The Journey Cycle Pt 2: New Zealand (pt 2 complete

Hi there,

I still have my Internet. Hurrah!!

A huge big-up to my 3 reviewers since I last posted: -

paganwoman: Glad to see you back.

Snapeinmybed: Thanks for the comment. Your wish is my command.

Bella_the_dark: I thank you so much for your comments, I floated around the office at work all last Friday!!!

So, as a reward, here's 3 whole chapters for your enjoyment.

Please read and review or leave stars.

Many thanks

The Squig xxxx

2

The next morning was far from circumspect.

Harry woke to kisses along his shoulder, nipping small bites up his neck and an impressive woodie nudging between his arse cheeks. He was in heaven as he pressed back into his lover’s body, loving that engulfing feeling as Severus surrounded him from behind, barely able to hold back while Harry was asleep, becoming energised once the love of his life was awake, planting urgent tongue-filled kisses on any spare skin he could reach as he turned Harry in his arms and their mouths met in a hot sweet tangle of tongue and lips and bodies pressed together, want and urgency plain in their movements as they slid and ground together, heat and sweat building between. An urgent lubricating charm, spread thighs, tilted hips and Severus slid home deep into his beloved who welcomed him, cherished him, helped him into his depths by the nifty use of feet under his arse and a hot tongue in his mouth and they thrust and moaned and ground together in lust and urgency before Harry’s feet were rudely hoisted aloft to rest on broad shoulders as his arse was ploughed repeatedly, his cock clenched in a sweaty fist, pumping in time to the adroit fucking he was receiving until both lost it simultaneously. Harry sprayed them both as Severus let go deep inside Harry, spasming and crying out, holding his Harry close as he emptied himself, sobbing his release into Harry’s ear.

An explosive high. A gradual come-down, stroking each other, breaths attempting to match, to synchronise, a sigh or a huffed out breath. Severus was the first to string words together, “You are a delightful fuck, my Harry. I love you so much”, on the outbreath of a laugh. Harry caught the mood and found himself giggling like a teenager, “You’re pretty good yourself, gorgeous. My turn next time”. Severus chuckled as he held Harry close, “Oh, yes. I love it when you fuck me, but this time...I just needed.....” Harry kissed him again, “I know exactly what you needed, o, lover of mine”, and they lay there, panting, in a companionable silence until Severus rolled over for another of Harry’s intoxicating kisses realising that he had a lover who could read him like a book. His respect for his beloved ramped up another notch as he took said lover’s tongue into his mouth for yet another kiss that made him feel like he was drowning in love. He shook his head slightly as their lips parted. “I have everything I could possibly want in you, Harry”, he mumbled, holding his love close.

Harry smiled burying his nose in the dip of Severus’ collarbone as he wrapped his arms tightly around the love of his life sinking a hand into the thick black hair hanging over him, “You know you’re mine now, don’t you? And I won’t share you anymore”, he muttered, only to be held tighter, “No, not any more, love. I am truly yours and yours alone”, Severus leaned up to look down into Harry’s viridian eyes then ducked to lightly kiss the tip of his nose before resuming his gaze. He watched Harry’s eyes fill, the low light refracting off his tears, “Hey, what’s the matter, Harry? Why the tears?” Harry smiled up waterily, “Even with Drae, he was never completely mine, and we all shared and so on. So to hear you say that.....it’s just.....oh, damn.....it means so much to me to hear that............that I’m enough for you, and I hope you never tire of me”.

Severus wiped the wet cheeks with two fingers before dropping a kiss onto Harry’s quivering mouth, “You are more than ‘enough’, Harry. You are my world, and Rem was never that. We were like two parallel worlds that met from time to time. I thought that was what ‘mature’ relationships were all about. How wrong I was, and how delighted to be wrong I am. You have taught me so much about loving and being loved although I fear that love has made me less than vigilant in matters to do with protecting you. I felt such a berk nearly getting us busted in Germany after the warnings we had received and the encounters that we had in Spain”.

Harry placed two fingers over Severus’ mouth to halt the direction that this speech was taking. “Hush, sweetie, love never made anyone careless. It’s the fact that we don’t live on a knife-edge any more and aren’t training to within an inch of our lives on a day to day basis that is making us both soft. Well, not soft exactly, but filling our lives with....I dunno.....life.....something else besides fear and fucking Voldemort, you know? Admit it. It’s been great leaving ‘Snape’ and ‘Potter’ behind and just being Sev ‘n’ Harry, hasn’t it?”

Severus nodded and smiled ruefully, “It certainly has, no more ex-Death-Eater crap, no-one giving a damn who we are. I love this, Harry. I really do love this and I never thought I would. I always thought that living in the Muggle world would be dire, but, well, it isn’t. I’ll be frank, there are times when the magical world seems so far away and I....find myself....not missing it”.

Harry’s grin widened, “Likewise. It’s been a bit of a trial being back even though we’ve only been here for less than six weeks. How many people have insinuated that we should be grown-ups and bloody well settle down? Or that the wizarding world needs it’s Saviour to pass amongst the folks? Gladhanding and kissing babies. You know what I mean?” Harry huffed a sigh, “Sorry about that”. Severus shook his head, “Don’t be, Minerva made both of those points on the dancefloor yesterday, what with that and Italy and the times that the four of us would be disturbed out shopping or in the pub, I’ve had a real glimpse into the mundanity of the created legend that is ‘Harry Potter’. Hermione made a comment to that effect when I told her what Minnie had said”.

Harry shrugged, “It was ever thus, and out there”, he swept a hand out, “We really are nobody. I want that back, Sev”. Severus dipped his head and kissed his beloved, “Then we shall have it. In a mere few days time. Is there anything else that m’sieur would like?”, Severus asked, jokingly and was surprised to see a small cloud cross Harry’s brow.

“Harry?”, he asked softly after a long silence. Harry dipped his eyes until Severus lifted his face with gentle fingers, saying again, “Harry, what is it?” as Harry’s gaze once again met his and he took a deep breath as he watched his husband gulp and knew it was something big.

Harry inhaled sharply and let it out in a rush, “Something Draco had two of and I’ll never have, probably”. Severus frowned then his eyes widened in surprise, “Children?”, he gasped. Harry nodded guiltily, “Yeah. Always wanted kids”, he mumbled. Severus gathered him tight, “Sorry, my love, but despite many rumours that exist in the wizarding world, I don’t think that there is any way either of us could become pregnant. It’s a popular myth, and, to be honest, I find the idea of children less than appealing, although.....”, his voice tailed off. He looked down to see Harry’s brow creased as he regarded him, “If the need becomes imperative in you several years down the line, then there’s no reason why we couldn’t consider adoption or surrogacy, but definitely not yet. I’m enjoying just the two of us too much to give that up yet, although, I have to say, that if we ever do adopt, then you are most definitely ‘mother’!!”

Harry laughed aloud, “You’d suffer kids about....for me?”. Severus smiled gently, “For you, my Harry, I would do bloody anything, and, believe me when I say, I have never said that to a living soul before. But I truly would, Harry. If children you would like, then children you shall have, but we need to be in a big enough house for them.....or something”.

Harry bit his lip as his tear ducts overflowed again, he knew Severus hated kids, but the fact that he would even consider...., it was all too much to think about right now and Harry let the happy bubble of unreason swell in his chest. He sank his face in thick poker-straight black hair and sniffled, loving his man just a bit more in that moment.

Severus winced a little at Harry’s tears and wondered if he had just lied spectacularly and landed himself in a situation that he devoutly did not wish. Then Harry murmured, “We may never, you know, have kids, but the fact that the door in your heart is open.....I love you more than words can say, Mrs P”. Severus felt something akin to relief at these words and held Harry tight against him.

They lay silently, each absorbed in his own thoughts until Harry moved under Severus, “Don’t know about you, love, but I could do with a shower. What say we try out the new expanded shower stall”. Severus welcomed the change in topic and growled softly into Harry’s neck, “Sounds like a plan. Lead on. I don’t intend dressing all day today, maybe the dressing gown, but no more than that”, to hear Harry sigh beneath him and to feel his lips on his own, “Oh, yes”, the only comment before Severus tasted Harry’s heated tongue with his own and melted against him, thinking, ‘Harry Potter-Snape, I am putty in your hands’.

Eventually they rolled apart long enough for Severus to rise and hold out a hand to help Harry up, leading them both to the shower. Harry had installed a water heater that ran off Bessie’s battery and a larger water tank that now sat on the roof taking up some of the space that a handsome roof rack now occupied, storing waterproof non-essentials, giving them more room inside and a larger storage area in the boot space under the bed.

Bessie felt altogether more spacious with the new modifications.

Harry turned on the shower feeling the water heat almost instantaneously and stepped under, blinking rapidly under the flow and dragging his beloved with him. “Hmm”, he noted, “Still not much room to actually bathe”, he commented as their bodies were plastered together, “But ten out of ten for the intimacy factor. Unfortunately, this is as big as I could make the cabinet without seriously impinging on the galley space and running a risk of fire which I am reluctant to do. Still, you must admit, this is very cosy”, he murmured as he slid their bodies together under the heated stream.

Severus groaned as Harry kissed him and the water beat down upon them, warm and wonderful. “I agree, lover, intimacy factor, ten out of ten, sexiness factor twelve out of ten”, Severus pressed Harry to the wall of the shower as he plundered his mouth with his tongue. As he drew back, they were both flushed and aroused again, “Bathing factor, still nil points, but never mind, love, it means we can do this now, where we couldn’t before”.

‘This’, involved Severus sinking to his knees and taking Harry into his mouth, sucking him, licking him, sucking some more, and hard until Harry arched back and came copiously in Severus’ throat. The older man rose quickly, holding Harry up against his threatened collapse until Harry had the full use of his limbs once more and he reciprocated, requesting that Severus redirect the fall of water as he knelt and took that full turgid length into his wetted lips, teasing the tight foreskin back, then taking him all down, deep into his throat, holding the hipbones to prevent himself from gagging on the thick cock he was swallowing as his mouth was thoroughly fucked and Severus cried out loud as he came, gushing come over Harry’s tongue.

There was no room to collapse as they held each other in the afterglow letting the water beat down upon them as they managed a rudimentary hair wash and shower each, but it was enough to wash off the sweat of the previous day and the stickiness of the morning as they tasted each other with a deep kiss that allowed them to taste their latest offerings in each other’s mouths before Harry turned off the water and they dried each other off accompanied by many kisses to various bits of each other’s bodies.

As Severus dried Harry’s belly, he felt rather than heard the rumble, and, wrapping the towel around himself, he loaded Bessie’s stove with firewood and lit it. After waiting a while for the heat to build, he cooked them a fine breakfast. Harry was splayed out over the bed, stark naked and gently playing with himself. Severus glanced over, “Cover yourself, man, before I leap on you and have to ravish you again”. Harry giggled and twitched the quilt over himself as he watched his husband cook for them.

Severus noticed the gesture and grinned before turning back to the stove, his towel tenting at the sight before all was out of view and he could concentrate on the task at hand. He turned the bacon on the griddle and stirred the beans and cracked eggs but he could not get Harry out of his thoughts. He grinned as he cooked. Luckily it was second nature to him. Just as well, really, or the van would be on fire. Bessie burning while Severus fiddled with his hubby.

He continued to smile whilst putting these thoughts away for the moment as he dished up. He passed Harry the bed-tray and placed his meal atop it and a kiss on Harry’s forehead, “Breakfast! Eat up”. Harry noticed the smile and questioned his beloved teasingly, “And service with a smile, no less. Thank you, babe”, Severus turned back to the counter and leaned on it a moment before turning back to see Harry making inroads on his meal, “I’ve been cooking breakfast for us for ages, but it has never felt as special as today”. Harry looked up, his fork halfway to his mouth, put his knife down and patted the bed next to him, “Come back to bed. Eat with me. I love our breakfasts together. I always have. You’ve always looked after me”.

Resting his plate on the tray, Severus shrugged off his towel and climbed back into bed leaning over to kiss Harry’s temple before attending to his own food. They were talking and eating when the sound of a phone ringing made them pause, “Bugger! It’s mine”, Harry exclaimed. As Severus was on the outer edge of the bed, he rose, putting his plate down, “In my jacket pocket, love”, Harry waved his fork at the garment still hanging on the wardrobe door. Severus squinted at the screen as he withdrew it, “Hermione?”, he quizzed as he handed it to Harry. Harry flipped it open, “’Mione?”, his brow creased. Severus tried to divine the conversation.

“No, it’s Esme. Mum and dad are still crashed out, but there’s something you need to see in this morning’s Prophet. Can I come over and drop it in? I rang ‘cos I didn’t want to...er...disturb you, you know, ‘just married’ and all that”. Harry could almost hear her redden.

“Come on over, we’ll be decent, promise”, he chuckled as he folded his phone. He pushed the tray away from himself and knelt up in bed, reaching for his dressing gown. “I suggest you do the same, love, if you don’t want to traumatise the eldest G-L for life, she says there’s something in today’s paper that we should see and it didn’t sound like good news”.

Sure enough, they heard the back door being unbolted and Esme pattering down the path. Harry opened the door and greeted her, she held out the newspaper to him, “I’ve left it folded to the article for you”. Harry pushed his glasses up his nose and read it, his eyes widening in horror, “Oh, my God”, he murmured. Seconds later, Severus was beside him and he handed the paper over wordlessly as Severus settled his reading specs on his nose and scowled down at the print.

Spanish Heiress Missing,

was the small headline at the bottom of the International News column.

Fears are growing today for the safety of Beauxbatons student Graciela de Santos, missing from her home since Saturday. Graciela was due to return to her school on Monday but she vanished during a shopping trip in Madrid. The magical Law Enforcement are on full alert although rumours have reached our ears here in Blighty of a love affair and a possible elopement as it was well known among the rich young set that she was involved with a man many years her senior. Graciela is the sole heir to the massive de Santos fortune. It is thought that she is not being sought too hard as she is now of age although her mother maintains that she fears that something dreadful has befallen he daughter, “Graciela would never run off from her family. We are all so close. Please, call us and let us know you are safe”.

There was a phone number appended at the bottom of the article.

They glanced at each other then Harry descended the steps to speak to his honorary ‘niece’. “Esme, do you and your mum still take the Spanish papers?”. He remembered Hermione mentioning something about learning the language by translating the news items. The girl nodded, “Yes, but we only get it once a week instead of everyday, the next one is due tomorrow by owl”. Harry thought a moment, then glanced at the header on the paper, this news was six days old, “Is there any way that you could order one a day early?” The girl shrugged, “Don’t see why not. I’ll do it straight away if you like” Harry nodded slowly, “Yes please, would you?” She nodded and sped away again back to the house.

Harry clambered aboard Bessie, closing the door and slumped down onto the settee, “This doesn’t look good at all”. He opened his phone and speed-dialled Ron who eventually answered, his voice fuzzy, “Bloody hell, Harry, you’re the last person I expected to hear from today. Aren’t you supposed to be shagging yourselves daft right about now?” Harry chuckled, “Well, we were just taking a break and having some breakfast. Have you a copy of the Prophet there?” Ron replied in the affirmative, “Take a look at page 5, bottom of the International section”.

He could hear paper rustling, then a curse, “Oh, crap! That’s me off to the bloody office then, fuck, damn, blast”, he expostulated. “I’ll have to long-distance firecall the Spanish Minister. Let’s hope that they’re already all over this thing. I’ll call you later if there’s anything new. Don’t worry and don’t get involved. We reckon you guys had a pretty close call in Germany, not to mention that news of the conference in Spain seems to have reached the other side. A new one of his followers was arrested in Sweden, an English bloke, wizard, not a Death-Eater, marked with the crossed bones, but high up in the BNP (British National Party – a hardline right-wing, fascistic, racist fringe muggle political party) for driving drunk but he hexed the arresting officer and attracted the attentions of the Swedish WLE (Wizarding Law Enforcement) squad and they extradited him for us to deal with. We tickled his palette with a drop or two of Sev’s finest Veritaserum but he didn’t know much, just one of the cogs, the oily rags, but it seems as if de Santos’ influence is spreading and it’s very disturbing, the crossover between his bunch of goons and the muggle far right and somehow they heard about the meeting that we had with the Spanish. Your name came up in the proceedings but it was spoken of as if it was all a rumour, not known fact. Speak t’ya later. Give yer man a kiss from his bro-in-law”, Ron broke the connection.

Harry folded over himself clutching his mobile to his forehead as he sank his face in his hands, “Bugger”, was his sole comment until Severus knelt before him, easing the phone from his grasp and circling him with his arms, “Come on, Harry, tell me the worst”, and Harry relayed the call to him. “Oh, sod! So there has been at least this crossover between the muggles and the Magicals”. He was silent for a moment until Harry mumbled, “It’s worse than we feared, isn’t it? We didn’t see the connection did we? It’s a race thing, isn’t it?” Severus was bemused. Having lived his whole life within Magical confines, this new twist was confusing to him even despite the history he and Harry had been absorbing. Harry’s next statement made the blood run cold in his veins.

“We can’t go, can we? Escape, I mean? I’ll have to cancel everything, and I already paid for the container in full”. Severus held him close, “No, Harry. This isn’t our call, not this time”, to feel Harry struggle in his arms, “No, Sev. How can we go away and leave this situation? We have to help if we can. We have to,.....”, his voice trailed off as he shook in his husband’s arms, “We have to....”, he whispered, before he gave way to sobs and was shored up against the strong chest of his beloved as he wept. Severus tried to speak but gave it up as a bad job and just held Harry tight as he cried, stroking his back to try and comfort his love, his near future crumbling in his mind as they rocked together.

Eventually, Harry pulled away slightly, wiping at his eyes and sniffling and they found each other’s eyes. Severus was serious and solemn, “Harry, listen to me. We cannot stay here, the way I see it, we are in as much danger here as anywhere. You will always be perceived as a threat to these factions and once they know that you are fighting for this side, then you will be a walking target. As your spouse, I’m not prepared to let you back in the firing line again, not if I can help it”. Harry smiled weakly at Severus’ words, he was not the only one to consider in this relationship and he found himself almost wishing that this news had reached them a few days earlier. If it had, then he would have been sorely tempted to delay the wedding rather than tying himself to another, thereby making Severus as big a target as himself.

He raised his eyes to his husband’s and Severus held his face in his hands to prevent him from looking down again. The look of hurt in his eyes was palpable, “You’re regretting this aren’t you? Marrying me?” Harry sprang back, “Are you using Legilimency?”, he stalled and Severus shook his head, “You have a very expressive face, my love”.

Harry felt instantly guilty, “Not regretting exactly, but now I’m not the only one any more”. Severus drew him closer and kissed him, “No, you aren’t, Harry Potter-Snape, you have me beside you now. Don’t do this to me, please. We lost our first real loves to one of these bastards and I don’t intend losing another. Can you understand that?” Harry looked deep into the sorrowful obsidian eyes boring into his and nodded sombrely, “Sorry, love, I’m just reacting as usual, being my usual hopeless Gryffindor self. But I can’t help thinking of this poor girl lying in a dungeon somewhere, being tortured or something, and there’s no-one there to help her out”. He was still in tears.

Severus smiled slightly, “Was there no-one for you, when you were in difficulties?”, he paused to take in Harry’s reaction, raised brows and an “Of course there was”, before he cut Harry off, “And so there will be for this girl. They know about her prophecy. She is just like you, love, and as such, will have a whole host of people at her back just like you did, training her, moulding her into a weapon, exactly as we did for you. She will have a whole support network around her just as you did. It really is time for you to let go, love. This isn’t about you any more. This is truly someone else’s fight. From what Ron said, it’s all being investigated from this end anyway”. Harry sighed at the inevitability of it all and slumped in his husband’s arms.

“You’re right, this isn’t about me this time, but you can’t blame me for feeling like this, can you?” Severus smiled at him and shook his head, “Of course not. It wouldn’t be you otherwise. But we have to steer clear this time. Did she not write to you asking you not to write again? Was she not in danger then?”. Harry nodded mournfully, “Yes”, he agreed, feeling helplessness steal over him. “Sorry....but”, he mumbled before he fell forward against his husband’s chest head-first, and Severus gathered him up and held on tight, burying his face in Harry’s hair, “Don’t ever leave me, love, I don’t think I could stand it”, he whispered. Harry heard and burrowed in deeper, “Never, not in a million years. I couldn’t stand losing another.....no....not now....won’t do it to you or to me. Oh, god, sorry my Sev. What was I thinking?”. Severus held Harry close enough to almost injure, “Stay with me always, my Harry. If we eventually have to fight then we fight together, but for now, I love you and I want you and I to carry on travelling. I want us to put Bessie on that ship, even though it will break my heart to see her go without us”.

This brought out a real smile on Harry’s face and he leaned up and stole a kiss from his husband, “Me too, love, me too. Bessie going all that way without us locked in a tin box”, he sighed. Severus chuckled at the lightening in mood and said, “Why don’t we set out the same day she does? We have all the relevant paperwork. Why not? Let’s just do a flit. Drop Bessie off at...where was it?” Severus enquired.

Harry laughed, “She’s due at wharf 12, Tilbury dock a week tomorrow. We could be on a flight the same day, probably”. Severus shrugged, “Are we so strapped for cash that we cannot afford an hotel while we wait for her?” Harry chuckled as he divined what his beloved was driving at, “You mean wait in New Zealand rather than here?” Severus nodded, “Why ever not?” was his reply, “We need to bugger off, quick smart, and get out of the way of all this, so..... and let’s face it, if we stay here, we either have to billet in our good friends’ spare bedroom or take a hotel here in England, and I, for one, would rather be with you on the other side of the world than sat here like a pair of sitting ducks”.

Harry could see the reasoning behind this, but frowned anyway, weren’t they just shirking their responsibilities? He had to really fight the impulse to declare the trip off and stay and battle. But as he thought it through, he came reluctantly to his husband’s point of view. Having a fame magnet such as Harry Potter hanging about could well attract unwanted attention, particularly if the Ministry seemed to want to launch some kind of clandestine operation. Harry stood out so far that he would only get in the way. He sagged slightly in Severus’ arms, “Going really is the best option, isn’t it?”, he asked, in a small voice.

Severus held him close, his heart singing for joy. He kept his tone level and sere, “Yes, I really think it best if we bugger off and stay out of everything. Let’s face it, if they really need you then they can get us anywhere in the world with a call to your mobile or one of those e-mail things. We could respond in hours if they need us or you”. He gazed concernedly into Harry’s eyes. Which softened under the scrutiny. Severus was right, they could be reached in minutes and could be on a plane in hours.

He could almost see the cogwheels in Harry’s brain turn as he looked into dark malachite. “We’ll go on the 5th”, Harry declared. “We’ll keep to our original plans”. Severus almost blacked out with relief as he held Harry close, “That is probably the wisest course of action”, he murmured, trying not to sound too relieved.

But grinned fully into Harry’s hair as he held on tight. He knew he was being selfish. The Wizarding world probably really did need it’s saviour, but having just wed him, Severus was buggered if he was going to let the world at his lover just yet. Time enough for that in the dim and distant future. Not now. Not when they had just wed and Severus was finding out all these amazing things about himself and the man he had married. Severus was determined to hold on to him-and-Harry-time for as long as possible.

Harry returned the hold with equal intensity thinking, ‘He wants me, truly wants me, all to himself on the other side of the world. Oh, fuck, let’s go. Wanna go now’. He didn’t communicate it, fearing to sound like the eager seventeen year old that he felt knowing his beloved wanted him all to himself. He just nodded sagely, “The 5th it is, then, eight days from now. Let’s lie low and stay out of danger or trouble. We could always take off to somewhere muggle until we need to check Bessie in, you know. We don’t have to stay here in the Wizarding world. If you feel threatened, I could put us up in some wee billet like the Connaught or the Hilton for a few days and we could truly disappear. How would you like that?”.

Severus tipped Harry’s head back far enough to be able to look into his eyes. “You would really do that, wouldn’t you?”. Harry nodded, “Especially if we are a liability”, he stated simply and Severus’ heart went out to the hurt man before him, the one who had saved them all but was now being seen as an unwelcome attractant being still alive as in his boy-who-lived years. Severus’ heart went out to his husband, “Let’s sneak off, love. We haven’t told many folk of our departure. Let’s just slip the noose and go”. Harry laughed at this, “Yeah, let’s, and before anyone realises, we’re thousands of miles away”, he finished, dreamily. They kissed lovingly and long, plumbing each other’s mouths with eager tongues until lack of air forced them to desist.

Harry disengaged from his lover’s arms and stood up, stepping away from the circle that his husband’s arms made around him and paced about for a while before ending up staring out of one of the side windows, “I want to see mountains, Sev, mountains and maybe elves”, he paraphrased in a gentle voice as he looked out over the rest of the road, full of neatly trimmed front lawns and felt stifled. Severus came up behind him and threaded his arms around the smaller man’s waist, burrowing his nose into Harry’s neck, “I take it that that is some sort of quote”. Harry leaned back into the embrace and chuckled softly, “Aye, Bilbo from Lord of the Rings. I just think it’s a bloody shame, that’s all, that I will probably never be able to live fully in the Wizarding world. If not for killing old Voldie, then being, ‘Harry Potter – Super Auror’. I wish I had played Quidditch professionally instead, but then, I’d get teenage boys stopping me in the streets, that’s what happened to Ron and he hated it. He had to retire in the end just to get a life of his own, and now him and Ollie don’t get any hassle at all. I love this world,. I have lived in it for so long, but it’s so sad that I can not seem to exist at peace within it’s narrow confines. Will this always be our life, love, always on the run?”

Harry’s tone was so sad, Severus tightened his arms around his younger love, “Perhaps, for now. We’ll stay away long enough to make them forget Harry damn Potter and welcome back the Potter-Snapes into the obscurity that we will eventually earn by dint of some other poor bugger taking over your mantle. They’ll find the de Santos girl and she will be the next one that they will all pin their hopes and dreams to, just like they did you, and then you can fade into the background, and hurrah to that, I say. Your fifteen minutes of fame will be over and hers will begin, poor lass. I do hope that she is all right, though. I, too, know what these types of people are capable of and I genuinely feel sorry for her, stuck in the middle of it all through no fault of her own, an accident of birth. I’m sorry, Harry, that I never saw your own situation in that light, but I understand now, I really do”.

Harry turned in Severus’ arms and burrowed his nose in his husband’s chest, “All this has killed today a bit for me. I didn’t intend doing anything serious today except wearing us both out with lots of sex, but now my mood is bone-dry”. Severus held him, “Ssshh, you are not my Harry if you can’t bounce back from this, but for now, let’s just be close and talk or not, as we feel like it, but either way, I want to be near to you, within touching distance, kissing distance, and no further apart”, so saying, he pulled Harry to him and kissed his brow.

Harry replied with a sweet kiss of his own before glancing at the wreckage of breakfast cold upon the trays on the bed, “Damn, and we didn’t even finish breakfast. As usual, the bad news gets in the way of sustenance. It was ever the case with me, it’s a wonder that I ever lasted long enough to fight old Voldie with a square meal inside me”. Severus chuckled, “Shall we start again? I’ll make fresh if you like”. Harry shook his head, “Nah, it doesn’t look good any more, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of toast or something, you know, to give me the energy for the rest of the day”. Severus smiled and turned to the stove after releasing his husband with a kiss, “Your wish is my command, love, fresh toast coming up, just let me clear this lot away”. Harry sat back down on the sofa and gazed at his beloved, “I really love you, Sev, you know that, don’t you?” The older man nodded and within seconds had Banished the cold food and had the stove re-lit. His new motto was ‘when in doubt, cook’, and today it was going to pay off.

With a flourish and a small bow, he presented Harry with a plateful of hot buttery toast, “Voila!!! Would m’sieur like anything to go on it? We have jam or Marmite”. Severus had the jars, one in each hand, Harry pointed at the Marmite and Severus placed it before him with a clean knife before attending to his own breakfast, frying a little bacon to go on his own sandwich with a hint of brown sauce.

They munched in silence, side by side on the sofa, until a series of saucy sidelong glances from Harry caused Severus to enquire, “What?”, bluntly, to see a smirk on Harry’s face as he wiped his mouth of crumbs and pushed his plate away, “Nothing, I was just thinking.....but maybe you should finish eating first”, he grinned archly.

Severus cleared away the plates and plonked himself back down next to his lover, “So?”, he asked, bluntly. Harry yawned, “After that grub, I want another nap, but when I wake, I’ll tell you all about it”, he yawned again and wandered over to their bed and climbed back in, shrugging off his gown and covering himself up. Severus watched as Harry settled. So what was it to be? Sit on the sofa reading, or snuggle back in with Harry under the covers even if he didn’t sleep again. No decision, really. In seconds, he had shed his own gown and was spooning around his Harry, holding him in sleep and to his own surprise, joining him, moments later.

They didn’t hear the timid knock or the beeping of Harry’s phone that informed them of a ‘message received’, nor yet did they hear the thump of a thick wad of newsprint as it landed on Bessie’s step. The only response was Harry turning in his sleep to be pulled against his husband, a reaction of Severus’ when they were asleep that Harry adored and he rose enough to the surface to smile as he was wrapped in Severus’ arms and held tight, his nose pressed into Severus’ chest, and sank again into deep sleep, safe for now.

Severus was the first to wake, all tangled up in Harry. He slowly disengaged, claiming his own limbs back from the pile and lay quiet a moment letting life flow back into his left arm and right leg, grinning as he flexed the appropriate hand and foot trying to dispel the pins and needles before life returned to his crushed limbs. He smiled into the dim interior of their home, rolling over to plant a kiss in Harry’s hair before rising and donning his gown. He used the loo and pulled on some clothes, gazing at his beloved asleep before him. As Harry turned in bed, Severus sat beside him for a moment, stroking the long body under the blankets until Harry settled again, “Gods, I love you so much, Harry”, he murmured as he rose and set about building a fire in Bessie’s stove. It may be Spring, but there was still a nip in the air, and he didn’t want Harry to awake to a cold van.

He raked out the ashes as quietly as he could, sweeping them all together before scooping them up and bagging them together with the rest of the rubbish, before sliding his feet into shoes to take the rubbish out to the bins. As he opened the door, he almost stumbled on the pile of newspapers that were left on the step for them. He closed the door and tiptoed across the grass and dealt with the garbage before heading back to Bessie.

He picked up the papers that Esme had clearly left with a note stuck to them on a fluorescent Post-it.

“These are the Spanish papers that you requested. Hope they are of some use. If you have a problem translating them then just give me a call. I sent Harry a message with my own mobile number on it. Mum’s gone into work to meet up with Ron and Oliver after she read the article in the Prophet. Hope you are having lots of sex, fun. Luv ‘n’ stuff, Esme. xxx”.

Severus chuckled as he read the note, he had always been fondest of the eldest G-L spawn and had never made a secret of it. When he stopped to think about it, he had always seemed to be keenest on the bright girls from particular families while he had been a teacher and had to agree that girls were the easiest and the most rewarding to teach. He would have despaired altogether of the Weasleys had he not been privileged to teach their youngest, who ended up being his successor, and, by all accounts, a damn fine job she was making of it, too. He held out high hopes for the rather bookish fourteen-year-old that had been sorted into Ravenclaw at eleven.

Once back on Bessie, he closed the door silently and cast a glance at the bed. Harry was buried under the covers, Severus’ pillow held tight against his chest, and Severus’ bit his lower lip at the sight. He had never known a love like this and sighed at what the tableau before him meant as Harry nuzzled his face in Severus’ pillow and moaned in his sleep catching the aroma and letting it fill his dreams. That decided him. He stripped down to boxers and climbed back into bed with the papers and his reading glasses to feel Harry attach himself, limpet-like with a small groan, to Severus once more, shrugging off the pillow in favour of the real thing. Severus swept a reassuring hand the length of Harry’s body under the covers, as much to tell his lover that he was back as anything else. Harry smiled slightly and settled again, an arm thrown around Severus once more, as Severus wrestled with the broadsheets and the acreage of newsprint that he began to plough through.

Esme had been very thorough in this regard, marking the relevant articles, and, as expected, the coverage in the Spanish press, both muggle and Magical was far more extensive and not so filled with the speculative rubbish that the British Wizarding paper had been so full of. There was no talk of secret romances or elopement. Her disappearance was being treated as just that, an abduction, a kidnap, and many were involved in the search for her, from the muggle police forces to the Wizarding Law Enforcement. As an heiress to a large fortune she was all over the press and Severus was secretly pleased to see that the Spanish authorities were taking this so seriously. He had thought that the Spanish MoM was a force to be reckoned with, not a toadying yes-man that Scrimgeour and Fudge had been and he was glad for this at least although after roughly translating in the margins with pencil, he realised that at the present moment, they were no nearer to finding her.

It was then that he realised that Esme had packaged the papers in date order, that the bundle wasn’t all from the same date, that he held the news from the last three days, it was then he knew he needed to carry on through the time-line that Esme had arranged right up to today. They found where she was, they had tracked her to a cave deep in the Spanish Alps in the north of the country. Severus read all the stories, his heart-rate accelerating as he moved to that day, the very day they were in.

He snapped the paper open and there it was in large headlines on the front page, “De Santos Heir Found Dead”, and Severus’ gut plummeted.

He read through the article and groaned aloud, this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. A young girl, barely adult, found bound and blind-folded, raped and stabbed, up in the mountains by a sheep-herder taking his flocks into the heights in the old-fashioned way, he had run down the hill and alerted the authorities. The official cause of death was strangulation, the knife wounds were post-mortem, the rapes by at least three different men were ante-mortem. Found on her body was the crumpled and bloody letter from a Harry Potter. Severus couldn’t help the low cry that escaped as he read this.

Harry was still alert to the signs of anything wrong from his fellow warriors. It was something buried deep inside. Instinctive. He was tuned to all distress signals, from Draco, Remus, or Severus and it was his husband that he responded to now, rising swiftly through the layers of sleep to be at his fellow’s side. “Sev? What’s the matter?”, he was sat up and alert in micro-seconds, pushing his glasses up his nose, ready to rise in an instant, ready to go, ready to fight, his wand in his hand.

He noticed his husband beside him, shell-shocked and inert. He nudged him and Severus came out of his trance, “Come on, Sev, tell me what it is. She’s dead, isn’t she?” Severus could do nought but nod, “She was found in the mountains, stabbed, strangled and raped. She had your letter on her”, his eyes stared straight ahead, his reading glasses had slipped down his nose. He looked lost as he handed the paper to Harry with a, “sorry, love”, but Harry knew this of Severus, he never had spared him the gory details and he didn’t, now, he just handed the newspaper over without comment for Harry to read, which he did with a sense of mounting horror.

The latest vanquisher of a Dark Lord was dead. What did this mean to the last one? Severus could only guess at what was going through Harry’s mind right now and he stayed silent as Harry read and absorbed all the latest details. “I have to stay”, he murmured at last, “I can’t walk away from this”. Harry’s tone was dull and resigned. “I don’t want to do this, but I’m the only one left alive who can. He has to die, even though this wasn’t my prophecy” Severus sank his head to is hands, “No, it’s still not you. Remember how your prophecy could have applied either to you or Neville?” Harry nodded dully, “Well, it turns out that this is the case here, although the prognosis is a bit bleak for this poor lad”.

Severus handed Harry yet another Wizarding paper, this one from France. Their was another ‘child of the prophecy’, but he was a paraplegic basketball player from Norway named as Lars Gundersson who had negligible measures of Magic running through him. The situation seemed dire indeed and Severus could see that Harry was clearly at war with himself over whether to stay or go and he could do nothing in the face of such a dire set of circumstances. At that moment, for two pins, he would have sparked that engine up if he could drive, and got them the hell out of there, passing into Europe by sundown, and running as far and fast as possible.

But the decision had to be left to Harry, who rose as one enchanted, slowly climbing into clothes, staying silent, clothes providing a barrier as he slumped down again and re-read the article, then sank his head in his hands groaning, battling with himself. Severus knew that at a moment like this, he could do nothing, the decision would be Harry’s and Harry’s alone.

Gulping back his tears, Harry stood, a stubborn look on his face. He clutched his phone tightly as he stood, his face set in a resolute expression. “That’s it. I’ve fucking had enough”, he exclaimed, before cutting off his own flow and diving over to the computer desk booting the machine.

Severus stayed silent as Harry paged through screens and altered details, demanded refunds and rearranged travel arrangements, his mouth set in a thin line as he worked, the glow of the screen lighting the scowl etched into his features, his anger speeding his fingers over the keyboard before he closed it down and snapped the machine shut with a loud crack, then turned on the bench and sank his head in his hands and howled with grief.

In an instant, Severus was beside him, taking him in his arms, unsure of what to say. Harry’s rage was a palpable thing, a heat that radiated from him. “What did you do?”, Severus cautiously enquired. Harry’s head whipped round with a speed that made Severus jump away. “How soon can we be ready?”, was Harry’s response. Severus cast his eyes around Bessie. Everything was on board. They had about half a tank of water, enough to be going on with for now, the chemical loo was clean, they had a bit of battening down to do, but they could be ship-shape in less than an hour and he said so.

Harry nodded and flipped his phone open and began dialling. Severus was still confused but began tidying everything away, for something to do as much as anything. This rage of Harry’s was difficult to deal with, so he just determined to keep his head below the parapet and tidy everything up while Harry slumped in his seat up front and spoke to folk on his phone, forehead propped on one hand, the other holding his phone against his ear. It took a few minutes of earwigging before Severus realised what Harry was about. He was arguing and yelling and quietening then crying and finally saying goodbye, as no doubt, one friend after another was reminding him that this was not his fight yet again.

Severus closed the cupboards and battened down the hatches ruefully, no-one had asked to speak with him. He straightened the bed and slid into his seat at the front as Harry interrupted his chat to hand the phone to him, “Ron and Hermione want to say goodbye to you”. Severus took the phone and said hello, to hear the jumble of voices at the other end, exhorting him to take care, of himself and Harry for whatever was to come. As the call came to an end, Harry was in the driver’s seat, firing Bessie’s engine.

They slipped away like thieves in the night, Esme the only one to see them off, running over the lawn to wave manically at them, a worried look on her face. Severus waved back as Harry eased them down the drive and they turned left at the end, heading for the Motorway. In such an ignominious manner, they were off again. Earlier than they wanted. Did Severus but know it, but the change in plans had cost Harry quite a lot of money, but in light of the news that they had received, and the possible danger they were putting their friends in, it behooved them to disappear as quickly as possible.

****

They had ten days to get to Santander, whence they would all take ship to New Zealand. Harry had cancelled the original arrangement at Tilbury and was going to drive them both through France and into northern Spain, before loading the van onto a container ship. They had the option of either three weeks at sea in front of them and they’d be travelling with Bessie, or they could fly out instead.