Disclaimer: Please check out my homepage if you need to refresh your memories about who owns what.
Chapter 29
The Burrow was quiet except for the creaks and groans that were as much a part of the old, higgledy-piggledy house as was the old ghoul in the attic. The dark figure that stepped out of the fireplace in the living-room stood silently on the hearth, waiting to see if the roar of the magical flames had disturbed anyone's sleep. He would have been surprised if they had; he had cast a muting charm over the magical flames before he had announced his destination.
After a minute devoid of any human movement, the figure moved quietly towards the narrow stairs and began a stealthy ascent, placing his feet as close to the edge of each tread as he could and gradually increasing the pressure until he was sure no loud creaks would give away his presence. The figure was an expert at stealth. He blended perfectly with the darkness because the black hood of his cloak hid the pallor of his face.
The figure stopped on the second landing and put his ear to a door. Then he carefully turned the doorknob and entered the room, silently shutting the door behind him. The darkness within was broken by a shaft of moonlight streaming through the small window, illuminating the snuggled figure beneath the bedclothes.
The figure lowered his hood and stood over the bed for a long time just looking at the sweep of red-gold hair and the delicate curve of a slightly flushed cheek, all that he could see of the sleeping woman who was turned on her side facing away from him, the blankets pulled right up to her mouth. Pulling himself from his rapt contemplation, the man drew a wand and pointed it at the door, making it impossible to open, even though there was no lock, and then he cast a charm that would prevent any noise issuing from within the room, escaping through the walls.
The man took his cloak off and threw it across the spare bed before lowering himself carefully onto the side of the occupied bed. Reaching forward, he gently pushed a lock of hair off the flushed cheek before brushing the back of his fingers over the warm, soft skin. He continued this gentle caress until the woman sighed softly and turned her face towards the hand.
Unable to resist the temptation, the man lowered his head to cover her warm, pink lips with his own, placing a tender kiss upon them before abandoning their soft, moist perfection to bestow little kisses across the velvety skin of her cheek, working his way to the corner of her jaw, then along the delicate curve of bone. When he reached her chin, his lips abandoned that quest and fastened once again upon her slightly parted mouth, eliciting a sigh of utter contentment from the victim of the gentle assault.
The kiss didn't remain a one way affair for long; the woman strained upwards, her lips softening under her assailant's. His fingers threaded through the silken strands of hair at her temples, unnecessarily holding her head still because she had no intention of trying to escape.
Erin did not panic as she climbed out of the depths of a sleep that had been hard won; she knew, even in her somnolent state, who was sending an electric charge through her sleepy nerves. Time didn't seem to mean anything when it came to her ingrained knowledge of everything pertaining to the man she loved. Even though she had only known him for such a short time, she knew his taste and she knew his smell, the feel of his lips and the texture of his skin…everything.
"Severus," she sighed into his mouth.
"How did you know it was me?" he whispered, and she felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. She also knew that voice…that beautiful, rich, shockingly sensual voice. Still not fully awake, Erin smiled languidly, and having freed an arm, she threaded her fingers through his raven hair.
"Oh, that's easy," she murmured in a husky, still sleepy voice. "The other guy I made tentative arrangements with, had short hair," Her smile was now sweet innocence when Severus lifted his head and glowered down at her, one eyebrow raised.
"Very amusing," he drawled and Erin gave a gurgle of laughter which Severus swallowed when he swooped again to claim her lips. There was no more talk…no explanations of what Severus had been doing during the two days of his absence, nor how worried Erin had been—terrified really—and how she had tried to carry on as normal throughout the many painful hours.
Between them, and with their kisses and their movements quickly becoming unrestrained, they worked the bedclothes down, and Severus, impatiently toeing off his shoes, lay full-length on the bed. He gathered her pyjama-clad form close, pulling her half on top of him so that he could explore the slenderness of her back.
He worked his way down until he felt the dip at the base of her spine. Erin, lost in a haze of desire, squirmed against him and Severus moaned into her mouth and pushed his tongue deep, exploring the whole of the warm, moist cavity, and instinctively moving his hips in a dance as old as time, in perfect rhythm with his tongue.
When Erin felt cool air on her back and Severus dipping his fingers beneath the waistband of her pants to caress the curve of her buttocks, she arched upwards into his touch and Severus worked his hands lower and covered her bare buttocks with his large hands, squeezing the soft skin stretched smoothly over the taut muscles.
With a gasp, Erin pulled her mouth away from Severus's but instantly lowered it to the corner of his jaw. Severus arched his neck to allow her access but after a moment, Erin groaned with frustration, and with an impatient movement, she wedged an arm between them and pushed herself upright.
Severus managed to drag his lust-heavy eyelids open to stare up at the beautiful, flushed face above him. Erin pushed herself further upright and Severus moved his hands around so that they were angled over the jut of her hips. Erin was straddling him now and Severus' eyes fluttered shut as a groan of pained longing escaped him. He felt Erin's hands at the collar of his robes.
"You have too many clothes on," she panted. Severus felt one small button part company with its hole, and small hands scrabbling at the next, and then the next. His own hands began to work on the much larger buttons of Erin's ludicrously bright parrot pyjamas; even though they were voluminous, Severus did not think that he had ever seen any article of clothing more sexy than these pyjamas, draped as they were over the body of this beautiful woman. Severus's task was very much faster than the one Erin was tackling.
Erin's hands were losing all co-ordination as Severus's knuckles brushed against the bare skin of her torso and when he pushed the two sides of her top aside, he gazed in worshipful silence at the perfection laid bare for him. Ah, yes…this sight was definitely more erotic, more sensual than any pyjamas, no matter how sexy.
As if imbued with their own consciousness, Severus raised his hands and cupped the perfect, coral tipped breasts; they filled his hands as if they had been made just for him…just for his sensory pleasure.
For Erin, all thoughts of voluntary movement fled, and with her hands on Severus's chest for balance, her head fell back and she moaned her own pleasure. Severus stroked his thumbs over the distended buds of her nipples. "You're beautiful," he whispered. Erin shuddered as his thumbs stroked again, gently squeezing the soft flesh.
Severus wrapped one of his hands behind Erin's neck and pulled her down. He lifted his head to kiss one nipple, laving it with his tongue, savouring the female taste and texture and revelling in Erin's frantic little moan of pleasure.
Severus spent the next unknown period of time exploring the creamy perfection that was Erin's body; he was far from experienced in this new, gentle sensory exploration of the female form, but somehow, his hands and his mouth seemed not to need any input from his brain. This was Erin, the woman who had come to mean so much to him in such a short time, not some female vessel upon whom he had occasionally slaked his lust.
Before they had progressed to the point of blissful unawareness, a particularly load creak from outside their small island of intimate contentment made Erin stiffen. Severus stroked his tongue upwards between her breasts; he had been too far away on his sensual journey to have heard the noise, but he had not been listening; he had the advantage of knowing that he had taken all precautions; they would not be heard.
"Someone may hear us," gasped Erin, the prosaic statement totally at odds with exactly where her thoughts were centred.
Severus trailed kisses along her collarbone, up along her neck until he reached her ear. "I have cast spells that will ensure our privacy," he whispered before taking the fleshy lobe into his mouth and nipping gently. Erin shivered; she was a boneless mass of electrically charged nerve-endings. The sensations Severus was evoking in her were sending her rapidly over the edge.
The feel of course fabric under her hands when she tried to rebalance herself was suddenly all wrong. Erin's hands remembered what they had been doing before Severus sent her into sensory overload with his mouth and his hands. She began working at his buttons again, but with little success because she was shaking so much.
"You've still got too many clothes on," she groaned with a little sob of frustration.
In one swift, easy movement, Severus deposited a shocked Erin on the bed, and gained his feet at almost the same instant. Erin blinked her surprise. Severus started on his own buttons, but his own hands were little more adept than Erin's had been; he too found his limbs palsied and quite useless for such a finicky task when there were more pleasurable pursuits to be had.
Severus's wand was in hand before Erin could blink from her reclining position, and in the next moment, Severus was standing before her, naked and to her passion-drugged senses, magnificent.
The rewards of their lovemaking were their own lessons and Severus went from one level of visual and tactile appreciation to an entirely different level of sublime sensual overload that made thinking entirely redundant. Erin was on the same plane as her lover and their long awaited coming together was everything both had imagined and more.
8888
Forty minute later, Erin was lying with her head on Severus's chest, circling a determined finger around his nipple. He was trying to ignore the sensation that had him on the brink of pushing her onto her back again and making love to her for the third time. His thirty-six year old body was finding it a bit of an uphill battle to live up to the expectations of his suddenly eighteen year old libido
Their lovemaking had been energetic, to say the least, so he clamped his hand around Erin's marauding fingers; they would have to wait a bit for an encore performance.
He felt Erin smile against his chest and said sleepily, "Keep that up young lady, and I will not be responsible for my actions."
Erin kissed the slightly sweaty skin of his chest, savouring the masculine taste and aroma that had been heightened by their lovemaking. "Your actions have been most suitable up to now," she parried throatily, and Severus, not wanting to appear too pleased with himself, just grunted a non-committal reply; he was, however, highly delighted with his ability to have turned Erin into a quivering mass of pleading femininity, not once but twice.
If their first time together had been short, it had still been memorably sensual. But their second coming together had been much more so, and they had both been able to prolong their joining this time because the worst of their unbridled desire had already been appeased. They had savoured each other's bodies in a worshipful display that included both exploration as well as sensation. They truly knew each other now and neither had been disappointed in any aspect of their lovemaking, nor the discoveries they had made of each other's bodies.
Neither had left the bed, but they lay in comfort, untroubled by the messy after-effects of lovemaking. Severus had reached for his wand and cast a charm over the two of them which had rid them of the evidence of their recent, highly physical and rewarding activity. Erin decided that she liked this method of cleaning up much better than she had the inevitable trip to the bathroom.
When Severus had wielded his wand in a second, complicated movement over her pelvic area and when she asked what he was doing, he had informed her that it was a Contraceptive Charm. Erin had been a little disconcerted to realise that all thoughts of contraception had totally passed her by. She supposed that she was relieved that Severus had not been so lax, but she lay quietly with her head on Severus's chest for many minutes after the charm was cast, wondering what the tiny little niggle was, right at the back of her mind.
Erin had been thrilled to find that Severus's body was, against all the proof evinced by those austere robes, not thin and stringy as she had once imagined, but firmly muscled...and very nicely so. Of course, she already had a limited knowledge of Severus's body, but somehow, with them both being naked, and touching from head to toe, her vision of male perfection was now reality—at least for her. The clues had been there of course, when her Potions Master had dressed in Muggle clothing to babysit her on a jaunt to London. But any admiration she had had for him then, had been steamrollered into submission by their mutual antagonism. And of course, Paul Vale's physique had been quite different to Severus Snape's.
Severus had already known what he would find when he finally had Erin in his arms and naked; her Muggle clothes were much more revealing than his own flowing robes. He had already felt her softness and her gentle angles during the all too short times they had spent in each other's arms, undisturbed by Potter or by Erin's worry about the boy's mere presence in whichever abode they happened to be in.
The bouquet of sensuality had been heightened by their joining and now they both lay in satiated languor, each stroking the other's moist warm skin and occasionally unable to resist kissing or licking whatever area they could reach without moving more than an inch or two. Their contentment was absolute, until another loud creak got past Severus's Silencing Charm, which was, after all, meant to stop any noise escaping, not entering.
Erin tensed and Severus, whose eyelids had been dipping toward closed, was suddenly wide awake. "What is it?" he asked, his voice still displaying the sleepiness he was now denied.
Erin turned further on her side and bent her thigh over both of Severus's. She sighed. "Just the house creaking, I think," she said softly, rubbing her foot along his hair-roughened lower legs. He felt his lower body stir in an effort at reincarnation and so, apparently, did Erin. She grinned, and resting her chin on her fist which she had clenched on his chest, she looked up at his face through her eyelashes.
"I see the fact that we are in the Weasleys' home does not seem to be making any inroads into your psyche, nor your libido, Professor Snape," she chuckled.
"Nor did you seem all that worried during the last fifty or so minutes, Madam," Severus retorted, still in that sleepy, but infinitely sexy voice.
"My trust in your abilities knows no limit, my love," Erin said truthfully, "but how did you get into the house without anyone being alerted?" She finished her question by running her fingers through the light dusting of hair that covered Severus's breastbone. The rest of his chest was smooth but that light dusting of hair thickened and narrowed as it travelled southwards to his umbilicus and then beyond. "I thought the spells protecting the Burrow were second to none."
"They are," said Severus, twisting a lock of her hair around his finger. "The only ingress into the house without dismantling the wards that enclose the property—and that would have alerted the household—is through the Floo."
"But then surely anyone could get in."
Severus shook his head and tugged on the hair until Erin's face was forced upwards. He then kissed her on the lips and a minute elapsed during which they indulged themselves again. Then another extra loud creak from the stairwell brought them both back to their senses. Erin slowly relaxed when Severus reassured her while rubbing her back and she snuggled her cheek against Severus's chest again.
"So," she took up from where she had left off, but with a husky timbre to her voice now. "What prevents any Tom, Dick or Harry getting in?"
Severus snorted and Erin, realising what had tickled his funny-bone, grinned also.
"It is my experience that nothing keeps Harry out of anywhere," Severus drawled with the air of a man who knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Okay, Tom and Dick then?" reiterated Erin with a light slap to Severus's chest.
"The only place of origin for ingress to the Weasley house via the Floo network is Dumbledore's office. And as visitors to that office are strictly monitored and unable to get in unless specifically invited, there is no hope of any, other than those invited by the family and allowed access to Dumbledore's office, getting into the house."
"And Hogwarts is one of the most protected buildings in wizarding Britain," mused Erin, knowing she had been told this but was unsure who exactly had told her.
"Exactly," said Severus. "And Dumbledore's office is even more protected than the rest."
Erin nodded her head where her cheek still rested against Severus's chest. "And yet the Minister and his minions can invade the castle, stopping Harry from going back there and receiving the best protection that the Wizarding World can offer."
"Dumbledore cannot stop the Minister from entering the school, but if he wished to keep him out of his office, he could do so. Last year, the Ministry was interfering at Hogwarts and Dumbledore was usurped from his position as headmaster for a short time. The despicable woman that the old Minister put in charge was denied access to the office. It sealed itself against her."
Severus felt Erin's eyebrows rise. "Another story that I will add to the list of stories that I need to hear."
"Yes, dear," drawled Severus and Erin slapped him again, all too aware of his sarcasm. Severus retaliated by flipping Erin onto her back and half covering her with his body. She squealed and Severus silenced her by crashing his mouth onto hers and kissing her until she was nearly a puddle of mush.
Severus insinuated his thigh between hers and Erin was thrilled to feel the evidence of his renewed desire. As she reached down between their closely aligned bodies, a desperate, loud yell, followed immediately by another and then another, had the pair of them springing apart.
"Harry!" gasped Erin and she was scrambling out of bed a second behind Severus. He had his wand in hand again and with a flick, he stood before Erin, fully clothed, and another flick had her back in her parrot pyjamas. More frantic yells were issuing from a room above them and many footsteps were thundering past the twins' room and up the stairs.
Severus pointed his wand at the door. It flew open, and he and Erin bowled through to ascend the stairs on the heels of a small body with red hair streaming out behind her. The upper landing was far too crowded for Severus and Erin to push through.
Severus roughly grabbed the arms of the two rearmost bodies—Ginny and Hermione—and pulled them around to face him. "Get back downstairs!" When they both stared at him with wide, frightened eyes, Severus yelled, "NOW!" into their stunned faces. If Erin had not been so frightened for Harry, she would have taken the time to placate the girls but she was right on Severus's heels when he forced his way into the small room.
Ron was standing over near the window with his wide, frightened eyes fixed on his distraught friend, and his arms wrapped tightly around his thin, gangly torso.
Molly Weasley was standing at the foot of the camp bed with her hands clamped over her mouth and tears running unabated down her cheeks. Bill was kneeling beside the low bed and was trying to maintain a hold on a furiously thrashing Harry. Arthur was at the head of the bed with one hand clamped on Harry's shoulders, trying to assist his son in preventing Harry from hurting himself. Arthur was also slapping Harry on the cheek in an effort to wake him, but his slaps were ineffectual. Harry appeared to be in a place where he couldn't be reached. Arthur and Bill's voices were part of the cacophony.
Nobody expressed any surprise when Severus insinuated himself into the narrow space where Bill knelt. "Move, Weasley!" he growled as he shoved Bill out of the way and took his place at Harry's head. Arthur seemed to know to move back but he did so reluctantly.
Severus clamped his large hands around Harry's face, holding his head still and pushing his cheeks together, muffling the terrified yells somewhat. With his obsidian eyes narrowed and fixed desperately on the young, distorted face lying under his hovering body, Severus said, "Arthur, prise his eyelids open."
"Err…what…"
"Severus, what on Earth.."
"Now!"
Without further ado, Arthur resumed his position behind Harry, who was thrashing even more desperately now that he could not move his head. Bill, always quick on the uptake, flung himself over Harry's body to still the frenetic movements as much as possible.
Arthur, looking quite ill, positioned his fingers over Severus's and his thumbs on Harry's eyelids. When Harry let out his loudest yell yet, Arthur jumped but his hands remained steady. With a gentle but forceful movement, he pulled back Harry's eyelids. It was not easy because Harry had his eyes screwed tight in his distress, but Arthur swallowed his distaste and forced the reluctant eyes open.
Immediately Severus could look into the distressed green eyes, he swooped with a determined, "Legilimens!"
Severus was sure that he knew what he was going to see as he easily penetrated what was left of Harry's Occlumency shield. For a fraction of a second, Severus was disarmed; he could hardly believe that Potter had actually tried to block his mind from external penetration.
He had tried but failed abysmally because a fraction of a second after encountering the remnants of this pathetic attempt at mental protection, Severus saw what the Dark Lord was making Harry watch. He dare not venture any further for fear of his presence being detected, though he was not overly worried because the Dark Lord was fully occupied with his helpless prey and the Dark Lord trusted Severus implicitly and so would not be looking for signs of him.
Severus felt sick as he distantly viewed the hideous torture of an innocent young boy and listened to the menacing, crooning voice of the evil monster who was simultaneously orchestrating the physical torture of the Muggle boy and the mental torture of the young wizard whom he wanted dead at all costs. He was imbedding all of the details of his evil plan in Harry's psyche, knowing that Harry would do everything in his power to try and save the Muggles.
All their subterfuge had been for naught.
Shit!
Harry had finally given up yelling and trying to throw himself off the camp-bed and away from his captors. Tears were now flowing down his cheeks; his breathing was choppy and his body was a lather of perspiration. Severus could sense all of this while he concentrated on blocking the connection between Harry and his torturer. The Dark Lord had to think that Harry had managed to re-erect his own Occlumency shield.
Severus began to chant the incantation that would build on the foundations of Harry's own pathetic barrier. This was one talent that Severus knew he had which was superior to the Dark Lord's, but though he was confident, he was careful. Pushing his way into the morass that was now occupying Harry's mind would be dangerous. It would certainly be painful for the teenager, but there was no choice.
Projecting a nothingness that was as black as midnight on a moonless night, Severus pushed this emptiness across Harry's writhing consciousness and with a jarring mental shove, he crept over the projections that the Dark Lord had lodged in Harry's brain, smothering them before forcing them back and replacing the wreckage of Harry's previous dreams with the blackness.
At the moment of penetration, when both Severus and the Dark Lord inhabited his mind, Harry stiffened convulsively; his back arched off the bed. Seemingly in the grip of an all-consuming agony, Harry screamed at the top of his lungs before collapsing onto the bed in a boneless heap. Severus stayed only long enough to be sure that the Dark Lord had indeed left Harry's mind.
Now that Harry was unconscious, Severus's head finally drooped. With a massive effort, he gained his feet, swaying alarmingly, so that Bill, who had also stood when Harry had collapsed, grabbed his arm and held him steady. Arthur had also relaxed and allowed Harry's eyelids to shut again. He felt like the worst of bullies for his small part in this drama, even though he knew it had been necessary. As he wiped a hand across his sweaty brow, Erin's frightened voice broke the tense silence.
"What was all that about?" she asked, her voice reflecting the nausea she was feeling.
Severus looked around. Erin and Molly were standing with their hands clasped together in a grip so tight, their fingertips were white and the muscles in their hands and arms were palsied. They must have been standing like that for the duration of the torturous scene.
Severus ignored the question and looked at Bill. "How long was I out?" he asked croakily, rubbing his own forehead where a spectacular headache was beginning to bloom.
Bill took a deep breath and tried for stoic when he spoke. However he too sounded slightly nauseated. "About seven minutes," he said quietly. "No more than eight or nine, I'm sure."
"It was seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds," came a whisper from near the window and they all looked around to see a whey-faced Ron still standing in front of the window, his red rimmed eyes still focused firmly on his friend.
Arthur, the one closest to Ron, reached him in two steps. He pulled him close to his chest, and Ron, as tall as his father, clung to him as if he was a lifeline. "I never knew," he mumbled against Arthur's shoulder, his eyes never leaving Harry.
"He told us last year how terrible it was, but Hermione and I just nodded and rolled our eyes. Hermione told him he had to keep on going. He always got a really bad headache after the sessions, but Hermione told me when we were alone that she thought Harry was just making a huge fuss because it was Snape who was teaching him."
"Shh," said Arthur, rubbing Ron's hair as if he was four years old. "You shouldn't have had to see that. You should have gone out of the room. I should have made you go."
"This was not like the sessions that Mr Potter and I had last year, Mr Weasley,' said Severus tightly.
Ron stood up straight and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "He got a headache every time. And he had more dreams and visions every time." He swiped his nose again. "Every fucking time, Professor!"
"Ron!"
"That's enough, son," said Arthur, calmly. "Go and find Hermione and Ginny and go down and make a big pot of hot chocolate."
"Why won't he wake up?" asked Ron as his father eased him past a stiff-backed, furious Severus.
"Be thankful that he is asleep," said Severus in his most quelling voice. "Because when he wakes up, this headache will be like nothing he has known before."
"Want a bet?" mumbled Ron, and he left his room, glancing back at Harry as he stepped through the door.
Molly finally moved from her frozen position at the end of the bed. She sidled past Severus and knelt next to Harry, whose face was still slick with perspiration. She pulled her wand from her dressing-gown pocket and conjured a bowl of warm water and a washcloth and started sponging him down. Her silence was eloquent and it wasn't entirely disapproval of her son's language.
"So, Severus, what exactly was that all about?" asked Bill.
"That was the Dark Lord showing Potter what…"
"His name is Harry, Severus," said Molly stiffly and Severus glared down at the back of her disapproving head. Harry had not stirred under her gentle ministrations. He transferred his glare to Erin who was also looking more than a little disapproving of his return to the use of 'Potter'.
Truth to tell, he had not even realised he was doing it.
"That," began Severus again, "was the Dark Lord showing, Harry what we have been trying to keep from him since his latest plan was hatched. Showing him in explicit detail, the torture of one of the Muggle boys.
Erin raised her hand to her mouth and Molly shut her eyes. Arthur and Bill just looked grave.
"And what did you do?" asked Arthur. "Why did Harry convulse?"
"I blocked the Dark Lord out and reconstructed Pott…Harry's Occlumency shield. He convulsed because for a short time, there were two of us vying for space within his mind."
"But he saw it all?" said Arthur with a sigh.
"Saw and heard. The Dark Lord told him the whole plan. He knows that sixteen Muggle boys will die if he does not hand himself over.
"This is a disaster," said Bill, rubbing a hand back through the long hair that his mother abhorred.
"Does this mean that He Who Must Not Be Named knows that Harry is here at the Burrow if he was able to penetrate his mind?" asked Molly.
"It would appear so."
"Then we have to get him away again," said Erin frantically.
"Let's not jump the gun, here, Erin," said Arthur. "We need to talk to Albus and we need some of that hot chocolate the kids are making." He pulled Molly to her feet, stepped past Severus and shooed Bill before him. At the door, Arthur looked back.
"Are you coming, Severus?"
"I'll stay with the boy."
"I'll send a message to Albus," said Arthur. He watched Erin take the few steps to Severus's side and then sit herself on Ron's messy bed. Arthur didn't miss the motion as Erin surreptitiously grasped Severus's fingers and squeezed them before she crossed her arms over her chest and sat studying Harry, a frown marring her lovely forehead.
"It was fortuitous that you arrived when you did, Severus," Arthur said in what Severus thought was a quietly knowing tone. "You certainly came through the Floo quietly. But then, I suppose Harry was making enough of a ruckus to disguise the roar of the flames."
Severus looked at Arthur through hooded eyes, knowing that Arthur knew that he had not just arrived, but by remaining silent he was indicating that it was no-one's business but his and Erin's when he had arrived and what he had been doing in the interim.
Arthur smiled. "As I said, fortuitous. I'll send up some hot chocolate," he added as he disappeared onto the landing.
Severus seemed to droop. He rubbed at his forehead where the headache that was the reward for his mental intrusion was pounding away with relentless rhythm. Erin pulled on the back of his robe and Severus allowed himself to drop onto the bed beside her. Without a word, Erin got onto her knees behind Severus and started to massage his stiff shoulders. After an initial stiffening, Severus relaxed under her soothing fingers.
"Harry isn't the only one with a headache," she said. "You've got a bad one, haven't you?" she kissed the top of his head but continued on with her self-appointed task.
"So, what do we do now?" she asked tiredly.
"We talk to Dumbledore. But I imagine he will tell us to continue on with the job he set us. We'll keep on trying to protect Potter from himself and from the Dark Lord."
"Harry," corrected Erin. "There's no point being angry with him, Severus. None of this is his fault."
"No, but he is going to be more than painful until we can rescue those boys."
"You didn't learn anything over the last couple of days?" she asked, as Severus leaned forward and grasped his head in his hands
"No. I spent hours in several different haunts where some of my cohorts in crime hang out, but none of those I spoke to knew anything."
A soft moan had Severus's head snapping up to look at Harry, who was beginning to stir. He shut his eyes as his own pain intensified with the sudden movement.
"I need to go to Hogwarts and bring some potions," he said. "Potter is going to need a strong painkiller and relaxant.
"No need, my boy. I have brought supplies."
Severus and Erin spun towards the door. Dumbledore had entered the room, resplendent in scarlet robes that made him look like a thin Santa to Erin's grateful eye. He was directing a wooden tray to hover before him, bearing large mugs of hot chocolate and a plate with slices of chocolate cake. Dumbledore smiled a greeting at Erin.
Harry groaned more loudly, his level of discomfort causing him to twist and turn under the covers and bring all their attention back to him. Severus didn't comment on Dumbledore's amazingly timely appearance; he had given up being surprised by anything the old man did.
He took the bag that Albus held out to him and opening the drawstring top, he extracted several phials of potion. He opened one immediately and downed the pink contents. Erin could see the tension slowly leave his face and shoulders.
After twenty seconds, he opened his eyes and thirty seconds after that, he had spelled a phial of pain relieving potion and another of sleeping draught into Harry's stomach. Within a minute, Harry had relaxed back into a normal sleep.
"So, our efforts to protect the child were futile," sighed Dumbledore as he gazed down at Harry over the top of his mug of chocolate. "I should have foreseen that Voldemort would invade his mind. He has done it before, of course, with terrible consequences."
"Well, the boy might now know, Albus," said Severus, "but all is not lost. I too saw what Harry saw, and I recognised where the Dark Lord is keeping the boys. He also could not resist showing Harry a list of the names and addresses of the remaining boys he is planning to kidnap before the thirty-first. He wanted to show Harry that he has every last detail worked out.
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in shocked surprise, but then a delighted smile spread across his face. He slapped a hand on Severus's shoulder. "Well done my boy. This is the best of outcomes. We can study your memory in the pensieve to get all the details. Harry's distress may only be short lived after all."
Dumbledore held up his mug of chocolate and rolling his eyes, Severus joined the toast, hoping they were not celebrating too soon.
TBC...
