Quid 2, Posts 6 - 10
Title: Quid 2
Series: Posts 6 - 10
Author: Josan
Pairing: Threesome: Snape/Harry/Draco
Posting began: August 22, 2006
Posting ended: April 7, 2007
Warnings, etc: See Quid 2, Posts 1 - 5
Quid 2, Post 6
Sorry, more plot, just to fill in a few background events.
**********
Even though it was early, Harry and Draco snuggled close together in Draco's bed. Harry's was covered with the books he'd brought back from the library.
Draco hissed a little as the bedclothes settled on his still sore arse.
"Want me to do something about that?" Harry asked, sleepily.
Draco shook his head. "No. Need to feel it a little longer."
"Bad day?" Harry pulled so that Draco was almost draped over him. He slid his hand down Draco's back until it rested just above the sensitive skin.
Draco didn't want to answer. How to explain that this day was no different than any other, but just getting to be too much?
Harry's hand began stroking up and down along his spine, offering solace.
Draco slipped his arms around Harry, offering his own. "Have the dynamic duo finally accepted that you're not under Imperio?
Harry stiffened a little, enough for Draco to raise his head and look Harry in the eyes. "What?"
"They set McGonagall on me."
"Shhhhhit!" Draco shifted to prop his head up on his hand. "You all right?"
Harry stared at the canopy. "Draco, have you been feeling...I don't know how to describe this, but have you been feeling..." He shifted his eyes to Draco. "Do you feel your magic is stronger since we've come back?"
Draco thought before he finally nodded. "That's as good a way of describing it as any."
"How?"
"Hexes are easier to counter, curses as well. It's almost as though I can...sense their coming before they're even cast."
Harry said nothing for a moment or two, once more examining the canopy. "Do you find you don't really need...your wand?"
Draco chewed on his lower lip before he nodded. "I got caught between two hexes this morning, in a hallway. I took care of the one coming from in front of me with my wand, but the one behind, all I did was cast with my hand. It worked as well as the block with my wand."
"Have you been dreaming..."
"Of Mother Earth?"
Harry looked at Draco. "Every night."
Draco nodded once. "Of us together, not in the Chamber, but somewhere else. Facing something evil. I feel Her, but I don't know how I know that."
Harry nodded. "And we're alone. Just you and me. Together."
Draco began playing with the hair on Harry's chest, smoothing it this way and that. "Guess that bat Trelawney was right after all."
Harry grunted.
Draco looked down at the pattern his hand was making on Harry's chest. "What happened with the old cat?"
Harry grimaced, but ignored the slur. "She called me into her office. Seems she's finally clued in that we're not just studying up here."
"No?" Draco sounded scandalised.
"Fuck you," grinned Harry.
"Later on, sure. But what gave us away? Did she say?"
Harry reached behind him and pulled down the pillows so that he could raise the level of his shoulders. "Seems Hermione wanted to discuss the situation with me and decided that I might be more co-operative if she cornered me here."
"Do tell." Draco let his snark indicate what he thought of that idea.
"She undid the ward that you'd cast the night we got here..."
"Bitch!"
Harry glared at him, but let the comment pass. He wasn't all that pleased with his friends right now.
"...and heard someone screaming."
Draco's eyebrow disappeared under the hair that drooped over his forehead. "I was not screaming," he stated in his snootiest Malfoy tones.
Harry grinned. "So she opened the door to come to my rescue..."
Draco rolled his eyes. "And got the shock of her middle-class Muggle life."
Harry's grin spread to his eyes.
"So what was it we were doing that so shocked her?"
"Remember the time I blindfolded you and sucked you off?"
Draco thought a moment, slowly grinning at the memory. Then he lost the grin. "That was at least four days ago. Do you mean it took her this long to confide in McGonagall? Was she that embarrassed?"
Harry reached up and pulled Draco down to his chest so that he could ruffle Draco's hair in comfort.
"Stop that," Draco whined. He passed a hand over his head, smoothing back his hair, then propped his chin up on his crossed arms. "What did McGonagall have to say?"
"The usual. But this time she did check me out for Imperio, and anything else she could think of, that might explain our new relationship. Seems Hermione didn't think that what I was doing was voluntary."
Draco bit his tongue. Granger and Weasley were never going to accept that what he did to Harry, and vice versa, was voluntary on Harry's part.
"One good thing came out of it. She let drop that the Headmaster would be returning to Hogwarts next week and that he would know what was going on." Because the Headmaster had been away dealing with the Wizengamot since they'd returned from the Chamber. "And put an end to it."
"He's going to be hard to placate," murmured Draco. "He always knows everything that's happening at Hogwarts. And now that McGonagall knows..."
"She doesn't. That's why I asked if you were finding magic easier to do these days."
Draco braced himself. "What did you do?"
Harry looked rueful. "I cast an Oblivio. Wandless."
Draco's eyes opened wide. "You did not!"
"I did." Harry let some of the anger he'd felt at his Head's examination show in his voice. "She had no business..."
"Harry."
Harry shook his head. "They want us to save their skins at whatever price we have to pay. But then they have the audacity to..."
"Breathe, Harry. Getting angry will accomplish nothing. We need to see Severus about this. He needs to tell us what to do."
**********
Quid 2, Post 7
Finally, Snape puts in an appearance.
**********
It was much later when Harry and Draco made their way down the secret staircase that led directly from their tower to the hallway opposite Professor Snape's private quarters.
They'd taken the time to begin their Arithmancy essay, with Draco determining what research needed to be done, with Harry doing it while Draco worked on a Transfiguration assignment.
It had been determined that any work handed in must bear both their names, another Professor Snape suggestion to their needing to work together. Most of the other professors hadn't been all that keen on the proposition, until Snape had reminded them of the disruptions that existed when they didn't work together. Professor McGonagall had been present when the solution had been presented to Draco and Harry. She hadn't been happy about the fact, and had taken the occasion to remind them both that they would have to pass their NEWTs on their own.
Harry and Draco waited until most dorms were asleep before they knocked on Snape's door. The wards guarding it were too convoluted for them to try breaking, though Draco was fascinated by the challenge.
They had to knock a second time before the door opened and there, in front of them, was not the man they had come to care for in the Chamber, not their Master, but Professor Snape, in all his greasy, bad-tempered self. That the man was in his dressing gown did not make him any more attractive.
"What the hell do you mean knocking on my door at this time of the night?"
Draco and Harry were suddenly taken aback. They'd accepted that when there were others about, their Severus could not show himself, but now they were alone...
"We need to talk to you, Severus," Draco dared. "There are things happening..."
"What things?"
"...that we need to discuss with you. Privately."
Harry felt an overwhelming urge to fidget under the glare being directed at them. Draco met it straight on, thoroughly Malfoy.
"We wouldn't be here, Professor, if it were not important."
Snape said nothing for far too long. Then he nodded. "All right. In the classroom. You'll find today's potion on the board. Get it started. I'll join you in a few minutes." And he closed the door in their faces.
"What the hell..." Harry shook his head.
Draco sighed and turned to walk back to the classroom.
Harry hurried after him. "There are times I wonder if we weren't just plain dreaming Severus."
Draco was a little more trusting. "He has his reasons. I'm certain." But his voice roughened on that last.
They were in the midst of cutting the ingredients when Snape showed up. He was wearing his teaching robes and had his arms filled with scrolls, which he dropped onto his desk, unrolling one and placing a quill on it as though he were marking his place after being interrupted.
"Sev..."
And that's as far as Draco got when Snape pulled out his wand and cast a silencing spell on the room and a warning spell on the door.
"All right. It's not going to keep anyone out, but this way they can't hear us and we'll have a warning should they decide to join us."
"Who..."
Snape glared at Harry. "Whom do you think?" he snarled. "Your Head of House is on patrol duty tonight."
"Sev..." Draco quickly slipped into the honourific when Snape's glare shifted to him. He cleared his throat. "Sir. We need your help."
"So I understand. Keep on working at that potion. Your production today was quite inferior. What I expect from Potter here, but not from you, Black."
The two exchanged glances, wondering if this was real. With shrugs, they went back to cutting, dicing and measuring.
Snape sighed, dragged his hand through his hair, and sighed again. "Gentlemen," his voice was gentler, softer, more the voice they had heard in the Chamber, "there are ears everywhere. Especially in this section of Hogwarts. There is a game that must be played, and you two are now players in it. Not something that you needed on top of the other challenges you face. No, keep on working on the potion. It'll act as a cover should it be necessary. And it wouldn't hurt you to redo it. Today's was truly below your capabilities. Even for you, Potter."
Harry stopped chopping and glanced over his shoulder. The face was Snape's but the eyes were Severus's. So, another game. One that he and Draco were going to have to play if they wanted to have contact with Severus. He nodded.
"You have no idea how inferior, Professor," Harry tossed over his shoulder. "That's one of the things we wanted to talk to you about. That and the fact that I cast Oblivio on Professor McGonagall this afternoon."
"What!"
Still working on the potion, Harry and Draco brought Snape up-to-date on their growing powers, on the dreams they shared, on how Professor McGonagall had discovered their relationship.
Snape was more worried about the discovery than about the other matters.
"Yes, your powers should be growing. You have reached legal maturity when whatever restrictions that are incorporated into the very walls of Hogwarts to control the students' magic begin retreating. Some never feel anything, some feel stronger, but the wandless aspect is not the norm. Well, not for but a very few. Don't let on. Use your wands even if you're alone. It wouldn't do for word to get out to You-Know-Who.
"As for the dreams, yes, well, you have been blessed by Mother Earth, accepted by Her. Just because you're not working with Her Magic doesn't mean that She has left you."
"That's another thing," Harry said. "We need to work with Her Magic. In my...our dreams, Her presence is important."
Snape leaned back against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. Harry found himself remembering a chest with a gold ring through a nipple and had to overcome the urge to go over there and bite through all that fabric, just to find that ring.
Snape must have sensed that as his face lost some of the Snape and became more Severus. "No," he said softly, directing it at Harry.
Harry felt the warmth fill his face.
"When?" Draco spoke just as softly.
Before Snape could respond, the ward on the door activated.
**********
Quid 2, Post 8
Cat fight.
**********
They had enough warning before the door opened for Harry and Draco to return to their potion and Snape to step up to his desk and take his seat.
"What is going on here?"
Minerva McGonagall strode into the room, wand at the ready.
Snape directed his most disdainful sneer at the Head of Gryffindor. "What does it look like, Minerva?"
She came farther into the room, wand still in hand, and glared at the three men. "It is after midnight."
"Thank you so much for bringing the time to our attention," snarked Snape.
"What exactly is going on here?" Professor McGonagall's suspicions were full front.
"Exactly, Minerva? Am I to assume that you are in need of new glasses?"
She hissed at him. He ignored her.
"Misters Potter and Black are hoping for a better mark than they received in today's class."
"At this time of the night?"
Harry and Draco grew very concerned with their potion. It was obvious that neither Head was overly aware of them right now, but it seemed safer to appear to be working.
"It was the only time I had available. It is, after all, if you remember, Minerva, school policy that no one should ever work unsupervised in the potions classroom."
Draco went and stirred the cauldron before the addition of the next ingredient. Harry handed it to him. Their eyes met and they both were careful not to make any noise. It would seem that their respective Heads were not overly friendly these days.
"And you are such a follower of policy."
Snape placed his quill down very carefully. He sat back in his chair and, resting his elbows on the arms, steepled his fingertips. His voice, when he spoke, had dropped several degrees into the chill. "Are you questioning my professional behaviour, Professor McGonagall?"
Professor McGonagall took up a position just in front of Snape's desk. "There is something going on, Professor Snape. There has been since you and these two returned from wherever it was you were."
"I explained to the Headmaster and to you where we had been. If Spinner's End..."
Draco mouthed "Spinner's End?" to Harry who shrugged, shaking his head.
"...is not acceptable to you as an explanation, I suggest you take it up with the Headmaster when he returns."
"You never go to Spinner's End."
"Quite the contrary, Professor McGonagall, I go on a regular basis. Just to make sure the roof isn't leaking, that the pipes haven't burst, that..."
"I find it hard to accept that you spent two weeks there with two young men."
Snape leaned forward, suddenly exuding danger. His voice was too soft, too cold, for it not to be a threat. "Are you implying something, Minerva? I prefer accusation to implication, if you don't mind."
Against the tone and the potential danger, Minerva McGonagall wisely backed down. "No accusation." Though 'not yet' was understood by all. "Just curiosity."
"Ah, but didn't curiosity kill the cat?" Snape was not backing down.
Professor McGonagall's eyes narrowed and she suddenly looked very feline. "Is that a threat, Severus?"
He shook his head. "Not a threat, Minerva. As I explained to the Headmaster, I took them to a place where there would be no interruptions, where matters could be discussed without fear of eavesdroppers, and where tempers could be allowed to cool."
"Was sex included in this new relationship?"
Draco glared at Harry. "I thought..." he whispered too low to remind the others that they were still in the room.
Harry nodded and turned to watch the drama in front of them.
"Sex, Minerva?"
"We've all seen the way they look at each other, the way they touch each other. They can't keep their hands off each other. Granger and Weasley..."
"Let me guess. They're jealous."
"They're worried. Potter and Malfoy..."
"Black, please."
"And that's another thing. Lucius Malfoy is bombarding us with howlers threatening us with legal action for disaffection of family ties. What does the boy have to say about that?"
Draco and Harry exchanged questioning looks. This was the first they'd heard of these letters.
"The young man has attained his majority. What decisions he takes are his business. If they concerned you in any way, Minerva, you might have the right to question him about them. But they do not. Lucius Malfoy may protest all he wants, may threaten all he wants, but Draco is seventeen and, as such, entitled by Law to take whatever name he wishes. Moreover Lucius knows that, else he would be addressing his threats to Black, not to Hogwarts. It is not unheard for a young man, on reaching his majority, to take that kind of action. After all, I seem to remember from Professor Binns's classes that one Godric Gryffindor was not born to that name."
Snape stood up, forcing Professor McGonagall to look up at him. "As for sex, if it is indeed part of the equation, that is a private matter between two men of majority age. Let me remind you that Potter has also attained his majority. If you have any puerile interest in their sex lives, then please address it to them. I have always felt that the sex lives of the men and women of my House are their business so long as they don't fuck in the Great Hall or in a classroom before an audience. If that is all, Minerva, I need to see if our audience has managed to pass this version of their assignment."
Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind her.
Snape looked at the two young men who were gaping up at him. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "I fear another failure, gentlemen. I suggest that you try again tomorrow evening, during detention."
Draco and Harry spun around and took in the blackened contents of their cauldron.
**********
Quid 2, Post 9
Why Snape is not Severus.
**********
"Can we really not keep our hands off each other?" Harry broke the silence that had settled on the classroom as he and Draco had cleaned up.
Snape didn't look up from the scroll he was correcting. "It seems not."
Draco grinned rather lusciously at Harry who blushed a little.
"What did we do at Spinner's End?" Draco wiped the knives they'd used.
"Talk, argue, fight, talk some more and decide that you were better off being allies than enemies."
"That's all?" Harry placed the now scrubbed cauldron back where it belonged.
Snape actually looked up from the scroll. He tilted his head forward so that he could glare at them menacingly. Had this been before the Chamber, before they had come to know Severus, the look would have been very effective in getting the two young men to shut up.
Draco ambled over to Snape's desk, hips almost swaying. When they'd come down, they had expected to talk to Severus, not work for Professor Snape. They'd left their robes behind and had worn only shirts and trousers. Draco's walk didn't get a reaction from Snape, but Harry certainly enjoyed the view.
"Severus."
"Professor Snape," snapped Snape.
Draco shook his head. Harry had always known that Draco had courage, but even he wouldn't have continued when facing the Snape who sat there. Draco dared.
"Severus, you need to tell us what the hell is going on. We realise this is a game that isn't really a game. But if you don't want us to put our feet in it accidentally, you need to talk to us." Draco placed his hands on the front of Snape's desk and looked up, face far more serious than Harry had seen it in some time. "Talk to us, Severus. We're moving blind here."
Harry quietly went to stand by Draco. They both waited as Snape frowned at the quill he held in his hands.
"All right. This is what is happening. The Headmaster has been called in front of the Wizengamot to respond to the fact that many parents are talking of taking their children out of Hogwarts. Or, in the case of Slytherin, doing so. You must remember that the official stance on Voldemort is that he is a figment of your imagination, Harry, and that the Headmaster is allowing you to spread fear in the school. That is the official reason he is not here. Unofficially, he's trying to get enough backing to oust Fudge."
Harry was surprised, Draco merely thoughtful.
"Father always wondered why the Headmaster hadn't accepted the Ministership when it was offered to him after Grindelwald."
"They offered it to him then?" Harry wondered if he'd slept through that part of Binns's lectures.
"He turned it down saying that he preferred to be Headmaster of Hogwarts, which is when they appointed him," explained Draco.
"He thought he would have more power this way, training the minds that would take over the Ministry," scoffed Snape. "The power behind the throne doesn't need to follow the rules of the throne."
"Fudge hates Dumbledore," said Draco pensively.
"Fudge wants to be ruler absolute," said Snape, getting up. He came round the desk and stepped down from the dais. "He thinks You-Know-Who would allow him to be so, without interference."
"Goes to show just how stupid he really is," murmured Harry.
Snape shrugged.
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Draco leaned against the desk, hips jutting out enough so that this time Snape's eyes followed the gesture.
"Work at building upon the bond that you have developed."
"How?" Harry found himself wishing that Snape would allow himself to be Severus for just a moment.
"Any way you can." Snape suddenly lost patience. "Look, until I am Summoned, there's nothing I can do to help you. My Occlumency is strong, and I can keep Voldemort out of my mind, but that's only if it's a normal situation. Should I be incapacitated..."
"Severus!" Harry felt fear. He knew what Voldemort could do.
Snape waved off Harry's concern. "Nothing I can't handle. But I will need to use my Pensieve again tonight and there can not be too many blanks in my memories else Voldemort will grow even more suspicious."
"What about our supposed stay at Spinner's End?" Harry worried.
"I've taken care of that. I've incorporated enough memories of other times there that I think it should satisfy any investigating." He gestured them toward the door.
Draco and Harry went reluctantly.
"Just remember that the two of you are no longer alone. That you have each other. You are both stronger than you realise, far stronger yet when you work together."
"We need time and a place to work on that," Draco reminded Snape.
Snape nodded. "After the next Summons. There's a place I can take you where even the Headmaster cannot follow. For now, please take the long way back to your quarters. I'm certain there will be a cat hiding somewhere between here and there. Let us not disappoint her."
As he closed the classroom door behind him and turned to go back to his own quarters, Snape called out, "Detention, don't forget, gentlemen. Let us hope that this time you manage to pass!"
**********
Quid 2, Post 10
Cuddles and comfort.
**********
They were back in their room, each in his bed, when Harry whispered, "Draco?"
Draco heard more than his name. He raised the bedcovers and Harry slipped in, almost throwing himself on top of Draco.
"Watch it, Potter, you nearly broke a rib there. You're no lightweight."
Harry burrowed closer if at all possible. Draco held him tightly, worried by the chill of Harry's body.
After several minutes, when Draco's body heat had chased the chill away, Harry pulled back just a little. "We're on our own," he muttered.
Draco nodded. "So it would seem. At least for the discernable future."
Harry rested his head on Draco's shoulder. "I thought it would be different now."
"With Severus you mean."
"With the whole fucking situation."
Draco was relieved to hear the anger in Harry's voice. He could deal with Harry's anger; it was depression that was the problem. It tended to bring him down as well.
Which was not good, considering the situation.
"You seem to have forgotten something."
"What?"
"I'm here."
Harry was silent long enough for Draco to begin worrying. Was he not enough for Harry?
"Yeah, you are." Harry placed his lips on the edge of Draco's jaw line. "You are."
Draco cupped the back of Harry's head. "I am. Don't you forget it."
"Together."
"Together."
Harry sighed. "Alone but together."
"With Mother Earth. Don't forget Her."
"Are we going to have time to master the gifts She's given us?"
Draco had to think about that. "Severus says so."
"And we trust what he has to say?"
Draco pushed against Harry, trying to get him to move enough to see his expression. "We do. At least, I do. You?"
Harry rolled over onto his side. "People often say one thing and then something else happens."
Draco pulled Harry back down and cradled his head against his chest. "We're not going to leave you. I sure as hell have no intention of leaving you. I mean, if I'm supposed to guard your back, it means that you're guarding mine."
Harry sniffed. "I never thought of it that way."
"You are no strategian, Potter. How we're supposed to come out of this alive..."
Harry pinched Draco's side. "No dark thoughts, Black."
Draco swatted Harry's hand away. "Then don't lead me there, Potter."
After a few minutes of silence, Draco said softly, "Harry?"
"Hmmm?"
"Severus says we're going to have to work a lot of this out by ourselves."
"So?"
"So I think we should take advantage of the Headmaster's absence to make a few changes."
Harry passed his hand several times lightly up and down Draco's leg. "What have you got in mind?"
**********
on to the next part
Series: Posts 6 - 10
Author: Josan
Pairing: Threesome: Snape/Harry/Draco
Posting began: August 22, 2006
Posting ended: April 7, 2007
Warnings, etc: See Quid 2, Posts 1 - 5
Quid 2, Post 6
Sorry, more plot, just to fill in a few background events.
**********
Even though it was early, Harry and Draco snuggled close together in Draco's bed. Harry's was covered with the books he'd brought back from the library.
Draco hissed a little as the bedclothes settled on his still sore arse.
"Want me to do something about that?" Harry asked, sleepily.
Draco shook his head. "No. Need to feel it a little longer."
"Bad day?" Harry pulled so that Draco was almost draped over him. He slid his hand down Draco's back until it rested just above the sensitive skin.
Draco didn't want to answer. How to explain that this day was no different than any other, but just getting to be too much?
Harry's hand began stroking up and down along his spine, offering solace.
Draco slipped his arms around Harry, offering his own. "Have the dynamic duo finally accepted that you're not under Imperio?
Harry stiffened a little, enough for Draco to raise his head and look Harry in the eyes. "What?"
"They set McGonagall on me."
"Shhhhhit!" Draco shifted to prop his head up on his hand. "You all right?"
Harry stared at the canopy. "Draco, have you been feeling...I don't know how to describe this, but have you been feeling..." He shifted his eyes to Draco. "Do you feel your magic is stronger since we've come back?"
Draco thought before he finally nodded. "That's as good a way of describing it as any."
"How?"
"Hexes are easier to counter, curses as well. It's almost as though I can...sense their coming before they're even cast."
Harry said nothing for a moment or two, once more examining the canopy. "Do you find you don't really need...your wand?"
Draco chewed on his lower lip before he nodded. "I got caught between two hexes this morning, in a hallway. I took care of the one coming from in front of me with my wand, but the one behind, all I did was cast with my hand. It worked as well as the block with my wand."
"Have you been dreaming..."
"Of Mother Earth?"
Harry looked at Draco. "Every night."
Draco nodded once. "Of us together, not in the Chamber, but somewhere else. Facing something evil. I feel Her, but I don't know how I know that."
Harry nodded. "And we're alone. Just you and me. Together."
Draco began playing with the hair on Harry's chest, smoothing it this way and that. "Guess that bat Trelawney was right after all."
Harry grunted.
Draco looked down at the pattern his hand was making on Harry's chest. "What happened with the old cat?"
Harry grimaced, but ignored the slur. "She called me into her office. Seems she's finally clued in that we're not just studying up here."
"No?" Draco sounded scandalised.
"Fuck you," grinned Harry.
"Later on, sure. But what gave us away? Did she say?"
Harry reached behind him and pulled down the pillows so that he could raise the level of his shoulders. "Seems Hermione wanted to discuss the situation with me and decided that I might be more co-operative if she cornered me here."
"Do tell." Draco let his snark indicate what he thought of that idea.
"She undid the ward that you'd cast the night we got here..."
"Bitch!"
Harry glared at him, but let the comment pass. He wasn't all that pleased with his friends right now.
"...and heard someone screaming."
Draco's eyebrow disappeared under the hair that drooped over his forehead. "I was not screaming," he stated in his snootiest Malfoy tones.
Harry grinned. "So she opened the door to come to my rescue..."
Draco rolled his eyes. "And got the shock of her middle-class Muggle life."
Harry's grin spread to his eyes.
"So what was it we were doing that so shocked her?"
"Remember the time I blindfolded you and sucked you off?"
Draco thought a moment, slowly grinning at the memory. Then he lost the grin. "That was at least four days ago. Do you mean it took her this long to confide in McGonagall? Was she that embarrassed?"
Harry reached up and pulled Draco down to his chest so that he could ruffle Draco's hair in comfort.
"Stop that," Draco whined. He passed a hand over his head, smoothing back his hair, then propped his chin up on his crossed arms. "What did McGonagall have to say?"
"The usual. But this time she did check me out for Imperio, and anything else she could think of, that might explain our new relationship. Seems Hermione didn't think that what I was doing was voluntary."
Draco bit his tongue. Granger and Weasley were never going to accept that what he did to Harry, and vice versa, was voluntary on Harry's part.
"One good thing came out of it. She let drop that the Headmaster would be returning to Hogwarts next week and that he would know what was going on." Because the Headmaster had been away dealing with the Wizengamot since they'd returned from the Chamber. "And put an end to it."
"He's going to be hard to placate," murmured Draco. "He always knows everything that's happening at Hogwarts. And now that McGonagall knows..."
"She doesn't. That's why I asked if you were finding magic easier to do these days."
Draco braced himself. "What did you do?"
Harry looked rueful. "I cast an Oblivio. Wandless."
Draco's eyes opened wide. "You did not!"
"I did." Harry let some of the anger he'd felt at his Head's examination show in his voice. "She had no business..."
"Harry."
Harry shook his head. "They want us to save their skins at whatever price we have to pay. But then they have the audacity to..."
"Breathe, Harry. Getting angry will accomplish nothing. We need to see Severus about this. He needs to tell us what to do."
**********
Quid 2, Post 7
Finally, Snape puts in an appearance.
**********
It was much later when Harry and Draco made their way down the secret staircase that led directly from their tower to the hallway opposite Professor Snape's private quarters.
They'd taken the time to begin their Arithmancy essay, with Draco determining what research needed to be done, with Harry doing it while Draco worked on a Transfiguration assignment.
It had been determined that any work handed in must bear both their names, another Professor Snape suggestion to their needing to work together. Most of the other professors hadn't been all that keen on the proposition, until Snape had reminded them of the disruptions that existed when they didn't work together. Professor McGonagall had been present when the solution had been presented to Draco and Harry. She hadn't been happy about the fact, and had taken the occasion to remind them both that they would have to pass their NEWTs on their own.
Harry and Draco waited until most dorms were asleep before they knocked on Snape's door. The wards guarding it were too convoluted for them to try breaking, though Draco was fascinated by the challenge.
They had to knock a second time before the door opened and there, in front of them, was not the man they had come to care for in the Chamber, not their Master, but Professor Snape, in all his greasy, bad-tempered self. That the man was in his dressing gown did not make him any more attractive.
"What the hell do you mean knocking on my door at this time of the night?"
Draco and Harry were suddenly taken aback. They'd accepted that when there were others about, their Severus could not show himself, but now they were alone...
"We need to talk to you, Severus," Draco dared. "There are things happening..."
"What things?"
"...that we need to discuss with you. Privately."
Harry felt an overwhelming urge to fidget under the glare being directed at them. Draco met it straight on, thoroughly Malfoy.
"We wouldn't be here, Professor, if it were not important."
Snape said nothing for far too long. Then he nodded. "All right. In the classroom. You'll find today's potion on the board. Get it started. I'll join you in a few minutes." And he closed the door in their faces.
"What the hell..." Harry shook his head.
Draco sighed and turned to walk back to the classroom.
Harry hurried after him. "There are times I wonder if we weren't just plain dreaming Severus."
Draco was a little more trusting. "He has his reasons. I'm certain." But his voice roughened on that last.
They were in the midst of cutting the ingredients when Snape showed up. He was wearing his teaching robes and had his arms filled with scrolls, which he dropped onto his desk, unrolling one and placing a quill on it as though he were marking his place after being interrupted.
"Sev..."
And that's as far as Draco got when Snape pulled out his wand and cast a silencing spell on the room and a warning spell on the door.
"All right. It's not going to keep anyone out, but this way they can't hear us and we'll have a warning should they decide to join us."
"Who..."
Snape glared at Harry. "Whom do you think?" he snarled. "Your Head of House is on patrol duty tonight."
"Sev..." Draco quickly slipped into the honourific when Snape's glare shifted to him. He cleared his throat. "Sir. We need your help."
"So I understand. Keep on working at that potion. Your production today was quite inferior. What I expect from Potter here, but not from you, Black."
The two exchanged glances, wondering if this was real. With shrugs, they went back to cutting, dicing and measuring.
Snape sighed, dragged his hand through his hair, and sighed again. "Gentlemen," his voice was gentler, softer, more the voice they had heard in the Chamber, "there are ears everywhere. Especially in this section of Hogwarts. There is a game that must be played, and you two are now players in it. Not something that you needed on top of the other challenges you face. No, keep on working on the potion. It'll act as a cover should it be necessary. And it wouldn't hurt you to redo it. Today's was truly below your capabilities. Even for you, Potter."
Harry stopped chopping and glanced over his shoulder. The face was Snape's but the eyes were Severus's. So, another game. One that he and Draco were going to have to play if they wanted to have contact with Severus. He nodded.
"You have no idea how inferior, Professor," Harry tossed over his shoulder. "That's one of the things we wanted to talk to you about. That and the fact that I cast Oblivio on Professor McGonagall this afternoon."
"What!"
Still working on the potion, Harry and Draco brought Snape up-to-date on their growing powers, on the dreams they shared, on how Professor McGonagall had discovered their relationship.
Snape was more worried about the discovery than about the other matters.
"Yes, your powers should be growing. You have reached legal maturity when whatever restrictions that are incorporated into the very walls of Hogwarts to control the students' magic begin retreating. Some never feel anything, some feel stronger, but the wandless aspect is not the norm. Well, not for but a very few. Don't let on. Use your wands even if you're alone. It wouldn't do for word to get out to You-Know-Who.
"As for the dreams, yes, well, you have been blessed by Mother Earth, accepted by Her. Just because you're not working with Her Magic doesn't mean that She has left you."
"That's another thing," Harry said. "We need to work with Her Magic. In my...our dreams, Her presence is important."
Snape leaned back against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. Harry found himself remembering a chest with a gold ring through a nipple and had to overcome the urge to go over there and bite through all that fabric, just to find that ring.
Snape must have sensed that as his face lost some of the Snape and became more Severus. "No," he said softly, directing it at Harry.
Harry felt the warmth fill his face.
"When?" Draco spoke just as softly.
Before Snape could respond, the ward on the door activated.
**********
Quid 2, Post 8
Cat fight.
**********
They had enough warning before the door opened for Harry and Draco to return to their potion and Snape to step up to his desk and take his seat.
"What is going on here?"
Minerva McGonagall strode into the room, wand at the ready.
Snape directed his most disdainful sneer at the Head of Gryffindor. "What does it look like, Minerva?"
She came farther into the room, wand still in hand, and glared at the three men. "It is after midnight."
"Thank you so much for bringing the time to our attention," snarked Snape.
"What exactly is going on here?" Professor McGonagall's suspicions were full front.
"Exactly, Minerva? Am I to assume that you are in need of new glasses?"
She hissed at him. He ignored her.
"Misters Potter and Black are hoping for a better mark than they received in today's class."
"At this time of the night?"
Harry and Draco grew very concerned with their potion. It was obvious that neither Head was overly aware of them right now, but it seemed safer to appear to be working.
"It was the only time I had available. It is, after all, if you remember, Minerva, school policy that no one should ever work unsupervised in the potions classroom."
Draco went and stirred the cauldron before the addition of the next ingredient. Harry handed it to him. Their eyes met and they both were careful not to make any noise. It would seem that their respective Heads were not overly friendly these days.
"And you are such a follower of policy."
Snape placed his quill down very carefully. He sat back in his chair and, resting his elbows on the arms, steepled his fingertips. His voice, when he spoke, had dropped several degrees into the chill. "Are you questioning my professional behaviour, Professor McGonagall?"
Professor McGonagall took up a position just in front of Snape's desk. "There is something going on, Professor Snape. There has been since you and these two returned from wherever it was you were."
"I explained to the Headmaster and to you where we had been. If Spinner's End..."
Draco mouthed "Spinner's End?" to Harry who shrugged, shaking his head.
"...is not acceptable to you as an explanation, I suggest you take it up with the Headmaster when he returns."
"You never go to Spinner's End."
"Quite the contrary, Professor McGonagall, I go on a regular basis. Just to make sure the roof isn't leaking, that the pipes haven't burst, that..."
"I find it hard to accept that you spent two weeks there with two young men."
Snape leaned forward, suddenly exuding danger. His voice was too soft, too cold, for it not to be a threat. "Are you implying something, Minerva? I prefer accusation to implication, if you don't mind."
Against the tone and the potential danger, Minerva McGonagall wisely backed down. "No accusation." Though 'not yet' was understood by all. "Just curiosity."
"Ah, but didn't curiosity kill the cat?" Snape was not backing down.
Professor McGonagall's eyes narrowed and she suddenly looked very feline. "Is that a threat, Severus?"
He shook his head. "Not a threat, Minerva. As I explained to the Headmaster, I took them to a place where there would be no interruptions, where matters could be discussed without fear of eavesdroppers, and where tempers could be allowed to cool."
"Was sex included in this new relationship?"
Draco glared at Harry. "I thought..." he whispered too low to remind the others that they were still in the room.
Harry nodded and turned to watch the drama in front of them.
"Sex, Minerva?"
"We've all seen the way they look at each other, the way they touch each other. They can't keep their hands off each other. Granger and Weasley..."
"Let me guess. They're jealous."
"They're worried. Potter and Malfoy..."
"Black, please."
"And that's another thing. Lucius Malfoy is bombarding us with howlers threatening us with legal action for disaffection of family ties. What does the boy have to say about that?"
Draco and Harry exchanged questioning looks. This was the first they'd heard of these letters.
"The young man has attained his majority. What decisions he takes are his business. If they concerned you in any way, Minerva, you might have the right to question him about them. But they do not. Lucius Malfoy may protest all he wants, may threaten all he wants, but Draco is seventeen and, as such, entitled by Law to take whatever name he wishes. Moreover Lucius knows that, else he would be addressing his threats to Black, not to Hogwarts. It is not unheard for a young man, on reaching his majority, to take that kind of action. After all, I seem to remember from Professor Binns's classes that one Godric Gryffindor was not born to that name."
Snape stood up, forcing Professor McGonagall to look up at him. "As for sex, if it is indeed part of the equation, that is a private matter between two men of majority age. Let me remind you that Potter has also attained his majority. If you have any puerile interest in their sex lives, then please address it to them. I have always felt that the sex lives of the men and women of my House are their business so long as they don't fuck in the Great Hall or in a classroom before an audience. If that is all, Minerva, I need to see if our audience has managed to pass this version of their assignment."
Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind her.
Snape looked at the two young men who were gaping up at him. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "I fear another failure, gentlemen. I suggest that you try again tomorrow evening, during detention."
Draco and Harry spun around and took in the blackened contents of their cauldron.
**********
Quid 2, Post 9
Why Snape is not Severus.
**********
"Can we really not keep our hands off each other?" Harry broke the silence that had settled on the classroom as he and Draco had cleaned up.
Snape didn't look up from the scroll he was correcting. "It seems not."
Draco grinned rather lusciously at Harry who blushed a little.
"What did we do at Spinner's End?" Draco wiped the knives they'd used.
"Talk, argue, fight, talk some more and decide that you were better off being allies than enemies."
"That's all?" Harry placed the now scrubbed cauldron back where it belonged.
Snape actually looked up from the scroll. He tilted his head forward so that he could glare at them menacingly. Had this been before the Chamber, before they had come to know Severus, the look would have been very effective in getting the two young men to shut up.
Draco ambled over to Snape's desk, hips almost swaying. When they'd come down, they had expected to talk to Severus, not work for Professor Snape. They'd left their robes behind and had worn only shirts and trousers. Draco's walk didn't get a reaction from Snape, but Harry certainly enjoyed the view.
"Severus."
"Professor Snape," snapped Snape.
Draco shook his head. Harry had always known that Draco had courage, but even he wouldn't have continued when facing the Snape who sat there. Draco dared.
"Severus, you need to tell us what the hell is going on. We realise this is a game that isn't really a game. But if you don't want us to put our feet in it accidentally, you need to talk to us." Draco placed his hands on the front of Snape's desk and looked up, face far more serious than Harry had seen it in some time. "Talk to us, Severus. We're moving blind here."
Harry quietly went to stand by Draco. They both waited as Snape frowned at the quill he held in his hands.
"All right. This is what is happening. The Headmaster has been called in front of the Wizengamot to respond to the fact that many parents are talking of taking their children out of Hogwarts. Or, in the case of Slytherin, doing so. You must remember that the official stance on Voldemort is that he is a figment of your imagination, Harry, and that the Headmaster is allowing you to spread fear in the school. That is the official reason he is not here. Unofficially, he's trying to get enough backing to oust Fudge."
Harry was surprised, Draco merely thoughtful.
"Father always wondered why the Headmaster hadn't accepted the Ministership when it was offered to him after Grindelwald."
"They offered it to him then?" Harry wondered if he'd slept through that part of Binns's lectures.
"He turned it down saying that he preferred to be Headmaster of Hogwarts, which is when they appointed him," explained Draco.
"He thought he would have more power this way, training the minds that would take over the Ministry," scoffed Snape. "The power behind the throne doesn't need to follow the rules of the throne."
"Fudge hates Dumbledore," said Draco pensively.
"Fudge wants to be ruler absolute," said Snape, getting up. He came round the desk and stepped down from the dais. "He thinks You-Know-Who would allow him to be so, without interference."
"Goes to show just how stupid he really is," murmured Harry.
Snape shrugged.
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Draco leaned against the desk, hips jutting out enough so that this time Snape's eyes followed the gesture.
"Work at building upon the bond that you have developed."
"How?" Harry found himself wishing that Snape would allow himself to be Severus for just a moment.
"Any way you can." Snape suddenly lost patience. "Look, until I am Summoned, there's nothing I can do to help you. My Occlumency is strong, and I can keep Voldemort out of my mind, but that's only if it's a normal situation. Should I be incapacitated..."
"Severus!" Harry felt fear. He knew what Voldemort could do.
Snape waved off Harry's concern. "Nothing I can't handle. But I will need to use my Pensieve again tonight and there can not be too many blanks in my memories else Voldemort will grow even more suspicious."
"What about our supposed stay at Spinner's End?" Harry worried.
"I've taken care of that. I've incorporated enough memories of other times there that I think it should satisfy any investigating." He gestured them toward the door.
Draco and Harry went reluctantly.
"Just remember that the two of you are no longer alone. That you have each other. You are both stronger than you realise, far stronger yet when you work together."
"We need time and a place to work on that," Draco reminded Snape.
Snape nodded. "After the next Summons. There's a place I can take you where even the Headmaster cannot follow. For now, please take the long way back to your quarters. I'm certain there will be a cat hiding somewhere between here and there. Let us not disappoint her."
As he closed the classroom door behind him and turned to go back to his own quarters, Snape called out, "Detention, don't forget, gentlemen. Let us hope that this time you manage to pass!"
**********
Quid 2, Post 10
Cuddles and comfort.
**********
They were back in their room, each in his bed, when Harry whispered, "Draco?"
Draco heard more than his name. He raised the bedcovers and Harry slipped in, almost throwing himself on top of Draco.
"Watch it, Potter, you nearly broke a rib there. You're no lightweight."
Harry burrowed closer if at all possible. Draco held him tightly, worried by the chill of Harry's body.
After several minutes, when Draco's body heat had chased the chill away, Harry pulled back just a little. "We're on our own," he muttered.
Draco nodded. "So it would seem. At least for the discernable future."
Harry rested his head on Draco's shoulder. "I thought it would be different now."
"With Severus you mean."
"With the whole fucking situation."
Draco was relieved to hear the anger in Harry's voice. He could deal with Harry's anger; it was depression that was the problem. It tended to bring him down as well.
Which was not good, considering the situation.
"You seem to have forgotten something."
"What?"
"I'm here."
Harry was silent long enough for Draco to begin worrying. Was he not enough for Harry?
"Yeah, you are." Harry placed his lips on the edge of Draco's jaw line. "You are."
Draco cupped the back of Harry's head. "I am. Don't you forget it."
"Together."
"Together."
Harry sighed. "Alone but together."
"With Mother Earth. Don't forget Her."
"Are we going to have time to master the gifts She's given us?"
Draco had to think about that. "Severus says so."
"And we trust what he has to say?"
Draco pushed against Harry, trying to get him to move enough to see his expression. "We do. At least, I do. You?"
Harry rolled over onto his side. "People often say one thing and then something else happens."
Draco pulled Harry back down and cradled his head against his chest. "We're not going to leave you. I sure as hell have no intention of leaving you. I mean, if I'm supposed to guard your back, it means that you're guarding mine."
Harry sniffed. "I never thought of it that way."
"You are no strategian, Potter. How we're supposed to come out of this alive..."
Harry pinched Draco's side. "No dark thoughts, Black."
Draco swatted Harry's hand away. "Then don't lead me there, Potter."
After a few minutes of silence, Draco said softly, "Harry?"
"Hmmm?"
"Severus says we're going to have to work a lot of this out by ourselves."
"So?"
"So I think we should take advantage of the Headmaster's absence to make a few changes."
Harry passed his hand several times lightly up and down Draco's leg. "What have you got in mind?"
**********
on to the next part