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

6

Harry paid off the taxi and the wind caught at his hair as they disembarked from its roomy depths with the smell of the sea strong on the air. They went out onto the dock and watched in amazement as the gigantic crane sorted through the stack of containers standing on the dock, plucking one after another off the pile until they reached number 18476/HB7489/GB/NZ and it was swinging over their heads before being gently set down on the flat dock. The dock manager emerged from his office with a large bunch of keys, “Here she is, guys”, he called and Harry and Severus rushed up eagerly as the container was double checked before being unlocked. There she was. Harry had a tank of fuel with him. He climbed into the container and filled Bessie’s fuel tank from the can. She started first time which made Harry smile and he drove Bessie out of the container and into the sun. Severus was on the dock with their bags waiting for him as he drove up. Severus did a distinctly uncharacteristic thing before he climbed aboard. He kissed one of the headlight casings and slapped it forcefully as if welcoming Bessie back into their lives which made Harry laugh. He knew then that his husband really did love their conveyance and thought of her as a third member of the family.

They drove off the dock and to the nearest campsite before stopping and sorting out their accommodation, unpacking their trunks, putting everything away again. It was like coming home for both of them and they both glowed as they fixed her up again. The wardrobe door was clear of cards again, ready to start Severus’ next pictorial travelogue, the quilt was still on their bed but she needed a good airing out after being stuck for the best part of three weeks in her tin box. She smelled of the sea and oil and rope and diesel. They were all in Wellington at long last and had shaken off the shackles of Britain again.

They had stayed in the cosmopolitan city, sampling restaurants and small hotels, one of which they had found in a battered gay guide in the library. They had wandered about, visited the museum, sampled a little discreet nightlife while they awaited their home’s arrival but after climbing aboard Bessie, Harry did his usual thing and headed straight for the coast. The night was chilly as it was autumn on this side of the planet. Their first night they parked up overlooking the sea and made love on the empty beach, rolling over and over in the sand getting all sweaty and covered in it before bathing in the sea and heading for bed, lying together and talking in low voices as sleep gradually claimed them. They slept with the sound of the breakers roaring in the near distance and rejoicing in being just the two of them again, smiles plastered on their faces as their eyes closed.

Harry had a particular itinerary that he wished to follow while they were here attached to a trilogy of movies that he loved. He was up for exploring all over but kept this itinerary in mind as they drove being awed as they found a particular spot or other exclaiming, “Wow, this is where he filmed the ‘Edoras’ scenes”, or, “This is where he recreated the ‘Mines of Moria’, fucking incredible”. Severus saw nothing else for it. He was going to have to see these films to truly understand where Harry was coming from, and so, one night, fuelled with beer and copious quantities of the local ‘dagga’ that they had purchased from a bunch of diehard hardcore ‘surfies’ that they had encountered, he sat through the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy and had to agree, the locale was as much a star of the films as the characters.

They found a random beach that was free of everything but themselves. Perfect white sand, seagulls, some dunes and them. Harry lit a small fire on the sand built around with rocks and they cooked chicken and rice over it and fed each other shamelessly. Harry clambered onto Bessie and fetched a couple of the speakers out onto the beach before putting music on. Severus rolled some joints and they partook heartily, swigging local beer as they did so before Harry hauled his husband to his feet and they danced in the total emptiness with nothing save the full moon as witness.

Harry bit on his lower lip as he gathered Severus into his arms and they kissed under the moon, their moans lost under the music as they communicated their desire to each other and Harry began to strip his mate slowly as they tangled in the dance before throwing him down on the pile of clothes and he was taken lovingly at the edge of the ocean, plundered by Severus’ cock over and over until he screamed his release to the moon, Severus following closely as he jabbed into Harry with short brutal thrusts as they got all of the last few weeks out of their systems and finally relaxed again into ‘travel’ mode, rolling around on the sand, locked together. Sleep eluded them that night as they rested in each other’s arms, letting the mood, the moon and the music captivate them until they were ready for another go, Harry turning Severus onto his back before fucking him ruthlessly to the roar of the surf and the plaintive chill-out tunes. They pissed into the rising tide before climbing back into their cosy home and sleeping for Britain, locked tight in each other’s arms. Severus murmured, “This is travelling, light of my life”, and Harry could do no more than agree totally. The trials and tribulations of the last few weeks fading into memory for them both.

They had sent no e-mails, made no phone calls. They needed to be cut off for a while. They needed to be together with nothing to distract them save the lure of the open road, the empty beaches, the silence and the mountains and they both fell in love with the country they were in, the lonely calls of the mountain birds, the seagulls which they observed while lazily holding each other as they passed joints between them, beer, love, food and the total joy of travel. They had hardly seen any of the classic travel guide sights but were delighted at what they had seen. A cool country full of lovely people who didn’t give a shit that they were two middle-aged queers on a journey, no-one knowing them from Adam, and Harry was happy again, feasting on his anonymity and his husband every chance that he had. Their libidos were at full stretch again as they pulled off the road wherever and fucked each other full of the sheer joy of living, hands all over each other, fingers twining in hair, fucking each other either in bed or in laybys or on the empty beaches.

For such a big country, they were amazed by how sparsely populated the place was. “I want a home here”, Harry declared one day. Severus grinned, “Surely we cannot afford to buy a property here”, to see Harry’s cheeky grin, “Lover, I told you, we can live wherever we want. I’d like our primary residence to be in Holland on the houseboat but I’d love a house here too”. Severus came the nearest he ever came to ‘giggling’. “Harry, we can’t buy a place everywhere we see, surely?”, he queried, to receive an enigmatic look from his husband, “Oh, yes, we can. Trust me. If we want a house on each of the five continents then we shall have one. I told you, love, that we are loaded. Now you will find out what that really means. Let’s face it, property never really devalues unless there’s some major fuck-ups in the economy and New Zealand has an extremely stable economy. I want at least five houses and for us to travel between them spending several months in each. The space has to be big enough to invite our friends from time to time, but for the majority of it, I want to spend time with you, just like this, in the peace and quiet. I can see you with a potions lab somewhere out here, making use of the local ingredients which we have to trek into the mountains to find. I’m sitting on the beach while you are brewing and when you are done, you come out to find me, ripping the book from my hands before fucking me into the sand. Sounds like a good life to me”.

Severus could feel the grin spread across his face, “Really? Just like that?”. Harry laughed, “Yup, exactly like that. We live this nomadic lifestyle across the globe, fucking and driving and ferrying ourselves about from one place to another and slowly start to get to know this globe that we live on. I know, a far cry from the confines of the wizarding world, but this is my dream, not just travelling but living it. I never had a true home unless you count Hogwarts and the wizarding world is just too narrow for me. I think it is for you too, now, now that you have lived it for a while, tasted it, the freedom”, he was laughing as he finished this statement and Severus couldn’t help but agree as he took Harry into his arms and kissed him before Harry wriggled away and turned careless cartwheels on the sand. Severus tried and managed one or two passable ones much to his own delight before capturing Harry again and pressing him into the damp sand kissing him senseless. As they came up for air, he muttered, “Lead on, Harry, and I will follow you, anywhere. Love you my darling”, to hear a groan above the roar of the surf and feeling Harry’s eager weight press them into their sandy bed for the night. He grinned around the tongue in his mouth and capitulated. He really would follow this man anywhere he suggested. They had the whole world at their feet.

Harry was murmuring a poem as he came back to consciousness. One of Tolkien’s that they both loved. He began,
“The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began
Now far ahead that road has gone, and I must follow if I can
Pursuing it with eager feet until it meets some larger way, where many paths and errands meet,
And whither then I cannot say”, or something like that”, Harry chuckled as he took Severus into his arms and they lay there, intoxicated by more than just the beer and the local weed. “Fuck, I love you, Mrs Snape”, Severus exclaimed, grinning. Harry growled softly, “Love you too, Mrs Potter. Love you too”, before they crashed out wrapped in blankets and each other, on the edge of the beach at the edge of the sea, at the edge of the world.

****

A dull roar approaching them was what awoke Harry just around dawn. The noise became louder before Harry identified it and froze. It was the sound of several very large motorcycles....and they were coming their way.

Harry shook Severus awake, “Come on, love, we need to be out of here”. But it was too late. As Severus was shaking the sleep from his eyes, he was momentarily blinded by a headlight swooping across his vision causing him to have spots behind his eyes. He flinched and threw his hand over them, squinting at the bright light.

He heard Harry murmuring, his voice on the edge of panic, “Bikers!! Probably some outlaw club or other. Shit!!! They eat queers for breakfast and spit out nought but the bones. Have you got your wand on you?” Severus suddenly aware of the danger they were potentially in, shook his head, “No, it’s on the bus”, and cursed himself once again for his laxity. Old age really was making him soft.

Harry was frantically pulling on his jeans beside him, “I’ve got mine”, he flung Severus the keys, “I’ll head them off, you start her up”.

Severus caught the keys clumsily. He had never had any part of the driving of Bessie and he felt close to panic. He had started a few cars on the abortive driving course that he had attended but he knew nothing about diesels. He gathered the blankets around him and undid the door, climbing aboard.

Through the windscreen he observed Harry, wand drawn as he fumbled the key into the ignition. He turned it. Nothing. Harry turned and yelled something but he didn’t make it out. He shrugged through the window then noticed a couple of the bikers making their way over to them and he communicated the fact with a wave and a point over Harry’s shoulder.

Harry spun round watching the men approach. Severus could see the tense set of his shoulders and once again struggled with the ignition. Then he remembered, there was a button Harry pressed, something about a ‘solenoid cell’ if he recalled correctly, and lit the tip of his own wand before he realised what he was doing. He saw the button and extinguished his wand immediately, the men were approaching Harry across the sand. He pressed it and began to count to twenty as he had seen Harry do on numerous occasions, close to panic now. He felt a bead of sweat run down the side of his face.

He tried to discern the situation as he held his finger on the button, watched the two leaders converse with Harry. He could see a little of the tension in Harry’s shoulders start to ease and his wand-arm lower to his side. He couldn’t hear anything due to the new hi-tech screens and windows that Harry had fitted while they were back in England. At the count of twenty, he turned the key and the Perkins leapt into life making all in front start slightly.

He glanced out of the front to see all three men smiling, the two strangers seemingly impressed by the roar of Bessie’s prodigious engine. Another glance through the windscreen saw Harry shaking hands with one of the bikers before he turned and climbed aboard.

“These guys are cool, Sev”, Harry chuckled over the engine. He leaned over Severus and turned it off, brushing his lips over those of an amazed Severus, who muttered, “I thought you said these people ate us for lunch or something”, as he pulled away deliberately. Harry laughed, “They are a gay motorcycle club and they always stop here, apparently, on their way to the main meeting, which is up there in those mountains”. Harry led Severus to the window and showed him the peaks rising behind them.

“They’ve invited us to join them, more because we are a pair of gay Poms than that we have a motorcycle which we patently do not have, but these guys seem okay, so what do you say? Shall we follow them up there?” Severus reeled from all of this, “I thought that they would want to kill us or something”, he muttered faintly. Harry smiled, “Come on, hop off the bus and let’s mingle”. Severus gave his lover a sidelong look, “How did you figure out that they were gay so quickly?”. Harry laughed, “Easy, two guys rode on each motorcycle. If they had been straight, then the guys would all have their own bike and more than one of them would have had a woman riding pillion. Standard straight biker culture, don’t you know?”

Severus shrugged, “You know I don’t, Harry, This is where I ask you to lead me”, this last said in a small voice. Harry tugged Severus up from the driver’s seat and into his arms, “I won’t let anything bad happen to us, love. I’m too much of a damned Gryffindor for that. If we have to then we’ll hex the lot of ‘em, but I think this lot are friendly, but let’s take our wands for good measure. As a conciliatory gesture, I would also suggest taking some food from the shopping we bought the other day as they’re getting a barbie together on the beach”.

“Are you sure this is all right, Harry?” he asked, dolefully. Harry grinned up at him, “I have a funny feeling that it will be. Trust me, okay?”. He assembled the precious fresh tuna steaks that they had purchased for the next few days and wrapped it all up before grabbing Severus’ hand and descending the steps, locking and wandlessly charming their home.

By now, there was an impressive fire built on the beach. Severus noted that the pit had been lined with stones and that these people knew how to build a responsible fire at any rate. As they drew nearer, a man rose from the circle around the fire and came to greet them. “You must be the husband then”, was his direct approach to Severus, who, slightly dazed by the man’s bluntness, simply held out his hand, “Yes, Harry and I are on our honeymoon. We have been married for less than a fortnight”, to feel his hand grasped in two, “That’s wonderful”, before he turned to the others seated around the fire, “Hey guys, these two are honeymooners. Properly married and all that”, to receive cheers from all around.

The rest stood in slow motion and approached them, holding out friendly hands to shake. The first man who had approached them introduced himself as Mike and as another equally long-haired and tattooed man sidled up to his side, he threw an arm around him and presented him as Matt, “My partner of over ten years”, he said proudly, “And it’s a pleasure to meet another couple of fags on the road and travelling. You’re Poms, right?” Severus looked for guidance to Harry, who grinned back at the man before snaking an arm around Severus’ waist and drawing him close, nodding, “Poms are English, yeah?”, he answered, “Well if that’s so, that’s what we are. I hope the term isn’t too rude, ‘cos we’re not your typical English or British travellers”.

Matt looked at the vehicle they had just exited, “This your home?”, he murmured, nodding his head at Bessie behind them and the two nodded, “We have lived in her for the best part of two years around Europe and now we are here, discovering this beautiful country”, Harry replied and Severus secretly praised his husband for his diplomacy. “Indeed”, he added, “And a most excellent home she makes too”. One of the other men spoke, “Wow, you sound like one of those British fifties actors, all the correct accent and all”. Severus smiled slightly, “Well, I was brought up in the British public school system, received pronunciation and all. I do hope that it doesn’t offend”.

The men laughed, “’Course not. We don’t get to meet that many Brits in this neck of the woods and to meet two queers on a major travel is a rarity. Welcome to our humble land” He held his hand out to the two, “M’name’s Jed and my boyfriend here is Sammy”, he pulled a man to his side and both Harry and Severus drew a sudden breath.

The younger man at his side wore leathers and boots as befit his role as biker. His platinum hair was longer and his chin was stubblier, but there was no mistaking the look. He was the spitting image of Draco. Jed saw the surprise as it crossed the men’s faces, “Anything wrong?”, he asked, a thread of uncertainty in his voice. Harry was the first to recover, “No no”, he said, shaking his head, “I’m sorry, Sammy, but you look a great deal like someone I used to know. It was a bit of a surprise, that’s all”. Harry paused, “Well, okay, you look a lot like my previous partner who died nearly three years ago. Forgive us the surprise, but we were all very close”.

The man stepped closer and shook their proffered hands, “Pleased to meet you. I hope the memories that I may stir are happy”. Harry was delighted at the man’s manners. “I was always led to believe that New Zealand natives were possessed of good manners and now I know. A pleasure to meet you too, and thanks for the welcome to this lovely land”.

The formalities over, they were invited around the fire and Harry gave over the food from Bessie, “A little contribution if we may”, he muttered as he handed over the tuna steaks to approval from all around. They were offered a log beside the fire to sit on and accepted graciously. “So, you are a gay riding club? Tell me how that works. I must admit that when we first saw you, we were a bit afraid. After all, being queer isn’t always the best thing when faced with a bunch of biker lads such as yourselves. I feel we’ve been fortunate here”, Harry said on a relieved outbreath.

Another man who introduced himself as Chris spoke, “Well, normally, gays are outside the mainstream of biker culture, but we just went ahead and formed our own. This is a trip we take every year to the big gay rally in the hills. We celebrate a bit later than the Mardi Gras celebrations around the rest of the world. We’ve heard about the Pride weeks in England. I bet the Manchester one is a sight to behold, but this is our very own version out in the hills here. It’s a blast. Will you join us?”

Severus spoke up, “I had a house in Manchester for many years and have witnessed the Mardi Gras in the city many times and I can assure you that it is probably better than any of the stories that you may have heard about it, though probably not as wild as those seem to be the stories that spread the fastest”, he finished on a note of amusement.

Harry looked round at him, surprised. Severus threaded his arm around his beloved, “I had a house at a place called Spinner’s End. It was situated in an inner city suburb of Manchester”. Harry leaned into his side, “I had heard of it from Professor Dumbledore in passing but never paid it any thought”, he murmured.

They turned to their newfound hosts after a short and wordless consultation consisting of various ‘looks’. “We would love to see your version of ‘Gay Week’ is. I bet it’s loads of fun. In England, it tends to rain a lot on August Bank Holiday and that’s when Mardi Gras is held, but rain or shine, the procession is always great”. Chris replied, “Glad to have you on board. We spend a night or two here then head up into the hills. It won’t be like your English celebrations, but we have a lot of laughs”. Harry wound his arms around his husband and kissed him on the cheek, “Sounds like fun. D’you fancy it, my love?” Severus cast an eye around the assembled company, “So long as no-one makes me feel old, then count me in”, he replied, to general laughter around the fire.

Jed laughed, “Well age is ignored here. For myself, I boast forty seven summers and Sammy here is forty two if that makes you feel any better. We are not adolescents or anything”, Severus returned, “I myself can admit to sixty four and Harry here to forty three”, to a chorus of ‘No’s and ‘No way’s. And after that, they all relaxed. Harry clambered back aboard Bessie and retrieved beer for them all, glad they had stocked up before they left Wellington. Another man to whom he hadn’t been introduced yet was busy cooking the steaks over the fire on a grill pan, drizzling what looked like a mixture of spices and oil over them as they cooked. More food was fished out of the panniers of the motorbikes to join the offerings from Severus and Harry and a full-scale meal was being prepared.

As the night progressed and the gathering became more convivial, Harry was asked by several of their new companions to be shown around their home, which he did willingly, at a nod from his husband, who had ‘read’ them all. They were all impressed with the wood-burner and the large double bed at the rear. Harry pointed at the wardrobe door. “Normally, Sev keeps a postcard record of our travels tacked here, but as we’ve only just got here, we’ve yet to add anything. Our last journey was all over this door but we’ve archived it into an album. This is a clean slate again that is begging to be written upon”, he mused. Jed sniggered, “Then let us be the first to leave an impression here”, before raising his mobile and snapping a picture with Harry and Sammy examining the boot space and the library that deeply interested him.

“Are you two into the Occult?”, Sammy asked shyly after he had read the spines of many of the books that they had stashed in the library. Harry had to think on his feet, “We have experienced many things of an Occult nature in our lives and we read about it to try and make sense of the things that have happened to us. We have had personal experience of poltergeists and the like”, he replied cautiously. Severus had climbed aboard behind their guests, “We certainly have, and as Harry says, we have needed to try and make sense of it all. Supernatural things seem to be attracted to us, my husband particularly”, he said. Sammy turned, “Well you certainly are different”, he chuckled, and the enquiries went no further for now.

By some means, Severus and Harry had wordlessly communicated that they didn’t wish to be realised as Magicals and they had passed the first test. Mike turned to the black-haired man, “Severus, that means ‘severe’ right. In Latin?”. The man smiled, “Quite so”, he replied, “Although, I obviously had no hand in choosing my name”, he intoned, in his richest and plummiest tones. The natives went wild for the accent and said so, “I reckon you could have been a teacher at one of those really repressive boarding schools that I used to read about when I was a kid”, Matt said. Harry tried to hide a laugh at this. Severus turned to the man and fixed him with one of his classic Snape sneers. “As a matter of fact I was. I even taught Harry here and I used to put the fear of God into all of my students”. Matt backed away slightly, “I can see that”, his voice quavered before Severus resumed his normal expression and grinned at him.

Harry laughed, “He certainly did. He was my, erm, Science teacher. But we didn’t get together until just over two years ago. I was quite grown up by then”. Mike sniggered, “I had the biggest crush on my Chemistry teacher at school. He was dark and brooding and totally logical, just like Spock out of Star Trek, you know?” Harry smiled, “I bet he didn’t have the pointy ears”. Mike sniggered, “No, but he did have the largest dick in the southern hemisphere. I finally had him in the bogs of a gay club in Christchurch, six years after I left school and for all his big dick, the guy was a complete moron”, he sighed, “What a waste”, to general laughter all around.

Food was eventually served to murmurs of approval all round. Severus pulled Harry to him as the food was handed out and they tasted it together, totally able to be themselves as they fed each other as they were wont to do. This seemed to meet with approval from all those around the fire, “So, what’s it like, you know, being married?”, Jed asked. “We’ve got civil contract laws over here but none of us has taken the plunge. I think after all the years of gay repression, that none of us are quite ready to plump for the marriage thing just yet, despite the fact that we have all been in our partnerships for many years”.

Harry looked at all the faces ranged around the fire and pitched his voice low, “Our previous partners died of a variant of the AIDS virus, you know, the newest strain?”, he ended on a query and all of them nodded, “It’s a bitch and people we know have died from it”, came a voice from the other side of the fire, a hint of tears in it. “Well, the four of us were very close. Sev and I and our previous partners. They caught it and we didn’t. They died and we’re still here”, Harry’s voice caught in the telling. “When I say close, I mean close, you know. We all ‘shared’, if you know what I mean?”, to affirmative nods. “Why they got it and we didn’t will probably remain forever a mystery. Medical science was never that good to queers, you know?”, to further nods of agreement, “Yeah, my first serious boyfriend had the first strain of AIDS and the medics just dismissed him, left him to die. I had to do all sorts to get the medics to take us seriously. We think we’re a fucking liberal country and they treated him like that.....”, the voice was one of bitter experience.

Harry inclined his head while maintaining eye contact with the man introduced as Chris, “Then you know what I mean exactly”, he continued. “There was no cure, no treatment. I think even to this day, there still is no way to treat it as it is the newest incarnation of the disease. We had to watch as our previous partners wasted away and died of this damn thing”. Harry’s voice was strong with an underlying quaver, that every man around that fire sympathised with.

“We needed to get away for a while. In England, I am sort of famous, more for who I am than anything I have done,”, Harry admitted, “I am the son of famous parents”, he stated baldly, “And we needed to be anonymous. Sev is also slightly famous in his own right for stuff that we both did in the past and the Press kind of hound us on days when there is no real news to talk about. We travelled all over Europe and decided that that wasn’t enough. We want to see the whole world, so here we are. Several thousand miles and at least four time zones away. It’s fucking brilliant”, Harry finished on an up note.

Matt was the first to speak after a long silence as the fire spat and crackled, “We are bearing the brunt of one of the most deadly diseases known to modern man”, he began in a low voice, “And the reason we have our shindig in the hills is to remind ourselves of who is still alive and who has succumbed. The numbers lessen each year as we learn to take care of each other, but there are still new names to add to the memorial roster each year. If you will join us, we will add your previous partners to that list and honour them in our yearly ceremony”. Harry felt his throat close as he regarded his new acquaintances, no, friends, he was sure of it. “That would be a great honour”, he said with all seriousness, “And we are delighted to be invited along. Just don’t ride too fast so Bessie can keep up with you all. If you are willing to accompany a heap like her then we will be glad to join you all”.

“Bessie is cool, not a heap, and you have done some serious work on her”, came the voice of Chris once again. “She was obviously a labour of love for you both. I bet that’s not how you first bought her, is it?”. Severus answered, “Harry bought her and did her up single-handedly. I had no part in her rebuild although he did it with me in mind. I used to have a game leg that he made allowances for”, he found himself admitting, “And she is the only home we have. We gave up and sold everything back home to do this, to realise a dream that both of us had always had, that our previous partners did not share. So here we are, on the other side of the world”, he couldn’t help but chuckle, “Enjoying a fire, food and conversation with folk of like minds albeit of a different culture entirely from whence Harry and I sprang, but here we are nonetheless. I call that synchronicity of a high order, occult influences or not. If your fellow jamboree-ers will have us along then we would be delighted to attend”.

The mood lightened around the fire as understanding smiles and laughs were exchanged. Several comments about Severus’ plummy Englishness were bandied about. Severus turned on his best accent as he replied. Harry called him, ‘An old fraud’ under his breath, but he grinned as he said it and was squeezed gently by a strong arm around him, “Sometimes it seems appropriate to play the ‘English’ card in your hand”, was muttered into his ear. Harry turned and kissed him on the nose, “Play on, sweetheart, play on”, he muttered, his mouth over Severus’. They indulged in a little closed-eyed kiss before collecting themselves and turning back to the circle around the fire.

More beers were handed out as well as the odd discreet joint. Severus rooted about in the bowels of Bessie before unearthing their own stash and handed it to Harry who did the honours, “Sorry we don’t roll with baccy or anything”, he demurred before handing out his own confection. Jed laughed, “I’d always heard that you Brits were an apologetic lot but now I’ve heard it all. Actually apologising for not indulging in a deadly habit. You guys are amazing. This one has no tobacco in it”, as he passed the blunt to Harry.

Harry took a couple of deep drags, stifling a cough, Severus rubbing his back, “Bloody hell, it’s a lot stronger than the weed we were sold, but as a spawny tourist I expected no more”. Jed chuckled again, “Well, there’s always one weed for the grockles and another for the natives”. Harry held the blunt as Severus took a couple of long tokes, holding the smoke deep in his lungs before breathing out nearly clean air each time. “Wow, superlungs”, came a comment. Harry chuckled, “Put that down to the swimming. Sev can do a length and a half of an Olympic sized pool without coming up for air. Whereas I can only manage a length or two on the surface of the water before I’m knackered. Sev is a regular miler”, he boasted, to a soft bat from his lover and smiles from the rest. “You Brits are so damned modest”, came a comment from a man who had been briefly introduced as Frank.

Harry blushed, “Nah, we just don’t do much, by and large”, he countered. Mike joined in, “Bugger off, you’re here aren’t you? You’ve travelled a fair bit. More than we’ve done, that’s for sure, except maybe for Chris, he was in the Navy for several years and got about a bit. I’ve always fancied seeing Spain”, he said wistfully. Severus and Harry exchanged looks once again, mindful of their last excursion to that country, “Yeah, we spent quite a bit of time in Spain; amazing place, and the people are great. I’d recommend it highly and the gay scene’s not bad, considering it’s a Catholic country, though you have to be in the big cities to find it, you know, Madrid, Barcelona and the like?” There were nods all around.

And so the conversations continued, gentle prodding of the newcomers and equally gentle questions from the incomers. The morning was well advanced before the final beer was quaffed, the final roach doused and the fire was dying down as the sun bathed the company in warm yellow light and Severus and Harry realised that several hours had passed. Tents were erected as the bikers formed into their pairs and retired for a kip. Harry saw to the remnants of the fire, making sure it was completely extinguished before he and Severus turned in again. They had started the night rootless wanderers and now had a destination and at least six potential new friends. Harry grinned as he settled into Severus’ arms, the curtains and blinds closed as the sun tried to sneak around them, “Looks like we’re off to a bike rally”, he murmured, to feel the rumble of his husband’s laughter against his ear, “Indeed”, was the only comment as his face was lifted and he was thoroughly kissed.

“I love travelling”, he mumbled as sleep overcame him. Severus held him tighter listening as his breathing deepened in sleep, he kissed the top of Harry’s head, burying his lips in salty, smoky scented hair, “I do too”, he murmured to his sleeping man, “But I could never have done any of this without you, love of my life”. And that’s how he woke later the same day, twined around Harry, with his face in his hair, breathing him in along with the salt tang of the sea just beyond their doorstep.