the marriage stone (Discontinued)

chapter 6 - Life With Snape

To Severus surprise Harry fixed him a cup of coffee in the morning as he had yesterday, this time making himself a cup of his own as he sat down to look over a letter he was preparing to mail off. Severus thanked him, somewhat baffled by his behavior.

"You're welcome," the boy said simply as he took a sip of his own coffee. He watched as the boy made a face at the taste, frowned, and then shrugged, taking another sip.

"I do have tea if you'd prefer," Severus pointed out to him.

"Tomorrow," Harry agreed. "This stuff taste like crap."

Severus had to bite back the impulse to deduct house points for the comment. Instead he headed toward his office, intent on getting some work done before the day started. He was stopped by the sudden flurry of wings through one of the owl entry holes. Looking up he spied several owls flying into the room, all laden down with heavy envelopes and packages. Harry stood in surprise as several more owls followed the first few, more following them.

"Expecting a delivery?" he asked.

Severus shook his head, baffled himself by the sudden influx of letters. They couldn't all be howlers from Black! He moved toward one of the owls, picking up the letter the bird dropped at his feet. To his surprise it was addressed to Severus and Harry Potter-Snape. He didn't recognize the seal on the back.

"Potter-Snape?" Harry demanded, and Severus looked up quickly. Harry had picked up a handful of the other letters and was looking at the envelopes. He sounded both disgusted and outraged. "What's this all about?"

"Wedding gifts, if I'm not mistaken," Severus informed him, tearing open one of the envelopes and reading the card inside. "Apparently a Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle wish us long life and happiness and have sent a fourteenth century silver tea service to Snape Manor to commemorate the joyous occasion."

"Snape Manor?" Harry asked curiously. "So there really is a Snape Manor? What color is it?"

Severus glared at him. Sometimes Gryffindors made no sense at all. "You realize of course we're going to have to send thank you cards to all these idiots, don't you?" he demanded. "No doubt every Wizarding family in the world will send the Boy Who Lived a wedding gift and we're going to have to reply to all of them."

Harry looked at the growing pile of letters and packages. "Suppose any of them are hexed?" he asked.

Severus' eyes widened in alarm; no doubt some of them were from the families of Death Eaters. "Oh, bloody hell! Don't touch any of them!"

Conjuring a box he began levitating the letters into it, summoning a couple of house elves in the process and telling them to reroute all their mail to the Ministry where it could be properly sorted and scanned. He was tossing several more letters into the box when he noticed the handwriting on one was strangely familiar. Freezing he turned it over, staring at the seal on the back - a red rose with a serpent twined around it. Momentarily stunned, he nearly dropped it.

He was pleased to note that his hands were steady as he broke the seal and opened the envelope. He read the short note inside with a firm grip on his emotions, forcing equal amounts of bitterness, anger and pain from rearing their ugly heads. His eyes lingered on the invitation noted at the bottom of the letter, and the signature that followed it.

"What's that?" Harry's voice broke through his composure.

"Not your concern!" he snarled, and then instantly regretted the response. So much for controlling his emotions.

He realized a moment later that not only was he repeating back the very words Harry had mocked him with last night, but that this time they were also utterly untrue. He looked up to see Harry's face go white with anger. But rather than saying anything Harry just pushed past him and strode toward the door.