the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 18 Heart of the Maze

For Severus, the night had been one surprise after another - not all of them pleasant. Harry's reaction to the Manor had amused him, but that humor was quickly dampened by the mob of people that fell upon the Boy Who Lived as if he were Merlin reincarnated.

He had, unfairly he supposed, always assumed that Harry reveled in his celebrity status. But the look of horror on the boy's face quickly set that belief to rest, as did the way he practically hid behind him when he'd rescued him from their midst.

He should have expected something like that, he supposed. Not exactly his brothers' doing, he knew, but they could have at least tried to rein in their wives. Julliana and Delphina had sadly grown no more intelligent since he'd last seen them.

Diana was much like he remembered her, and he was pleased at how happy she seemed to be to see him. The mistrust he could see in Alrik, Claudius and Marcellus had not faded in the slightest, but Diana at least did not believe their lies.

Julius he couldn't read. The young man had greeted him politely enough, but for all intents they were total strangers to each other. Julius had been a child when Severus had last seen him, though he had forgotten how beautiful he was. Harry's reaction to him hadn't gone unnoticed, and Severus admitted that the pang of emotion he'd felt at that had most definitely been jealousy.

But it had answered a question he'd been wondering about. Just because the Marriage Stone had chosen Severus for Harry didn't mean that Harry had any interest in men. Far from it. The magic of the Marriage Stone was such that it chose the best possible match for a person - there was no guarantee that it would in any way shape or form resemble a love match. In Harry Potter's case, it was just as likely that the best possible match was someone who could protect him, teach him, fight beside him, and ensure that he had a chance to grow up and live his life. It didn't promise love. The most famous matches the Stone was responsible for had all been love matches, but they were by no means the only matches. It was possible that Harry Potter, while destined for greatness, was not destined for love. Or maybe it had simply realized that Severus Snape would not hinder any such ambition for love, because ultimately Severus knew he had no real claim over the boy and would look the other way when Harry did finally decide to love someone. Provided the boy was discreet, he certainly wasn't going to stand in the way of his happiness.

But up until that moment with Julius, Severus had never seen Harry look at a man with any sexual interest at all. Truth was the only person he'd ever seen Harry look at had been Cho Chang, and even that had seemed only half hearted at best. He suspected the boy was too distracted with all the people trying to kill him to really care one way or the other about the things most students his age were obsessing over.

But the flush that had stained Harry's face when he'd looked at Julius had been very telling. He was definitely capable of seeing beauty in the male form. Pity it had to take someone no one else could possibly compete with to catch his eye. He supposed that left him far out of the running.

All things considered, the evening with his family actually went by quickly. Harry, far from being nervous and awkward like he'd expected, had continuously surprised and amused Severus. He decided he liked hearing his given name on Harry's lips - and after the fourth or fifth time, it even started to sound natural.

And he watched with amusement as Harry tossed aside Wizarding protocol almost blithely, completely ignoring the dagger in favor of the fork despite the fact that he'd apparently practiced with it with Longbottom and Granger. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that the Gryffindor brat was attempting to make him laugh.

A little while later Harry had succeeded in stunning him most profoundly when he'd all but tossed the proverbial gauntlet down before his brothers, calling them on their less than subtle insults, and defended his name and his honor with an eloquence he hadn't known the boy possessed. It had silenced them all, and for the first time Severus had understood why this young man inspired such loyalty.