A Rose by Another Name

Lucius looked up the house, wondering how anybody could bear to live in a hovel like that. Spinner's End… what kind of name was that even, for a home. It sounded more like a big fat spiders sticky web. A few of the windows were lit from the inside and now it was a question of figuring out which of those windows was Severus. He felt somewhat silly for doing it, and he'd been very reluctant about asking Regulus for Snape's address. A question that had earned him a good round of taunting, which in turn had earned Regulus a good round of boils on his arse. But now it would be all over his friends and they wouldn't leave it be. He knew they wouldn't, now that they finally had something on him.

He looked around furtively, but the street was empty and still, most of the houses further down the road dark. Then he mounted his broom and slowly floated up to the first windows, putting enough distance between him and them, so he wouldn't be spotted. The first window was the kitchen where he saw Mrs. Snape doing the dishes, the Muggle way. Lucius wrinkled his nose and looked past her at the man sitting at the table behind the woman. That had to be Mr. Snape then, the Muggle. He looked a lot like Severus.

But he wasn't here to do Muggle spotting. He was here to talk to Severus and somehow make up for the abrupt and harsh interruption of their last conversation. As expected, Abraxas had mellowed quickly enough, when the much hated Mudblood had left the premises and Lucius hadn't said anything about it. No reason to test the limits of his father's patience. Not just yet.

The next window showed him a small shabby sitting room. Merlin… Quickly he continued further up and there he was, Severus, bent over his desk with a mass of notes, the tip of his nose nearly touching the paper as he scribbled notes at a furious pace. Severus' entire posture spoke of deep concentration and Lucius wasn't sure he'd ever seen anything more … attractive in his life. Hovering, he closed in on the window until he could tap it lightly with his wand after casting a light Lumos. Just enough to enable Severus to see him.

At the small sound Severus twitched, making a long squiggly line up through his notes. Cursing a blue streak he looked around for the source, then very nearly squeaked at the ghostly apparition of flowing white hair and pale face, hovering in the dark night outside his window, lit up by an eerie light. After a few seconds he recognised the face and frowned, not sure if he should be angry or pleased that Lucius Malfoy had travelled all the way to his house just to see him. For now, he chose angry, or at least perturbed, and took his time collecting the notes and putting them away, so they wouldn't get caught by a gust of wind, when he opened the window.

Lucius smiled wide and warmly when the window opened and a rush of warmer air met him. The night was balmy and beautiful, and hadn't the house been so decrepit and hadn't a couple of alley cats not been fighting a few houses over, it would almost have been … romantic.

Romantic?

"Hello." He greeted Severus' grumpy expression, more pleased to see him than made sense.

"You say that a lot, don't you?" Severus growled, still aiming towards perturbed, but failing at the smile on Lucius' face.

"Well, I seem to be running into you in the oddest places, and saying hello seems to be the polite convention."

"Yes, and of course you've learned how to be polite from home." No, Severus wasn't going to let that one slide easily.

Lucius' smile faded a fraction. "I want to apologise for that. I thought they wouldn't be home all afternoon. But my mother felt ill and they came home earlier." How easily that apology flowed from Lucius' lips, almost as if he'd practised it. He hadn't but … he wanted to show Severus he was sorry.

"Hmph." Severus stared at Lucius for a long moment, torn between wanting to believe him and telling him to sod off. "All right. Why are you here?" It was uncomfortable doing this, knowing his father was just downstairs and any moment could stalk up the stairs to check out if he was doing any of that filthy magic. And Severus didn't think finding another wizard hovering on a broom outside his window would be any better in that connection.

"We didn't finish our conversation."

"Didn't we? I had the impression it was quite finished." That fluttery feeling was coming back to Severus' heart and he didn't like it. It made his brain stutter and his breath speed up and he didn't want Lucius to affect him like that.

"No," Lucius murmured and pushed closer with his broom until he was as close as he'd been the other day. "You were going to tell me what you liked, when we were rudely interrupted."

"And you think we're less likely to be interrupted here? You're daft. My father is downstairs and you're in a Muggle area. Are you aiming towards a career at Azkaban?" Lucius needed to leave, now. Before Severus did or said something he'd regret, and before his father came up the stairs.

Lucius laughed softly and reached out to steady himself against the window frame, his hand coming to rest right next to Severus'. "We don't have to talk… you could also show me?" A hopeful – probably in vain – tone entered his voice, because he hoped it might give Severus an incentive to act on the invitation it really was. Their faces were so close…

"Show you? Should I mime or perhaps draw a diagram?" Severus rolled his eyes and shook his head "Go home, Malfoy. Your kind shouldn't be here." No, Severus' kind and Malfoy's kind shouldn't enter each others' areas. That only caused trouble, always. He started to close the window, but was stopped by Lucius' hand on his wrist. A light grip, but still firm.

"I don't want to go home, Severus." Lucius used the grip to pull himself as close as possible, because he was losing the grip on almost everything else in this situation with Severus. Even on himself. "I want to kiss you."

Now Severus was getting really angry. Not only was Malfoy restraining him, he was also mocking him. As if that bastard would ever be interested in somebody like Severus "Let go of me!" He hissed and yanked his arm away, making Lucius bang against the side of the house and the window.

It hurt, but Lucius didn't let go "No. Not before you tell me what you were going to say before my father came in."

Something in Lucius' eyes made Severus hesitate, made his insides flip and his mind stall. "I wasn't going to say anything," he said without much conviction.

"Yes, you were… I told you I like you. And now I've told you I'd like to kiss you… what more do you want from me? I can't help I'm a Malfoy, just like it's not your fault you're a Snape. That's just how it is, but should it matter? What's in a name that holds more importance than what's in a heart? Does a rose not smell just as sweetly if called something else?" Lucius was walking a thin line of understanding between his ingrained prejudices, well learned through years of indoctrination, and his desire to figure out what Severus Snape was about, and also what that feeling deep in his chest and stomach when he was faced with Severus Snape was about. It felt more important than names and bloodlines. Far more important. But would Severus understand how far outside his own shadow Lucius had stepped just by being here? Was he even making sense, to himself?

Severus didn't know what to say to that. He didn't know what he wanted or what he thought of Lucius' words. It was completely surreal, to have Lucius Malfoy of all, outside his window, somehow proclaiming something that came very close to … love? But they'd only met two … no, three times now. No love came that fast, that only existed in books and fairy tales. But what's that in your stomach then? Wriggling around in the best way possible, when he's talking like that? Looking like that? Merlin, he didn't know! "I don't know."

Well, that answered exactly nothing for Lucius but judging from Severus' expression, that was probably the best he'd get right now. "I know though…even if I don't know why." There, now he was making just as little sense as Severus, and they were at the same level. That felt oddly good and Lucius sniggered softly, utterly amused in a nervous way. The butterflies were back and there was only one way to chase them away. Once more using his hold on Severus' wrist to pull himself closer, he closed the distance between them and pressed a crooked and awkward kiss against Severus' lips. It was just about the best kiss he'd ever had, dizzying and the kind that took your breath away and made your heart pound.

Everything stopped for Severus when Lucius suddenly closed in and kissed him. He couldn't breathe or move or even think. He could only think about how amazingly soft those lips were and how Lucius' nose felt, all squashed against his own. So awkward and so perfect. He panted, when Lucius finally drew an inch away, their breaths mingling between them. "You have to go." This was so much trouble, it couldn't happen. Severus couldn't let it happen.

"I don't want to," Lucius said, almost speaking against Severus' lips. "You kissed me."

"You kissed me," Severus insisted.

"Semantics. We kissed each other."

"You were holding on to me, I didn't have a choice."

"Bollocks, you liked it." A tiny smug smile played on Lucius' lips.

"No, I didn't." Severus scowled, because Lucius looked too smug, as if he'd won something.

"Yes, you did. Tell me honestly you didn't like it, that you don't like me, and I'll let you go." Lucius was bluffing, because he wasn't going to let go of Severus Snape that easily.

Honestly, Severus couldn't say that though. He could lie, easily even, but … but he couldn't. "I-"

The door burst open and Tobias Snape stormed into the room, within seconds grabbing hold of his son who was apparently … snogging somebody outside the window. His eyes widened when he saw who exactly that 'somebody' was. He knew that smug visage from Eileen's pictures. Malfoy's son. That little shit!

A boy, kissing his son. His son, kissing not only a boy, but also a wizard and even one of those wizards.

"Get away from my son, you filthy freak!" He screamed, livid in his drunken stupor, and grabbed the first thing that came to his hand. It happened to be Severus' inkwell, and it was hurled against Malfoy, who deftly ducked and didn't budge.

Startlingly immense protective feelings welled up inside Lucius when he saw Severus wincing and nearly forced into a crouch by the strong hold on his wrist. And he wanted nothing more than cursing that Muggle bastard to tiny little bits. But he couldn't do that. He couldn’t do anything and the helpless fury made him sneer "Take your hands off Severus! He's done nothing wrong!"

"Let me go!" Severus chimed in, trying to think past the pain in his wrist that felt either sprained or broken, he wasn't sure. And then things turned even worse, his mother's agitated voice joining in the fray.

"Let him go, Tobias!" she yelled, frantically trying to pry her husband's fingers off her son's wrist.

"Get away woman!" Tobias snarled. "Your little freak of a son is a ruddy fairy, going around kissing boys! I'm done with this! He's not going back to that school! It's corrupting him, making him strange in the head!" Seemingly forgetting all about Lucius, who was staring at the scene of domestic violence with disbelief, Tobias wrenched Severus' wrist even more, making the boy yelp in pain. "Give me your wand, boy! You won't need it anymore!"

When Severus failed to follow orders immediately, Tobias started tearing at his pockets and was soon rewarded with that hated stick of wood that held so much evil. With a triumphant expression he tossed Severus to the side and finally remembered Lucius again.

"And you're leaving, or I'll report you to that ministry of yours! I'm sure they have a special place for little faggots like you!" With that Tobias slammed the window shut and locked it securely.

Adrenaline rushed through Lucius' veins. He couldn't believe what he'd just seen. Why were they putting up with that? They could hex him… have the Ministry Obliviate him and push him back to where he belonged, among the Muggles. He didn't want to leave, but he was in a place he shouldn't be, and if Mr. Snape followed through on his threat, he'd possibly be in trouble. Either with the Ministry or – which was a more likely possibility – with father. But the last word wasn't spoken in this matter. He wasn't going to allow a simple Muggle do that to Severus, keeping him from Hogwarts and magic. That was just not on! Fuming with anger, he Apparated home and started firecalling his friends. They needed to deal with this, swiftly.