Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/612668.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Major_Character_Death, Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Harry_Potter_-_Fandom
  Relationship:
      Severus_Snape/Harry_Potter
  Character:
      Harry_Potter, Severus_Snape, Voldemort, Neville_Longbottom, Nagini,
      Fawkes
  Additional Tags:
      chan_(17), Lemon, Battle_of_Hogwarts, AR, EWE
  Collections:
      Death_Stories, Crossgenerational_Slash, Snape_survives_Nagini
  Stats:
      Published: 2012-12-28 Words: 3450
****** Neither Can Live While the Other Survives ******
by Sheogorath
Summary
     What if Harry's nosing into Snape's pensieve had had a different
     outcome? An alternative ending for Deathly Hallows that very nearly
     ends the same way.
Notes
     None of you guys will ever know just how close this story came to
     being a PWP! I've copyrighted only that which I didn't nick directly
     from J.K. Rowling's book.
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Neither Can Live While the Other Survives. *****
After destroying Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem in the inferno that the Room of
Requirement had become, Harry Potter parted from his two best friends, Ron
Weasley and Hermione Granger, and strode purposefully towards the dungeons of
Hogwarts. Although he knew that the wizard he was seeking, Professor Severus
Snape, had apparently escaped from the school by jumping from a window in the
headmaster's study, Harry had a strong suspicion that this was more to escape
Voldemort than it was to escape justice, that the man was probably hiding out
in his former haunts so he could continue to aid the Order of the Phoenix and
his Slytherins wherever possible. Not long after reaching the dungeons, Harry
discovered that his supposition was correct.
"Well, Potter," came the deep, rich tones of the headmaster. "Looking for
trouble again, I see."
"Actually, sir," Harry explained, "I was looking for you. Were you wearing an
invisibility cloak?"
"Like yourself? No, I have no need of such artefacts. Albus taught me his own
method of remaining unseen in return for the last ever service I performed for
him."
"When you euthanised him, you mean?"
Severus looked at the younger wizard, the surprise he felt not revealed by his
expression. "I am glad that you have worked it out at last, Potter. Now, why
were you seeking me?"
"Well, sir - Severus - I finally know what the prophecy means, and I want a
chance to experience what I never will otherwise."
"And what is that, pray tell?"
Harry hung his head for a moment, then brought it back up with a light of
determination in his eyes.
"Will you make love to me?" he asked.
Severus was taken aback for just a second before he asked, "First of all, do
you even love me? Second, how do you know if I'm a homosexual?"
"Well," Harry replied, "to answer your second question first, it takes one to
know one. As to the other, I've loved you for a couple of years now. I mean
yes, at first it was just a schoolboy crush that I developed after I learned
that you aren't all bad, and of course it was destroyed by your subsequent
actions. But then I figured out exactly what you'd done and why, and the
feelings I'd had returned more strongly than before. I love you and I want to
make love with you. Will you let me?"
The headmaster was so stunned by these revelations that all he could do was to
stand there in utter silence. Harry loved him. Harry wanted to have sex with
him. There was a possibility that the love he had harboured since that day
about two and a half years previously was going to be returned in the most
expressive form he knew.
                             *** - Flashback - ***
Severus re-entered his office and looked around in slight bewilderment. Where
had the Potter boy gone? Then the man walked towards the pensieve on top of his
desk and looked inside, immediately becoming incandescent with rage at what he
saw there. Potter had actually seen fit to intrude in one of the worst memories
of his schooldays, and was probably laughing even now as the fifteen-year-old
Severus was hung by his ankles, his robes falling over his head and revealing
the dingy grey underwear that was the best the abused teen had. The boy would
have to be taught that such an invasion of his teacher's privacy would not be
tolerated in the slightest. Thinking these things, the Potions professor
entered the pensieve.
"Having fun?" As he said this, Severus grabbed Potter's upper arm and hauled
him bodily from the pensieve, his anger making him far more rough than he would
have been otherwise. Then, once he and Potter were stood in the office again,
the older wizard continued.
"So," he said, struggling to push down his fury enough that he could speak
without shouting. "So... been enjoying yourself, Potter?"
"N-no," the Potter boy had the temerity to lie as he fought to free his arm
from the Potions master's grasp.
"Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?" Severus continued mercilessly.
"No." This time, the denial was less hesitant and spoken with greater
conviction.
Surprised, Severus released Potter's arm, allowing the boy to rub some feeling
back into it as he then said, "I looked in your pensieve because I wanted to
find out something about the Department of Mysteries, but then I saw my father
as a living, breathing person, and at first I thought he was brilliant.
Popular, admired, happy, all the things I've always wanted to be. But when I
saw him cast a spell on someone else for a reason other than self-defence, all
I felt was disgust and betrayal. You'd done nothing to make him do that, and he
only had the excuse that he had nothing better to do, so I'd like to apologise
on his behalf, and I'd also like to apologise for sticking my nose where it
doesn't belong. I'm sorry, sir."
After saying this, Potter - no, Harry - turned to leave, and Severus recovered
his wits enough to say, "Wait, Harry."
Harry turned back from the door and returned to the desk before quietly asking,
"What is it, sir?"
"It seems that I owe you an apology as well. I should never have assumed that
you are anything like your father just because your appearance is so similar."
"Thank you, sir. And I'll understand if you don't want to continue my
occlumency lessons any more."
"Actually, I believe that we should continue these sessions."
"Really? What's the point? It's not like I'm actually learning anything, and I
don't even understand why I have to have them!" Harry cried out, angry and
frustrated.
Severus was shocked. "Do you mean to say that the senile old coot has not seen
fit to tell you of the importance attached to your learning occlumency?"
"No, he hasn't, sir. Why is it so important?" Harry replied, trying hard not to
laugh at what his Potions professor had just called Albus Dumbledore, arguably
the greatest wizard of his age.
"I see. Well, it seems that because of your involvement in the rescue of Arthur
Weasley, the Dark Lord has become aware of a mind link between you and himself,
and might exploit that link to get something he wants or even put you in a
position that he can get rid of you. Because he is talented at occlumency
himself, he will never again reveal to you what his true plans are, and because
he is a natural legilimens, he is able to invade others' minds quite easily.
Now, why are you so reluctant to continue your lessons?"
Severus could read the astonished expression the boy had on his face before he
explained about the tiredness and pain he experienced after each session,
making it hard for him to sleep, and sometimes giving him nightmares that led
to more visions.
"I see," the older wizard replied. "Well, if you come back tomorrow at the same
time, I shall be sure to have some potions that will help."
Harry grimaced at the idea of swallowing foul tasting liquids, but only said,
"Thank you, sir. Good night."
"Good night, Harry," Severus responded, then he followed Harry from the room
with his eyes, feeling the first faint stirrings of attraction. If only the boy
was a man already!
                         *** - End of Flashback - ***
The headmaster was startled out of his reminiscing by the feeling of warm, dry
lips pressed on his, but he was soon kissing back, thrusting his tongue into
the younger wizard's mouth and losing himself in the writhing together of the
two muscles.
Finally, the two men broke off the kiss and Harry asked, "Why do they call it
'French kissing', Severus?"
"Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mon chéri," Severus replied in a low growl that sent
shivers down his young lover's spine.
"Oh, just hearing that's made me hard," Harry groaned.
"Well, we'll just have to see if we can't cure that condition. Come along."
The older man guided the younger down the corridor until they reached the door
to Severus' private rooms, which he unlocked with a spell.
"If I'd known it was that easy…" Harry grinned.
"You're fortunate that you didn't try it," the older wizard retorted drily. "My
door is heavily warded against break-in attempts, and those wards recognise
only myself. Not even Albus could enter my rooms unless I was within or he was
accompanied by me."
The two entered the sitting room, then as soon as the door was closed, went
back to kissing until Severus broke it off to ask, "What did you mean earlier?
About not having another chance to experience lovemaking, I mean?"
"It's because of the prophecy, Severus. There's a part of it that says,
'Neither can live while the other survives'. That means both You-Know-Who and
me have to die, so I have only two options. Either I kill him then myself, or
you kill me and then him. Because he thinks you're his faithful spy, he'd never
suspect that you would off him."
"But the prophecy states that you have to be the one who kills the Dark Lord."
"And I will be killing him either way, it's just that the second method
involves you as my proxy. So, will you do it for me?"
Severus hesitated until he saw the utter determination in Harry's eyes, then
tears filled his own as he replied, "Yes, I will."
"Merci beaucoup," the younger man gratefully said as he pulled the other wizard
towards the couch and down onto it, somehow managing to keep up a light rain of
kisses up and down Severus' face and neck as he did so.
A few minutes later, Severus picked Harry up as they were once again kissing
mouth to mouth, and carried him into the bedroom, carefully depositing him on
the bed and stripping him of his clothes. Then he stood up and started to
slowly remove his own as the younger man impatiently watched him, telling him
to get on with it.
"All in good time. You know that titillation heightens the experience."
"Too much, sometimes," Harry retorted as he flicked his wand and cast a
banishing spell to instantly remove his lover's clothes. "I don't want to come
before we even get down to business."
"Ah, the impatience of youth," Severus said in a mockingly mysterious tone as
he lay down on the bed.
"Is preferable to the folly of age," Harry moaned as the other wizard trailed
kisses from his neck to one of his nipples, then nibbled lightly on it.
After he had licked and sucked both of Harry's nipples to hardened peaks,
Severus kissed his way down to the younger wizard's navel, which he spent some
time licking, then finally kissed further still, to his cock, engulfing it in
his mouth as Harry groaned and bucked his hips slightly against the older man's
restraining hands. Severus then sucked hard as he brought his lips up Harry's
penis, his tongue pressing firmly against the channel on its underside as he
did so, and swirled the moist muscle against his lover's glans before plunging
his head back down. It only took a few repetitions of this before Harry was
coming into Severus' oral cavity with a loud shout of gratification.
"It's nearly time to take things further," Severus said after swallowing the
mouthful Harry had left him with, "but I just need to get something first."
The older wizard got up and went through a door Harry hadn't noticed before,
soon coming back with a glass of water.
"What's that for, Severus?"
"This will make things easier on both of us. Believe me, you don't want me to
enter you dry."
"But can't you just use a lubrication spell or something?"
"A lubrication charm is essential, Harry, but like all magic, it won't work
with nothing. Lubricant has to be created from something, and water is the best
substance for that."
Having said this, Severus placed the glass on the bedside cabinet, then lay
between his young lover's legs, raising them up so he could lick and suck at
his anus, thrusting his tongue through it once it was sufficiently relaxed.
Then he cast a lubrication charm on his fingers before inserting one and moving
it around for a while, then inserting a second. A little while after inserting
a third finger and moving it with the others, the older man cast the
lubrication charm on his own cock and Harry's arsehole, then took his fingers
away and replaced them with something larger.
As soon as Harry felt the head of Severus' penis against his entrance, he
bucked, and the movement caused it to pop through the loosened ring of muscle.
Feeling the sudden burn, the younger wizard squeezed his eyes tight shut and
held himself very, very still, then a few moments later, Harry started to push
back against Severus, signifying his readiness for his lover to continue.
Severus spent the next minute rocking back and forth, moving himself ever
deeper within Harry, noting when he brushed against his prostate. As the two
started to move against each other in the ancient dance, they kissed, tongue
battling tongue, and Severus ensured he made contact with his lover's seminal
gland whenever possible until, with another loud shout, Harry came for the
second time, his anus contracting and releasing, almost forcing Severus' own
climax out of him. Feeling the flood of wet heat inside of him, the young man
shuddered, groaning against his lover's mouth before falling back, sated,
spent, and in a haze of post-coital bliss.
It was then that Severus wandlessly accioed his wand and pointed it at his
lover's left temple, silently apologising as he did so, then he whispered the
darkest curse he knew.
"Avada kedavra."
Harry had no sooner collapsed with a look of horrified shock on his lifeless
face than Severus' Dark Mark started to burn.
                                   ✱   ✱   ✱
Harry woke up in a strange white landscape - if it could be called such - and
looked around. Nothing but blankness. He realised he was naked, so touched his
face and was startled to discover that not only did he not have his glasses on,
he was able to see somewhat better than if he had been wearing them. After
cautiously sitting up, the young man wished he had some clothes, and no sooner
had he thought this then robes materialised a short distance away, and he went
over to them and pulled them on.
Walking around for some minutes led Harry to discover a malformed baby with raw
looking skin. As he approached the child, simultaneously sympathetic and
repulsed, Albus Dumbledore greeted him to explain the current situation before
allowing him to see his parents for the first time since their deaths.
After a rather tearful reunion, Harry was given the option of either staying
with his true family or returning to the only one he had ever known, and the
Boy-Who-Lived knew that this would not be an easy decision to make.
                                   ✱   ✱   ✱
Voldemort looked up in expectation as his spy at Hogwarts hastened towards him.
"Ah, Severus," he hissed, a slight sibilance still shading his speech. "I can
no longer sense the link between myself and Potter. Has something occurred?"
"I saw him on my way here, my lord. He is dead."
"Dead? How did that happen, Severus, hmm?"
"I would think that the rape he obviously endured had a lot to do with it.
Whoever committed the act should have been more careful, they know he was yours
alone to kill."
"Show me Potter as you last saw him," the Dark Lord ordered before shouting,
"Legilimens!"
Severus' mind helplessly spewed forth the image of a naked and freshly ravished
Harry lying on the floor in a corridor of the Slytherin dungeons. His face,
shoulders, and neck were covered in fresh bruises and bite marks, and semen
stained with blood - thanks to a quick partial transformation spell - was
leaking from his apparently torn and swollen anus.
As soon as Voldemort saw the expression on the face of the fallen Boy-Who-
Lived, he knew immediately what had killed him. "You fool, the one who finished
Potter used the killing curse! Now why did you lie to me, Severus?"
"I did not lie, my lord," Severus lied smoothly. "I admit I saw the look of
horror on Potter's face, but put it down to his reaction at being raped. I did
not look more closely than that due to my haste in reaching your side after
your summons."
"I see. You are forgiven this time, since the fault is partially mine."
"Thank you, my lord," Severus grovelled, bowing low, but when he rose up again,
he had his wand in his hand, pointed straight at the Dark Lord. However, he had
no opportunity to get more than the first word of the killing curse out than
Voldemort's familiar, Nagini, sank her fangs into him, injecting him with her
fatal venom to prevent his attack on her beloved human.
First sinking to his knees, then collapsing entirely, Severus' vision started
to dim, and time seemed to alter strangely as he saw Voldemort place the
Sorting Hat on Neville Longbottom's head and set it on fire before the younger
wizard took it back off and pulled the sword of Godric Gryffindor from it, then
chopped off Nagini's head, causing Voldemort to give a keening wail of pain and
anguish.
It was just then that a different voice called out, "Accio Elder Wand!" then,
"Avada kedavra!" forever ending one of the greatest threats the Wizarding World
had ever known.
                                   ✱   ✱   ✱
As soon as he was certain that the killing curse he had cast had been
effective, Harry Potter, now free of the fake injuries that had been magically
inflicted on him just after his death, started scanning the area to see if he
could do anything for anyone there. He had no sooner started, however, than
Neville ran up to him.
"Harry, Nagini bit him. What shall we do?"
Harry looked in the direction that Neville was pointing and felt his heart
almost stop as he saw what the other wizard had. Severus! The older man was
lying on his belly on the ground, his face turned up and his eyes half-closed,
every painful breath rattling in and out of him.
"Tend to the others, Neville. There's not a lot we can do for Professor Snape
now."
Having said this, Harry walked over to his dying lover and knelt beside him,
turning him over and placing his head on his lap. He cleaned Severus' wounds as
best he could, then he opened up his mind to give a great, heartfelt mental
shout.
'FAWKES! ARE YOU THERE? PLEASE COME, WE NEED YOU!'
After what felt like forever, Harry heard a whoosh as if from a faraway
backdraught, then a musical trilling caught his ear just before a large red and
gold bird flew into view. However, as soon as the phoenix saw who needed his
services, he started to fly away again.
"He killed Albus at his own request, Fawkes. It wasn't murder. Please help him.
I love him, surely you can understand that."
Fawkes could indeed understand it. He had loved his human just as much as Harry
loved Severus, though in a different way. So, much against his better
judgement, he perched himself on the younger wizard so his head was above the
wounds on the elder and started crying, his tears falling onto the torn flesh
and healing it without scars as they worked their way further inside and
neutralised the poison so Severus' body could excrete it without further harm.
As soon as the phoenix had finished his magical healing, Harry said, "Thank you
for giving us a chance at happiness, Fawkes. I wish you as much wherever you go
next."
Fawkes trilled again, then launched himself back into the sky and blazed into
nothingness with another faint explosive whoosh. Just then, Severus reached up
and pulled his lover's head down to capture his lips with his own, and Harry
experienced a joyfulness and contentment that would never fade. It was the
start of something beautiful in a world that would be free of fear for the
majority of its inhabitants, and with the new influence he would be sure to
have, maybe the Saviour of the Wizarding World could make it free of prejudice
for the rest. Hermione would be sure to like that. Now, if only Harry could get
his godfather to accept his new relationship with his lifelong rival.
End Notes
     Copyright © 2011 Romersa's Protégé. Individuals and groups are free
     to copy and share this work for all purposes except large scale
     distribution, subject to credit being given and any derivatives being
     released under the same or a similar licence. All other rights
     reserved.
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