Series: Minor Arcana. Sequel to "Declaro" (rating R). You really need to read that first. Find it through the author link @ ff.net or skyehawke.com.

Rating: R.

Pairings: This section – elements of SS/HP, HP/DM, SS/DM, HG/RW.

Notes: Now, after "The Gift", this one was so easy. . . hmm, maybe too easy. Anyway, here is the first part of "Temperance".

Spoilers: Various up to the end of Book IV. No OotP whatsoever.

Dedication: Though she's not around to see it – Chapter VI is for switchknife, who made me believe it was actually good

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling and various corporate tentacles.

Archiving: Only where I've agreed.

Feedback/Reviews: Definitely – especially to tell me what works and what doesn't.

Pervinco VI (a):  Temperance

A hand ran down the length of Harry's spine and he leant back into the unfamiliar touch. As it slid across his naked hip and around his waist another hand cupped his jaw, tipping his head back, and there was a mouth above the cold iron collar at his throat, hot and wet and forceful. He groaned back into the embrace, the plane of the man's chest pressed into and up along his back, and he broke out in a sheen of sweat.

Harry's eyes sprang open in the dark and there were fingers at his mouth, soft hair and warm flesh against his buttocks shooting embarrassment and joy across his skin, and a hand circling his cock.  With a gasp he thrust forward as a mouth breathed at his ear a soft barely-heard "Harry". One then two fingers thrust into his mouth and he moaned around them as the hand tightened on his already hard cock gliding firmly back towards his body. Harry cried out when the fingers slipped wetly from his lips, just as a hand hooked under his knee, lifting his leg and bringing the soft hard pressure up into the cleft of his arse. "Harry" the whisper said again, with a firm stroke on his aching cock, and a hot flush gathered somewhere in his lower stomach. A hand curled around his balls, squeezing gently, and he exploded in a bright arch of pleasure.

Harry's eyes sprang open in the dark and he inhaled sharply. The sheets were twisted around him; his skin hot and wet sticking to his pyjamas. His cock throbbed faintly, although somewhere behind and below his stomach was a heavy emptiness.

* * *

The Ravenclaw boys went skittering off along the corridor in horror. He was going to have to speak to Sinistra about them. He appreciated her more forceful style as Head of Ravenclaw, but the competitive urge had a few less than desirable effects.

Snape swept back along the parapets in the direction of the Astronomy Tower. For some reason known only to gods and 5th year there were always students who thought it a discreet location for secret rendezvous. Consequently, on a sleepless night it was always a source of distraction – dare he hope for a mortified Gryffindor who would try to protect his love by facing the evil Potions Master alone. Imbeciles. It was nothing but merciful to disabuse them of their affection for the predictably romantic. 

After the last few nights they should certainly have learned to stay away, but there was apparently no degree of intellect which overruled particular adolescent hormonal accumulations. Snape dragged himself to a halt, spinning his mind one more time over the things he should and shouldn't have done. Was it too far beyond the limits of propriety already to discuss with Albus? Merlin knew the old bastard wouldn't be surprised, but he would be condescending, and sorry. It was too much to be borne.

He'd never slept with or, lets make it clear, fucked a student, and he wasn't going to start now. Granted they were a pathetic lot in general and there'd never been much motivation. Before. Dragging in a deep breath of night air he watched a grey owl launch itself from the owlery. Tower first, not that he was quite in the mood now but he had obligations. Perhaps he'd even leave the owlery to Filch.

It was almost as if he felt Potter before he saw him – around the next turret, he thought, and there he was. Not attempting to hide; not even the damned cloak. It was infuriating.

* * *

After a few minutes, Harry couldn't stand it any more.

"I know you're there," he said.

Snape moved out of the shadows. "Waiting on a lover, Mr Potter? I hope he wasn't a Ravenclaw 6th, because several of them are currently trying to make it back to their dormitory before 3am under threat of moving in with Mr Weasley."

Harry turned to face him. "I received your gift."

"And were clearly very impressed."

"What am I supposed to do, look it up?"

"You're annoyed because you didn't know what it was?" There was an actual question in his voice which soon dipped into a sneer. "How childish."

"Perhaps if all you can see in this is new opportunities to humiliate me you should never have sent the declaration. I thought we were. . ." Snape suddenly had a hard grip on his arm, glaring at him to be silent. Harry shook him off in exasperation.

"You didn't think that. . . that under the circumstances the gift you give me ought to be public? So at least it looks like there's some reason I should choose you."

"No, I didn't think that. I don't necessarily want people to be aware that you have it, and perhaps less that I had it to give to you."

"So it's highly secret and yet I'm meant to guess what it is, or am I actually meant to do homework in order to be ignored by you most effectively?" Snape's glower seemed to darken. "I am, aren't I? Has it ever occurred to you that when it comes to this I am not your student?"

"Not for an instant."

"Right. But Draco can call you by your first name, and gets a really personal and public gift that you helped with. Is it that you assume I'm an idiot so it doesn't matter what you do, or that you just enjoy making me look like one." Snape seemed genuinely non-plussed now and it only made Harry angrier. "Forget it. Stupid question," he snapped, turning his back on the Professor, shocked that he'd said that, and perhaps even more shocked that he thought it. 

"Are you saying this matters?" Snape said from behind him.

Harry's attempt to actually answer that question stuck in his throat. "You're supposed to be at least pretending," he said eventually, and if Snape was still concerned about who was listening he didn't share it, "that you like or want me. We're supposed to be playing the game."

He heard and felt Snape move up behind him, close enough that their robes touched. "What do you want?" he said in a voice that might even have been puzzled.

There should have been a torturous moment of self-consciousness, or a great epiphany of some kind, but there wasn't. Harry turned and kissed him. He put both hands on Snape's chest – on thick black tucked linen – and kissed him. He put his mouth to Snape's, which didn't move away, and kissed him carefully, deliberately, slowly. As his right hand, seemingly of its own accord, slid around the fitted bodice of Snape's robe to his back, the man's mouth opened against Harry's. Harry's tongue traced the inner surface of Snape's lower lip, tentatively, and the Professor abruptly pulled away. Harry's hands fell into the space between them, and Snape looked at them and then at him.

"You have no sense of discretion, Mr Potter," Snape said quietly, and turned and swept away. Harry watched him go with rising bitterness until, at the stairwell, the same stairwell in fact, Snape glanced back at him, and in that slow moment Harry thought he seemed disconcerted, or perhaps even alarmed. 

* * *

Thetis had arrived with a note before Harry had returned to his room.

Mr Potter

The Chalybs protects against mental domination, from suggestion through to Imperius reputedly, though individual effects may vary. It reportedly also enhances spells of that type cast by the wearer and, although I consider the evidence for this claim dubious, that is the reason for its disrepute. It will resize and reshape on contact and may be trained to some degree. I trust that is all the information you require.

SS.

He looked at the box, now lined with the blue silk, framing the black ring.

* * *

Dear Professor Snape,

Thank you for the gift.

I am sure you know how much I appreciate it, given my circumstances. I didn't even know such a thing existed. I suppose if I say I wish you'd told me about it before that will seem ungrateful and after so many years I guess I know there will be a reason you didn't.

And that does seem ungrateful and I should just screw this up and start again but I'm so sick of the evasion, lies, and confusion. Although I guess probably the confusion's all mine. 

I wish there was less misunderstanding – although, again, I suppose you understand me better than I'd like and it's just me that has no idea what anyone really wants or means.

I know you'll tell me that's self-pity or my naivety. Probably it is. It's just that I thought we were supposed to be helping each other.

In case it got sort of lost, thank you. I'll try it out and if I end up possessed by some evil spirit of black metal circles we'll all know who to blame.

Yours truly,

Harry Potter

Severus rolled his eyes and refolded the note, slipping it into a drawer.

"Ridiculous boy."

There was a knock at the internal door.

"Come."

Ron opened the door slightly and slipped through. "I've finished the sorting, Professor. For some reason you're missing Dwight's Spectral Acacia, which is why the rest were out of order."

Snape nodded. "Thank you, Mr Weasley, you should finish now." He looked up at the clock. Stop work an hour ago. As the boy went out he said, "And as the 1st year Slytherins are currently scared to make a noise in the dungeons, tomorrow will be a Weasley-free day. I don't want to see you in these rooms between breakfast and midnight."

Ron looked back at him skeptically.

"We can't let them become complacent in their terror, can we?"

Shaking his head Ron left the room, saying "Goodnight, Professor."  

The damned bird was still on his desk; preening, but evidently waiting on a reply. Traitor.

* * *

Dear Mr Potter,

It will not possess you, as you almost certainly know. While after enough years of teaching the extent of general idiocy ceases to surprise at all, I have usually thought better of you, at least in recent years.

Use your wand and the command. It should shape itself however you want to wear it. I have not tested it myself as the object must be purified extensively between owners, however as I did this myself I will warrant it is safe to use. Unless of course you find the word of a known Death Eater for some reason questionable, in which case you should certainly forbear from wearing the thing. 

It is not entirely unreasonable that you would prefer more direct representation of people's motives and interests, but it certainly is naïve of you to expect it. As it is naïve of you to expect that I will compete with Draco Malfoy for your attentions or allow myself to be positioned as if I am.

Sincerely,

Severus Snape

Harry ran his finger along the engraved circle. It felt warm rather than metallically cool. The symbols were, he thought, maybe Egyptian, but that was probably totally wrong – just a sense he had from Bill's photographs and rubbings. Wavy lines in a square, decorated eye, vertical bars curved at the bottom, a snake, something that looked a lot like a foot, and so on. Drawing a deep breath he put his wand to the metal.

God, he wasn't even sure how to pronounce it.

"Chalybs."

* * *

Professor Snape

You might have mentioned that it would hum and glow, though it's stopped now, and it sort of tickles. Perhaps you didn't know. It does. It feels like a cross between warm metal and a live snake.

I've made it fit my neck, my wrist, my finger, and my ankle. If reshape is different to resize, perhaps it can be made to look less scary? Just a thought. I can't imagine what people will say, it's not like anyone could miss it, except perhaps the ankle.

As far as I can tell I am not insane or possessed by anything that doesn't usually possess me.

Am still curious how it can be trained. Is it sentient? I sincerely hope not.

I can't imagine how you think I position you as competing with Malfoy. Draco confuses me more than anything else. The "gay" thing, if that's how to say it, and I know you're sneering at me, has been confusing. That's not a strong enough word by half. And Draco is Draco, you know what I mean, and he says he's interested in me. Sometimes – not that he's ever actually said it, actually. While you never

Ok, perhaps I can see why it looks like I'm choosing between you, but it feels nothing like that. I didn't go to you because I needed to be protected from Draco, or from being confused. I did it because I trust you, and I know you trust me. Maybe you don't like me, the "resident celebrity" and all, but you know you can trust me.

I will try to make it clear there is no competition. It's strange to say it, scary to say it, but I hope you can do the same. It's even stranger to have put that in writing. I'll just go and humiliate myself now to save you the bother.  

Yours,

Harry

* * *

Come to my rooms. The bird needs to rest.

SS.

tbc (soonish, I hope)