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Severus still could not clearly recall how he had come to be in this small, dark place—a cellar, he thought, but his thoughts scattered and reformed every time he tried to concentrate. He began to shiver, and couldn't stop.

They had given him a potion. He remembered that. But he couldn't recall faces, or anything other than being seized, and Apparated, and fed a potion, and then thrust into darkness. He didn't know where he was or who had kidnapped him. He didn't know if anyone else suspected where he was. He didn't know if the ones who had captured him would ever return.

He felt a high, thin whimper begin to work its way out of his throat. He didn't think he could stop it.

There was a rending crash from above. Severus found himself crouching before he thought about it. If the roof was falling in, then he had no other defense. They had taken his wand. He remembered that, too.

But instead, there was a chorus of screams, and then the door of the cellar burst open. Severus huddled, and felt fear creeping through his belly. The potion they had fed him, it must enhance emotions and physical reactions, he thought, and then his thoughts scattered again.

"Severus?"

Somehow, the voice was the right combination of calm and strength that he could cling to it. Severus turned his head, and focused on green eyes. He hissed a little in relief and extended his hand. Harry caught and held it.

"I'm getting you out of here," he said. "All of the people who took you are bound. I have your wand, too. I'll bring you to safety." He draped his arms around Severus and stood. Severus closed his eyes.

"How are you lifting me?" he managed to concentrate enough to ask.

"I've Lightened you. Now hang on."

And Harry Apparated, ripping straight through spells so strong that Severus felt them buck in protest against his body. He sighed and bowed his head further. It was good to have skin to rest his nose against, good to know that for the next little while, at least, he need do nothing.

"All of the people who took you are awaiting trial in Ministry holding cells."

Harry's voice was tight and low with anger. At least Severus was past the stage in which he might have thought he'd caused that anger. He nodded and swallowed the bowl of beef broth the Healers had brought him. It was irritating, to be catered to like an invalid, but better than the—

He banished the memory of the darkness. "Why did they take such a risk in the first place? Seizing me in the middle of Diagon Alley." His voice honked a little. He grimaced and swallowed more broth.

"Because they thought that you were enchanting me somehow. You had me under the Imperius or something. They were going to make you tell them how you did it, so they could control me in the future."

"How did you find me? Where was I?" Severus added. It wasn't as though he'd had any chance to look around at anything but a dark cellar. He studied Harry as Harry stretched out in the chair next to his bed before answering.

Harry's eyes turned to him, glowing so vividly that Severus shivered. Harry appeared too alive for the rooms of St. Mungo's. Green and black and scarlet, the color of his Auror robes, he shimmered. Severus partially blamed the amount of time he'd spent in the dark; his eyes hadn't yet fully adjusted to the light.

But he said nothing about that, because then the Healers would try to treat him for eye problems and keep him even longer than he had been already.

"They neglected to block the kinds of tracking spells that respond to the link between you and your possessions," Harry said, and bared his teeth. "All I had to do was take a chip from that pewter cauldron you use all the time and enchant it to follow you. And you were in a house that used to belong to the Rookwood family. One of them was a former Death Eater."

Severus nodded slowly. But although his body still ached, there was nothing wrong with his mind. "I haven't used that pewter cauldron in a month. I'm amazed the sympathetic magic link was strong enough for you to follow."

Harry hesitated.

"Harry. Trust me. You may say anything you want to me, and you know it." Severus surprised himself a little by how low and commanding his voice was.

Harry sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "You lost a little blood on the stones of Diagon Alley from the curse they used to bind you."

"And you tracked me by my blood." Severus held the bowl of broth a little tighter. "I did not know you were versed in such magic."

"I—don't tell the Ministry, please, Severus. It's illegal. And there are some people who would take any chance they could catch at to punish me."

"I will not. That still does not explain how you know it well enough to use it to find me. The incantations are precise and vary based on the amount of blood and what you intend to do with it."

"The blood arts just come to me so naturally. So does necromancy," Harry said, all but whispering now. He stared down at his hands. "I think it has something to do with these fucking Deathly Hallows. I never tried that kind of magic before the war or during it. Now it's honestly hard to Summon an object from another room instead of conjuring a spirit to do it for me."

Severus choked, and then went carefully back to sipping his broth. He watched Harry and saw the moment when he swung his head a little to check on the open door of Severus's room.

"No one is there. I would have alerted you if someone could have heard." Severus paused. He was not sure how necessary the promise was, but he gave it. "And I will not talk about this to anyone else."

Harry looked at him quickly, his lips lifting in a faint smile. "Oh, I know, Severus."

The words were plain and calm, a fact. Severus kept his eyes fastened on Harry, until the brightness seemed to become too much again, and he closed them. But then he was back in the darkness of the cellar, the darkness that he knew now was filled with spells to make him despair and panic so that he would not try to break free, and he began to shiver.

"I'm here." Harry's voice was as steady as it had been a moment before. Severus felt him take the bowl and set it aside. Then he took Severus's hands and lifted them so that his fingers rested on Harry's closed eyelids.

"What?" Severus managed to croak.

"If you need to touch something without looking at it, I'm here. You're alive."

Severus hesitantly let his fingers trail across Harry's cheekbones and down to his lips, lingering there for a moment. He explored his tangles of wild hair and the stubble that clung to the underside of his chin. Harry must be kneeling beside the bed.

"You couldn't even shave before you came in to see me?" Severus muttered, because he felt the moment had to be pierced by sarcasm, or it would become too much for him.

"So sorry. I've been here for thirty-six hours, counting the time I sat by your bed while you were asleep and the paperwork I was filling out so that the—the right things would happen."

Severus let his fingers stay on Harry's jawline for a second, and then released him and opened his eyes at the same moment. "The right things?"

"There were some Healers who were reluctant to treat you." Harry gave him a bright smile that had cutting edges. "I told them that was all right, they didn't have to treat you, but I was remaining here until they found someone who would. And there were some who wanted to know how you were going to pay."

"How did I?" Severus asked quietly.

"I did."

"I don't want to owe—"

"You remember how I released you from any debts that you felt you owed me? That's still in effect."

After a moment, Severus nodded. He knew he wouldn't win this battle, and he didn't particularly want to have it. He wanted to lie in his bed and look at Harry and know that he had come for Severus through everything, using Dark Arts he didn't want to use, and staying here and fighting for him when Severus had been unable to fight for himself.

Harry stood up and brought the bowl of beef broth back. Then he asked quietly, "Do you want something else to eat?"

"This is enough, for now."

Harry caught his eyes and gave him a crooked smile. Then he took his place in the chair and spoke in a soothing tone of internal Auror political squabbles that had nothing to do with former Death Eaters or Dark Arts until Severus went to sleep.

"I just want to know what you're doing with him, Harry."

"Being his friend."

Severus paused. He knew he was not supposed to hear this conversation. It was, in fact, half an hour before he'd been scheduled to arrive at Harry's house, but he'd finished the potion he'd been brewing early, and he was hungry and restless, the way he often was these days when he spent too much time alone. He'd Flooed in to Harry's drawing room, but apparently neither participant in the quiet, intense argument had noticed.

Severus moved a little to the left, and could see Ginny Weasley standing with her back to him. No mistaking that fall of red-orange hair. She pushed it back with one hand and sighed. Then she said, "You said that at some point we might get back together."

Harry stood facing her, arms folded, at such an angle that he couldn't look into the drawing room and see Severus. His face was set in those faint lines that Severus had reason to know were no less stubborn for their faintness. "I said that because I believed it at the time. But it's been three years and I think you're probably right, and we're not."

"I love you, Harry."

Harry closed his eyes and breathed in, hard, which allowed Severus to mitigate the flash of contempt he felt. "I know, Ginny. And I know I asked for time to think. But—I don't think I want to get back together."

"Why not?"

Part of Severus relaxed. That wasn't the voice of a woman devastated by the end of a love affair. It was the voice of a child who hadn't yet let go of a false hope, or a favorite toy. He still listened eagerly for Harry's answer.

"Because I'm not in love with you." Harry's brilliant green eyes were as forthright as Lily's had ever been, and locked on Weasley with a gentleness that Severus burned to appreciate, if Weasley would not. "That's what it comes down to. You need to be with someone who loves you as much as you love them."

"Because you're gay?"

"That's part of it, but not all of it."

Weasley nodded, several times. Her shoulders were hunched. Harry seemed to know what she needed, the way he had with Severus when he was just recovering from the darkness of being kidnapped, and didn't touch her. He watched her with bright compassion, but no longing.

Part of Severus relaxed even more. He didn't know how he would have dealt with it if one of the emotions had been longing.

"All right, Harry," Weasley finally whispered, sounding as if she was on the verge of fainting. "I—wish it had worked out."

"I know. So do I, sometimes." Now Harry did go up to Weasley, put his arms around her, and kiss her on the top of her head. "And I hope, if you're able to be friends with me, that you'll tell me."

"How could I reject such a perfect gentleman as a friend?" Weasley asked, quietly enough that Severus didn't know how much of it was sarcasm. She started to pull away from Harry, and Severus cast a hasty Disillusionment Charm on himself. Weasley was so caught up in her emotions that she might not notice him even if she did storm past him on the way to the Floo, but he didn't want to risk it.

She stormed past. Harry watched her go with sadness on his face. When she had vanished into the flames, he shifted a little.

His eyes locked straight on Severus. "So, you heard most of it, right?" he asked.

He's an Auror, Severus, of course he would hear it when his Floo activated. Severus dropped the Disillusionment Charm and moved further into the kitchen. "I was truly standing there for only a few minutes."

Harry sighed. "Well. Sorry you had to witness that. It's not a pleasant scene for anyone."

"It is never pleasant to see a friend in distress," Severus agreed. If Harry assumed from that that he was talking about Weasley, he was welcome to. He didn't need to elaborate, just as Harry didn't need to ask him to keep that scene to himself.

"Well," Harry repeated, and then shook himself firmly. "Anyway, I had chicken on the menu, but it's going to take me longer to cook it than I thought. I hadn't started it when Ginny came over. Do you want to wait while I cook it? Or would you rather go out to some restaurant somewhere?"

"If we go out, you know what the public will think."

"I don't care what they think."

And that was true. Real. Not simply an impetuous or dismissive answer. Harry even sounded confused, as if he wondered why in the world Severus would assume that would be a concern for him.

Severus half-smiled at him. He was a better man than he had been. More analytical. "Then let us go to the Scarlet Cloak. I've heard reports of their pasta bolognaise for some time, but I've never eaten there."

"Because it's as expensive as hell," Harry muttered, but he was smiling fully. "Sure, just let me change my robes."

Severus's eyes followed Harry as he walked into his bedroom. He was a better man than he had been, but not so good that he would not let Harry pay for the meal.

And not so good that he did not hope word of this would get back to Weasley sooner rather than later.

Severus relished in the quietly smug look on Harry's face for a long moment before he asked, "What happened today?"

"I bested Auror Oron in a duel," Harry said happily, and wandered over to poke at the mushrooms that Severus had simmering in a pan. "Can I help with this?"

"Sometimes, there is nothing you can help with," Severus told him sternly, and slapped his fingers with a ladle when he persisted. "In Potions or cooking. And that is the Auror who cursed you?"

"Yes. The one who doesn't like me? Well, now I've beaten him, and I'll be moved to a different class because there's nothing much he can teach me." Harry chortled and stretched. Severus followed the motion with his eyes, making no corresponding motion to look away. It wasn't something he and Harry spoke about, but it was there. "And he can't say that I cheated, and I haven't alienated him from the house-elf cause, either."

"Congratulations, Harry." Severus gave one more expert stir to the beans and stepped away with a nod, then began to float various ingredients towards him. Harry watched and licked his lips as the onion, tomatoes, and chili peppers went past. Severus tried not to look too closely at his lips. "Are you going to talk to Aurors above you, at last, if his grudge continues?"

"Oh, I might if he does something else, but right now, I'm not sure what he would do."

"Perhaps curse you again. It is never wise to leave enemies alive behind you."

"We're not in a war anymore, Severus," Harry said tolerantly, and stretched out so that his back rested against the counter and his legs were splayed in front of him. "Seriously, can I help with something?"

Severus snorted as he combined the parched corn, mushrooms, and other ingredients. "Now it only needs to simmer for an hour, bar the spices I'll be adding to it. And you can do something for me." When Harry cocked his head and an eyebrow, Severus added, "Keep those lovely legs of yours from being marred with another curse."

"Lovely, are they?"

Severus looked up and nodded. "Yes, they are." Then he turned back to preparing their dinner.

Harry spoke little in the next hour, which was how long it took until all the vegetables and the bread Severus had made were ready. But he kept looking, slow speaking glances of the kind he'd never given before, ones that brushed over Severus's hands and face and legs and arse.

Severus turned the conversation to bees, which he'd been keeping lately for the taste of their honey in both his meals and his potions, and Harry relaxed and went along with him. But his eyes still spoke more than his mouth.

It was there between them now, acknowledged. Severus could not wait to see what would come of it.

"Happy birthday."

Severus blinked in shock at Harry as he opened the door. His cloak was soaked with both rain and snow, and he didn't appear to be holding a gift, for all that it was the right day. "I do not recall telling you the date," he said, stupidly.

Harry smiled at him. "I know. I saw it when I was reading up on all your records for the trial. Can I come in?"

"Of course," Severus said, a little dazed to think that Harry should remember it four years later, and moved aside. Harry stepped into the entrance hall and dried his cloak with a flick of his wand. "And—you are here to give me a present? To invite me to birthday dinner?"

"All of those," Harry said, and laid the cloak aside on the old spindly chair that Severus kept in the entrance hall for that purpose, and cupped his hands beneath Severus's jaw, smiling at him.

Severus went dry-mouthed. He knew what was going to happen, but he stood there and held Harry's eyes as if he did not. Harry leaned in, slowly, still smiling, and then kissed him.

One of Severus's hands stroked the air like the beat of a dislocated wing. The other found its way to Harry's shoulder and held on firmly. Harry deepened the kiss, pressing him at last back into the wall. Then Severus's flailing hand found purchase as well, this time on Harry's back near his spine.

"Yes," Harry sighed, arching into the touch, but not removing his mouth from Severus's. "God. I wanted this." And he dived back into the kiss, making it clear that he still wanted it. And he kissed as if he always would.

Severus at last shed his surprise and managed to give as good as he got, investigating the hot taste in the corners of Harry's mouth and chasing his tongue when it retreated from his. He felt Harry's skin heating under his hands, and that was as great a wonder as the fact that he was here at all. He kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and still it seemed that he had not come to the end of the well of passion that Harry wanted him to drown in.

"God," Harry sighed again, and broke away at last, drinking air in heaving gulps. Severus watched his chest rising and falling, eyes stuck on the small patch of bare skin visible through Harry's carelessly open buttons. "Why did I wait so long to do this?"

"I do not know." Severus cleared his throat to get rid of the hoarseness in it. "So. That is, perhaps, a birthday gift. The dinner?"

Harry grinned at him. "You don't need to give me a chance to back out. I know this is what I want." And he reached up and began to unfasten the buttons that so intrigued Severus, revealing the top of a messy scar that must be where the locket Horcrux had burned him.

"Ou-out? I was not thinking that." Severus regained control of his stutter. It was ridiculous to sound like a schoolboy. "I want to know what—what you meant by the birthday dinner."

"I'm hurt," Harry said, tilting his head downwards and giving him a ridiculous look from beneath his eyelashes—ridiculous because his eyes burned too brilliant a green to give off an innocent impression. "You want another dinner? I'm not enough of a feast?"

Somehow, Severus lost his good sense. He reached out, clasped Harry's shoulders, and pulled him in to suck at his neck. Harry's head promptly lolled sideways, and he made soft, obscene noises there were at least as good as the noises he'd made when Severus had chased his tongue around his mouth. At least as good, Severus thought, lifting his head and licking a long stripe up the side of Harry's throat.

But he would need more experimentation to judge their relative levels.

"Come with me," he murmured, and curled his fingers strongly into Harry's waistband, pulling him along. Harry turned a little and shrugged, and his shirt fell off him. Severus froze, staring at some more of the scars on his chest, how they flexed in and out as Harry breathed.

"I do believe I would be more comfortable flat on my back if we were in a bed," Harry said consideringly.

That got Severus to pay attention and move them in the direction of the bedroom once more.

"How long have you wanted this?" Severus whispered against Harry's collarbone before he could consider the consequences. He knew asking a question like that was doomed to disappointment for the most part.

But Harry arched up underneath him and wriggled Severus's robes off, answering between bites and licks to his chest. "Since last year. That was—when I realized that we were—really friends and I didn't—have to worry about—you laughing at me or—breaking the friendship up—over it."

Severus sighed and let himself fall back. Harry finished undressing him the rest of the way, eyes gleaming at him, and then stood up to remove his own shoes, socks, trousers, and pants. "Why didn't you act on it then?" Severus whispered.

"I didn't see any sign of attraction back." Harry sounded painfully honest, but he had his back turned as he nudged his clothes out of the way, so Severus couldn't see his face. "It wasn't until recently that I did, and then I decided to plan a surprise for your birthday."

"And if I had not accepted?"

"It would have been all right." Harry turned around and showed him a shining face. "But now everything is doubly all right." And he flung himself into the bed and began to kiss Severus again.

As he lifted his hands to cradle Harry's face and then lowered them to run over the various scars on his belly and chest and abdomen, Severus had to admit he agreed.

Eventually, he did hold Harry away, breaking yet another enthusiastic kiss, so he could get a good look at him. Harry practically gleamed, toned and muscled as befit an Auror, and his cock was pale red and curved. Severus licked his lips as he looked at it. Harry grinned back at him.

"Whatever you want. After all, it's your birthday."

Severus did not bother answering. It was his birthday, yes, but the first of many more days to come, if he had any say in it. He lay back with his legs spread and lifted his eyebrows. Harry immediately rolled fluidly off the bed and as fluidly back on, locking his mouth so rapidly around Severus's cock that he shouted.

And then immediately wondered and felt jealous, because one didn't become this good at sucking men off without a lot of practice.

But the thoughts dissolved into a warm, whirling depth as Harry drew him in with a long, delicious swallow, and then played his tongue around Severus until the tickling pressure was likely to drive him mad. After that, Severus found himself writhing and letting out soft noises as Harry used the flat of his tongue, the tip of his tongue, his hands on Severus's balls, and even the insides of his cheeks to make the madness a reality instead of a likelihood.

Severus did try to hold back when he felt himself swelling in Harry's mouth, because he wanted to fuck Harry even more than he wanted to come down his throat. But Harry held him and tapped at his arse with one finger, and Severus emptied himself with a cry that was more like a bellow than anything he'd uttered in years.

Harry sat back up, licking his lips and looking perfectly pleased with himself. Severus gave him as much of a dark look as he could when most of his body was limp with satisfaction. "I hope you know that I won't be able to fuck you until tomorrow."

"Actually, that's not true," Harry said brightly, and flicked his wandless hand, Summoning over a vial of something thick and dark green from what must be his cloak. "This is the other gift. Happy birthday!"

Severus knew what it was the moment he uncapped the vial and sniffed at it—illegal in Britain and highly tempting to brew anyway. He would have done it more often if the ingredients weren't so restricted. "Harry. Where did you get this?"

"Knockturn Alley."

"You went down there—"

"So we could do a bunch of things today, yes."

Severus tried to glare. Harry only laughed at him and then tilted his head. "You're not allergic to anything in the potion, are you?"

"I am not. Perhaps I only did not want my lover to be arrested for buying a Priapus Potion."

Harry's face flamed up like a candle, and he took a deep breath. Severus watched his cock drip for a moment. "Well," he said finally, voice shaking a little. "Anyway. This way, you get to do everything you want. I was careful. I know that no one saw me buying it."

"That you know of," Severus said, but he let a hand snake out to cup Harry's arse as he swallowed the potion.

The effect was immediate, burning away his languor as if it were fuel and restoring him to full hardness so fast that he hissed. Harry immediately climbed up to straddle him, spreading his legs wide and tilting his head back.

"The preparations," Severus began.

"Oh, I already did them before I came here," Harry said carelessly, and before the image had time to stun Severus, he was sinking down onto Severus's cock with a long noise that resembled a moan the way the moon resembled the sun.

Severus's senses turned into a cascade of information. Warmth, tightness, closeness, Harry smiling at him, the small motions Harry made as he rocked backwards, the nails biting into his shoulders, yet more moans—

Somehow, Severus regained enough control not to come right away. He bit at Harry's shoulder, and Harry responded with another noise of delight. Then he rearranged them, urging Harry onto his back and lifting his legs up around Severus's ears. Harry watched him with a smile that never flickered.

"It is a good thing that—you are so young and flexible," Severus said, and his words slipped out into a grunt as Harry clenched around him.

"It is," Harry said, and let the last word trail off into a sound that would have struck Severus as a yawn if he didn't know better. Then he began to fuck himself helpfully back on Severus's cock until Severus got the message and moved in turn.

All the time he sank into that brilliant heat and grip, Harry was smiling up at him, digging his fingers into Severus's arms, urging him along with breathless words that kept changing into grunts of his own effort. And Severus was losing himself, losing control of his mouth to gasps and the words he wanted to speak to more gasps.

"It doesn't matter," Harry said at one point, rocking back and forth to meet Severus's thrusts again. "Lose it in me."

Why that should make so much sense, Severus didn't know, but he pushed into Harry at the words and came. He shuddered, head bowed, his grasp on Harry tightening to the point that he knew it must hurt. Harry made no sounds of pain, only shuddered in pleasure as he clenched down, and then abruptly found his own release. Severus blinked as some of it splashed onto his chin.

His head swam, and it really was too much effort to keep balanced like this. He eased himself to the side so that he wouldn't fall on Harry, but that was as much consideration as he was capable of. He heard someone sucking in long, greedy pants of air, and was astonished to realize it was himself.

"So," Harry said, some time later, when he lay with his head on Severus's chest and had cleaned each of them up with a few easy charms, "worth it?"

Severus turned his head and kissed Harry's throat, the easiest part of him to reach from here. Harry smiled –Severus could feel the way his cheek flexed—and let his hand rise to trace lazily down the middle of Severus's chest.

"Are you sure that you want to be bound to me?" Severus asked, when some more time had drifted past. "I am a possessive man. I am not certain I deserve you, but I do not intend to let you go."

"Who talks about deserving and that sort of shit anymore?" Harry asked, with a yawn, as he turned and nestled under Severus's jaw. "Only people still obsessed with the war and keeping track of debts, that's what. Let's keep track of how much pleasure we've given each other, instead. I like that better."

So did Severus. He wrapped his arms around Harry and tried to memorize how his shoulders curved, how his spine moved with his breathing, and how close he nestled, in case—

But no. Harry would not disappear with the morning. Severus ought to know, having seen the dedication Harry brought to everything from brewing the Wolfsbane Potion (he had succeeded at last) to freeing Severus from danger and defending him from disrespect.

This will endure.

Severus lowered his head with a noise that might have been a purr if someone had dared to call it that, and he did lose himself in Harry.

This was a time for joy now, not regret.

The End.