I'll Be Home For Christmas
Title: I’ll be Home For Christmas
Authors: sevs_lil_secret and unbroken_halo
Disclaimer: Anything related to Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
Summary: Set the winter holidays of Harry’s fourth year, Damon and Grant decide Severus needs a place to call his own in their home since he is already in their hearts.
Warnings: Yikes, another one that’s pretty gen. LOL
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Thanksgiving had been the week prior and Grant was now standing in the upstairs bedroom that he had been using as storage space until he'd decided Severus needed his own room here when he was staying with them. The boy needed his own space where he could have his own things. Now he had the room emptied out and was staring at four bare walls and an empty window. Belatedly he wondered if he should have said something to Damon, but he really didn't think his husband would mind at all. He knew that they had only a few short weeks before the young professor arrived for his Christmas vacation. He let his eyes look over the walls; white, that was just so impersonal, paint first, then the rest.
"Damon, I'm upstairs!" He called as he heard the kitchen door open and his husband's familiar tread.
Damon thundered up the stairs and slowed, looking at all of the spare room's contents as they lined the stairwell and hallway. "What are you doing, Grant?" He stepped over boxes of pictures and overturned furniture to enter into the room where Grant was staring at the walls, with that look on his face. A look that meant Damon was going to have to do a lot of work.
Grant turned to his husband and smiled sweetly. "How much do you love me?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around the other man's waist and pressed a kiss to his throat.
Damon raised his eyebrow. "Enough to know that you have some kind of work you want me to do." He wrapped his arms around Grant and squeezed him. "Are you going to let me in on the surprise so I can know how much money it's going to cost and how badly you are going to abuse the in house handy man?"
"Don't you think Sev needs a room of his own now?" Grant asked as he pulled the paint chips he'd picked up from the hardware store from his back pocket and began to look through them. "We'll need to paint, curtains, furniture..." he trailed off as he turned to look back at his husband. "What do you think, Damon?"
He was a little leary of his husband's response; after all, this had been the room they had planned to use as a nursery for their own children. Children that had never been.
Damon blinked. "Grant." He started and then sighed. He sat on the floor and looked around the room. He really didn't know what to say. It was true that Sev had become like a son to them but he wasn’t' sure of the younger man's reaction to being adopted by two crazy Americans. However Sev did seem to enjoy his time out here. The boy's excited firecall a few days ago had shown that, despite the going ons at Hogwarts, Sev had wanted to come here for his Christmas Hols. "Come here, Injun. Come sit with me." Damon held out his arms to the other man.
Grant sighed and sat down carefully between the other man's outstretched legs. He picked up one of Damon's hands and began to play with his fingers. He didn't know how to explain it to his husband, he didn't have the words, but Severus to him, was his little boy. He had come to count on the firecall that came every other day or so from the young man, and the fact that there were many times Severus called when he'd had a bad feeling and just wanted to talk. As much as Grant wanted this, he knew he would abide by Damon's decision. "You have me, now what, White Man?" he teased lightly as he passed his fingertips over the hardened skin of Damon's fingers.
Damon sighed. "I don't know how to say this Grant, so bear with me. I am going to apologize right now if anything I say comes out wrong. You know how my mouth is." He took a deep breath and began. "I know that Sev means alot to you, he does to me as well, and I know that he enjoys coming out here but do you think he is ready for something like this?"
Damon frowned. "He still has his family over there and I don't want to butt in where we aren't welcome. Does that make sense?" What he meant was, was he ready to let the boy into his heart that much only to have it dashed against the floor once more. If there was only a way to say that without it seeming like he was replacing all they had tried for with another.
Grant smiled as he patted the hand in his. "We won't know until he arrives, Damon. I understand what you are saying, I really do, but has he ever once spoken about them except that he was glad not to be there?" He paused a moment. "And if nothing else, we will have finally done something with this room besides pile junk up in it, okay?" He thought for a moment. "We can always get furniture from that second hand place over in Wheeling, it wouldn't cost very much."
"I am not worried about the money, Grant. Get what ever you think he would like." Damon eyed his husband and shook his head. "That's what I am talking about. This room." He leaned over Grant's shoulder and turned the other man's face towards his. "Are you certain you want to put him in this room?"
Damon gave the Lakhota a soft kiss and waited for his answer.
Grant swallowed and held his husband's hand tightly. "Severus is the only little boy I'll ever have." He said softly. "This is where we said our babies would start out, so it seems to be the right place to me." He bowed his head and told himself he wasn't going to get emotional, he hated it when he did that. "I know he isn't ours, but he feels like it to me."
Damon sighed. "Alright, Grant." He hugged the other man tight and nodded. If this made his husband happy then by all that was holy Damon would make it happen for him and hope to the heavens that Sev liked it. "Go ahead and decide on what colour you want and I will run into Wheeling for the paint."
"Blue I think, this shade of light blue." He held up a paint chip for his husband. "What do you think?" He snuggled next to his husband and smiled to himself. "What day did Sev say he was coming? I forgot to put it in my planner."
Damon grunted. "On the day before Christmas, I think it was, until just after the New Year." He plucked the paint chip from the other man's fingers. "Nice, Pet anything else I need to get while I am out there?" He kissed the top of Grant's head and played with his braid.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to come along. I need to pick up some curtains for the windows. Maybe we could stop and look at some furniture as well? I'd like to have it done before he arrives." He said as he got to his feet. He was glad to finally maybe get some use out of this room. He'd never told Damon, but each time he'd came up to get something or put something away, he'd felt like he'd failed the other man greatly. It was the one thing he'd never been able to give to his husband, and the one thing they'd both wanted.
Damon looked up at Grant. "You want to paint, move furniture and hang curtains all before Sev gets here, in what, a little less than three weeks? That's a tall order, Injun." He stood and brushed the back of his jeans off. "Of course you can come, bring your lists cause I know there’s more on there than just curtains and paint." Sheepishly, Grant pulled another list out of his pocket and grinned. "Well, now that you mention it. I need to pick up linens and a comforter as well as pillows for his bed." He refolded the list and put it back in his pocket. "I know we don't have a lot of time, but I'll do as much as I can, and when we get home, I'll move all of this to the basement."
Damon sighed and shook his head. He drew his wand and flicked it at the boxes and extra furniture. The things floated up and he directed them down the stairs. "Go open up the door and I will do it." Damon leaned over and kissed his husband. "Move, Injun." He slapped the other man smartly on his rear.
Grant laughed and quickly moved to open the basement door.
******************** Severus Snape sat at his normal spot at the head table and glared out over the students. He had the makings of a terrible headache coming on and he wanted to do nothing more than go back to his chambers, take a potion and lie down in the dark. He idly poked at the half-eaten meal in front of him when he felt his elbow being tapped. He turned his head and sure enough, Minerva was there and ready to pry into the reason he was not staying at the castle for the holidays and watching over the students that remained so that the rest of the house heads could enjoy their own vacation. "Yes?" He asked as he raised a brow and looked at the witch.
"You are lucky that food doesn't stab back, Severus?" Minerva smiled sweetly at him before taking a sip of mead. "So tell me of your plans, Professor Snape. This is the first year I think you are going away for the Hols. Where are you going?"
"Not that it is any of your business, Professor, but this is not the first year I've been away during the Christmas holidays. I was absent last year as well. Professor Flitwick stayed I do believe." He smirked and then smiled an oily little smile. "Shall I assume the fact that I am leaving is putting you out in some manner?" He picked up his wine glass and sipped the overly sweet dreck the house elves insisted he liked. What he wouldn't give for a Budweiser right now.
Minerva snorted. "Hiding in your rooms doesn't count, Severus. I wouldn't exactly say put out, but you know with all the doings this year I had presumed that you were going to stay close to the castle." She looked out across the room and then back at him. "Are you going back to America? I really would like to hear your tales if you don't mind sharing. I have always wanted to go there myself." She speared a stalk of asparagus and cut it up then hummed at him.
Severus regarded her with a dark unreadable gaze. "I was not hiding in my rooms last year Minerva, I was in the States. And yes, I will be returning at the end of the day tomorrow." He smirked at the look of shock on the old witch's face. "I've made arrangements with the Headmaster to have my classes covered." Just the fact he was leaving a week before the scheduled break began was enough to give the woman fits.
Minerva sputtered and looked at Albus, who grinned at her and toasted the witch. "Well, I never." She glared at the Headmaster then at Snape. She got up and stormed away from the table.
Severus smirked and rose to go finish his packing. On his way to the dungeons, he wondered if he shouldn't firecall Damon and Grant first to let them know he was arriving early, but then he figured they'd always told him to simply come whenever he could. It would be alright. Once in his rooms, he carefully wrapped the gifts he'd spent days agonizing over finding just the right things. Finished packing, he picked up his novel and read for a short while before retiring for the night.
***********
Grant stood in what he now thought of as Severus' room and looked at the list of things left to do, thank goodness they still had a week to go. He picked up the presents for Damon that he'd hidden in the upstairs linen closet and brought them downstairs to arrange under the tree before his husband arrived with the mattress and box springs they'd ordered and had just come in. He really hoped Severus wouldn't take their gesture as being overbearing and smothering. He heard Max's truck pull up and looked out the window to see his husband and his healer get out of the vehicle and begin to unload the mattress. He waved to the pair and held the door open for them, not expecting to hear the sounds of a portkey opening in their front yard. Instantly he pulled his wand and yelled to Damon to look behind him.
Damon dropped the mattress and aimed his wand at the flash of light. He nearly fell over at the sight of the tall Potions Master walking towards him. "Goddamn it, boy. Next time warn a person before you do that shit. I nearly hexed your balls off." He embraced the dark haired man, patting roughly on his back.
Severus went still in the embrace. "My apologies Damon, I was under the impression you didn't mind if I simply popped in." He looked to Grant and gave him a small smile. "I decided I'd leave Hogwarts early and have an extended holiday." He eyed the mattress and the opened door. "Did I arrive at a bad time? I can get a room in town if so." He looked up once more and found that Grant had disappeared into the house.
"No, no. It's fine. Just surprised me is all." Damon looked up at Severus. "It's good to see you, boy." He looked around for Grant. "Now where in the hell did that man go? Grant! Get your scrawny butt out here and come greet Severus." He patted the other man's arm. "How was the crossing?" Damon met Severus' eyes. "Damn good to see you, son." He said softly.
Severus smiled, a real smile that not only touched his eyes, but also lit them up as he regarded the other man. "I've been able to concentrate on nothing in the past week. I've wanted to leave each morning just to be able to sit and have breakfast with you both." He said as he eyed the mattress again. "Getting a new bed?"
Grant called from the upstairs window of the newest bedroom. "I'll be down in a minute Sev, I'm just finishing... things."
Severus looked around the small farm and smiled at the dusting of snow and the crisp smell of wood smoke in the air. "Will it be a white Christmas?"
Damon smiled. "I hope so. It would be nice, wouldn't it?" He looked at Sev. "No this is for the upstairs room." He rolled his eyes towards the house. "One of Grant's hair-brained ideas." Blue eyes sparkled with mischief as he watched Max come up behind Severus, stalking him slowly.
Max threw his arms around the man in black and growled. "Didn't even say hello to me, ya Limey Bastard." He rubbed Severus' hair into a knot with a hard fist.
Severus, not even thinking, jammed his elbow into the bigger man's solar plexus and whipped out his wand before realizing it was Max.
"Oh Merlin..." He breathed as he hastily pulled his wand out of his best friend's face. "I'm so sorry Max. I don't know...you startled me." He pulled the big man into a hug and clapped him on the back. "I'm so glad to see you."
Max huffed out a breath and returned the man’s embrace.
Grant came out at that point and neatly shrunk the mattress down and pocketed it before pulling the two younger men apart and wrapping his arms around Severus. "I'm so glad you're home, Sev. I've missed you."
Severus squeezed the older man to him. "Hello Grant." He laid his head on top of the other man's and whispered. "It's good to be home and I missed you as well."
Max rolled his eyes. "It's okay Sev. We understand. You like Grant better than us." Max sighed dramatically. "Come on, Damon. We'll leave these two here and go get a beer somewhere." He punched Severus in the arm. Damon slugged Max and smiled at his husband. "Well, let's get out of the cold. Go on inside. You too, Max."
Grant reached up and gently cupped Severus' pale cold cheek in his hand. "I'm so glad you came early. You need to be out of that place as much as you can." He took the man's hand and led him into the warm house and into the kitchen where he poured him a mug of mulled cider, then excused himself to go upstairs. He had a bedroom to finish.
Severus watched the man leave the room and looked at Damon quizzically. "Do I dare ask?" He punched Max back and then took a sip of his hot drink.
Damon shrugged. "Depends. Wait til he comes back and see." He sipped his cider. "So are you still staying until after the New Year?"
Max rubbed his arm and looked at Damon then Severus. "Uh, I should let you all catch up. Sev, give me a call after ya get settled. We'll do the town up." He stuck out his hand to Severus and nodded to Damon.
"Sure Max, I'll call you tonight, okay?" the Potions Master said as he watched his friend leave. He turned and looked at Damon again. "I have taken some time off actually. I am not needed back in my teaching capacity under the middle of the month." He looked up at the older man and gave him a small smile. "I was thinking of taking a room in town after the New Year so I am not imposing on you both."
Damon shook his head. "You are not imposing on us, Severus and I think if Grant knew what you were suggesting he would take you behind the woodshed." Damon met the younger man's eyes. "You know you are always welcome here." He leaned back in his chair and drank more cider. "So tell me, how are things?"
Severus leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes. "The blasted dunderheads will be the death of me yet." He sighed. That day alone Longbottom had created such an explosion in the classroom that he was lucky to still have his limbs. "They get stupider each year, Damon." He took another long drink of his cider. "I had to leave before I hexed the Potter brat into next month." He sighed and set the mug on the table. "How are things here? You and Grant feeling okay?" He looked up as he heard a loud thump from above them. "What in Merlin's name is he doing?"
Damon chuckled. "They're children, Severus. One day you might have some of your own and you should try to remember that they are still learning as well." He looked up to the ceiling. "Grant and I are fine. Leave him be unless we hear screaming. Then we can go on up and see how he's doing." Damon reached across the table and squeezed Severus' arm. "It really is good to see you, boy."
Severus placed his hand over the older man's and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I think I've made a decision about my future, Damon." He gave him a hesitant smile. "I think I'll end up moving here in a few years. I think I'll be very happy here." He had been thinking long and hard over this over the past year, weighing his options for a new start and better life. He knew he was happy there in the little town.
Grant quickly resized the mattress and box spring and floated them in place, then made the bed in the clean, new linens. He looked around the room and straightened one of the photographs he'd hung of Max and Sev playing guitar under the oak tree. He bit his lip and went downstairs to face the man he thought of as his son.
Damon smiled. "That's wonderful, Severus. We'd be glad to have you here." He glanced up when Grant entered the kitchen. "Well, Pet are you finished?” His eyes ran slowly over the other man's form. "I am happy to see you are all in one piece."
Grant dropped a kiss onto the top of Severus' crown and gave him a half hug before he sat down next to him. "Now what is this wonderful news I came in on?" He leaned over and took Damon's mug as he gave his husband a kiss.
Severus turned to the man beside him. "I think I want to retire here in a few years." He told the other man softly. "No, I don't think, I know I want to." He passed his mug to Grant as well. "Is there more?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Bratchild." Grant said with a smile as he got to his feet and took both mugs to refill with cider. "I think it's wonderful you'll be moving here." He sat back down and gave the men their drinks. He looked at Damon and gave him a smile before he took a deep breath and began. "We...well we wanted to offer you something." He reached out and took his husband's hand. "Go upstairs to the storage room, okay?"
Severus frowned "All right?" He scooted the chair back and looked at the older couple. "Should I be frightened?" He raised an eyebrow at then and grinned.
Grant held his breath and his husband's hand as he listened to the younger man go up the stairs and the door open. "What if he hates it?" he whispered.
Damon squeezed Grant's hand. "We'll know in a moment, Pet." He brought he tanned fingers to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. "Any minute now."
Severus looked around the newly remodelled bedroom and nodded as he noticed the paint job and new furniture. He walked further in the room and began to look at the photographs on the wall. Most were of him taken in the years past; working on his bike, with Damon, with Max, one where Grant was sitting on the sofa with Severus obviously asleep and his head pillowed in the other man's lap. Okay, so they had made another guest room, why were they acting so strangely?
Grant took a sip of his cider and looked up as the sounds of Severus coming back downstairs got louder. "Do you want to tell him, or should I?" He asked as he held his husband's hand like a lifeline.
"Damon smiled. “We’ll do it together, Pet, like always." He bent and kissed Grant softly. "It will be alright Grant, you'll see."
Severus came into the kitchen and sat back down in his chair and nodded to the couple. "It's a nice room, you decided you needed another guest room?" He noticed the strained look on Grant's face and looked at Damon in concern. "Is Grant feeling alright?"
Grant looked at the younger man. "The room is for you if you want it." he said quickly and then looked back at his mug. Not exactly how he wanted to say it, but it was out.
Severus looked at him for a moment and said the most intelligent thing he could at the moment. "Huh?"
"Severus, we would like you to think of that room as yours. Leave some of your things here if you wish. I meant what I said earlier about you being welcome here at anytime." Damon smiled at him and then looked at Grant. "We want you to feel as if this is your home, Severus, is what we are trying to say. Welcome home, son."
Severus looked at both men, his mouth open and a shocked expression on his face. He pushed himself away from the table and staggered back up the stairs, without a word to either of them.
Grant pressed his lips together and nodded his head sadly, that didn't go as he'd hoped. He gave Damon's hand a squeeze and stood up. "Well, you warned me. I should have listened. I have some laundry to fold." And he walked out of the kitchen and to their room where Damon heard the door shut quietly.
Damon stared after the two men in his life. He didn't know which to see to first. He ran his fingers through his silvery blond hair and sighed. He went and listened at their door and heard nothing and knew Grant had put up a Silencing Charm. Damon shook his head and went to Sev's room. Dammit all, he was already calling it that and he wasn't even sure the young man was going to stay.
The Former Marine stopped at the entrance to the room and leaned on the doorframe watching Severus stand in the middle of the room.
Severus looked at the picture in his hands...one of all of them taken last summer at a Sunday dinner there at the farmhouse. His long fingers traced over the moving images of the figures waving out at him and he smiled. He was home. It just amazed him that they felt so strongly about him. He heard a floorboard squeak and turned to find Damon in the doorway. "I...."
Damon smiled at him. "It was Grant's idea." He entered the room. "I would say it was a week after Thanksgiving that I found him in here. He had the place emptied out." Damon sat on the bed. "This was going to be our children's room. Grant couldn't carry one past six months. For the longest time we tried and never succeeded. We never found out why it didn't happen for us but we had always wanted children."
Damon snorted. "Then this surly bad tempered one showed up. We fought like hell with that boy and he made a place in our hearts." Damon looked at the other man. "He turned out to be a good man despite his attitude. I am proud to think of him and call him my son." He smiled at Severus. "That's all I have to say about the matter."
Severus sat down on the bed next to the older man and held the picture up for them both to see. "Do you know who these people are to me?" He stopped for a moment and continued without giving Damon a chance to speak. "These people are my family." He'd known that the couple had never had children of their own, but he didn't know they had tried more than once. They had put him in the room they'd kept for their child. They wanted him. He looked at the ex Marine. "I'm home."
Damon nodded. "For as long as you want it. I, myself, am hoping for forever." He told Severus softly.
Severus put an arm around the other man’s shoulders and gave him a hug. "Thank you." He set the picture on the bed. "Where is Grant?"
Damon wrapped his arm around the other man and held on to Severus for a moment then let him go. "In our room." He looked at his boy. "Go talk to him, if you wish."
Severus nodded and left Damon sitting on his new bed as he made his way to the couple's bedroom. Knocking on the door softly, he heard the door click and then the door opened to reveal Grant in the darkened room.
"Hey Sev, did you need something? I'll be out in a little while, okay?" He said and started to close the door again.
Severus stuck his foot in the doorway. "Yes I did. I would like to speak with you if I could. And I really don't want to wait, if it pleases you."
Grant opened the door again and went to sit on his bed. He laid the old baby book that they had bought the time he'd carried the longest back in the drawer of his nightstand and closed the drawer gently, they'd been so sure...
"Sit down Sev. What do you need?" He asked as he leaned back against the headboard and looked the younger man over. He'd grown so much since he first walked into their lives.
"Thank you, Grant." Severus told him softly as he sat down beside the other man.
Grant reached out and gently patted the other man's back. "You're so welcome baby. You belong here," he said as he pulled the other man closer to him. "Are you okay with it?" He smoothed the long black hair away from Severus' face and stroked his cheek.
Severus crawled up into the bed and wrapped his arms around Grant. "More than okay, Grant." He leaned into the caressing hand and closed his eyes. he wanted nothing more than to stay here in America and forget about the darkening mark on his arm, the chaos that was slowly coming to a head again and Dumbledore's manipulations.
He laid his head down on the older man and breathed in the scent of him. The scent of home and comfort. He tightened his arms around Grant and sighed. "Thank you so much... mum."
The smaller man smiled as he stroked the other man's hair and leaned down to kiss his forehead. "My sweet boy, we are always going to be here for you. You are mine just as if I'd given birth to you myself," he murmured as a tear slowly rolled down his cheek. He heard the snick of the bedroom door opening and looked up to find his husband in the doorway.
Damon stood in the doorway and eyed his two boys; Severus' dark hair lying against Grant's pale blue shirt and his tanned arms wrapped around the pale man. He grinned at Grant and shook his head. He sat on the edge of the bed. "I am guessing you got it all straightened out now?" He reached up and wiped away the tears on Grant's face and ran a hand over Severus' head.
Grant nodded and pulled Damon up to lie on the other side of Severus. "I love you, baby," he whispered as he offered his mouth to his husband of so many years. "I told you it would be okay."
The two older men kept their boy between them for a long while as they simply enjoyed the silence and the warmth of family.