As Potter is to Snape

Chapter 35

The next few weeks passed quietly for both Harry and Snape. Ravenclaw had beaten Hufflepuff at their match at the end of November, meaning that Gryffindor was still in the running after all. This news especially brought Harry's mood up.

Ron and Hermione had both been just as shocked as he had been to find out about Sirius Black. Still, of course, Hermione had sided with the adults in thinking that they would have told him eventually and had been more than a little concerned with the fact that Harry still seemed intent on actually hoping to find Black. He had finally stopped talking about him around her just to keep her from threatening to tell Snape.

Harry wasn't mental enough that he intended to go looking for Black. He knew that he wasn't prepared to go up against a fully trained wizard. It was more that, for him, imagining that he could go after him made him feel slightly better about it all. But Hermione didn't want to hear any talk of that sort at all, and so by the time that the Christmas holidays were nearly upon them, Sirius Black was no longer mentioned. He and Ron stopped bringing him up.

Two weeks before the end of term came the first snowfall, and suddenly, Christmas was in the air. Professor Flitwick had already started his decorations, and students were all happily talking about their plans for the holidays. Harry hadn't given them much thought since he and Snape had left the manor. Snape had told him they could spend Christmas there, but he hadn't said anything about it since, and now Harry wasn't sure if they would or not. Hermione and Ron had both said that if Harry stayed at Hogwarts, they would remain with him. Ron insisted that he couldn't stand the idea of staying in the same house as Percy for two weeks, and Hermione thought she would have a chance to get the library all to herself for once.

She had long since finished the book that Snape had loaned her and had borrowed another one right after. However, Harry didn't have the faintest idea of what she was reading or why. He found it hard enough to read the required chapters in his textbooks, much less extra reading just for the fun of it.

Everyone was excited to find out that another Hogsmeade trip would be happening on the last weekend before the term was to end. Everyone except for Harry anyway. He had already resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be going, and he wasn't going to ask Snape to let him go. It wouldn't do him any good, and he didn't want to fight with Snape. It just wasn't worth it.

***

The morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione and then started up the staircase to Gryffindor Tower. He was in the third-floor corridor when he heard someone whisper his name, and he immediately turned around in a circle to see who had spoken, just in time to feel a hand wrap around his arm and pull him behind a statue of the hump-backed, one-eyed witch.

"What's going on?!" Harry asked in surprise at seeing the Weasley twins.

"We wanted to give you an early Christmas present," said George with a grin. Fred pulled something from the inside of his cloak and handed it over to Harry with a mock bow, as if he were presenting something rare and extraordinary.

Harry just looked down at it with a frown. "You're giving me a blank piece of parchment? What do I need this for?"

"A blank piece of parchment?!" Fred said with a grimace. "Harry, we're offended!"

"That there," George said, pointing at the parchment, "is the secret to our success. And believe me, it's an absolute wrench giving it to you."

"But we don't need it anymore. We figure you could still get a lot of use out of it, though."

Harry looked between the two in confusion. "But it's a piece of parchment."

"Oh, it's much more than that!" Fred replied. "We nicked it from Filch in our first year-"