My sincere apologies for the late update, but seeing as I spilt an entire mug of tea over my keyboard, and then frantically stuck it under the tap to get the tea out from between the keys, I've had to wait a while to be trusted with a new one. It's the kind with the Internet buttons along the top of it. It's quite nice. For a keyboard, you know.
"I believe in a thing called Love.
Just listen to the rhythm of my heart.
There's a chance we could make it now.
We'll be rocking 'til the sun goes down."
"I Believe in a Thing Called Love" The Darkness
Potions class after that were a very tense affair. Snape and Harry avoided all eye contact, and when the class was making a potion that greatly resembled olive oil, Snape announced that one of its many properties was lubrication. Harry nearly had a heart attack and Snape shouted needlessly, "In machines!"
Walking distractedly towards Snape's office early the next day, Daniel thought she smelled something familiar. Dismissing it, she swung open the door and was greeted by a large, hairy black dog. She recognized it immediately as Sirius.
"Hello doggy." She said softly, scratching his ears.
"He's great isn't he?" said Severus, standing in the doorway, looking very much at ease with nothing but a (thankfully) knee-length shirt thing and socks on. Patting the dog on the head, he handed Daniel a small book.
"The Tiny Book of Curses." Was written on the front cover. "For the third task." He said, with an anxious look on his face.
"Thanks." She replied, flicking through the delicate pages.
"Look! Here's one that castrates people!" she announced excitedly, ignoring the sudden look of apprehension on Snape's face.
Halting suddenly, she looked at the dog more closely. He was lying at Severus' feet, and was looking delighted at the fact that his belly was being scratched. "Where did you get that dog?" she asked, as Alexander wandered amiably out of the bedroom with a pair of too-small lurid yellow boxer shorts on.
"I was out walking in the grounds and I found him." answered Severus, now kneeling on the ground beside Sirius and blowing in his face, making the dog snort and growl. "He looked hungry, so I brought him back here and sneaked some food out from breakfast."
Alexander and Daniel made eye contact, and both of them grinned. Alexander took a Kit Kat out of a biscuit tin, and the crackling of the foil alerted the dog, who leapt up and started begging for food. Stuffing the whole bar into his mouth, Alexander taunted the dog, who was looking malicious. Swallowing contentedly, he turned to go back into the bedroom, and Sirius grabbed the elastic bit of his boxers, and ripped the skimpy undergarments off completely. Shredding the material with very sharp teeth, Sirius looked benignly up at Snape, who quickly got him a biscuit. Munching on a Penguin, the dog looked strangely amused.
"You nervous?" asked Snape, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair.
"Not really." Daniel answered, listening to Alexander try to find another pair of underwear, something that seemingly involved singing 'Baby Got Back' in a soprano voice. "That book'll help, though. Where'd you get it?"
"I've had it for ages. I have another copy, so you can keep it, but I thought it could come in useful."
"I want to castrate someone." She said to no one in particular. "What do you think will happen if I try it on someone?"
"Their balls'll fall off." Said Alexander, entering the room wearing a hideous pair of y-fronts. "In a big mess, and they'll probably die from blood loss."
"Can you please put on some clothes?" Daniel pleaded, as the y-fronts were, again, far too small and certain extremities were in danger of falling out.
"Why? I would walk around naked, but there's a lady in the room." He answered, with a grin and a gesture towards Snape.
"Bugger off." He snapped, and pointed his wand at the offending fabric (or perhaps lack thereof), and the underwear grew until it fitted decently. "Nothing I haven't seen before." He added, with a wicked smile.
"I better get going. Try out a few more curses for the third task." Daniel said, holding up the book.
"Alright then," Snape said, standing up, "see you later."
Wandering aimlessly through the corridors of Hogwarts, Daniel perused the small book, stopping only when she heard a muffled shout of, 'Stupefy!' from an empty classroom drew her attention from a page entitled, 'Evisceration: A Beginner's Guide'. Not that she needed any tips, of course.
Opening the door slowly, she was greeted with a shocked looking Harry and Hermione. Ron was there also, but he was incapacitated on the floor.
"We weren't doing nothing!" shouted Harry stupidly.
"Which means you must have been doing something." She answered smartly, closing the door behind her. Conjuring Ron back to consciousness, she stared at their expressions carefully. Shocked, yes, but there was something else.
"Preparing for the third task?" she queried, flicking her wand and making four chairs appear out of nowhere.
"Yeah. Just some basic hexes and defensive spells." Replied Hermione, fixing the cushions on the floor.
"Defensive spells?" Daniel snarked, "why not offensive?"
"We don't really know any." Said Ron sheepishly, lounging back in his chair. "And even if we did know some, we have no-one who's stupid enough to practice on."
Considering this for a moment, Daniel stood up.
"Well," she said slowly, holding the book Snape had given her. "If you want to, you can practice on me." Handing Hermione the book, she stood in the middle of the floor, while Harry stood opposite her.
"Are you sure I won't hurt you?" Harry asked anxiously, while Ron looked pleased to be spectating.
"She's a vampire, Harry. I doubt if you'll make much of an impact." Said Hermione, smiling at Daniel. Daniel smiled back, and waited for Harry to find a suitable spell.
"Here's one. It stops something attacking you by shooting a lightning bolt at them." Harry handed Ron the book. "Sounds good."
Readying herself, Daniel remembered when a vampire hunter from Brussels had used this same spell on her before. Nothing much to a vampire, but on humans, most people end up crispy.
"Blizten!" Harry roared, and a huge crackle sounded through the room, shaking the floor, the end of Harry's wand glowed white, and then a lightning bolt as thick as a person erupted out of it, hitting Daniel in the chest. There was a cry of surprise, and the force of the bolt caused her to fly backwards into a wall. Sitting up dazedly, she was tempted to laugh at the way the electricity had caused everyone's hair to stand on end, making Hermione look like a psychotic lion.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked, his face very white.
"Yeah I'm fine." She answered, standing up, and feeling her eyebrows, which were sticking out perpendicular to her head. "What's next?"
After a few hours of rather inventive spells, including one that turned hair into live snakes, which they didn't try for obvious reasons, Daniel staggered into Severus' office, fell face first into the cushions on the sofa she slept on, and fell asleep almost immediately.
Breakfast. Breakfast? The most important meal of the day. Everyone knows that. It's a pity, then, when your breakfast consists of day-old blood and a croissant. Hidden behind a newspaper, Daniel couldn't see sixteen-year-old Severus and Alexander try to flirt with each other while not making contact. It was hard to think that she'd forget nearly everything about the boy after incarceration. Dressed in mis-matched pajamas, the two boys were glancing nervously at Daniel, and then Alexander whispered something at Severus, who steeled himself and asked,
"Daniel?" Putting the newspaper down, she raised her eyebrows in response. The kitchen they were sitting in was large enough for a family of 15, but still homely enough for two or three people. It was Daniel's favourite part of her home. "I need to tell you something."
He looked terrified. Daniel couldn't see it, but Alexander was holding his hand under the table. Seeing his discomfort, Daniel sat up straighter. Alexander looked nervous also; he was a guest in their home, staying for a few weeks during the summer holidays.
"It's about, me, and," he coughed "and Alexander."
"Oh. Are you going somewhere today?" she asked, ripping her croissant into bite-size pieces.
"Eh, no. But it's been, there for a while, and I really want to tell you." He squeaked, fishing for the right words, and glancing at Alexander, who looked as though he'd love to drown himself in his cereal bowl.
Looking at the two of them, Daniel waited for him to continue.
"You see, for about a year now, Alexander and me," he looked at Alexander, and exhaled heavily, "I'm," he coughed again, "I just wanted you to know that," he looked at Daniel carefully, trying to anticipate her response, "for a year and a half, I've been, I'm gay." He finished finally, and Alexander lifted his gaze off his soggy cornflakes and fixed them on Daniel. The corners of her mouth and her eyebrows lifted in unison.
"Well." She said softly. "I'm, not exactly surprised." Severus and Alexander shot each other a very worried look.
"Why's that?" asked Alexander suddenly, running a hand through his shoulder length hair.
"I'm not sure." She said thoughtfully. "But I suppose the way he talked endlessly about how amazingly nice you are sort of put me onto it." Alexander blushed a wonderful shade of scarlet.
"You don't mind then?" asked Snape, flinching unnecessarily.
"Why would I mind?" she replied incredulously, eating bits of her croissant.
"I don't know." He muttered, shrugging. "I just assumed you'd want to see me end up happily married with a houseful of children."
Smiling broadly, she shook her head absently and took a piece of toast from the small mountain of it in the middle of the polished mahogany table.
"As long as you're happy, I'll be happy." She answered, staring at them, reveling in their happiness and relief.
"I'm going to get dressed." Severus announced, a huge grin on his face. Alexander watched as he walked out of the room. It was obvious he wanted to go also. He glanced at Daniel.
"Do your parents know about this?" she asked, mildly interested.
"That's why I'm here." He answered, gesturing around him. "They wouldn't let me back home." Frowning commiseratingly, she picked up her paper again.
"You can go after him if you want." She said smiling, nodding towards the door. He leapt up out of his chair, and ran off up the stairs. She could hear muffled sounds of relief and celebration from the room above her. It was good seeing Severus so happy. Last summer, he had returned thoroughly miserable, muttering something to do with Sirius Black and public humiliation and never wanting to go back to Hogwarts again. She had suggested something to cheer him up, meeting with some friends or going off on a holiday. He chose the latter, and they arrived in Italy the next day.
Staying in a Muggle hotel was a unique experience, as was having a cockroach wake you up in the morning by trying to crawl down your throat. Luckily for Severus, a boy from his year was there. Alexander Dylan, apparently. Daniel having met his parents before, the five of them had dinner in a restaurant the next night. Daniel briefly wondered why one of Severus' hands never came into contact with anything under than what was under the table. Afterwards, Daniel and Mr. and Mrs. Dylan went out to an all night bar, leaving Severus and Alexander to their own devices in Severus' hotel room.
Something woke her up. Prising her face from the pillow, Daniel wondered briefly what it was that had awoken her. She couldn't hear anything untoward. Maybe it was something from the bedroom. Cautiously wandering over to the door, she pressed her ear against it, and failed to pick up any noise at all. Opening the door quickly, not allowing it a chance to squeak, she stepped inside. Nothing very out of the ordinary, except for a pair of lurid yellow boxer shorts hanging from the light fixture on the ceiling. Walking around the edge of the bed, she looked around for anything that would make enough noise to waken someone who wasn't exhausted from a night of passion. She saw it lying broken on the floor. An alarm clock and a glass had been knocked off the bedside table, and the hands on the clock face told her it had just went off. Switching it off so it wouldn't ring in the morning, she righted the table and set it back on.
A muffled grunt sounded from behind her.
Severus was lying with his head tucked underneath Alexander's chin, an arm around his chest. His left arm. A blackish smudge that looked like a bruise smeared the inside of his elbow. Alexander's right arm was hanging loosely around his back, hand resting just above his hip. Groaning, Alexander shifted in his sleep. Severus made a noise of protest and wrapped both arms tightly around him. Muttering, Alexander's eyes opened a fraction, smiled faintly, and turned back towards Snape, promptly embracing him also. Smiling in his half-sleep, Alexander kissed him on the forehead, and snuggled closer.
Awwww. I'm counting down the days until I see Alan Rickman in a dress. He's so refined. It'll be hilarious.
I would also like to dedicate this chapter to a friend of mine, my inspiration for Alexander Dylan, and the only gay Goth I've had the pleasure to meet, who finally plucked up the courage to tell his parents he is gay. If you're reading this, Steven Dylan, congratulations. I told you it would be alright.
Xanadan