Chapter 25 Christmas Eve
Harry spent most of Christmas Eve with Ron and Hermione playing various games both Muggle and Wizarding. The promised snowstorm had blown in with a bang and it was far too cold to go outside. Nevertheless the day seemed to be flying by.
He'd enjoyed getting to know the Granger at last. Having been raised as a Muggle he understood the cultural shock they were going through, and both he and Hermione had a wonderful time introducing them to some of amenities of the Wizarding World. Even something as simple as lighting their bedroom when they had gone up to bed had proven daunting to them since they had no idea what to do without the presence of a light switch.
Hermione had given them several small floating Wizarding lights so that they wouldn't have to worry about the candles. She then used a charm to rig them to turn on and off automatically whenever one of the Granger's clapped their hands. That idea sent both the Grangers and Harry into fits of giggles while the rest of the household looked on in confusion.
"It's a Muggle thing," Harry had simply told them, not certain he wanted to go into an explanation of how the Muggle "Clapper" worked. Arthur would be far too keen on acquiring one for himself.
He'd also enjoyed the History lesson the night before, though it had been somewhat disturbing to discover that Snape was in fact his 'soul mate'. They hardly got along the way soul mates did in all those silly romance novels his aunt used to rave about. He was fairly certain that he did not truly understand the concept. Still he had learned more from Remus the previous evening than he had in the all the years in Professor Binn's class. He wondered if Remus would ever be allowed to return to teaching at Hogwarts. He was a natural at it, and seemed to love doing it.
By late afternoon he found himself staring somewhat anxiously out the front window at the road beyond.
"Something wrong, Harry?" Ron asked from the couch where he was currently trouncing Sirius in a game of Wizarding Chess.
"Severus promised he'd come today," Harry explained. "I thought he'd be here by now." It was already growing dark and he was concerned that the man might have forgotten his promise. He was surprisingly eager to see the man - found that despite all the fun he'd had, he missed his sarcastic humor.
"Snape's coming?" Sirius exclaimed, looking horrified at the though. Harry turned around and glared at his godfather.
"I told you he was," he reminded him.
"I thought you were joking," Sirius grumbled. "Just what we all need - Ebenezer Scrooge to brighten up our lives."
"Padfoot, you promised you'd behave," Remus, who was just entered the room from the kitchen, reminded him.
"Did I?' Sirius asked doubtfully. "That doesn't sound like something I'd do. Are you sure?"
"Yes," Remus stated emphatically. "If I remember correctly you said something along the lines of 'I promise I'll be nice to Snape if you let me sleep on the bed'."
His words were rather unexpected, and both Ron and Harry nearly choked on the startled laughter. Sirius on the other hand looked quite put out by the statement, much to Harry's surprise. "Yeah, but I didn't mean for you to sleep on the couch instead," he grumbled, which just made Harry snicker all the louder.
Remus just shrugged as he sat down in one of the armchairs near the fireplace. "You didn't clarify. And a promise is a promise."
"Fine," Sirius huffed as he moved his queen across the chessboard, only to have Ron's bishop smash her to pieces on the next move. "Oh, see now I've lost the game because of Snape!" he exclaimed.
"You were losing the game before Snape was ever mentioned," Ron pointed out. "You're a terrible player."
"I'm a very good player," Sirius argued. "I just don't play well like this."
"Like what?" Ron asked bewilderedly.
"Thinking about all the moves," Sirius explained. "I prefer the one second rule."
"One second rule?" Ron frowned over at Harry who just shrugged. Remus chuckled and shook his head.
"One second between moves," Sirius told him. "If you don't move your piece inside that one second you forfeit your move and your opponent gets to go again."
"But that's . . . that's. . . ." Ron stared down at the chessboard in something akin to horror. "How can you plan anything like that?"
"You can't," Sirius grinned. "You just have to go with your gut instinct. It makes the games a lot more interesting."
"I've never heard of anything so silly," Ron huffed.
Remus chuckled. "Albus attempted to get the different houses to play chess together in the evenings when we were in school. Unfortunately forcing a Gryffindor and Slytherin to sit in silence for a long period of time while playing a game proved to be damn near impossible. About five minutes into the games Sirius or James or Severus or Lucius Malfoy would inevitably blow a fuse and the evening would end in bloodshed. That's when Sirius came up with the one second rule - the games were over before that five minute window passed and we all stopped the endless streams of detentions Professor McGonagall was giving us."
"Who usually won?" Harry asked curiously. Somehow he was having a hard time picturing Sirius playing chess against Lucius Malfoy.
"Actually they were all pretty well matched," Remus said thoughtfully. "But inevitably Peter ended up winning more matches than anyone else. He was remarkably quick when it came to thinking on his feet."
"That little rat," Sirius growled, his features darkening with the reminder of their one time friend. "I should have realized there was something wrong with him back then."
To that, Remus had no response.
The crackle of magic sounded sharply outside as someone Apparated just outside the wards to the Burrow. Harry immediately turned to look out the window and saw a tall dark figure just outside the gate that led up the road to the house. He knew immediately by the stance and the long striding walk the figure took up the walkway that it was Snape.
Grinning, Harry leaped up from his seat and ran to the front door, throwing it open. As the warm light from the house spilled out into the icy winter darkness, Severus looked up in surprise, as if startled to be greeted so openly by anyone.
Harry just smiled at him, taking in his appearance with more appreciation than he had expected. For once the man was not wearing his traditional black robes. He was dressed more like he had been the night they had gone to Briarwood Hall for dinner - leather pants and boots, a white shirt with a dark, wine-colored doublet, and a matching cloak that was lined with silver fur. Harry took a point of noticing that his hair was clean and wild-looking - one compliment and he had never gone back to his former style much to Harry's delight. The last time someone had sullenly referred to him as the 'greasy git' Harry had taken pains to point out that he was far from greasy looking these days. Indeed, while he was not what one would traditionally call handsome, Harry thought he was at least dashing looking. Though the idea that he was even remotely interested in his bond-mate's appearance disturbed him on levels he didn't want to explore.
"Happy Christmas!" he greeted as Severus made his way onto the porch.
He saw Snape's gaze rake over him, moving swiftly from head to toe. "Happy Christmas," he greeted mildly, though there was warmth in his eyes that hadn't been there last time Harry had spoken to him. "I see you are still in one piece."
"Yep," Harry agreed impishly. "I've limited myself to five death defying acts a day just to make you happy."
"Only five?" Severus mused. "I'm touched. I can't even begin to imagine the boredom you must be suffering."
Harry nodded in agreement. "It's been difficult. But Mrs. Weasley assures me that it builds character."
He could see the humor gleaming in Severus' eyes. "Character? Is that what it's called these days? When I was your age I believed it was referred to as idiocy."
Harry just shrugged happily. "Oh, you know young people these days. No respect for the English language."
At that moment Molly Weasley appeared beside Harry, smiling warmly at the man on her doorstep. "Severus! Welcome. Come in out of the cold."
"Thank you, Molly," Severus nodded as he entered the Burrow for the first time. Harry noticed a small trunk floating calmly behind him. Molly immediately flicked her wand and sent it dancing up the stairs to Percy's room. There was a yelp of surprise as someone barely managed to dodge out of its way.
The others came in then to greet Snape. Arthur and Remus were openly genuine in their welcome, and both Bill and Charlie came forward to shake his hand politely. Percy positively gushed as he welcomed him to the Burrow, remarking that Severus had always been one of his most favorite teachers. Ron, the twins and Ginny just looked at their elder brother with baffled looks of horror on their faces.
Sirius and Severus nodded to each other in acknowledgement, but didn't exchange a greeting beyond that. Still it was better that open bloodshed, Harry mused. The Grangers were both polite but somewhat awkward in their greeting, and Harry knew they were still trying to deal with the fact that one of their daughter's friends had been forcibly married off to this man only a few months earlier. It was obvious that they didn't know what to expect from him - certainly Hermione's descriptions of him from prior years did little to put their minds at ease over what sort of person he might be.
Throughout it all Severus was surprisingly polite - for him anyway. He refrained from openly insulting anyone, and was remarkably gracious to both Molly and Arthur. Indeed he had brought a host gift for the two of them - a bottle of wine which Arthur particularly had exclaimed over. From Arthur's reaction and Sirius raised eyebrow (a sign that he was impressed but not going to admit it) Harry gathered that the wine was some rare vintage that the Weasley family were not likely to see often.
Christmas Eve dinner was a lively affair with sixteen people crowded around the dinner table. It was exactly what Harry had always imagined a large family Christmas would be like, and he knew he spent most of the evening grinning somewhat foolishly at all the people around him. The twins, having discovered that Sirius and Remus were in fact the infamous Marauders spent most of the evening exchanging pranks with them, though thankfully they were under strict orders from Molly to confine their jokes to the four of them. The rest of the guest were spared, and were able to enjoy the results all the more. Seeing both Sirius and Remus with pink hair while the twins sported feathers on their heads and long, odd looking donkey ears made Harry laugh until his sides hurt. Luckily all four of them were rather good-natured about the whole thing, though the Grangers didn't appear to know what to think.
Conversations after dinner were just as interesting as well. From what Harry had figured out from Wizarding society, Severus did not move in the same social circles as the Weasleys. Neither did Sirius for that matter, but his status as a wanted criminal currently altered his situation. As such Arthur seemed quite eager to talk to Severus about various political topics currently considered hot by the Ministry. It seemed that the Snape family had a say in who became the next Minister of Magic.
Harry interrupted at that, confused by the inference, as were the Grangers. "I thought the Minister of Magic was voted into office," he stated. "Isn't that what all this nonsense about trying to adopt me was all about? Fudge was trying to curry votes."
"He is voted into office," Remus agreed. "Or rather someone will be when the next election rolls around." He'd already been told that the next election was nearly a year away - Halloween of the following year. Harry thought it was awfully early in the season for any of the candidates to be campaigning so hard. He'd been under the impression that the election was imminent. But as was so often the case, things were done differently in the Wizarding World.
"It's one of the reasons people are campaigning so early, Harry," Remus continued. "If it were simply a matter of one person, one vote, things would be a bit simpler. But we aren't a democracy as the Muggles understand it."
"You mean not all your citizens get to vote?" Michael looked shocked at the idea.
"Not all of our citizens should vote," Severus informed him. "Take Giants for example - most of them are not even capable of writing their own names. Should they be required to understand the intricacies of an election? Or what about the entire Veela nation - by law our elections must occur on the night of Samhain, but all full-blooded Veela go into heat on that night. They would not be capable of casting a vote."
Harry found himself blushing at the idea of anyone going into heat and glanced over at Bill. Seeing his gaze Bill just shook his head. "She's only half Veela," he assured him. "Consequently the Delecour family gets to cast a vote for a very large group of people."
"Votes are cast by heads of family," Remus told them. "A single family gets a certain number of votes depending on their land holdings, their magical powers, and the number of their vassals under them. So one of the things the various candidates for Minister are doing is attempting to influence the alliances between the lesser families. If they can move the vassals from one family holding to another they can influence the number of votes being cast in their favor. As near as I know the Snapes have a total of forty-three votes they get to cast in this election."
"Forty-seven," Severus corrected. "We acquired the Mirwanden vote when my brother's son was born - he's the only male heir to his mother's family line." He glanced at Harry. "Julliana," he explained, reminding Harry of Claudius Snape's ditsy wife.
"What about the rest of you?" Michael asked curiously. "Do you all have votes?"
Arthur laughed at that. "While my family is an old name, we don't have much land to our name. For the last fifty years we've been allied with the Dumbledore family - our vote goes as Albus sees fit to cast it. "
"I'm the last of my line and my family were neither pure blooded nor landed," Remus explained. "I have no vote at all. Nor any value as a vassal." Harry frowned uncomfortably at that, not certain he liked hearing Remus refer to himself in such a manner.
"What about you?" Michael asked Sirius - his curiosity about the rather infamous criminal had been apparent the last few days.
Sirius frowned. "The Black family has forty-one votes, but unfortunately while I've been locked up in Azkaban my cousin Narcissa Malfoy has been casting my votes along with a few others that should not by rights be hers. It's given the Malfoys an unfair advantage over all the other families. Lucius has forty-nine votes to his name. Add all the others that Narcissa has been claiming, and they have become one of the most powerful families around. That is why the Ministry is so quick to look the other way when Lucius does something wrong."
"But isn't he a Death Eater?" Anna exclaimed in horror. "Are you saying that the Death Eaters get a say in who is elected Minister?"
Severus nodded. "The Zabinis, the Averys, the Notts, the Crabbes, the Goyles and the Lestranges are all supporters of the Dark Lord, and each of them have numerous votes to cast."
"Even still?" Harry asked curiously. Mr. Crabbe and Goyle were both dead, and Mr. Zabini was locked up in Azkaban.
"Crabbe's and Goyle's wives will cast their votes, and Blaise Zabini will cast his father's vote," Severus nodded.
"What about Muggleborn?" Hermione broke in. "If Muggleborns are new to the Wizarding World, how do they get a vote?"
"They don't," Severus said simply, raising one dark eyebrow. "Perhaps you can see why there is such conflict over the issue between Muggleborns and purebloods. It's very easy for purebloods to pass legislation against them - those that disagree with such prejudices generally have a war on their hands to prevent such laws. It's one of the reasons why we are at war now."
"So there's absolutely no way for a Muggleborn to gain a vote?" Hermione huffed.
"Of course there's a way," Severus informed her. "It just doesn't happen very often. I told you, votes come from land holdings, magical powers, or vassals. If a Muggleborn can acquire either land holdings or vassals they automatically get a vote. Baring that, if a Muggleborn reaches a certain level of magical power they are automatically granted by a vote by Magical Acknowledgement of the Wisengamut. But that does not happen very often. When you come of age you can petition for a vote - and I would guess you'll probably get it. But one vote alone has very little sway in the political arena - you would be better suited to choose a family to align yourself with and add your vote to theirs."
Despite his words, Harry could see something rather calculating in Hermione's eyes and he couldn't help wondering if they were going to see the emergence of a new organization like S.P.E.W. in the near future.
Something suddenly occurred to him. "Wait a minute," Harry cut in. "What about me? Does my family have any sort of a vote?"
"The Potters had thirty-three votes," Sirius informed him. "Unfortunately while you were underage, those votes should have been mine as your god father - but once again went to Narcissa Malfoy."
"The Malfoys have been casting my votes?" Harry was incensed at the idea. "They help Voldemort murder my parents and then get to claim my father's votes after he's dead?"
Sirius nodded, a pained look on his face.
"Do they still get them?" Harry demanded turning toward Snape.
"No," he quickly assured him. "You're considered an adult now. The votes are yours."
"Mine or yours?" he asked for clarification wondering if Snape was considered the head of his household.
"If you are asking if I get to cast your votes for you, the answer is no," he replied. "The Potter line is a sovereign one and is considered equal to the Snapes. We have what is viewed as an alliance and everyone will expect us to vote the same way. But you could technically vote against me if you wished. However, if we are to have a single heir between us, then he or she would gain both sets of votes when we die."
"A single heir?" Harry blanched for a moment and looked at Hermione with a sudden horrifying thought. Hermione, well used to his questions, just looked at him disbelief.
"Don't be an idiot, Harry," she exclaimed and reached over and whapped him upside the head. A wave of relief washed over him, and the twins began roaring with laughter, the only two people besides Hermione who had figured out what direction his thoughts had gone. All the other stared in confusion. Finally Fred took pity on them.
"Harry was afraid you were about to inform him that wizards can get pregnant."
That set the others off immediately, Ron and Sirius in particular falling out of their seats they were laughing so hard. Severus just rolled his eyes and sent a disbelieving stare at Harry. "Designating an heir is not something you should be worrying about right now," he informed Harry quietly below the laughter. Harry just nodded in relief.
"What about Sirius' vote then," Harry asked once the laughter had died down. "Since he's my godfather can I claim his vote until he's been cleared by the Ministry? I don't like the idea of the Malfoys having anything to do with us."
"That's not a bad idea," Sirius agreed thoughtfully. He glanced at Snape. "It's a legitimate claim, especially since he's a legal adult now. He's already my designated heir. All you'd have to do is get my will from Gringotts to prove it. He'd need to file the appropriate documents with the Ministry, but I'm sure you can help him with that. It would substantially weaken the Malfoys."
Severus nodded. "I'll speak with Albus about it when I return to Hogwarts."
They spoke a while longer about the political climate in Wizarding Britain, but eventually Molly ushered them all off to bed for the night. Harry felt a moment of uncertainty as he followed Ron into his bedroom - he couldn't help wonder if he was expected by anyone to sleep in Percy's room with Severus now that he was in the house. But no one said anything to him as he bid them all good night. He had to put up with a bit of ribbing from Ron over the idea that wizards could get pregnant as they settled down for the night. Ron fell silent for a while but Harry could tell he was not asleep.
"Harry?" he asked hesitantly. Harry rolled over in the dark so that he could stare across the room at Ron. Without his glasses on Ron was little more than a dark blob to him. "You do know about that sort of thing, right?" Ron asked.
"What sort of thing?" Harry frowned.
"You know . . ." Ron shifted in his bed as if he were uncomfortable. "Sex," he finally whispered. That he had said the word at all was surprising - Harry had come to the conclusion that the Wizarding World was a great deal more prudish than the Muggle world when in came to such discussions.
"Oh," Harry replied uncomfortably. Truthfully, he didn't know much about it. He'd figured out the basics from the few glimpses he'd been allowed to see of Muggle Television. And there was a lot one could pick up from inferences just by listening to the other boys talk. But if Ron was asking if he'd ever actually been sat down and told about such things - then the answer was no. The closest he'd ever come to such a conversation was the day his Aunt Petunia had found Dudley touching himself in the bathroom. For whatever reason, instead of punishing Dudley, she'd beaten Harry with a wooden cooking spoon until his back was black and blue with marks. Though he had only been ten at the time, he'd been given to understand that such behavior in Dudley had been caused because Harry was a freak. He'd since figured out the truth, but not because anyone had ever explained it to him.
"Mom and Dad did the whole 'talk' thing with me," Ron explained. "Which was bloody awful let me tell you. But afterwards Bill and Charlie cleared every thing up. Brothers are good for some things."
He'd heard about the 'talk'. Apparently it was something that all children experienced with their parents at some point in time. He had never been subjected to it of course.
"Did anyone ever give you the talk?" Ron asked hesitantly.
"No," Harry admitted. "But I figured it out for myself - the basics anyway."
Even in the dark he could tell Ron was frowning. "Then how come you thought it might be possible for wizards to get pregnant?"
Harry felt himself flushing at that. It occurred to him suddenly that if Ron, who wasn't always the quickest person around, had wondered that, no doubt every single person in the room tonight were wondering the same thing by now.
"Okay, so maybe I don't know everything," Harry mumbled. "I'm going to be tormented the next few days aren't I? Everyone is going to want to have this talk with me."
Ron was silent for a few moments as if trying to decide how to answer. "Probably," he agreed.
"Great," Harry sighed.
"Who'd you prefer?" Ron asked. "I can ask Bill or Charlie if you'd like. Or if you want I can tell you - though to be honest with you I don't know about . . . well, you know. . ."
But Harry didn't know. "What?"
"You know," Ron said, obviously embarrassed. "Two guys."
Two guys? It took Harry a moment to figure out that he was in fact talking about him and Snape. "Oh," he said with some surprise. "Do you think that I'm . . ." he had no idea what the Wizarding word for gay was, but obvious Ron caught the inference.
"Well, whether you are not, Harry, the fact is you're married to a man."
"Yeah, but we're not. . .I mean we don't. . ." Harry broke off, not certain how to finish that sentence.
"Yeah, but sooner or later, don't you think that. . ." Ron broke off, and Harry wasn't certain how he had intended to finish that conversation. Did he mean to say that sooner or later he expected Harry would want something intimate from Snape, or that sooner or later Snape would expect Harry to act more like a spouse was supposed to? He got the impression from the nasty comments from the Slytherin students, not to mention Minister Fudge's and Julius' accusation that Snape actually had the right to demand such things from him. Harry had just assumed that he never would.
Then there was also the issue of Sonara Sinistra. Harry had finally come to the conclusion that he didn't like the idea of infidelity in a marriage - even one as bizarre as his. But if that was the case didn't that mean that sooner or later, deep down, he expected things to change between him and Snape? Surely he didn't expect to live his entire life in celibacy - and he could hardly expect Snape to.
"Huh," Harry stated, feeling somewhat stumped at the thought. "I never thought about that."
"That's kind of what I figured," Ron sighed. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not right now," Harry told him. "Let me think about it for a while, okay."
"No problem," Ron assured him, and he sounded vaguely relieved. "But just so you know, Charlie is a good one to talk to. He won't tease you or anything - Bill on the other hand is liable to show you visual aids in the form of shadow puppets - and that's just not right."
It took Harry a long time to stop snickering before he fell to sleep.