Muggle Mondays

The trek over to the lions was made very slowly. Mostly because Harry was bouncing around trying to see everything as they went along. And Hermione was busy trying to explain in hushed whispers that NO they would not be able to see a unicorn, chimera, or any other magical creature.

Draco was grousing about not being able to see a chimera. He had been surprised Hagrid hadn’t tried to bring one to class. Brought every other dangerous beast for them to study and the one animal Draco wanted to see…no the hairy brute didn’t bring it in.

Suddenly Harry darted back to Draco and grabbed his hand. He pulled them over to a stand where he bought a round of lemon ices for the whole group. After just a seconds hesitation, the wizards tasted the ice and deemed it acceptable. Except Snape who held it in his hand and looked at it like Hagrid had just handed him a flesh eating slug. No…on second thought, at least a flesh eating slug could be used in a potion.

At Harry’s excited look and Remus’ glare, Severus finally and reluctantly took a small taste of the treat. Actually, if he was honest, it wasn’t horrible. He had gone for a second taste when Harry gave him a blindingly, nauseatingly happy smile and he glared at the insufferable boy who had the temerity to giggle and turn back to Draco.

He was trying to figure out if he wanted to just settle for yelling at the boy or make a scene and dump the lemon…thing over his head when he saw the smile on his lover’s face. With a sigh decided to do nothing. When did he let himself become so easy-going? Somehow he knew it was all Potter’s fault.

Harry was bubbling with excitement. He was back at the zoo. Okay, so he wished the twins and Ron and Lavender were here too. Okay, so maybe not Lavender. She may be his wife but to Harry she was still the empty headed little twit that thought Trelawny was for real.

Even Snape was having…okay so not having fun but at least not glaring too hard. He licked his fingers clean from the treat, looking at Draco as he did it. He loved watching those gray eyes turn smoky with lust. Especially when he knew that his partner couldn’t do anything about it. Of course, it usually meant that he was going to pay later. But perhaps that was why he made sure to do as much as possible. He was just cautious of pushing him too far in public.

Just as Draco made a low growling noise, Harry jumped up and tossed his trash away. “Let’s go! Lots more animals to see!”

“Harry! Damnit! I thought you wanted to go to the lions,” Draco couldn’t believe he was actually suggesting that! But the way Harry had been darting around all afternoon, he thought he was going to get dizzy just trying to follow him.

“I do, but lets go over there first!” Harry spun around to talk to the group behind him as he pointed to a penguin show.

Everyone stood gaping at The-Boy-Who-Never-Grew-Up as he skipped over to the penguins. Hermione was the first to start laughing. Draco spun on her to yell at her but instead just stood there with his mouth open. Remus and Pansy then joined in the laughter. Snape smirked at him.

“He’s your boyfriend,” Severus said. “You go tell him to grow up. I’m not about to.”

It took Draco a moment to process the insult to get at the underlying affection. He started laughing. “Oh my! The day that YOU don’t want to upset Harry! I must write this on the calendar.” He sputtered with laughter.

Just then Harry came back to the group. “What’s so funny?” he asked as he stopped with a bounce. That set everyone off in laughter again. Except Severus who masked a smile with rolled eyes.

“Nothing of any intellect. Now lead the way so we can get this torture over with,” Snape sneered.

The group proceeded to make their way around the park again, but kept stopping so Harry could get an ice cream or some other nonsense. Snape half wondered if he was going to have to watch the brat chase pigeons from the sidewalk. Hermione and Draco agreed, Harry looked absolutely adorable in his child-like excitement. Pansy thought the whole thing was very weird, seeing Harry Potter like this. She had seen him take down the Dark Lord and now he was acting like her five year old nephew. Remus was pleased to see Harry in such high spirits, at the same time he felt deep guilt that Harry was 20 years old and never had these small excitements. James and Lily would be so proud of their son.

He smiled at Severus and took his hand. Normally Severus didn’t like public displays of affection. Today he seemed to sense his lover’s inner turmoil and squeezed his hand instead. “If the brat starts chasing butterflies, I don’t care how much it disappoints him. I’m leaving.”

Hermione overheard this and started giggling. She had brought her wizard camera with her, it looked just like a normal Muggle camera and had intended to take pictures of some of the animals to write a wizard book on Muggle entertainment. Instead she found she was to busy taking pictures of the group. The way everyone seemed to be enjoying the outing. She wasn’t about to tell anyone, but she had even gotten a great picture of Snape and Remus looking at Harry. The big shock was that Snape was smiling. She couldn’t wait to get that one developed. Collin Creevy was going to develop all her pictures. If she told him they were of Harry, he would probably do it for free.

They had spent the better part of the day at the zoo, finally having seen the lions and Harry seemed to finally be wearing down. That was when the first disaster struck. In the form of a giant koala bear. Or rather, a park employee in a koala suit.

The unsuspecting worker strolled up to the group and approached the worst possible person. He slid an arm around Snape’s shoulder. Somehow, the patented glare that had sent Neville to the hospital wing so many times for treatment of nerves seemed to have gone completely unnoticed. Hermione couldn’t help herself. She snapped a picture.

Remus saw the explosion coming. Quickly he grabbed his lovers arm, pulled him from the overly friendly “koala” and tried to distract him. When he saw Severus reaching for his wand he knew desperate action was required. He grabbed Severus’ head and kissed him.

It was a deep and through kiss and his hands slid to cup Snape’s ass. The shrieks and moans of the group around him drew him away. He looked up to see the mixed look in Snape’s eyes. One part said “I’m going to kill you for this” one part “I’m killing Potter for this” the other part said “I’m taking you home and you won’t walk for a week.”

Fortunately, the ‘koala’ had decided he should probably beat a hasty retreat and was no where to be found when Snape remembered what had prompted the kiss. Then he recalled the other part.

“Granger,” his attention turned to the girl. “Give me that camera.” His voice was very low and dangerous. She was slowly backing away.

He advanced on her with the promise of death in his eyes. Her eyes widened in fear. She quickly turned and ran from him. Snape was contemplating which curse he was going to use.

Draco knew his godfather well enough to know what he was thinking. And he also knew that he wanted a copy of that photo. No way was he going to let that priceless piece of blackmail go! He turned into his animagus form (He and Harry had worked on that for weeks last year). Without a single thought of where he was. It was a large, sleek black panther (Harry’s was a golden retriever). He darted after Hermione and grabbed the camera from her hands. He knew that he could run far faster in this form and Snape would be less willing to hurt him.

He was making a beeline for the exit when it dawned on him. SHIT! People were screaming and pointing at him. He was in a slight bit of panic himself. He had to change back, but where! He ran for a small group of trees at the edge of the park. As soon as he was hidden there he transformed.

A moment later a zoo worker carrying a rather large gun ran up to him and asked if he had seen a panther. Draco shook his head without saying a word. The guy wandered off looking for the ‘escaped panther’ giving him a warning to watch out for it.

Several minutes later the rest of the group caught up to him. They just followed the excited shrieks and cries of the other people.

“And they say Gryffindors rush right in without thinking!” exclaimed Hermione. “What in the heck were you thinking Draco!”

“He wasn’t obviously,” said Snape. “We had best be getting out of here before the Ministry of Magic gets here to clean up this mess.”

“NO!” said Harry. He was glaring at them.

“What now Potter!” Snape glared right back at him.

“I haven’t gotten souvenirs yet,” the group looked at him like he had lost his mind. “There is a shop right there. Please?” he whined. Draco clutched the camera in one hand and started snickering.

“What the hell? How much more trouble can it be? Besides, we’ll be in the shop. It will take a few minutes for them to get that far,” he stood up and grabbed Harry’s hand with his free one.

The rest of the group looked at the two boys who had obviously lost their minds. ‘Or maybe it was too much sun,’ thought Severus. ‘Or maybe the Dark Lord cursed me. That’s what it is. He cursed me. He was never defeated. This is just some nightmare to drive me insane.’

He continued these thoughts as he followed the two boys. All thoughts of getting that photo back driven completely away. And somehow he found himself carrying the bags back. Filled with three stuffed lions, three stuffed snakes, 6 t-shirts, a bunch of Muggle practical joke toys for the twins, magnets for Mrs. Weasley, Muggle playing cards for Ron, too many bags of Muggle candies that he had somehow agreed to take back to Dumbledore, a Muggle flashlight for Mr. Weasley, and a bunch of other useless garbage (except the excellent selection of animal teeth that he had purchased of course, those would be great for some of the potions experiments he was working on, especially the shark teeth). And somehow it was all worth it when he saw the first look of true contentment on Remus’ face all day. Besides, they would beat those Gryffindors at the next game. His mind was already working on a way to win.