-103-
The next morning, I slowly wakeup, only to see the love of my life is still sleeping peacefully right next to me. Can't help, but smile how adorable he looks while laying there. Everything that happened yesterday floods into my mind, which brings light blush on my cheeks and I do small giddy leg wiggles like little school girl who's thinking about their crush. I can't believe we actually did it!! There are these tiny butterflies flying around my stomach just looking at him. With very gentle touch, I remove some hair out of Severus's face, but it actually wakes him up and his eyes flutters open in sleepy way. "Good morning, sleepyhead." I smile softly. Without a word, Severus scoops me in his arms and hugs tight under the covers. This all makes me giggle:"Hey..!!". Feeling the warmth of his body thru these thin clothes brings bigger smile and blush on my face. "I'll take that you slept as good as I did?" I chuckle. Severus mutters something under his breath as he nuzzles more against me. He's so cute! Seems that he hasn't slept this good for a long time.
Still partly in asleep, he is in disbelieve all of this is real, that I am right here. That we are here. Just like before. Like this is a dream he doesn't wanna wake up from. Seeing him rubbing his eyes from the sand makes me chuckle. To think this is the soft side of him that he has been afraid to show. The thought of going to see Neville to the Hospital Wing and the other members of the Dumbledore's Army crosses my mind. I need to tell them how we happen to see Harry and the others at the Ministry. That's when I gently shove Severus away to get out of the embrace, but he only tightens the hold around me. "No." he mumbles with deep, inaudible voice. Now I'm trapped in his arms so my back is against his torso. So needy. I chuckle amused:"I'm sorry, Sevy. But there are places I need to be..-", "Mm, I know couple places you can start with." he murmurs with low voice as he inhales my scent and starts tracing the tip of his nose against my neck, his big hands slowly wandering around my body.
Before I can say anything to that, he slides his hand under my nightshirt and starts placing soft kisses against the neck. My whole face turns red:"Who..- who's being shameless now?!". "Thought it was already told; once I'll get the taste of your gorgeous body... I won't be able to restrain myself any longer. Or did that managed to escape from that silly brain of yours?" he whispers into my ear. "Ey!!" I exclaim, acting annoyed. We then start this light hearted banter which makes us both let out soft chuckles here and there whenever the other one makes a good point why we should or shouldn't stay in bed while caressing each other ever so lovingly. Eventually, Severus agrees to get up from the bed. I keep watching him while sitting on the bed with big grin on my face, hair little bit messed up as he's collecting all the clothes. A long yawn comes out of me and I start stretching my arms and legs a bit. Can feel slight soreness around my thighs. And what's between them...
While watching him getting dressed, I get a small peek from the wound on his left side, right below the ribs. That's the one he got when he protected me back when I was in Harry's form. It's very fade, but I can still see the light pink-ish shade pattern on the pale skin. Knowing Dark Magic spells won't heal easily... So that might stay there the rest of his life, actually. The guilt it's all my fault and how I wasn't able to heal his wound visits in my heart, but I quickly try to push it away. I bet Narcissa did what she could at the moment. While Severus fixes the long sleeves of his fully dark clothing, he began to speak about how it'll be for the best we continue things like they were before last night. If the Dark Lord finds out I mean more than 'fun time' to him, only Merlin would know what might happen to me or him - to us. To be honest, I'm not happy about this.
Somehow the thought I need to be acting as his toy makes me feel dirty. It poisons the mind quite easily if I'll start thinking about it too much. Like I don't really matter..- "-/N)." Severus's deep voice brings me back from my thoughts. "Y-yes?" my head snaps up to him, only to realize he had already brought his face very close to mine while leaning against the bed with his hands. "I beg you not to doubt your real position in my life, nor how I feel about you." he sounds serious and pecks a soft kiss on my forehead. How did he know that's where my head went?! He sees the baffled look on my face and he leans away to fix his tie:"I don't need to read your mind to be able to guess what's going on that brain of yours.". Oh... Don't know what to say to that, so I just purse my lips, gaze slowly lowering down from him to the floor. The grip around the blanket on my lap tightens a bit. We have come so far. So I can't get these negative thoughts and feelings consume me. I need to be stronger. I need to... Do better.
Severus raise an eyebrow when notice how pensive I look - even I try not to show him that. "Or maybe... I should stay here a bit longer and... Make sure that half functional brain of yours fully understands my heart." he slips the tie off of him and comes closer again. My head quickly lift up to him, little bit confused what he just said:"Hm?". But when he places one knee onto the bed, making the mattress go down by the weight he's putting on it, while looking with that same hungry eyes he had yesterday, I realize what he's about to do. For some reason this shy blush creeps on my face and I stutter:"N-no, I'm good. You should go ahead a-and..-", he shoves me to lay on my back and before I have time to make any resistance, he comes on top and starts kissing me. Somehow all this makes the heat raise inside me all over again. Damn it. I'm like melted butter in his hands. Severus kisses my neck and gently starts pulling down my pants, making my heart flutter.
Forty-five minutes later, I'm walking alone along the corridors, heading to the Hospital Wing. Feels like my head is in the clouds right now. Can't believe we ended up doing it the second time!!! This time it didn't hurt nor had any problems with..- "(Y/N)!" familiar voice echoes behind, other side of the hallway. Immediately, I turn around, feeling little bit off guard:"R-Remus..!". He rushes up to me:"Glad to see you're alright.". My face goes more red. I'm more than fine, actually... When he comes to stand in front of me, his eyes quickly travels up and down on me. After making sure there are no scars or bruises on me, he sighs deep:"Thank Merlin...". Like he's able to breath again. Almost like he's been holding his breath the whole time we haven't seen each other. Giving him compassionate, shy smile:"Sorry I didn't find you sooner.".
Then, we start walking to the Hospital Wing together. Remus told me all about how Severus informed him how Neville and I arrived to the castle, and he should head back to his own chamber. So there really is some level of trust between them two. The thought of that makes my heart feel happy. Knowing I can't just tell Remus all about how the Headmaster really is on our side, but I'm glad he can make his own judgements on his own. As we keep walking and talking, both of us glance over our shoulders here and there, making sure no one's listening our conversation. Or whenever a pack of students walks past us, we stop the conversation to greet them with casual, polite smile and keep on going. I told Remus how we saw Potter and the others back at the Ministry, and how they got the locket, but having no idea where they are right now. All we can hope is that they are alright. "They have personal files of you and me - and rest of the people whose been helping Harry. I snatched them, but I do believe they got many copies of them." I inform with low voice. Remus nods while keeping his eyes ahead:"Let's keep that information to ourselves and come back to that later.".
As we enter the Hospital Wing, we see how all the rest of the group of Dumbledore's Army is already in here. "Where is our hero?" Remus's encouraging voice echoes around the place while approaching the group of teens. Everyone steps aside, revealing Neville, who's sitting on the bed - still having his arm wrapped in the cloth. Luna is sitting beside him on the bed. Looks like she has decorated the cloth with bright colored markers with some drawings of cute beasts and flowers. They are indeed adorable couple. After a little light hearted chatter with everyone, we lower our voices and give a quick run thru what happened in the Ministry. Luckily, there's no one in here but us. Poppy seems to be elsewhere as well. When it was time to go start classes, we all agreed to have another meeting in the Room of Requirement as soon as Neville gets better. After all, we need to keep teaching the students how to defend themselves as well as we need to figure out if there is anything we can do to help Potter. But there is this one problem...
None of us can leave the castle without Death Eaters supervision or Dementors - that have been surrounding the whole Hogwarts's groundings during this whole time - will be going after us. And we don't want that. As expected, staying focused while teaching the young kids felt unbelievably hard. My mind kept wandering everything that has happened these past 24 hours. I've been tracking my brain to figure out the solution that won't get us caught or Splinched, but..- Urgh! What can we do?! Knowing I can't ask for help or include Severus in all of this, so I won't blew his cover. He's already in trouble for showing up in the Ministry. He told me he's going to go down there and make an excuse for his sudden visit, and how the fake Carrow twins were just some random supporters of the Choisen One that are now been 'taken care of'.
Coming back to the chamber's silence after the long day feels quite empty. Only the sound of the soft crackles of the fireplace fills up the room. I feel this incredible urge to just run up to Severus and hug him tight and fall asleep into his arms. But... Like we agreed; we need to keep living just the way things were before last night. Damn it. This will be alot harder than ever before. But for the sake of our lives - and our relationship, I'm willing to push these feelings to the side. There will be a time when we can be together without a fear. And I'm looking forward it. With that in mind, I went to the shower, put pyjamas on and hop under the covers. While laying there in the darkness, my mind keeps traveling from a place to another. How? How can we leave the castle without raising any suspicions? Without anyone seeing us..? Urgh..!
While sleeping there, mind still doing it's own wonders and thoughts, all of sudden, my eyes shoots wide open when the idea hits me. OF COURSE! There is no way I can wait for my genius idea wait for the morning, so as fast as I can, I jump out of the warm bed, grab the robe, quickly put it on with some slippers, snatch the wand from the nightstand and rush out of the chamber. Knowing what paths the people in night shift walk thru and what time, I avoid them and rush thru the corridors to my friend's chamber. Soon enough, without anyone seeing me, I enter to Remus's room. He's in full on sleep. Snoring away. With Lumos on my wand, I basically jump on the bed, all excited:"Remus! Remus! Wake up!!". All drowsy but also very confused and alert, he shoots up to sit:"Wha..- what?! What..?!". When he sees it's only me, his shoulders relaxes:"(Y/N)? What are yo..-", "I know how we can get out of the castle without anyone's notice!" I exclaim happily with hair being all bedhead messy.