(In)competence
Mar. 4th, 2025 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danzanelfuocoHARRY POTTER
Severus Snape/Harry Potter
SAFE
Warnings: Omega!Verse
wordcount: 1540
He already knew it would be a disaster.
Not such a disaster as when he had presented as an Omega, that had been worse. And when Snape had been the only one to be able to bond with him, Harry had thought the Universe had just chosen a different and more painful way to get him killed.
But then.
Harry could admit that that had not been such a disaster after all.
Snape was... different. Well, he was the same old sarcastic jerk - he hadn’t suddenly gotten a personality transplant - but he had gotten softer somehow, like his edges were no longer cutting.
Maybe it was because the war was over, maybe because he didn’t have his role as a spy dangling over his head. Or maybe he had just seen Harry as something more than his parents’ child.
Harry didn’t know, but he surely could enjoy it.
But then Hermione had to get to their house and start pestering him about his lack of Newts and how he should study to get them and Snape was there silently judging him (he hadn’t said a word and he looked like he couldn’t care less, but Harry knew - he knew!)... so Harry had caved and for some unfathomable reason he had thought it was a good idea to ask his mate of all people to help him study.
He already knew it would be a disaster, he must have had some masochist streak to go through with it.
“I don’t get it.” Harry gave up the ladle and watched his potion critically. The Draught of Peace should have been turquoise, Harry had made sure to follow all the passages, but the shade was more aquamarine, and looking way more greenish than it should have. “I just don’t get it.”
“How surprising,” Snape deadpanned, not looking up from the bunch of homework he was marking. “With your glorious understanding and mastering of the arts of Potions, I wonder how that could be possible.”
“Ah ah, very funny,” Harry scowled at him, “I keep following the instruction in the book, why do I never get it right?”
“You’re sloppy,” Snape cut him off, “imprecise. You tend to do things roughly how they have to be done and then you wonder why your potion is nearly how it should be, but not quite.”
“Whoa, thanks.”
“Also, you fail to grasp the basic principles of what you’re doing,” he went on unrelenting.
“Now, that’s unfair!”
Severus put down his quill and turned to watch him, “Is it? You follow the instructions but you do it blindly. You don’t know why they require you to cut an ingredient with a silver knife instead of a copper one, or what are the differences if you slice it, chop it or grind it. As I said, the basic principles.”
“And how was I supposed to know that? You never taught that in class.”
“No, I didn’t. It’s not in the curriculum. Knowing these specificities is considered too advanced and so it’s up to the single student. Your whole classroom took for granted the instruction and nobody even thought to wonder why is it so important to stir clockwise or anticlockwise.”
When he didn’t further his explanation, Harry really pondered if he could throw the ladle at his head. “Ok, I’ll bite. Why do we stir like this? And why isn’t it in the curricula if it’s so important?”
“It’s a rune. You are tracing a stylized rune with the ladle. How they make Ancient Runes elective and not mandatory is beside me,” Severus scoffed but Harry just rolled his eyes.
“You are already making all my other classes about Potions, I don’t think I need another one.”
“Excuse me? I’m doing no such thing.”
“Please, Herbology has practically become ‘what is this plant and how can I use it to brew?’.”
“I don’t see why else would you learn about plants if not to use them in a potion.”
“I don’t know. Four years ago? Second task of the Triwizard Tournament? Gillyweed?”
“Which, might I remember you, you stole from my potion supplies?”
“I didn’t steal it!”
“Yes, you did. And it was a potion ingredient.”
Harry looked at him, bewildered. “No, I didn’t. Dobby stole it. And I didn’t use it in a potion, did I?”
“Just because you’re incompetent in the subject. You could have used it to brew a Branchia potion that would have allowed you better control of the time and would have left you the ability to speak and thus the ability to perform spells.”
Harry looked at him as if it was the first time he had seen him, “Shit, I should have asked your help with the tasks, shouldn’t I?”
“I wouldn’t have helped you,” Severus scoffed, returning to his markings.
“Oh really? Because I’ve risked my life at least two times before getting to the maze and seeing how set you were on keeping me alive, I don’t think you would have refused.”
Severus looked so thorn, he wanted to deny everything, but damn it, “Fucking dragons,” he muttered, “who even decided on fucking dragons?”
“I bet there was a potion even for that.”
“There isn’t,” Severus shook his head, “dragons' physiology works differently, and the effects of sedatives are known to be unpredictable, that’s why the dragon trainers use Stunning spells.”
“How do you-?” He started asking, but then it clicked in his head, “You were already studying a way to help me!”
Sometimes it happened just like this, they would be talking about nothing really and then it would hit Harry, the enormity of what was happening between them, the enormity of what was already there between them, hidden behind layers of hatred and misconception and prejudice. Harry wondered sometimes what would have happened if he hadn’t presented if he would have continued to be James Potter’s child and nothing else if he would have kept hating Snape and thinking of him as an enemy until the end.
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually want to see my students dead,” Severus just twisted the truth, because he wouldn’t have spent days studying books on dragons if the only champion for Hogwarts had been Cedric Diggory.
“Well, thank you,” Harry smiled, then walked around the desk to reach him. He cupped his cheeks and tilted his head up to meet his eyes, and then he kissed him.
Severus let him press his lips against his, basking in the warmth of the contact. The need - the urges - completely gone, meant he could enjoy the familiarity of the affection without fearing his instinct and reaction. Oh, how good it was to be bonded to a mate.
“You’re potion is perfectly Acceptable, by the way,” Snape cleared his throat and changed the topic, as soon as Harry got back to his potion, “a little more green than it should have been, but still, Acceptable.”
“Because I don’t know why I need to chop an ingredient?”
“Yes, because you don’t know how an ingredient behaves and how to counteract the intrinsic variability of each element. Following the recipe will usually get you a good enough potion, but you asked me why your potions aren’t as they should, and the answer is that the recipe might need to be adjusted and you don’t know how.”
Harry seemed to consider that for a moment, “So I should have wondered how waving a wand makes me capable of performing magic, too?”
Severus opened his mouth, a little speechless, “You... didn’t?”
“No! It’s magic,” Harry replied as if it were the most absurd request, asking him to consider that. “I mean, the Dursleys have a tv, I never considered how it worked. It just did.”
“Yes, but that’s a very… muggle way of thinking. For someone who lives in a magic school where you should be taught how magic works, you sure are not so curious to wonder how the universe you live in works,” Severus shook his head. “So many things make sense now. No wonder you never created a spell on your own.”
Harry seemed to be taken aback by that, his shoulder slumping. “I didn’t know I was supposed to.”
“I guess a later start is better than no start at all,” Severus huffed.
As soon as the implication landed on him, Harry beamed, “You’ll teach me?”
“What exactly have I been doing for the past seven years and counting, Potter?”
Harry raised his eyebrows in the best imitation of him he could do, “Berating me, insulting me, and somehow always finding a fault in everything I do?”
“Excuses,” Severus waved him off, “Details of your incompetence do not interest me,” he smirked, which made Harry groan.
“You’re so frustrating!”
“Yes, I’ve been told. By many people, one of which was you.”
He was having fun, the jerk. Harry threw the ladder at him. And then he moved into his lap to kiss him.
He already knew it would be a disaster.
Not such a disaster as when he had presented as an Omega, that had been worse. And when Snape had been the only one to be able to bond with him, Harry had thought the Universe had just chosen a different and more painful way to get him killed.
But then.
Harry could admit that that had not been such a disaster after all.
Snape was... different. Well, he was the same old sarcastic jerk - he hadn’t suddenly gotten a personality transplant - but he had gotten softer somehow, like his edges were no longer cutting.
Maybe it was because the war was over, maybe because he didn’t have his role as a spy dangling over his head. Or maybe he had just seen Harry as something more than his parents’ child.
Harry didn’t know, but he surely could enjoy it.
But then Hermione had to get to their house and start pestering him about his lack of Newts and how he should study to get them and Snape was there silently judging him (he hadn’t said a word and he looked like he couldn’t care less, but Harry knew - he knew!)... so Harry had caved and for some unfathomable reason he had thought it was a good idea to ask his mate of all people to help him study.
He already knew it would be a disaster, he must have had some masochist streak to go through with it.
“I don’t get it.” Harry gave up the ladle and watched his potion critically. The Draught of Peace should have been turquoise, Harry had made sure to follow all the passages, but the shade was more aquamarine, and looking way more greenish than it should have. “I just don’t get it.”
“How surprising,” Snape deadpanned, not looking up from the bunch of homework he was marking. “With your glorious understanding and mastering of the arts of Potions, I wonder how that could be possible.”
“Ah ah, very funny,” Harry scowled at him, “I keep following the instruction in the book, why do I never get it right?”
“You’re sloppy,” Snape cut him off, “imprecise. You tend to do things roughly how they have to be done and then you wonder why your potion is nearly how it should be, but not quite.”
“Whoa, thanks.”
“Also, you fail to grasp the basic principles of what you’re doing,” he went on unrelenting.
“Now, that’s unfair!”
Severus put down his quill and turned to watch him, “Is it? You follow the instructions but you do it blindly. You don’t know why they require you to cut an ingredient with a silver knife instead of a copper one, or what are the differences if you slice it, chop it or grind it. As I said, the basic principles.”
“And how was I supposed to know that? You never taught that in class.”
“No, I didn’t. It’s not in the curriculum. Knowing these specificities is considered too advanced and so it’s up to the single student. Your whole classroom took for granted the instruction and nobody even thought to wonder why is it so important to stir clockwise or anticlockwise.”
When he didn’t further his explanation, Harry really pondered if he could throw the ladle at his head. “Ok, I’ll bite. Why do we stir like this? And why isn’t it in the curricula if it’s so important?”
“It’s a rune. You are tracing a stylized rune with the ladle. How they make Ancient Runes elective and not mandatory is beside me,” Severus scoffed but Harry just rolled his eyes.
“You are already making all my other classes about Potions, I don’t think I need another one.”
“Excuse me? I’m doing no such thing.”
“Please, Herbology has practically become ‘what is this plant and how can I use it to brew?’.”
“I don’t see why else would you learn about plants if not to use them in a potion.”
“I don’t know. Four years ago? Second task of the Triwizard Tournament? Gillyweed?”
“Which, might I remember you, you stole from my potion supplies?”
“I didn’t steal it!”
“Yes, you did. And it was a potion ingredient.”
Harry looked at him, bewildered. “No, I didn’t. Dobby stole it. And I didn’t use it in a potion, did I?”
“Just because you’re incompetent in the subject. You could have used it to brew a Branchia potion that would have allowed you better control of the time and would have left you the ability to speak and thus the ability to perform spells.”
Harry looked at him as if it was the first time he had seen him, “Shit, I should have asked your help with the tasks, shouldn’t I?”
“I wouldn’t have helped you,” Severus scoffed, returning to his markings.
“Oh really? Because I’ve risked my life at least two times before getting to the maze and seeing how set you were on keeping me alive, I don’t think you would have refused.”
Severus looked so thorn, he wanted to deny everything, but damn it, “Fucking dragons,” he muttered, “who even decided on fucking dragons?”
“I bet there was a potion even for that.”
“There isn’t,” Severus shook his head, “dragons' physiology works differently, and the effects of sedatives are known to be unpredictable, that’s why the dragon trainers use Stunning spells.”
“How do you-?” He started asking, but then it clicked in his head, “You were already studying a way to help me!”
Sometimes it happened just like this, they would be talking about nothing really and then it would hit Harry, the enormity of what was happening between them, the enormity of what was already there between them, hidden behind layers of hatred and misconception and prejudice. Harry wondered sometimes what would have happened if he hadn’t presented if he would have continued to be James Potter’s child and nothing else if he would have kept hating Snape and thinking of him as an enemy until the end.
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually want to see my students dead,” Severus just twisted the truth, because he wouldn’t have spent days studying books on dragons if the only champion for Hogwarts had been Cedric Diggory.
“Well, thank you,” Harry smiled, then walked around the desk to reach him. He cupped his cheeks and tilted his head up to meet his eyes, and then he kissed him.
Severus let him press his lips against his, basking in the warmth of the contact. The need - the urges - completely gone, meant he could enjoy the familiarity of the affection without fearing his instinct and reaction. Oh, how good it was to be bonded to a mate.
“You’re potion is perfectly Acceptable, by the way,” Snape cleared his throat and changed the topic, as soon as Harry got back to his potion, “a little more green than it should have been, but still, Acceptable.”
“Because I don’t know why I need to chop an ingredient?”
“Yes, because you don’t know how an ingredient behaves and how to counteract the intrinsic variability of each element. Following the recipe will usually get you a good enough potion, but you asked me why your potions aren’t as they should, and the answer is that the recipe might need to be adjusted and you don’t know how.”
Harry seemed to consider that for a moment, “So I should have wondered how waving a wand makes me capable of performing magic, too?”
Severus opened his mouth, a little speechless, “You... didn’t?”
“No! It’s magic,” Harry replied as if it were the most absurd request, asking him to consider that. “I mean, the Dursleys have a tv, I never considered how it worked. It just did.”
“Yes, but that’s a very… muggle way of thinking. For someone who lives in a magic school where you should be taught how magic works, you sure are not so curious to wonder how the universe you live in works,” Severus shook his head. “So many things make sense now. No wonder you never created a spell on your own.”
Harry seemed to be taken aback by that, his shoulder slumping. “I didn’t know I was supposed to.”
“I guess a later start is better than no start at all,” Severus huffed.
As soon as the implication landed on him, Harry beamed, “You’ll teach me?”
“What exactly have I been doing for the past seven years and counting, Potter?”
Harry raised his eyebrows in the best imitation of him he could do, “Berating me, insulting me, and somehow always finding a fault in everything I do?”
“Excuses,” Severus waved him off, “Details of your incompetence do not interest me,” he smirked, which made Harry groan.
“You’re so frustrating!”
“Yes, I’ve been told. By many people, one of which was you.”
He was having fun, the jerk. Harry threw the ladder at him. And then he moved into his lap to kiss him.
