Worth Waiting For

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/6747382.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Relationship: Harry Potter/Severus Snape
Character: Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Hermione Granger,
Sirius Black, Ron Weasley
Additional Tags: creature!fic, Mates, Succubi & Incubi
Stats: Published: 2016-05-04 Words: 7623

Worth Waiting For

Summary

Every wizard or witch that turned seventeen had a one in two thousand four hundred
seventy-three chance of experiencing a creature inheritance. This was, of course, according
to Hermione.

Notes

I found a prompt for this ages ago and wrote this as the first few chapters of a longer story.
Only problem is that I could never figure out where the story would go from here and it
works pretty well as a cute oneshot in my opinion. Hope you guys like it!

Every wizard or witch that turned seventeen had a one in two thousand four hundred seventy-three
chance of experiencing a creature inheritance. This was, of course, according to Hermione, who
had done countless hours of research after Draco Malfoy had appeared in the great hall after his
birthday with feathers poking out from under his white blonde hair, wing-sized bulges on the back
side of his robes, and fluorescent blue eyes that seemed able to enthrall any person stupid enough
to look into them for an extended period of time.

With numbers like those, Harry shouldn’t have been worried, he shouldn’t have been anxiously
staring at the clock on his bedside table, dreading the moment when the clock with strike twelve
and he’d discover if he was really as human as he thought he was.
He was the last of his friends to turn seventeen and most of the other soon be seventh years had
already experienced this birthday as well, with little more than an increase in magic and a new
appariation license. Nothing to be worried about. Afterall, if it wasn’t for that blonde prat, he
would have no idea that creature inheritances were even possible in the first place.

Harry couldn’t pull his eyes away from the clock, no matter how hard he tried to will himself to
sleep, and his breath caught his throat when he saw the second hand ticking down the last five
seconds of July 30th.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Nothing. Other than the soft chime of the clock that told him another hour had past, the room
remained doused in silence and Harry felt just as normal as he always had. No feathers in his hair
and after a quick look down he was happy to see that his hands were still covered in skin and not
the scales that had appeared in his nightmares last week.

That was most certainly anti-climatic, Harry thought with a dry laugh as his body finally released
the tension it had been holding and relaxed into the mattress as sleep finally took him.

The next morning, Harry awoke to a pile of parcels sitting at the foot of he is bed in Grimmald
Place and a mountain of letters scattered about on his bedside table. He hadn’t been awoken in the
middle of the night with the incredible pain that Hermione’s books had detailed and he wasn’t so
exallerated with power that it made it impossible to get a good night’s sleep. In fact, he felt more
well-rested than he had in months.
After the fall of Voldemort last summer, his nightmares had lessened, but there had been a nagging
feeling in the back of his mind that a part of him was missing, that there was a whole in his very
being where the Dark Lord’s soul had once resided. Sirius reassured him that it would go away,
that a human soul was flexible and could heal almost any wound and that it would only take a little
time for Harry to feel whole again. He wasn’t entirely convinced.

With a shake of his head, Harry banished those thoughts to the back of his mind so that he could
focus on the presents currently awaiting him.

He opened the letters first, smirking at Ron’s sloppy words as they detailed an exciting family
vacation to visit Charlie in Romania and see the dragon perserve for the first time. Hermione was
likewise traveling, only she was in pursuit of her parents, who were still living in Australia after she
had oblivated them during the Winter Holidays last year. Harry and Ron had offered to accompany
her, but she was dead set on doing it on her own, convinced that since it was she that had taken
their memories and sent them away, it was now her responsibility alone to retrieve them.

Remus was off exploring the European country side, looking for the werewolf packs that were now
in hiding after the War and Tonks was more than happy to follow him.

“You up, Prongslet?” Sirius asked as he poked his head into Harry’s room as he read through
Remus’ detailed explanation of how the average werewolf pack dynamic operated on a daily basis.

“Just reading through the birthday mail.” He replied without looking up and only glanced away
from the letter when he felt the bed shift as Sirius sat down beside him.

“Breakfast is waiting for you downstairs whenever you decide to get your lazy arse out of this
room.” He poked his head over the top of Harry’s letter and the teenager pulled it away from his
nosy godfather and pressed the peice of parchment against his chest.

“If Remus wanted you to know then you would have written to you himself.” The letter was
carefully refolded and Harry placed it back in it’s envelope before standing from the bed and
bending at his waist from side to side to work out the kinks in his back.

“He does write me, brat! But it’s always so boring, all he does is talk about wolves and habits and
rituals, and won’t even go into detail about the mating habits I keep asking him about. I mean, if
you’re going to spend your time recounting werewolf behaviour, it might as well be the interesting
bits, but apparently that’s crude.” Sirius replied and Harry couldn’t fight back the laugh that
bubbled up from his throat as his back let out an alarming pop.
“Was that you? Geez, you’re like an old man, Harry.”

He had taken a rather bad fall from one of Hogwarts’ towers during the final battle. At the time, he
had been so high on adrenaline that he hadn’t realized just how badly he was hurt and it wasn’t
until after the battle, when Madam Pomfrey had all but forced him to let her complete a few
diagnostic spells, that it was discovered that he had fractured a half dozen vertebrae, cracked his
pelvis, and had torn countless muscles.

The potions that the healer had given him healed almost all of his wounds, but since so much time
had gone by and the damage was so severe, there were still plenty of lingering effects. Popping
and cracking in the morning were the least of his problems.

“Yes, yes, you’ve said so before, Sirius. Call me old man Potter and lets move on.”

Smartly, Sirius didn’t say another word about the noise he had heard.

The breakfast that Sirius had made was spread out on the four person kitchen table when Harry
came down the stairs with his godfather right behind him. As he closed the distance, he saw
pancakes, eggs, sausages and a huge pitcher of orange juice that made Harry smile for some
strange reason. Of course Sirius couldn’t just put a couple of glasses on the table, he had to put four
gallons of the juice directly in the center of the table like some kind of centerpeice.

“It looks great, Padfoot. Thanks for making it for me.”

“Well I was hungry this morning and thought it would be a tad rude to go and wake you up at the
crack of dawn to come downstairs and make me food. Thus, I was forced to cook.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how pleasant of a mood I would have been in if you’d have done that.”

Sirius chuckled softly and the two men similtanious took their seats and began loading up their
plates.

“Oh, before I forget.” Sirius reached over to one of the empty chairs that was usually reserved for
Remus whenver he was in the house and pulled out a medium sized box with a red bow sitting on
the top. “It’s nothing grand but I think you’ll like it.”
Harry gingerly took the package from his godfather’s hands and nearly jumped out of seat when
the sticking charms that were keeping the ends closed, broke and the box all but fell apart in
Harry’s lap. Inside the box were three smaller packages that were wrapped in multicolored paper.

He gripped the smaller gift first and carefully unwrapped the paper, much to Sirius’ dismay.
“We’re not saving the paper, Harry.” He huffed but the words didn’t increase Harry’s speed or
make him any less careful. They were his gifts, damn it and if he wanted to be careful with their
unwrapping, then he would be.

Once the paper was sitting on the table in one, solid peice, Harry was left holding a black leather
cuff with the Potter crest burned into its surface. He wasn’t one for jewelry, usually, but this was
simple and masculine and was the first piece that he could see himself wearing for an elongated
period of time.

“I found that when I was cleaning out the attic. It was your father’s and he gave it to me in our third
year when he said I was just as much of a Potter as he was. Thought you could put it to better use
than I could.”

“Thank you, Sirius.” Harry whispered and placed the cuff around his right wrist as he sent the
older man a happy smile and reached into the box to pull out another gift. This one was a glass orb
that immediately reminded Harry of a crystal ball, only it was much smaller and was currently
flashing with a red light.

“State your name, Harry, it needs to be registered.”

Whatever that meant.

Harry dutifully stated his full name and the red flashing stopped, followed by a single blue flash,
and then nothing. Without saying another word he merely looked up at Sirius and waited for him to
explain.

“It’s a truthfulness orb, very rare and hard to come by. It flashes red whenever someone is lying to
you in your presence.”

Harry thanked him for the gift and reached in to pull out the last one. It was a flat package about
the length of his forearm and when the paper was removed, Harry was surprised to find that he was
holding twin white boxes. He opened them one after another and found that they held the same
item, a silver armband shaped like a curled dragon with rubies for eyes.

“Couldn’t have been a quill set or something.” Harry laughed and once again waited for his
godfather to explain to him why he had given Harry and two more bracelets.

“Well, you’re seventeen now, which makes you an adult, which is strange to think of now that I
mention it. But anyway, those are bonding bands for when you find mister right. Not that I’m
putting any pressure on you or anything but…” Sirius met Harry’s eyes from across the table, “...I
want grand godchildren so you need to be on the hunt.”

“I’ll get right on that.” Harry laughed and placed the orb and the bands back into the larger box and
moved it back to one of the empty chairs.

Harry had come out to his friends and Sirius a few months ago when he realized that while he
loved Ginny, he wasn’t in love with her and wasn’t the least bit attracted to her or any other
members of the fairer sex. This had prompted a very uncomfortable conversation with Sirius about
gay wizard sex, protection, and reproduction. Not something he wanted to talk about with his
father’s best friend, but it was definitely better to learn that wizards could become pregnant from a
face burning sex-ed talk, than from a mediwizard handing him prenantal vitamins.

They ate in relative silence, short conversations about this friend and this event, passing between
them occasionally. Harry had just finished off his last sausage when he felt a sharp pain his
shoulder, almost as if someone had come up behind him and stabbed him with a knife.

The pain was actually so sharp and sudden that Harry looked behind himself as he grasped his
shoulder, thinking for sure that he had been attacked. However, there was no one there and before
Harry could even open his mouth to say “ow” the pain was gone and he felt absolutely fine.

“That was weird.” Harry said softly, drawing the attention of Sirius who was now looking at him in
concern.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, I guess. I just had this weird pain in my shoulder, probably nothing to worry about,
though.” He had never experienced anything like this, but he assumed that it must have had
something to do with his back injury.
Harry sent Sirius a smile and moved to lift his glass of orange juice to his mouth, only to drop it to
the floor when the pain returned again, only this time it appeared in his left shoulder instead of his
right and it didn’t immediately go away like it had a minute prior.

“Harry!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll clean that up in a minute.” Harry massaged the painful shoulder for a moment
and sighed in relief when the pain thankfully faded.

“I don’t care about the damn orange juice, Harry. Are you alright? This doesn’t seem normal.”

“I’m fine, the pain is gone alre- shit.” It felt as though dozens of knives were being shoved into his
body and Harry felt himself crumple in his seat until he was slumped over onto the table, unable to
hold himself up with the pain coursing through his body.

“I’m calling a healer.”

“Probably a good idea.” Harry whispered as he watched Sirius run across the house to the fireplace
just moments before another thousand imaginary knives trust into his body and he let out a startled
scream before his vision began to fill with black.

Severus Snape stared into his bathroom mirror and scowled at the reflection that stared back at
him. His hair was shiny and smooth, his nose was thin and accurately sized for his face, his skin
was pale but had a healthy glow and lacked any wrinkles that should have marked a man in his
forties. If he left his chambers looking like this, he wagered that not one student would recognize
him and dozens of them would be panting at his heels like bitches in heat.

It was disgusting.

With a wave of his wand, his reflection changed, his nose grew, his skin wrinkled and became
yellowed, his hair lost whatever body it had to fall lifeless around his face in greasy clumps.
Another wand wave covered his natural, pheromone heavy scent with the chemical stench of
potions.
The rational part of his mind was happy that his unnatural appearance and smell were now covered
hidden away, ensuring no one would ever find out what he was, but a smaller, less rational part of
him was saddened. This part of him didn’t want to hide, didn’t want to continue starving when it
would have been so easy to catch a meal and fill his belly for the first time.

“Severus.” McGonagall’s voice said, filling Severus’ entire chamber with the sound.

“Yes?” The staff meeting wasn’t for another hour, what could the headmistress possibly be calling
him about?

“There is a student in the hospital wing that is transitioning. Without others of his kind there, you
know it can be extremely painful and I was wondering if you’d-”

“Say no more, Minerva, I’m on my way, now.”

He vividly remembered the day he changed, the say before his seventeenth birthday, spent writhing
in pain for hours, passing out for moments, and then starting it all over again. He had spent more
than three days in the hospital, crying and begging for someone to take away the pain, pain that
had him shivering from just the memory of it. There was no way he was going to leave another
soul suffer like that, not if he was in the castle and capable of easing some of that suffering.

Severus Snape did not run, however, he came as close as possible as he raced down the hallways
and arrived at the hospital in record time. He could feel Incubi magic on the other side of the door,
it was enough to send a shiver down his spine and made him desperate to curl up beside the only
member of his race he had ever met, and revel in the feeling that was flooding him.

He stepped through the door and stormed his way over to the far corner where a small group of
people were surrounding a flailing body of a student that was producing the most blood curdling
screams he had ever heard and he had been privy to the sight of muggle children being held under a
crucio for minutes at a time.

“Move aside.” Severus drawled as he closed in on the student and forcefully pushed his way past
the headmistress and the school healer. “There is nothing you can do for him now.”

“What the fuck are you doing here, Snivellus?” The sound of Black’s voice stopped Severus dead
in his tracks and he turned his head to see the dog animagus sitting beside the bed, clasping the
student’s hand as though it was the most precious thing in the word to him.

Wait, if Black was here, then…

Severus looked at the student, who he hadn’t managed to get a good look at as of yet and nearly
laughed at the irony of Harry Potter lying there, writhing from the transition that only Severus
could help him through.

Obviously the world hated him.

“I don’t have time to argue with you, Mutt.” Severus growled and reached over his once school-
mate to place a potion stained hand on the Potter brat’s arm. The screams immediately died down,
though though it was clear that the boy was still in massive amounts of pain.

“What are you doing to him?”

“Mr. Black,” Madam Pomfrey said sternly and Severus was thankful that he wasn’t the one that
was going to have to explain to the mangy mutt just what was going on here. Knowing his luck, the
man would ask one too many stupid questions and Severus would have to kill him.

Murder would, understandably, go against his parole and he really didn’t want to be sent to
Azakaban because of Sirius Black of all people.

“Harry is undergoing a very rare creature inheritance.” Madam Promfrey explained as Severus
physically pulled the stunned man out of his chair in order to claim it for himself. “Having another
of his kind near him is the only thing that can dull the pain.”

“But that’s not possible, Harry doesn’t have any creature blood and his birthday is already half
over, why would it start now?”

Harry let out a soft whine and arched up off of the bed and Severus placed both of his hands on
either side of the student’s neck and leaned down to press their foreheads together while wordlessly
banishing the chemical smell he had just dosed himself with. These efforts were not in vain and
within moments, Harry was calming down, his body relaxing against the bed though his jaw was
still clenched in obvious pain.
“Creature blood can remain hidden in a line for generations, only manifesting when conditions are
right.” Severus replied without moving his forehead from Potter’s. “The environment, the blood
mixture, power level, emotional maturity, all of these play a part in whether or not the creature
blood will be activated. As for the timing of this transition, it seems to be rather flexible, I went
through mine several days before I even turned seventeen. It’s a myth that creature inheritances
start the moment the clock strikes twelve on the wizard’s birthday.”

“I always knew you weren’t human.” Black snarled, “What did you do to my godson to trigger
this? I knew you hated him but to make him a monster like you… that’s low, Snape.” The other
wizard’s hand landed on Severus’ shoulder and the man instinctively gripped Black’s wrist and
twisted until a pained yowl met his ears.

“If you think for a moment that I alone have the power to trigger a creature inheritance, then you
flatter me, Black.” Severus said as he tore his face away from Potter to glare at Sirius, all the while
ensuring that at least one hand remained in contact with the boy on the bed. “Or are you truly so
stupid as to think that a wave of a wand or a flick of the wrist can alter someone’s species?”

Black was still glaring down at the potion’s master and with a dark smile, Severus twisted the
man’s wrist even further, only stopping when he heard a sickening crack that had the animagus
screaming out in pain.

“Might want to have Madam Pomfrey mend that.” He sneered and turned his attention back to
Potter, whose thrashing and whimpering had begun to increase in intensity with the loss of contact.

“Was that necessary, Severus?” Minevra asked as she sat down in the chair beside the potion’s
master. “Sirius was only concerned for his god son, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have acted the
same way if it was Draco laying there and Sirius claiming that his touch could help him.”

“I wouldn’t act that way because believe it or not, Minerva, I’m not a moron.”

“You’re right, you’d be worse.”

Severus didn’t bother replying and instead replaced his forehead against Potter’s and began
whispering soothing words to the writhing teenager. This was the boy that he had saved time and
time again and had, in return, saved him in the end as well. Doing everything in his power, no
matter how embarrassing, to comfort him, was the least he could do.
“He may have a point, too.” The headmistress sighed when it was clear Severus wasn’t going to
break the silence anytime soon. “You spent a lot of time around him during those last few months
before the war and didn’t you just say that his environment could have played a part in the arrival
of his inheritance?”

“The fact the Dark Lord is deceased and that Potter feels safe for the first time in his life, would
have a lot more to do with it than daily dueling lessons.”

“Unless he’s your mate, in which case those dueling lessons did a lot more than teach Harry how to
defend himself.”

For a moment, Severus almost conceded that the woman may have had a point, but he buried the
thought as quickly as it arrived. Potter wasn’t his mate, the shear idea was preposterous.

“I can see those wheels turning in your head, Severus. What are you thinking about?” Her hand
came up to rest on his forearm and Severus’ first instinct was to shake it off, but steeled himself
enough to allow it to stay. He didn’t like people touching him, but she was his friend, one of the
oldest ones he had and some things one must tolerate to maintain such relationships.

“If he were my mate, I’d be drawn to him.” Severus whispered breathily against the boy’s
forehead. “All of the books say it’s uncontrollable, that it’d be more powerful than any compulsion
charm. I don’t feel that with him.”

“Says the man that is currently cradling his student’s face in his hands and has their foreheads
pressed together like a pair of soul-bound lovers.”

“I will hex you.” Severus snarled, “I would do this for any student in this school. I’ve lived through
this once, I would never let another soul go through it alone as long as I’m alive.”

“So if Ronald Weasley was in that bed, I would have found you in that same position.”

That was low.

It also brought up a good point. Yes, he wanted to comfort Potter, just as he would any other
student, but… the idea of cradling them the way he was cradling Potter now, whispering soothing
words to him, promising him that the pain would be over soon and that he would protect him; it
was unsettling and his stomach rolled at the mere thought.

“No. I wouldn’t be.” Severus whispered and the realization made his chest tighten and made every
breath was made difficult and painful. “Would the fates be that cruel, though, to make me wait
twenty-five years for a mate, only to find it in someone that tolerates me at the best of times?”

“Cruel or incredible.” Minerva replied with a smile in her voice, “it depends on how you view it.”

The scrapping of her chair against the floor was quickly followed by the sound of the headmistress’
fading footsteps.

“What are you?”

Good Merlin. Why did the world wish for him to return to Azkaban this badly? Why did it
continue to send temptation in his path and expect him to ignore it?

“Is that wrist mended?” Severus asked instead of answering, taking a great deal of pride when
Sirius released a low snarl at his words. “Must have done more damage than I thought if it took
Pomfrey this long to fix you up.”

“Obviously you’re not a vampire if you didn’t hear me standing here for the last ten minutes.
McGonagall motioned for me not to say anything, I wasn’t trying to spy. That’s your job after all.”

Two words and a flick of the wrist, that’s all it would take.

“So I ask again, what are you? What will my godson be when he wakes up?”

“An incubus.” Severus answered with a sigh and reluctantly pulled his face away from Potter’s to
glare over at Black, daring him to say a word. Not that Black needed the incentive to say anything.

“An incubus?” He repeated, laughing so hard that tears were running down his face. “Funny,
Snape. I’ve never heard you tell a joke before, you did rather well for your first time. Seriously,
though, what should I be expecting?”

Just two little words.

“I do not joke, Black, especially not with you. When your godson awakens he will be an Incubus,
or rather an incubrae if the headmistress is correct in the assumption that he is in fact my mate.”

The two men stared at each other from the opposite sides of the bed, neither blinking or saying a
word for several moments. It was a welcome relief from the inane chatter that Black usually
preferred and allowed Severus to see every emotion as it worked through the Gryffindor’s mind.

“What are the chances that she’s wrong?”

Severus turned away from the other man and stared down at Potter. He had sweat dripping down
his face, his jaw was clenched tight enough that he knew he’d need dental work when the transition
was complete, his neck was arched up beautifully and his long eyelashes were flickering delicately
against his cheeks.

When had Severus begun thinking of him as beautiful? Had it always been there or had it only just
hit him when he’d felt the other incubus’ magic latch onto him when he stepped into the infirmary?
When had the thought of belonging to Potter and having Potter belong to him, become a pleasant
one?

“Slim.”

“But you said you weren’t drawn to him. Even I’ve read enough books about creatures to know of
the attraction and the pull they feel to each other. How can you be his mate if you don’t feel that?”
Sirius sighed and dragged the empty chair to the other side of the bed, probably to stay as far away
from Severus as possible while being close to Harry at the same time.

“I feel something.” Severus replied softly, unsure whether or not he should voice his feelings to
this man. A man that would be more than willing to mock him for every word that left his mouth
and tell every person he came across what was said here. “It’s not a magical, undeniable pull like I
had been led to believe, but there’s definitely something.”

Potter let out a soft moan and Severus’ attention snapped back to the bed. He carefully trailed one
hand down the side of the boy’s face, wiping away a few beads of sweat and stopping to cup the
teenager’s jaw softly.

“Think McGonagall would hex me if I conjured a bottle of fire whiskey while in the castle? I really
need a drink.”

“Just go to her office and ask her for one. It tastes like shit when it’s been conjured. Bring in two
glasses while you’re at it.”

Sirius looked torn for a moment, his eyes going from the door, to Harry, to Severus, and back
again, all the while a frown pulling at his lips.

“I’m not going to take advantage of him, Black. He’s unconcious for Merlin’s sake!”

It wasn't like he was suddenly desperate for Harry’s touch and there were no feelings of love or
intense affection, other than a need to protect, which had always been there now that he thought
about it.

There were a few more moments of Sirius contemplating the idea of actually leaving, before the
man finally stood and begrudgingly made his way over to the door.

Severus honestly didn’t think it was possible for Black to return as quickly as he did with a bottle of
cheap fire whiskey that had to have been a gift, since he knew for a fact Minerva would never let
that garbage pass her lips. He was also carrying two glasses and immediately handed one to
Severus, who took it with a wary glance in Harry’s direction and waited for the mutt to pour in two
fingers worth of the bronze liquid.

“Just so you know,” Sirius said as he sat back in his chair and took a sip of fire whiskey while
staring at his godson with worry in his blue eyes. “I’m not going to call you my godson in law.”

Black might as well have hugged him and called him Severus.

-
Harry slowly opened his eyes and stared up at the cieling above his head. He wasn’t in his room at
Grimmauld Place, in fact, if he knew that ceiling as well as he thought he did, then he was in the
Hogwarts infirmary.

Great.

He moved to turn his head to look around at his surroundings and almost burst into tears at the
pain that shot down his spine. It felt like he had been trampled by a hippogriff or fallen from
another castle tower.

So turning was out of the question and Harry sufficed with scanning his eyes over the small
segment of the room he could see without moving any part of his body other than his eyes. The
infirmary was dark and only lit by a handful of torches that kept the room from being pitch black,
Harry could just make out Sirius slumped over in his chair and snoring softly while pawing lightly
at the air as though he was dreaming of being in his dog form.

On Harry’s opposite side, he could feel the weight of someone slumped over his side and his
limited range of sight revealed a pale hand resting against his shoulder, but he couldn’t for the life
of him think of anyone that would fall asleep half on top of him like this. Ron or Hermione maybe,
but they were halfway across the world and while they were his best friends, he doubted Sirius
made an urgent firecall to them and had them racing back.

“Go back to sleep.” Came a stern voice from his side and the weight that had been slumped over
him, suddenly disappeared.

“Severus?” Harry whispered, wanting to turn his head to see the potion’s master, but able to bear
the pain to do so. “What are you doing here? Why were you sleeping on me?”

“Go back to sleep.” His professor said instead of answering and Harry could only guess that the
words were accompanied by a fair bit of magic, because despite having a mind filled with
questions, he found himself drifitng off within moments.

When he awoke for the second time, there was daylight streaming in the tall windows and when he
hesitantly moved his head to the side, he was relieved to find that while there was still a tad bit of
tenderness, there was nowhere near the pain there had been before.

“Good morning, pup.”

Sirius was perched on the edge of his chair, reading the daily prophet and drinking a cup of tea. He
was looking at Harry over the top of the paper and watched intently as Harry pushed himself up in
bed so that he was sitting at a forty-five degree angle instead of lying flat.

“What happened? Harry asked as a breakfast tray floated over to him from across the room. “All I
remember was this incredible pain and then waking up here...where’s Snape? Last time I woke up
he was sleeping over there.” He motioned to the empty chair on the opposite side of the bed while
greedily shoving a piece of toast in his mouth.

For a brief moment, Sirius looked absolutely sickened at the mere mention of the potions master’s
name but he carefully controlled himself and managed to speak without his distaste making it’s
way into his tone.

“He’s speaking with Madam Pomfrey at the moment. He knows more about your condition and is
trying valiantly to keep her from scrambling about preforming every scan she knows on you.”
Harry must have looked as confused as he as felt, because Sirius continued. “You’ve been asleep
for almost a week, Harry. Madam Pomfrey was starting to think something serious was wrong with
you.”

“Something serious isn’t wrong with me?” He’d been sleeping for a week and the last thing he
remembered was being stabbed with thousands of imaginary knives. It wasn’t a big stretch to think
something seriously wrong was going on here.

“Not really.” Sirius said slowly, “I mean, it’s serious, it’s not something to take lightly, but there’s
nothing wrong with you. I can’t explain it, I wouldn’t even know where to start, Snape will be back
in a few minutes, if you have questions, you should ask him.”

Okay. That was definitely strange. Sirius would never admit that Severus could do anything better
than him or know more than he did. Something fishy was most certainly going on here.

“If you meant to make him feel better, you’ve done a spectacular job of bollocking it all up.”
Severus said smoothly as he stormed over to Harry’s corner of the hospital wing. “Not that I’m
surprised, mind you.”
With his robes billowing out behind him, Snape turned and sat into the empty chair that Harry had
already begun to think of as his, despite having only seen the other wizard sitting in it one time.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked, hoping that Severus’ presence would mean that he could finally
get some answers. “What happened? One minute I was fine and now…”

“You experienced a creature inheritance.” Every thought and worry that had been flying through
his mind, suddenly stopped at Severus’ calm tone.

That wasn’t possible. Hermione had told him the odds, he knew the chances of something like that
happening were minute and he had watched the clock, had stayed up until his birthday dreading
that this would happen and it hadn’t. Severus had to be wrong.

“But it didn’t start at midnight.” Harry argued, deciding that pointing out the odds was a mute
point since last he checked his name was Harry Potter and it apparently translated to “fuck the
odds” in some made-up magic language.

“Most don’t.” Severus replied calmly and eyed Sirius from across the bed, lifting a single eye-
brow.

“I’m going to...go somewhere else.

Sirius was out of his chair and walking through the exit of the infirmary before Harry could open
his mouth and ask his godfather to stay. Harry turned to look at Severus, who was staring down at
his hands as though they had personally offended him. Why had Sirius left so suddenly? What was
Severus wanting to say that Sirius didn’t want to stick around for?

“I don’t want to hear a word leave your mouth as I explain this.” Severus said after a few minutes
of eerie silence. “I know you’ll have questions and you won’t believe a thing I say, but please, let
me say it.”

Harry was at a complete loss for words and only nodded his head silently as he bit into the muffin
from his tray. He was starving and if this conversation was going to be as long as Severus was
making it out to be, then he was damn well going to eat at the same time.

“During the last school year, you and I spent a fair amount of time with each other.” Severus began
and while Harry had no idea why this was his perferred starting point, he remained silent and kept
an open mind.

“Usually this wouldn’t have had any lasting effects on you. However, I am incubus and I have
reason to believe you are my mate.”

Mate. Like with veelas. Soul mates.

“This information, paired with the fact you had dormant incubus blood in your family tree that was
stimulated by being in my presence, caused you to experience an inheritance. It is a myth that all
creature inheritances occur at the strike of midnight on the wizard’s seventeenth birthday, magic is
never that exact. Sometimes it occurs weeks before or after the birthday, it’s been known to even
strike wizards several months into their adulthood. The fact yours occured only a few hours into
your birthday is actually rather incredible.”

He was an incubus. Severus Snape was apparently his mate. He must have been losing his bloody
mind, because none of this bothered him in the least.

“When did you learn I was your mate?” Was Harry’s first question when Severus lapsed into
silence. Apparently it was okay to start talking because Severus didn’t immediately send him his
trademarked “death glare”.

“When I stepped into this room after hearing you were transitioning.”

“So you weren’t perving on me when I was a student then.”

“Of course not! That you would even think me capable of such thoughts is-”

“Shame that, I’ve been perving on you for nearly…” Harry counted backwards in his head for a
moment, “...four years.”

Severus was struck speechless. It wasn’t something Harry had ever seen before, so of course, he
could have been wrong by this observation, but the man was sitting shock still in his chair and
staring at Harry as though he’d screamed out his devotion for the Dark Lord while laughing
maniacally.
“You what?” The potions master asked, his jaw tight and every syllable perfectly controlled.

“Can you blame me?” Harry cleared his throat for a moment before continuing in his best
“Professor Snape” voice, “Turn to page three hundred and ninety-four.”

Severus continued to stare at Harry in shock, before a dark chuckle left his throat and he leaned
back comfortable in his chair.

“I must admit that I assumed that would be the hardest part for you to accept.”

“You thought I would have a problem being told I was the soul mate of a gorgeous older man that
could make writhe with just his voice? No, that I’m fine with. The idea of being a sex demon is
kind of throwing me for a loop at the moment, though.” He ate the pulp off of a orange slice before
pausing and turning back to Severus who was still staring at Harry as though he was insane.

“Is that why I’m so bloody hungry? This tray has refilled itself three times but I don’t feel as
though I’ve eaten a bite of it.”

“Y-yes.” Severus told him hesitantly. “You’ll need to feed off of sexual magic to stay satisfied. I
have a potion that reduces your hunger for it, if you’d like, but it won’t take the hunger away
entirely.” After a short pause, Severus continued. “What do you mean by ‘gorgeous’?”

“Are you fishing for compliments? That’s sort of adorable.” When Severus only continued to look
confused by Harry’s words, the teenager realized that Severus wasn’t being the least bit coy. He
honestly had no idea what Harry was talking about. “You honestly don’t think you’re beautiful?
You are the most exquisite person I have ever seen! It always confounded me why no one else
realized it when I was having a sexual identity crisis.”

“What do you see when you look at me? What are you seeing, right now?” Severus asked
seriously, leaning forward and staring into Harry’s eyes as though the words that were about to
leave his mouth were going to change the world.

“Well, you have soft, delicate black hair and deep, onyx eyes. Your skin is pale, like moonlight, so
pure and perfect, without a blemish or wrinkle.”
“My nose.”

“It’s average, I guess, straight with just the right amount of roundness at the tip. Sorry I’m not a
poet.”

Harry looked away from the shocked Severus and stared down at his tray, which was now filled
with lunch items. He had obviously said something wrong, had overstepped whatever boundaries
had been put in place.

“I’m sorry, Professor, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“You haven’t called me professor in over a year, Harry. There’s no reason to start now. You didn’t
do anything wrong, I’m just surprised that you’ve been seeing through my glamour this whole time
and I never realized.”

“Glamour?”

“Being an Incubus comes with an increase in physical attractiveness and such an appearance is not
conducive to working with hoards of hormonal miscreants. What the average students see is what I
would look like without my inheritance.”

For some strange reason, it made Harry happy to know that no one else could see Severus’ beauty.
No one else would want him the way that Harry wanted him.

“Do I look different?”

“Yes. You were attractive before, but you are glorious now.”

“Glorious?”

“Fishing for compliments? How adorable.”

If he was so fucking adorable and glorious then why was Severus sitting so far away from him?
Control Potter.

“Change of subject.” Harry said suddenly, deciding that the current train of conversation was only
going to lead to frustration and disappointment. “You said that Incubi need to feed off of sexual
energy, correct? That much was in our defense books from last year, but what it didn’t mention was
whether or not that meant the incubus actually need to engage in sex or if they could merely feed
off of the magic that was created by others.”

Because sex was a much safer topic of conversation.

“Either works.” Severus replied, going into teacher mode as though it was the most natural thing in
the world. “An incubus gets less fulfillment from feeding off of other couples, however, and it
almost makes it worse. It gives just a taste of what the incubus is hungering for without actually
satisfying them.”

I’ll satisfy you.

No! Bad Harry. Bad.

“Oh, is there anything else that I should be aware of? The book didn’t mention much about them
and it all seems rather straight forward. Sex equals food. There’s not anything strange that the
books don’t mention, is there? I’m not going to turn into a lizard or something on a full moon,
right?”

It was still strange to think that he was talking about himself. He was one of these creatures,
Severues was one of these creatures and they were sitting her talking about them like they were a
part of a DADA lesson.

Severus chuckled lightly Harry’s words and motioned to the tray that was sitting across Harry’s
lap, before reaching forward and stealing one of the chips. “Incubi are very similar to wizards,
except for their obvious differences in feeding habits. Other than that, there are only minor
differences including a heightened awareness of dark magic, increased fertility rate, heat cycles,
and a rather peculiar talent for manipulating nightmares.”

“Heat cycles?”
Because that is what Harry got out of that statement.

“All demons go into a heat every three to six months after becoming mated. Incubi are no
different.”

“Oh.”

He had no more questions to ask, though he was sure he’d think of some eventually, and he found
himself staring down at his food tray, blankly. Well, there was something he wanted to ask, but...it
was stupid. They’d only just realized they were mates and Harry had only just discovered he was
no longer human.

“If I asked you to kiss me, would that be too forward?”

“No.” Severus whispered and in a moment, had both of his hands cupping Harry’s jaw as he tilted
the teen’s head back to kiss him deeply. It was unlike any kiss that Harry had ever experienced,
Severus was rough and demanding and even with Harry’s hands in his hair, the man managed to
take control of the kiss almost immediately.

“Severus.” Harry whispered as the kiss was broken when the older man trailed his lips down
Harry’s jaw to his neck where he immediately went to work sucking up a mark where the
teenager’s neck met shoulder.

“Okay, I obviously picked the wrong time to walk in. Sorry, sorry.”

If it was up to Harry, they would have told Sirius to fuck off and continued on, but Severus
apparently had decency or some shit and pulled away from Harry’s now bruised neck to glare
murderously over at Sirius.

“Perfect timing, Black.” He scowled, “Harry and I were just ending our conversation.”

“Conversations include words.”

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