‘Argh. I can’t do it.’

The boy sounded angry and frustrated. It was his first of many days which he would be spending practising occlumency and he seemed to have gotten worse at the skill, if that was even possible.

‘Concentrate.’ Snape snapped back at him automatically.

‘I am concentrating.’ Harry replied wearily. ‘I can’t do this bloody occlumency ok.’

The boy looked pale and tired from his efforts, not that that cut any sway with his teacher.

‘Try harder.’ Snape ordered raising his wand again.

‘Look...’ Harry held his hand up signalling he didn’t want to carry on but it was too late. Once more his mind was invaded and Snape was seeing his innermost thoughts. He’d already seen some of the memories of the pitiful week Harry had spent at the Dursley’s before Sirius had came and taken him away. That had been awful enough. But now he was seeing the memories at the forefront of Harry’s mind- the past month he had spent with Sirius.

Snippets of memories flew past. Sirius roaring with laughter as harry nearly crashed into an appalled Lupin, whizzing through the narrow hallway of Grimmuld place on his broom. Harry sat watching intently as Sirius transformed into Padfoot, over and over. Harry and Sirius flying companionably side by side, laughing and joking.

Most of the memories Snape scoffed at in disgust before moving swiftly on but occasionally he stayed to watch how they played out.

He had now found the one memory of Harry arguing with Sirius and Harry packed all his efforts into occluding. This was private. He didn’t want Snape to see it. He strained his mind to no avail.

‘No!’ Harry was sat staring at Sirius incredulously.

‘Harry.’ His godfather said to him in an exasperated tone.

‘I said no! I won’t go there. I can’t believe you would even ask me that!’

Harry stood up as if to storm off and Sirius caught his arm to stop him. Harry angrily shook his arm struggling out of his grip.

‘Get off me.’ He said heatedly.

‘Harry,’

‘No. I’m not listening to anything you say. Of all the stupid, bloody plans. Is it because Dumbledore told you I should go there? You just have to do what he says don’t you, getting ordered about like pawns in his schemes. What the f*ck are you thinking Sirius?’

At this Sirius’ hot temper got the better of him and he grabbed Harry by the shoulders and shook him saying:

‘You’ll do what I tell you!’

He let go of his godson who staggered back a pace or two.

Trembling slightly from the unexpected shock, Harry was still determined not to back down.

‘I won’t. You can’t make me.’ He turned and fled from the room.

Running out of the house and through the long acre of grass to the far boundary, eventually Harry through himself against an oak tree and let his tears flow.

With a start Harry fell onto the floor as Snape exited his mind. He remained sitting there, feeling both exhausted from his efforts and embarrassed beyond measure from the scene.

‘I wasn’t ready.’ He protested.

‘Does it make a difference?’ Snape asked sardonically.

Harry closed his eyes briefly fighting to control his emotions. At least Snape hadn’t seen Sirius coming after him and comforting him.

‘I’m Sorry.’ His godfather had said as he had sat down beside him.

Harry had lifted his tear stricken face.

‘Why? How can you do this to me. You know what he’s like. Why would you make me stay with him?’

‘Two weeks Harry, that’s all till term starts again. You know what I need to do and you need to learn to occlude.’

 A pause.

‘Look Harry. I won’t make you. You know that I need to go abroad but the final decision rests with you. If you refuse I will have to stay here.’

Manipulative-bloody-Sirius.

Looking back on it Harry realised that his godfather had hit upon the one tactic which had any chance of persuading him, making him feel guilty.

Harry had let him go and been taken to stay with Snape for the remainder of his holiday, which was what Dumbledore had angled after all summer. Bloody stupid adults, Harry thought ruefully. Sirius and Dumbledore. Didn’t they realise that forcing him and Snape to be around eachother 24/7 was going to end with one of them killing the other? And considering that Snape was bigger and stronger, not to mention an immensely powerful wizard with tried and tested experience of the darkest magic Harry could guess who would come off the worse.

He gritted his teeth. ‘Are we done here?’ He asked pointedly still sat on the floor.

Snape surveyed him coldly, probably wondering how far he could push him before he broke, Harry thought.

‘Go.’ The man ordered and Harry didn’t need any further encouragement, scrambling to his feet and heading back to the bedroom which had been provided for him.

Severus watched as the boy made his rapid exit from the room and tucking his wand away in his sleeve sighed greatly.

He was even worse than he had remembered and that was saying something. The child had to be the most infuriating, inept brat ever. He didn’t listen. He didn’t even begin to try to concentrate. Potter took his failures as a personal affront as if he, Severus, had nothing better to do with his time than babysit an ignorant nuisance and witness his inane memories.

Severus heard Potter slam his bedroom door shut behind him and silently accio’ed some headache potion. It had amused him slightly to see that even Potter’s precious godfather lost his temper with the golden boy sometimes. Well wonders would never cease.

He ought to go and reprimand the brat for slamming the door- but why punish himself with being in Potter’s presence any longer than was necessary? It was going to be a long fortnight. Well, they had survived the first day but with 13 more days to go before their return to Hogwarts he didn’t rate their chances.

The new arrangement hadn’t started well. In fact it had nearly been stopped before it even started when that mutt – Sirius Black- had wound Severus up to the point of nearly chucking them both out of his home.

Black had brought the boy to Severus home by floo and remained talking with Severus in his study while Harry unpacked his belongings in his room.

They hadn’t talked for long. The mutt had had the audacity – Severus could feel himself growing heated now just thinking about it- to threaten him.

‘I’m just warning you Snape,’ Black had said calmly, ‘that you had better treat Harry properly. He’s had a hell of a time already this summer and if you lay so much as a finger on him, or make him unhappy in any way I will get you back 10 times over.’

‘You...You dare to come into my home and threaten me?!’ He’d said incredulously.

‘I mean it, Snivellius. I’ll make those hexes James and I used to throw at you in the sixth year seem like love pats.’

Severus had been so angry by this he had been practically shaking with rage as he’d drawn his wand and pointed at his old adversary.

‘Get out.’ He’d snarled. ‘Now!’

Black glanced at his wand carelessly and strode away from him towards the door to the hallway.

‘I’m going... once I have said goodbye to Harry. Ah Harry...’ He embraced the boy who had been on his way back downstairs. ‘I’m off.’ He pulled the boy into a tight hug, ‘Remember what we talked about.’

‘Be careful.’ Harry said in a low voice.

Black grinned at him reassuringly and headed towards the floo, turned back at the last moment to look at Snape meaningfully. ‘Ten times, remember.’ Then he was gone.

Harry had glanced at Snape who pointedly ignored him, looking positively irate as he stood stock still by his desk. After a couple moments Harry had crept away to his room and hadn’t seen Snape again until he’d been ordered down for his occlumency lesson.