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Harry slowly became aware, he was lying under warm blankets and he could hear a fire crackling away. He opened his eyes, blinking blearily and his hand was reaching blindly for his glasses. He couldn't find them, a moment of panic settled around him...where the hell was he?

A tall fuzzy shape moved through the room. "If you are looking for your glasses Mr. Potter, I'm sorry to say I was unable to find them this morning in the clearing." The voice was crisp and unemotional...though it seemed to lack its usual malicious bite. Even without it he knew exactly who was speaking to him.

Harry gut wrenched as the whole night came back to him. He HAD known the man he'd let take him for the first time and he was...mortified by the realization that it was Snape. "I..." He stuttered trying to come to terms with it.

He heard a sigh and the shape came closer, sitting on the bed. "Harry, what passed last night was...do not try and rationalize it. Do not cheapen the gift the elements gave us last night with regrets, fears and panicked thoughts. It was simply what it was." Snape's voice was strangely...sad. "Accept it and move forward."

"I don't regret it Professor." Harry said quietly.

"You don't need to try and spare my feelings...and until classes have resumed you are free, in private mind you, to call me Severus. You may not regret the pleasure we gave each other...but I do not fool myself with thinking it would ever happen again." He made no move to come closer, or touch Harry.

"Sir..." Harry made as if to reach out and touch Snape only to find him gone.

"Until we can locate your glasses I have a potion that can...temporarily restore you to normal vision. It lasts only a few hours but it should be sufficient to find your glasses in the woods." There was a sound of glass vials clinking off to Harry's left as Snape rummaged for the correct potion.

Harry felt the air cooling around them and his face fell, trying to regain his compose as he sat naked in the middle of his potion master's bed. A slender glass bottle was pressed into his hand.

"Drink that, then join me in the other room...I've had some breakfast brought." Then with a swish of robes he was gone again.

Harry sighed and unstoppered the bottle, drinking it all back. He'd been expecting a very vile taste but was...pleasantly surprised. It tasted like...mint and honey. There was a strange warmth that chased after it, spreading up this throat and behind his eyes. He opened his eyes and everything was in perfect focus...better than he'd ever remembered being able to see.

The room was not what he'd been expecting of his potion's master. The bed itself was massive, beautifully carved mahogany with serpents and dragons twinning themselves around the posts. In the center of the headboard was a wicked looking dagger, a cobra wrapped around the blade, hood flared and fangs bared. Harry traced his fingers over it and got a sense of...age. The sheets were crisp white linens and the spread was a deep emerald green satin, matching the slew of pillows. His professor seemed to be fond of the finer things in life.

Or rather...what few things he did have seemed to be of the best quality. There was not much in the room at all. There was only the bed, a single leather chair next to the fireplace and three bookshelves filled with various volumes. Harry got out of the bed and saw there was a set of simple robes set out for him, plain enough not to be easily identified as belonging to someone else. His professor was ever so considerate...people would never stop talking if he showed himself out on the grounds in his potion master's robes.

He dressed and slipped on his boots...wondering why they were here but none of his other things were. He took one last deep breath and left the relative safety of the bedroom.

Snape was sitting at a small breakfast table with two place settings, there was a plate of extra crispy bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast and syrup there waiting, as well as two steaming cups of tea.

"I trust the robes are satisfactory...yours were not fit to be seen." Snape interjected smoothly and buttered his toast.

"They're fine, thank you Pro...Severus." Harry stumbled over the name and sat down. He reached for the bacon feeling...direly awkward. He could face down Lucius Malfoy and twenty other Death Eaters...but this one man made him stumble and hesitate like nothing else. And he didn't think it was just 'morning after' jitters...Snape had always kept him off balance.

Snape gave a small snort and sipped his tea, seemingly pleased with silence and not eager for any further comments by his student. Inwardly...he was, surprised by his actions. He'd have expected Potter to run fast and hard away, disgusted with the events of last night...ashamed that he'd let his greasy potion's master fuck him. Severus was himself, ashamed by the act. He'd been foolish to go in the first place...surrender himself to ancient magics and damning the consequences. One thing he truly hated was to be parted from his better judgement.

"Severus?" Harry said quietly, poking at his eggs.

"Yes Harry?" Snape fixed him with a rather inscrutable gaze.

"I...what does last night mean?" His voice was timid, and direly young.

Severus sighed. "Finish your breakfast Mr. Potter...and we'll discuss the consequences of last night then." It was part of what he had been dreading, to explain the old magics of the Solstice ritual to his new lover. It had been held in that clearing since even before Hogwarts had been founded...a place for witches and wizards to come and simply...surrender to their desires and senses even if only for a night. A way to ensure the magic survived, many lifelong mates met at these gatherings.

Harry nodded quietly and continued to pick at his eggs until he could stomach no more.

Severus cleared the table and poured them both a glass of something stronger and led Harry to the couch in his living space. "What...if anything...have you heard about the Elements Harry?"

"They're kind of like...spirits that some wizards pray to. Like a god or goddess." Harry said.

Severus shook his head. "They *are* the driving force behind our magic, they grant us our power and in return most witches and wizards pay them small sacrifices, a drop of milk on the windowsill or a part of your potion poured to the earth. It is a sharing with the force that empowers us." Severus felt himself slipping into teacher mode. "Now at certain times of the year, the solstices and equinoxes, their power takes on a life of its own, that is to say in certain places ancient spells come to life without a witch or wizard needing to trigger them. The clearing in the dark forest is one. Only witches and wizards who are of age ever feel the call to it, and the old spells take hold of us."

Harry nodded, sipping the strange drink...feeling the sharp bite of alcohol but ignoring it...he needed it.

"It is also highly unusual for someone married or betrothed to feel the pull to the celebration. In ancient times it was used as a kind of match making ritual, without prejudices and inhibitions people are drawn to the ones that would be their best match." Severus said quietly.

"So you and I are...joined in some way now?"

"No. Those days are gone...we are our own people. It never need happen again." He said. "Finish your drink and then we'll go find your glasses...you can do what you please then." His voice was cold.

"Of course Professor." Harry wasn't sure why it left such a hole in his heart...but he should have known better than to expect anything would come of one night in the dark. He finished his drink and set it aside. "I'll go on my own, there's no need for you to trouble yourself further."

"As you like Mr. Potter." Severus said quietly and nodded, dismissing him.

Harry finished his drink and then left without saying another word, a part of him felt very used. He closed the door behind him and shut his eyes a moment...getting control of his emotions and thoughts before they spilled outwards in a messy display of magic and pain.

Harry headed for the Forbidden Forest, needing to find his glasses before the potion wore off. He'd never heard of such a potion before...and part of him wondered if there was perhaps a spell that could do the same, only permanently. He hadn't met that many witches and wizards that wore glasses after all. He'd ask Hermione for some help researching it later...once he was himself again.