InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "So what about that?"

James Sirius Potter (simply_james) wrote in breaking_point,
@ 2010-10-21 16:14:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2025 10, character: alastor moody, character: albus potter, character: james sirius potter, character: severus snape

Owl to Alastor and Severus
Who: Jamie, Alastor and Severus
Where: Where they are
When: Morning 21 October, 2025
Summary: Jamie has some news that Severus and Alastor won't like.

Dear Alastor and Severus,

I've been in contact with several magazines, and I've arranged for an exclusive with Witch Weekly. There will be a portrait on each of us, a joint interview and pictures. We get to review the text prior to printing and pictures can be retouched to cover any defect.

The magazine is currently not running, but they want us to be on the cover of the first issue. I've also arranged for remuneration in the amount of 4000 galleons per person. We probably could have gotten more but it doesn't go well with the Saviors of the world image they want. They are hoping to do it this weekend and be out by Tuesday. Let me know if timing is a problem. Also, expect questions on your private lives. Yelling is not an answer. If you need me to come up with generic answers to use during the interview, that's fine too.

Sincerely,
Jamie

PS Saying no it's not an option. We have to give them something while these trials are going on.

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bp_albusseverus
2010-10-23 02:53 am UTC (link)

"Oi, I worked as one of them!" Al protested. "They're not all vultures, some are relatively reasonable and even fond of proper punctuation!"

At the second rereading of Jamie's notes, Al's eyebrows drew together. His lips thinned. "There is no optimal solution," he shook his head. "I hardly see the logic of declaring our marriage to the masses if our relationship lacks the Ministry's legal protection, but the consequences of declaring me your lover - especially to The Witch Weekly - will be far worse." He sighed.

"I wish there was a better term for us."

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	bp_snape 2010-10-23 03:36 am UTC (link)
	The solution to this particular dilemma seemed so obvious. Well, hopefully as soon as the trials are over and we have something resembling a working Ministry again, they'll repeal Riddle's bloody insane 'laws' and we can remarry. We can't until that happens, but it's not our fault. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

bp_albusseverus
2010-10-23 04:22 am UTC (link)

"Remarry?" Al mouthed as he read, forgetting to add any effort to sound it out - it's not as if he could hear himself.

"But... isn't it like turning the other cheek to the crowd while the slapped one is still stinging?"

He raised his hands to to his forehead and ran them through his hair, nervously, slicking his fringe back. "I hate that we have to redeclare ourselves in order to receive protection we should have had from the start, and that such privilege is still a favour someone else might deem appropriate to dispense in due time. That's not an appropriate definition of marriage, no more than Riddle's was."

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bp_snape
2010-10-23 06:08 am UTC (link)

Severus sighed. It's not the same crowd. Riddle's the one who deranged the laws. Now that he's dead, things just need to be set to rights.

He turned away, lowering his face until the heavy strands of hair hooded it from view. His hand was slower, as he wrote, If you've changed your mind, about wanting to be married to me, well of course that's different. I'm not about to pressure you into something you don't want.

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bp_albusseverus
2010-10-23 09:05 am UTC (link)

Severus turned, and after that, Al couldn't see his face behind his hair.

Al found the matter disconcerting: for the past few days, Severus made sure that his face remained within Al's sight. Al followed it, trying to observe every twist of Severus' mouth, every direction of his stare, every move of his lips as the words were spelled out in front of him.

He watched Severus' face so much, he began to associate certain twitches and twists of lips or brow, the tension in Severus' jaw or the angle of his nose - with letters and words and entire phrases.

And now all that was gone. Hidden beneath the sweep of Severus' hair.

"No! I-" Al shook his head, moving forward. Severus was getting it all wrong. Again.

"Look at me. Please." he asked, reaching out to tap his fingers against Severus' elbow, because he needed Severus to see, eye-to-eye and beyond. "I want you. I don't want anyone to have the power to break or redefine what we share. Never again. It's ours, not theirs."

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bp_snape
2010-10-24 01:54 am UTC (link)

At the touch of Al's hand, at the sound of his voice, Severus turned back to him, because quite simply he was powerless not to. It was instinctive, as deep as reflex; even deeper than his lifelong reflex to hide himself away.

Their eyes met and their hands touched, and their minds met with the same naturalness and ease.

Severus realised with a shock that his turning away had had consequences he'd never intended. He'd meant only to hide himself, his vulnerability, his fear, from Al. Instead, in his current - temporary! - deafness, Al had come to rely on reading Severus' and others' faces, using that to understand the meaning behind their words. By turning away, Severus had deprived Al of that vital information; in effect, he'd cut Al adrift.

It was no less cruel for being utterly unintended. He reached for Al then, with his body and his mind and everything he was, enfolding him in an embrace more than physical. "Oh, Al. I'm sorry! I want you, please, never doubt that!"

Severus' mental voice as clear as his physical voice once had been, and as adept at conveying depths of emotion. "I want to keep you from the slurs of the world, and protect you from the viciousness and the lies. This is just the best way to do that. What's between us is really nobody's business but our own. But since the world will insist on sticking their noses into our business, I want them reassured that I'm not some sort of aging Lothario intent on preying on a lad young enough to be my son. This is simply the best way to reassure those idiots of that fact."

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bp_albusseverus
2010-10-24 03:26 am UTC (link)

Al's mind was was as much of an open book as ever, to Severus' eye.

There was Al's relief: at seeing Severus' face once more. There was the need: to have him near. There was the utter confusion at the new definition of their roles: But I don't want to be with you for protection, and I just want to share your bed, and your coffee pot, and your thoughts.

Protection.

Do I need to be protected, Al wondered. He'd been so adamant about it before, as a child, hating the dependency on someone else and the independence it took from him. He wanted to stand on his own two feet in the world and not be a burden on someone else's shoulder.

Al feared the idea of being forced to deal with Mum wanting to protect him - from Severus, from himself; Al wanted friendship from Dad above any offers of protection. From Severus... he didn't want anything at all, but to be near him, because they fit well together.

What if I'll never recover fully? a thought struck. Without sound, Al could read Severus better than others, faster than others, not just his words written in flame, but his face, and his lips, and his mind.

Perhaps he is protecting me already. And it's all right. It's fine if he does it.

He trusted Severus with many things so far, perhaps Al'd just have to trust him with this. With the responsibility not to turn oneself solely into a protector instead of being so much more.

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bp_snape
2010-10-24 04:49 am UTC (link)

Severus didn't read Al's fears, like reading words written on a page or even written on the air in lines of fire. He felt them, with all the immediacy of his own fears.

So he offered those fears to Al in turn: his own need to be protected, which he judged to be greater than Al's, because he knew perfectly well that the full brunt of public displeasure would fall on him, not on Al. Al would at worst be pitied as his victim. It was he, Severus, who would be vilified as a sleazy predator on innocents, an abusive betrayer of undeserved trust. It was he who stood to lose the Headmastery, who might possibly fall from the heights of wizarding society to the dregs.

It had been true, what he'd written, that he wanted to protect Al from their lies. But it was only part of the truth, the easiest part to admit to.

Only here, where no-one else could possibly know but Al, could Severus bring himself to admit his own weakness, and how bitterly it shamed him.

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bp_albusseverus
2010-10-24 05:32 am UTC (link)

Surprise was displayed freely on Al's face as he was blindsided by a fear that wasn't his own - a fear that was Severus' through and through at first - but now was theirs to face together.

It's in the face of that fear, and of the world, that Al rose from the Infirmary bed and stood there, with Severus, in Severus' arms, and let his rage against the world and the Ministry's definition of marriage die for good.

He knew the right definition. And Severus knew it. That was enough for Al.

In the end, it didn't matter if Al's cheek still stung, he'd turn the other and offer it to the world several times over because he had a good reason to do so. In the end, keeping Severus, and keeping them both safe mattered much more to Al than the world.

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bp_snape
2010-10-24 05:51 am UTC (link)

Snape held onto Al fiercely; it was lucky that Al's injuries were above where the long arms were wrapped so tight around Al's body. He buried his face in Al's hair and closed his eyes, shutting out the world, just living in the moment, filling his mind and his embrace and his senses with Al's presence. You and me, against the world. He wasn't sure whether he said it with his voice or his thoughts or his stubborn will, but it was true.

Holding onto the link, he drew back at last, giving Al the sight of his face as well as his words, written in lines of fire.

They've said you're well enough you don't have to stay here full time anymore. He smiled, wry and warm. Let's go home.

He offered up a memory of a wide bed, round as the tower room it inhabited, covered in a canopy as circular as the webs of Al's familiars.

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	bp_albusseverus 2010-10-24 07:26 am UTC (link)
	Al's smile spread so wide at the thought. I can leave this room. I can walk outside. I can go see the owls. Severus and I can have our bed back! And no one would stop us... No one will ever stop us! I'll do everything I can to make sure of it. How incredible these things were... Simple things. In the world without Riddle. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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