Gentle Readers:
Thanks for your comments and reviews both on FF.net and in private. I treasure all of them! J
The story has taken a turn into slashier waters, with RL/SB semigratuitous FF.net-approved R-rated SensuSmut. Severus will not be neglected, though, that much I promise! More mayhem to come!
Also, for those who have asked-
Yes, there will be a follow-up to 'The Warming Potion Incident' and also to 'Through the Longest Watches of the Night. Emily and Artemisia will return to torment their Potions professor, as well as meet the 'real world' as Aquisitors. I'm very glad that they were received so well!
Now, on with the tale…
Sincerely,
Chaos
P.S. This is the 'yes, nanny' version of this chapter. For those of you who are looking for the Scarlet version… Well, where are the forbidden books found?
~
Like Cats and Dogs
Chapter 3
~
The hour was late when Sirius finally pawed at the door to the rooms he shared with Remus. He'd been absorbed in finding the materials for the charm and then secreting them in a classroom so long disused that the most recent footprints on the floor held a centimeter of dust.
The boomslang skin had been ridiculously easy to pilfer from Snape's stores. The wards around the office and cabinet had been down for some reason and all Sirius needed was a thin strip. The graphorn hide was commonly used in charms and potions – the two strips required for the spell had been easy to cull from trimmings left by the Advanced students. Silver – likewise a common magical fixative – came in the form of two Sickles, which he could melt in a borrowed crucible. Now all he needed was three of Snape's hairs and...
Remus opened the door in his pyjama pants and let Sirius into the rooms. To Sirius he smelled of light, healthy sweat that carried a great deal of information. General health, emotional status, sexual disposition, last meal and even the pull of the moon on Remus' wolf-self were all conveyed for canine-Sirius to sort with his fine nose. As of now, Moony smelled lightly of one of Snape's gallingly effective headache potions and the Wolfsbane potion. There was the slightly musky wolf-scent that the advent of the half moon always brought out, accentuating the heady scent of human male pheromone. It was everything that Sirius could manage not to bury his nose in Remus' crotch and…
Remus' nose twitched slightly – even in human form his hearing and olfactory responses were far above human normal - and his scent mixed amusement and a fast-fading irritation. Sirius lowered his head and pawed at the floor, tail wagging and tongue lolling from his mouth – a posture calculated to be disarming and endearing.
"You, Padfoot, are just impossible." Despite the frown on his friend's face, here was an encouraging hint of laughter in that scolding sentence.
Falling over with a thud, Sirius landed on the carpet with his tail whapping. Drawing his forelegs up, he gave Remus his very best 'rub my belly?' pleading look.
"Don't think that you're going to get off the hook with me so easily, Sirius," Moony scolded. "You and Severus need to settle your differences. Whatever it is that you're plotting, you'd better rethink it."
With his best repentant whine, Sirius rolled to his back, counting on his canine-self to say what his human-self had trouble with putting to words.
"Oh, all right, but you'd better behave yourself. Minerva was angry enough to use your full name this morning when she came looking for you." Remus gathered his robes as he knelt and worked his fingers into Sirius' thick black fur. "I had no idea that your middle name was Summanus."
Sirius snorted, even as his back left leg began to dig wildly in the air in response to Remus' fingers. Good lord! Moony knew every spot…
From dog to human, the change was almost instantaneous. Sirius tumbled Remus to the carpet with him, wrapping the smaller, slender man in his arms, savoring the feel of a warm body against his. In the mind-sucking hell of Azkaban he had forgotten how good it could be to hold, to be held, to kiss and touch. Sex was simply a wonderful desert after a nourishing meal – that it was with another man bothered Sirius not a bit.
The lips under his were soft and the mouth sweet, but firmer than a woman's. The kisses were as ardent, but different. The muscles, the angular body, the strength of arms and chest were more arousing than he could have ever imagined. Even better, it was Remus, someone who knew what it was like to be alone and shunned, who knew pain and anguish, who loved so deeply and without reservation. Tongues fought back and forth from mouth to mouth and at one point he was sure Remus was growling.
Slipping his hands under Sirius' robes, Remus did indeed growl and bite softly at Sirius' lips as he undid the clasps, peeling Sirius free of his clothes. The waxing moon tended to make the normally mild man more aggressive as it grew fatter in the night sky.
The soft growling faded as Moony chuckled, "Norton Motorcycle trolleys?" His fingertips traced the boundaries of the fabric and he pressed a wet kiss over a spot on Sirius' neck that made the tall man catch his breath.
"You certainly are talkative for a man who's overdressed for the occasion!" he retorted. In three quick movements, Moony was in his birthday suit and the pyjama bottoms landed somewhere behind the couch.
This provoked a wrestling match that ended with Sirius' legs tangled in his own shorts - whilst Remus' fingers and mouth did things that made Sirius moan non sequiturs like 'unfair' and 'there right there!' There wasn't enough oxygen in the air and Sirius' skin was burning for every wet touch of that hungry pink mouth.
And touch it did.
And lick.
And nipnibblebnibblenip… ahh! BITE!
"Moony!" Sirius yipped, opened his eyes and stared into his lover's golden gaze. "Do that again and I'll be having a few words with Snape about his tinkering with that potion."
Remus trailed kisses up Sirius' sternum and nuzzled his jaw, his arousal burning against Sirius' abdomen. "What? You think that he has to do anything to make me this hard for you? Then again, that man's pheromones have always been a war zone…"
Now Sirius was the one growling as he flipped their position, pinning Remus to the floor and inflicting the same sensual torture on him. What was he thinking, sniffing Snape?! That would never do and he was going to drive the thought right out of Moony's head! Sirius set to with a will and soon Remus was gasping for air, muscles thrumming and back arched off the floor. Moans, disconnected words, growls and soft wolfish whines washed into Sirus' ears, bathing him in heat. With his fingers and tongue, Sirius applied a very specific torture to a very sensitive part of Remus and was rewarded with a low wail of, "now, oh lord now please now dammit!"
Looking up the flat plain of Remus' belly and chest, Sirius grinned. That would teach him! And Sirius would teach him as often as necessary if it was going to be this much fun!
"Entruphemagos," Sirius whispered, nestling himself against what Remus was so enthusiastically offering, and then, "Moony… oh… yesssssss…!"
There was only moonlight to witness the intimacy of entwined bodies, only the stones heard the ragged breaths and stifled exclamations of passion. Lost in ardor, the two men fit their bodies together over and over again, each begging the other for more and that and there and now! Pleasure hung like the top of some magnificent wave, suspending both men in glassy green ecstasy before then cresting and crashing over and through them.
It was some time before either man could move, much less string syllables - so instead they sprawled together, bodies humming with the aftermath of orgasm.
"Sirius?"
"Hmm, Moony?"
"Why have we never done this in a bed?"
~
The hour was late. Indeed, it was nearly two in the morning when Severus looked up from his current project and realized that he was very hungry. The Animagum Irretitus was a transdisciplinary work, involving potions, alchemy, transfiguration, and charms. In his desire to have uninterrupted work time, he had delivered Lupin's Wolfsbane to that man's rooms, cauldron and all, along with a month's worth of headache powder – living with Sirius Black had to be good for at least one a day.
He considered a quick trip by the school Floo network to the kitchens, but that might be hazardous. Severus wasn't sure what fireplaces were in use and which had been disconnected for the summer and if they were going to remain disconnected until the first day of the new school year.
He'd have to actually go out. Blast.
It was unlikely that he'd meet anyone at this hour of the morning, and that alone was enough to get him out the door. However, his persona did not permit his being seen in an old Slytherin green cotton sweater and worn trousers – so just to be sure that he remained unseen, he slipped from shadow to shadow like a cat until he could tickle the pear.
The house elves were typically eager to shove all sorts of delicacies at him. Severus wound up making his return trip with a sack of the house elves' best efforts over one shoulder while munching contentedly on a pasty.
Lucius always claimed that Severus was oblivious to the world when engaged in reading, eating or sex - thus Severus did not notice the grey tabby tailing him from the moment he left the kitchens. Darting around him, she took a stance at the top of the stairway to the dungeons and stared up at him with a faintly accusatory expression.
"Yes, Minerva?" He was proud of the vaguely bored note in the question. It just wouldn't do for her to think that she had managed to surprise him. "In need of a sleeping draught?"
The transformation was too quick for the eye to follow, but in the space of breaths Minerva McGonagall was pinning him to the spot with her peridot-green stare. "Good evening – or rather – good morning, Severus. Working late?"
Severus often wondered what Minerva had been like in her younger years. If age had mellowed her, as Albus often alluded it had, she must have been a hellion! As it was, she had the gift of being able to completely cow most of her former pupils – even Lucius was leery of the bun-headed witch.
"I'm just pursuing a bit of… research before the term begins." Technically, that was the truth. Until he actually cast the Animagum Irretitus, it was all theory. Just because it should work didn't mean it would.
"I see." Those two words brought a cold sweat to the back of Severus' neck.
Spy, yes. Dark wizard talents, yes. Master of his chosen field, yes. Former Death Eater, yes. Scared of a little Scottish schoolteacher?
Fuck yes.
"May I assume, Severus, that whatever research you are so earnestly pursuing, that it does not involve the painful and untimely demise of Sirius Black?"
"It won't be painf - it has nothing to do with Black." Damn. Damn. Damn. It was just unfair that almost all of his colleagues had at one point been his teachers. Maybe he ought to take that offer from Gadget, Widget and MacGuffin – at least nobody there had ever switched him and taken away his lock picks!
"Severus Nicander Snape, look at me and stop muttering at your shoes!" Head-of-House voice was not to be disobeyed and Severus resentfully raised his eyes to meet hers. "I want your word, your sworn word, that whatever it is that you are stirring up down there will not result in the death – painful or otherwise – of Sirius Black." Not only did she use his full name, but also she spoke in those steely ringing tones that caused even Albus to regard her with caution. "Your word, Severus, or we can go right this minute and discuss it with Professor Dumbledore."
What was to be done? "Oh, very well! I give my sworn word that I will not kill Sirius Black."
"Or maim."
Severus opened his mouth to protest and Minerva raised The Finger.
"Or maim," he agreed with a resentful mutter.
"Or disfigure, or otherwise harm…"
"Or disfigure, or otherwise harm…" Severus swallowed the whine that wanted to edge his words, he'd be damned if he'd fuss and scuff his feet like a second-year!
"Or engage in any behavior or course of action designed to cause injury."
Reining in a pronounced urge to pout – which he had not done even when he was a child – Severus spoke through a jaw so tight that it nearly cramped his face. "Or engage in any behavior or course of action designed to cause injury."
Minerva nodded with satisfaction, "I'll bid you good night, then, Severus. I hope that your research will be fruitful." She stood aside and he swept down the stairs with a scarcely polite nod.
Severus told himself that changing Black into Animagus form and locking him there for a while would not harm, injure, maim or disfigure him, therefore Severus could proceed - if not with a clear conscience - at least a transparent one.
~
TBC
