Snape inhaled, sharply, as if Lupin had struck him. His hand, resting on the door handle, fell in a fist to his side.
“Why?” Lupin asked. “Why was that so important to him?”
Snape’s nostrils flared, but he said nothing for a long moment. Finally he looked at Lupin, and the werewolf shivered at the pain screaming from his white face.
“Harry gave up his life for you,” Snape whispered; the pure hatred in his voice impaled Lupin, fixing him stunned to the spot.
“Severus…” he began, but was silenced by the mellow sound of a bell, followed by Dumbledore’s magically amplified voice.
“Will all staff members please come to the entry hall immediately. We have a …” the pause clearly suggested a chuckle. “ …visitor.”
Snape and Lupin exchanged a puzzled glance, then Snape moved past the werewolf, striding up the corridor at his usual swift pace.
* * *
It was remarkable, Dumbledore thought, how quickly word spread through a school. He had made the announcement himself not ten minutes ago, after receiving the floo message from Fudge, and that directed only at the staff, most of whom now stood around him.
Nonetheless, dozens of students had already poured into the entry hall, hovering curiously in doorways and in corners and on the main stairs, even as the front doors creaked ponderously open and Harry Potter walked wearily through them.
Dumbledore smiled. “Harry,” he said, over the wondering murmur of the gathered students. “My dear boy. Welcome.”
Harry spared him a smile, but his eyes darted over the group of teachers and the crowd of students. He was a mess, his clothes torn, burnt and bloodied, his face pale, his eyes burning, seeking.
“Headmaster,” he said, perfunctory, impatient. “Is –?”
The door leading to the dungeons swung open. Snape stopped in the doorway as if he’d hit a wall, braced, his hands clutching white-knuckled at the doorjamb, stare fixed on Harry. The other teachers moved out of the way as Harry advanced, smile flickering, eyes uncertain.
“Back for another cure, are we?” Snape said, his voice crumbling around the edges.
Harry blinked. “No. No, I …” He reached out, tentatively, then let his hand fall to his side. Snape grabbed his slumping shoulders, yanking him into a ferocious kiss.
Gasps and exclamations exploded throughout the hall, echoing and fading – then swelled yet again as Harry, far from struggling, wrapped his arms around Snape’s neck and kissed him back with a vengeance.
Hooch smirked. Aidan Muir grinned outright. Flitwick gasped. Trelawney did too – then, realizing she ought to have known this would happen, she plastered a complacent smirk on her face in case anyone was looking at her, rather than at the two passionately entwined wizards. No one was.
McGonagall’s jaw hit the floor. Dumbledore smiled and moved his hands in a subtle casting, and the couple disappeared.
* * *
When they broke apart they were in Snape’s sitting room, between the couch and the fireplace. Both of them looked around, dizzy and breathless and disheveled.
“How..?” Harry asked.
“Dumbledore,” Snape explained, tossing his hair out of his face. “Meddlesome old coot.”
Harry shoved his skewed glasses up his nose and smiled at Snape. “I can’t believe you kissed me in front of … well, everyone, basically.” He let his fingertips dance over Snape’s lips.
“If you are foolish enough to reappear in that melodramatic fashion,” Snape said hoarsely, “You deserve to be publicly embarrassed.”
“I’m not embarrassed,” Harry said.
Abruptly Snape squeezed him, hard, murmuring in his ear, “Stupid … reckless …”
“You’re squishing me.” Harry gasped out a laugh and Snape eased his hold. “And speaking of melodramatic…”
Snape gazed down at him, for so long Harry felt his insides begin to melt. At last Snape said, “You have become my weakness.”
Harry shook his head. “Funny. You’re my strength. I thought of you, the whole time. I’ve always been afraid to disappoint you, you know. I knew you’d never let me forget it if I got killed after all you’d done to save me.”
Snape suddenly held him away a little, looking him over in sharp concern. “You’re shaking. Are you injured?”
Harry shook his head. “Just … I’m very tired. I went straight to the Ministry once I got loose, to have them send a Cleanup and Obliviation team, and to make sure Remus was okay.”
Snape snorted gently. “He’s here. Under the headmaster’s personal protection.”
Harry gazed up at him. “Fudge told me. But I would have come here next anyway.”
“Did you wish to see him?” Snape asked, with astonishing consideration. “I expect he’s returned to his hidey hole.”
Harry smiled. “Later. I know he’s okay. I’m where I want to be.”
“Romantic idiot,” Snape said, shaking him, then holding him even tighter. “Do you want to lie down? Sleep? Or can you tell me what happened?”
“Let’s sit,” Harry said. Snape eased them both onto his couch, not letting go of Harry, who smiled against his chest. Who’s the romantic idiot now? But he was too content to say it. He could hear Snape’s heartbeat, steady, strong. Reassuring.
“It was Krug,” he said. “He was there, with the Lestranges. I … we fought. I won. I managed to get Remus loose and make him leave. But then the Lestranges caught me in a catena hex. When I woke up I was in one of those antimagic bubbles, you know, Cingeraequaro?”
Snape nodded.
“And they left me.” Harry gazed at the fire, remembering. “They didn’t hurt me or anything. I think they were awaiting orders on what to do with me.”
He glanced at Snape, saw in the taut lines of the man’s face that he too was thinking about who the Lestranges might have been working for.
Harry said, “Fudge told me … you looked for me.”
Snape’s expression was impassive, almost calm. “I did.”
“It was you, then. They got nervous. I heard them talking. They thought they’d been discovered, or that they might be soon. They moved me from the cellar – that gave me my chance.”
Snape looked gravely down at him. “Avada Kedavra?”
Harry nodded. “I wanted to question them, but …”
Snape’s arms tightened around him. Any attempt at comforting words would have been unbearable; Harry loved Snape at that moment for knowing it, and saying nothing.
Harry cleared his throat. “Fudge also said you … er … yelled at him.”
“He’s fortunate I didn’t use the Imperius curse on him.”
