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Harry Potter and the Expert Potions Master	By : SickPuppy Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 21304 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe. I make no money from this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 36 The Quibbler Campaign

Severus, reluctantly, gave his approval for the interview. Not wishing Luna to visit him in his home, he and Harry had agreed to meet her at Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

The interview itself had gone well, forcing them to clarify various aspects of their relationship aloud. Both were curious when Luna would get the piece published.

“Daddy's off hunting the crumple horned snorkack again, so he's left me in charge of getting the issue out,” Luna had explained before she left. “He wanted to find another one of their horns to replace the one that got destroyed.”

Feeling vaguely guilty about the destruction of the Lovegood's home, Harry had asked, “Er, is the house okay now?”

“Oh yes, we rebuilt it in minutes with a bit of magic. But, of course, we couldn't rebuild the snorkack horn, so Daddy's gone looking again.”

Once she had gone, Severus had asked, “Do I want to know?”

“Definitely not!”

The Quibbler article appeared a week later in a special edition Luna had created that focused wholly on the injustices done to same sex couples. Giving the interview had been cathartic for them both, even with the bickering that Luna had, hopefully, not included in her final report. The first argument had been about the aliases they were to use. Harry had been adamant that he wasn't going to be H or P. Severus had suggested E (for Evans) which he had agreed to, and then he'd called himself P (for Prince), which had annoyed Harry as he knew people would assume (those that believed the rumour about him) that it was him.

“Nonsense!” Severus had said, “No-one writing down our speech could possibly confuse my eloquence for your, frankly, barely coherent mumblings.”

Luna had smiled behind her hand at that dig, but it was true, she could see a difference in the way they spoke, and P definitely didn't sound like Harry.

Their interview was across a double page spread in the centre of the paper. Luna's questions were in purple, Harry's answers in red, and Severus' in green. It looked very colourful and appealing. They just hoped that the content was as appealing as the appearance:

Our reporter spoke to a male same sex couple about their relationship and about how they felt about the law:

L (reporter): Thank you both for meeting with me, I know it can't be easy to talk about something that is still illegal.

P: Actually, as you know, I'm sure, being in a same sex relationship is not, in itself, illegal. Only any physical activities that a couple might partake of are illegal.

L: And what are your feelings about that?

E: Well, it frightens us both – the thought of Azkaban. We didn't make a choice to be like this, we're together because it's what feels right to us, so to punish us for that seems a bit like punishing someone for getting a cold!

L: Good point. But, some witches and wizards think you and people like you are being selfish by not being in a traditional relationship.

P: Well, let's turn it on its head. You're, I assume, not like us?

L: Yes.

P: Well, how would you feel if we said you were being selfish by being like that and had to be in a relationship like ours? How would that make you feel?

L: Very uncomfortable. Actually, reader, the thought made me feel ill and I began to fully understand the nonsense of saying same sex couples are just being difficult and could easily form more normal relationships.

E: That's how we feel about it.

L: I'm sure some readers won't know much about same sex couples, so tell us, is it something you've always known about yourself?

E: NO! I grew up thinking I was normal but my dreams were telling a different story! And as for him, he loved a woman for ages, but...

P: Thank you, I can bare my soul myself. Yes, I loved a woman for a long time. A doomed relationship, even without my sexuality being a factor. I loved her, but meeting E and getting to know him, I found someone who was what I needed.

E: That's how I feel. P is exactly what I need – he's all the things I'm not, so we balance well. Of course, we argue a lot too, but that's to be expected, he's a difficult git!

L: And is it a matter of loving a person and their gender not being a factor? Or do you love one another because you are physically attracted to your own gender?

P: I've never been interested in physical intimacy with my own gender. I don't know whether it is a case of loving the person. (To E) Would I care if you were a woman? No, I don't think it would be a factor – his irritating, barely able to express himself, impulsive personality is what I like. Although, I certainly do find his body appealing. If only he'd keep his mouth shut more often!

E: And thank you for that! I don't know if it matters to me about gender. Certainly I don't feel an attraction to women, but then I don't go around eyeing up blokes either. It's him. Annoying, and demanding, and bloody repressed him.

L: Thank you. That raises another point. Many people have the fear that because you like your own sex, you are always on the look out for new people to er … corrupt.

P: What utter nonsense! I have enough problems with him! I'd hardly go looking for more trouble!

E: Well, that's like saying every 'normal' person is always looking for someone else to sleep with. It's rubbish. Yes, some people are like that, but most are decent and just want to find 'The One'.

L: And you have?

E: Yes.

P: Yes.

Here Luna had added a ridiculous pink heart that seemed to beat. Harry blushed at what they had revealed about themselves.

L: So, what next for you two?

E: We're going to buy a house together and move in, rather than keep going between our two places.

P: We'd like children as well, but that is further off.

L: What changes would you like to see in our society?

P: Well, obviously, getting rid of the same sex law, so that the things we do, that other couples take for granted, are no longer seen as illegal.

E: And have society stop thinking we're dangerous or somehow out to corrupt everyone. We're just normal blokes in a committed relationship.

L: And it is committed? How long have you been together?

E: We got together just before Christmas last year, so eight months now.

L: And, excuse me for the nosiness, was physical intimacy a part of your relationship from the first?

P: We were physically intimate from day one, yes. But we didn't consummate our relationship until nearly a month later. We were both aware, whatever our bodies were telling us, that the new change in how we dealt with one another was far too important to allow for sex before we had settled into whatever the relationship actually was.

L: You were scared it wasn't real?

E: Aren't you? Every time you open yourself to someone, aren't you scared it isn't real? Aren't you scared of being hurt?

P: We're no different to anyone else: we fear rejection and loneliness and being hurt.

L: I think that's a good place to end. Thank you both very much.

“Well, what do you think?” Harry asked, looking at Severus.

Severus leaned in and gently kissed his partner. “I think we came across very well, far more normal than we really are!”

Harry laughed. “Yes, I noticed we didn't talk about all the problems... Maybe we should have done. Reassure people we suffer from the same things that upset them.”

“Perhaps another time. Right now it's early days for Miss Lovegood's campaign. If we'd talked about all our problems it might have made people feel that our type of relationship is inherently unstable.”

“You're inherently unstable,” Harry muttered, very quietly.

Severus moved away, but at the door he remarked, “I heard that. And you will pay.”

Leaving Harry to shiver at the delicious thought of his 'punishment' (and knowing that Harry would enjoy whatever was done to him), Snape went into the kitchen for a drink and returned with the house elf following him carrying a tray loaded with cups, plates, sandwiches, and cakes.

“Kreacher! You didn't have to do that!” Harry cried, taking the heavy load from the small being.

“Kreacher is pleased Master Harry is here.”

Again feeling guilty about having left the elf alone for so long, Harry said, “Erm, sit down, would you, Kreacher? I need to talk to you.”

The house elf settled on the floor, much to Harry's annoyance.

“I'm going to be moving in with Pro - erm, Mr Snape at some point. And I don't want this place to stand empty, so I was going to talk to the Minister for Magic and ask him if he wanted the house to turn into a sort of museum to commemorate the war and all the fallen.”

Snape stood by Harry's side, one hand just stroking the tense back. He had already known what Harry planned to do with Grimmauld Place, and he rather liked the idea.

“You – you could stay here and help look after everything, or you could move into our new house. I'm not going to order you, I want you to do what you feel is best.”

Kreacher's eyes were wide. “Master is turning the house into a museum?” His gaze flickered around the room, taking in all the items cluttering the surfaces.

“Not all at once. We'd need to do a lot of work to make the place more suitable, and sort out what the exhibits themselves will be.”

In his mind's eye Harry already had a number of ideas about what would need changing and what would need adding to make the building more museum like. He'd even got a fair notion of what some of the exhibits would be.

“Master wants to remember the war?”

It was Severus who answered. “Kreacher, if a person forgets or ignores history, then they are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. We don't want to glorify what happened, but for witches and wizards being born right now, they'll never understand what it was like. So, all we can do is do our best to tell them and hope they don't make the same mistakes we did.”

Harry wished that he had Severus' gift for explaining things. If he'd said something like that, it would have been far more muddled and less elegantly expressed. He watched as the house elf mulled over what Snape had said and gave a quick nod that sent his long ears flapping.

“You don't have to decide right this second,” Harry said quickly, “and, of course, if you'd rather have your freedom you can,” he saw the glare in Kreacher's eyes and backed down, “but – but you don't have to.”

Kreacher had promised to think about what he wanted, and Harry and Severus had left as they had made appointments to view a few houses. After much discussion, they'd chosen to buy a Muggle property, rather than a magical one, and cast charms to make the location secure. Of course, it would need to be somewhere quiet and isolated to allow for any escaped magic to go unobserved. After all, as Harry had said, “It wouldn't do me much good if a bunch of Aurors turned up to cast memory charms, all because of something this stupid Auror had done!”

Looking for somewhere Muggle also meant they didn't have to look separately. Although not giving same sex couples the same legal rights as heterosexual pairs, Muggle Britain was less offensive about it.

The first house they walked into and both shook their heads at once. There was just something about it that made them feel uncomfortable. The next two they looked at were pleasant enough, and Harry was tempted to make an offer on one, but Severus stopped him. “It's early days,” he reminded his impulsive partner, “it might take months before we find the right place.”

The fourth house was set in large grounds on the edge of a village. The boundary ran alongside a busy motorway and the constant noise of cars would have put many people off. Severus and Harry, however, knowing spells to muffle the noise, had not let it bother them. Severus had noted with pleasure the juniper trees hiding the sight of the carriageway. They had wandered the grounds, pointing out where a pond could be put, and a play area for children. They both admired the patio, thinking of sitting out on it in the evening, enjoying a quiet drink as the sun set. There was a double garage which could easily be converted into a laboratory.

It was perfect.

The estate agent watched the two men as they walked in the large garden, the shorter man excitedly clutching at the taller one when some new idea came to mind. He smiled, knowing the property was as good as sold.

They came back to him, hands not quite clasped, but he had the sneaking suspicion that while they'd been out of sight, they'd held hands like new lovers.

“What was the asking price?” Severus asked, as if he didn't already know.

“The owners are asking a very reasonable £162,000,” he replied.

“Reasonable? With the constant noise of cars?” Snape had quelled far more difficult opponents than this young man. His face held some of that sternness that had made him so feared as a teacher.

“W - well,” the poor young man choked, “it's got a lot of land.”

“Offer them £150,000.” Snape said imperiously.

The man nodded, miserably seeing his commission diminishing.

Harry tugged lightly on Severus' shirt, but he was ignored. The agent nodded and offered to drive them back to town as his office was there. Snape shook his head, “We'll have a look around the area,” he decided. “You have my telephone number, don't you?”

Again their guide nodded.

Harry and Severus could apparate from the house, but the idea of seeing the area was a pleasant one, and they wandered the narrow lanes, searching for their nearest neighbour. The house had farms on either side of it, and the main buildings for them were plenty distant, giving them the privacy they so valued.

“We could screw outside and no-one would see us!” Harry said, a little giddy at finding such a perfect house.

“I,” began Severus coldly, “have no desire to get grass stains on my clothing, nor to fight off midgies that will try and attack every inch of exposed skin, particularly one sensitive area.” He raised an eyebrow at Harry and the younger man laughed, pulling Severus close for a kiss. It was so quiet in the area that neither feared being caught. Having the freedom to kiss and touch just like any other couple was such an unexpected treat that Harry longed to move in at once.

One thing worried him, “What if someone offers more than us?”

“Would you want to live here if you had to put up with that racket? No, the owners will probably reject this offer, but they'll accept £155,000.”

“And, you have a telephone? How come I've never seen it or heard it?”

“It's at the house. I tucked it away in a drawer and put the ringer on silent, but it'll be no hardship to reconnect it.”
“Erm, Severus, you do know you have to pay for things like telephone lines, right?” Harry had a vivid memory of Dudley, on one of the few occasions when his parents had been cross with him, being told to pay his share of the excessively large phone bill. He could still recall Aunt Petunia's screeching, “And Duddy, we have to pay line rental too! If you think we're enjoying always spending money and getting nothing, you're wrong! Why do you think we spend so little on that waste of space, your cousin?!”

The older man shook his head. He spoke slowly and clearly, as though to a moronic child, “I. Am. A. Wizard.”

---

And we're longer than Prisoner of Azkaban – how'd that happen?!
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Harry Potter and the Expert Potions Master