First Time for Everything Fest: FIC: The Exception Proves The Rule Title: The Exception Proves The Rule Author:elmyraemilie Rating: R Word count: 1,821 words Content/Warning(s): (highlight for spoilers) *None* Summary: Harry and Severus talk about sex; it's all because of Teddy. A/N: My thanks to florida_minxie for her speedy beta.
The Exception Proves The Rule
"Uncle Harry?"
"Mmmm?" Harry kept his concentration on his wand; the curve of wood he was finishing was just about right, and another few seconds of precision carving-charm would do it. With this last piece done, he could start assembling the box he was making for Molly and Arthur.
His godson was oblivious to the delicacy of the situation. "When did you and Uncle Severus have sex the first time?"
The delicate wooden spiral sheared off and rattled to the floor. Teddy's hands flew to cover his mouth and his hair turned white; Harry swore at length. Then he closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath through gritted teeth.
"I told you that if you wanted to watch me work, you had to be quiet. You weren't quiet, were you?"
Teddy hung his head. "No, not really."
"And furthermore, that is far too personal a question to ask, young man. If you have questions about sex, that's one thing. You should certainly ask an adult you trust, and if you ask me I'll answer as well as I'm able. But you don't pry into the private lives of other people, even your family."
"I'm sorry, Uncle Harry. Really sorry." Teddy bent to pick up the bit of oak. With an earnest face, he asked, "I can fix it, can't I? I'll try!"
"No, there's nothing to be done now." To himself, Harry admitted that he should never have taken up such a delicate piece of woodwork with his rambunctious godson in the shop. Still, the boy had to learn. "But I want you to take that broom and sweep the entire floor. It had better be spotless when you've finished. Put the shavings in the sack over there and the rest of the dirt in the bin." When Teddy pulled out his wand, Harry said, "Put that away—you know you can't use magic! You can think about what I said while you work. I'll be back in a few minutes."
He moved toward the door, taking off his apron; then he paused. "Oh, and Teddy?" The dejected slump of the shoulders lifted in hope that penance would be lightened. "Don't ever repeat the language I just used. Your grandmother would kill us both."
With an exaggerated sigh, Teddy pushed the broom across the floor.
XOXOX
"He is a thirteen-year-old boy. Curiosity about sexual matters is natural at that age."
"I'm not debating that. But that question was just plain rude. Where would he get the idea to ask such a thing?"
Severus passed the lettuce he'd washed to Harry, who shredded it, perhaps more finely than necessary, into the salad bowl with the other vegetables.
"He may be contemplating his own first time."
"At thirteen!"
Rescuing the bowl as it teetered on the edge of the kitchen bench, Severus twitched a smile. "I only said he was contemplating it, Harry." Then, just for devilment, he added, "Though of course he may be planning it as well."
Harry snatched the salad up and plunked it onto the table. It was a good thing they wanted tossed salad; that was what it was going to be when Harry was done with it, like it or not. "That isn't remotely funny, you know. He's just a boy. He should be thinking about Quidditch and pranking his mates, not sex."
With a sigh, Severus joined him at the table and helped himself to casserole. "He is going to grow up. It might be pranks and Quidditch now, but his question shows that soon enough other physical pursuits will enter the picture." Harry didn't answer, just chewed his food, glaring at the salt cellar. Severus had a thoughtful bite of his own meal. "Is it his obnoxious question, or is it the topic in general that has you so put out?"
There was a moment of silence; that last bite of salad must have been taken in order to give Harry time to choose how to answer. Finally, he replied, "What if he wants to know about girls?"
Severus frowned. "What if he does? The principles are the same, are they not?"
"Ha." Harry sat back from the table. "My experience with them wasn't exactly an unqualified success. I slobbered all over Cho Chang, and with Ginny..." He shook his head. "I won't know what to say. Some godparent I am."
"Well, you will hardly be discussing the specifics of technique. Your early experiences with females at least demonstrated that you were better off focusing your amours on your own sex. I have no complaints."
Harry looked off to the corner of the kitchen in silence, so Severus continued. "Harry, I was not being flippant in my comment about the principles of sex. They are indeed the same. Affection before desire, respect before intimacy, sex as the confirmation of a strong relationship rather than as a testing of the waters—none of this changes with the sexual orientation of the partners."
With a heavy sigh, Harry replied, "I suppose you're right. It just shocked me a bit, is all. How fast he's growing up." Taking up his fork again, he resumed his meal, but his mood for the remainder of the evening was pensive. He went out to his workshop, but as far as Severus could tell when he brought out a cup of tea, he did nothing but sit at the table and whittle a piece of wood to chips.
XOXOX
On Wednesday night, after long days at their respective offices in St. Mungo's, Harry and Severus were settled in bed, Severus with his journal, Harry with his novel. Severus noticed that no pages had been turned for quite a long time; he was ready to ask about it when Harry said, "I've been thinking about what you said last weekend."
Severus hummed a bit to show he was listening. Harry went on, "Those principles of sexual behavior you listed. We didn't do them."
"I beg your pardon?" Severus closed the magazine and turned to look at his spouse with a frown.
"We didn't do them. What was it you said? Affection before desire—I'd hardly call the scene in your lab affectionate. You practically tore my robes off."
"I didn't hear any objection from you. Surely you felt some regard for me before, ah, we—"
"Before we fucked like rabbits? Well, yeah, I felt something all right, but we'd hardly been affectionate. We bickered, we sniped, we outright fought. Remember that business with the order of Lividity Lotion? Merlin, half of London heard us, never mind every floor of the hospital."
Snape shifted uncomfortably and looked away. "If your handwriting was even the least bit legible, that order would have been entirely correct when it was delivered. But we were merely business associates then. Your argument does not hold up."
Harry gave him a pointed look. "It was only a couple weeks later that we had sex the first time."
"Well, what about respect before intimacy? Are you saying you did not feel any esteem for me and yet you consented?"
"I...well...well, no, of course I felt esteem for you. I've respected you since I was a teenager, you know that. But there's respect, and there's respect. We weren't, oh, I don't know how to say it." Harry flapped one hand back and forth between them. "We weren't seeing each other in that potential-partner way yet." He shifted around and put his book on the bedside table. "I sure didn't see you that way." After a second, he must have realized how that sounded, because he added, "Sorry," in a sheepish tone.
Severus' mouth turned down at the corners. "Nor I you, I can assure you. To this day, I do not understand what came over us."
Harry's foot crept over to rub against Severus' calf. "I'm glad it did, though. I mean, how did you put it? Sex as a testing of the waters? Those waters passed with flying colors. I remember thinking afterward, after you'd spelled away the broken glass and curled up with me on the floor of the lab, that it was more than sex, it was like..."
He stopped and actually blushed. Severus, charmed out of his snit, peered around at his partner's reddened face and asked, "Like what? What were you going to say?"
"It's embarrassingly mushy." Severus prompted him with raised brows and the tiniest of smiles, so Harry went on. "Like a door in my heart had opened, I suppose. Like I'd always loved you, but it was hidden from me somehow and it took that big blast of lust to blow away the fog."
A nimble turn put Severus over Harry. "A big blast of lust, was it?" He bent his head and nuzzled at Harry's neck, prompting a pleased grunt. "Opposed to these pathetic, puny spurts of lust we have now?"
"I wouldn't—ooh, you know I like that—I wouldn't call them pathetic or puny, no." He reached around to pull them tighter together. "That in particular," he said as he rocked upward against Severus's hardening length, "is definitely not puny."
"Nor is 'pathetic' an adjective I would employ in this context." Severus drew his fingers along Harry's ribs and received the reaction he hoped for. Harry laughed and wriggled away from the teasing, reaching for the lube on the bedside table shelf.
Before he flipped the container open, Severus stayed Harry's hand. His expression turned serious. "I love you as my partner, I respect you as a wizard, and I desire you above all things. Whether we adhered to those ideal principles in coming to this point matters not at all. Not to me."
Harry pulled him down and kissed him. Severus always maintained that practical application was the most definitive way to settle any question, and he set about proving himself correct in that belief.
Some time later, as they cast cleansing spells and resettled the bed-covers, Harry said, "I rather feel bad for Teddy."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, those first years of experimentation are like finding your way in the dark. You desperately want something, but you don't know what it is, and when you do stumble upon it, you have no clue that what you're doing will eventually govern how a lot of your life turns out."
Severus lay down and pulled the sheet up; as Harry cast Nox, he said, "Whatever you do, do not tell Teddy that. The poor lad will never recover from the trauma."
"It would serve him right for the shock he gave me," Harry laughed. He turned on his side and Severus spooned up behind him. After a quiet minute, Harry said, "We all do manage to find our way, don't we?"
"We do. If we're lucky, we have the help of those older and wiser than ourselves."
"And if we're really lucky, we find love despite everything. I love you, Severus."