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Nov. 20th, 2004 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelI have spent an hour today with a half frozen hamster up my sweater. The circumstances that led to this are complicated but basically stemmed form a neighbours child's conviction that, because it is a Siberian hamster [one of those little grey and white ones not the sort with long tails] it would enjoy being left in an unheated porch on the coldest night of the year. You'll be pleased to hear that the hamster is now doing well and is full of vim and vigour.
Because one can't be very active with a hamster up one's sweater I have taken the opportunity to write a little something for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
irana's birthday. I said I'd write a drabble and she kindly said she didn't care what the pairing was so I wrote the one she'll least expect from me. It's untitled BUT it's exactly
“It’s late.”
“I know.”
“We should be going,” Harry insisted.
“No – there’s time yet.” Severus voice was calm and soft.
Silence fell for a little while but neither man made the mistake of thinking that the other had returned to sleep. After a few moments Severus turned his head and opened his eyes to find Harry looking back at him.
Without the glasses, those famous green eyes looked both younger and more vulnerable. Dark lashes veiled them then they opened again, searching his own.
“Are you afraid?” Severus asked.
“Yes. Are you?” Harry Potter, almost twenty one years old, the Boy Who Lived become a man, asked, fear and desperation naked on his face.
Severus hesitated.
“Yes,” he said eventually and Harry sighed and laid his head back down on his dark robed arms.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I’ve long known that you were the one person I could come to for truth.” He sighed and opened his glasses and put them on and Severus mourned the barrier between them. “Will you be there?” Harry asked. “I mean, will you be with me when I …?”
“When you confront Voldemort,” Severus said, as though it was the least of things, “I will be at your side.”
“Thank you,” Harry said again, the words breathed rather than spoken and Severus realised that the cold light falling across both their faces was warming as the sun rose on Harry’s twenty-first birthday. “Of all those I’ve known,” Harry whispered, and Severus knew he was thinking of lost Sirius, dead Remus, Ron broken and fearful, “I would sooner have you at my side through this than any other – and that’s the truth.” He sighed. “Now it’s time. We must go.”
They stood and walked, shoulder to shoulder, down the hill, no longer pupil and teacher, master and apprentice, but just two men about to meet their fate. Severus glanced at Harry’s profile and thought that there was nowhere else in the world he would rather be that morning and, a little sadly, that to hear the truth one must ask the right questions.
Happy birthday, love.
Because one can't be very active with a hamster up one's sweater I have taken the opportunity to write a little something for
irana's birthday. I said I'd write a drabble and she kindly said she didn't care what the pairing was so I wrote the one she'll least expect from me. It's untitled BUT it's exactly “It’s late.”
“I know.”
“We should be going,” Harry insisted.
“No – there’s time yet.” Severus voice was calm and soft.
Silence fell for a little while but neither man made the mistake of thinking that the other had returned to sleep. After a few moments Severus turned his head and opened his eyes to find Harry looking back at him.
Without the glasses, those famous green eyes looked both younger and more vulnerable. Dark lashes veiled them then they opened again, searching his own.
“Are you afraid?” Severus asked.
“Yes. Are you?” Harry Potter, almost twenty one years old, the Boy Who Lived become a man, asked, fear and desperation naked on his face.
Severus hesitated.
“Yes,” he said eventually and Harry sighed and laid his head back down on his dark robed arms.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I’ve long known that you were the one person I could come to for truth.” He sighed and opened his glasses and put them on and Severus mourned the barrier between them. “Will you be there?” Harry asked. “I mean, will you be with me when I …?”
“When you confront Voldemort,” Severus said, as though it was the least of things, “I will be at your side.”
“Thank you,” Harry said again, the words breathed rather than spoken and Severus realised that the cold light falling across both their faces was warming as the sun rose on Harry’s twenty-first birthday. “Of all those I’ve known,” Harry whispered, and Severus knew he was thinking of lost Sirius, dead Remus, Ron broken and fearful, “I would sooner have you at my side through this than any other – and that’s the truth.” He sighed. “Now it’s time. We must go.”
They stood and walked, shoulder to shoulder, down the hill, no longer pupil and teacher, master and apprentice, but just two men about to meet their fate. Severus glanced at Harry’s profile and thought that there was nowhere else in the world he would rather be that morning and, a little sadly, that to hear the truth one must ask the right questions.
Happy birthday, love.