Title: Sodomy
Author: Nemesis
Feedback: PG
Summary: Harry and Severus get to participate in a famous trial.
Disclaimer: Very much not mine. Bugger off.
URL to the DtD website: they're going to find us!"
"Shut up, stupid boy."
Severus clasped his hand over Harry's mouth. The guards passed by without noticing the two men in the alley.
"Severus, let's just go…"
"Don't you enjoy this? The thrill? Knowing they might catch us any second?"
"No. It's scary. Sev, if they find us, they're going to KILL us. Please, can we just go?"
Severus looked down into the pleading green eyes of his lover.
"Fine. Let's go."
They hurried along the dark alley together, not stopping until they reached their flat in London.
"Oh, dear God," Harry sighed happily as Severus' mouth closed over his. "Oh, dear sweet God."
There was urgent knocking on the door. Severus adjusted his clothes quickly as Harry did the same. Severus went and answered the door himself. A man stood there, dressed flamboyently, with a harried expression.
"Come in," Severus said immediately, and shut the door.
"Oscar!" Harry cried happily. "I haven't seen you in a while. Still writing?"
"I won't be for long," said Oscar Wilde darkly. "His father found out. They're trying me on charges of sodomy."
"Oh, fuck."
"Not anymore," Wilde sighed.
Harry sniggered. "Sorry, I just thought that was…"
"It's okay. Irony and humor can always be found in the worst situations. Laugh all you want."
"Why are you here? We can hardly hide you from the government."
"I know, I know. Just let me sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I'll leave you two alone."
"Sleep in Harry's room. He has a very comfortable bed, and it's quite far from the front door."
"Where will Harry sleep?"
Severus gave Wilde a significant look, and Wilde grinned. "You sly dog!" he cried.
Severus pretended to be affronted. Harry grinned. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Yes, that would be lovely."
"So, what have you done lately?"
"Bah! Writing is impossible nowadays. Always, always I am distracted by that little imp."
"The same one whose father found out?"
"Yes, yes, that's the one."
"Bloody bastard, then, I say," Severus said, and Wilde laughed.
"But a good screw."
"Speaking of…" Harry cast a meaningful look at Severus.
"Do pardon us, Oscar," Severus said.
"Did I interrupt anything when I came in?"
"Rather," Harry answered.
Wilde smirked, and Harry and Severus left for Severus' room.
The next morning, Wilde quietly snuck around the kitchen making some breakfast. Harry and Severus finally emerged from their room.
"I'll leave in a minute, I promise," Wilde promised them. "I just wanted to make us some breakfast."
"Take your time," Severus yawned. "You can stay here, but we're not hiding you from the government. If the police come…"
"I understand. You have your own secrets to protect."
Severus sneaked a glance at Harry, who was yawning and stretching.
Wilde understood. "A little protective, aren't you?"
"I nearly got thrown in jail myself for this. I don't want that to happen to him."
Wilde nodded, and Harry frowned. "What?"
"Nothing, Harry. Nothing."
Two days later, there was furious pounding at the door. Severus gracefully went to open it. Two policemen stood there.
"Good afternoon. How may I help you?" Severus asked politely. Harry emerged from his room and went to the door.
"We're looking for Oscar Wilde. Have you seen him?"
Wilde came out of the kitchen. "I'm here, I'm here. I'm not going to make these fine, upstanding gentlemen lie, or not lie, and then be guilty either way."
He left with one of the policemen.
"Why was he here?"
"He came here, asked us to let him sleep here. We told him he could."
"You didn't think there was anything strange?"
"No, he's often asked to stay before."
A distasteful look crossed the policeman's face. "Now, I must ask this, and pardon the offense that will surely follow. But in light of who this man is… I must ask these questions. Have either of you ever practiced sodomy with Wilde?"
"No, sir," both men answered immediately.
"Have either of you ever practiced sodomy with anyone else?"
"No, sir," Harry immediately lied.
"Well, sir, there was this time once, back in school, although I doubt that counts. It was over twenty years ago," Severus answered. "Besides, I've already undergone trial for that one."
"Were you jailed, sir?"
"No, sir, for it was proved satisfactorily that I was extremely suggestible. It wasn't forced, but it might have well been."
Light dawned upon the policeman. "Ah. Understandable. My apologies. Good day."
"They've asked us to testify," Severus sighed a few days later.
"To what?"
"That Oscar is too much of an upstanding citizen to practice sodomy. Who knows? Will you?"
"Yes," Harry answered. "You?"
"Yes."
The prosecutor approached Severus.
"So, it didn't seem strange to you that he came in the middle of the night?"
"No. Like I said, it happened before. He would get thrown out by his wife, sometimes. Or he had to get out of his house to get some sleep… Sometimes, he said, his writings haunted him to the point where he couldn't sleep in his house."
"Did you agree to hide him from the government?"
"Didn't know I had to hide him."
"Mr. Snape, we have found a record of a similar trial – yours. For sodomy. Could it be you are lying to protect a fellow sodomist?"
"As you will notice, I was acquitted on basis of the fact that it was clear the other boy was so persistent I thought I had no choice but to acquiesce. I am hardly a sodomist, sir."
"Really? Yet you share a flat with another man, when at your age, most men have settled down with wives and children."
Severus shrugged. "I have been unlucky, and I have found no woman I loved. Mr. Potter is in a similar state – although younger than me – and he and I knew each other through some mutual friends. We were both looking for a flat in London, and decided sharing would be a fine idea. We are hardly together as a couple or anything like that!" A look of disgust passed over his face, and Harry marveled at Severus' acting ability.
Severus finally stepped down, and Harry went to testify.
The prosecutor eventually came to him.
"Did you thing it was strange that Wilde came in the middle of the night?"
"No. It was completely normal."
"Did he tell you anything about his trial?"
"No."
"You share a flat with another man?"
"Yes, sir. We found this much cheaper, and we are lucky enough to get along fairly well. It hardly makes us sodomists!"
"So I take it you sleep in separate rooms?"
"At opposite ends of the flat. Tell me, sir, am I on trial or is Mr. Wilde?"
The judge roared with laughter. "He caught you on that one! Keep to the subject."
Harry and Severus waited patiently for the verdict to be read. It was called out as guilty.
Harry sighed deeply. Severus frowned and nodded. "I know. He… he more or less admitted he was in the end, anyway."
They went back to the flat.
"It's going to be hard for a bit," Harry sighed. "I wonder if we'll ever be accepted…"