Whose Universe Are We In?

7

The Friday of that week was sheer Bedlam. The halls and corridors rang with the sounds of youthful voices readying themselves to leave that left an echoing silence as the last carriage pulled away from the front door that settled like the dust, detritus and odd gloves that said youngsters always seemed to leave in their wake. Albus sent his guests an owl inviting them to take lunch in the Great Hall as only the three of them, Poppy and Remus were still in the school.

Dan had rather looked forward to sitting at the top table but instead, Dumbledore had Transfigured one of the Hufflepuff benches into a small round table for the five of them. Dan grinned at the ceiling showing a blustery spring sky, blue but full of clouds – no CGI here. He watched the clouds for a while until he realised someone was speaking to him; the headmaster.

“So, boys, I propose we take a trip into London on Monday, get Dan a few clothes to fit him and do you boys some shopping. Alan, Dan, I have to ask this, but I don’t suppose either of you have happened upon either wills or brass keys?”

They both shook their heads, “Doesn’t the bank hold a copy of the keys?” Albus smiled benignly, “Ah, yes, but you have to pass the stringent tests imposed by the goblins in order that they give it to you. They will test you for Polyjuice, glamours and other morphing or disguise spells. There are passwords only known between personal advisor and client, they will require those also. As to wills, I know not if they made them although in the Order, most of us have done as a matter of course, this is a War we fight”.

Dan brooded, “Well, I’d pass Polyjuice and glamour detection at any rate, this is really me but the password’d have me stumped. Bugger”. Albus chuckled, “Indeed. I propose that we keep folk thinking that you’re Harry and Severus for now and for that alone, I feel you should be remunerated in some way. If we cannot find a way into Harry or Severus’ vaults then I will make a private vault available to you for now and we can revise this arrangement to suit....I believe there is some sort of....crediting card?, something that the muggles use when transferring funds from Wizarding money to English cash, we can set that up if you wish, I believe it can be used in muggle establishments”.

Dan liked the sound of this, being paid to slob around in this amazing place, learn magic and live with his wonderful bloke but then thoughts of manipulation and Voldemort would creep in and dampen his smugness. He nodded seriously, “I thank you for your consideration. We will not squander the cash if it has other uses to which it should be put”.

Albus liked this boy’s manners, far less surly than the real Harry, who was, frankly, a bit of a pain in the arse, raging around the place wanting VIP attentions because of his link to Voldemort, running off to do secret experiments in secret places, defying him, the great Albus Dumbledore, in England’s time of greatest need. And Severus, angry, bitter, another royal pain, slinking in the shadowed space between light and dark, hatching his little plots with Potter and the two of them whispering off in dark corners like conspiring children, breaking off with twin condescending smirks when he approached. Albus really liked these two. An intelligent Harry and a pleasant, even loving, Snape. Yes, he had plans for these two.

“Ah, my boy, it is hardly squandering. I believe funds of this nature are set aside for folk experiencing difficulty, please do not trouble yourself, feel free to take advantage of this small bursary until we can obtain either positions for you or a small stipend on which you might live as you learn more of your craft until such point as you are able to make your own way in our world”. Dan mentally added, “Yeah, after Voldemort’s gone”.

Alan merely inclined his head, smiling, while Dan thanked the old professor seriously, “I thank you for making us so welcome in your world, sir, after all the tragedy you have endured losing our....counterparts, and if there’s any part we can play then we will endeavour to do so in solemn thanks for all you have done for us”. Without missing a beat, Dan innocuously enquired, “Would it be possible to go into Muggle London when we shop, only there are a few muggle-ish items I would like to procure if I may?”

Dumbledore beamed benevolently at his two charges, “Why of course, boys, that will not be a problem. I intend to send Remus and Tonks with you. I suggest they cast glamours so you are not recognised and I ask that you do not approach old friends you may meet as you will look very different, but otherwise I see no reason why you may not do so; exercise caution and all will be well”. They left it at that.

Alan noticed Dan slumping more and more as the meal progressed, then, as the plates were being cleared, he mumbled excuses and rushed away. Alan made to follow but Albus stayed his arm, “Let him be, he needs to be alone right now”. Alan yanked his arm free, “You know nothing of what Dan needs. He isn’t bloody Harry Potter any more than I’m Severus damned Snape. Now, if you’ll excuse me”, and he rushed after Dan, afraid that if he stayed, he may say something he regretted. Both of them missed the lazy one-sided smile that lifted Albus’ top lip but Remus saw it and wasn’t at all amused. He was even less whelmed when Albus muttered, “They really are too adorable aren’t they? Pity, really”, in that vague way he affected sometimes. Remus shivered and replied with something equally inconsequential but he wasn’t fooled for a moment.

Alan caught up with Dan cowering in tears at the bottom of the flight of steps away from the main Hall. In a moment, Alan was beside him with his arms around him and rocked him. Dan gulped and sniffed and leaned heavily on Alan’s chest, “He’s gonna have us killed, isn’t he?” he snuffled out. Alan nodded, his chin on top of Dan’s head conveying it, “We have to be part of the endgame even in this other story, it seems, and, yes, I would rather not die in this one, thank you”.

His tone seemed to cheer Dan up and he sniffed loudly raising his head, managing a watery smile, “Of course, if this is a ‘Snarry’, then we’ll both live happily ever after, but I still don’t like the idea of fighting, ‘cos in the tales, Severus and Harry have the most extraordinary magical abilities and we’ll never live up to that, we’ll fucking die, Voldemort takes over. The end”, he was back in the dumps again by the end of this diatribe but he wasn’t crying.

Alan was a little stunned, “A Snarry?”, he snorted, “Am I to take it that this is some crude amalgamation of the two characters’ names?” Dan huffed out a breath, “Yup, that’s the one, and if they’re Harry/Draco things then they’re ‘Drarries’, I told you these are ,mainly written by girls, but some of the torture and battle scenarios are pretty damned scary, some of them are great stories but we have a relationship through it all with all sorts of ups and downs and angst’s and kinks, yeah, you should see the kinks. We are so buying a laptop on Monday if there’s enough wad”.

The older man squeezed Dan lightly, “I wouldn’t rely on there being a very great deal of cash”. Dan shrugged, “Nah, in these tales, Severus and Harry are always seriously wadded, ‘cos then after they’ve done Voldemort in, they bugger off and have a life and we hear Snape laugh for the first time and one of them gets pregnant.......”

“What!” Alan reared away slightly, “Just a moment here. Pregnant? A man?” Dan winced, “Ew, yeah, forgot about those, they call ‘em ‘Mpregs’, stands for ‘male pregnancy’. I got about a third of the way into one once and nearly threw up. Yuk. Disgusting idea”. Alan smiled and kissed Dan’s cheek, “Oh, I don’t know, my sister-in-law was very serene through four pregnancies, I definitely found myself envying her sometimes but, Dan, supposing we are in one of those tales?”

“Oh fuck”, said in the smallest of voices, both voices.

There was a long silence, then Dan rose suddenly to his feet, dragging Alan bodily to his, “Come on, library! We need to research!” As Remus and Albus exited the great Hall it was to see their guests running pell-mell along the wide corridor hand in hand. Albus smiled, “Ah, love. ‘Tis a wondrous thing indeed”.

Both Dan and Alan agreed; the library was much less creepy by day than by night when their usual explorations had taken place. They gravitated to their ‘usual spot’ to find it beautifully lit by sunlight. They didn’t know everything in the library yet, but they had spent enough time here to have worked out where the main categories were. Dan homed in on the ‘Social and Domestic Magicks’ section.

He dug out tomes on marriages and bonds, pregnancy and a couple of much-worn texts for the young gay wizard; the checking-out sheet stuck to the flyleaf was dense with stamped dates. He turned to these first. They were definitely aimed at older teens but were not particularly explicit, more anatomical, but he still started as a diagram of ‘the penis in the act of becoming erect’ did just that over and over in the manner of wizarding pictures.

Alan snickered over his shoulder, “Research, Radcliffe? Looks like you found the mucky books, love”. Startled from his reverie, Dan turned and kissed Alan’s nose, “Well, the pictures are pretty cool, aren’t they?” Alan tapped Dan’s bum lightly, “Less ogling, more research”, he purred. Dan twitched his nose and grinned, “Carry on like that, matey, and I might have to have you over this rather sturdy table”. The tap became a slap, “Less of that. Come on”. Dan rolled his eyes and turned to the index.

Nothing on male pregnancy. Phew!

They looked in a few other books, marriage or bonding was quite all right between folk of the same gender and there wasn’t really much of a stigma. Adoptions were encouraged as this satisfied the wizarding tenet of family and was believed to ‘settle’ unruly couples and although divorce was frowned upon though not illegal, it was a lengthy and expensive process. Wizards and witches of whatever stripe were expected to mate for life.

After satisfying his curiosity as to the reality or not of male pregnancy, (not, it seemed), Dan found he was really enjoying his tome on wizarding mores and customs, the tone was chatty and big-sisterly and it was teaching him a lot. He found Alan a few minutes later deep into something on Magical creatures and suggested that they take their tomes outside.

Although Easter was relatively late that year, the air was still cool but in the sun it was extremely pleasant and they set off across the grounds to a spot overlooking the lake but with a small stand of trees behind them to shield them from prying eyes up at the castle and spent a delightful afternoon enjoying books, early spring weather and a little discreet mutual frottage under Alan’s lightweight cloak.

Apart from appearing at mealtimes, they were pretty much left alone to do as they wished over that weekend. They read, they made love and they spent quite a bit of time down in the bunker with the Floo and doors to their main apartments locked to avoid interruption.

As they tidied it up, they searched carefully, until Dan huffed in frustration, stood up from his position searching sofa cushions, pointed his wand in the air and said, “Stuff this. Accio Gringotts key”. There was a tinkle of broken glass a couple of sharp sounds as if the tiny thing hit walls on it’s way, then it flew into the room. Too stunned to catch it, Dan just followed it zipping about until it hovered inches from his nose, making him go cross-eyed.

Alan laughed then repeated the spell. The sound of a drawer opening and closing came to them and there was another, slightly larger key flying through the air – no – more, gliding. It was flying slowly enough that Alan could just pluck it from the air. They gazed at each other, their prizes in hand and grinned, then Alan sobered, “Surely, love, this money should be in their wills or something, you know, left to other people in the event of their deaths”. Dan’s eyes glittered behind the glass as he shook his head, “Nope. We are them for the time being, and, so long as we don’t take the piss, then I reckon we can spend a bit of this, get what we need to ‘pass’ and a few goodies for us”.

“Well, shall we try and find their wills by the same method?”, Alan asked. Dan smiled and shrugged, “Can’t hurt”, and raised his wand again. This time there was a tinkling and clinking, as of many bottles rattling together but nothing came through the air. Dan frowned. “You summon yours”, he said to his lover. Alan raised his wand; a similar musical jingling. They pointed their wands to the front and followed the sounds into the bedroom and under the bed.

Dan knelt down, lifted the counterpane and peered beneath the bed, two large wooden boxes with metal corners lay side by side, the soft chimes quieter now as the summoning spell wore off. Between them, they lugged the boxes from under the bed. A simple unlocking spell undid each and they lifted the lids. This wasn’t your everyday last will and testament.

In the centre of each large rectangular box was a wide shallow bowl about two and a half feet across. Surrounding this in small velvet beds were dozens of tiny stoppered glass phials with swirling airy material within of many hues from white to charcoal grey.

Carefully plucking out a phial, Alan held it to the light, the gauzy vapour swirled and moved. Dan gasped, “Memories. These bottles are memories. And the dishes are pensieves. Harry and Severus must have owned one apiece, though, according to the stories, they’re very expensive....but wow, all these memories. I wonder if we can look at them”

Alan sniggered, “Remember Harry’s fifth year in the films, he looked into Snape’s memories and no good came of it”. Dan rolled his eyes, “Aye, the ever-present Snape-Potter battle but he read his mind too and I’m pretty sure I can’t do that, though I really would like to view one of these memories, say, just one each from each box; one of Snape’s and one of Harry’s. Go on, let’s”

After some deliberation, Alan capitulated; he had to admit to burning curiosity. How the hell did you capture memory anyway? On an impulse, Alan leaned forwards and kissed Dan full on the mouth, “All right, which memories shall we view?” Dan smiled, the tension in his face relaxing slightly, “Well, in the tales I’ve read, the paler the material in the bottles, generally, the better the memory is; pleasanter. The darker the nastier, so I believe”, he reached into Harry’s box and drew forth a slightly larger bottle filled with pure snowy-white smoky stuff, “Okay, this one”, he declared.

Alan replaced the phial he held and let his hand hover over the box hesitantly. Dan was reminded of someone selecting a chocolate without the benefit of the little paper showing the chocolates’ centres and really hoping that they didn’t end up with the dreaded orange creme. Alan made a selection after lifting and discarding a few of the bottles. “All right, we will view this one of Snape’s, then. Shall we proceed?”

Nodding acquiescence, Dan levitated the heavy stone bowl from Harry’s box and lifted it onto the bed between them and they sat either side of it, cross-legged. Alan harumphed, “I am unable to bend that far forwards, Dan, younger though I am in this world. Can we levitate it or perhaps find something more solid to sit the pensieve on?”

Dan smiled and configured the small bedside table into a crate, sturdy and rough, and with a little maneouvring, sat the bowl atop it, raising it some eighteen inches or so higher so they could just dip their faces into the surface of the memory within. He took a deep breath and smiled nervously at Alan who quirked a brow in enquiry.

“I dunno”, Dan exhaled loudly, “It feels like a violation somehow. Here we are in this sacred space....well, sacred to Harry and Severus anyway and we’re about to plunder Harry’s memory....it just feels so wrong, somehow, seeing such private things”.

Without attempting to soothe in the slightest, Alan said, somewhat acerbically, “A memory removed like this is done precisely so others can view it; rather like a postcard left on the hall table. To view a memory in this way is, I believe a tool that the Wizarding Law Enforcement chaps use to test the veracity of witness statements and they are admissible as evidence in their courts of law. Recall, if you will, how Snape was exonerated for the killing of Dumbledore after his pensieve memories were viewed”.

Eventually, Dan nodded slowly, “Okay, but I want to be in constant contact with you. I don’t want to get lost in it”. At this, Alan smiled and moved around the bowl beckoning Dan to his side. With a grin, Dan scooted closer and had Alan’s arm thrown around his shoulder. “Is that close enough?”, the older man murmured. By way of a reply, Dan turned his head and kissed Alan’s jaw, “Loads better. I don’t want to get too involved, erm, if it’s too nasty I want someone with a brain to pull me out. I’ll try and stay focussed enough to do the same to you”.

With his arm around his lover, Alan could feel the lad shake and pulled Dan close, “We don’t have to do this if it makes you this nervous, you know. Or you hold me while I go in if you like. I, too, feel better about having an anchor in the real world. Huh, hark at me. Real world”.

This made Dan huff a laugh, “Nah, I really do want to see, if for no other reason than to see what they both look like, sort of look them in the face even though they can’t see us, it’s just a memory after all. Ugh, still feels weird though”.

Alan squeezed him gently, “Quite why are you so squeamish?”, he asked in a soft voice. Dan shook his head and looked down into the pensieve without really seeing it, bit his inner cheek and thought a moment before he spoke, “I think I’m afraid of two things, Alan. The first is how alike we’re going to be”, he hesitated and steeled himself, “And the second is that those two landed us in this shit deliberately somehow. I can’t believe how easy this is for us. Oh, fuck! I dunno. I’m confused. I’m so out of my fucking depth here”.

Smiling, Alan pressed a kiss to Dan’s temple then sobered his expression again before facing his lover, “I am too, Dan, you know and have a much better grasp on this universe than I do. Believe me, I am just as confused, love, maybe more so, but I rather adopt the attitude that I seem to have been spared a rather nasty death, I have a wonderful man at my side, I can do magic and am about to witness something truly miraculous that nothing I know in science has ever been able to achieve, however gruesome the memory, it cannot touch us. We are, after all, mere witnesses, we have no power to alter or change what we shall see. Our only choice is whether to see or not. So, on that note, shall we?”, he gestured at the bowl.

Dan laughed and kissed his lover in return, “Put like that, how can I refuse? So, who first? Severus or Harry?” They decided on Severus fairly arbitrarily. Dan put down the phial he held, propping it carefully against one of the pillows in order to keep it upright and concentrated on the phial in Alan’s hand. Alan dropped his arm from around Dan’s shoulders but they held hands and their arms touched all along. Alan held out the phial in his left hand and Dan unstoppered it with his right. Keeping the lip of the bottle against the sloping inner side of the bowl, Alan let the swirling mass slowly out as if trying not to break the yolk of an egg or trying to pour beer without a head.

The vapour sank to the bottom of the bowl and spun lazily around inside, making gentle innocuous eddies. When the bottle was empty, Alan laid it carefully aside. They looked at each other for a long moment then nodded, then as one, they inhaled deeply as if they were about to dive into water and plunged their faces into the bowl.

It was like sinking through thick cloud at first but they could see and feel each other side by side. They tried an experimental breath. They could breathe. They squeezed each other’s hand. And waited until the clouds cleared.

A familiar place emerged from the mist, in fact the very room wherein they sat. The light was lower, the flames in the fire were higher, the whole room gave off the aura of ‘night’. Dan turned and saw he was standing, facing the flames, Alan at his side, their hands still joined. He squeezed Alan’s hand again, this time to attract his attention and the other man turned, smiling to see Dan so clearly ‘in here’, even if it seemed to be in the same room in which they were currently, albeit standing in a different place rather than seated on the bed. Interesting, but so far not actual proof of being inside a memory. Until they both heard the groan from the area of the bed, now behind them.

Dan was as surprised as Alan to hear his own voice as he said, “I think we should turn around”. Alan whispered, “I think it’s one of ‘those’ memories. Perhaps not”. Dan giggled softly, “Now who’s being squeamish?” Alan snorted and they turned as one.

To their bed. Only now not theirs. Severus Snape’s bed. On which he was now disported. Well, Alan and Dan thought it must be him but right now, all they could see was a foreshortened view consisting of long slender legs culminating in slowly clenching and unclenching buttocks that were driving into the owner of the skinny legs curled and thrashing over the long back, along which the spine was visible as were the shoulder blades flexing. At the top end of the ensemble was a mass of black hair draped over the arms crossed around the neck that wasn’t visible. Occasionally, a shock of shorter hair came into view under the black hair, an eyebrow, an eye could be seen and moans could be heard.

Along with the moans were the unmistakeable sounds of kisses and a nice squelchy well-lubricated fuck. The sounds from the fucked grew higher until they were gasps and entreaties along the lines of, “Don’t you fucking dare stop, you bastard. Fuck me like you mean it, you bastard”, ground out between gritted teeth. The buttocks moved and twitched faster, the toes that the interlopers could see over that skinny back were clenching and releasing furiously as the heels drove the tops of the arse cheeks to ever deeper penetration.

Then the back came into plainer view, no longer horizontal over his lover, Severus Snape now reared up onto his hands, braced his knees in the bedding and really fucked Harry Potter into the mattress.

Dan glanced at Alan to see his colour a bit high and tugged slightly on his hand to get his attention. He leaned in and whispered, “Hot, aren’t they?” Alan, caught out at being so rapt, flushed fetchingly and smirked to try and cover it, “Hmmm, I suppose so”, but Dan wasn’t having any of it, “Fuck off, they are way hot and not doing anything remotely kinky. I’m getting hard just watching them”. As if to emphasise his words, he led the hand he was holding over his crotch, ghosting Alan’s knuckles over his rapidly expanding cock.

Alan smirked, freed his hand from Dan’s grasp, and stroked the awakening tumescence. Dan bit his lip and cast his eyes back to the bed where the action was reaching a crescendo before them. He was sorely tempted to let Alan continue but also wanted to know why it was that Severus had retained this particular memory and stilled Alan’s hand. They held each other as the groans and pants escalated and finally Harry was the first to shout his lover’s name with Severus following closely, murmuring Harry’s name into his sweaty hair.

Dan knew he was bright red and could feel his quickened breath but calmed himself as the lovers separated and Severus rolled off pulling Harry on top of him. Dan glanced at Alan and started cautiously forwards pulling Alan with him by the hand.

Harry kissed Severus passionately and they shared smiles and kisses in the afterglow. Harry raked his fingers through lank hair and was clearly heard to say, “I love you, Severus. Think what you like but I really love you”.

The memory faded as Severus pulled Harry’s head down to his shoulder and positively beamed up at the ceiling; he was loved, by this mere slip of a boy, he was loved, truly loved. The memory ran out at the point at which Severus Snape closed his eyes and succumbed to bliss. The vapour went foggy again and Alan and Dan pulled their heads from the pensieve.

They were silent a while, catching their breath. Alan said, “There are not many white memories amongst Snape’s but that was one of the whitest. I see why now. Oh, and now I know why they could let you out as Harry but not me as Snape”. Dan chuckled selfconsciously at this; everyone, including Alan, knew he’d been hired because of ‘the voice’. Alan, it was widely known on set, had been quite willing to wear a prosthetic but the Author had apparently expressly forbidden it, hence the main and most immediate difference between the....real(?!) man and the actor portraying him.

There was no getting away from it. The nose.

That Hermione had recognised even from fuzzy muggle photos taken on camera phones, there was always the nose. Alan’s was straight, fairly high-bridged but none-the-less patrician rather than hooked. From the glimpses he had had of Harry, he seemed to be more or less the image of Dan but younger, skinnier, just as Dan had been a few years ago, but as to Snape....

The man was a lot skinnier, and now, having seen him for real, so to speak, Alan had to admit that the two men were fundamentally differently built. Over many years and lovers, Alan had ‘chest types’ down to two. Barrels and boards. Those whose chest was almost as deep as wide and those who were flatter and narrower from the side. He was a barrel. Snape was a board. That was the first thing Alan had noticed.

A quick impartial scan of the man had also thrown up, possibly taller, leaner shoulders, longer legs, shorter back, in fact totally different....and then there was the face...

Leaner, nay, scraggy in it’s thinness, as if the man needed several square meals. Maybe that was the result of the hardships Severus had had to endure, Alan mused, before bringing himself up short – ‘This is fiction, damnit, and I need to keep this in mind. No matter, this writer’s conception of me is far from what I am. Fuck, what was that? What I am. My name is Alan Rickman. I am really 62 but in this world I am 39 and I am in love with Harry Potter played by Dan Radcliffe and what the fuck?!!!’

Alan caught his breath and calmed. He had his arms around his Danny and absorbed some of that warmth. “We’re not a bit alike, are we?”, he ventured into a silence. “Thank Christ for that”, was Dan’s eventual reply, “But Harry loved him”, he added some moments later. Alan smiled into Dan’s shoulder. “Yes. Yes he did, it was quite plain”, he murmured, kissing along the shoulder and up onto the neck. Dan tipped his head letting Alan have his way and moaned as he felt that wicked tongue tip flicking his sensitive bits.

The tongue that flickered up over his jaw and plunged into his mouth a moment later. Dan felt slightly delirious as he was kissed silly and clung to his beloved, yeah, fuck it, his beloved. Shit! He’d admitted it to himself, he was in love with Alan and Alan had called him ‘wonderful’.

As they kissed, Dan recalled telling Alan that he was tempted to fall in love with him and smiled around that delicious tongue redoubling the kiss and taking it to new heights before ending it gently and looking into Alan’s eyes. There was the slight lust-glaze for sure but that wasn’t all.

He couldn’t say it. He chickened out and lowered his eyes pulling Alan’s head down beside his and holding him tight.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

They straightened up again and Alan asked Dan to pass him Harry’s phial. Dan passed it but not before he drew out his wand, gently twirled it in the vapour of Snape’s memory until the tendrils wrapped around it like cosmic candy floss. He gathered the whole memory carefully then decanted it back into the glass bottle only spilling the smallest amount. He winced as he tried to shove the pale wisps back into the bottle with his finger, “Bugger, I hope that bit isn’t the ‘I love you’ bit”, he muttered.

That earned him an unexpected kiss that made him grin then Alan was slowly tipping Harry’s memory into the pensieve. Dan vaguely noticed that the cut and type of phial was identical to the one containing the memory they’d just seen. Alan laid it aside carefully, reached for Dan, threw an arm around him again and drew him close, “Ready?” Dan smiled and shrugged already tipping forward, “Yeah. Let’s go”, and he felt the arm heavier along his shoulders as Alan leaned in and their faces breeched the surface at the same moment.

This time when the clouds cleared they were in a different place altogether. They were in a room neither of them recognised at first and it was empty. Dan looked puzzled, “Maybe we’re in the wrong place”, but Alan shushed him, “This is Harry’s memory, there’s a reason why we’re here. Let us wait”.

It was then that Dan ventured forward, pulling Alan by the hand. He headed across the huge room to a tapestry on the opposite wall and noted the names and the lines of succession and the burn marks.......”I know where we are, we’re at Grimm....”. “Ssshh, I can hear voices”, Alan whispered urgently and instinctively they shrank back against the wall as the door crashed open and Harry and Severus tumbled into the room.

Dan and Alan had to move sharpish as the two crashed, kissing hungrily, into the very bit of wall against which they cowered until they recalled they couldn’t be seen anyway but they still moved. Severus had Harry squashed against the masonry, then lifted him bodily and banished his lower garments, wrapping the skinny legs around his waist, fumbled between them a moment and Dan and Alan quite clearly heard the muttered lubrication charm then the figures before them rocked in the age-old dance, Severus thrusting deeply into his lover with his back pinioned to the wall.

“Bloody hell”, Dan whispered and adjusted himself in his pants, “Are all these memories gonna be about sex?” Alan pulled him close, angled his face just so and kissed him, “’S’better than porn at any rate. A little show, just for us and they can’t do anything about it. Now let’s watch and see the point of storing this particular memory, shall we?”

Dan moaned as the kiss ended but he turned back to the action once more reaching it’s denouement with Harry’s head thrashing on the wall and Severus biting his neck then Harry made a series of grunts, his eyes squeezed tightly shut before his mouth slackened and his breathing started to slow down. Severus renewed his thrusts with vigour, slamming into his sated lover over and over again until he sank his head into Harry’s shoulder, groaned aloud and went still.

Severus slowly pulled out and Harry unwound his legs, letting them reach the floor and tested each foot before entrusting his weight to them. Severus held him up and the kiss they shared was tenderness itself. Dan was just thinking that Harry had merely remembered a stellar shag when Severus spoke.

“This shouldn’t be happening Mr Potter, but I find myself as addicted to our encounters as you seem to be”, he said softly, nuzzling under Harry’s ear. Under the onslaught, Harry beamed and closed his eyes, “It’s more than an addiction, idiot, you know that. I love you. Of course I’m addicted to you. It’s not just the sex. It’s you, Severus, you. All of you; from your sarkiness to your toes, lover, I love you. Now I think we’d better get back to the meeting before our arses are fried”.

Harry made to move but was stilled by the taller larger body of his beloved still pressing him to the wood, “Shh, stay a moment, Harry”, and Harry looked up into the face he loved. Severus’ hand came up to stroke the cheek that didn’t even need shaving yet above once a fortnight or so. They shared a look so intense that Harry’s eyes teared and he closed them, two fat drops creeping from beneath the closed lashes to stand on the upturned cheeks.

Severus delicately licked them both away, “Shh, don’t cry, my Harry. We’ll do this together my love, I swear I’ll stay by your side and when we come out of the other side of all this then I want you to be with me wherever we go, whatever happens to us in the future”, then the older man wrapped the younger tight in his arms. “Know this, Harry. I love you and I always will and one day, when we can leave all this behind, then I will stay with you, whatever may come. Do you trust me?” Harry was openly crying now and he threw his own arms around his man, “Yes, love. I trust you beyond anything. I can do this thing, lover, with you by my side, knowing that you love me”.

Here the memory faded and the watchers backed out and sat up.

Dan nipped smartly off the bed and removed the pensieve with a flick of his wand, lowering it adroitly into the box from whence it came. Concentrating hard, he removed the memory and decanted it back into it’s bottle and locked and pushed the whole shebang back under the bed before flopping back down beside his lover and laying out full length. He hid his face in his hands.

Not sure he understood Dan’s tension, Alan lay out beside him and let his hands hover whilst trying to decide on what tack to take. He made up his mind and took Dan firmly into his arms and used one hand to gently pry Dan’s hands from his face. It was to find reddened eyes and tears on each cheek.

“Dan, what is the matter, love?”, he whispered. Dan almost head-butted him as he sat up suddenly, “You always call me love but you’ve never said it!”, he blurted, then looked down at himself as if amazed at the words he was saying, then frowned and threw himself backwards again, “Sorry”, he muttered sullenly, “Dunno where that came from”.

Alan let the corners of his mouth twitch; just the once, then said soberly, “Are you asking that, because I use the term ‘love’ occasionally when addressing you, is there any meaning behind it’s use?” Dan nodded and stayed silent. Alan kissed the top of his head but still Dan didn’t look up. “I will answer that but only if you answer this: why now? When I’ve actually called you ‘love’ now and then for some time – why now are you bothered as to my intent?”

Dan eventually looked up. His eyes were wide and scared behind his glasses, “’Cos I’ve just realised I’m in love with you and I think I have been for a while and I’m still afraid that it’s a dependent reaction of some sort due to our being thrown together in all this, but, fuck it, I love you, Alan”.

Bringing his hands either side of Dan’s face, he looked down into the burning eyes, smiled slightly and said, “In that case, I will answer your question, love: yes. Yes there is meaning. Yes, I love you, Dan”, then he kissed him.

They spent the rest of the day to themselves and didn’t open the pensieve boxes again. Nor did they open the Floo or the door when it was knocked upon around teatime. They tuned everything out but each other. They ate, read aloud, talked and had delightful sex that left them both playful and pink. They chased each other around the apartment and cooked side by side, they stayed naked but for the occasional towel slung around the hips. They cracked a bottle of wine as the hour grew late and toasted each other. They asked Dobby for rare roast beef and received perfection on a plate. They fed each other. They showered and bathed together, in fact they had a shameless bacchanal that culminated in some very intimate love-making that sent them sweetly asleep in each others’ arms as the dawn rose outside in the world.

Here we go, chaps, another 2 chapters. Please, pretty please,let me know what you think. Many thanks. The Squig