It's been a while! I have no excuses except for this: I lost inspiration and didn't see a solid, interesting plot for the story. But now that I'm back (finally), I'd just like to make a disclaimer here:

Now, I got a comment saying that nothing much was happening yet. Know this much: this story is going to be long. The plot will move slowly. Harry's going to go through a lot of character development and learning before he starts his adventures, and Snape and Harry will form a strong friendship too. If you can't be bothered to wait, then I'm sorry, but this is just the way my story's going to be. I'll try and make it more interesting, and there will be some incidents occurring before the 'big one', but ultimately, this story's a slow burn.

Also, since I forgot before, Harry Potter and his wonderous world all belong to JK Rowling, who's kind enough to allow the rest of us mere peasants to have our fun.

And, I borrowed some of this from Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls. I've left text taken from there in italics.

HI ALL! SUPER SORRY- SOME LOVELY ATTENTIVE REVIEWERS COMMENTED TO LET ME KNOW THAT I MESSED UP THE FORMATTING FOR THIS - HOPEFULLY IT'S OKAY NOW. I DID CHECK IT AFTER I UPLOADED, BUT THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT USUALLY LOOKS NORMAL AFTR 30 MINUTES, SO I THOUGHT THIS TIME WOULD BE THE SAME. MANY APOLOGIES AGAIN!

"Now, since we don't need insulation, we just need to vanish the timber, make a door and windows- and a roof of course. Should be easy enough. We do have to vanish the timber instead of just removing it because we hit 'em with permanent sticking charms, remember?"

Harry licked his fingers, savouring the last drops of sheep fat. They'd both stuffed themselves full of sheep meat, leaving the rest under a stasis charm for later. Harry tapped his fingers against his swollen stomach, sighing happily.

"Why, Professor, I don't think I've ever heard you say ''em' before!" Harry chuckled.

"Yes, and you won't hear it again, you bothersome clown." Snape glared fiercely.

"If you say so," Harry agreed.

"Anyway," Snape started again, "We do need some of the timber for a door, so go collect some- you can get around the permanent sticker by severing the ends."

So Harry rose to his feet, groaning quietly as his belly protested, and walked through the door-sized hole in the house's wall. One by one, he severed timber ends, leaving only shortened stumps, and levitated the timber over to where Snape was standing, hovering his wand over the wood and muttering under his breath.

Harry watched as the timber pieces welded together, smoothing out edges and becoming a whole piece. Snape levitated the wood over to the hole for the door and sliced the wood into the exact shape of the hole. Then, he fashioned metal hinges from nearby rocks and with a few more mutters, had attached them to the door and wall.

Snape stepped back, looked satisfied as Harry tested the hinges by opening and closing the door. Snape had certainly done a good job, Harry appraised, as he watched the door's fluid movement.

He opened his mouth as a thought occurred. "Professor? How come we didn't just transfigure brick walls, as well?"

"Two reasons," Snape explained, "Firstly, large-scale transfiguration is especially taxing, because it requires great amounts of magical strength; and besides that, it's difficult to do well if you're not well-practised at it. One needs both skill and power to accomplish that, and I doubt even Minerva could've done that transfiguration perfectly and sustained it."

"Secondly, transfigured material isn't as structurally sound as the real stuff. So, to conclude, it's simply much better long-term to use real materials when possible. Unfortunately, I don't know any spells to create metal-hinges, so I couldn't do that."

Harry nodded. That made a lot of sense.

"And now," Snape continued, "I'll transfigure the windows and you can get more of the timber from inside for the roof, yes? We'll probably need most of it- so I guess we'll only need to vanish the stumps."

"Sounds like a plan," Harry agreed.

Harry did as told, severing almost all the timber in the house and dragging them into a pile just outside. Snape collected a few of the remaining timbers to transfigure into glass, and stood by the window-holes, calculating the dimensions. After a moment, he nodded decisively, and the timber seemed to shiver as its surface bent and rippled into glass. Another pair of metal hinges later and the first glass pane was fitted into the nearest window. Snape repeated the process with the other three windows, Harry watched patiently as he did so.

Snape admired his work and turned to Harry, saying, "I'm going to need your help here."

Harry gulped nervously.

Snape gestured to the timber pile Harry's collected. "I'm going to set up a skeleton roof with the timbers, and you are going to levitate me once I've finished, so I can check my work."

"You'd trust me with that?" Harry asked, shocked.

"No," Snape scoffed, "I'll be setting up a cushioning charm beforehand, of course."

"Oh," Harry said, relieved. "Well, that's okay then."

Snape hmphed and ignored Harry, choosing instead to fuse three timber pieces together to be there centre rod for the roof and levitate them to the top of the house. He continued to fuse pieces together and levitate them to stretch across from the centre rod to the top of the walls, spacing them half a metre apart. Then, he cast a hasty cushioning charm on the floor and gestured for Harry to levitate him, face the very picture of determination mixed with a healthy amount of fear.

Harry didn't blame him. The cushioning charm would help, of course, but if Snape fell, he'd be getting a few nasty bruises from it. Gulping nervously, Harry brushed a hand through his hair, and cast, lifting Snape to the roof. The man in question set to work immediately, carving notches into the topmost bricks and the centre rod for the timber pieces to rest in; finishing by shooting a sticking charm at them. Harry shifted him along whenever Snape gestured for him to do so, concentrating fully on the spell.

Once he'd finished one side of the house, Snape had Harry walk to the other side, while moving him along too. With a shifty feeling in his gut, Harry obeyed and started slowly walking around, and had nearly reached it- he tripped over a root and launched forward, instinctively thrusting his arms forward to break his fall.

The spell holding Snape up failed, and Snape fell, only just managing to grab the centre rod. Harry was springing up as soon as he landed, wand at the ready, and he levitated Snape again quickly.

"Sorry!" He yelled. "I tripped."

Snape scowled, and shook his head. "I noticed, you idiot. Watch where you're stepping, Merlin."

Harry cringed in response and carefully watching, inched forward until Snape raised his hand. Fortunately, Snape finished this side with no troubles and Harry lowered the man with no small amount of relief.

Snape scoffed at Harry, but Harry noted the man looked particularly glad to be safely stood on the ground.

"Are we nearly done?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Nearly." Snape almost smiled. "And I'll do the next part, anyway."

Harry could've kissed him.

Harry watched as Snape split logs into thin, long slabs. He levitated a slab up and laid it lengthways across the timber rafters, shouting for Harry to levitate him up. Once he was level with the slab, Snape pulled a nail out of somewhere and took his newly transfigured hammer out, and he began to nail the slab to the rafters.

He carefully took the nails one by one from his pocket, and drove them into the slab, securing it in place. When Snape had nailed down two slabs, he gestured for Harry to drop the spell, and got up on them. He levitated more slabs up and nailed them all the way up to the centre rod.

Then, he clambered over to the other side of the house, and he laid the roof all the way up from that side, too. A little crack was left between the two highest slabs, so Snape got another slab, and nailed it down over the centre rod.

The roof was done. There wasn't a single a crack that would let rain in.

"Where'd you learn how to do that, sir?" Harry asked keenly.

"During the war." Snape said, effectively finishing that conversation.

"Right," Harry said, awkwardly. "Well, you did a great job."

Snape pridefully remarked, "Of course. All that's left till is laying the floor."

Harry looked up at the steadily darkening sky above. "Maybe that'll be the last thing we do before dinner?" He suggested.

Snape nodded. "Study now, Potter. I can finish the floor on my own."

Harry eagerly sat back and took out Magical Drafts and Potions. He'd never have thought he'd see the day when he'd prefer studying potions come.

Snape began again to haul logs. When he had hauled enough logs to make the floor, he began to split them. He split each log straight down the middle. First, with a mighty slash of his wand he split the butt of the log. Then he sliced into the crack, splitting the rough wood all the way through.

At last, with tearing, cracking sound, the whole log split. Its two halves lay on the ground, showing the tree's pale insides and the darker streak up its middle. Then Snape wiped the sweat from his forehead, he took a fresh grip on the wand, and he tackled another log.

At last the final log was split, and Snape began to lay the floor. He levitated the logs into the house and he laid them one by one, flat side up. With the transfigured hammer-to-spade he scraped the ground underneath and fitted the round side of the log firmly down into it. With his wand, he trimmed away the edge of bark and cut the wood straight, so that each log fitted against the next, with hardly a crack between them.

Then with little, careful flicks he smoothed the wood, scanning along the floor to see that the surface was flat and smooth. Finally he rose and nodded.

"Perfect."

Harry who was sitting nearby eating a plate of sheep meat that he'd warmed up, offered Snape another plate.

"You took to long." Harry offered by way of explanation.

Snape took the plate with a nod of thanks and settled down. The sky was pitch dark now, owls and who knows what else hooting in the distance.

"I'll be glad to sleep in a real house tonight." Harry remarked, after a howl that sounded too much like that of a werewolf's for comfort sounded nearby.

Snape hummed in agreement. "Tomorrow, we're going potions hunting. I've put it off too long and anything else can wait until after."

"Okay," Harry found himself agreeing.