Chapter 6

Libertine

"Hey you! Wait up! I need to talk to you!" Draco Malfoy's voice sounded across the Hogwarts viaduct. It was late October and the mountain air chilled Harry to the bone as he walked on ahead, his slender hands seeking warmth in the pocket of his coffee brown hoodie.

"For the millionth time, I said STOP!" the blonde-haired boy continued to harass him, "I'm so sick of following you around, you arrogant prat!"

That germane insult caught Harry's attention in a way nothing in the past month and a half had. Finally, he stopped in the Paved Courtyard and let Draco catch up to him.

"I need to talk to you," Malfoy repeated, catching his breath.

"So you keep saying, but do you even know who I am?" Harry asked coldly.

"Of course I know who you are!" Draco spat, looking his famous classmate up and down.

"Really? What's my name then?" Harry quizzed him, although he already knew the answer.

"I know it," Malfoy began defensively, "Of course I know it! You're…you're… you! Well you know who you are! You!"

"Shock horror!" Harry's voice was cutting, "Didn't really need you to tell me I'm myself, Malfoy."

Draco, like the rest of the student body, had been confunded to effectively expunge the name "Harry Potter" from his vocabulary. This included the ability to describe Harry's physical or biographical characteristics to another person in order to identify him through other means. However, all students continued to recognize Harry as their classmate, although they had been somewhat desensitized to the extent of his importance in the wizarding world.

"Shut up…you!" Malfoy said irritably, "You know how it's been."

"Oh yes," Harry replied grumpily, "I know how it's been. I didn't need you to tell me that either."

Forgetting about his frustration over not remembering Harry's name nearly as efficiently as he had forgotten the name itself, Draco carried on noncommittally.

"Professor Snape wants to speak with you."

"Fine. Then why doesn't he do it?"

"He wanted me to find you, to bring you to him."

"And why would he want to see me?" Harry retorted spitefully, "After what he did to you?"

"Is this about what happened in the broom cupboard?"

Harry snorted.

"I wonder! I mean, after walking in on him giving you a Portuguese wand polish –"

"Shh! Do you have to say it so loudly?" Malfoy said in a hushed tone, "To be honest, it's none of your damn business. I have needs, you know."

"Malfoy, look. I don't really care about your 'needs', as you call them, all right?" Harry looked away.

"Whatever. Sorry I mentioned it. Listen, Severus really wants to speak to you. He keeps sending me to fetch you. But you keep running away from me."

Harry shook his head peevishly, then sighed.

"Let's stop by the Great Hall for dinner first. I'm hungry."

"So why is it that Snape wants to speak with me, again?" Harry inquired, tucking his half-empty vial of veritaserum back into his pocket.

Draco took a healthy gulp of his butterbeer and sat back comfortably in his seat across from his archrival.

"To be honest, he didn't really say," Malfoy explained as candidly as he could.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Harry pestered him further, "Why do you think he wants to speak with me?"

"Probably thinks you're traumatized from walking in on our little sex scene, you short-arse," Draco smirked, "From what I gather, he thinks it's the first time you've ever seen someone smoke a pink cigar."

"Oh shut your pie-hole!"

"Fine, no problem."

"Wait, no, forget that. Go on. What else do you intuit, Malfoy?"

"Well, I've felt like a spare prick at a wedding since you barged in on us," Draco frowned, "Not sure if he thinks you're shaggable but I can tell he fancies you."

"Really? If he fancies me, then, why is he banging you?"

"Didn't really have a choice did he? Unbreakable vow, and all that jazz. In any case, we haven't been to the broom cupboard for well over a month."

"You're really sick, you know that, right? How long had this been going on? Isn't Snape your uncle or something?"

"No! Up until recently, he was my father's friend, you know? He's not my uncle. Where would you get that idea?"

"I don't know. The bond between you two always seemed somewhat familial, discounting the, uh, fellatio."

"We did more than just that, you know. Sev's a big fan of rimming and we've got our end away on more than one occasion."

To Harry, this was just an extra kick in the teeth. He had never expected Snape to be so sexually experienced, let alone with one of his classmates. For all those years, he had always envisioned Severus to be a forsaken virgin who had spent the better part of his life pining over Lily.

Now it was Harry's heart that was broken.

"Merlin, you really are a soft-lad, aren't you?" Draco mused, looking over at his bespeckled classmate.

"I'm not that innocent," Harry said quietly, lost in thought, "What gave you that idea?"

"Sev just always acted as if he had to protect you or something. You're so weak, he's always saying. Well, except that one time he was waling on you in Muggle Studies. How is your backside by the way? Having trouble sitting down?" Malfoy teased him puckishly.

"It's been well over a month since that incident, Malfoy."

"So it has. So it has. Well, for old times' sake, don't you think you ought to pay the headmaster a visit? He told me to tell you he wants to see you in his rooms at nine o'clock Hallowe'en night."

"In his rooms?"

"Don't get too excited. To him, you're just a teddy bear. Ha! Believe me, there's no way he'd suck you off. Not after the look on your face –"

Without even bothering telling Draco to shut it, Harry stormed out of the Great Hall, a bitten russet apple in hand. Pitching the piece of fruit over the viaduct into the abyss below, he rushed to the dungeons entrance, cussing the whole way. Sitting down on the stone steps, he tried to take a deep breath, and failed miserably. He reached up to touch his face and noticed his greying beard was growing back, and quickly righted it with another swig of de-aging potion.

Harry certainly regretted coming back now. The fact that Snape and Draco were fuck buddies was certainly a piece of information he could have gone without knowing for the rest of his life. He would have preferred thinking Severus hated him to finding out that all the while he was literally sleeping with the enemy. What could be worse?

Sometimes Harry just came to the dungeon stairs and sat there, strangely hoping Snape would walk by on his way to and from other parts of the castle. Not once had he run into him since that upsetting September day. Part of Harry wanted to snog his face off like he had wanted to when he first ventured back in time, but another part of him wanted to hex Severus into oblivion.

All of a sudden, a strange barn owl flew by and dropped a small scroll into Harry's lap. He quickly opened it, not knowing what to expect.

The unaddressed parchment read:

DM has just informed me that he spoke with you this afternoon. As such, I expect to see you on All Hallows Eve at the locale he indicated. It is imperative that I speak with you. Circumstances have changed.

Take heed: This message will self-destruct.

And with that, the yellowed paper burst into flames in between Harry's hands, causing him to cry out.

"Bugger! Severus Snape, you evil motherfucker!"