snarrymod (snarrymod) wrote in snarry_games, @ 2008-05-09 19:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | empathic_siren, entry, team dragon |
TEAM DRAGON ENTRY: Empathic Siren "For the Love of a Good Woman"
Title: For the Love of a Good Woman
Author: Siren empathic_siren
Team: Dragon
Genres: Angst
Prompt: Shrieking Shack, Inheritance
Rating: R (maybe)
Warnings/Kinks: *Epilogue-compliant, Het (Harry/Ginny), Major character death, implied infidelity*
Word Count: approximately 6,000
Summary: Love defines our choices, our lives, our everything. How does it define Snape and Harry? Harry finds out when he learns that Snape has unexpectedly died. Over the course of seven days, we learn of the relationship he and Harry had after the war, and what it meant to Harry, what it meant to Severus.
Author's Note: Many thanks to iulia_linnea, sansa1970, and all of my Team Dragon team mates, without whom this fic would never have seen the light of day.
Day 1: The Day Harry Stopped Breathing.
"Did you hear?" Ron asks.
They're sitting around the back garden, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione. The sun is warm and the grass is green. James runs around in little circles singing a song only he knows, and Ginny is round and glowing. Harry smiles at her, his gaze resting on her stomach. Another boy Potter will join them soon.
"Harry, are you listening?" Ron asks.
With reluctance, Harry pulls his eyes away from his wife. "What?"
"Did you hear about Snape?"
Before Harry can respond, Ron launches into his news.
"The old tosser's really dead this time—potion gone wrong or some such rot. All of those fumes must have finally got to him," Ron says with a snigger.
"Ron," Hermione admonishes, but with no real heat.
Harry stops breathing.
Ginny stares at him as Ron and Hermione banter back and forth, oblivious.
Life-changing things always happen in the most insignificant moments—in back gardens on warm, sunny days. Caught unawares, you stop breathing. You feel as though something's got hold of you around your middle. It shakes you hard and squeezes and squeezes as years of memories compress and flit behind your eyelids in the space of a moment.
"…so, we have to attend the rituals and everything—he was an Order member. We'll have to work ourselves up to it. Drinks all around before the first one, then?" Ron asks, swinging his gaze between the other three.
Harry stares, trying desperately to remember how to breathe.
"Of course," Ginny answers for them. She takes Harry's hand and squeezes.
Harry takes a breath, wincing as it drags roughly through his throat. He nods. He smiles. He makes a silly joke about potion fumes and spends the rest of the afternoon pretending that Snape's death means nothing to him.