriet gasped again, then in bitter disappointment, as Severus let go of her hand and stepped away.
"Amorentia is very potent." Severus informed Harriet as he stood staring at her with his black cloak billowing around his legs.
"I remember that, sir, you taught us well." Harriet replied with a nod as she looked back at him.
"Yes, but omegas are extremely susceptible to it, so do be careful. Students can be monstrously mischievous. I can't have my assistant falling victim to any pranks." Severus replied.
Severus withheld a smug smirk as Harriet's green eyes widened and her mouth fell open in shock.
"How.....H-How do you know I'm an omega?" Harriet asked in disbelief.
She had been told the pills that suppressed her heats would hide her scent, and for the most part, that was true.
.........For the most part~.
Severus gave Harriet an incredulous, calculating scowl as he growled, "How could I not?"
Harriet was still standing beside the cauldron, dumbstruck, as Severus swept out of the room.
Behind Harriet, the amortentia bubbled and she put a hand up to her face.
She wasn't upset that Severus knew what she truly was, no, Harriet was too busy lamenting the fact that he was no longer behind her, guiding her and whispering in her ear~.
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Sunday for Severus, was filled with those dreadful staff meetings.
Harriet didn't see Severus at all that day. Instead, he had owled her with the day's instructions and to complete them, she spent her Sunday alone in the dungeons classroom.
Harriet had a parchment in her hands that was filled with details about exactly how Severus wanted to find the potions room the following morning, ready and prepared for him to lead classes once again. As Harriet attempted to follow Severus's written wishes, she went about her task with her eyes narrowed in concentration.
Harriet wanted very much for Severus to continue to be pleased with her work. During her school days, she had never tried very hard at attempting to impress her potions professor, but she discovered that she actually enjoyed earning his approval more than his scorn.
Harriet scowled down at a box of ingredients as she sorted them carefully.
If she was going to keep Severus pleased with her, that meant everything had to be-
"Ms. Potter?" A voice rang out abruptly.
It was so cordial and sweet that Harriet knew it wasn't Severus's before she turned around.
When she did, she saw Elion Dacre standing in the open doorway.
"Sorry." Elion said with a nervous laugh, "The....the door is open, so I thought it may be daft to knock."
Elion made sure to show his perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth as he took a step into the room, allowing what little light filtered in through the windows to glint off of his black hair.
"Oh, that's alright." Harriet replied with a gentle smile, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Harriet had met Elion upon her arrival at the castle three days ago and she hadn't given the Slytherin prefect any more thought, but he certainly had given her quite an amount of consideration.
"I've come to deliver a message from the Headmaster." Elion said as he pulled out a piece of parchment from the inside of his robes, "I haven't read it, he only told me it goes with what you have and.....that you would know what that meant?"
Harriet reached out and took the scrap of parchment from the prefect. Her eyes narrowed again as she carefully read it over.
While she did, Elion was busy reading over Harriet.
His dark eyes scanned across her fair face, wandering down to her lithe figure for a moment before he met her gaze innocently when she looked up.
"He's sent me the second page of how he wants the room." Harriet said with a dry chuckle as she gestured to the potions classroom around herself.
"Ah!" Elion nodded, "He can be quite particular."
"Quite." Harriet nodded, "I suppose that's why he's headmaster, though."
Harriet spoke on the surface, she wasn't sure how much Elion knew, although he had to have been attending Hogwarts during the war given his current status as a prefect.
"That and he's old." Elion laughed.
Harriet threw Elion a frown and retorted, "He isn't that old."
"He's much older than you and I." Elion shrugged.
"But I'm older than you are." Harriet replied with a grin.
"Not by much." Elion answered. The unsettling warmth that flowed in his dark eyes made Harriet look away under his gaze and clear her throat.
"Thank you.....for bringing this here. I'm surprised he didn't just come and give this to me himself." Harriet replied after a long, awkward pause.
"The headmaster's very busy. He often sends me to run errands. Now that he's going to serve as the potions professor as well, his schedule will be even fuller." Elion mused. He smiled wolfishly at Harriet as he added, "I'm certain that we'll be seeing each other frequently, Ms. Potter."
"Perhaps......" Harriet replied, instead of staring back at Elion the way he was staring at her, Harriet turned back to her work, "Sorry, but I really need to get this done."
"Of course." Elion nodded before he turned on his heel and left the room.
As Elion walked down the stone corridor, he grinned to himself.
During a break between his meetings, Severus had been on his way to give the second page of his instructions to Harriet. Elion had wrenched himself into the situation by imploring the headmaster to allow him to take the message to Harriet personally.
Elion had claimed that he was headed towards the bowels of the castle anyway, which was a lie.
Severus trusted few people, but he felt comfortable with Elion. Severus saw him as a fellow Slytherin, a promising student, and a dependable source of aid.
Severus had no idea that he should have been viewing Elion as a rival alpha instead.
Errands and chance meetings, those were only clever ruses.
Harriet had no idea yet about the bits of her that Elion Dacre was really interested in seeing........
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That night, after all of the students had made the journey to Hogwarts and everyone had gathered in the Great Hall for the Sorting Hat ceremony and the first meal of the new school year, Severus readied himself to make the opening announcements.
Behind Severus, at the professor's table, the other faculty members all sat in silence. At his right side, Harriet sat obediently. Since she had missed her final year of school, she had never before had the pleasure of listening to Headmaster Snape address Hogwarts in its entirety and she looked forward to hearing what he would say.
Severus Snape never failed to captivate and intimidate others, especially students.
As he stood from his seat and approached the podium, he didn't even have to hold up his hands or ask for the chatter to cease. A hush fell over everyone in the room as his black eyes peered out across each house's table.
"Another year is upon us." Severus spoke in his fluid, sonorous, purr of a voice, "Many of you know me, a few of you do not...... I am Headmaster Snape. On behalf of myself and all our talented educators, I welcome those of you who are new and those of you who are returning, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Many of the students in the crowd were looking at Harriet while Severus spoke.
Hogwarts students were well-acquainted with Harriet Potter, if not personally, or through a friend or sibling, then by the stories they had heard.
Those in years one through three had only listened to tales about the war veteran, and they gazed at her with curious wonder, but she was receiving mixed reactions from students in years four through seven.
Some, who had lost family in the war or had been supportive of Voldemort, looked at Harriet with blame and rage.
Others, who thought of her as a hero, looked at her with bright smiles of awed, happy pride.
Harriet tried to keep her eyes and attention on Severus.
She hadn't come to Hogwarts to make new friends or new enemies. She was only trying to fulfill her requirements for the auror program.
"I'm sure all of you have noticed that Professor Slughorn is not with us tonight." Severus stated dryly, "He is currently on a medical leave of absence and is slated to rejoin us soon. In the meantime, I will assume the role of potions professor in his place."
Whispers rang out through the crowds of students but they died off as Severus spoke again, "We do have.......one newcomer......joining our staff......this year."
At the podium, Severus turned around to look at Harriet before he added, "Harriet Potter........our very own celebrity....." Severus continued, ".....has returned to Hogwarts from the auror program at the Ministry of Magic. She will serve as my assistant and I expect her to be treated with the same respect as any other member of our staff. Is that understood?"
Every student in the Great Hall nodded at their stern headmaster to signal their comprehension until Severus cleared his throat, "Then let the Sorting Hat ceremony begin."
He stepped away from the podium and walked back over to the professor's table to take his seat while the Sorting Hat was brought out and the first years lined up.
Dinner was served quietly. Harriet and Severus ate, side by side, along with the others at the professors' table, in quiet contentment as they watched each of Hogwarts's new students learn which house they would be loyal to.
Severus kept stealing glances over at Harriet throughout the evening.
Was she amused?
Did she like the food?
Whenever he caught her eating, laughing, or smiling, he kept the same firm scowl on his face, although inside, he relaxed a bit.
Seeing the omega happy was soothing to Severus, but he wasn't going to let anyone else know that, not even himself.
Severus chalked it up to manners.
Of course he would want his employee to have what she needed. Miserable workers produced miserable work.
Towards the end of the meal, over at the Slytherin table, Severus happened to catch the lustful look in Elion's eyes as he threw a hungry smirk over at Harriet.
As Severus saw Elion look at Harriet like that, all he felt was shock and rage.
Whatever thin line of trust Severus had dared to place in the boy instantly dissolved.
Severus's black eyes narrowed to irritated slits as he scowled furiously at the Slytherin prefect and suspicion flooded his brain.
Severus was no fool.
The stoic alpha knew then and there that moving forward, he would not accept anymore of Elion's kind offers to carry messages to Harriet.