eriador117 (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} eriador117) wrote,@ 2009-07-10 07:55:00 |
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Apprenticed to Love 28/?
Title: Apprenticed to Love 28/?
Author: Eriador117
Pairing: Snape/Harry
Rating: Adult
Summary: Six months after the end of the war Harry turns up Snape's apothecary to beg for a job; they both get more than they bargained for.
Warnings: Au, angst, hermaphroditism, mpreg, slash, abuse.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse; I just play in from time to time.
Beta'd by Rakina, thank you so much :)
Earlier Parts
Part 28
Vernon stared at the stack of paperwork on his desk and felt a headache coming on.
Twice now he'd been up for promotion and twice now he'd failed. The first time was when the brat had still been living with them and had scared Mrs. Mason witless with that ruddy owl! Vernon had lost the Mason contract and in turn the promotion that would have gone with it. It was the Potter brat's fault – it always was. Now Vernon had been turned down again even though Potter had disappeared one day and had never returned. It didn't matter that Potter was no longer living at Privet Drive, it was his fault that all of these things kept happening in Vernon's life. Potter was the reason he wasn't as successful as he should be. Potter had probably cast some sort of curse on them; yes! that was it, he and his magic were to blame. Vernon would quite gladly have wrung Potter's neck if he'd seen him right then. He should have done it when he had the chance, should have taken the infant to the river and drowned him like the unwanted cur he was! It was Potter's fault, all of it!
Vernon banged his hand on the desk, scattering papers everywhere, but he didn't really care. If it hadn't been for Dudley's school fees (he'd had to repeat a year at Smeltings after failing every exam, and that too was Potter's fault – Dudley had never got the attention he needed when he and Petunia had to keep such a close eye on Potter) Vernon would have walked out of Grunnings and never looked back. As it was he had to keep the money coming in for fees and uniforms – Dudley needed new ones every few months the way his weight was see-sawing – not to mention the company car and the villa in France. Money, money, money, it was all money! If the brat had still been around, Vernon was sure he could have conjured some out of thin air, for how else were those freaks supposed to survive? They couldn't get real jobs, not like normal people. Who would hire freaks like them?
"Mr. Dursley, there is someone here to see you."
Vernon looked up from the mess of papers to see his secretary, Lisa, standing by the open doorway of his office. She never closed the door when she was alone with him anymore, not after that one time he'd tried to be pleasant with her and she'd screamed about sexual harassment. He couldn't afford to lose his job, so he'd tried to explain it away as an accident and couldn't they forget all about it? She hadn't complained to Mr. Grunnings, but she had never been alone with him again either. That too was Potter's fault, making him think about women other than his wife, for until Potter had turned up to live with them, Vernon had never thought of straying.
"Does he have an appointment?" Vernon asked.
"No, but he says it's important."
Vernon looked again at the paperwork. He wasn't in the mood for paperwork so at least a visitor would be a good excuse as to why it wasn't done. "Very well, send him in."
Vernon sat down on the chair by his desk, his breath wheezing. "Fetch us some tea and biscuits, will you?"
Lisa nodded and scurried out, no doubt glad to be away from him. Pity he'd scared her off so soon, she was a pretty little thing. The man who entered was tall, but there was something else apart from his height... he seemed to fill up all the available space in the office so that Vernon was finding it difficult to breathe.
The man screamed money and he was wearing black in the middle of May: black trousers, black shirt, black jacket and black boots in some sort of strange leather; Vernon thought it might be crocodile or some such other exotic animal. Vernon sat up straighter. Maybe he was a rich property developer and wanted Grunnings to supply all their sites with drills. This could be his chance for promotion at last!
The stranger wasn't exactly handsome; his face was sallow and his nose was crooked, as if he'd been in a few fights and it had never healed properly. His dark hair was tied back at the nape of the neck like some sort of nancy-boy. But that didn't matter, if he had money, Vernon would be glad to take it from him.
"Take a seat, Mr. ...?"
"Snape. Severus Snape." But the man made no move to sit down.
"Snape? Snape? That name sounds familiar. Have we met before?"
"No, Dursley for if we'd met before you wouldn't be sitting here talking to me." Snape waved his hand towards the door, which slammed shut, the blind falling down to cover the glass. "You'd be dead."
"I'll scream!" Vernon warned, even as his mind shied from the fact that he was alone with one of those freaks who could quite possibly kill him without laying a finger on him.
"Go ahead, Dursley. Do you think I would allow anyone to hear you? This room is locked and silenced; you are alone with me and no one can help you."
"You don't scare me!" Vernon blustered, even as he felt the trickle of urine down his thigh.
"You are a vile waste of human flesh, Dursley, and you don't deserve to live."
***
"Checkmate!" Neville cried with a triumphant grin, his chessmen waving at him and then blowing raspberries towards Harry. "Are you okay, Harry? You seem a bit distracted today."
"Sorry, Neville. I just have a lot on my mind recently."
"Wedding jitters?"
"Not that, no. Master Snape went to visit my relatives today and I'm a bit worried what he might do to them."
Neville's mouth opened wide. "But you don't think – you don't think he'd really hurt them? I mean, I know he was a spy and everything, but he didn't really want to do all those horrible things, did he?"
"But he did join Voldemort of his own free will the first time around. I don't know if he enjoyed doing such things, but he did them at the time. He's very protective of me, especially now with the wolf-bond and he won't stand for people hurting me." Harry looked down at the chessboard; not sure what he was feeling. His chest hurt and he wasn't sure whether it was from worry about what Severus might do to the Dursleys or what doing such things might mean for their relationship. Could Harry stay with someone who could murder someone in cold blood? For that's what it would be if Severus killed the Dursleys. This wasn't like the duel between Severus and Greyback where it was kill or be killed.
Harry knew he was partly to blame. For the past few weeks his nightmares of the Dursleys' abuse had increased and every night Severus was the one who'd held him and soothed him until he'd fallen asleep again. Maybe if Harry had been stronger and could have stopped the nightmares Severus wouldn’t have been so gung-ho about getting revenge on the Dursleys for what they'd done to Harry. Harry couldn't say that he was over it, he knew he wasn't. But did he want the Dursleys dead?
"They hurt you, didn't they?" Neville asked quietly.
"Yeah, yeah, they did." Harry couldn't say any more. The most recent nightmare was still too fresh for him to talk about it out loud and if he lost it now, Harry knew what would happen: Madam Pomfrey or the closed ward.
Neville gripped one of the chessmen so hard his knuckles turned white. "Then they deserve everything they get."
***
It was late when Severus returned, but Harry had been too anxious to sleep. He was sitting up in bed with a book in his lap, but he couldn't concentrate on the words on the page. They merged into little black blurs and he’d just settled on giving up when he heard the key in the back door. Harry's heart thudded in his chest as he heard Severus' footsteps coming up the stairs. What would he say if Severus admitted that he'd killed the Dursleys? Harry loved Severus, he knew he did, but could he marry someone who felt it was okay to kill in cold blood?
Severus paused in the doorway, stopping short when he saw that Harry was still awake. "I thought you'd be asleep."
"You expected me to sleep after you told me the Dursleys deserved to die after what they did to me?"
Severus gaped at him. "Dear Merlin, you believed it, didn't you? That I'd go and murder them? Do you really think so little of me, Harry?"
"I didn't know what to think! You were so angry at them."
"And I still am." Severus marched over to the bed and sat down on it, wrapping Harry up in his arms. "They deserved to hurt for what they did to you. They hurt you so much, Harry, and it's still affecting you even now. I just wanted them to pay somehow, but I didn't kill them. Having me sent to Azkaban for murder is hardly going to help you, is it?"
"Is that the only reason you didn't do it, because there might be consequences?"
"No, Harry. I didn't do it because it's wrong."
"But what about in the battle? I killed Death Eaters and – and him. I'm a murderer. It's me who should be in Azkaban."
Severus hugged him even tighter. "No, Harry, no. That's different. In a battle it's kill or be killed, it's self-defence. But killing Muggles, or anyone in cold blood, that's wrong. Do you see the difference?"
"Not really, people are still dead." Harry kissed him. "I just wish none of it had ever happened."
"I know, Harry, but we'll just have to deal with it."
"So, what did you do to the Dursleys?"
"I just scared them a little, a few threats here and there. Vernon pissed his pants in fear when he realised I was a wizard."
"Really?" Harry asked, remembering all the times he'd been punished when he'd had accidents when they wouldn't let him out of his cupboard to go to the toilet. "Good! Did everyone see it?"
"Oh, yes, the whole office was laughing at him and his boss sent him home and suggested the stress of the job might be getting too much for him. He was ranting and raving about freaks and wizards and they sent for a doctor. As of tonight, Vernon Dursley is in the psychiatric ward of the local hospital. And apparently Mr. Grunnings' niece is a reporter, so it will be in the paper too."
"The paper? Oh, they'll never live that down," Harry said, knowing how much store Petunia set by what the neighbours thought.
"Indeed, Harry. So you see, they didn't need to be killed to make them pay."
"I'm sorry, Severus. I'm sorry I thought that of you."
"It's all right. Harry, I may have been a Death Eater, but the only time I've killed directly was during the last battle. Indirectly, I don't know. I knew that my potions were being used to torture and kill people, but I still made them anyway. It was only later that I started to feel guilty over what I had allowed to happen to those innocent people. One of the reasons I turned spy for Dumbledore – I wanted to atone."
"You have, Severus. I think you've paid for your mistakes."
"Thank you, Harry. Now enough of this maudlin talk, have you thought any more about a wedding date yet?"
"The sooner the better," Harry said.
"How soon?"
"How about the summer solstice?"
"That's barely a month away, will we have time to organise everything?"
Harry laughed. "Molly Weasley is helping. We'll have time."
TBC
Title: Apprenticed to Love 28/?
Author: Eriador117
Pairing: Snape/Harry
Rating: Adult
Summary: Six months after the end of the war Harry turns up Snape's apothecary to beg for a job; they both get more than they bargained for.
Warnings: Au, angst, hermaphroditism, mpreg, slash, abuse.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse; I just play in from time to time.
Beta'd by Rakina, thank you so much :)
Earlier Parts
Part 28
Vernon stared at the stack of paperwork on his desk and felt a headache coming on.
Twice now he'd been up for promotion and twice now he'd failed. The first time was when the brat had still been living with them and had scared Mrs. Mason witless with that ruddy owl! Vernon had lost the Mason contract and in turn the promotion that would have gone with it. It was the Potter brat's fault – it always was. Now Vernon had been turned down again even though Potter had disappeared one day and had never returned. It didn't matter that Potter was no longer living at Privet Drive, it was his fault that all of these things kept happening in Vernon's life. Potter was the reason he wasn't as successful as he should be. Potter had probably cast some sort of curse on them; yes! that was it, he and his magic were to blame. Vernon would quite gladly have wrung Potter's neck if he'd seen him right then. He should have done it when he had the chance, should have taken the infant to the river and drowned him like the unwanted cur he was! It was Potter's fault, all of it!
Vernon banged his hand on the desk, scattering papers everywhere, but he didn't really care. If it hadn't been for Dudley's school fees (he'd had to repeat a year at Smeltings after failing every exam, and that too was Potter's fault – Dudley had never got the attention he needed when he and Petunia had to keep such a close eye on Potter) Vernon would have walked out of Grunnings and never looked back. As it was he had to keep the money coming in for fees and uniforms – Dudley needed new ones every few months the way his weight was see-sawing – not to mention the company car and the villa in France. Money, money, money, it was all money! If the brat had still been around, Vernon was sure he could have conjured some out of thin air, for how else were those freaks supposed to survive? They couldn't get real jobs, not like normal people. Who would hire freaks like them?
"Mr. Dursley, there is someone here to see you."
Vernon looked up from the mess of papers to see his secretary, Lisa, standing by the open doorway of his office. She never closed the door when she was alone with him anymore, not after that one time he'd tried to be pleasant with her and she'd screamed about sexual harassment. He couldn't afford to lose his job, so he'd tried to explain it away as an accident and couldn't they forget all about it? She hadn't complained to Mr. Grunnings, but she had never been alone with him again either. That too was Potter's fault, making him think about women other than his wife, for until Potter had turned up to live with them, Vernon had never thought of straying.
"Does he have an appointment?" Vernon asked.
"No, but he says it's important."
Vernon looked again at the paperwork. He wasn't in the mood for paperwork so at least a visitor would be a good excuse as to why it wasn't done. "Very well, send him in."
Vernon sat down on the chair by his desk, his breath wheezing. "Fetch us some tea and biscuits, will you?"
Lisa nodded and scurried out, no doubt glad to be away from him. Pity he'd scared her off so soon, she was a pretty little thing. The man who entered was tall, but there was something else apart from his height... he seemed to fill up all the available space in the office so that Vernon was finding it difficult to breathe.
The man screamed money and he was wearing black in the middle of May: black trousers, black shirt, black jacket and black boots in some sort of strange leather; Vernon thought it might be crocodile or some such other exotic animal. Vernon sat up straighter. Maybe he was a rich property developer and wanted Grunnings to supply all their sites with drills. This could be his chance for promotion at last!
The stranger wasn't exactly handsome; his face was sallow and his nose was crooked, as if he'd been in a few fights and it had never healed properly. His dark hair was tied back at the nape of the neck like some sort of nancy-boy. But that didn't matter, if he had money, Vernon would be glad to take it from him.
"Take a seat, Mr. ...?"
"Snape. Severus Snape." But the man made no move to sit down.
"Snape? Snape? That name sounds familiar. Have we met before?"
"No, Dursley for if we'd met before you wouldn't be sitting here talking to me." Snape waved his hand towards the door, which slammed shut, the blind falling down to cover the glass. "You'd be dead."
"I'll scream!" Vernon warned, even as his mind shied from the fact that he was alone with one of those freaks who could quite possibly kill him without laying a finger on him.
"Go ahead, Dursley. Do you think I would allow anyone to hear you? This room is locked and silenced; you are alone with me and no one can help you."
"You don't scare me!" Vernon blustered, even as he felt the trickle of urine down his thigh.
"You are a vile waste of human flesh, Dursley, and you don't deserve to live."
***
"Checkmate!" Neville cried with a triumphant grin, his chessmen waving at him and then blowing raspberries towards Harry. "Are you okay, Harry? You seem a bit distracted today."
"Sorry, Neville. I just have a lot on my mind recently."
"Wedding jitters?"
"Not that, no. Master Snape went to visit my relatives today and I'm a bit worried what he might do to them."
Neville's mouth opened wide. "But you don't think – you don't think he'd really hurt them? I mean, I know he was a spy and everything, but he didn't really want to do all those horrible things, did he?"
"But he did join Voldemort of his own free will the first time around. I don't know if he enjoyed doing such things, but he did them at the time. He's very protective of me, especially now with the wolf-bond and he won't stand for people hurting me." Harry looked down at the chessboard; not sure what he was feeling. His chest hurt and he wasn't sure whether it was from worry about what Severus might do to the Dursleys or what doing such things might mean for their relationship. Could Harry stay with someone who could murder someone in cold blood? For that's what it would be if Severus killed the Dursleys. This wasn't like the duel between Severus and Greyback where it was kill or be killed.
Harry knew he was partly to blame. For the past few weeks his nightmares of the Dursleys' abuse had increased and every night Severus was the one who'd held him and soothed him until he'd fallen asleep again. Maybe if Harry had been stronger and could have stopped the nightmares Severus wouldn’t have been so gung-ho about getting revenge on the Dursleys for what they'd done to Harry. Harry couldn't say that he was over it, he knew he wasn't. But did he want the Dursleys dead?
"They hurt you, didn't they?" Neville asked quietly.
"Yeah, yeah, they did." Harry couldn't say any more. The most recent nightmare was still too fresh for him to talk about it out loud and if he lost it now, Harry knew what would happen: Madam Pomfrey or the closed ward.
Neville gripped one of the chessmen so hard his knuckles turned white. "Then they deserve everything they get."
***
It was late when Severus returned, but Harry had been too anxious to sleep. He was sitting up in bed with a book in his lap, but he couldn't concentrate on the words on the page. They merged into little black blurs and he’d just settled on giving up when he heard the key in the back door. Harry's heart thudded in his chest as he heard Severus' footsteps coming up the stairs. What would he say if Severus admitted that he'd killed the Dursleys? Harry loved Severus, he knew he did, but could he marry someone who felt it was okay to kill in cold blood?
Severus paused in the doorway, stopping short when he saw that Harry was still awake. "I thought you'd be asleep."
"You expected me to sleep after you told me the Dursleys deserved to die after what they did to me?"
Severus gaped at him. "Dear Merlin, you believed it, didn't you? That I'd go and murder them? Do you really think so little of me, Harry?"
"I didn't know what to think! You were so angry at them."
"And I still am." Severus marched over to the bed and sat down on it, wrapping Harry up in his arms. "They deserved to hurt for what they did to you. They hurt you so much, Harry, and it's still affecting you even now. I just wanted them to pay somehow, but I didn't kill them. Having me sent to Azkaban for murder is hardly going to help you, is it?"
"Is that the only reason you didn't do it, because there might be consequences?"
"No, Harry. I didn't do it because it's wrong."
"But what about in the battle? I killed Death Eaters and – and him. I'm a murderer. It's me who should be in Azkaban."
Severus hugged him even tighter. "No, Harry, no. That's different. In a battle it's kill or be killed, it's self-defence. But killing Muggles, or anyone in cold blood, that's wrong. Do you see the difference?"
"Not really, people are still dead." Harry kissed him. "I just wish none of it had ever happened."
"I know, Harry, but we'll just have to deal with it."
"So, what did you do to the Dursleys?"
"I just scared them a little, a few threats here and there. Vernon pissed his pants in fear when he realised I was a wizard."
"Really?" Harry asked, remembering all the times he'd been punished when he'd had accidents when they wouldn't let him out of his cupboard to go to the toilet. "Good! Did everyone see it?"
"Oh, yes, the whole office was laughing at him and his boss sent him home and suggested the stress of the job might be getting too much for him. He was ranting and raving about freaks and wizards and they sent for a doctor. As of tonight, Vernon Dursley is in the psychiatric ward of the local hospital. And apparently Mr. Grunnings' niece is a reporter, so it will be in the paper too."
"The paper? Oh, they'll never live that down," Harry said, knowing how much store Petunia set by what the neighbours thought.
"Indeed, Harry. So you see, they didn't need to be killed to make them pay."
"I'm sorry, Severus. I'm sorry I thought that of you."
"It's all right. Harry, I may have been a Death Eater, but the only time I've killed directly was during the last battle. Indirectly, I don't know. I knew that my potions were being used to torture and kill people, but I still made them anyway. It was only later that I started to feel guilty over what I had allowed to happen to those innocent people. One of the reasons I turned spy for Dumbledore – I wanted to atone."
"You have, Severus. I think you've paid for your mistakes."
"Thank you, Harry. Now enough of this maudlin talk, have you thought any more about a wedding date yet?"
"The sooner the better," Harry said.
"How soon?"
"How about the summer solstice?"
"That's barely a month away, will we have time to organise everything?"
Harry laughed. "Molly Weasley is helping. We'll have time."
TBC
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