Title: How We Were Warriors
Author: Writcraft
Other pairings/threesome: Non-Explicit Past Severus/OMC
Rating: NC-17
Word count: ~52,000
Content/Warning(s): Offscreen Homophobic Violence, Homophobia, Cross-Generational Relationship, Queer Themes, LGBT Themes, AIDS/HIV Referenced, Loss of a Partner, Processing Grief, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Slow Burn, Internalised Homophobia, Switching, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Rimming, Anal Sex, Romance, Falling in Love, Happy Ending
Prompt: 68: Harry is out and proud but Severus grew up in a different time and old habits die hard. Before he can fully commit to a relationship with Harry, Severus has to come to terms with and get over his homophobic upbringing.
Summary: A homophobic attack in London’s Soho brings Harry to New York City to discover more about the past. Still haunted by love and loss in the eighties, Severus just wants to forget. In Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, past and present collide, and in one another Severus and Harry find hope for the future.
A/N: This story was inspired by 2019 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, widely considered to be a significant turning point in the modern LGBT liberation movement in America. The riots took place at The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. Unlike today’s Greenwich Village which has been significantly gentrified, in 1969 the Stonewall Inn was a haven for many of the most marginalized people in the LGBT community, including drag queens and transgender people of colour, hustlers and homeless youth. On 28 June 1970 the Christopher Street Liberation Day March commemorating the riots became the first Pride march in US history. The story also contains a brief reference to the nail bombing at The Admiral Duncan, a famous gay pub in London’s Soho. This year also marked the twentieth anniversary of that attack, and in April this year people gathered outside the Admiral Duncan to remember the victims.

The title of this fic is taking the poem ‘Here’ from writer Paul Monette’s collection of poetry Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies For Rog (1987). Monette was an American writer who documented the AIDS epidemic and the loss of his partner and multiple friends through texts such as Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. There is also a quote from his poem ‘Readiness’ from the same collection and a quote from Thom Gunn’s ‘The Man With Night Sweats’ (1992). I will link to the Spotify playlist associated with this fic when the story is no longer anon. Thank you to the mods for running this incredible fest, to Torino for pre-reading and to Badgerlady for the SPaG check and to everybody who cheered me on.

Read in its entirety on AO3

(How We Were Warriors)