Title: Scandalising the Neighbours
Author: alisanne
Characters: Harry Potter/Severus Snape
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: institutionalized homophobia, the wizarding world version of 'conversion therapy'.
Themes/kinks chosen: Illegal sex: engaging in sexual practices that are illegal or extremely taboo where they take place.
Word Count: ~1560
Summary: Severus shares a story from his past.
Author's notes: Thanks to torino10154 for helping me come up with a 'plot', and to sevfan and emynn for the quick beta reading. <3
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.


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Scandalising the Neighbours

~

They’re chatting, walking home arm in arm after a lovey dinner out, when it happens. A passer-by approaches, another wizard Harry’s seen around the neighbourhood. He’s obviously never seen them together before, and when he sees their faces, recognises them, he glares hisses, “Sodding pillowbiters. I miss the good old days when the Healers could deal with deviants like you.”

Harry blinks, pauses, then shakes his head. “Guess we scandalised him.”

Severus stiffens, goes quiet, his hand tightening on Harry’s. “Ignore him,” he says, voice tight. “Let’s just get home.”

“What was his problem, anyway?” grumbles Harry once they’re inside Grimmauld Place.

The hallway, newly renovated, gleams with its bright marble floors and cheerfully wallpapered walls. Severus looks unusually pale in the light. He turns away, shedding his overcloak. “It’s nothing we need to worry about. It’s not as if it’s twenty years ago. That bastard can’t do anything to us. Not anymore.”

Frowning, Harry follows Severus into the sitting room. “What does that mean?”

Severus exhales, collapses into his favourite chair by the fire, and Summons a book. “It’s nothing. Those days are over.”

Tilting his head, Harry regards Severus. “I think it’s something,” he finally says, walking towards Severus. Shedding his robes, he plucks the book from Severus’ hands and straddles his lap. “Tell me.”

Severus huffs. “I told you, it’s nothing.”

Leaning in, Harry kisses Severus, who remains still for all of two seconds before he wraps his arms around Harry, kissing him back feverishly. When they part, Harry rests his forehead on Severus’. “That bloke upset you. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“You are impossible,” growls Severus, but Harry hears the affection in his voice. “Fine. If you must know, a relationship such as ours would have been highly illegal twenty years ago.” He sighs. “Even fifteen years ago, if we had been seen talking together on the street, touching as we were, we could have been arrested. Tortured.”

“Tortured?” Pulling back to look Severus full in the face, Harry raises an eyebrow. “You’re joking.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” Severus huffs. “Being gay was illegal. And what we do together in bed was illegal.”

Remaining quiet, Harry fiddles with the buttons on Severus’ waistcoat. Finally, he raises his eyes to meet Severus’. “What kind of torture?”

Severus scowls. “What does it matter? Torture is torture.”

“Did they submit them to the Cruciatus Curse? Did they send them to be Kissed? What?”

Severus rolls his eyes. “No. Worse. They were sent for Obliviation and Memory Adjustment.” He shudders.

Harry frowns. “What the fuck is Memory Adjustment?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds.” Exhaling, Severus says, “It’s clear you’re not going to give up on this until I tell you about it. And I know it happened because it happened to Reg—someone I knew.”

“Tell me,” whispers Harry, resting his head on Severus’ chest.

“My friend and I were both gay, and when we realised we weren’t alone in Slytherin, it was as if a light went on.” Severus chuckles, his arms tightening around Harry. “Admittedly, we were far from discreet. We’d snog anywhere and everywhere. I’m sure our Housemates got tired of encountering us in various states of undress.”

Harry laughs softly. “Sounds like you had fun.”

“Mmm. For a while, yes.” Severus sighs. “But then came Violet.”

“Who’s that?” Severus pauses for so long, Harry raises his head to check he’s still awake. He is, but his eyes are distant. “Severus?”

“Violet was Muggle-born, and she fancied Reg—my friend. Back then I don’t think he would have looked at her even if she hadn’t been a girl, he was too obedient to his parents to even consider a girl who wasn’t a pure-blood.”

“You weren’t a pure-blood.”

Severus smirked. “Nor was I girl. We knew what we were doing wasn’t permanent. We were experimenting, having fun. I knew he’d go on to marry a Crabbe or someone in the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and I would maybe find someone else to be my ‘special friend’.”

“So what happened?”

“She wrote to his parents, told them their precious ‘toujours pur’ son was fucking another boy. She didn’t even have to tell them I wasn’t a pure-blood, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. They showed up one weekend, grabbed him, disappearing with him.”

Harry shifts, kissing Severus’ jaw. “What happened?”

“When he came back the following day he was different. Distant. He remembered me, but when I tried to get him alone to talk to him and find out what had happened, he refused to be alone with me. I was devastated.”

“Oh, Severus.” Harry scatters kisses over his neck. “I’m sorry.”

“It would have been bad enough that he didn’t care about me anymore, I mean I knew we weren’t permanent. But then whatever they did to him didn’t take. He began flirting with other boys, just not me. I thought…”

“What?”

“I thought he’d gone off me. I was moping in the library one evening when I overheard Violet whinging to one of her friends. She was miffed Reg—he still wouldn’t pay attention to her. She said to someone, ‘I thought you said Memory Adjustment worked?’ It was the first time I’d heard of it, so I waited until they left, crept into the Restricted Section, and read up on it. They used to take people to a Mind Healer, have them Obliviate all the ‘gay memories’, and then hypnotise them and convince them they weren’t gay. It was popular in pure-blood circles. Except it didn’t work forever. Usually it worked long enough for the subject to either impregnate someone or be impregnated themselves.”

“Godric,” whispers Harry.

“Exactly.” Severus hums. “Once I knew what had happened, I knew what to do.”

Raising his head, Harry stares at him. “Which was?”

Severus smirked. “I befriended him again, only that time it was easier since I knew him so well, knew what he liked. Within a couple of weeks, we were fucking again. Also, I may have sabotaged Violet’s potions.”

Harry barks a laugh. “Merlin, Severus! You didn’t.”

“I never admitted to it, but she knew who it was. And she could never prove it. She did so abysmally, she had to repeat her sixth year.” Severus’ grin is dark. “She never bothered us again.”

Harry exhales. “Wow. That’s mad. I’m glad we don’t live under those rules now.”

“Quite.” Severus strokes Harry’s back. “We could never have lived openly together as we do now. We would’ve had to take great pains to appear platonic.”

“That would be tragic,” says Harry, his fingers once again going to Severus’ waistcoat. “After all, would a platonic roommate do, for example, this?” Bending his head, he sucks Severus’ Adam’s apple into his mouth.

Severus moans. “Probably not.”

“Or this?” whispers Harry, sliding his hand inside Severus’ trousers to stroke his cock.

“Definitely not.” Severus’ hips buck upwards and a whimper spills from his throat. His fingers slide into Harry’s hair. “We should move this to the bedroom.”

“Why?” Harry shifts, his mouth hovering over Severus’. “We’re in no danger of having Memory Adjustment foisted on us. If we want to fuck right here, we can.”

Growling, Severus pulls Harry’s face down to his, kissing him fiercely. They writhe together until Severus finally pulls his wand, banishing their clothes. “You want to be fucked in the living room?” he pants, manoeuvring Harry into a better fucking position. “I’m happy to oblige.”

“I thought you would be.” Harry leans up, helping Severus position his cock. “Lube?” he gasps.

Grasping Harry’s hips, Severus mutters Lubricating and Stretching Charms.

“Fuck but I love magic,” Harry moans as Severus’ cock penetrates him, sliding inside.

“And I love fucking you,” says Severus, steadying Harry as he sits down, taking him deeper.

Harry gurgles once Severus is fully seated and he rotates his hips. “Fuck!”

“You’re going to have to move.”

Nodding, Harry raises himself up until Severus’ cock almost slips out, then he rams himself down again, startling a shout from Severus. And so they move, until Harry can’t manage it anymore, until his hips are shaking and his skin is flushed. Severus’ eyes are gleaming as he watches him.

The moment Severus’ hand wraps around Harry’s cock, it’s over for him. With a shout, he comes, spilling his seed all over Severus’ hand, his belly, himself.

Severus catches him as he collapses, trembling, and there’s the tingle of magic once more. A moment later Harry’s on his back on the suddenly much larger chair, and Severus drives into him like a man possessed. Harry can only cling to him and hold on for the ride.

When he comes, Severus buries his face in Harry’s neck. Harry sighs, running his hands over Severus’ sweaty back.

“Tired?” asks Harry once they’re both breathing normally. “Because I could stand to break some more of those old, ridiculous laws.”

“As could I.” Severus hums. “Right now my back is sore, however. If you want to do anything else, we’ll need to repair to a bed.”

“Hm, would a flowerbed work?” murmurs Harry. “I’ve the sudden urge to make love under the stars. Maybe close to the fence we share with that neighbour?”

Severus laughs. “Perhaps another time,” he whispers. “After all, we have all time in the world to scandalise the neighbours.”

~