the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 23 Wolves

"What are you talking about," Bill cut in. "I would have been the best choice of all. You would have forgotten all about your new bond-mate the moment you saw your next dragon. At least I would give him the attention he deserved."

"Well, what about one of us?" one of the twins protested. "We're of age, and much closer to Harry."

"Not to mention," the other twin added. "He'd get two for the price of one."

"Yeah, if one of us wasn't around, the other could fill in for him and Harry here would never notice."

"Maybe Harry could throw over Snape and pick one of us instead," Charlie agreed. All four men turned toward him earnestly. "What do you say, Harry?" they asked in unison.

Harry just stared at them open-mouthed, feeling both flustered and awkward, not certain how to respond. "Um. . .I . . ." he stammered, only to find himself blushing furiously as a moment later all four of them burst into laugher.

They hugged him again, ruffling his hair. "We're just teasing with you, Harry," the twins assured him.

"As long as Snape hasn't poisoned you yet, I reckon things are all right," Charlie agreed.

Harry just laughed, throwing Ron a glare for not warning him. "Welcome to my world, " Ron grumbled, and Harry understood that this was what it was like to have brothers.

They spent the day goofing around in the backyard, despite the cold. They bundled up in warm jackets and gloves and fought a war with snowballs for most of the day - the twins spicing things up by adding in a few of their products, particularly a powder that when sprinkled on a firmly packed snow ball reshaped it into the form of a flying dragon. Getting clobbered by a flying snow dragon was a lot more fun than simply getting hit by a snowball.

When night began falling - something that happened very early in the afternoon in December - the boys trekked back into the house to warm up. At Arthur's bidding, they returned to their rooms to don warmer winter gear so that they could decorate the outside of the house with fairy lights. As the temperature was dropping fast, Harry pulled on the heavy winter cloak Severus had brought to him before he'd left that afternoon. As he fastened the silver clasps that held it together, he noticed something heavy inside one of the inner pockets. Reaching in, he pulled out a small leather case. Inside he found numerous single-dose vials filled with a dark blue liquid. At the sight of them he knew immediately what they were, the realization sending a warm pleasure through his body.

"What's that?" Ron asked curiously, noticing Harry staring at the case of potions.

"Dreamless Sleep," Harry said with a silly grin on his face. "I forgot to ask for some to bring with me. I guess Severus remembered for me."

Ron said nothing for a moment, an odd look crossing his face. Harry glanced at him curiously. He knew both Ron and Hermione had heard him refer to Severus by his first name before, so he doubted that had startled him. No doubt he was surprised by the act of kindness from their normally gruff Potions Master. But Ron surprised him.

"Are you still having nightmares, Harry?" he asked softly.

Harry sighed. "There not bad, Ron."

"Harry, you used to throw a silencing charm on your bed at night," Ron reminded him. "We all used to joke around about why Seamus or Dean might use silencing charms on their beds at night. But I always knew that you did it to stifle your screams at night. We all knew it, Harry. We just didn't know what to do to help you."

Harry stared at his friend in surprise. He hadn't known he'd been so obvious - or perhaps he had simply not expected his friends in Gryffindor to be so observant. He was guilty sometimes of under-estimating all of them. "I never liked talking about them," he admitted carefully.