Chapter Text
Harry Potter and Severus Snape: The Wizarding World’s Hottest New Couple or Its Most Bizarre?
As our paper reported, the trial of Lyra Bennet has begun. Refer to our article on page one for full details on the proceedings so far. However, the most interesting new development did not take place on the courtroom floor, but in the observation gallery around it.
Specifically in the seats occupied by Harry Potter and Severus Snape.
Reports from observers inside the courtroom say the pair were seen holding hands during the opening statements, and then for an extended period of time after. In fact, they remained clasped until just shortly before Judge Morrow banged the closing gavel.
Our constant readers, of course, are aware of the long history the two share, including many years Snape spent as Potter’s professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Since the Second War, the two have rarely been publicly seen in the same place at the same time. We ourselves only became aware of Snape’s former placement as caregiver to the three Potter children when the charges against Lyra Bennet came to light.
Are Harry Potter and Severus Snape now romantically linked?
Or was the hand-holding simply Harry Potter supporting Severus Snape as the victim in this case?
As neither party could be reached for comment, only time will tell.
The trial will resume next Tuesday with Molly Weasley expected to take the stand as witness.
**********
Severus pinched floo powder between his fingers then threw it down into the fireplace at Spinner’s End. The green flare of magic startled a curious Marlowe, sending him scurrying under the closest chair. Severus arched an eyebrow at the kitten, stepped into the flames, and said, “Harry Potter’s house, Lower Lodshurst.”
In a nauseating swirl of magic, Severus traveled through the newly established connection to the Potter country home. He’d not used it yet, but Potter had assured him it would grant him entry. And, indeed, a few tense moments later the floo network spit him out of the brick fireplace in Potter’s living room.
“Fantastic,” Potter greeted. “So glad it worked for you. I’d not had a chance to test it out yet.”
Severus stepped clear of the grate, dusting ash from his peacoat. “Thrilled to have been your guinea pig.” He’d much rather it have been him than Potter if something had gone wrong. Obviously. But all the same. “Did the Ministry officials not inspect it for you?”
“No.” Potter brushed at a missed spot on Severus’s shoulder. “Are they supposed to?”
“It seems logical that they would.”
“Not something they’re known for, unfortunately.”
True. Severus let it go with a nod of concession.
The living room was no longer empty. A set of sofas in brown leather sat shrink-wrapped in the middle of the room. There was a coffee table with matching side tables stacked on top. A pair of lamps. Propped in a corner was a rug rolled up tightly and bound with twine. Boxes lined the walls, labelled in Potter’s messy scrawl as belonging to either the office, sitting room, or kitchen.
Severus caught his hands behind his back and said, “Move is going well then.”
“It is, yeah.”
“Does our date today include us unpacking your belongings?”
“God no.” Potter buried his fingers in his dark hair and looked around the room. “No. Not at all. I am slowly getting that accomplished on my own. I fully plan to have this taken care of before I…well, before I ask again if you want to live here with us. Need to make it as enticing as possible.”
It was already incredibly enticing. Immensely enticing. Screw slow and steady, the itch beneath Severus’s skin yearned for him to be rash and reckless, to throw caution to the wind and tumble back into Potter’s life, consequences be damned. “Potter, you could have bought a rotting cardboard box under a bridge and I would still be enticed.”
Potter chuckled, a sweet, ringing sound only quieted by him nibbling at his bottom lip. “Good to know, sweetheart.”
“Hm.” Severus narrowed his eyes at the endearment, still undecided what exactly to do with it. “What do you have planned for today?”
“I brought my Nimbus.” Potter pointed to where it was propped by the back door.
Severus clenched his molars, hard.
“I know it’s cold, but we like to be wrapped in each other’s magic. So, a warming charm from you, an invisibility charm from me. A scenic fly into town, giving you the chance to see the area a bit more. Then, a little breakfast date in the local cafe. Very low key.”
Severus did enjoy the feeling of Potter’s magic, but flying on a broom was not ideal. And doing so as a passenger even less so. It wasn’t that he disliked flying, generally. He just much preferred to be entirely in charge while he did it, to rely on neither a charmed stick of wood nor another person. Severus glared at the innocuous-looking broom.
Potter tilted his head, brow furrowing. “You’re not…Severus, are you afraid of flying?”
“No.”
“Okay. You said that suspiciously fast.”
“No, I didn’t, and I am not afraid.”
“You can actually fly, like without a broom.”
“I am aware.”
“Assumed you were, yeah,” Potter said, a smirk sliding onto his mouth. “What’s wrong then?”
“Placing my welfare in the hands of others is not—“ Severus snapped his mouth shut. This was not even something particularly hard to deduce about himself, if one applied the smallest bit of thought, but admitting the weakness still felt like pulling out his own teeth. Potter smiled encouragingly at him, patient. Severus growled, said, “I’d simply prefer not to do it, if it can be helped.”
Potter’s gaze softened and Severus fought the instinct to recoil from the man’s blasted perception. Potter said, “I’d never let anything happen to you, Severus.”
Severus gazed steadily back, forced himself to hold Potter’s eyes, and conceded. “Fine.”
Potter reached out, squeezed both of Severus’s shoulders in a firm, firm grip, and bloody well winked at him. Severus huffed. Potter released him only to grab up his hands instead. Then they were out the back door and Potter was throwing a leg over his Nimbus, tugging Severus to climb on behind him.
Potter whispered an invisibility charm, Severus added one for warmth, and then Potter said, “Hold tight.”
Nestling in close, Severus wrapped both arms around Potter’s middle and curled his fingers into the soft weave of the man’s knitted jumper. Potter leaned over the front of the broom and Severus’s body curved forward with it.
“Three, two—“
“I don’t need a countdown, Potter.”
“—one.”
Broom angled towards the clouds, the two of them shot off like a bolt of spell light. A breath knocked loose from Severus’s lungs, and he caught it in his throat with a grunt. He clutched tighter to Potter, tucked in closer against his body, into the lean strength of him. Solid and steady and warm. Heat bloomed low in Severus’s belly that had not a thing to do with a warming charm. Potter was just so beautifully familiar in his arms.
Closing his eyes, Severus buried his nose in the soft curls at the nape of Potter’s neck and breathed. Filled his senses with the smell, taste, feel of Harry. Sunshine and citrus and man. Wind swept through Severus’s hair, buffeting their bodies and surrounding them. That coupled with the cocoon of their magic had an odd bubble effect, like the pair of them were trapped in a flurried snow globe. Contained. Safe as houses.
An unfortunate secondary effect was that Severus missed the view entirely. Lost in the comfort of Potter’s familiarity, Severus didn’t get to so much as glance at the passing landscape before their feet were touching back to ground. He uncurled his fingers, but didn’t let go. Not yet. Potter’s chest rose and fell beneath his hands, his back nudged at Severus’s chest with each inhale, exhale.
“Severus?” Potter whispered. “Alright back there?”
Severus unwound his limbs from Potter, pulled his face from the tumbled mess of Potter’s hair, blinked into the light, and looked around. Potter had set them down in a back alley, hidden away behind an enormous Muggle trash bin. He sniffed, regretted it, then said, “I’m fine.”
“Okay.” They dismounted from the broom and Potter shrunk it, stuffing it into his coat pocket. “This is the cafe. The back of it.”
“Obviously.”
Potter laced their fingers together and guided Severus from the alley. “I’ve not tried it yet so this will be an adventure for both of us.”
The front of the cafe was much nicer than the back. It smelled significantly better for one, like fresh baked bread, sweet cinnamon, and crisping bacon. Painted bricks and wide windows, the wooden sign above the door named the place Carlesbury Cafe. Inside, a counter and two employees greeted them. Another sign instructed them to sit anywhere they liked, and where they liked was a circular table towards the back, next to a window.
The menu was concise and to the point. A red-haired waitress took their orders. Potter, a full English with a tea. Severus, eggs on toast with a side of bacon and a black coffee.
They’d only just finished with the requisite small talk about what they could see of the village out the window when the waitress returned with their drinks.
“So far, so good,” Potter said after his first sip.
Severus agreed. He could easily see himself here on some Saturday morning with Potter and the children, enjoying his coffee while Jamie rambled on and Albus maneuvered careful bites of egg into his mouth. He could imagine Lily here, going from a highchair to a booster seat to balancing on her knees to finally sitting at the table properly with the lot of them.
Severus asked, “Who’s looking after the children today?”
“Ron. He’s suspiciously eager for you and I to work things out between us.”
“I wouldn’t lose sleep over his enthusiasm. I don’t find it the least bit suspicious.”
One side of Potter’s mouth tugged up into a smile. “Is that so?”
Severus hummed around another sip of coffee.
“Ron’s nearly as keen as Jamie, and Jamie is extremely keen for your return. He gets particularly so around mealtime. He’s not been afraid to let me know he finds me lacking in the kitchen skills department. Evidently, I can’t cook for shit.”
“Were those his exact words?”
“Ha-ha. No. He pokes at his meals dispiritedly. Sighs a lot, rolls his eyes a fair bit. Tells me all the things I did wrong.”
“He’ll complain far less if you let him cook with you.”
“I…it seemed like you and Jamie’s thing. I didn’t want to overstep.”
“Potter. He’s your son.”
“Well. I know, yes, but you...well, you know?”
What did he know? Severus’s heart skipped a beat, an entire actual beat, as he and Potter locked eyes across the table. Severus’s lips parted. He’d no notion what he’d say, but it didn’t matter because the moment was swiftly shattered by the waitress’s return.
The food was as good as the coffee, as good as the company, and yes, Severus knew this would not be anywhere near the last meal he shared with Potter in this exact spot. Likely it was only the first of dozens, of hundreds.
They finished with their breakfast, lingering over the emptied plates and second mugs of coffee and tea, nattering on about the kids, the house, Potter’s therapy, Severus’s books. When they finally pried themselves from the table, Potter paid and left a healthy tip behind. Severus helped Potter back into his coat, and Potter fixed the lay of Severus’s scarf. They tangled their hands together again as they finally left the cafe.
“If I take you back up with my broom,” Potter said, childishly swinging their joined hands. Severus was not inclined to stop him. “Do you think you’d manage to have a look around this time?”
“Perhaps if you rein in your seductive ways.”
Potter chuckled. “Seductive? Hm. And here I thought you were panicking back there the whole ride. Had I known you were burrowing in for a cuddle, we might not have made it to breakfast.”
“I never panic.”
“Of course you don’t. Bravest man I know.” Potter stopped them at the opening of the alley, ducking them just out of the way in the shadows there. He turned so they faced each other, placing his back to the wall. “So. Severus. This is going really well, right? Like, really, really, really well. I just—“ Potter huffed, gnashing his bottom lip between his teeth. “Please tell me it’s not all in my mind. That it’s not just me wanting so badly for this to be working that I’ve imagined it.”
Potter’s voice shook over the last few words, that bitten bottom lip trembling. Severus couldn’t have that. He swooped down, kissed him, steadying Potter’s mouth with his own. Potter responded beautifully, like he always did. Clutching at Severus’s hips, curling his body into Severus’s, parting his lips on a hitched breath to kiss back.
With a low groan, Potter pulled away and pressed his forehead to Severus’s. “Words, Severus. Remember? I need words. I need to hear you say it.”
“It’s not all in your mind,” Severus said, quiet and soft. “It’s going quite well, Harry. Quite ridiculously well, I’d say.”
Harry beamed with a bright smile then rushed in to kiss Severus again.
**********
On his knees, Severus flipped through the pages of the paperback he’d found wedged behind a full set of Muggle encyclopedias. Its yellowed pages smelled like both his mother’s perfume and like a creeping damp. He snapped the book closed. Sighed down at the ragged cover. He’d swear to Circe he’d never in his life seen the thing, and that made it much easier to toss it in the donation box behind him. Right on top of the aforementioned set of useless encyclopedias.
The floo flared and Minerva’s voice called out, “Severus?”
“Here.”
“May I come through?”
Severus granted her permission, sitting back on his heels and waiting for her to find him behind the sofa. She stepped through, prim and proper in tartan robes, into the middle of his sitting room at Spinner’s End. Her mouth tightened into a moue as she glanced around. When she caught sight of him, her eyebrows arched up towards her hair line. Severus arched one right back at her.
She asked, “What on earth are you doing down there?”
“Culling my library.”
Minerva came around the sofa to peek into his various boxes. “A bit early for spring cleaning, isn’t it?”
“You know how I do so love being contrary.”
“True enough, I suppose.”
“And I suppose you’ll be wanting tea.”
Minerva followed him into the kitchen, settling herself at his kitchen table while he went about heating water and gathering sugar, lemon, and such.
“So.” Minerva launched in as soon as Severus was sat down. “The papers are speculating.”
“As they are wont to do.”
“About you and Harry.”
Severus shrugged. “I’m surprised it took as long as it did.”
“It’s more surprising to me to find you so unbothered.”
“It would be incredibly dense of me to clutch at Potter’s hand in public view and then kvetch when said public asks themselves why,” Severus said, watching Minerva sip smugly at her tea. “To say nothing of how short-sighted it would have been for me to involve myself with The Harry Potter and then expect the papers to mind our privacy about it.”
Minerva nodded, nodded a bit more, then asked, “How are things between you and Harry, going?”
“Looking for an exclusive?”
“Checking in on a dear friend.”
“We are, hmm, progressing.”
“Progressing?”
“Quite rapidly,” Severus said, pressing back a smirking grin.
Minerva did not maintain the same decorum, eyes alight and lips curling up on both sides. “Wonderful.”
Severus traced the tip of his finger around the rim of his teacup. “I, perhaps, am spring cleaning with a certain purpose in mind.”
“Oh, are you? And are there plans on the horizon to engage an estate agent?”
“I do seem to be teetering on that particular precipice, yes.” Severus crossed his legs under the table and his arms above it. Saying it aloud to someone else…his heart beat just that little bit faster for it. “Not yet, but it does seem inevitable. Potter has asked, or indicated that he plans to ask for me to move in. Officially. Entirely.”
“Something is wrong.” Minerva narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Certain worries, they linger.”
“Which worries?”
Severus steepled his hands against his mouth. Potter had been tangibly more present of late. He showed up for their relationship, for his children, and for himself—precisely what Severus had wanted for all of them all along. Their conversations only veered towards his time with the MLE in discussions about Potter’s therapy. A notable improvement.
It was not as simple as that though, of course.
Potter’s resignation left a gaping hole in his self-worth.
The risk remained of Potter allowing fatherhood to flood in to fill it, to burden his children with the unfair obligation.
Potter and his therapist worked on preventing exactly that, Severus knew.
Severus also still worried.
If—When he and Potter rebuilt themselves as not only a couple, but also as a family, if Potter was putting that same desperate devotion he’d applied to the MLE into the care of his children, that would be better, obviously, but it would not be healthy? Would he allow Severus to intervene? And if not, where did that leave him? On the outside again? Voiceless and superfluous?
He did not know if he could bear being a bystander in his own life, in their life.
He did not know if he had the strength to battle Harry Potter for a place in something that wasn’t ever his to have. He wanted them to be equals in all things, and he was terrified of finding out just how impossible that might be.
Dropping his hands to the table, Severus heaved a sigh and answered Minerva. “He will always be Harry Potter and I will always be Severus Snape. And I fear there will always be something inherently imbalanced in our relationship. Irreconcilably unequal partners. I cannot bear it, not with anything approaching good grace.”
“You sell yourself short.” Minerva reached over and took Severus’s hands in hers. “I have faith in the both of you to overcome.”
Severus rolled his eyes and pulled his hands from hers. “Trite.”
“Don’t you dare sass me when I am earnestly attempting to reassure you.”
“Earnest? You have faith in us, that is the best advice you have for me?”
“I do have faith in you.” Minerva’s voice rose. “Severus, I genuinely do. After everything you have both battled,” she shook her head, “I’m sorry, dear, but this is really much simpler than you are both making it. Just love one another and love those children and you will be fine.”
Severus scowled at Minerva. Scowled deeply. If only it were truly as easy as all that.
**********
Molly Weasley: “I’ve No Idea How Severus Even Survived.”
The Ministry’s prosecution team called Molly Weasley as witness today in their case against Lyra Bennet. Molly Weasley was on the stand for over two hours, lauding the care Lyra Bennet provided for her three grandchildren. Those grandchildren, of course, being the children of Harry Potter and his late wife Ginevra Potter nee Weasley—James, Albus, and Lilith Potter. Lyra Bennet was employed as the children’s primary caregiver for three months, until the alleged attack on Severus Snape.
New information surfaced when the questioning turned to Severus Snape’s place in the Potter household.
Prior to Lyra Bennet’s hiring, Severus Snape held the position of caregiver for the Potter children. Why did Lyra Bennet replace Severus Snape? Unfortunately, this remains a mystery as neither the prosecution nor Lyra Bennet’s defense team asked Molly Weasley to elucidate either the jury or the wizarding public.
However, the location of the attack was revealed to be Severus Snape’s own home in Cokeworth. It was also revealed that Molly Weasley was the one to find Severus Snape after the attack.
“I found him sprawled out on the floor in his kitchen. Pale as milk. Beneath all the blood on his face, you know? Poor man couldn’t wiggle a single toe let alone stand on his own. And he’d been down there for hours and hours. I’ve no idea how Severus even survived. The state he was in.” Tears shining in her eyes, Molly Weasley looked forlornly to where Severus Snape sat in the gallery. “I fetched a few healing potions, some of Severus’s own brews, you know? He took enough to pick himself up from the floor and get off to Mungo’s.”
Molly Weasley went on to explain the scene she found in the kitchen. A snapped wand on the table. A suspicious vile next to a cup of tea.
“Severus told me it was Lyra that had done it. Straight away, not a doubt in his mind that she’d set it up so the world would think…well, would think he’d, you know…But Severus hadn’t known what she’d slipped into the biscuits until it was too late.”
When asked what reason Severus Snape gave for why Lyra Bennet would attack him, Molly said, “Harry’s money. His home in London. She wanted both.”
And why would Lyra Bennet believe Severus Snape an obstacle to access Harry Potter’s wealth?
“Oh. Well.” Molly again looked to Severus Snape, sat close beside Harry Potter, before she answered. “Severus is quite protective of Harry. He always has been, and everyone close to them knows it. As long as Severus is still breathing, no one will be allowed to harm Harry. I really do believe that.”
Not an admission of the romantic nature of Harry Potter and Severus Snape’s relationship, but also not a denial. Our readers have flooded our offices with owls since reports of their hand-holding in court. Your opinions on the matter are as varied as one could imagine.
Court proceedings will resume tomorrow with testimony expected from other members of the Weasley family and staff members from St Mungo’s who witnessed Severus Snape the morning after the alleged attack.