The Third Time is a Charm

Posted October 2, 2009

Chapter 27: A Shopping We Will Go

They worked on the glamour for about fifteen minutes then Becca took them to the elevator, showed them the surveillance room and they were in wonderment at the amount of muggle technology. There was also a series of mirrors much the same as they saw at Hogwarts. They made their way above ground into the living room of number three Privet Drive and saw that it was comfortably furnished but was somewhat with an unlived in feel. Becca explained that it had been used as a model house so as to throw suspicion off because people were not living there and they didn’t want the neighbor’s to suspect anything. As they went outside, Harry came face to face with number four Privet Drive and a young woman that was carrying a small infant. Harry suddenly remembered that Dudley was a year older that he was.

Becca whispered to Harry, “If we wanted her to go apopletic, now would be a perfect time for you to snog Severus for all you’re worth.” There was definite amusement in her voice and Harry could just imagine how Petunia would react.

“Yeah, it’s almost too good to resist, but we can’t do that yet. It’s going to be hard to wait for the right time.” Harry whispered back, putting his arm around her and waving to his hand at his new neighbor. “Let’s go introduce ourselves.”

Severus could not believe his ears, Harry’s Gryffindor courage must be working overtime for him to pull a stunt like this. He watch as Harry went over to Petunia Dursley and introduced Becca and himself.

“Good afternoon, neighbor, we are just moving into the house next door. My name is Harry Prince and this is Rebecca Prince. We are pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Good afternoon Harry, my name is Petunia Dursley and this is my son Dudley.” Harry forced himself to pay attention as she emphasized the name Dursley as if it was of great importance and then listened as she continued. “My husband is at work, he runs Grunnings Drills so I am able to stay at home with my wonderful Dudleypoo. What do you two do?” The way she said ‘wonderful Dudleypoo’ was as if she was the baby instead of the child in her arms. How can people stand that baby talk?

Harry who wanted to have a little fun with her and answered “Oh a little of this and a little of that. We do some production, manufacturing and distribution of pharmacology products. It pays really well and we don’t really need to work too much.” Harry held his snicker in as Petunia’s eyes grew big and she hastily told them she had to go, then quickly went inside the door of number four. He could just imagine her putting her precious Dudleypoo into the crib and calling her precious Vernon before calling some of the neighbors to tell them about the people that were moving in next door.

Harry looked at Severus and said, “We have to get out of here, I can’t hold a straight face much longer. As they got into the automobile in the driveway, Becca got behind the wheel and started the car. Harry burst out laughing so hard he almost went into hysterics. Severus didn’t get the joke so he looked to Becca for an explanation. She too was laughing, but not as hard as Harry. They obviously knew something Severus didn’t.

Becca was still chuckling as she tried to answer Severus. “He IMPLIED, very strongly I might add, that we were drug dealers. Oh and her face, did you see the wide eyed look and she couldn’t get away from us fast enough?” Becca was now laughing harder at the memory. “She will be on the phone telling all the neighbors about us. Only problem is, all her neighbors are our people or at least know of us in some way.” Becca was holding her side now and trying to catch her breath. Poor Severus still did not get it. Becca tried again. “She thinks we are making and selling illegal drugs, Severus. Harry implied that we manufacture and distribute illegal drugs that are used by muggles. He implied that we are criminals.”

Severus had a snarl on his face. “I understand that, I did live my childhood in the muggle world. What I fail to understand is why this is so funny.”

“Because she hates anything abnormal, drug dealers are right at the top of the list with wizards. Her face showed so much horror. It was funny.” Harry interjected while still holding his stomach and laughing between words.

“If you say so.” He answered. “Can we go to London now?”

After Becca had calmed down she tried again to explain, Harry was still laughing in the back seat. “Severus, she is afraid of Harry. He has lived all his life in fear of those people and now as an adult he can face them and know that they will never hurt him again. He had a real fear of facing them again, when he found out where we actually were living, and it was all for nothing. She was terrified of us.” Severus nodded his understanding. He knew Harry really had been afraid to meet those people again, but they didn’t know him or who he was and part of the hysterical laughter must be the relief that he could do this with no worries about them coming after him.

Becca started the car with a big smile still on her face and drove to London.

As they got out of the car, Harry could not help but notice how different Severus looked in his blue jeans and his cream colored shirt. A heavy dark green coat and gloves with matching hat completed the outfit as it was December and very cold. In fact Harry was thinking about just what he wanted to do to Severus when Becca slapped his arm and shouted “Harry!” She had been trying to get his attention for the last minute while he was off in his head thinking about something he was sure she didn’t want to know. “We need to focus here.” She fussed.

Becca had parked the car a few blocks from Diagon Alley in the muggle part of London. When they walked into the Leaky Caldron and Becca stepped up to Tom. “Hi, are you Tom?” Becca said with a sweet smile on here face.

At Tom’s nod and “What can I do for you?” Becca answered.

“We are visiting from the U.S. and a friend of mine told me you could get me into Diagon Alley. I’ve never been there.” Becca was using her best American accent. She could do a really good French or German one too, but Tom would probably not understand those languages.

“Sure can young lady, are these gentlemen with you?” Tom indicated his head in the direction of Severus and Harry. Harry wasn’t paying attention though, he was just trying to get used to the idea that no one knew him. It felt so good to be anonymous.

“Yes sir, we are all visiting from the United States and would like to go shopping.”

Tom looked at the three of them as if trying to figure out if they were up to something. Becca thought maybe he was wondering if they were new Death Eaters or maybe muggles that were trying to get in. She shoved her cape back and started to roll up her sleeves and saw that Severus caught on real fast but Harry seemed to be oblivious, looking around with a smirk on his face.

Sure enough, Tom looked at their clear left arms and smiled as he told them to follow him out to the alley. He then proceeded to show them which bricks to hit with their wand and let them go through the passageway after bidding them good day.

Afterward Severus looked at Becca and asked, “Now what was the purpose of that?”

“Well,” she answered, “don’t you think it would look odd if three strangers, no one has ever seen, just walked in the Alley and didn’t ask?”

Severus had to admit she had a point and they proceeded into the shopping alley.

Becca was excited; she had not been shopping in a long time. Even from her time it was dangerous and she had to be extra careful. Not that this was any different, but it was nice that people didn’t know who they were.

Madam Malkin’s was the first stop. Harry had asked Becca where the clothes came from that he had been wearing, right now he was sporting straight leg blue jeans and a green acromantula silk shirt. She told him that he had some donations from Salazar’s closet and a few things her Great Granddad sent. None of them wore robes today as it was more casual in the wizarding world in the U.S. and they were supposed to be tourists. That was Becca’s idea. They were not established and the stranger they appeared the more people would look and then ignore them as inconsequential. Harry thought this was the greatest thing. Becca wanted some maternity robes and a few things for when she got bigger and shopping would be uncomfortable. Severus got some new clothes and Harry insisted on anything but black, pointing out that there was another Severus Snape here and he needed to be different.

They had a really good time going from shop to shop. Harry bought a few Christmas gifts for the others but couldn’t really think of anything to give Severus. He would have to think about it and come back; they still had almost two weeks before Christmas for him to think of something. He stopped outside the Quidditch store and saw the latest Cleansweep in the window and realized he had the fastest broom in the world right now. So he turned around and didn’t even go in. There was nothing there that he would want anyway.

They did stop at the toy store and Harry bought a few stuffed animals and started to buy a toy broom when his lover stopped him. They didn’t want to get too much right now and could go shopping for the boys later. Severus bought a mobile that would go over the crib. It had little snitches and brooms on it. Harry was surprised he didn’t buy one with little caldrons on it till he realized they didn’t have any.

Becca was having the most fun. She acted like she had never seen Diagon Alley before. Harry noticed her little girl look of wonder and asked her about it.

“So is this much different from the Diagon Alley from your time?” Harry raised his eyebrow at her. “You seem enchanted as if you’ve never been here before.”

“Harry, in my time Diagon Alley is a wasteland and isn’t really there. It was destroyed about ten years before my birth.” Becca said it so matter of fact that Harry had a hard time wrapping his mind around it. He hadn’t realized it was so bad in the future. He knew she had made statements about the future being bleak, but this was the first time it really hit him.

“Well, we are here now and can change all of that.” He replied, smiling at her as he took her arm to go look at a few more shops, Severus following a few steps behind.

They were just finishing up their day and started walking back to the Leaky when a curse whizzed by Severus’ head. Then another one hit Becca from behind but as it made contact with her cloak it slid right off, like water off a duck’s back. Harry and Severus quickly got together holding Becca in the middle with one arm each around her waist and put up a shield, both of them combining their magic to form a strong shield for protection against the attackers, just as they had done in the chamber for the reparo charm.

“Protego!” They both shouted at the same time. To their surprise the shield actually shimmered visibly in a dense bluish green color with flecks of gold, silver, red and purple sparkling in the sunlight. It surrounded them with color. They caught the incredulous look on a young Lucius Malfoy’s face when the shield went up. Naturally no one had ever seen one like that before not even the three of them. More stunners and hexes were shot at them, but they actually bounced back to the caster stunning two of the death eaters before they knew what was happening. Becca pulled out a portkey just as the aurors showed up and they were whisked away back to Privet Drive. The one thing they were glad to see is that Malfoy hadn’t shot one stunner, curse or hex at them.

“What was that?” Harry wanted to know as he fell forward from the landing. Severus grabbed his shirt just before he made contact with the floor.

“It was a recruiting party. Sometimes the Death Eaters would get desperate and go stun and kidnap people to get them on the Dark Lord’s side. They would hold their family hostage or just the threat would be enough. I imagine we presented a pretty picture of a family united and they thought they could ‘convince’ us to join.” Severus had used his hands to put quotation marks around the word convince. They all knew what he meant. Maybe it was time to put forward their plan and not wait till after the holidays.

“Did you see Lucius Malfoy’s face, Sev?” Harry asked. “He looked like he couldn’t believe what he saw. Do you think he recognized you as an older Severus?”

“No Harry I don’t, not through the glamour. I think he recognized the shield we created.” Harry and Becca both looked puzzled so he elaborated. “It is said that when a family is pure and combines its magic for protection, the shield will glow with unlimited power. I have never seen it before and I doubt Lucius has either, but he knows about it. He is attracted to power, it’s the reason he joined Voldemort in the first place. I hope you wanted his attention, because you certainly got it.” Severus directed the last part of his statement to Becca where she was sitting on the sofa. “It is also said that only the decedents of Merlin can produce a shield of color, all the others would be a clear white or opaque not the green with flecks of color that you saw and most shields don’t last that long without recasting them. Of course it is only myth, but Lucius would pay attention to that. Many things in our world are considered myth.”

“I didn’t want his attention so soon,” Becca complained in an almost fake whiney tone. “We are not ready yet. I did want his attention later.” She changed the tone of her voice back to a normal calm one. “If my information is correct he has twin girls born ten months before Draco. The girls were squibs or appeared to be. I believe that when Voldemort found out they were girls, he drained too much power from Narcissa and caused them to be powerless. Identical twins are known to have great power. I was hoping Doc could help them with the sound wave therapy. But the clinic is not set up yet and some of the healers will not be back till the first of the year. I was going to finish the edits you made to the book about Voldemort and send one to Lord Malfoy with a way to contact us. His is one of the pureblood lines that die out first. Voldemort was not really very nice to him and his family. ”

“How did you find out about Lucius’ twin girls? That is a carefully guarded secret and I only found out by accident…” Severus’ sentence trailed off as he realized what he had said. “Ah, I understand, my counterpart also found out didn’t he? Lucius hid the girls in the muggle world to keep them safe. I take it he didn’t succeed.”

“No one succeeded Severus, that’s why I’m here.” Becca said a little snappishly. “Our world was on its way to being destroyed between the two, Voldemort and the old coot as you call him.” Becca’s attention was drawn to Harry as he moved into Severus’ arms. “I am tired, seems as if I need more sleep these days, I will see you two later for dinner.” She turned to leave the room, but turned back to them and said, “Tomorrow we will have to go get the car.” Then she sighed and walked down the hall to her bedroom.

“You know Harry; I think we need to pay more attention to Becca. She is carrying our child and is putting out an enormous amount of energy in getting all this set up.” Severus began to rub Harry’s back as he held him.

“I agree. We also need to take a more active interest in Prince Conglomerate and get the other things going that have been put off till our arrival. It seems there are an awful lot of people counting on us. That way we can take some of the pressure off of Becca.”

“Yes, but don’t forget we have managers that can do a lot of the work and who know more about it.”

“I want to contact Remus and give him the werewolf’s cure. Every month he goes through the change and it takes its toll on his health. We have the means to help him. I would consider it a very special Christmas present. It would not even have to be me to get in touch. Maybe we could use the name Prince Pharmaceuticals and tell him it is a test cure and then give him a job.” Harry was really talking out loud at this point and forgot Severus was holding him. “I just want to do something to help; it would be a really big thing for him.”

Severus placed his hand under Harry’s chin and lifted his face for a kiss, to give the younger man some reassurance and comfort. He knew Harry hated leaving his Remus in the other timeline, he felt he had deserted him somehow and wanted to make up for it. He decided that he would help Harry get through this and it was clear from today’s events that they would not be able to be completely at ease through the holidays. They needed to start planning now.

Severus called Kreacher and when he popped in he noticed that the little elf was not as smartly dressed or as happy as he had been recently. Not that he was usually exuberantly happy, but now he looked depressed. The elf bowed low and asked Severus what he could do for him. Severus explained that he and Harry had not slept in their quarters before and didn’t know where their bedroom was. They wanted to take a nap before dinner.

“Right this way, sir. Kreacher will show you.” Harry and Severus followed the little elf to their quarters. They had a sitting room, bed room and bathroom all to themselves. Severus thanked the elf and turned to go into the bedroom when he turned around. “Kreacher, is there something wrong? You seem to be preoccupied today.”

“Master Severus, Kreacher just elf, cannot say what is wrong.”

“Kreacher, I am asking what is wrong and I want you to tell me.” Severus demanded.

“Master Severus sir, Kreacher be knowing that in two days Master Regulus will be dying in the cave. It was a bad death, very bad.”

“Thank you Kreacher, I will see what we can do to help.”

“Thank you, sir.” Kreacher bowed and was thinking he didn’t have much hope of these people saving his former master. They were not Death Eaters and would not support Regulus as he was a Death Eater. But they had helped many people and he knew from hearing conversations here and there that they had some power that no one else knew about or had access to.

With that, the elf popped out the room, but was looking a little happier than when he came in. Severus walked into the bedroom and there was Harry asleep on the bed completely clothed with his shoes still on his feet. He looked so peaceful but Severus could see the dark circles under his eyes indicating his exhaustion. He carefully pulled off his trainers, transfigured their clothes to pajamas and crawled into bed, curled around him and went to sleep holding him tight to his side.

They all slept through the night, completely skipping dinner in their exhaustion.

Severus woke in the middle of the night, and he was hungry. Not for food, but for the young man attached to his side. The older of the soulmated pair shifted slightly to get a little friction on his aching and aroused member that wanted some attention. Yes, it was demanding attention NOW. Severus shifted again to rub up against Harry.

He reached for his wand and magiked their clothes off so he could get a better view of the young man in front of him. The younger of the two was sleeping peacefully but Severus wanted him to wake up. He gently turned Harry over so that his back was facing the older man's front.

Severus then put his hand into the drawer and found the same kind of lube that they had used at the safehouse before. The liquid silk that they had used during the bonding. He opened the bottle and poured a generous amount onto his hand. After rubbing a little into his hands, he spread Harry's legs to get better access to what he wanted. When he slid his thumb into the portal that he achingly wanted to enter, he heard Harry whimper as he entered into his body. As he moved his hand back and forth (wishing it were another part of his body) he added a finger to the mix and Harry whimpered again.

Without waking up, Harry started to move with the motion of Severus' hand. Yes, he was almost ready. Severus quickly slathered the lotion on his cock and placed it at the portal that was waiting to encase him. He whispered softly into Harry's ear "push love" and he plunged into the warmth and tight heat that was his to enjoy.

Harry woke up with a shout, having been prepared without knowing it. When he woke, Severus was already pushed in as far as he could go and Harry's aching member was already leaking precum on the sheets below him.

Severus slammed into his prostate. "Arg, Oh, Umm," Harry mumbled into the pillow as his lover slammed into him over and over again.

The more experienced lover had a hold of the hips he was slamming into and Harry knew he would have bruises by the morning, but it felt so good. The little bit of pain Severus was causing, kept him from his completion. It was distracting him even as he raised himself better on his knees and moved against Severus to get more friction, more depth and more of Severus with every hard pounding thrust.

"Don't you dare come before I tell you, Harry. You are at my mercy and mine to command." Said the silky voice above his ear. When another hard thrust came the voice said "You", thrust "Are" and hard thrust "Mine" then the voice said "NOW" and the two of them released at the same time.

Harry fell to the bed as his lover and bond mate pulled out and slid to the side. He used a quick cleaning spell and pulled Harry into his side again and they went back to sleep.


A/N I can't believe that there have been over 5000 hits to this story. I want to thank all my readers for being there and encourage you to review if there is something you like or don't like. I can handle a little critique sometimes. I want to thank the following people who have been so nice to send a review my way.
tamakolee, suzuki1969, morganabythesea, nari-chan and momoko who always sends me chocolate cake. yum. I try to answer all my reviews in person, but sometimes I don't have an email address. Thanks to all of you.