Whose Universe Are We In?

20

Stunned by their new discoveries, neither of them felt inclined to venture from their warded-to-the-gunwales home. In fact they pretty much holed themselves up. They cast silencing spells over the doors so as not to hear knocking, closed and blocked the Floo and relied on Dobby for all their wants and needs, a task he performed brilliantly.

Dobby brought them the daily papers as well as fed them lavishly and they stayed silent to the rest of the people in the school. They ranted and raved at all the wrongs done to them, they still practiced hard but the love between them grew and as it did, they found the time to concentrate on their newest ability, that of speaking into each other’s minds.

Sometimes it just slipped out but it was really hard to do consciously, when they tried to do it; a fact that frustrated them both. Also there were just odd snatches, not a full ‘conversation’. They didn’t know how to remedy this on their own so they could spend time with Snape’s books and find out.

Dan idled through a few things on bonds but he couldn’t really concentrate, he felt cooped up and needed exercise. He envied Alan his calm but he missed the out of doors. Leaving Alan to his books, he went for a swim downstairs in the cave instead, deeply frustrated at the recent turn of events. How fucking dare they just ‘nick’ them from their world without so much as a ‘by your leave’!

As he ploughed up and down the pool, he felt his anger once more drain away to a sort of sullen resentment that lodged deep in his gut. He pounded out a good forty lengths then stood shakily at the shallow end, his weight braced on his hands, his head hanging low between his shoulders, the very picture of defeat.

It was then that he heard Alan’s voice, “Well at least I’ve got you”, quite clearly inside his head. He spun round, pushing his glasses onto his nose, but he was alone. {Alan?}, he ‘sent’ back to hear a deep chuckle in reply, then, {It seems to work best when one or both of us is in a highly emotionally aroused state}, he ‘received’ and answered the chuckle, chewing his lip closed before he answered, {Perhaps we should try this in bed first}.

There was a loud hiss in his head that made Dan wince before it cleared and Alan was ‘saying’, {Wait there, I’m coming down to you. I opened the Floo for a minute and there are many notes and parchments for us. It seems as if they are all quite worried about us}.

As Alan drew nearer, so his ‘send’ increased in volume until Dan had his hands over his ears for want of anything else to do as Alan was ‘shouting’. In the end, he screamed mentally and begged, {Please, love, turn the volume down! You’re deafening me!} The next ‘send’ was apologetic and a mere whisper that Dan had to strain to ‘hear’.

{Sorry, Danny, love}, and Dan chuckled, {Too quiet. How’s my voice to you?} There was the sound of the archway stones moving and Dan looked up to the entrance of the workout hall then smiled as Alan came through the door, rushed over to him, knelt down and kissed him, pulling Dan close, not caring if he got his clothes wet. {Don’t give up, Danny. Apart from this thing, we have it pretty cushty here after all}. Dan snorted against Alan’s chest, {I know, but right now we’re prisoners of a sort, albeit ‘cushty’ as you so rightly pointed out}.

At this Alan sighed out loud and Dan freed his face from Alan’s shirt and looked up. Smiling slightly, Alan looked down and said, in a low voice, “We have them over a ruddy barrel, Dan. They can’t do this prophecy thing without you, love. There’s a lot of apology in these notes, the scheming bastards”. Dan shrugged, “Aye, they are at that. I should hate them all, you know? But somehow I just can’t, even for doing this to us, trapping us here in this world. Like you said, it brought you and I together and for that, whatever happens, I’ll be eternally grateful”. This led to kisses until Alan parted them and stood up, his knees cracking.

Dan climbed out of the pool naked and they took a moment to share a little sexiness. Alan never could resist a wet Danny and levelled one of his searing looks at his lover. Dan grinned and blushed, loving the intensity of the dark gaze and stepped forwards slowly, his cock rising to half-mast, into Alan’s waiting arms where he was crushed to his older lover hard then kissed senseless.

{Gods, you are beautiful Danny. So fucking beautiful. And that look in your eyes that says how much you want me.....fuck, nearly makes my heart stop with sheer want...}, and he kept up this litany of lust into Dan’s head as the kiss threatened to unhinge them both.

They parted to draw much-needed breath. Dan’s eyes were bright with mischief, joy and lust. {I like this telepathy malarkey. Shall we transfigure something to lie down on, only my legs are jelly with the swim and now you}. Alan laughed a full-bodied laugh, {Actually, no. I think I want you hanging from those fur-lined manacles in the bedroom}.

Dan coughed in surprise, {Really?}, he narrowed his eyes at Alan, {I thought you weren’t into dungeon scenes}. Alan rolled his eyes, {Dan, I don’t want to hurt you. I just want you standing so I can ravish you but you have no energy in your legs}. Dan sort of saw the logic in this and warily allowed himself to be led from the pool-room to the bedroom.

He still wasn’t sure as his wrists were fastened above his head in the furry straps but at least they didn’t dig into his wrists. In truth, he felt like a bit of a berk just hanging there and said so, even after Alan had started to circle him and stroking his stretched flesh in appreciation, darting in with his mouth to suckle and kiss Dan’s shoulder, his side, his nipple.

But Dan didn’t like it and twisted away, “No, Alan. I don’t like this. I don’t like feeling as if I’m trussed up like the fucking Christmas turkey. Get me down now!” Alan complied instantly and took a now-shaking Dan into his arms, stroking his hair and his back, murmuring his apologies. But Dan could feel how hard the man was through the cloth of his pants.{That turned you on, didn’t it?}, Dan’s mind salvoed angrily even while he still stood close.

Alan was in a quandary but decided on the truth, {Yes, Dan, it did. I do not want a slave, or anything of that ilk, but, yes, seeing you like that did turn me on tremendously as you are no doubt aware. But we do not have to go there. In all of my life this is a desire I have never explored, save one night in a gay dungeon many years ago that was far too hardcore for my tastes, so if we do not venture down this road, it will not be anything that I’ll miss. Danny, my love, in an equal relationship, we both have the right to say ‘no’ and I will respect that and not lose one whit of my love for you over it. Having said that, I still want you like crazy but perhaps we should go from here to somewhere less charged}.

He relaxed then in Alan’s arms, “Sorry, babe”, he said aloud but Alan held him tight and kissed his hair, “Come on”, he murmured, “Let’s get out of here”. By the time they reached their quarters, the eroticism had quite left the pair of them. Dan felt tired from his swim and curled up on the bed to sleep for a while. Alan lay next to him and covered him up from the still-chilly dungeon quite content to take up his book again for a while.

Later he awoke blearily, naked, pressed hard against the back of his lover, in fact they were ‘spooning’ as he could only do with Dan, being so much shorter. Not only were they spooning but his dick was hardening nicely against the cleft of Dan’s firm arse. As he came fully conscious, Alan groaned at the position in which he found himself and couldn’t help a sleepy thrust against said taut backside.

Dan smacked his lips, still deeply asleep and pushed back. Alan tried to bite the shoulder before him oh, so, gently, but his teeth sank in and Dan moaned aloud as his balls were frotted from behind, waking up with Alan biting him, fucking his perineum and balls with a hand clamped to his waist. Now this was hot!

Dan mumbled, “Lube me up and fuck me, babe. Want you”, to hear a deep sound from behind him and feel the cessation of the frotting, which made him mewl at it’s loss but he smiled at the sound of the bedside table drawer opening and closing, and braced himself for the cold up his arse....but a murmured spell later and it was two hot, insistent fingers that entered him and fucked him without preamble. Dan clenched and moaned at the intrusion.

After a minute of stretch and burn, he pushed back and muttered, “More. Gimme more. Come ON. Do it”, and slammed himself down on Alan’s fingers harder and harder. Whipping his fingers out, Alan didn’t spend time lining himself up – at the next down thrust he replaced fingers with dick in short order making himself grunt and gulp and Dan cry out.

He pushed Dan’s leg up out of the way then snapped his hips forwards, driving himself deep, then stilled, pressed against Dan’s back that was now breaking sweat. “Move, you bastard, move”, Dan ground out between gritted teeth, and Alan did that quick-hips in and out again that made his Danny shout out. Tightening his arm around Dan’s waist, Alan started to set a nice rhythm, fucking his lad into the blankets. Ah, he loved sleepy fucks, always had but they never lasted long enough. Sure enough neither did this but the climax was very satisfying for them both, Dan shooting into the sheets and over his hand, and Alan, a few thrusts behind, bathing Dan’s back passage with his first-of-the-day offerings.

They fell asleep again with Alan still inside his beloved.

****

They ended the siege with conditions after day twelve.

They wanted more control, they wanted to be at the forefront, after all this is where Harry and Snape had been. They convened a meeting of everyone. The Order, the DA and the remaining pupils as well as the three strangers, although Tom was rather distant throughout, occasionally coughing up delicately into a hankie. At some point in the proceedings, Alan managed to whisper to Remus that they needed to decrease the dose somewhat, “The lad has to function, after all”, he muttered.

Remus grinned and slid his eyes to Alan’s, “It seems you are quite the potions maker after all, Alan. Tom remains pain-free and is relatively happy under the doped-up veneer, and, before you can protest, you forget I am a wolf with the canine sense of smell. Severus hasn’t touched that bottle for many a year, whereas your scent is all over it. You were the brewer and you had the knowledge. Well done, Alan”. Alan hissed in reply, “Reduce the dosage, Wolf, we do not wish to make a junkie of young ‘Malfoy’, now, do we?”

Backing down, Remus held Tom to him all the closer, giving Alan a curt nod. He quite liked Tom in this quiescent and oh-so-submissive state but he had to agree with Alan, they didn’t want to make a drug addict of him, though, Remus smirked, he would miss the hours-long fucks.

The meeting continued with Dan standing up and delivering his speech. Remus sat back with a warm Tom in his arms and listened vaguely. He could discern that the two main players were mightily pissed off. He supposed he’d be in their place, hence the self-imposed siege conditions. They all knew they had had assistance from Dobby who made no secret of it and remained loyal throughout, saying nothing to anyone of the state of mind of his master or his lover.

It was the last bit of Dan’s speech that made him prick up his ears, or rather, the initial reaction to it from the rest of the room, shock and disbelief, followed by murmurings and mutterings that all were about, “Where did this muggle think he got off anyway?” This truly piqued Remus’ interest enough to murmur, “What did he say?”

The enraged witch, Remus never could place her, said, “The insolent little bugger only wants us all to blood-bond with him. Seems he’s ‘read’ about it somewhere and wants to bind us all to him, says he doesn’t know us, but if he’s the living incarnation of Harry then he should do”.

All Remus could say in reply to this was, “Maybe something got lost in the translation, so to speak, there are many of us here that did not really even know the real Harry, let alone this new boy, and Dan needs to be able to trust us”. Remus, with Tom on his arm, made quite a show of being to first to step-up and take the short binding ritual, and showed the two bonded neophytes how to do it. A slash to thumb pads, press together, say a short incantation in bad Latin, and that was it, a warrior’s bond was forged.

Hermione and Ron were the next to step up, their lovers by their sides. Solemnly, Dan slit their thumb tips and drew them into his fold. He hadn’t a clue if this was really what one had to do, but he trusted Remus’ knowledge and superior experience: he had to; and the others. as they came up to be cut and bonded, seemed to believe in the cursory ritual.

Dan paused in his bonding to turn to Hermione and request, “Hermione, would you be so kind as to keep a tally for us? I’d like to know that all here are accounted for”. The bushy-haired witch smiled and stepped closer whipping out of her cloak a quill and parchment, “Of course, Dan”. She made a few notations and looked up at him. “All right, I’ve got this, please continue”, so he did.

After about an hour, no-one else came up. Dan whispered to her, “Did we get everyone?” and the girl shook her head, “There’s only the headmaster, Dan, but you can’t go demanding that he makes bonds with you....”, but Dan cut her off, glaring about the room until his eyes alighted on Dumbledore. He raised his voice, “Sir, you haven’t bonded to me. As the major mover behind us being tricked into coming here, I must insist...”, he held out a hand in a welcoming gesture.

There were murmurs from every corner of the room. One voice spoke out, “Arrogant bastard! You can’t ask the Headmaster for that! Bad enough us lot having to do it”, the rant ended in a mumble as it had been Dumbledore himself who had persuaded the dissenters to come forward and be blood-bonded.

With a sigh, the old man stepped up. To Dan he seemed reluctant and he wondered why. He kept his eyes on the headmaster’s as he slit his thumb pad and incanted over their joined hands. He felt a rush of magic shiver over his skin and smiled, {You did this once before? With Harry?}, Dan found himself saying mentally. Alan whipped his head round hearing Dan ‘speak’, thinking that the odd questions were directed at him and was quite amazed to see Dumbledore and his lover locking eyes as the small smear of blood congealed between their thumbs.

Narrowing his eyes, Alan kept them firmly on the two and from his vantage point, saw the small smile as it curved Albus’ lips. There was a silence in the room. Then the smile widened, {Well, well, my boy. A telepath! How very interesting. Indeed you have a magic he knows not. I take it that Alan also has this ability?}, his steel-blue eyes cut away from Dan and straight into Alan’s soul, or so it seemed.

Alan gulped in a deep breath, {Yes. Dan and I have discovered this new skill relatively recently}. Albus all but laughed out loud, {You wily buggers, so there is a Room of Requirement under Severus’ old rooms. You see, if you had been practicing anywhere else, then I would have ‘heard’ you. My telepathic partner is Hogwarts herself}.

Dan shot Alan a look that the headmaster didn’t see, {That’s bollocks, we were shagging in bed and ‘sending’ all the time. Either he’s known about this for a while, or he can’t really ‘hear’ everywhere in the castle, or he’s lying through his teeth and just trying to scare us, the disgusting, manipulative, wily old bastard, who tricked us out of our lives and he isn’t reacting now, is he?}

{No}, shot back Alan. Albus blinked and sent, {You are talking now but I can only see it in your eyes. I actually cannot hear you. Either that or I truly am entering my dotage}. Alan countered with, {More than likely in your dotage, you old fool!}. This Dumbledore definitely heard and leaned in his mask slipping, anger rising red in his cheeks, “Now listen here...”, he spluttered and behind him, Dan began to laugh.

It was all Alan could do to stop himself exploding into laughter in the man’s face but he restrained himself to a Snapely smirk and sent back to Dan, {I would really like to bend you over this table, lift the back of your robes and bugger you royally right about now. Don’t show anything on your face, we have curious onlookers}. Still sniggering, Dan looked boldly around to see various expressions of astonishment and disbelief surrounding them.

He turned back and caught Alan’s eye, {Your ‘sending’ voice that only I can hear is lower pitched. The one you use when you’re fucking me. I’m so hard I could drill holes in the table if you bent me over it}. Alan flicked his eyes back to the headmaster, now looking truly bemused, “I can’t hear you”, he said aloud and this pleased his captives/guests no end.

Dan turned to the assembled company, still silent but now squirming in their chairs. They knew they were witnessing something that either embarrassed the headmaster deeply or the man was being humiliated in some strange way. And were those two strange interlopers talking to each other? Telepathically?

As folk caught on, murmurs and whispers broke out on all sides although there were no questions asked outright. As the voices became louder and an all out hubbub threatened, Dan decided to take matters into his own hands. With a roar and a chopping motion of his hands, he commanded silence. And got it instantly.

“Now”, he began, and glared around the room. His stance wasn’t arrogant but he’d had enough of the games. “We need to all end up on more or less the same page. Okay, Alan and I were brought here deliberately. This much we now know and this cost you the lives of your friends and fellow wizards, Harry Potter and Severus Snape”.

At the shocked young gasps around him, Dan knew that the DA had definitely not known this nugget but it needed to be aired. “We were brought here because we are older, although I still have to receive a satisfactory explanation as to why both of us, even while I get the thing about my birthday and the fact that I am about to turn twenty-one and a week earlier than Harry would have turned eighteen”.

From the murmurings there were others not privy to the plans of the few who appointed themselves mighty. Both Alan and Dan took note. Dan quieted them all with his hand and a “Please, simmer down, people”, and he had the floor again.

“My birthday is in just over a week. The 23rd of July. Ladies and Gentlemen; whatever it takes, we have to put our differences and doubts aside and beat this bastard. Now, since Alan and I were selected and brought here, we have of course been discovering our magic and all that that entails. Now, as a result of this, well, folks, today you just blood-bonded with a bonded telepathic pair...”, he held up his hand at the shouts and calls that this announcement provoked as well as the odd smattering of applause and after letting his audience have their heads for a moment, brought his hand down once and silence reigned again.

“...Yes, yes, a bonded telepathic pair”, he said eventually, casting his eyes easily about the throng, gauging the reactions all about him. He saw wariness, disbelief and outright shock on the faces of many. Luna caught his eye and winked, then grinned. Dan found himself smiling back, then said, “And we joint spell-cast. We know that’s what Harry and Severus wanted to achieve and that they didn’t. They wanted a bond. A true bond. And we seem to have one. Erm....me and Alan”.

Dan seemed uncertain then, wary of seeming to despoil the memory of Harry and Severus but, dammit, they had been picked to replace them. Alan stepped up beside Dan and placed his arm carefully around Dan’s shoulders, pulling him close. He could somehow ‘read’ the uncertainty radiating off Dan.

“Indeed we do”, Dan heard the purr of the deep voice and relaxed against Alan’s chest. Harry may have been a hero – a one-man band, but he wasn’t. Alan squeezed slightly. “And we are currently experimenting with our telepathy. Professor Dumbledore, if I may ask you a question?”

All heads faced the headmaster, including Dan’s after he had shot his lover a quizzical look. Alan gave him a special smirk and continued upon the headmaster agreeing. “Why is it that Severus and Harry were found naked? It was a wet and windy day”. Rattled by the question, Albus said immediately, “It was what the ritual demanded – that they be sky-clad. Why?”

Alan said suddenly, “You were there, weren’t you? You were bloody well there. That’s how you were so conveniently on hand to lift the stone from me and Dan. I’ll bet several galleons that you were the ritual’s fulcrum, too. You just didn’t plan on that big chunk of rock to be loosened by the magic, did you?”, Alan’s voice was soft and deadly.

Lifting his head, the blue eyes that had seemed so incisive moments before now seemed cloudy and almost rheumy as Dumbledore said, “I watched the stone hit and them disappear. Oh, God, and then there they were again back, crushed under the rock, and I used about ten years’ worth of magic to levitate the thing off them but it was you two and the transference had taken place. I sincerely hoped that the rock-fall had only taken place in this universe. It was seeing that muggle newspaper that I obtained for you that finally convinced me otherwise. I knew that Harry and Severus were quite happy to go without magic for a few months. I still believe that they had every intention of coming back to us but they were both quite willing to pass as much of their magical knowledge along in the transference as they could”

Dan bet that all this was in the journal. He really needed to read the damned thing.

This quiet confession caused the loudest din until Dan once again quelled it with a wave. “Stop! We must keep together in all this! We are strangers thrust amongst you and invested with amazing power that we are having to learn to deal with in a hurry. We were brought here to be your Super-Harry and your Super-Severus only we don’t wear our undies over our tights”. This drew snickers from the muggle-aware.

“Because of....what happened”, he continued, “We can never go back to our own world. I have a family out there. I wasn’t brought up in a cupboard and my mum and dad and younger sister are very much alive, as is our dog”. There were sighs and a few commiserating noises at this and Dan felt Alan in his mind, {Keep going with this, lover, and you’ll have them eating out of your hand}.

Alan heard the impatient noise across their link and smirked, giving Dan a little one-armed hug then leaning in and kissing his temple. At this, hang who was watching, Dan lifted his face, his smile now radiant, and sought Alan’s lips with his for the briefest and most fleeting of kisses and his face as they parted was incandescent with joy, enough to melt the most stoic of the Order. The joy wasn’t restricted to Dan’s face; Alan’s seemed lit from within as he gazed upon his young lover and there wasn’t a magical soul in the room that didn’t sympathise and empathise and just honest-to-god feel jealous of all the love they could all plainly see. And they were all blood-bonded to this?

There was silent awe that swept over the gathered company that night and those that felt the peril keenest knew that the headmaster had made the wise choice despite it losing them their beloved friends, the loss of whom all felt keenly. There were more than a few tears shed and it finally sank in that they would have to make-do with the substitutes and that the subs were actually more damned powerful. Wizard-kind may just be saved after all.

The meeting broke up in near silence. There had still been no strategising done that night

****

Deep in the night, a restless Dan awoke and threw on some clothes, moving carefully from the bed leaving Alan asleep and slipped out of their rooms. Casting a locking charm over the tower door, he got to work unpacking his laptop bag of its contents. He set up laptop and scanner and set to work, well away from anyone and began to scan the remainder of the journal page by page then he and Alan could take turns reading it. He checked the picture quality onscreen. Perfect and quite readable. For a laugh he thought about running it though his handwriting recognition software but decided to leave that for another day.

He recalled the witch’s books as he settled to a routine: open page, press down to glass, press ‘go’ button: and wondered at the small slights she had done her main character. Dan distinctly recalled reading of Harry’s scruffy handwriting but actually it was quite neat. He shrugged, just another way Harry had been mis-portrayed and carried on with his scanning. It was a boring job and it was too late to call his sister, there’d been a marked silence from that quarter and the low-level worry just added to the constant slight clench in his gut.

While there, he checked on his email and poised his arrow over the webjournal site in his favourites list but sighed and desisted. No. They were going to do this their way. He was still worried though. Bugger it, he sent her a text and dropped her an email, ‘just get in touch’ and signed off, ‘LYBB’ which stood for, ‘luv ya. Big bruv’. Only she would know who it was.

His mobile rang seconds later. He snatched it up and answered, grinning, “Chris?”, there was a laugh down the line, “Yeah. ‘S’me. I’m online, got your email. I’ve got my laptop back but she’s still posting....”. “No, Chris. We’re not reading it any more. We haven’t looked for days. We’re sort of taking it as it comes, so to speak”. He heard her high-pitched giggle at the other end, “Fuck, Dan, that’s so gay”.

He let out a long chuckle, “Well, that’s me, sis. So gay. I’m really in love with him, you know? This doesn’t feel like fiction at all a lot of the time. I mean....I’m really here and I can really do magic and quite a lot of it is nothing like the books and the detail of course is way more than the story....I mean...this is my life now and I’d like to hang on to it”.

There was silence from both ends until Chrissie said, “Have you got a cam, Dan?” Her brother sighed, “Nah, didn’t bother but I can owl for one”, and then caught himself and laughed, “Ha! Hark at me. I can just see their faces in those techie shops as an owl swoops in with a request like that and a credit card number to charge it to. Totally wild”. The girl laughed, “I’d get you one Dan, but I’ve no idea where or how to send it to you. I’d like to see you again, even if we can’t cross worlds. God, I’d love to be there”.

Dan could hear the yearning in her voice and sighed, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, actually, and I’d love it if you were here but you can’t leave mum and dad. I mean...we...er...were brought here by accident”. He could hear the warmth turn chilly in her tone, “No you weren’t. The Order decided and Severus and Harry agreed, to get out of having to fight the War. They had given it everything they had and it wasn’t enough. I haven’t seen the rest of the chapters but I know that you are enough. Enough to do Him in, but last time I spoke to her, she still hadn’t decided how to end it; whether to kill you off or not”.

Dan groaned at this, “Chris! What part of ‘we are ignoring the stories’ do you not understand? Oh, and spoilers count, okay?” She snorted at the other end, “You need to be prepared”. He tentatively asked, “Any info on the Battle when it comes?” He heard the long sigh, “Nah, nothing yet the only thing I’m going on now is a bunch of notes she’d left on my laptop. Like I say, I haven’t spoken to her since I got it back”.

Dan felt himself smile, “So. Go on, tell me how you did it” She expelled a long breath then aid, in a low voice, “No heroics on my part. She just left it in a bag in the Biology classroom and my mate recognised it and gave it me back. The bitch is leaving me alone. She’s victimising a grotty little third year now, with a Vaio and an Internet connection three times the speed of dad’s. Sad, but true”.

Dan heard the defeat in his sister’s voice but said nothing to shake her out of it. They all had to grow up. He eventually said, “I’m still gonna ignore it all. We’ve got the Order and the DA on side at any rate, but I fear that we are all too small a fighting force”. Chris sniggered, “Then you have to engage the other races; the giants, the goblins; the werewolves and the spiders. Come on, you are in a charmed world, Dan....make use of it”.

Dan whispered, “Is this in upcoming chapters?” He could hear her roll her eyes. “I thought you were going this alone? Well, if you are, then this is what I’d do. There’s more than just humans in that world, Danny, lad”.

There was a long silence before Dan could finally ask, “How are mum and dad?” She huffed and said, “I thought you’d never ask. It’s hard on them, Danny. Bloody hard. You know how they are. Dad’s a stoic and mum’s all over the place. Every morning they go out to get the paper and the milk and there’s still more bunches of flowers and teddy bears and little Lego figures on the doorstep along with cards and messages of condolence. You’re a sort of wizarding Princess Diana to millions of kids, Dan, but all the ‘love’ isn’t letting mum and dad move on. Yeah, it’s fucking hard, ‘specially as I’m talking to you now”, he heard the catch in her voice and felt his heart plummet.

“I know, sis, I know. I’ll get a cam and then we can at least see each other, yeah? I miss you loads and mum and dad and Chester and I miss my room and my mates and Ron and Hermione aren’t a bit like Rupe and Emma and life is dead weird and I’m gonna have to fight and kill in just over a week and it’s gonna be a very strange birthday this year just knowing that there’s a super-bad villain out there who I must kill before a dead guy turns eighteen, right? And I’m an actor, not a real wizard and it’s all just fucking fiction anyway but I’m good at it though Alan’s pants at potions with live thingies in them but he loves me so much and I love him and I love being with him even though I bet his girlfriend’s missing him like mad and I think I’m going crazy and I’m fucking babbling, aren’t I?”, and then Dan drew a breath.

There was a silence then a light snicker, “Yeah, yeah, yeah and yeah, I think”, came her reply, and at this, Dan cracked up laughing even as he could feel the hot tears on his cheeks. He said, “Even if I can’t see you, it feels so good to hear your voice, Chris. You remind me who I really am in all this madness and for that, I’m grateful. It’s been brilliant talking to you, but I’m gonna go back to that man of mine and curl up with him, ‘cos, like it or not, I have a real bond with him. Wow, it’s so cool to be a telepath, you cannot believe!”

Chrissie blew him a kiss down the phone, “Gotta go myself, I think one of the parents is up. You take care and look after yourselves. If you decide to do another transference, then put me on the list. I’d rather be there than here. Love you, Danny, gotta go”, and with that, the line went dead. Dan grinned as he closed his phone and cradled it to his cheek, “G’night, Chrissie. Love you too”, he whispered.

He’d had enough of scanning for now and a deep lassitude stole over him. He slumped for a moment until he got a grip of himself and began the laborious process of packing everything away. Wearily he trudged across the castle, still in a deep torpor but was roused by the early morning sun slanting in through tall windows. He stopped and looked out over the lake for a while, watching the sky turn colour then turned away from the new summers day and bent his steps towards the permanent dark of the dungeons.

Alan was still asleep when Dan re-entered their bedroom. He laid his backpack aside and stripped off quickly, sliding straight into warm, sleepy arms. Dan welcomed all of the soft barely-conscious kisses to any part of him that his man could reach and still stay asleep, before snuggling down and crashing out, his back against Alan’s chest, pulled close by the heavy arm wrapped around him.

****

“She said what?!!” Alan shouted as he paced their bedroom floor the following day. Dan, sitting up in bed raised his hands in surrender, “Look, she said it before I could stop her, and, no, I did not go to the site. We play this our way this time but that’s what she said, we’re good enough to defeat Voldemort and the writer is apparently in an agony of indecision as to whether to finish me off or not. Nice”.

Dan sunk his head in his hands and wailed, “I’m probably toast. She fucking hates me. I beat up her brother when we were eight and I told him he was a pouf. Hell, I was eight, and hey, guess who’s the pouf but some things fester, so I’m probably dead meat”.

Alan was trying hard not to smile as he sat back down on the bed, prising Dan’s hands from his face and wrapping them around himself, “We’re ignoring the story, remember? I’m sorry, love, I reacted badly. I shouldn’t have shouted. Forgive me”. Dan freed a hand long enough to push the sheet down, exposing more of his nakedness and his rising cock, flushing nicely, “I might have to make you beg...”, he whispered before he was silenced by hot lips and a burning tongue.

****

The next day saw a party at the head of the steps leading beneath the astronomy tower, wands at the ready. People had been training hard without having to think of other distractions in life but they needed more space. At a pinch, the Room upstairs could only really hold twenty tops for practice and only ten if you were trying out Dark spell-work. Among the busy schedule that the original Room of Requirement saw were regular workshops on ‘The Unforgiveables and how to Cast Them’ and then only two at a time could occupy the Room. This meant a lot of frustrated people casting harmless spells out on the grass or in the cleared Great Hall.

There was now exactly a week left until Dan’s birthday. They needed to find that room.

Hence the party, comprising Alan, Dan, Remus, Hermione and Ron. Alan had wanted to choose from more seasoned members of the Order but Dan insisted on Harry’s best friends and the werewolf, who, by all accounts could handle himself. The last member of their party limped up, his rotating eye whirling in it’s socket. “Nice o’ yer ter ask me ter join yers, chaps. Let’s get on with it, then, shall we?” and with Mad-eye Moody on board, they made their descent into the bowels of Hogwarts.

They wedged doors open and lit torches along the way. Instead of lighting his wand, Dan just summoned witch-flame to see by and held it in his palm. He heard Hermione behind him on the stairs giggle, “Show off”, she whispered, and Dan grinned in the warm glow. He replied in an equally low voice, “I actually like wandless better. Dunno, but it sort of looks more like magic, if that makes any sense. You know, just a flick of the wrist, a called out word. Doesn’t feel like showing off, it actually feels more natural to do”.

She paused a moment until Ron cannoned into her from behind then started to move again. “Wow”, was all she said aloud. She gazed speculatively at the back of Dan’s head until they reached the room with the stairs continuing opposite then the order shifted and she ended up at the back and she followed the others, keeping a sharp ear out behind but put her thoughts away for the moment. She was the rearguard and she’d better concentrate.

When they arrived at the two fluttering sticky notes, Remus enquired drily, “Why did you go no further than here?” Hermione blushed, “We hadn’t told anyone where we were going and decided to turn back. We were just on our own with no backup. This is better doing it this way, with people up there knowing we’re down here”. Dan blurted out, “Yeah, me and Alan got a bit further but then the same thought occurred to us, and, as we’re in the habit of, erm, retreating from the world from time to time, we wouldn’t have been missed for days, so we came back up. I marked our furthest point. It’s a dead end and we were tired by then”.

They had reached the mark that Dan had left, crossed another room and had to open a door to access the next flight of steps. These were altogether more dangerous. The treads were narrowing and seemed to be built of a less resilient stone that sent little skitters of dust and debris before them as they stepped carefully down. Here the ceiling seemed to crush them, making them all bow over. Somewhere off to one side, they heard very faintly the sound of running water. The air smelled of seaweed but was still sharp and clean.

The steps ended abruptly at a stone wall in identical stone to that around them. The space was so small that only Alan, Moody and Dan could fit, the others waited on the stair. Alastor cast a few revealing spells; nothing. He tried opening and forcing spells; not a sausage. He ordered Dan and the others back up the steps and gave the implacable stone a blasting spell; nope. Nothing.

Dan scratched at the stone on the stairwell idly with his thumb, surprised at the amount of dust he sent raining down the wall. Curious, he said, “I thought this castle was built of granite. Look, I’m no geologist but this is red sandstone, or I’m Chinese, and it seems to be holding up the bulk of this part of the castle. Now I’m no architect, nor yet a Biblical scholar, but isn’t this rather like building your house on sand?”

Alan turned and looked at Dan, then at the small rain of dust, “Actually, that is odd. I suppose the place is held up by magic after all as much as by stone. After all, granite atop sandstone would surely cause collapse and this place has been up for best part of a thousand years. Yes.....must be magic. Now how do we get into that dratted Room?”

Dan made Moody back up and it was a bit tight as they exchanged positions. The Dan started to stroke the stone with the flats of his hands. He pressed his body flush against the rock, turning his head to one side to lie all the flatter and let his fingertips roam over the rock. He completely ignored Alastor’s blustering and hem-hemming and listened to the stone itself.

He heard the strain and the long ache. He whispered, “Open this portal for us and we will save you. But we have to kill a madman first. We need to learn how to kill the man that threatens you and wants you for his own evil ways. He will make you his headquarters, his own place. He will crow over the tatters of the wizarding world, the world that you nurtured, generation upon generation, helped to bring up, keep safe. He wants to kill us all and we have to stop him. He wants to hurt you and we cannot let him. Help us in our hour of need, oh blessed realm of the four Founders and open the Room of Rowena Ravenclaw to us”.

There was silence as Dan spoke, then gasps as the sound of stone grating on stone reached up the stairs. Hermione squeaked with joy, “How did you do it, Dan?” A gruff voice answered her, “He spoke Parseltongue and rubbed himself against the stone like a tart”. Hermione blushed. Dan could be heard, “Oi, pack it in! I just persuaded the castle to let me in, thanks a lot. I’d like to see you do it, smartarse. Now, come on, we’ve got a Room of Requirement to find”.

But they had already found it. Vast, echoing, the chamber stretched away from them. Even Moody was awed as they stepped inside. “I don’t think the magic has changed in here since the Founders’ day. This is a powerful place, young Daniel, a powerful place indeed. I take back my words of earlier”. Dan turned in the bare light and smiled, “’S’okay, Alastor. We’re here now and you guys have a place to practice but for now? Room, a sofa if you please and tea, for six”, and instantly there were comfy chairs aplenty and a bounteous feast spread before them.

Dan instantly fell onto the long sofa with a sigh. In a heartbeat, Alan was beside him, threading his arm around Dan’s shoulders and lifting his limp form against him, “Dan. Dan, you expend so much energy doing this stuff. Let me take care of you”, he whispered, pressing his lips into Dan’s hair. He realised that this was going to have to be a function of his to his bond-mate, that of picking up when his beloved over-tired himself doing powerful wandless magic.

He rocked his lover as the two youngest in the party were despatched to fetch all the spare people they could find without a place to work and practice. Hermione and Ron snapped happily to attention and rushed off eagerly to do as bid. Remus poured tea. Alastor stumped around the huge space ‘reading’ it with his special eye, and they all waited for the influx of the others.

Alan gazed out into the space. It was roughly ten times bigger than the Room they had and about twenty times bigger than the Room they all knew. At his suggestion, Remus had cast all sorts of revealing charms but the space had never been utilised in the way that Snape’s had. It was raw space. All were awed by it but it was Alan who stood and stepped out into it, waving his wand around.

“You want a kitchen in this corner”, he created one with a flick, “with brewing up stuff and cups. Then a shower room with individual stalls. Spell-work like this gets messy and sweaty. So the shower room can go here”, and he waved his wand again and walls sprang up. Dan smirked. Alan didn’t think he was as powerful as he was, did he? So what was all this he was doing? Just creating the best bits from their own Room.

“Then here”, he finished with a flourish, “You can create what you want, whether dojo or swimming pool”, and with that, a swimming pool started to form, a lot faster than theirs did. Alan raised his wand, “Unless you’d rather something else....” and saw Remus’ hand go up in protest, “A swimming pool is just fine, thank you”, and it was barely formed before a streak of speckled skin rushed past him and Ron dived in naked, starting to power up and down, a huge grin on his face.

Remus leapt in at the other side and started an energetic doggy paddle. Hermione wasn’t far behind, stripping to bra and pants and holding her nose as she jumped in. When she rose from the depths, she laughed, “At least there’s no mer-people and no squid in here”, and pushed off from the side for a serious swim.

After a couple of lengths, Remus huffed up to the shallow end to where Dan was sitting, dangling his feet in the water. “Is this like the one you two have?” Still in a reflective mood, Dan nodded, “Yeah, but ours is loads smaller. Damn. You bastard! You’d better not tell Dumbledore. He suspects that our Room exists but he’s not certain. Anyway I’m the only one who can access it”. Remus smiled as he shook wet hair out of his eyes. “I want to bring Tom down here, he needs some exercise. I had to leave him today. I’ve reduced the potion as Alan suggested but it’s making him cranky and awkward”.

Dan hung his head, “Yeah. We know it’s addictive. It’s full of heroin. How’s Tom doing?” Remus smiled, “He’s all right but he doesn’t like this potion much, even while he knows it’s the best at relieving the pain from the Summoning. Did you tell him what was in it?” Dan shook his head, “Well, we said it was addictive but we thought he might not take it if he knew what was in it”.

Remus looked at Dan with wide eyes, “Don’t take him from me, Dan. He means too much to me”. Dan frowned, “We’re not taking him away, Remus, we’re just keeping him safe for now. Just until Voldemort is dead, then we can release him from this chemical bondage. I’m pretty sure Snape has some potions that can help with this, we just need to look them up and make them”. Remus had to smirk at the lad’s confidence, his surety that magic could fix everything, but he supposed that, to a lifelong muggle, it could seem that way.

He hoped that the optimistic lad was right.

****

Now everyone had a place to practice. Dan noticed that when the Room under the astronomy tower was in use, as it was almost all of the daylight hours, then it seemed to slow his download times down although there was neither electricity or phone points this far belw ground. Weird. He presumed it was all the magic now focussed on this long-neglected part of the building and shrugged, happy that they all had a place to go that was unreadable and unknown to most.

At some point they had to bring Albus in on it. As he was led into the vast space, he merely goggled in amazement and praised the two ‘muggles’. “Merlin! I never thought to ever see this place. The castle does not give up all of her secrets, not even to curious headmasters, and not even to her telepathic partner. She can be a closed-mouthed bitch”, and all chuckled nervously, casting eyes around as if the castle herself would retaliate. All stayed quiet.

It was a member of the Order, a woman, whose name Dan never could remember that spoke up, “This room is directly above one of the Founding Stones, isn’t it?” Dan nodded, “Yes. Any magic done or learned in here will be powerful. It is a sacred space to wizardkind”. The woman smiled, “You, Mr Radcliffe, are a delightful addition to same”, batted her eyelashes and stepped back, her head lowering.

{Ah, now your admirers come forth, my Danny}, purred Alan into Dan’s mind. Dan gulped and stepped back from the voracious woman, masking her want in humility, “Er...thank you. Now let us all make use of this space to practice our various arts. We need to act in concert. We need to have brewers and medics and communicators as well as frontline troops. We need a mortuary division, the dead shouldn’t be left to him after all, whatever should befall us on the day”.

There were murmurs and nods at this common sense. Dan continued, “We need to know how to fight in formation. We need battle moves and we need to act as an army, or at least a coherent unit, maybe two. One in the front line, one in the rear, covering our arses.

As the prophecy has Harry beating the bad guy and as all things ‘Harry’ open to me, then for all intents and purposes, I am Harry in this. During and leading up to the Battle, we, that is, Alan and I, shall be in character. I know this will be hard on you all, but we must insist that from now on, we are referred to by whatever name you called the deceased, be it ‘Snape’, or ‘Professor’, or ‘Severus’ and I shall be called ‘Harry’ or ‘Potter’, whatever you once called him when alive. I think for us to stand a chance we have to do this and to be credible, come the time to face Voldemort. This will greatly assist Alan and I in staying in character, for that is how we must behave now”.

There was a long silence that was eventually broken by a solitary handclap, coming from Arthur Weasley of all people. Dan smiled at the man, who said, “I think you two are being very brave, given the ugly situation that you’ve been dragged into, and I am so grateful that you are even helping us at all. I think that others here should be reminded of that fact. That these two men”, by now Arthur had turned and was addressing the rest of the gathering, “are still going to even try to do this thing, for all of us, lest we forget, putting their lives on the line for us. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have our vanquishers and I think we ought to show a little more appreciation”, and, with that, he increased his slow claps to outright applause.

His was the only sound until a high voice called, “Yeah, the Vanquishers”, and another set of hands joined, the clapping lighter, faster. Then more and still more until the entire Hall was on its feet. Dan barely resisted the urge to bow as did Alan, who muttered, {Was the American stage more intoxicating, Danny?} Dan glanced at him, grinning, {No way, lover of mine. We need these folk behind us, so I think it behooves us to show a little humility}, and he bowed then, with no flourishes, just a bend of his head and body, his hands at his sides.

As the applause died down, Alan stepped forward and humbly thanked them all for their support. “It is only as a team that we can achieve this mission, meant for others”, he reminded, and then it was down to business.

They found themselves fighting off crack troops that gave no quarter, hexing and jinxing and even cursing until all lay about them unconscious. Dan took a quaking Alan into his arms, “It won’t be so nice on the day. Let’s ‘enervate’ this lot and retire for now. I need to get horizontal and hold you, preferably without clothing, and soon”. Smiling into Dan’s hair, they simply disappeared from the room with a crack, leaving the others, just starting to come to, open-mouthed.

****

They had broken the cardinal rule of Hogwarts: they had apparated inside the castle itself and for that reason, more than perhaps more sober ones, did they finally start to be believed as to their levels of power. In that single moment, they finally conveyed what many hours of demonstrations and duels could not and it frightened Dumbledore to his roots. He had felt the castle itself slipping away from him, she no longer told all her secrets and many of her corners were dark to his prying eyes. He was getting old and his beloved was leaving him for someone younger.

Back in his rooms he poured himself a stiff drink, a very stiff drink and swallowed it down, ignoring the spirit burn into his gullet, only noticing when the all-too-familiar warmth started to spread. But he was rattled and felt beleaguered; cast off by these....bloody muggles....of all people. The very ones selected for their ability to take direction had taken over the megaphone and were now trying to get behind the camera and Albus wasn’t sure he liked this. Not sure at all. A second measure followed the first but the third, he sat back and savoured. Despite the warmth of the night, he pointed his wand at the fireplace, setting a merry little crackle going. He felt the cold so easily these days. He also gave himself something to stare at as he brooded.

That the two were so much more powerful he could only be grateful for, and to his dying day he couldn’t bring himself to regret the decisions he’d made. It was obvious that here they had a machine, a well-oiled machine fit to rid the world of Voldemort – but what of afterwards? What happened then?

Albus continued to stare at the flames, rubbing idly over the ghost of the bond-wound on his thumb.

****

Even the dungeons were warm that hot July night so Alan and Dan lay apart as their sweat cooled a little, just holding hands. Alan gave a little squeeze, “You know, Dan, I never told you but I think the blood-bond was a stroke of pure genius. I have to admit to being extremely wary as to the future and what was to become of us but now he cannot harm us, can he?”

Dan turned his head gazing blurrily at Alan’s profile, “Well he can’t injure us or actually kill us himself; this was a warrior’s bond and protects against accidental injury from your own side, things like that, but the desire to act together and protect as a group is supposed to be heightened with it, but I suppose he could damage us other ways. It doesn’t make us invincible, just safer, but still, Albus looked most put out at having to do it. He’d done one with Harry. That’s when I first talked into his mind. I don’t think he likes that we can out-telepathise him too, not to mention virtually command the troops. We need to watch him. I think he feels threatened by us upstarts”.

“Hmm”, was Alan’s only reply. Despite the heat of the night, they still ended up plastered together as they slept.