SEQUEL of A wise man once said
Ugh...exhausted...loooong few days...still my mind is wired maybe I'll write a bit...Love you all!
warnings;
HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIP
BLOOD, GORE (NOT TOO MUCH)
ANGST
SOME RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS (NOT NECESSARILY MINE, AND NOT MEANT TO CONVINCE ANYONE OF ANYTHING)
right, I think that about covers it, love you all!
Mistress Slytherin
-3-
Harry woke slowly and immediately winced as the feeling of a hundred wrecking balls smashing into his scull reverberated across his nerves. Slowly he took stalk of himself wondering for the briefest of moments what had happened to him.
Then he remembered.
He lay stiffly as his memories rushed at him relentlessly. Slowly he opened his eyes as things made sense and the shock of it all wore off gradually. Something shifted against his side distracting him and he looked down completely surprised to see a head of black curls pressed against his side pale face slack with sleep.
Celia.
He felt his heart ache as he thought of her, he'd become fond of all of the children at the orphanage, but the two precocious children that he'd met on that first day held a special place in his heart. The children he'd never had but always wanted. He rose his eyebrows as a sleepy mutter and a shift alerted him of the other child that had somehow managed to slip in with him.
Mike.
He felt his fear and anger subside at the sight of the two children and found himself tugging the blanket more firmly around them causing them to snuggle further into their spots by his side clutching at his shirt. His gaze snapped up at the sound of a door creaking open and suddenly he was face with dark endless eyes. His chest ached and anger boiled but was found useless when Snape flinched visibly his expression so torn and broken.
"You have every right to hate me." Snape said looking away. Harry stared at him for a long moment.
"I know." He said quietly.
"I shouldn't have erased your memories." Snape said clenching his jaw in visible pain. "I thought you would be happier without me in your life but I see that it was a mistake- I-I'm sorry." He said looking away.
"Snape." Harry said softly a faint smile lingering on his lips. Dark eyes shot to his and the need in them was raw and powerful, the longing the passion that Harry had hardly been able to dream of. "Come to bed before you freeze to death." Harry said flicking his wrist at the bed which grew wide enough to allow all of them to sleep comfortably. Snape's breath hitched but he nodded and soon crawled in beside Cilia who grumbled faintly before shifting around until she was sprawled across both of them one arm around each neck. Harry smiled faintly. "They've grown so much." He said softly.
"Mike learned to cook, we've been eating better ever since." Snape muttered tiredly causing Harry to snort.
"And your health?" Harry asked lazily.
"Improved with time." Snape said in the stillness.
"You magic?"
"Returned though it isn't as strong as it was." Snape said thoughtfully.
"Still a priest I see." Harry offered. This time there was no response and as Harry glanced over curiously he could just barely see Snape's face, slackened by exhaustion. He huffed slightly and smiled as he relaxed back.
He would punch Snape later.
Harry slept soundly that night for the first time in a long time.
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Molly was the one to catch her son as he stumbled through the door. As big as he was compared to her now, it hadn't surprised her the least when he fell into her welcoming arms and wept. She exchanged a look with Arthur who only nodded sadly in acceptance; they had known for quite some time that Charlie was chasing perhaps the only dragon in existence that couldn't be tamed. Harry was meant for Snape, they'd all seen it at some point during the last two years.
Quietly she sat with her son and rocked him as he told her Snape's theory and nodded slowly in recognition.
"Lily was always the smartest of us girls, the most determined too. I wasn't aware that the two were in communication after school though, rumor had it that they'd gotten in a monumental row and it had ended everything between them- of course I suppose with Severus being a death eater, he couldn't have had anyone knowing about his muggle born friend." Molly said with a slow nod. Her accent ever thick and proud calmed Charlie like nothing else.
"She was always determined too." Arthur said lighting his old pipe and ignoring the glare from his wife. "She used to haul herself up in the library for days on end, not sleeping and not eating until she discovered whatever answer she'd been fussing with. The professors got angry at her a few times for missing class, but they couldn't really scold her when they knew she would turn in the work and it'd be perfect too in the end." He said tapping the bowl lightly before inhaling deeply.
"Fiercely protective too if I remember right, she set up a blood ward around Severus one time to keep him from getting pranked by the maurders- Potter was positively seething with jealousy." Molly said with a chuckle.
"Ah yes, I had forgotten that!" Arthur said brightly. "She had quite a temper too, the headmaster came down on her for performing blood wards in the school, dark magic that, but she stood her ground and told him off! You remember? I swear Molly the headmaster's ears were burning with shame by the time she was done with him!" Arthur laughed jovially.
"'If you would just control that idiot Potter then I wouldn't have to be worried about my friend's safety!'" Molly quoted pointing a furious finger into the air. Before chuckling.
"Ah yes! 'Some dueling champion you are! You can't even get a prepubescent mama's boy to settle down!' Ohohoho! And remember Molly the time she hexed both James and Severus? Everyone knew who did it, but neither of them were willing to say even if it meant they had to stay strung up in the great hall for a day and a half before she finally let them down!" Charlie listened to his parents speak and felt himself calm slowly. The sorrow was there, an ever present gaping wound in his heart, but he'd made his decision when he'd decided to fight for Harry. He wouldn't regret what they'd had together. He would never regret it, for a while, everything had been beautiful and perfect, he could cling to that and know that Harry had loved him, someday he would look back on this and cherish the memories. Quietly, drowning in the sights, smells and sounds of home Charlie fell asleep.
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Harry Potter was perhaps the most forgiving person in existence- was Severus' first thought upon waking up surrounded by the warmth of Potter and the two miscreants that had snuck out of their dorms in the middle of the night. He smiled faintly before slowly and carefully getting up, prying Celia from her place with a sleepy murmur and nudging Michael until the boy grumbled and sleepily woke up wincing under his slight glare. Quietly he managed to get the children to their dorms. After the raids most of the children had been adopted by families that had lost their own children, some of them had grown and were making their way in the world, and just a few remained. Celia and Michael were two of those few. Celia frankly refused to be adopted and Michael what with his copper hair and disposition for trouble had given up on family determined that the only father he wanted was Severus. Severus hadn't really minded, if he were honest to himself he adored the boy who he now recognized to have Harry's precocious nature.
He frowned when he realized that Harry was glaring at him from where he was laying half asleep. He looked like an indignant cat, not that Snape would ever say so- well perhaps. "They can't stay in here every night they need to sleep in the dorms with the others." Severus said pushing the door closed.
"Get back in here you memory snatching child thieving old man." Potter said smirking at him slightly his hair tousled. Severus found that even if he'd wanted to show some sort of self control that it was completely useless the moment the invite was made. His feet moved before his brain comprehended and he flushed as he slipped into the bed unable to keep himself from pulling Potter into his arms. Harry was like a part of him that he'd been missing for far too long. The silence stretched between them but Harry was holding him just as tightly small tremors running up and down his arms. "Never do that again." Harry whispered.
"Never, no I couldn't bear it either, even if you wanted to go back to Charlie I doubt I would let you." Severus said his grip tightening.
"I thought I was going mad." Harry whispered. "They told me it was trauma, but I never believed them, even if it made me paranoid." A hand reached up and traced is face slowly as if not quite believing that it was there, that he was there. "I would lose it sometimes, I would find myself in the dungeons or in your office, I would see you out of the corner of my eye but forget your name before I could call it out. And then I would hurt, I would weep Severus and I wouldn't know why." He whispered. Severus held him tighter and his heart burned with regret.
"Never again." Severus whispered. Harry let out a sob and suddenly leaned into him kissing him ferociously. It felt good, like a draw of water after being thirsty for years, it was safety and burning and all encompassing. It was the sin and the salvation, the tug and pull of right and wrong before the wrong won over and he knew he was lost. Severus welcomed the kiss because there was nothing in the world that could have made him give it up. Harry was his, no matter what, this war hardened hero was his and nothing in hell or on earth could take Harry away from him-
"FATHER!" Severus jerked away at the panicked yell and his eyes widened to see the look of raw fury in Harry's eyes.
"I forgot…" Harry whispered. "Everything I stood by, everything I was, was a reflection of you…of the man I respected and wanted to be." he breathed. "Without it, without you I forgot what it meant to fight until my very last breath." Green eyes gazed at him wide with fear. "I lost my will to fight, that's what Neville meant." And then he was out of the bed hand going to his wand as he strode from the room. Severus watched with shock and awe.
Harry wasn't limping at all.
A short shout broke his shock and in an instant he too was striding out the door regardless of his night shirt and bare feet. Even running at top speed through the halls of the small church Harry had beaten him. Like the trained warrior he was Harry was already sending curses at the intruder and Severus found himself still as he watched him fight. Light after light spell after spell curses that were long lost to time- Harry was brilliant. He watched in stunned silence as Harry dueled the strange man dressed all in black lithe muscular body shifting and turning despite its limitations. Severus jumped when Michael was suddenly jerked from his place on the pew where he'd been tied up and literally thrown into Severus' arms knocking them both into the wall.
"You should have stayed in your little school Potter." The stranger said blue eyes flashing. His movements were graceful but twitchy, the bending sliding and turning like the clever jerks of a spider.
"You should have stayed away from politics; your inferiority complex is going to get you killed." Harry said before sending another curse. The man hissed as the curse grazed his shoulder before returning with a flurry of spells. He was no match for Harry though, Severus had seen the man fight before but nothing could have prepared him for an angry vengeful Harry Potter.
Destroyer of Dark Lords indeed.
A blasting curse hit the man squarely in the chest sending him flying backwards and into the wall with a crunching smatter. Severus whispered a soft prayer for the man and found that he was trembling as he held Michael. Harry spun on them immediately striding towards them only to halt a few feet away and turn his head to the side vomiting loudly. Severus winced, that kind of emotional and mental stress on a man who'd just forcibly restored several years worth of knowledge was not kind on the body. But Harry straightened after a moment, winced and wiped at his mouth before crossing the distance between them gathering both he and Mike into his arms. Severus would never ever admit how reassuring the strength in those arms was.
"We have to get you all out of here." He said after a breathless moment.
"Potter this is my home-"
"This is a war Severus, and you'll be then main target."
"No body cares about a prim old priest I hardly present a threat any more-"
"But you do, because I love you and that makes you a threat." Harry said firmly as he pulled back his eyes glittering brightly and suspiciously damp. "I can't lose you again Severus Snape." He breathed.
"The children." Severus said weakly.
"We'll work it out Severus." Harry whispered.
"You're asking me to give up my lively hood I've dedicated my-"
"Yes I am Severus. I'm sorry but there is no way out of this, I can't leave you and you can't stay, if you stay you will be placing these children in danger out of my reach I wouldn't be able to protect you."
"If we go to Hogwarts it will be the same!" Snape said his eyes bright.
"Before I went to the ministry ball yesterday I made certain that the school would be left in good hands, I nearly drained myself pouring my magic into the wards."
"Whose hands?!" Severus snarled.
"Draco Malfoy." Harry said firmly. Severus went still his eyes wide.
"You're mad." Severus said softly.
"He swore an oath to me; the school will be safe in his care after all his son is a student." Severus smiled faintly.
"You knew he'd protect the school if Scorpio was one of the students."
"I knew he'd protect the school if I asked it of him." Harry said grimly. Severus' smile faltered briefly.
"So what then I take the children to the Weasley's again?" He said dryly.
"No! I don't want to go!" Mike said his eyes dark. Harry had nearly forgotten that he was there cradled between them. "Last time you left us there I didn't get to see you again for years!" He accused Harry. "The two of you and Cilia are all I've got." He said his voice growing smaller. Harry felt his breath catch in his throat as he looked down at the boy.
"He's safest closer to us- that man went after Michael specifically." Snape said warily. Harry looked up sharply.
"What about Celia where is she?" He said his heart sinking.
"I left her in the confession booth." Michael said gesturing towards the booth. Harry released Severus and Michael and rushed to the booth unlocking the door. Wide eyes stared up at him first in fear and then in relief before the small girl launched herself at him sobbing in his arms.
"I'll call father Jacobs, he's a priest nearby that I meet for lunch some times, he'll have space for the others, but Celia and Michael should come with us." Severus said softly. Harry held the girl closer and nodded shortly. The hell he was going to leave these two unprotected ever again.