Indifference Towards Difference || Harry Potter

6 | Rules Within Rules Within Rules

"It may sound paradoxical, but strength comes from vulnerability. You have to ask the question to get the answer, even though asking the question means you didn't know."
Majid Kazmi

~~~

"Severus wants you in the dining room."

The voice, lacking its usual drawl and venom, came clearly through the oaken door, and it was with great reluctance that Harry left his rooms; his bed really was very comfortable.

Wincing slightly as the stairs creaked and his weaker knee almost buckled halfway down, Harry padded awkwardly into the dining room. Compared to Snape's more formal attire—black trousers and a collared white button-down shirt with long sleeves, buttoned at the wrists— Harry felt very out-of-place with his worn hoodie and loose jeans. The sneers from the paintings about him being an "awfully vulgar boy...bringing shame to this household dressed like that..." hadn't helped his confidence either.

The man was definitely enjoying his squirming, Harry decided, as he waited for Snape to finish his life-or-death task of reading the newspaper. Merlin above, could he really just get the misery over and done with—

"I trust Draco gave you a satisfactory tour of the manor."

Harry almost jumped, the automatic "yes sir" falling from his lips just in time.

"And he told you which rooms are impermissible?"

"Yes sir."

"Perhaps this time, note that your pomposity and egoistic manner from your inherent, hubristic nature does not make you an exception to these rules. As special as you may like to feel, you are nothing in my household." Snape sneered at him, dark eyes hardened to obsidian stone.

"Yes, sir." Harry briefly wondered who would do a better job at putting him down, Snape or the Dursleys? He ought to arrange a formal meeting and just stand between them, like Piggy In The Middle. He was sure they'd become great friends. They could have tea parties and throw darts at Harry's face.

Snape stared at him for a moment before waving his wand. A parchment popped into view and glided towards Harry. "This is a schedule you will adhere to for your training. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be held at seven, noon, and six in the afternoon respectively. If you do not come on time, you do not eat. Sundays will be my day off; I don't want to see hide nor hair of you for the full 24 hours. In fact, the longer the better. If you do not follow to this schedule to the very letter, Potter, you will not like the consequences. Is that clear?"

The schedule was outrageous. Defense training from nine to eleven every morning. Theory and Research on alternative days (though he had no idea what he was meant to be researching). And then Occulemency, every night, starting at half past seven for one and a half hours. This was torture, plain and simple.

But some of the schedule was numerical; Snape had written nine as '9' and eleven as '11' and seven as '7', so following the schedule to the letter technically meant just turning up to the assigned rooms...but whenever he wanted...

And yet he still went and said "yes sir." Now wasn't the time to annoy Snape. More than he had done anyway.

"I expect you to come to your lessons promptly. Any sort of tardiness is inexcusable. You will put your full effort into these lessons— I am already ruining my summer spending it in your company, and any sort of insolence or mischief will result in dire punishment. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Spoken like a true automaton.

"If you need something, you may either call myself or Minky. Minky!"