Whose Universe Are We In?

16

And so they waited.

For the Day.

Around the visitors, the pupils that were taking exams finished them at long last and the noise level rose considerably around the school, with those not under the yoke of exams let loose after having to tiptoe around, joining them in short order, spilling out into the grounds for the last glorious week of school, ties off, barefoot, even daring little dips in the lake on the hottest days. Staying in the beautiful little staff garden the visitors did indeed manage to enjoy the warm weather on the other side of the castle and sometimes even forgot the impending troubles.

But not for long.

Like the snake he channelled, Voldemort seemed to really come to life when the sun shone, lashing out hither and yon at mixed muggle and magical communities. News assailed them daily of his deeds. For now he was content with long-lasting ‘confundus’ and complicated memory charms but Dan was sure that these spells were sending a message and said so at the next order meeting.

Three nights before the end of the year and the meeting was taking place in a deep cool classroom. There were still those that fanned themselves and Dan, not for the first time, wondered at the custom of so many damned layers of clothing. He was in jeans and a t-shirt. Alan in the same. Dan thought Alan looked delectable in jeans and tried to keep his mind on the meeting.

Albus spoke then, “Dan, what did you just mean?” Blinking as he emerged from his reverie, Dan said, “Well, doesn’t he normally maim and burn and kill?” Albus sighed, “Sadly, yes”. Dan bit his lip, “This isn’t his usual M.O. Sorry, modus oper...”, Albus held his hand up, “Yes, yes, dear boy, I learned Latin before your grandfather was a twinkle in his father’s eye. Hmmm, I see what you mean. Mind curses rather than death but a sort of slow living death, a half-life. Hmm, as you say, not his usual methods”.

Dan felt a chill at this. He had to get in touch with the writer somehow. He really needed to know where she was going with all this and that meant he had to also plough through the millions of notes and jottings on Lydia’s hard drive that Dan had copied to his own. Another reading job he didn’t look forward to. He had a feeling she was up to something, she never came to say ‘hi’ any more and Dan recalled her watching little amateur movies made by besotted teenagers on YouTube. The tiny clip he’d seen had been of a Harry-alike snogging a Draco-alike, he’d sussed she was a slash fan. He’d returned her laptop the following day.

Perhaps it was time to sit down and have a little chat to a certain second year Ravenclaw.

For now though, he tuned back into the meeting to find everyone deep into a discussion of Voldemort’s change of MO and he realised he hadn’t drifted for long. A sudden idea struck him, “Who has he been assaulting? The muggles? Only it may be that he’s been questioning folk and obliviating them afterwards, hence the mind-fucks, sorry, pardon my Anglo-Saxon”, he blurted out all in one breath.

Alan frowned, not sure where Dan was going with this and said, “Yes, do we know who these people are? Or are they just ‘random muggles’ that Voldemort likes to attack?” Dan turned to his lover and expressed his gratitude for the back-up with his eyes, leaving his face quite unmoved, but Alan saw the warmth in the green depths where others may only see reflections in his glasses.

A woman said, “Bravo, young Dan. All too often we never memorialise these poor victims and they are war victims, make no mistake about it. They are, I believe the term is, collateral damage”. Dan frowned, “No!”, he exclaimed, “What if Voldie is seeking out the ones he mind-fucks, er, damages? How random are his attacks anyway? Doesn’t everyone that dies have some ties to the wizarding world, however tenuous?”

Albus spoke up and hushed the gathering when murmurs threatened to become louder, “I think the lad has a point, ladies and gentlemen. We need to know who was damaged. Kingsley?”, he called out above the gathered heads. The tall, black auror stood, “Yes, Albus, we have the names at the Ministry. If you would excuse me a moment, I can fetch them”. Albus nodded and the man made his way from the room.

In his absence, Albus and Remus summoned drinks and filled the gap until Kingsley returned by taking statements and hearing tales from members of the Order that had been on various missions both offensive and defensive around the nation. A young couple, neither much older than Dan told a sad tale of a third now in St Mungo’s with severe curse burns. An old man stepped up and related how he had heard tell of a raid by Death-Eaters in a hamlet near Newry in Northern Ireland and the kidnap of two pretty witches for the use of Death Eaters at their next revel. This quiet tale sickened and angered all who heard it.

A debonair chap in swirling robes clapped the old man on the shoulder and said that the two ladies had been tracked to a lonely farmhouse across the border and even now were probably being rescued. The old man seemed to slump with relief at this news, “I bloody hope so”, was all he said.

More came forward and told their tales. Bad news. Good news. Some left, having other responsibilities to attend to until there was just a core of Order members by the time Kingsley arrived back, swearing and apologising for taking so long, “Sorry, people, but there were two Death-Eaters brought in from Northern Ireland. They’d been caught about to rape two innocent young witches and I had to be there to administer the ‘serum”. Dan looked around for the elderly wizard but he’d gone. Still, Dan had to smile, at least the ladies had been spared.

The auror thrust a piece of parchment in Dan’s face and Dan grabbed it, reeling back a little at the aggressiveness with which the thing was shoved at him, and read it. There was a list of fifteen names, all male, from all corners of the country. Alan leaned over his shoulder and read with him. Dan didn’t know any of the folk on the list but he heard Alan gasp beside him and whipped his head around. “Do you know any of these people, love?”, he asked in a low voice.

The chair back creaked as Alan slumped back against it, “Yes, I do”. He pointed at one name, Charlot Pieszacki, “He ran the catering van on this set, the set of the last movie. He gave me codeine the day you and Tom finished, the day....oh, fuck....we know this guy, Dan”.

Horrified, Dan searched amongst his memories. As an actor he had fed from various of the catering wagons dotted about the set but couldn’t recall anyone with such a name. He shook his head then Alan said, “Charlie’s? Charlie’s snack wagon. Did the best chilli baked potato on set?”, and the light dawned in Dan’s eyes that grew round in shock, “Oh, no. Not Charlie. He was a great bloke, what happened to him?”

Kingsley looked at them shrewdly, “He was one of the ones that had had his memory altered, though when we questioned him, he was full of praise for ‘Harry’ and ‘Draco’ and their brave acts even though he had no clue about witches and wizards. Most peculiar, I thought it but this makes more sense. He worked in the place where you made the films?”, he enquired.

Dan nodded, “Yeah, right here, in the, er, other universe, the one we originally came from. He ran a snack van. It was his own business though he was at the time employed by the film unit so we didn’t have to pay for our food, he just dished it up and we signed a chitty that he presumably claimed back later. What the hell would someone like Voldemort want with a bloke like Charlie?”

The rest of the Order were at a loss. Who knew the inner workings of a mind like Voldemort’s. Alan was still scowling at the list, tapping it with his forefinger, deep in thought. He didn’t recognise the whole names, Bernard King or Melvyn Hunt, for example, but there’d been a Mel who was one of the cameramen and a Bernie who acted as a runner on-set.

No. It was too much of a coincidence. His mind reeled from the thought that crept into his head. But here was a ‘Norman Sallis’ that he’d called ‘Norm’ and there a was a ‘Lawrence Golding’ that he recalled was a continuity boy known as ‘Lol’ around set and then the thought hit him like a freight train between the eyes, the coincidence too great to ignore, “These guys were crew”, he spat out, apropos of nothing.

“What!”, came from Dan. “Sorry, Alan?”, came another voice; Remus’. Yet another that neither Alan nor Dan recognised asked, “You know of a connection between these men?” Alan nodded slowly and he took a moment to order his wildly scattered thoughts, “Yes. I think that all of these are or were former crew members on the last Harry Potter film and, if I am right, then all of them were present for our last few scenes. If this is right, and I have to admit, it is probably a long shot, then I would say that, not only is Voldemort on to us but it is highly likely he also knows that Harry Potter and Severus Snape are dead”. Silence greeted this little outburst and a slither of icy cold ran down the spines of all those there.

Oh, fuck”, Remus whispered and this seemed to sum it up for all the remaining Order members. Had they been rumbled? Did Voldemort know that he fought a mere couple of muggles? The thought was too huge and too devastating to think about right now and Albus used the lull in proceedings to call a halt to the meeting and the Order members left through the Floo that night with lots to think about but before he left, Kingsley had a private hurried conference with Dumbledore that no-one else was privy to before he, too, popped through the Floo, disappearing in a swath of green flame and a swirl of black robes.

As the flames went from green to orange again, the fire left the four in the hallway: Dan, Alan, Remus and Albus, who paired off and went their separate ways after Albus tried to reassure the two guests that nothing could befall them here at Hogwarts but as said guests headed back to their quarters, each was locked in his own cocoon of fear and mistrust and walked separately, deep in thought, ignoring any and every student they met in the corridors.

Upon reaching the relative sanctuary of their rooms, Dan turned on his lover and said, “Do you think he’s targeting the crew members? Do you think he’s looking for us?” Alan nodded, “I’m not sure but I think something like that is going on. Yes. I think you and I may have been rumbled which means that you and I have to be even better actors from now on”. Dan was really afraid, “But if he’s sussed us, how the hell can we convince anyone now that we’re Severus and Harry?”

Alan frowned, exasperated, “I don’t know, Dan, love. I don’t know. Call it a hunch but I think I’m right”. This made Dan very gloomy, even depressed and it took quite some persuading by his beloved before Dan Radcliffe relaxed enough that night to sleep, persuasion on the end of Alan’s agile tongue.

****

After watching Dan pushing his breakfast around his plate until it congealed into a mess, Alan gave up on his own and suggested a good hard workout in the cave. First an energising swim followed by some weights then Alan went for a run on the treadmill whilst keeping Dan doing his kata in the corner of his eye. God, he was so beautiful stripped to the waist in a pair of sweat pants and nothing else, Alan had to turn away and concentrate on his running in order not to tip off the side of the wretched machine.

After a hot little shower that left them both pink and relaxed they returned upwards to their rooms to find two slightly singed envelopes on the rug before the hearth. Alan ripped his open first,

Dear ‘Professor Snape’ ,

So someone who knew he wasn’t the esteemed or otherwise professor...

We wish to have the pleasure of your company at our Leaving Feast and Leaving Ball. Great Hall, 7:30 sharp. Dress: Formal.

There will be entertainments and a band.

RSVP

And in brackets underneath,

Don’t worry, Alan, we’ll all look after you. Come along and have some fun.

Signed

Dumbledore’s Army xxx

Alan felt a strange warmth suffuse his chest and he swallowed. He glanced at Dan who turned to him and smiled, “An invite to the party?” Alan nodded, “I’m surprised they want me there”. Dan shrugged, “I’m not. They like you. They like us, and I’m pretty sure you’ve made at least a fan of Hermione not to mention Luna. Let’s go, why don’t we?”

Bowing to the inevitable, Alan nodded his agreement and was heartily kissed by his young beloved whom he disentangled himself from quickly, “We’ll have to be discreet. We can’t show what we are to each other to the entire school”. Dan homed in again and threaded his arms around the taller man, “We’ll be decent until the younger kids go to bed then I want to dance with you. Fuck it. It’s the upper sixth’s last full night, I bet they’re all pissed as newts anyway”. Alan rolled his eyes and relaxed into Dan’s embrace, “God spare me from pissed adolescents”, he murmured into the thick dark hair.

The Floo jangled a few minutes later and they turned to see Tom’s head in the flames. “Morning, chaps, did you two get an invitation to tonight’s bun fight?” Dan unwound his arms and went to kneel before the grate, “Yeah. I take it you two did?” He saw the strange green nod and grinned, “Did yours say that the gang’d look after you?” Tom nodded, “Yup, says they’ll keep me safe from harm and to come out and have fun and dance. I quite fancy it actually”. Dan snickered, “Yeah, me too, although I think that Alan’s not too keen”, they shared a laugh at this before Tom bowed out of the fire with a, “See you both later then”.

The evening meal was brought forwards a few hours and was more of a high tea. The first through third years were agitated and a little sullen although, Dan thought as he surveyed various plotting heads bent together, they would no doubt find their own fun, most of the staff numbers being concentrated upon the upper years’ party.

There had been no school as such all day and for the most part, students had spent their day relaxing outdoors in the hot sun as did the teachers, the pressures of the school year ended for now, although, if one listened hard enough, one could hear many a moan and complaint about the coming revels amongst said staff members. The kids were an altogether different matter, with some of them, particularly the young ladies, disappearing all through the afternoon to begin their toilettes.

Others bent their heads together and gossiped, the sound of pealing laughter ringing out over the sun-baked grounds at regular intervals. There were games, the odd pick-up game of quidditch could be heard as squeals from the pitch as well as other games, desultorily played in the heat of the afternoon.

Alan, Dan and Tom spent theirs relaxing in the Staff garden, the rest of the Staff making the Hall ready for the evening; they had just felt superfluous and had escaped outside. A house-elf brought icy drinks and they lolled on deck loungers sipping on freezing cold pumpkin juice, all thoughts of the impending war far from their minds.

Dan had widened his lounger and now lay curled up under a transfigured umbrella out of the sun’s rays with his head leaning on his lover’s chest and his arm slung across Alan’s middle. Alan had an arm around Dan’s shoulders and the other hand idly stroked Dan’s forearm lying across him. He was warm and peaceful, Dan quiet and relaxed.

They were both watched from under slitted pale lids as Tom smirked to see them. He was thinking hard on the nature of love and how suited the two dozing before him were when he felt rather than saw the shadow cross his vision and he looked up to see Remus grinning over him, shrugging out of his robes. Tom bit his lip when he saw the man was wearing nothing but shorts beneath and budged up on his lounger to let Remus lie alongside him.

He was only dozing lightly, so Dan raised his head at the soft murmurs coming from Tom’s lounger and smiled to see the two gather each other up and kiss. Wow, they looked bloody hot together! Keeping his eyes half-closed, Dan watched them for a while and felt a pang when he saw the look on Tom’s face when the kiss broke up. Dan’s mind supplied, ‘He never bloody looked at me like that’, before Dan stomped hard on the thought and carried on watching. Saw the delicate touches that the blond gave his older lover on his face, the look of awed wonder never leaving his eyes then the equally delicate kisses Tom started to rain upon Remus’ upturned features until Remus flicked his eyes open again and grabbed his younger lover to him, starting to devour him properly, before Dan closed his eyes again and snuggled closer to the source of his own joy, rewarded with arms tightening around him and murmurs into his hair. Grinning, Dan dozed off to the sounds of love and sloppy kisses.

He awoke to find his own face squashed between Alan’s shoulder blades and his body spooned behind that of his taller lover, one arm wrapped possessively around the man’s middle. He disentangled himself and found his glasses on the grass beside the lounger, sitting up to put them on. Beside him, Alan slept on, curled on his side. Across from them, Tom and Remus lay twined about each other, fast asleep. Yep, they still looked hot but now Dan could look on dispassionately.

He rubbed his face and felt a deep crease in his left cheek and used his other hand to lazily run it over the sleeping form of his lover, then turned and looked over the side of the lounger and poured himself a drink, lifting it to his lips, then paused when he felt the warmth of the glass. He was a wizard now! He took up his wand and uttered a cooling charm strong enough to almost freeze the glass to his fingers before downing a great draught of the now-cold liquid. Aaahh, that was so good.

Peering out from under the umbrella, he saw others dotted about amongst the brakes created by bushes and undergrowth between bays in the garden bordering a wider open area where all could mix and mingle or retreat into one of the bays for privacy or with smaller groups. He saw a bare back criss-crossed by straps under a rattan umbrella that cast it’s own striped pattern on her back, for this was definitely a woman. He couldn’t see her face but could just make out that she was holding a book and was wearing a sunhat despite the shade of her parasol. He idly took in other small groups dotted about similarly shaded from the hottest part of the day and Flitwick under a small pair of headphones lying on a lounger in the full sun in the bay across from theirs.

Smiling, he pondered the sights surrounding him and wondered if this was how real soldiers in real wars conducted themselves in lulls in the action. He supposed that they did and, leaning back and fumbling under the lounger, he brought out the book he’d carried with him outside. It fell open easily even with so many about and he knew that all within range of him were still asleep. He snuggled down onto his side, leaning his head in one hand flipped to his bookmark that had squashed a bit in the tightly clamped pages and once more was reading Harry’s journal: -

June – beginning of...

I’m sat up here in the fucking Gryffindor tower and I can’t sleep. Severus has been Summoned again and I fear for him. I saw the state of him last time he returned; begged him not to go again but of course he must, so I sit here in the common room and fret and worry. It is during this dark night of the soul that I realise my feelings for Severus go far beyond mere lust.....dammit, I’m in love with the man!!!!!

I pace about for a bit then think, ‘bugger this’ and get my Cloak from my dorm. No-one sees me sneaking about and I know how to be quiet after long years with these men. Ron mutters his lover’s name....Ollie....Marcus, I can’t tell from here...

This made Dan sit up, Ron, in love with blokes? Surely not. He seemed joined at the hip to Hermione. He shrugged silently, glanced at his still-sleeping companions and back at the scrawled writing.

....then I sneak off. I really did mean to just roam around, give Severus his space when he gets back from his meeting but I’m worried and in a near panic so I fuck off down to the dungeons, quick smart. I almost run, literally, into Draco, with his latest lover, almost fucking right there in the corridor. A girl this time. Can’t see who she is from this angle but I can plainly see his hand up under her skirt playing with her and I can hear the noises he’s making her make. She’s really enjoying it, I leave them to it and circle around them as silently as possible, despite the fact that they are oblivious. I hear the zip on his pants being pulled down and the all-too-familiar groan as his cock is released but I am cold to the sound. I have another who needs me more right now.

His wards admit me without a qualm. I am delighted about this although I try not to show it in front of him, the old stoic. It means he’s at least trusted me for ages to do a thing like that and as for the safeguard on the underground chamber, well, of course I hold the means of entry in my own hands. I’d like to think he did this from love but always with him, practicality prevails. Only me and Voldemort himself could ever get into that chamber and I know that’s why he had the snake warding done. Anything else is within reach of thousands of people but to all intents and purposes, that warding is mine alone. Ah, the joys of being with a paranoiac!!

I search his rooms and he’s not there so I trail into his little kitchen and put the kettle on. It is then that I see the note: -

There’s scones from teatime in the fridge. Please dig out three phials of pain potion and two blood replenishers and place them on my night table. Please have a bath run for me. Thank you. X

Dan looked up dreamily and smirked at the big black X. A kiss from the surly man at the end of the instructions. Knowing Harry would come to him, to his rooms. Knowing Harry would be up worrying about him and not sweetly asleep in his dormitory. He turned the page and carried on.

I do all these things of course. I eat a couple of scones with my tea and keep the fire going, then run his bath. I take a couple of his larger towels back into the living room to warm them in front of the fire. The potions have been placed and the bed turned down. I make a pot of tea and place it under warming charms and keep-fresh charms then I sit on the sofa and wait.

I must have dozed off ‘cos I blink rapidly with my heartbeat hammering as I hear him enter his chambers. In an instant I’m awake, wand in hand, but I call his name in a low voice to tell him I’m here. Wouldn’t do to have him hex me and I know he’s so wound up after having to endure his meetings.

He’s staggering as he approaches the fire. I wave the lights up and I gasp in horror; he’s covered in blood and shaking from head to toe. In an instant I am beside him and hold him as he sinks to the floor muttering, “So cold, Harry. I’m so cold. I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again”, then his voice fades and the shakes start. Fuck! He’s going into shock.

Galvanised, I leap up and race to his medicine cabinet and fumble about knocking several potions into the sink until I find the one I seek. I grasp the bottle and run back to him to see him sprawled across the rug face-down.

I lift him in my arms. He’s a dead weight. He reeks of things I dare not name as well as the blood that covers him. There’s something I’d rather not think about in his hair. It looks like brains, or maybe intestines. Ugh. Major yuk. Still, I get his head back, yank the cork out of the bottle with my teeth and feed him his own anti-shock potion. He needs no encouragement to swallow. He’s sort of used to this but it’s the first time I’ve seen him in quite this state.

Somehow I get him to the bathroom, whence I Summon one of the pain potions and administer that as well. I stand us both up with him leaning a goodly portion of his weight on me and strip him with my wand. I think about just chucking him in the bath but I don’t want whatever’s in his hair in the bath with us so I direct him under the shower at first and sluice him down getting rid of most of the blood and the....er....solids.

As I manoeuvre him from shower to bath I can see cruciatus burns all over him especially in Voldemort’s favourite spot right up on his inside thigh, less than two inches from his beautiful bollocks. I groan and want to kiss him better but I know that after one of these blood-lettings that my beloved needs to be clean first. We don’t talk during this although Severus is so tired I suspect he couldn’t string more than two words together.

After the manky shite is cleaned from him I can see where it hurts and do my best to heal him; I know how much he hates going to Pomfrey, although she’d do a damned sight better job than me but I do my best knowing he’ll have more scars when this lot of cuts and slashes heals. I sink him into the bath for a soak but he’s pretty much asleep before he even touches the water.

In the light of the bathroom I can see how exhausted he is. He can’t take much more of this and I’m not sure I can sit by and watch either. I daren’t Legilimise him for fear of what I might find. In any case, he’ll tell me in the morning so I’ll have to steel myself for that. For now, though, I wash him all over, the water buoying his body when I need to turn him. Even in sleep he hisses as I touch about half-way down his right side, now uppermost and showing the beginnings of bruising....possibly a cracked or even broken rib.

I dive out of the bath and back to the cabinet for a dose of bone-set, lift him from the water and make him take it then settle him with his back to my chest for a soak and I hold him against me as I think.

I want to get us out of here. We can’t do this. We’ve already figured out that V’s magic is just too fucking strong. He’s been making himself more powerful for years using his prisoners and taking their magic from them, horcruxes or not. To defeat him is going to take the magic of more than one person. I think it’s going to need bonded magic and me and Severus, although we love each other, I’m pretty sure of it, we aren’t bonded. Bond magic is so special and me and Severus just don’t have it.

Fuck! We’ve tried, oh, yes, we’ve tried; but we just can’t joint cast if our bloody lives depended on it.

What?! Dan looked up from the page, his eyes round behind his glasses, and stared into the middle distance, blinking. This was a new development indeed but Dan murmured, “Aye, Harry, and we can only joint-cast ‘cos we’re weak. Fuck! We’re in a mess. I wish you were still here and we weren’t but I understand a bit better why you had to do what you did”, his fingers stroked the page absentmindedly.

He yelped as the pages snapped shut suddenly and his fingers were caught. He managed to yank them from the pages as the volume turned stone-like again and he felt Alan beside him stir and roll towards him. Dan smiled at the sleepy kiss to his hip, ditched the diary off the side of the lounger into the grass and wriggled down again to be with his lover as he awoke.

Alan surfaced with his mouth full of tongue and his arms full of writhing young man. His brain was still asleep but his body liked this way of waking very much indeed, to the point of clutching and holding down that mass of wriggly humanity and kissing it into the middle of next week, whereupon it moaned quite satisfyingly, pushing up into his body, now somehow lying atop said wriggliness, pinning it down. His thigh fell easily between two spread ones and he mindlessly frotted and rode the hollow of hip that his dick fitted so neatly into while wriggly boy calmed and wrapped a leg over the back of his thighs and pressed his own hardness into any part of his lover that it reached.

A “Whoa guys”, from behind them stilled them instantly and with a last pull of lips they parted gasping and red-faced, still gazing at one another as they remembered that they were still out in the open and not in their own bed. Dan eventually lifted his head whilst cradling Alan’s on his shoulder, to find Remus smirking at them. Dan rolled his eyes, “I like to be there when he wakes up, so hex me”. Remus grinned, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to exclaim so loud. I’d have been quite content to watch. The scenario was becoming a tad incendiary and on such a ....sultry afternoon too”, he drawled then waved his hand behind him, “Not to mention any and all of the old biddies around here that would have been happy to watch as well”. Dan gulped as he saw various folk gathered in the middle of the garden in the communal area under umbrellas turn away from their bay and fix drinks and talk nonsensically amongst themselves.

Dan huffed out a laugh, “Er, thanks for stopping us, then”, he said as he still held his slightly lust-dazed lover to him and willed his own hard-on to subside and his breathing to slow. He kissed his lover’s hair severally and breathed deeply then laughed against Alan’s scalp feeling an answering shake from the man he held then Alan looked up at him with mirth in his eyes and said, “Good afternoon, beautiful. It was a lovely way to wake despite not being able to complete the scenario but if you would like us to make a graceful exit, then perhaps we could continue this in our chambers”.

Dipping his head and kissing the tip of Alan’s nose, Dan sat back up, chewing his lip and nodded, “Yeah”, was all he could say. Alan stretched them both out and discreetly cast glamours over their want and received a kiss as reward before standing a mite unsteadily and holding his hand out to Dan.

Not caring by this time who saw him or indeed what state he was in, Dan kept his eyes on his lover’s as he rose, clutching tight to the proffered hand and sinuously rose to his feet then wrapped the arm and hand around his shoulders clutching the hand over one nipple, glanced up at Alan with a smirk and the pair made their way from the garden with as much decorum as they could.

****

Watching them go, Remus remarked to his own lover as they both watched the swaying forms be absorbed by the bulk and mass of the castle, “Shame we had to miss that”. Tom turned under his lover’s partial weight atop him and replied, “They don’t share so put that thought well away, Remus, my love”. Remus stared down imperiously into those pale grey eyes, “Share?! I think not, young man. I merely wished to watch. With you of course”, he qualified with a grin. Tom rolled his eyes, “Of course”, he said but he wasn’t sure how convinced he was. He was utterly in love with this beautiful dominant werewolf who still seemed to carry a torch for his ex – Severus Snape. He sighed and squirmed and reached for his lover who all-too-willingly sank down and devoured his mouth, and Tom, not for the first time, wondered what the hell was going on and whether or not he would ever see his real home and his brothers again. Instead, he let himself get swept away by his lover’s kisses.

****

As soon as they found themselves in a quiet corridor, Alan pushed Dan into a wall and kissed him senseless, emerging all out of breath and clutching at his own forehead, his eyes bright with lust. “Christ, Dan, I swear.....you make me lose control.....fuck, anyone could have come past....”. Dan smiled his bitten-lips sultry smile and leaned back against the stone. He raised his hands to either side of his head, letting his fists ball loosely then tipped his head to one side while keeping his eyes on Alan and smiled, “And I care?”, he whispered, then arched his lower back away from the wall.

Pursing his lips, he blew a narrow-eyed kiss at his lover, who simply groaned, stepped forwards and started to devour him again then once again recalled where he was and backed away breathing hard and red-faced. Dan loved to see his Alan this way, crazy with lust for him.

He glanced down to see his beloved sporting a beautiful hard-on for him and decided enough was enough. He wanted that dick in him and soon. He pushed Alan off him and peeled himself off the wall then fair dragged his besotted lover along the corridor and fair threw them into their rooms, locking, warding and silencing their apartments with a peremptory wave of his hand then leaned up against the door, spreading his legs, his hand up inside his t-shirt, pinching a nipple, giving Alan his best come-hither look. Alan smiled and blushed and came hither. He could no more resist his Danny than the sun fail to shine.

He groaned as he took his lover into his arms and his moans were cut short by an insistent tongue plumbing the depths of his mouth. His fought back and followed, deep into Dan’s beautiful mouth and he gentled his tongue-thrusts, tasting delicately, using his lips in the way that he knew drove his lover insane, and was soon rewarded with tenor moans that his own mouth ate up.

They came up for air and Dan murmured, “Bed. Now”. Alan writhed against him and made a sound deep in his throat, then muttered, “Don’t think I’ll make it that far”. Dan kissed him again, his own desire rising to critical, “Okay than, over the back of the sofa”, he mumbled against Alan’s mouth, “Pull down my jeans and pants, summon the lube, grease me up and fuck me, in more or less that order”. Alan made another of those sounds and, in the dark, that is precisely what they did only it was Dan that had to summon the lube but neither of them cared as it was squirted out liberally up Dan’s channel followed by ragingly hot cock as Dan was taken, hard, bent over the back of the ratty settee, a hand in his back and his cock trying to seek comfort rutting into the back of the sofa to no avail.

As Alan drove into him he eventually took pity, laying himself out over Dan’s back in order to grasp his young lover’s dripping cock and wank it in time to his fucks. Dan cried out aloud and tossed his head, almost depriving Alan of his two front teeth but Alan bit into his shoulder then sucked the wound to calm the bucking, raging force that was his Danny getting a good fucking. Then he continued. Pounding into that tight giving arse stretched around his girth, taking all of him to the pubic bone and out again, moaning like the sweet nellie he was at each intrusion. Oh, how Dan liked to be fucked. And, oh, how Alan liked to fuck him.

Then there it was: the eruption of hot sticky liquid over his hand. Danny coming all over his hand, and that was enough for Alan who ploughed and pounded for all of another five strokes then came, noisily, sinking his lips into Dan’s sweaty neck and murmured his love as the high of orgasm turned to sleepiness. Somehow they made it to bed and collapsed in each other’s arms, spelling away residual clothing until nothing separated them but air and this they remedied by lying so close together in the aftermath as to leave no air at all between them then kissed and idly fondled each other until they both slept.

****

Thus it was, that it wasn’t until they were dressing for the party that evening that Dan thought to mention the revelation in Harry’s diary. This brought Alan up short and he turned towards Dan, his comb stilled in his hand, “They couldn’t? Do shared spell-casting?”, his dark tones held amazement. Dan shook his head as he tried to do something with his now-longer hair, “Nope, though he says they tried, many times. I thought this shared spell-malarkey was just for near squibs anyway. I don’t know what all the fuss is about and why they would have even bothered with it”.

Alan frowned and returned to his task, “Me either, though, if you recall, shared casting was the provenance of two particular groups and only one of them were the near-squibs”, he peered into the mirror and wet a finger smoothing his errant brows. It was Dan’s turn to frown, “Two groups?” was all he said and Alan cut him a sidelong glance.

Dan tried to puzzle this out to Alan’s amusement until he was prodded in the side and flinched, “Ow, what was that for?” Dan poked him again, “Come on, I’ve forgotten, who were the two groups?” Alan turned from the mirror and grabbed Dan’s hand to forestall any more prodding’s and said, “Aye, two groups. There are, as you know, the near squibs who use shared casting to boost negligible magical levels and there are the magically bonded, those whose shared casting considerably boosts already elevated magical levels”.

This made Dan turn sharpish to his lover, “Are you trying to say that we are some sort of bonded wizards?” Alan nodded, “Well, we are far from squib-hood at any rate. Squibs can’t really do anything magical at all and we are more than capable. I’m starting to think that this was part of Harry’s master plan. He and Severus couldn’t or didn’t bond and couldn’t do this shared casting thing. We can. I’m even thinking that Harry and Snape may have bonded one day, supposing Harry was just too young yet? But there was no more time to waste. Voldemort’s attacks are building up and are worse each year, are they not?” Reluctantly, Dan saw Alan’s point.

Then an idea occurred, “Actually a bond makes more sense than not”, he said slowly in a low voice, “Remember the times we’ve sort of communicated to each other, the day you came to me when I needed you? I’ve read a little of the stuff on bonds and some sort of psychic communication seems to be par for the course here. Bloody hell, suppose we aren’t squibs at all but more like in this bonded state? Fuck! We need to read more”. Neither of them could disagree with this but each felt the press of time.....there simply wasn’t enough. Dan determined to have a little word in Hermione’s ear tonight if he could.