You Know You Are Loved When A Gryffindor Loves You

22

Now that Severus had re-established contact with Draco the gushiness of the boy’s mail seemed to die down and Severus had fun inventing just how boring it was living on the outside of Magic without giving anything away as to his whereabouts. Harry was never mentioned in the letters to and from and the word ‘husband’ wasn’t even whispered.

They received another chiding letter from Minerva to the effect that Harry’s work was too slow in coming, “Just because you are now a married man and expecting, able to get up when you choose without the rule of a regular timetable and bells doesn’t mean you have to be slack about your work. I expect to see at least your Herbology and Astronomy essays here by return, after all they were set over a fortnight ago”.

Harry was chagrined by this and Severus laughed as he read it, “Come on, slacker, get to it. I’m going to be in the garden doing some work”, he patted his husband’s rump and went downstairs. Harry sighed and went into the study turning on the computer. He worked for a steady couple of hours then got bored, standing by the window and watching Severus instead at his potting bench below in the yard transplanting his delicate sweetpea seedlings from peat trays into small pots for hardening off. He went downstairs and made tea taking his beloved a mug then tried to concentrate on his Astronomy essay but remembered their times in the Astronomy tower instead. He opened ‘Word’ and started to type, “Reflections on observations in the Astronomy tower at Hogwarts”, and before he knew it had several typed pages on their sexual shenanigans. He hadn’t heard Severus come in behind him leaning in to read over his shoulder, “Potter-Snape, I’m not sure that this is quite the essay Aurora expects”, and Harry nearly fell off his chair.

“Severus!!, you scared the living shit out of me. Don’t do that unless you want me to miscarry”. Severus held Harry around the shoulders and apologised kissing his ear. Harry slumped in the chair, “It’s so hard to concentrate, especially when you do that”, he purred then pulled his lover around and into his lap and kissed him properly, “How about seven inches on the topic of horny pregnant married wizards. This seven inches”, and wriggled so Severus was under no misapprehension as to his meaning, “Or I could do nine, even”, he giggled as he pressed his hand into his beloved’s groin. Severus stood, “Never mind that, imp, you can’t get too far behind. If you do, Minerva will have my guts for garters. Now, get on with it, Harry, please, or it’ll be me that gets the bollocking”. Harry sighed deeply and turned back to his work.

****

It was Severus’ idea for a day out for them both. Spring was well advanced and Harry needed an original topic to write about for his Astronomy project and hit on the Muggle-ish topic of radio waves in Astronomy. Severus laughed, “We’re only a half-hour train ride and a bit of a walk away from what used to be the largest radio telescope in the world. Jodrell Bank in north Cheshire. It would be a day out for us and as there is a large experimental arboretum, it’ll be educational, not only for your astronomy studies but also herbology”.

So they were packing sandwiches and flasks and a carton of juice and fruit and setting off for another of their numerous days out. They’d looked up the lecture schedule and booked themselves in online. Harry chuckled as he realised he had a resource that others in his year had access to at holiday times only; the Internet. They had broadband now, and although it was mainly used for fun, Harry started to utilise it for his studies. He had also started to turn out his essays as printed paper documents full of downloaded pictures in the subjects that he was able to, Astronomy being the chief amongst these. Professor Sinistra was predicting an Outstanding for the exile’s NEWT in her subject and awarded her student ten House points for his resourcefulness in using outside study media.

They had a brilliant day out and Harry took many pictures of the arboretum for his project on heathers and their Magical properties to attach to his Herbology project. This too was done on paper and illustrated with his pictures with tiny slivers of the plants purloined and carefully labelled, then the whole packed into a small box and sent to Professor Sprout via Dobby.

The lecture on the use of radio waves in space was fascinating and Harry used a tiny microphone with his MP3 player to record the lecture in full and he transcribed it for part of his project. He sent a covering note apologising for the lack of direct observations, but explained that as he was in exile in the middle of a large city, and the loom of the lights prevented him from seeing much and he didn’t have the advantage of being out in the countryside away from the city’s orange glow. He received a fond letter from his Astronomy teacher saying that his essays were already treated differently from the others due to his exceptional circumstances. He smirked at this, most had no idea just how exceptional his position was. He was back in the good books of at least two of his teachers. Severus read over his essays on Potions before he submitted them and he did simple and safe experiments in their kitchen using ingredients that were safe for him to use but excused himself on the grounds that many Magical ingredients both inert and living weren’t available to him in exile as he wasn’t in a Magical environment.

There wasn’t much he could do about Transfiguration and Minerva advised him to leave the whole thing be until he could actually be back in school again but was pleased at the comments he was receiving from his other teachers and secret arrangements were being made for him by Minerva and Albus to sneak him into school in early June to sit two of his NEWTs, apart from, but at the same time as his contemporaries. Severus grinned as he read his colleagues’ assessment of Harry’s work and was justifiably proud of his young love’s efforts.

Severus was in regular contact with his locum with advice and guidance where she needed it particularly vis-à-vis his Seventh year class and was sent the trickier essays to look over, particularly those of his godson who was veering into dark territory with his ongoing project into Magic-sapping poisons, but the news of Neville Longbottom’s sudden proficiency in his subject gave him food for thought. Harry laughed when he was passed the letter to read, “Neville is a bright and committed student, Severus, it’s just you, love, you have always picked on him. You bullied him for years and he’s terrified of you. He’s a very sensitive guy. All around him he has people being heavy and despotic with him. For fuck’s sake, his parents are in the psychiatric ward at St Mungo’s and I hear his gran is a bit of a martinet. I mean, in third year when we did boggarts with Remus, his greatest fear was you. I don’t even think he hates you and I know he wonders why you seem to hate him so. His blunders and accidents are down to his fear, his nervousness around you. You may hate him for appearing spineless but believe me, I’ve fought alongside him and he’s brave and trustworthy, but you have always been a bastard towards him. It was the only lesson he dreaded to the point of throwing up before your classes. I’m actually not surprised that he’s improved”.

Severus stared off into the middle distance at this diatribe, “A leopard cannot change it’s spots, Harry”. But Harry was having none of it. He straddled his beloved’s lap and took Severus’ face into his hands forcing the man to look at him, “Maybe not, Severus, but a man can change his attitudes. I don’t expect you to be all warm and fluffy for fuck’s sake, but your treatment of Neville was outright bullying, not very professional at all, if I may say so, and there’s no excuse for it, making a kid so upset he pukes before your lessons. I shall mark your report card with ‘must try harder’”, his tone was harsh.

He relented as he saw tears forming in the man’s eyes and threw his arms around him, “Shit, Severus, don’t cry, I’m sorry”. The man crumpled on Harry’s shoulder, “I’m a bastard, aren’t I?” Harry smiled, “No, but you can be a bastard on occasion and I hope Nev gets an Outstanding to spite you. He’s one of the gentle people, he’s no coward”, and held his man while he released some of the pent-up negativity in his soul, desperate hands clutching at his beloved. Through his sniffles, he murmured, “It’s times like this I forget that you are not eighteen yet. Such an old head on such young shoulders”. Harry shrugged, “Someone trying to kill you since you were not quite two can do that to a guy”, and Severus Potter-Snape was a humbled man.

Harry lightened the mood a little by touching foreheads with his husband, “I truly love you, Severus, and you can’t say it’s because I’m deluded as to your darker side, I’ve seen it in action, and I still love you in spite of it, or, sometimes I think it’s because of it. We’re both complicated, we’re both misfits in the Magical world, but there’s no excuse for bullying. Life is shite enough at times without shit from your own side”. Severus looked up with red-rimmed eyes into solemn green and right then, his love knew no bounds for this intelligent, knowing man in his lap, and he praised every deity going for the day he decided to allow himself to fall for him. Onyx eyes transmitted their humility and Harry smiled slightly and opened his mouth slightly tipping his head and descended to the mouth of his beloved reaching up for his own lips and they kissed long and slow, tongues lazily dipping into each other’s mouths, patient, exploring, loving.

Harry murmured, “Come on, love of my life, take me to bed and give me nine inches on horny pregnant married wizards before tomorrow morning”. Severus sighed and smiled, “Now that’s what I call an assignment. Top marks to Mr Potter-Snape. Give that man an Outstanding”. Harry giggled, “Not until I’ve marked the practical”. Severus clutched Harry close to him and plundered his mouth with his tongue, the desire evident in them both. With their larger bellies simple lap frottage wasn’t possible any more and both wanted more in any case. Harry stood shakily and offered Severus his hand and led them both upstairs, locking the back door and switching off lights as they went.

Harry made Severus lie back on their bed while he stripped slowly for him, sliding his hands up and down his own body as he watched his man’s face flush with desire, toying with his own hardness while his beloved watched, his tongue trailing over his top lip, his eyes narrowing with want then went to him, hot and willing, stripping him with sure fingers, consuming skin with a fervent tongue flicking over dark brown nipples until they stood as erect as his purpling cock, then Severus took charge with a growl, mounting his beloved from behind, rimming and oiling and ploughing into his oiled depths with a deep groan expressing his passion and fucked his young love to oblivion while Harry gripped the bedhead and bucked his hips backwards needing more and more penetration, “Harder, faster”, he moaned as Severus gripped his hips and complied, ramming in to the hilt, his head thrown back, growling deep in his throat as Harry tightened around his slick cock and came over the pillows while his lover filled him up with a loud shout, his name gasped over and over as each spasm took him.

Harry hung his head between shaky arms and felt Severus’ head resting on his sweaty back as they caught their breath and Severus softened inside his beloved and withdrew. They lay, still panting softly, side by side, until Harry gathered his love to him, looping Severus’ legs across his own and holding tight the love of his life, Severus’ head on Harry’s chest, the fluttering of his heart loud in the man’s ears. Harry chuckled as he often did in the afterglow from the sheer joy that suffused him. Severus purred, looking up into those fathomless green depths, “So, Mr Potter-Snape, how was the practical?” Harry laughed, “Definitely an Outstanding, Mr Potter-Snape”, and held him tighter as they both giggled.