Chapter 1
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Sometime in the Future...
Samhain. All Soul's Day. The magical interval when the mundane laws of time and space are temporarily suspended, and the Thin Veil between the worlds is lifted. Communicating with ancestors and departed loved ones is easy at this time, for they journey through this world on their way to the Summerlands. It is a time to study the Dark Mysteries and honor the Dark Mother and the Dark Father, symbolized by the Crone and her aged Consort.
Sometimes to right the wrongs of the past. As such as it was on this night. Too much had gone wrong. The future was never set in stone. He had to do something and this Samhain, he would. For if he didn't, his loved ones would forever roam the plane between heaven and earth, never finding peace. The Goddess had heard him and had given their blessing on his quest.
The wrongs of the past would be made right.
The future would be clear once more.
He took a cleansing breathe as he waited for the veil to thin. To become clear to him. And at the moment it happened, James Potter stepped through the veil with one purpose on his mind, to bring his son back from the dead.
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Seven years ago, on Halloween, Severus Snape lost what humanity he had left. His sole purpose for living had been taken away. His body just wouldn't give up the ghost yet. As he thought back to the day it happened. It was ironic... that his lover would be taken on the same anniversary as his parents had been.
The war had been over for months. Harry Potter had finished what had been started on another Halloween years ago. His parents had been avenged as his friends stood beside him, as well as Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape and both Malfoy's Sr. and Jr. They all stood together, using one spell, bringing to his knees one of the darkest wizards in centuries.
The power he knew not was the gift of love shared between him and those that Harry loved beyond this world and the next. Gift of lovers and friends. The gift of soulmates. A forever.
It was beautiful to watch the man who was Harry Potter, a warrior and a lover, call the power of the earth to his feet. Called the power of love to his heart and soul. Then everyone watched in wonder as Harry opened his arms wide and gathering the magic of the elements and cleanse the battlefield of darkness that was once Voldemort.
The world celebrated for weeks afterwards. He and Harry didn't leave their safe haven for a month. Not that they were alone. War itself brought about quite a few new and strange alliances.
The Villa had become a place to just be. And one by one, Harry invited those closest to him to stay when things became too much with the war. Those he trusted.
And those they trusted brought the ones they found in desperate times.
Dobby and Winky had come along as Harry's house elves. Severus smirked at the row between his lover and Granger. It was Dobby who told her that he was proud to be Master Harry's friend and elf. Just let them be.
And she did.
One by one, they came and the Villa became a place that the war could not touch. They had been making breakfast together when Harry turned around to say hello to Remus. They hadn't stopped to say anything to the Werewolf when they arrived late that night. They only showered and fell into bed exhausted.
Remus was not alone. Lucius Malfoy stood tall and regal beside the quiet man with a large bite scar on his neck. A claiming mark.
That was the first surprise...two or three weeks later, Hermione showed up with Draco Malfoy. Both were in the kitchen arguing, or rather, Hermione was berating Draco about something she thought was foolish and dangerous. How could he put his life on the line when she was just finding she could not live without him in her life. Just as they stepped into the kitchen, Draco did the only thing he could think of. He kissed Hermione senseless.
"Well I definitely never saw that one coming," Harry said as he walked over to the cold box and pulled out fixings for sandwiches.
Harry and Severus were beginning to wonder if they should put up wards around the kitchen to alert anyone there that someone was coming. Then they found Ronald in the kitchen.
On the table.
No shirt and his jeans undone with one Neville Longbottom bending him over the kitchen table and doing a wonderful job of making a so-called straight man moan all the way up from his toes, and then scream his release as he came.
"We are going to need a new table," Severus drawled.
Wards went up in the kitchen. No one was caught with their pants down again. Especially when Harry decided to see what all the fuss was about having sex in the kitchen, after they later walked in on Remus bending Lucius over the new kitchen table.
The rebuilding of Hogwarts had been slow going and tedious at best, but the walls would once more be crowded with students again. The governors had been hopeful for a reopening after the Christmas holidays.
Harry and his friends were tired of hiding things from whom they called family and friends. Especially so when they were planning on bonding during the Yule. So it was decided that the four of them would travel to the Burrow and announce to those gathered about the secrets they kept. He knew some would be horribly upset with him and his friends. Ron's Mum especially was not going to be happy. Hermione and Harry would be right up there with Ron along with Remus as she had taken them all under her wing.
She had mothered them all throughout the war. She and an army of House Elves had made sure there was always food waiting in all the safe houses, at the Burrow, wherever anyone from the order might end up for the night.
The War lasted three years past Harry's last year at Hogwarts. Even then, the school had become a refuge for those singled out by Tom Riddle and his minions.
Severus' true spy status had been exposed early in the game soon, after Harry's Fifth Year. Voldemort had realized that since he used Potter's blood he could pass the wards of his Aunt and Uncle's home easily. And he did.
Peter Pettigrew had given up his life that night to repay the life debt he owed Harry. Sirius Black's name was cleared and Severus Snape was almost tortured to insanity that night. It was Harry who Apparated himself and Snape out of the Dursley household that night with a burst of wandless magic.
Poppy kept Severus in her infirmary for three months. He spent the first month comatose. When Severus was able to speak again or hold a conversation without falling asleep in his tea, he asked some hard questions of Harry. His treatment at the hands of those who were his family. It was the first time, Severus Snape saw the real Harry Potter, not James Potter's son.
The snarly man took great pleasure in watching Minerva and Poppy rake Albus Dumbledore over the coals then turn around and berate Harry for not speaking up.
He just repeated what he had been told. That he was safest where his mother's blood flowed. And that was the Dursley's.
Poppy dragged the young man over to a bed, pulled the screen and proceeded to check him from head to toe. When she was done two hours later, she informed him that the damage was there, but with the right foods and some very well made potions they could undo the damage.
But first things first. New eye glasses.
And one spectacular shopping trip later with a huge bonfire outside on the lawn of Hogwarts. Harry would not be returning to the Dursley's ever again.
Harry spent his time training and learning from Severus, growing closer. Together they pulled Draco and Lucius from the edge of the Forbidden Forrest not two weeks before Sixth year.
Both had been tortured and beaten. What they hadn't known was that it wasn't Lucius Malfoy in the Azkaban prison, but his wife, Narcissa. The beautiful blonde was ruthless and evil like her sister Bella. When they had questioned her after the fact, and Lucius, they found out that Malfoy Sr, wanted to save his family from serving the Dark Lord.
But the cold beautiful woman was swimming in a madness all her own. She kept her husband under her tight control and Polyjuiced him whenever she could.
Even Draco didn't know what was happening around him. She had withdrawn from his life and only Lucius had been his constant, and she was the one who punished him when the Mudblood Granger did better than him in lessons or Potter beat him at Quidditch. She had fed him a potion every month to suppress his Veela heritage.
Severus remembered how Lucius looked after they found both men. The older man's signature long silky hair was long gone. Cut off in large chunks as Narcissa used it for the Polyjuice Potion.
By the time the new Hogwarts term began for Harry and company, Draco and his father were full time residents of the Castle. Lucius became the new assistant to both Remus and Severus in Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes.
It was hearing Draco tell his father, until the war with Voldemort was over, they had no home. It was true. Severus' family manor was under attack all summer as the Dark Lord was trying to find him and destroy him for betraying him and his cause. To gain access to his extensive family library full of ancient dark arts books.
For now their home was with those they loved.
And when the War ended, they each found love.
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Remus, Harry, Ron and Hermione asked everyone to meet them at the Burrow so they could announce some things and discuss futures. Harry sent Dobby and Winky ahead with baskets of food for the impromptu afternoon tea. It was a time for celebration. Not only was Voldemort dead and the Wizarding World was free, but they could actually for the first time in many years, plan a future.
Ron wanted his friends with him when he broke the news of his impending bonding to Neville. They had each kept their personal lives separate and secretive from others, hence keeping their lovers safe from the evil of Voldemort and his Deatheaters.
When they were all gathered in the Burrow's kitchen, Ron stood up, "Mum, Dad, everyone, I would like to invite all of you to my bonding during the Yule as I begin my future with the Heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Longbottom."
Harry stood up next to his best friend and smiled, "As well I. During the coming Yule, I invite all of you to my bonding to Severus Snape, Heir to the House of Prince...."
Molly Weasley nee Prewitt, was not about to let all her plans go South. Not after all this time. "Oh no you're not!" Molly interrupted. The older red headed woman stood up and growled. "You cannot and will not, marry that.. that ... that MAN!" Turning eyes towards her youngest son, "And YOU! Will not either! I did NOT raise you to marry a MAN!"
"Mrs. Weasley," Harry began. "I make my own decisions. And I have decided to bond with Severus. Nothing will stop that."
"I can and I will. I have a contract signed by your Godfather for your hand in marriage to my daughter. It cannot be broken."
"My Godfather? What are you on about? He wouldn't have signed anything without talking to me first!"
"Well he did. Right after Christmas during your Fifth Year."
"Sirius wasn't capable of signing any agreement with you. He was not well by then. The man even confused Harry with his father many a time that year. We all know that," Hermione stated.
"It does not matter. I have contracts signed for Harry and Ginny, just as I promised her as a child."
Hermione could see the devious smirk on the girl's face. She had known all this time.
"As I have one for you and my Ronald."
Tbc...