You Know You Are Loved When A Gryffindor Loves You

8

Harry hugged his best friends as they left for the holiday. He watched as Ron and Malfoy walked off the grounds, they were apparating to their respective destinations. Just before they parted for three weeks, he saw Ron gather Draco into his arms and kiss him thoroughly, then saw them walk through the gates with their arms around each other. Harry chuckled as he realised what Ron’s gift had been to his lover. He shivered slightly until he felt warm arms around him and nuzzling kisses in his neck. “Our turn, Harry. Do you have what you need?”. Harry shook his head, “I need to go to Gringott’s first, I need some money for the holidays”.

They shrunk their trunks and stashed them about their persons, they were the last two to leave the school. Severus walked off the property, his arm around Harry, stopping for kisses along the way, then held Harry close just beyond the boundary and Apparated them both away. They were observed leaving by Albus and Minerva. “Good gracious, Albus, how long has this been going on? I had no idea”. Albus was still a bit disgruntled, but the two had been discreet. “Just over three months since they told me they had bonded. I’m not happy about it, but they more or less stuck the proverbial two fingers up at me. They do look happy, though, and I’m powerless to stop them, and, as you know, bonded couples should never be parted as they reminded me rather forcefully”.

Minerva’s eyes widened, “Was Severus difficult about it?”. Albus shook his head, “No, actually, it was Harry. He said he was sick of being treated like a killing machine or some such, his marks have been excellent this term and they have been discreet. I’m not picking up any gossip on the whisper stream although I suspect Harry’s two best friends know. This has been kept quiet, and, much as it pains me to admit it, in private, I’ve never seen either of them look so happy”. Minerva countered, “I suppose you did try and sever the liaison?”. The older man grunted, “Of course, they are student and teacher, I should have sacked Snape on the spot, but Harry threatened to go with him, thereby losing us our two best warriors not to mention a very capable spy. I’m caught between a rock and a hard place here”.

Minerva smiled as she watched them go, “It is about time that those two had some joy in their lives, they are our greatest assets. Bonded, you say?”. Albus nodded ruefully, “The eternal love bond, I think, but they have bright blue auras about them that can only be seen in the dark. I have seen it, although a large part of me still disapproves mightily”. Minerva shot him a cold glance, “So I suppose your disapproval is why Harry has chosen not to confide in me, his House Mistress. Albus, you are a manipulative old bastard. There is more to life than killing Tom bloody Riddle you know, things like love and happiness. Don’t let your bloody obsessions blight others’ lives, particularly those two, Albus, or I’ll have your bollocks on a platter,. They have had hard lives and will continue to do so while Voldemort still lives, but all of us need some light in our lives and I’ll thank you to remember that”, she sneered at him and walked off, her head high and her back ramrod straight.

Albus turned and made for his own chambers, his heart heavy. Perhaps he had just made some monumental errors concerning two of his favourite people and was in danger of alienating his most powerful allies in this damned war. He could only sleep that night aided by generous measures of his favourite brandy.

****

They eventually landed in a small but comfortable living room, the middle room of three in the house and disentangled themselves from the heap they had landed in, laughing at their new freedom. They stood up straightening their clothes then flung themselves into each other’s arms and kissed for Britain, laughing as they parted. Harry was brimming over with joy, “Come on, Severus, show me round, give me the grand tour”. He spotted the widescreen TV in the corner, “Severus, you have Muggle technology in this house. What gives?”. Severus grinned, “When in Rome, Harry. I have DVD’s and a sound system. There’s even a computer upstairs. I confess to being slightly addicted to a game called SimCity and something called Doom”. Harry was doubled over laughing. “Severus, you continue to amaze me. Show me round”.

The house was a three-up three-down terraced house in the middle of a district called Moss Side just to the south of the city centre. “We’re in Moss Side?”, Harry asked incredulously, “Isn’t this a dangerous area, all drugs and guns and the like?”. Severus shrugged, “Yes, there are nefarious activities going on here, of that I have no doubt, but my neighbours are wonderful people who keep an eye on the place when I’m not here. The lady to the left of us has two grown up children and the couple the other side of me have two younger children still at primary school. This is a lively, noisy, vibrant area with a wide range of people from many other cultures resident, mainly hailing from Africa or the Caribbean, some Asians and Chinese. It was the only area I could afford to buy in with my meagre salary from Hogwarts at the time, but I like it here, by and large. In the summer, life is lived in the streets, the sound systems are out and I can sit out surrounded by Bob Marley or lover’s rock. My life is very different to that in school, Harry, the cloistered starchiness, the middle class values. It sets me right again, coming home in the summer”.

Harry giggled in amazement, “You dark horse”, he exclaimed incredulously, impressed. “So you live like a Muggle when you’re here?”. Severus grinned, “Like I said, when in Rome. Come on, I’ll show you where to stash your trunk”. He took Harry around the house. There was a front room filled with books, a squishy three seater beanbag the only furniture apart from the walls lined with bookshelves, there was a large kitchen to the rear. Upstairs the main bedroom was at the front of the house, the middle bedroom was Severus’ study, containing more books and a large computer. The back bedroom was a compact laboratory with a small but adequate bathroom between the two. There was a tiny yard behind the house. Harry was shown where to dump his trunk. As he unpacked, he turned to see Severus shucking his school robes, flinging them hither and yon, changing into loose pants and a t-shirt. He adjusted the thermostat on the central heating to warm the house up a bit, then brushed his hair and tied it back, the shorter bits framing his face where they didn’t quite gather into the elastic band at the nape of his neck.

Harry changed quickly into jeans and t-shirt after a quick wash as Severus closed the curtains and shut the outside world out and took his lover into his arms. “Try not to be too shocked, Harry. I am a different person here. Do you fancy a beer? Are you hungry?” To which Harry answered, “Yes and yes. In no particular order”. Severus dived into the large fridge freezer and produced two cold cans, handing one to his beloved and snapping the ring-pull on the other, taking a good long pull, he hoisted the can slightly, “Joyce, you are a star. Cheers, girl. Joyce is my next-door-but-one neighbour who has the spare key. I send her some money from time to time. She cleans up before I get home and stocks the fridge for me, airs the house out, that kind of thing. We get on really well”. Harry was, to put it mildly, gobsmacked.

Severus went into the front room and picked up the landline handset bringing the remote set through, flicking through menus, “So what do you fancy, Chinese, Indian or there’s a great Jamaican place at the end of the street where Winston and his missus do a mean goat curry or brown chicken stew with rice and ‘peas’ which are really red kidney beans”. Harry laughed, “Jamaican sounds good. I’ve never tasted it before and I’ll try anything once. I’m starving”. Just then there was a knock on the door and Severus went to answer it, “Hey Joyce. Come on in”. He came back into the room followed by a pretty middle-aged black woman. “This is Harry, my boyfriend”. The woman looked Harry up and down, “He’s cute”, was her verdict as she introduced herself, “Hi bwai, I’m Joyce, we’re neighbours an’ I keep the house for ‘im while ‘e’s not ‘ere. Welcome to the Moss”, she stuck her hand out and Harry shook it feeling suddenly shy. She turned to his lover, “I got ya a nice bit o’ the weed if ya fancy some”, she dug into her jeans pocket and fished out a small snap top plastic bag out full of the pungent local weed. “Twenty bwai if ya wannit”, Severus grinned and handed over the cash without demur hugging his neighbour warmly, “Joyce, what would I do without you?. You look after me so well”.

“Don’t be a stranger, bwai, come and see us. I know Tony want ti see ya. You here fi Christmas? Come wit us to midnight service on Christmas eve? Yeah, bring di bwai wit ya. Gotta go, mi dinner nearly ready, gotta feed the troops, see yi soon”, she acknowledged Harry with a friendly grin and Severus let her out.

“Wow, Severus. I had absolutely no idea...”. Severus sank down to the comfy couch, dragging Harry with him to sit in his lap, “I know. I’m sorry to drop it on you so suddenly, but this is my life outside of school. If these folk understood the war we are embroiled in, we would have warriors with guns who would fight on our side, but I’m out as gay not a Magical here. They just think I’m an impoverished teacher at a sad boarding school and Joyce is always trying to get me to teach at a ‘proper’ school, somewhere that pays a half-decent salary, bless her. Come on, let’s go and get some food”.

Winston greeted them warmly coming out from around the counter to hug Severus, “An’ who’s de bwai ye ‘ave wit ye?”. “Winston, this is my boyfriend, Harry”. Harry held his hand out, it was vigorously shaken, “So, now, he not on ‘is own ni more. ‘E look ‘appy, bwai, yi good fe him. What yi want ti eat then, an’ Uncle Winstaan saht it fi ye, jus’ name it, bwai”. Harry looked confusedly at the menu. He had never heard of most of the dishes. He didn’t know ackee and saltfish from a hole in the ground. Severus ordered jerk chicken and brown goat stew with rice and peas with a side order of fried plantains and a dumpling each with a small pot of their special gravy. Touching fists with Winston he grinned and left the shop. They stopped at Mr Khan’s shop next door to pick up more beer and they went back to the house. “You know, Harry, if this was a warm summer night, there would be a table set up under that tree on the other side of the street with the older guys playing dominoes, there would be a sound system set up broadcasting laid back tunes to the neighbourhood, I love it here”, he grinned as he let them back into his house.

Harry fell on the food and loved it all, “Wow, fried savoury bananas. Different. Love this gravy, the dumplings are cool and the jerk chicken, mmmm, don’t get me started and why do they call beans ‘peas’?” Severus shrugged, “No idea, love, but you obviously like it”. Harry nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, love it. It tastes like home-cooked even though it’s bought from a take-away. It’s delicious and strange and different”, as he tucked in to the feast spread out on the floor before him. “So this is goat, pretty good, lots of bones but well tasty”. They were both sitting cross-legged before the gas fire, Severus watching as his lover sampled a bit of everything, “We don’t get cuisine like this at Hogwarts. I miss it”. Harry grinned around a mouthful of hot jerk chicken, “I can see why. Fuck, Severus, you amaze me”.

After the meal was cleared away, Severus dug out a pack of cigarette papers and rolled a couple of blunts with the weed, “Have you ever partaken before?”. Harry blushed and nodded, “This is how the Weasley twins make most of their money, they grow their own from Dutch stock, it’s fucking strong, but don’t say anything”. Severus grinned, “As if I would, but maybe you can get us some when we’re at school. I miss a smoke when we’re there. I had no idea”. Harry giggled as the grass hit him, “If they could hear this conversation it would take a mechanical digger to return their jaws to the correct position, not a pretty sight I assure you”, then giggled and leaned into his lover’s side to feel an arm snake around him, his chin lifted with a finger, then a deep kiss that nearly set the room alight. Harry’s eyelids slowly lowered in a way that drove his love wild. As he emerged for air, he murmured, “Take me to bed, Severus”. The man stood and held a hand out to his beloved who followed, up the stairs and into the front bedroom before flopping onto the comfy king-size bed and dragging his lover after him.

They slowly stripped each other, the passion rising, then Severus spread himself for his beloved who took him tenderly then hard and demanding until both bit each other to stop screams as they came. They came down with copious kisses and sweet loving and Harry knew this was going to be the best Christmas of his entire life as he withdrew from his beloved and drowned in the sweet aftermath, holding and being held, then letting his tiredness wash over him and dropped on Severus’s shoulder, exhausted, to be told how much he was loved, cherished, treasured, wanted.