Chapter Four: Newlyweds

Harry woke up stiff, taking a moment to recall what had occurred last night. He'd gone to see Severus Snape about detention, and well...

"Severus," Harry said quietly, touching the older man's shoulder. "Wake up."

Severus groaned, eyes opening after a few rapid blinks. "Harry," he muttered. "Oh Merlin, it wasn't a dream."

Harry rolled over and laid on top of Severus' naked body. "Again with thinking it was a dream! No again," he replied with a grin. "How do you feel?"

Severus grunted. "Like a man who hasn't fucked that hard in many years. Like my age. Gods Harry, what was I thinking?"

Harry frowned. "Regret it?"

Severus slid his arms around Harry's waist and rested one hand on his ass. "No," he smiled. "Just thinking about the repercussions of it. Physically and otherwise."

Harry flexed his hand, and was surprised to see a tattoo of some kind adorning his left ring finger. "Um, Sev, what's this?"

Severus examined his hand for only a second before glancing at his own hand. "Sweet Merlin," he said.

"What?" Harry asked, perplexed as he noticed an identical tattoo on Severus' hand.

"We've bonded, magically," Severus whispered, voice somewhere between terror and awe.

Harry looked startled. "Bonded, as in married?"

Severus gulped. "It a rare, but not unheard of thing. Muggles call it 'finding your soul mate', finding a person you were destined to spend your life with. As wizards, the magic we possess recognizes when two people meant to be together have sex, and it automatically bonds them. Yes, I think we got married last night."

"Oh my god," Harry whispered. "Severus, what are we going to do?"

Severus smirked. "We can cast glamor charms to hide the rings, but a bond is a bond, and one formed like this is nearly impossible to break. In fact one of the major reasons that divorce is legal in the Wizarding world is so that if someone gets married, and later finds their true bond-mate in the instance of an affair, the soul-bond takes power over any other."

Harry looked solemn, but not displeased. "Any other side effects I should know about?"

"We are now bonded at the deepest level possible. Our very lives are linked. If something happened to you, an injury, I would feel it just as you did. If I died, you would as well. There's only one way to side step the total life link, but the general feeling each others pain will never be able to be removed." Severus blushed.

"And that is?" Harry demanded.

"Procreation," Severus said. "If we had a child, one of our deaths would not effect the other, because one parent needs to remain to care for the child. Or, if a third person entered into our marriage, that's nearly unheard of but does work to break the actual live bond."

Harry chuckled. "Well, let's just try not to get killed for a while then. I'm not quite ready to be a parent."

Severus looked carefully at his lover – no, bond mate. "Are you ready for marriage?"

Harry touched Severus' face. "I don't really see I have a choice in the matter at this point, but even if I could change it, I wouldn't. I love you Severus."

Severus pulled Harry down for a kiss. "I love you too Harry. And I'm not upset that we're married, not at all. This really proves to me that my feelings for you were not so wrong as I first thought. But, until you graduate, we do need to keep this a secret."

Harry nodded. "I know. I'm not sure how I'm going explain my detention lasting all night though."

Severus groaned. He hadn't even thought about that. "I'm sure you'll think of something. You always had a knack for getting out of trouble."

Harry laughed, and got up off the bed and began dressing. "I'll get down to breakfast first. The last thing we need is to come down to breakfast together, after a dozen other students know I had detention last night." He cast a glamor charm on his hand, as well as one on his neck where Severus had left several marks the night before. "Merlin Sev, what would we do without glamor charms?"

Severus stood, pulling a bathrobe on. "I'm sure we could be creative. In fact, I'm looking forward to being creative with you."

Harry blushed. "Shit Sev, I gotta go. Don't get me all worked up again."

Severus grinned, a true grin. "I owed you one."

Harry shook his head, and walked out, carefully checking to make sure no one saw him coming out of Severus' office door. He made it all the way to the Great Hall without a problem, and then he saw Ron and Hermione coming toward him. Ron was pointed his wand at Harry's neck.

"Revealo!" Ron said, grinning. Harry moved his hands to his neck in an attempt to hide the hickies there, and only a moment too late realized that he was holding his ring in plain sight, also exposed by Ron's charm. "Hey, Harry, when did you get the tattoo? I was looking for hickies, since I know you didn't spend the night in the dorm."

"Last night," Harry said, providing the truth, but hoping that his two best friends would assume that getting a tattoo was all he did last night.

Hermione grabbed his and, and examined in carefully. "Sweet Merlin, Harry," she whispered.

Harry groaned. Leave it to Hermione to know what a bonding tattoo looked like. He looked at her, eyes pleading to just drop it. Seconds later Ron was dragged off to talk Quidditch with a couple of their dorm mates, and Hermione dropped Harry's hand. "We'll talk about this later," Hermione said in her mom-tone. "I can tell you don't what Ron to know, and I can understand why, but I do want to know who he is."

Harry's jaw fell. Oh no. "Hermione, let's go find somewhere to talk about this now," he pleaded.

Hermione nodded, and led Harry to an empty class room. "So," she said, as soon as the door closed. "Why don't you explain to me how Ron and I didn't know you were gay, didn't know you were interested in someone, and how you managed to soul bond."

Harry glared. "How do you know I didn't soul bond with a girl?"

"Because I read, Harry! The marks left from a soul bond are different. One type for gay, one for lesbian, one for straight, and one for trio bonding. You are clearly wearing the gay ring." Hermione paused. "So when did this happen?" she asked, pointing at the ring.

Harry looked at the floor. "I told you, last night." Harry said.

"Did you have detention last night with Sn..." Hermione broke off mid question, realization dawning on her. "You...and Snape?" she whispered.

Harry looked up, his Gryffindor courage coming into play. "Yes, Hermione. Severus. It started at the beginning the year, me realizing what I felt anyway, and then on Christmas I found him drunk off his ass in the bathroom, and we made out, and he confessed that he cared about me. Then, last night...well I'm sure you already know what two people have to be doing to bond like that."

Hermione found a chair, and sank into slowly. "Harry, what on earth were you thinking? Could you have at least waited until you graduated? The two of you would be in loads of trouble, mostly him, if this gets out."

"I was going to wait, but last night, it just happened, and it's not like I thought I was going to be hiding a marriage, just a lover," Harry tried to justify.

"Harry Snape..." Hermione mused. "Never would have expected that."

"Hey, who said it's not Severus Potter?" Harry demanded.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "In gay bondings the younger takes the name of the elder. Your official records will have already changed. If Madam Pomfrey looks at your file, she'll know you're married. Same goes for Professor McGonagall. I doubt any one else will bother looking at your file in the next few months."

The door the the classroom and Severus walked in. "Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, what are you two doing in here?" he inquired.

Hermione looked at Severus and rolled her eyes. "Don't you mean Mr. Snape, Professor?"

Severus looked startled, and looked at Harry. "I can't hide anything from her. She knows too much for her own good. She guessed, Sev."

Hermione coughed. "Sev?"

Severus glared. "It would be ill advised for you to call me that, Miss Granger."

Hermione shook her head. "Excuse me, but I didn't even know Harry was gay until a few minutes ago, not to mention married to his teacher. You're both going to have to give me some time to process."

"What do you intend to do with your knowledge of this?" Severus asked quietly, wrapping his arms around Harry's waist. Harry leaned into his mate, grateful for the support.

"Use it to help hide this!" Hermione snapped. "As the two of you are obviously unable to do alone."

"Hermione, we're not idiots," Harry glared.

"And that's why I figured it out the day after?"

"She has a point, Harry," Severus said. "We need all the help me can get."

Harry grinned. "Didn't this whole thing start with a point?"