Even If It Kills Me

I want to protect you, Draco. Not because I promised your mother, but because I love you. -HBP, Snaco-

"Let me help you."

Draco gasped, then coughed as he was slammed into the stone wall of a Hogwarts hallway by his godfather and Potions professor, Severus Snape.

"I don't need your help!" Draco shouted, tears prickling at his steely gray eyes. "I'm doing just fine on my own!" Draco gasped again when the hands gripping his collar tightened and he was slammed into the wall again--not with as much force as before, however. "I can do it on my own!"

"I made the Unbreakable Vow with your mother--I promised her that I would protect you," Snape said through gritted teeth. "If you'll just tell me specifically what you're supposed to do."

Draco tried to shove Snape away as tears started to stream down his thin, pale cheeks. "I'm not telling you! You just want to take the glory for it if I complete it!"

Snape looked Draco with surprise, his face paler than usual and his cold eyes wide. Then, his expression changed into one of disgust. He shoved Draco into the wall again with more force, and stared into the sixteen-year-old's gray eyes.

"I want to protect you, Draco. Not because I promised your mother, but because I love you." Draco's eyes widened as Snape's lips collided with his. Slowly, the teenager's pallid eyelids slid shut, and he melted into his godfather's kiss.

Draco wound his arms around Snape's neck as the older man's lips meshed perfectly with his own. He was forgetting everything--the Dark Lord, the Vanishing Cabinets, completing the impossible task, and the punishment if he failed. All that existed to him was Snape; the feeling of Snape's lips on his, the feeling of Snape's hands roaming his body, caressing every inch of his form.

Then Snape pulled away.

"…Professor?" Draco said questioningly.

Snape looked at Draco intently and said, "Get back to your dormitory. Ten points from Slytherin for being out of bed at this hour, and detention in my office every Friday evening at seven for the next month. Be sure to come…prepared." Snape smirked at Draco, as he turned on his heel to walk away.

"Professor Snape?"

Snape turned around to stare at the visibly disheveled boy who was staring at him with lust glazing his eyes. "Yes, Mister Malfoy?"

"I think that you'll be helping me, whether it's the way you intended to or not."

Severus Snape smiled at his godson as he turned and walked back to his office.