Hiding Under the Ninth Earth
Book 02 : A Bit Of All Right
by I Got Tired of Waiting
Part III : Conflict
Chapter Twenty Nine : The Book and Other Impressions
21 June 2003 (Continued)
Dawn was long gone when Harry woke again, refreshed and eager to go about his day. He reviewed in his head all the things he had to do to get ready for the party tonight and, looking at the clock, was dismayed to realise he would not be able to lay abed with Severus the way he'd wanted to if he was going to get everything done on time.
He tried, he really did try to wake Severus up. They had a little bit of time and he didn't want to waste it--didn't want to leave Severus feeling the same way this morning he'd obviously felt last night. But it was no use; the man was just too exhausted. He contented himself by spending the last few moments he had cuddled close to him randomly stroking his chest and trailing kisses down his neck and back. 'Man, he is really out of it if this won't wake him up.'
Finally, he could tarry no longer, so he quietly got out of bed, performed his morning ablutions, and got dressed in Muggle clothes of a button-down shirt and butter-soft jeans washed so many times they were almost white. He carried his robes over his arm as he had a lot of places to go, starting in Muggle London. He placed one knee on the bed and leaned in, giving Severus a soft, lingering, goodbye kiss. "Goodbye, love. I'll be back this afternoon." Severus sighed, but his eyes remained closed. Disappointed, Harry touched his cheek, loath to go but knowing he had to.
He was almost to the door when he could have sworn he heard Severus murmur, "Hurry home," but turning around, saw he was still asleep and knew it for the wishful thinking it was. "I promise," he whispered anyway and left the room.
****
Severus waited to hear the front door close before he rolled over flat on his back and let the despair roll through him. Harry was gone again and he'd done nothing to stop him. 'Stupid fool,' he thought savagely. He'd come sleepily awake when he'd felt him leave the bed after a pleasant dream of the two of them snuggled in bed together.
He realised they probably had been cuddled in bed. 'Double damn.' But he'd felt the purpose in Harry's movements as he got ready to leave and with great effort pretended to still be asleep. The kiss had left him hungry, the words gave him some small hope, and he'd not been able to resist begging him to come home soon.
His lips still tingling from Harry's kiss, he looked at the clock and saw how late it was. 'Already mid-morning and I should probably get up--my social calendar is so full. What shall I do for my birthday today since I seem to have it all to myself this year?' He rolled out of bed, groaning, his body wanting something, someone, no longer there. He put on his dressing gown and went into the main room. He called down to the house-elves for breakfast knowing he'd already missed the meal in the Great Hall.
While he was waiting, he wandered aimlessly around the apartment, noting Cally was now sprawled comfortably in a sunspot. He secretly admired her hedonistic abandon; her body was stretched so far to get every spot of heat, she almost covered the small rug in the sitting room. Horatio was nowhere to be found.
He stepped into his study and picked up the book off the desk. 'Not much use for it now,' he thought, depressed. As he prepared to put it on the shelf of books behind his desk, a piece of paper fluttered onto the floor from out of the front pages. Intrigued since he knew he'd left nothing in it, he bent to pick it up when Dinky, the house-elf who usually served him, appeared with a breakfast tray. Severus motioned him into the main room; the house-elf was silent as he'd been admonished many times in the past to not make a peep around him. He took the tray into the other room, leaving in a flash once the table had been set-up and prepared for Severus' morning repast.
Severus grunted his satisfaction and then picked up the paper on the floor. It was folded in half. He put the book back on the desk and opened what appeared to be a note. Inside the folds it read:
Sorry Sev, I couldn't sleep and I couldn't resist. Perhaps we can put our heads together later this evening to 'discuss' the subject in greater detail. In the meantime, I left a few comments inside. Looks like a right giggle to me.
Harry
Stunned, Severus picked up the book and thumbed through the pages at random while he slowly walked back into the main room. At first glance, he was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of 'a few comments' Harry had made. Stopping at the table, he looked at the food waiting for him and back to the book in his hands. While he really wanted nothing more than to satisfy his curiosity as to what Harry thought would be 'a right giggle', he quickly decided he would probably be less distracted if he ate something first. Reluctantly, he set the volume aside and attacked his breakfast with a hunger he'd not had in a long while.
****
Harry stepped out of the Underground and let his eyes adjust to the bright light of a clear London morning. A short walk later he was near the dilapidated entry to St. Mungo's. A few tenement storefronts down, where there'd been once a small church, he entered the dilapidated doorway and found himself 'ported to the posh lobby of one the most prestigious publishing houses in Europe, Academia House. He rode the lift up to the third floor where he turned left off the empty lobby; the room was eerie when devoid of its usual bustle during the week.
Familiar with the route, he came to an office with the name "Hermione Granger Weasley, Editor, Potions" written on the door. He knew he was expected so, without knocking, he opened the door and stepped into her secretary's office. The door beyond, Hermione's inner sanctum, had been left open. Here he knocked on the half-open door and when he heard her "Come-in," he stepped through into the other half of Hermione's life.
'For someone so brilliant, she's not very neat,' he thought stepping over a pile of papers to give her a hug. "How are you, Harry?" she began, clearing a place for him by removing another stack of papers from an overstuffed chair in the spacious office. He'd never seen so much paper in one place before. "And how is Severus?" she continued, making her way to the other easy chair already clear of debris and where she normally sat while reading manuscripts. She'd been having a spot of tea when he arrived and she hastened to pour him a cup as well, adding the milk and sugar she knew he took in it.
"I'm fine, he's fine, we're just not fine together," he said honestly, taking the cup from her.
She looked at him sharply, "You've not told him then?" She tsk'd at the shake of his head. "Honestly, Harry, you shouldn't abuse him this way."
He nodded and taking a sip realised, in a quick flash, that he much liked sex the same way he liked his tea--good and hot, not too sweet, and strong with a bit of cream on the side. He smiled into the cup and dismissed his wayward thoughts. Setting the cup aside, he replied, "I know, I plan on doing it tomorrow."
"Why not today?" She waved his response away, "Buttering him up with the party and your gift is not going to help, Harry. Only honesty will do the trick with him. You know how much of a stickler he is for the truth."
"Hermione, you're not telling me anything I don't already know, and please spare me the lectures. Dumbledore has already given me a right twisting, thank you very much." He looked around the office, spying the Wizarding photo of Ron in easy sight. His face softened and he wondered how his friend was getting on.
He saw Hermione noticing where his glance went; she rarely missed much. Harry appreciated her trying to distract him from his obviously distressing thoughts when she said, "Well, I'm glad someone is getting through to you. I don't want Severus any more upset than he already is. He's already behind on some papers he promised to critique for me. Not that we had any kind of formal agreement on it, but I need his particular expertise; this is the first time I have ever known him to be late."
"If that's the case, then I should probably hold off until he gets them done for you. I can't think he'll be any less upset than he is now when I finally get to talk to him." He smiled ruefully at her exasperation. Hermione could always make him feel better. He picked up his tea and drained the cup. "I'm sorry I have to rush, but I still have to beetle over to Diagon Alley before this evening. Do you have it?"
Hermione reached over to another stack of books and plucked the top two off of the pile. They were huge, bound in fine natural Moroccan leather; a clasp of gold inset into each cover kept them closed when not in use. He reverently took them from her and ran his hands over the fine leather. He raised grateful eyes to her and said, "Two?"
"We decided to split them into Dark Arts and Light Magic Potions. He has such a huge body of work it was fairly easy, and they worked out to be about the same size. It will cost more to print them, but we expect higher revenues because we can capture the public market better if they're separate. And it will leave us open to adding more volumes as time goes by, so this could be a continuing set. Of course, the Ministry wants us to track who buys the Dark Arts book, but we're prepared to ignore them." She smiled, "That's assuming, of course, we can talk him into letting us publish it. Otherwise, this is a very pretty, very expensive vanity publishing you're financing, Mr. Potter."
"It doesn't really matter, Hermione, at least not to me." He cast her a sheepish look. "I have a lot to make up for, starting with the paper he wrote that I ignored to the dozen others he's kept quiet about in the ensuing years to spare my feelings. You have no idea how much I have injured him."
"Well, either way, let me know; I'll keep the publishing hounds off your back. They're quite keen to print this, you know." She leaned over and patted his hand, giving him her full support with her eyes. "Don't worry, Harry. It'll work out fine."
"Thanks, Hermione, for everything." He stood to leave and cursing his weakness asked gently, "And Ron?"
"He's fine, Harry. He has his good days and his bad, but mostly good. He's in Russia right now at the Wizarding Chess Tournament. His second round scores have placed him in the top four, so he's made it to the Semi-Finals. He's coming back tonight so we can go to the party, and then it's back to Russia for us to see where he ends up. He's so excited and has done better than he'd dared hope."
Harry was genuinely glad to hear this. Ron was not the same man he'd been three years ago. He was very pleased to hear he was adjusting to his new life outside the Aurors. But things were still not fine between them and he felt his initial grin fade as his thoughts turned bleak.
"Don't let it get to you, Harry. He still loves you and won't make a fuss tonight." He knew she said this to reassure him. "He'll come around some day."
"I certainly hope so, Hermione. I never meant--it doesn't matter--he's alive and healthy and with you. That's all that really matters, isn't it?"
"If you say so, Harry." She gave him another hug and a kiss on the cheek. He looked her in the eye and, nodding, left without a backwards glance.
****
Replete from his breakfast, Severus took the book with him from the table to his chair at the fireplace and settled back to see just what Harry thought was 'a right giggle'. He opened the book and methodically began to decipher the bright green notes left in Harry's small printing. 'His writing's improved,' he thought irrelevantly as he perused page after page. At times, he had to stop, laughing at Harry's comments, most of which echoed his own. When he finished reading all the comments, he rose from the chair and sat at his desk with The Book (as he was starting to think of it in his own mind). He pulled out the quill and his blue ink, having run out of the red, and went to work trying to organise those notes into something he could use as a reference.
Cally chose that moment to wake up from her nap in the sun. Sauntering into his study, she stretched her way across the room in that loose limbed way all cats have and, bunching herself into a cat spring, jumped up into his lap in the minuscule space between his chest and the desk. He snorted in disgust as she kneaded his thighs trying to make a comfortable place to sit. He was about to concede defeat and move back a little for her when she tired of the game and hopped the few inches onto the desk where she proceeded to bat the feathered part of his quill.
He sighed heavily. "Will you stop that? I am trying to work here and I can't with you knocking the quill all over the paper." He blinked. "I can't believe I'm talking to a deaf cat," he muttered blackly. She settled primly on her haunches a few inches from the area where he was working, and after glancing at him, proceeded to watch with predator-like concentration the quill dance across the pages of the book.
He first circled in the Table of Contents those chapters Harry had made favourable comments on. The invisibility cloak, the fantasy section, foreskin play, and flavoured lubes seemed to top his list. He tended to twirl the quill whenever he stopped, and Cally would bat at it sometimes sending tiny droplets of ink across the pages. Of course, it went without saying, he could not possibly be doing it on purpose; Severus Snape did not play with cats.
Reading further, he found there were a few twists as well--mainly about the body piercings. While he found some of them attractive, he was a little shocked Harry would even consider them. 'Absolutely not something I could do to myself,' he thought with a shiver of distaste. 'Although, I can certainly see their appeal if that's what he wants to do.
He was reassured Harry's reaction was the same about 'the squid'.
He crossed out a few entries in the index. When he came to the section on ~Fingering Techniques~ he thought Harry's comment about 'safety' was right in line with his own that a rim job looked easier (and safer). Cally jumped on the quill as it scratched the page to obliterate the entry from the index, so the entry squiggled across the paper as he fought to control the line he was drawing (and the small smile on his face).
It was obvious Harry had misunderstood his comments about ~Creative Uses of Voodoo Dolls~. Harry was thinking of acupuncture while his thoughts had been limited to feathers and such. 'But if he insists--maybe a little demonstration instead?' He'd only been joking to himself about the ~Creative Uses for Testicle Cuffs~ with his off-colour 'reminder' to go find them in the dungeons, but Harry had admonished him with a "Don't even think about it!"
The ~Foreskin Techniques: A Tongue's Guide~ was covered in so much ink, it was hard to read. But Harry had problems with the ~Hickey-on-Your-Dickie~, which Severus had thought was a possibility but would require some finesse. Harry had chided him, "I thought we agreed--no visible marks. Remember?" He thought, 'Why Not? It's not truly visible. No one would see it but me.'
They were, however, in total agreement on the ~Bite-Me~ not to be confused with ~Gnaw-on-My-Bone~; Severus was not sure he could do it, Harry was appreciative he would not. The ~Pearls of Wisdom: The Value of Pre-come~ was inane to them both. Harry's comment, "Agreed! Gets too sticky after a while, anyway," pretty much summed up his opinion as to its value as a lubricant.
He almost fell out of his chair when he read the innocent green ink on the chapter entitled, ~Egg Sucking Exercises~. He'd thought the whole thing rather squidgey, but Harry was not daunted when he wrote: "Don't bother--any more suction and you'll pull my balls out." However, he had the feeling he'd rather shocked Harry under ~The Prostrate Prostate~. He'd finally figured out a use for some of the toys he'd seen in the Muggle Adult Stores and had noted it. Harry's response had been "Toys, Sev? Is there something you're not telling me, here?" His face held a positively evil grin. 'Maybe I should go back to get a few of the more 'interesting' ones and then ask Arthur for some of those batteries he has in his shed.'
He accepted Harry's blatant apologies when he read the comments to ~When He Won't Come: Ten Tips to Speed Your Lover Along~. Severus had written: "If H went any faster, I'd have tongue burns." Then there was the ~Fuck-My-Mouth~ blow job. To both, Harry had written "Sorry, Sev. Sometimes I just get carried away." Cally had stretched out across the desk at the top of the book after tiring of her game with his feather. Severus idly scratched her ears as he thought, 'Yes, indeed he does. Not that I've ever complained.'
Moving her paw off the page each time he turned one, he continued reading. Coming to the end of The Book, he concluded that the one making him feel the best was Harry's comments to the ~I-Don't-Want-to-Fuck-You-But-I'll-Feel-Guilty-If-You-Don't-Come-Blow-Job~. Severus had thought he should note it in case Harry ever needed it for him. Harry had emphatically replied, "Ah Sev! I will NEVER need this!!!!"
Finally finished with the last of the notes and the comments, he sat back and thought about the whole thing, feeling much better. There were some scenarios he could work with here--or avoid. 'A squid?' After removing Cally's paw one final time, he closed The Book with satisfaction and left it on his desk as he rose from the hard chair. Cally opened one eye to watch him stretch before leaving the room, and seeing him gone, curled around the top of The Book, her front paw possessive across the front cover. With a feline sigh of contentment, she went back to sleep.
Feeling almost optimistic, and given Harry's inference about further 'discussion' in his note, he wondered if he should get the invisibility cloak before, or after dinner.