Like The Eskimos by BertaS
Title: Like The Eskimos Author: bertas Date Written: July 2012 Pairing: Severus / Harry Rating: PG Word Count: 1,000ish Warnings: Slashy Over-Tones - Pre Slash Maybe - Fluff and Nonsense Summary: Lost in a snow storm, Harry and Severus have to figure out how to survive together. A/N: Just a little slice of life with very little plot. We don’t know where they have been or why they needed to go out in the storm, nor will we find out what happened on their return to the castle. Disclaimer: Still haven't made a list of cool disclaimers. I own nothing you recognize.
Like The Eskimos
Severus shivered as he waded through the thigh deep snow. He was so cold he couldn’t think where he was supposed to be going or why it was so important to get there. He was startled to have an arm wrapped around his waist dragging him to a full stop.
Severus looked around, not that he could see more than about two feet in any direction. He blinked at the person holding him. "P… Potter?" he said through chattering teeth and nearly blue lips.
"Yeah, come on. We have to get into some kind of shelter." The young man yelled over the howling wind. Harry had to nearly drag the Potions Master toward the small clump of trees he had spotted a few moments earlier.
They fell and it jarred Severus to coherency. "Potter," Severus shouted, "We have to find shelter." He briefly thought of renewing the warming charms on his clothing but was unable to follow through on the thought as he was distracted by Harry's answer.
"I know." Harry said sitting up on his knees as he pulled his wand out and cast a spell that all Hogwarts students learn by their third year, although it is not on the curriculum. The Snow Fort spell is only taught on the field of snowball battle.
Harry did the spell twice more making walls of snow in a roughly eight foot circle and a little over five feet high, which cut off most of the blowing wind. If he had been trying Harry could have managed the crenellated teeth for the top of the wall but decided on the extra height instead.
Severus shook his head and said, "It won't work Potter. We are going to freeze to death if we stay here. There is no way to get dry or heat the area." He sighed deeply. "And the temperature is dropping too fast."
Harry looked around the small enclosure and picked at the leaves frozen to the ground that had been exposed by the building of the fort. "It works for the Eskimos." he protested.
Severus snorted, "They have furs to insulate their igloos which have roofs and they build fires."
Harry looked up at the darkening sky or more precisely at the snow blowing horizontally past the top of the walls he had built. Sighing he slumped to sit and rest for a moment, only to yelp and have to pull a stick from under his bum. He looked at the stick dully before jumping to his feet and pointing his wand in the direction of the trees he knew were there but could no longer see, he shouted, "Accio fire wood! Accio deadwood!" As the dead sticks and limbs flew to him he directed them to stack themselves neatly against one section of the wall.
A large piece of bark landed next to where Severus sat watching the young man. He didn’t really feel cold anymore and wasn’t able to hold a thought for more than a few seconds. Severus realized he must have drifted off for a moment when he noticed the fire was lit.
"P… P… Potter," he shakily held up the almost square piece of bark. "It's a roof." He was shivering so hard he could barely hold the bark.
Harry smiled. "Brilliant!" He had to take his glove off to do the finer wand work of transfiguration. When he started to put the glove back on he noticed what it was lined with. He looked at his former Professor who seemed to have passed out and smiled again.
~~*~~
Severus didn’t remember going to sleep, but he woke warm with the incredibly sensual feel of fur against his bare skin. He shifted slightly and realized his arms were full of an equally naked body. Then he was looking into the most brilliant green eyes he had ever seen.
"Mmm…" Harry mumbled as he snuggled a little closer to Severus. "Morning."
Severus attempted to pull away as he tried to determine how he had gotten into this situation. "Mister Potter, this is… I mean… I'm… you're… We didn’t, DO anything. Did we?" he asked, voice full of shock and considerably higher pitched than his normal chocolate purr. It was clear he was extremely uncomfortable with the idea even if Harry was no longer his student.
"Well, no. Um… Do you think we should?" Harry asked with a decidedly mischievous glint in his eye despite the extremely innocent look on his face.
"No!" Severus nearly shouted as he tried to crawl out of the nest of fur.
Harry grabbed onto him. "Snape, calm down. Gha! You're letting in the cold." Harry couldn’t help laughing. "I had to get you… us warm. We're just sharing body heat. You know, like the Eskimos. Now lay still."
Severus looked around as he settled back and tried to get his breathing and heart rate back to normal. About two thirds of the enclosure was lined with sheep skin, the rest was stacked with firewood. Their clothing appeared to be hanging from pegs sunk into the wall. A small fire flickered between the wood and where they were snuggled together in a nest of black fur, which was laying on a white sheep skin ground cloth that was keeping out the cold of the frozen earth.
Severus sighed. "Where are we Potter?" he asked slowly as he pondered his chances of getting any coffee this morning.
It was Harry's turn to sigh. "I'm really not sure. We could be twenty feet from the front door of the castle and we wouldn’t have seen it last night." He shrugged. "I think we're probably closer to the forest though."
Severus hummed as he nodded. "Yes, but where did all this come from? We weren't carrying any furs." He pulled the one covering them more firmly in place and snorted. "At least, I wasn’t." He decided coffee was most likely not on the menu this morning. Breakfast would probably consist of the lone Chocolate Frog he had in his pocket.
Harry grinned. "Yes you were. You had on fur trimmed gloves. Mine were lined with fleece."