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Gryffindors and Slytherins weren’t supposed to be friends but, well, Mick Rory wasn’t your average Gryffindor. Sure, he had a few dorm-mates who would do stupid shit with him from time to time, but he mostly kept to himself. The younger kids were intimidated by him and the kids in his year were put off by his erratic behavior, so he didn’t make friends easily.
Leonard Snart was the only exception.
They had first faced off in Dueling Club. Mick was the only one with enough guts to challenge Snart, and Snart seemed to admire the fire behind Mick’s eyes. They partnered up every week after that and soon their partnership turned into friendship and then slowly shifted into romance.
During the warmer months they would spend their time outside, studying by the lake or kissing behind the greenhouses. When it was cold Len would sneak Mick into his dormitory and none of the other boys in his year would dare tell on him because they knew that Len would find creative and awful ways to exact his revenge if they did.
They had a good thing going for them at Hogwarts. In the early years they worked with some of the older kids to smuggle in contraband and by the time they were Seventh Years they had a network of buyers and dealers from all four Houses. Some of the things they brought into the castle were simply banned by Filch, but others were definitely illegal and all of them were morally questionable.
“What're we gonna do when we graduate, Lenny?” Mick asked one evening.
Len stroked his fingers up Mick's arm and hummed. “Been thinking about it. There's a storefront that's up for sale in Hogsmeade. We could open a legit business there and pretty easily keep our customers here.”
Mick nodded. “Yeah, we could pull that off. Train some of the Third Years to smuggle in before we go.”
“We’ll need a loan to get the place started. We have enough for a down payment and a few months’ worth of living expenses, but we won’t be able to shell out Galleons for the place.”
“Think Old Abe might help us out?”
Len grinned. “I like the way you think, Mick.”
Mick tucked his face into Len’s neck, his own lips tugging into a smile. “We really doin’ this, Lenny?”
“Yeah. I think we are.”
Having an established business helped Len get custody of his little sister when their father went to Azkaban two years later. Lisa was still only nine years old, but she loved working in the store and by the time she went to Hogwarts herself she was already well-acquainted with their operations throughout the castle.
Lisa, a Slytherin just like her brother, served as their eyes and ears at Hogwarts. She kept a lookout for potential dealers and alerted them to any suspicion from the teachers. Every few months she would report back with an idea for something new and every time it was a hot seller.
They paid off their loan after five years and continued undetected all the way through Lisa’s graduation.
The next year, Severus Snape took over as Headmaster, Death Eaters ruled the castle, and they found themselves selling all kinds of protective jinxes and potions. Their network grew exponentially and after a few months they were collaborating with Old Abe to smuggle weapons in disguise directly to the resistance.
“This wasn’t what I expected when we got into this business,” Mick said over breakfast one morning.
“Me neither. Can’t say I’m complaining, though. We’re helping a whole generation of kids resist authority.”
Lisa snorted into her porridge. “You’re just happy that we’ve got Galleons coming out our ears.”
“Well.” Len grinned. “That, too.”
After the Battle at Hogwarts things settled down. They weren’t making as much as they had during the year of Snape’s reign, but they had put a sizable portion away in savings and Abe let them use his secret tunnel into Hogwarts to make their smuggling a little easier so long as they promised not to supply the children with anything too dangerous. (Thankfully, legality wasn’t an issue with Abe.)
When Lisa came back from traveling the world, Len and Mick finally decided to make things official. They had a small Bonding Ceremony at the Hog’s Head and Abe bought a round of drinks for everyone.
“Congrats, you two,” said a slightly tipsy Neville Longbottom.
Len laughed and held up his glass. “Thanks, Professor.”
Some of the other business owners stopped by to offer their own congratulations and then Len and Mick headed back to their apartment above Dervish and Banges for their own private celebration.
It was a few weeks later, when Mick was rifling through their files in search of his passport, that he noticed a change on his new husband’s Ministry-issued birth certificate. Len hadn’t filed for any kind of name change--he was too well known as Snart and he didn’t want to lose the benefits of the name he had made for himself.
And yet, where Leonard Snart had always been printed in large, loopy letters, his husband’s name now read Leonard Rory.
Mick smiled. After all they had done together, he could definitely get used to that.