Chapter Text
Prologue: Fire and Flame
There was a crash as the fireplace in the living room flared and Harry Potter emerged, coughing and sneezing only to fall flat on his arse. Groaning, the young man stood up, shaking his head to clear the vague sick feeling he seemed to get whenever he traveled by floo. Then he pulled himself together, shook the dust off his robes and went to look for his partner.
It was just as well no one had been there to see him arrive. Harry could never understand why he of all people always had so much trouble traveling by floo . One would think that the person who vanquished Voldemort would have what it took to climb out of a chimney with a little elegance, but he didn't. It was the same with apparating. He never just popped up, like a young god. Most of the time he stumbled in like a drunk teenager, which didn't give the best impression.
"Severus, I'm back!" Harry called, his voice carrying through the cozy house in Spinners End. Severus had worked hard and spared no expense to transform his parents' house into a wonderful home, gleaming yet traditional. Harry was glad he got to live there and gladder still to leave behind the empty dust-filled spaces of the Black House in Grimmald Place.
"Severus, I said I'm home!" Harry called again, running up the stairs to see if his beloved was upstairs.
Nothing. There wasn't a sound to be heard. Neither Severus nor their house elf came out to greet Harry, now that he had finally come home after three long weeks in Paris, where he had done a training course.
The time in Paris had been demanding but necessary if he wanted to get anywhere at his job. The test, which he'd passed with flying colors at the end of the three weeks gave him the credentials he needed to train incoming recruits and set their exams, so that he could decide who was ready to be an auror.
Harry was thrilled with his decision to switch from healer training to the auror corps. Although he'd enjoyed being able to work with Severus at the hospital, he'd never really liked the profession. It took a toll on him that he couldn't save all their patients, a deep psychological toll.
Of course in his new career the same was true. He couldn't save everyone. But at least he never had to see the people for long that he rescued or put in jail. Perpetrator or victim, they were at a certain remove and he needed that.
He didn't want to let anyone close to him anymore, apart from his dearest friends and Severus; he just couldn't bear the pain.
As a healer he was always working himself to death, trying to heal all wounds and make each and every patient well again. But of course he never succeeded and it ended up making him depressed and angry. One day he'd felt pushed to the limits of what his soul could bear and that was when he decided enough was enough.
Voldemort's death and his part in it might have played a role in making him so sensitive. Since then he was just happy if he could get through a day without friction or complications. He just wanted to make things right, to overcome.
It was the opposite of what awaited him when he worked at the hospital. More and more people died in the aftermath of the war and he could do nothing about it. The only good thing about his time at St.Mungo's was that he'd gotten to know his old potions professor better and learned to love him. Saying "yes" to his relationship with Severus was the best decision he'd ever made.
A glance at the clock told Harry that he was earlier than planned. Probably Severus was still with his patients, whom he always personally informed of all the risks and complications of their potions regimens. Harry knew Severus was always scrupulously conscientious about anything to do with his work.
Since he would have to wait for his welcome home, Harry began to take out all the things he'd brought for Ron and Hermione's children, putting them in the weekend bag he would take when he found the time to visit his friends. He was sure Hugo and Rose would love the French joke and novelty items he'd found. Hermione, on the other hand, was going to wish him to the devil once they'd shared them with their uncle George.
Filled with happy anticipation of finally seeing his dearest Severus again, he took a refreshing shower, shaving his entire body till he was smooth all over the way Severus liked, before going downstairs and starting on dinner.
To celebrate his return he made Severus' favorite dishes, setting the little table in the bright breakfast room with loving care. It was the room Severus' mother had liked best when she lived there. It was painted in light colors and seemed to catch the light, relaxing and inviting. Both Harry and Severus loved to take their meals their together and share the events of the day.
The night wore on and Harry began slowly but surely to worry. Severus was always home by this time! He sat there hour after hour by himself until he couldn't take it any more. Something must have happened; Sev always told him if he had to change their plans. The year before Severus had allowed his laboratory to be hooked up to the floo network, so that he could come quickly to the hospital if he was needed. Determined, he went back to the living room, grabbed some floo powder from the bowl on the fireplace and sent himself directly to Severus' laboratory in St. Mungo's.
Harry arrived, a little out of breath, and met the shocked faces of two men. One was Severus, sitting at his desk, apparently in intense conversation with the other man, a stranger. He was smiling, but Harry quickly saw the smile was not for him.
The look he got from Severus was one he usually saved for people he didn't know. It wasn't as if he'd never come to Severus' lab unannounced like this before, but this time apparently it really bothered him.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Severus. I just wanted to ask how much longer you'd need?"
"As you can see, I'm having an important conversation. I can't tell you just when I'll be done. It will certainly be a while longer," came the answer from his love. He sounded so impatient, he might as well have been drumming his fingers on the table.
"Oh that's fine, Sev! I made us something to eat but it can wait until you get back home. I have a lot to tell you. Paris was great and I'm just going to..."
"Can't these trivialities wait until I"m finished here?" Severus' cold voice interrupted Harry.
"Of course. I'm sorry." Harry couldn't hide the tremor in his voice. Severus hadn't spoken to him in that distant tone since his school days.
Confused, Harry tried to summon his good manners and greet the strange man whom he had disliked the instant he saw him. The man was trouble, Harry could tell, but he forced himself to address him.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mister..."
Harry never got to finish his sentence before he was promptly interrupted.
"Harry, please. You're bothering us when we have something important to discuss. I told you I would be some time, so take me at my word and go home!"
Harry said nothing, just shot Severus a hurt look and left. He couldn't understand why Severus was treating him so coldly and calling him out as if he'd done something wrong. Sadly, he sat at the kitchen table and waited for his partner's return
He could still feel the other man's eyes on his back, the smug arrogant eyes of this person he didn't know and didn't want to know. Harry shook his head as he imagined what might have caused Severus' change of behavior. Nothing came to mind. Nothing had happened before he left for Paris. He had no idea why Severus was so distant now.
The hours went by and Harry sat and waited them away again. Everything he cooked sat, untouched under a stasis spell in the morning room and waited, too.
At 11 O'clock Harry gave up and got ready for bed. He wasn't hungry, anyway. Sleepless, he lay in bed and listened to the minutes tick by until, by midnight, when there was still no Severus, he had once more worked himself into a lather.
Back in Severus' office at St. Mungos all was still and dark. Only the moon lit the room, bathing it in a surreal glow. Harry glanced at Severus' desk where a discarded receipt had caught his eye. With a turn of his wand he cast a light and held the paper up to read it.
Ten O'clock... Slytherin Palace...Hastings
Harry couldn't imagine what all was going on here, but at least it explained Severus' absence. Slytherin Palace was a well known restaurant in Wizarding London, renowned for its excellent food.
Sighing, Harry went back home. He sat in the morning room looking sadly at all the dishes that he had prepared for nothing. He called out in frustration for the house elf who seemed to have been hiding somewhere the whole time.
"Kreacher!"
With a pop the elf appeared. He gave his master a limp bow, a scornful look on his face. Harry knew that Kreacher was snobbish and conceited, and that he couldn't stand Harry, feeling that a half blood hardly deserved his service. He only obeyed Harry because he had to and then only when his commands were irrefutably direct.
In a bored voice that made his feelings clear, he sneered,
"You called, Master Harry Potter? What command could you have at this hour?"
"I would like you to clear away the dishes in the breakfast room. Unfortunately we never got to dinner."
"As you wish, Master Harry Potter. As it happens, Kreacher won't be able to take care of it until the morning, as Kreacher is helping Master Snape right now."
And with another "Pop" the elf had disappeared again, without waiting to be dismissed.
"I'm really too easy on him," muttered Harry to himself, as he climbed the stairs to his bedroom. He was going to have to find out what was up with Severus later. Exhausted he threw himself on the soft down pillows and gave himself over to a restless sleep.
There followed confusing dreams. Dreams of the strange man who kept holding him back from his love. The whole night he tossed from one side to the other, soaked with sweat and filled with the darkest feelings. He screamed and screamed, but his love was always too far away.
The look that Severus had given him burned in his heart. The cold that showed in his eyes, the distance that Harry couldn't span.
Usually, he was proud of his intuition, but this time it frightened him.