The Journey Cycle pt 1: Europe *pt 1 now complete*

10

They had a lazy breakfast out on the terrace the next day surrounded by maps planning their next leg of the journey. They both wanted to see Naples then intended to cross the mountains and head back up the east coast to the city both wanted to see with a passion, Venice. Harry booked them into an apartment three weeks hence before they left Rome, so they could take their time with the driving and lazy sightseeing.

The hottest part of August found them high up in the mountains that ran like a backbone along the length of the country where they stayed for a week. The villa they rented had no mod cons apart from a flush loo and running water. The electricity was subject to power cuts and Harry relished the feeling of being totally cut off from the outside world and they immersed themselves in the joys of rural living. They were deep in agricultural Italy by now. The weather was cooler up here and they hiked and camped out again finding tiny farms and buying food along the way. They were deep into wine-making country interspersed with olive-growing farms. The people were rustic and genuine.

Harry had a bit of a problem with Bessie’s engine on one of the long climbs but they found help without too much trouble and Harry could fix the problems without too many hassles. It was at times like this when Severus felt his inadequacies as a proper helpmeet to his lover who competently dealt with the aggravation, Severus acting as ‘nurse’, passing the tools as Harry worked. Severus found himself wishing that he could drive but Harry seemed to enjoy it. He was learning so much about the Muggle world and was sorry for all the times he had looked down on them from his previously elitist standpoint. Harry just adapted to each new situation that they found themselves in and let it roll off him like water off a duck’s back and Severus was quite envious as to Harry’s adaptability and told him so. Harry shrugged nonchalantly, “This is the real world, my Sev. Get used to it. This is where a lot of your students live. This is how we were brought up”.

They were across the mountains and still had more than a week before they were expected at the place they had booked into at Venice when Severus recognised the name of the small town that they were approaching on the East coast, Pescara. They soon found the sprawling estate just a little inland and just showed up at the home of one of Harry’s yearmates, Blaise Zabini.

He was astonished to see his old head of house and Harry Potter on his doorstep, travelling like a pair of hippies, nut brown, travel stained and laughing and invited them to stay as long as they wanted. He seemed delighted to see them. His family had always been neutral in the war with Voldemort and several years after school, he had married Pansy Parkinson and they ran the estate between them and Blaise’s ancient mama. Pansy was totally surprised to see them both, “We saw the report in the ‘Resoconto that you had been spotted but we paid it no mind. That paper is even more of a gossip rag than the ‘Prophet. Bloody hell, it’s good to see you both”, Pansy gushed and made them both welcome, but there was an odd tone in her voice, something frantic and slightly panicked and too bright and forced that made the lovers glance at each other anxiously before swallowing it and pasting smiles on their faces. Something wasn’t right here.

“Well, Mrs Zabini, what a surprise to see you”, Severus smiled archly at his previous student, “We all wondered what happened to you when you suddenly vanished from school”. Pansy’s eyes were altogether too bright shining with that slightly manic light, “Mum and dad ran and hid in South Africa when they sensed that He Who Should Not Be Named was getting too close. He was on the run and had no desire to endanger himself or the family. They are still out there, I think Dad’s got business interests in Australia somewhere, but when he deemed it safe for us to come out of hiding, things had moved on”, her eyes glittered dangerously. They were all sitting around a large family-sized dining table enjoying the last of an excellent meal.

Then she showed a little of her true colours, “And Draco had married someone else”, she spat, glaring at Harry, “Then the next thing I hear is that he abandoned his bride after she had produced his heirs and ran off to live with you, then you gave him some evil fucking Muggle sexual disease and then he died. If he had married me, trust me, he would have never left me, I can tell you”. She suddenly rose from the table and advanced on Harry, her wand drawn and pointed at his throat. “His death was all your fucking fault!”, she shouted. Her husband rose and tried to restrain her as she fired off the first spell and Harry, running on instinct, dived beneath the table.

She shrieked like a banshee, “He should have been MINE, you fucking queer BASTARD. He should always have been MINE. He was affianced to me when I was THREE for fuck’s sake. Come out you coward and face your doom”. By now Blaise had restrained her and Severus wandlessly disarmed her, casting his own binding spell to render her harmless, his thunderous voice rising above the sudden chaos, “Oh, no you don’t, Miss Parkinson! Voldemort cast the curse that made him ill. He cast the same on my lover, a certain Remus Lupin, who died from the same disease. It was not sexual at all, it was designed to replicate the same symptoms, though we know not what caused it or the Dark curse that he cast. One of his own evil devising, no doubt”.

He reversed the binding spell when Blaise held her restrained to his satisfaction, “In any case, do you really think we would just turn up on your doorstep otherwise, you silly woman?”, his voice dripped scorn. Harry scrambled out from under the table, his eyes wide, “I think that perhaps we should leave, Sev”, he murmured into the loud silence that followed, but Blaise stopped them, “No, Severus, please. I’m sorry for my wife’s jealousy, but we would like an explanation if you have one”, his tone was the soul of reasonableness in the chaos, and they all sat back down in an uneasy manner. Severus still radiated ire, “Really, fellow Slytherins, is this any way to treat guests, however unexpected?”

Harry’s eyes flickered around the tableau before him and Blaise nodded in understanding and he murmured to his twitchy spouse, “Pansy, Draco was in love with Harry before we even left school, whatever your hopes were, and Draco went back to him after his arranged marriage had produced the heirs that his mother required after his father’s death at the hands of the Dementors. I know that he just hung around long enough to fulfil his familial duty and in the tradition of the Malfoys, he sought out his true love, after all, his own parents’ marriage was nought but one of dynastic convenience and in the same circumstances, you would have fared no better than Gabrielle”.

Pansy turned murderous eyes on her husband, “No way. Draco would never have left me to carry on with some fucking QUEER”. Harry shrugged and shook his head, “Sorry, Pansy, but I beg to differ here. We were fellow warriors and both fought for the same side. Draco had come back to our side after you had left. I waited for him for four years. And, yes, our ‘aberration’ was duly noted. Despite the fact that it was me who looked after him in his final years, I wasn’t even able to bury him at the end”, there was a catch in his voice as he spoke and Severus placed a comforting arm around him and pulled him close.

Blaise nodded, “I heard. It was a bloody disgrace if you ask me, although Gabrielle did raise two creditable sons by him. Our Mariacarla is a year younger than Gaius and thinks the world of him, so the Parkinson/Zabini line may yet be joined to the Malfoys”. Harry nodded ruefully, “She didn’t allow him much access to his sons once he came back to me, but they bought a wreath from me for the funeral. I never had any argument with those boys and we have made some sort of peace between us since his death”.

Pansy snarled through gritted teeth, “It wouldn’t have happened. He loved me”, but it lacked conviction. Her husband rounded on her, “Wrong, love. Draco and I had history. Face it. He was gay. He loved you, for sure, but as a brother to a sister”. She vented her fury, “Bastard. You mean you got to fuck him?” Blaise nodded once, “Yes”, he countered softly, “Fifth year. We messed about a bit until I realised I was straight and he wanted more than I was capable of giving him, but he always batted for the boys’ team”. This effectively silenced her and she glared at them all then stormed off out of the room muttering imprecations against ‘fucking queer bastards’ as she left, slamming the door behind her.

They all slumped at this, releasing breaths into the ringing silence she left behind. Blaise stood and shakily poured generous measures of brandy for himself and his guests handing out the glasses before subsiding into his seat and pinching the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb. Severus stalked around the table and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, “Perhaps we should go. We really only called in on a bit of a whim. We didn’t mean to stir up trouble between the two of you”. Blaise smiled waterily up at his ex-head of house. “Actually, I’m bloody glad to see both of you. We don’t get many visitors these days. I always knew that she still carried a torch for Draco but whatever you may think of her outburst, she is an excellent wife and mother and we have five beautiful children to show for it, two at Beauxbatons and the others at Hogwarts”, he sighed.

“So. Tell me what you two are up to?. I’m really sorry for all this shit, and you are right, Severus, this is no way to treat our guests. I apologise heartily for both of us”, Severus smiled then, “Apology accepted. Harry and I are travelling at the moment. It is a new experience for me and we are discovering all sorts. We live in that van outside. She’s kitted out for living and is a great way of getting about, even though Harry here is the only driver.”. The atmosphere lightened considerably after this and they told travelling tales, but carefully left out any mention of the de Santos’ and the possible rise of a new Dark Lord. The volatile atmosphere in this house was hardly the place to raise such issues.

They talked and drank far into the night, Pansy did not appear again and they started to relax. As Harry was beginning to show visible signs of weariness, Blaise suggested making them up a room but the other two refused, “I doubt that your missus would approve of two men sharing a bed under this roof, young Blaise”, intoned Severus. “For tonight, we’ll sleep in Bessie and hope that relations are more cordial in the morning”. Blaise laughed, “Bessie!!”, Wherever did you get the name?”. Harry, flushed with the copious amounts of good brandy, giggled, “Yeah, Bessie. When I bought her, she looked like a bit of a raddled old lady, you know, the sort with wrinkly stockings bagging around her ankles, so the name just came to me even though she’s all spick and span now”. Blaise grinned and stood, a little unsteadily, “Show me”, he requested, and they all filed out onto the main drive and Harry took him over the van showing his ex-yearmate the improvements he had wrought, much to Blaise’s delight, “She’s so cool. Hello, Bessie old girl”, he said stroking the bonnet before he was shown the cosiness of the living accommodations.

He smiled at the collection of postcards on the wardrobe door and chuckled at the ‘David’ with the name Harry scrawled across the bottom in the unmistakeable hand of his ex-head of house. “Wow, Potter, so this is what you look like with your kit off?”, he smirked and Harry blushed, “Er, no”, but Severus hastened to disagree, pulling Harry to him and planting a kiss on his temple smirking at his ex-student. Harry went maroon and buried his face in Severus’ chest. Blaise cocked his head on one side, “You two have it bad for each other don’t you? I’m sorry to hear that you lost your lover too, Severus. It must have been pretty grim for both of you”. Severus merely nodded. Blaise cast his eyes about and smiled, “Well, this is pretty cosy, I must say. Stay out here tonight, and I’ll try to forge some kind of detente with the missus”, he grinned provocatively, “I’ll leave you to it now, I’d better go and see to Pansy, who at this moment, I suspect, is indulging in a king-size sulk and hopefully, if you haven’t run for the hills, I’ll see you both in the morning”. He debarked throwing a smirk over his shoulder and staggered back to the house, leaving them in the van.

Harry sank down to the bed, “Fuck! That was weird”. Severus agreed and sat beside him, taking him in his arms, “Come on, you, let’s get to bed. Tomorrow will bring a different view on things. I’d forgotten that Pansy was virtually stalking Draco in lower sixth. I knew then, that he wasn’t interested. Sorry love, I didn’t mean you to be nearly hexed back there, and after all you fellow Gryffindors have done for us, it makes me almost ashamed for having been a Slytherin. Almost, but not quite”, he smiled at Harry, “Though I think that for tonight, we are probably safest out here”. Harry was in wholehearted agreement and yawned widely falling backwards onto their bed. “Lock up, there’s a love”, he intoned around another huge yawn and Severus felt a pang of guilt, Harry really had done quite a lot of driving that day only to receive a reception like that and he was obviously knackered. Severus locked up and doused the lights before tucking them both up for the night, warding the insides of Bessie for safety and silence and curling around his beloved protectively as they fell asleep.

****

There was a light tapping on the passenger door that awoke Severus the following morning. He thought to ignore it but it was insistent albeit soft. Severus untangled himself from Harry and slipped on a pair of trousers and peered through the side window around the curtain. Pansy.

He opened the door as quietly as he could after tugging on a t-shirt and stepped down to the ground, holding a finger over his lips until the door was closed behind him, “Ssshhh, Harry’s still asleep. Driving tires him out”, his whisper held a curt edge. Pansy hung her head, “I’m really sorry for being such an arsehole last night, Sir, I mean, Severus”, she coloured at the use of his previous honorific. “I mean to apologise to Harry too. I behaved abominably to you both and am here to offer an olive-branch. Please come up to the house when you are both compos mentis, breakfast should be ready by then”. She held a small trug containing tomatoes still on a piece of vine along with fresh eggs, the straw still clinging to them. Severus smiled down at her, noting the generous streaks of grey in her hair and nodded, “All right. I’ll see what Harry has to say when he wakes. He may just want to go after last night”. She dipped her head again, “I can’t blame him to be honest. I was horribly insulting to him and after all he did for Draco too. It was just such a shock seeing the two of you. Please come up for brekkie if you can or to say goodbye if not so I can say sorry to him”. She looked up at the tall man before her and felt like a recalcitrant first-year again, but there was none of the mania in her eyes from the previous night and she did look properly contrite. Severus nodded at her and turned to climb back onto Bessie, “Okay, we’ll be there, one way or the other, give us an hour or so”, and the woman turned back towards the house.

“Whussup?”, a sleepy voice from the bed brought Severus to Harry’s side, stripping off his hastily donned clothes. Severus climbed back into bed and held his warm sleepy lover, “That was Pansy, she wants to apologise to you and she has offered to make us breakfast in about an hour”. Harry snuggled into his lover’s arms, “Okay, saves us cooking at any rate”, then looked up mischievously through his fringe, “So, I reckon that gives us a while before we have to make ourselves presentable then, doesn’t it?” and pulled his lover’s head down for a sleepy morning kiss. Severus groaned softly and they rolled together for some morning loving.

An hour or so later saw them at the back door, dressed, with damp hair and smelling sweet again, the scents of cooking wafted out into the warm air. Blaise welcomed them in and they sat around a huge ancient table in the middle of the kitchen as Pansy bustled about at the massive range asking about the number of eggs they wanted.

They had a convivial breakfast with Harry casting wary glances at his hostess from time to time until she looked fully at him and apologised sweetly for being so badly behaved the previous evening. Harry nodded and thanked her, before complimenting her on the beauty of her house and the excellence of her cooking. She blushed and smiled prettily, her expression contrite and genuine.

Blaise clapped his hands, “Now we’re friends again, let us show you round today. Have either of you ever ridden a horse before, only this place is too big to walk around and we can see so much more from the back of a horse”. Severus and Harry shook their heads but Harry seemed keen, “Nope, not once, but I’ve always fancied a go”. Blaise laughed, “Splendid. I’ll find mounts for both of you that aren’t too spirited and we’ll take a walk around the estate”. And so it was settled.

After breakfast, they all went outside and Blaise took them into the tack room and fitted them out with spare boots and hats then they were led to the magnificent stables where a young lad was instructed in Blaise’s rapid Italian to saddle up four horses. The lad jumped to with alacrity and a winning smile.

Soon they were all on horseback and riding away from the house. Severus and Blaise were deep in conversation and Harry paused to turn and look back at the house, a large sprawling villa tucked into the hillside with views away down to the sea, a couple of miles away. Pansy grinned, “The Zabinis own everything as far as the eye can see and we often ride down to the beach to give the horses a workout”. Harry was suitably impressed and said so, they were reaching for a cautious accord as they had never been friends at school but were at least civil to each other as they rode, Harry doing his best to remember the instructions he had been briefly given by Blaise, back straight, knees tight, heels down in the stirrups, shoulders loose and hands holding the reins loosely. After a while he found the horse’s rhythm and was beginning to enjoy the ride.

They were silent awhile until Pansy asked softly, “Would you tell me, Harry? About Draco, I mean. What happened to him, you know, at the end?” Harry took a deep breath and glanced at her, but there was no recrimination in her eyes just a certain shy curiosity. They had been friends after all and Harry supposed he owed her at least this.

“At first we didn’t know anything was wrong with either him or Remus, then Remus got sick. It was worse after his changes but we all knew that werewolves had comparatively short lives compared to most Magicals and Severus was sort of ready to lose him early, but this seemed earlier than most, but then Draco suffered also from random illnesses. Colds that would last the whole winter, hay fever where he had never suffered from it before, that sort of thing, infections that never seemed to clear up or took forever. I just presumed that he was a bit delicate”.

“Then as it was obvious that Remus would soon leave us, Draco got worse and we consulted a medi-wizard who did all sorts of tests and could find nothing intrinsically wrong so we ignored it and carried on as before. After Remus died, we were all inconsolable and Draco seemed to take it so badly, we had no idea that Draco was suffering from the same thing until we had a visit from Kingsley Shacklebolt, one of the best Medi-Aurors that exists. He dowsed him and declared that Draco was under some sort of curse, one that had been with him for years and then I remembered the battle and a curse that had hit them both during the fighting but hadn’t seemed to have any effect at first”.

“After a while, it was plain that Draco would suffer the same fate. At least Remus went relatively quickly, a massive heart attack that took him after a particularly traumatic full moon change, but unfortunately Draco had the full panoply of symptoms”. Harry squeezed his eyes shut to try to keep the tears at bay.

“He had a particularly bad throat infection that winter that got onto his chest and kept him in the house for the most part and that was the point at which I resigned from the Ministry to care for him full time. It was one thing after another and he never seemed to heal properly from any of it. The final year was the worst. He could barely shuffle about and he was losing weight”, Harry sighed and could feel the tears well in his eyes.

“You are a mother, Pansy, and I’ve no doubt that you have seen your fair share of blood and sick and piss and shit, haven’t you?”, she nodded, frowning. “Well, the final eight months or so saw him completely bed-ridden. He barely ate, his sleeping patterns were all over the place and none of Sev’s painkilling Potions seemed to work after a while. Draco had these awful purply lesions all over his body that no amount of salves seemed to touch. In those final months, he could barely keep any food down and that’s when I knew he was going to die. He was doubly incontinent, he could take nothing more than weak liquids and his skin lost that beautiful creaminess, his hair started to fall out. There were times towards the end when he didn’t know who I was. He had fevers interspersed with deathly cold. His teeth started to loosen in his gums and he lost a couple. He was emaciated by this time despite me crushing vitamins into his gruels in a vain attempt to put weight back on his increasingly visible bones. In his more lucid moments, he would beg me to finish it all for him, but I couldn’t, not while there was still the faintest glimmer of hope for him. We had Kingsley and Hermione working on trying to figure out the nature of the curse he was under but to this day we have still not figured it out.

Then, one night, I woke up and realised that the only thing keeping him warm was me curled around him as I always did at night. He had gone in the night sometime, his eyes were open and glazed and he was smiling slightly as if he was glad to be rid of the pain at long last. Then of course, the whole dynastic family thing swung into action and I was completely cut out of his life and his funeral. It hurt, it fucking hurt, you cannot believe how much. We may be a couple of ‘queer bastards’ to you and the other purebloods but I really loved him you see....”. His voice tailed off at that moment and he let the sobs take over. Pansy halted them, her own eyes red and wet and called shakily for the others in front to stop. Severus glanced back and saw the state of Harry and dismounted in a moment and came running back along the path. He helped Harry down from his horse and held him as he wept, comforting and soothing.

“It’s okay, Sev, she needed to know and, as his friend, she deserved to be told”, he gulped out between sobs, “I owe it to Drae to tell his friends who couldn’t be there for him”. Blaise asked gently whether they should go back to the house and Harry shook his head, “Give me a moment, Blaise, I’ll be all right. Just....” Severus hushed him and held him close while Blaise held his wife who howled with grief. The four made a sad little tableau amongst the green of the surrounding gardens and the relentless cheerfulness of the sun blazing down upon them.

As his sobs subsided, Harry pulled out of his lover’s arms and caught Pansy, pulling her to him and embracing her, “So you see, I really did love him with all that was in me. Gay is about the love you know, not just the sex”, he murmured into the small woman’s ear as he held her and right then she felt a prejudice shatter in her chest and her heart went out to this loving man who had taken such care of the man she had loved above all other, “I’m glad he found some happiness, Harry. All his life, particularly when we were in school, his whole future was something that had been mapped out for him. Education, take the Mark, marriage, have kids and serve one master after another. First that ruddy awful father of his and then Voldemort. I’m fucking glad he had something of his own, something he wanted and not expected of him. I hear his wife did well out of it”.

Harry smiled wetly, “Oh, yes, and she wanted mine and Sev’s share too but the Malfoys always did have the best lawyers. Her and the boys were well provided for and I had an unexpected ally in his own mother who has included me in the wards around the manor so I can go and pay my respects whenever I need to. You know he gave his permission for me and Sev to get together? The four of us, including Remus, had always been close”.

Pansy nodded against his chest, “The four of you were awesome in the Final Battle, a real fighting unit. A legend for our times”. Harry huffed out a breath, “Dunno about legends or anything, but Sev trained Drae and I to do the job properly after Dumbledore passed and we just did what was necessary”. She shook her bobbed head, “No, Harry, never underestimate what you all did. Don’t belittle it either”, her tone bordered on fierce as she looked up into his eyes. Harry smiled, “I won’t belittle it but I can’t aggrandize it either. We just did what had to be done. It was prophesied for me and with the others’ help, I did it. That’s all. It made killers out of us all as you well know but I’ve made my peace with that. It took some doing but I did, eventually. I still abhor having blood on my hands but hey, that’s the way it went. That’s why I had to do this travelling. It’s something that I have always wanted to do and both Sev and I needed to heal from it all. It’s doing us both good”.

He released her to arms length and she smiled at him, “It certainly is agreeing with the pair of you. You look great. I never thought that I would see Severus with a tan of all things”, and they shared a private small laugh at this before parting and her husband gave her a leg-up to re-mount her steed. Severus and Harry shared a short chaste kiss. His lover asked him, “Are you sure you want to carry on with this, love?”. Harry nodded, “Yes,. It’s all right, I’m enjoying the ride though I expect my arse will be a bit sore”. Severus smiled before sinking his hands in Harry’s hair and kissing him with less chastity this time. They pulled apart slightly and he touched their foreheads together, “Sure, darling?” and Harry grinned then and gave his Severus a quick hug. Their hosts’ mouths hung a little open. Blaise whispered to his wife, “I’ve never seen Snape be sexy before”. She replied, her face reddening, “I never thought he could be so tender or so sweet”.

They watched discreetly as Severus helped Harry back into the saddle and re-mounted his own beast and their guests shared a long look between them before their hosts swung their horses down the path again and the little party set out again.

The path headed steadily downhill between woods and laid out gardens, vegetable plots, past an old pineapple house that had fallen into disuse. Other greenhouses bursting with late peppers, tomatoes and burgeoning tender grapevine seedlings then on to the main grape arbour where large bunches ripened in the late summer sun. They all wended their way through a large meadow, the grass drying to straw before reaching the narrow strip of beach. Blaise now rode beside Harry and Pansy beside her ex-teacher the pace easy and steady, a nice shambolic walk.

They then taught their guests how to control their steeds through a rising trot then a light canter, Harry’s face lighting up. “Now tap his flanks again with your heels and lie over his back as if you were on your broom and hang on tight”, Blaise instructed. Harry did so, and Legolas, his horse took off beside Blaise’s Glorfindel into a full gallop. Harry shouted aloud with glee as the wind whistled in his ears. He could hear the thunder of Haldir and Galadriel behind them as they all galloped along the flat stony stretch of beach pulling up short before they reached the breakwater that marked the edge of the property. Harry was glowing, “Wow, that’s amazing, almost like being on a broom again”. He turned to see his lover with an identical look of joy on his face, his hair all blown about and they shared a laugh and a smouldering look.

They rode up and down the beach for awhile galloping to and fro exercising the horses until lunchtime was upon them and they started the climb back up the hill to the villa in the distance with it’s commanding view over the Adriatic and it’s isolation in the surrounding countryside. Harry’s eyes lifted to the mountains behind and he called to his hosts, “This is a wonderful place you both have here. I’m envious”. Pansy laughed, “It is beautiful isn’t it? If a little isolated sometimes. We don’t have many visitors. And despite what you might think, I’m really glad you both turned up”. They walked their steeds back, Harry beside Severus, sharing quiet conversation thoroughly energised by the exhilaration of the ride.

Pansy made them all a picnic style lunch that they ate outside on the loggia sitting on low chaises made of wicker and covered in cushions and all washed down with plentiful supplies of their own home-made wine, “Our last night of freedom before the bambinos return tomorrow with mama, then another couple of weeks and back to school with the lot of them. Let’s get slaughtered”, she waved her glass in a ‘cheers’ gesture and the others followed suit.

She snuggled up to her husband on their chaise and Severus opened his arms and Harry snuggled up into them with a pleased sigh, sitting back to chest between his lover’s legs and they did just that, getting totally smashed while their guests told tales of their travels, again leaving out any reference to Dark Lords. Severus casually asked if either of them had heard of the name of de Santos to be met with blank looks and shrugs. His influence obviously hadn’t spread this far despite the fact that Pansy’s father was a known Death-Eater in hiding on the other side of the world.

Harry climbed to his feet and fetched his little videocam and shot movies of them all drinking and eating with a little of the surrounding views to upload to England later. He hefted a bag with him containing the laptop and webcam and asked for permission to plug it into their phone line which was readily granted. As they didn’t have broadband access, Harry plugged in the spare modem and started the upload to his friend. Blaise and Pansy were fascinated by the technology but Harry was a bit frustrated at the amount of time it took. He would be unable to use real-time chat but he did pick up the latest e-mails from Hermione and glanced significantly at his lover after reading a couple of them, one on the de Santos lineage which Ginny had been researching for them and another on the lack of progress on the Curse although a breakthrough of sorts had been made on the history of secret groups and Hermione had written that he had a reply to Graciela’s letter and to let her know as soon as he had another Poste Restante address whence she could forward it. He asked Blaise for the address and phone number of the main post office in Venice and he rang them, withdrawing his credit card and paying for a PO box there. His card was verified instantly and he dropped Hermione a text with the PO box address to forward Graciela’s missive to. His pureblood hosts goggled at his easy use of technology and asked what he was about.

“That video I just shot will be seen by Hermione this evening but she has some post for us and I just rented a post office box in Venice so I can pick it up there. We’re due there in a week, we have accommodation booked. I just sent and received e-mails via this little plug-in modem so it doesn’t matter that you guys aren’t connected to the Internet”. They both looked confused. Severus shrugged as he looped an arm around Harry’s shoulders, “Don’t worry, I don’t understand either, but it’s a damn sight faster than owls. Harry and Hermione are geniuses at this techy malarkey”. Harry butted his arm with his head, “Idiot, this isn’t genius, this is the real world, mateys, get used to it”, then leaned in for a quick kiss, “Loads of folk communicate this way”. Severus shared a smile with his ex-Slytherins, “It’s all Greek to me, guys, and it sure looks damn clever from where I’m sitting. We’ve shopped for books off this things while we were in Spain, sent videos, we talk live through this little camera with the folks back home. It’s fucking wonderful and the majority of Magicals haven’t even got electricity”. Harry rolled his eyes, “I know, you lot are so stuck in the nineteenth century, it’s quaint but laughable really. At least here, you have electric and the phone”. Pansy sighed, “And here we are thinking we’re so damn modern when we had it installed here”.

He left the machine uploading the latest video as he poured more wine until a soft pinging sound told him that the job was done. He disconnected everything and packed it all back in his laptop rucksack withdrawing the phone charger and doing the necessary, charging it up again, leaving it for the evening as they all got extremely drunk.

At one point, Pansy asked to see the van that they were living in and declared Bessie extremely cosy while she had been quite prepared to turn her nose up at such a barbaric style of living but was instead impressed that her former teacher and mentor could live like this and enjoy it. As the conversation became desultory, they moved inside and Harry booted the laptop again and they watched a couple of movies from one of the hard drives and Blaise swore that they had to have one of these machines along with all the bits and pieces. Pansy rolled her eyes, “Blaise loves gadgets really. He’s as bad as the Weasley’s dad for Muggle bits and bobs. Tonight, you two, let us put you up. I’ll get a room ready”, and she wobbled off unsteadily. Blaise found her half an hour later face down in one of the many spare bedrooms sprawled on the bed snoring her head off and drooling slightly onto the bare mattress.

“We’ll have to get our own supper, Pansy’s crashed out”, he began to ineffectually mess about in the kitchen until Severus took over and, pissed as he was, cooked them a big spaghetti Bolognaise with plenty left over for Pansy should she wake. They carried on drinking far into the night and the two guests ended up spending another night on Bessie but neither minded. As Harry drifted to sleep, he realised he had made two new Slytherin friends. Aaah travel, he thought, throws up so many surprises.

The next day they all blundered about in various states of hangover, Pansy apologising for being such a shite hostess until Severus hugged her and told her not to be so daft, then administered his hangover potion to all of them. Harry and he could barely walk after the ride of the previous day until he dug out his numbing lotion and they both had fun in an empty bedroom applying it to each other. It also made a very efficient lubricant and they enjoyed it’s by-effect as quietly as possible so as not to embarrass their hosts before emerging red of face and loopy of grin to Blaise’s knowing grin and his wife’s good natured tutting as she prepared brunch.

That afternoon, the children all Floo’d in along with their grandmother who spoke not a word of English. She was delighted to meet such an esteemed teacher as Severus Snape and Harry was equally pleased to meet the five children who thought that the van and the tech stuff was fico (cool). His command of Italian was almost as good as his French and Spanish and he nattered away with his young hosts relating his days at school to a rapt audience. Blaise asked Severus where Harry had learned Italian and the man shrugged, “Don’t know”, he replied honestly, “It’s one of his many talents. He may have been crap at Potions but he’s so good at all sorts of things”. Blaise arched a brow at him and he had the good grace to blush slightly, “Yes, that too”, he purred.

The house was noisy that night and they elected to stay on Bessie again that night pleading an early start on the morrow. Early the next day, Pansy tapped on the van door again to see them both dressed and bustling about battening down the hatches for the next leg of their journey. She presented them with boatloads of fresh produce from the garden to see them on their way and after feeding them in the huge kitchen, they took their leave with hugs and kisses, the kids and grandmama still in bed and Harry fired Bessie up and they slowly pulled off the estate in the soft light of early morning and were waved off by husband and wife standing in the road until they were mere specks.