the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 22 - Family

To Severus Snape's surprise, life with Harry Potter was actually quite pleasant. As luck would have it Harry's annoying dog-father and the Wolf were away on missions for Dumbledore more often than not, so he rarely had to deal with his childhood nemesis.

As for Potter - they butted heads on occasion, and Severus found himself reacting with difficulty to the increasing attraction he felt for the young man who shared his bed, but he also came to enjoy his company in the quite hours when both of them were working on their daily tasks of life. More and more, the boy became comfortable enough to begin talking a bit more with him, and though he tried not to let on too much, Severus found his conversations welcomed. He'd lived a remarkably solitary life, and with the sudden company thrust upon him, he began to realize just how lonely he had been throughout most of it. Even the addition of Harry's owl Hedwig, who had taken to watching him in the mornings from a perch by the fire, was a welcomed change.

For the most part things were quiet on the war front - though Severus had to sit through numerous Quidditch matches along side Slytherin parents who had reason to hate the Gryffindor Seeker. The day Harry had taken the Eye of Odin from Voldemort's hand several parents of his Slytherin students had lost their lives - to sit beside their spouses at a school game when his loyalties were now publicly known while they watched the boy who had brought so much defeat to their lives trounce their home team proved to be a nail-biting experience. Albus, however, always made certain to come to the games himself, and with him came all the other teachers of Hogwarts and numerous Order members so nothing ever happened beyond the life threatening reality of rogue bludgers.

However life with Harry Potter, also meant life with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. It wasn't until late October that Harry first invited his friends into their quarters for a late night study session. Since Severus knew they were working on Defense Against the Dark Arts (this year's teacher was as bad as last year's), he really didn't have cause to stop them. He had commended Hermione Granger on the outside research she had done to help Harry - knew that these study sessions from last year were what had saved Harry's life time and time again. He could hardly complain when they asked to use his private library - something that technically Harry had full right to explore. His quarters were now Harry's quarters though he might resent it.

Again, surprisingly, he found he didn't mind the company of the other two Gryffindors either. Granger was extraordinarily intelligent, and the few times she'd braved his presence to ask him a question about something she didn't understand, he had been impressed by her grasp of magical theory. And though he found Ron Weasley annoying, he had to admit that the boy had an amusing sense of humor and a startling grasp of strategy. Severus had watched him playing wizards chess against Harry a couple of times and had been impressed by how quickly he had defeated the Gryffindor golden boy.

When Harry approached him early one evening at the beginning of December with a somewhat pensive look on his face, Severus had been worried that perhaps something had happened to disturb the status quo they had managed to maintain the last few months. He'd been sitting by the fire reading a new potion's manual when Harry had entered their quarters alone and sat down across from him in the chair that had become 'his' over the weeks.

"Something wrong?" Severus asked when he realized that Harry was staring at him.

"No," Harry said quickly, then shifted uncomfortably. "I wanted to ask you about Christmas."

Christmas - a holiday that Severus had little use for. His family had of course celebrated the various solstice rites, but since that holiday was a time for family Severus had fallen out of the practice. It hadn't been an overly happy time when he was a child, though he did remember some pleasant evenings with his sister. Since his falling out with his family he had never done much for the holiday - though he supposed now he might try to at least pay his sister a visit. Julius, now under the influence of Severus' curse, was not speaking to him. Claudius and Marcellus were also under a powerful monitoring spell, but were actually more angry at his failure to reopen Snape Manor. He supposed eventually he would have do so, but it could wait for a time when he was not so busy.