Hiding Under the Ninth Earth
Book 02 : A Bit Of All Right
by I Got Tired of Waiting

Part II : Harry and Severus
Chapter Twenty : A Moving Day

18 September 1999

A week later Severus came out of the bed chamber to find Harry sitting cross-legged in the one deep window seat in his dining room. While he usually was the early riser, Harry'd had a hellacious nightmare last night, leaving Severus bruised but satisfied that Harry was back in normal sleep. Exhausted when he himself had drifted off, he'd slept in.

Harry was not aware of him yet, so he took the opportunity to really watch him. Almost immediately he could see the melancholy in the lines of his body, the sagging shoulders, the hands limp in his lap.

He made his way over to him, stiffly, the bruises on his chest and arms sore. He really wanted a bath to ease them but could think of no way to do it without including Harry. The problem was Harry wasn't ready to be touched; he wasn't prepared to be seen.

He cleared his throat as he approached, knowing Harry sometimes startled easily, and he'd been right, Harry had jumped a bit at the sound. Turning to face him with a small smile, he asked pleasantly, "Good morning, Severus. Did you sleep well?"

"Well enough. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"No, I was thinking I should go back to my quarters, get ready, and then go down to eat."

With what he said and how he said it, Severus realised what the problem was. One he'd thought about, long and hard but had come to no resolution. He and Harry were living in separate rooms. Harry's were high up in the castle towers, his were down in the dungeons. 'More than space separates us, though,' he thought. While Severus was a patient man and he wanted to share living quarters with Harry in any event, he couldn't help thinking that living together might help Harry overcome his continuing fear of physical intimacy. However, despite his desire to have Harry close, he hesitated asking him to give up his cosy rooms. He couldn't move because he needed to be near his work. 'Truly a conundrum. Dare I ask him to give up the light and live with me in the dungeons, a place he has every reason to hate? I can't move the potions, some of them can't take the sun and Apparating to them is out as well with the Hogwarts' Wards. Perhaps I can ask Albus to cut me some direct routes.'

Forcing some cheerfulness into his voice, something quite unnatural in the first place, he said, "What a capital idea. Shall we meet, say, in an hour in the Great Hall?"

Harry looked at him strangely but agreed. Hopping off the ledge, he was about to leave when Severus stopped him with a hand on his arm. Very slowly he put his arms around him and kissed him gently. Harry didn't react badly, this time, and kissed him back, deepening it, letting Severus taste him, but after a few moments, Severus could feel him start to tremble. Harry pulled away. "Sorry about that--I must be such a disappointment to you." he mumbled and before Severus could respond or stop him, he was gone.

"Well, that could have gone better," Severus chided himself in the empty room.

They shared a bed each night, some times wrapped around each other, some times spent separate joined only by their hands and the air they breathed. That first morning they'd awakened together he'd been rocked by the way Harry had withdrawn from him given his initial, trusting response to him the night before. It was almost as if his confession of Draco's abuse had unlocked the response he should have had in the first place. He suspected Harry had deeply suppressed the natural reactions until he had unwittingly confronted Harry with the reality of the whole thing.

The abrupt ending to their kiss this morning was actually not as bad a reaction as it had been the last few days--at least he got the kiss. Harry jumped at the slightest sound and it was almost painful the way his skin eventually twitched whenever Severus touched him. Harry had his good moments and his bad, the best being his persistent attempts to overcome his fears, the worst being the dreams. It was just one more thing they needed to work through and Severus knew they had plenty of time to do so. He refused to give up just as he refused to keep his distance.

'An hour? Perhaps I can work in a short soak before I have to show for breakfast.' Horatio accompanied him to the bath and curled in a sunspot by the window while Severus talked to him about Harry. Horatio hissed at him several times as if they were having a regular conversation and Severus missed Harry at those times thinking it would be nice to share this with him--if he could ever overcome his own reticence in Harry seeing him in the light.

When the hot water had soothed his aching muscles, he climbed out and lay on the tatami mat. Horatio joined him and coiled on his stomach. Remembering what Harry said about the snake understanding what he said, he wondered if Horatio was trying to comfort him or, as his more cynical mind suggested, was just taking advantage of another sunspot and hot moist skin. Regardless, he felt better for it.

Before dressing, his wand made short work of the bruising and a little ahead of schedule he went up to the Great Hall. Harry was nowhere to be seen yet, but Dumbledore was already there; the two seats next to him were empty. He sat down beside him--not his normal place, but he had an idea and needed to talk.

"Good morn to you, Severus. Did you sleep well?" Dumbledore forked in a piece of waffle, the syrup catching the top of his beard near his mouth. As he wiped it off with his napkin he muttered, "Blasted syrup. Love the food, hate the mess."

Severus smiled at the little dribble left over, then sobered, "Not really, Albus. Harry had some difficulties last night."

Albus nodded saying, "Ah, the dreams again? Which one? Voldemort or Draco?"

Severus stared at him; he'd said nothing to him before about them. "Draco, and how--"

"It's only natural given what happened. He is all right, isn't he?" Dumbledore asked, his head tilted, eyes questioning.

If Severus was stunned at this bit of information he hid it well, saying only, "Not really. He's still not healed completely; at least I got him to Poppy two days ago after some argument. He's a bit skittish, but I think it will be all right in the end. I just need to be patient."

Dumbledore pointed his fork at him, "Not so difficult for you. You've more than most. Now, what is it you wanted to talk to me about before Harry comes down. He's almost on his way."

Snape shook his head. "I'll never understand--never mind. It's our living arrangements. I would like us to move in together, but I can't live in his place and I can't ask him to live in mine--it's too small and too dark for him."

"Hmmm," Albus mumbled around another bite. Wiping his mouth again, he asked, "A bit premature, don't you think?"

Severus gave it the deliberation it deserved--it was a valid question, one he'd asked himself many times in the past week. "No, I don't think so, Albus, if for no other reason than I feel it would be unwise to leave Harry alone, especially at night. I opened something, something deep, something he was unable to work through on his own. He is getting better, is less afraid than he was; I would like to think I have had some small influence in the matter."

"I have no doubt you have been very supportive," Albus ventured.

"It's more than a prop, Albus. This is about acceptance--my acceptance of him, as he is, despite what has happened to him." He took a sip of his tea. "And this is for me, too. I want him with me--not separate. I don't want him to think he's being abandoned--" He frowned at Dumbledore's neutral expression, convinced he'd not got his point across. "Ach! I can't explain it, I just know it would be damaging to us both to keep things the way they are--there's no way to move forward and I suspect he feels as odd leaving each morning to go back to his quarters as I do when he goes. Living together is just the right thing to do," he finished with conviction.

"Have you asked him?" Dumbledore asked, giving it due consideration.

"What? Where he wants to live? No, I haven't yet. I was hoping to find a compromise. I don't live in the dungeons by choice, you know," Severus replied, missing the point.

Albus chuckled, his mouth twisted wryly. "True, but I was actually questioning more about whether you've asked him if he wants to cohabitate with you in the first place."

"Oh." This had clearly not occurred to Snape.

Dumbledore shook his head saying, "I rather thought you hadn't." He eyed Severus a moment and continued on more seriously, "He's had so few choices, Severus. Let him know you want him to move in with you, but allow him the decision and the control. He may surprise you. As to where? Let me think on it before you do. I have a couple of ideas, but I'll have to check the castle plans first."

He looked beyond Snape. "Good morning, Harry! Did you sleep well?"

****

Later in the early afternoon, Severus received the summons he was waiting for: Albus wanted to see him.

"Ah, Severus. Good of you to come so quickly," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Come here, come here. Look at this. I may have found the solution to the where if you're both willing."

Phineas snorted on the wall behind him. "Albus, are you sure? We've never truly established how much sun Snape can take. He might just disintegrate if exposed too long to the light."

Dumbledore raised a brow in warning. "Phineas, behave."

"Please, Albus, let me get the turpentine," Snape almost begged, clearly annoyed with the painting.

Phineas lip curled, "Nasty Git."

Severus retorted hotly, "I've seen still life's with more joie de vivre than you."

The painted huffed and exclaimed, angry, "That's it, Albus, I demand--"

"You demand? You're dead. Now go sulk in another frame and leave us be." Dumbledore harrumphed and cleared his throat. "Now, Severus, where were we? Ah yes, the map."

"You'll regret this, Albus," Phineas warned with dire drama.

Exasperated beyond patience and discretion, Dumbledore threatened, "You know Phineas, Severus is not the only one with a goodly supply of paint thinner." Merlin chortled from across the room. "Now leave or be quiet. Your choice."

Phineas sulked, leaning against the frame. He opened his mouth to speak. Albus grabbed a cloth off the desk and held it up like he was cleaning. Phineas shut it with a snap and silently fumed.

"Good gad. Some days there's no placating them," Dumbledore mumbled, pulling the map over in front of them. He weighted the corners and sides down with the odds and ends of magical gadgets and small machines scattered around his desk.

"Here are your quarters, Severus." He pointed to a spot in the middle of the plans, one small wall along the outside of the castle--his dining room with the only window. "Here are your classrooms," pointing to another outside wall, "and here's your workroom." This was to the interior with no windows, directly connected to his quarters on one side and his classroom on the other. Small but convenient.

"If we were to move your quarters here," he pointed to another space further up but close to his classrooms and all along the outside wall. "We could cut through here to connect them," his finger traced a line between the two areas, "and you and Harry could have larger, more pleasant quarters looking out on the moors and the lake. The rooms are about two storeys up at that point where the land here," he pointed to the craggy hills on the topo map, "falls away in the back. What do you think?"

"What about the library?" Severus asked. "Harry doesn't know about that yet." Phineas snorted.

Dumbledore quelled the former Headmaster into silence, his glare penetrating over the tops of his spectacles. Apparently satisfied that he'd managed to quiet him, he went on in a much more pleasant tone, "Well, since the library exists in Wizard space, creating a new opening and closing the old would be fairly simple, we just need to re-ward it. The same is true for your greenhouse."

Severus nodded, thoughtful over the plans. "Where does this stairway go?" he asked pointing to a set, a few feet from their back door.

"Hmmm, that's new. Seems the castle has been doing a little remodelling. It does that every now and again. I suspect it goes outside, but I will have to look. So what do you say?"

"I say I want to see it first." Severus was impatient to go off and see the new rooms.

"All right, I have time now. Let's go." Albus grabbed his hat planting it firmly on his head before heading out the door with Severus in his wake. They corkscrewed down the Headmaster's stair to the main hall and walked quickly to the rooms in question. As many years as Severus had been living in the dungeons and as well as he thought he knew them, he also knew the castle sometimes had a mind of its own; he would never discover it all.

They opened a plain, ordinary door to be met with air and light. The rooms were magnificent--huge fireplaces, large spaces, and windows--tall banks of deeply set windows with high seats begging for pillows and cushions lined the walls. They opened for fresh air, something his lone window did not. He walked into the bed chamber and beyond to the loo. He examined the closets and then found a little corridor off to the side in the back of the largest walk-in closet. He walked through the narrow door at the end and found a bathing pool, only it was larger and brighter than the bath in his current quarters. A skylight hung above off-center with small windows set at eye level, if one were sitting on the ledge running around the edge of the pool. His had only the skylight. It was good. No, better than good. It was--

"--perfect. Absolutely perfect. Even if Harry doesn't move in, I'll take them. The plants will do well with all the sun and Horatio will probably want to live in here."

"Good, that's settled. I'll have the house-elves move your things and then all you need to do is ask your paramour." He leaned over and whispered, "I really do think you could be quite convincing about it, don't you?" Severus stared at him and his saucy wink, speechless as Dumbledore laughed merrily, leaving the room.

He explored all the rooms again and spent the better part of the afternoon directing the house-elves as to where his things would go. The chambers were large enough compared to his old space. There was ample room for Harry to add his possessions as well with one empty room off the side of the sitting room sufficient for him to have a private study. He had the elves clean it but otherwise it remained unfurnished. When they finished moving his things and added the passageways to his workroom, library, and greenhouse, it felt like he'd lived there forever. Dumbledore came in the late afternoon, commenting on how cosy the space was, and they re-warded the entrance to both the library and greenhouse.

It was done. Now all he had to do was find Harry.

****

He eventually found him after dinner, where he'd not showed, up in the Astronomy Tower sans the invisibility cloak. 'Why am I not surprised?' He was tucked in a corner of the deck, his knees drawn up to his face, lost in thought.

Severus sat next to him, the autumn chill in the stone seeping through his robes. "We have to stop meeting like this. You're seriously encroaching into my thinking space."

Harry frowned. "I got it first."

He retorted, his voice quavering like an old man's, "Perhaps, but age has its privileges," he laughed.

Harry couldn't help but chuckle. Severus knew his mimicked voices always made Harry smile. "Now, you're just being silly," he said.

Severus was indignant. "The last person who called me silly got thrown in the lake. I believe they made a nice appetizer for the giant squid." He put his hand tentatively on Harry's knee. "Tell me, Harry. Why are you up here? I've been looking for you for ages and I know you must be hungry."

Harry's angry frustration level with himself was manifest as he lashed out, "You're not my keeper!"

While taken aback by the unexpected, if understandable, outburst and knowing Harry wasn't through with his anger, Severus replied calmly, "No, I'm not, nor do I want to be. I have better things to do with my time. I merely mention it because I, too, have missed dinner and am a bit peckish myself. If you're not, there is no need to yell about it."

"I'm not some little kid you have to keep tabs on," Harry replied sullenly.

Severus rose in one flowing movement. "No, you're not; I do not sleep with children. I had thought you were the mature young man who chooses to share my bed. I admit I was concerned when you failed to show up for both lunch and dinner, but I wasn't looking for you for those reasons." He looked around at the parapets, his voice dripping with disdain to cover the disappointment as he said, "I'll leave you to your thoughts." He was through the door and away before Harry could react.

Harry caught up with him at the stairs to the dungeons. "Severus, stop! Wait." Harry put his hand on his arm, breathless from his running. "I'm--I--Oh shite, I'm sorry. I've been strange lately, I know. It's just--" he stopped and looked around, and said, "I'm just not used to being with someone. Not like it is with you. It scares me, all right?"

Severus covered Harry's hand with his, the fingers stroking, soothing without him even noticing. "Actually, I do understand. I had my panic attack when you were with Poppy. You are not the only one with--adjustments--to make." He chuckled, "In fact, it was one of those adjustments I came to see you about."

A gamut of emotions ran through Severus and across his face in that instant--hope, despair, excitement, disappointment, and something almost like longing, and he could see from the sadness in Harry's eyes that he'd not only seen it, but understood it. Severus expected him to question him about it, but Harry surprised him. "What adjustments?" he asked instead, curious.

Severus decided to do it despite his current misgivings. Nothing would be gained by holding back. "Come, I'll show you." After navigating the stairs, he strode down the hall with his ground-eating pace, his robes billowing around him. He could feel Harry's open admiration of his normal loose gaited walk, which Harry had told him that first night was "--more like stalking, really, and oh sooo sexy." It made him want to walk more.

Harry slowed when they neared the entrance to Severus' old quarters, but Severus swept right by them with a small smile on his lips. Harry scrambled to catch up. Severus knew he desperately wanted to know where they were going but was grateful that for once he kept his mouth shut and just went along with it.

When they reached a plain door, Severus said the password and it swung open on--

"--Wow. You've moved!" Harry exclaimed, walking in, turning in place to catch it all. "Looks like you moved up, too. And windows! So many rooms," he said walking from room to room. He didn't note the one empty room off of the sitting room. "This place is brilliant. When did you decide to move here?" Harry asked, excited.

Severus took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing the nervous tic in his stomach to stop. "When I decided to ask you to share rooms with me." 'There, I said it. It's done. Well?'

Harry stood stunned. "To-together?" he stammered.

"That is usually what one has to do to share rooms," he dryly pointed out.

"You want me to live with you? When I've given you nothing but grief?" Severus nodded, biting back his chuckle. "And you don't mind people--knowing--we're together?"

"No, I don't mind at all." Severus' heart pounded with dread. 'Damn, I had NOT thought of him being ashamed to be known as my lover. Of course, he wouldn't want it to be common knowledge that the golden boy was shacking up with the Old Greasy Professor. What was I thinking?' Withering inside, he asked slowly, "Do you have a problem with this? If so, we could always just--"

"Never!" Harry's sound conviction did much to allay Severus' well-earned fears. "I would be proud for us to be known as a couple. It's just--are you sure? I mean, we haven't even--that is, I can't--oh, hell, you know what I mean. Then there's the matter of how safe I am to be around. You know--the whole 'Boy-Who's-A-Living-Target-You-Better-Duck-Fast' thing." He grinned sheepishly.

Severus chuckled, "I suspect I'm more liable to come under attack for cradle-robbing than for anything related to your well-earned reputation."

Harry raised his head, his expression one of stumped surprise. "I hadn't thought of our ages. You don't seem old to me and I don't feel young. It just feels right, somehow."

Severus was grateful for the sentiment and took the three steps necessary to enfold him loosely in his arms. "So you'll join me in our new quarters?"

Harry looked coyly at him, "Oh, I suppose so, if you insist." Severus growled and kissed him, lightly running his tongue over his lips the way he'd found Harry liked. Harry sighed. "Oh all right, so I insist." He kissed him back, suddenly happy. "So, when can I move my things?"

'No tremours, perhaps this was not such a bad idea after all,' Severus thought as he said, "The house-elves can pack them tonight, if it's your wish. They transferred all of this quite quickly."

Harry moved away, taking in the rooms with a sweep of his eyes. "I wish it," he said quietly. Turning back to Severus, he said lightly, "Goodbye, lumpy bed. Oh, and Sev?"

'Sev? Well, I suppose I can live with it as long as it's not 'Sevvie'.' He chuckled to himself and managed to say "Yes, Harry?" with a straight face.

Harry put his hand on his arm and gave him another slow kiss. "Thank you," he whispered.

Severus welcomed him to their new home as best he could.