Chapter 5
Still Summer
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Severus
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...Agree with..." Severus said before he trailed off, his nostrils flaring all of a sudden. His teeth bared themselves and the woman was scared as she called for the other Snape. Severus had never acted like that in all the years she had known him. It was now sixteen years since they had come to live on the boat.
"Seb!" she yelled.
"Coming!" Sebastian called hearing the fear and confusion in her voice. He ran up to the two and found something he had wanted to happen for a while. Severus' mate had finally come of age.
"Severus! Control yourself," snapped Sebastian slapping Severus on the face . It was the only way of getting his brother out of his current state.
"I have found him," Severus sighed, breathless.
"I know. So who is he? Wizard or muggle?" Sebastian asked. Wizard vampires do mate with Muggles, but it did not happen often.
"You would not believe me if I told you," Severus groaned.
"I take it, it is someone from the light side?" Sebastian asked, disappointed. He knew of Severus' wish to have a grey mate, neither light nor dark. Neither in the Order nor a Death Eater.
"He is sixteen…he is the last Potter heir," Severus replied.
"What the Potters died? Wonder how that happened. We need some news as I want to know what has been happening for these past sixteen years. I wonder if Voldemort has been defeated yet or not," Sebastian said, thinking out loud.
"I think I agree with you. It is time to go home. Please, get the boys together and we will tell them," Severus requested.
"Are you forgetting there is a girl on board? Two in fact," said a young woman's voice. She had grown from a shy, little girl into a very mature, fun loving, outspoken young woman. She really did not even remember being abused very much. She thought of Seb and Sev as her fathers, and the boys as her brothers as she had grown up with them. The boys thought of her as a sister and the older woman, Samantha, as their mother. Serena no longer called herself Avery; she and her mother used her mother's maiden name, Stocks.
"Women and young men together then please," Severus smirked at the young woman.
Once everyone was in the dining room, they sat down around the table. All the boys were tanned, except Draco, who was the least tan of them all. He was so fair skinned, that it was hard for him. Severus had actually developed a potion similar to his vampire potion to help protect his skin, only for humans.
"What's up, Sev?" Draco asked looking relaxed and happy.
"We are going back," Severus replied waiting for the explosion.
"What? No way!" yelled Vincent.
Draco held his hand up, silencing them all before doing the sensible thing.
"Why?" Draco asked.
"I've found my mate." He waited for the boys to grow quiet once more. "You all knew we would have to go back some day."
Severus smiled sadly at his boys.
"But our fathers will be able to claim us, if we go back now," protested one weakly.
They knew about their fathers, about being kidnapped as they had been told when they were nine. They had always called Severus, dad, until then, but now he was Sev to them all.
They were growing up; they would be their own people soon so Severus did not hurt too much. He just wished he could have made them his children the vampire way, but that would mean changing them. He did not want to it as it was not right, even with the potion.
"They cannot as you are of age. If they
try we can just disappear until you are seventeen," Severus assured them.
"Fine. I guess that's alright," Gregory agreed reluctantly.
"Good. Now let's get this boat going, we are going back to where we first started. Back to England, and luckily we are not too far from there, so it will not take us long to get back. Only one day at the least," Severus told them.
"Let's go!" Vincent yelled, getting up. They were going home.
"Well, this is it," Seb murmured, standing next to his brother.
"Yes, it is. I just wish you were going back to find your mate before you are too old," Severus also spoke softly. He wore a sad, sympathetic smile.
They landed safely, and, while everyone else moored the ship to the dock, Severus went to look around. After walking about half a mile, he saw a young man sitting on a rock, his head buried in his hands.
"Why are you crying?" he asked so softly and so closely to his ear, that he caused
the young man to jump to his feet and step back in shock.
Harry could hardly believe that the man had gotten that close to him and he had not heard him approach.
"Who are you?" Harry asked warily, knowing he was marginally safe, as he was still under the wards. That meant the man was not a Death Eater.
"Severus Snape. And, you?" Severus stood staring, his heart thumping a mile a minute. This was his soul mate.
"Harry...Harry Potter," Harry answered, waiting for the man to back away.
"Nice to meet you," Severus said, holding his hand out. Harry did not take it.
"What?" No running away from scary Harry "the criminal" Potter?" the teen snapped sarcastically, sick of that word.
"Criminal? Here I was expecting a wizard," Severus said with a smile.
"You're a wizard, then." It was a statement.
"That is stating the obvious," Severus remarked dryly.
Harry narrowed his eyes, then was just about to head off, because he did not like people talking to him like he was an idiot, or worse, too young. He got enough of it at home and school.
"Wait! I'm sorry! I can see by your face that you think I was making fun of you, but I was not. Do not look so surprised as I can read you a mile away. I am not trying to be horrible, it is just the way that I am. I have always been like this, and I guess my people have gotten used to it by now. They just say something back to me."
Severus realized that he was not getting off to a good start with his soul mate.
"Why are you here anyway?" Harry wondered.
"Walking. Why? Do you not like the beach and water?" Severus asked. He loved the sea as it had been a part of him for a long time.
"I've never been here before," Harry replied, a little sheepishly. His tears had long since stopped falling, but tears clung to his long eyelashes.
Severus sniffed the air, smelling the hurt, pain, lonliness and blood coming from his mate. He nearly went into a rage.
"Come here," Severus requested putting his hand out once again.
Harry blinked, looking at the hand not certain whether to accept it or not. However, when the tall man did not push him after a few minutes, he gave the man his hand, wondering what he wanted with it.
He squeaked when he was pulled down the beach, then Severus stopped when their feet were just in the water. It would have seemed romantic to anyone who saw the couple, but for Severus and Harry, it was calming.
He was calm and Harry knew right there and then, that he would come back here again, because he both needed and wanted it. Here he could find the peace that had been denied to him his whole life.
They sat down on a rocky outcropping just feeling the wind through their hairs. Severus hated breaking the comfortable silence, but he wanted to get to know his soul mate.
"So, care to tell me why you wre crying?"
Severus asked softly.
"I..." Harry started. He was not sure if he wanted to tell the man, but his instincts were telling him to trust this man. And, he always followed his instincts.
"I won't tell anyone," the dark haired man assured him, while watching his bond mate's face. He used his magic to push some healing energy through his mate and Harry relaxed after that.
"My so-called best friend and my godfather are a couple of pricks, that's all," Harry mumbled quietly.
"Do you live with them?" Severus worked to keep his anger in check. If they hurt his mate, again, they would pay.
"No, I live with my Aunt and Uncle," Harry explained looking at Severus curiously.
He wondered why the man needed to ask, as everyone seemed to know more about him, then he did.
Severus was able to read him and told him the truth.
"I have been gone from the country for a long time. Sixteen years, in fact. Voldemort threatened my well-being as well as my brother and other people, so we left," Severus told him honestly.
"Oh." Harry was stunned as no one had ever given him a straight answer before.
"So, tell me what is happening," Severus requested.
"Well, about a year and a half after you left, Voldemort was defeated by a one year old baby."
Severus heard the bitterness in his voice and wondered about it.
"You're joking, right?" Sverus asked, surprised.
"No. They called him the boy who lived. Actually, they still do. He has a scar where the killing curse hit him, then rebounded at Voldemort.
"Then he must have been pretty powerful to have done that," Severus said, sounding impressed. He had no idea that he was talking to the boy who lived.
"Yes, that's what they all think, but I don't think he is," Harry replied, his eyes dimming slightly.
"I see," Severus said not sure what else to say wondering why Harry seemed so sad.
"Anyway, the boy who lived was given to his last living relatives, and after ten years of starvation, beatings and being used as a house elf he was thrust into the wizarding world, a world of fame for something he could not remember. He acted the way they wanted him to act, and being sent home to his family every year for more beatings and abuse. The headmaster knew, as did his friends, but they did nothing," Harry said unhappily.
"Is he dead?" Severus asked.
"No, very much alive. Dumbledore is making sure his pawn is alive and ready to be manipulated and moulded into a weapon," Harry said.
"Ah, you don't like Dumbledore much I see. I don't either, that's why I left instead of going to Dumbledore. He is a manipulative bastard," said Severus agreed, a smirk forming on his face. It appeared his mate was not a light wizard after all, nor a dark wizard or so he hoped.
"Well, at least one person has some sense," Harry stated.
"So what side are you on?" Severus asked, curious.
"Well, If I had any choice I would be on neither side, just my own. However, everything has already been decided for me, so I'm forced onto the light side. They would kill me before letting me be anything else," was Harry's cryptic reply.
"Ah, you are powerful, then." Severus already knew that; he could feel the power practically rolling off of his mate.
"Whatever. I have to get back before my Uncle kills me. The best place to go and get information would be from history books or Prophet articles," said Harry sounding sad.
"I would like to see you again." Severus wondered if he was pushing it too fast.
"So would I. I don't think I've ever had such a good, or relaxing time for that matter, but as I said before, I have to go. Maybe you would like to meet here again, but an hour later?" Harry asked.
"Very well Harry, it has been a pleasure getting to know you. I hope to see you again tomorrow," Severus agreed.
"Yes. Well, goodbye."
Harry walked away from the seaside, past benches and streets he had not even realised he had passed. He reached Privet Drive and managed to slip into the house unnoticed.
Going up to his room, only then did he realise he had forgotten his shoes; he had walked all the way home without them. Swearing, he knew he could not go back otherwise, he would run the risk of being caught. He just fell onto the bed hoping and praying that Severus had seen them and kept them for him.