Alliance

Alliance Part V

by Leni Jess

Resistance

Snape supposed it would look a little pointed to go to bed together instead of to the Great Hall for lunch. If Albus thought they were avoiding him, he would lean harder on them to withdraw from their new relationship.

He delayed enough to kiss Potter, thoroughly, giving him motive to withstand the pressure that would be applied. He responded with enthusiasm.

When Snape reluctantly lifted his head Potter leaned against him.

"I've spoken to your young Slytherin, and to Katie's little sister. They understand the Room of Requirement can give them privacy, and that it meets more serious needs."

"I wonder how quickly Derrick spreads the knowledge throughout the House?"

"Depends on whether he thinks it's negotiable currency or a safety issue."

Snape smiled approvingly. Potter knew the Slytherin mind-set.

Snape seated Potter between himself and Lupin, away from the Headmaster.

Albus's attack seemed amiable. "When is your next match, Harry?"

"We play the Glasgow side Tuesday evening; the team meets there tonight for practice."

"So you'll be joining them?"

"As arranged."

"I hope you're not neglecting your duty to your team, your country, by socialising with your former schoolmasters. We mustn't keep you."

Snape thought it a trifle obvious to invoke duty like that, and absurd to bring the country into it; he saw the young man's eyes narrow.

"I have made commitments; I keep all of them."

Much more subtle, Snape thought.

Albus continued his suasion. "You're free to linger here? It doesn't do - you know that yourself - to cling to the past."

Snape felt Potter stir, and thought it irritation rather than discomfort.

"I don't have much motive to linger in the past, Headmaster, as you yourself know." A hit, indeed. "I prefer the present, where I needn't accept duties based on other people's plans."

Potter put his hand over Snape's where it rested on the table, and tightened his fingers briefly. To affirm his own commitment Snape returned the clasp, before each took up his cutlery again.

Potter chewed on a succulent piece of chicken, then observed, "One good thing about the past was the Hogwarts house-elves' cooking; I'm pleased to revisit that."

He turned towards Albus, favouring him with that famous-Quidditch-player smile, which he used like shield and sword together.

"My duties are of my own choosing, like any adult. None of us here needs direction."

Minerva unexpectedly entered the contest of wills. Perhaps she did not approve of Albus's interference.

"Harry isn't a child any more. We didn't do so well by him when he was that we should anticipate his welcoming our guidance."

If she meant to soften what was essentially a reproof, she did it half-heartedly. "All of our students grow up. I hope we feel satisfaction in more than their mere survival, and in more than their achievements."

Potter smiled at his lover. "Whatever necessities we all felt are past. We can move on, with other children to teach and guide."

Snape hoped Albus missed the implications of that assertion.

Sharing Secrets

Adam and Miranda nearly forgot Harry; their eyes and hands met, starved for opportunity. If this wasn't love, giving them privacy might allow them to discover it.

"Professor Snape spoke to you, Adam?"

"Yes, sir, and Professor McGonagall to Miranda. They didn't forbid us to meet, but if we can't in daylight, and aren't allowed to at night, what can we do?"

"Your housemates would disapprove?"

Adam rolled his eyes; Miranda laughed.

She added, "Mine wouldn't like it, but I don't think they'd try to stop me. It's Slytherin."

"We're supposed to stick together, protect each other. They'd call me traitor. Maybe I should stand up to them, but -"

"Other people should learn Slytherins are not to be feared."

"Then they'd slaughter us," Adam objected.

"You're strong, and loyal to each other, and distrusted for it. Slytherin shouldn't become even more turned in on itself than it is - like a snail in its shell. Come out, show yourselves - not nakedly helpless, but not monsters, either."

Harry could almost see Adam storing away that metaphor and its implications.

"Adam, you may think that idea worth pushing with your seniors - if they took it to Professor Snape they'd find him supportive. You may need another bargaining counter, though, to gain their acceptance of Miranda.

"Miranda, has Katie ever talked of Dumbledore's Army?"

She nodded. "You trained them. For the war."

"We needed privacy, safety, desperately, and had a special place."

He looked steadily at each in turn. "Don't abuse this information. The Room of Requirement - that's its name - can be used for snogging. If you go to it in any urgent need, it will provide."

"Not what we want," Adam murmured. "This is something Slytherins may need?"

"Your seniors mayn't know. Tell them, but not, perhaps, for free."

Adam's eyes sparkled. Yes, the boy could handle that negotiation.

Miranda asked, "Do Gryffindors know?"

"Many students in the other Houses had family in DA; some will have talked. Ask a prefect you trust."

"It's all right for Adam and me to use it?"

"Yes, but be careful. You're only fourteen."

"We decided we'd wait - oh, years!" Adam said quickly.

Harry's lips quirked. "Then you're more sensible than most. Yes. Discreetly. Don't be absent when people expect to see you - that sort of thing. It's better not to need explanations than to have to make them."

Adam understood that, too. Miranda thought about it, then smiled.

Harry told them what they needed to know, then turned away, back to the school to tell Snape what changes this gambit committed him to.

Slytherin needed to seek acceptance as well as safety, but all of Snape's instincts were towards concealment. Openness was all that might make the House a true part of the school. Perhaps Snape's students, less distracted by old hazards, would see more clearly, and come out of their shadows to stand in sunlight. There, they could bargain with their fellows on equal terms. Snape would do what he had to, for them.

Commitment

Before lunch Potter said only that he had told the far-too-young lovers about the Room of Requirement. During lunch he fended off the Headmaster's latest attempt to manage his choices. After lunch he admitted what else he told the children, and Snape was distracted from his annoyance with Albus.

He scowled while Potter explained, quite calmly, his motives for inspiring Adam Derrick to encourage his fellow-Slytherins to make overtures to the other Houses.

"Looking after Slytherin is my affair, Potter," he grumbled, aware he was not as fiercely resentful as he should be.

"Looking after Hogwarts is mine."

Potter put his hands on Snape's shoulders, though he did not press close. The boy played fair, sometimes.

"You protect them, but wouldn't it be better if they didn't need that so much? If they were equals, not enemies?"

He had agreed, however reluctantly, that a Slytherin-Gryffindor pair needed help, though fourteen-year-olds were bound to take improper advantage of the Room of Requirement. If sufficiently strong they might eventually become an example of the cooperation and trust Potter was set on fostering, whether the Head of Slytherin willed it or no.

"Brash, meddling Gryffindor, convinced you know what's best; you've not changed."

Snape ruined that charge by pulling the younger man into a hard embrace, something that once he would have recoiled from incredulously.

"Never mind that now. I have to leave in a few hours."

"When will you come back?"

Snape no longer felt apprehensive, asking that. He suspected that if Harry Potter interfered in his life as he had done that morning he planned to stay around, and continue interfering. Maybe that wasn't all bad.

"Next weekend; the game after Glasgow is with Birmingham. We have a run of games here in Britain before the semis on the Continent."

"I want to read a better account than the Daily Prophet is likely to provide."

"Wouldn't be hard," Potter agreed, and kissed him with determination. His mind wasn't on Quidditch reporting, and Snape's interest in it evanesced.

Snape edged him towards the bedroom, willing to forget disagreements, and the future, now he knew there was one, and that Potter had acted for him quite as much as for that Gryffindor girl or for the school.

How strange that someone cared for his comfort, for his good and for that of his children. Since it was Potter, not strange that he went about assuring it in his own way.

Now to convince him to come back as soon as he could. He knew what Potter liked, and gave it to him liberally. Potter returned him touch for touch, his mouth eager, his hands demanding; Snape welcomed everything. He had waited a lifetime for this care; he could wait a week until its giver returned to him.

Afterwards he said experimentally, "Harry."

His lover opened sleepy green eyes and smiled. "Severus."

So he could even have open acknowledgement of what they had together. They didn't need to use the word, just yet. Later.

~~The End of the 'Alliance' Series~~