TITLE: For A Reason

AUTHOR: CompletelyEnsnarryed

PAIRING: HP/SS

SUMMARY: What is the best place for tears and regret?

GENRE: Spoilers for DH + Epilogue. Fluff. Angst. Hurt/Comfort. Romance. Humor. You might need to read the drabblefic I wrote called The Epilogue: Explained. Pay attention to the summary.

DISCLAIMER: I am not JKR. B/c I would NEVER keep Snape and Harry apart.

FEEDBACK: If you want to. [completelyensnarryed AT I'd rather you just enjoyed the story, though. :))))

BETA: Unbetaed.

COUNT: 1959 words. Without the title.

EDITED. I can't figure out how to edit a story without re-uploading it; perhaps eventually either I will figure it out or FFN will be more user-friendly. Or maybe I am just not doing it right. ;)

FOR A REASON

The night was dark, but the subtly waning full moon shined brightly, illuminating the cobblestone path before them.

"Just in front of you." His father told Al.

"Which one?"

"The most striking one."

"They are all the same, dad," the child whined, tired from the long trek.

"Not to me," Harry Potter whispered coming nearer and laying six white lilies on the fake grave. There was no body in it. No one could find it after… and it was agreed that a symbolic grave for him be made. His trembling hand touched the cold stone.

"Severus." He spoke out loud, seemingly to the granite; then turned to his son to explain.

"This grave belongs to the greatest hero who fought against Voldemort," he told Albus Severus in a quiet voice. He could not raise it; it would sound raspy and full of grief. "Your namesake," he added, "and the greatest man who ever lived. Though I never appreciated him."

He kneeled on the tomb marker, his arms embracing the monument. He tried to imagine that he was hugging the man himself (the stone was certainly cold and hard enough), but as he lowered his lips to kiss the etching of "Severus Snape" on it he could not stop the hot tears that obscured his vision, that rolled down his cheeks.

"Snape," quietly, miserably, "why did you leave me? W-why?" He sobbed, arms wounding tighter, "I finally know the t-truth. W-what g-good is it if you are g-gone?"

Al approached his father and put an arm on his shoulder. "Dad, it's okay," he said, distressed at his father's distress, "it'll be okay, dad," as he patted his father's shoulder comfortingly.

He turned to his son and cast a silent spell. (He could not have cast a verbal spell. His voice would've shattered on it, he was sure.) The glamour fell off and he was looking at a little Severus Snape from the memories that he had of the man. Except with green eyes.

"Al," Harry's arms hugged the boy tightly to himself, "my little treasure. You know that you're my treasure don't you, Al?"

"Yes, I know, dad," he said, returning his father's embrace, "I love you."

"I l-love you, too," Harry sobbed. "B-but h-he'll never hear those words, Al. I want to say those words to h-him. Want to h-hear…" He buried his face in his son's shoulder.

Harry's face was completely buried in his son's robes. As well as in his own grief. And so he could not see a shadow that loomed over the grave, covering father and son in darkness. Albus raised his eyes. Which widened.

"Dad?" He shook his father softly. "Dad!"

"Huh?" Harry raised his head. And saw a ghost hovering over them.

"What the---"

"It's nice to see you too, Potter." Said an amused voice.

"Snape?" He asked.

"It is I." He bowed his head mockingly.

"I am so sorry." He began. "I didn't mean to. I just wanted to be near you somehow. But I'll fix this, I promise," Harry babbled.

"What are you talking about, Potter?"

"Y-you can't move on because I won't let you go. But I will, I tell you, I will! I don't want you to be miserable."

Realization dawned. "I am not a ghost, Potter."

"You haunt a cemetery. What else can you be?"

"Come closer and find out." Came the reply.

"He's not a ghost, dad. Ghosts are transparent." Al's voice came from beside Harry. "And I can't see out the back of his head."

"Ah, you can be proud now, Potter," the ghost smirked, "he's definitely your son."

"Snape?" He raised a trembling hand upwards. It was caught in a solid one and pulled him up. "B-but how?"

"You never bothered coming back to the Shrieking Shack, did you, Potter?" The voice sounded joking, but there was a layer of hurt underneath the words.

"No." I couldn't. It was too painful.

A sigh. "And yet you had the foresight to put a glamour on your son." He looked meaningfully into Harry's shocked eyes. "Glamours have a specific magical signature," he elaborated, "and this boy was covered from head to toe with them."

"It was hard, alright!" Harry retorted. "I saw that cage fall on you and I didn't want to see….didn't need to see anymore…."

"YOU BURIED ME, HARRY!"

"BECAUSE YOU DIED, SNAPE!"

"Really?" Came the quiet voice. "Then what am I now, hmm? Tell me."

"A figment of my lonely imagination!" Harry spat out.

"And his too?" Snape's gaze fell briefly on Albus Severus.

"Yes. I told him everything about you. Why wouldn't he see what I wanted him to see so badly?"

It took Harry a while to realize what he was seeing. Snape's eyes glinted. "A ghost, eh? As you wish, Potter." He smiled, revealing his less than perfect teeth. "If I am a ghost, I can do whatever I want without retribution."

And he pulled Harry forwards until they were chest to chest and kissed him.

It was the worst best kiss Harry ever had. It was sloppy and unpracticed, and he guessed Snape probably died a virgin (if he didn't have proof right before him), except that he wasn't dead and he was kissing Harry and Harry could feel the solid weight of Snape's mouth on his and it was wet and his lower lip was in Snape's mouth and Snape was biting on it and Harry wanted to thrust his tongue into that beautiful ugly sneering smirking cruel mouth but Snape pulled away.

But Harry didn't. He molded his body to Snape's, his hands reaching for Snape's neck, which the older man allowed, studying with gentle fingertips before going upwards onto the man's head, (Snape's breath hitched) seemingly to do nothing but massage the man's scalp, grabbing hold of his hair and pulling it towards himself, deeply inhaling the scent. Apparently finding something that affected him, because he let out a sort of sobbing noise in his throat and his arms went around Snape once more, hands going over shoulders, small waist ("So thin," Harry mumbled with sadness into Snape's hair), and leading downwards to cup the man's prodigious arse. Wait! Prodigious? Upon closer inspection (with his hands) he realized it was a regular arse, on a somewhat-starved middle-aged man (but Snape looked half-starved for as long as Harry could remember him, Harry thought). What made it so unusual was that each globe was perfectly spherical; each fit comfortably in the palms of Harry's hands. His squeezed Snape's buttocks one more time for good measure, eliciting a soft moan, then withdrew his hands, regretfully, to his sides. He remained close by, though.

Behind him, however, Albus Severus, having witnessed this unusual display (his father had never been this… this…. intimate, he concluded, with anyone before), shook his head in bemusement, and blushing, took a step backwards from his father and this strange new man.

"Satisfied?" He mocked. But his breathing was not quite even and so ruined the effect of sarcasm. Somewhat.

"Hmmmm." Harry hummed, pulling Snape down and kissing him again. When he pulled away he was smiling. "I did one more thing right. Thank God for those glamours, I mean."

"And Miss Weasley never questioned you?"

He looked into Snape's eyes and smiled, "No. Why would she?"

"Gryffindors." Snape scoffed. But his eyes softened just a little.

"Yeah. Ginny is nice like that," said Harry, missing Snape's point entirely. "You can depend on her to do the right thing."

"And yet you had to put glamours on your son."

"It was a precaution. I didn't think it'd make a difference." He looked down. "But I didn't want to be wrong and ruin everything with her."

"And now?" Snape prompted. It seemed that he was waiting for something.

"Now?" Harry asked. He would his arms around Snape's waist. "Oh, there's only one thing I have to do now."

"And that would be?"

"Shag you and take you home with me."

"That's two things."

"You always did say I was an idiot."

"Me? Never." But the black eyes flickered laughingly. "I said you were hopeless. Only hopeless." He looked meaningfully at Harry.

"And now what do you say?"

Snape's eyes moved to the small boy standing to the side, ignored by the two adults up until now. "Not in front of the child, Potter." He reddened. He certainly kept this to himself when Potter was molesting him.

"Why not? Are you trying to tell me you won't come home with me?"

"You are married." There was definitely a note in there somewhere.

"Ginny will understand."

"Will she now?"

"Or we can have an affair. Like that Muggle movie about two cowboy sheepherders."

"Didn't one die prematurely?"

"Yeah." Defiance in the voice. "And –one-" in an accusing glare aimed at Snape, "pretended to be dead and was the reason of said marriage in the first place."

"How was I the reason for your mistake, Potter?" Snape growled.

"How else could I explain away the kid, SNAPE?"

Snape's eyes widened. "You mean---"

A nod. "Well, not the way you think." Harry amended, looking away. "Albus was born your little carbon copy, Snape. To Ginny."

"B-but," he spluttered, "He has your eyes, for Merlin's sake! A-and i-it was just the one time. You were being insolent!"

"That detention was tiresome and you know it."

"YOU SEDUCED ME!"

"You –WANTED- ME!"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE ADORABLE!"

"YOU---!" He stopped, surprised. "I am?"

"Don't fish for compliments, Potter."

"I'm not." He smirked. "But you know what this means, don't you, Snape?"

"What?" He asked warily.

"You're coming home with me." He smiled triumphantly. "And don't try to deny it. You can't resist me. And I have a witness who heard you admit it."

Al's head bowed in embarrassment. It was bad enough to see his father being all soppy, but did he HAVE to include him in this insanity as well?"

But Snape took pity on a child. For once.

He untangled himself from Harry and turned fully to face the green-eyed boy. His expression was serious. "I am Severus Snape," he introduced himself, extending his hand.

"Albus." The boy coughed and blushed. "Albus Severus Potter." The boy took it and they shook hands.

"Do you know how special you are, Albus Severus?" Snape asked softly.

"Yes. I was named after two headmasters, Sir. One Gryffindor, one Slytherin." The boy spoke as though he said this before many times.

Snape shook his head, chuckling. It was strangely surreal. "You," he stopped, "you do have siblings?"

The boy nodded.

"And they are all under glamours?" He looked over at Harry.

Harry's hand reached for Snape's. "Yes." He whispered, squeezing it.

He turned back to Albus Severus. "You and your brothers and sisters have three parents. It is unheard of and therefore makes you all special."

Harry spoke up. "They only have two. You and I are their parents, Sev."

Snape blanched. Harry looked chagrined. He didn't mean to upset Snape. He thought the name sounded cute coming from his mother's mouth. So it just slipped out. He opened his mouth to take it back, but Snape stopped him, looking at Harry's face intently. "Call me what you want, Harry."

"I will call you Severus, then."

"You can call me…" He tapered off.

"I know." Harry laughed. "I just don't want you to call me Har."

"As good a reason as any." He held out his hands, one to Harry and one to his son. "Shall we?"

Father and son took them. Then they made their way home.

Harry had a feeling that Ginny would kill him before any explanations could be made.

He decided he'd brave it. Harry was a Gryffindor for a reason.

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