Draco woke late, exhaustion still weighing heavily after a night spent twisting himself out of nightmares filled with flashes of sickly green and diaries that crowded his head with high pitched laughter.

Soft, diffuse light from the watery window filtered in and leached the emerald green of his bed hangings to greyish sage. It was quiet in the dorm, everyone having left for classes or revision somewhere warmer. Draco had a free period until lunch, and for once couldn't be bothered to be productive, instead just letting his thoughts float.

He had volunteered to kill the Headmaster. Six months ago something like this would have been a dream, an answer to every problem he had, wrapped up and handed to him on a silver platter. Now the very idea sickened him.

Draco rolled over slowly, stretching his back and enjoying the feel of silk sheets sliding over his legs, the sensory input a distraction from the panic he found built so easily nowadays.

His eyes fell on the notebook that went everywhere with him now, his terrible and precious secret. It balanced on his bedside table, a simple and bright obnoxious green, loops of thin wire holding well thumbed pages together. Nothing a Malfoy would own, so shabby and cheap and muggle, but as with so many other unanticipated things of late, he had learned to love it.

He reached out and pulled it to him, flipping slowly through months of small, stilted conversations, watching them evolve, become more frequent, until Grangers words scrawled over the pages everyday, questions and small sketches surrounded by the neat loops of his own writing, tangling around hers, weaving their thoughts together into something unexpectedly beautiful and terribly complicated.

He'd suspected, that first night when he'd snuck up to the hospital wing, unable to sleep because he couldn't stop thinking of the trust that had shone from her face, couldn't stop seeing it morph into the painfully bruised mask he had last glimpsed. He had turned around twice on the way. Stopped and talked himself out of and back into visiting her countless times and finally found himself outside of the arching doors of the hospital wing, glaring at the floor and hating himself for being a coward just as much as he hated himself for caring.

Standing in that cold, dark corridor, unable to make himself step forward to check on a muggleborn but unwilling to leave, his Father's voice echoed around his memory, berating him for being lesser, for not besting someone who was so clearly inferior, for allowing the Malfoy name to be lower than a common muggles.

He could feel echoes of the disappointment, the rage that he couldn't win against her, that she didn't care who he was, that his name meant nothing to her, that she had hated him for his own self and not his family.

That she trusted him for his own self, in spite of his family.

He'd taken a deep breath and walked in. And kept walking in, every night. He stopped questioning himself after the second night, stopped making himself wait to answer her when she wrote to him so he wouldn't seem too eager. Started talking instead, started writing her first, started sharing the small things that seemed stupid, that no one had ever cared about, except for her; she always listened, always wrote back, showed that she cared in a hundred tiny, inconsequential ways.

And when the first night that she was back in her dorm came he had written with her into the small hours of the morning, until they were both bleary eyed and barely scratching out replies, neither willing to let go of the connection they held together with nothing but worn paper and bleeding ink.

He had known, that last night in the hospital wing, when she had fallen asleep and curled her tiny battered frame into his chest, her hair tangled and in need of a wash, her delicate fingers laced through the spaces between the buttons of his shirt and nothing in the world could have made him leave.

Nothing in the world would make him leave, would make him throw away this one chance at something just for him. A chance for someone that just wanted him. Not his money, or his name, or the power that came with it. Just Draco.

All he had to do now was to convince her he was worth it, and not just for a passing bit of illicit fun. The one woman in the whole bloody world that didn't care about any of the shit that he had been told would win him a wife was of course the only one he cared to convince. And all he had left to offer was a life of dubious moral decisions, a history of insults, and a tattoo that showed nothing so much as his inability to stand up for himself.

His long fingers trailed carefully over the notebook as he flipped to the most recent page and saw it was already half filled with her tidy but hurried scrawl, writing to him between her notes in transfiguration, ideas and observations and scathing comments about their book mixing.

A smile pulled across his face as he flopped back, a quill already spilling over the page and answering in the strange haphazard way that they had built.

He eventually pulled himself out of bed, got dressed and slowly trekked toward the great hall, aiming for an early lunch and idly considering a quick flight before his Charms class.

The rattle of heavy footsteps brought his head around as he passed the potions classroom, only to see Weasley darting down the hall toward him on large clumsy feet. The redhead spotted him at the same instant and his face washed with relief.

Draco could feel his stomach tightening with dread. Nothing that made the Weasel look happy to see him could be good. Before he could work himself into a panic and start demanding to know where Hermione was, Weasley got to him.

Panic pinched the pale face and made blue eyes dart back the way he had come "Malfoy, you have to help. I know we hate each other and we can absolutely go back to that, but please, for the sake of anything we both care about please, distract her" Weasley got out, all in a single breath, his words blurring together as he gripped Draco's arm painfully.

Draco just nodded dumbly, horribly confused. Weasley gave him a look of gratitude mixed liberally with a frantic sort of fear before ducking into a broom cupboard a few steps down the hall and slamming the door shut.

Draco stood in the now empty and echoingly silent corridor, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

His answer came a moment later with a clatter of heels and a high pitched voice sobbing out Weasley's name. Lavender Brown rounded the same corner Weasley had and stopped short at the sight of him, her eyes narrowing. She looked as though she was in the midst of a fit of hysterics, her blonde hair falling in tangles around her tear blotched face. Her chest was heaving with short gasps as she tottered on her impractically tall heels, her reddened eyes glaring sharply at him.

Draco found himself trying desperately not to laugh as relief washed over him and he briefly but very seriously considered yanking Weasley out of the cupboard just to watch the confrontation.

He only stopped himself because that fell rather clearly into the 'Things that Hermione would not care for' box.

"What are you doing here" Brown asked, her voice sharper and much less weepy.

Draco rolled his eyes at the idiocy of her question. "Since you seem to have forgotten either where you are or where the Slytherin house is, I live down here Brown. What the hell are you doing down here is a far better question."

She gave him a rather disgusted look despite her smudged makeup "I was looking for my boyfriend. I heard he was down here. Did you do something to him?" she demanded, looking suddenly suspicious.

Draco gave her a considering look "The Weasel is down here? All on his lonesome?"

Brown didn't cover up the flash of distress that flitted over her features quickly enough. "No, I'm sure Harry and Hermione are with him" she answered, her voice turning up at the end and making it a question.

Draco let his most vicious smile creep across his face. "You're an awful liar Brown. I suppose I had best go find him, he could be lost after all. It's so very easy to get turned around down here, I'd hate for him to stumble into something dangerous" he purred, watching her face blanch white.

He ran his hands over his neatly pressed robes, casually pulling his wand from the thin pocket on the side of his black trousers and twirling it through his fingers, letting his threat settle into the tight silence of the corridor.

"No, no it's fine, I'll go find him" she said hurriedly, her hand shaking slightly as she reached into her pocket to grip her own wand tightly.

"I suppose I should come along with you, hadn't I? Wouldn't want unaccompanied Gryffindors roaming where they aren't welcome." He tried out his best impression of the look Greyback seemed to perpetually wear, the one that said he was a missed meal and an insult away from eating someone. If her shudder was anything to go by, he came close.

"Maybe I was wrong, I bet he's just in the Hall, getting lunch. I'm sure he's just getting lunch" she said quickly as she slowly backed away from him. "I'll just… go see" she stuttered as she turned and hurried away, the clack of her heels speeding up after she rounded the corner.

Draco waited a few minutes before he turned and opened the door to reveal a rather rumpled Weasley.

"Merlin Malfoy do you practice sounding like a villain?" Weasley asked as he stumbled over a collapsed pile of brooms and dustpans, his robes having gained several wrinkles and a new hole or two.

Draco raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow at him "I spend a significant amount of time near people who make it a point to terrify everyone. I was bound to pick up something" he couldn't keep the faint hint of amusement out of his voice as he watched Weasley look suspiciously up and down the corridor.

"Do you have any plans on telling me what that was about? Not that I don't appreciate a chance to terrorize my fellow students" Draco asked, making Weasley blush and look uncomfortably away.

Blue eyes fixed themselves on the toes of worn trainers as Weasley muttered to the floor "I broke up with her and she just told me no."

"You mean to tell me you tried to leave Brown and she what? Refused and chased you?" Draco's voice came out tight as he tried to strangle the laughter inching its way out of his chest.

Weasley's face was slowly turning the same shade as his hair "Yeah, she didn't really take it well. Probably could have done it a bit neater really."

Draco allowed himself a brief moment to savior Weasley's obvious embarrassment before he let a small disbelieving huff escape and turned away without another word. He was sure to get the full replay soon, and he had no desire to stay in a dim hallway with Weasley, sharing stories about his poor romantic decisions.

He had only taken a few steps away when the clear sound of someone hurrying toward them made Weasley freeze and dart toward his cupboard. The crash of him tripping over his pile of cleaning supplies made Draco wince.

Hermione rounded the corner and stopped, raising a judgmental eyebrow at Weasley, who had only managed to get half of himself back into the small space before slipping and falling gracelessly to the ground. He elected to stay there, his forehead pressed into the cold flagstone and muttering to himself.

"Lavender came up to the Gryffindor table screaming that you were going to murder Ron" she said, turning to Draco and clearly dismissing her unfortunate housemate.

Draco let a real smile through, feeling it pull the corners of his mouth up and reveal just a hint of dimple that he kept carefully hidden. He was gratified to see Hermione's eyes glaze a little like someone had clipped her with a low speed bludger.

He was completely screwed where she was concerned and he knew it. It was comforting to believe that she was going down with him.

A clatter drew their attention to where Weasley had rolled himself around to slump against the dungeon wall.

"She didn't follow you back down her did she 'Mione?"

Hermione gave a very unladylike snort that he really should not have found endearing "Of course not Ron, she was convinced that Draco was planning on murdering any Gryffindor he found down here."

"And yet she let you brave my wrath, all alone," he drawled, unimpressed with Brown's lack of bravery.

Hermione smirked "All of our house is convinced I'm the only person you won't try to duel without backup. Something about how you never throw curses at me in the halls and the whole punching incident." She had the grace to blush slightly at the last. He knew Finnigan started a betting pool in fourth year on when she'd punch him again. Come to think, they could make some decent money off of that.

"Well they aren't wrong" Draco smiled down at her, having found himself considerably closer without noticing either of them moving.

A throat cleared very pointedly behind him and he sighed, starting to move away, only to have Hermione wrap a hand around his wrist, keeping him planted next to her. He stilled, not inclined to fight it. If she didn't want him to move then it would take more than the Weasel being uncomfortable to make him.

Weasley clambered upright and shifted from foot to foot like a small child, his eyes darting to them and where her hand was still holding onto him before darting away. He cleared his throat again and started past them, mumbling about going to lunch through suddenly gritted teeth.

Hermione sighed heavily, a soft sound of tired sorrow, and Draco slid his wrist out of her grip, wrapping his hand tightly around hers without thinking. Weasley caught the move out of the corner of his eye and froze, his whole body tense.

Blue eyes locked with his, but instead of the anger he expected, they were filled with a quiet resignation.

His eyes shifted to her, sadness bleeding into the pale blue depths "Really 'Mione? Malfoy?" he asked softly, a small pleading look enhanced by his boyish freckles.

Draco couldn't stop himself from tensing. He knew, hell everyone knew, that they were supposed to end up together. The school had been watching them dance around each other for years and even Draco had made more than a few cracks about the unfortunate hair their children were sure to have. The thought made his stomach twist unpleasantly as he tried to suppress the sudden flash of a tiny girl with wild, icy blond curls.

A warm line of witch was suddenly pressed to his side and he glanced down to find her smiling gently up at him, jarring him from his thoughts. A tension he didn't realise he'd been carrying for some time fell away at the strength of her hand holding tightly to his.

"Yes Ron, really," she answered, finally looking away to glance at her friend. Draco was afraid he was probably smiling like an idiot but at the moment, he couldn't care less.

Just a hint of pain washed over Weasley's face before he hid it and for a tiny instant Draco almost felt bad for him, but he'd had his chance, for years, and had gone after Lavender Brown instead. Idiot.

The tall Gryffindor shook himself and plastered a painful, put upon look on his face, obviously trying to make light of the situation despite the edge in his voice. "Come on 'Mione, since when did we decide Slytherins were alright to fancy? I already have to deal with Snape, and now you've set the Ferret on me. Should I just go find Parkinson?"

Draco blinked a bit rapidly at the spill of information but recovered quickly enough "Weasley if you proposition Parkinson please, please, let me know beforehand. I intend to make several very large bets and I would hate to miss the show."

Weasley snorted at him and waved an uncoordinated goodbye over his shoulder as he turned to head back toward the Great Hall, seeming to have reached his Slytherin limit for the day.

Draco spun on Hermione, making her start a bit "So I wasn't seeing things. Potter and Severus?" he couldn't help the tiny bit of indignant outrage that laced his question.

"I'm fairly sure that the only reason no one else has guessed is because it's so unbelievable" she answered with a small smile.

Draco thought for a few moments before he made a face, not enjoying where his mind had wandered. "Are they…" he didn't know how to finish his question in a way that wouldn't traumatize him for years.

Hermione shook her head "Harry just figured it out and I don't think he realises that Snape feels the same. He's still busy angsting over the whole thing and wouldn't think to bring it up."

Draco just shook his head, tugging gently on her hand to get her to start toward the Great Hall, keeping his steps short and slow. "I thought I was seeing things. I mean, I know Severus has been stupid about him for months, but I couldn't imagine Potter ever even considering… well anything except maybe murder where my Godfather is concerned." Draco rubbed along his neck thoughtfully, noting absently that he needed a haircut soon. "He won't say anything either you know. He's got a very inconvenient amount of honor, all wrapped around an ocean of guilt. He would never think to actually try for someone he wanted, and really not the Hero of the Bloody Wizarding World."

They strode along for a minute in silence as she digested the idea, her face drawn down into an unhappy scrunch.

"Well bollocks"

The profanity uttered in her prim voice startled a laugh out of him just as they drew to a halt a corner before where they would have to become Death Eater and Hero again. She stopped and stepped closer, just of a height to tuck under his chin.

Draco could feel his pulse picking up, her lovely brown eyes scrutinizing his face with an almost suspicious air. Any thoughts of his Godfather and Potter flew out of his mind.

"You're serious about this?" she asked into the sudden tension, knowing that he would understand what she was asking. The small question carried so much weight, so many layers, that it was staggering. Was he serious? Did he understand the extra layer of danger they were playing with? Would he still be there at the end of the war? Would he shuffle her away, a dirty secret, to preserve the Malfoy name when she became inconvenient? Or did he want to try for something real, something that would be just as hard as his position as a spy in its own right?

The months leading up to this moment washed over him, the late night talks, the meals that appeared when he was exhausted and hurting, working with her to solve what they had to, to win the war. Watching her fall, his name on her lips. Watching her sleep, her hands tangled in some part of him, always reaching for him. The pain that flashed over her face when she had thought he would choose to be with Pansy, with anyone other than her. The care she took of his mother, despite her bigotry. The care she took of him and all the sharp edges that life had left on him.

"Yes" he answered simply, because, after all, it was simple.

The terror he was braced for didn't come. The small awful fear that he kept close, the fear that his old feelings of revulsion for her blood status would come back, slowly slipped away when all he felt was yearning as he met her eyes.

A smile curled over her lips and lit her eyes like warm honey as she reached for him. He stooped, meeting her as she pressed up onto her toes.

Her lips brushed his, silky soft and achingly gentle. Her small, strong hands tangled in his hair, drawing him down. He pressed closer, sealing himself to her more firmly, letting the tip of his tongue trace her bottom lip, tasting a hint of mint lip balm and bitter coffee.

There was no hesitance in her, not like the few other girls he had kissed. She kissed him like she'd been doing it all her life, like he was exactly where he was supposed to be. He couldn't find it in himself to disagree.

A lifetime later she pulled back by tiny degrees, smoothing her hands over his ruffled hair and down his chest, pulling a small involuntary noise from him. He rested his forehead carefully against hers, running shaking hands through her shockingly soft hair. She paused for a moment longer, savoring the chance to hold each other, her fingers tracing the edge of his jaw, before she stepped back and drew in a shaky breath.

They stood carefully apart, both taking a moment to come to terms with the change in their relationship, both with naked hope and something decidedly more vulnerable playing over their faces.

Brown eyes suddenly flew wide in alarm and he had his wand in his hand before he realised that she was digging through her bag instead of shielding against an unnoticed attacker.

A moment of searching later she pulled a heavy black leather cuff out, a darker match to the ones he had noticed Potter, Weasley and Hermione wearing.

"Here, I almost forgot to give this to you. Harry made it for you."

He took it with no small amount of shock, seeing the tiny silver buckles that would strap it snugly to his wrist, and the almost indiscernible rectangles atop it.

"Potter made me this?" Somehow finding himself agreeing to what was likely going to be the most serious relationship he ever had, with Hermione Granger no less, was considerably less shocking than the idea that Potter would have made something for him.

"He made them for all of us. He's still finishing the one for Severus, something about potion containment is giving him hell. They have undetectable expansion, featherweight, and a lot of dampening wards on them. You can carry about anything you need to."

Draco just stared, not sure what to do with Potter doing something nice, something to actively keep him alive.

"Why?" was all he could choke out, his magic already tracing over the terrifying amount of locked space in something so small. So much power went into this. So much. Draco found himself suddenly exceptionally glad that he hadn't ever found himself truly on the wrong end of Potter's wand.

"Because he wants to keep you safe. Because he knows what it would do to me, and to Snape, if you weren't" she answered, no hint of coquettishness, just a quiet steely certainty.

"I'll have to find a way to disguise it, I can't be seen matching you three" he finally got out, his hands still turning the band over and over. "Tell him thank you for me, would you?" The words were surprisingly easy to get out, the Harry Potter he knew and hated for so long having faded into Hermione's brother, Severus' beloved, a man who tried to protect everyone, even him.

He carefully placed the bracelet into his bag before turning his attention to the soft fawn coloured leather on her left wrist. "That is far too plain" he broke out, trying to pull them out of the heavy feeling swirling through the hall.

She glanced down at her cuff in surprise, her lips quirking at the edges as she let him move to easier topics. "Harry is many things, but artistic is not one of them."

"Well, we can't have you blending into the crowd. Let's see what we can do" he snagged her wrist, enjoying having another excuse to touch her. A large part of him simply wanted to end today with something light, but a small part crowed that she should have something as beautiful as she was, something he had made.

By now lunch was well underway, so they likely wouldn't be disturbed. He eyed the cuff, his mind flipping through what might be an acceptable design for her. He discarded lions for several reasons, and serpents for different but just as valid reasons, even if he did want her to wear a tiny acknowledgment of him.

"Umm, yes I think so" he shot her a lightning fast grin before he covered her cuff with the palm of his hand and whispered soft twisting words, feeling the leather writhe and heat under his palm. He drew his hand back as it settled, smiling at his work.

Delicate vines wrapped around it, the leather bearing the design in intricate burns. In the center, framed by tangled vines, sat a small owl. It was beautiful but lacked detail, instead giving the unmistakable impression of owl without looking like any specific bird, and it glowed with a soft golden light. The whole piece moved lightly, the vines swaying in an invisible wind and ruffling the feathers of the small bird, who blinked slowly up at them.

Hermione traced careful fingers over the artwork "Why an owl? And what language was that? I don't think I've ever heard it" she asked with a bemused smile.

"Athena. The companion of the Goddess of Wisdom and Courage is an owl. I thought it fitting for you." He could feel the pink filling his cheeks at the sentiment but pushed the embarrassment away at her look of delight. "As for the language, the spell is very old and originated in Mongolia. Decoration of saddles and leather work was a huge part of their culture, so some of the most intricate spellwork for that type of art comes from them."

She was grinning at him now, fascination clear. "Teach me" she demanded, her hand settled possessively over her cuff.

Draco chuckled a bit and promised he would write it into their notes, along with the instructions, so she could practice. He took a chance as they prepared to leave and swooped down, stealing a small kiss from her before he hurried off, her low laughter filling his chest with warmth.

Severus leaned a little further back from the greyish oily fumes rising from the cauldron on his work bench. Several layers of protective spells kept the steam safely away from him, but he couldn't help himself. He very rarely worked with something as deadly as Basilisk venom, particularly at these concentrations. Harry had seen how wary he was and had added so many protective shields that he almost hadn't been able to approach his table. After peeling enough off to make working a viable practice again he had kicked Harry out of the lab and settled in to brew, steadfastly ignoring the tiny spark of happiness that Harry's ridiculous over protectiveness struck in him.

The potion, which had been a soggy, murky sort of brown, started hissing, tiny bubbles forming across the top of it, the indication he had been watching for. Severus carefully tipped in the finely chopped rue, directing his moon quartz stirring rod into lazy figure eights. He kept a sharp eye, waiting, until the potion suddenly rippled and turned a sucking, inky black. He pulled the stirring rod out and turned the heat off, allowing it to start cooling.

If he had made this correctly they now had a reasonable and very portable way to destroy a Horcrux. Pour a bit of this over the item and it would rip the soul free from its binding and trap it long enough for the venom to destroy it.

He left the shielding spells up, not entirely certain he was actually capable of dismantling all of Harry's, and glanced quickly at the lab door. He pulled a much smaller glass cauldron out of the cabinet once he heard Harry muttering to himself where he was safely distracted in the sitting room. The greenish liquid moved unnaturally, shifting around the cauldron almost like sand and with the same sibilance.

He pulled the tiny bottle of concentrated venom to himself, his hands swathed in layers of dragonhide even if they did make it harder to work fine movements. It wouldn't repel the venom, but it would slow it down long enough for him to get away if the worst came about.

With hands that only shook slightly, he let a single drop of Basilisk venom fall into the mixture. It hissed lightly and slowly turned a deep, rich blue, the colour spreading out from where the drop had fallen until it had taken over the whole potion.

He very carefully tipped it into a bottle no taller than his palm, the glass imbued with so many unbreakable charms that he could likely hand it to Hagrid and it would come back without a scratch.

Severus sealed the bottle and slowly sat down, his eyes fixed on it as his hand shook. Somehow he never imagined his death would come at his own hand, from his own potion.

He couldn't trust that Harry wouldn't try to save him when the time came, so he needed something fast and effective. The venom had given him a neat solution and he had taken the chance to create a potion that should, if it worked correctly, send the draining pain of his death through the Dark Mark, straight to Voldemort. It would weaken the bastard, and if Severus couldn't kill him he could at least give Harry a better chance.

He sighed heavily, allowing himself a tiny stolen moment to grieve his life that might have been. Maybe, one day, he would have gotten up the courage to think about why Harry meant so much to him, why he could no longer fall asleep without the other man held tight to him, why Harry was the first person, the only person, that he wanted to share his discoveries with. Why he was happy for the first time in his miserable life.

Severus pushed those thoughts aside as he stood, quietly rolling the poison from hand to hand, dark eyes pensive as he wondered if for the rest of his life Harry would see death in beautiful cobalt blues instead of sickly vibrant green.

He sunk the bottle into his pocket, ready now for when he would need it.

Slow breaths ruffled the dark, lank strands of hair that had fallen in his eyes as he pushed down his fear and the trickles of sadness that he knew Harry would be able to read on his face. He forced his mind to the present, thinking only of what must be finished today. He needed to write the last of his lesson plans and tests, and to spend some time this evening in the room of requirement with Harry, if they could get all of their paperwork caught up. He should find the book on Scottish wizarding history that Minerva wanted to borrow, and go over Harry's Transfiguration essay before he turned it in. His life now, full of small domestic moments.

When he felt calm enough he joined Harry in the front room, making enough noise to let the other man know he was there. The dark haired wizard popped up from his spot by the fire, green eyes held innocently wide and his hands tucked suspiciously behind his back.

"Do I want to know?" Severus asked, his raised eyebrow speaking volumes as he swept around and dropped gracefully into his favorite chair.

Harry gave him a slightly offended look "You know, your eyebrows are more judgmental than most peoples entire faces" he said mildly.

Severus stifled a laugh, refusing to encourage Harry's habit of insulting observations of his person. No that Harry wouldn't see it anyway. Somewhere along the way he had learned to read him better than anyone ever had.

Harry just huffed at his lack of response and thrust something out at him "Here, you might as well have it" he said, voice aggrieved.

He was holding out a matte black leather cuff, a match to the ones he had made for himself, Weasley and Granger.

Severus took it with careful hands, turning the buttery soft material over to look at it properly. It was the same size as the others, and had the same tiny buckles to adjust and close it to his wrist, but the top only had two compartments instead of three, and it felt different, like the expanded space wasn't entirely undetectable.

"I had some trouble with the wards on yours" Harry explained, his eyes a bit anxious. "I had to get rid of the last section so I had room to anchor the shields."

Severus frowned at him "Shields? What kind of shields were you trying to anchor?"

"Well I figured you'd be carrying potions and probably way more dangerous ones than I would, so I put the same spells on the first section that your lab has, and then I put containment shields up all around the expanded space on both sections, just in case" Harry explained quickly, his fingers tangling together as he bounced his heels lightly.

Severus sat there for a moment, his body frozen as his brain tried to make sense of the frankly senseless explanation.

"You mean to tell me that you put a full set of wards and shields into a cuff? Around an expanded, undetectable wizarding space?" Severus was exceptionally proud that he managed to get his whole question out in an even tone without even a hint of terror.

Harry looked uncomfortable, pulling the sleeves of his jumper over his hands the way he did when he was unhappy.

"It's not completely undetectable. I tried to get it there, but no matter what I did you can still tell it's something, not just a plain bracelet." Green eyes frowned down at the cuff in his hand as if it refused to comply just to offend him.

Severus blinked, trying to come to terms with the young man in front of him. He knew of course that Harry was powerful, there had been ample opportunities for him to see that clearly. He had spent the last year learning that Harry was considerably smarter than he had been given credit for, and perhaps the repeated attempted murders really had negatively affected his grades throughout the years.

Severus had even mostly gotten used to Harry doing completely impossible things simply because no one bothered to tell him not to try.

And then something like this would happen and throw him so off course that he wasn't sure which way was up.

"Harry, where did you get the idea to try and put wards over wizarding space?" Severus asked softly.

Harry looked a bit suspicious but finally stopped twitching and sat down on the couch nearest Severus' chair.

"Well I found a book that went over containment wards for wand making when I was looking for a way to keep your wrist from blowing up" he started, summoning over a small brown leather book that Severus had seen him reading through often in the last month.

"Nothing really fit, since wizarding space is so weird. Like, it changes right? As you put more stuff in it gets bigger, take some out, it shrinks, so how do you ward something like that?" Harry was getting more excited as he explained himself, scooting to the edge of the couch to accommodate the exaggerated movement of his hands.

Severus was nodding along, but found himself wondering when Harry had the time to go over something as complex as charmed space.

"So I figured, if I could just set it and make it stay the same size all the time I could ward it and put some shields up, which worked, but it did something weird to the undetectable part of the expansion charm and everything just got muffled instead of vanishing." Harry sat back as he finished, the excitement of a moment before replaced by a frown of frustration.

Severus opened his mouth several times but nothing came out. Finally he leaned forward and snagged Harry's abandoned tea cup, swallowing the bitter icy liquid with a grimace.

"Harry, we need to write up a paper. And maybe a patent. And inform as least Flitwick and Minerva."

Harry gave him an odd look, obviously confused.

"You managed to make static wizard space, something that people have been attempting for centuries. And you made it in a fucking bracelet." Severus slumped back, briefly considering how impressive Harry was going to be after Voldemort was no longer distracting him. He felt a small prick of pain when he considered exactly how much he was never going to get to see. Merlin he was going to be astounding.

"Oh" Harry said softly, his face flushing as he twisted away to stare into the fire. "You're still going to keep it though right? Cause that wasn't easy to make."

Severus' hand snapped possessively over his cuff before the thought fully settled. He stared down at the innocent looking leather as he ran his thumb over the ridges of the compartments, one of the most significant magical discoveries of his lifetime cradled in his lap.

"I should put it somewhere for safe keeping" he finally responded slowly, not particularly liking the idea. Some small part of him was painfully delighted that such a discovery had come about not because decades of carefully compiled research, but because someone who cared for him defied magic to keep him safe.

Harry huffed "Well if you just want to prove the theory then I can make something else, just keep the damn thing on you ok? It's got a lot of stuff that could save your life alright?"

Severus found himself nodding slowly and reaching his right arm out for Harry to strap his new cuff on. Harry shot him a grateful smile as his calloused hands deftly undid the tiny buckles and strapped it on, smoothing his hand almost absently over the cuff and Severus' arm.

Severus found himself tracing long fingers over the edges of his gift for the rest of the night while he had Harry walk him through the process he had used. They finally made it to bed after even Severus had run out of questions, and as he fell asleep he found a small smile playing over his thin lips at the feel of two bracelets, both tying him closer to the man beside him.

Harry waved a distracted goodbye to Ron and Hermione as he fell into step beside Severus, hurrying to match his strides to the longer legs of his companion. Transfiguration had run over since McGonagall hadn't gotten class started until almost fifteen minutes past, too busy poking at the cuff he had made Severus. He was almost regretting telling him what he'd done to it. Harry hadn't wanted any of this fuss, he'd just wanted to make sure Severus didn't blow his damned hand off.

They got to the Defense classroom just as the bell rang, rushing in to drop bags at the large front desk. Instead of retreating to Severus' office, Harry took a seat off to the side where he usually settled when he was helping with a lesson. He got a few odd looks from the seventh years since he never helped with any of their work, but was mostly ignored. He and Severus had agreed that he would help with the patronus charm for a couple of his seventh year classes, since a large portion seemed to be having trouble with them and they would probably show up on NEWTs testing this year due to the rise in dementor activity.

Harry tuned out as Severus began going over the lesson and collecting essays from the last week, thinking idly about what his revision schedule would need to be since they were coming up on end of the year tests rapidly.

He blinked and looked up when Severus said his name.

"Potter will be assisting in today's practical lesson as he is familiar with the patronus charm and can aid me in guiding those of you that have had trouble" Severus said, dark eyes daring anyone to complain about being taught be a sixth year.

A few confused and some disbelieving looks were cast his way but no one said anything.

"I assume all of you remember what the incantation is? If not I suggest you correct your lack of knowledge quickly" Severus looked pointedly at a small group of Hufflepuffs in the middle of the room, all of which were trying to flip through their defense books without appearing to.

"As you know, a properly cast patronus charm will protect you from dementors, and can be used as a secure and expedient messenger. A patronus cannot be interfered with or stopped, but keep in mind that without proper instruction it will find its recipient regardless of who is near. This has historically been a problem with those who lack the foresight to instruct it not to appear to muggles." Black robes snapped around the ankles of his dragon hide boots as he paced, his tone clearly implying that only an idiot would send his patronus into a muggle area.

Severus pulled his dark wand from the holster on his arm, a flash of black leather cuff showing for an instant as his sleeve rode up. "If you have cast it properly it will take the shape of an animal. What form your patronus takes is directly linked to the memory you use to call it. Since a successful patronus charm can only be cast by using your strongest happy memory it is both intensely personal and subject to change."

When no one raised a hand or commented, Severus nodded to himself and stepped forward, flicking his wand in the graceful, economical way that he cast everything.

"'Expecto Patronum"

A familiar silvery doe burst out of his wand and cantered briefly around the room before coming to stand in front of its caster, waiting. It looked a bit strange, Harry noted, like it was more transparent than usual.

A small sea of gasps came from the students watching, and Harry smiled a little at the glowing creature.

"Harry?" Severus said quietly, motioning him forward.

Harry pulled his own holly wand from his holster, his mind already reaching for the feeling of belonging, of family, of Sirius and his parents, that had always brought forth his stag.

He raised his wand to cast but paused, his steps stuttering to a halt beside Severus as he felt his magic resist, not flowing into the huge antlered shape as it should.

"Harry?" Severus said again, his tone questioning now with a thread of worry buried deep. Harry shook his head, dismissing the concern.

He reached again for the memories and closely held dreams that had for so many years resided in him, ready to call forth whenever he needed. A worm of panic began building as chairs shifted uncomfortably and whispers drifted through the room when he just stood there, his eyes closed as he searched more and more desperately for the feeling he needed to call a patronus. Nothing short of the memory or thought that caused the strongest emotion would work, as he had found out so painfully in third year.

Harry heard Severus shift beside him and frantically reached for the feeling he needed rather than the memory. The almost protective longing that had resided at the heart of his patronus for so long, all tied up in the idea of belonging, of family, didn't manifest.

Instead an aching, desperate sort of contentment welled up, and with it came the memory of a thousand small touches from long, graceful hands, the sound of deep laughter, the warmth of strong arms and the beat of anothers heart under his ear.

"Expecto Patronum" he whispered.

Harry knew before he opened his eyes, before he heard the sharply drawn breath from the tall man beside him, before gasps and chattering filled the room.

When he finally looked, it took him a moment to find his patronus, no longer dancing on four hoofs and tossing antlers proudly, waiting patiently for its wizard.

A ruffle of ghostly silver feathers drew his attention to the huge raven perched atop the bookshelf near the windows. It cocked its head at him and opened its beak in a soundless, mocking caw, a glimmer of mischief in its eye.

Harry barely heard Severus setting the class to working, his gaze locked on the enormous bird. He could feel it, could feel Severus at the heart of it, making it glow almost painfully bright. If he had harbored any doubts about his feelings this was irrefutable proof. A patronus didn't change unless its caster had been changed in such a significant way that the very core of their happiness had shifted.

Harry's attention was brought back by the sound of a throat clearing. He turned to find Severus, his face set into a glower, his eyes sliding away from Harry.

Harry quickly waved a hand, dismissing the bird.

"You'll take the right side of the room" he said abruptly before he turned sharply and walk off, his arm snapping almost violently as he dismissed his doe.

Pain welled up in Harry at Severus' dismissal. Of course he knew. It was so obvious, a huge dark bird, known for its intelligence? The only person in Harry's life that could have caused his patronus to change into such a form was busy ignoring him because it was so horribly obvious there was no way he was going to be able to convince anyone that he didn't love Severus.

"Fuck" he whispered as he moved off to help a Ravenclaw boy who had managed to create a wispy shield.

Harry made it through almost half of the lesson before a Hufflepuff, a friend of Hannah's, asked him the question he had been dreading.

"So Harry, wasn't your patronus a stag?" the girl asked, dark brown hair swinging over her shoulder as she pretended casualness.

Harry swallowed before answering, his voice shaky, "Yes, it was."

"So who's the lucky girl then? Don't tell me its Granger, I'll lose so much money on that bet" she asked cheerfully.

Harry was struck dumb for just an instant, hardly able to believe that anyone wouldn't know as soon as they saw the raven staring rather condescendingly down its beak.

"Erm.. no. Uh, no girl I mean" Harry stumbled, feeling unbalanced.

"Oh, a boy then?" the girl looked more intrigued and he briefly wondered exactly what kind of bets there were concerning his love life. If he were a braver man he'd ask Seamus.

A crash brought his head whipping around to find Severus standing closer than he had realised, next to a pile of books that had recently been on the desk next to him, his face twisted in anger and hurt.

Harry moved toward him without thinking, alarm winging through him at the expression. He knew Severus would be upset about the patronus that declared his feelings like one of the stupid singing Valentines balloons, but it shouldn't have put that look on his face. Harry felt his breath catch, wanting to make it better, whatever it was.

Severus stepped back, turning and clearly dismissing him, his back a line of tension.

Harry drew himself up, his shoulders hunching as he turned back to go over how to bring forth the appropriate type of memory yet again with the students around him.

Harry spent the remainder of the lesson staying as far from Severus as he could, trying to dodge the feeling of rage that was slowly filling the other side of the room.

By the time the bell rang, everyone was so tense that students nearly knocked over desks in their hurry to get away from them.

Harry stood quietly in the middle of the room, dreading the upcoming conversation. It would ruin everything. Severus would go back to trying to stay as far away as possible, sleeping stretched out and away from him, no longer inviting him to help in the lab or to duel beside him.

Severus was angrily sorting through the pile of seventh year essays and packing them away into his bag, eyes fixed pointedly on his work.

"Severus?" Harry said hesitantly.

"What do you want Potter? Praise after you stumbled over a spell you've been able to cast since third year?" he snapped.

Harry stopped, a frown pulling his brows together. That didn't sound at all like the embarrassed anger he was expecting.

"Are you mad at me?" Harry asked, honestly baffled. He had expected anger, but not like this. He had expected Severus to be horribly uncomfortable and slowly have it fade into a detached kind of upset, not this rage.

Severus stilled, his hands pressed flat to the desk in front of him.

"I don't care to discuss your love life Potter, but if you think for an instant I will allow whoever it is that has caused this-" he flipped a hand in the direction of the bookshelf "- bird to appear into my rooms or follow along on some love sick teenage date you are utterly mistaken." Severus was breathing heavily as he finished, his knuckles white from the press of his fingertips into the surface of the desk.

Harry felt his mouth fall open in surprise, his brain flopping as he tried to make sense of Severus' statement.

How could he not tell? The raven felt just like him, prickly and protective, smart and fierce and precious because of the mind that lived behind the opaque eyes.

"I'm not dating anyone" Harry said stupidly, his mouth moving without his permission.

Severus stiffened further before he grabbed his bag and walked on rapid feet to the door.

"I believe I just informed you about how very little I wish to gossip about your love interests" he hissed before throwing himself out the door, a very confused Harry trailing behind him.

It shouldn't have hurt at all, let alone as much as it did. Merlin he was a fool.

He'd tried so hard to pretend that what he felt for Harry was similar to what he'd felt for Lily, that the desire to be close to him, to hold him, to stand between him and anything that could possibly harm him was nothing more than love for the son of his best friend, for his sister in all but blood.

The instant that the huge, winged shape burst from Harry's wand he had known better. The months of denial, of shame that he would consider a man he had watched grow up in a romantic sense, the feelings he had tried so hard to ignore, all came crumbling down like a sand castle under waves.

He felt like a corner of his heart had frozen and broken off as the raven looked mockingly down on him, like it knew his awful secret and hated him on behalf of whoever it was that had won Harry's heart.

His first thought had been Granger, but he'd dismissed it almost as quickly. He'd seen how they acted together, besides Granger really did seem interested in Draco and Harry hadn't seemed more bothered than he would expect by the idea.

The only other person that Harry spent any time around was Weasley, or perhaps some of the order members, though that seemed a stretch.

The seventh year Hufflepuff, O'Malley, had finally asked what he was sure the whole class had been desperate to know but instead of embarrassment Harry had just looked confused.

When he had denied it being a girl though, Severus had known it had to be Weasley. Before he could stop himself he had jerked around and knocked a pile of books off a desk. Harry had looked so concerned, reaching for him as if to comfort him and Severus suddenly knew that if Harry touched him right then he wouldn't be able to hold himself together.

He let his bewildered hurt turn to anger, pushing it toward rage, and by the time the class was over he felt like he might be able to prevent himself from doing something truly embarrassing like begging Harry to never leave him even if he was in love with someone else.

The next week was somehow more painful and more awkward than the first few weeks together. He'd even pulled the bolster back out and he'd barely slept. What little sleep he had managed was rife with nightmares and when Harry had reached over to wrap himself around Severus after a particularly bad one, Severus had jerked away so violently that he had cut a thin line into his own wrist with the metal cuff.

Harry had stopped trying to talk to him after that, had stopped trying to reach for him and instead kept himself silent and as far away as he could get. He retreated to his group of Gryffindors and surrounded himself with Weasley's and Granger. Every time Severus saw the tall redhead wrap a comforting arm around Harry or carefully place extra food on his plate a helpless sort of rage made his throat tight.

He knew he had to stop, that he had to get a better hold on his emotions, because at this point the only thing that could make this worse would be for Harry to realise why he was so upset. The very thought made him feel sick.

Three days after the incident in defense the story broke in the Prophet.

Boy Who Loved?

Splashed garishly across the front page with an artists rendition of a raven. Several interviews had been given by his seventh year class and he mentally began tallying up how much detention he could give them before the end of the year.

He had glanced at the Gryffindor table before he could stop himself to find the Golden Trio bent over the paper and whispering furiously. He felt his face twist at how closely Weasley was pressed to Harry, only to freeze as Granger looked up and caught him staring.

His face flushed as she gave him a narrow eyed, considering look before her gaze darted across the hall and met Draco's. Some lightening fast communication flashed in that tiny instant before she turned her attention back to the paper.

It took ten days for that glance to make sense. He was restlessly walking around the front room when a sharp knock sounded on his door. Harry was in the bedroom reading and ignoring Severus to the best of his ability. Despite his intentions Severus hadn't managed to get proper control of himself and he and Harry had barely spoken in days.

Severus opened the door to find no one there and simply stepped aside with a sigh, trying to suppress the immediate well of anger. Granger and Weasley hadn't slunk down to his rooms since before the patronus incident and he had been secretly hoping for more of a reprieve.

He stilled when the cloak came off and instead of blue eyes, icy grey stared pointedly back at him.

Draco moved gracefully over to the couch, raising an arm to tuck Granger close to his side when she settled next to him. Granger waved her wand, sending up silencing charms after she eyed the closed bedroom door for a minute.

"I didn't realise I was available for social calls" he said to the two on the couch, a small twinge at their position a reminder of so many nights curled up with Harry right where they were.

"Oh this isn't a social call, this is an intervention" Draco said pleasantly.

Severus blinked a bit at his godson before what he said sank in. His face fell into a scowl.

"I don't know what you two think you're playing at, but I will warn you, my patience is thin" he said coldly.

To his shock Granger snorted "You know how you've been wrong so many times about Harry?" She continued before he could answer, looking much less intimidated than she should "We're here to help you pull your head out of your arse before you screw up so badly it can't be fixed."

Severus choked, his eyes bugging out in a way he was certain was horribly unattractive.

"How dare you" he whispered, the rage he had been searching for finally pulling him under.

"We dare because we love you, you idiot" Draco said softly, more affection in his voice than Severus could remember hearing for years. It knocked the anger back like a splash of icy water. He slowly fell into his chair as the horrible realisation that they must know made his heart sink.

Granger sat forward abruptly, Draco's hand falling to rub absent circles on her back.

"This is all because of his patronus" she said, a statement rather than a question. "What about it upset you so much?"

If her tone had been anything but the gentle curiosity that it was he would have been able to ignore her, to grab hold of the anger and hurt he had been clinging to so tightly the last weeks. He knew the instant he let go and let himself really acknowledge the pain of what had happened he would have to let go of Harry and he hadn't been able to bring himself to.

He swallowed heavily and felt the awful sharp wound tear open a little further, knowing he had to try and start letting go, for both their sakes.

"I simply did not realise that Harry was emotionally involved with someone to such an extent. It surprised me" he said, not willing to admit to anything, regardless of what they might or might not guess.

To his confusion both Granger and Draco sat back and shared a puzzled look.

"What do you mean, emotionally involved with someone? He's stupidly in love, literally anyone can see that" Draco said, a strange look on his face.

A fresh wave of pain rippled through him, but he resolutely ignored it. "I'm afraid I don't pay as much attention to Potter's love life as the rest of the world and as his actions toward Weasley have hardly changed I can't be blamed for not noticing" he said stiffly, wanting this conversation to be over. "I did not react well, but I can assure you that will not be a problem in the future."

He stood quickly and walked around the couch, making for his lab, fully intending on dragging his stash of Christmas Scotch out and drinking himself insensible.

A small hand caught his arm on the way by and he spun, his lips twisting into a snarl.

"Wait, please. What does Ron have to do with this?" Granger asked, confusion in every line of her small frame.

Draco gaped, twisting around on the couch to look over the back at him "He thinks it's the Weasel. He thinks Potter has gone and fallen in love with the Weasel."

Severus froze "He is not in love with Mr. Weasley?" he asked carefully, his mind scrambling to think of who else it could be.

Granger gave him an almost pitying look, make his spine stiffen.

Draco snorted "A raven? You think that a raven would represent Weasley? Maybe a pig, but not anything that doesn't eat half its own body weight daily."

Severus could feel his irritation building. He tried to convince himself it didn't matter, not really. Not that he would ever have had a chance anyway, but anyone that Harry loved enough for it change his patronus, no one stood a chance against.

It was Granger that got up though, and stepped slowly in front of him before firmly but gently bringing his whole world to an end.

"Severus it's you" she said, her brown eyes kind.

Every thought left his head, better than any round of occlumency he had ever managed, a strange echo of nothing floating through him.

"Pardon me?" he asked, perfectly polite, as if he just presented the appropriate manners then everything would make sense again.

"You. The raven is for you. Who else would it possibly be?" Draco was just impatient now.

"That would imply that Harry is in love with me," Severus said carefully, as if he was talking to a crazy person. None of this made any sense. Harry cared for him, he knew that, but never in his wildest imaginings would he ever be stupid enough to think that Harry would love him.

"Yes, Severus, that is what that means" Granger said, her tone one that he would expect to be directed at someone who was in danger of taking off their trousers and running down the quidditch pitch.

"Harry's not in love with me" he said firmly, not entirely managing to hide the thread of pain in his voice.

"Has he told you that?" Granger asked, leaning back into Draco where he had come up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Of course not" Severus said snidely.

"Well then we're going to have to operate off the evidence we do have then" she answered practically.

"One, his patronus changed and the only person in his life it could represent is you. Two, he doesn't spend time with anyone else. And three, he told me he's in love with you and thinks you've figured it out and are rejecting him in the most vindictive way possible."

Severus had opened his mouth to respond to her first two points but snapped it shut. He found himself standing very still, as if he moved too quickly this moment would show its fragility and shatter around him. Something that felt dangerously like hope washed away the biting pain that had been in his chest since his class.

"If you are lying you will tell me now Ms. Granger" he choked out in a voice that sounded nothing like his own.

Her hand wrapped around his and squeezed "I wouldn't. And I think you know me well enough to know that" she answered.

Elation and terror surged through him and he felt his knees shake as he stared at the two in front of him blankly.

"I appreciate your visit, but I would like to be alone right now," he finally said, his eyes flicking to the bedroom door and back.

Granger nodded, a small smile on her face as she pulled the cloak over herself. Draco paused on his way to join her, his hand falling on Severus' shoulder.

"Try not to be stupid about this ok? Because if you are both of us will tell him how you feel about him and he'll have to fix it but he'll be mad about it the whole time." Draco said flatly.

They were out the door and gone before he thought of a response. He slowly sat in front of the fire, trying to quiet the scramble of thoughts.

If Harry really did love him then it would be so much worse. He grimaced at the pressure of the small bottle of poison in his pocket that felt like it weighed as much as the castle.

If he was a good man he would make Harry hate him. He would make him believe that he was intentionally rejecting him, that he was disgusted by the thought of anything between them.

But he wasn't a good man and he didn't think he had ever been so relieved to acknowledge that.

He wouldn't… he couldn't push anything. Despite everything Harry was still his student, even if he was a legal adult. Severus didn't even know how one conducted a relationship and how one went from wanting someone to having them to anything even remotely physical was a complete mystery.

He could love him though. He could do so without saying anything so obvious, but if Harry really did love him, he could be selfish, just for a little while. He could revel in someone so utterly beautiful wanting him, wanting him so much that he was Harry's happiest thought.

Severus felt a tiny well of guilt at the thought that his patronus hadn't changed. He frowned in consideration as he remembered seeing his doe flicker oddly on occasion and that it was strangely dim when he had called it last for class, something he'd never heard of.

Severus gave the closed bedroom door a considering look before he surreptitiously slid his wand into his hand. He closed his eyes and pulled up the memory of Lily, running through the park, her red hair flying like a banner behind her and her delicate laugh ringing around him. It was old and faded, but still warm. The happiness that he'd found in his one friend still filled him, like a favorite sweater, comforting and loved but soft. Mild. Not something that should call a patronus.

Severus scowled in puzzlement. He reached again, looking instead for the core memory, the one that was strongest and personified his own happiness.

It was easy to find and not at all surprising. He was right there, green eyes and infectious laughter. Leaping over the couch to chase him for stolen candy, falling to his knees with tears streaking down his face and the memory of Draco's pain etched into his eyes. Covered in serpent blood and covered in rain and soot. Running warm hands through his hair and waking to find them so tangled in each other that he couldn't tell where they ended.

Merlin he was an idiot if he thought for even a second that he could choose not to love him.

Why then hadn't his changed? He rolled his wand from hand to hand as he considered. Perhaps it was simply habit? He knew the feel of the magic and could force it? That didn't feel right thought.

His patronus was a doe because Lily's was. And Lily's was only a doe because Potter's was a stag…

"Well then" he muttered, feeling like an idiot. He was damn lucky Harry's patronus had been a stag else his likely would have changed long before he was ready to accept it. Even then it had wavered, but it had kept its form, matching Harry's.

He doubted that it would be so obliging now that Harry's had changed to represent him.

Severus bit his lip and cast another quick glance at the door before renewing the silencing charm. Better to know now than in front of a class. At least the raven wasn't horribly obvious.

He reached inward and pulled at his memories of Harry, wrapping them around himself, and Granger's voice saying 'he told me he's in love with you'.

"Expecto Patronum" he said quietly.

An enormous winged shape burst from his wand and shook itself off before sitting neatly and tucking its tail around huge clawed feet. It glowed so brightly it lit up the room and he had to blink rapidly to clear the spots from his vision.

He finally made out the shape of the creature in front of him and choked on a laughing groan. Merlin he was glad he hadn't tried this in front of anyone.

The wings of the silvery griffon mantled slightly, the wickedly curved beak tall enough to rest atop his head. He stood and stepped forward to greet his new patronus, letting his hand ghost over the top of the ruffled neck feathers, warmth and an overwhelming feeling of Harry filling him at the touch of it.

He let go of the magic and watched it fade slowly. When the last sparking filaments fell to the floor he turned and went to find the man he loved.

Harry had heard the knock on the door, despite the music he had drifting out of the radio next to him. He ignored it, not willing to go into the other room unless he was explicitly invited. Severus had been so mad since his patronus changed he almost seemed like the potions master Harry had known as a child.

Harry had tried to talk to him about it at first, but wasn't sure what to say. At first Severus had seemed to think it was about someone else, but it didn't make sense for him to be so angry about it if he believed that. Hermione had tried to tell him that Severus was upset because he thought Harry was in love with someone but that hadn't made any sense and he had finally just forbidden her and Ron from talking about it, prepared to drown in his misery.

She had finally reluctantly agreed that perhaps he was just handling the idea of his student being attracted to him badly.

It took Harry a few minutes to realise that he couldn't hear anything in the other room and he paused, considering for a moment the merits of eavesdropping. He dismissed the idea and went back to his charms text, resolutely not thinking of Severus and how much he wished he could go out and ask him to clarify Flitwick's explanation. Or ask him about his newest potion. Or just have tea and talk about whatever caught their fancy.

Merlin Harry missed him. He missed his friend just as much as he missed the warmth of him at night, just as much as he missed the trust that seemed to have been thrown away the instant he cast that bloody charm.

He should have pretended he couldn't cast it the instant he realised that something was wrong. He could have apologized and looked like a bit of an arse but that would have been such a small price to pay to keep what he'd had.

Harry didn't know how much time had passed before the door slowly creaked open, admitting a strangely blank faced Severus. Harry clenched his jaw and turned back to his book, trying to focus and figure out what the hell he'd read last.

"Harry" Severus' voice startled him after over a week of being pointedly ignored.

"Oh are you speaking to me again?" he couldn't stop himself from snapping, the hurt of the whole situation having sunk deep.

Silence greeted him and he felt his stomach sink, already regretting his words. When he looked up Severus was standing beside the bed, his dark eyes locked on where his hand was rubbing back and forth over the leather cuff Harry had given him. Maybe he was considering poisoning him to get free.

"I'm sorry" the words were said so quietly that Harry thought for a moment he had imagined them.

A black gaze filled with misery met his and everything in him wanted to pull Severus to him and never let go. He couldn't though. No matter how sorry for his behavior he might be that didn't give Harry the right to touch him, something he had taken for granted up until he didn't have it anymore.

"Alright" Harry said, resigned.

Severus frowned and climbed onto the bed, shucking his boots and crawling close to Harry before tucking his stocking feet under himself and wrinkling his perfectly pressed trousers.

"No, it's not alright. I was terrible to you for no reason." Severus explained.

Now it was Harry's turn to frown. "What do you mean, no reason?" He barely stopped himself from mentioning his feelings, a tiny part still hoping that Severus wasn't completely convinced that he was the cause of Harry's sudden manifestation of winged things.

Severus flushed, his pale cheeks turning splotchy. "I thought your patronus changed because you'd fallen in love with.. well it hardly matters."

Severus looked away, still fiddling with the tiny straps on his cuff.

"Suffice to say that there was a misunderstanding that has been cleared up," he answered stiffly.

Harry opened his mouth to keep arguing, not able to think of what could be so misunderstood, but hesitated, not completely willing to throw away his sudden good luck.

"Please Harry. I can explain it, but not right now" Severus said quietly.

Slowly Harry nodded, eyes fixed on the pleading expression on Severus' face.

"Alright. When?" he asked, still unhappy.

"This summer. I'll explain everything this summer" the older man said eventually.

Harry couldn't let go of his suspicion but nodded again slowly. "And whatever this was won't happen again before we can talk, right?" he asked, needing reassurance.

"No Harry it won't. And I'm sorry, truly" he said, shifting to press slightly closer.

"So we're ok?" Harry couldn't stop himself from asking, needing to know that he hadn't lost one of the most important things in his life.

"Yes, we're ok" Severus answered, finally moving to take his side of the bed and picking up his newest potions monthly. He settled himself tight to Harry's side, pressing a warm line from shoulder to ankle before opening his journal.

Harry wasn't sure when he fell asleep, book falling open on his chest; all he knew was when he woke in the middle of the night with warm arms tight around him, was that everything was exactly as it should be.

The sharp crack of a dissipating Bat Bogey hex echoed around the room, the pale blue light flashing against Harry's shield. He grinned through the after image at the group arranged around him and Severus. Ginny's hex hadn't come anywhere near them, none of them had.

It had taken all of April and most of May before he had learned to work with his and Severus' magic during a fight, but where reaching his magic out to find the other man had once been draining, it was now second nature. He'd practiced nearly everyday, at first wrapping his magic closely around the other man for only a few minutes at a time, but quickly pushing himself to keep it longer.

He could push his magic out now without a thought, and he seemed to reach for Severus automatically. He could feel when Severus was getting ready to cast, could feel his intent, could even feel what type of curse it would be half the time. It made it laughably easy to drop their shields in just the right spot, at just the right instant to let the other man's magic through.

The whole room had come to a halt when Severus and Harry pulled fifteen of the most experienced DA members to attack them. They were down to less than half now, only ten minutes into practice.

The niggling feeling of gathering magic alerted Harry seconds before Severus cast, allowing him to drop a tiny section of their shield right in front of Ginny. The stunner caught her in the shoulder and spun her as she fell to the soft mats with a muffled thud.

Dean trudged over and collected her, waking her and taking her over to the wall of fallen students.

It only took them another few minutes to clear out everyone except Hermione, who had gotten impressively fast at dodging. When Neville went down to a well placed Jelly Legs jinx from Harry, she raised her hands in surrender, slipping her wand into the thin pocket of her jeans.

Harry dropped the shield and grinned at Severus, who gave him a small satisfied smile in return and came over to stand closely enough to bump shoulders.

Harry evaluated the wall of his year mates who had taken them on, as well as the scatter of the rest of the DA, who had all paused in their own practice to watch. The only injury was Luna, who had landed badly on her wrist when Severus caught her with a body binding curse, and Neville was already carefully apply a healing charm.

"I think we did alright," Harry said, earning himself a wash of grumbling and dirty looks from everyone except Severus.

Hermione rolled her eyes but looked between them with satisfaction before she turned and began herding everyone back to their practice areas. As she raised her arm to direct a gaggle of fourth years toward a group of targets, the sleeve of her robe riding up to show her arm was still violently green.

They'd run into a group of Slytherins in the hall before lunch, Malfoy in the lead with Crabbe, Goyle and a few he didn't recognize following behind. Somewhere in the ensuing fight Harry had watched Malfoy unobtrusively cast a shield over the top of Hermione's, making half the spells thrown at her rebound into his own group and earning himself a nasty cut on his forearm.

Malfoy himself had cast the only spell that came anywhere near Hermione, turning her skin and hair Slytherin green. She'd managed to clear off her head and most of her body, but there were a few lingering splotches. Harry imagined she could likely get everything off if she was determined, but she had seemed more amused than anything else when she'd seen the deep emerald of her curls.

Harry had finally given up his denial where Hermione and Draco were concerned, not because he was particularly happy about it, but because Hermione was. There was a contentment about her that he'd never seen before, and she smiled more than he could ever remember seeing. She seemed truly happy with the white haired git so Harry had resigned himself to being thoroughly stuck with Malfoy. Between her and Severus, if they all made it out of this war, he was likely to have Malfoy as a permanent fixture in his life.

Ron was taking it harder but had backed off and hidden his moping better after Harry had warned him off of doing anything stupid.

Harry was brought back by a shriek from Seamus as the hapless Gryffindor knocked a dueling dummy over on himself and got stuck underneath it. He yelled pitifully for help until Ron managed to contain his laughter enough to levitate it away and free him.

They spent the rest of the practice time going over some of the most basic defense spells, the ones that most others were based on. If you knew the base spell and its intent you could build almost anything else. If was a good refresher for a lot of the group and very useful for those in fifth year that were a week away from OWLs.

Harry was just finishing clearing out the room, waving goodbyes to smiling sweaty students, when a tiny paper bird came fluttering up and landed on his outstretched hand. He quickly unfolded it to reveal the familiar neat calligraphy. He was only moderately aware of Severus, Hermione and Ron all craning their heads to look at Dumbledore's note.

Harry,

Please come to my office. It is time for us to retrieve the item we spoke of.

The note was unsigned, but it hardly needed it. Harry's chest felt tight as he turned to look at his small group, larger by one than it had ever been but still managing to be missing the tall blond man that should be at Hermione's side. Strange how quickly they had grown from a Trio.

It was still early, the dueling practice scheduled at the last minute, the grey rainy Saturday encouraging everyone to stay inside. Harry looked helplessly down at himself, feeling like he should change into something more official, but then again he had spent most of his life beating Voldemort in second hand clothes and warn trainers. His boots and stained jeans would do fine, and anything else he could need was in his cuff.

He nodded to himself before turning to Hermione "Keep the cloak out where I can summon it easily if I need to, ok?"

She nodded rapidly in agreement "I'll let Draco know" she said. "Be careful" she finished, pulling Harry into a quick hug before releasing him and doing the same to a startled Severus.

Harry hugged Ron quickly and was almost laughed at the look of relief on Severus' face when Ron turned away without trying to hug him as well.

They left quickly, the walk to the Headmaster's office faster than he could remember it every being. When they got there, the gargoyle stepped aside, clearly expecting them. Severus stopped him just before he could step onto the moving stairs.

"Send Minerva a message and let her know what's happening. I suspect that Albus has not informed her and I would like her to know that the Headmaster will not be in residence for several hours" he instructed.

Harry opened his mouth to ask why Severus didn't just send his patronus, but closed it and summoned his raven quickly. He wasn't going to start any sort of patronus related argument unless he absolutely had to. They had just finally gotten back to where they were before the incident.

"Please tell Professor McGonagall that we are leaving with the Headmaster, and make certain that she is alone before you tell her" he advised, stepping back to watch the huge bird wing off through the floor after it gave him a weirdly condescending look. Of course he should have known any patronus created on thoughts of Snape would be judgmental.

He thought he heard a snort of stifled laughter behind him and turned to find Severus looking suspiciously innocent as he motioned for Harry to proceed him up the stairs.

Dumbledore was seated behind his desk when they arrived, looking older than Harry could remember ever seeing him. He stood with a forced smile as they came in, tucking his wand away.

"Are you ready then?" he asked in lieu of a greeting, casting a look over their rumpled robes and Severus' long hair, still pulled into a tail at the nape of his neck.

"Yeah I think so" Harry answered when it became clear that Severus had no intention of picking up the conversation.

"Well then, no reason to delay is there?" Dumbledore said before motioning them toward the door. Harry glanced back just as they were stepping onto the stairs to see the Headmaster stop beside the stand that Fawkes was perched on and reach out to carefully stroke the fiery bird. He muttered something that made the animal coo sadly and rub his beak over his humans cheek.

A moment later and the moving stairs turned, hiding the picture of wizard and phoenix from him.

They waited next to the gargoyle for Dumbledore to join them, sharing a single look of trepidation. Eventually the Headmaster arrived, his robes for once a reasonable sage green with low, understated embroidery. Somehow that small fact alarmed Harry more than anything else had.

They made their way through the school, encountering surprisingly few students as they trekked to the edge of the wards. They stopped at the apparation point just inside the forbidden forest. Harry and Severus braced themselves as Dumbledore grabbed Harry's shoulder and motioned for Severus to take his bad arm.

An instant later and they were away, compressing down to nothing as magic tore them from one place and dropped them into another, the sharp crack of displaced air louder with the extra burden of two people.

Icy salt spray hit Harry's face and made him sputter. He stumbled back a few steps on the slippery rocks, only for Severus to catch before he could fall into the heaving sea.

"Where are we?" Severus yelled over the sound of crashing waves, looking mutinous when Dumbledore ignored him and motioned them to follow him. The old man walked surprisingly nimbly over the wet stones and abruptly disappeared. Harry hurried forward to find that an outcropping had blocked his view of the mouth of a large cave, the waves slowing as they poured over the sand and sharp stones that made up the floor.

A thin walkway led to the back of the cave, where Dumbledore was resolutely walking toward. They skirted the clear, chill water that lapped hungrily at the toes of their boots and left a film of salt along the bottoms of their robes before coming to a halt in front of a blank stretch of smooth stone.

Before Harry could voice any of his questions Dumbledore used his wand to cut a shallow slice on the back of his hand and reached out to smear it over the wall of the cave, whispering something too softly to hear.

With a low rumble the wall shifted and began to sink into the ground, leaving a gaping maw of darkness in its place. A gust of air that carried the sickly sweet smell of decay rushed out, making Harry gag and cough.

"Lumos Maxima" Dumbledore uttered, sending a huge glowing sphere into the open space. He repeated the spell until the entrance was lit enough to prevent a bad fall over the uneven ground.

They walked in, an unspoken agreement keeping everyone silent.

The flickering white light revealed the glassy surface of a still lake, and a small island sitting directly in the middle. What appeared to be a rough hewn stand held pride of place in the center of the rocky isle, with no obvious way to traverse the lake to it. Harry could already feel the dampening effects of anti-apparation wards. Perhaps he could freeze a path over the water?

"I believe that we will need transportation my boys" Albus said quietly, pointing one age spotted finger at a rusty chain that was anchored into the rock at the edge of the lake.

Severus shot Dumbledore an unhappy look but clambered down and began pulling on the chain. Harry joined him a moment later and together they pulled a small boat out of the lake. It surfaced completely dry, it's wood warped and unfinished, splinters standing along the edges, ready to bite in and spill the blood of those foolish enough to launch themselves onto the water.

Harry's eyes met Severus' and they shared one long, doubt filled look before climbing into the small boat after Dumbledore.

As soon as they were all seated the boat began moving steadily toward the island. A flash of movement caught Harry's eye, the pale colour reflecting under the oily looking water.

"There's something in the water" he said softly to Severus.

The taller man immediately leaned over the edge of the boat to peer into the murky depths. He squinted, trying to make out anything moving. He made a frustrated noise before pointing his wand over the edge and sending a glowing lumos deep into the lake.

His sharp gasp sounded like a slap in the still air, and he spun to look at Harry with wide, alarmed eyes. One long arm snapped out and dragged Harry closer to the middle of the seat, as far away from the edge of the boat as he could get. Severus kept his arm tightly around Harry, refusing to shift away, as if he was afraid Harry would throw himself into the water if he didn't have hold of him.

"What is it?" Harry asked, trying to tamp down on the fear crawling up his throat.

"Inferi" he said softly.

Harry felt his skin crawl and unconsciously pressed himself more tightly to Severus. He knew what they were, they had learned about them in Defense years ago, but raising the dead was strictly forbidden and extremely complicated. That Riddle had done it wasn't really surprising, but the fact that he'd filled a lake with reanimated corpses was a bit much for even the Dark Lord.

They reached the edge of the island with a mild thump as the front of the boat collided lightly with a large rock. They climbed out carefully, one at a time, steadying the boat as each of them stood. Severus kept a death grip on Harry's robes until he was safely on land again.

A cursory search turned up nothing of interest besides the short stone pillar. It had a shallow depression in the top, as if a giant had pressed its thumb into the stone. At the bottom of the divet was the locket from the memory, covered in a clear liquid. A small stone cup sat on the side, empty.

They stood around it in silence until Severus abruptly opened his cuff and summoned his dragon hide gloves out. He pulled them on and without hesitance plunged his hand into the liquid to grab the locket. Harry started forward to jerk him back, not knowing what kind of poison and caustic chemicals could be in the basin.

He pulled up short when nothing happened, breath rushing from him when Severus' hand emerged unscathed. Harry frowned down into the basin, seeing that the locket hadn't moved despite Severus running his hand over it. The potions master humphed and summoned a small bottle of something that glittered like the top of an oil slick and pour two drops into the basin.

For an instant, nothing happened, the potion sinking into the liquid covering the Horcrux with spiraling swirls.

Then the surface bubbled lightly, the only warning they got before the entire basin caught fire with a whoosh of heat.

It was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared and Harry turned shocked eyes on Severus.

"Was it supposed to do that?" he asked, blinking the after image of flames away.

"No" Severus answered, looking rather alarmed himself. "The protection spells on this are significant. I have a potion to destroy the Horcruxes but if that is how it reacted to a simple potion drying mixture I fear what would happen if I were to put anything with Basilisk venom in."

"I fear that would be rather foolish dear boy" Dumbledore chimed in, making Harry jump. He'd almost forgotten that the Headmaster was there, he had been so quiet.

"If I am not mistaken this potion is meant to be drunk" the old man said, already reaching for the cup.

"It will kill you" Severus hissed, trying to grab the cup from Dumbledore.

"Most likely, yes" Albus said agreeably. "But we all know that I do not have much time left on this earth, and if you help me to drink it it will fulfill your oath if I am unable to make it back for Mr. Malfoy to finish the job."

Severus froze, looking stricken. His eyes flickered to Harry before he shook his head mutely.

"I am not ready," he said, his voice full of pain and pleading.

Dumbledore gave him a small sad smile as he glanced between the two of them. "I fear that you may never be ready my boy. We are so very rarely prepared to leave when we must."

Harry blinked in confusion, feeling like he was missing a part of the conversation.

Severus closed dark eyes, his whole self radiating despair. Unthinkingly Harry brushed his knuckles over the other man's, falling back into his habitual method of discrete comfort.

Severus looked at him with eyes that were too wet and laced his fingers through Harry's before he nodded at Albus.

The Headmaster turned and resolutely filled the stone cup, bringing it to his lips without hesitation. He drank it down quickly and grimaced, doubling over for a moment before he got control of himself and reached a shaking hand for the next cup full.

They watched as he drank poison, killing one of the greatest wizards in history for a slim chance to murder his darker counterpart. He made it through almost half of the basin before he collapsed beside it, eyes fever bright.

Severus untangled their hands and stepped forward, taking the cup from the weakened man. He filled it again and held it to Albus' mouth, pouring poison down the waiting throat.

It took three more cups before Dumbledore tried to refuse, his words mumbled and confused as he pushed ineffectively at Severus and begged for water.

Harry eyed the lake reluctantly when his aguamenti spell failed to fill a cup from his cuff. He put the cup away when he realised that even if he could get away before an inferi grabbed him all he would have to show for it would be a cup filled with corpse water.

Instead he joined Severus, meaningless promises falling from his lips as he helped to push the last few cups down the nearly insensible man.

Then it was done. Harry reached in and picked up the locket carefully, frowning when he felt it. It felt nothing like the diary. In fact it just felt like a normal object, dead and cold.

"Harry, we need to go" Severus broke into his thoughts. He turned to find the taller man already supporting Dumbledore and nearly carrying him to the boat.

Harry followed quickly, stepping into the boat just as it began to move. A spike of fear at the idea of being left on the island made him throw himself onto the nearest seat, making the rickety vessel rock alarmingly.

Severus glared at him as he pulled a small box from his cuff and held it out for Harry to put the Horcrux in.

He dropped the locket in and watched as the lid was snapped shut, Severus spelling it closed and putting the whole contraption back into the expanded space.

Harry quelled the urge to snatch it back and open it, to see if the awful doubt that was rising in him was right.

They made it out of the cave with little fanfare, though Severus did pause for an instant and pour something onto the seams of the wall after it had closed, making it flash gold and rock to run like liquid, sealing the entrance.

They arrived just outside the gates with a crack, Harry staggering under Dumbledore's weight.

It was dark at Hogwarts, the late spring night unusually chilly. They started to make their way slowly back to the castle and came through the gates before they drew to an abrupt halt.

All three seemed to notice it at the same time, the glowing mesmorde writhing in the clouds above the graceful spires of the castle, swirling around the Astronomy tower.

Harry turned to look at Severus, horror on his face. Without a word they moved together toward Hogwarts, trying to get Dumbledore to Madam Pomfrey as quickly as possible and deal with whatever had happened in the brief few hours of their absence.

Their walk was a tangle of dragging limbs, slow and stilted as boots found every hole and rut in the long drive, the shadows sporadically blocking the moonlight and confusing their balance further.

Albus slowed, the toes of his boots digging shallow valleys on the dirt as he stumbled, finally pulling them to a halt.

"It's time my boys." He said weakly. "We need to get to the tower and I'm afraid I may not make it without some small bit of help." The old man smiled gently at them and Harry just felt like screaming. He could see the pain in Severus' eyes, and he knew how much this would hurt him, despite the souring of their relationship.

Harry took a deep breath and reached out, fingers tangling with Severus'. They shared a look filled with a thousand things before they turned and resolutely began moving toward the castle again.

Harry flicked his wand, wordlessly levitating Dumbledore, speeding up as the old man sagged in relief. He felt Severus' magic as a disillusionment fell over them, so when they came across the first group of fighting they were completely ignored.

Severus hit the two Death Eaters with some sort of hideous cutting hex, sending them both down with severed muscles in their backs and legs no longer able to hold them upright as blood pooled around them.

The group of DA students that Harry hadn't recognized at first all looked a little green but nodded toward their suddenly revealed Defense Professor with respect. They turned to head down the hall toward the crash of another group fighting, automatically falling into a loose triangle, shields already up and overlapping.

Harry and Severus ran up the stairs, Dumbledore floating along with them. Harry could hear the old man struggling to breath and the very real concern that he would die before they could carry out their plan was growing.

They dodged groups of students running down the stairs, upper years grouping around the children and herding them toward which ever common room was nearest, trying to get them to a safe area regardless of which house they belonged to.

They rushed past several DA members, who paused and yelled for instruction, all of them receiving the same terse order from Severus to get the other students to safety and keep out of the way if possible.

They paused halfway up the tower, struggling to catch their breath before they had to handle whatever was waiting for them.

"Harry, my dear boy, I believe I will need to do the rest of this alone." Dumbledore spoke, his voice sounding stronger than it had since before their trip to the cave.

Harry froze, his mind knowing he should lower the Headmaster and step back but his body refusing to obey. He stood on the stairs, silent and still in his quiet grief until a warm hand closed gently over his shoulder, Severus drawing him close.

Ink dark eyes met his and with a low sound of pain he carefully released the levitation spell, gently lowering Dumbledore until his dusty boots came to rest on the steps.

The sound of running feet brought their wands around, only for them to drop when Hermione and Draco appeared, both covered in what looked like marble dust and small splatters of blood.

"We saw you coming across the lawn" Hermione explained.

"What happened?" Severus snapped, only for Dumbledore to hold up his hand to stop any explanation.

"Right now it is more important to deal with the problems at hand, rather than the why. Draco, I do believe that it is time, if you are still willing" Dumbledore said.

A flash of fear crossed the Slytherins face before he blanked it and nodded. "I'll go up first, I think Bellatrix is up there" he answered, his fingers clenching white around his wand.

Abruptly he leaned down and pressed a painfully fierce kiss to Hermione's mouth, his pale hands bracketing her face "See you on the other side of this" he whispered as he pulled back.

Tears welled in her brown eyes as she kissed him back just as fiercely. "You had damn well better be there at the end Malfoy, or I'll never forgive you" she responded, hands gripping his wrists. "Be safe" she said as he tore himself away and took the stairs two at a time, disappearing to the top of the tower.

Dumbledore slowly ascended the stairs after him, his steps almost stately. Before he could get more than a few stairs up, Harry pulled him to a gentle stop and wrapped his arms tightly around the thin chest that had wasted away months ago from the curse. Dumbledore's hands came up to stroke his back.

"Thank you. For everything" Harry finally said, letting go.

Dumbledore nodded, tears making his blue eyes shine in the dim light of the tower. He nodded slowly to Severus and gave Hermione a small smile before he turned and resumed his journey up the staircase.

Hermione pulled the invisibility cloak out and flung it over herself. Severus cast a disillusionment on himself and Harry and followed them up the steps.

They arrived just in time to catch a glimpse of Dumbledore walking toward a whole group of Death Eaters, Draco standing tall at the front, his wand pointed at the Headmaster.

Harry ducked into a niche in the tower, Severus following him. Hermione kept the cloak and moved toward the other side, ready to surround the group if something went wrong.

They waited in silence as Dumbledore drew to a halt in front of the dark wizards.

"Who let you into my school?" he asked calmly.

Harry could hear the sneer in Bellatrix's voice when she answered "Why does it matter? It changes nothing old man."

"Was it you Draco?" he asked, ignoring the witch.

"It was Nott. Malfoy here hasn't managed to do anything the Dark Lord asked of him" one of the other Death Eaters answered, satisfaction at Malfoy's failure filling his voice.

Silence follow the announcement, broken only by the whisper soft curse from Severus.

"And what are you planning on doing with that wand Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked, his voice noticeably weaker. He was dying, Harry could hear it. Draco need to make a move now if he was going to go through with it.

"Following my Lord's commands of course" came the answer, the voice snide and nothing like the quiet tone of his promises to Hermione.

"Mr. Malfoy, we both know you cannot…" Dumbledore's voice, pitched for provocation, cut off at the sharp, cold words from Malfoy.

"Avada Kedavra"

A flash of sickly green light lit the small alcove where they were hidden, followed by Bellatrix crowing in triumph and the sound of the group fleeing down the tower.

Severus let out a tiny, involuntary whimper and slid down the wall, his hand scrabbling for something in his pocket.

Harry knelt by him, noticing the pallor of his skin.

"Severus? What's wrong" Harry hissed, a spike of fear hitting him.

"The magic that has been blocking the bond to the Dark Lord was held by Albus" he whispered, pain starting to leak into his eyes.

"What?" Harry said, horrified.

Severus had finally pulled a small bottle from his robes, the deep blue potion sloshing with the shake of his hands.

"I can feel the block dissolving, we do not have much time," Severus said as he fumbled the potion open.

"What is that?" Harry asked, something frantic bubbling up in him.

"A potion that should harm the Dark Lord through the bond" Severus answered, his voice calming as he raised it to his lips.

Alarms started clamoring in Harry's head, the pain and near death that Severus had experienced before Dumbledore had managed to save them flashing through his mind.

It was the look on Severus' face that did it though. The silent apology in his eyes. If Harry had spent any less time with him, if he had watched him any less, if he had loved him any less, he never would have seen it.

Without another thought Harry reached out and slapped the potion from Severus' hand, sending it spilling across the floor where it hissed and ate at the stone.

They both froze, silently watching the poison etch into the floor.

"You were going to poison yourself" Harry whispered, shock making his hands shake.

"Of course I was you idiot. It would have freed you. It would have saved you from him. Now he'll kill us both" Severus answered, furious. He fumbled for his wand, planning Merlin knows what, only for Harry to wrestle it from him.

"Harry, give that back. This is the only way. There is no need for us both to die" Severus said, his tone a forced sort of reasonable.

"You were going to kill yourself. You were going to leave me" Harry said brokenly, barely aware of the words falling from his mouth.

Severus' face tightened in pain and his right hand reached over his body to clutch at his forearm.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't let you die. Not when I had the power to stop it" Severus said desperately.

Severus slid further down the wall, his breathing tight. "Harry you have to let me go. You are the one that matters. Please, just let me save you" he begged.

A beat of silence filled the small chill corner they had stuffed themselves into as Harry leaned over prone body of the man he loved more than anything, more than the whole of the wizarding world.

Pure unadulterated rage rushed into him, shoving the shock away. His magic welled up, following tight to the tail of his anger and filling him with the same rolling beat of the ocean he had felt once before.

"No" he whispered fiercely. "He doesn't get to have you too."

He leaned down, meeting confused black eyes as instant before he pressed their lips together.

Just for an instant, for an eternity, the world fell away as Harry felt a large, warm hand thread through the hair at the base of his neck and pull him closer. His heart beat painfully hard as Severus kissed him back desperately, both of them putting everything they hadn't said into the feel of each other.

Then Severus' spine arched with pain, tearing him away from Harry, his teeth clenched so tightly that Harry thought they might break.

Harry reached out and shoved Severus' left sleeve up, and acting on instinct, pressed his palm to the blackness of the Dark Mark.

He remembered what it felt like to push power into the body under his. He remembered the barrier that had stood so tightly between them, limiting the flow of his magic to a trickle. It seemed so simple now to reach out along the lines of the metal bracelets and shatter that barrier.

Harry bowed his head to Severus heaving chest and pushed.

He pushed everything he had, everything he was, down the thin line of magic connecting them to Voldemort.

He pushed his pain at the loss of so much of his family, his rage at the terror on the faces of the muggles he had saved, and his love for his self made family, his absolute refusal to accept that the price of winning this war was the loss of Severus.

Power screamed out of him, burning through the Dark Mark like a sea of fire. It hit the thread that Riddle was using to greedily pull Severus' magic, and his life, from him.

Harry felt his power follow that thread, burning it to ashes behind the wave of magic. He felt it the instant it hit Riddle. A flash of agony and a distant scream echoed in his head as the Dark Lord recoiled.

Harry smiled down at the man under him, his head feeling oddly fuzzy and detached. He felt something trickling down his ear and reached up, confused when he pulled his hand away and found it covered in bright red.

The last thing he saw was Severus' face, filled with terror.

He woke in the hospital wing, the loud bustled of Poppy checking on patients drawing him out of dreams of pain and confusion.

He blinked black eyes up at the ceiling, trying to remember how he had landed himself there. He shifted his hand slightly before he realised that the pressure he felt on it was someone holding onto him.

Everything came crashing back in a wave of pain and fear. Severus whipped his head to the side, eyes tracing over Harry's still face, trying to find any evidence of the blood that had poured from his nose and ears, relaxing as he saw no sign of injury.

He shifted to touch Harry and hissed in pain as he put pressure on his left arm. He glanced down in surprise to find his Dark Mark swathed in bandages. The silver cuff poked out of the edge of the bandage, resting against its match on Harry's wrist. More than half the ruins along both of them were a dark, tarnished black and had stopped moving. The few that were still silver twisted the same way they always had.

Harry lay completely still, his face pale and deep purple bruises under his eyes. Both of their wands were on the table next to Severus when he looked for them, and he reached out to summon Poppy. A small light burst from the tip of his wand and flew up to hover over the tops of their curtain walls.

A few moments later the scuff of feet encased in sensible shoes came, heading in their direction.

Poppy slipped around the corner, her face haggard and grey hair limp.

"Severus" she whispered, a small but genuine smile catching on her mouth.

He cast a fast silencing charm over Harry to prevent him waking, dread already welling in his chest. He'd never seen the resident healer so worn.

"What happened?" he asked in a normal volume.

"I was rather hoping you'd be able to tell me" she answered, sinking down onto the hardback chair next to him. "How are you feeling?"

He grimaced as he rolled his left wrist slightly, careful not to move too much and dislodge Harry's hand where it was linked with his.

"Not terrible, though my arm is not comfortable," he answered.

Poppy huffed "I would think not" she said as she leaned over to carefully tease the bandages away, not mentioning the tight grip that Harry had on him. "It's a miracle you still have an arm after this young man shoved enough magic to level half the castle through it."

Severus swallowed heavily, choosing to ignore her in favor of inspecting his arm. The last of the gauze fell away to show the reddened, raw skin underneath.

He sucked a sharp breath through his teeth at the sight of the faded mark on his arm. Under the angry, burned skin the Dark Mark was no longer sharp and crisp. Instead, it ran like a smudged watercolour, the lines soft and blurred.

Unthinkingly his mind reached for the connection to the Dark Lord that he had carried for half his life and found only blank space. There was no curse in his arm any longer, nothing but his own skin and bone and magic.

"As near as we can tell he tore out the magic that tied you to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" Poppy said, answering his unspoken question. "It nearly killed him to do it, but you're free." Her words carried the faintest hint of accusation, making him jerk his eyes to meet hers.

"If you think for an instant that I allowed him to do this you are very much mistaken," he responded coldly. "When the Headmaster died his spell broke. I was dying," he spat. "The Dark Lord was going to kill us both. I've no idea what Harry did, but I was fairly certain it had killed him."

The same flash of terror he'd felt when Harry had fallen onto his chest, bleeding everywhere, thrilled through him.

Poppy's eyes lost some of their hardness before she turned to point her wand at Harry, bringing up the scrolling list of health diagnostics.

"How is he?" Severus asked.

"Exhausted. He almost burned his magic out saving you both. His core was so low his heart stopped twice. I barely managed to keep him with us, and it was still touch and go until this morning" she answered, missing the way he twitched and clung to Harry's hand at her words.

"He won't be in any form to do any magic for at least a week. He needs to eat as much as he can stomach, and he needs to sleep" she finally looked up and met his gaze. Whatever she saw there made her face soften. "He's going to be fine Severus, just tell him to never do anything that stupid again."

Severus gave himself a moment to let the relief that he words caused washed over him.

"And the rest of the castle?" he made himself ask.

Shockingly her face cleared and she smiled a bit. "No students died. We have more than a few injuries, and Bill Weasley is damn lucky, but the only death was one of theirs. Other than the Headmaster of course" she whispered the last, her eyes filling with tears.

"Severus, you should know that they're saying Draco did it" she said.

He stilled, then nodded slightly in agreement.

Her eyes widened in horror "But he switched sides" she whispered furiously. "He seemed so close to Granger…" here her voice trailed off, suspicion lighting up her eyes.

"You know, if someone wanted to plant a spy and put them above reproach, the fact that Albus was dying would have been a golden opportunity," she said, her voice neutral.

"A rumor like that could get someone killed" he said harshly.

She nodded quickly, brown eyes lit with understanding "Of course. I'm sure nothing like that happened. I'm sure Mr. Malfoy just decided to follow in his Father's footsteps."

They both paused, listening to the soft shuffling of pyjamas against sheets as those injured in the Death Eaten invasion moved about in their beds.

"The funeral is in a week. The Governor's have decided to cancel end of the year testing and release the students early." Severus nodded, not surprised.

"I'll let you get some rest" she patted his knee absently before she shuffled off to tend to whoever else was in her ward.

The next week passed in a blur of visitors and planning. Harry woke up the day after he did and immediately fell onto a plate of food with a single minded intensity that he'd only seen him show during a quidditch match.

The first few days Harry only woke sporadically, and only long enough to eat half his body weight. The magic had stripped him of any fat and a large amount of muscle, his magic having burned through the frame than housed it as it tried to answer the will of the man that wielded it.

By the end of the week and four doses of nutrient potions a day on top of as much food as he could physically eat, he looked almost back to normal. Almost. The magic seemed to have burned away the last remnants of his childhood, the slight softness that age divested a person of gone in an instant.

His cheekbones were high and sharp, his jaw hard enough to cut and barely softened by the layer of black stubble that refused to leave for more than a few hours. He looked less like James and more like Lily's father, his face harder and more serious.

He looked like a man. And Merlin was he beautiful.

Severus knew of course that he loved Harry. But it had been an abstract idea, something that was not to be spoken of because it would just hurt more when it was time for Severus to die.

Finding himself unexpectedly alive and knowing exactly how the shape of Harry's mouth fit perfectly over his own was driving him to distraction. Harry losing the last softness of childhood seemed to have broken some previously unknown hesitance in him. He'd woken almost every night, his thin frame tight with arousal, dreams of pale, scarred skin under his fingers.

He'd been mortified the first night he'd opened his eyes to find himself pressed tight to Harry, his body so hard he ached. He'd pushed himself away, so much blood rushing to his face that it had put a quick end to his problem.

He briefly considered reinstating his pillow barrier, but then he would have to explain to Harry that he was a lecherous old man, and he wasn't sure that he wouldn't just die of embarrassment if he had to have that conversation. He wasn't willing to risk it after Harry had worked so hard to keep him alive.

By the time they were released from the hospital wing and sent back to their rooms it was only two days to the funeral and Severus had nearly managed to convince himself that Harry didn't even remember kissing him, or that he was being sensible and ignoring it. Either way he would follow along with what Harry wanted.

He would have been more shocked if Harry had brought it up. No one had ever wanted him that way and deluding himself into thinking that a man who could have literally anyone he wanted would choose a man like him was absurd.

Which was why he was fairly certain he was having an extremely vivid dream when Harry leaned over and casually kissed him goodnight the first day back to their rooms, like he did it every day and it wasn't anything particularly remarkable.

He was so surprised that he just froze, staring at Harry with wide eyes and hardly daring to breathe.

Harry pulled away and gave him an uncertain look "Is this alright?" he asked softly, shifting back onto his side of their bed, giving Severus space.

Not trusting himself to speak in case he said something that would scare Harry off, he just nodded.

Harry gave him a small, pleased smile and leaned over to brush their lips together again. Severus saw it coming this time and made himself press back, not wanting Harry to think that he wasn't welcome.

Harry gasped a soft laugh against his mouth at Severus' overly enthusiastic response and brought his hands up to cradle Severus' jaw. Harry's tongue slipped out to trace the seam of his lips and dragged a small, involuntary noise from him.

He reluctantly pulled back, breathing hard as he tried to make his body quiet down.

"I cannot" he made himself say.

Harry raised an eyebrow in question.

"I'm still your teacher. I do not want this to start before you can consider us to be on equal footing" he explained, trying to ignore the way his body was screaming that he was an idiot.

"You're not teaching next year and I'm not attending. We have to find the Horcruxes and finish this. The only thing that was holding Riddle back was Dumbledore" Harry said, eyes distant.

"I can wait a few weeks," he said finally, green eyes smiling. With that he tucked himself tight to Severus and closed his eyes.

It took a long time for Severus to fall asleep, but when he did his dreams were filled with warm laughter and gentle kisses.

The funeral was beautiful. The marble tomb, hewn from the same stone that liberally decorated the castle, stood with quiet grace at the edge of the lake. So many people came that those who spoke had to be amplified with the system from the quidditch pitch, else no one in the back would have been able to hear.

Harry stood silently beside Severus, surrounded by Order members and Weasley's. Bill was recovered enough to join them, the scars that bisected his face making him hide behind the curtain of his long hair. Harry had a brief jolt when he recognized the movement from watching Severus let his hair fall forward.

Before he knew it he was watching the lid slide closed over one of the most influential and important people in his life. Harry knew what grief felt like, and knew that it was different for every person he lost. He was sad of course, but the grief wasn't sharp. He had known that this was coming for months and had gotten his chance to say goodbye.

There was a great deal of anger from nearly everyone, the knowledge that Draco had killed Dumbledore running through the school. Harry had gotten himself together enough to make a statement to the Aurors about the murder, ensuring that Draco's cover was as safe as he could make it. It was Severus' statement that cemented it though. Draco made it to the top of the ministries most wanted list, and his friends were shunned, violence against Slytherins rising to an all time high.

It was only stopped from outright war by Hermione's intervention. She'd walked into a fight between a group of fourth year Slytherins and a mixed group of every other house. By the end of it every single student was either stunned or immobilized and she screamed at them loudly enough to be heard in the Great Hall, informing them under no uncertain terms that one persons actions did not reflect on the house.

Violence cooled to grumbles and nasty looks, but at least the hospital wing was mostly empty again.

Faster than seemed possible, the funeral was over and he was finishing his packing, getting ready to leave for Grimmauld place. They would be staying there indefinitely, using it as a base of operations for Horcrux hunting. Hermione would be joining them in a few weeks, having mentioned something about trying to keep her parents safe and needing to move them. Harry had offered to help but she had told him that Draco had already arranged everything.

As Harry picked up his handful of floo powder he looked one last time around the now empty dungeon quarters that had been more home to him than anywhere else. The front room was oddly empty, much larger than it had seemed when it was filled with books. The worn couch that he had slept curled up with Severus so often seemed lonely without its blanket and the clutter of their life.

With one last fond look, Harry threw the powder into the fire and followed Severus.