Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Only the events in this story are my own.
Once Snape and Harry had left Dumbledore's office behind them, they paused in an abandoned classroom. Snape locked the door, and they held one another for a long time.
"So now we can't talk during the day," Harry said.
Snape stroked the teenager's head. "Of course not. But we will find a way to talk somehow."
"What was that that Dumbledore said about a - a secret way of communication, or something? Did he mean a code?"
"Here, come over here." Snape led Harry to a bench near the wall. They sat down together. "A code, maybe. We could Charm quills so that they wrote in code, and then we could write letters to one another. But we would have to destroy the letters later, of course."
"That sounds perfect. Could we do that?" Harry asked eagerly.
"I think we could. Give me a few days to find a code that can't be broken easily; I'll be in the library anyway, looking up Soul Potions, so I will be able to research codes then." He looked down at his hand, entwined with Harry's.
Harry looked at his Potions teacher and smiled. Quickly, he leaned forward and kissed Snape full on the lips. A bit startled, Snape soon found his wits and returned Harry's hungry kisses.
Several minutes later, looking flushed and disheveled, they bent to the keyhole of the door and looked out. No one was in the hallway. Harry started to unlock the door, but Snape pulled him into another kiss.
"Stop it," Harry protested, laughing. "You don't - we can't - I have to get back to my common room!"
Snape let him go. "Meet me tonight at ten o'clock in the Room of Requirement."
"Where is it now?"
"The fifth floor, east wing. On your right after the statue of Librus the Loathsome. Just tap the wall and I will let you in."
Harry grinned. "I can't wait."
Snape tapped the locket hidden beneath his robes. "Ten o'clock. I'll be waiting."
With a swift kiss on Snape's cheek, Harry was gone. His teacher smiled and checked the hallway before hurrying off toward his office in the opposite direction.
His head spinning, Harry stepped into the Gryffindor common room. Ron was glaring at Hermione, who was absorbed in a thick book called Why Are Muggles Curious About Magic?
Hermione looked up as Harry entered. "Harry, tell Ron to do his essay himself," she snapped. Ron shook his head, looking immensely irritated.
Harry flopped down into an empty chair across from Hermione. "I thought you said you'd write it for him."
"That was at breakfast," said Hermione, as though things said at breakfast had no basis whatsoever in fact. "I said that just to shut him up. Now he thinks I really meant it."
"She promised she'd do it," yelled Ron. "How am I supposed to do it myself? I don't have the time to write the bloody thing!"
Hermione slammed her book shut, making the Creevey brothers jump. "If you hadn't spent yesterday afternoon playing Quidditch, maybe you'd have the time!"
"But you promised to do it!" Ron shouted.
"What makes you think that I have any more time than you have? I'm taking more classes than you are, Ron! I have my own essays to write!" Hermione gathered her things and stormed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
Harry closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. "Just do the essay, Ron," he said. He linked his fingers together, remembering how Snape's fingers had twisted so easily and beautifully around his. "It won't take long if you start now."
"I'm not going to let her do this," said Ron angrily. "She said she'd write it, but now she says she won't. She'd better make up her mind!" He moved over to take Hermione's chair and began to read the newest issue of Which Broom.
Harry opened his eyes and looked around the room. Colin, Dennis, and Patrick Creevey were poring over an old article about Harry from Parvati Patil's Witch Weekly. "Look, Colin! Look at that! Did you know that?" squeaked an excited Dennis. "Did you know that, Colin?"
"I didn't know that!" Colin was positively dancing with delight. "Did you, Patrick?"
"I sure didn't!" The youngest Creevey brother had an even higher-pitched voice than his brothers. "Wow, he is so cool!"
Harry pressed his hands against his eyes. The Creeveys really were too much. "I'm going for a walk," he said to Ron, who nodded in sulky acknowledgment. When Ron made no move to accompany him, Harry left the common room, ducking his head to exit through the portrait hole.
Harry walked out onto the grounds. Few students were about, the weather being so cold. Harry shivered, wishing that he had brought his scarf and cloak. He walked around the lake and sat down, his back against the trunk of a tall tree.
The clouds scudding across the wintry sky were gray and forbidding. Harry pulled his knees up to his chest and crossed his arms over them.
Where was Snape? Could he be preparing Monday's lessons? Perhaps he was in the library even now, reading thick tomes about Soul Potions and unbreakable codes. Harry grinned at the thought. How could Severus Snape, that greasy-haired git, be Harry's soul-mate? What insane person had bound their souls together? Didn't that person know that Snape hated Harry with a dark and evil passion, or that Harry returned that hate in equal measure?
"I don't care," said Harry aloud. "I'm glad." He pulled the silver locket out of his robes and opened it carefully.
Together Forever, Forever One. Harry pulled a single one of his lover's hairs from the locket and held it to his lips.
Hours passed as Harry sat alone under the tree. He watched the clouds moving slowly in the sky. Soon, he guessed, it would snow, and he would have to go inside.
A few snowflakes fell softly onto the boy's black hair. Harry shook his head, and they fell down onto his knees. Carefully, gently, Harry put the strand of Snape's hair back into the locket and shut the delicate silver sides. Then he kissed the locket and stowed it under his robes once more.
He rose to his feet. The snow was falling more briskly, and the flakes were larger now. Harry bent his head against the rising wind and hurried back to the castle.