Harry stumbled forward and nearly fell to the ground but his hoodie was grabbed by Severus who stood just a few steps behind. “Careful now, the ground is a bit slippy due to the rain last night.” Harry nodded but soon stumbled again, luckily managing to save himself this time by stepping forward with his other foot. His pants got a bit muddy, but at least it wasn’t his whole front body.

After what happened yesterday Harry had a long discussion with himself in his head, Severus also had quite the self-reflection about his recent behavior.

As drops of water hit the roof, as the night sky slowly cleared up letting the moonlight shone through, Severus realized something at the same time that Harry was led to a decision. This whole distancing thing just wasn’t working, heck, it was kinda useless. 

The two were stuck together in a small town inside an even smaller house, Severus was Harry’s main babysitter and probably the closest adult in Harry’s life. He may have been a parental figure for the boy, but no matter their age gap, their relationship is too deep to suddenly shove away.

Even after this stay ends, they will see eachother again. Many times. Trying to avoid enjoyment of any kind and just being needlessly cold seemed so…needless.

“Ok!” Harry said with a loud tone, suddenly turning around. “First things first, let’s stop with this Snape and Potter stuff. I’m not my dad. It feels really weird when you only call me by my family name! Also, it’s really been peeving me off how you’ve been saying his actual name more than mine recently…”

“James and I are on…more neutral terms these days. So I feel more comfortable addressing him instead of his lineage.” Severus explained. Despite his words making sense, none of them felt right to him. He still didn’t exactly enjoy James’ company, all of that felt more like an excuse to avoid unnecessary conflict.

“Wha- You feel more comfortable around him then me?! That’s so weird.”

The long haired man shrugged with a grin. “Can’t disagree with that.”

Harry ran forward, making sure to watch out this time so he wouldn't fall, and tried his best to seem menacing all the while. “I’m serious, Sev…”

Severus huffed with a brief smile. “As you wish, Harry.”

The boy seemed satisfied and with his hands on his hips moved forward again…not paying attention to the wet rock right in front of him and ending up with a face full of mud. 

Severus picked the boy up and took out his wand, waving a quick cleaning spell followed by a glasses repairing spell. Whoever came up with that one must’ve saved many visually impaired magic users from major, necessary bills.

“Where are we going by the way?” The boy asked. “I didn’t think you’d wanna walk out much with the whole woodlands being so wet after all. Heck…I think this is the furthest we’ve walked out here.” Sometimes Severus would take him along while picking out any funky mushrooms that grow nearby, but not a single fungus had been picked during their current outing.

The older man pointed towards the east. “We’re going to a moor that lays deep within the heart of these woods. Due to the heat a certain group of creatures haven’t been showing there, but perhaps the weather might’ve brought back a few.”

“Like…frogs? Those usually live in moors, right?”

“They do, but they are not what I mean.” Severus explained, making a sort of shushing motion with his fingers. “When we arrive, I need you to quiet down. You need to be completely still so they don’t get spooked.”

Harry nodded, softly slapping his hands against his mouth.

The dark haired pair walked in the direction Snape previously pointed to. The trees began getting more and more “decoration” on them the deeper they walked. The “decoration” being thick layers of moss. The air here had a strange taste to it, almost slimy but in a pleasant sort of way. Large snails and slugs were all across the ground and Harry had to be extra careful to not only avoid slipping again, but also to not step on the slow, little creatures.

Eventually Snape stopped walking and Harry took that as them having arrived at their destination. “Huh…I thought a moor was supposed to be-” The boy quickly remembered that he was supposed to be quiet and zipped up his own lips. He wanted to say that the spot was rather small, he wasn’t expecting an ocean or anything but this seemed more like a puddle if anything.

Severus seemed to be looking for something, carefully hovering over the puddle and making sure not to make any sudden movements. Harry kind of just stood there, not really knowing what to do as he doesn’t wanna scare off whatever they were hunting for.

He looked up at the sky for a bit, observing the few clouds that had still been leftover. Sometimes, back at home, he would stare at them together with his mother and she would talk about all the shapes she would see up there. To Harry, clouds just looked like…clouds. He never quite understood how or why she managed to see stuff like penguins or butterflies up there.

“Oh!” Speaking of butterflies…a transparent, winged bug had sneaked up on Harry and managed to land on the top of his nose. 

It kinda looked like a monarch, but…Harry is pretty sure that these bugs were supposed to have some kind of color in their wings, a pattern to fool predators into thinking a big bird was looking at them. This thing however seemed to have glass or thin ice for its wings. Harry didn’t move, unsure if this insect was exactly normal, or if it was even an insect at all.

From the corner of his eyes Harry noticed the long haired man sneaking close with a wand in hand. He whispered something and the butterfly with transparent wings formed a spherical shape around it. He tried to balance the ball for a second but it soon fell, Severus managed to grab it just before it hit the ground.

“What…what was that?”

“This,” Severus began, “is a Transperiach. It’s a sort of water spirit.” Severus casted Lumos and held it behind the ball, showing the silhouette of the creature. Even while all dark and shadowy, its wings had this weird transparency to it and the light shone through, just barely able to show the tips of them. “It’s usually pretty shy around humans, I’m surprised it flew so close to you.”

“I was surprised too, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Harry turned his head from side to side. “Are there more of those around here?”

“Hm…Not from what I have seen. Regardless, only one is really necessary.” Severus put the ball inside his coat, ve~ry carefully. “With these you can cast an enchantment that keeps nasty, more mischievous water spirits away.” Severus scowled and made a noise of disgust. “They especially become a problem during the colder seasons…”

Harry raised a brow. “I’m guessing they stop the water from running, or something like that.”

“Quite the opposite, they won’t stop until every room is flooded.” He let out yet another noise of disgust, this time much more hateful. “To make matters worse, they don’t exactly differentiate between clean water and sewage…”

“Eww, gross…but also I kinda wanna see that.”

“Unluckily for you, our home will be kept safe thanks to this little one.”

Harry faked a pout before letting out a giggle, he reached for Severus’ free hand and the two made their way back…Neither of them had paid attention to the wet rocks in front of them however and they ended up with faces full of mud…as well as a smushed water spirit.