1. After many, many, many years of nagging, Severus finally relented and allowed Harry to hold a small, tasteful birthday dinner for him. Ron and Hermione floo'd in especially from the United States, Molly made a quadruple-layered chilli cherry torte and Hagrid brought along his banjo. Ollivander didn't attend but sent over a custom-made wand box. Minerva knit Severus an unflattering sleeping cap and made him wear it at the dinner table for ten minutes straight.
Harry put too much alcohol in the punch, got drunk before dessert and spent the rest of the party loudly singing off key and off colour Quidditch songs in the corner with an equally sloshed Ron.
Severus thanked everyone for their presents, didn't hex anyone and got a sloppy, celebratory blowjob as his gift from Harry.
All things considered, he wouldn't mind doing it again in another seventy-five years.
2. The prospect of watching a moving picture intrigued Snape, especially after Harry had taken him to a Muggle homeware store and showed him the large screen television units. Harry wouldn't tell him what movie he'd picked for their first outing to the cinemas and kept snickering and changing the subject every time Snape asked.
Snape didn't approve of the vampire Lestat's moral code but he did admire his fancy clothes.
3. They came to an understanding – Harry would promise to holiday with Snape in the discreet little hotel he'd found on the outskirts of Siberia if Snape promised that, next break, they would stay on a tropical island of Harry's choosing. By the end of the second week they both had sunburn and sand rash in places that a polite person wouldn't speak of in public but it was totally worth it for the mango daiquiris.
4. It wasn't that Severus didn't trust him (at least that's what Snape asserted); it was just that he had a certain way of doing things and he'd been doing it that way all his life and really, he was too old a dog to learn new tricks.
Harry told him to stop his yammering, roll onto his stomach and give it up. Bottoming wasn't the end of the world.
5. His mother asked him to trust her; that she wouldn't let his father hurt him or herself. Unfortunately, Eileen was wrong on both counts.
Remus asked him to trust the fact that the two of them were friends, regardless of what James and Sirius said. Snape believed him right up until the time he was snatched from the jaws of a crazed, bloodthirsty werewolf.
Voldemort promised untold riches of wealth, respect and knowledge. Snape knew he'd been shafted from the moment the Dark Mark was imprinted into his skin.
Dumbledore trusted Snape to the point of absurdity. Snape never forgave him for that.
Harry asked Snape to trust in him, trust in them. Like a fool that blindly, hopefully, hopelessly makes the same mistake again and again, Snape believed him.
The other shoe hasn't dropped yet and, for the first time in a long time, Severus believes it won't.
Story Notes:
For gaycrow.
