Author's Note: This chapter contains mature content, per the rating. If that's not your cup of tea please skip over that part once you get to it.
"The difference between sex and love is that sex relieves tension and love causes it."
~ Woody Allen
Chapter 46 ~ In an Instant
ECOTS
"I'm telling you, Kal, I'm an absolute wizard at transfiguration."
Standing in the middle of the otherwise empty girl's dorm, Kalliandra was left shooting Dean a positively annoyed look. "Okay, transfigure that then." Yanking the bed sheets off an unoccupied bed she tossed them to the ground at Thomas' feat, inclining a skeptical eyebrow. "Really Dean, with all the boasting about how good you are between the sheets that ought to be no problem."
"How good I will be," he corrected, shooting her a smug look. "Really Kal, wouldn't want to piss Ginny's brothers off by implying I've gotten some quite yet." He paused, waggling his eyebrows, "Unless of course you're bored of Potter and volunteeri-"
Kally made a threatening sound that Dean and his overly lewd comments were obviously impervious to. "Geeze, touchy. Didn't mean to bring up a sorry subject. Really Kal you could have just said Harry was impotent and I'd have been glad to give the bloke some point-"
A book went flying at Dean's head, the wizard dodging. Barely.
Hogwarts a History smashed against Lavender Brown's bed frame with a cacophonous crash. Dean just slowly raised up from where he'd ducked, keeping his gaze locked onto her as if she were someone's pet viper that had gotten loose after a prolonged starvation period. "Nice throw Kally-kins. Been working out?"
"Thomas…"
"Fine, fine," Dean relented, his wand flashing in a swift spiral. "Caidt ut funem!"
The red Gryffindor bed sheets suddenly levitated, rolling up, coiling as if invisible giants on both ends were twisting them with the intention of bitch slapping someone leaving a locker room on the ass. With a pop the fabric straightened out into a flat, sturdy-looking material, it lengthening with frightening speed, falling into a pile on the floor.
The end of the webbing, a flat type of climbing rope, flopped to the dormitory floor with a resounding thwack, Dean shooting her a smug look. "Like I said," he boasted, "absolute wizard. I'm like the son McGonagall never knew she didn't want."
"Uh huh," Kally said skeptically, snagging it up and feeling it, giving a tug between her hands to make sure it didn't tear. "You sure you know how to actually use this?"
The faltering of Dean's smug look had her seriously rethinking their back up plan, but he quickly shrugged. "Eh, can't be that hard. Make some knots for hand holds, tie it off on something, then tug the sorry sod drowning back in or climb up it, yeah?"
The frightening part was that Dean seriously seemed to be asking her. Kally balked. "I have no idea how to use this."
"No time like the present."
She made an angered sound, drug her hand through her hair, and dropped down onto the floor. "Fine," she said, mainly to comfort herself. "In case we have to use it for climbing, let's make the knots now. Better to have them already in place than to be scrambling to make them in an emergency." That at least sounded like good, simple logic to her.
Dean shrugged and sank to the ground besides her, each taking an end and making knots staring on their side.
Naturally Dean was incapable of doing anything in silence when in a decent mood, but since she wasn't talking the wizard improvised.
Dean actually whistled.
Kally's hands went motionless on the webbing, her eyes sliding sideways to where he sat immediately next to her, eyeing him as if deeply considering the merits of strangulation. They'd been at this for the better part of four hours, prepping. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't turn her in if she strangled him just a little?
As if sensing the impending crime scene the dorm was about to be turned into, the door creaked. Kally looked up, but Dean continued whistling, merely lifting a hand and giving Hermione a jovial wave in greeting.
Hermione just flat out frowned, three empty-looking backpacks hanging from her left hand. "How is it that he's always up here?"
Kally shrugged carelessly. "He's like a cockroach. Can't kill him and hard to evict."
Dean did look up at that. "You know," he drawled, "if I didn't know better I'd think you were both impervious to my charming presence." He paused, adding, "That and are totally ignorant when it comes to flying on brooms indoors. Really, I'm a modern day Romeo flying up sliding stairs to woe the witches."
Both girls fixed him with identical looks of incredulity.
"Eh, your loss. Maybe I'll try my luck with Crookshanks. That cat at least has taste."
Kally shot him an aghast look, but Hermione just turned to her, eyebrow raised questioningly. "Did he just threaten to ask out my cat?"
Sighing, Kally closed her eyes and nodded.
"Was he hexed?"
"Default state," she responded dryly. "When he gets tired there's no filter."
Hermione made a concerned sound, inching to the far side of the room. Dean's exhausted state could be attributed to Professor Snape. The Potion's Master had been sleep depriving Dean on purpose, claiming it was one of the Dark Lord's interrogation techniques, and forcing him to practice occlumency at all hours of the day and night.
Ever since Dean had gotten a little loopy. Kally hoped it was just the sleep deprivation and not irreversible brain damage brought on by Snape interloping in Dean's mind.
Him referencing asking out a cat was a new and frightening development though. Kally just tilted her head and sent Dean a wry look. "So…we're on bestiality references now?"
The friend in question looked up from the webbing that he'd just tied a 30th knot in, and grimaced. "I am beyond bored, and getting reactions out of you, and well, now her," gesturing at Hermione, "is my only current form of entertainment."
"I am seriously concerned for your mental health," she stated, quite honestly. "You'd tell me if Snape had hexed you right?"
Dean scoffed, ignoring her question. "My mental health? You're the one who actually enjoys spending time with the man."
Kally glared. "Well who else am I supposed to learn potion's from?"
"Any textbook in the library with words?"
"Unbelievable."
Dean held up the rope. "You want help with this or not?"
Kally sputtered, "This was your idea!"
"Actually," Hermione pointed out diplomatically, "it was technically mine." With that the witch sat down across from them, catching sight of the large tome turned projectile laying on the floor. She blinked. "Is that my book?" Hogwarts a History now lay half under Lavender's bed.
"He was being," Kalliandra stated as if it totally justified the literary abuse inflicted, "annoying."
Hermione heaved a weary sigh, summoning it and looking it over as if it were a pet that had run between her feet looking for saving. After flipping through a few pages and deeming it 'mostly' alright, she set it down.
Then she eyed both of them warily as she tossed two of the backpacks onto the ground. "They're modified to hold everything you need. It should be an undetectable extension charm, but I don't know what kind of magic's actually guarding the island and preventing magic from working just outside of it so…"
Dean had already snagged up his and flipped it upside down, shaking it as if expecting something interesting to come tumbling out.
Kally gnawed on the inside of her lip, thinking it over. "So what happens if the island…" fumbling for a descriptor she settled on, "senses that the bags are magicked?"
Hermione shook her head. "Honestly? I haven't the faintest idea. Bill mentioned it sounded like goblin magic, so I researched everything I could on that, but I haven't found much. Right now let's just assume that it could suddenly get very heavy and drown you if it's on your actual back, or suddenly explode with whatever you've stuffed inside of it and sink. Or-"
"Don't worry, we're just going to tie these to the rope and haul them in after we're safely on shore," Dean interjected, sounding less overly tired and giddy, and more reasonable and sane again. "Not worth the risk of nearly drowning given we may need what's inside them."
Hermione was already nodding and reaching into another bag that she'd brought. "I also grabbed some first aid supplies and potions. I stopped by to see Madame Pomfrey so she gave me a nice stock-"
Spotting her and Dean's looks her brown eyes darted between the two of them. "Look, if I can't go at the very least I'm making sure someone is well equipped, and Ron and Harry are too wrapped up in trying to hex one another senseless to even bother preparing in areas beyond machoism."
Kally winced. "Still at it then I take it?"
Hermione nodded, looking slightly miserable.
Kally sighed, acutely understanding Hermione's upset. It was Friday. They'd be leaving for the island tomorrow, and she'd barely seen Harry since that night on the Black Lake's shoreline. He'd drug her inside with him after that, forcibly drug her up to his dorm to sleep with her in his bed, the way she'd felt tightly against him maddening, but when she'd woken up…
Harry was already gone, a note stating he was training in the Room of Requirement with Weasley. He and Ron had been practicing dueling ever since, and that was almost four days running.
It'd left her with a lot to think about, given her and Potter's unsteady truce.
Hermione had started shoving things into one of the backpacks, packing it, her entire arm magically disappearing inside the too-small space. "I've honestly never seen either of them this motivated," she said frankly. "They're both good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, but when it comes to other magic they usually just wait for me to give them a spell." The witch looked somewhat put out. "Maybe I should have made them do something on their own years ago. It'd certainly have improved their OWLs."
Kalliandra frowned. "I didn't know Ron had a bird." She'd seen Harry's occasionally, but she had never seen Ron's.
The brown-haired prefect actually smiled, looking amused. "OWLs, Kally. Ordinary Wizarding Levels. They're tests we take at the end of fifth year to prove our proficiency for NEWT level coursework-"
Alongside them Dean started miming hanging himself.
Tomorrow, early tomorrow, they'd be setting off. It'd be her, Harry, Dean, Ron, Tonks, Luna, Dumbledore, Diggles, Bill, Regulus, Tres, Fred, and Neville. Remus and Fleur would be going, but would remain on the boat for back up.
Apparently Dumbledore had managed to outswim the majority of everyone, without magic, despite his age, by simply floating on his back and serenely kicking his feet. He'd kindly reminded all of them to never underestimate the simplest of techniques; sometimes finesse outdid brute force.
George and Charlie Weasley had both gotten themselves tangled in some freshwater kelp and been too slow to make it, by the time they'd gotten untangled. Remus and Fleur had made it, but just were slower swimmers when magic was not involved. Hestia Jones and Hermione had panicked and nearly drowned, courtesy of McGonagall's enchanted waves.
Hermione looked like she was internally fretting, clearly worried about her two best friends leaving without her. Kalliandra might not know the witch that well, but she knew enough from things Potter had mentioned to know the three used to always be together on any adventure.
This wasn't an adventure though. This was life and death.
Kally offered her a sympathetic smile. "If it's any consolation, Dean will make sure Harry and Ron don't get themselves into any trouble."
Dean looked up and shot her a look. "Oh yes, let's just volunteer me for babysitting duty."
Despite herself she smirked slightly. "Well you do like to-"
"You promised!" Dean interrupted before she had a chance to finish that statement in front of a witness.
She'd been right: finding out that Dean babysat kids on his summer breaks had proven to be excellent blackmail information.
Hermione just shot them both a bewildered look, Dean turning to the prefect as if seeking a reasonable party.
"Sorry Hermione, but not even Merlin himself could keep those two out of trouble. Besides," he added dryly, turning to her again, "one of them's your boyfriend, Kal. Usually. When he's behaving. If we're making promises to a witch with a very scary wand," tilting his head towards where Hermione sat primly on the floor, "can't we at least divide the trouble up and you take yours and I'll take the other? I don't fancy coming back and winding up dead because I only brought back half of them."
Kally sighed and leaned back against her bed, speaking to Hermione and ignoring Dean. "Did I mention he's also overdramatic when tired?"
Dean grumbled dark things about the female 'species' and resumed tying knots in the webbing.
At the very least that elicited a small smile from Hermione. Kally tiredly leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "Okay…so in these magically expanded bags of yours we've got inflatable life preservers, more webbing, first aid supplies, and…?" Cracking her gaze she eyed Hermione questioningly.
"Food in case you get stranded and extra clothes to counter hypothermia," she responded seriously, her brown eyes looking worried. "I'm not sure if the horcrux will go inside the bag without a fight, but if it does there's room for that, in case it can't be destroyed on the island."
"Assuming we can even get off the island."
"Great. Sounds like a dream vacation," Dean drawled, shooting her a look. "Remind me to shoot our travel agent."
Kally snorted, shaking her head and smiling slightly.
That was when another set of feet pounded outside the dorm's door, Ginny showing up and looking at the three of them sitting on the floor, surrounding by a kilometer of rope. "Well," she stated, "don't you all look relaxed?"
Dean pouted. "They're gaining up on me, Gin."
The red head merely tilted her head, looking like a curious dog. "Did you deserve it?"
Dean groaned and began to slowly bang his head against the bottom of her bed. "I'm being punished for a past life."
Kally slid her hand behind his head to prevent further brain damage, glancing at Ginny. "What's up?"
The red head's eyes glinted with dangerous amusement. "Nothing much. Just Harry and Ron heard you and Hermione were up here, alone with Dean and may be jumping to wrong conclusions." Ginny sounded entirely too innocent. "Conclusions I may or may not have put into their heads."
The three of them stared at the younger Gryffindor.
"Define 'put into their heads,'" Hermione requested cautiously.
Ginny shrugged innocently. "Prats have been ignoring me lately, particularly that brother of mine, so I might have mentioned Dean's nude drawings and how he was in need of new subject material…"
Hermione dropped something that clanked. Dean guffawed, looking pleased. Despite him admitting that he 'kind of understood' Potter's motivations at the Order meeting, he still clearly hadn't forgiven him for upsetting her.
Dean was nothing if not protective.
Ginny's brown eyes flickered between her and Hermione, continuing deviantly, "I also might have mentioned how the two gits had conveniently neglected the two of you all week…"
"Ginny," Dean said in awe, "you're diabolical. Marry me."
Ginny shot him an unaffected look. "My brothers would snap you like a twig."
Dean still was staring. "I'll recover."
"A twig," she repeated.
Hermione stammered something, whilst Kally just closed her eyes in resignation. Dean was a dead man. "It was nice knowing you, Thomas." Harry and Ron were not known for not being reactionary. "Maybe you should just spend the night up here so-" At that she caught sight of her friend's expression.
It was frozen, as if Dean had just realized that not only was Ginny a master of manipulation, but that her present manipulations would inevitably result in his death. Or at the very least, a strong hexing.
Kally waved her hand in front of Dean's face a few times, getting no response, frowning as he didn't even blink.
"Okay," she murmured, "Dean's out." Shoving herself up off the ground and brushing her hands on her jeans, Kally shot Ginny a scolding look. "You couldn't have just said yes to appease him could you of? Particularly since you've probably brought about his untimely death?"
The smirk touching Ginny's lips was pure evil. "Don't worry about little Thomas, I'll protect him from my big bad brother."
"It's not Ron I'm worried about." Ron wasn't prone to snapping things in half without a wand. Harry however…
Glancing at the large pile of webbing still on the dormitory floor, the line long – just over a half kilometer so it could feasibly stretch from the boat to the doorways on the island – she debated the merits of staying versus going to deal with the two wizards.
Ginny apparently read her mind. "Just go, Kally," the red head ordered, "I'll stay here and help clean up the mess. Harry wasn't who I was really trying to torture anyway. Git looked so upset I actually felt bad for him."
Something twisted in her slightly, Kally groaning, snagging her cloak and making haste. Unfortunately when she got out to the landing she found that the stairs to the girl's dormitories had once again turned into a long slide.
Unsurprisingly Ron and Harry could be seen at the bottom of them. Harry was leaning against the bottom railing, arms crossed over his chest with an unreadable expression, while Ron was attempting to dig transfigured claws into the slick stone in a misguided attempt to climb up.
Upon seeing her standing at the top of the stairwell something changed on Potter's expression, whilst Weasley froze, all four of his limbs spread out like a mad sort of dog trying to keep its balance on ice. "Kaylens!" he shouted. "Tell Thomas I'm going to kill him!"
Raking a hand through her hair, a faint smile touched her lips. "Nice to see you too, Ron!" Then she dutifully called into the dorm, "Dean, Ginny signed your death warrant."
The choked laugh had to be Dean's.
The unsympathetic one had to be Ginny's.
The tutting was obviously Hermione's.
Kally vaguely wondered what exactly Dean had done to incense Ginny. That said, she remained where she was for a long moment, finding Harry's gaze fixed on her, searching. The hesitance, the awkwardness was there as always.
It'd been a few days since they'd seen each other, part of her almost upset, angry, and yet…
There was a war going on. There wasn't anything either of them could do about that.
Forcing a wane smile, she sat down, shoving herself down the stairs and sliding straight past Ron, her feet striking the landing only a second before Harry moved. In a single, quick motion he'd bent down, his strong hands snaring her arms and tugging her forcefully up and off the floor so quickly that she smacked against his chest.
Palms laying flat against him, more for balance than anything else, she swallowed, blinking at the sight of his chin in front of her face. Rough, dark stubble covered it, a slight smirk touching his jaw line.
"Modeling nude for Thomas were we?"
Heart racing, her lips twitched ever-so-slightly. Feeling Potter's hand rising, his rough fingers tracing her jawline, tilting her face up, she found his malachite gaze regarding her, looking torn between dry amusement and slight question.
Kally's fingers curled against his shirt, giving it a pointed tug. There was another hole in it, one that was suspiciously shaped like one of Ron's claws. "Well you know Dean," she murmured, "always willing to be a fill-in when my boyfriend's gone MIA."
The shadow passing through Potter's gaze told her it was the wrong thing to say, his hands growing stiff on her form. "Fill in?" The question was rough, guttural.
She wasn't ready to fully forgive him just yet. Not for the Order meeting comments, not for disappearing for several days, especially after they'd nearly done things, things they wouldn't have been able to come back from.
The way parts of him had pressed so very close to her in the Room of Requirement, then again near the Black Lake…her entire form shivered just thinking about it.
"Mmm," she murmured distractedly, golden gaze holding his sincerely, more forgivingly, "well you did leave me all alone in your dorm the other morning."
Potter's expression grew increasingly strained. "Kaylens…"
"You're a hard person to get a hold of, Potter."
Harry's gaze grew conflicted. "You were trying to find me? I-" he shook his head, something that looked suspiciously like rubble falling out of his hair. "I tried to find you when we got back but…you were always either with Snape or back in your dorm. I-"
"Potter," she tried, but he barely heard her.
"I wasn't trying to make you think-"
"Harry," she interceded more forcefully, "I'm joking."
The look of relief on him was practically palpable, her lips twitching into a slight smile. For a second neither said a word, a growl finally emanating from Harry's chest. "Not," he grated, hands tightening upon her, "funny."
Her brow furrowed in amused question. "Really? I found it immensely so."
Potter growled again, a hand sliding around her back, clenching against her spine in an unbelievably agreeable way. "I wasn't trying to ditch you, Kaylens. Just…" he paused, her eyes fluttering shut at the feel of his hands back on her. "Knew if I stayed in bed with you I wasn't going to leave. Had to prepare."
She couldn't fault him for that. She actually understood that. "Mmm," she murmured, extremely coherently. The feel of Potter touching her for the first time in days seemed to have that effect on her. "So how'd your prolonged rendezvous with Weasley go?"
He drug her against him, his form taut against hers, mouth suddenly speaking very near her own. "I'll show you how it went…"
Her lips twitched. "You realize," she murmured, his breath so close it ghosted against her lips, "you're implying you snogged Weasley?"
Potter went unbelievably still for a long second, Kally's eyes fluttering open to find him glaring at her. "Not," he growled, shuddering, "funny."
An impish glint entered her eye. "Sense of humor needs work, Har-"
He'd smashed his mouth against hers, silencing her with the sheer force of his lips, his tongue immediately seeking hers out as a startled sound escaped her. Potter's strong arm tightened around her like a constrictor seizing its prey, his feet moving, forcing her stumbling backwards, Kally's back thudding against the railing and the wall it was bolted into.
It took Potter all of a second to lift her, perching her on the rail, a hand sliding along her side, grabbing onto every part of her he could. The hand tangling in her hair as his mouth lowered to her neck…
Kally's breathing was unbelievably unsteady, the back of her head falling against the wall as she tried to breath. "Harry…" she murmured, uncertain if she wanted him to stop or keep going. Her fingers tightened onto his shoulders, an electric thrill shooting through her core, squirming in her stomach.
Parts of her suddenly wondered why he'd stopped, why they'd stopped when they'd had the chance near the Black Lake. She knew why though. The fighting, the arguing…
Potter's mouth lifted from her neck, seizing her lips roughly, an apology already ground out. "Sorry. Just-sorry." His brow fell against hers, lips no longer claiming her own, both of them simply breathing heavily as her hands slid from his shoulders, sliding down his muscular sides until they fell to his hips.
Had Potter's hips not been pressing so firmly against her she'd surely have slipped from the railing. As it was, she desperately tried to catch her breath, Potter shaking his brow firmly against hers. "Sorry," he ground again, by ways of apology. "I just…missed you. Missed this." Hand tightening on her own waist for emphasis, she didn't have to ask what.
She nodded distractedly against him, "Me too," admitted far more gently this time.
Kalliandra could practically feel his heart thundering in his chest. "So you and Dean weren't…"
Her eyes flew open, staring at his close gaze. "No." Her long eyelashes blinked, almost dazed as she studied him, every part of him pressing up against her, heedless of who might be watching or of how much they might be traumatizing Ron.
The green gaze that locked onto hers looked almost nervous. Given what they were doing the sudden uncertainty, insecurity upon his face was almost laughable, a smile teasing her lips. "Harry…" she whispered, watching him, "I promise, no nude drawings."
She physically felt the tension drain out of him, his hands upon her relaxing instantly.
"Only topless from the waist up."
A strangled sound escaped his throat, Kally lightly laughing. The way his mouth suddenly moved, pressing against hers again in grinding speech doing things to her. "Funny Kaylens," he threatened. "You're going to pay for that."
She nudged her nose up against his, whispering, "Promise?"
It was a long time before their mouths broke away from each other, both heedless of the whimpering coming from Ron on the stairwell. The Gryffindor Keeper had redoubled his efforts to claw his way up a stone staircase using his werewolf claws, only now he was doing it less to get at Dean and more to avoid them.
When Harry's mouth finally did break from hers she found something twisting inside her, Kally wetting her lips. The fact that she, of all people, could make Potter look insecure…
She'd personally witnessed him stroll through a crowd of Death Eaters when they had been in the middle of killing people, without batting an eye.
She'd seen him face werewolves head on.
She'd watched him take on Voldemort, heedless of his own safety.
Yet the thought of her alone with Dean, her friend, made him nervous.
The merest hint of her being upset sent him to her, trying to fix things, every sodding time. Even when he wasn't sorry for what he'd said or done, he still always sought her out, wanting to fix it.
Her lips curved into the slightest of smiles. "I'm still mad at you," she led with, her fingers sliding into his unruly hair and moving within, "but, I think…I think I might actually owe you an apology."
The way Potter was looking at her sent her chest stirring. "Oh?"
"Yeah," she admitted. "Dean talked to me, and may have pointed out that you…that you weren't entirely out of line at the Order meeting."
Behind Harry the view of the stairs, the overview of the common room, was nothing but a blur. She only saw him and the way his brow instantly creased, his chest rising and falling a bit harder against hers.
Not once did he make any attempt to move. "Dean?" he finally grated. "As in Dean Thomas, who set you up to possibly get killed, who can't keep his hands off you every time I turn around, Dean?"
Studying him, studying him so damn closely, Kally wet her lips, nodding.
"He talked to you?"
Silently she nodded. "Yeah," she confessed, "he might have done this thing," fingers running along Harry's arm now, eyes lingering upon every inch of him, clothed or not, "with a shielding charm. Asked how I'd feel if you ran into the middle of a fight and weren't able to do one…"
Potter made a derisive, skeptical sound. "I hate," he told, "when you do that."
"Yeah….I think I understand now. If you did that I'd…" shaking her head, a lock of hair falling in front of her eyes, she quietly disclosed, "I'd be terrified, Harry."
It took him a second to respond, to react in any way, but finally Potter shifted against her, parts of him rubbing against her in a close manner, his brow furrowed damn severely. "Welcome," he shared, "to my daily nightmare with you." Before her lips even had a chance to so much as part in protest, he had his brow firmly pressed against hers once more, his lips speaking directly against her own. "Last person I want to lose, Kaylens. So that…." Voice breaking, he rawly croaked, "terrifies me doesn't even cover it."
Breaths quickening, her eyes closed. "Harry…you won't."
"You can't guarantee that," he whispered, finally painfully acknowledging what he'd refused to admit to her by the lake. His stubborn insistence that she would live past the war, that she'd be there with him afterwards…
He finally was admitting why he was acting like such an ass.
Falling silent, unable to formulate words, her fingers just tightened on him. It was a long while before he said anything, neither noticing Ron sliding down the stairs and quickly scrambling back up.
"While we're confessing things," Potter dryly added, "still want to crush Dean's throat for even looking at you."
Her lips parted in slight humor. "He doesn't look at me like that." Only…
She found Harry's eyes cracked, the way he was looking at her clearly saying something else. "You don't notice it," he relayed. "I do. It's the way he looks at Ginny." He didn't sound happy about either prospect.
For a second all she could feel was the fast beating of her own heart, her eyes flickering over him with clear incredulity. "Harry," she finally murmured, "are you threatened by Dean?"
"No." He didn't sound even remotely convincing.
Despite herself, despite everything, despite how they'd fallen right back into their discussion from days prior and despite the fact that she hadn't seen him since, her lips curved into a subtle smile. "Potter…you don't have to be." Squeezing his tricep, she tentatively waited.
All Potter did was draw in a deep breath, tension rippling through him. "I don't?"
She shook her head against him, her hair tickling his nose. "No." Looking mildly amused, she brushed her lips lightly against his. "Promise," she quietly teased. "I have absolutely no desire to jump his bones." She was fairly certain she'd heard Ron say something like that to Potter at one point or another.
Harry just blinked at her, his grip tightening. "And you do me?"
She wet her lips. "A bit," she admitted. "You know, when you're not being an ass."
Potter suddenly pressed up hard against her, practically sealing her to the wall, both of his hands abruptly releasing her, falling along either side of her head, boxing her in. "Know it's a bit late," he ground, "but still find that hard to believe."
"Yeah well," she confessed, "not alone." There were times she still found herself startled that she wanted to snog Potter, let alone was. Old habits died hard.
Harry's chest rumbled against her, his fingers flexing against the wall. "Six, seven months ago," he grated, "I never would have guessed I'd have you, here, like this, telling me that after nearly…"
He didn't finish, but he didn't have to. She knew what he was talking about.
By the lake…in the Room of Requirement…
The fact that they'd both admitted to wanting to…
Sucking in a breath, her chest rising and pressing against Harry's, she quietly pointed out, "If that wasn't true, Harry, do you really think I'd have been so willing to let you," her eyes flickered past him, ensuring herself that Ron and anyone else was out of earshot, "take me the other night?" She would have. She would have fully given herself to him without question, if he'd only done so. He'd hovered, so sodding close, only a slight shifting of hips all that was needed.
He hadn't. He'd almost, but…
The sudden way he was looking at her, the intensity of it shook her. "You wanted me to?" he repeated it as if stunned.
Her lips parted, words failing. It took her a second before the breathless whisper escaped her, "Yeah."
Suddenly his head dropped against hers, muttering near her ear. "I'm an idiot. I didn't…I thought because we'd been fighting…"
"You always," she confessed, "make it up to me, Potter. No matter what you're consistent in that at least."
His lips grazed her earlobe, an unbidden shudder seizing her as he pulled back, away, studying her. "Might be an idiot with you, Kaylens, but I will always make it up whenever and however I can."
Her eyes studied him, where he stood, there on the landing, perching her against the railing. Her breathing slowed. "I haven't seen you in four days," she pointed out quietly.
Potter looked like he wanted to say something, Kally able to feel the slight shake of his hold. It was unnatural. Potter was never unsteady. "You want…"
To her deep, deep surprise she found herself nodding. They were going to hunt for a horcrux tomorrow. They might not survive. They might not even make it to the island, let alone off it, and they were both going.
Harry sucked in an unsteady sounding breath. "Kaylens I…I want to, but…I have to tell you something." His green gaze raked over hers, confliction in it. "It's about what Dumbledore told me, the other morning. I…I can't without telling you."
Sitting there, on the railing, Potter pressing to her, she bit down on her lower lip. She'd just offered herself to Potter and he was hesitating.
Whatever it was had to be important.
Wetting her lips for the thousandth time, she found herself nodding. "Okay, should we-"
"Dorms?"
Kalliandra caught herself, nearly saying yes, only for her lips to hesitate on the syllable. "There's too many people," she managed, eyes flickering up pointedly towards where Ron had successfully crawled halfway up the staircase slide, leaving large scratches in the stonework. If Harry and her wanted to…
Sucking in a breath at the mere thought, she met his eyes, studying him intently.
He read her mind. "They'll interrupt."
"Our friends," she agreed, "have no boundaries."
Potter's hands fell to her shoulders, flexing upon her. "The idiots."
A grating sound filled the stairwell, sounding like nails on a chalkboard as Ron slid partway down again, the stairs doing their best to toss him off. A loud oomph was heard, Weasley shouting for Harry to help him kill Dean.
Despite herself she smiled, Potter's mouth curving in kind. "Room of Requirement's out," he relayed, "McGonagall's got Luna and Neville in there."
Letting her fingers slid down his chest, lingering near his belt line, her breaths quickened. "What about-"
"Quidditch stands," he finished for her, suggesting something she never would have thought of. "No one's there. It's pouring rain out, so no one sane will be going out." His large hands moved, finding her waist, squeezing needingly. "We can…we can talk. No one will…interrupt."
His halting speech told her he was talking about more than talking, more than that being interrupted. Her chest fluttered furiously, Kally finding herself nodding-
Potter pulled her off the rail and to him, already heading off down the rest of the stairs with her towards the common room portrait. As they got outside, hitting the fierce onslaught of wind and rain he'd taken off his cloak, tossing it over the both of them, waterproofing and expandability charms muttered so that it completely covered them.
Still the battering wind nearly stole it, blowing it off their heads several times in route, the Quidditch stands not close to the castle – not by any sane means of measurement. By the time they'd gotten there, sloshing through the muddy and puddle-strewn grounds, they were both soaked up to their knees, hair dripping wet onto their shoulders.
Potter drug her under the scaffolding, grabbing her hand and tugging her with him, Kally unable to stop herself from willingly letting him lead her anywhere. They weren't just going under the stands, they were going into the stands. "Locker rooms," he bellowed to her, voice barely breaching the wind's howling. The grass was getting uprooted, flying past, some smacking Potter in the face and sticking to his cheeks.
Potter tried to shout something else to her, but the squall stole whatever words he was trying to relay.
Instead it looked like he swore something foul, now pointing up at the actual viewing section.
Kally looked back and up, her hair whirling around her face, the Quidditch viewing sections high above them completely uncovered. Anyone who dared to sit within them would be exposed to the harsh elements, it not the best place for conversations or…anything.
No wonder he was suggesting the locker rooms.
Kally found herself, minutes later, ducking into the Gryffindor locker room beneath one of the Gryffindor house sections, the door slamming closed behind them and rattling in the wind. It rattled so intensely, so loudly and distractingly that Potter actually swore again, wand out, several spells she didn't recognize tossed at it.
The door suddenly went still, no longer ricocheting and flying open and shut, even if the wood still bent beneath the battering wind with slight groans. That same groaning was coming from above them, high up in the unseen Quidditch stands, but she knew they were there, towering high above the locker rooms.
Potter shook himself out like a wet dog, his jet black hair slung over his brow and sticking to his skin. It was completely and totally plastered.
Damn if he didn't look hot. Kally stared for a second, biting down on her lower lip as she found it suddenly, incredibly hard to breath.
To his oblivious credit he didn't notice. Potter just looked at her with a sheepish grin, the wizard making an attempt to shove his hair out of his face. "Okay," he conceded, "it was a bit more than a light rain."
A slight laugh escaped her, Kally shaking her head in wry amusement. "It sounds like the stands are about to fall down, Potter. You sure this is safe out-"
"Oh yeah," he graced her with a wry grin, slowly dripping a puddle onto the floor. "Seen these things stand up to much worse gales. Plus, being in here sure beats playing in one."
Kally's hands were halfway through wringing out her hair, the golden stands thickly saturated with water. "Wha- you mean you still play in this kind of weather?"
He gave a shrug, his shirt sticking wetly to him. "Quidditch doesn't get canceled for anything," he told, as if there were nothing insane at all about his statement. Pausing, he grimaced, adding, "Except dementors. It does get canceled for dementors."
Kalliandra blinked water out of her eyes, staring at him. She knew what dementors were. Remus had told her all about them, but…. "Why would dementors," she said very carefully, "be at a Quidditch game."
Harry met her gaze unblinkingly. "Voldemort. Why else?"
She wet her lips, shoving wet hair out of her eyes. "Potter…"
"Wouldn't worry about it. He gets bored every so often and tries to think of new and increasingly creative ways to try to kill me. That was just a particularly inspired attempt."
"Harry…" she breathed, pulse quickening.
The smirk he shot her was pure challenge. "Didn't work. Only succeeded in knocking me off my broom about fifty meters up-"
Kally couldn't take it.
She'd launched herself at him, mouth pressing wetly to his, her fingers practically tearing at his wet hair. Potter's arms had snared around her waist, the two slamming back into one of the locker's with a loud BANG.
Kally didn't care. Instead she was shaking, partly from the cold of the water sticking to her, partly from the fearful realization that this was real. Potter really was targeted. She'd known that, she'd known that for months, but…
Hearing how he could have been killed, so many sodding times before she'd ever even met him…
That bothered her. It shook her.
Potter pulled back first, Kally's lidded gaze having trouble opening. "Mmm Kaylens," he muttered, "keep doing things like that and I'll start to think you want to keep me around."
"Potter," she whispered, sliding her hands down to his shoulders, "sometimes I really hate you."
The locker creaked against Potter's back, the wizard smirking. "Admit it," he drawled, "you'd be bored if you were dating someone normal."
The sound her lips emitted made it very clear how right he was. "Maybe," she murmured, "we could have Hermione hex a bit of your ego away."
The wind howled outside, Potter nudging her face with his nose. "You like," he challenged, "my ego."
"You're delusional."
"How about," he said testingly, "I tell you all about the other ways Voldemort's tried to kill me over the years, and then we'll-"
Kally had pressed her mouth firmly back to his, an upset, protesting sound murmured against his lips. She could feel him shaking with out-of-place laughter, the wizard having found something that had the capacity to make her cave in an instant.
Shivering, freezing from the cold rain still clinging to their clothing, she contentedly allowed Potter to pull her closer, arms enveloping her. It wasn't until they both required air that the kiss was broke, Kally dropping her face to bury it against his shoulder, breathlessly managing, "Not funny, Potter."
The rumble in his chest shook him, Harry burying his face against the top of her hair. "Remind me to thank old snake face next time I see him," he told, "never knew it'd get me snogged quite like that."
She growled like a rabid raccoon, Potter's hand rubbing against her back almost comfortingly.
Around them the locker room's walls creaked, the stands above groaning as if in their final death throes. The fierce pounding of rain striking muddy ground and wood could be heard, the sounds of the storm almost comforting compared to the subject matter Potter found so humorous. The scent of rain and mud clinging to him, mingling with his scent was maddening.
Lingering there, in the eerily empty locker room, it was a long time before either of them spoke.
It was Harry who broke the penetrating, stormy silence. "Not going anywhere, Kaylens," he roughly vowed. "Promise."
Closing her eyes, her fingers tightened against him. Harry was a horcrux….he had told her as much. He might need destroyed. Voldemort wanted to kill him, and yet here he was, promising her something he couldn't guarantee.
Sucking in a breath, she murmured, "Potter…you can't promise that."
"Well, kind of have to." He shifted against her, his rough, wet grip finding her chin, tilting it up to force her to look at him. Studying him, his malachite gaze boring into hers, she watched his smug, self-assured expression change. His fingers moved along her jawline, caressing her face, Kalliandra shivering despite herself. "That's what," he managed, "I needed to talk to you about, before…"
The meaning of his words lingered, Kally's heart, stomach twisting. It was hard to breath. "So talk," she whispered, so quietly she barely heard her own words.
Fortunately for her, Potter did. His gaze locked onto hers, his lips wetting, his next word spoken meaningfully.
"Okay."
ECOTS
Beyond the sheltering walls of the locker room, the storm raged. Wind howled, the gale battering the stands and sending them swaying with dangerous creaking, the pounding rain lending a horroresque ambiance as he'd talked.
War bonds. Standing there, within the Gryffindor locker room, holding tight onto the non-witch he was in love with, Harry relayed to her everything Dumbledore had said. How it'd happened, what it was, what it meant. Chest pounding, his grip on her alternated, tightening then loosening, Harry's heart in his damn throat.
He was torn.
He didn't know if he wanted to let her go, to risk her walking out on him, or if he wanted to hang on so tight that there'd be no way she could escape until he made certain she knew his feelings for her had nothing to do with some old magic they'd unwittingly become wrapped up in.
When he was done he waited, stating nothing as his darkened gaze raked over hers. "Kaylens…"
Her fingers tightened against the wet fabric covering his chest, that slightest of contacts sending a shiver coursing through him. "So that's…that's why I feel this for you?"
So quiet were her words that the howl of the wind outside nearly drowned them out, Harry instantly shaking his head. "No," he croaked. "That we care for each other…that created it. It enhances it. But this…this bond didn't create any feelings." Harry's hands roamed over her sides, tightening, wanting to tug her close as he searched her expression, desperate for her to understand. "They were already there, Kaylens."
Her breathing had gone somewhat unsteady, quiet. "Then what-"
Harry couldn't let her finish. The clenching in his chest didn't dare. "I want you, Kaylens," he ground, voice growing raw. "I love you. That's real." Vocal chords growing tight, tensing, he choked, "That ever stops, the bond goes away." His hand abruptly slid to the back of her head, fisting in her damp tendrils. "Call me dumb," brow dropping firmly against hers, "but if the bond was creating that, then reckon it'd be the other way around."
He watched her. He watched her intently. Her eyes had slid shut, as if relaxing beneath his touch, her lips parting with her quietly indrawn breaths. He held her close, waiting, hearing nothing. Instead his own gaze dropped shut, his brow pressing firmly to hers.
"It won't stop, Kaylens," he muttered promisingly, her mouth temptingly near. "Don't think I could even if I tried."
He had a dark damn feeling that all of this had been fast. Too fast. It'd been over a half year. He'd known her almost a full year, and yet…
He was certain he'd not stop. He knew the bond, on his end, was permanent. Something deep in his gut told him that. It was why the thought of anything happening to her shook him. He just didn't have a clue as to why he was so sure.
Breathing unsteadily, fingers combing through her hair, he felt her lips part, words coming quietly. "So…so what do we do?"
He shifted, his lips pressing to hers almost chastely, before brushing against hers in speech. "Make damn sure you're around," he drawled, "if I ever want to hex Dean."
Harry felt her eyelashes flutter open against him, the look she was shooting him enough to still the twisting in his chest. She looked amused. "Ah," she murmured wryly, "already plotting to take advantage I see."
His grip snared around her waist, forearm pressing firmly against her lower back as he drug her hips to his. "If I'm going to hex him," he ground, "might as well make sure it's a damn good one." The bond…if she was around his hexes were more powerful, more biting. "So…make sure Thomas knows….makes any moves on you…"
The half-jest, half-sincere threat was met by an amused breath, the non-witch shifting against him, her hands sliding up his chest. "You have nothing," she promised, "to worry about."
Still…she wasn't looking at him. Her impossibly golden gaze remained fixed on his chest, her brow furrowing thoughtfully.
Outside thunder cracked, the noise loud enough to echo within the locker room. Kaylens jumped slightly, Harry's arms winding ever tighter around her dripping form. The way her shirt wetly clung to her, her collarbone exposed as it slid down her shoulder…
Impossibly golden eyes, pinpricks of green and brown dancing within them, turned up towards his. "So…" she all but breathed, "if we hadn't…cared at the time, then this…." Her eyes flickered down to his chest, then back up to meet his gaze, her meaning clear, "this bond wouldn't have happened."
His mouth quirked wryly. "Yeah, Dumbledore was pretty clear on that point." The hard part of his throat rose and fell in a rough swallow. "Guess even when we were still in denial about not wanting to throttle one another blood magic knew different."
Kaylens' lips parted in silent understanding. Not two hours before that first kiss she'd thrown a butterbeer in his face. He'd still been covered in the froth when he'd pulled her limply from the pond's water, his mouth pressing to hers trying to save her life, then he'd been unable to stop himself from sealing the small space between them once she'd roused…
Harry's grip tightened on her, watching her eyes flickering with something he couldn't ascertain. Finally… "So what does this mean? Does it…does it do anything to us, asides from…"
He shook his head, hands moving over her without realizing. "I honestly don't know. Dumbledore didn't go into detail."
She wet her lips, Harry's eyes glued to the slight motion as she spoke. "Somewhat frightening, isn't it?"
Despite that, despite that he'd just told her that she was somehow war bonded to him, she was taking the information sodding well. "Maybe…" he conceded lowly, his hand sliding back into her hair, gaze locked onto hers. "So…what now?" His heart pounded heavily, things inside him twisting as the wind outside shrieked.
Kalliandra's fingers slid down his wet shirt with maddening slowness. "I still," she murmured softly, "would let you." The way her eyes were flickering over his, the subtle quickening of her breath…
Harry didn't have to ask what she'd let him do. Something inside his chest thundered as if he'd been in a dozen back-to-back duels with Voldemort's finest, his jade gaze locked onto her. It was like his throat suddenly refused to cooperate. "Would you?" he croaked, his free hand on her waist, tightening upon her hip.
A smile touched her lips, the non-witch nodding, her fingers tugging gently at the bottom of his shirt.
An angered, cold gust blew in from beneath the closed door. Harry wanted this, he wanted her. He made no move, merely remaining right where he was, looking at her to ensure he wasn't hallucinating. "Think I've wanted you," he ground seriously, "since the moment I saw you." Standing in that golden colored, form-fitting dress robe in Madame Malkins. The surprise in her gaze had his mouth turn slightly. "Couldn't take my eyes off you. Part," he admitted, "of why I followed you."
A small laugh shook her. "Potter you stalker."
He smirked, his hand rubbing against her hip bone, fingers sliding ever-so-slightly beneath the top of her jeans. He wanted her. He undeniably wanted her, but…
"Kally," he confessed, hand dropping from her thick hair and tugging her entire form closer. "With the bond…if we do this, I don't know what it'll do, if anything." Pressing against him, her lips parted in understanding. Harry just grimaced back. "For all I know…you could be stuck with me. Permanently." Magic…it had weird damn rules, not all clearly laid out, defined. "Maybe it's nothing but…I don't want…don't want you getting something you don't want out of this."
Harry breathed harder than needed, watching, waiting, the witch in his arms shivering.
Slowly her hand rose, rifling through his messy, wet hair. "I think," she murmured, "I'm already in this." Eyes flickering over his, she leaned up, finding his ear, "Told you on the stairwell months ago, Potter, I'm with you, regardless of where it takes you."
Kaylens knew he was a horcrux. She knew the eventual damn truth.
She still wanted this, she wanted him.
Her lips brushed against his ear, the non-witch pulling back, away…
Harry moved without thought, his hands snaring the bottom of her damp shirt, eyes holding hers. "Kaylens, you're sure?" he croaked, fingers fondling the edges of the fabric, waiting, needing her permission.
Kally held his gaze unwaveringly, nodding slowly, a wet lock of hair slipping to obscure her left eye.
He didn't need telling twice.
He'd tugged her shirt up and over her head, long strands of impossible gold cascading everywhere, falling loosely around her freckled shoulders as he tossed the shirt somewhere, anywhere as long as it wasn't on her. Harry took several seconds to just look at her. Her tight abdominals, her smooth skin trailing upwards to her round breasts, her bra alone doing things to him, causing things in him to harden by the fact that it was hiding so much.
Kaylens didn't give him a chance to stare. She'd moved, Harry feeling his own shirt being tugged firmly up. Mouth dry, Harry shrugged out of the offending garment, arms getting tangled as he let out an irritated sound, before tossing it away.
Getting out of the wet fabric actually felt better than having it on.
They stood there, having seen each other in far less clothing before, twice that very week, but yet right now…right then they just looked at each other.
Kaylens was shivering, it taking him by surprise. "You're cold," he stated, dumbfounded.
The slightly nervous smile she afforded him had him kicking himself. Was he a wizard or not? Reaching into his back pocket, snaring his wand he flicked it, sending every single one of the shower heads in the other room on, the knobs turning to hot.
Steam began to rise, coiling like warm smoke towards the low ceiling. It wouldn't be long until it drifted into the main locker area.
A second flick of his wand sent one of the benches sliding towards the door, flipping up on its side and blockading it with a loud screech, Kaylens actually jumping slightly. Harry shot her an apologetic look. "Just," he explained, "in case." They had a bad habit of people walking in on them. And this…
If anyone walked in on him during this he'd kill them.
The next sodding second was seared into Harry's mind.
She hadn't even been one step away.
Harry's hands slowly found her waist, his fingers flexing against her hip bones as he looked intently down, his green gaze raking over her countenance. This…this he wouldn't rush. Harry wanted to take as much damn time as he could.
Kalliandra was silently watching him right back, her hands falling upon his bare chest, her cold fingertips driving a spasmodic shiver through him. Harry didn't care. He'd warm her. That was his job.
Looping a thumb through her jean pocket he pulled her closer, his free hand abruptly finding her face. With painstaking slowness, taking his time, as if it were the last time he'd ever look at her, his thumb slid across her cheekbone, brushing wet hair slowly away from her eyes, golden tress by golden tress. Rain water still dripped freely down her countenance, her thick hair saturated.
She stood there, before him, water droplets beading down her, wet hair plastered to her face and neck, even her bra clinging to her.
Even soaked Kaylens was damn beautiful.
Harry lowered his mouth to hers, not claiming her lips like he wanted, instead just…lingering. "Bond or not," he lowly disclosed, lips barely brushing against hers, "wasn't kidding when I agreed with Dobby." Kaylens was with him, horcrux or not, whether he was being a righteous ass or not. As far as he was concerned that made her his mate, by Dobby's definition at least, and in every way that mattered.
Her lips twitched slightly beneath his, neither claiming the other's mouth as he so damn desperately wanted. "Damn Potter," she dryly murmured, "keep talking like that and might have to keep you around."
A low laugh escaped him, Harry sealing the scant space between them, lips moving slowly over hers, taking his time. There was no rush. Not yet. Not now. There would be soon, when he could barely sodding contain himself, but for now…
Nibbling on her lower lip first, then capturing her upper, he relished her taste. She was everything sodding good, the taste upon his tongue the taste of amortentia when they'd brewed it in potions, her scent…
It was the same: amortentia. Hell…if he'd known the scent was Kaylens at the start of the year he'd have asked her out sooner.
Warm steam drifted in, warming his bared flesh against the storm, its cold breeze sneaking in beneath the shoddy locker room door. Harry's grip fell from Kally's hair, hands strongly grabbing onto either side of her, his grip sliding along the contours of her form. Every inch of bare flesh he reveled in, every brush of her fingertips against him sent him nearly groaning, and they'd only just started.
He twisted her around, shoving her against the lockers abruptly. Kalliandra's only response was a slight breath, Harry stealing it from her and briefly wondering how long she could go without oxygen without being in danger of brain damage.
Kaylens' hand raked through his hair, her fingers damn near tearing it out, the slight pain good. Harry groaned, struggling to breath as he deepened the contact, tongue in her mouth, hers in his. Everything about this was calm, slow, measured, heated.
Harry's hands were on her, his mouth pressing against hers. Her rain scented hair, tousled from the storm they'd run through, assaulted his senses as he pressed every centimeter of himself against her, smashing her against Ron's locker door. A dim part of him realized that his best mate would be pissed, Harry smirking.
Hermione was right: Ron was delicate.
He seized Kaylens, lifting her, shoving her up higher so that her feet were no longer on the floor. Grabbing onto one of her legs he'd drug it around his hips, the non-witch getting the hint and wrapping the other around him without question. One arm now held her up, the other finding her breast through her bra, the moan escaping Kally causing him to groan in kind.
Her mouth abandoned his, finding his neck, the non-witch doing wicked things that had his heart thundering louder than the ongoing storm. He knew one thing…
He needed both hands free.
In one sharp move he'd yanked her off Ron's locker, tugging her up and against him, turning to the stand holding the beater's bat and dropping her onto it, bats clattering to the floor and rolling in every direction. Neither stopped kissing. They didn't dare. Harry grabbed at the back of her bra, working to undo it single handedly, his other hand too busy beneath it up front, feeling her breast, relishing every sound he got her to make.
The bra came off with a satisfying click, Kalliandra's hands at his belt, unbuckling it with quick, practiced motions, the non-witch still having trouble tugging it completely off.
Harry tugged back, his mouth desperately remaining against hers as he tugged it off for her, undoing the top button of his pants to help. He needed this. He needed her. Her hands had grabbed onto his pants and tugged him back against her with a protesting sound, Harry already working to undo the top button of hers.
It was infuriatingly difficult, Harry groaning in annoyance before Kaylens slapped his hand, doing it for him.
He snared her around the wrist before she could undo the zipper, Harry sure as hell doing that part himself.
He'd shoved her back against the wall, the bat stand teetering precariously as his mouth found her bared breast, kissing, licking, nipping. Kaylens tried to move, reaching for him, Harry not done with what he was doing to her yet. Snaring both her wrists in one hand he pinned them to the wall, Kaylens making a startled sound. Seizing her nipple between his teeth, tongue lightly flicking, he damn near groaned at the new sound she made, her entire form almost bucking beneath him.
Her hips drove against his, Harry about to lose it.
Another bat fell, nearly bashing him in the foot, Kaylens only just managing to kick it away in time. Right. They needed to move. Pausing, his hand now against the wall alongside her head, he glanced around the unoccupied locker room, finding only Quidditch benches present. Well…
Those would do.
Once more Harry drug Kaylens up, firmly against him.
He'd smashed her against the nearest bench an instant later, the old wood cracking with the impact. Neither party noticed. Kaylens' mouth was against his chest, the electric tingling that always accompanied her magic now trailing across his skin everywhere she touched. A flick of his wand sent the bench expanding enough for him to get a knee onto it, Harry throwing a leg over her, straddling her, her hands sliding down him, finding him…
Harry groaned against her neck as her fingers began to move, wrapping firmly around the hardest part of him, moving first with maddening slowness before speeding up, moving faster…
On top of her his hand slipped down, brutally shoving her jeans down low on her hips so as to find her in kind. Her panties were in the way, Harry's fingers deftly slipping them aside, his fingers slipping inside…
Kally moaned beneath him, Harry's mouth dropping, seizing her breast, both of them moving together, rising in intensity.
Kaylens head was thrown back against the bench, the smooth expanse of her neck exposed, Harry's lips traveling up, finding her pulse beating wildly beneath them.
Abruptly her hand released him, both her hands now grabbing onto either side of his jeans, urgently shoving them down past his hips, the non-witch no longer content for them to just remain unzipped.
Harry pressed his mouth hard against hers, happy to comply as he withdrew his fingers, the wizard kicking off his pants, the things thudding to the floor. Hell, his legs got tangled in them and he almost tumbled off the bench, Kaylens smirking against his lips, his response to pull back with a carnivorous growl. Kalliandra yanked him back to her, lips moving with unconcealed want, the steam filtering in from the showers beading against their skin.
Her hips lifted, pressing to him, Harry shoving her jeans down even lower as Kaylens tried to kick them off as well. Not once did he remove his mouth from hers, Harry not deigning to miss a second of this on account of inconsequential things like clothing. "Why the hell," he ground against her, "do you ever wear anything other than skirts?" They were so much easier…
The light laugh against him indicated how very un-seriously she was taking his request, Harry not caring as her pants thudded onto the ground alongside his. The kiss that followed…
Merlin…Harry grasped why the founder of magic's name was so often invoked now.
He wasn't sure how he had gotten here. His thumbs hooked into her lingerie, pulling the fabric down over her thighs, sliding until they remained hooked around only one of her ankles, Harry abandoning them there, uncaring what happened to them now that they were removed from his path. Thunder shook the entire sodding structure, the storm outside raging, Harry's attention only on one thing at a time. And right now…
It was on her. "Kaylens," he gasped against her. "Are you-"
The way she slammed her mouth to his, murmuring, "Yes," answered that.
Heart pounding, thundering, Harry's mouth moved over hers, it suddenly moving more slowly. Nerves, the urgency, need…they all combatted within him, Harry aware that there was no going back from this. On top of her, heat pressing around them both, one knee on the bench the other foot on the ground, he pressed close, so sodding close to her.
Harry was hesitating, uncertain why.
Then he remembered…
He wanted her. Damn did he. But they couldn't risk that. Not now. Not then. Silently cursing Remus for not sending him that list of spells he started to pull back. "Kaylens," he half groaned against her lips, "we don't have protecti-"
She re-captured his lips, her hand sliding through his hair. "Harry," she breathed, hips rising and pressing hard against him, "I'm a," kissing him, breaking away, "potion's apprentice." Despite himself, despite the knowledge that they shouldn't he found himself pressing his hips harder against hers in instinctual, animalistic response to her movements, the sensation of almost being there shaking him to the point that he barely comprehended her words.
He captured her mouth for so long that he'd forgotten what she'd been saying, her fingers raking down his back, the tingling trailing across his skin and heightening everything.
Somehow, between raking his hand through her hair, between grabbing onto her back and pressing her tight to him, between his mouth and hers Harry remembered.
"Kaylens we can't-"
She broke away, gasping, her golden gaze glittering with aberrant magic that he'd driven her to. "Harry I took something."
Harry stared down at her for a long second.
A very long second.
Perhaps it was more like thirty seconds.
Breathing hard, chest heaving against hers, he blinked as the wind howled. "You took…something?"
Kaylens was breathing just as hard. "I'm a potion's apprentice, Harry. Do you honestly think I couldn't brew a simple contraceptive potion?"
Harry wet his lips, chest thundering loudly. Something in his stomach twisted, and it twisted in an agreeable manner. "You-you're amazing," he croaked. Unable to yank his eyes off her, the golden light sparkling in her irises reminded him that she was his. The flecks of brown and green so near her pupils, something that no one would ever notice unless they'd drawn damn close to her…
He reclaimed her lips, seizing her with a quiet sort of violence, his arm arching her body up and off the bench, drawing her flush against him. The sound she made, her desperate attempts to drag in breaths against him, the scent of rain in her hair…
Kalliandra shifted her hips against him pressing up, eliciting a damn needing groan from him.
All it took was a thrust.
Harry pressed down, pressing his hips back to hers in kind, entering. His heart beat wildly. He was inside her, the gasp she let out echoing his own, the wizard gathering her desperately against him as they began to move. What they were doing hadn't yet fully registered, even if the mind-numbing sensations had.
It didn't take long for Harry to be groaning against her neck, begging for them to stop for a second, just a minute, so he could make this last for her, Kaylens kissing him as he tried to calm the hell down. If he didn't…
Hell, it wasn't going to last long.
Kaylens murmured something dirty against his ear, that not helping matters, the wizard growling against her cheek. "Not," he gutturally threatened, "helping." It wasn't his fault she was so…her. He determinedly closed his eyes, not wanting to see even a single bit of her flesh. If he did it would be end game for him, he'd be driven over the threshold. Breathing deep, every sodding shift of her form nearly sent him careening over the edge, until he desperately ground, "Say something non-sexy. Please."
Kaylens had been nipping at his ear, well aware of precisely what his current problem was, his plea sending her lips motionless for a scant few seconds.
Her lips pressed directly against his ear, murmuring, "Ron's table manners."
Harry about groaned and considered hexing her when they were done. "That's…that's utterly-" The last thing he wanted her thinking about was another sodding wizard right now, only she wasn't done.
"Dean snogging Ginny. Those dead rats we had to dissect for Snape's class. Ron vomiting slugs-"
Harry grabbed a hold of her hair and yanked her face back to his, smashing his lips over hers. "That," he growled fiercely, "will do."
The vixen that was his shook with light laughter, her responsive lips immediately roaming over his with fervor. Slowly, soon as he felt safe enough to make this last for her, Harry began to move again. And this time….
It did. Harry groaned, moaning against her neck, Kaylens lips attacking the side of his. Her fingers raked down his back, her hips pressing up against his for every time his pressed down, the fact that they were together, doing this…
Hell, Harry was fairly certain he'd died. Voldemort had obviously killed him and he'd gone straight to the damn hereafter.
They were no longer taking their time, no longer moving slow, Harry moving urgently with her, their movements chaotic, frenetic, wild. He wanted her, he was having her, Harry's mouth seizing hers, claiming her lips as the sodding feel of her form drove him closer, closer to the damn edge, Kaylens moaning against his mouth in kind. The possessive feel assaulting him allowed him to claim her, her fingers clutching at him, raking their way down his shoulders, Harry knowing he would not be able to stop as his name fell from her lips-
He was groaning her name, a pulsating pleasure rising-
Something exploded within him.
The electric jolt swept through them both, seizing them, sizzling against his skin as her magic released with his, a burning hot coil in his gut…
Harry slumped against her, breathing hard, Kaylens head leaning tiredly back, eyes closed as they desperately tried to reclaim well needed air in the now hot, steam-filled locker room.
With a groan Harry reached out a hand, lazily making a motion that sent the showers all wandlessly turning off, the constant sound of the water being wasted ending abruptly. Now all he could hear was the crashing storm outside and Kaylens panting.
Shoving himself up on his elbow, looking at her, his chest lurched. Kalliandra's champagne colored eyes remained closed, the non-witch's lips parted as she reclaimed oxygen, gasping for air needingly. Harry's throat tightened, something raw, thick, and unspoken rising up within him.
She was his. She was undeniably, truly his.
Harry swallowed hard, dropping his mouth to her neck to give her more time to begin breathing again, his lips trailing over her skin. The beat of her pulse beneath his lips, the beading sweat upon her skin, the salty taste upon his tongue…
Laying there on the bench with her, kissing her, their mouths eventually found one another's. Harry drug her close against him, arching her back up and away from the wooden players' bench, content to stay here as long as damn possible. There was no talking yet; there was no need.
Harry's mouth roamed over hers, relishing everything about her, kissing her like that until a cold chill swept the room, ice beginning to crackle along the metal lockers.
The realization of what the hell was happening struck Harry like an iron bludger from behind.
A rattling, acrid breath filled the air.
ECOTS
Kally was torn forcefully up and physically off the bench, shoved back and away from the door before she could even process that Potter had stopped kissing her. On her feet, back thudding against a locker she stared, her lips still parted in shock not only from what had just transpired between them, no words yet spoken between the two, but from the sheer shock at what she was now seeing.
Potter's wand flew with harsh haste across the room, slamming into his hand, his back to her, muscles rippling as his entire form tensed. Ice crackled near the barricaded doorway, spreading slowly across the floor, traveling over the lockers and getting closer to them.
The storm outside still raged, the rain pounding down almost hypnotically, the air growing suddenly colder.
Outside there were shadows near the door, a rattling heard.
Harry's voice was a harsh grate in the room's chill air. "Get dressed. Hurry."
A split moment of indecision seized her. "Harry what-"
The sshhh he snapped in her direction sent her lips clamping shut, Kally sucking in a swift breath, her legs suddenly capable of moving on their own accord. Snagging her jeans and dragging them on, Potter was already doing the same with one hand, his entire stance tense. The wand brutally gripped in his right fist remained leveled at the door, never once wavering.
The shadow near the door had stopped, as if hovering just outside, considering something.
Snagging her bra off the stand of strewn beater's bats she struggled quickly into it, snapping its clasp into place, frantically scanning the locker room for their shirts-
"Leave them," Harry grunted edgily, voice unbelievably quiet as he moved backwards towards her. "We've gotta go."
The rattling outside the door had grown louder, another shadow seen creeping beneath the doorway…
The door knob turned.
"Kaylens," Potter whispered urgently, ominously, "think of something happy."
The door was shoved in, the Quidditch bench Potter had barricaded it with – an attempt to prevent their nosy friends from interrupting if they somehow followed – was now the only thing preventing whatever that thing was on the other side from entering.
The door was cracked several inches open, jammed against the bench, the bench wedged between the door and the lockers. The storm's wind battered it, banging it violently against the wooden bench, the entire thing rattling jerkily.
A sudden chill like nothing she'd ever before felt gusted into through the crack, Kalliandra's hair whipping around her face as it struck her, droplets of rain blown in with it, a putrid stench making her stomach seize.
Kally choked, gagging, Potter doing the same directly in front of her, his free hand reaching for her. In her head she could hear a dim screaming…
It sounded like her dead brother.
"Kismet…"
A skeletal hand curled around the doorframe, the glistening grey skin scabbed over, as if it had been pulled from a grave. The lights in the locker room flickered violently.
Hysterical laughter filled the room, Kally sucking in her breath, stumbling a step back, away from the thing attached to that hand instinctively. The laughter was louder, Kally barely able to breath, unable to tell if it was in her head or in the actual room with them.
She could suddenly taste muddy water in her mouth, it choking her lungs, a memory of her face being shoved deep into a puddle as a Death Eater tried to drown her assaulting her-
Her back thudded against the farthest locker from the door, someone's fingers reclaiming hers hard, a familiar voice trying to talk to her.
Kally's breath misted in front of her face, a familiar voice rising out of the shadows and screaming in her ears.
"KIDS GO! GET OUT OF HERE!"
Kally instinctively fumbled for her wand, the one that she could draw with, her breathing ragged. Another voice was still trying to talk to her, to claim her attention, her eyes flickering blearily to him.
Harry was between her and the door, his wand arm leveled at it, the wizard she was with all but ordering her to think of something happy, like puppies.
The out of place demand from Potter was enough for her to suck in a sudden, unsteady breath, her golden eyes blinking at him furiously as some of the haze cleared, an out-of-place laugh escaping her. She could still hear the screaming in her ears, but the shirtless Potter was tightening his hold on her, his hand tightly clenching around hers, the sodding electric tingling his merest touch delivered…
She hadn't realized he'd still been holding her hand.
The door bashed against the bench, the creature outside trying to force it open. It shoved it again, and again, it clanking against Harry's impromptu barricade with a loud thud.
Abruptly Harry's grip released hers, the wizard switching wand hands, his breathing quickening. Kally's was too, the screaming in her head growing so loud…
THUNK.
Potter grabbed onto her hand again, fingers curling tight.
THUNK.
The creature attempted to shove the door in. The room's temperature dropped further.
THUD.
The breath in front of her face misted, crackling on the air as soon as it was breathed.
THWUMP.
The door opened a smidgeon more, the blackened afternoon revealed, the storm having robbed it of any lingering light. The hand extended in farther, a raggedy cloak draped from its arm.
"Kally…something happy," Harry grated, voice vibrating lowly, roughly.
Swallowing, she clenched her eyes shut, doing what he said unquestioningly as the screaming in her mind grew louder. Something happy. Something happy.
Harry. Not Potter but Harry. What they'd just done. The way he'd sodding felt. The way he'd held her, looked at her, been willing to stop if she only said, just to protect her.
THUNK.
He'd always watched her back, even when he'd hated her, the thought…leaning against the lockers, head spinning, she felt something warm stir inside her.
The screaming in her head grew marginally less.
THUD.
The fact that he loved her.
The next thud was followed by a loud grating sound, the smashing of the Quidditch bench toppling over and breaking against the floor as the door flew open, the wind and rain hurtling in.
Silhouetted within the doorway floated a hooded thing in black, grey, slimy hands sticking out of the sleeves, a rattling sound filling the air, as if it were trying to suck in something more than air from the locker room.
It took her a second to react.
It didn't for Potter.
His wand violently slashed through the air, words erupting from his throat like an explosion. "Expecto Patronum!"
A silver light flashed out of it, shifting into the form of a stag, its head suddenly bent, charging the floating creature with its horns leveled malevolently at it. The creature shrieked in response, flying backwards, out the doorway as the stag collided with it. The sound echoed against the metal lockers, the sound so terrible, so awful that she didn't realize she was screaming herself.
"Kaylens, COME ON!"
Harry grabbed her arm and brutally shoved her, it taking that to shake her into action. The screaming in her head, the pressure in the air…
Happy thoughts…
One step, followed by a second-
Harry kissing her.
Suddenly she could move, Kally bolting barefoot after Potter. He snared her hand as they ducked through the debris now surrounding the locker room door, bolting out into the squall. The rain pelted them sideways, Kally ducking her head as their feet pounded against the mud-laden grass, Harry shouting something to her that she couldn't hear.
The screaming was back inside her head again, shadows swooping down towards them, swarming-
Potter slid to a halt, grabbing her around the waist to stop her, his wand aimed, leveled, already bellowing the same incantation. The entire Quidditch field lit up violently, as if a game announcer had flicked on silvery game spotlights, a half dozen of those things in the air revealed, the silver stag flying forth from Potter's wand and charging them, lunging back and forth, staying in between them and those things.
"Something happy Kaylens!" he bellowed, turning in a circle, hauling her with him, shouting it again. "Happy!"
He was hauling her, tugging her with him, the two bolting through the rain together. The icy rain pelted against her bare skin, her bra her only covering, shirt abandoned somewhere in the attacked locker room. Potter's hand was gripping hers like a lifeline, Kally clinging to him-
The shadow slammed into them like a battering ram.
Her fingers were torn from his, that thing barreling in between them with the force of a wrecking ball, throwing them in opposite directions. Kally slammed into the ground, an unbidden scream escaping her as she tumbled, sliding across the wet grass, her nerve damaged shoulder screaming as she slid on it.
She landed face down in a puddle, mud slung into her eyes, wand having flown from her grip, slickened as it was from the pounding torrent.
Kally was coughing, choking on water. Harry was bellowing in the background, shouting her name. Wiping the mud frantically from her eyes as she gasped, her vision stinging, her head darted up from the ground in time to see the shadows swarming over Potter in such numbers that his form disappeared beneath them.
It was like an icy hand had shoved its way down her throat, into her chest. "HARRY!" She was screaming. She was screaming incoherently, slipping in the mud as she frantically tried to get up.
Lightning flashed overhead, the pitch illuminated in frightening clarity, Kalliandra's eyes catching upon her wand sinking in the mud.
She threw herself at it, fingers snaring upon the hilt, a sudden sensation rising within her, a tingling attacking every inch of her body.
Being hit by lightning may have felt like what happened next.
A streak of golden light flew out of the wand's end, crackling like furious electricity, cracking in the night. The rebounding force sent her body slamming back against the wet pitch, vision black.
Kalliandra gasped, trying to breath. Palms sinking into the mud, hair slung in her eyes, Kally looked up from the wet pitch, her vision blurred.
She never saw the figure in black, lowering its hood.
ECOTS
He slammed into the ground with enough force to drive the wind remorselessly out of him, Harry coughing and choking on rain and mud.
A half dozen shadows barreled down from the sky at him, slamming into him repeatedly, driving him into the mud with brutalizing force again and again. Through the onslaught a slimy, scabbed hand seized him by the neck, tearing him up through the hoard of swirling cloaks, yanking him roughly towards it.
Its hood was already lowered, a gaping black hole that used to be a mouth snaring onto him.
Choking, water slung from his wand as he gasped, trying to conjure the Patronus, an icy thickness filled his lungs, something being sucked from him. "Lily! Lily take Harry and run!" A rattling breath sliced through the night, terrorizing his ears, Harry choking as it tightened its fingers around his throat, the necrotic stench of death assaulting him.
He could hear his mother screaming, things starting to go black.
A second dementor's hood had dropped, latching onto, sucking at Harry's face. He couldn't breath-
Behind him Kaylens screamed.
A crack tore through the night, a searing golden light sending the creature's arm snapping off his throat, leaving Harry on the ground again, gasping, feeling like part of his lungs had just been sucked out of him and then spat back in.
Kaylens was screaming louder. Louder.
Her scream suddenly stopped.
Kaylens.
Panic tore through him. He hung on to her name like a damn lifeline, things swarming around them as he heaved in breath after choking breath.
He was in love with her. She was in love with him back.
She was his and they would not take her from him.
Harry choked on the rain, spitting, "Expecto Patronum!" powerfully out, the stag bursting forth, silver light sending the dementor's scattering. Holding it, his arm shaking as he screamed, struggling to maintain it, he clung to his damn happy thought. He could see dementors attacking the castle, swarming it, silver patronus charms firing out of castle windows, erupting from near the castle doors…
The stag circled him, staying between him and the dementors, Harry turning and sliding in the rain to try to find Kaylens.
What he saw sent his heart lurching, something unbelievably sick welling up within him.
Kaylens was collapsing, a dementor's mouth plastered over hers, sucking on her.
It happened faster than he could react.
Silver light practically exploded from his wand's end, the blaring light so damn bright he physically couldn't see what happened beyond the faintest form of another stag charging the dementor attacking her.
Harry was running, screaming her name.
When the silver light cleared he'd already reached her, silver lights erupting behind him over the Quidditch pitch, the dementors scattering as reinforcements from the castle arrived.
Kally was on the ground.
Harry's knees slid in the mud, grabbing onto her, his stomach lurching into his throat. His hands were on her, shaking her limp form frantically. She didn't move. Something was strangling him, an invisible dementor having a vice on his throat and sucking all the air form his lungs. She was too still.
The rain pounded brutally against his bare shoulders, Harry's hand already pressing against her chest, "Ennervate," desperately hissed. Behind him pounding feet could be heard, one of the Americans bolting past, chasing their own patronus and bellowing like a maniac, Neville hot on his tail.
"Harry!" Neville shouted, lights erupting farther and farther across the grounds, silver spells from the castle's defenders all fighting back.
A haunting howling, like ghosts in a storm, could be heard.
Harry barely heard any of it. He'd wetly drug Kaylens against his chest, his hand on her face, smoothing wet hair away from her nose, from her mouth, making sure she could breath.
"Kaylens!" he croaked. "Kally! Please…"
She didn't respond, her wand falling limply from her fingers, sinking into the mud.
Author's Note: So what do you think? (Not the best at romance so writing this scene was a bit of a pain in the rear.) Also, please try not to kill me for any and all cliffhangers, the next chapter will be out relatively soon.
