Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Vices	By : BurningNebula Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 8682 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any related characters. I do not make any money from the writing of this story

Chapter List
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A/N: First fic I've written in a very loooong time! Please let me know what you think of this first chapter. I've written a good bit of the chapters in advance, but will take my time posting (like a week between or something) because I am very busy and re-read things a million times before I show them to anyone. I would be greatly appreciative of any reviews.

  “Goddamn it, Fletcher, just tell me where to find it!” Severus cursed, his anger making it nearly impossible to keep his voice down. Mundungus, to his credit, was keeping a sharp eye out so it was unlikely that either of them were to be overheard.
                “Like I bleedin’ told you, Snape, he’s not goin’ to be pleased with just anyone comin’ to him for business,” Mundungus exclaimed in a frantic whisper. “I’m gonna have to talk to him for you! If you can hold it together long enough, go get a drink at the Thieving Magpie for an hour or so. I’ll hunt him down and have a word, and if he agrees, I’ll come find you.”
                “Fine!” Snape spat. Seeming to realize how needy he had been sounding, Snape appeared to collect himself a bit. “Just be quick… Please.”
                “A please from Severus Snape?” Mundungus asked disbelievingly. “You must be desperate…”
***
                Severus sat in the gloomy back booth of the Thieving Magpie, drinking as much firewhisky as he could handle with his stomach twisting. He checked his pocket watch again for what seemed the thirtieth time. Distantly, he heard the door of the pub open and close, but he didn’t look over to see who had entered as he threw the last of his glass down his throat. The scrawny barmaid came and tapped it with her wand, refilling it instantly with the brown liquid. As she moved away, Severus barely registered a shift in the air surrounding the dingy booth.
                “Severus Snape?” A voice asked from the seat opposite him. Severus’ head snapped up to observe a stranger sitting there who he was almost certain hadn’t been there a moment before. The newcomer had a deep cowl covering his face and strangely shaped dark grey robes obscuring the rest of him.
                “Yes?” Snape asked uncertainly, not knowing exactly the right thing to say. “Did Fletcher send you?”
                The figure nodded and turned their head, seeming to scan the bar for anyone observing them.
                “Come with me, we shouldn’t speak here,” The stranger said quietly, motioning for Snape to follow him as they rose from the table. Snape dug out a few Galleons and left them on the table as he rose to follow the mysterious man (was it a man?) out of the bar.
                Snape followed silently as he was led down Knockturn Alley to a long, winding row of houses which gradually became dingier and more tightly packed. Turning to head down a set of stairs that led to a basement-level door, the stranger turned to see Snape hesitating for a moment before following him down. Snape watched the man take out a wand and tap quietly on the door four times and heard a soft click in the darkness.
                Whatever Snape expected to see on the other side of the door, it was not the sight that greeted him. They were in a short hallway that was cheerfully lit and appeared to be the main entranceway to a small, homey apartment. The stranger removed his outer cloak and hung it on the peg by the door, waving to indicate Snape should do the same. It was now apparent to Severus why the man’s robes were so oddly shaped: he carried a small messenger bag slung over his shoulders and what appeared to either be a small sword or a large machete in a scabbard across his back. He wore odd leather clothes that almost looked like armor, and the cowl appeared to be a permanent fixture of his dress.
                Faintly, Severus thought he heard the sound of a female voice singing softly from one of the rooms.
                “In here,” He motioned to Snape as he made his way into a room at the end of the hall. The room seemed to Snape to be a sort of lab or workroom, with a small cauldron bubbling by the fireplace, and several tables with both Potions and Muggle chemistry apparatuses on them. “How much do you want? It’s twenty-five Galleons for one and a half grams.”
                “Fifty Galleons,” Snape said after thinking a moment. His physical state was worsening and his patience wearing out.
                “You want the regular Muggle stuff or my own special blend?” The man asked as he took a ladle and scooped some of the contents of the cauldron into a glass beaker. In the back of Severus’ mind there was something terribly familiar about the stranger’s voice.
                “What makes it special?” Snape asked warily. The figure paused and seemed to study Snape for a moment.
                “Care for a sample?” He asked, and though Snape could not see his face, he imagined the man to be smirking. “You won’t be disappointed.” Snape thought for a minute and then nodded slowly. The man waved a hand to two very comfortable looking armchairs by the fire.
                “Have a seat, I’ll be ready in a few minutes. It’s always better fresh,” The man explained, going about his business. “How do you prefer to take it: Muggle way or with a wand?”
                “With a wand, of course,” Snape said almost disdainfully. The shady man chuckled softly.
                “Have it your way. Personally I like the Muggle way sometimes. A bit of a change can make it better.” Snape stayed silent at this, and continued to watch the man’s process.
                He took the beaker of milky white liquid and poured it into a glass cooking dish. Tapping the dish with his wand, the substance steamed momentarily and began to crystallize immediately. Collecting the newly solidified substance and placing it into a mortar, he added a small spoon of four different ingredients, only one of which Snape actually managed to see before the man whisked them away and sent them flying into a cupboard on the wall. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought it had been a Muggle psychotropic that he was only vaguely familiar with. The stranger proceeded to grab a pestle and began grinding and mixing the powders into the crystallized substance.
                The man placed the mortar of powder onto a metal tray, along with a small glass petri dish, a flask of water and a glass stirring rod. Levitating the tray to a small side table near the chairs the man grabbed a small glass spoon and moved to sit in the other armchair.
                “This is a terrible habit, you know,” The man said as he finally lowered the cowl around his neck. He was backlit by the fire however, and Snape still couldn’t make out his features. “Not that I’m complaining, but I never thought I’d see Severus Snape come here for a fix.”
                Snape startled a bit at that. Was this someone he knew? Worse yet, was it one of his students from the years before the war? He was troubled by the thought, but the haze in his mind and the aching in his body made the concern seem trivial in comparison.
                “To be fair, we all have demons,” the man added, continuing on through Snape’s silence. Snape’s face closed and he sat silently watching the man. The powder was spooned into the petri dish and some water added, mixed together with the stirring rod. “Arm out,” The stranger commanded, and Snape complied. The man pushed back Severus’ sleeve and felt for a vein beneath his pale, smooth skin. Snape had, of course, offered his right arm. The man whispered a spell to filter out the particulate matter from the liquid and used his wand to lift the liquid from the dish, still holding Snape’s arm with his left hand. The liquid came up in a small stream, not unlike a Pensieve memory would do, attached to the end of the wand. Slowly, carefully, the man lowered the thread of liquid to the spot he’d located on Snape’s arm.
                Snape watched, entranced as the liquid spiraled towards his arm and narrowed to an impossibly small point as it penetrated his skin and entered his vein. Snape held his breath for a moment before he felt a familiar wave of warmth flood his brain and a tingling sensation ran from his head to his feet. Pure euphoria blossomed in his mind and in his muscles as he slumped back into the armchair. It felt like his veins were filled with sunshine, and fuck it all if it had ever felt this good before.
                “Wha- What the fuck is that?” Severus gasped as he sat in his chair, his eyes slowly sliding open.
                “Feels good, doesn’t it?” The man queried. “It calms the withdrawal symptoms and catalyzes the deeper magic of the drug.”
                “It’s so much better…” Was all Snape managed to say, before humming to himself and stretching out in the chair.
                The shadowy man chuckled softly.
                “Makes the Muggle stuff seem trite, no?” He said, but Snape was in his own world of blissful numbness. “Mundungus said it looked like you were hooked on it, thought it’d do you good to find an alternative. Personally I only do the Muggle kind to mix it up a bit, but getting dope sick’s never fun, is it?”
                “It feels so much cleaner,” Snape mumbled, his eyes staring out into a daydream.
                “’Course it does,” The man said, and with every sentence, he sounded farther and farther away to Severus. “You should know. Taught me everything I know, and all.”
                “What?” Snape said, his voice just a breath. His vision started to darken and narrow. Distantly, he heard the other man, saying his name.
                “Snape? Snape! Shit—“
There was a clamoring of movement, and then Severus blacked out.
***
                Soft light filtered in through Severus’ eyelashes. He had no perception of how much time had passed or where exactly he was. The first thing he was fully aware of was a pair of wide blue eyes peering at him from beside whatever bed he was in.
                Wait, a bed? The last thing he remembered was being in the dealer’s workroom. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up, but a pain like a vice on the back of his skull seemed to physically force his head back down, and he felt his stomach churn.
                “Snape?” A soft voice said, a cool, damp cloth touching his forehead. He opened his eyes again and turned his head slightly to the side, not trying for too much movement this time. The owner of the eyes was a bit of a surprise, if he could have been surprised in a state like this.
                “Lovegood?” Snape croaked, squinting at her. “Where am I?”
                “The same place you left yourself,” She said dreamily. “At mine and Harry’s.”
                “Harry?” He asked, his throat feeling more and more like sandpaper. “Harry who?”
                “Harry Potter, of course,” She said as though she was not utterly confusing him.
                “What the hell?”
                “You bought some lovely drugs from him last night, but we think you must’ve done the nasty sort before coming here,” She explained. “Nobody reacts like that unless they’ve been messing with the bunk Muggle stuff. You really ought to be more careful.”
                Severus sighed and tried to sort all of this information though his hazy brain.
                “Potter was my bloody drug dealer?” He mumbled to himself. He heard Luna giggle quietly next to him. “How long was I out?”
                “Only for the rest of the night and morning. We’ve dealt with this kind of thing before, so we’ve got remedies and the like on stock,” Luna said, “Though I would’ve thought you’d know not to mix your drugs.”
                “Yes, well…” Snape began, fully intending to tell her to mind her own business, but was overtaken by a rasping coughing fit. Luna retrieved a glass from a nearby table and handed it to Snape before tapping it with her wand with a whispered Aguamenti.
                “Don’t worry, we’ve worked out a pretty good detoxifying remedy, so by the time you’ve purged it, everything should be totally out of your system."
                “So where is Potter?” Snape asked, starting to take note of his surroundings. It was a decently sized, warmly lit room with no windows and what appeared to be a small bathroom in one corner. In the corner opposite the bed was an iron wood stove, the chimney of which led up into the building above. All around him were paintings, some of people, some abstract, some he had heard referred to as Sacred Geometry. There was a small bookshelf on one wall and a wardrobe on another.
                “He went out on a delivery,” Luna said mildly. “He asked me to keep an eye on you until he got back.”
                “Is this your bedroom?” Severus asked, starting to feel very mortified for pushing his physical limits and imposing on a former student’s home as his mind slowly began to clear.
                “Yes, but don’t worry about being a bother or anything,” Luna said bluntly. “We just want to make sure you’re all right. Physically, that is. It’s fairly obvious you’re not actually all right.”
                Snape huffed a bit and looked anywhere in the room besides at Luna, who was serenely staring directly at him.
                “I hardly think you need to trouble yourself over my well-being,” Snape muttered. “Not like I’ve not dealt with this kind of thing before.”
                “You’ve overdosed before?”
                “As a matter of fact, I was referring to dealing with other people’s accidental overdoses.” Snape replied bitingly, not truly answering her question, but not truly caring.
                “An accidental overdose rather implies you weren’t even aware it was going to happen,” Luna pointed out calmly. “As a Potions Master, and a fairly intelligent man, surely you realized on some level what would happen?”
                “And surely, it is none of your business,” Snape spat, “I didn’t expect to him to give me some right there and then.”
                “So you would’ve liked to have been alone?” Luna asked, still in her soft fairy voice, but now with an edge to it. “And why is that? So you could’ve died in an alleyway somewhere in Muggle London, with no one to save you? Well, you didn’t. You overdosed in our home, doing our stuff, so now it is our business. And just so you’re aware, Harry was practically sick with worry over you.”
                Snape looked in quiet shock at the look of hurt and determination on the pale girl’s face.
                “It’s been six years since the war, Severus Snape, and while I’ve got no place telling you that you shouldn’t do crazy drugs, perhaps you need to look at why you’re doing them in the first place.”
                “Why does anybody do drugs in the first place?” Snape shot out in a sharp hiss. “Because they’re trying to escape, and because drugs are bloody addicting!”
                “That’s not why I do drugs,” Luna said softly, never rising to Snape’s ill temperament. “If you do the right ones, with the right intention, they open your mind and bring you peace. Plus, I get some really good ideas for art.” Snape was entirely caught off guard by this comment, and once again glanced around the room at the paintings covering the walls.
                “Are all of these yours?” Snape asked quietly. Luna nodded. “They really are very beautiful.”
                A smile lit up Luna’s serene face.
                “Thank you very much, Severus,” Luna said brightly. “Now would you like some Blumblethorn tea while we wait for Harry to get back? I make it myself.” Severus nodded, though he’d never heard of Blumblethorn in his life, and laid his head back on the pillow tiredly as she put the kettle on her little wood stove, singing softly.
***
                The afternoon light had left the enchanted windows of the kitchen in Luna and Harry’s apartment to be replaced by dusky shadows, the only light in the room coming from the merrily crackling fireplace. Snape stood by the stove, stirring a pot of herbed cream sauce, after having found that he could not refuse the strange girl’s offer to stay for dinner. Harry was still out. Though he tried to pay attention to Luna’s happy banter, Severus’ mind began to be preoccupied with the shaking in his hands and the forewarning watering in his mouth. He set the wooden spoon on the rest and, turning from a startled Luna, ran suddenly to the bin, and lost whatever was in his stomach which just happened to be nothing but bile. Luna came over and soothingly brushed his hair back into her hands, Severus lacking the wherewithal to push her hands away.
                “It’s only the purging starting,” Luna said softly. “Honestly it’ll probably only last an hour or so.”
                “An hour or so?” Snape asked incredulously, as he spit a final time in the bin and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his face. “The fastest detoxifying remedies take at least a day and a half! Also considering how ‘toxified’ my system was, I hardly think that’s an accurate estimation.”
                “Oh, no, Harry’s got a brilliant mind for both Potions and chemistry,” Luna insisted. “You’ll see, his remedies are even better than his drugs most of the time. He helps me a lot with my research as well.”
                Before Severus had a chance to ask what on earth Luna was talking about, they heard the front door close quietly. They both looked up to see Harry stepping into the kitchen as he removed his messenger and laid it on the table before collapsing wearily in a chair and smiling at both of them, mussing his hair with his hand tiredly.
                “Good to see you up and about, Snape,” Harry said genuinely. Snape, for the life of him, did not know what to say to Harry. He simply stared at Harry for a moment before clearing his throat awkwardly and glancing around the room at anything else.
                “You know, you gave me quite the fright last night,” Harry ploughed on, seemingly trying to smooth over Severus’ silence. “You really should’ve let me know you’d been banging Muggle stuff right before you came here.” He looked at Snape, the look in his eyes telling him he wasn’t getting off easy.
                “I have to say, Potter, that I am indeed very embarrassed by my actions, and I apologize for inconveniencing you or endangering your livelihood in anyway.” Snape said stiltedly, gazing at a point on the floor somewhere near Harry’s feet.
                Harry just sighed and then gave a halfhearted chuckle.
                “I’m not looking for an apology, Snape,” Harry said quietly. “I was just worried. And as for my livelihood, it’s seen far more endangering situations, I assure you.”
                Snape finally glanced up into Harry’s eyes and was mildly unsettled to see the young man studying him with a sincerely concerned expression.
                “Luna,” Harry called to the girl by the stove, who was seemingly in her own world, humming peacefully to herself. “Could you give us a moment alone? I’ll keep an eye on your sauce.”
                “Sure, Harry,” the girl replied, “Just throw the pasta in when the water boils, please.” Harry nodded and Luna wafted out of the room.
                Standing to take up post by the stove, Harry leaned against the wall and looked sideways at Snape.
                “I can help you, if you want,” Harry stated abruptly. Snape’s eyes snapped up to meet Harry’s sidelong gaze.
                “What makes you think I need your help?” Snape asked, his voice only barely above a whisper.
                “What doesn’t…” Harry replied with a quirked eyebrow. “Besides, you’re still here aren’t you?”
                “At Luna’s request,” Snape scoffed, knowing he wasn’t being entirely truthful. If he was honest, he had nowhere else to go besides his own barren apartment, where the shadows and ghosts in his mind haunted him day in and day out, the need for escape from himself becoming greater the longer he was alone.
                Harry sighed.
                “There’s nothing wrong with wanting help you know,” Harry murmured, more to himself than anything. “In any case, I have some formulas for remedies and alternative drugs you can take to help you cope. With the mental withdrawal, that is.”
                “Alternative drugs?”
                “Sort of like what I gave you last night, but without any opiates in it.” Harry clarified. “Basically compound Potions you can take to counter depression and anxiety, as well as having an effect not unlike… say, smoking a joint.”
                “Really? I was always under the impression your skills at compound Potion brewing were severely lacking, let alone the invention of them.” Snape asked nastily. Harry laughed under his breath and stirred the herb sauce, breaking some spaghetti into the boiling pot of water.
                “That’s because my school years were a bit tumultuous at the best of times; I don’t believe my marks ever really reflected how much I’d learned,” Harry said in a far off voice. “Plus Malfoy certainly did take every opportunity to cock up my brews for me.” Harry said with a laugh. For a moment, they only looked at each other.
                “Why are you doing this?” Snape asked.
                “Just because I manufacture and sell illicit drugs doesn’t mean I’m a criminal at heart, Snape,” Harry said, an offended note in his voice. “It’s simply the most lucrative and comfortable career I’ve explored since Hogwarts. And despite what you may think, I’ve always cared about you, even if we didn’t get along. You were my mother’s best friend and you saved my arse more times than I can count. Why wouldn’t I want to help you?”
                Snape was shocked silent after Harry’s speech, at least having the grace to look ashamed of himself.
                “I am sorry, you know,” Snape whispered. Harry’s gave him a questioning look.
                “That I was always so horrible,” Snape explained. “I’ve not really known who I am since the war ended. I had to play a part for so long, perhaps I thought a reality of that part was making your life miserable, but it really was pointless in the end wasn’t it?” Snape stared at the ground for a moment before the silence stretched out too long, and he looked up, surprised to see tears in Harry’s eyes.
                Harry sniffed and stirred the pot again. He pulled out a colander and strained the water from the pasta before mixing it into the sauce.
                “I don’t think any of it was ever pointless, Snape,” Harry said softly, his voice seeming to echo in Severus’ ears. “It led us here after all. Maybe our meeting again after these six years is a blessing in disguise.” Severus’ brow knitted together, not really knowing what Harry meant.
                “In any case, dinner’s ready. Set the table, will you, while I fetch Luna?” Harry asked as he headed out of the kitchen after setting a stack of plates and cutlery in a very stunned Snape’s hands.
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