Love Thy Neighbour by Alexannah
Past Featured StorySummary: The Dursley family move house, and Harry is horrified to find that they are now living opposite his most hated Potions Master. Between Snape and the Dursleys, will Harry make it to the Burrow in one piece?
Categories: Healer Snape, Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape, Fic Fests > #18 Summer 2015, Teacher Snape > Professor Snape, Parental Snape > Guardian Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore, Original Character, Petunia, Vernon
Snape Flavour: Snape is Kind, Snape is Mean, Snape is Secretive, Snape is Stern
Genres: Angst, Drama, Family, General
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe, Snape-meets-Dursleys, Spying on Harry! Snape
Takes Place: 4th summer
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Physical Punishment Spanking, Neglect
Prompts: Neighbors, Grounded!
Challenges: Neighbors, Grounded!
Series: None
Chapters: 23 Completed: Yes Word count: 39258 Read: 274412 Published: 07 Aug 2015 Updated: 01 Sep 2015
Smurfs and Surprises by Alexannah
Author's Notes:
We’re coming near the end of the story now. I’m not sure exactly how many chapters it will be, I estimate about three or four. I’m hoping to get them all posted before the Fic Fest closes, but we’ll see.

Crammed into the room, under a huge banner that read Happy Birthday Harry! and surrounded by tonnes of balloons and streamers, was the entire Weasley family, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and even a big black dog who looked very familiar and barked joyfully when he saw him.

 

Harry staggered backwards, completely lost for words. His friends made up for it.

“Harry!” Within seconds he was enveloped in hugs. “Happy birthday!”

“Huh?” he said in a faint voice, completely bewildered.

“We said happy birthday!”

“We did get the right day, didn’t we?”

Harry shook himself. “Yeah, you did—I’m just so surprised to see you all!”

“Well, yeah, that’s the point of a surprise party,” Ron said with a grin. “So what—”

The room suddenly stilled and confused faces peered behind Harry. He turned to see Snape had followed him into the room

“Don’t mind me,” Snape said with a small smile playing on his lips. “Carry on.” He calmly walked over to where the adults were standing, and engaged Dumbledore in conversation.

“What on earth …?” Fred said, staring at Snape.

Harry ignored the half-spoken question. “How did you guys all get here?”

“Dumbledore sent us all Portkeys,” Hermione replied.

“What’s a Port—wait, Dumbledore threw me a birthday party?” Harry said, stunned.

“Er, no. He just arranged the transport,” Ron replied. “Mum said one of your neighbours was throwing it …” He looked around the room, confused. “Where are they?”

“And why’s Snape here?” Neville asked in a slightly nervous voice.

“Snape is my neighbour,” Harry said as soon as he could trust himself to speak. “This is his house.”

They all stared at him. Dean was the first to speak. “You mean Snape threw the party?”

Harry nodded, unable to take his eye off Snape. He could barely believe it himself. That was why Snape had been so distractible and secretive lately? He had been organising Harry a birthday party? Harry had to fight a sudden urge to run over and hug him right there in front of everyone.

“Why on earth would he—”

“I have no idea,” Harry said, turning back to them, grinning his head off and hoping his eyes weren’t too bright. “So … anyone for a game?”

The mystery of Snape was quickly forgotten as party games were organised. Percy, who said he preferred to watch than join in, played the referee and took score while the other kids jumped right in.

“Things that are blue,” Seamus said after a moment’s thought.

Harry thought for a moment as around him, his friends started scribbling answers. He tried not to smirk as an answer came into his head. Snape would be proud of him. He wrote it down, and all the answers were collected and mixed up.

“Okay …” Seamus picked one at random and read it out. “We have ‘the sky’, ‘my favourite t-shirt’, ‘blueberries’, ‘a blue moon’, ‘swimming pools’, ‘peacocks’, ‘Smurfs’—what on earth are Smurfs?— ‘sapphires’, ‘Ravenclaw’, and … ‘Ron’s eyes’.”

There were a few sniggers.

“Fred, you get first guess.”

“I’m George!”

“George, you get first guess.”

“Hmm …” George made a great show of thinking hard. “Well, it’s a complete stab in the dark, but I’m going to guess that Hermione answered ‘Ron’s eyes’.”

“She spends enough time gazing into them,” Fred said with a snigger.

Hermione and Ron both blushed heavily. Harry struggled not to smirk.

“Well, you’re wrong,” Hermione said, trying to sound dignified. “That wasn’t my answer.”

“Hah!” Ron said, then looked around at her in surprise. “It wasn’t?” He sounded slightly hurt.

“Sorry, George,” Seamus said. “No point for you. Harry, your go.”

Harry thought very carefully. In the whole group, apart from him, only Hermione and Dean were likely to know what the Smurfs were. Hermione wasn’t really the cartoony type, but he wouldn’t put it past her to have chosen them specifically for that reason.

“I’m guessing Hermione wrote Smurfs.”

She shook her head again, to his disappointment. “Nope.”

“What are Smurfs?” Ron asked curiously.

“Never mind, next guess. Ron?”

Ron frowned slightly, looking at George. “I bet George wrote blueberries.”

“Wrong!” George said with a grin.

Hermione looked smug as her turn rolled around. “I bet Fred wrote blueberries.”

Fred gasped, clutching his heart, and keeled over dramatically. “She got me!”

“You hate blueberries,” George said in amusement to his twin.

“Exactly, bro. And you love them. Trust Hermione to guess my tactics.”

“One point to Hermione, then,” Seamus announced, and Percy made a show of noting it down. Fred scooted out of the circle and watched, still grinning.

By the time everyone had made a guess, only he, Neville (the sky) and Ron (favourite t-shirt) had been sent out, with points to Dean and Bill respectively. “You should have picked something that implies someone else’s tastes,” Fred told them.

“George, your turn again.”

He crackled his knuckles. “I think Ginny wrote peacocks.”

Ginny sighed. “Thanks a lot, George.”

“You’re welcome. One point to me!”

“Birthday boy?”

Harry grinned. “I bet Dean wrote Smurfs.”

“Sorry, Harry, wrong again,” Dean said with a smirk.

“Seriously?” Now Harry was completely thrown. Everyone else in the circle was a pureblood.

“I think Hermione wrote blue moon,” Dean said smugly.

Hermione’s face fell. “Oh. He’s right.”

“That’s two points to me!”

“Well, I think you wrote swimming pools,” Bill said, speaking up for the first time.

Dean deflated. “Rats.”

“George,” Charlie said, “I think you wrote Smurfs.”

George gave a great theatrical sigh. “I confess. It’s a fair cop.”

“What is a Smurf??” Ron demanded from outside the circle.

It was Harry’s turn again. He faced Bill and Charlie, thinking hard. What was left? ‘Ravenclaw’ and ‘sapphires’.

Bill worked for Gringotts, so sapphires would be the obvious choice. The question was, was Charlie using Harry’s tactics? He had only one shot at this—if he got it wrong, Bill would win.

Then there was the fact that Bill had a point already. Either way, he was going to lose, but at least he would lose by less if he managed to get Bill out …

Unless …

It was a risky manoeuvre. And even more Slytherin than before. But it hadn’t been agreed on as against the rules, and if it worked …

“Bill,” Harry said calmly, fighting to keep his face straight, “I think you wrote ‘Ron’s eyes’.”

“Wrong,” Bill said immediately. Harry pretended to be disappointed. “Charlie, I think you wrote ‘Ron’s eyes’.”

Charlie blinked. “No I didn’t.”

“What? But that’s the only one left!”

There was a stunned silence.

“Charlie,” Harry said, “aren’t you going to guess?”

“Er …” Charlie hesitated. “I think …” He looked back and forth between Bill and Harry, and said uncertainly, “Bill, you wrote … R-Ravenclaw?”

Harry hid his grin as Bill sighed in disappointment. “Yes, I did.”

“And you, Charlie, wrote sapphires,” Harry said before Charlie could realise his mistake. “Thanks. I do believe I’ve won.”

“Hang on,” Ron spoke up. “I’m completely confused. Who wrote my eyes?”

“Oh, that was me,” Harry admitted.

“But you said you thought Bill wrote it,” Percy said, frowning.

“Well, if I’d guessed right, whoever was left would have known what to ask me, and I’d have lost. There was nothing in the rules about guessing our own answers.”

There was a pause. “I suppose there wasn’t,” Percy said slowly.

“Can we make the rule that you can’t say someone else has done your own,” Hermione said. “It’s too confusing otherwise.”

“All right, all right. Anyway, that’s three points to me—”

“And your turn as It,” Seamus said, sitting down.

“Okay.” Harry stood up and thought for a minute. “Things that you shouldn’t do in a Potions lab.”

Over by the bookshelves, Snape let out a strange noise that might have been a failed attempt to cover a laugh. Everyone else giggled in response.

Harry collected in the answers a minute later. “‘Handstands’, good one. ‘Take a bath’, nice. ‘Play Gobstones’, ‘Ignore Professor Snape’—Hey, Professor Snape,” Harry called across the room. “Did you write this by any chance?”

“If I had,” Snape replied calmly, his mouth twitching, “I would have included a description of the detention which the crime would earn you.”

“Oh, good point. I guess we can rule you out then,” Harry said with a grin. “Anyway …”

The other answers given were ‘Wear a wig’, ‘Randomly shout Engorgio’, ‘Swing a Kneazle’, ‘Dig a tunnel to Australia’, ‘Tickle everyone you see’ and ‘Turn into a penguin’. Everyone was practically wetting themselves during the round. When Fred (penguin) won, he chose, “Things you don’t want to find in your bed.”

Mr Weasley cleared his throat.

“Kiddie-friendly answers,” Fred added reluctantly.

Harry immediately thought of ‘spiders’ to point at Ron this time, but figured everyone else would probably be doing that one. Instead he chose ‘a Bludger’.

The other answers were ‘Superglue’, ‘nest of Knarls’, ‘Manticore’, ‘eviction notice’, ‘Freezing Charm’, ‘pond’, ‘invisible spikes’, ‘boiling oil’, ‘anything with pincers’, and Dean’s winning answer ‘volcano’.

After a Butterbeer break, Seamus suggested Musical Chairs. Snape brought the kitchen chairs into the living room and multiplied them by magic. Dumbledore then added more, insisting with a twinkle in his eye that all the other adults join in. Snape looked rather reluctant, but didn’t protest, much to everyone’s surprise. Since Hagrid was worried he would accidentally crush somebody and/or the chairs if he played though, he took charge of the music.

“And no magic to cheat,” Ron said, looking at the group of adults.

Dumbledore smiled. “Would we?”

The End.


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