occasusvenustas (occasusvenustas) wrote in snape_potter, @ 2007-11-12 11:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | fic, occasusvenustas, rating: pg-13 |
Part Two
Title:: From Death
Pairing:: Severus/Harry
Chapter:: 2/3
Rating:: pg13 for this chapter.
Summary:: What happens when Harry Potter and Severus Snape meet in Limbo? When Harry lives through his near death experience he seeks answers from those thought to be long since passed.
Spoilers:: DH though I'm sure by now everyone has read it or has been spoiled.
A/N:: Not as angsty as I wanted but whatever. This is part one, now edited. X-posted to IJ and communities. I also lied about this being two parts. It's going to have three.
And a huge thanks to nevereverposts for helping me with some plot issues like dittany and such. *squish*
chapter one
BOY WHO LIVED: MUGGLE LORRY ALMOST FINISHES WHERE DARK LORD LEFT OFF!
Harry Potter, aged twenty-seven, was nearly killed when a Muggle lorry ran him down Monday evening. Harry was spotted crossing a London street when the over-sized vehicle hit him. Harry was thrown several feet, to the curb, where two of his close friends were able to Apparate him to St Mungo’s. Although the Daily Prophet couldn’t get an official interview, sources on the inside say that Harry Potter’s body had died for at least sixty seconds.
"Interesting read?" came a voice from behind him.
Severus Snape, who had been sneaking a peek at the wizarding newspaper, dropped the pages and turned around. He wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to find Harry Potter standing in his shop, staring at him with his annoying green eyes.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Snape said, and when those words left his mouth, both men winced. There was a moment of deja vu so intense that it almost hurt.
"I..." Harry said, rubbing at his temple. "Is there something I should know, Snape?"
"Many things, but I don't work miracles," Snape said dryly. The moment Snape had heard about Harry’s near-death experience, that feeling, that old feeling he’d had when he woke from the snake bite, returned to him. Still, he wasn’t about to give in to Harry.
"Do you have any idea why I woke from nearly being dead to know that you were alive?" Harry asked pointedly.
"I had no idea you thought me dead," Snape said, though he only half meant it. "I assumed my little hero, the Granger girl, would have told you. She’s always lurking about, waiting for me to thank her."
Harry burst out laughing. "I thought you might’ve noticed that."
"I assume it was she, who led you here?" Snape asked.
Harry shoved his hands into his pockets nervously and nodded. "She never did tell me about you, Professor."
Snape held up his hand. "If anything, Snape, because I’m happily repressing the memories of having ever taught little idiots like yourself, Potter."
"Fine. Snape, then. And it you could always call me-"
"If you ask me to call you Harry, just know I have other ways of causing pain that don’t involve magic," Snape quickly cut in.
Harry laughed again and didn’t continue that sentence. "Something odd happened to me when I died... or almost died... whatever. I woke up with the feeling that you were alive and..." Harry paused, shrugging his shoulders, "there’s more but I can’t remember it."
The small bell on the door jingled as a couple of women entered the shop, browsing around. Snape shoved the newspaper with the moving photos under the counter. "As much as I am loathe to spend any more time in your company, Potter, I will agree to meet you once, and talk."
Harry could barely keep the grin from spreading across his entire face. "Excellent."
"Tonight. Meet me at the little restaurant on the corner at seven."
Harry nodded. "I’ll be there. Thank you, Snape."
"Don’t thank me yet, Potter," Severus said and then moved away from Harry to address the customers that had come in.
Not sure how he felt, Harry nodded to Snape and quickly slipped out of the shop. He decided to skive off work for the rest of the day and went home to mull things over. Not only was he struggling with the feeling that something happened while he had "died", but the attraction to Snape had rekindled full force and he wasn’t sure if he could keep himself from telling the older man.
— – – –
Seven o’clock seemed to take an eternity. Harry, of course, reached the restaurant a half hour early so he sat and ordered a drink, waiting for Severus to arrive. Precisely on time, Severus walked through the door and spotted Harry.
Harry noticed that Severus still managed to look ominous and quite evil, even in his common Muggle attire. Severus sat down and ordered a scotch before he even made eye contact with Harry.
"Have you been waiting long?" Snape asked after his first drink.
"No," Harry said with a shrug. "I got here early."
Severus drank half the glass of scotch before speaking again. "I assume that Mrs Granger-"
"Weasley," Harry corrected this time. "She’s married."
"Whatever," Snape said. "I assume she told you how I was ‘saved’ by her?"
Harry frowned. "She’s not taking large credit for saving your life, you know," he said defensively. "She hasn’t bothered to tell anyone, in fact."
"As the wizarding world finds me still quite dead, I assumed as much," Snape said. "And that didn’t answer my question."
"She told me about the potion," Harry said. "She had dittany but I assume the wound was too mortal to use it?"
Snape gave one slow nod. "The potion she gave me contained a lot of ingredients, rather volatile to any wizard, if consumed."
"She said it destroyed your magical ability."
"As I am now working in a Muggle bookshop, clearly," Snape said.
"She thinks that’s why you won’t thank her."
Snape snorted, "I don’t know why she thinks I owe her a thing. What makes her think I wished to live?"
"I don’t think she thought of it that way," Harry said with a shrug. "At that point we’d all seen enough death."
"Was it not enough for her that they were able to save that blasted werewolf and the Weasley?" Severus snapped.
"I suppose you’ll have to ask her that," Harry replied. "I was busy getting killed by Voldemort."
Severus lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
"You were going to say before all this?" Harry offered.
"I woke with strange knowledge that you-" Severus trailed off. "That we had spoken. I attributed it to the memories I gave you."
"Why did you give me those?" Harry asked.
"I was delusional," Snape said.
The painful deja vu hit them again and Harry shook his head. "Ever get the feeling we’ve had this conversation before?"
"Yes, along with an extreme paranoia that you’re going to say something I really don’t want to know," Snape said under his breath.
Harry licked his lips. "There is no possible way we met in death," Harry said. "You died ten years before my little experience. When Voldemort used Avada Kedavra on me I remember all of that. I saw Albus."
"So I read," Snape said, referring to the memoirs that had been published about the final battle.
"So it wasn’t that. But I still feel like this thing that just happened to me-"
"I know," Snape said. "The moment I read it in the paper I knew you would be along to pester me. I don’t know why, though."
"I thought, if it did have something to do with that death of yours," Harry said with a sigh, "that you’d have figured it out by now."
"Pity for you," Snape said sarcastically.
"And you," Harry replied.
They went ahead and placed food orders, though both men had a strong desire to walk away. They drank a bit and stayed in a tense, uncomfortable silence until the food arrived. It was decent enough and they tucked in.
"Do quash a rumour for me, Mr Potter," Snape said after a long while.
"Which?" Harry asked.
"That you named one of your atrocious little Weasly spawn after me."
Harry let out a small cough. "Well, we didn’t name him exactly after you," he said with a small blush. "I mean, Ginny was against it completely because-" Harry paused and shook his head. "Anyway, his name is Albus Severus."
"Why?" Snape demanded.
"Because after what I saw between you and my mum... and well, during the war and everything, it seemed fitting."
Snape looked green and pushed his plate away. "And your darling wife-"
"Ex wife," Harry corrected with a wry smile. "She left me."
"Ah," Snape said with a slightly malicious glint in his eye. "So your darling ex-wife, did not have such fond memories of me."
"Not exactly," Harry muttered, staring at his plate. "She never got over my-"
"Stop!" Snape said suddenly. "I believe this is exactly what I don’t wish you to speak about."
Harry frowned. "Okay."
"And all of your spawn are at Hogwarts?" Snape asked, the question sounding forced.
"Except the smallest. She has another two years to go." Harry sighed and finished the last of his food. "Have you met Draco’s son?"
"No. Draco thinks me dead and I prefer it that way."
"Oh," was all Harry could say.
Snape got the bill and paid it, and of course, Harry did not protest. He was going to log that away in his memory bank for life; Severus Snape bought him dinner. The two men gathered their coats and headed for the door.
"This dinner seemed kind of pointless," Harry said as they paused outside the building.
"I suppose," Snape said. "All I will ask of you is that you keep my whereabouts to yourself."
"Done," Harry said.
Snape nodded and started to walk away.
Harry watched him, prepared to let him go, but a sudden, desperate desire struck him and he raced to catch up with the older man. "Wait," he breathed.
Snape turned, looking mildly annoyed. "Yes?"
"That thing," Harry said, "that you don’t want me to say or talk about... you know what it is, don’t you?"
"Potter," Snape said, sounding rather weary. "Please don’t."
"I just want to know. Would you ever-?"
"No," Snape said.
"Because of my mum? Because I look like my father?"
"The last time I saw you alive you were a bleeding teenager, and an annoying one, at that. I was currently working at the right hand of the one person who wanted you dead more than anything. I hadn’t ever really thought on it, Potter."
"And now?" Harry asked.
"Don’t," Snape said again more firmly.
Harry sighed with frustration but didn’t call Snape back this time. He went home and was prepared to give up on Snape for good. When Harry woke in the morning, however, he knew that he had to give it one more try.