the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 73 - The Way the World Ends

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Potter," McGonagall remarked as every eye in the room followed him toward his seat. This was a joint Slytherin/Gryffindor class and he suspected that everyone in the room could guess where he'd been that morning and were probably dying to know what had happened. Certainly Draco looked ready to burst, and Ron and Hermione, sitting directly in front of Neville, were giving him looks of heavy inquiry.

"Thank you, Ma'am," he said to McGonagall. "Sorry I'm late."

She nodded and then continued on with her lecture. Apparently they were working on the complex transfiguration of changing pebbles into actual books. Neville shoved his own textbook toward Harry since Harry had walked out of his room without his school supplies.

Harry tried to listen to the lecture - he really tried - but all he could think about was what had happened with Severus. He had a date with Severus Snape, he thought almost gleefully. It occurred to him that a year ago such a thought would have filled him with horror. As it was he was having a rather hard time imagining it - would it be like one of Ron's and Hermione's dates where they stared at each other with goofy expressions on their faces and held hands? He couldn't really picture it. He'd been quite serious when he'd said that Severus didn't do walks in the moonlight - Severus Snape wasn't the sort of man to behave in such a foolish, romantic manner.

And yet, Severus had been the one who brought up the topic of romance in the first place. A sensation of warmth flooded through Harry at the thought - he understood that Severus was doing all this entirely for his benefit, because he knew Harry couldn't think about any relationship in the terms more familiar to a Slytherin. But what if that was the only reason Severus was doing this? Harry frowned at the thought. What if Severus merely wanted to have sex with him and was willing to jump through whatever hoops he needed to get it?

But he hardly needed Harry for that, did he? Severus could find any number of people to have sex with if he was really that desperate - certainly if that was all he was interested in he'd find someone more suitable to his tastes than one scrawny, backwards Gryffindor. For that matter if Harry really was who he wanted, he hardly needed to jump through the hoops - Harry wasn't entirely certain he would have stopped Severus earlier if he hadn't stopped himself. Certainly his body had not wanted to stop regardless of the chaos in his mind and heart. Would he resist if tonight while they were lying in bed together Severus took him in his arms and started kissing him again?

He found himself shivering at the thought, his face growing hot. Thanks to all the conversations he'd had with various Weasleys, he had a fairly clear idea about what to expect - or at least he understood the mechanics of sex between two men. But the reality of it was a bit overwhelming - and he really had a hard time believing it wouldn't hurt. Bill and Charlie had both told him that if it was done right, it wouldn't hurt, not really - but Harry had thought about it and couldn't really believe it. How could it not hurt?

Then again, Draco never seemed to be in any sort of pain after spending the night with Charlie. He found himself glancing over at the blond Slytherin who was dutifully coping down notes. Maybe he and Charlie weren't actually doing it, he reason - or at least not that one specific thing. Some of the other things they'd described had sounded quite pleasant - odd, but pleasant. And then he remembered the rather enthusiastic way Charlie had explained things and he shook his head - no, they were definitely doing it.

Bloody Hell, he sighed. He knew he should have snuck into his cousin's room that one summer and stolen a peek at his porn collection while the family had been away. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so baffled by all this.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he barely even noticed when class ended and people began shuffling from the room. He was surrounded by Ron, Hermione and Draco almost immediately.