You Know You Are Loved When A Gryffindor Loves You

18

Draco Malfoy knew something was up when he bumped, literally, into Hermione Granger one night near the Headmaster’s office and a pile of letters scattered across the corridor floor, they were all addressed to Harry Potter, he noticed as he picked them up and haughtily handed them to her. Then he saw the top one she held in her hand, it was addressed to his godfather, “You know where they are”, he snarled. She snatched the letters back, “Why am I taking them to Dumbledore then? If I knew Harry’s whereabouts, I’d just Owl him, stupid!”. Draco wasn’t convinced. He waited in the shadows until Hermione passed him again biding his time but no-one passed again. He kicked the statue he was hiding behind in frustration. There had to be a better way than this. More subterfuge was needed.

****

Harry woke very early the following day slipped downstairs and Summoned Dobby. He appeared in less than two minutes with a sheaf of mail for him. Harry had a letter that needed Owling from school. “Tell Hermione to give the reply to you for me, will you Dobby, this is very important, and don’t mention it to Professor Snape, it’s a surprise”. Dobby blinked his huge eyes and waggled his ears, “Of course not, Mr Harry, sir”, he glanced down at the parchment, addressed to Gringotts Bank along with others addressed to Harry’s friends. They would be passed to Albus on his return who would give the letters to a school Owl to deliver to the friends at breakfast the following morning, Hedwig was sent to Gringotts with Harry’s letter.

****

They were the first in the queue as the Registry Office as it opened that Saturday morning and giggling and joshing they booked the earliest ceremony for Valentine’s day, that fell on a Saturday. The only room available was the smallest one but as hardly anyone would be there, that didn’t matter.

****

Letters flew thick and fast between exile and friends and an invitation was issued that made them all open-mouthed in shock. From the other side of the Hall, Draco watched, as the New Trio, as he had dubbed them, flushed and chattered looking all pleased and delighted at whatever news they had just received from Harry. He had worked out that their mail from Potter came by School owl which was obviously sent from elsewhere in the castle, probably through the Headmaster, but it wasn’t arriving by Owl in the first place and was probably unplottable as it arrived, then what?, then who?, and he slapped his forehead, “Of course. A House-Elf”, the only folk who could pop in and out even while no-one else could Apparate within the bounds of the school. And which house-elf? None other than his father’s ex-servant the one whom Potter freed in his second year. He grinned ferally, time to have a word with little ol’ Dobby.

****

Dobby had just left with the latest batch of mail. Harry grinned as he sorted the stack and tucked the thick one into the front of his jeans quickly before his lover peered over his shoulder and he handed him a parchment with vaguely familiar handwriting on it.

My dear Severus,

I hope this reaches you. I couldn’t get the wretched Elf to tell me of your whereabouts but he said he would carry mail for me. I had to threaten him with castration before he would even agree to that and to think we once owned him. I think the little fucker would die before he told me where you were.

Oh, Severus, I miss you so much. Forgive me, but since you’ve been gone, it’s like a hole has opened up in my universe and you’ve dropped through it and disappeared. I hope you are safe, wherever you are and I think of you all the time. Dumbledore refuses to tell anyone of the threat against you. I have asked Father but he seems just as mystified. He swears there were no Death-Eater plots against you so I don’t know why you had to go into hiding.

I am lost without your guidance, your voice, your very presence. Come home soon.

I love you.

Your very own,

Draco xxx (Don’t hex me!!!)

“Oh dear”, was Severus’ only comment as he handed the missive to his lover who tried not to snigger as he read it, “Whoops, sounds like master Malfoy has it bad for you, Severus, and he has the hots for your voice. Okay, the guy’s a git but we agree on one thing at least, you do have an extraordinarily sexy voice”. Severus purred into his ear, “So are the others coming?” Harry squeaked, “Yes, and I might if you carry on like that”. He composed himself a little, “I hope you’ve never treated Malfoy to that version of the ‘voice’?”. Severus replied with a lick to Harry’s earlobe, “Not on your life, Mr Potter, only you, only ever you”. Harry batted his lashes and raised a brow, “Not even Remus?”, and got a stinging slap on his arse for his cheek then a low growl that made every hair on his body stand to attention not to mention other bits.

Harry resisted the impulse to jump his lover’s bones and read the rest of his mail. There were regular missives from the three plus notes put in from his other classmates who had been simply told to write as they wished the notes were passed to the Headmaster who made sure Harry received them. Many were scathing in tone about a certain Potions Master who had also gone AWOL and all hoped that Harry was not exiled to the same place that Snape was.

Dean’s missive summed it up, “I hope you’re not in the same place as the greasy old git, we are assured that you are in two different places although Malfoy smirks when we mention Death-Eater plots. Fuck, be careful, Harry. I hope you are safe. Even without you, we kicked Slytherin’s arse at Quidditch though by only 10 points and that’s ‘cos Ginny caught the snitch. Come back soon, we all miss ya disappearing on us around the castle. At least then we knew you were here somewhere”.

****

Harry went into the city centre on his own. He wanted to shop for his lover’s birthday in peace. He chose a few things, the perfectly made shirts from the measurements Harry had provided, the leather journal, another choice malt whisky a rare Speyside rather than an Islay this time even though he couldn’t taste it for a few months, a few books. Then he found Steve’s pub and Severus’s friend was there that day. He bustled over to Harry’s table and insisted on the lad having lunch. Harry told him why he was in town and Steve laughed, “Severus never did go a bundle on birthdays, but he never did Christmas either. You’re a good influence on him, Harry”, then Harry handed over the wedding invitation. “Oh, wow, Valentine’s Day. A wedding. OhmyGod. Please, pretty please, let me give you your wedding breakfast here. How many guests do you expect?” Harry grinned, “Not many, eight at most, including yourself and Severus’s other friends, Matt and Jon”. Steve patted Harry’s shoulder, “Consider it my wedding present to you both. Oh, God, I love weddings. I wish Don and I could have married”.

****

Draco watched, fuming, as parcels of new clothes arrived for the New Trio at the breakfast table. Muggle clothes, but smart. A pretty dress each for Ginny and Hermione, a smart new suit for his lover. He tried to quiz him the next time they met, “Smart suit, Ron. Wedding or funeral?”. Ron slapped his taut arse hard, “Never you mind, but wedding if you must know, one of my brothers”, and Draco backed down. His lover had numerous brothers all known to Granger and the fact that Ginny was involved, no surprises there. He only wished that Severus would reply to his letter, but each day he looked for an Owl and none was forthcoming. His anxiety over his beloved godfather grew.

****

Harry managed to wake early on the morning of his lover’s birthday. He snuck out of warm arms half asleep and went for a pee, then climbed back into bed and slept immediately.

****

He’s all sleepy and stretching and rolling about still under the surface. Then I lick a nipple and he moans, he’s not that asleep. I venture a tongue between sleep-slackened lips, they open wider although the tongue behind them is a little incoherent as it meets mine, but my sweet trollop rolls towards me. I feel his half-hard cock against my hip. I am delirious with want for my boy but I do not want to wake him, not until he comes with my cock filling him.

Harry is fully aware and awake but plays along, it’s Severus’s birthday after all, and he knows about this fantasy, he’s happy to fake sleep.

God, he’s so sweet when he’s asleep, his movements instinctive yet random. He doesn’t need much preparation after the lovely session we had last night and soon he is moaning in his sleep as I slide effortlessly into him and his hips try to rise and meet me but my weight presses him into the mattress. I begin to fuck him slowly, no, I make love to the most beautiful boy on the planet. Even though they are shut, I imagine those green eyes looking into mine. I kiss him all over his lovely face and tell him how much I love him as we fuck, then a sleepy leg is flung across my back and he is muttering obscenities, pulling me deeper, his eyelids fluttering, his back arching and I need him to wake now as I plough into him and his eyes flick open as I’m fucking him hard, his solid cock caught between us. The eyes are surprised for a moment until his brain catches up and he realises I’m deep inside him then he’s going over, thrusting up into my belly shouting out loud, but incoherently, his head thrashing on the pillow and I glance down and he’s coming all over us both. I change the angle slightly and am ramming into him over and over, his sleepy green eyes blinking at me and I lose it totally, coming and coming and coming into his sweet tight hole. Oh gods, Harry, I love you so much.

Harry made a show of blinking awake and slurred, “Happy Birthday, baby. That was the best way to wake up. Come here. I have to kiss you right now”, and his lover obliged, long slow kisses that hardened them both again. Harry exulting pressing their cocks together then woke up properly and turned them round and quickly prepared his lover going spare beneath him and slid into him in a single move and fucked him until both came again, seeing stars. Harry collapsed against Severus’ chest and was held in strong capable arms. After a few blissful moments kissing and holding, they both succumbed to sleep once more. Severus murmured into Harry’s hair, “Just a few more days, my love, then I am all yours”, as he passed out.

He spoils me rotten all day!. I’ve never made a big thing out of birthdays, for pity’s sake, it just means more wear and tear on the face and body, a reminder of the passage of years that I’d far rather forget, but the cheeky bugger persuades me when he says we’d better get used to this birthday lark as we’ll have to do this sort of thing with the children. Oh, God, the house filled with squealing five-year-olds. It’s enough to bring on a bloody coronary! Ice cream and chocolatey fingers all over the furniture; the noise, and I relent. This may be the last birthday with any peace and quiet in it.

I watch him over a late breakfast, the way he helps himself to food, to drink, this is the self-possession born of neglect that I always mistook for arrogance. It’s not, ‘I’ll just help myself and sod everyone else’. It’s more, ‘If I don’t feed myself then no-one else will’. I was never half-starved so I see no need to grab at food quickly but he never has my portion, ever, there is always more than half left. His movements are deft and economical not like the diva showiness of my godson who does everything as if in front of an audience. Oh God, Draco. I’ve had two more missives since that first one, each more lurid and overwrought than the last. When did this start? I never realised the idiot had a crush on me but I will never feel for him what I do for Harry. Christ tonight, I was never that keen on boys anyway. Men, yes, but boys? Ha!! Now I am head over heels with the sweetest boy on the Earth.

It was the kiss to his temple that brought the birthday boy out of his reveries, “Earth to Severus, come in please. Ah, you’re back, you didn’t hear a word I said, I was asking you what you want to do today”. Severus snapped back to himself and shrugged, “I’ve absolutely no idea, I don’t do birthdays, remember”. Harry’s face is all eager, “Awww, c’mon, Severus. If you could do anything, anything at all. There must be something you’d like to do” and plonked himself in his lover’s lap.

Severus looked up into that smiling face and sighed, “You know, when I was little, we had a fair come to town with some pretty scary rides and things. I begged my parents to take me but my mother disapproved and my father was just as disdainful. It was unseemly for a Snape to yell and scream, and I’ve always fancied a go, especially on the really big things, whaddyacallem? White knuckle rides, that’s it”.

Harry laughed, astonished. “A theme park? An amusement park? You amaze me every day, Severus Snape”. He kissed him and jumped down then nicked the phone handset and rushed off upstairs. Severus could hear him in the study overhead booting the computer, a few conversations later then a muttered “Bollocks”.

Severus leaned in the doorway to his study, “What’s the matter?” Harry turned, “They’re all shut. But Alton Towers opens in March, if we’re not too huge or feeling yucky then we could go then. Drat! I wanted to take you somewhere today”. Severus held Harry’s head against his belly, “I’m not sure I’m totally in the mood for a fairground today, but you’re on for later in the year. How would we get there?” Harry laughed, “We’d hire a car and driver for the day, it wouldn’t cost too much, a couple of hundred quid”. Severus spluttered, “So if one of these places had been open, you’d have just hired on the spot?” Harry shrugged, “Yeah, why not?” Severus leaned down and kissed the top of Harry’s head, “I love you, Harry Potter. This from a man who has barely two changes of clothing”. Harry blushed, “Yeah, well. Clothes aren’t that important, I mean, they keep you warm and stop you being arrested, but birthdays, they’re a different matter”.

Eventually they decided to go into the city centre and see what was going on. They had lunch in a no-smoking pub that was a pleasant experience for both and the food was exceptional. Harry evinced interest when he spotted a poster advertising an exhibition of Cruickshanks’ drawings at the City Art Gallery and Severus started to steer them that way, but Harry threw his hands up in protest, “Nooo, Severus, it’s your day today”. Severus smiled, “Harry, I can happily spend an afternoon looking at Art. I have a great love of painting. I confess to thinking that most of the paintings at Hogwarts, despite their being able to move, were banal in the extreme”. Harry nodded vehemently in agreement, “They’re bloody asinine, if you ask me. Before I die, I want to see the original of Picasso’s Guernica and Dali’s Mae West room in Figueres in Spain”.

Severus was nothing short of astounded. “Harry! I’m, er, surprised, I mean, oh shit”. Harry rolled his eyes, “C’mon, Severus. This is the Potter’s-too-young-to-be-good-at-anything-but-quidditch-and-sex thing, isn’t it? Like Snape hangs from the rafters? I love Art. I’ve been scouring your Art section in your library, but you could do with some twentieth century stuff in there. I know, I share the juvenile’s typical delight in the Surrealists, especially Dali and Magritte, but I’m into Picasso, Miro, Johns, Rothko, Emin and Whiteread. I think her work is brilliant despite the panning she’s had in the press for her inside-out House. Oh, and I think Cruickshanks was a fucking brilliant social commentator. He illustrated most of Dickens’ work you know and he took the piss relentlessly out of over-stuffed gentry and politicians”.

The man shook his head smiling, “Harry, you really do amaze me, may I ask you two questions?” Harry grinned, “Sure, whatever”. Severus thought a moment, “Why Guernica? I find it deeply disturbing myself”. Harry spun round on him, “Ah, yes, but then it’s meant to be, isn’t it? It was Picasso’s take on the Spanish Civil War, the fascists against the plebs, the peasants. It could equally as well be applied to our World, the pure-born against the Muggle-born, the screaming faces, the rent limbs. C’mon, Severus, that’s what war is really about, people dying. Us Magicals, like modern warfare, stay at a distance from those we kill, but this is the real blood and guts. Dead is still dead and killing is still killing, however ‘clean’ and ‘clinical’ it is”.

Severus blanched, “Yes, you’re quite right, Harry. I suppose with the Prophecy and everything you’ve thought about this quite a lot?” Harry shrugged, “I have had cause to meditate on the nature of death and war, yes, probably at the expense of being a naive kid. I think Hermione gets it sometimes but only in the abstract mixed with her boundless natural compassion, but sometimes I think Ron thinks it’s some kind of game, he’d love computer games, where you get multiple lives, but I think in the end, it’s his naïveté that will make him such a good fighter in the end. Shit, I’m getting heavy now and it’s your birthday, sorry, love. What was the second question?”

Severus was quiet as he absorbed what Harry had said. He knew that his beloved was far too young to be thinking like this, but he knew that this depth was what made Harry such an extraordinary person, a depth he had deliberately ignored as had the other denizens of Hogwarts, save perhaps for Dumbledore. “Hmmm, the second question”, he whispered. “Well, you mentioned Dali in Figueres and I know there’s a Museo Picasso in Barcelona. D’you fancy northern Spain for our honeymoon?” Harry spun round, “Really? Oh, wow. I didn’t think your tastes ran to modern Art”. Severus was wide-eyed, “I never knew anyone who knew how to interpret it and, I’ll confess, the meanings don’t always spring to mind, perhaps my brain doesn’t work that way”. Harry chuckled, “It doesn’t always have to have a meaning, sometimes it’s just about paint or structure, but, hey, Barcelona sounds fucking ace for a honeymoon. There’s the Miro Fundacion there too, oh, to see those colours under the native light, it’ll take yer friggin’ eye out”.

He was laughing as they reached their destination and Severus was still in shock. Harry loved Art. Harry was pretty knowledgeable about Art. Okay they liked different things, but the passion was still there. Then he smiled at Harry’s back racing up the steps, he was doing something he loved deeply with someone he loved and the feeling overwhelmed him slightly. He had kept his love of the Arts under wraps at Hogwarts as had Harry with his music. They were more compatible all the time. Severus sighed lovingly at the sprite several steps ahead of him and sped up, taking the steps two at a time.

It was a quiet afternoon in the gallery, they virtually had the place to themselves. They both enjoyed the drawings. Severus murmured, “The only Dickens I read were unillustrated editions, this makes some of the tales make more sense now”. Harry laughed at the political cartoons, the fat-lipped paunched Tory twit expounding in some gentleman’s club. “Oh, this guy’s great”, and Severus had to agree, chuckling at the sardonic tone. He’d never thought to look at nineteenth century illustration before but he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Next Harry was leading him to the extensive pre-Raphaelite collection, “They’re a bit mawkish, very Victorian, but some of them were damn fine painters”. Severus shook his head and chuckled, “We are of like mind there, Mr Potter”. Harry biffed him gently in front of, “The Hireling Shepherd”, “What’s with the Mr Potter?, in a mere few days I will be Potter-Snape”. Severus growled and with a quick glance ascertained no-one else was in the room with them, then pounced on his lover, kissing him hard and quick, his swollen mouth smiling lasciviously, “I know, and it cannot come soon enough. I want to be yours so much”. Harry bit his lip then threaded his hand through thick black hair and pulled his beloved down to his parted lips and they kissed in the empty gallery. Gasping, they parted, “I want to be yours too, my love”, Harry whispered.

They were in a taxi home in short order and Severus murmured, “This was the best birthday I ever had, and now I want to top it off by fucking you into the mattress on that big bed of ours, lick you, then rim you, my tongue thrusting in and out of your luscious hole, just a short wank for you then I start to finger fuck you, getting you ready for my cock, then I’ll.....”.

Harry was breathing hard, “Severus, you evil git, let’s get home or I swear I’ll blow you right here in the cab”, he whimpered. Severus laid on his best evil grin and continued with the litany, his voice dropping lower still, “Then I want to take you and fuck you and own you and possess you and make you come all over yourself and I come in long waves inside, deep inside you and...” Harry suddenly gripped his arm hard, his face contorting burying itself in his lover’s shoulder, grinding out between gritted teeth, “Severus, the voice, you git, the soddin’ voice”, and pulled his fleece down over his crotch, but the ‘voice’ showed no mercy, “Now it’s my turn. I now get to fuck you in all your glory starting all limp as I enter you and slowly fucking you hard again. I can see the rise of desire in your sweet face, your lips redden and...”

“Spinner’s End, is it?”, the taxi driver asked and the real world entered again. They were both glad of the early darkness to hide flushed faces as Severus paid the cabbie and they tipped out into the street and into the house, the door kicked shut behind them, then Harry was pressed against the hall wall, his lover’s weight anchoring him, his mouth pinning him, his tongue invading him and Harry capitulated moaning, feeling iron hardness rolling over his hip and spread his legs wantonly. The jeans with the wet patch were peeled from him and his previous orgasm is cleaned up by a hungry tongue, then he is kissed, the taste of himself in his lover’s mouth, then pushed back on the stairs, a leg hooking over the banister rail, his other stretched out, he lay, splayed out and wanting over the stairs. Severus unlaces his boots slowly, not taking his eyes from the display before him, removes shoes and socks, the jeans and pants to reveal himself, purple, hot and dripping for the wantonness spread over the stairs. Harry’s eyes narrowed at the sight. Severus ducked into the kitchen returning with a bottle of oil.

Harry licked his lips, “I want to suck you first”, and Severus climbed around his lover and fed his long thick cock into an eager and willing mouth for a short while, he could have quite willingly finished like that, fucking that delightful sucking mouth, but he wanted to be inside his lover buried to the root, so he prepared him, laying out on the stairs, using the banister rail for extra leverage, he fucked him hard and fast, jerky strokes and deep thrusts until his beloved clenched tight arching up meeting the thrust with a shriek and came again all over his belly while his lover ploughed his inner depths and came groaning deep inside him.

Harry was the first to get his voice back, “Whoops, we didn’t make it to bed again”, and giggled. Severus joined in silently but Harry could feel the breaths against his neck and held him tight, “Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I love you”, to a purred, “I love you too, but let me peel you off the stairs and take you to bed”. Severus stood shakily and Harry stood slowly unkinking his back and they led each other to bed, stripping away the remainder of their clothes and snuggling close. They were asleep in seconds.