the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 20 - Sinistra

Harry found himself sitting with Sirius and Remus late the following morning. After he had awakened, Severus had taken him up to see the Headmaster where he'd relayed as much of his dream to both men as he could remember. Truthfully he wasn't sure what exactly his dream had been about - only that he knew that something had changed. The Dark Lord had discovered something - a spell, a weapon or a ritual - something which had filled him with such horrible delight that the sheer power of the emotion had woken Harry from sleep. What ever it was, he knew it was something terrible - knew it was something utterly unexpected.

To him it felt as if Voldemort had been handed the world and knew suddenly, utterly, completely, that nothing was going to be able to stop him. Harry had never felt so alone in his life - as if he were completely isolated or cut off from everyone - as if he were suddenly the last man left on earth and had no one to turn to. But when he'd tried to convey the dream to the Headmaster and Professor Snape, it had sounded oddly hollow and somewhat silly in the light of morning.

Later, Severus had walked him down to Remus Lupin's room and bid him good-bye - explaining that he intended to return to Briarwood Hall to make certain the spells had been removed from the Rose Maze.

After he relayed his dream a second time to his worried godfather, Remus and Sirius had both questioned him intently about his evening with the Snapes. Judging by their questions, he suspected that they both knew about his run-in with Julius. He told them what happened as calmly as possible and then described in great detail the single punch from Severus that had broken Julius' jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground. Though he hadn't recognized the spell Severus had cast on his brother, he remembered the words and repeated them back to the two men. For some reason this sent Sirius into gales of laughter.

Bewildered, Harry turned to Remus for an answer. The werewolf just smirked at him. "It's the equivalent of a magical chastity belt, Harry," he explained. "The spell not only prevents any sort of physical arousal in the victim but also causes intense pain and cramps if he so much as thinks about anything of a carnal nature."

The spell, surprisingly, seemed to put both of the men somewhat at ease, and Harry suspected that he was right to guess that Sirius wanted to know that Snape had in fact defended his honor. Feeling the need to defend Snape further, he recounted the conflict between Snape and Draco Malfoy that happened the day after they were married - that story was still a favorite in Gryffindor Tower.

He ended up spending the day with the two men, returning finally to join his friends in the Great Hall for dinner. There he was forced once again to recount his evening with the Snapes to his fellow Gryffindors. He spent most of the discussion describing Snape's sister, glossing over the other brothers and saying nothing about what had happened with Julius. All of the Gryffindors seemed delighted with the story about Harry's poor table manners, unable to get over the fact that Snape had in fact encouraged such behavior. Time and time again they found themselves throwing somewhat disbelieving looks toward the head table and the glaring Potions Master sitting there.

"Is it just me, or does Snape look different?" Dean Thomas finally asked after about the seventh time he'd turned to look over his shoulder at the professor. The others all turned to look again as well.

"Now that you mention it, he does look different," Seamus agreed.

Ron was frowning thoughtfully. "Is his nose smaller or something?"

His words brought snickers of laughter from everyone but Harry who found himself wanting to defend the man again. A quick glance at the professor assured him that he had not noticed the exchange - he also noticed that just like last night Severus's hair was soft and flowing, no longer weighted down with the hair tonic he normally slicked it back with. He felt something warm glowing inside him at the thought that Snape might have altered his hairstyle simply because Harry had said he liked it.