"No," Snape shortly answered. "That is wholly irrational."
"Well, it's true, all the same," Harry answered, quirking a small smile. "We're not all cool composed Potions Masters. Really, Professor. I need my friends."
"Oh, very well," the man sighed, which lifted Harry's spirits considerably until he continued, "your imbecilic Gryffindor friends will be allowed to visit you in my quarters."
"That's not what I meant--"
Snape's voice came across as imperious, as well it might, Harry supposed; that had been quite the concession he'd just made. Actually, Harry was touched, and impressed, though he hadn't managed to say so yet. For Snape to allow Hermione and Ron and maybe even Neville into his private living space... that spoke volumes. A warm sort of fuzzy glow crept over Harry, making him feel like he'd eaten his fill of buttered pancakes or something.
"You have another difficulty?" Snape was snapping out, the words practically a lash.
Oh Merlin, Harry thought, that's it. I'm hurting his feelings... Funny how life turned out. If anyone had told him a year ago that he'd be worried about hurting Snape, that he'd feel really really bad about it... well, he'd have died laughing.
"Just some questions," Harry sighed. "Try not to fly off the handle."
"I do not fly--"
"Yeah," Harry cut him off, managing not to add sure you don't, right. "I know you've said not to fret over this, but what about my classes?"
"I will see to that," Snape replied rather dismissively.
"You mean you'll tutor me at night, or something? Um, no offense, but do you know all that much about every subject? I mean, I'm sure you're ace at Defense and Potions, maybe Charms, that's sort of related--"
"Would you like to see my own N.E.W.T. results?" Snape drawled. "Or my curriculum vitae, perhaps? Don't be an idiot!"
All right, maybe that had been a little dumb. "What about the days? I mean, you teach. What am I supposed to do all day, rattling around in the dungeons all by myself?"
"Why, I'm sure you'll study. Isn't that your main preoccupation, getting caught up to your classmates? Without games of Exploding Snap and candies that turn you into a rhinoceros to distract you, I'm sure you'll learn more in a week than you acquire in months with all your friends about."
"Um, I don't suppose you know how long I'll have to stay with you, do you?"
"No, I don't suppose I do," Snape mocked. "We'll see how long it may take Draco Malfoy to do the job he's been assigned, and sway Slytherin to your cause. Our cause, rather. I must learn an entirely new way of speaking, do you realize that? Well, no matter. In the alternative, I imagine that the Tower will be safe for you once your powers are fully recovered. Certainly, they will be so after you put the Dark Lord in his grave, for good this time, one would hope."
"Voldemort," Harry suddenly corrected. "Say Voldemort."
"Oh, don't be ridiculous--"
"Do it. Say Voldemort. You give him power when you won't say his name. I understand when you were spying and all, you had to distance yourself from Dumbledore, who uses it. And me too, probably, when it came to that. But that's all over."
"I tried to make you say the Dark Lord as well, much good it ever did me," Snape reminded him.
"Come on, you can do it..." Harry thought for a second, then plunged ahead. "Tell you what, you say Voldemort for me, and I'll come live in the dungeons like you want."
"You have no choice in that. At any rate, you have already tacitly agreed."
Harry thought a moment. "True. Well, you say Voldemort then, and I'll overtly agree."
"Why does it matter to you so much, what I say?"
"A new way of speaking, Professor. A new way of thinking, really," Harry insisted. "It matters."
"You'll agree to reside in my quarters until we're agreed the danger is passed? No matter how difficult you may find it to live there?"
"I'm sure we can figure out how to co-exist," Harry murmured. "Yeah. All right, yes. But you have to say it from now on. You can't go around acting like you're still his minion."
"Voldemort," Snape said, smiling slightly.
"See, it was easy," Harry mocked.
"Taking up residence in my quarters may well not be the same for you," Snape warned. "But that's settled, now. Can you see well enough to navigate your way down with me?"
"Ah, no, don't think so."
"More Elixir, then. Hold still, Harry. Dare I say that's been well done of you the last few times?" He paused to put it in, one hand prying each eye open in turn while the other dosed him. "There. Now you'll get dressed; Minerva fetched some of your clothes so that you wouldn't have to wander the halls in your pajamas."
Harry groaned. "Oh, no... there I was thinking all about myself, but what are my friends going to think when all my stuff gets moved out, when they hear I've gone down into the Slytherin dungeons to live?"
"No doubt they'll descend on me like locusts," Snape lamented. "I imagine your cousin will make it even worse, though really, he did seem much changed in that hospital."
"My cousin?" Harry gasped, nonplussed.
"Yes," Snape said, wiping his hands on a towel and neatly corking the flask of Elixir. "You didn't think he could ward my rooms from a distance, did you? Dudley Dursley will have to come here if he wishes to help you."
"Oh," Harry returned, blinking several times. Seeing that his teacher had walked off toward the windows--decorum again--Harry hurriedly swapped his pajamas for the clothes laid out, and after slipping on his shoes, hopped off the bed. Hmm, he was still sore, but not enough to even need a pain draught any longer. Thinking fast, he stuffed the letter to Dudley into a trouser pocket, and picked up the enchanted quill from where Pomfrey had laid it. Then he pulled on his robes--now those felt nice at last--and walked over to join Snape, feeling rather proud that he only stumbled once as he navigated the hazy room.
"Dudley will want to help me," Harry admitted. "But... he's a Muggle, professor. I mean, he won't even be able to see Hogwarts, will he? He'll see some crumbling old ruin... how will he even get in, or down to the dungeons to ward them?"
"It will be a bit of a trick," Snape admitted, slanting him a look. "I suppose we shall have to use magic."
Harry was hardly amused. "We can't do this to him," he protested, his voice increasing in volume. "He's... fragile, Professor. Mentally, I mean. And he was raised to really, really fear magic, you know."
"Albus has spoken with his therapist, who feels it will be to his benefit to come here," Snape insisted, looking down at him. "Yes, he fears magic. But you are his only family left, and magic is an integral part of you. Your cousin needs to see you in your natural element. It will help him to know that magic is more than Dementors attacking him."
"But to stay in the dungeons, with you?" Harry couldn't help but scoff. "No offense, all right, but look at you! You'll make him pee his pants, Professor!" When Snape's soft laugh sounded wickedly amused, Harry snapped, "I'm not joking!"
Snape frowned, his eyebrows creasing as he leaned forward. "Your cousin already knows me as Remus Lupin," he commented rather darkly. "Shall I Polyjuice back into his mangy form for a few days?"
"Oh, Merlin, no," Harry gasped. "That wasn't what I meant."
"Good," Snape approved. He walked across the length of the hospital wing and beckoned Harry to follow. Hmm, a little nerve-wracking, walking unaided all that way, Harry thought. But he managed. At least he wasn't completely blind any longer.