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

19

Harry yawned and luxuriated in waking held tight. He flicked his gaze up to meet Severus’ looking down, “Have you been awake all night?”, he enquired gently. Severus smiled his ‘small’ smile, “Yes. This place gives me the creeps and we need you compos mentis to get us out of here, although I may have to sleep for the first part of the journey”. Harry gulped, “This may take a day or two. I will have to lift the engine out to get at the track rods, then there’s replacing the column bushes...”, his voice drifted as he was obviously thinking of Bessie. Severus interjected, “May I stay with you while you work? At the moment, I feel that we should not be parted for any significant length of time. I’ll read in a corner or hand you tools or something”. Harry regarded his lover evenly, “This has really rattled you, hasn’t it?”. Severus nodded slowly, “Yes. And all because I fucking panicked”, his tone was disgusted. Harry shook his head. “What went through your mind, Sev? You know? When we answered the door to those Death-Eater-in-waiting types”.

Severus let out a long breath and carded a hand slowly through his hair, “I thought that they had come for me, all right? I thought that I was going to pay finally for my treachery against him. My turning away. Embracing the Light. Showing my true colours. Daring to love. Not just once, oh, no, but twice!! I couldn’t lose that, Harry”. Harry smiled and leaned up for a kiss while wrapping his arms snugly around his fiance, “That was all the love stuff that Albus always used to bang on about when I was at school. It gives you something to defend”. Severus was brought up short by this and backed away slightly, his brows raising, a silence between them as Severus’ brain worked overtime, “Bloody hell, the essence of Gryffindor. Not just foolish recklessness but all for the sake of loved ones. Bugger, that’s a tricky one”. He whispered against Harry’s neck and was rewarded with peals of laughter. “Fuck, Sev. Only a Slytherin would see it like that. It’s supposed to be a reflection of our noble qualities, not, see-how-many-friends-you-can-make-then-save”, Harry howled with laughter at the very idea, “But, us Gryffindors are very loving. We like to love and to be in love”. Severus allowed a sunny smile to grace his features and held Harry close, then rubbed the tips of their noses together for the briefest moment to see Harry wrinkle his in that way and he murmured, “I know, Harry, and I would be lost without it”, before he kissed him fully awake.

As they were going to a muggle garage, they couldn’t shrink either the spare parts or the tools and they consequently loaded up two large bags full of tools and bits that they hoisted onto their backs and, locking and warding their room they set off the two block walk to the garage.

They were watched and they were aware they were being watched.

There she was, Bessie, all hoisted up onto ramps in a rather undignified fashion that made Harry pat her side and murmur something to soothe her. He also apologised for the intrusions into her inner depths but they started work aided by a very able mechanic at the garage who grinned when Harry laid out all the spare parts that they would need along with all but the most industrial of tools.

Severus sat to one side and observed Harry and the mechanic, who insisted on ‘Ozzie’ as his name, hard at work. Harry and the spotty lad conversed easily enough in German as the engine was hoisted clear with Severus’ own muscle behind the hauling and he retreated back to his corner and watched the experts at work. Harry had to fit new ‘track rod ends’ as he had described them. Severus believed they were something to do with the way the instructions to steer were passed to the wheels, then the steering wheel itself needed attention. ‘Column bushes’, Harry had intoned seriously while apologising profusely for the state of their ride, before Severus had reminded him of how many miles they had travelled in her already, the fact that she was old and the astuteness that Harry had shown to travel around with loads of spare parts, including the ones that they needed. Harry shrugged, “Her steering was sweet when I bought her, but you’re right, she’s had a sight more miles under her belt now and the job needs doing”. He shrugged and got on with it.

Harry was now in his overalls, a belt of tools around his waist and completely intent on the job at hand as he dismantled the old steering rack and replaced and welded the new one together. Severus tried to read but instead found himself watching Harry at work and was fascinated. The range of skills that he had. That had no bearing on the skills he himself enjoyed, but he relished discovering a whole new set. Harry was really good with his hands and Severus was awed as he watched Harry moving around in the engine cavity as he fixed their home with such confidence and Severus cringed at the number of apologies that he owed this man, who loved him anyway, because of himself instead of despite. Severus smiled as these thoughts crossed his synapses and bent back to his book but still stole sneaky peeks from time to time. His Harry getting all mucky and sweaty, covered in thick motor oil....., he stopped it right there, coughed politely and went back to his book until he was called upon to help re-settle the engine once more.

The hour was late before the steering column had also been fixed and Harry and the engineer took Bessie for a test run. As they turned back onto the garage forecourt, Harry could be heard to comment, “Fuck, she’s twitchy but she’ll bed in, no doubt”, the engineer’s reply was lost over the din of the engine. The mechanic shook Harry’s hand and went to his car. Severus climbed aboard Bessie and waited ‘til the young man had pulled away before taking hold of Harry and kissing him senseless.

Harry smiled up at him from his position in the driver’s seat. “I want to get the fuck out of Germany tonight”. Severus protested, “Harry you’ve worked about thirteen hours straight today. You need food and sleep. I know I do and I’ve done sod all today”. Harry grinned tiredly, “I’m still capable of the odd all-nighter and we can collapse once we’re back on French soil. You are going to have to keep me awake by whatever means possible until we’re over the border. I’m gonna head dead west for Liege and I need you to navigate for me”.

Severus nodded at the chunk of technology on the dashboard, “Why not use that thing?”. Harry shrugged and turned it on, “Your voice is sexier by miles, even while you get it wrong. And this thing only tends to lead you along main roads anyway”. Severus leaned down again and planted a kiss on Harry’s forehead, “I rather think that the main roads should be our route tonight, considering the haste that we are in”. Harry looked up again, “I know, but you know how much I hate......”. Severus smiled and kissed him, cutting him off. “I know”, he murmured eventually, “But just for one night just such a route may be expedient, may it not?” Harry looked down and sighed, “It’s like damned if I do and damned if I don’t. If I take the main roads, I’m out in the open and if we disappear onto the back roads then we run a good chance of getting thoroughly lost and whoever is following us knows the terrain a damn sight better than we do, that’s for sure. As an Auror, I’m finding this quite difficult”.

Severus sighed and gave Harry’s arm a quick squeeze before getting into his own seat and buckling up, he saw Harry’s point and was unable to come up with anything helpful so stayed quiet. Harry leaned on the steering wheel staring through the windscreen, then snapped to and shook himself slightly, “Fuck it. We go out on the main roads but we stick to the slow lanes. Madam, here’s top speed is not much over 60 mph. say 80 kph and these roads can be mad”. With that, he leapt to his feet and booted up the laptop, “I need sounds for this”, he muttered as he selected a soundtrack, “Sorry, Sev, if the sounds grate on you a bit, but I need some serious noise to get us over that border without crashing or falling asleep at the wheel”.

Severus took out the tiny camping stove and the hand-cranked coffee grinder, “How about a rich brew, love, before we start?” Harry grinned, “Top idea, Sev, me old love”. His voice dipped, “Can you feel them watching us, or am I paranoid?” Severus nodded as he started the brew going, “Yes. I have a feeling that we may be followed to the border. I think your idea of following main routes may prevent anything untoward happening to us and in quieter unknown roads we may find ourselves waylaid by those who are more assured on their home ground”. Harry huffed out a long breath as he took a steaming mug of strong wizard’s coffee, as only Severus Snape could brew it and still have the beverage drinkable.

Harry stripped off his overall after stashing his tools and had a quick strip-wash at the sink while the smell of coffee wafted around him, he changed into comfy jeans and a t-shirt and was handed a steaming mug with a kiss before he sat back in the driver’s seat and let the caffeine do it’s work.

As both found either their hands or feet connect to the music, it was time to go. It was full dark by now and Harry flicked on the powerful halogen headlamps, lowering the light in the cabin. He exchanged a grin with Severus now belted into the passenger seat and they were off again.

They were aware of being followed as they left the garage. They had their personal stuff with them from the motel so they had no reason to return and they made for the nearest A-road that promised them a one-way trip the hell out of there.

Despite the lateness of the hour, there was plenty of traffic on the roads but generally of a slow-moving kind, lorries and the like, the main commuter traffic being pretty much over for the night, so Harry could pace himself nicely as Bessie’s wheels ate up the road. Severus would glance at him from time to time, to see him nervously eyeing his three mirrors. His rearview couldn’t really see much, despite the refracting lens on his rear window, but he could see his pursuers in his wingies. A silvery people-carrier with blacked out windows trailing them at a respectable six-car distance.

They lost their shadows though when roadworks forced early decisions from the drivers and their hunters made an incorrect judgement base no doubt on prior information concerning Harry’s driving habits, provided by roadside cameras and the like, but their pursuit continued along the ever-narrowing bit of A-road while Harry continued blithely to feed onto the Autobahn, whereupon he picked up speed having realised that his followers had fucked up. He whooped with joy, seeing them in his left wing-mirror, still stuck in the wrong line and he and Severus slapped palms.

As befits true travellers, they could change their route on a whim and so they did, heading for Belgium instead, bypassing Bonn in the process. Harry could feel himself flag somewhat but Severus read the signs and with great care, holding the stove as the coffee brewed, made more fuel for the driver who lapped it up.

They didn’t stop once, not even for a loo break, taking advantage of the quieter late-night roads and were crossing the Belgian border as what passed for dawn struggled over the horizon, grey and gaunt. The sight made them both shiver as Harry pulled into a layby on Belgian soil and killed the engine. He slumped over the wheel, exhausted. Severus unbuckled him from his seatbelt and lifted him into his arms dragging the limp form to the bed at the rear. He chuckled, “Come on, you, bedtime. You’ve had no sleep in nearly 36 hours”, he divested Harry of his lower then upper garments before rolling him into bed, doffing his own clothes and sliding in beside, behind and all around, holding tight as sleep took them both.

Sharp raps on the door brought Severus partway to the surface. He ignored them and sank again. The next set brought him awake further, enough to call out, something rude no doubt, before he sank again onto his pillow with a heavy Harry draped around him. The third barrage of knocks was accompanied by angry voices which catapulted Severus from their bed, his wand drawn, struggling into clothes. Harry was half-dressed first and advanced on the door. He could hear the chattering of a radio and made a sign to Severus behind him to lower his wand, then he tucked his away, “Muggle police”, he whispered before he yawned widely and in the middle of same, he opened the door.

To hear the rapid-fire of their questions. In a language it took his spell of Redditus a moment or two to dredge up. One of the Belgian tongues. Flemish. Harry was suitably halting as he witched tongues, pleading his case as a tired driver who needed his sleep and they would be out of the officers’ purview come morning.

The man at the base of the steps looked vaguely threatening but Harry easily faced him down. But the other man with him, gave Harry the appreciative up and down, that could be read a mile off, “Shame”, Harry read the man and shuddered, no way would he stoop to anything like that. He would break wizard-muggle relations laws before that. He would hex the twat into the middle of next year, then he calmed, as Severus stepped up behind him and asked in his crisp English, “Officers, is there a problem with us spending a few hours in order to sleep?”, in the severe voice that made Harry shiver as he recalled it from school. The men backed off and shook their heads before roughly outlining the bye-laws and leaving them to it. It mainly amounted to the fact that they had to be out by eight o’clock the next morning or face being booked. Harry shrugged and muttered, “Eight o’clock. No problemo. I’ll set my alarm”, before shutting the door in their more than interested faces.

“It was the other guy, wasn’t it? The one that came on to you? The one that gave you what looked like the creeps?”. Harry shook his head, “It was more than the creeps. My scar....well it didn’t hurt exactly but it....erm, itched. Not at all like Voldie or his cohorts near or anything, maybe someone minor. Did you get his name?” Severus shrugged, “Only the tag on his uniform. Said he was a constable Herschorn”. Severus’ sleep was uneasy that night. Harry, held tight in warm arms was asleep in moments, watched over by his avenging dark angel, who eventually folded his metaphorical wings around his love and passed out from sheer exhaustion, some deep hope that holding tight enough could protect, that love could overcome.

Harry’s mobile trilled the alarm and Harry rolled away from encompassing arms and reluctantly set about starting his day. He intended being in Holland that night. He needed to seriously chill out. Just a few hours more. He could close his eyes and picture the jumbled roofscapes on the back of his eyelids, the faint stench of the canals overlaid with scents of strong grass.

Before they set off that morning, Harry left an extensive message on Hermione’s answerphone in case anything should happen to either of them.

Then they headed north, through Liege then partway to Brussels before Harry felt safe enough to depart the main roads again and Severus relished the development as they slipped into a leafless cold layby. Lighting Bessie’s fire then each other’s, stoking with passion, maintaining the burn rate with sheer lust, then as the system cooled, rolling under blankets and savouring the heat as Harry rolled atop his beloved and impaled himself, rocking back and to, driving his man mad beneath him, both cried out in the barbarity of their shared orgasm as their primal urges made them rock Bessie to the chassis.

Harry collapsed laughing on Severus sweaty chest to be bundled up in slightly shaky arms and kissed senseless. Harry rolled to one side and pushed sweaty black hair from his lover’s face to reveal the wide smile and the high colouring. Severus squeezed Harry’s arse, “You are a wonderful fuck, Harry”. Harry lowered his eyes, “Mmm, you’re not so bad, yourself. My arse will know about this for days, you animal, you. Grrr, I love it when you get a bit fierce with me”. Severus rolled atop his fiance., “That so, hmmm, Mrs S?”, his expression deeply wicked and Harry chuckled and bit his lip, “Aw, come on, Sev. You know I do, you savage beast.....”, he was stopped by a kiss that robbed him of sense that drew back so burning gazes could fix each other. It was a moment each would remember.

It lasted and lasted, until Severus reached a hand into Harry’s hair and flittered his eyes all over Harry’s face, “You’re incredible Harry Potter”, his tone faltering slightly, whispered. Harry blinked against a sudden filling of his chest and grinned, his eyes speaking for him and where Severus had once despised this openness, he suddenly envied it, a means of wordless communication that held him in it’s thrall and he was lost as realisation gripped a small part of his mind. This was what Albus had spoken of, the love inside Harry that had been an abstract even while Harry was with Draco. They were obviously in love but nothing Earth-shaking, but as Severus was being pulled under by those eyes, he knew. What his beloved was capable of. The thought made him feel approximately two inches tall and about ten feet simultaneously.

This was no ordinary love and his heart buckled slightly before it but held, then strengthened before the onslaught and he came back from his hazy state to see Harry’s eyes fill and his smile light up the interior. Severus was honoured. He could take everything that Harry could dish out and his love knew this. In an abstract moment, Severus smiled internally and thought about his first and only plane ride, the rush of take-off, the loss of control, and equated it to the way he felt right now. He sighed and gave it up as he gathered Harry to him, wallowing in his magic and love. This man was far and away more powerful than him but still treated him as an equal. Severus was amazed. This was no equal to him, but Harry still persisted in seeing him as such. He sighed again as he held Harry to him.

Harry held himself away a mite as he sensed it. “Come on, Sev, what’s the sigh all about?” Severus looked down until Harry lifted his chin to look into his eyes. Severus blinked once, twice, “I wonder if I am a fitting partner for you, Harry”, he winced as he spoke.

Harry was thoughtful, his voice low as he began, “Fitting in what way? Magically? No-one can come near me in this epoch in that regard. Am I to pick a life partner by their magic? Believe me, I am destined for a lonely life, if so. I know this Sev. Why, really did you think I fell in love with you?”

Severus was flummoxed, “Well I’ve never been entirely sure”, he ventured after a few weighted minutes had passed.

Harry cocked his head to one side, still holding on to his lover, “Well, I’ll tell you. You are the only person who has never, in the thirty two years I have known you, never given a damn about my so called fame, you have never referred to me as the boy who lived and you only ever saw ‘Harry’ even when you hated me. But then as you trained me and Drae I saw a different Severus Snape. A man who was passionate, who had a lover but who ‘shared’ with two good friends, one in particular. Sev, it would never have worked between you and I had I still been seventeen and you thirty-eight, but now..... Now, it’s just right. We’re bringing out the best or worst in each other depending on how you look at it, but for me, it’s definitely best”.

Severus dipped his head as he gathered Harry against him once more, “You overwhelm me, Harry”, he murmured and Harry just held on tight. “I know”, he barely whispered as they settled for sleep, Severus bunched a portion of pillow against Harry’s chest and laid his head down. Harry threaded gentle fingers through his hair, “I’m not too powerful for you, Sev”, he commented softly. Severus chuckled as he enjoyed the touches, “Yes you are, well, perhaps not too powerful, just much more so. And you know it, but I know you’ll never take undue advantage of it either. That’s one of the many things I love about you”.

Harry bit back any sarcasm he may have felt at these words. All such had been much discussed between the two and was now water under the bridge for many years. He smiled instead and buried his face in thick black hair and inhaled, nuzzling and kissing, “Mmmm, love the way you smell after sex. Night night, sweetheart”. A heavy arm wrapped around his waist and the van fell silent but for the faint pop of logs in the stove and the soft snores of the lovers.

It was a cold night that night for their pursuers, parked up as they were in another layby two miles back. The tracking charm was obviously still working and the van ahead of them was stationary for the night. The four persons in the black van that had picked up the trail made themselves as comfortable as they could setting two-hour watches throughout the night.

On board Bessie, Harry had installed two ‘pilot’ bunks that could roll away from the wall if there were two other passengers with them who needed to stay. The thin mattresses from these bunks spent the rest of the time acting as ‘bumpers’ around the back and sides of their bed and it was against one of these that Harry rolled during the night only to wake up with a yell with his scar hurting. He shook his head clear and reached over Severus carefully for his glasses and extracted his wand carefully from beneath his pillow. He cautiously dowsed their bed space and felt a jolt of alien magic near the back doors.

Dark Magic.

Harry’s scar reacted the nearer he came to the back doors. It was not the agony that afflicted him while Voldemort was still alive but it was certainly enough to wake him from deep sleep. He lit the tip of his wand with a small Lumos and parted the two ends of the thin mattresses and looked down. Whatever this was, and Harry could read a strong tracking charm amongst the other magic, it was laid probably by the guys who had been following them and it meant that they almost certainly were still being pursued but this could be achieved from a safer distance with the charm, less chance of detection. What did these people want? Why were they being followed? Harry, after rooting about a bit as quietly as he could, determined that whatever had been charmed was outside the vehicle.

He snapped off the light at the tip of his wand and his eyes took a moment to readjust, then he slowly crawled over Severus, pulling the blankets and quilt around his lover’s neck then dressed quickly, donning boots and thick socks and outer layers before quietly opening the passenger door and climbing down. He pushed the door to, not quite closing it and stepped cautiously onto the gravel. He tiptoed around to the rear doors and looked carefully up and down the layby but didn’t seriously expect anybody that near. With a tracking charm of that strength, it had at least five miles in it before the signal would degrade.

Determining that Bessie was the only vehicle in the place, he concentrated on finding that which had been charmed. In the end quite simple, a small rag tied around the rear bumper, reeking of dark magic but despite every spell he used the thing remained resolutely there. This was serious magic here. Harry was stumped. He admitted to himself that since leaving the Ministry, he hadn’t kept up with all the latest developments, he’d had an ailing lover to nurse after all, and to be honest, once he had left it all behind, he’d thought very little of it all, but now he found himself regretting being so lax. This was something he hadn’t seen before and it worried him.

He could read parts of the spells but it was as if his internal computer didn’t recognise these virii, they were a magnitude ahead and he sighed. Severus had called him so powerful earlier but right now he felt as ignorant as a first year when confronted with Animagi.

He climbed back quietly and slumped into the driver’s seat to sulk. There was movement behind him, “What’s the problem, Harry?”, a sleepy voice from out of the dark. “We’re being tracked and I don’t have complete knowledge of this spell. It’s quite hi-tech, but I’ve taken a record of the caster into my wand-core for analysis”, then Harry slumped again, “It’s a new spell, I should have kept up more. I’ll ring ‘Mione and Ron in the morning”, he yawned. Severus flung on trousers and shirt, “Mind if I have a look?” Harry smiled up at him, “Go ahead. Do your worst. Be careful, though, there’s traps set aplenty. I’m going back to bed. Can’t ring the guys yet, they’d have my guts for garters”, he inclined his head for a kiss, Severus obliged before donning his coat and heading outside with his wand.

An hour and two singed knuckles later, he retreated back to the front of the van, defeated. Harry was right, this was a new spell at work. He sat on the step for a while watching the sun come up and tried to figure out who was following them and why. They needed to lose this tag and fast.

Harry was fast asleep as he shrugged out of his clothes and clambered back into bed, his muscles stiff from the extensive use of magic and the cold air. Harry flinched in his sleep, “F’k’ff, yrcold”. Severus grinned wickedly and folded himself around his beloved human hot water bottle and Harry surfaced and groaned but relaxed as Severus warmed up. “Any luck?”, he enquired sleepily. Severus mumbled, “Nah, bloody strong spell, couldn’t shift it at all”. Harry smiled and slurred, “Ne’mind. I’ll ring ‘Mione innamornin’. We’ll sort it, don’youworry”, and with that, Harry slept again but Severus found it hard to relax enough, all sorts of ideas were going through his mind, none of them good, and the fact that Harry had once again read a Death Eater’s signature. They really were still alive and well out there. Severus held Harry tighter feeling very vulnerable and exposed all of a sudden. Only millimetres of metal separated them from in here to out there. And ‘out there’, they were being watched, tracked.

Severus awoke to hear Harry on the phone. His mouth tasted dreadful and his head was filled with cotton wool, he sneezed twice before his head was off the pillow and when the pain registered, he realised his throat was sore. Oh, marvellous! He had a cold. Great! He groaned and lay back down. Harry was busy writing things down as he held the phone between ear and shoulder. Severus vaguely heard his goodbyes and moaned again as he swallowed past the metal pan scourer that had lodged in his throat.

Harry saw the state of his lover and sat on the bed, “You were coughing and clearing your throat in your sleep”, he stroked Severus’ face, “Curl up and sleep. I want to get to Brussels today. Hermione and Ron will be apparating in later after they’ve finished work. Hermione is pretty sure what this spell is and they have the means to dispel it but we need to get to an apparation point that one of them knows, this place that Hermione has given me the address for”.

He turned and saw Severus trying to get out of bed. “Whoa, what are you doing?”, Harry rushed to his side. Severus winced with the aches and lay back again, “I will have to dress, if you are to drive, surely?”. Harry grinned, “Erm, no. Surely you remember the night that I drove while you slept, towards Venice, if I recall”. He reached over his lover and fetched the belts over before plugging them in, “I believe in the road rules, they’re generally there for a reason and seatbelts or restraints are there to stop you still travelling while the vehicle stops stone dead in a crash. These are legal, so you can still stay in bed while you feel so crap and I will drive to Brussels, as carefully as I can, mind you, I have a patient in the back after all”. Harry’s eyes twinkled and Severus sighed, “All right then, buckle me up and let’s do this”.

It did actually make him slightly nauseous to be travelling sideways while not being able to see out of the windows of the van but he soon swallowed one of his cold potions and allowed himself to drift asleep as he felt Bessie’s wheels eat miles. Harry glanced at his lover in the rear view mirror and decided, “That’s it, babe, we’re spending a few nights in an hotel. You look done in and we both need a break from all this. Hermione, Ron and Ollie are meeting us here. We need this trail to go cold”. Severus, in his haze of illness, just nodded in acknowledgement. Harry winked at him in the mirror as he drove and his lover dozed.

Severus responded to the change in engine noise and woke up. Harry was heading off the main roads following the scribbled instructions he had taped to the steering wheel. Severus dressed as they drove and staggered up to the front as they hit a stop light. He leaned down for a quick kiss which was reciprocated before he slumped into his seat and belted himself in. He still felt lousy but it was only a cold for pity’s sake and they were going to solve the problem of these spells. Weren’t they?

At exactly 10 o’clock that night, they pulled in adjacent to the sports field of a primary school and Harry killed the engine and the lights. They were a virtually invisible bulk against the darkness that was the school buildings behind them. They waited and watched from inside. There they were. A lit wand tip heading for them. Severus opened the door and climbed down, letting their two passengers in after identifying Ron and Hermione and welcoming them, before Harry gunned Bessie’s engine and got the hell out of there.

They stopped in a remoter spot, which baffled Harry and Severus. Hermione, however, declared it perfect. Harry silenced the engine and all four climbed out. Harry let his friends lead as their skills were brought into play. Hermione hefted a bag full of books out with her that she flicked through as she separated out the different strands of the magic that Ron was dowsing, both fully cognisant of the new challenges in their field and clearly on top of things before Ron slid the cloth from the bumper and laid it in Harry’s hands, “I suggest you find a campsite, pay for a week and leave it there while you bugger off. I can’t deactivate it, that would require a ritual and we don’t have the resources for that, but I’ve separated it from Bessie and you need to put it somewhere that’s realistic for you to be and then sod off, should buy you some time”.

Harry hugged his friends tight, “Thanks for coming out at such short notice”. Hermione beamed and hugged him, “Someone really wants to keep an eye on you guys, be careful. Lose these fuckers”. She had taken a sample of the rag for analysis as the magical signatures were different to any she and Ron had seen before. Then his two best friends apparated away.

Harry had been right, the use of wizarding technology in spell-building was advancing every bit as fast as muggle computing technology, and Harry found this a bit scary, having been brought up in a world that so eagerly harked back to the nineteenth century although these days it paid to keep pace, and Harry swore to himself that when he was back in England he would catch up again on all the latest spells and curses plus the ones he and Severus had discussed but never practiced, being out of magical space, but neither minded, although both intended to practice again when they were securely within wizard-space once again

Severus clipped away a portion of the fabric and the wire that had been clumsily hooked to the GPS system which they had hardly used anyway and secreted it away in a small box of magically impenetrable construction before Harry tied the rest of the small scrap to a branch of a shrub in the layby before roaring off into the gathering dark free of the charm.

****

“Another night in this damnable place?”, a gruff male voice. A placating female, “At least it’s an easy gig, though I know they’ve got a stove on board their van. Maybe that’s why they’ve decided to stay another night. This shite weather doesn’t bother them”. Her companions harumphed at this and sought out the most comfortable spots that they could and cursed roundly the man who had sent them out on this surveillance mission.

The fabric fluttered and waved in the rising wind towards dawn but stayed put.

The watchers registered the movement and sniggered, “Lazy bastards. Not true travellers. Roads are lovely and quiet about now”.

Which indeed they were as Harry and Severus crossed the border into Holland and disappeared off the Death Eater radar once again. It was another twelve hours before their pursuers checked then jumped up and down in fury as their quarry had once again given them the slip, the rag waving gaily in the breeze tied to the branch.

****

Harry drove like one possessed until they were just outside Rotterdam, then flagged suddenly but guided himself into one of the large car parks with it’s attendant 24-hour cafe and he parked up with a grin. He stood slowly, lured by the smells from the cafe and they dared to leave their haven to eat food cooked by others for a change. He collapsed on a bench seat squeezed behind a table as he perused the menu written in Dutch and English. He decided on a one-of-everything breakfast and Severus placed the order.

The food was perfect and Harry was in heaven. The Dutch knew how to do stodgy as an art form and Harry revelled in the huge breakfast before him, wolfing it all down before staggering back out to the van and crashing out for a while. Severus, full of his own breakfast, slept beside Harry for a while but woke up on edge as he remembered the counter-curses that Ron and Hermione had cast and wrote down what he could recall of them for good measure. He gazed down at Harry sleeping in his arms, and cursed inwardly; he really had gone soft over the years.

There were some parts of him that had hardened whilst travelling but he supposed that his vigilance wasn’t one of them. He had fallen in love, for Merlin’s sake, had followed that love wherever it took him and had led to some incredible adventures along the way with the man in his arms. He grinned as he looked down on Harry, snoring gently against his chest and knew.

If he stayed with this man, he would have the life he dreamed of and then some. Yes, it was still overwhelming but it was incredible, more than he had ever imagined. Living with this man in this tiny space. He looked around Bessie’s insides at the design that had had him at the heart of them. Yes, it was a bit cramped at times but they managed. He held Harry tighter, watched the sleepy smile then fell asleep with his face in Harry’s hair again, breathing his love in.

Severus awoke to the feeling of movement and an empty bed. He squinted at the light in the cabin and could make out Harry’s silhouette up front against the windscreen. He watched Harry swear and brake as a fast car cut him up then they were going slightly downhill to join the queues of traffic on the motorway. He scrambled into some clothes and threw some water over his face before grabbing a carton of milk and joining Harry up front.

Harry laughed softly as he greeted his lover and Severus called him on it. Harry smoothed a hand over his cheek, “You’ve got creases from the pillow on your cheek, sleepyhead”, and Severus sat there as he was trying to come round, rubbing his eyes and swigging milk from the carton. He hated getting underway without a generous shot of caffeine, a bad habit he’d picked up from Harry.

He unbelted himself, scowling, “Need coffee”, he mumbled and dug out the gas burner, shaking it. Bugger, it was almost empty, not enough to heat a panful of water, that was for sure and he felt he needed a bath before he could face humanity again. He groused and grumped as he sat back down and pulled his seat belt across him.

Harry drove a few more miles then pulled into a service station that offered full facilities. He parked up and headed for the cafeteria loading up a sponge bag for his lover before gently steering him towards the showers. Severus positively bounced into the cafe a few minutes later, damp of hair and smooth-cheeked, smelling of a luscious blend of nutmeg and lemon. Harry pushed a coffee his way and moments later, Severus Snape was a human being again, ready to embrace the day.

Harry watched as the transformation was complete, giggling inside as he watched the prickly Snape turn once again to his lover, Severus. The cheek crease had nearly gone but it was faint on the man’s face. Harry leaned over and kissed it in the cafe. Severus made to pull back from such affection in so public a space and remembered Harry telling him of the anti-discriminatory laws in place in this country, then on impulse turned to Harry and planted a closed-mouth smacker on his lover’s lips before shrugging him off and reapplying himself to his restorative beverage.