Track 13

"Spicy Marmalade, hum dee dum dum la dee day..." Albus Dumbledore sang to himself as he sat alone in his office, toying with some little trinket or another. It was a slow day and he was getting bored, something that generally resulted in quite a bit of trouble for those around him. Luckily, just as a plan was beginning to form in that brilliant brain of his, a knock came at the door. "Come in, Harry," he called, and lo and behold there stood Harry Potter on the other side of the door.

"Hello, Professor," the young man said, stepping into the office and closing the door behind him. "Do you have a minute?"

"I have quite a few minutes, my dear boy. Please, have a seat," he replied, gesturing to the overstuffed chair on the other side of his desk. He waited a moment while Harry got comfortable. "Lemon drop?" he offered.

"No, thank you, sir," Harry replied politely. "I..."

"Fizzing whizbee?"

Harry blinked then shook his head. "No thanks, sir. I..."

"How about a nice chocolate frog?"

"Sir, I really..."

"Cauldron cake?"

"No, really, sir, that�s..."

"Ah! I know! What about a nice hot fudge brownie sundae?"

"No, thank you, Headmaster," Harry replied firmly. "I just came here to..."

"Spot of tea, then?" the persistent old coot interrupted, and Harry had to fight desperately not to scream. If that�s what it would take... "Why, thank you, Professor. That would be lovely."

"Wonderful!" Dumbledore positively beamed at him before setting himself to the task of preparing two cups of tea. Harry sighed in resignation as the headmaster handed him his cup. "Now, my dear boy, you were saying?"

"Right," Harry said, regaining his composure. "I have a bit of a problem, sir, and I was wondering if you could help me with it..."

"Professor Snape, you say?" Dumbledore said thoughtfully as Harry took a sip of his tea. "Yes, he does have a nice arse, doesn�t he?" Harry choked and spat out his tea. Dumbledore Dumbledore shot him a concerned look as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"Sorry, sir," Harry apologized quietly, more than a little disturbed. "I just wasn�t expecting that..."

"Quite all right, my boy," Dumbledore assured him, and Harry smiled weakly. "Now, as to this problem of yours..."

"Yes?" Harry asked, instantly perking up.

"...I�m afraid it�s something you�ll just have to solve on your own," Dumbledore finished. Harry visibly deflated.

"But, sir..."

"Now, now, Harry," Dumbledore stopped him, "I know that Professor Snape can be a bit...difficult...at times, but nothing is really worth having if you don�t have to work for it, isn�t that right?" Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Dumbledore continued. "Besides, wooing someone needs to come from the heart. It will mean more if you do this on your own."

Harry�s mouth opened and shut so that he very much resembled a landed fish. Finally, he gained enough control over his motor functions to respond. "I see what you mean, sir," he replied, even though he really didn�t see at all. "Ah...thank you."

"You�re quite welcome," Dumbledore said. "Let�s chat again sometime, Harry," he added as his student stood to leave.

"Ah, yes, of course, sir," Harry agreed before hastily making his escape. That hadn�t helped at all! And Dumbledore had been his last hope, too...now what was he supposed to do?

After his disastrous discussion with the headmaster, Harry decided he needed time to think. That�s how he found himself thirty minutes later sitting on his broom high above the Quidditch pitch. He sighed deeply. Dumbledore had said that whatever it was that he decided to do, it had to come from the heart. But what the hell could he do for Snape that came from the heart and that the man wouldn�t outright reject? Dumbledore knew how difficult Snape could be! Why couldn�t he have just given him a little hint?

"Potter! Oi, Potter!" he heard a voice call him, shaking him out of his reverie. Slowly, he blinked and looked from left to right. No one there... "Idiot, I�m right here!" Harry blinked again then spun his broom around to look behind him. Nothing. Maybe he was going mad... "Below you, you moron! Look below you!" Blinking one more time, Harry looked down. There, standing on the soft grass of the pitch, was Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy?" he called down. "That you?"

"No, it�s Ginny Weasley. Of course it�s me, you ignorant bastard! Now get your arse down here!" Malfoy shouted back up at him. "We�ve got another music rehearsal!"

Harry groaned and suddenly felt very weak. He gripped his broom tightly as he descended to the ground. Once he�d landed safely, he looked at Malfoy. "Hey, I thought you said you were Ginny!"

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Try not to be a total retard for a moment, will you, Potter? We have to be in the were...in Lupin�s classroom in ten minutes, and I don�t have time to put up with your stupidity." Draco looked at his watch and cursed. "Make that five minutes."

"Five minutes? How are we going to make it there in only five minutes?" Harry asked helpfully, earning him a glare.

"Well, Potter, I guess we�ll just have to run, won�t we?" Draco replied, then turned and began sprinting back toward the castle. Harry watched him go, shrugged, and then mounted his broom again. With the staircases being as unreliable as they were, there was no guarantee that running would get him there in time. No, there was only one way to ensure that he wouldn�t be late for rehearsal.

He just wouldn�t go.

He�d only been back in the air for a minute when he noticed Draco once again standing under him and yelling. Sighing deeply, he landed once more. "Now what is it?" he asked the blonde.

Draco granted him a full-blown Slytherin Death Glare of the Basilisk. "What is it? I�ll tell you! If you don�t show up, on time, I�m going to get in trouble! That�s what!" He looked down at his watch and cursed again. "Potter, give me your broom."

"What? No!" Harry cried, holding his broom tightly to his chest. "Get your own!"

Draco closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The only way we�re going to make it up there in time is if we fly. Now give me your broom," he explained slowly as if to a young child.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Fine. We�ll fly. But no one steers my broom but me, understood?"

Malfoy gritted his teeth. "All right," he agreed through his clenched jaws. "But let�s hurry since we only have," he checked his watch again, "two and a half minutes to get there, and I�m sick of wasting time."

"Get on, then," Harry replied, mounting his broom. "And hold on tight," he added after feeling Malfoy slide on behind him.

"Hold on? Hold on to what?" Malfoy demanded, and Harry rolled his eyes.

"To me, you berk," he growled back. "Unless, of course, you fancy falling off the broom and plunging to your death." Malfoy gave an indignant snort but said nothing as he slid his arms around Harry�s waist. "All right, then, here we go," Harry muttered and kicked off the ground.

Steering a broomstick with two people on it was quite a bit different from steering with only oneself as the passenger. For one thing, Malfoy�s weight was throwing him off balance because he insisted on keeping a nice-sized distance between them, thus weighing down the back of the broom. That imbalance was also forcing him to slow down, something they couldn�t really afford since they had to get all the way to the other side of the castle. �Well, there�s only one thing for it, then...� "Malfoy, you need to slide up against me."

"WHAT?" Malfoy cried out, apparently horrified. "Look, Potter, just because you may be into that sort of thing..."

"Shut up! I mean you�re weighing down the back of the broom and slowing us down! If you slide up, I can get us there faster!" Harry snapped back. Again, Malfoy said nothing, but Harry could feel the arms around his waist tighten as Malfoy�s chest pressed into his back and... �Oh, my God...� "Malfoy, that had better be your wand I�m feeling..." he muttered to himself, quietly enough that Draco couldn�t hear.

They made it to the window of the DADA room with only seconds to spare. Luckily, Sirius had left it open, saying he�d needed a "breath of fresh air", and they flew right in much to the surprise of the other four occupants of the room. Once they landed, Dean and Sirius congratulated them on their stylish entrance while Remus went over to his desk to shuffle through the sheet music. Snape�s reaction, however, was quite the shocker for Harry. The professor was glaring, not at him, but at Malfoy. And not just any glare, either � it was the full- blown Slytherin Death Glare of the Basilisk, and Harry decided that Snape�s was a hell of a lot more effective than Malfoy�s. In fact, Malfoy jumped off of the broom so fast that his leg got tangled up in the handle and he fell flat on his face, nearly taking Harry with him.

"How nice of the two of you to join us," Snape remarked coldly, still glaring at Malfoy. "I certainly hope that this little rehearsal of ours didn�t interfere with any of your other... �activities�," he added, and Harry gulped. Oh, no...what if Snape was getting the wrong idea? Surely he couldn�t believe that Harry would go off with a wanker like Draco Malfoy? Then again, he supposed that is was no less unbelievable than the idea that he wanted Snape. But he did want Snape, that was the difference! And he�d been trying to show the man just that! And now he�d gone and blown it...Damn it!

"Harry? Harry, are you listening?" Remus was asking. Harry looked up and blinked. "I was saying that we were going to pair off so that you could learn the lyrics to your songs and get the pronounciation down."

Harry�s eyes suddenly lit up. "You mean no singing?"

Remus chuckled � a warm, throaty sound. "No singing. Not tonight, anyway." Harry�s smile could have lit up an entire city. It faded, however, when Remus continued. "So if you wouldn�t mind working with Professor Snape..."

"Pro...Professor Snape?" Harry whispered, panicked. "But�I don�t�He doesn�t want to work with me!"

Remus smiled at his surrogate godson reassuringly. "Don�t worry, Harry. Everything will be fine." He bent a little closer to whisper into Harry�s ear. "Hopefully, this will give you a chance to work out some of your differences." He pulled back and gave Harry a gentle push in Snape�s direction. "Go on, now � I�m sure you�ll do just fine." And with a conspiratorial wink, he turned his attention over to Dean Thomas.

Harry swallowed hard and walked over to the stoic professor, who was still shooting the occasional dirty look over at Malfoy. "Ah, sir? Re...Professor Lupin said we�d be working together?"

Snape shifted his gaze over to Harry, and though his expression didn�t change Harry thought he saw some of the malice leave the older man�s eyes. "So it would seem, Mr. Potter," Snape replied, averting his eyes to the papers in his hands.