Fic Post: A Reason To Celebrate, Part 3/3
Title: A Reason To Celebrate, Part Three
Authors: dementordelta and cruisedirector
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: NC17
Pairing: Harry/Snape
Summary: Harry is determined to convince Severus that if they can share ice cream, they could share so much more.
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling created the characters and plot holes that made this story possible.
Notes: Part three of three. Many thanks to celandineb for beta.

Part One

Part Two

A Reason To Celebrate, Part Three

Everything was normal about the way Harry woke up. He was hungry. He was horny. Severus was humping his leg. Wait. That wasn't exactly normal, was it? His eyes shot open. "Wha-?" Oh right. Not normal, then, better than normal. Brilliant in fact.

Beside him he felt Severus stir, saw his eyes flutter open, then cloud with embarrassment. "I'm sorry -- I --"

"Don't stop!" Harry said, shifting to take better advantage of the already aroused cock.

Severus looked confused but his cock didn't seem to be at all, moving against Harry's now that he'd brought both of them together. "I don't... do this," he said, voice still rough from sleep.

Harry wasn't exactly sure what "this" was, but he liked the way it felt and draped one leg over Severus's with a moan. "Why not?"

Severus was arching up, pressing back into him, though Harry realized he was holding him down on the bed. Severus didn't seem to mind though. "Haven't been... many people... ohh, that's, yes..." He groaned deeply in his throat in place of actual words.

Harry was ridiculously pleased by this, both the confession and the humping. "Good," he said, grabbing at Severus frantically, anywhere he could reach that would pull him closer.

Apparently deciding that there was no point in resisting further since he was, in fact, doing this, Severus reached down and stroked both their cocks together with his hand. Ohh, yes indeed... Harry groaned helplessly, rubbing his leg over Severus's longer one, probably moving too fast against him but there was nothing he could do about that.

Severus had tilted his head forward to watch himself wanking (ahhfuck, wanking) both of them. His hair fell over his face, hiding his expression from Harry. "You don't... even like me..." he muttered.

Was that all that was bothering Severus? "You don't like me much either!" Harry reminded him, trying to tilt his face up.

Discovering his mouth nearby, Severus kissed him urgently, hand and cock moving hard and fast against Harry's. "You're... terrible... Legilimens..." Severus muttered.

Snorting against his lips, Harry replied, "Had... world's... worst... teacher..." There was some other point he knew he should be arguing, but he couldn't remember what the point was, not with his balls tightening.

Grabbing the lank dark hair to pull the head closer, he kissed Severus again, rubbing very sloppily against him. Severus was probably going to think he had premature ejaculation problems but at the moment he didn't care -- he had forgotten everything, how to do anything but come, even how to kiss. "God, Sna-Prof-fuck, Severus!"

Even as the words burst from his lips, he felt a warm jet spurting onto his skin. Fuck, that felt good! Shuddering, Harry shouted and exploded, clamping a hand onto Severus in case he had any thought of pulling away.

When he could breathe again, he panted, "Maybe I... like you. A little." Severus's face was pressed in his hair, which Harry knew was sweaty and unkempt. They both had breath that smelled of stale eggs. He felt his cheeks warming -- maybe he had spoken too quickly. "Is that... all right?"

Severus's fingers unclenched from his slowly. "It is more than I deserve."

Harry could only see close up without his glasses, so he tilted his face to look into Severus's. "Why do you say that?"

The hand that had been clenching him so fiercely rubbed up and down Harry's back, making him feel like a large kitten. "Why should you like me at all?" Severus said, as if unaware of what his hand was doing.

Shrugging, Harry settled against Severus's body, hip to hip, though his toes didn't quite reach Severus's feet. "Can't help it. I know you probably won't ever like me... that way." It was nicer lying here tucked together than he expected. The hand on his back had strayed into his hair.

"What way?" Severus asked, his tone, even to Harry's ears, carefully neutral.

Harry shrugged again, his toe making circles in the short hair on Severus's leg. "Like a, well, more than just a convenient fuck." Even the words sounded ugly on his tongue.

Severus pulled back to look at him, keeping one hand on Harry's arm, though his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "A convenient fuck?"

"That's all I am, isn't it?" Harry's cheeks were burning, and Severus looked like he couldn't decide whether to yell at him or... yell at him.

Finally Severus huffed, "Potter, weren't you listening to me? I don't do this."

Forcing himself to take a breath, Harry dropped his eyes, wondering where his clothes had got to. "I was afraid of that. I -- I'll go."

He would have, too, only Severus was still petting his hair. After a moment it seemed to occur to Severus, too, that neither of them had made a move to untangle themselves. "Right now?" Severus asked, sounding annoyed.

Harry squinted at him. Without his glasses, it was even harder than usual to read Snape's expression. "Isn't this your way of getting rid of me?"

"You're the one who's leaving." Severus made a scoffing noise. "Did the dead man fail to meet your expectations?"

"No! I loved it!" Harry peered at him shyly. "I know I'm not very good though."

It was sort of hard to tell, but he thought Severus was blushing again. "If we. That is. Once we became accustomed to each other I am certain it would not be so... messy."

From Severus, whom Harry had been expecting to kick him out, that sounded practically like a proposal of marriage. He felt himself beaming. "You don't mind me staying around a bit? When you started talking about how you don't do this sort of thing, I thought you were hinting that you wanted some peace and quiet."

Apparently Severus found something very interesting about Harry's chest hair, since that was where his eyes were focused. "I don't do -- what did you say? Convenient fucking."

Sleeping with Severus, assuming he let Harry come back once Harry had to leave, was going to be fraught with challenge. For one thing, Harry found himself jealous of whomever Severus had done this with before, even though he knew that was ridiculous and unreasonable. "It's not -- it's more than that, isn't it? Even if we aren't quite sure what it is yet?" he asked hopefully.

That seemed to pull Severus's gaze from whatever was so fascinating about his chest. "You want it to be more than that?" The black eyes flickered over his then skittered away again. "I am the same man you despised."

Harry let his whole body shrug, to be sure Severus felt it. "I'm still the son of the man you hated," he countered, hoping it wouldn't stand between them.

He thought maybe from Severus's automatic, "He hated me too," that he was hoping the past wouldn't play into what could be their future. Assuming Harry didn't screw this up.

"Does that mean that, because he's dead," Harry said carefully, "you should go on hating him?"

Warning bells went off in Harry's head. Yeah, Severus looked irritated. "I tried to save him. He was betrayed by one of his best friends. If your staying here is conditional on my pretending to have liked him..."

"No!" In case Severus was planning to get up and stalk away, Harry tugged him close again. "I just meant that I don't have any grudges against you any more. But if you can only see my father in me, then this probably won't work."

"If I only saw your father, we would not be in my bed." Severus's fingers stopped stroking his hair, shifted, and started moving again across his back.

Harry sighed in relief. Impulsively he turned around to give Severus better access, making a pleased noise. He felt both of Severus's hands slide over his shoulders, pushing down, kneading the muscles that Harry hadn't quite realized had knotted when he'd thought there was going to be a row.

"I think maybe..." It was easier to speak now that he was not looking directly at Severus. "Maybe I like you more than a little."

A warm breath ruffled his hair from behind as Severus leaned close, rubbing his cheek in it. "Are you only saying that because I promised you ice cream?"

Harry giggled, thinking he should be horrified to make such a girlish noise -- but thinking things that would have horrified him once didn't so much any more, not now that he'd spent a year being horrified by Voldemort. "I mean it, but I still want you to lick ice cream off me," he said with a happy sigh, turning and tilting his face to try to get it closer to Severus's.

A snort sounded in his ear. "I don't do that either," Severus said. "I don't think."

Hearing Severus laugh, even the mocking sort at himself, was better than having anyone else kiss him, not that Harry had had too much of that. "If you aren't sure, you should try it at least once. That way I'll know if I don't like it too," he said, managing only to brush his nose somewhere in the vicinity of Severus's chin.

"You've never done that?" Severus asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Didn't have a lot of ice cream while we were hiding out, or anyone I'd want to lick it off of," Harry said, wriggling his shoulders because Severus had stopped rubbing him. "I've never done anything much, either then or before that."

Slowly Severus's hands resumed their movements. "Neither have I," he said quietly. "Not for many years, and not -- " Abruptly he silenced himself, though his fingers drifted slowly down Harry's back, pressing on either side of his spine.

With a quiet, happy sigh, Harry agreed, "Then we'll have to try all sorts of stuff to see whether we like it." He hoped this made more sense to Severus than the ice cream plan.

"Not convenient fucking?"

"Just ordinary 'I like you' sort of fucking." This was probably the moment to state explicitly that he had never done that, either. Severus was nodding, chin moving against Harry's hair, and because he was feeling warm and lazy and satisfied, Harry confessed, "I've had as much experience in this bed as anywhere else."

"I suppose we had better start with vanilla then," Severus said with satisfaction in his voice, and when Harry glanced back at him, added, "Ice cream."

Harry knew he must have been referring to something sexual, but he didn't want to remove all doubt about his lack of experience by asking for an explanation. "I like vanilla," he said, thinking that sounded safe enough.

"Gryffindors always do," Severus said, half under his breath, but when Harry stared at him, trying to work out what he'd missed, he looked perfectly innocent. Or as innocent as Severus ever looked, which wasn't much, though he still looked kissable to Harry.

He leaned back and craned his neck over his shoulder and did it. Severus kissed back as if he might prefer to eat Harry than ice cream, but when they broke apart, he smirked.

"Do you wish to accompany me on this grocery expedition?"

"Yes. I have money." Harry had brought Galleons to offer bribes, if necessary, to track down Snape's home; he had not been expecting to shop for cheese and sugar, but he certainly had enough.

Severus was laughing at him. "Oh? You have Muggle pounds?"

Harry's face fell. "No, just Galleons," he admitted. He didn't suppose Severus would be keen on going into Gringotts. "Is there somewhere we can change them?" he asked, wishing for about the millionth time that he'd been raised in a wizarding family and knew this stuff.

Still smirking, Severus said, "I have Muggle money. The Swiss are not as resourceful as goblins but they are as discreet." Oh, yeah -- Harry knew that from the bad spy movies Dudley had watched, where the villains always kept their money in numbered Swiss accounts.

He was surprised that Severus had thought of that, however. Not because he wouldn't know about the accounts -- his father had been a Muggle -- but because it suggested that Severus had planned, or at least hoped, to disappear after the war all along. "You were going to live as a Muggle?" he asked, incredulous.

"Why shouldn't I?" Severus said, sounding irritated. Belatedly Harry remembered the Muggle clothes in the wardrobe he'd spotted while snooping.

"No reason," Harry said quickly. "You'll let me come?" Then he flushed as the double meaning hit him. "To the store, I mean," he added. His aunt had never taken him along with her, since even taking Harry to the store was considered an outing he didn't deserve. "I've, er, never actually been."

"Never been to the grocer?" Severus asked sharply, as if Harry surely must be lying.

"No. Aunt Petunia wouldn't take me. Probably afraid I'd knock over a stack of cabbages and she'd have to pay for them or something like that." Sitting up, he slid to the edge of the bed, looking for his clothes. He hoped Severus would let him take a shower later, or better yet, shower with him.

Severus swung his legs off the side of the bed and went to the wardrobe. All his clothes were faded and nondescript, as if he wanted to make them difficult to describe; there was nothing that stood out. "We should alter your appearance," he told Harry.

"Sure," Harry said. He'd gotten used to looking like someone else when he'd been on posters across the country as Undesirable #1. He grinned up at Snape once he was dressed. "Maybe I could Polyjuice into you and we could go as twins."

Severus looked highly amused. "You can't believe that I leave this house with this recognizable face," he said. "Muggles are easy enough to fool with a Disillusionment Charm, though any competent wizard could detect the presence of the spell if not the identity of the subject." So that was why Snape had always seemed to sense Harry's presence even beneath the Invisibility Cloak. "Twins always seem notable to Muggles. We must appear as uninteresting as possible." He smirked again. "Perhaps you should come as my sister."

"Your sister!" Harry protested. He couldn't tell if Severus was joking and looked down at his chest as if he'd already sprouted breasts. "A girl?" he said in distaste, not because he disliked girls -- several of them had, after all, risked their lives to Polyjuice into him last year. But he'd just spent several memorable hours sleeping with a man and was enjoying his expanded knowledge of being male just now. Severus looked like he was waiting for an answer, and he did probably know what he was doing when it came to staying hidden. "I -- I guess," Harry said, looking down at his chest again as if bidding farewell to his masculinity. "As long as we take the spell off before we, you know, do stuff again." Because there was no way he was going to lose his virginity as a woman first.

Severus snorted as though he hadn't expected to be taken seriously. "I presume that you have never actually disguised yourself as a woman? You'd have to practice the walk, the voice..." His nose wrinkled. Harry hoped it was because Severus really had no desire to see him as a girl. "I was being sarcastic, as I would expect you of all people to realize. We should appear as drab-looking middle-aged men whom no one would notice."

Harry brightened, feeling both sheepish and relieved at once. "You? Sarcastic?" He rolled his eyes expressively and started rummaging through the wardrobe while Severus got dressed. Severus really did have some boring stuff in there. "What are we going to use? Polyjuice?"

"It is, regrettably, the most effective disguise among both wizards and Muggles," Snape pointed out. "No amount of experimenting has improved the taste of the potion, however. I keep it brewing constantly in the cellar in case I should need to make a swift escape. While we are among the shoppers, be alert for any opportunity to collect stray hairs -- but only from nondescript people who keep to themselves." Harry supposed that Snape had to vary his destinations in order to avoid running into anyone who might know the person whose face he was wearing. "Take my arm, we shall need to Apparate within the vicinity of the shops."

It felt very comfortable to take Severus's arm -- to be making plans, even mundane ones -- when it meant they could come back here and have dinner, or maybe several dinners, for as long as Severus would allow him to stay. "Ready," he said with a nod.

"Not until you drink this." Severus handed him a stoppered glass tube labeled with a date and a number. Making a small face, Harry swallowed the Polyjuice Potion, and after a moment he felt his body changing. It felt like he was growing taller. Snape's clothes would probably fit him now.

Severus, too, had gulped down a vial, wearing an expression as if he had swallowed a toad. Harry smiled to discover that he had made himself a sandy-haired, slightly younger man with a rather flat nose, though not an overly handsome one; Severus wouldn't want to be noticed by any ladies in the shop. "What do I look like?" he asked, craning around Severus to try to see the tiny mirror over the dresser.

He could tell by Severus's expression that he wasn't a candidate for Witch Weekly's Most Handsome anything. "A bit like me," Severus said, tilting his face as if scrutinizing a painting in a gallery, "Without all the luxury of upbringing and privilege."

Harry peered into the small mirror. The face that looked back at him did have the worn look of an older man, or one aged before his time. His hair was short and dark, cut like Severus's but much shorter. Inching closer, he saw his nose was larger and had clearly been broken at some point in the past and reset rather more haphazardly than medical science called for. He rubbed at it and turned back to Severus. "Definitely not as hot as you though," he said with a grin that he was sure revealed bad teeth.

Snape made a face that was probably a doubtful one, but with his new features, it was harder to tell. With dull grey eyes and light brown hair, Severus wasn't nearly as interesting to look at, and Harry was surprised to discover how much he missed the hawk-nosed, lanky-haired man with the familiar dark eyes. "Let's get this little expedition over with," Severus said, linking his arm through Harry's again, and a moment later he felt the familiar discomfort of Apparition, finding his footing again in a narrow alley beside a large brick building.

He had seen such supermarkets before, of course, from the window of Uncle Vernon's car, but he had never been inside one. Harry had supposed it to be a large grocery and was astonished to find CDs, clothing, computer software, and cosmetics just inside the doors that opened as if by magic when they approached. During the months they had spent in hiding, Hermione had sneaked into a few stores in search of food, but Harry had never risked going with her and now he was glad: he would have been entirely too distracted. "Come on," Severus said irritably, elbowing him past a table of electronic games. "The potion won't last all day."

"Right, right," Harry said, trying to rein in his curiosity. They turned away from the distracting displays, securing hand baskets along the way, one for each of them. As far as he could tell no one spared them a second glance, in the endless Muggle pursuit of consumer goods.

Severus kept them on track, producing a list from one pocket and keeping an eye on Harry as he divvied up the items. Harry had to force himself not to linger in the dairy aisle -- he had never seen so much cheese in one place. When Severus found him ten minutes later, Harry's nose was plastered to the front of the ice cream freezer. "I want to try them all," he said as a hand squeezed his shoulder.

"Pick two," Severus said very sternly. Two cases over, a harried-looking mother was shouting at her son that he could have chocolate or cherry vanilla but not both, and Harry grinned.

"The caramel swirl one and the chocolate coconut one." Severus rolled his eyes slightly but removed the tubs from the freezer and placed them in Harry's basket. They were satisfyingly heavy. "Is that everything?"

"Did you find the crackers and the... what's this?" Reaching into the basket, Severus held up the double-sized chocolate bar Harry had tried to hide under a package of nuts.

"Must've fallen in by accident," Harry explained. The little boy who had wanted two kinds of ice cream was pouting at him from the shopping cart ahead. Harry saw the indecision flicker across Severus's face. "I can pay you back," he said quickly, his voice gruffer than his usual one. "When I get my Galleons changed over."

Severus snorted. "I was merely wondering if the fat content was suitable for melting for erotic purposes," he said, turning away so quickly that Harry couldn't tell if he was joking or not. He hurried to catch up, the unfamiliar legs longer but also more difficult to get used to.

Even with his face Polyjuiced, Severus scowled deeply in the checkout line, so that the clerk's friendly greeting faltered and there was no conversation. Remembering that he was supposed to keep an eye open for potential potion ingredients, Harry noticed a few hairs among the dandruff on the sleeve of the man bagging his groceries ahead of them. He was short and stocky, sufficiently nondescript. Moving to help bag their own groceries, Harry arranged to bump into him, apologizing and grabbing at the hairs while pretending to keep the man from stumbling.

Outside, Snape collected bags from the cart and shook his head slightly at Harry as they rounded the corner. "This is ludicrous. The hero of the wizarding world wants to eat caramel ice cream with me."

"Wants to eat caramel ice cream off you," Harry corrected in a low voice, gratified by the warmth suffusing Severus's cheeks. He held out the hairs. "Do you have anything we can put these in?"

Severus looked at the wisps of hair then back at Harry. "Perhaps you are not quite as impossible as I thought," he said, shifting the bag to Harry's other arm. From within his robes he drew out a stoppered vial, sliding the hairs into them while they huddled together on the sidewalk.

Once the vial was safely tucked away in Severus's robes, Harry said, "We'd better get home," he said, hoping Severus wouldn't argue about Harry calling what was technically Severus's house home. "I think the ice cream is melting without us."

"There is such a thing as a cooling charm," Severus pointed out, though without the disapproval Harry would have expected when he was a student. "Take my arm."

The pressure of Apparition swallowed Harry again, but there was a sort of exhilaration about doing it with Severus. Harry had certainly never imagined that he would be traveling this way with a man whom reason had told him was dead. Impulsively he threw his arms around Severus, who stumbled in the parlor of his house, nearly dropping the bag with the eggs. "What's the matter now?" he demanded.

"Nothing." Harry could feel himself grinning. "Just happy to be back here. Can we put a cooling charm on the food and sort it out later, and go back to bed?"

For just a moment, Harry thought Severus was about to refuse, not because he didn't want to, but because he was used to refusing Harry, and his own pleasures. Then the thin lips twitched and the black eyes darkened with arousal. He shifted the bag between them and dropped his other arm around Harry's waist. "As long as we can have ice cream for dessert," he said. The bag crackled as he leaned forward to kiss Harry.

Severus's face had mostly returned to its usual appearance, and Harry was glad -- he didn't want to be kissing someone with the face of a stranger, even if he knew it was Snape. Nor did he want Severus kissing anyone else. It was strange to think how much more attractive he found Severus now than he had just a day earlier, and how the nondescript face he had put on had been far less interesting.

"I'm looking forward to the ice cream. Hope it's melting," he grinned.

Harry felt his own features settling back to their normal lines, his body shrinking slightly in Severus's embrace. At least Severus didn't look displeased when he returned to normal, sending the bag winging into the kitchen with the flick of his wand. "Ice cream and sex," Severus said, with the air of one much put upon, "Is that all you ever think about?"

Harry pulled him down for another kiss, satisfied that both their bodies had returned completely. "Pretty much, yeah," he said, "Now that all that business with Voldemort is settled."

Severus looked startled and Harry remembered the recent taboo against using the Dark Lord's name. "'That business'?" Severus said, and it was Harry's turn to be startled, at the warmth buried in Severus's eyes. "You mean the life and death struggle with the most notorious dark wizard of the last few centuries?"

"Oh -- you heard about it?" Harry said, but instead of answering Severus was kissing him again, pushing him back against the wall.

"I heard something about it," Severus muttered between kisses, tugging at Harry's clothes. "Prophecy about a prat with a scar on his forehead." He reached up and pushed Harry's hair out of his eyes, inspecting the mark that no longer felt painful and had faded like an old injury. It made Harry shiver, remembering all the times Snape had looked at him with such loathing. Then Severus leaned forward and licked it. The sensation was so unexpectedly powerful that Harry let out a keening moan, and Severus pulled back, startled. "Was that..."

"Do it again!" Oh god, that really shouldn't have been as arousing as it was. His fingers clenched into the Muggle shirt, pulling Severus against him, tilting his face up. Slowly Severus lowered his face, nuzzling over the uneven skin with just his lips. Harry was grateful for the support when Severus's tongue flicked over the scar. "That's --" He cleared his throat and tried again, "Really good."

Severus cupped his chin and stared down at him. "There is no trace of --" He peered at the jagged line on Harry's forehead, "Of what lay inside it before?"

The memory of that dreamy time at King's Cross flashed into Harry's mind, but he was sure there was nothing inside him any more that he hadn't been born with. Wordlessly, he shook his head.

"Interesting," Severus said, lips brushing lightly again over Harry's forehead.

Harry heard a ripping sound, then a surprised snort. With chagrin he realized that he had torn the sleeve of Severus's flimsy shirt away from the shoulder. "Sorry," he muttered, blushing, and heard Severus laugh once more.

"Trying to tear off my clothes, Potter?"

Harry laughed too. "Since you'd rather stand around talking about Dark Lords than ice cream and sex, I didn't really have a choice."

"Talking wasn't what I had in mind at all," Severus growled in a low voice, returning his tongue to Harry's face, flicking it over his ear. Fuck, that tickled. He giggled helplessly, turning it into a groan when he felt Severus's teeth close around his earlobe. Without thinking his thrust his hips against Severus's.

Something hard met his thrust and Harry moved against it, feeling and hearing the groan that roiled out of Severus's throat. He wasn't sure they would make it upstairs at this rate, though no part of him seemed to mind. Not when Severus was kissing parts of Harry that had been overlooked in all his previous sexual experience. Which, considering that had been limited to erratic frotting and fumbling, seemed a shameful if unsurprising oversight.

Following Severus's lead, Harry leaned forward, rubbing his mouth over the bit of shoulder peeking through the ripped sleeve. Warm skin met his mouth and Harry immediately wanted more, tugging the trailing white fabric to get more of his mouth against more of Severus.

"If you keep that up, I'll have you over the kitchen table," growled Severus. Which sounded really good to Harry, if perhaps not the most comfortable way to lose his virginity, but a moment later Severus tore himself away and caught a flying tub of ice cream out of midair where he had summoned it. His other hand reached out and caught a vial of something that Harry guessed to be lube. "Upstairs," he growled.

As it had done the day before, the staircase appeared magically at the back of the parlor. Harry practically dragged Severus to it, hoping Severus had done whatever kind of charm the food required to stay fresh because Harry couldn't be bothered to ask about it now. With a grin, he summoned a spoon.

He left bits of the Muggle clothes all over Severus's bedroom. His trousers by the chair, his socks, god, who knew as he lifted the shirt over his head. He flung himself onto the bed, not worried that he felt more at home in this bed that he'd shared with Severus for the last two nights than he had in the camp bed he'd occupied alone all this year. "What flavor did you bring?" he asked, shoving the unmade blankets and sheets aside so Severus could join him.

"The white one." Severus looked entirely uninterested in the ice cream, though he was gazing hungrily at Harry as he approached the bed. His cock was sticking out, stiff and red in contrast to his pale skin and black, wiry hair. "Though you are welcome to fetch the other. Since you are the one so insistent upon having ice cream, I believe that you should eat it first." With a significant look he handed Harry the tub and lay down beside him.

Harry had never shrunk from a challenge in his life, and wasn't about to start, not when this one held the promise of such erotic results. He unwrapped the lid and crossed his legs so he was sitting next to Severus's hip. The ice cream was satisfactorily melty around the edges so Harry started there, scooping up a spoonful, studying the open canvas of Severus's belly. He let the ice cream slip off just over the dip of his navel.

"Are you daft?" Severus said, looking down as if Harry had branded him with another evil tattoo.

"Don't think so," Harry said, leaning over, licking all around the edges, slurping the rest out of his bellybutton, tongue playing with the goose-pimpled flesh around it.

"That is... surprisingly pleasant," Severus said. Harry saw, between licks, one finger go into the carton, and come up full of ice cream. He lifted his own mouth, wordlessly asking to share. Severus tasted the finger, made a curious face, then offered the remainder to Harry. Surely Severus had eaten caramel before?

The base was sweet, creamy vanilla, and Harry slid his mouth down to the second knuckle, sucking the finger clean. He could taste the salt of Severus's skin by the time he had finished, and Severus's breath was heavier. "Mmm... s'good."

Immediately Severus dipped his finger back into the tub and held it out again. Grinning, Harry licked more slowly up the palm, catching the ice cream where it dripped, before taking the finger back into his mouth and sucking with shameless noises of pleasure. He heard Severus groan as well and released the finger with a popping noise. "Did you want to eat some?"

A moment later he found himself sprawled on his back awkwardly across the center of the bed as Severus dove forward, pressing his shoulders down. Harry let out a small cry as something cold dripped alongside his cock, and then another cry: Severus was licking it off. Caught between shuddering and giggling, Harry carded his fingers through Severus's hair, thrusting up helplessly into his mouth. But Severus was having none of it, avoiding Harry's needy erection in favor of catching the rivulet of ice cream melting into the fan of hair in which Harry's prick nested.

"Oh, fuck," Harry groaned, not certain how much longer he could stand the delicious torture.

"Mm, yes, I think that's somewhere on the agenda," came the husky voice from below his hips as Severus licked his way back up Harry's cock.

Shivering, and not only because the ice cream was cold, Harry tried to look at Severus, but the older man's head was bent over his cock. "You know I'm... I've never..." he stuttered uneasily.

Snape lifted his head wearing a smile that looked entirely satisfied at the implication. "In that case, I expect you to take extra care," he said.

"You'll -- I mean, you'll go slowly, right?"

The dark eyes widened slightly. "You want me to top?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"I -- yes," Harry said, liking the feeling of having pleased Severus somehow; he'd half expected him to be disappointed that Harry didn't know very much. "If you don't mind, that is," he added as that warm tongue licked a stripe down his cock possessively.

"Mind? That I must once again become your teacher?" Harry decided on the spot he liked that husky growl that had crept into Severus's voice, liked what it did to his cock, not that that needed much prompting after being worked over with ice cream and Severus's mouth. He arched up hopefully, but Severus leaned back, scooping a fingerful of ice cream into his mouth before bending back over Harry and licking him once more.

The contrast of the cold and the tongue made Harry cry out. "Oh fuck!" His cock shoved forward into Severus's mouth, seeking the warmth of his throat, and Severus made an odd noise. "Oh god, I'm sorry," Harry promptly amended, but a moment later he realized that Severus had snickered.

Severus worked his mouth up and down Harry's cock, letting the ice cream melt, swallowing it before he pulled back with a sticky pop. "Such impatience, Potter," he scolded, though it sounded more pleased than disapproving. "You wouldn't want me to be so hasty with my prick, would you?"

Actually, right then, Harry was thinking that having Severus press him down and fuck him would be the hottest thing ever, but he knew reality wouldn't match the fantasy if it was like that, so he shook his head breathlessly. "No, sir."

Severus's eyes narrowed as if checking to see if Harry was mocking him, but something in Harry's face, which must be, if anything, flushed with arousal, convinced him. "If you haven't availed yourself of your previous opportunities to rid yourself of your virginity, then at least give me the chance to do it properly."

Right now, 'properly' sounded so good, Harry thought his prick would explode, especially when Severus punctuated it with another dollop of ice cream just at the base of his cock. His balls shifted as soon as the cold hit them, tightened almost as if he were ready to come already. "There haven't been that many opportunities to do this," he said, feeling a bit defensive, and a bit shy about having waited.

Severus gave him a look that usually meant he was going to say something about the ineptitude of Gryffindors and Harry in particular but seemed to distract himself with licking up the ice cream that was already making a sticky mess of the base of Harry's cock. Harry was whimpering by the time he had finished, stopping himself from coming through willpower alone, which mostly meant trying to imagine how he'd feel if Severus told him he was an idiot and threw him out right now.

"I think," Severus murmured in a low, dangerous voice, "that this will all go more easily if you relax." His tongue slid up, leaving a damp stripe along Harry's cock, and then his mouth engulfed the entire head and he was sucking and his head was bobbing up and down and...

"Bloody hell, oh fuck, oh god!" Harry's hips wrenched up off the bed, thrusting into Severus's eager mouth which didn't let up even the least little bit. "God, Severus, please..."

It was all he got out before orgasm overwhelmed him, making him levitate practically off the bed, arching to keep his cock between those amazing lips. Severus made a small noise of satisfaction through his nose, swallowing around the head of Harry's cock, and did not release it until Harry had collapsed against the mattress as if every bit of tension he had ever felt had just been sucked out of him.

"That's better. Now you will be able to pay attention when I prepare you for my prick," Severus said, and Harry's spent cock gave a feeble little twitch.

Harry eyed the prick in question, eager to see what it felt like inside him. "Should I, er, be doing anything?" he asked as Severus set the ice cream aside, tapping it with his wand, presumably to keep it from melting further. "To help, I mean," he went on when Severus rolled his eyes.

"Aside from lying there like sex personified, giving yourself to the world's most unlikely candidate for relieving you of your virginity?" he said, picking up the vial he had summoned earlier. "After having come at my touch?" Severus pushed him back into the pillows. "No, I don't think you need do more than that just yet."

Had Snape just complimented him? That was hard for Harry to wrap his brain around, and would have been even had he not been distracted by Severus moving Harry's legs, spreading them, bending the knees and planting his feet on the mattress. He continued to watch as Severus took the vial, opened it and drizzled something slippery and warm across the inside of one of Harry's thighs and ran his fingers into the small pool he'd made there.

Instinctively Harry raised his knees, holding them apart with his hands. He could no longer see what Severus was doing, but he felt the fingers brush over his thighs and around his balls. It felt good, and his cock twitched again, though he wondered belatedly whether he looked too needy or greedy or... well, clean enough. "Um... should I go to the loo before we do this?" he asked awkwardly.

Severus pulled his fingers back in a hurry. "Do you need to?" he asked sternly.

Harry shook his head, blushing again. "I just thought... I don't know if you'd rather I wash, or..."

Wordlessly Severus picked up his wand in his clean hand. For a terrifying, thrilling moment Harry thought he was actually going to put the wand inside him... but he only aimed it, still wordlessly, and Harry felt a cool tingle inside and outside his arse. Setting the wand aside, Severus said, "The spell is Perpurgo. I suggest that you learn to perform it nonverbally for your future partners."

Harry felt his stomach clench. He didn't want "future partners" -- he almost said so, but then it occurred to him that of course Severus didn't want him sticking around here forever, even if he let Harry stay for a while. Severus had planned to run away from everyone and everything. Trying to hide his disappointment, he said, "Oh. I'll -- I'll practice."

Severus gave him a sharp look, as if he too wanted to say something more. Instead his fingers stroked almost absently until he looked away from Harry's face. Then his hand moved to cup Harry's balls, the slick finger sliding down behind them until it could trace small circles around the dusky hole just beyond. "See that you do," Severus said, without looking at him.

Harry felt the odd distance suddenly between them but wasn't sure what to do about it. They seemed to communicate best without words, so he slid the side of his foot along Severus's leg. "Of course, you may have to teach me loads of times," he said, trying to tilt his face toward Severus's and catch his eye. "You know what a bad student I always was."

That seemed to satisfy Severus, who smirked faintly and pressed the finger down. Harry gasped slightly as it penetrated him, feeling strange rather than arousing until Severus brushed his thumb over the underside of Harry's balls. "You need to tell me if you are uncomfortable," he chided in a tone akin to his teaching voice, only thick with what Harry now realized was desire. "Don't presume that I will know which whimpers and sighs indicate excitement and which express discomfort."

"I will," Harry promised, pressing down against the finger. Whatever spell Snape had used on his arse, it seemed to have left him open and a bit slick in addition to clean, but after a moment Snape paused and retrieved the vial of clear potion which he spilled across several fingers, then rubbed over Harry's arse again. It felt good to be touched so intimately, even if the sensations were a bit unexpected, especially when Snape cupped his balls and rolled them in his palm.

"Have you touched yourself here often?" The question, combined with Snape's finger sliding in deeper, made Harry blush.

"Define often," Harry said, wishing just once he could sound worldly instead of like an untutored child. Instead of replying, Severus seemed to be focusing on moving his fingers a certain way, swinging his face around to watch Harry's, until, just as Harry was going to ask him again, his longest finger brushed against something inside him that made Harry nearly arch off the bed. "God, oh fuck," he gasped, when his vision had cleared.

"Not often, then," Severus said, pushing in again. Even prepared for it -- sort of -- Harry bucked up again, mewling, writhing, anything to get more of that spark of pleasure where he never expected it.

He didn't want to tell Severus that "not often" might be a bit of an overstatement. He'd never done more than rub the surface and wriggle a fingertip in, and that had felt strange as well as good; it was nothing like what Severus was doing, stroking until Harry thought he would turn inside out with pleasure.

"Another," said Severus in a voice that held both warning and promise, a moment before Harry felt himself pushed open much more widely. Severus was using two fingers now, so slick that they moved almost effortlessly, though the stretch was much more marked now. "Am I hurting you?"

"N-no," Harry stuttered, though he clenched up momentarily. Severus withdrew the fingers, rubbing more oil around Harry's hole. "Just, I'm not really used to it." He didn't want to ask whether it would hurt having a cock in there, but he suspected that it must.

"If you are tense, you won't enjoy it," Severus said in a voice Harry had never heard him use before. It was coaxing, encouraging... if he had ever spoken to Harry that way in Potions class, it might have been Harry's best subject.

"Really," Harry said, leaning up on his elbows, because watching what Snape was doing was quite arousing by itself, "I'm feeling more relaxed by the moment."

Severus replied with another slow slide of fingers inside him, making sure to brush over the sensitive spot within, rocking Harry slightly with each push. The hot pleasure inside him was so intense he thought he might come just from that, but before he could test the theory, Severus withdrew his fingers. Harry's eyes widened as he reached for the vial again, coating the already glistening fingers.

"Tell me at once if it's too..." Severus's cheeks pinked up slightly. "If it's too much."

He lowered his hand to his cock, stroking, leaving gleaming streaks up the shaft until the whole thing was shiny. Watching that was even more arousing than watching Severus with his fingers in Harry's arse, and Harry moaned quietly again. "Should I -- would it be better if I rolled over?" He didn't really want to -- he wanted to be able to watch what Severus was doing -- but he wasn't really sure how this worked, between men.

Severus appeared momentarily indecisive. "It might be more comfortable," he conceded. "Though you will need to tell me in words whether I am moving too quickly..."

"Will you be able to tell from looking at me, otherwise?" That idea excited Harry -- that Severus would be watching him that closely -- though it was also intimidating, to be sharing something so intimate. Well, he probably had no business having sex with Severus if he wasn't willing to share like that. "Let's try it this way then instead."

"Very well. Lift your legs," Severus said, nodding and looking as eager as Harry had yet seen him.

Scrambling to obey, Harry lifted his legs, feeling rather awkward until Severus slid his hands under Harry's calves and settled them around his waist. He stared down a moment, and Harry, already feeling self conscious, tugged on his bottom lip. "What -- what is it?" he asked worriedly. He wasn't sure he could bear it if Severus had changed his mind now.

"You look very... pleasing like this," Severus said, dropping his fingers around his cock as if to distract himself. Harry found himself holding his breath, then remembered the part about being relaxed and exhaled slowly, squeezing his legs around Severus's body.

"I -- thank you," Harry gasped as the head of Severus's cock nudged against him. "You look really hot doing that," he added with a grin. He could have sworn that Severus was blushing, but a moment later he was completely distracted from thinking about it as he felt Severus push forward, stretching Harry open with his cock as he moved.

God, it felt enormous, and Harry almost said so but then he was afraid he'd sound either like an inexperienced idiot or like he thought he had to babble compliments, so he bit his lip again. Severus was still looking down at him, studying his expression. "All right?" he asked in that thick, aroused voice.

"Yes -- oh fuck -- don't stop moving," Harry gasped, shifting his hips and finding that the burning ache faded into raw sensation as he pressed down. Severus obeyed him, smirking faintly, though he didn't seem to be able to close his mouth as Harry trembled and moaned softly.

"Tell me if it's too fast," said Severus, and began to slide out and in.

Harry shook his head in eager confirmation. "Not too fast," Harry said, wrapping his hand around his own cock. Severus's motion was nearly enough to speed his hand along it -- nearly. He saw Severus's eyes widen slightly as he took himself in hand, and the sharp arousal when he gave his cock a firm stroke. "Do I look--" He tried to remember exactly what Severus had said at the sight of him, spread out and open, but it was hard to remember anything but the need to rub and touch, and oh yes, right there -- "Pleasing like this?"

Severus grunted softly, and for a moment Harry thought the question had been a mistake -- this was still Snape, after all, who hadn't said one nice word to Harry in six years at Hogwarts. But Snape's nostrils flared as he thrust, and his eyes were dark and hungry when he spoke: "Very pleasing. I won't -- it's been a long -- "

Then Severus shuddered, slamming in so hard that the room went out of focus, and Harry heard him grunt again urgently, jerking forward in little frantic movements. I made him come, Harry realized, gloating and more excited than he had ever been, tugging hard on his cock, pulling himself over with just a few hard strokes while he felt Severus continuing to twitch in his arse. "Oh fuck, yes!" he blurted when he could breathe again, wondering whether he sounded as self-satisfied to Severus's ears as he did to his own.

He wanted to leave his eyes open, to savor the knowledge that Severus had come inside him, was even now shaking with the release that was still slamming through Harry. Pleasure swept him away, relentless, surrounded by other sensations besides sight -- the hot moans that passed between them, the sharp tang of semen, the smell of sex-sweaty bodies. When Harry finally got his eyes back open Severus was looking at him, almost as if he expected to take something back.

"That was good," he said, panting a bit to put some vehemence in it. "Really, really good," he went on, and Severus's face relaxed somewhat.

"No doubt you'll want ice cream every time we make -- have sex," he said, voice still roughened, and to Harry, still arousing.

"No doubt," Harry replied. "As long as we get to do that again. A lot."

Severus shifted back, letting his cock slide out of Harry's body, a loss and relief both. He was a bit sore and felt stretched in places he never had before, but he also felt very lazy and content, and he smiled at Severus.

"At my age, 'a lot' may be asking for more than I can promise," Severus grumbled.

"I don't mean a lot at once... we can spread it out over a lot of months," Harry told him.

Severus didn't look like he was going to object, either to the idea of Harry staying, or when Harry crawled up beside him, though he had to practically tug Severus's hand over him.

"And how are we going to finance this romantic idyll you have planned?" Severus said, though the question wasn't as sharp as it might have been pre-coitally.

"I've got money," Harry said, happy when Severus didn't pull away when he wiggled one leg in between his. "For a while. Enough for ice cream at least," he added cheekily, hopefully letting Severus know he didn't intend to sponge on his hospitality forever.

"Enough to keep me hidden away while the Ministry debates whether I deserve Azkaban for my crimes?" Severus spoke in a rather lazy drawl, but Harry could hear the bite beneath the words. "You can't possibly believe that I can simply return."

"Actually, I do believe that. The Ministry is in shambles. It looks like Kingsley is going to end up in charge, and I'm sure he'll..."

"You can't be certain. It would be wisest for me to leave the country at once."

"Then I'll go with you," Harry said defiantly.

"You can't possibly believe --" Severus began with a snort, then compressed his lips firmly. "I see you're just as naive and untutored as ever," he said, though he hadn't moved away.

"Why not?" Harry said, liking the idea of it more and more. "I've never been anywhere -- well, not anywhere that wasn't cold and damp -- and you've never been anywhere."

"Why do you suppose that I would want --" Severus tried again and a stab of pain hit Harry. Severus really was going to kick him out, despite all they'd done, all he still wanted to do. Then Severus blew out a soft sigh, staring down at Harry as if working out a new spell. "Would want to go someplace that wasn't cold and damp?"

"All right, then, we can go to Leeds or York or something." Harry offered what he hoped was a winning smile. "Or if you want to leave England, I hear Moscow is cold and damp."

Severus smirked again, but he still had that curiously wistful expression on his face. "Why would you wish to travel with me? I am hardly a tourist. You could go with someone nearer your own age, who isn't an accused murderer -- a more cheerful travel companion."

"I want to go with you," Harry said stubbornly, squeezing Severus around the waist for emphasis. "I know I'm naive and untutored -- I don't want to have to pretend to be The Chosen One with someone. And you and I hardly know each other, really. Do you..." He took a breath. "Don't you want to go with me?"

Severus pressed his lips together as if he wasn't going to answer the question, or was trying to keep from kissing Harry -- Harry couldn't quite be sure. "What I want isn't the issue," he said after a pause.

Harry made a face. "Why isn't it?" he asked, not sure whether he should keep holding onto Severus's waist or let go. Holding on felt better so he held tight.

"I don't want to make plans with you and then have you go back to your friends and worshippers and I'm--" He blew out a breath the ruffled through Harry's hair.

"I'll still want to see them," Harry argued softly, "but I want to be with you."

He thought Severus would protest further, but though a frown still creased the pale face, Severus did not reply. "You know things about me that none of them do," Harry continued. "I felt like I was suffocating back at Hogwarts, after it all ended; all I wanted to do was try to find you. I don't -- you don't think I actually have worshippers?" At the half-ironic, half-repelled twist of Severus's lips, Harry shook his head slightly. "Well, if I do, they don't know me any better than the all the people who wanted to meet the Boy Who Lived. I don't care what they think."

"And since when have you cared what I thought?" countered Snape.

Harry wiggled his hips suggestively and said, "Since we started doing this. Though actually I think --" He paused, trying to answer more seriously. "I think," he said again more thoughtfully, "I've cared longer than I realized." He ran a finger down the center of Severus's chest then looked up.

Severus took the finger and lifted it to his mouth, kissing it. "I still find it hard to believe that you came to find me," he said, voice full of quiet wonder.

"I had to," Harry said, flinging himself into Severus's chest. "I can't explain it; I just knew it's what I had to do."

"And you want to throw away all the opportunities you will have, now that you have defeated the Dark Lord, to be with me?" Severus's arms tightened around him.

"Not throwing away anything I really want. I want this." Harry rubbed his cheek against the hairy skin.

Severus sighed softly, but there was no longer any despair in the sound. "Very well, then, I suppose I had better fetch another bottle of whisky. I suppose we do have something to celebrate after all."

~*~ The End ~*~