Whose Universe Are We In?

14

Alan was glad Dan was still sleeping when he awoke the next day. Firstly so he could indulge in a bit of ‘lover-watching’ as Dan slept on and also so he could process all that he had read the previous night before passing out on the sofa. He presumed Dan had got him to bed somehow and was glad of such unobtrusive magic, he hadn’t felt a thing, and here he was gazing soppily into the face of this young man in his bed, their bed; this young man who loved him.

The older man had been vaguely aware of Dan in his lap and sort of recalled kissing the breath from him but he’d faded on Dan and he felt still too old all of a sudden. Still, Dan was wearing a small smile in his sleep, lying on his own side of the bed curled up with his hands between his thighs.

Unable to resist, Alan reached out a hand and teased Dan’s from their hiding place, then pulled on one gently until it and the arm attached laid across his belly. Dan moaned in his sleep and moved closer as if by instinct, hooking his legs across Alan’s thighs. Alan sighed and smiled into the gloom, holding Dan tighter and peppering his hair with kisses, then lifted his head onto his chest, slipping an arm under his slumbering young lover. That was better, he could wrap his arms around his Danny and hold him tight. As he drifted off again, he murmured, “I really love you, Danny, I really love you. I never want to leave you and I love having magic. I want to stay here in this world. I want to stay with you”.

As Dan fit himself into the body of his lover, he surfaced long enough to mumble, “Me too, babe, all of it”, and was soon snoring gently again. Alan found himself almost giggling with pure joy at this and gave Dan a squeeze. If only there wasn’t this Dark Lord to kill and if only this ‘Meggielovessnarry’s’ bloody story wasn’t so fucking accurate.

He shivered again despite the warmth of the man in his arms when he thought back to the reading he’d done the previous night. The reading that had found him looking all over their quarters for hidden cameras. He knew Dan hadn’t read the whole story yet, but the fact of them being inside a story held more credence for Alan now that he had read this particular one. It was accurate to the ‘nth’ degree. And that was bloody scary. They were still being ‘written’ and there was no conclusion in sight yet, although, Alan reasoned, it may yet be in someone’s hard drive. Though that didn’t help them right now. Perhaps Dan was right and they needed to somehow get in touch with the writer but Alan sighed, Dan had already been into the author’s profile to find nothing worthy of the name of ‘contact details’.

They would just have to live through the damned thing, though he at least sent a thought of thanks to the man in his arms for the idea that they were in a story anyway, at least they had some sort of tenuous grip on things: and the writer was right, he was hopelessly in love with Dan. He tried to interest his lover in a little sleep-sex, only to have him frown and mumble incoherently, he needed more sleep. Alan curled up behind his Danny and joined him.

****

Alan wasn’t at all sure about it when Dan suggested to him that they involve the DA, thus widening the circle of people who knew the truth about the three of them but Dan saw it as inevitable, “I mean, we can’t defeat this bastard on our own, however well meaning we are, we’re going to need all the help we can get”

Alan countered crossly, “All very well, Dan, but the more who know then the more likely it is that we will be found out, then all hell will break loose”. Dan sighed, “All hell’s gonna break loose anyway, lover and the more that know who we really are than the more potential allies we have. At this juncture it’s in no-one’s interest on this side to see us hurt or killed”.

Rolling his eyes, Alan returned impatiently, “Yes, indeed, Dan, but can we trust all those that purport to be on this side?” Dan shrugged, “No, but we have to start somewhere and the more we prevaricate the more chances we give to the enemy. Look, neither of us has fought in a war before, not to mention that we are complete newbies when it comes to wielding magic. We have to trust at some point, Alan, we have to, whether we want to or not. The thing that disturbs me the most is how much of this forthcoming battle is to be left in the hands of mere children”.

Smirking, Alan commented that Dan himself was hardly out of childhood to which comment Dan glowered and went silent until Alan relented and took the quaking lad into his arms, holding him tight and apologising for his flippant remarks. Dan grunted against Alan’s chest and threaded his arms around his lover finally in acquiescence. In return, Alan grudgingly admitted that, yes, they needed as much help as was on offer to them.

****

Thus it was that one Wednesday night found a larger number of folk than the apprentices’ common room could comfortably hold massed about huddled or draped over any and all furniture. At a rough head-count, Dan figured nearly forty young folk in the room.

Erring on the side of caution, he had held an impromptu meeting the night before with the other apprentices and told them, “I’ll be ‘Harry’ to this lot, if you don’t mind, for now, and we’ll keep to the original story, that I’ve suffered a major magical depletion as a result of a botched experiment, so I can’t do much when you’re all practising together as the DA but I can still be there”.

Ernie spoke up, “Yeah, ‘Harry’, but the kids’ll still want you to train ‘em if you’re ‘Harry’”. Dan rolled his eyes, “Not if I can barely do magic, can I? No, I’ll sort of oversee the training but delegate to you ‘officers’” Before the apprentices meeting got too out of hand, it was also agreed reluctantly that for now, Tom would not come to the DA meetings as being too much of a liability until his change of heart could be publicly announced, a fact that Tom didn’t want to have known just yet. His fellow Slytherins amongst the apprentices agreed to stay and keep their house-mate company. That quieted down the dissenting voices and they all were in uneasy agreement.

It was Hermione who piped up at the DA meeting, “We should use the Room of Requirement. This room is too small”, to ‘Ayes’ . They all stood as a body and made to leave. Various folk sidled up to Dan and commiserated with him on his loss of magic. He was rueful and pretended to put his best face on things. He was surprised at how many of the faces around him were pretty near-identical to those he’d acted with so it made it simpler for him to know who was who but he kept almost calling people by their ‘real’ names instead of their ‘character’s’.

He was totally flummoxed when a Patil twin hove into view and started chatting sidelong to him as they left the apprentices common room en masse, so he kept their chat neutral as they walked and it was only when Susie Bones yelled, “What’s that plant called again, Pav, the one in Herbology today?” and the girl beside him turned her head and replied that he realised which twin accompanied him, Parvati.

The group split and re-formed several times on the way to their destination but Dan was always at the centre. He had made sure to have an extra close shave before the meeting and had added the highlighter around his eyes that took years off him so he looked more believably Harry,

As they progressed, they had several look-outs posted ahead of them on the route, after all it wouldn’t have ‘done’ to have so many lower and upper sixth out in a body no matter how innocent their objective and they had no intention of being caught. Dan mused silently that the DA meetings had always been a bit fraught until they were safely in the Room even in the films, after all, they were a secret society.

They attained the room and Ron swiftly marched up and down the requisite three times, all the time concentrating on their objective of a serious training room. The door swung wide and they were led into a replica of the Cave. Dan gasped quietly when he saw it. Hermione smiled and sidled close to him, “There’s a rumour that there are more of these Rooms scattered about the castle but this is the only known one, unless Dumbledore knows of them, the others are pretty much legendary”.

Cracking daft, Dan casually enquired, “So how do these rooms work?”, knowing that Hermione would give him chapter and verse. She did and he realised that the Cave was just another such Room but appropriated for Severus and Harry’s sole use, leading as it did from beneath Snape’s chambers.

The Room was fashioned pretty much like the dojo Alan and Dan had permanently set up in the workout suite except for the twice a week it became a swimming pool. Cloaks and robes came off, leaving the kids in either their school uniforms or in some cases casual muggle-style sweats or cargo pants and loose tops. These kids meant business.

Hermione and Ron directed the session for the most part and Dan was awed by the sheer display of magic not to mention the honed speed and agility of most of them. As Ron had intimated, they were still practising. Dan actually ventured to join in when he saw what fun everyone else was having and low cheers went up as he joined the fray. The others were careful as to what hexes and jinxes they could throw his way. He implored them to go easy on him as he still had little to no magic and tired easily.

But it still seemed to lift the group at large to see Harry amongst them again albeit in a reduced capacity. No-one seemed to mind. It was when the session ended, with all bowing to each other, sweaty and tired, filtering off in ones and twos so as not to attract undue attention, that the girl with the wistful eyes and the long blonde hair sidled up to Dan and managed to get a word in edgeways with the young man.

Dan almost did a double-take when he saw the girl tuck her wand behind her ear like a joiner would his pencil. As the room emptied, she hissed at him, “Who the fuck are you? And what did you do with Harry Potter?”

A smile ghosted over Dan’s lips, “You’re Luna, aren’t you? I’m sorry about Harry but this was his and Snape’s doing. And now they are.....er....no more. And now I’m here. Look. I know you were a friend of Harry’s and that I can probably trust you”, he left it at that. To her credit she looked round upon the backs leaving the room before she let her eyes go round, “Bloody hell”, she breathed, looking quizzically into his face, then backed away a little, tilting her head to one side, regarding him, “I thought you weren’t after hearing of you in quarantine for so long. You’ve some magic though, haven’t you?”

Dan nodded, not quite knowing what to say, then he spluttered, “I think I caught some as me and Harry crossed worlds. I’m an actor. I play Harry in some muggle films”, she waved him to silence, “Sure and don’t I know that? I’ve seen ‘em. My magic is from the fae and so the curses against magicals seeing these films hasn’t worked on me. You’re very like Harry, are you using a glamour?”

Shaking his head, Dan said, “No, I don’t need to so long as I shave regularly, Harry was only at the ‘bum-fluff’ stage whereas I need to shave at least twice a day. I’m older than Harry, that’s why”. She seemed pleased with this and he watched her watching the last of the DA from the Room.

Once there was just himself, Luna, Ron and Hermione, the blonde girl rounded on the three of them, “I can see you two know”, she shot accusatory glares at the other two-thirds of the triumvirate, “but what about Ginny, hmmm, has no-one seen fit to tell her anything?”, she glared at Dan. He swallowed, here was a complication he could do without.

He slowly admitted, “I’m with Alan. I mean with him”. The girl’s brow furrowed, “Alan? I know no Alan”. Dan sighed, “I was not the only one as came through that night, there were two others, those that you know as Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape”. She gasped then and her hands flew to cover her open mouth. “Oh fuck, you mean that Alan? The one who played Snape?” Dan nodded, “Yes, he was one”, to be cut off by the sound of Luna screaming as she jumped about, “Oh my god!! I love him, I love him. His voice is to die for. Snape’s really Alan Rickman?”, she was positively squeaking.

He was laughing now and nodded, “The very same”, he said and let her have her fan-girl moment. She suddenly quieted and her eyes went saucer-round again, “You said there was another”, she whispered. Dan nodded, “He whom you knew as Malfoy is actually Tom Felton”. He watched her pale skin redden and thought, ‘Oh dear’ but kept his face straight.

She barely made a fluttery movement with one hand as if fanning herself before she sank gracefully to the floor. Stunned, Dan was too slow to catch her but looked gratefully at Hermione who managed to catch her before the blonde’s head hit the hard floor. Her and Ron had seen the whole interchange and she smiled as she lowered the fan-struck girl to the stone, “Well, she seems pretty into you, Dan”. Dan blew out a long breath, “I think she’s more into Alan than me”, and squatted down beside Hermione as she revived the star-struck girl.

It was taking some time before the girl became coherent so Dan left, once Luna had her eyes open again, saying to Ron and Hermione, “Tell me when the next meeting is, yeah? I enjoyed tonight” Ron pressed a charmed Galleon into his hand, “This is the signal, when this vibrates then we’re calling a meeting. You were brilliant with the others, by the way. I know you’re not him but the others need Harry as a rallying point”. Dan was in total agreement as he shook Ron’s hand and left, leaving the other two to see Luna back to her quarters.

Alan was seated on the sofa before the fire when Dan came barreling in. He held up a hand forestalling any diatribe of Dan’s and said, “They are all entranced with you save Luna who has determined that you are not Harry, except as ‘Dan’ she is in love with you, or, is that me?. You are pleased with the fact that the DA has continued, whether Harry Potter was at the helm or not and they all seem pleased to have you back amongst them which pre-supposes me to thinking that he hadn’t been a part of their classes of late. Too busy with his time-experiments with his lover no doubt”, Alan finished bitterly.

Dan fish-mouthed for a moment before brain engaged mouth and he said, “How the fuck did you know?” Alan brandished a fresh sheaf of paper, “She posted her next three chapters. I left a personal message for her on the site asking her to please get in touch with us”. Dan sighed, “Now she’ll probably think you’re a stalker just like me”. Alan smirked and said, “Oops, I used your account”, to receive playful biffs to his person.

Quieting down again, Dan frowned, “Okay, so that brings us up to date but was there any future stuff in there?” He glanced at Alan who wore a thoughtful look, “I’m not sure”, he said slowly, “But something happens to Tom. He arrives at our door fainting and covered in blood”. Dan screwed up his face, “Ew. Why? When?”” And then there was a knock at the door.

Startled, they looked at each other; this woman really was orchestrating everything, either that or she was a) a Seer, or b) God, or c) watching their every move. Dan thought about what they might see when they opened the door. He whispered, “Does she say which one of us opens it”. “I do”, came the equally quiet reply. Dan stepped forward and placed his hand on the knob, “Then allow me”, and wrenched the thing open. Tom fell forwards in an ungainly heap at their feet, the stench of blood on him evident.

“Fuck”, they both shouted more or less in unison then galvanised into action. Alan took care of gently levitating Tom while Dan floo-called the hospital wing. Despite the urgency of the situation, as Dan waited for the matron to answer, he still felt ridiculous kneeling on the floor with his head gone and his arse up in the air. The nurse answered promptly and Dan backed away from the fire to allow her through.

Alan had Tom laid out on the rug in the recovery position and had lit a small fire for warmth as well as laid a warming charm on the rug before laying Tom down. Poppy Pomfrey was impressed by this more than basic magical first aid and said so. Alan smiled somewhat bashfully then backed off and let the woman get to work.

She knelt beside the boy and started making diagnostic passes with her wand, wincing every now and again while she muttered too low for anyone else to hear. Eventually, she sat back on her heels, “Well, he’s been hit with a few curses as well as being a bit bashed about”, she stood creakily, dusting her knees, “I need to get him to the hospital wing but it’s nothing that a few potions won’t cure. Come on, I’ll do the floo powder if one of you can lift him for me”. Alan obliged, “I will accompany you, Poppy”. Dan said, “I’ll come with you”, and they all whooshed off through the fireplace.

Dan and Alan stayed in the waiting area while Poppy got Tom to bed and applied salves and gave potions. She came to fetch them after she had finished, “He has a few minutes before he succumbs to Dreamless Sleep potion”, and they nodded and went into the ward.

Tom was propped up on pillows with his pale hair glowing in the low light. The paleness of his hair contrasted not too nicely with the swollen shut black eye and a top lip that was at least twice it’s size on the left side and the rapidly healing gash in his cheek on the right. And this was just his face. Dan gasped when he saw the extent of his injuries. “Bloody hell, Tom, what happened to you?”

Trying hard to snort and shrug but finding it painful, Tom looked up and winced, so the two sat on his bed either side of his feet. Dan patted his shins under the covers. His speech was slurred as his swollen lip wouldn’t let him close his mouth properly, “Some of my year, Nott and his little gang, pleased that they can now be the Kings of Slytherin, as if I care, caught me outside the library and decide to give the deposed, to their way of thinking, King, a last kicking and hexing for good measure. I suppose I should be grateful, at least the little horrors didn’t rape me”, he lapsed into silence and his head lowered.

Dan thought him to be asleep but his head jerked up again, “I’m really lousy as Malfoy and I want to go home”, they could see tears on his gashed cheek. Dan squeezed a pale hand gently, “One day, Tom, one day, perhaps, but for now, we need you on this side. I want you in the DA if they’ll let you”. Tom gave the closest thing he could to a snort, “Are you daft?” Dan shook his head, “No. To them I’m still ‘Harry Potter’”, then he told him about the session, “These are the troops, Tom, these are the fucking troops, a bunch of schoolkids”.

Alan touched Dan’s arm to draw his attention, “There is the Order as well, Dan, do not forget the Order”. Dan’s eyes were blazing fervently, “Hah, we actually outnumber the bloody Order of the Phoenix two to one”. Alan didn’t like this mood of Dan’s and sought to quash it, “Yes, and, lest ye forget, young man, they have at least twice the experience of the youngsters, however good their spell-casting. This is just common sense”.

Dan’s fervour deflated from a moment ago, “Yeah, sorry. What was I thinking?” Tom murmured something but his injuries made it unintelligible. Dan leaned closer and asked him gently to repeat it. Tom muttered, “That was Harry, not you, Dan. That was Harry in your body but you are more mature than him. I can feel Draco in me in the same way. I despair at the husk that is Draco Malfoy wandering about in our world”. Alan took an interest in this, “I, too, have experienced moments where I seem to almost ‘become’ Snape, and it’s not acting, if that makes any sense, it’s usually something completely off the cuff and spontaneous”. All three glanced at each other warily.

Tom ventured, in a small voice, “I don’t want to become Draco bloody Malfoy. He’s a bastard and I’m not.....”, and on that note, Tom yawned widely and slumped forwards, his head on his chest, snoring. He was out like a light. Dan jumped up and between him and Alan they got him laid down and covered up. Dan and Alan shared a glance then one after the other they leaned down and planted a kiss apiece on the lad’s forehead then backed away from the bed.

They left the hospital wing and were barely two paces along the corridor when they were almost run over by a frantic Remus Lupin, all out of breath from running, “How is he? What happened to him? Is he all right?”, he blurted breathlessly as he skidded to a halt.

Alan smiled, “He’s asleep but he was hurt quite badly. I think he’d appreciate......”, but the werewolf was off again, and when they turned it was to see the infirmary doors clapping closed,”.....seeing you when he wakes up”, he finished. Dan wrapped his arms around his taller lover, “You’re a bloody romantic, really, Alan Rickman, aren’t you? Confess”.

Alan smirked down at his younger lover, “No, just jealous. You are showing altogether too much interest in Malfoy the younger”. Dan shook then butted his head against Alan’s chest, “Berk. You are such a tosser, you know that? I like Tom, okay? Not like that any more, okay? But I sort of feel sorry for him. He came here completely by accident and he’s had the shittiest time, having to take the Mark and all that crap. He’s terrified and I don’t blame him in the slightest. He needs protection, big style, or he’s going to die, and pretty horribly at that. There are all sorts that want a piece of the Malfoys and Tom is extremely vulnerable in his current position. We need to close ranks around him though I fear that the DA won’t buy it”.

They were quiet a moment until Alan said, “You mean we need to be ‘out’ to this DA group as well as all the others? You realise this exposes us to many more avenues along which we may be betrayed?” Dan nodded against the barrel chest, “I know that, but I can’t have any of the three of us in danger from our so-called allies while we do this thing. It’s too damned distracting for one thing. Shit! I wish I knew how this thing ends. I just want to keep us all safe so we can decide what to do with clear heads.....I mean the rest of it, who stays and who goes back...oh I dunno. I’m tired, take me to bed”.

****

As it was deep into the night, Alan could hold Dan up with an arm around him. Dan leaned in hard and snaked his own arms around Alan’s waist. Thus arrayed, it took them quite a while to reach the dungeons, not to mention the heated kisses they shared at intervals along the way. They didn’t see a small girl hidden in the shadows out far too late after her ballet practice got the better of her. They didn’t see her round saucer-like eyes as she witnessed the kiss, they didn’t hear the small scream that she stifled as she stuffed her fist into her mouth and they didn’t see her slow smile as they walked away, still twined about each other.

She waited breathlessly in the shadows then reversed her direction after the mens’ footfalls had receded to silence. Back she ran to the astronomy tower to her ballet room. She lifted the basic invisibility charm on her laptop and grabbed it, tucking it under her arm, then left the room and ran up the stairs.

She knew that Harry Potter was a total liar as she deftly dismantled his invisibility charms over the phone line inbox then plugged in her own computer and entered Harry’s user name and password that she’d effortlessly hacked from him one night while he was downloading movies. When she logged onto her community site there were loads of messages waiting for her, all breathless to hear of the fate of one Harry Potter, and she was the web-mistress.

Tonight, though, she looked at a few then logged out, flipping to her email account instead. She selected ‘new’ from the drop-down box, populated the ‘send’ list with about eight names from her address book and started to type the body text of her mail. With a small smile, she signed off the long letter with, “love to all on the site and hope this is of some use. Best wishes, Rachel xx”.

Then pressed send.

She unplugged then set all of Harry’s gear to where it should be. She shook her head: really, he should be more savvy as to his network protections but, she mused, if he wasn’t such a dunderhead as regards technology then she couldn’t piggyback his account so easily. Once again, she decided to keep this a secret from her friends and dorm-mates. Added to the enormity of muggle-dom sinning that was studying ballet, it didn’t seem like much.

****

Eventually they lay quietly save for the sound of harsh panted breaths until Alan gathered Dan to him and held him tight. He planted kisses in Dan’s dark bristly hair and murmured, “You said about going ‘back’ earlier, what did you mean?” Dan sighed, “Whatever happens, we’ll have to send Tom back, won’t we? Draco’s still alive out there somewhere, all confused, no doubt. We have to correct at least that imbalance. Besides, I don’t think Tom’s very happy here, look what happened to him and there’ll be more of the same whichever side he fights on. Malfoys just aren’t trusted in this world”.

Still feeling just the faintest frisson of jealousy, Alan grunted in what he hoped was acquiescence, he didn’t want that horny Tom around his Danny if he could help it, Death-Eater or not. He settled his lover against him and was soon rewarded by gentle snores as Dan drifted off. Alan stayed awake a while, stroking his lover wherever he could reach, letting his mind drift to his former life and how much happier he was now even in this compromised position. There was challenge again and love, real burning love. Even if he was marginalised in this world as being essentially useless there were things he could do, big earth-shattering things, so he fell asleep with his lover in his arms and his heart full of purpose.

****

This purpose was still in Alan’s mind when he opened the door in the hallway and descended the steps the next morning, holding a steaming mug of tea and entered Snape’s private laboratory, waving up the lights with his wand. Upstairs, Dan was still asleep in their bed and the thought almost made Alan waver from his path but he was determined to be useful and this is where Snape had excelled. Time to see just how much had rubbed off.

Several hours or it could have been a few minutes later and Alan looked up at a sound to see Dan enter the room and linger by the doorway wrapped in a sheet and looking deliciously sleep-mussed. He saw his lover’s nose delicately wrinkle in disgust and grinned, “Come on in, love, I’m having a go at this brewing malarkey”.

Wiping the steam from his glasses, Dan advanced into the room. There was a reek of steam filled with herbs and darker substances hanging in the air. There were already several filled phials at one end of the long rectangular central desk and there was a cauldron over a flame at the other end, belching a sweetish pink steam.

“What are you doing?”, Dan asked, blinking owlishly. Alan pointed to the stoppered phials. First the ones filled with a clear red liquid, “Pepper-up potion, and this”, he pointed to the watery stuff with a faint green tinge, “Dreamless Sleep. Looks innocuous, doesn’t it? All these have to pass Poppy’s tests but I did them according to Snape’s recipes including the extra ingredients”, Dan saw that Alan looked inordinately pleased with himself and he let it infect him, beaming at his lover as he ventured into the room being sure not to trip up over the edge of the twisted sheet.

There were two stools on one long side of the central bench so Dan sank down onto one yawning and scratching his head. Alan came around the bench after counting softly as he stirred then lifted the cauldron from the flame and added a couple of drops of something-or-other from a small black glass flask. He declared it ‘done’ and straightened up, unkinking his back, “That should, in theory, be Skele-Gro if it’s worked. Excuse me a moment, I need to speak with Poppy”. Dan received a distracted kiss aimed at his face then his lover knelt before the lab fireplace with a handful of powder and called the medi-witch.

Dan tightened the sheet about his naked frame as Alan sat back on his heels and barely warned him, “She’s coming through”, before the plump witch spun gracefully from the fireplace and took in her surroundings, “Wow, the private lab, I’ve wanted to see this place for years”, were her first words. Neither of them wanted to disabuse her of this notion so Alan merely said instead, “For sure, what a wonderful workspace, isn’t it?”

Both he and Dan knew of the bigger, darker, murkier space beneath their feet but this was their secret for now.

Poppy clapped eyes on Dan at some point as she looked around and grinned, “Only just out of bed, Mr Radcliffe?” and Dan grinned and flushed, “Yeah, late night with the apprentices. I slept in and here I see Alan making free with Snape’s gear”. The medi-witch shuddered and looked off into space for a moment, “Well, if what you say is true then Severus Snape will not be back to claim these rooms as his own once more and I hate to see good materials go to waste. Ah, God rest their souls. Now, Mr Rickman, let’s see if you have inherited some of our irascible potions master’s skills”, and she sniffed and swallowed any tendency to maudlin that she may have been feeling and was all business as she bustled round the bench and took in the array of small bottles for her inspection.

Dan watched her sample and taste, smacking her lips daintily and rinsing out her mouth between tastes, spitting into the sink. She stood straight again and nodded, “Well, Alan, I would say that your brewing skills merit an ‘E’ if you were taking your OWLS and an ‘O’ if you were a NEWT level student, which, believe me, for a first-time brewer is quite an accomplishment. I can safely say that with a little practice, we’ll have you making Wolfsbane yet for our Mr Lupin. Very well done, Alan, may I take these back with me?”, she indicated the ready-filled phials.

Stunned, Alan could do nought but nod, “Yes. Erm....yes of course. That’s why I made them. I recall you saying you were short of certain things in the sickbay”, he finished faintly. She approached him slowly, smiling, then reached up and patted his cheek. Alan blinked at such an unexpected move. She said, “You are good men, all three of you, and God knows what you must be making of being dumped here in our world in the middle of a war, but I think that all three of you are brave and wonderful people. You, Dan for leading your folk, you, Alan for taking on Snape’s brewing and poor wee Tom for having to be the spy as well as taking a beating from his own house, poor child. Thank you for these potions, Alan, but I should be getting back to my patients now. I’ll say this”, she turned with an armful of potions bottles and a handful of floo powder. Dan tilted his head to one side and shrugged, “What, Poppy?” She smiled, “You three are a lot nicer than the originals”, and with that, she whirled away in a flurry of green flame.

Alan moved to Dan after her exit and wrapped his arms around him. The boy was cold even in such a warm room. He felt Dan insinuate his arms around his waist and waited for the inevitable burying of Dan’s head in his midriff that Alan knew was to follow. He wasn’t disappointed. He felt the heavy weight of Dan’s head as it rested on his belly and he stroked the short hair. Dan eventually said, “I don’t like this. I thought that ‘the originals’, mercy, what a name, were/are way more powerful than we are/were. We’ve only inherited a bit of their magic, or so I thought. Why do they seem to like us better?”

Alan was lost in thought, staring off into the distance whilst simultaneously reaching behind himself to find the other stool and sank down to it after pulling it closer, “We are nicer. We’re just people whereas characters in a story have to serve a purpose. Let’s face it, Snape is a bit two-dimensional in the books”.

Dan shook his head, “Bollocks, by the end of book seven I thought that Snape was the second-best realised character. He was the only one to have as much history as either Harry or Ron. Even Hermione doesn’t merit that much back-story. Ron’s is fairly pedestrian but Snape’s is crueller and therefore more interesting”. Alan quirked a brow but Dan cut him off by leaning forwards and kissing him, close mouthed but nonetheless passionate.

He continued, “You never know quite what Snape’s allegiances are until the end of book seven”, then was interrupted by his lover, “All very well, but now I am stripped of my roles. I am neither potions master nor spy and am pretty openly, amongst our confidants, that is, on the side of the Phoenix. My Mark is non-responsive, for reasons we’ll probably never fathom. I am essentially useless to this side and therefore expendable. I feel I have to have a skill and this is one worth pursuing, if for no other reason that all the others in the book are inferior to my sweet self when it comes to brewing”.

Dan grinned, “Well, Poppy’s comments were pretty encouraging and she has taken all that you made today, so I’d just keep on in that vein for now and make what you can from what you have and order what they’ll let you. I believe the Wolfsbane is pretty complicated, isn’t it?” Alan mused, still staring over Dan’s shoulder, “Aye, I believe it is a potion amongst potions. A real test of the brewer’s art, and only Severus Snape had it down pat. Hell, he invented it, didn’t he?”

Puzzling, Dan asked, “Why is it important that you can do Snape’s stuff?”. Alan winced but looked into Dan’s eyes to reply, “Because I need to feel useful and this is what the man did. You are a focus for the different fighting groups and I can at least do this”, he waved his hand around the lab.

Dan shrugged, “We do better magic joined. I want you out there on the battlefield, come the day”. Alan sagged, “I have no desire to fight, Dan”. Dan bristled and stood up, clutching his sheet around him for dignity, “And you think I do? I’ve never even had a playground scrap, Alan. I know sod all about fighting. I didn’t even grow up scrapping with a brother ‘cos I’ve only got a sister, who’s got way more balls than me in a fight, I’ll bet, and now I have to kill a guy! With just two words! No. love. I want you out there. Maybe you have a pocketful of nasty things to inflict on Riddle, well, good on you, but I want, no, I need you fighting with me on the day”.

Realising that there would be ‘the day’, Alan smiled and nodded, then took an unresisting Daniel into his arms, “I’ll be there, although I’d better get to brewing some nasty potions in the meantime before we fight”. Dan ran a hand through the long hair around his lover’s face. Ew, greasy. He said, “Brewing is what makes Snape’s hair greasy”. Alan ran a hand through his and winced, “Help me in the shower?”, he arched an inky brow at Dan, who grinned, then followed happily as Alan led the way.

They eventually collapsed down the tiles and sat in the shower basin together as the water cooled and sputtered above them. When it went cold, it stopped. Hogwarts only allowed half-hour showers, maximum. But our boys had done all that they wanted to, fucked and cleaned, so Dan was the first to stand and offer Alan his hand, hauling his older lover to his feet. They dried each other tenderly, kissed and made their way to bed.

Thus was the tenor of their Sunday set. They slept, made love, ate and slept all through the day until Dobby served them up tender roast duck with potatoes roasted in the duck fat and crunchy steamed veg and gravy made from the juices of the meat. They sat side by side on the floor and enjoyed their meal.

In front of them the laptop was open and booted up. While they ate they caught up on episodes of their favourite TV series that Dan had been downloading from pirate peer-to-peer sites, several of them as it happened, and spent four and a half hours with the latest editions of five programmes, then went back to bed for another fuck and a nap after such a glut of TV watching then fell into deeper sleep and held each other until morning, naked but for a blanket over their lower halves.

Albus floo-called them the next morning, almost startling Dan out of his wits. Alan was once again down in the lab, brewing, and Dan had been embroiled in a Dark Arts text. Sudden fire-calls still unsettled him but he sheathed his wand and closed the book, uncurling his legs and asking the headmaster politely what he could do for him.

The old man beamed greenly in the flames, “Poppy tells me that Alan is becoming quite the brewer”. Dan nodded, “He’s trying out the simpler things for the infirmary. He wants to be useful”. Albus asked after his own activities and Dan stayed a little vague around the DA’s activities but went into some detail about his involvement with the apprentices, mentioning quite ingenuously that he knew they were to be a sort of shield-wall around him. Albus merely smiled enigmatically and bowed out of the flames after wishing his boys a cordial ‘good day’.

Restless now after the interruption to his reading, Dan decided to go and see how Alan was getting on. He blocked the Floo, put down his book and made his way to the first layer lab wrinkling his nose then having to shove his arm across his lower face to try and avoid the vile smell coming up at him, “Fucking hell, oh, for bloody air conditioning”, he muttered, then shouted, “Bloody hell, Alan, what are you making?”, but there was silence.

Going into the room, he saw a steaming cauldron off the heat on a work surface and the bunsen still lit but no Alan. He called out and got a groan in reply followed by the distinct sound of retching. Worried now, he ran to the small bathroom and skidded to a halt in the open doorway to see his lover on the floor heaving his guts up into the loo.

He crouched beside him, “Alan, love, what’s wrong? Should I get Poppy?” Alan managed to shake his head and grabbed for some roll to wipe his mouth with, “No, Dan. I can’t do this. I don’t know how Snape managed it. It’s vile. Utterly and absolutely vile. I mean flobberworms, Dan, flobberworms; have to be the most disgusting creature on the planet and the potion needs them cut up alive! It’s bloody barbaric. Sorry, Poppy, old love, but you won’t be getting any of that one from me”.

Dan nodded, “It is pretty disgusting. Still with a fume cupboard and A/C it wouldn’t be quite so smelly at least, but I think I’d draw the line at cutting up live creatures. I want ‘em dead first. Did you finish what you were making?” Dan stood and filled the tooth glass from the tap and handed it to Alan.

The older man shook his head, “There are another two stages to this one, it’s a bit of a bugger but I thought I’d challenge myself, you know?” Dan nodded and cast a breath-sweetening charm over his lover as he sipped then pushed sweaty hair off his face, “D’you want me to Banish it for you?”, he said and kissed the sweaty brow lightly. Alan looked up sheepishly, the colour coming back to his face, “Would you? Thank you”, and sank back against the wall with his water while Dan took care of the mess in his lab.

After dispelling the aroma along with the ruined potion, Dan went in search of Alan to find him feeling better, they emerged from the lab together and Dan mentioned Dumbledore’s floo-call. Alan sighed, “I suppose I’ll have to tell Poppy about the fact that I did not get Snape’s brewing abilities along with his hair”, he said gloomily.

Dan laughed, “Rubbish, you’ve done great so far. Sod it, so she has to buy some potions, you’ve helped out loads already and will continue to do so. Anyway, didn’t that potion you were making need a lot of magic?” Alan nodded, “Yes, I’m not up to snuff yet, that’s why I’m still only capable of the simplest brews. I hate to say it, but that’s the kind of little nugget that Tom should take to Voldemort”. Blowing out a breath through pursed lips, Dan reluctantly agreed.

****

The day after they heard Tom was allowed out of the hospital, they floocalled and asked if they could visit. Remus took the call and invited them to tea that night. Remus thought that the two seemed a little down. Alan thought that the werewolf seemed shifty, excited by something. Before the call ended, Remus said, “Yes, come to tea, there’s something we need to show you”, and ‘rang’ off leaving the other two mystified.

They arrived at five to a very cosy scene as if it was staged just for them, Alan thought sourly. A house-elf let them in and took their cloaks and went back to laying the meal. The fire was a little warm for so late in the Spring but it was clearly keeping a half-naked Tom warm, sprawled as he was the length of the sofa with his head propped on Remus’ thigh, Remus a bit squashed at one end but not seeming to mind in the slightest.

Seated, greeted and a drink thrust in their hands, Alan enquired what all the mystery was about. Tom smirked, “Your counterpart made this for mine”, and with that, he drew his left arm from under the blanket that covered his lower half to gasps from his guests.

He was wearing what looked to be a silver metal cuff extending from just above the wrist bones to a shade below the elbow. He held out his arm to the fireplace so the light glinted on it and he rotated his arm, there seemed to be no means of fastening or unfastening it.

Dan came forwards instantly and examined it at closer quarters, “How did you get it on, and how does it come off?” Remus leaned forward to the small side table and picked up a piece of parchment, handing it to Dan who straightened his glasses on his nose and read,

Draco,

I am afraid this is the best I can do for you before I go but know that I have worked on this for many a year. I did actually make it for myself but as will become pretty readily apparent, I will no longer be in need of it.

I know that your Father intends you to take the Mark in the near future and I also know that there is bugger all I can do to stop you despite my best efforts, you abominable little worm. Well, soon I shall cease to think of either you or your damned family ever again, not to mention that evil bastard to whom we all grovel.

So, to the object you hold. It is an evil repellent of the strongest sort, overlaid with charm after spell after ward, all carefully layered but once the bracelet is donned then you must abide by it’s spell until the Dark Lord is dead and gone.

When first it closes around your arm (and you MUST wear it over the Mark for full efficacy) then you will no longer feel it’s pull, BUT your own magic levels will be severely compromised. I was willing to do this to myself until a certain person now in my life came up with something far better.

The wards will repel all spells cast with evil intent upon you but offers no protection whatsoever from stray spells or potions accidents or any kind of mishap not evilly intended, I could only go so far with the protections without making myself a complete squib. One has to function after all.

Do not be rash with this, Draco, I trust you to have more sense than your thrice-damned father; you always did take more after your mother’s side of the family. I wish you well. Stay alive. Try to salvage some decency from your life.

Your godfather,

Severus Snape.

PS. If I were you, I’d put the wretched thing on, snap my wand and run as far away as you can until the whole shooting match is over. S.S.

“Wow, that explains the fastening thing, then”, Dan’s brows rose. Tom nodded, “I’m a bit of a liability here, Dan, at least this way, no bugger can actually kill me and I can’t feel the Mark much. I can’t go back to Voldemort, I just can’t do it. Don’t shout at me or anything”, he all but pleaded.

It was Alan who stepped forwards and clapped a hand on the slender shoulder, “Buck up, Tom. We’re not really wizards, why, only the other day, I puked my guts up trying to make potions with live animal parts in, I’m hardly the one to shout. We’re stuck here and doing the best we can. We think this may all be over soon anyway, so it won’t be on you for long”. Tom smiled then at both of his guests and seemed to relax against Remus a little.

Remus snaked a hand over Tom’s shoulder and brushed a nipple before it settled in the middle of Tom’s hairless chest. Dan saw Tom take a quivering breath and his little pink nipples peaked. Remus followed that with a kiss to the blond hair, “Shall we eat? Are you hungry?”, he murmured to the invalid.

Then Tom lifted his face and tilted it back, nodding and the lovers exchanged a ‘look’ that Dan had certainly never seen before on Tom Felton’s face. He smirked at Alan, whoo boy, the lad had it bad for the impoverished werewolf. For some reason that made Dan feel good inside and not in an altogether noble way.

During the meal Alan casually enquired, pointing his fork at Tom’s new jewellery, “Does Dumbledore know of this yet?” Tom shook his head, “He’s gonna freak when he does”. Dan sighed, “This seriously veers away from the original story. No spy for Voldemort”. There was a leaden silence at these words as food turned to ash in everyone’s mouth.

“I could still do it”, Alan said in a low voice but was instantly shouted down, not least by Tom, “No fucking way, Alan, he’s after your blood. You’re a traitor now. You cannot go to him. He’ll kill you. Your card is marked”. Dan looked worried though as Alan brooded.

Once the low table was cleared and tea was brought, Dan sidled across the rug to lean against Alan’s legs and felt a hand in his hair. As the tea was poured, he glanced up into black eyes, “Please don’t do this, love. Please. He will kill you. We need to stay together in this; all of us, not just us four”, he whispered.

Letting out a long breath, Alan nodded slowly, “All right, but I think we need to talk to the Order and perhaps we should tell them everything. We are going to need a plan and soon, if what you say is right and he attacks in the summer”, his own voice barely rose above a whisper.

Alan let his hand slide down Dan’s cheek to feel his palm kissed and nuzzled against. How could he have gone to Voldemort anyway? His damned Mark didn’t work. He couldn’t even make bloody potions. He felt a bit useless again. Yes, it was high time to stop all this going-it-alone business and speak to these Order chaps. With that, he could relax and enjoy the evening.

By the time they left, the four had agreed that Dumbledore should know of Tom’s latest act and that they should come clean to the Order and the DA members that were of age but swear everyone to a wizard’s oath of some sort first. They would put the idea to the headmaster at the weekend which gave Tom another day to recover in.

****

The hubbub that greeted them grew to a positive roar when Tom entered the basement kitchen at 12 Grimmauld Place with the Hogwarts contingent to be met with what looked like the entire Order of the Phoenix. Of course, a few knew of ‘Malfoy’s’ true identity but not all did. They were about to, along with Snape and Potter.

There were angry shouts, questions, fired at various of the three, now standing until Dumbledore, casting a mild ‘sonorus’ bawled for “Quiet”, in that way only a headmaster can. The room fell silent. Albus said softly, “Now, questions, but nothing personal”. A woman held up her hand, for all the world as if she were still back at school,
“Why were you chosen or are you under a glamour, Har-er-Dan, is it?”

“We were chosen because we look like them a bit, well, I know I look a lot like Harry and of course, I played him in the films as the other two played the characters whose mantles they have been forced to don. It’s like living in a story, all this was words on a page and nothing more to me and now I’m here, but it wasn’t an accident. Far from it”.

He actually felt better now the truth was coming out. He felt he could trust these people. There was muttering between them, serious nods, or head shakes, glances at them as if they were about to erupt or something. Dan had a feeling that they were being judged, then he sat up straight and shook his head, “Whoa, who was that trying to get into my head?”

Amongst those ranged along the countertops resting against them, Moody moved forwards, “Well, well, an Occlumens. Not bad m’boy. Potter never got the hang of it. Have you practiced it?” Dan looked terrified, “Erm, no, sir, there was just this buzz in my head and in the books it was always the most interesting of the skills, you know, done mentally, not cast, so I sort of shut the door on you, so to speak”.

“Merlin’s tits. Boy. Who the hell are you?” Dan looked into that roving eye and felt almost faint. He felt himself go white and slumped back into his chair until the feeling passed, “I really had no idea...”, he whispered. Alan sat beside him, Tom the other side and they turned towards him until he regained his strength and could rejoin the throng, “Sorry, using strong magic still spaces me out a bit. I’m trying to see how much I’ve ‘inherited’, so to speak, and Alan and I can joint cast”. This started the murmurings off again, until a hand thumping the wood called, “Order, Order”.

Another questioner, “Well, if you’re here and Harry and co are there, can we switch you back and can we have our Harry back, please?”, she said lightly as if a child asking for it’s ball from over a neighbour’s garden fence. She was lightly restrained and whispered very hard at until her eyes widened and she screamed and ran from the room, then Alan stepped up and announced the news that Harry and Severus were dead and buried in their stead. This caused roars to break out again and they were heckled.

Alan bore it stoically but he could feel Dan tremble at his side. He was suddenly very angry at all these people acting if this was all their fault but in some ways he couldn’t blame them, three lookalike strangers landing in their midst making all kinds of wild claims. Moody spoke up, “Well, yer sure as shite not Harry Potter at any rate. Who dowsed ye originally?” Dan tried to be calm but his voice shook, “Kingsley Shacklebolt and Ms Tonks”.

He spoke up again, “Oh, yes, it was Poppy Pomfrey who first, er, raised the alarm but it was Albus who first found us, I don’t know if he dowsed us but she did”, his teeth were almost chattering as he finished as if he were going into shock. Alan didn’t care where he was or who these damned people were but his Dan was in distress.

He threw his arms around Dan and murmured to him, then barked, “Open a damned window in here, and whoever’s smoking that ruddy pipe, desist at once and can we have a hot drink over here? Preferably strong sweet tea”. As folk rushed to do his bidding, Albus and Remus shared a smirk. Alan Rickman may not be Snape but he still had that ineffable air of command.

As Dan sat out a bit with Alan at his side, the force of the ire turned on Tom until Albus made him show them the cuff. Kingsley instantly craned his tall thin self over it and, holding the lad’s arm delicately at wrist and elbow, proceeded to go over it with a steely gaze. “Ruddy fine workmanship in this thing. I doubt the object was made by Snape but he probably had it made. Cost a pretty knut, I’d say. It’s his casting signature, the piece fair reeks of it, he must have sweated blood over this lot but your magic is dampened while you wear it, it is the penalty you pay. Very powerful stuff from a man who loved Malfoy deeply”.

He looked up suddenly into Tom’s eyes and Tom couldn’t help but flinch slightly, the man was right in his face, “Does other stuff of Malfoy’s work for you? Were you able to get into his school trunk, for example?” Tom nodded. Dan joined in in a small voice, “Me too. We talk of the magic we’ve ‘inherited’, we know it’s not our own, of course it’s not. We’re muggle actors not wizards and we all use their wands. As they ‘crossed’ they all left their wands, a fact I’ve never been able to suss out. I suppose if we ever get Malfoy back, we can ask him”.

The focus was back on Dan and Alan. It surely couldn’t be missed that the older man had an arm around Dan’s shoulders and that Dan was leaning on Alan quite comfortably. Alan spoke, “Yes, ‘inherited’ is a good term. For example, Dan really has blue eyes and 20/20 vision. I have sandy-to-grey hair and hazel eyes, so more than just magic ‘crossed’ when we did. We have also been subject to certain of their....for want of a better word....characteristics. To explain, I sometimes find myself scowling when I am normally quite a mild-mannered man”. There were a few snickers at this but they were quickly quelled.

Albus took over, “Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, these are three of the very best people that find themselves in truly unusual circumstances and we must all do our best to see that they do not end up in Voldemort’s clutches and for that reason, I call upon the wizard’s oaths you swore as you entered into this Order to ensure your silence on this matter on the outside. He. Must. Not. Know. I cannot emphasise this enough. We need to put our heads together and plan. By my estimate we have until the end of term, maybe a little later, in which to come up with something. I fear this year he will be more aggressive than previously because, as we all know, Harry would have been of age. As it happens both Tom and Dan are well above ‘age’ and are considered full adults just about anywhere on the planet, I believe. We may be able to use that to our advantage”.

The ‘rhubarb, rhubarb’ of muttered conversations broke out all over the room. Dan hadn’t thought his age important but now perhaps it was, which meant that if Dumbledore had anything up his sleeve then it would happen before the end of July. Dan quailed inside at how little time they had.

They dipped out again as the talk and debate raged and eddied around them. Dan slumped against Alan’s side. Well, they’d done it, come out to them all including a fair few Weasleys. Dan recognised the mother from the films, but Arthur was very different from the actor. He was tubbier, jollier and balder. This was what convinced Dan that they were in a work of fiction, it was this blend of the real and the imaginary. He really needed to come up with a way to contact this author. Then it came to him in the small still eye of calm, in the mad din surrounding him, he’d simply start a ‘what if’ thread on the discussion site, maybe set up a blog connected to it and leave links all over the place. He sighed, he was pants at writing but for this he’d have to have a go.

The meeting broke up soon afterwards and by now, Dan was dropping with fatigue: he thought it must have been the chair but he seemed to ache everywhere. When he stood, he definitely felt dizzy for a moment but shrugged it off until one of the Weasley twins noticed and called out, “All right, there, Harry, er...Dan?” Dan couldn’t quite reply, although there were things he wanted to say, then it all went a little bit hot and fuzzy until he felt strong arms holding him up until he was lowered onto something soft and giving, whereupon he faded gracefully away.

When he came to, it was to see several concerned faces ranged around him, albeit blurred. He felt his glasses placed gently back onto his nose with an accompanying kiss to his forehead and a low, “Welcome back. We need to get you back to school. Albus suspects a touch of the wizarding ‘flu. Do you mind if I carry you?” Dan smiled weakly into the face of his lover, “I don’t think my legs will hold me right now, I think I’ll fall flat on my face, so, yes, please. How are we getting back?” Alan lifted him and kissed him, “Floo”.

They would have to go from upstairs so they made to leave the room past a small knot of Order members. Someone murmured, “You two seem a bit cosy. I thought teacher/student relationships were outlawed”. Alan glowered at the man with a full-on Snapely glare, “Have you listened to nothing tonight, you dolt? We are neither student nor teacher and both very much of age. We are not engaged in school activities as such and are discreetly sequestered away whilst we recover from the magical depletion that has caused our retreat since the day of the ‘incident’. The student body at large still think we are ‘the originals’”, he said, acidly. The man reared away a little and backed down. Behind them, Albus was laughing inside, oh, this one would do all right, an excellent substitute....

Alan took Dan straight to their own rooms, put Dan straight to bed and floocalled Poppy from the fireplace in the bedroom. She came through in a trice. She read and dowsed and did her job then snapped open her large carpet bag and dug out several potions. She laid them in a line on the bedside table and said, “Give these to him at two hour intervals”, she checked the magical little watch pinned to her apron then tapped the caps of the bottles with her wand, “There, I’ve set a timer on each of them”.

She laid out another, shorter row of phials, “These are for you, Alan. They are preventatives although you may experience a few symptoms but in a milder form. Dan has wizarding ‘flu. It is not life-threatening in any way but it is virulent. We normally experience it at the start of every school year. A new strain arises each time we have muggle-raised children near high concentrations of magic. Not all succumb by any means but the more delicate generally do. Dan would have been exposed to a lot of magic today. Many in the Order are very powerful”.

Alan’s head shot up, “You know of it?” The medi-witch smiled, “Of course I do. I’m a member of many years standing, young man, but I can’t just go swanning off to meetings at the drop of a hat, now, can I?” Alan had to agree with her. She stepped away and fished out a couple more potions. Alan sighed, “We found out that Dan is an Occlumens. Alastor Moody tried to Legilimise him on the quiet and Dan threw him out, quite forcefully, I might add. The man seemed quite shocked”.

Poppy laughed, “I should think so, too. There’s not many that are Occlumens naturally and Harry, bless him, was useless at it, despite the length of time Severus spent trying to teach him”, she brushed the fringe from Dan’s hot dry forehead, “You need to keep him warm, give him plenty of fluids and dry the bedding when he starts to sweat. If you come down with it then call me or a house-elf, they, as am I, are immune to it. I must ask you not to go beyond your doors for four days as I do not wish to risk an outbreak so close to the exams, the children are stressed and drained and are perfect vehicles for a new strain of the virus”. Alan nodded wisely at her words and she flooed back to the hospital wing.

So, here they were trapped, again, only this time by a pesky virus. Ah, well, nothing for it, there was tons of reading he wanted to do and being grounded was a perfect excuse. Maybe he’d try a few more plant-based potions again, just to boost his confidence again, shaken a bit by the ‘flobberworm debacle’, as he thought of it.

He looked down at Dan asleep on his back. Watched him twitch and move in his delirium, heard him mutter and snuffle then try to reach out with arms trapped under the bedclothes and become distressed in his sleep. Alan Summoned his book and knew where he needed to be. He kicked off his shoes, knelt on the bed and rolled the bedclothes down enough to release his lover’s arms, then tucked them up again and sat beside him, propped up by the headboard, his book in his lap. He felt Dan’s arms go about his hips and could feel the intense heat from Dan’s face as it was pressed against his side, heard the pleased moan and the smacking of sleepy lips. Alan smiled and lit his candles on his cabinet.

He was indeed required to make potions for Poppy to treat stress-related symptoms such as panic attacks, lack of sleep, blurred vision and found he enjoyed discussing treatments and options with her. He still couldn’t countenance the animal ingredients yet, unless they were already dried or pickled or indeed, very much dead and pre-treated, ready for addition after a bit of a chop or mince, that he could do, despite the noxious whiffs. She grinned at him during one of their discussions, “You know, that’s why you have apprentices, Alan, to do all the stuff you hate or can’t be bothered doing. Still, having said that, I can’t see Dan doing that kind of task either”.

The potions he was giving every two hours kept Dan asleep for the first two days but his lover was hot and dry, needing to sip water often so Poppy set him up with an old fashioned drip that transferred saline magically without breaking Dan’s skin so that Alan could work, but he came into the bedroom often, to talk to the man he loved as he slept, change his drip bag, kiss him and go back to his task. During the night on day two, Alan was awoken by Dan thrashing around mumbling his sister’s name. They were both drenched. Dan’s fever had broken at last.

Dan woke for short periods after that; the first few, he barely slitted his eyes but was aware of being gently suspended as the bed and his pyjamas were changed, he himself being magically cleansed so he felt reasonably fresh again when tucked back into bed. He longed for a real shower but loved what Alan was doing for him, even if it made him feel a bit embarrassed, it also made him feel very loved.

It was after one such bed bath that, freshly tucked in, he turned large sleepy green eyes upon his lover, sat beside him reading, and said, “Hi”, in a very croaky voice. Instantly, Alan turned and smiled, marking his book and putting it down, turning his attentions immediately to Dan. “You’re awake. How are you feeling? Here, let me give you some water, your throat sounds dry. No. Don’t speak, have a drink first, love”, and with that, Alan picked up the squirty bottle, hefted Dan’s upper body up a bit and helped him to drink.

When he’d had enough, Dan moved his head a little and the pipe was withdrawn from his lips, he looked up into Alan’s eyes and murmured, “Thanks”, his voice was a little less raw. There was a pinging sound from in the room and Dan started, “What the hell....?” but Alan laughed, kissed his brow and sat up, “Time for your potions. It’s an alarm Poppy set as the timing of doses has to be precise”. Dan winced at the tastes but gagged them down.

He lay back again with Alan’s help, “Fuck, I feel as weak as a kitten. Why have I got a drip?” Alan kissed his cheek, “Because you had a very high temperature and you were a bit dehydrated, now you can take water orally again, that’ll probably come off soon”. Dan started to glaze over again as the potion got to work, “Okay, how did I get this?” Alan held him as he drifted off again, “Exposure to strong magic in a small space and one of them was, as like as not, carrying the virus but not suffering from it, a regular Typhoid Mary, it is apparently quite common amongst muggle-raised magicals, we have been on lock-down for the last two, nearly three days and we have another day’s quarantine before us”.

Dan just mumbled, “Oh. Sorry”, then he slept again. Alan had had to take it easy today having suffered a number of mild symptoms, amongst them extreme lethargy and deep aches in his legs and back. He took his own potions with the same degree of regularity with which he fed Dan his. He was quite enjoying nursing his lover, who was a model patient, it has to be said, not to mention asleep most of the time and wanting to be held. He, too, slept in due course, his own potion doing it’s work and healing him as he slept.

****

In the event, it was a full week before both of them could be said to be recovered anything like fully as the aches and weakness continued even after the fever and sweats had abated. They still weren’t eating much save soups and soft fruits where their appetites could stand it and they hadn’t been having any sex, even when they finally summoned up the strength to take proper showers rather than rely on cleaning charms that only went so far.

Until about day five of the long healing week when Dan took them both off for a lie-down after their latest round of potions, lay them both on their sides and pulled their bodies flush together so that Alan could feel Dan’s thickening cock against his hip. He sighed, “I’m not strong enough yet, love, my legs are still like jelly”. Dan looped a hand behind Alan’s head and tugged gently, kissing him, then murmured against his lips, “Let’s just get off, have a bit of fun. I’m knackered too, I think my dick’s got the most life in it of any part of me but we can frot or something, use our hands”.

Alan’s cock liked that suggestion very much and fair sprang to attention after not very much touching at all, first with Dan’s hand and then when he slid his own cock alongside, reaching a hand around his young lover’s back to pull them yet closer by grabbing the rounded cheek of that beautiful young arse, all the while kissing his delicious lover for England, making hungry small noises and huffing out rapid breaths through his nose, his passion climbing to fever pitch in mere seconds. Gods, he’d missed this.

Their cocks were rubbing hard and they were grinding together before Dan released the back of Alan’s neck and inveigled his hand between their writhing bodies and tried to grasp them both but the sweat, the slipperiness and the fact of his rather small hands made him mewl in frustration, yank his hand free and grab Alan’s hip instead, aching for more friction.

Alan pulled away from the kiss long enough to mutter, “Hold us close, I’ll wank us”, and his hand disappeared between them and closed easily over their two cocks and squeezed. Dan groaned and thrust, “Fuck!”, he cried out and gritted his teeth, “Won’t last like that. Fuck, that’s ‘mazin’. Oh, yeah, do that again”, and thus encouraged, grinning, Alan did just that, severally, as Dan rutted his hand harder and harder, his head thrown back now, his mouth a rictus then he groaned out once and came all over Alan’s hand and the head of his own very aroused cock.

Needing so much to come, Alan rolled them over and climbed between Dan’s legs, thrusting hard and fast under his lover’s sweaty balls and up into the lower half of his arse cheeks, the sheets abrading the rest of his cock-head and he fired his load all over Dan’s balls and crack and made a wet patch in the bed, collapsing over his beloved and kissing him hard, still gasping for breath.

They rolled around and laughed, kissing and looking into each other’s eyes. Dan whispered, “I’ve missed this. We need to do more of this. I love this place, this little bubble of you and I”. Alan swallowed hard at this. This was something he had tried to avoid in the past, taking on lovers only so far, never letting his girlfriend in, but this slip of a lad had done it, made him fall completely. Now he revelled in the bubble, gathered Dan close and replied, “Me too. I’d be lost without this, without you”, there, he’d admitted it.

When they finally emerged from their besotted feverish state it was to find a silent school in the throes of the exams and a letter excusing Harry Potter from his on medical grounds. He was to take his revised tests at the Ministry of Magic over the summer blah, blah, blah. Dan was ecstatic. He’d been dreading having to go through the trauma of the exam hall, a thing he’d loathed the first time around. The rest of the school tip-toed around at this time of year

When they admitted visitors, it was to receive an equally wan Tom Felton visiting with his own lover Remus Lupin. Apparently, two days after the meeting, Tom, too, had come down with the flu. Remus had emerged unscathed but had had to endure a full-moon change more or less alone as Tom was too ill to tend him.

The Slytherins who had attacked Tom had been severely punished so Tom was glad in a way of his malady for it had been a legitimate reason for him staying out of sight. No-one tried to visit any of the invalids as all were aware of the nasty effects of a dose of wizard’s ‘flu.

Alan was the perfect host, transfiguring another sofa for his guests to languish upon. Tom and Dan still looked so pale and tired. Lupin helped him arrange furniture then called the elf and asked for tea for them all plus cakes and pastries to tempt them to be followed by wine as the evening wore on.

As the alcohol began to hit, the four laid out facing each other, Tom laid back against Remus and Dan in the same pose being held by Alan who dotted occasional kisses into his hair as they talked and drank. The couples were....loving....gentle with each other and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. In a detached corner of his mind, Remus let it puzzle him; he had certainly felt Tom grow closer to him recently and he revelled in this boy loving him. He glanced at Alan who seemed to be equally deeply involved with young Dan and wondered idly just what magic these muggles were wreaking before dipping his head to devour Tom’s sensitive neck and make him moan ....again.

He had never had such an attentive lover ever, and that included a certain potions master. He pulled away from the boy making him hard and glanced over at his hosts to see them just as lost in each other. He decided to call a quiet halt to their activities and get his beloved back to their part of the castle before he ended up taking his lover on this rather comfy settee. Watching the other two fool around wasn’t hard on the eyes either but he didn’t share and he’d lay a galleon to a knut odds that Alan didn’t either.

They all came back dazedly to the present and Dan and Alan saw their guests out and had barely closed the door when they were on each other with renewed vigour, kissing and licking and squirming against each other, on fire with lust. They made it back to the bedroom by which time they had lost all their clothing and they fell together onto the bed. Alan rolled Dan beneath him and Dan parted his legs around his lover’s body, lifting his hips in wanton invitation and Alan descended on him with a growl....

It was late, very late, before they slept. As Alan’s eyes closed with his sweaty smiling Danny in his arms, he just about strung together two thoughts. This illness had drained them and that the summer was now well on it’s way. They had less time than ever to be prepared. He tried to think about it all but his sated brain closed down on him and sleep claimed him.