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Bonded chapter 16 -
🕑 Added 2022-04-27 14:49:11 +0000 UTCChapter 16 - Harry vs Snape
'What the fuck does she mean that we're 'just friends'?' Harry wondered, lying down in bed, seemingly unable to be claimed by sleep. 'It just sounds so weird, 'just friends', like, what is that supposed to mean?'
'Were you hoping for you both to be something more?' Venom asked.
'What? No.' Harry quickly answered.
'You do realise that I can access your head and know your every thought, right?' Venom asked but continued to speak. 'Don't worry, we'll win her over.'
'What the hell do you mean to win her over?' Harry frowned.
'You're in love with her.' Venom stated simply.
'No, I'm not,' Harry denied.
'Then why does it bother you if you're just friends?' Venom asked patiently.
'I...' Harry paused as he really couldn't think of a good answer to that question, mostly because he well and truly did not know why it bothered him. '...I don't know.'
'Just blame the Dursleys,' Venom suggested. 'the bastards stunted your mental and emotional growth.'
'That's a bit offensive.' Harry thought, though he also realised that Venom may have had a point. Between his aunt and uncle, heck, even his cousin at school, Harry's interaction with people had been very limited until he had reached Hogwarts, by that point he considered the fact that he was even able to have one friend to be nothing short of an actual miracle. Not to mention that the Dursleys had never really parented him, their interactions were mostly just making him do chores and hating his existence. 'But you might be right, who knows how I would have ended up like if not for them?' Harry added, never really one to miss the opportunity to blame something on the Dursleys, after all, they do the same to him.
'Don't worry, we can win her over.' Venom told him in a comforting tone.
'I'm not going to try and win her over,' Harry said, sighing as he did so. 'there's no way Tonks will be interested in someone like me.'
'But you're a catch!' Venom protested, causing Harry to blush slightly.
'Leave it, Venom.' Harry told him, sounding quite tired.
'Fine.' Venom grumbled, he would do as Harry requested and leave it, for now at least. Truthfully, Venom had no intention of leaving it. Harry, due to a lack of emotional education and his own stubbornness, was not willing to admit to his interest in Tonks, but Venom detected his emotions and they were far stronger when Tonks was around, much tastier as well. So, if Harry was going to be stubborn, then that meant that Venom was going to help him out, just like a good friend would do, which is why that night Harry barely got any sleep since Venom kept shoving memories of Tonks into the forefront of Harry's mind.
(.)
"Damn it," Harry softly hissed under his breath as he sat down in potions class, waiting for Snape to show up.
Harry was not in the best of moods thanks to a lack of sleep, the weird feeling's that he had no experience with and the fact that Hermione was still acting weird around him, so naturally, he was not happy to be in a classroom with a teacher who had hated his guts since before Harry had even met the man. As far as Harry knew, Snape hated him because he thought that Harry was a spoiled celebrity and because he had a grudge against Harry's father, something that Harry thought to be incredibly stupid. Harry didn't get much more time to think about his situation since a second later, Snape walked into the room.
Harry barely stopped himself from scoffing as the door slammed shut behind him as the man's cape billowed behind him as he walked to the front, such dramatics might have seemed impressive, but when you saw it nearly every day, it got boring quickly, especially when you hated the guy doing it. The man took the register, sneering and drawling when he got to Harry's name, looking like he smelt something foul.
'Fuck you too, Snape.' Harry thought to himself, earning a chuckle from Venom.
"Today, we will be learning to make the wideye potion," Snape began, speaking slowly, stretching out his words.
'He loves to hear the sound of his own voice,' Venom commented.
"Potter," Snape said suddenly. "perhaps you can tell us something about this potion, what do you know about it?" He asked, the corners of his lips curving up slightly.
'Wants to embarrass me in front of the class, prick.' Harry thought, well aware of Snape's often-used tactic of asking questions and mocking people when they didn't know the answers, he had done it enough times to Harry over the years.
"It's a potion!" Harry answered, in an over-enthusiastic voice, earning laughter from most of his Gryffindor classmates with the exception of Hermione and Neville, the former looking disapproving while the other was far too terrified of Snape to dare laugh in the man's classroom in front of him.
"Quiet!" Snape barked at the Gryffindors who immediately quietened down, he glared at Harry who was staring back at him innocently. "It's good to see that your time at Hogwarts is not completely wasted on you, that'll be ten points from Gryffindor," Snape sniffed before turning to speak to the rest of the classroom. "this potion prevents the user from falling asleep and may also be used to awaken someone from who has been drugged or suffering from a concussion, it is also used as an antidote for the 'Draught of Living Death'." Snape flicked his wand at the board and the recipe for the potion appeared. "Now, I think it might be time to mix up the seating arrangements." Snape stared at Harry with a look that promised the boy would not like what was about to come.
And Harry did not, the students were paired up in a seemingly random fashion even if the Gryffindors and Slytherins were kept separate, but eventually, Snape paired Harry with Neville. Now, Harry had no problem with Neville at all, except the boy couldn't make a potion to save his life. Harry doubted it was because the boy was completely incompetent, he felt it was more likely that the boy just messed up because Snape intimidated him so much that he couldn't think properly when making the potion. But that doesn't change the fact that Neville was pretty much hopeless at potions and everyone knew it.
"I'm sorry," Neville apologised when Harry sat next to him, the chubby boy looking embarrassed and apologetic. "I know that you don't want to be paired with me and..."
"It's fine," Harry cut him off. "just be careful and try and relax."
"Easy for you to say." Neville scoffed.
"Look, I'll set the workplace up, you get the ingredients and get them ready," Harry told him.
"Okay," Neville gave Harry a small nod before he walked off to get the ingredients.
'Venom,' Harry mentally communicated with his alien companion.
'Yes?' Venom asked.
'I don't normally ask for help like this, but can you please keep an eye out so that Neville doesn't accidentally blow us up?' Harry asked.
'Gladly,' Venom replied, not wanting to risk the chance of them being burnt. 'I already have the recipe memorised.'
'You're brilliant!'
'I know.'
A few minutes later the workplace was set up and all the ingredients were ready, the two of them started working together. Harry was finding potions to be a lot easier than before for a good few reasons, mostly because of Venom. The alien symbiote was able to stop him from making a few minor mistakes and had helped him prevent Neville from making any major ones like adding more ingredients than necessary. It ended up being a lot harder when Snape came behind them and started breathing down their necks. Harry ended up with an urge to elbow the man in the neck while Neville froze up before forcing himself to continue to make the potion, he took a deep breath and was about to start stirring when Harry spoke up.
"Neville, it's three turns clockwise," Harry told him, Neville still looked incredibly nervous so Harry decided to make a circle with his finger to show Neville what direction he needed. Neville gave him a grateful look and was about to start stirring when Snape spoke up.
"Potter, Longbottom should be more than capable of following simple instructions, he does not need your handholding." Snape sniped.
"Yeah, but I don't see anything wrong in helping him," Harry replied, rolling his eyes without fear since Snape was still staring at the back of his head. "especially when we are in a potions class with something that could easily blow up. But if you're sure that it's not such a big deal then how about you stand next to him and this cauldron and stay completely silent and let him do his thing?" Harry added, Harry was kind of hoping that Snape would say 'yes', mostly because he wanted to see a cauldron blow up in Snape's face.
"Quiet Potter!" Snape growled, grabbing Harry roughly by the shoulder and spinning him around so that they were facing each other.
'Prick!' Venom growled.
"Get your hand off me!" Harry shoved Snape's hand away, Snape's glare grew worse and he stepped closer to Harry to that he was now staring down at him with his nose barely not touching Harry's own. Harry stared back, unafraid, apparently when you have an alien symbiote on your side and have ripped apart a large acromantula, then you weren't easily intimidated, who knew? Harry would admit that there was once a point where Snape would be quite terrifying, but Harry had since then dealt with trolls, three-headed dogs, Voldemort, spiders big enough to eat people and a basilisk plus a younger version of Voldemort, and that was all before Harry had gained Venom as an ally.
"Don't speak to me like that, Potter!" Snape hissed. "I don't know what makes you think you can get away with such behaviour, but I would heavily recommend you banish those thoughts before they get you into more trouble than you already are."
'Banish me?! I'll banish you, asshole!' Venom roared.
"I didn't even do anything!" Harry hissed back. "You're the one who can't leave me alone!"
"I am your teacher and you will speak to me with the respect I deserve!" Snape yelled at Harry, spit flying out of his mouth and landing on Harry's face, Harry quickly wiped it off with his sleeve, acting as if it would cause his death if he didn't. Snape didn't care and continued speaking. "Though I doubt that you would know anything about respect, strutting around this castle, like you own the place, thinking yourself better than those around you."
"Where do you even get this information?!" Harry interrupted before Snape could say more. "Who the fuck has ever seen me strut?! Besides, you of all people can't talk about 'thinking you're better than everyone else', the highlight of your bloody week is making yourself look superior to school children!"
"Silence!" Snape shouted, being louder than anybody in the classroom had ever heard him be. Everyone in the classroom flinched, except Harry who was glaring heatedly at Snape.
'Shout at us?! Shout at us?!' Venom roared angrily in Harry's mind. 'Who does he think he is?! He doesn't get to shout at us!'
"You stupid brat!" Snape snarled, grabbing Harry harshly by the arm, hard enough to hurt. "You dare to speak to me like that?! You think you're so special, Potter?! Well, you're not! You're not better than that degenerate waste of space that further ruined this world when he sired you! The two of you are nothing more than spoilt, pampered imbeciles that don't deserve to be here!"
'Spoilt?! Pampered?!' Harry repeated the words in his head, growing angrier and angrier as he did so.
'He insulted our father!' Venom's voice boomed in Harry's head.
'He insulted Dad!' Harry's rage grew, listening to Snape insult the man that had loved him enough to die for him. 'He insulted Dad!'
'How dare he?!'
'How dare he?!' Harry repeated Venom's words. 'He can't talk about Dad like that!'
'He can't!' Venom yelled out his agreement.
"You don't talk about my dad like that!" Harry shouted back.
"I'll talk about him however I wish!" Snape hissed, his hatred filled black eyes boring into Harry's emerald green ones as he tightened his grip on Harry's arm.
"You can't let go of this fucking stupid grudge!" Harry roared in frustration and no small amount of anger. "Well, guess what?! He's dead! It may have escaped your notice but it didn't escape the notice of the rest of the wizarding world! He's dead now, he was dead yesterday, he was dead last week, last month, last year and the year before that, he was dead five years ago, he's been dead for more than ten years! GET OVER IT!" Harry snapped at him, stunning Snape and the classroom into silence. For a moment it looked like Snape was not going to say anything but a second later the man's eyes were reignited with rage.
"If you ever speak to me like that again Potter then I will cut you up and use you as potion ingredients!" Snape threatened, looking like he very much meant every word. His grip on Harry's arm had grown even tighter like he wanted to make Harry pop.
"I..." Harry stopped when he felt something in his head, something different from Venom.
'What's that?!'
'He's trying to read your mind!' Venom blurted out upon realising what Snape was doing.
'What?!'
"Get off of me!" Harry shoved Snape away, though he may have put a bit too much force into his push as Snape fell over and ended up having his shoulder crash into Draco Malfoy's legs, causing him to fall over and land on top of Snape. The whole class stared, too shocked to laugh, not that they would due to how tense the atmosphere was.
"Move!" Snape shoved Malfoy off before he quickly stood up and stared at Harry like he wanted nothing less than to kill him on the spot. Snape's hand snaked towards his wand but he stopped when Harry had quickly brought out his own wand and was pointing at Snape, the tip of the wand glowing a bright red.
"No, go on, you were about to do something." Harry gestured for him to continue. "Go and reach for that wand, Snape, I've got three years of reasons and I won't mind another." Harry stared at him in a way that made it clear he was very ready to start blasting for the smallest of excuses.
"Harry!" Hermione spoke up. "Stop this! You can't! He's a teacher!"
"Butt out of it, Hermione." Harry didn't remove his eyes from Snape but was well aware of the fact that the majority of the Slytherin students (namely Malfoy and his gang) pulled out their wands in defence of the head of their house, meanwhile a few of the Gryffindors pulled out their own wands.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor and detention for two months!" Snape spat angrily.
'Stay in a room with him? Not likely!' Venom hissed. 'Unless we can kill him.' He added hopefully.
"Fuck your detentions, and fuck you," Harry said, his voice soft but the anger couldn't be missed. "I'm done with this class and I'm done with you."
"Get out of my classroom!" Snape bellowed, looking mad with rage.
"Gladly, dickhead." Harry grabbed his stuff with one hand while keeping his wand trained on Snape, once he was done he walked backwards out of the classroom, not trusting Snape, Draco or any of their supporters to not curse him as soon as his back was turned. Once Harry was out and the door was closed, he turned and stormed away, trying to get as far from the potions classroom as possible.
'How did that feel?' Venom asked.
'Liberating, nice,' Harry answered without thinking, it had been nice to finally stand up to Snape properly. A big part of Harry was in full-blown panic mode over what Harry had done but that part of him was slowly being drowned out by the rising anger that Harry was experiencing as he thought about what had happened and how Snape had been treating him, not just in that class, but over the last three years.
'I hate him!' Harry said, imagining himself hitting Snape with a variety of spells. 'He calls me spoilt'
'He's the one that defends Draco Malfoy!' Venom growled.
'Exactly!'
'He's the one that thinks he is better than everybody!'
'Yeah!' Harry growled as he made his way to the hospital wing, feeling his arm hurt slightly. He was positive that Snape had grabbed him hard enough to bruise him.
'I can heal it,' Venom told him, sounding confused about why Harry would go to the hospital wing.
'No,' Harry shook his head. 'I'm telling Pomfrey, I want proof of what he's done.'
'Nice,' Venom sounded very much like he approved. 'let's kill him.' He suggested.
'I'll think about it.' Harry answered honestly, he could almost feel Venom smile at his answer. 'I'm not going back to his classroom!'
'Then don't.' Venom talked as if it was something as trivial as deciding what socks to wear today.
'They'll make me go.'
'They will try,' Venom corrected him. 'we won't let them. We won't go back there.'
'You sure?'
'Yes, and if they do force us then they'll change their mind when they find Snape with no head.' Venom laughed, causing a smile to grow on Harry's face.
Comments
SomeFox
"Just blame the Dursleys" is the best excuse.
Q
Thanks, the relationship between them two was honestly the biggest thing I was trying to get right.
Christian Jeffress
Thanks for another really awesome chapter, and I absolutely love how venom supports Harry. I think that’s a fantastic relationship between the two, and it’s a bit funny how venom is both the angel and demon on his shoulder. They’re for the emotional support when he needs it, while also being there to encourage killing the potion professor lol.
