Seduction of the Snake God

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction based on characters and ideas created by J.K. Rowling, whom I worship, as my chosen goddess. I make no money and claim no ownership rights.

Seduction of the Snake God

The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can\'t wake up- DH Lawrence

Part One

Snake Hunting

After the final battle, there were official reports, that read like half rumour and half wishful thinking. Strangely, no one questioned those reports. After the reports were released, within days of the battle, the newspapers and the public consumed the candy-coated official version like an endless supply of Honeyduke\'s finest. No one cared about what really happened. Most everyone who was there, was wounded past paying attention to what was going on toward the end, or was already dead, or was now missing and presumed dead. What Harry knew of that final battle, had little to do with the official reports. They had documented the outcome correctly. Voldemort was dead.

Voldemort was dead, and not only merely nearly dead, this time, but really, most sincerely dead. Lucius Malfoy no longer had a mark on his arm, proving to some, that the Dark Lord was no more, proving to others, via Malfoy\'s lawyers, that Lucius was working for the side of the Light all along. Imperius was blamed for anything, that couldn\'t be explained any other way except with the truth. Perhaps Malfoy\'s money spoke more eloquently of his innocence than his armies of lawyers and their elegant arguments ever could. In the end, Lucius beat all charges against him. The press loved him. They could not help but notice that he was charming, well dressed, and unnaturally photogenic. Gilderoy who? It was as if the wizarding world had suddenly been bewitched by this new white knight so embodying the Light. No one seemed to care what he had done or how very much he had enjoyed doing it. Voldemort was dead. Perhaps in the end, that was the only thing that mattered to the general wizarding populace.

It wasn\'t the only thing that mattered to Harry. Unlike the official report, Harry knew that he hadn\'t killed Voldemort. Too bad no one at the Ministry bothered asking him, or even believed him when he went there to tell them. He had injured Tom, as badly if not worse than Tom had injured him. They had quite nearly killed each other. The final blow, the curse that had lifted Tom off the mortal coil, saving Harry from becoming a murderer or dead at nineteen had been dealt by the sneakiest bastard ever to stir a cauldron. Harry knew that despite prophecy, despite expectation, despite the contrary accounting of history, as set down by the Ministry of Magic, its officials, and their reports, Severus Snape ended the reign of terror known as Voldemort, and was then enveloped in a backlash or flash of some kind, that either consumed him completely, or removed him from the battlefield, never to be heard from since.

Though no one asked him, Harry felt compelled to tell everyone the truth of Severus Snape\'s heroics. He told Kingsley Shacklebolt, who laughed and said, \"that figures.\" He told Hermione, who asked if Harry was sure about what happened, then tried to tell him all the reasons he probably wasn\'t sure. He told strangers seeking his autograph. He told Rita Skeeter, who was responsible for much of the favorable press surrounding Lucius Malfoy. She said her career wasn\'t worth fabricating Dark propaganda. He told Luna Lovegood, whose father loved the story. No one read it; or if they did, had no reason to believe it. Even Harry\'s photo looked oddly faked.

Snape, it turned out, left everything he owned, which was, surprisingly quite a bit, to Harry, for no good reason that Harry could fathom. Harry figured it was Snape\'s twisted idea of a joke. He took Snape\'s personal property from Hogwarts, and placed it all in storage. He hired a caretaker for the house that had no house-elf. Two more did, and curiously, those house-elves had not left those houses, though the final Snape binding them, was purportedly dead. With a percentage of Snape\'s galleons, he made some investments which mirrored his own, that would accumulate interest, more than covering the caretaker\'s salary. What Harry did not do, was to treat any of the inheritance as his. He felt strongly, that Snape was out there somewhere. Harry wanted to be able to give his possessions back to him, whether or not Snape wanted them.

Part of it, he knew, was wishful thinking. He had lost too many. His heart wanted all the missing to be found, somewhere, eventually. Until then, he wanted to imagine Hagrid parking his dragon mount outside of some saloon, stopping in for a cold one. He wanted to believe that Ron was starting up a quidditch team, as a surprise to everyone, using a glamour to hide his red hair and freckles. He fancied to think Minerva was surfing in the South Pacific, while Albus danced the hula. He doubted any of them would turn up. He knew for a fact, that Severus Snape wouldn\'t, just turn up, that is, for all of the wizarding world to find. Snape, unlike all the rest of them, had too many good reasons to want to disappear. Harry had evidence of a sort, that unlike the rest of the missing, Snape actually was alive and well, and avoiding Harry, like any good spy avoids celebrity.

In the beginning, after the end, when Harry was still hospitalized, he had dreams about Snape, not just sexual dreams, though, he had plenty of those, too. Mainly, he had dreams about Severus on the move, travelling the shadows, Severus in hiding, eating, reading a map, Severus making potions in a dark room, Severus speaking in languages that Harry did not understand. Having nothing better to do, while confined to a bed, Harry tried sending messages to Severus, news and jokes, at first, then words of thank you, words of encouragement. \"I miss you. I-\" That was when Harry felt their connection, that he only half believed in, up to that point, surgically sever. That was when the dreams stopped too, except for the sexual fantasies, which Harry knew were the product of his own filthy mind. So that\'s how it\'s going to be! Harry really hadn\'t expected much different, or wouldn\'t have, if he had thought about it.

When he recovered, Harry made some arrangements, and decided to find Severus Snape. He didn\'t know why. Part of him, said, why not leave the man alone? Because Snape was always alone, another part of him answered. Severus could be alone, even if Harry were with him, Harry decided. Mainly, finding Snape was something to do, a quest. It wasn\'t as if he had to rush off and find a job or starve, or had a family to look after. He didn\'t have a purpose now, with Voldemort dead. He didn\'t even have a reason to get out of bed, except to use the loo. He needed a quest. \"A proper quest can keep a Gryffindor close enough to his own personal extinction, to limit the danger that he poses to others,\" Severus once told Neville Longbottom, before sending him off to forage for much needed potions ingredients during the war. That quest was successful.

Harry told Hermione about his quest. She had come through the war mostly unscathed, thanks to her books, thanks perhaps, to Draco Malfoy, who had pushed her down a flight of stairs, causing many of her bones to shatter, some needing to be removed and regrown. He didn\'t do it as a favor. There really is no end to irony.

Hermione thought his searching for Snape was a dreadful idea. He did not wait for her whole explanation why, or try to talk her around to seeing his point of view. What would be the point? What was his point? He didn\'t have one. Instead, Harry just apparated away, while she was still arguing with him, fishing a book out from under a large pile of them. When books were readily available, everything Hermione said had footnotes.

When everything he thought he would need and decided to take was shrunk and packed into a backpack, Harry started with a compass spell, and headed east. He apparated to southern Spain. Severus had a house there, which now legally belonged to Harry. Getting past Snape\'s wards, which started miles before he could even see a house, was a real bugger. Harry thought the house was beautiful, in a rather run down, isolated, dreary sort of way. It was only six small rooms, and a bath, an attic which housed a library, and a basement, which held a small potions lab. He did not recognize any of it from his dreams. It came complete with an ancient house-elf named Dolce, whose English was excellent, especially by house-elf standards. Dolce told him that she had not seen Snape or anyone, for that matter, for ten years. He believed her, especially because she willingly confirmed his theory that Snape was alive.

\"Can you take me to him?\"

\"Why would Dolce have to take you, if he wanted to see you?\"

Well, it\'s hard to get around logic like that. Harry stayed a night, asked the house-elf to tell Snape, if she saw him, that Harry was looking for him. He performed another compass spell, and headed east again. This time, Harry settled for a visit to Bill in Cairo. Bill and Charlie were the last of the Weasley Dynasty. Both of them were good enough not to blame Harry for that.

Bill, after the initial shock, settled into being a wonderful host. He gave Harry the grand tour of the small but vibrant wizarding community in Cairo, introduced him to some of his friends, took him to a Muggle hot-spot, and a couple of archaelogical sites, never once demanding to know what the fuck Harry was doing there, and never bringing up the war, which in and of itself was a feat.

Four days into the visit, he and Harry were having a simple dinner in Bill\'s flat, when Harry decided to come clean. He told Bill all about his search, leaving out his reasons for it, because Harry still wasn\'t clear on those, besides wanting to give back an inheritance, which just sounded mad. He did list the reasons he thought Snape might be alive. After that Harry realized that none of it sounded remotely sane, even to Harry. Strangely enough, Bill did not seem put off.

\"Now that you mention him, Harry, about a month back, I could have sworn I saw him!\"

\"Snape? Where?\"

\"The Wizarding Bazaar. It was only for a second. I felt like someone was watching me. You know that feeling you always have to ignore? I turned around, and through the crowd, I stared right at him, or someone who looked enough like Snape to give any first year at Hogwarts the shakes. Then just like that, he was gone. You saw what that bazaar is like, though. It doesn\'t take a ghost or a live spy to disappear without a trace in that sea of activity.\"

\"A month ago. He might still be here.\"

\"He could be anywhere. Compass spells, cast by a single wizard, aren\'t terribly reliable, Harry.\"

\"I know. It does seem odd, that since I\'ve been here, every time I cast one, it shows a different direction. Don\'t you think?\"

\"We can triangulate. Get three maps and another wizard to help. Cast simultaneously from different parts of the city. Charm the maps to record the results. Give you a good idea where to look. Even if he\'s here, I don\'t think you will find him, unless he wants to be found.\"

\"What would he be doing here?\"

\"What\'s anyone doing in Cairo? Well, except for you. We know what you\'re doing here. How long have you had this thing for Snape?\"

\"I don\'t know. I don\'t know what this \'thing\' is, Bill.\"

\"You certain about that?\"

\"Maybe I do love him, in a way. I owe him my life. I wouldn\'t have lived even to see the final battle, never mind survived it, if it weren\'t for him.\"

\"Snape is- an interesting man.\"

\"He killed Voldemort, not me.\"

\"Literally?\"

\"Oh yeah, he killed him. But it\'s not like we\'ve ever been nice to each other. We\'ve never had a civil conversation, never mind, shagging, or kissing, or anything.\"

\"Would you shag him?\"

\"Gods, yes!\"

\"Well, it\'s at least lust, then. A fine basis for the start of any relationship, in my opinion.\"

\"Could we triangulate, with the maps?\"

\"Sure! I\'ll get Melvin, good friend of mine. He\'s American. Works for the Cairo Wizarding Museum. Great with finding people- well, mummies at very least.\"

\"I\'m going out. I need some time to myself.\"

\"Fair enough. I know you can take care of yourself, Harry, but be safe, ey?\"