SNARRY SWAP: Gift for: snapy_90, "These Chains That Bind" Title: These Chains That Bind Author:eeyore9990 Gift Recipient:snapy_90 Other pairings/threesome: None. Rating: NC-17 Word count: ~2,600 Warning(s): (highlight for spoilers) *bonding, mpreg (implied).* Summary: Harry gave of himself too freely, trusted too deeply, loved too well. A/N: Dear snapy_90, I was looking over your sign up and saw that you dislike fluffy and romantic Snape, and the idea for this fic was born. Sometimes it takes a hardened Slytherin to turn the fluff on its ear.
These Chains That Bind
The jagged scar that slashed from Harry's eyebrow to just under the lobe of his ear was quite possibly Severus' favourite mark on the boy's body. It was the lingering echo of a curse that had passed so close that the backlash of magic had split the skin in a way no Healer could possibly hope to repair. A curse hurled at him mere seconds after Severus had thrown off the mantle of spy and declared his loyalties to the Order in quite the most dramatic fashion. After, of course, it had become unquestionably apparent that the Order would take the day and win the war.
Severus wasn't stupid. Personal positioning was everything, and being a spy had been quite useful in that regard.
"Are you ready?"
Severus schooled his features into a blank mask and turned, allowing his lips to curve up gently at the corners. "Miss Granger." He inclined his head, gaze never leaving her face. The lingering unease that cast shadows behind her eyes sent a flush of satisfaction through him, lending the weight of sincerity to his smile. Considering her question, he said, "I have been ready for this day longer than you can know."
When her eyes flared with a combination of disgust and horror, he shook his head and amended, "This past year has been a revelation. I had never expected to survive..."
Her face softened, guilt chasing the suspicion from her eyes. "You saved us all, sir. I wish you every happiness."
"The next few hours will be but the beginning of a lifetime of happiness," he murmured, holding his arm out for her. He was pushing, he knew, but women tended to appreciate courtly manners on occasions such as this. Granger was no different in that regard.
Cheeks pinkening, she took his arm and allowed him to escort her from the small antechamber. "For Harry too," she said, her naked honesty almost too much for Severus' constitution to bear.
Concentrating on ideals like personal positioning, Severus widened his smile, allowing his eyes to crease at the corners with it, and said, "I do hope so."
The ceremony and reception were lovely by any standards, and just like that, it was done.
He was the King's consort. It was a better position than any he could have hoped for had the Dark Lord won. A better position than even Severus had considered possible a mere year previous.
As they spun--somewhat clumsily on Harry's part--around the ballroom, Severus ignored the looks cast his way from the gathered crowd. Their suspicions couldn't touch him now. Not as long as The Boy Who Lived continued to stare at him with such blatant love and adoration.
The music swelled on its final note, and Severus urged Harry's body closer to press a soft kiss to that curse scar, feeling the skin under it wrinkle in a tiny, barely perceptible flinch. Harry buried his face in the crook of Severus' neck, and they both chuckled over the sigh that went up from the feminine half of the throng at the edges of the dance floor.
"You've quite lost your fearsome reputation now, you know," Harry whispered, looking up at Severus with a cheeky grin.
"Mmm. Well, that merely affords me the element of surprise once more, does it not?"
"Ahh, so you're planning to become fearsome again, then? Stalk small children who're out of bounds and leap on them, issuing detentions and punishments at will?"
Severus snorted. "Children? Not bloody likely. My time as an indentured servant in the service of Hogwarts is, thankfully, at an end." Ignoring the shadow that passed over Harry's happiness, Severus added, "I plan to train our children in the proper way to sneak about so as not to get caught."
The transcendent smile that lit Harry's face put the thousands of candles to shame. "I'll lend them my Cloak."
"Absolutely not," Severus said, brooking no argument. "They will sneak properly or not at all. You, my brat, became far too dependent on that thing to get you out of scrapes and forgot to use your brain."
Harry's delighted laughter rang around them, drawing smiles to hundreds of faces. "What are you talking about? I had Hermione with me every time."
Severus' pained expression spoke volumes as the chamber quartet started up again, precluding further conversation.
Romance wasn't dead, it simply required effort. Severus could attest to that. He watched from across the room as Harry took in their honeymoon suite, his slack-jawed expression a testament to the luxury surrounding them.
"Is it acceptable?" Severus asked, his voice low and smooth.
"Acceptable?" Harry gave a small, incredulous laugh. "It's so perfect I almost think you reached into my head and pulled my dreams out of it. Wait, did you?" Harry's smile was pure flirtation, and Severus knew he'd never believe the truth.
"Of course." Severus crossed the room and drew Harry into his arms, honesty spilling from his lips in a manner which guaranteed it would never be perceived as anything other than pretty lies. "I spent the last year slowly seducing you with your own thoughts, pulled you in until you couldn't imagine your life without me, and then I bound you to me with magic and a ceremony so public you'll never be able to escape it. And you, my pretty little brat, let me do it."
Harry's laughter was muffled in the front of Severus' formal frock coat. "A truly devious plan. What comes next?"
"Hmm," Severus stroked his chin for effect and said, "Now I'm going to ply you with potions and impregnate you. Another chain to keep you bound to me."
Rolling his eyes, Harry said, "As if you need potions to have me begging you to fuck me."
Harry's fingers returned the favour. "That's Mr Snape to you, sir."
Lust began to pulse through Severus at that claim. "Mine," he whispered, all humour gone. "You're mine now, and no one can take you away." His hand moved toward Harry's face, one finger gently caressing the scar at Harry's temple. Severus' breath stuttered unevenly when the skin around Harry's eye trembled in a flinch, and his stomach tightened with arousal.
But those eyes… so trusting.
"Yes," Harry murmured, stepping in closer against Severus until their lips were nearly touching. "I'm yours, and I'm safe."
Just before their lips met, Severus said, "You've never been less safe."
Severus caught Harry's lower lip between his teeth and tugged, biting down until the faintest hint of copper tinged their kiss. At Harry's soft, inadvertent cry, he soothed the small hurt with his tongue before delving deeper.
Their bodies pressed together, so close their buttons caught and tangled and still Severus pulled and pushed, forcing the breath from Harry with the strength of his hold. A low groan and the roll of Harry's hips against him signalled Harry's acceptance and encouraged Severus to take more of him.
Greed edged in against his lust, and Severus broke the kiss, trailing his lips across Harry's cheek to his ear. "I want all of you."
"Yes."
It was almost too easy. Harry gave of himself so freely, never dreaming that his trust and faith could be twisted and used against him. Never realising that the twisting itself could be so attractive to someone like Severus.
"Give yourself to me."
Harry's hands wriggled between them, sliding against Severus' groin and pressing rhythmically. "I already have."
Stepping backward, Severus captured Harry's hands and tugged, pulling him across the room toward the bed that had been turned down for them. "We're going to go slowly tonight," he said, thumb brushing against the pulse that pounded at Harry's wrist. "You mentioned begging earlier and… I find I like the thought of that. I'm not going to take you until you're begging for it."
"What if I beg now?" Though Harry's eyes were snapping with arousal, his grin tried to shave the seriousness from his words. So transparent.
"Then I won't know when you're truly begging, and you'll delay satisfaction for us both."
"Bastard!"
Severus' smile was slow and he allowed a predatory edge to show, just to watch Harry's eyes go dark with lust. "You've no idea," he murmured. "No idea what a bastard I can be. With the proper incentive, of course."
Nose turning up slightly, Harry put on an affected air and said, "I think you're all talk. If you were a real bastard, I'd already be—oomph!"
In one motion, Severus had turned them both and tossed Harry into the very centre of the bed.
"You were saying?"
Harry lay in the middle of the bed, struggling to regain the breath he'd lost when Severus threw him. Damn but the man was stronger than he looked. And sexier than Harry had ever imagined possible.
He had never dreamed, so long ago when they'd begun their relationship, that Severus could possibly be so demonstrative. Little touches, looks filled with heat and want and need had ignited a spark inside Harry that had grown until it raged like fiendfyre nearly a year later.
And though the words were scarce, Severus showed in a myriad of ways the depth of his feelings for Harry. He may rarely hear "I love you" but Harry was fine with the knowing. It was such a simple thing, but the purity of it was nearly overwhelming. For the first time in his life, Harry was loved.
Finally, they were here, at this juncture in their lives, where they were truly bound to one another. No one could ever come between them, and Harry was more than all right with that.
Reaching up, he beckoned Severus closer. "I need to feel you next to me."
"You'll feel me inside you soon enough," Severus said, dark humour glinting in his eyes as he crawled slowly onto the bed, nearly stalking Harry—who had no desire to run.
And that was another revelation for Harry. Severus had always seemed so stern and closed off; formidable and sombre. Since coming to know him so intimately, Harry was delighted and surprised at how often he would find Severus looking at the world around him with that touch of humour buried in his gaze. As if he were laughing at the world.
"What's so funny?" Harry asked, unable to keep the smile off his own lips.
"I have achieved everything I could possibly hope for." There it was again, that fierce elation that shone from Severus, the deep satisfaction that rolled off him and made Harry's breath catch. The lack of love in Severus' own life made Harry that much more determined to shower him with it every moment they spent together.
"Except, you know, getting inside me right now. You haven't achieved that yet." Something about Severus' happiness brought out the cheek in Harry.
"I have the rest of our lives for that. Though," Severus said, dragging one hand down Harry's chest and lower, stopping only when he was cupping and kneading Harry's cock—which had been hard for what felt like hours, "I have no intention of prolonging that specific achievement. Much."
Harry groaned, arousal mingling with frustration until he was throbbing with both. "If you don't hurry," he muttered, "I'm going to come without you."
"If you even consider it, I'll walk out of this room and leave you like this, your hands tied to the bedposts so that you can't even give yourself relief." Severus stared down at him, possession burning bright in his eyes and etching lines in his face. "You're mine, Harry, body and soul. You'll come when I say or not at all." Leaning down, he nipped at Harry's ear lobe and whispered, "Besides, if you come too soon, you'll waste the fertility potions I slipped into your wine tonight."
Harry froze, his heart clenching in his chest. A family. With Severus. Joy such as he'd never known raced wildly through him until he could barely breathe. "Oh God. Severus."
Their mouths met, and Harry would never know who'd made the first move. His lower lip throbbed from where Severus had lost control earlier and scored it with his teeth, but even that small pain couldn't dull the emotion in him.
They moved against one another, Severus pressing Harry into the soft duvet. His hands were captured and gathered together above his head in one of Severus' hands and though they both knew Harry was allowing himself to be held down—Severus wasn't able to truly grip both of Harry's wrists in one hand—it was enough.
Harry's clothes disappeared under a spell along with Severus', and Harry's groan became trapped in Severus' throat before being given back to him. Their kiss turned wild then, their bodies tangled and writhing, mucking up the carefully made bed.
Tearing his mouth away, Harry pressed kisses across Severus' face and down his jaw. "I love you," he said, his voice shaky with everything boiling through him. "I love you."
Severus' hands slipped under Harry's thighs, pulling them apart and pushing his knees up toward his chest. "I'm going to get you wide open and ready for me."
"I am," Harry moaned. "I am ready."
Severus' chuckle reverberated through Harry, spiking his arousal to a fever pitch. "Not yet. Not yet, but soon enough."
And then Severus' fingers were stroking him, inside and out, one hand wrapped around his cock in a grip too loose to bring him to orgasm, but keeping him on the fine edge of it to combat the uncomfortable sensation of being stretched.
"Please," Harry begged, all dignity gone as he arched beneath Severus. "Please, God, please."
"Now you're ready." Severus knelt between Harry's wide-spread thighs and began to press forward, slow and steady until his cock pushed past the barrier of the thick muscles guarding Harry's arse.
So full. He was so full. It was a bit maddening, the way pleasure mingled with pain until he could barely breathe. And then, the oddest thing happened.
Severus placed his hand on Harry's abdomen, his palm rough as it rubbed circles into his flesh. The movement was odd enough that it cleared Harry's head enough to focus on what Severus was doing.
Severus was muttering words, words Harry didn't recognize, over and over as he slid slowly into Harry.
"What…?"
"Fertility spell… to complete the… potion." Severus groaned, falling forward onto Harry, lips trailing over the jagged scar at his temple. As always, Harry felt himself flinch at the contact. And, as always, he hated himself a little for his instinctive reaction to Severus' so-tender touch. The flinch that he could never seem to control felt like such a betrayal of the affection Severus showered on him.
He had no idea why it was always like this, but—
Severus withdrew and thrust into him sharply, drawing a ragged scream from Harry and chasing everything—thought, memory, everything—from his mind. The bed shook with the force of their lovemaking, and Harry didn't bother to hold back. Severus was his and he was Severus' and this moment was the consummation of their love.
Arching against Severus, Harry's release pulsed from him at nearly the same time as he felt Severus stiffen on top of him and somehow it was exactly right.
Their bond was complete.
…Severus stared down into the murky green eyes, his thumb skimming the stubbled eyelashes that framed the right one. The tiny flinch his touch generated sent a shudder of satisfaction through him even as their baby let out a tiny, puling cry and wriggled in his arms. Across the room, Harry stirred but didn't wake…