Bring Me To Life : A Continuation
by I Got Tired of Waiting

Part I : The Past to the Present
Confession, They Say, Is Good For... Something

It was rather special, wasn't it? I find it strange that with all my verbosity, I had such a hard time with those three simple words.

There are not words enough; you had to figure it out before you could say them, and of course, get around that stubborn pride of yours, Harry smirked.

Me? Stubborn? Au contraire!

Harry just sent him his mental snort of derision with a roll of his eyes. Some things were just better left unsaid.

Harry looked over at Ron and Hermione, who were talking quietly to each other.

Oops, we did it again, he thought.

Remind me to thank them sometime, Severus replied with a snort.

I can do that, right after I remind you to tell me what it was you skipped over this evening.

Shit, I forgot about that, Severus thought hoping he could distract Harry from asking again.

"Hey, you two, we're done. Severus says to thank you," Harry called out.

"It's about bloody time," Ron declared, turning back to them. "Geez, the way you two carry on sometimes..."

"Not bad for a couple of old geezers," Harry said on a laugh.

"Old? Old?! You may be old, but I'm just starting," Severus said, laughing, his shoulder joint cracking as he waved his arm around. They all dissolved in laughter at his startled expression.

"Tell that to your joints, then. I'm tired of getting the potions in the morning and hearing you grouse about your poor blighted back," he said with a knowing chuckle.

Severus swatted him on the shoulder. I'll show you old... Harry squirmed under the barrage of graphic images flooding his head. I have plans for you tonight. Unexpectedly, their bond ran ripples through them, their hands tightened, and with a great effort, they tore their eyes from each other and focused on Ron and Hermione.

The exchange between them wasn't lost on the other two who, with a fond knowing glance at each other, knew from past experience that these momentary losses of control would only increase as time went by until it would be utterly embarrassing to be with them. Time to go, they both thought together, their eyes conveying worlds of meaning.

Winding down with a little desultory conversation, they rose to bid their adieus until the morning, promising to meet at breakfast. After exchanging hugs with each other, Severus closed the door behind them.

They were finally alone.

Severus felt singularly--impatient.

With a strong stride, he closed the distance between them, and threading his hand through Harry's silky hair, pulled him into a crushing kiss. Harry immediately responded by pressing himself closer, arms wrapping tight, trying to meld himself into his lover, their hearts racing as one.

They eventually found themselves in bed, clothing divested in stages, punctuated by low moans and hot mouths on satin skin. The soft mattress cushioning them, age fell away as they forgot the present and loved through the past. Each wanting more, each intimately knowing what pleased the other most, they took advantage of their years together to pleasure each other to the fullest.

Harry fell captive to Severus' long-fingered dexterous hands; Severus burned with Harry's trailing kisses.

Ardent lips--Fiery kisses--Stabbing tongues.

Trembling hands coating his length--Sliding into Harry--Hot and tight.

Oh gods, there is nothing like this.

Smooth sweat-slicked bodies fusing into one.

More--Need More

Hips thrusting--Arms tightening--Chest to chest, heart to heart--Frantic--Mouth to mouth--Tongues dancing. The rhythm of their loving took its own course.

More--Need More

Thrust--
Yes.
--Hot nips with teeth and tongue on Severus' neck--

Thrust--
Oh gods.
--Severus' talented hands stroking the hard, hot length between them--

Thrust--
Yesss.
--Holding tight, arms bound around each other, bodies straining, their minds screaming in one voice as they reached their exquisite, shuddering release.

Panting harshly--Slowly drawing nearer to earth--Hands caressing--Hips writhing in involuntary pushing thrusts--Short sweet nips of lips on willing flesh coaxing out every ounce of pleasure.

Back to reality--the waves of pleasure subsided, leaving only a deep abiding sense of peace and fulfilment.

Pulling apart--dealing with the separation--it was sweet torture.

"Oh, I'm going to regret this in the morning," Severus said with a smile and a stiff stretch. Sliding off Harry, he found himself, once more, on the floor. Without thought, he mumbled the cleaning spell.

"Probably, but it was worth it. You've not lost your touch, lover," Harry replied with a sated but tired grin. Turning on his side, he leaned in and lightly kissed Severus on the lips.

"'Quit trying to be nice. You're creeping me out,'" Severus said, his voice mimicking Harry's words before their marriage. For some reason that particular turn of phrase had always amused him.

"Understated simpleton," Harry retorted with a grin.

"Better, much better," Severus said on a yawn. He eyed Harry through narrowed eyes for a moment and then muttered, "Insolent boy."

"Which reminds me," Harry said with a finger down Severus' cheek. "You were going to tell me something earlier." He dragged the finger down his neck and started playing with his ear.

"I was?" Severus shivered under Harry's expert touch. Damn, I guess I didn't distract him enough.

"Yes, you told me to remind you. Something about a lesson from Albus?" The finger curled its way into his hair. "It was most intriguing."

"You're not going to let me sleep are you?" he asked grabbing the tantalizing hand with the finger. He slowly ran his tongue up the offending digit.

Harry shuddered, surprised by a wave of fresh desire. With an effort, he continued, "Not with a juicy titbit like that floating in my head. Really, Severus, where are your manners? It would be exceedingly impolite to make me lose sleep over it."

"As ill-mannered as making me lose sleep with..." He slipped the finger into his mouth, slowly sliding it out, licking the end. Harry moaned, the tickling tingling making him hard again.

Huskily, "You're redirecting again--very well, I might add."

Damn. It was worth a try...

Harry dampened the waves of desire flooding him. "Now what is so important that you are willing to risk my sleep to avoid talking about it?"

"You're not going to let it go are you?" Severus growled.

"Nope," Harry replied with a small grin.

"Damn, I knew I should have kept my mind shut."

With a small smile of triumph, Harry got up and extended a hand to Severus, pulling him up from the floor. Severus took a moment to admire the still-sculpted chest, the muscles rippling as Harry shifted and took part of his weight as he helped him up. He's still a very fine looking man. And all mine, he thought with possessiveness.

He felt the sweet tightness again.

Harry flushed lightly when he caught the avaricious nature of Severus' thought and the growing evidence of his need. We're both too old for this, he thought privately, but said nothing as he handed Severus his dressing gown ostensibly against the chill in the room before donning his own. Maybe not seeing it will help, he thought with a wider grin.

Severus looked at him sharply, one eyebrow raised. Harry shrugged, tilting his head.

They went into the living room. Still half-aroused, Severus settled himself on the couch with one leg tucked under him while Harry poured them both a brandy. Bringing the snifters and the decanter, he handed one over, put the bottle on the table in front of them, and sat down facing his husband.

Uncomfortable, Severus cleared his throat. He took a long swig of his brandy and unable to meet Harry's eyes said, "I suspect this would have been much easier had I done it earlier with about fifty feet separating us."

Harry chuckled and gently touched Severus' cheek, his usual impatience surprisingly missing.

Severus took his hand and settled it in his lap, the fingers of his other hand running lazy circles over the up-turned palm, "You remember the days before I started travelling with you?"

At Harry's nod, he continued, "I learned something important then, perhaps a bit sooner. Like I said earlier, Albus seemed to think I was missing the point and, as usual, the old bugger was right; he was teaching me before I ever knew I needed the lesson." He took another sip of the brandy.

Harry privately thought Albus had always been like that; a trick they'd never learned.

"Before coming to Hogwarts, and even after, I admit, I always thought myself--intellectually superior because of my studies in the Dark Arts."

Harry sat up and stared at Severus. While this wasn't new information, he was surprised Severus would say so.

"Albus bade me return to Hogwarts. While I was... reluctant to do so, I also deeply regretted my involvement with Voldemort, whom I'd joined primarily at Lucius' urgings more than any personal convictions. However, I quickly discovered my Lucius didn't exist anymore; I... needed to leave."

"At first my tenure at Hogwarts was torture, my neat and ordered world shredded, reduced to stuffing knowledge into the heads of inattentive gits more concerned with an exciting game than the things which could save their lives."

Harry nodded; he'd heard words to that effect from him before.

"The teachers weren't much better. I couldn't abide their gossip. They... crowded me, so I wallowed in my solitude. I played the part of the contemptible Potions master--Snape, The Death Eater," he said with a sneer.

Well, that explains a lot, Harry thought.

"Minerva was never fooled nor was Albus or Poppy and they three, in their way, kept me from falling, kept me--connected.

"You have most of my memories; I needn't tell you the sequence of events. Albus recruited me to spy for his beloved Order, the subsequent consequences of that little game. And all the while the students went about their petty business, unconcerned with what was happening outside their insulated world. While I suffered; it was hard to endure sometimes."

Harry leant over and kissed him. Severus finally looked at him, his eyes softening.

He whispered, "And then you showed up, with your wonder, your innocence despite the treatment from your Muggle family. Oh yes, there were whispers of that too in the staff room."

Harry took his hand. "I felt a deep... connection to you when I first saw you, but I couldn't see past your father and my memories of his friends to see who you were. All the actions in your first year, the impetuosity, the foolhardy bravery, the disregard for your friends, all pointed to James. You were--are--such a Gryffindor." He chuckled.

Harry twined their fingers, not minding his candour.

"But something changed over the following years and by the end of your sixth year, I began to look past all the public trappings. I saw the first thing Albus wanted me to see: that we really were kindred souls. That you were as privately tortured by the deaths you felt responsible for as I was with my own ghosts."

He looked down at their entwined hands. "It was the first time I realised we were more alike than I wanted to admit. But, you were so young, and I--I was old--well, I felt old anyway--a teacher--the responsible one. There could be no congress between us... So, I pushed you away from me with hurtful sarcasm and hateful demeanour, constantly picking on you in a desperate attempt to blind you to me."

"I used to watch you look at me with such hate and confusion. I knew it was the only course I could take, so I perpetuated the charade. I never even considered waiting for you until you were older; the years between us seemed insurmountable. But Albus... Albus knew better and bided his time."

He looked at Harry then and was surprised by the intensity of his pose. It was as if he was listening with his pores.

"And so it continued until you hit me with that spell in Diagon Alley. The Witnessed spell that bound us. To this day, although I don't know how he did it and though he claimed he only took advantage of sheer happenstance, there is still a part of me that thinks Albus engineered the whole sordid thing."

Eyebrow raised, Harry conveyed to Severus that he'd thought this too.

"It was torture, sweet torture. I fought myself constantly. The gods help me, how I wanted you. I needed you. Needed to belong. Suddenly, I was in the position to win the only thing I really wanted from you--your approval. I still wasn't convinced it would work, but you know the story as well as I."

He lifted his hand and touched Harry's face, the fingers lightly tracing the line of his cheek. He dropped his hand back into his lap and continued, "It wasn't until we were working on the Draconus Wards and later when we were really separated for the first time that I saw the next thing Albus had wanted me to see--your power. I knew you had power, had felt it when we worked together, felt it when we joined but I never really knew just how deep it ran until I watched you wrestle with the Wards. You worked day after day expending, squandering that power like it was infinite. And you did it with such ease."

Harry moved to protest.

"Yes, I know." He put his fingers on Harry's mouth to stop his instant objection, trembled when Harry kissed those fingers. "I know how much it drains you to use it, intimately I know it, but what you have inside is so huge, so wild, I was--and still am--awed at the control you have over it--as natural as breathing to you. Had Voldemort even a fraction of the power you wield with such ridiculous ease, he would be ruling us even now."

He took another sip of the brandy, emptying the glass. Harry refilled it. He hadn't touched his yet, drunk as he was on Severus' words, his dulcet voice.

"Draco was the one who pointed out the obvious to me. With his usual forthright style he told me I was a fool for closing you out, for treating you than less than an equal, for mistaking your humility for weakness.

"Which is when I realised the third thing Albus was trying to show me: your strong innate core, your good heart, your humility were the intuitive tools you use to control your potent magic; this made you at the very least my equal, even though you were younger. While my skill is equal to yours, it's hard-earned; yours is instinctive. The lesson was that intuition and instinct can equal intellect and, in your case, can even surpass it. It's the end, the result that matters, not the means to it. It was very humbling to get his point. I don't do humble well."

Harry chuckled and finally took a sip of the brandy, trying to hide his dancing eyes in the glass.

Eyeing him suspiciously, Severus went on, "When you were gone setting the Wards, I had too much time to think. You'd return to me, staggering with exhaustion yet quietly triumphant, and as I held you those nights, I realised you never bragged even though you'd well earned the right to do so. You were more concerned with getting back out in the field and finishing the work than you were of your own safety. At first I thought this a Gryffindor thing, and perhaps it was; however, it didn't feel that way. I'm not very good at that either, am I?"

Harry gave him a lingering kiss. Gazing at him, green eyes to black, he replied, "Oh I don't know about that, you feel pretty good to me."

Severus chuckled, his hand rising of its own volition to cup Harry's cheek. Holding it there, the pad of his thumb running over Harry's lips, he leant close and whispered, "I learned from you the last lesson Albus tried to teach me: humility makes one stronger than arrogance."

He gently replaced his thumb with his lips, saying quietly into them, "It was quite a trying time for me to wrap myself around and embrace the concept. But, bit by bit, I stopped fighting you--" He nipped Harry's bottom lip.

"Stopped trying to keep you out--" His tongue lightly traced his lips.

"Accepted you as my equal--" He explored the depths of Harry's mouth.

Became accustomed to your presence inside of me-- He continued the kiss, burying his hand in Harry's hair. It was such a relief to finally feel all of you.

He kissed Harry deeper, his hands framing his face. Harry's hands grasped his wrists and he held on while swells of pleasure roiled through him.

Severus broke away slightly, his heart racing, breath coming in fast gasps, smouldering black eyes to fiery green. "Now I cannot imagine not having you there, inside me, one with me--"

It was too much for Harry. He'd yearned for this final capitulation and now that he had it, he was never going to let it go.

Harry set the snifter aside and, gently pushing Severus back into the couch cushions, covered him with his happy, enthusiastic body, his arms braced on either side of him, saying with a wicked gleam, "You're very lucky you didn't tell me all this earlier in the Hall. Your little spectacle would have been nothing compared to mine."

Severus laughed appreciatively at the distinction and the mental picture forming in his head, Wicked boy. He wrapped his arms around the slender body on top of him, his legs curling around to capture his legs even as Harry, still braced above him, dipped his head and captured his mouth in a searing kiss, his hips undulating into Severus'.

What they shared next was beyond words, beyond touch. They were one, they were real in body, in mind, in soul; fused not only by the spell, but by their own deep love for each other.

All the barriers were gone.

They each could feel the other's pleasure and with the each touch, each caress, their pleasure doubled as both felt what the other was feeling.

It was intense.
It was wild and intoxicating.
It was breath-taking.

And in the sweet quiet delight following their loving, they knew true contentment.

But all good things cannot last forever. Their bodies sore and stiff, they reluctantly made their way to their bed chamber. Removing their dressing gowns, they climbed gingerly into the bed and, sinking into its downy support, lay back down with deep sighs of relief.

Harry settled his back against Severus' front, his arm covering Severus' as he snaked it around his waist. He snuggled deeper, touching as much of his body against him as he could. Comforted by the familiar ritual, Severus patiently waited until Harry was comfortable before he warmly kissed the side of Harry's neck and pulled the covers over them.

"Mmmm. Nice. 'Night, Severus," Harry murmured, kissing the palm of Severus' hand. "I love you," he whispered.

He graced another silky kiss to Harry's neck, whispering tenderly, "I love you back."

Harry sighed, replete.

Their legs and hands tangled and with the feel of warm, soft breathing, they fell into a deep, languid sleep.

TBC