A/N: For those of you that read this when it was first posted, I revised the plot and chapter in order to avoid confusion. Many of you complained that it did not make sense, so the plot has changed dramatically from the first time it had been posted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Mates

Preface:

Voldemort was unable to successfully create holcruxes and thus, was never able to come back into existence. Harry Potter was famed but because there was no longer a prophecy of his defeating Voldemort, his days at Hogwarts were like any other wizard's. Sirius was found innocent of his crimes, acquitted of them, and in so doing became sole guardian to Harry. Severus Snape was given reprieve for his crimes by Albus Dumbledore in return for his service of seeking out the remaining Death Eaters due to his vampiric ancestry. Our story begins at the start of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts...

Chapter One

"I expect to receive an owl daily," Sirius said while clasping Harry's shoulders. Harry felt the warmth of those hands seeping into his jumper, and it caused him to smile at his godfather.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you worry too much?" Harry gave his godfather a sideways grin.

"Brat," Sirius retorted while he pulled him into yet another embrace. It was their third in the last few minutes. Harry returned the hug nonetheless before pulling away and gathering his things.

"I promise I'll owl," he finally said. "You know that Remus will keep an eye on me..."

"Yes yes," Sirius replied grinning. "So no mischief, you hear?"

"Me?" Harry feigned a face of surprise. "It is not I who played all those pranks back at Hogwarts..."

"You little..."

"See ya Siri," he said cutting the man off and waving as he got onto the train.

"Snape looks especially fierce this year," Harry stated as they entered the large dining hall. The tremble of laughter and voices as the students recounted their summers filled the air about them. Harry's eyes were drawn to the front table where the professors sat beside a smiling Dumbledore. Snape sat, his eyes boring holes into the many students giggling and talking amongst themselves. His stark as night hair was hanging loosely about his face while his pale pallor shadowed with his angular features beneath the magical daylight above them.

"The Ministry tightened their laws on vampires recently," Hermione said beside him. She held a few of her books to her chest as she continued. "Vampires are to be bonded within the next several months as part of the newly instated legislation."

"Why?" Harry replied while keeping his eyes ahead. Dark obsidian orbs met his and for a moment, his heart stammered within his chest and his pulse quickened.

"Control," she stated simply. "Vampires are powerful as well as slightly unpredictable. I doubt that is the case for Professor Snape, but a similar law was passed last year for werewolves. It was why Professor Lupin was newly bonded."

Harry nodded his head. He remembered when they all found out that Remus must bond in order to maintain good standing and keep with the laws. Suffice to say, they were very upset as Remus had yet to meet his mate. Mates could be somewhat difficult to track and since he was only given six months in which to comply, he was forced to bond with Tonks. Bonds were especially tricky as they required a physical sort of relationship. If someone is a mate of the creature, they would already have a physical type of relationship to begin with; however, bonding with someone and then finding your mate thereafter could pose a very strenuous situation.

"I may not like the git," Harry started. "But no one should be forced to bond because of what they are."

"I happen to agree with you," Hermione replied. "Fudge is making an enemy of many different types of individuals with the recent laws passed."

They took up seats at the long Gryffindor table and enjoyed their first meal back at Hogwarts before they were heading off to their dorms.

That evening, Harry made his way down the corridor after sending an owl to Sirius. Hedwig had been a little antsy all day, and so Harry was happy to give her a reason to get out. The halls were stark, so he held his wand near him casting a simple 'Lumos' and allowing the soft glow to light his way.

A figure emerged in the distance, and Harry stalled in his steps, peering at the figure with the squint of his eyes.

"Do you think yourself above the currently enforced curfew, Mister Potter?" the silky baritone sent a shiver to run the length of his spine. Snape stalked forward, his steps soundless against the stone floor. Harry vaguely wondered if the man levitated instead of walked like normal wizards but was stopped short in his thoughts.

"No sir," Harry bit out. "I was running a bit late..."

"Excuses will get you no where Potter," Snape hissed as he stood just before him, towering Harry with his great height. "You were to be in your dorm precisely twenty minutes ago. Fifty points from Gryffindor."

Harry clenched his fists but said nothing to his professor. Those obsidian depths, glittering in the light of his wand, watched him for moments without a word before the potion's professor was leaning forward. "Do you mean to stand here like an imbecile Potter or return to Gryffindor tower?"

Harry breathed deeply, focusing his thoughts. There was a strange charge about the air. There was a certain allure to the man before him, but Harry could not place it as he stood there for minutes gazing at the man. He must have placed a spell on me...my body wants to move on its own.

"Potter," Snape growled as Harry attempted to move forward. The dark depths drew him another step forward despite his inner head screaming for him to stop. "Your dormitory, now."

Harry finally shook off the intense pull and merely nodded at the man before moving passed him in a near run back to his rooms.

"How long do you plan to daze about Mister Potter?" a yell came from behind Harry who could barely focus on his task before him. He was feeling that intoxicated feeling from before and was having a hard time shaking it. It felt like his entire body was firing, his every nerve reaching out for the man storming about the dungeon. He looked up lazily from his few ingredients, his eyes unfocused on the man near him.

"Sorry sir," he was finally able to reply. It was intense, the air around him. The air was heavy enough to make Harry feel like he could barely breathe. He wanted to touch, caress, move against the man standing just a few feet from him barking something about his incompetence.

"...believe you are above rules..." Harry heard the man say as he focused on the lips that curled and sneered each word at him. "...exactly why I despise adolescent boys..." those lips were fairly dry, chapped even, and Harry wanted to moisten them. Oh, how he wished he could run his tongue along them and give them the shine they deserved.

"...istening..." he trembled as each movement made his body move forward, and his yearning to touch the man became almost unbearable.

"Are you listening, Potter?!" the man finally yelled pulling Harry from his stupor.

"What was that sir?"

"Fifty points from Gryffindor and detention this evening," Snape spat as his eyes seem to bore into Harry's. Finally realizing what he had only managed in two days back to Hogwarts, Harry could only turn away ashamed as the collective whispers of his peers scorned him.

Doing his best to ignore the glares being shot his direction, he continued his work despite the urges now resurfacing.

When he was free of the room, it felt like he could breathe again. Harry took in great gasps of air as he leaned against the wall. What was wrong with him? It felt like anytime he was near Snape, his body would react as if a magnetic pull was drawing him to the other. He pushed off the wall and stormed down the corridor, deciding it not worth the thought. He was probably coming down with something, he told himself over and over.

"You will clean the first and second year cauldrons," Snape began. "Manually..."

Harry was holding his breath, hoping it would somehow rid the feelings now drowning him. He clenched his hands into fists as he walked over to the several cauldrons kept out for his cleaning pleasure and immediately set to his task. Thirty-minutes passed and it felt like his head was swimming. He braved a backward glance to Snape who sat at his desk, keeping himself to his pile of parchment. Harry could feel the man's incredible presence as if he was hovering right near him. Onyx depths met his emerald ones and there was a feeling like an electric bolt that shot through him, setting fire to his nerves and drawing him forward.

Snape was up, his body stalking forward before he pushed Harry with a fair amount of force to the floor. Stone met Harry's bum, pulling him slightly out of his haze. Snape growled low in his throat, towering over him with an intensity Harry was sure he reserved for only those in which he truly despised – him in particular.

"You will keep your distance Potter," he warned in a low hissing voice. "I will not take advantage of a boy..." he was grumbling as he paced.

Harry was trying to catch his breath as his body quivered beneath the strain of not flying straight into the man and wrapping his arms around him. "But..." he breathed.

"This is absolutely preposterous," the potion's professor continued mumbling. "A mere child...the Potter-child is my mate...what sort of cruel jest is this? Of all the insufferable brats..." The man left the room and one very perplexed Harry Potter in his wake.

After what seemed to be hours, Harry was finally able to draw enough strength to lift himself off the floor. He walked back to his rooms, his head a mess, and his body still quivering from the afterthought of Snape's presence.

The next day, and after barely a wink of sleep, Harry was on his way to Dumbledore's office as he had been called early in the morning to meet him directly following breakfast. He said the password, another candy favorite of the cooky old headmaster's, and ascended the spiral staircase within. When he knocked on the office door, the voice from within was its usual cheerfulness.

"Come in my boy," it said as he hesitated and finally walked inside. "Have a seat. Lemon drop?" When Harry took his seat shaking his head, Dumbledore popped a candy into his mouth. "Ah my love for lemon drops never fails, I am afraid." The old man eyed him with a careful, smiling gaze over half-mooned spectacles. "I expect you are doing well?"

"Yes sir," Harry replied as he gave the man a small smile of his own. "Is there something you wished to discuss with me, Headmaster?"

"Yes yes," Dumbledore said as he leaned back against his seat and curled fingers through his beard. "I presume that you have noticed certain...changes...upon your return in the face of a certain professor."

Harry visibly swallowed. Had Snape gone right ahead and told the Headmaster? He felt his stomach clench. "How do you mean sir?"

"No need to be frightened my boy," Dumbledore said with a reassuring smile. "That of which you feel is entirely normal due to the circumstances."

"Circumstances?"

"Yes my boy," Dumbledore said fixing his gaze on Harry. "Your magic has matured recently it seems and has 'called' for its mate..."

"I am afraid I'm not following sir," Harry felt the large lump growing in his belly. He knew something, everything, had to do with Snape and that alone was making him queasy.

"You are aware that Professor Snape is of a vampiric heritage, are you not?"

"Yes sir," Harry nodded his assertion.

"Good good," the man chimed. "Beings such as werewolves and vampires have mates in which they are drawn to. You could say it is that 'perfect individual' for them in a sense. As such, when they are 'called' depending on the proximity of said individual or their maturity of magic, a natural progression of 'seeking' that individual is close to follow."

Calling and seeking were emphasized and so Harry assumed that it was something he should have probably already known. Hermione would have known, but Harry did not. He refused to say so, but even so, Harry was dreading the coming conversation because he was not daft enough not to catch onto what Dumbledore was hinting towards.

Dumbledore continued despite Harry's inner realization. "Often, it could take quite a time for one to find their true mate. However, when they do, there are great benefits to bonding to that mate for both persons. As you can imagine, they would share a mixture of abilities between them, and it would be a powerful partnership indeed."

Harry could see the sparkle igniting in his headmaster's light-blue depths.

"We have, for a time, suspected Professor Snape's mate, but it was not concrete enough for us to act upon. However recently, it seems that this individual has matured in their magic and has begun to 'call' to Professor Snape...do you know who that individual might be, Harry?"

Of course he did, he thought bitterly upon seeing the man's smile and twinkling eyes increase impossibly. What could I have possibly done to deserve this?!

Instead, Harry stared at the man with as impassive a face as he could manage. "Not really sir."

"Ah well," Dumbledore said chuckling. "It would seem you, Mister Potter, are Professor Snape's mate."

"That's impossible," Harry breathed though he knew deep down, it was true.

"There are a good many rules against bonding between professors and students, relationships, and such as you can imagine. However, due to the recent legislation and Professor Snape's vampiric heritage, we were able to find a loop hole, if you will. I realize this can be quite overwhelming, and I do not completely agree to bonding a man of your age without a good reason, but I fear, this is a very good reason indeed."

Harry felt sick and could barely look at the Headmaster in face of the news.

"Although, I should expect some sort of resistance from your guardian, but seeing as how you are mates, it would be almost cruel to deny it to you." Harry was no longer listening as the man continued to babble on about how to get their bond to be accepted. It seemed the other man had his own agenda when it came to their newly found circumstances, and Harry felt bitter and angry.

He was cut off in his thoughts as the doors to the office flew open, and his potion's professor stormed in with a look of pure fury.

"I never agreed to this ridiculous idea, Albus!" the man was practically seeping from his pores with his wrath as he stood in front of the man and glaring with such intensity that the entire room filled with a charge. The feelings Harry was facing, however, were dramatically different. He should be cowering in face of the rage, but instead, his body was quivering, and his mind turned to jelly as he yearned to have the man wrap around him, so he could curl himself into the protective warmth.

"Come now my boy," the elder man chided. "You must be bonded in a few months time, otherwise you face imprisonment."

Snape threw Harry a vicious sneer before once more looking towards the headmaster. "You cannot be serious! I would rather face a Dementor's kiss than be forced to be bonded with this unattractive pubescent insufferable brat."

Harry's thoughts snapped, and he was pulled from his lust-filled haze. Something deep inside clenched violently at the man's admission. Biting his lower lip, he downcast his eyes to his hands and forced the feelings drowning him and morphing him into a wanton teen in face of Snape down as much as he could.

"Professor Snape," Dumbledore's voice had grown stern despite and the smile faded. "I realize that the circumstances are not ideal, but you cannot refuse the irrefutable evidence that he is your mate. You admitted as much to me previously."

Harry felt like he was no longer in the room as the two hashed out whether or not they were to bond. Did it even matter what he felt? Was he not allowed to have a say in all of this? Feeling the subtle burning in his belly, he thinned his lips and balled his fists. Despite the urge to press his body against the man raging next to him and give way to his carnal urges, he let his angry voice cut in.

"I never agreed," he said softly but with a violence that stopped the other two in their argument. "I would never agree." Throwing his eyes defiantly up to Snape, he gave the man a fixed gaze that spoke the volumes he felt about the issue. "You can go right ahead and face Azkaban or find someone else because I will NOT agree to a bond."

Both of the elder wizards in the room had been silenced effectively as he rose. "Please excuse me..." he stated as he removed himself from the room. He tried to put a distance between the feelings that pulsed through him with rabid heat. It almost physically hurt him to leave the other man, but determined to make his position on the bonding clear, he continued onward to the Gryffindor tower –far away from a certain potion's professor.