My Enemy's Enemy

By PBrules

Chapter 1: Into the Lion's Den

'I can't do it.' The boy sounded immensely frustrated. It was the first of many days that he would spend practicing Occlumency and he felt he had gotten worse at the skill, if that was even possible.

'Don't be feeble. Concentrate.' Snape snapped back at him automatically.

'I am concentrating.' Harry replied wearily. 'I can't do this bloody thing, ok?' The boy looked pale and tired from his efforts, but it was not as if his teacher cut him any sway for that.

'Try harder,' Snape ordered, raising his wand again.

'Look ...' Harry protested, holding his hand up, signaling he didn't want to carry on, but it was in vain. Once more his mind was invaded and Snape saw his innermost thoughts. He'd already seen some of the memories of the pitiful week Harry had spent at the Dursley's before Sirius had came and taken him away. That had been awful enough. But now he was seeing the memories at the forefront of Harry's mind- the past month he had spent with Sirius.

Snippets of memories flew past.

Sirius roaring with laughter as Harry nearly crashed into an appalled Lupin, whizzing through the narrow hallway of Grimmauld place on his broom.

Harry watching his Godfather transform into Padfoot, over and over, a look of intense concentration on his face as he tried to absorb every minute detail of the process.

Harry and Sirius flying companionably side by side, laughing and joking as the daylight faded away.

At most of the memories, Snape scoffed in disgust before moving swiftly on, but occasionally he stayed to watch them to conclusion. Then, as he browsed, he found a memory of Harry arguing with Sirius. In response to Snape's pressing, Harry packed all his efforts into Occluding. The situation was private, and he didn't want Snape to see it. He strained his mind, but to no avail.

'No!' Harry stared at Sirius incredulously.

'Harry.' His godfather said to him, in an exasperated tone.

'I said no! I won't let you send me away. I can't believe you would even ask me to stay with him!'

Harry stood up, as if to storm off, and Sirius caught his arm to stop him. Harry angrily struggled out of his grip.

'Leave off, Sirius' he said heatedly.

'Harry.'

'No. I'm not listening to anything you say about it. Of all the stupid bloody plans! Is it because Dumbledore told you I should? You just do what he says, don't you, letting us be ordered about like pawns in his schemes. What the fuck are you thinking Sirius?'

At this Sirius' hot temper got the better of him, and he grabbed Harry by the shoulders, shaking him and saying 'You'll do what I tell you!'

Suddenly ashamed of his angry outburst, he let go of his godson, who staggered back a pace or two.

Trembling slightly from the unexpected shock, Harry was still determined not to back down.

'I won't go. You can't make me.' Without another word, he turned and fled from the room.

Running out of the house and through the long acre of grass to the far boundary, eventually Harry threw himself against an oak tree and let his tears flow.

With a start, Harry fell onto the floor, and Snape exited his mind. He remained sitting there, feeling both exhausted from his efforts and embarrassed beyond measure from the scene.

'I wasn't ready,' he protested.

'Does it make a difference?' Snape asked sardonically.

Harry closed his eyes briefly fighting to control his emotions. At least Snape hadn't seen Sirius coming out to comfort him.

'I'm Sorry,' his godfather said, sitting down beside Harry, who lifted his tear-ridden face.

'Why? How can you do this to me? You know what he's like. Why would you make me stay with him?'

'Two weeks Harry, that's all, just until term starts again. You know what I need to do, and you know what you need to do: you need to learn to Occlude.'

A pause ensued.

'Look Harry, I won't make you. You know that I need to go abroad, but the final decision rests with you. If you refuse, I will have to stay here.'

Manipulative, bloody Sirius; looking back on the conversation, Harry realised that his godfather had hit upon the one tactic which had any chance of persuading him: making him feel guilty.

Harry had grimly agreed and was taken to stay with Snape for the remainder of his holiday. This was what Dumbledore had angled after all summer. What bloody idiots, Harry thought ruefully. Didn't Sirius and Dumbledore realise that forcing him and Snape to be around each other constantly was going to end with one of them killing the other? And considering that Snape was bigger and stronger, not to mention an immensely powerful wizard with tried and tested experience of the darkest magic, Harry could guess who would come off the worse.

He gritted his teeth, coming back to the present 'Are we done here?' he asked pointedly, still on the floor.

Snape surveyed him coldly, probably wondering how far he can push me before I break, Harry thought.

'Go.' The man ordered, and Harry didn't need any further encouragement, scrambling to his feet and heading back to the bedroom that had been provided for him.

Severus watched as the boy made his rapid exit from the room, and, tucking his wand away in his sleeve, sighed greatly.

He's even worse than I remembered and that's saying something. The child had to be the most infuriating, inept brat ever. He didn't listen. He didn't even begin to try to concentrate. Potter took his failures as a personal affront as if he, Severus, had nothing better to do with his time than babysit an ignorant nuisance and witness his inane memories.

Severus heard Potter slam his bedroom door shut behind him and silently Accio'ed some headache potion. It had amused him slightly to see that even Potter's precious godfather had, at one point, lost his temper with the Golden Boy. Well, wonders would never cease.

He ought to go and reprimand the brat for slamming the door, but why punish himself by entering Potter's presence any longer than was necessary? He sighed. It's going to be a long fortnight. Well, they had survived the first day, but with thirteen more days to go before their return to Hogwarts, he didn't rate their chances.

The new arrangement hadn't started well. In fact, it had nearly been stopped before it started, when that mutt--Sirius Black--had wound Severus up to the point of nearly chucking them both out of his home.

Black had brought the boy to Severus' home by floo, and remained to talk with Severus in the study while Harry unpacked his belongings in his room.

Their discussion hadn't lasted for long. The mutt had had the audacity--Severus could feel himself growing heated now just thinking about it--to threaten him.

'I'm just warning you Snape,' Black said calmly, 'that you had better treat Harry properly. He's had a hell of a time already this summer, and if you lay so much as a finger on him, or make him unhappy in any way, I will get you back ten times over.'

'You...You dare to come into my home and threaten me.' Severus had said incredulously.

'I mean it, Snivellus. I'll make those hexes that James and I used to throw at you in school seem like love pats.'

Severus was so angry by this, he was practically shaking with rage as he drew his wand and pointed it at his old adversary.

'Get out,' he'd snarled coolly, 'Now!'

Black glanced at the offending wand carelessly and strode away towards the door to the hallway.

'I'm going... once I've said goodbye to Harry. Ah, Harry!' He embraced the boy, who already was on his way back downstairs. 'I'm off.' He pulled the boy into a tight hug. 'Remember what we talked about.'

'Be careful.' Harry said in a low voice.

Black grinned at him reassuringly and headed towards the floo, turning back at the last moment to look at Snape meaningfully. 'Ten times, remember.' Then he was gone.

Harry glanced at Snape, who pointedly ignored him and looked positively irate. The Potions Master stood stock still by his desk. After a couple moments, Harry crept away to his room and avoided Snape until his Occlumency lesson.

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Please review. All opinions and constructive criticism are gratefully received. I know I'm taking loads of liberties with timelines and plot from canon, but hey, it's fanfiction!

Special thanks to Anachronistic Anglophile, who has agreed to be my Beta! She will be helping to improve this story by working her way through the chapters giving me advice and helping to sort out my many mistakes. Of course, any remaining mistakes are mine alone.