31

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:

Harry released Severus reluctantly, knowing that despite how good the embrace felt, he needed to vent his anger and he needed to vent it now.

"Dobby," he said, "take us to the gates." The elf didn't question the order, carrying out his master's wish without comment. Once they were all at the Hogwarts gates Harry locked eyes with Severus and used Legilimency to transmit a destination to him. "Take Harry," he said, then turned to Ron. "I'll take Hermione and be right back to get you." He didn't wait for acknowledgement before slinging his arm around Hermione's waist and apparating them away, reappearing with Ron a minute later just as Severus arrived with Harry.

"This way."

"Where are we?" his younger counterpart finally asked as they entered a dark cave.

"A place where no one will hear us," Harry replied, his voice as emotionless as it had been up till then. He couldn't see them, but he knew that the three students were exchanging worried looks behind his back.

Reaching a dead end, he wasted no time in nicking his hand, smearing the blood on the rocks and walking on as soon as the entrance had opened to reveal a large cavern with what appeared to be an underground lake. Once his companions had stepped into the cavern he smeared his bloody hand against the rock again, causing the entrance to close once more.

Taking a deep breath, he released the shields that had contained his emotions and screamed, "Fucking Dumbledore!", ignoring the way his companions reacted. Only Severus seemed to have expected his outburst as Harry let loose a huge wave of magic, blasting the surface of the lake.

"That bastard!" Harry roared, smashing a small boat to bits and snarling ferally when he saw hands reach up from under the surface of the water. A huge ball of fire sped from his wand with a wordless roar, burning the hands in its path.

"What's going on?" Ron asked in a tiny voice, eyes wide in fear.

"He is venting," Severus replied blandly, and none of the students knew him well enough to read the emotions in his gaze as he watched the time traveler. "I believe he brought us here so that we could do the same."

"Sounds good," Harry said in a hard voice, seeing his future self loose another huge fireball. Stepping away to join the older Harry, he yelled, "Bombasta!" The huge splash the spell made while throwing dead bodies into the air was rather satisfying.

"Inferi," Hermione squeaked. "Use fire!" she told Ron as she pulled out her wand, directing a controlled blast of fire at a body pulling itself up out of the water. Severus followed it up with a far more powerful stream of fire, and found that Harry may have a point: If he couldn't harm the person he wanted to, destroying other things was rather satisfying.

It wasn't long before Hermione started casting air freshening spells instead of destructive ones, since all the fire they were casting was creating enough smoke to smother an army. It felt good to vent, she had to admit, but survival was more important. So while the others blasted and burned, Hermione took up her usual role and did what she could to keep them all from dying.

After a while Ron joined her, recognizing that he had no more fire spells in him, and she ordered him to sit down since he looked exhausted. A few spells later and Harry joined them, sitting down next to Ron.

"Man, that's exhausting," he said, but a huge grin split his face.

"Yeah – but awesome," Ron grinned back, and Hermione couldn't help but smile.

"Boys," she said in as exasperated a tone as she could manage. "And men," she added with no little amusement as she looked back at the two figures surrounded by flames. They made an awe-inspiring sight, she had to concede, standing side by side with their robes whipping with the power of their casting.

Then, for no apparent reason, they both stopped casting at the same time, lowering their wands and standing amidst the wreckage they had wrought. When Hermione finally registered that all the inferi had been dealt with the two men turned to each other, coming together in a fierce kiss that made her squeak and blush.

She watched with a slack jaw as they stood there, surrounded by roiling smoke and ashes, locked in an embrace that seemed to go on forever. "My goodness," she mumbled, and jumped when a voice spoke beside her.

"I know, right?" Harry said lowly, and she had never heard that tone of voice from him before. A look at his face revealed that he was captivated by the sight of his older self kissing their Potions professor, and she blushed even harder.

"I didn't know you were gay," she said quietly, a note of questioning in her tone, and he turned to face her. It reassured her that he was blushing, too.

"I'm not – Harry says I'm bisexual," he said awkwardly. "I thought I only liked girls, but that…" Harry gestured impotently at the two men whose kiss was rapidly becoming more… hands-on.

Hermione grinned wryly, "I see what you mean."

"Well, I don't," Ron muttered behind them, and they turned around to see him looking at the two men with an expression of morbid curiosity. "I mean, it's Snape," he said, shuddering. "He's not so bad anymore, but still…"

Hermione looked over at the men again, blushing once more when she saw that they were practically a step away from shagging. Averting her eyes, she said, "I guess I can see what you mean, too, but…" She paused, then cleared her throat awkwardly as a moan reached her ears. "Think we should give them a bit of privacy?" she asked weakly.

"No," Harry said at the same time as Ron emphatically said, "Yes!" The two boys exchanged a look and Harry sighed.

"Oh, fine," he conceded. "How do we get out of here?"

"I reckon the same way as we got in," Ron shrugged, looking to Hermione for confirmation.

"I think it would be best if you did it, Harry – we don't know if it has to be the blood of someone in particular, and since you and Harry are the same person…"

"Am I the only one who gets confused with calling them both Harry?" Ron asked petulantly, and both of his friends shook their heads.

"I've considered calling him by some other name just to keep them apart in my head," Hermione admitted, "but I haven't been able to come up with a good name…"

Harry nodded as he hit himself with a small cutting curse. "Same here – Harry is confusing, James is my father, I couldn't call him Potter or Black, and using a whole other name just wouldn't be him, you know?" Then he chuckled. "I did consider combining Harry and James and calling him Hames…"

His friends both chuckled, and Ron said, "That's not a bad one, mate. Hames it is," he grinned as they stepped through the entrance, closing it behind them again and giving the men within some privacy.