Title: Questions and Answers

Pairing: SS/HP

Rating: R

Summary: Harry Potter has a lot of questions for Severus Snape. HP/SS Slash

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Disclaimer: Fan Fiction. Slash fan-fiction. That means a relationship between two men. I don't own Harry Potter or Severus Snape. I make no money from this venture.

AN: Written to be a one shot piece. There will not be a sequel or a prequel.

Harry lay his head back down on the feather down pillow resting against the headboard. He was sweaty and sated, satisfied for the first time in days. The long lean body beside him moved in sleep. Black eyes glittered open and awake.

"Go to sleep, Harry," the smooth voice ordered. Harry smirked and sucked in a lung full of smoke into his mouth. The man laying beside him raised an eyebrow. "I told you not to smoke those damn things in my room. Put it out or get out you little cretin," the voice sneered. Harry bent over and let the hazy smoke out in one long slow breath. It dissipated instantly.

"Smokeless, odorless, tasteless... yet somehow still satisfying, and they give you no reason to complain." Harry replied leaning back again and taking another drag. The tall body beside him suddenly sat up. A quick hand reached up and snatched the rolled cigarette from his hand. It was snapped in half and burnt to ash in a matter of seconds.

"Yes, maybe so. But it is still my bed in which you lay and it is still my quarters. I have asked you not to do it and yet you persist in smoking just to infuriate me!" a scowl this time. Harry watched in amusement, as the ash was blown away and forgotten by the pesky draft that always swept through the dungeon at this time of night.

"Why does it really bother you, Sev?" Harry asked settling down further in the bed.

"It will kill you." Severus answered laying down again.

"Everyone's gotta die sometime..." Harry whispered under his breath. Severus pretended not to have heard. "Yes, well I don't see why the idea of such an outcome bothers you so. I am just another fuck, aren't I?" he teased, turning on to his side to look at his bed partner. Severus looked at him blankly.

"Yes, but you are so terribly good at it, I'd hate to have you keel over and die before I've grown tired of you," he answered. He moved away then and closed his eyes to sleep. Harry rolled over and balanced his head on his hand, elbow pressed into the mattress. He concentrated on the scars that cris-crossed Severus' chest like a child's drawing. Here and there, with no semblance of order or design. He traced one that curved along a thin collarbone before turning suddenly down ward like the tail of a 'y'.

"Where'd you get this one?" he questioned. He wasn't expecting an answer. Severus never answered when he asked him questions. He merely stared straight ahead or asked a similarly personal question in reply.

"When did you first realize you were an orphan?" he asked this time. Harry stilled beside him. He didn't usually answer such questions. For some strange reason he felt compelled to this time.

"I was three. I fell and cut my knee on the sharp rocks that lined the garden. I sat on the grass crying for nearly an hour, calling for my mother. I though my aunt would come out. My knee was all cut up, and it was bleeding pretty badly. She never came. After a while the bleeding stopped and I hobbled into the house. My aunt and uncle were sitting at the dining room table eating dinner, feeding my cousin." Harry's eyes had glazed over. He continued tracing the scar at the base of Severus' throat. "I came in and I walked up between my aunt and uncle. 'Mama?' I asked. My uncle backhanded me so hard I hit the wall behind me. 'We're not your parent's boy. Your parents are dead. Get used to it!' he sneered at me. That's when I knew..." his eyes seemed to refocus suddenly. He looked up at Severus, his eyes hardened them Severus had ever seen them. Harry's finger stopped tracing. His hand lay limp on Severus' chest. "That is when I knew that I had no parents. That was when I knew that my 'family' would never love me. That's the first time in my life I can remember feeling my heart break, because I wasn't wanted. I wasn't cared for. If I had sat out on that lawn and bled to death they would have been happy to be rid of me."

Harry pulled away and sat up on the side of the bed. Severus lay motionless behind him. Harry bent and pulled on his jeans. Standing he tugged them up and fastened the two large trousers. He practically swam in them. He pulled his shirt on and fastened his belt into place. He slipped into his shoes and shook out his student robe, folding it over his arm. He turned back around and Severus was sure he would see tears in the green eyes. He saw only emptiness.

"Ron will wonder where I am. Goodnight, Professor," the boy said softly, walking quietly from the room. Severus Snape sat in a stunned silence, unable to formulate a response.

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The next time Harry found himself in bed with Severus Snape he whimpered as the faded scar on his left knee was licked and kissed and sucked at until Harry came, screaming out his lover's name. They never spoke of it again. However a new tradition was born.

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The next time they spent the night together, Harry asked another question.

"Why did you join the Death Eaters?" he whispered into Severus' neck. The hand that was running up and down Harry's tan back didn't falter. Severus merely asked his own question and pulled the thin body closer.

"Why is it that you never go home for the holidays?" Harry curled tighter into his side, but wrapped an arm around the pale chest in an effort to get closer.

"They don't want me there. They hate me even more now, than they did when I was still a child," he whispered. Severus nodded and ran a hand through messy black hair.

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"Harry?" he whispered, voice breathless and tired. Harry grunted turning over onto his side with the kind of effort only the thoroughly fucked can manage. He smiled a little, brushing long lanky hair back behind Severus' ear.

"Yeah." he whispered.

"Spend Christmas vacation down here with me..." was the quiet reply. The smile faded for a moment and then returned full force. Harry grinned and pulled the older man's face down and in for a thorough kiss. He pulled out of it and nodded.

"Okay," he whispered, letting his head come to rest on the nearby shoulder. He closed his eyes and slept.

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"Sev, why did you really hate my father?" Harry whispered.

"Harry, why don't your clothes ever fit?"

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"Sev, what does it feel like when he calls for you?"

"Do you remember anything about your mother and father?"

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"Why do you hate Voldemort so badly?"

"Why did your muggle 'family' despise you so much?"

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"What happens at a Death Eater meeting?"

"What do you dream about at night?"

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"Why is it that you always leave one light on?"

"Why is it that you can't ever follow the rules?"

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"Why don't you ever answer my questions?"

"Why don't you ever stop asking them?"

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"If you had one night to live, what would you spend it doing?" silence. "Aren't you going to ask me something else?"

"I would spend the night with you in my arms, just like you are right this moment..." came the whispered reply. Harry had no answer for that.

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It was the next morning when Harry woke to a searing pain in his head. He sat up and looked around him. Severus was sitting in a chair in the corner watching him.

"It's starting.." he said quietly. Harry looked away before nodding. He began to gather his things together. He had his shirt half tucked in when strong arms curled around his waist from behind.

"Sev?" Harry whispered. He was turned with in the strong arms. A hand cupped his hand and moved it to the familiar scar tracing along his collarbone.

"There was wood and steel flying everywhere when the house on Godric's Hollow exploded 16 years ago. Because your Mother didn't love me. Because she loved him instead. Like my souls is being burned right out of my body and being replaced by a painful burning poison. Because he killed her and he tried to kill you over and over again. I'll never tell you, because no one should ever have to go through that. Because I'm scared they will come for me in the night and I'd like to see them before they strike. Because some questions, Harry, are better left unanswered or better yet never asked to begin with. I would spend my last night on this Earth just as we did last night, because you are everything that matters to me now." Harry felt tears burn in his eyes as he listened to each of his questions being answered. He hugged the older man to him tightly.

"Do you love me?" he whispered.

"Yes."

"Enough to live through the coming battle?"

"If I must..."

"You must, because I have another question to ask you and you'll need a while to think it over and to answer me truthfully." Severus pulled back to look down at the boy he held. "Will you spend eternity with me?" he asked. Severus' brow furrowed. His mouth opened to reply. Harry leaned up and kissed him. He pulled back and ran a hand through Severus' long hair. "Later, tell me later..." he whispered. Severus nodded. Harry smiled and placed a single chaste kiss to Severus' lips before turning and walking away, wand out and ready as he left the safety of the dungeons.

End.