Headquarters had been quite full as of late, each of the eight bedrooms were charged with at least two beds, if not more. Being the summer holiday, the children were all kept in one room, the beds so many as to not leave but a few feet between them. Not even the married couples were permitted an ounce of privacy. Not now. Not when war was so heavily opened upon them.
That was how Severus and Lilianna found themselves sharing a room. They were of the lucky, however. The room was small, barely accommodating their two small beds. No one else would have been able to fit.
They kept an illusion holding strong during the night to at least allot them a bit of privacy. It was a ghost of a wall. You could step through it even if you could not see through it. But it gave them room to undress for bed and kept the light from filtering through to the other side if one of the inhabitants chose to settle with a book in bed.
The glamour was not so thick as to penetrate sound.
Lilianna and Severus were both practiced Legilimens. They had been forced by circumstance to learn the intricate art that was occlumency. It was of the paramount, you understand, when you build for yourself a life that centers around deceit and danger.
The practice, that they had both long since discovered, kept horrors from the past from dropping a visit.
But sometimes, the emotions were too strung, the memories too strong, the panic too strident to deny. Sometimes, those marring images were too persistent to be denied entrance.
That was when the nightmares would start. Though it happened seldom, there were nights still that they would toss and turn, reliving pain, reliving fear.
This was just such a night. Lilianna had only just set her novel down preparing to extinguish the candle that floated beside her when she heard the unmistakable sound of a body thrashing in their sheets. Glancing sideways at the ever ticking clock, she noted the time: three O' clock.
He could not have been asleep more than an hour or two.
Sighing, she unwrapped the covers from her body and started the short walk to the other side of the room. Best that he awake now before the visions became even more oppressive.
Coming to the enchanted divider, she stretched a hand out to wisp through the slithering obstruction. Immediately it fell away. She came upon his distressed form and simply watched the agony displayed openly in his expressions. So different from the cool mask of indifference he wore during the day. Now his entire body was reacting to the violence impending itself behind his fluttering eyelids. His head was thrashing about on his pillow, his arms flexing as though to dispel some unknown threat.
Carefully, she reached an arm out to touch him. Soothing the wet strands of hair back from his sweat-filmed forehead. Tenderly, she whispered his name. "Severus."
It took her quite a while to wake him, her voice having to reach so far beyond distance to resound in his ear. "Severus."
Then suddenly, he was awake, alert.
Fearing Lilianna's unanticipated form was the threat from his dreams, he reached out two hands and grasped her wrists in a painful hold. In one swift show of strength and grace, he pulled Lilianna unto the bed, pinning her on her back beneath him.
His hands held her wrists above her head, his left knee coming to rest in between her legs. His chest was heaving, along with hers, and the muscles in his abdomen and arms rippling with the remnants of adrenaline.
Slowly, Lilianna watched as his eyes lost their delirium. She noticed when his grip faltered, relaxing his hold on her wrists and coming, instead, to entwine his fingers in her own.
For a moment, they were still but for their still heaving chests. Their eyes were locked together in the dim light of Lilianna's reading candle. A moment passed. A significant moment filled with awareness.
Lilianna became aware of Severus' naked body pressed against her own. She became aware of the knee pressing ever so tightly against the apex between her thighs. She felt the soft, feather-light strokes of his thumb against her wrist.
And in turn, Severus grew aware of the provocative lingerie that wrapped Lilianna's body in silk. He felt the warmth of her womanhood seep through her panties to cool against his knee. He watched her nipples harden under his intense gaze and her pupils dilate with sudden desire.
He needed her, wanted her. In that moment, they both understood it. He would have her, if just for tonight. He would take her and feel himself sheathed in her tight center, if just for tonight.
Slowly, with deliberate cautiousness, Severus lowered his mouth to her. Brushing his lips against hers, teasing, playing, until they parted in want. Then he sealed himself to her, taking her breath away in a demanding kiss that left none of his intentions hidden.
He released her right wrist, trailing his hand down the inside of her arm, her chest, until it came to possessively cover her breast. He kneaded her soft flesh, flicking his thumb against the hardened peak of her nipple until she moaned with pleasure.
The arm that had been freed came to wrap itself around Severus' shoulder, her fingers stroking the hairs at his neck. He closed his eyes, savoring the sensation. When next his lips met hers, his tongue was quick to seek entrance, darting in and out in a dance mimicking the greater one to come.
Releasing her other wrist, now, he brought his hand behind her neck, supporting her as the hand that had been teasing her breast slid down her body. He hooked his finger into the side of her wet panties, taking them down her body in one quick movement and throwing them aside.
Lilianna gasped in surprise as she felt the cool night air flow against her extraordinarily hot flesh for just a moment, before Severus' hand came to shield her. Her hips arched to greet him, as he slid a dexterous finger into her moist entrance while another slowly teased the sensitive nub that had swollen in all her ecstasy. She moaned.
Both of her arms came around him then, her hands searching the bunched plains of his back, then his chest. She relished in the way her light caresses could make this strong man falter, his muscles rippling where she touched.
Severus closed his eyes tightly for an instant, wondering at how quickly this woman lying beneath him could arouse him to the point of needing release. When next he opened his eyes, his gaze was transfixed into her own. With one hand, he urged her legs further apart, then positioned himself at her entrance. Finding the ardent longing in her own eyes, he moved his arms beneath shoulders, supporting her back as he plunged himself into her wet cave in one, long thrust.
Her gasp of pain startled him. Oh, fuck. His eyes clamped shut once more, only this time in regret. Upon opening them, he leaned his mouth into her ear. "Why did you not tell me?"
Opening her own eyes, having clenched them at the onslaught of pain, Lilianna brought a hand up to trace the sharp line of his jaw. "I had assumed you knew." Replacing her arms around his shoulders and holding him in much the same way as he was holding her, she wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him to continue.
Knowing she would find no release this first time without additional aid, Severus retreated one arm from behind her back, seeking her swollen nub once more with his hand. When he found it, he began teasing it with the same rhythm he had started as he slowly began to move inside of her.
Thrusting ever faster as the arousal surmounted within them both, he watched the pleasure dance across Lilianna's heated face. Her nails were biting into the flesh covering his shoulder blades and he could tell by the movement of her own hips that she was as near to the edge as he was.
Keeping a steady pace inside of her, his fingers increased their movement over her tiny nub. Within moments she was moaning her release. He quickly joined her.
Using the last of his strength to roll them both on their sides so as not to crush her with his weight, he kept the connection strong between them, holding her against his calming chest.
As their breathing evened, and their bodies cooled in the aftermath, Lilianna wondered at the new sensations she had just been introduced to. Wrapping her arms tightly around Severus, she settled her head into the crook of his shoulder, and fell fast asleep with a last sigh of contentment.