Title: In Evinco

Author: Vasaris, the Fuzzy Dragon

Rating: R, I guess

Pairing: HP/SS

Disclaimer: Not mine and I'm really just doing this for S'n'Gs. Really.

Feedback: stazra at comcast dot net

Beta: My lovely roommate Tori, all other mistakes are mine alone. Mine, I tell you! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Archive: Part of the From Dusk till Dawn Severus Snape/Harry Potter Fuh-Q-Fest at http://www.kardasi.com/HPSS/storyindex.htm

Challenge: Wave XI, the History Challenge

Notes: Novel-length plotbunny. I've got a new job and no time for writing a novel. Bleh. Skin. Bones. Hope you enjoy.

In Evinco

"It's me." Weary defeat tangled Harry's voice in loathsome briars. "Slytherin was right. Hogwarts should never have been built so openly."

Severus lowered his wand and pulled his lover against him, grateful, despite the news and the gore of battle that Harry had returned safely. "William the Bastard has won, then?"

"What chance did we have?" Steel and stone filled Harry's

gaze. "The crops are in the fields, Severus. Men had to return to their homes. There were not enough of us, and that damned distraction of Malfoy's kept us from fortifying the coast ourselves."

Severus snorted. "Harald Hardrada, reduced to a mere nuisance."

"Better him than William and the strong arm of the Pope!" Strong arms wrapped around him. "We will have to hide, as the communities in France and the continent have."

"Harry…" Blood and mud flavored Harry's lips, anger a bitter fire on his tongue. "We will do what we must."

"What we must?" choked Harry against his chest. "I will go to Hogwarts and await that simpering fop, that o'erweening bastard and pretend to be cowed by the might of William the Bastard. Gryffindor has grown old, our people are scattered and hidden. Of course we acknowledge that we, the vanquished give way to the might of the victors."

"And I will take the true sons and daughters of Britain into hiding."

"I will never see you again." Harry's hands pulled at his tunic, rough and desperate. "Neither my children nor my children's children –"

"We will rise again, Harry." His own graceful fingers fumbling at the knot of Harry's belt, urgent and questing. The pure blood of British Wizardry will be reborn when Malfoy and his ilk least expect it. Our sons and our son's sons will return to Hogwarts and reclaim the Isles. We will return."

"Swear it." Fabric tore and Severus could not care about the expense.

"I swear." Skin and skin and sweat and mud and blood. There was no magic greater than this, of tongue and flesh, of woe and will. "Neither death nor time shall keep me from you, nor us from the world. Swear it!"

He thrust heavily into Harry's body, a vow sweeter and stronger than one sealed in blood. Harry screamed his oath to the sky, slick wetness binding them together in convulsions of magic and ecstasy. They lay tangled on the earthen floor, melded together for once and forever. "Neither time, nor death, nor hate, nor despair."

Harry's voice was soft and cool, his rage spent. "I swear it."