Whose Universe Are We In?

13

Dan woke in the deeps of the night, sitting upright and sweating. His movements disturbed his lover, who rose more slowly to the surface and had to shake his head to focus. He snaked his arms around a rigid, sweat-cold Dan. “What is it, love? Nightmare?” Dan shook his head, “I’ve just had a very vivid dream replay of what Tom said to me earlier”, and he related Tom’s ‘adventures’ at the tender hands of Voldemort. “He’s still in the hospital wing as we speak. Ugh, poor Tom”.

Alan squeezed his lover lightly and felt him meld against him. He sighed. The lad’s sympathy was nothing to get jealous about, but even so, he couldn’t help a frisson run through him then felt ashamed of it as he tried to envisage what Tom had been through in the last several weeks. Didn’t mean he had to either like or trust the little shite, though, did it?

He Summoned an elf as Dan continued to shiver and ordered brandy-laced hot chocolate for two, helping Dan to sip his as his teeth rattled against the cup. “I’m scared, Alan”, he admitted in a small voice, curling against his older lover, allowing himself to be fed his drink. Alan nodded then said, “So am I, love. So am I. I don’t know what to think in the light of what you have told me of Tom’s travails. It sickens me but perhaps I should be there.....you know, doing my bit, maybe let the bastard re-Mark me”.

Dan’s reply was instantaneous, “No! No fucking way! Not while I have breath in my body”. Alan tried to reason with him, “Perhaps it will serve to have two in that camp.....”, but Dan was adamant, “Not on your friggin’ nellie, mate”, and Alan was pleasantly warmed by that vehemence and held his Danny, raining kisses into his hair until he lowered them both back to the damp sheets and held tight until they both slept again.

****

Tom awoke to bright daylight that made him wince and squeeze his eyes shut until a murmured spell made the light levels low enough so he dared to open them to see the caster, who, coincidentally, also seemed to be....er.....holding his hand.

Remus Lupin. His so-called mentor had his hand in his and was stroking his thumbs over Tom’s knuckles. Tom squeezed the hand gently, then withdrew his own, putting both of them under himself and attempting to sit up. In an instant, Remus was assisting, plumping pillows, settling them behind him, being oh-so-solicitous in a rather sweet, bumbling way. Then sat back in his creaky chair.

Tom sighed dramatically as he sunk back into the pile of pillows, tilted his head to one side and regarded the werewolf with slitted eyes. He took a good long look up and down. Noted the lean frame, the rather noble chin, the high forehead and the long almost delicate hands. He’d previously noted the tightness of his arse even though the clothed covering was poor. But he was no Draco fucking pureblood sneer-at-everyone Malfoy. He was total tart Tom find-em-fuck-em-and-flee Felton and he wanted to fuck this man standing.....erm,.....sitting vigil beside his hospital bed.

He was shameless, he knew he was. He snaked out a whiter-than-white right arm, his hand turned uppermost on the cover and moaned, “I don’t want my most recent memories of being touched to be about him. Can you help me?” That hand was so beseeching. Remus took it and held it, then raised it to his lips and kissed it. “You are not defiled, Tom. You are merely another warrior in this evil war”. It was then that Tom knew he had Remus Lupin in the palm of his hand. The werewolf was his for the taking.

So he tugged gently on that hand and coaxed Remus down onto the bed beside him, then it was the work of just a moment to tug again, this time to bring their faces the merest centimetres apart, their hands still linked. Remus heard the small moan of entreaty and could contain himself no longer. With a growl deep in his throat, he began to devour that upturned face, covering it in kisses before finding that lush-lipped mouth and diving in, tongue first.

Tom couldn’t help the sounds that escaped him as his mouth was mined with hot tongue. This was proving to be better than he had expected, Fuck! This man could kiss! Maybe there was something to this obsession Dan had with older men after all.

Then when Remus magicked away all the clothing that separated them, Tom grinned; older men were the bomb. He laid back and let himself be consumed. By hot hands, a hotter body overlaying his; an incendiary cock seeking entrance to his body and with a murmured ‘lubricus’, he felt the fire of his new lover’s prick burn into his depths and he bucked and moaned as he was filled with burning cock.

Remus really tried to be reasonably circumspect as he started to fuck his new lover....apprentice......whatever, but as the heat built he felt his base instinct take over and he raised Tom’s hips roughly into his lap and proceeded to fuck the boy into the bed, leaning over him, bracing his hand on the bedhead so as not to pound Draco’s.....no....no....no....Tom’s head into the wood as he fucked the living daylights into the boy....no....out of the man lying beneath him.

Confused, Remus still came deep within Tom and, somewhere in the heat of lust, felt ropy strings of cum stripe his chest. Confused still, they kissed again and felt so utterly complete after said kiss that they collapsed in a heap gasping and laughing.

Tom made to wrap his arms around his new lover.....werewolf....whatever but the older man slipped from his grasp mumbling about propriety, the kids whilst he dressed hastily. Then, planting a soft kiss on Tom’s sweaty brow, he left, closing the door gently behind him and staggered off to his bed.

****

Remus was at breakfast the following day looking smug but trying to hide it by dint of keeping his eyes upon his plate. Dumbledore caused more than raised brows when he announced more details concerning the study-ships amongst the staff and pupils of the upper sixth. Dan supposed it was to cover his and Alan’s, now Remus and Tom’s relationships and the fact that ‘Malfoy’ was to be kept from his dorm-mates from now on.

Dan was somewhat relieved to hear that all of the new apprentices were to be given their own common room in the South tower well away from all of the other houses and were expected to interact as mature adults once Dumbledore had finished assigning Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws their own teachers.

Not having been a pupil at this school, nor yet even had a house system at the school he’d attended, Dan thought the mingling of the houses a good idea. Not all the others thought this, however, if the scowls on various faces was to be believed but Dumbledore twinkled annoyingly and told all that this was to be an experiment, “After all, you cannot stay in your school houses in your everyday life, now, can you? Just think if you were to boycott the greengrocer merely because she’d been in a rival house at school, hmm? How idiotic. So, from now, this group will be quartered with their new mentors and only use the common room assigned to them, although any and all of you may invite your friends from various houses to tea and so forth in your new commons”.

He signed off by reminding the upper years of the NEWTS and OWLS that faced them and wished all the new apprentices lots of luck. Dan noted idly that two Slytherins were in the mentoring group: Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini; and wondered at what Tom was going to say when he found out.

Deciding he was going to be the one to bear the news, Dan split off from Alan and told him, “Someone ought to warn Tom that he will have fellow Slytherins in the group”, and Alan nodded, “That should really come from me, I suppose, as his head of house, albeit in absentia. Come on, we’ll both go and see him”, and they bent their steps towards the infirmary.

There was already someone there sitting on Tom’s bed when they entered quietly. Alan halted them both when he heard the voices, Tom’s raised sounding a bit pissed off, “But I wanted you to stay. I had to stay here all night by myself and it’s creepy up here”. There was a low chuckle and the figure on the bed turned slightly so Dan and Alan could see that it was Lupin as he bent down to kiss the upturned white face that raised from the pillow to meet his.

Dan murmured, “Okay, when did this happen?” Alan smirked from the shadows where they hid, “Jealous, Mr Potter?” Dan nudged him with an elbow, “No way, Snapey-boy. You don’t get rid of me that easily”. Alan’s brows rose in that Snapely way, “I don’t want to be rid of you, silly boy, but I don’t want competition either”.

He caught the flash of reflected light on Dan’s glasses as the boy turned to him and hissed, “I don’t do infidelity and I don’t do sharing, Snapey-boy, so get your head out of your arse. Now let’s visit with these poor unfortunates, shall we? Say our sympathetic stuff then get the hell out of here”. Alan said, “Why wait? They haven’t seen us and we could just slip off. I’m pretty sure David....er....Remus will tell Tom of the new arrangements”. So they did, retreating on silent feet. Dan turned as they slid through the double doors to see Remus Lupin taking Tom Felton in his arms and kissing him senseless; and Tom was responding clutching a bit needily to his teacher and mentor. Dan grinned at the sight and let the doors close.

As they made their way back to the dungeons, they ran into Ron and Hermione on the way to their first class of the day. Hermione leaned into Dan, “We’ve organised a first meeting of the apprentices in the new common room after dinner tonight, can you be there?”, she whispered ‘sotto voce’. Dan smiled at her and nodded, “Yeah sure. What time do you want me?” Ron muttered, “Say, eight-ish?”, and Dan agreed, letting the two go to their lessons.

Alan slouched on the couch, curling his long frame so he sat on the base of his spine, all the better to cradle Dan’s head in his lap. Above Dan’s upturned face, the older man manhandled some order into the sheaf of papers, laid them on the arm of the sofa, picked up the top sheet and began to read aloud in a low voice.

The prologue ended a full ten pages into the story and could have been a blow-by-blow account of what had actually happened. Alan’s voice trailed to silence on the final words and he laid the page aside, “Are we being stalked?”, he asked. Dan huffed out a breath, “Well, someone seems to know our every move at any rate. Didn’t Harry mention in the letter that he’d watched us making the movies?”

Alan started, “You think this is Harry’s doing?” then continued to stroke Dan’s hair absentmindedly. He felt the shift of hair as Dan shook his head, “Nah, this is someone with writer’s skills and I don’t see Harry Potter as much of an author. The style is nothing like his journal for example. I looked at the biographical details on the site where I lifted this but there was nothing. You can’t really trust these bios anyway. Still, I’d love to know who’s writing this. Could you turn to the last page, please? Is she/he pro-active or reactive?” Alan muttered, “Good point”, and turned all the pages over until he had the last few to hand.

Dan’s brow furrowed as he watched Alan’s brows knit as he quickly read the final few pages. He tossed a sheet aside with a muttered, “The author tells in rather lurid detail of Tom’s humiliation at the hands of Voldemort. They must have posted this just before you downloaded it. Good heavens, this is pretty up-to-date on our doings”

Dan thought deeply for a while. “Look, there’s no-one in here and we’ve Obscured the only watching device we’ve ever found in here so we aren’t being watched, or stalked or anything like that. We’re being written. I bet the writer has already written our next few chapters, they tend to compose them, agonise over them with their beta-readers before they finally post them. I wouldn’t mind betting that the next few pages of our lives already exist somewhere. I emailed this mail drop for updates but that won’t activate until she posts her work on this journal. We need to know what happens a bit earlier than that if we can”.

There was a silence that Alan eventually broke. “Why Dan? Why do we need to know the future? No-one else does, not really, even with all the Divination rubbish they teach in this school. People have to take life as it comes, though I wouldn’t mind knowing who this author is, I grant you. A few odd hints wouldn’t go amiss”. This made them both smile and fumble restlessly for each other until they were kissing hard and deeply, arranged so handily as they were on the sofa.

As they came up for air, Dan murmured, “I’d like to know if I live or die”. Alan said, “Did you yourself not tell me of the warnings that these ladies have to post with their stories warning of impending character death? And did you see any?”

This gave Dan pause for thought. He hadn’t even looked, to be honest, the very summary having inspired him to copy and paste it......he’d totally ignored the warnings section of the tale’s front page. He almost wanted to sprint to the astronomy tower to find out but he was being ably pinned down by a dark brooding older man who reared over him and lay on top of him: he felt a rapidly thickening dick harden against his thigh and soft lips toying with his. With a groan he parted both lips and legs and let Alan’s questing tongue into his mouth.

****

Tom felt curiously safe in Remus’ rooms. He prowled about as his mentor went off to teach for the day then went back to bed to play the weary invalid by lunchtime, when he knew Remus would look in on him before going to the Great Hall.

The werewolf found his new lover splayed out in his bed, having taken his mid-morning pain potions and was now lying with his hair tossed about his pillow and was so hot that the bedding was pushed down over a taut waist and resting bunched-up on a narrow hip. Remus actually swayed in the doorway at such a delicious sight then advanced and pounced on his new lover with delicacy and fervour, licking the mewling boy into submission, licking his hole wide enough to take him then fucking the long white body into the blankets.

As he headed off to afternoon classes, Remus reflected he had never felt so content and able as a teacher as after a delightful lunchtime fuck such as that. He was whistling tunelessly as he ushered his first and second year Gryffs and Slyths into his classroom.

****

Dan was once again aware of being watched cautiously from the Gryffindor table that night at dinner. He finished his meal and sat quietly, if a little sullenly until ‘Severus Snape’ murmured to him ostentatiously that he was excused, and he shot off through the teacher’s door and out of the Hall.

He was the first one in the new common room for the apprentices and found a comfy armchair into which he collapsed, waiting for the others to arrive. While he waited, he Summoned cold drinks and snacks from one of the house-elves.

He watched closely as the others filed in. Ron and Hermione arrived together, as did Blaise and Pansy. Justin Finch-Fletchley arrived alone as did Neville Longbottom. Hannah Abbott, Susie Bones and Ernie MacMillan rounded out the party. Just as they were about to declare the meeting open, Tom sidled in, apologising to all and sundry for being late. Dan smirked. His ex was wearing the ‘just-fucked’ look. Hannah and Ernie rolled their eyes and murmured about ‘Bloody Slytherins’.

Hermione stood and officiously called the meeting to order before announcing, “This common room was earlier placed under a Fidelius charm with Professor Dumbledore as the secret keeper. We can be free and honest here. We can say what we wish but nothing leaves here, okay?”, she suddenly subsided and sank to her seat.

There was a long silence as each of the factions sized each other up warily. Blaise Zabini was the first to stand after a wordless conversation with his fellow Slytherin, Pansy, and he looked directly at Tom and said, “Something’s happened to you, Malfoy. You are not the same bloke we’ve always known”. His eyes flicked to Dan, “And you, Potter. There’s something different about you too, although your sycophants seem breathtakingly idiotic and just the same as always”.

Dan could see Ron and Hermione bristle at his side but was glad of their continued silence. He cocked his head on one side, “This room allows for no secrets to pass, yeah?” Blaise nodded haughtily, “We’re supposed to get on, tell each other our nasty little secrets, Potter”.

Dan grinned as he made up his mind. He’d burst that self-satisfied little bubble! He blurted, “Well, good. Are you all on the side of the Light?” There were nods from all around and the others weren’t gainsaying the two Slytherins, so it meant that they had as like as not been accepted to this side. Dan nodded, “Good. I’m not Harry Potter”, he announced to the room at large, to be greeted, after the initial silence, with various cries, varying from ‘Come off it, of course you’re Harry’, to, ‘Well if you’re not him, then who the fuck are you?’

He glanced at Tom, who made his own announcement, “I’m not Malfoy, either”, to be received with more ribald comments along the lines of, “Come off it, you are still an arsehole”. Tom tried to answer but was shot down in flames, not least from the members of his own house.

Dan looked across at the bereft figure and went to sit beside him, throwing his arm around his shoulders. He glared at the company, “Would Harry do this to Malfoy?”, he barked the question out. The others were all gobsmacked and shook their collective heads. Dan continued, “I like him. His name is Tom and he’s an actor like me. My name is Daniel. I’m an actor and I played in the movies written by some witch who charmed both books and films from being seen by magical types”.

Silence reigned until a timorous voice said, “What about Snape? Does he know you’re not Harry Potter?” Dan and Tom exchanged a look and a huffed breath that said, ‘Here goes nothing’. Dan spoke again, “Your Professor Snape is dead and buried, as is Harry Potter. The man whom you think of as Snape is yet another actor, from the same series of films as myself and Tom act in, his name is Alan Rickman. I am Daniel Radcliffe, I prefer Dan and this is Thomas Andrew Felton, who would rather be called Tom”.

Dan looked around the small sea of faces to assess his bombshell. By the array of slack mouths they had all at least listened. Some looked to Dan for an explanation, others looked to the friends, to see the truth and confusion writ large upon their faces. Blaise nudged Ron, “Come on, what do you know?”

Hermione looked for a cue from the muggles and received a short nod from Dan. She took a deep breath and began, “Harry and Severus were involved in an experiment. We think they were messing about with Time magick. We also think it went wrong”. Dan tried not to seethe. Bollocks to that! He’d been picked......selected. He kept his face straight and concentrated on the witch once more.

“Dan, Alan and Tom were brought through here by some sort of time anomaly that Harry and Snape set up at the base of the astronomy tower. Now Harry and Severus are dead. There was an accident at the time they ‘crossed’.. A piece of the astronomy tower balcony fell and at the time of transference, hit both pairs of people. On this side, our favourite medi-witch made short work of healing the newcomers, whereas to muggle medicine, it was beyond them to do anything for Harry Potter and Severus Snape. They are dead, ladies and gentlemen. Now we have to formulate a plan without three of the main players and with these people at the heart of it....”

She was cut off by Justin, “Are you three capable of doing magic, or are you squibs, or muggles?” Dan shrugged, “As we crossed into your world, we were bequeathed some of the abilities of the......ah......deceased. For example, I can speak Parseltongue and we can both do magic, helped a lot by Ron and Hermione. As far as we know, Voldemort is not aware of the current situation and we aim to keep it that way if we can. Well, we have to, otherwise, he’ll swoop in here and make mincemeat of us all. Alan and I can do a sort of rudimentary joined magic but I think that’s ‘cos our powers are pretty weak. We are not Harry and Severus but we are going to have to act like them. It will be harder for Alan because neither my scar nor his Mark are active, that is, being able to receive his communications through them. Alan is already sought as a traitor”.

Silence hung in the air until a girl’s voice broke it, “So Snape isn’t really Snape?” Hannah. A little slow to catch on. Justin shook his head, “Apparently not”, he whispered in that upper class twit way he had about him. She made an ‘O’ of her mouth, “Well, he looks like him for sure”. Dan cut in, “A glamour. We can both do them”. He glanced around the assembled company and said, “I was chosen to play Harry because I look like him. This scar normally peels off at the end of each day’s filming only now it doesn’t. Sorry, guys, but think of it from my point of view. I’m supposed to save the wizarding world and I can barely master an ‘accio’, I have to use my wand for it”, he sighed.

Hermione frowned, “We all do, Dan. We all use our wands for Summoning spells”. Dan frowned, “There was just this one night where I could bring things to me without my wand but it hasn’t happened again since, and it totally knackered me out, for like, days and as I said, Alan and I can do some joined stuff. We’ve speeded up a bit, we were dead slow to start with, but we’ll never be the likes of your friends”.

Hannah smiled, “But you are practising stuff, you know, spellcasting and the like?” Dan nodded, “I watched the magic being put into the films after all the cameras had gone. We, as actors, quite often wouldn’t see the finished production until the first night with all the special effects showing the magic ‘working’, making something visual that actually isn’t really as I’ve found out now”.

Ernie said, “You mean like red swooshes or something coming out the end of wands?” Dan laughed, “Yeah, just like that. It’s way cooler actually having the magic even if there’s no colours to most spells. Yeah, Alan and I have a place where we practice and we can do our martial arts there too. It’s weird, I mean you lot have known about this for years and here I am at nearly twenty-one, with magic. It’d be great except you guys lost a mate over it and there’s still Voldemort to get rid of”, he wound down.

Justin’s eyes widened, “Twenty? No wonder Dumbledore couldn’t part you from Snape....er.....whatsisname. We thought it mighty odd that this apprenticeship malarkey was thought up in our final term, as if we need more work, which we don’t, but I suspect that it’s to cover up you three and create a bit of a guard wall around you drawn from the half-way decent fighters in the school”, he looked around at the others snootily and they all shook their heads, save Hermione who looked guiltily round as if sorry that she agreed with such an arse but said, “I think he’s right and I think we are in for extra training of our own, stepping up once the exams are over and we are free to fight. The intelligence we have received all leads to planned activities over the summer”, she left out details.

There was a weighted silence then Dan said, “That soon? That’s how long I have? Fuck!” Hermione shook her head, “He does this every year, Dan; attacks when Hogwarts is at it’s weakest, as the kids are all going their separate ways for the hols etc., but you’ve...er....I mean Harry’s usually staved him off then it sort of builds up again over the next winter with his latest terror campaign and attacks on muggles etc, then back to Hogwarts as term breaks up. He’s quite predictable in some ways”, she sighed.

“Christ, that gives us, what? Three months at most? And you lot have your exams to do too. Apparently I’m supposed to sit in on mine and make a show of doing them. I haven’t a clue about most of it”. Hermione smiled, “Well we do our practicals one-on-one with the examiners so if you’re not feeling confident then at least it’s in front of a stranger, not the whole class. Will you actually try the papers?”

Dan hadn’t thought that far ahead, “Dunno, can’t see as it’d do any harm, I suppose and I bet they’ll have to mark me as if they were marking Harry, so I dunno, yeah, I’ll probably have a go. Certainly the DADA paper and maybe the charms, but I’ll be even more hopeless than Harry when it comes to Potions and we’re not even sure if Alan is actually a brewer or not, yet, we haven’t had the time to find out”.

There were various comments at this: Ernie summed it up best, “Wow, weird. Snape not able to make Potions. The world really is fucked”. Dan laughed, “We haven’t tried yet, that’s all. He could be really good but we’ve concentrated on the fighting and spell-casting stuff, you know, for the Battle and we’ve only just found out that Tom was one of us and not Malfoy ‘cos me and Alan have been hidden away”.

Tom cut in at this point, he’d been in the background so far since his ‘outing’, “I came here by accident, well, we all did, but I think that Dan and Alan’s was planned while I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had no idea where I was or what I was supposed to be doing. I’ve been terrified for weeks and living with you lot”, he addressed the Slytherins, “hasn’t been easy. Draco Malfoy is way more of an arse than even I portray him on film. But all that has been nothing to my experiences at ‘home’ and the last time I was Summoned to Voldemort”. He proceeded to relate his adventures to horrified faces.

Pansy made to lunge forwards and throw her arms around Tom but he turned aside into Dan instead and shook as Dan wrapped wary arms around him and patted his back. Justin snorted, “This is all very cosy but how do we know the truth about him?”, he indicated Tom with an airy wave. Ron snarled, “Don’t be fucking stupid F-F, he’s been dowsed and subject to ‘serum and all sorts. The aurors have had at him first, you berk. Anyway, that’s not fair, you’ve not uttered a peep about Dan here and he could be a plant or something”.

Dan let go of Tom, turned to the redhead and his brows rose, “Good thinking, Ron, but we have been checked over and Poppy Pomfrey is quite prepared to stand for us should it become necessary, as with Tom, there’s medical things that tell her that we are least not Malfoy Potter and Snape. That black Auror dude came and gave us the once-over too”. The snooty blond said, “Oh”, and backed down.

Then Dan addressed them all, “This of course means that there are folk in the Ministry who know about us and now there’s you and some of the staff...”, he was interrupted by Hermione who held a hand up, “Dan, in the books, does Skeeter mention ‘the DA’?”

Dan grinned, “Aye, Dumbledore’s Army. I remember; book five. So you really did it?” There were nods from around the room, “Right, then. How bound are you to each other as warriors? I mean you lot and the rest of the DA?” Hermione frowned, “Bound? I don’t understand”.

Dan pressed on, “Don’t you have to swear an oath of fealty to an army, specially a magical one, y’know, pledging your wand and all that?” Ron grinned, “Yeah, we signed a parchment that had a boil-inducing hex on it if any of us gave it away but we were betrayed and got into loads of trouble. Still, we learned loads and were good together. There are a few of us here now, hence Jus’s smart arse comment about the best fighters, we were....um.....are good. We still practise”, he lowered his voice for the last bit, not inclined to trust the two Slytherins. Dan nodded slightly, “So do Alan and I and so, it appears, does Tom”, he said, his mouth barely moving.

“So, can I? Tell the DA that is”. Ron still looked hopeful. Hermione heard this and chimed in, “They’d be a good shield wall, Dan. Fine fighters all”. Dan nodded, “Yeah. Um.....Thanks...I think but as for telling these others, I should get the permission of the three of us rather than just me, don’t you think?”

Ron looked a bit crestfallen, another reminder that the man before him wasn’t Harry, “Yeah, ‘course ma....Dan”, he sighed. Dan felt for the poor guy bereft of his daredevil best friend, the one who would have said ‘yes’ in a heartbeat because the DA were his friends and Malfoy and Snape were loathed by him, but were they? The diary was key here and, to his shame, Dan hadn’t been able to stomach much of it, not to mention the lad’s handwriting was atrocious and the prose was the most tawdry shade of purple.

Folk were yawning as the first meeting broke up shortly afterwards. Some went to their dorms, to be moved on the morrow, while Tom joined Dan on the walk to the west of the Great Hall. Their pace was slow, they were talking.

Dan said, “Do you think the DA should know about us?” Tom blew out a breath and looked down, “Sod all this, Dan, how the fuck do I get home. I don’t want to be Malfoy. I hate the role anyway, the stuck-up bastard. It was all over and then this has to happen. I hate it, Dan. I fucking hate it”, the now-blond spluttered passionately.

Dan shrugged, “Well, we’re here now”. For a moment he thought to say something about the papers he was scanning but decided not to. His tone lightened, “Oh, come on, Tom, It’s not all doom and gloom, surely? How are you and Remus getting on?”

It was with some surprise and a great deal of smug satisfaction that Dan watched the slow blush climb Tom’s neck. Tom looked down staying silent. Dan’s sudden guffaw echoed off the barrel vaulted ancient stone ceiling. “You’re boffing him!”, Dan exclaimed. “Whoa there! You’re fuckin’ doing him!”

Tom lunged at Dan and tried to get him in a headlock but Dan feinted away. “Shush, you dozy bastard. I don’t want all of Hogwarts to know, the gossipy gits, but, in answer to your question, yes, we boffeth”.

When Dan got over his hysterics at this piece of news, he blurted, “So. What’s he like then? Does he howl when he comes?” Tom swatted at Dan and missed as Dan ducked away, “No, he’s bloody good actually. I sort of see your point about older men”, the blond said seriously.

Dan’s brows rose and he grinned, “See. Told you. Fab, aren’t they? So romantic and know what they’re about in bed”. Tom snorted, “Yeah, but yours is in his sixties. Eww. Grey pubes, anyone, or does he do Grecian 2000?”

Dan slapped Tom’s arm, “Gross! Fuck off, he de-aged”, Dan sneered at Tom’s snicker, “No, seriously, he’s the same age as Remus this side of....whatever, this universe, so no grey pubes and no Grecian 2000”. On this parting note, they both laughed and separated. The irony was not lost on either of them that Tom was headed for the Gryffindor tower whereas Dan was off to the dungeons. They wished each other a cordial goodnight and Dan watched Tom’s slightly bow-legged gait as he walked away, thinking, ‘So you’re a bottom this time, eh?’ and descended into the depths of Hogwarts wearing a smile.

The sight that greeted him as he entered their rooms made his smile widen. Alan was half-sitting, half-lying on the sofa, surrounded with papers, Dan noted the print-out of the story: Alan’s robes were askew and he was fast asleep.

Dan closed the door softly and advanced into the room, spelling the fire a little higher even though it was late Spring. He stood before it for a while, rubbing his hands together to encourage warmth into the slightly clammy coldness of them, then turned away to warm his chilled back and to take in the sight of his lover half-lying, dishevelled and slack-mouthed and beautiful in the flickering light.

Warmed sufficiently, Dan advanced on the sofa and sank to his knees, not quite touching the sleeping man. He chewed his lip as he contemplated his first move then lifted the small reading glasses away. Alan murmured and rolled his head a little, settling deeper into the cushions.

Leaning behind him, Dan deposited the glasses on the coffee table then squirmed up shamelessly into Alan’s lap, reached down and hefted his man’s body upright again, took the sleepy face between his palms and kissed that slack mouth hard until a sleepy tongue answered his.

He suffered a slight bite to his own as Alan fully surfaced to find himself eating tongue. He drew away enough to apologise, offer to kiss it better in a sleep-roughened voice, then leaned in to his Danny, in his lap, in his arms, and took that agile tongue back into his waiting mouth. No teeth this time as Dan was kissed into insensibility.

The kiss died more than ended and Dan, however buzzed he was, saw how tired Alan was. Sliding from his lap, he thought on Tom’s words as he levitated Alan to bed on the tip of his wand. He grinned as his mind replied, ‘Older men may be the bomb, Tom, me old matey, but sometimes, bless ‘em, they need an early night’, and he tucked his lover into bed.

Back in the lounge, he fitted a newly charged battery into his laptop and booted it up. He didn’t want the Internet, he wanted access to his music. He had two hours of battery time, so he chose just his favourite tracks and set Media Player to ‘play’, then laid back and indulged. Somewhere in the haze that always accompanied this part of his personal soundtrack, he unzipped his jeans and lowered his undies and wanked himself to a reasonably satisfied conclusion, his favourite music echoing around his head. He cleaned himself up, turned his computer off and made his way to bed, slipping in and wrapping himself around his warm lover, who grunted but still pulled his arm tighter around him.