Swing
By: PhoenixJustice
Disclaimer: The Dresden Files is property of Jim Butcher. Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. I only own this story and make no profit from this.
Warning: Rated T for language, etc.
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter.
Setting: Post-Skin Game for The Dresden Files. Vaguely set sometime during Half Blood Prince for Harry Potter.
Summary: In the many, many, weird things in my life I had been through, I was pretty sure this somehow managed to top the list.
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In the many, many, weird things in my life I had been through, I was pretty sure this somehow managed to top the list. And given that I was currently the Winter Knight for the Unseelie Fairie Queen, my brother was a vampire and I had birthed a child that had resided in my head, I was pretty sure that said a lot.
Still, none of those seemed to compare to the fact of the fictional characters that were currently sitting in my living room. Brand spanking new apartment, thanks to Thomas. Molly had offered hers, but it felt too...awkward to take it, given her still very apparent feelings for me. I couldn't reciprocate those like she wanted. So distance, however small, seemed to be the best thing I could do for now with that. Not easy, given that she was technically my boss as she was the Winter Lady, but...that was to be thought about another time.
Right now the time was to try and think about just how this came about.
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"Hello?" I say, holding the phone gingerly near me. Technology, especially newer technology, never seemed to mix well with me (we Wizards just weren't good around it. Though it had it uses when, say, you wanted to take out a house full of lights easily because a evil sorcerer sicced his evil monkeys on you and...long story.)
"Uh, is this Harry Dresden?" A voice asks me. British sounding, from what I could tell. Younger too, though I couldn't exactly tell just how young. I was pretty good at my deductive skills, but even I could only tell so much from a phone call.)
"Yes..." I drag out a bit. I wasn't too caught up on things like newer cell phones could do (when I was a kid they were as big as a brick and I hadn't yet been Wizardly enough to affect them in any real way) so I wasn't sure just how easy it was to get ahold of people on them, but I did remember that Thomas had only given my number to the Important people in our lives. "Is this some kinda telemarketing thing? Cause I don't even own a tv."
"No. I saw this advert in a phone book. Consulting Wizard?"
I curse under my breath. Thomas. This had to be a Thomas thing. He must have linked this number to a new advertisement in the phone book. He lived to get on my nerves sometimes. Must have been the twenty some odd years we hadn't known each other. Had to get all those oneups on each other when one could.
I start to speak, but stop as I hear someone in the background of the phone call. I Listen in closer to try and hear them better.
"-waste of time, Potter." is what I manage to catch from a deeper sounding British voice in the background.
The boy on the line huffs, though I can tell it wasn't at me.
"That's me, Consulting Wizard at your service." I say drily. "What did you need?"
"Um, it's...kind of complicated. Like very complicated."
I sigh. "Look, kid, if this is just some sort of prank call, forget it. And the police is perfectly able to-"
"I need your help."
Shit. He just had to say that, didn't he?
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The last thing I expected to see when I opened the door is what I saw.
I blink at the sight but it doesn't go away.
"Pretty sure Halloween has already passed." With, thankfully, no world ending related thing to deal with. For once. I was skeptical on the reason, but I'd take it. Maybe Santa took care of it.
The taller man behind him snorts, rolling his eyes. I had to hand it to the two of them. They both looked remarkably like the ones from the movies (or the description of the books, whichever you prefered.)
"Thisis who you think can help us, Potter?" The man sneers, his deep voice full of skepticism. I felt slightly offended. I might not have had the biggest place in this area (I had to talk Thomas down from a bigger place. This was already big enough and even with it being him, me, Maggie, Ciel (my newest, the aforementioned birthed from my head, child) and Bob (which wasn't much of a problem as Bob resided in a skull) we still had ample room.
Currently it was only me in the apartment as Thomas had taken the children to see their 'Aunt' Justine. While their relationship as lovers had ended not so long ago, they had remained close as friends, which was good for Justine as she needed something to help keep her balanced in life. She doted on the children and they in turn adored her. Certainly much more than they did Lara, who they kept a healthy distance from, as I did.
There, that 'Potter' again. "Look, you don't have to tell me your real names or anything, but if-"
The younger man sighs, rolling his eyes, looking at the older man exasperatedly. "We are. Mister Dresden-"
"Harry." I say.
"Sorry," the boy apologizes. "Just feels a bit weird, considering it's my first name too."
"Must be the first time you've called someone by something resembling appropriate, Potter." The other man drawls.
"Look here-"
"Guys," I say, holding hands out. "No need for fighting. But like I said, the police would be more than appropriate to help you guys out."
"You don't believe us." The younger man says.
I snort. "No offence, but if two people popped up on your doorstep, claming to be two fictional people, would you believe them? Sure, I've met a Bigfoot and Santa, but even then..." I trail off. Huh. It was times like these that I realized just how weird my life was.
"Words sometimes aren't good enough. Especially for those two slow to understand." The older man says, with a bit of a smirk on his face.
Hey! I definitely resented that remark! I might have been a bit dense sometimes, but I wasn't stupid. I had saved the world a lot! I rode a zombie T-Rex I had revived in downtown Chicago! I fought Fairie Queens and Vampires and Fallen Angels and I was-oh shit, wait was he invading my mind?
I recoil back on instinct, with a blast of Winter cold magic mentally. He nearly takes a step back, obviously surprised.
"What the hell was that?" I bark, surprised. I rub at my head. It didn't hurt physically but that had shocked me.
"Legilimency." The younger man says. He looks almost apologetic. "Sorry. Didn't think he'd do that just yet." He glares up at the other man who raises an unimpressed brow at him.
"He is obviously someone who needs something more to believe us, Potter."
The boy whips out a wand and I take an instinctual step back now, flinching when the boy thrusts it forward in my direction.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Oh shit, the light was heading my way! It was-oh wait, did he say what I think he did? Oh. That was a stag.
A glowing magical stag was standing in the middle of my living room and I was currently having an actual conversation with Harry Potter and Severus Snape.
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Which is what led them to be currently sitting in my kitchen.
"What even made you think of calling me?" I ask, arms folded as I lean against the large steel of the refridgerator Thomas had insisted on getting (the display on the thing kept shorting out every couple of weeks but hey it was his money, if he wanted to replace it that was on him.)
Harry (Harry! As in the Harry Potter! This was absolutely insane and amazing at the same time. Teenaged me would be astounded) fidgets a bit in his seat (we had an island with stools in the kitchen, which is where they both sat at), mumbling something I couldn't quite make out.
"Excuse me?" I ask politely.
Harry flushes red. "I said, you seemed sincere."
I blink. "You could tell that from an advert in the phone book?"
He shrugs a bit, nodding. I was suitably impressed.
"When I saw what it entailed, plus the fact that it said 'Wizard', well, it wasn't like we have much options anyway, so I figured this'd be our best bet."
I get more into of a 'detective' sort of mode I hadn't properly been in, in ages.
"What happened to get the two of you here?" I ask them both seriously.
Snape snorts, glancing at Potter. "Potter. How else would we be here?"
Harry sputters a bit, glaring at Snape. "It wasn't just my fault. If you hadn't grabbed onto me-"
"He thought he could get Black back by going through the Veil to get him. You know what I'm talking about, Dresden?" Snape asks me. I nod. I had read the books numerous times. I hadn't seen much of the movies (too much of a chance of the movie equipment messing up.) "If I hadn't realized what he was doing, he'd be dead the same as-"
"Shut up." Harry says. "It was fine. If you hadn't have stopped me-"
"Then you would be dead," Snape hisses, his black eyes flashing angrily. "Do you really think I'd stand by and let you die, Potter?"
I wasn't sure which of the three of us was the most surprised at that statement. But maybe I could top that with something to diffuse the tension.
"Excuse me, fellas." I say, walking off.
"Where are you going?"
"To get my talking skull!" I yell over my shoulder.
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"Wow, Harry. I did say I'd like some new reading material, but I didn't expect you to bring the actual material here!" Bob chortles, the skull he was housed in shaking slightly. He jostles himself to face the two Wizards properly. "Hiya."
Harry blinks owlishly at the skull. "Uh, hi."
The pinpoints of orange lights of Bob's eyes seem to glow brighter. "Quite a conundrum you got yourself into, Harry. Harry Potter, I mean." Bob's skull turns enough to look at me. "Harry, this makes up for the lack of romance novels!"
"For like, a year, you think?" I ask him, amused.
Bob lets out an agreeing sound, skull turning back on the island to once more address the other two.
"So when he tripped, you two tumbled onto a set of runes?"
"Yes." Snape replies. If he was at all surprised at Bob he didn't show it. From what I knew of him from the books, he was a man who kept things relatively close to the chest. Though this experience of them being here was definitely something that didn't happen in the books. Perhaps it was like what Bob had told me before, how there were essentially infinite universes? So they had come from a universe where Sirius Black had still died, but Snape hadn't? When were they from, exactly? In terms of the books, anyway.
"There was a flash of light around them," Snape continues, gesturing a circle with one of his long and elegant looking hands. "A blue light glowed around and we ended up here shortly after."
"Anything in-between?" Bob asks. He was all but shaking in excitement in the skull. "Like a transitory period or was it an immediate transport here?"
"Immediate." Snape says.
It was hard to tell with the man's personality, but he seemed to like Bob? Huh. Most people tended to get annoyed at him very quickly, so I had assumed he would too. But perhaps it was because of Bob's nature of being a Spirit of Intellect, that Snape could latch onto that instinctively (the man being as smart as he was. He was a Potions Master, after all. While we might have made different potions, I was so very far away from being a Master of anything. Unless Master of Burger King was a real title.)
"Hmm. What were the nature of the Runes? Greek or Norse?"
"Phoenician."
Bob lets out what I can only describe as an excited squeak, his skull jumping slightly on the island in obvious excitement.
"Phoenician." Bob moans. "I haven't seen a good Phoenician runic circle in centuries."
"So you think you can help us get home, then?" Harry asks him, but looks up at me as he does.
I shrug. "Bob is one of the smartest beings around. He might have his vices but I'd wager very few would have his knowledge on Runic magics."
"Ooh!" Bob exclaims. "This means I get to call, don't I, Harry? Since I'm helping."
I glare down at Bob. "No. The last time I let you, I couldn't look him in the face for weeks afterward."
"What?" Bob complains. "He asked if I knew any fun places to go to!"
"Your fun place was a strip club!"
"Uh, just so we're clear here...who is this coming in?" Harry asks us, a bit nervously.
"Santa!" Bob twitters.
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Kringle, as was his current Mantle he was wearing, was big, like a bear. bear. He has broad shoulders, forearms nearly as large as his upper arms, a thick neck, a barrel chest and a huge frame. His beard was long, white and suitably Santa-ish, as one would hope and expect.
He also held a few other Mantles. One of which was the most useful in the case, as we were dealing with Runes here and he was like The Master of them. Thankfully he was doing duty here as Santa and not as Vadderung, so I didn't have to deal with Hugin and Munin (they weren't very fond of me.)
Now I got to look at an obviously surprised Snape! Pretty fun, just for that.
"You said they were Phoenician, my boy?" Kringle asks, voice booming in just that way he couldn't help in this form. People expected Kris Kringle to be that kinda jovial person and in some ways he was, but he was also a man ready for battle, as his chain mailed armor let on (I still remembered fighting with him and the Erlking not so long ago. That had been something to remember. Wild Hunt and all.)
Snape nods, seemingly too nonplussed to be offended at being called a boy. Though perhaps he got the idea, that Kringle was currently older than all of us in this apartment combined and with plenty of years on top of that. None of our power here, even mine not so small power-with the Winter Knight Mantle-even came close to his. He was the closest thing to a Winter King, which was yet another Mantle of power to add to what he already had.
Kringle strokes his beard clad chin for a moment, eye gleaming, before he nods. He turns to look down at Harry now who blanches a bit at being addressed at someone so obviously powerful. Kringle smiles at him in understanding.
"Do you think you could remember what they looked like? I'd rather not transport the two of you without that; could end up in the right place but the wrong time or vice versa."
Harry nods, as does Snape, and both of them gasp from what I can only guess is Kringle effortlessly pulling out the information out of their minds. He couldn't take what wasn't freely given, at least not under this Mantle, as closely tied to the Fae as it was.
He nods after a moment. "I see. Someone had put them around that Veil as a measure of defence, I suppose, but they configured it incorrectly." He snorts, in a manner much more reminiscent of Vadderung. "Children playing with such complex work. Still, I can get you back now that I know what they were."
He gestures the two of them forward, to stand closely next to one another.
"You'll need to be closer for this to work better." Kringle says to them and I see Harry raise a brow before gingerly grabbing Snape's hand. Snape visibly stiffens but does not pull away, leaving Harry to smile a bit sheepishly as Kringle gets to work.
His work is near instantaneous; with a quick movement of his hands, a runic configuration starts to form itself, blue light and all, in a circle that starts to spin around quicker and quicker, until it plops itself down onto the ground.
"Thank you, Mister-Harry." Harry tells me. "For your help."
I wave a hand at him. "Don't sweat it. Kringle here has done the heavy lifting. And I got to live something that normally no one couldn't, so I consider it more than even."
"Thank you, er-" Harry starts, not sure how to address Kringle.
Kringle's eye twinkles. "You can just call me Vadderung, if that is easier for you."
Harry visibly relaxes. "Thank you, Mr. Vadderung."
He jerks his hand that was holding Snape's. It seems to make Snape speak, strangely enough.
"Thank you." Snape says, surprisingly soft. It seemed quite sincere, though I don't mistake the almost half-hearted glare he throws Harry's way.
"No problem." I reply easily.
They start to take a step forward.
"Wait!" I exclaim.
They stop and Harry looks at me puzzled as I turn to address him.
"I gotta know; why was it just you two at the Department of Mysteries?"
Harry smiles, an almost secret smile, at me. He flushes a bit, his hand squeezing Snape's.
"Sev is a good boyfriend, despite his words to the contrary."
I sputter and Snape visibly flushes now.
"Potter." Snape hisses.
Harry looks at him. "And I thought I told you to call me Harry."
And just like that, with a step and a flash later, they were gone.
It's quiet for a moment. And then:
"Wait! I didn't get them to sign my books before they left!" Bob wails.
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A/N: This was tricky, let me tell you! No one wanted to cooperate with me for the longest time! Still, it was a challenge I was ready to take on, as a birthday present for my wonderful friend NatsMiniMe/MissKM! I hope this (belated) birthday present is something you like!
And to the rest of you:
I hope you enjoyed this!
Let me know what you thought!
-PhoenixJustice