Lorelei no longer needed a Warming Charm after watching Severus undress and then glide through the water. Her body was burning. Every nerve was acutely aware of the body drawing closer to hers, and the butterflies that had previously fluttered in her middle now whirled madly. She glanced up at the stars twinkling in the night sky and shining upon the lake and laughed.
"What's so amusing?"
Severus treaded water a short distance away. Lorelei swam toward him. "The stars...they really are like diamonds in the sky."
Severus' look of amusement ended the moment she moulded her body to his, curving her arms to embrace his lean frame. His hands slid tentatively around her back, his eyes constantly evaluating her response. Lorelei persuaded him with her smile that this was where she most wanted to be, in his arms. Severus could have walked away from the lake, away from intimacy, but instead he had chosen to come to her. Lorelei let her hands drift over the definition in his back. Smooth skin over hard muscle...yummy. She resisted the urge to twine her legs in his. He wasn't ready for that quite yet. Perhaps it was time to share her little secret. She knew he'd like it. He was watching her with wary intensity. Was she smiling wickedly? She said, "Trust me. Stop treading—you won't sink."
Lorelei realized that she was really pleading for him to trust her emotionally as well as physically. Keeping his gaze steady, Severus stilled all movement. He remained effortlessly buoyant in her embrace. She said, "Sirens don't drowntheir lovers- whatever that arse Yeats wrote."
Severus said, "A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body, laughed; and plunging down, forgot in cruel happiness that even lovers drown."
"You know a lot of poems about sirens," Lorelei said. "Do I detect an interest?"
"Recently developed." Masculine hands tracing the curve of her back.
Lorelei twined her legs around his and slid her fingers through his hair. She gawked in amazement - his hair was dry!
"Water Repelling Charm," Severus said. "I prefer not getting wet."
"That's the best part!" Lorelei said. "Break the charm for me?"
Immediately, his wet skin clung to hers and his hair slid like damp silk through her fingers. She shuddered at how good his slick muscular body felt rubbing against her own. She watched the pulse beat rapidly at the base of his throat, and wondered if he knew how her heart pounded, felt how she trembled. Their gazes locked. He knew. His face was no longer unreadable. His eyes openly devoured her, flaring in desire. Her insides melted. The world outside the circle of Severus' arms ceased to exist. Time slowed as he settled his mouth on hers. Time stopped.
Lorelei marvelled at the bursts of colour sparking against her closed lids. It really was possible to see fireworks. Severus' clever lips lingered over hers. He took away her breath and gave it back in a heated slide of bodies and tongues. The butterflies were now performing a water ballet in her liquid insides. Her body moved urgently, pushing closer to his. The kiss deepened. Her moan echoed across the dark water.
"Lorelei?"
Someplace that seemed far, far away, Tonks called her name. Severus lifted his mouth to trail soft kisses along Lorelei's jaw.
He whispered, "Does the Obfuscation Charm work in water?"
"No, it doesn't. If we ignore her, do you think she'll go away?"
Before the silently laughing man could reply, Tonks unwittingly answered the question. "Lorelei! I know you're out there. I'm standing by these clothes, and Remus has eyes like a wolf. He can see you bobbing around so come out before I'm forced to go get Dumbledore!"
"Give us a moment!" Lorelei called. She kissed Severus one last time.
.
Tonks paced impatiently as she waited for her friend and—Oh Merlin, don't think about it—swim to shore. Remus watched her actions and the couple moving closer with equal amusement. Yeah, sure, he could laugh. He wasn't the one feeling guilty over slipping a friend alcohol she couldn't handle and allowing that friend to swan off with the biggest prat in Britain. Tonks had laughed when Lorelei's Obfuscation Charm prevented them from seeing what was going on earlier in the Three Broomsticks. She stopped smiling when she realized they were gone.
Rosmerta informing her that the pair had left arm in arm ages ago hadn't helped her temper either. Remus had protested that they were consenting adults, however badLorelei's taste in men. Tonks had yanked him out of the warm pub and into the cold night anyway. Remus possessed the animal-like abilities to track her friend, and he reluctantly employed them to lead her here.
"Do you think he forced her, put a spell on her," Tonks asked.
Remus said, "Look at these clothes. It's obvious that Lorelei jumped in first and Severus followed after tidily folding his things." Remus snickered. "I told you I could see them out there."
"What did you see?" Her stomach wasn't as queasy anymore. She could hear the answer.
"It was very...enlightening. Apparently, sirens and their partners remain buoyant even during amorous activity."
"Amorous! Oh gods that's horrible...I won't...how amorous?"
"As a gentleman, I can only say...an ecstatic moan is worth a thousand words." Remus agilely ducked the punch his sweetheart attempted to deliver. He looked at the lake and said, "Here they are now, love, wait just a moment and you can ask Lorelei all the invasive questions you desire...Ow! " The jab to his arm was right on target.
"Turn your backs!" Tonks was startled to hear Severus's command.
"Wouldn't dream of doing anything else." Remus replied, facing away as directed.
Tonks heard Severus perform a drying spell and listened to the rustling sounds made by the couple quietly putting their clothing back on. Unable to stand the silence, she asked, "Erm...you all dressed, Lorelei?" Hearing the affirmative answer, she turned. It was tempting to say nothing; pretend she had never seen the clothing on the shore and leave without a word. She could do that, right after she started wearing sensible shoes and gave up changing her hair colour.
"I was worried when you went copping off with Severus," Tonks said. "You'd been drinking, and it would've been my fault if, uh, anything happened."
"I wasn't acting under the influence," Lorelei said. "I can count backward from a hundred if you'd like some proof."
"How does that prove anything?"
"I have noidea. It's something Muggles do."
Tonks' dad had never mentioned it, so she had nothing to say and found standing around in awkward silence was every bit as uncomfortable as it looked when she saw other people doing it. Fancy that. Remus gave her a want me to help you out of this mess look and she nodded slightly. Yes, please.
Remus said, "Sorry about the misunderstanding. Again, it was a pleasure to meet you, Lorelei." He put his arm around Tonks. "We'd best be going, dear heart." He told the other couple, "We're spending the weekend in London. Let's get together sometime. Goodnight."
Tonks waved farewell and walked in silence until she was able to shake off the weird sense of unreality that had gripped her by the lake. She told Remus, "I think I'm going to have nightmares about Snape and Lorelei."
"We'll have to find some way to give you a dreamless sleep," he replied wolfishly.
.
Severus escorted Lorelei back to the castle. He halted outside his quarters and decided to share something that he had never shared with another woman.
"Siren."
The look of pleasure on Lorelei's face as she heard the password to his quarters was all the reward that Severus required. The painted knight and maiden woke from their slumber to reveal the entrance.
"Wait," Lorelei rushed to the entrance of her own quarters and said, "Gothic god."
They stood a moment more before the entrances of their separate quarters. After a smile of farewell, Severus turned to enter his rooms. He was halted by pensive words.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow."
Muggle Studies ensured every Hogwarts student had knowledge of Shakespeare. It didn't take a great feat of memory for Severus to reply, "That I shall say Good Night 'till it be morrow."
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A/N: Yeats and Shakespeare in one chapter! Thanks to my beta who suggested 'Gothic god' for Lorelei's password. Thanks to my Reviewers, too! Bending the Bard a bit—never did like negative ninny Othello—Speak to me as to thy thinkings, As thou dost ruminate, and give thy (best) of thoughts, The (best) of words. (Yes, in this case, it means Review, will ya?)
