Staring out into the lake, Severus heard footsteps and soon felt the body of a person pressed up against him. He raised his head and saw Remus, he was vaguely aware of James and Sirius sitting not far away from them.
"What's wrong Severus?" Remus said.
He shook his head.
"Dear, you're not okay and we're worried about you." He tried again.
Silence.
"Did we do something my Juliet?"
"You've been distancing yourself from us. If there's anything we did please tell us," James added.
"Sev, didn't you say to speak when something's wrong?"
Running his hand through his hair, Severus took a deep breath, "I saw James and Sirius... kissing... in an old classroom."
Severus watched as their eyes widened. He glanced at Remus and asked one of the questions that had been nagging him ever since he found out, "Did you know?"
Remus flinched, "I did."
Severus nodded slowly. He expected that answer, but it did nothing to quell the rising bitterness in his chest, now was the time to confirm his doubts. He recalled the question and answer session he had with Sirius not long ago in this same place.
"Are you dating them as well Remus?"
Severus did not know what answer he wanted to hear, if Remus said no then that meant that Sirius and James trusted him more and if he said yes then that meant he did not trust Severus either. Both answers made his chest uncomfortable.
"I-- yes," was the answer he got.
Dropping his head as his heart clenched, he opened his mouth and tried to speak, yet no words came out of his mouth. He gripped the grass beneath him tightly, almost pulling it out. He looked at James and Sirius, their figures soon becoming blurry.
"How long?" He finally said, his throat dry.
It was Sirius that replied, "Since Christmas break."
"Why didn't you say?"
"We were going to tell you soon," James said.
He narrowed his eyes.
"How soon! It's already been a month since you started, am I so untrustworthy? Why did you hide it from me?"
Remus put his hand on his shoulder, "We didn't mea--"
Severus pushed him away and crawled backwards to the trunk of the tree, "Don't tell me that! Why lie to me."
Remus gave him a pained expression, he rubbed his hands and smiled sadly, "Believe me Severus, we didn't mean to hide it from you. We were... waiting for the right time."
He stood up and walked towards James and Sirius, "We're sorry for hurting you Sev. We'll give you some space."
Remus then ushered the boys that tried to get closer to Severus away. After they left, Severus hugged his body and gripped the clothes covering his chest. Tears flowed down his face like a steady stream of a river, his heart was in so much pain. Is this what heartbreak is?
It dawned on him, like a bucket of cold water being poured on him that he attached a high level of importance on how the other boys perceived him. He wanted them to have unshakable trust in him, because... because he liked them.
Oh Salazar! Severus had a huge crush on them. That's why he did not want to be around them, because despite the anger due to thier distrust, he knew that deep down he could never be happy for them as a real friend should. Ultimately that was it, if he tossed away the anger and disappointment all that would remain was desire, envy, and melancholy. He needed to find a way to get over them. Quickly.
^_^^_^^_^
Sirius slumped against Moony, "Thank Godric that tomorrow's Valentines Day."
Moony combed his hand through his hair, Sirius closed his eyes as he enjoyed the caress, but he still whined about his day, "Severus ran away from me again today! It was so painful Moony! I'm tempted to kidnap him and lock him up."
Moony chuckled, "Tomorrow we're confessing. If he rejects us we can do as you say."
Sirius grumbled, "You're too soft. If he rejects us you'll still allow him to roam free and be with whoever he wants."
Moony pinched his cheek, "It's not like you're any different."
Sirius opened his eyes and pouted, he crossed his arms in annoyance. Moony was right, as much as he liked Severus he could never bear to force him to do anything.
"My Juliet is such a heartbreaker! Look at what he's done to us, and he doesn't even know it."
Moony smiled and pecked his forehead, "Nothing's set in stone. Isn't that why we're doing this?"
"Moony's right Pads. Sev is still single, we still have a chance," Prongs added as he entered the room and jumped to join them on the bed.
"The owl's fine?" Moony asked.
Prongs nodded, "I learned my lesson from last time. We decided to use Lovegood's owl because her's is less known compared to the rest of ours."
Sirius nodded and then he saw as Prongs puckered his lips, Moony rolled his eyes and gave Prongs a kiss. After the kiss, Prongs turned to him and Sirius sniggered, Prongs finds every possible way to be rewarded. He gave Prongs his well deserved kiss, he did do a good job.
^_^^_^^_^
Severus's cheeks heated up as he saw the parcel given to him by the unknown owl. It included three roses and a letter. The atmosphere was full of mischief and giddiness in the Great Hall and thus he was surrounded with chants ordering him to open the letter, as had been done to everyone else before him, he caved to the requests and opened the letter.
The letter exploded into sprinkles and similar to a howler, it spoke, using a voice that did not conform to either gender.
It said,
To the beauty that we love,
that brightens our day,
with your pale cheeks and pink lips,
your black hair and equally black eyes,
those eyes that draw us in,
until we can no longer find our way, like a maze they trap us,
and we'd happily stay.
Let's play a game sweetheart,
to find me you must travel to the land engulfed by green,
in a place with towers for the spectators,
it's a place where the cheers of the audience gives the players a push,
with hoops, and a chase for the snitch,
I shall happily wait for you,
please be there at noon.
The Great Hall was in silence for a few moments. Then someone, from the Slytherin table yelled, "If it's not already obvious Snape. They're talking about the Quidditch Pitch."
They were soon joined by exclamations from other tables. A Gryffindor yelled, "Yeah Snape! Have a nice date."
A HufflePuff joined in, "Put your hair in an updo when you go! It looks cute on you!"
A Ravenclaw added, "Write about your experience! I'll come and get it."
The heat on his cheeks spread throughout his entire body. Severus was certain that he looked like a cherry tomato at this point. Thank Merlin someone else received a letter after his, successfully removing the attention of the crowd off of himself. He could not focus at all throughout, when people started leaving the hall he stealthily escaped through the crowd. Sprinting to the library, nobody would be there on a Saturday, let alone Valentine's Day.
^_^^_^^_^
Unfortunately, he was not the only one that thought this way. He looked up from his book at Molly Prewett, she had her hands to her hips and was giving Severus the most reprimanding stare that he has ever seen.
"What are you doing here Severus! It's almost noon!"
"So?"
She sat next to Severus and held his arm, "Oh come on Severus, give this a chance. Maybe it could help you get over them."
She was talking about the Marauders, and yes, she knew about Severus' crush. Severus told her, well to be precise, it was forced out of him.
"Did you ever consider if this were a prank?"
"If it was do you think McGonagall would allow the person to have the entire Quidditch Pitch to themselves? Would I be here convincing you to go?"
Severus sighed. She had a point. He closed his book and returned it to his shelf, then he looked at her, resigning to his fate.
"Could you help me get ready please?"
She giggled and pulled Severus out of the library. Severus honestly hoped that he would not come to regret his decision.
^_^^_^^_^
McGonagall smiled at him as he arrived closer to the Quidditch Pitch, "You look charming Severus."
She then pulled out a blindfold and said, "I've been tasked with this, so please cooperate."
Severus let her do as she wished, he was already far too nervous to focus on giving a reaction.
She put her hands on his shoulders after securing the blindfold in place, "Allow yourself to be happy dear boy, you deserve it."
This made him swallow, his heart picked up its pace, his throat felt dry. Maybe he did indeed deserve happiness.
They walked through the pitch in silence until they came to a halt. The warmth of McGonagalls hand disappeared and another hand held his. The body must have gone behind him for the body heat shifted and the blindfold gently came off of his face.
In front of Severus lay a simple picnic blanket in a checkered pattern of red and white. Placed on it was a charcuterie board, with an assortment of cheese, fruit, cured meat and crackers. The whole set up was warm and inviting.
The person behind him walked to the front, pulling Severus's arm towards him, "Hi my Juliet, I'm so happy that you came."
When his gazed moved up and the voice fell on his ear, the atmosphere suddenly became cold. Severus swatted the hand on his arm away and he seethed, "What type of joke it this? You're in a relationship for Merlin's sake!"
Sirius stepped closer to him, "Sev, they know."
"They know of your unfaithfulness?"
Sirius's eyebrows furrowed, "Sev, did you not realize the we sent that letter to you?"
It dawned on him that the pronouns used in the letter were plural, things like 'we', 'us', and 'our'. It was only because the last section spoke using singular pronouns that he did not think much about it. Now he understood why it was structured the way it was. But if that was the case then why was Sirius the only one made to be here?
The boy must have seen Severus's feelings expressed on his face, for he smirked and then wrapped his arms around his waist.
"First of all, you need to be more confident in how attractive you are, more so when you look like this. Second, I wanted to have you all to myself. They'll have their chance with you later today. Right now it's just you and me."
The temperature of his ears rose at the blunt compliment. Severus was dressed in a striped black and white jumper, black jeans, and white shoes. He had a thin gold necklace on with a matching bracelet. He took the HufflePuffs suggestion and put his hair up in a half up half down.
Severus observed the boy in front of him. Sirius was dressed in Slytherin colours. He had a green turtleneck on and grey slacks, coupled with black shoes. His hair was let down as usual, but he could obviously see the effort that was put in to comb it. He had a silver pendant on his neck and the ring that Severus gifted him on the middle finger of his right hand were he has always seen it. He looked absolutely gorgeous.
Severus had a mix of emotions coursing through him. Delight, excitement, worry, and apprehension. Either way, one thing he did know was that he refused to be bested by Sirius. How could he let his Romeo get away unscathed?
"You shouldn't be one to talk. I never knew that my House colours would look so good on anyone. Particularly someone that isn't even from it."
Grinning like a fool, Sirius let go of him and rubbed his neck, "You think so? It was Moony's idea."
Ignoring his loss at the warmth brought by Sirius's body, he replied, "Yes, he has quite the vision."
Sirius giggled, then he pulled him to sit and somehow they talked like usual, as if they never had a disagreement, or that Severus had been avoiding him. They talked about a lot of things, their childhood before Hogwarts, their goals for the near future, and the future as far as twenty years from now, how James and Sirius got together, then how they got together with Remus. The ideas of good and bad, their House rivalry, the ridiculous hypocrisy of it all.
Somehow, during all that, Sirius ended up straddling his lap feeding him different, very delicious combinations of cheese and whatever else there was. This particular combination had a spreadable cheese that Severus did not know the name of, spread on a cracker, and finally topped with honey.
They were in comfortable silence as this happened. A bit of honey flowed out of the corner of his mouth, as if on instinct, Sirius leaned down and licked the corner of his mouth.
They both froze at his action, slowly, Sirius's head rose and Severus's face was fanned by his warm breath. They were still close, as if under a spell. Severus's gaze flickered down at the boys lips and then back up at his eyes, they leaned in at a snails pace. He did not know who closed the gap but their lips met.
Severus ended up with his back on the ground and Sirius above him, engulfed by the bliss of finally having what they wanted for so long! It was a pity that they had to breathe or else Severus would have liked to stay like that for much longer. As they separated, Sirius smiled, he leaned his forehead against Severus's as they caught their breaths. They need not say anything, as there was not much left to say. Thus they basked in eachother's presence.
After a while, Sirius leaned in to peck Severus on the lips and stood up, pulling Severus up as well.
"My time with you's almost up, but there's one last thing I wanna do with you."
He raised his wand and summoned... a broom. No! Absolutely not! There was no way in hell that Severus was going to get on a broom.
^_^^_^^_^
Screw Sirius Black and his soft, supple, poisonous lips! Severus thought as he sat on a broom and Sirius sat behind him.
Sirius added some words of comfort yet again, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to you. We'll start slow, okay." Severus grit his teeth and nodded in reply. True to his word they started slow and close to the ground, gradually going higher until they could see most of Hogwarts. The view was amazing.
They circled around the area and then edged closer to the Forbidden Forest, they descended near the hut that occupied the space on the outskirts of the forest. Sirius helped him get off the broom and then sat back on it. He pecked Severus's cheek and then said, "This is your next stop, have a nice time."
He then flew off. Severus glanced around him and saw a big sign that said, Don't knock on the door unless you are SEVERUS SNAPE. He snorted, then knocked on the door, a very attractive James Potter opened the door.
He smiled bashfully, opening the door wider and ushering him in, "Hi Sev. You look great."
He eyed James. He was dressed in a light brown cardigan, with a black shirt underneath, dark brown trousers and black shoes. Like Sirius he wore his ring and he also had a pair of silver studded earrings on. Very welcoming.
"Not looking too bad yourself," Severus commented.
James beamed up at him, "Come, let's sit and eat! I made all your favourites."
Squinting his eyes, Severus asked, "You made these yourself?"
James nodded, leading Severus to sit down, then he went to his own seat, "I-- I'm not sure if they'll be to your liking. I tried my best."
Severus picked up the fork and took a bite of the pasta on his plate. he closed his eyes in delight. James did surprisingly well!
Before he went back for another bite he looked up at the boy that was staring at him anxiously, his heart warmed, even if the food was not up to par Severus would have told him that it was edible after seeing him be so adorable.
"It's palatable," he said. James puffed out his chest and finally dug in to his food. They had light chatter over the meal. They played a variety of games at James's request, and Severus found that he quite liked them. They were currently playing a detective style game, there were clues on the card and details about the crime scene and the player had to guess the murderer. It was Severus's turn.
"The killer is the man's wife."
"Huh? How?"
"She was having an affair with her husbands brother, he found out and confronted her privately. So she killed him."
James gasped, "How could she? The brother isn't even that good-looking."
He laughed. Only James Potter would think that that was the obvious reason why she should not have killed her husband. He stopped laughing and found James staring intently at him.
"What is it?"
"Pads was right. You have a very pretty laugh Sev."
Groaning, Severus covered his face to hide his embarrassment, James changed seats and joined him, he concluded, when the couch dipped beside him. A pair of hands pulled his off of his face.
"Don't be shy. I really like it," he ran his hand through Severus's hair, "I also really like this hairstyle on you too. It's my favourite."
Severus diverted his gaze and released a shaky breathe. He still felt James's searing gaze on the side of his face. Silence reigned. It stifled him, so he tried to say something. Its just that the moment he opened his mouth to speak his lips were sealed.
James moved his lips against his in a passionate kiss. Severus responded in kind, wrapping his arms around his neck and participating in the kiss. Unlike with Sirius this was like a fire was ignited in both of them, it much more pressing than the gentle kisses with Sirius, all he knew was that he liked them both very much despite their differences. When they broke apart to take in air, James became a stuttering mess.
"I-- I didn't mean to-- to do that-- I should have waite--"
Severus shut him up, Potter should learn to use those lips for better things. And thus a snog session ensued on the couch.
^_^^_^^_^
"I'll see you later," said James with an idiotic grin on his face. It looked even more adorable with the sun set acting as a backdrop. Severus couldn't resist, not when James looked like that. He pecked the boys forehead and followed the trail into the forest, as instructed.
In the dense forest, two hands suddenly wrapped around his waist. He would have pushed the body away and cast an offensive spell, but his senses were attacked by the familiar scent of chocolate and he relaxed. Remus nuzzled his head in the space between his neck and shoulder.
"Oh Severus, I missed you so much," he whined. Severus turned around and wrapped his arms around Remus's neck.
"Do you want to show me how much you missed me?" Remus always brought out the rogue in him, Severus will be the first to admit, but could he be blamed? Remus's reactions are just so entertaining, and now that Severus discovered his coquettish side how on Earth could he pass up the chance to indulge himself in some well deserved teasing.
As expected, Remus blushed, but he seemed determined to show Severus, and he did. He kissed Severus, and Severus hummed in satisfaction. Remus was firm and yet tentative while kissing him, showing a bit of his timid nature, as if scared he made the wrong decision, so Severus responded to the kiss, hoping to give him confidence. He quite liked this method to show how much Remus missed him.
When the kiss ended, Severus gazed at Remus, he said, "Is that how much you missed me? That means you didn't miss me at all."
Severus simply meant that he wanted to kiss him more, and he reckoned Remus understood considering how his ears and cheeks tinted red and he avoided Severus's gaze. He smirked and kissed Remus's lips one more time.
"If I were to show you how much I missed you then I'm afraid we wouldn't leave this place for an extremely long time."
Remus buried his head on the crook of his neck and whined again. Severus stroke his hair, that was styled in a side part. He was wearing a light blue jumper with a darker pair of loose blue jeans, he wore blue sneakers. His ring adorned his finger and he had a silver clip in his hair.
They soon journeyed through the forest(each eating from a small plastic cup of trifle that Remus acciod), identifying the plants and discussing their properties, how they would affect potions and their other uses if any. They talked about the characters from recent books they have been reading and dissected the plots.
During their talk they reached an opening, one that Severus was familiar with, for he often gathered ingredients for his experiments in this place. Two figures were present there, Severus realized that it was James and Sirius. They smiled at them and the four stood together.
Remus stood in front of him and then spoke, "Now that we're here, I hope you understand that we wanted tell you about our relationship when we confessed. So Severus, would you do us the honours of becoming our boyfriend?"
Severus observed them, they all had an expression of hope on their face. McGonagall told him to allow himself to be happy, his happiness does not depend solely on being in a relationship with them, but he knew that he would be happier with them. They also ticked all his boxes, they were cute, he liked them and most of all, they liked him too.What more could he ask for?
"I shall grace you all with the title of my boyfriends."
Their reactions were instant. Remus smiled widely and pecked his lips. Sirius and James high fived and took turns kissing him. He was overwhelmed momentarily.
Suddenly, Sirius pulled out a box from his pocket, he held it out to Severus, "This belongs to you."
Confused, Severus opened the box and a breathtaking ring lay in the box, he stilled in shock. James came up to him and gently pried the box out of his hand, he took Severus's right hand and slid it on his middle finger.
"Unfortunately, we can't get engaged yet, we're not financially stable enough and we're still minors," he said while doing the aforementioned actions.
When the ring securely rest on his finger, a light engulfed all of them and after it subsided, Severus felt very content, he knew somehow that these feelings of content, joy, and love were not his alone. He felt complete, he felt whole.
He will cherish these three for the remainder of his life.
Author's Note: Ah! The finale! Also the longest chapter I've written. This story has come to an end... excuse me while I shed a few tears. Thank you to every reader that has taken time out of their day to go on this journey with Sev and the boys(and me). Thank you for the patience and sweet comments throughout this story, they propelled me through. I hope to see you in the next story!(◠‿◕)