[Advent fics]: Homeward Bound, H/D/S, PG-13
Title: Homeward Bound
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Initial Harry/Draco, Severus/Harry/Draco, mentions of past Harry/Draco/OMC
Warnings: Angst
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 3400
Summary: Harry and Draco are missing something in their relationship. It takes a mistimed Apparition and some hard questioning to realize who it is.
Author's Notes: An Advent fic for nia_kantorka, who gave me a prompt for Severus/Harry/Draco, Harry and Draco are in a relationship but something is missing. Or is it someone? A winter setting would be lovely.
Homeward Bound
"If you were less jealous--"
"If you had fewer people after you--"
Those were the last words that each of them had shouted before they Apparated. And Harry had the horrible feeling that those words had been enough to make the Apparition unsuccessful. He groaned and turned his head, expecting to see that he was Splinched into a wall. It felt as if he'd run into one, anyway.
Instead, he lay on a low white bed in a stone room that reminded him of something. He frowned and rolled over. His muscles ached as though he had hit that wall, but he appeared to have all his limbs and all his senses. When he looked around the room and saw the other bed with Draco on it, the feeling of familiarity smashed into him as hard as the Apparition had.
It looked like one of the dungeon rooms at Hogwarts.
Draco groaned in turn, and Harry saw a rippling pattern of red marks on his arms. Harry blinked. Those were the marks that would probably come from someone being removed from a Splinch situation. It appeared that they had landed at the door of a Healer. Which was luckier than either of them deserved to be, Harry acknowledged grimly.
He glanced up when the door opened and then froze in surprise as Severus Snape swept into the room.
"You Apparated here by mistake," said Severus curtly, his arms folded and his fingers doing an impatient tap-dance on his arm while he scowled at Harry. "It seems that the similarity between Draco's Mark and mine and the connection that we shared when I gifted you with my memories, Potter, brought you through my wards." He turned the scowl impartially on Draco. "I've heard all about your famous rows. You aren't to have one here. You're to lie still and rest and heal, so you can leave."
He turned and slammed out of the room, the door bouncing into place hard enough that it roused pounding echoes in Harry's head, as if he had a hangover. He groaned again and rubbed his forehead, then turned and looked at Draco.
Draco had a raised eyebrow and a speculative look that Harry recognized at once, from the other times that Draco had talked about inviting someone into their shared bed.
"No," Harry said.
Draco shrugged, then winced and shifted a leg that must have been the worst Splinched. Even after someone managed to pull you out of a wall or stone or whatever else you'd embedded yourself in, Harry knew, your muscles stubbornly carried the memories of the aches. "Why not? I mean, he said it himself. We're connected to him."
"He hates me."
"Yes, he spent hours pulling you out of the wall of his house because he feels that way about you," Draco drawled, and gave him a disbelieving look.
"We don't know that it was the wall of his house."
"No rows, remember?" Draco asked, and cast a significant look at the door. It was true that Harry had raised his voice a little. He winced and tried to calm down, and Draco turned back to him with an angelic look. "Listen. I know that the other times we tried this haven't exactly...worked out."
"You could say that," Harry muttered, remembering the front-page stories and the near-lawsuit the last time they had tried.
Draco waved his hand. "How was I to know that he would be so much into armadillos? The point is, the point is, we both know Severus. He cares enough about us to go through a lengthy and time-consuming process, like rescuing us from Splinching. We both feel safe with him. We know he wouldn't go to the papers. And I wouldn't get jealous about any attention that you received from him, because I know he also has an interest in me for my own sake, not just as the lover of the famous Harry Potter. And there would be fewer people trying to catch your eye, because he has a fearsome reputation and would defend you." Draco looked at him expectantly.
Harry rubbed his forehead again. He had the impression that there was something severely wrong with Draco's arguments, and if he hadn't hurt so much at that exact moment, he would be able to figure out what it was. Surely it ought to be obvious? It seemed like it ought to be obvious.
But it was true that, as much as he and Draco sparked and clicked when they were together, there was something missing. It was one reason Draco kept suggesting a third partner. They needed someone who could divide their energy while still giving them enough attention to matter. Draco enjoyed attention too much to give it up or be happy if Harry was focusing completely on someone else--he didn't even like it when he imagined Harry was focusing on someone else--and Harry, as much as he hated to admit it, craved it after the way he had grown up.
The problem was, everyone willing to climb into bed with the both of them was wrong. Only there for the sex. Only there for the fame. Prone to fawn on Harry, which got Draco jealous in two ways. Expecting a different kind of relationship, which didn't include the rows that Harry and Draco were well-known for having.
Harry wasn't convinced that Severus Snape wasn't the best choice. But he was far from the worst one. They'd already been with the worst one.
"All right," he said. "We can try. We can ask." He held up a hand when Draco beamed and opened his mouth. "But I want to be the one to court him and propose it."
Draco spent a narrow moment examining Harry, as if he thought this was too good to be true and Harry would ruin it somehow. Then he shrugged and leaned back in his bed. "All right, then."
Harry blinked, but felt a faint smile creeping across his mouth. Draco only agreed like that when he really wanted something.
And the more Harry thought about it, the more he thought he could want Severus Snape. He had just never considered it before.
We'll try.
*
Severus wondered what these young fools thought they were doing.
Well, one young fool in particular. Mr. Malfoy had thanked Severus for his good offices in rescuing them from the wall they'd Splinched themselves into this morning, and he'd done it with his eyes on the floor and his voice soft and thoughtful. Severus had looked for worse manners, given the rumors circulating the last few years, and was pleasantly surprised.
But Mr. Potter was a different manner entirely.
The first thing he did was stare. Severus brought them a meal on trays, because he didn't want them coming out of the sickroom (that had been a storage room for extra vials until yesterday) and finding a way to drag him into trouble. Mr. Malfoy was asleep and Severus had to wake him, but Mr. Potter was awake, and he didn't take his eyes from Severus.
"Thank you for the meal," he said, and went on staring as he ate, until Severus turned abruptly and left. He had intended to take the trays and the cutlery back from them when they were done, but it seemed a better idea to tell them to leave his property outside the door of the sickroom when they finished.
And then Potter was awake when he came in the next time, while Draco was asleep, and he gave Severus a thoughtful look.
"Thank you for taking care of us," he said, keeping his voice down as if he didn't want to wake Draco, which was the only sign of consideration Severus had seen out of him since he Apparated here and disturbed a delicate experiment Severus had had in progress at the time. "You didn't have to."
Severus sneered at him and picked up the trays, which they hadn't put outside the door after all, as instructed. Neither of them could ever follow simple directions. "I would be irritating both Albus's and Lily's ghosts if I didn't," he replied.
Potter looked down for a second, his lashes veiling those eyes that were still the most impressive and haunting Severus had ever seen (which was a sad confession for an old man, whose childhood shouldn't still be affecting him at this point in his life). "And that's the only reason you did it?" Potter whispered.
Severus shook his head. "You know as well as I do that the other reasons are complicated and best left unspoken, Mr. Potter."
"I don't think we should leave them unspoken." Potter sat up against the pillow and studied Severus the way that Severus would look at another brewer he was considering a collaboration with. "Draco and I were discussing something."
"I refuse to become a part of your tumultuous romantic relationship."
Severus said it brusquely, both because the idea was self-evidently ridiculous and Potter would agree with that when he wasn't nursing the remains of a Splinching, and because the notion had suddenly flooded him like the taste of Firewhisky in his mouth. He had never considered it before, but of course he knew Potter and Draco's reputation for taking other men into their bed. Nothing ever satisfied them.
I would not, either.
That was true, and although Severus might wonder what it was like, to have the attention of people with such complicated connections to him, people he would not have to explain himself to, he would not risk the potential pain that lay at the end of that path. He had conduced his life since the war by minimizing his pain. He would not abandon that policy now.
"Are you sure?" Potter gave him a long look. "Normally, I would respect that answer. But there's something in your face when you said it that makes me wonder if you mean it."
Severus turned abruptly away from him and shut the door behind him. Potter said nothing, and didn't try to escape the room to pursue him, which showed he must have come to his senses.
Severus had to float the trays behind him to the kitchen, because his hands were shaking too much to carry them. But once he was there, he spent some minutes scrubbing them without magic, far more than they needed scrubbing for the relatively neat way Potter and Draco had eaten their broth. It seemed that Potter had learned table manners at last.
(It was even more ridiculous how that notion made Potter seem more attractive).
No, he would not let himself pursue this path. He had to remind himself, again and again, that pain was better left alone. So were risks, and chances, and all sorts of other things that he knew lots of people considered normal parts of life. They could not be for him.
What about happiness? Which is more important, happiness or pain?
That sounded like a question Albus would ask. And Severus knew the answer. Actual pain outweighed potential happiness.
He also knew Albus would not agree.
He crushed a bowl savagely against the side of the sink.
*
Draco sighed and shook his head at Harry. It was nearly a week now since Severus had found them Splinched into the side of his house and healed them, and a week since Harry had begun his clumsy courting. Draco was becoming sorry that he had ever agreed to leave that courting up to Harry.
Granted, he had been asleep the first time Harry had spoken to Severus about it and so wasn't sure what had been said, but he knew that Severus had since only spoken to them from the door of the room and averted his eyes when he did so, as if he expected them to be rolling around naked in front of him each time. When they made up excuses to stay in his house once they were fully healed, Severus had accepted them without question. And then he would run off with his hands clenched low at his sides and his cheeks burning.
"I let him know," Harry objected.
Yes, he had. Draco had no doubt that was part of the problem. Harry wouldn't have known to present it with any delicacy, or grace. Severus probably thought that naked rolling around was all they had to offer, and he hadn't seen the complications the way Draco did, because Harry hadn't thought to present those, either. He didn't think they existed, or he thought the force of mutual attraction ought to overcome them.
Draco said nothing further, though, because Severus had asked them not to row in his house. Instead, he waited until Harry was asleep, and slipped out to find Severus.
He had thought he would find Severus in his lab, but that proved not to be true. Draco searched the other rooms of the neat, compact house, built of stone layered over with wood for warmth in a few places, thoroughly bewildered. They'd had a large snowstorm the day before. Surely Severus couldn't be out in it?
Finally, Draco looked through what he had thought was a window, and only then realized it was a door, set low into the wall so that one could swing back the glass and step through it. It led out into a small, glassed-in space that would have been a porch if not for that covering. Severus rocked there in a chair with long runners Draco had never seen before, staring out at the snow.
Draco stepped out the window-door and came up to him. Severus promptly hunched, and stared out at the snow with greater intensity than ever before.
"Harry hasn't the least idea why you refused," Draco said softly. "But I do."
"Enlighten me, then."
Draco was impressed. Severus's act would have fooled a lot of people, people less sensitive to the nuances of his mood than Draco was. He kept his gaze straight ahead, and his voice sounded flat and bored and neutral. But Draco had seen the hand that trembled, then stilled on the arm of his chair.
"He tried to make it sound so easy and simple," said Draco, and moved close enough that he could cover one of Severus's cold hands with his. Severus didn't move, because to move would be to admit weakness, but his hand closed into a harsh fist, and Draco knew he was right. "That's not the way you need to hear it. You need to hear that it's going to be hard and knotty and complicated. Like the rest of your life."
Severus's eyes flickered up to him at last. "Why would I be interested in an affair like that?"
"Because it's what you know," Draco said, and bent near. Those large black eyes were more attractive than he had remembered them, looking as though they could easily flash with passion and condemnation at the same time. Sometimes, Draco thought he could do with a little more condemnation. "And the problems that we can solve together are interesting."
Severus paused and tilted his head. Draco smiled. He knew he had Severus. Problems to solve were what Severus lived for. He might have said in the speech the Ministry had coerced out of him when he received the Order of Merlin that he was glad to be done with the tangles of war and he would prefer a quiet life, but Draco knew that only his brewing had let him speak that sincerely. If Severus hadn't been a Potions genius, then he would have engaged in solving difficult Arithmancy equations, or in politics, or he would have come charging out of retirement to save their lives and reputations before this.
Draco was certain of it, and so was less surprised when Severus frowned at him and asked, "Is the kind of problem that you and Potter present one that is capable of solutions?"
"I think so," Draco said honestly. "The problem is that we're too unbalanced. There's too much us for a relationship with just two people." Severus's hands clenched again at the mention of the word, but they had come too far for Draco to go back to using a different word, when Severus knew perfectly well what he meant. "We always knew that, and that's why we've looked so hard for a third. But we thought--we thought there was a personality trait or something that would balance us. We thought that was what we were looking for, a particular kind of person."
"You are not?" Severus sounded bewildered.
Draco shook his head. "We were looking for a particular person. A who, not a what." He held Severus's gaze. "And I think we've found him."
"I think so, too."
Draco looked over his shoulder in annoyance. Harry was always creeping up behind him like that. There were disadvantages in being close to an Auror beyond the obvious. "You wouldn't think so, from the way that you went about courting him."
"You could have told me that you wanted to take over ages ago, if you'd just made it clear," said Harry, and came up on Severus's other side. His arms were folded, and he alternated his gaze between Severus and Draco, although his gaze was only soft when it was on Severus. "If you thought I was doing such a horrible job, then--"
"No rowing in my house, I said." Severus rose up between them like a black ghost.
"But I thought--"
"I wasn't going to say--"
Draco had to shut up, because Severus was kissing him.
It was fairly forceful, and it made Draco gasp a little, because he hadn't expected it, and then Severus's tongue went into his mouth, and it was all the things that Draco had never known he wanted, like a taste that was different from Harry's but didn't have to end, and a kiss from someone who knew his past and didn't have to forgive it, and Draco clung to Severus's wrists and drowned happily.
Then Severus turned around and kissed Harry. Harry didn't take it as calmly as Draco had; he thrust his jaw forwards, and his nose nearly collided with Severus's. But he enjoyed the kiss, too, if the way that his fingers dug into Severus's arms was any indication. Draco had seen that pattern of scratches before only on the rare occasions that they could make love without any fighting prior to it.
Then Severus stepped back, and looked between them. Draco looked back, and he could feel his body almost vibrating with eagerness. He was sure that Harry's was doing the same thing, although Harry didn't often show it.
"Perhaps I ought to be with the two of you simply to ensure that whichever one of you survives does not go to prison for murder," Severus murmured.
"If that's the only reason," Harry began in a noble and tragic tone.
Severus smiled in a way Draco hadn't seen in ages, the smile of a Slytherin on the hunt, and turned around. "Has it always been this easy to fool you, Harry?" he asked. "I look forward to finding out the other ways that I can do so."
Harry gaped for a second, and then he leaned around Severus and kissed Draco. Draco enjoyed the taste of competition and challenge and interest there, and the flare of interest he saw as well in Severus's eyes as he watched them.
This was...
This wasn't going to be simple, but it was going to be very interesting, Draco thought contentedly. And in the meantime, it was going to be fun.
And it at least had a very good chance of being what he and Harry needed.
And what Severus needs, too, Draco thought, in the moment before Severus moved forwards to envelop both of them in his arms for the first time.
The End.
How Strait the Gate.
This entry was originally posted at http://lomonaaeren.dreamwidth.org/717493.html. Comment wherever you like.
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Initial Harry/Draco, Severus/Harry/Draco, mentions of past Harry/Draco/OMC
Warnings: Angst
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 3400
Summary: Harry and Draco are missing something in their relationship. It takes a mistimed Apparition and some hard questioning to realize who it is.
Author's Notes: An Advent fic for nia_kantorka, who gave me a prompt for Severus/Harry/Draco, Harry and Draco are in a relationship but something is missing. Or is it someone? A winter setting would be lovely.
Homeward Bound
"If you were less jealous--"
"If you had fewer people after you--"
Those were the last words that each of them had shouted before they Apparated. And Harry had the horrible feeling that those words had been enough to make the Apparition unsuccessful. He groaned and turned his head, expecting to see that he was Splinched into a wall. It felt as if he'd run into one, anyway.
Instead, he lay on a low white bed in a stone room that reminded him of something. He frowned and rolled over. His muscles ached as though he had hit that wall, but he appeared to have all his limbs and all his senses. When he looked around the room and saw the other bed with Draco on it, the feeling of familiarity smashed into him as hard as the Apparition had.
It looked like one of the dungeon rooms at Hogwarts.
Draco groaned in turn, and Harry saw a rippling pattern of red marks on his arms. Harry blinked. Those were the marks that would probably come from someone being removed from a Splinch situation. It appeared that they had landed at the door of a Healer. Which was luckier than either of them deserved to be, Harry acknowledged grimly.
He glanced up when the door opened and then froze in surprise as Severus Snape swept into the room.
"You Apparated here by mistake," said Severus curtly, his arms folded and his fingers doing an impatient tap-dance on his arm while he scowled at Harry. "It seems that the similarity between Draco's Mark and mine and the connection that we shared when I gifted you with my memories, Potter, brought you through my wards." He turned the scowl impartially on Draco. "I've heard all about your famous rows. You aren't to have one here. You're to lie still and rest and heal, so you can leave."
He turned and slammed out of the room, the door bouncing into place hard enough that it roused pounding echoes in Harry's head, as if he had a hangover. He groaned again and rubbed his forehead, then turned and looked at Draco.
Draco had a raised eyebrow and a speculative look that Harry recognized at once, from the other times that Draco had talked about inviting someone into their shared bed.
"No," Harry said.
Draco shrugged, then winced and shifted a leg that must have been the worst Splinched. Even after someone managed to pull you out of a wall or stone or whatever else you'd embedded yourself in, Harry knew, your muscles stubbornly carried the memories of the aches. "Why not? I mean, he said it himself. We're connected to him."
"He hates me."
"Yes, he spent hours pulling you out of the wall of his house because he feels that way about you," Draco drawled, and gave him a disbelieving look.
"We don't know that it was the wall of his house."
"No rows, remember?" Draco asked, and cast a significant look at the door. It was true that Harry had raised his voice a little. He winced and tried to calm down, and Draco turned back to him with an angelic look. "Listen. I know that the other times we tried this haven't exactly...worked out."
"You could say that," Harry muttered, remembering the front-page stories and the near-lawsuit the last time they had tried.
Draco waved his hand. "How was I to know that he would be so much into armadillos? The point is, the point is, we both know Severus. He cares enough about us to go through a lengthy and time-consuming process, like rescuing us from Splinching. We both feel safe with him. We know he wouldn't go to the papers. And I wouldn't get jealous about any attention that you received from him, because I know he also has an interest in me for my own sake, not just as the lover of the famous Harry Potter. And there would be fewer people trying to catch your eye, because he has a fearsome reputation and would defend you." Draco looked at him expectantly.
Harry rubbed his forehead again. He had the impression that there was something severely wrong with Draco's arguments, and if he hadn't hurt so much at that exact moment, he would be able to figure out what it was. Surely it ought to be obvious? It seemed like it ought to be obvious.
But it was true that, as much as he and Draco sparked and clicked when they were together, there was something missing. It was one reason Draco kept suggesting a third partner. They needed someone who could divide their energy while still giving them enough attention to matter. Draco enjoyed attention too much to give it up or be happy if Harry was focusing completely on someone else--he didn't even like it when he imagined Harry was focusing on someone else--and Harry, as much as he hated to admit it, craved it after the way he had grown up.
The problem was, everyone willing to climb into bed with the both of them was wrong. Only there for the sex. Only there for the fame. Prone to fawn on Harry, which got Draco jealous in two ways. Expecting a different kind of relationship, which didn't include the rows that Harry and Draco were well-known for having.
Harry wasn't convinced that Severus Snape wasn't the best choice. But he was far from the worst one. They'd already been with the worst one.
"All right," he said. "We can try. We can ask." He held up a hand when Draco beamed and opened his mouth. "But I want to be the one to court him and propose it."
Draco spent a narrow moment examining Harry, as if he thought this was too good to be true and Harry would ruin it somehow. Then he shrugged and leaned back in his bed. "All right, then."
Harry blinked, but felt a faint smile creeping across his mouth. Draco only agreed like that when he really wanted something.
And the more Harry thought about it, the more he thought he could want Severus Snape. He had just never considered it before.
We'll try.
*
Severus wondered what these young fools thought they were doing.
Well, one young fool in particular. Mr. Malfoy had thanked Severus for his good offices in rescuing them from the wall they'd Splinched themselves into this morning, and he'd done it with his eyes on the floor and his voice soft and thoughtful. Severus had looked for worse manners, given the rumors circulating the last few years, and was pleasantly surprised.
But Mr. Potter was a different manner entirely.
The first thing he did was stare. Severus brought them a meal on trays, because he didn't want them coming out of the sickroom (that had been a storage room for extra vials until yesterday) and finding a way to drag him into trouble. Mr. Malfoy was asleep and Severus had to wake him, but Mr. Potter was awake, and he didn't take his eyes from Severus.
"Thank you for the meal," he said, and went on staring as he ate, until Severus turned abruptly and left. He had intended to take the trays and the cutlery back from them when they were done, but it seemed a better idea to tell them to leave his property outside the door of the sickroom when they finished.
And then Potter was awake when he came in the next time, while Draco was asleep, and he gave Severus a thoughtful look.
"Thank you for taking care of us," he said, keeping his voice down as if he didn't want to wake Draco, which was the only sign of consideration Severus had seen out of him since he Apparated here and disturbed a delicate experiment Severus had had in progress at the time. "You didn't have to."
Severus sneered at him and picked up the trays, which they hadn't put outside the door after all, as instructed. Neither of them could ever follow simple directions. "I would be irritating both Albus's and Lily's ghosts if I didn't," he replied.
Potter looked down for a second, his lashes veiling those eyes that were still the most impressive and haunting Severus had ever seen (which was a sad confession for an old man, whose childhood shouldn't still be affecting him at this point in his life). "And that's the only reason you did it?" Potter whispered.
Severus shook his head. "You know as well as I do that the other reasons are complicated and best left unspoken, Mr. Potter."
"I don't think we should leave them unspoken." Potter sat up against the pillow and studied Severus the way that Severus would look at another brewer he was considering a collaboration with. "Draco and I were discussing something."
"I refuse to become a part of your tumultuous romantic relationship."
Severus said it brusquely, both because the idea was self-evidently ridiculous and Potter would agree with that when he wasn't nursing the remains of a Splinching, and because the notion had suddenly flooded him like the taste of Firewhisky in his mouth. He had never considered it before, but of course he knew Potter and Draco's reputation for taking other men into their bed. Nothing ever satisfied them.
I would not, either.
That was true, and although Severus might wonder what it was like, to have the attention of people with such complicated connections to him, people he would not have to explain himself to, he would not risk the potential pain that lay at the end of that path. He had conduced his life since the war by minimizing his pain. He would not abandon that policy now.
"Are you sure?" Potter gave him a long look. "Normally, I would respect that answer. But there's something in your face when you said it that makes me wonder if you mean it."
Severus turned abruptly away from him and shut the door behind him. Potter said nothing, and didn't try to escape the room to pursue him, which showed he must have come to his senses.
Severus had to float the trays behind him to the kitchen, because his hands were shaking too much to carry them. But once he was there, he spent some minutes scrubbing them without magic, far more than they needed scrubbing for the relatively neat way Potter and Draco had eaten their broth. It seemed that Potter had learned table manners at last.
(It was even more ridiculous how that notion made Potter seem more attractive).
No, he would not let himself pursue this path. He had to remind himself, again and again, that pain was better left alone. So were risks, and chances, and all sorts of other things that he knew lots of people considered normal parts of life. They could not be for him.
What about happiness? Which is more important, happiness or pain?
That sounded like a question Albus would ask. And Severus knew the answer. Actual pain outweighed potential happiness.
He also knew Albus would not agree.
He crushed a bowl savagely against the side of the sink.
*
Draco sighed and shook his head at Harry. It was nearly a week now since Severus had found them Splinched into the side of his house and healed them, and a week since Harry had begun his clumsy courting. Draco was becoming sorry that he had ever agreed to leave that courting up to Harry.
Granted, he had been asleep the first time Harry had spoken to Severus about it and so wasn't sure what had been said, but he knew that Severus had since only spoken to them from the door of the room and averted his eyes when he did so, as if he expected them to be rolling around naked in front of him each time. When they made up excuses to stay in his house once they were fully healed, Severus had accepted them without question. And then he would run off with his hands clenched low at his sides and his cheeks burning.
"I let him know," Harry objected.
Yes, he had. Draco had no doubt that was part of the problem. Harry wouldn't have known to present it with any delicacy, or grace. Severus probably thought that naked rolling around was all they had to offer, and he hadn't seen the complications the way Draco did, because Harry hadn't thought to present those, either. He didn't think they existed, or he thought the force of mutual attraction ought to overcome them.
Draco said nothing further, though, because Severus had asked them not to row in his house. Instead, he waited until Harry was asleep, and slipped out to find Severus.
He had thought he would find Severus in his lab, but that proved not to be true. Draco searched the other rooms of the neat, compact house, built of stone layered over with wood for warmth in a few places, thoroughly bewildered. They'd had a large snowstorm the day before. Surely Severus couldn't be out in it?
Finally, Draco looked through what he had thought was a window, and only then realized it was a door, set low into the wall so that one could swing back the glass and step through it. It led out into a small, glassed-in space that would have been a porch if not for that covering. Severus rocked there in a chair with long runners Draco had never seen before, staring out at the snow.
Draco stepped out the window-door and came up to him. Severus promptly hunched, and stared out at the snow with greater intensity than ever before.
"Harry hasn't the least idea why you refused," Draco said softly. "But I do."
"Enlighten me, then."
Draco was impressed. Severus's act would have fooled a lot of people, people less sensitive to the nuances of his mood than Draco was. He kept his gaze straight ahead, and his voice sounded flat and bored and neutral. But Draco had seen the hand that trembled, then stilled on the arm of his chair.
"He tried to make it sound so easy and simple," said Draco, and moved close enough that he could cover one of Severus's cold hands with his. Severus didn't move, because to move would be to admit weakness, but his hand closed into a harsh fist, and Draco knew he was right. "That's not the way you need to hear it. You need to hear that it's going to be hard and knotty and complicated. Like the rest of your life."
Severus's eyes flickered up to him at last. "Why would I be interested in an affair like that?"
"Because it's what you know," Draco said, and bent near. Those large black eyes were more attractive than he had remembered them, looking as though they could easily flash with passion and condemnation at the same time. Sometimes, Draco thought he could do with a little more condemnation. "And the problems that we can solve together are interesting."
Severus paused and tilted his head. Draco smiled. He knew he had Severus. Problems to solve were what Severus lived for. He might have said in the speech the Ministry had coerced out of him when he received the Order of Merlin that he was glad to be done with the tangles of war and he would prefer a quiet life, but Draco knew that only his brewing had let him speak that sincerely. If Severus hadn't been a Potions genius, then he would have engaged in solving difficult Arithmancy equations, or in politics, or he would have come charging out of retirement to save their lives and reputations before this.
Draco was certain of it, and so was less surprised when Severus frowned at him and asked, "Is the kind of problem that you and Potter present one that is capable of solutions?"
"I think so," Draco said honestly. "The problem is that we're too unbalanced. There's too much us for a relationship with just two people." Severus's hands clenched again at the mention of the word, but they had come too far for Draco to go back to using a different word, when Severus knew perfectly well what he meant. "We always knew that, and that's why we've looked so hard for a third. But we thought--we thought there was a personality trait or something that would balance us. We thought that was what we were looking for, a particular kind of person."
"You are not?" Severus sounded bewildered.
Draco shook his head. "We were looking for a particular person. A who, not a what." He held Severus's gaze. "And I think we've found him."
"I think so, too."
Draco looked over his shoulder in annoyance. Harry was always creeping up behind him like that. There were disadvantages in being close to an Auror beyond the obvious. "You wouldn't think so, from the way that you went about courting him."
"You could have told me that you wanted to take over ages ago, if you'd just made it clear," said Harry, and came up on Severus's other side. His arms were folded, and he alternated his gaze between Severus and Draco, although his gaze was only soft when it was on Severus. "If you thought I was doing such a horrible job, then--"
"No rowing in my house, I said." Severus rose up between them like a black ghost.
"But I thought--"
"I wasn't going to say--"
Draco had to shut up, because Severus was kissing him.
It was fairly forceful, and it made Draco gasp a little, because he hadn't expected it, and then Severus's tongue went into his mouth, and it was all the things that Draco had never known he wanted, like a taste that was different from Harry's but didn't have to end, and a kiss from someone who knew his past and didn't have to forgive it, and Draco clung to Severus's wrists and drowned happily.
Then Severus turned around and kissed Harry. Harry didn't take it as calmly as Draco had; he thrust his jaw forwards, and his nose nearly collided with Severus's. But he enjoyed the kiss, too, if the way that his fingers dug into Severus's arms was any indication. Draco had seen that pattern of scratches before only on the rare occasions that they could make love without any fighting prior to it.
Then Severus stepped back, and looked between them. Draco looked back, and he could feel his body almost vibrating with eagerness. He was sure that Harry's was doing the same thing, although Harry didn't often show it.
"Perhaps I ought to be with the two of you simply to ensure that whichever one of you survives does not go to prison for murder," Severus murmured.
"If that's the only reason," Harry began in a noble and tragic tone.
Severus smiled in a way Draco hadn't seen in ages, the smile of a Slytherin on the hunt, and turned around. "Has it always been this easy to fool you, Harry?" he asked. "I look forward to finding out the other ways that I can do so."
Harry gaped for a second, and then he leaned around Severus and kissed Draco. Draco enjoyed the taste of competition and challenge and interest there, and the flare of interest he saw as well in Severus's eyes as he watched them.
This was...
This wasn't going to be simple, but it was going to be very interesting, Draco thought contentedly. And in the meantime, it was going to be fun.
And it at least had a very good chance of being what he and Harry needed.
And what Severus needs, too, Draco thought, in the moment before Severus moved forwards to envelop both of them in his arms for the first time.
The End.
How Strait the Gate.
This entry was originally posted at http://lomonaaeren.dreamwidth.org/717493.html. Comment wherever you like.