Harry rolled over and groaned as he gained consciousness.
He remembered drink, a lot of it.
He groaned again and racked his memories for what had happened yesterday. The last thing he remembered was Severus leaving him in the bathroom.
Harry slid down the cubicle wall.
What had Severus meant? Harry barely dared to believe that it meant Severus had been thinking about Harry as much as he had been thinking about him.
But what if Severus never wanted him like that again, and now Harry had had Severus near him he craved more. If Severus had meant what he had done why had he left like that?
Harry left the bathroom, his heart balancing precariously on his emotional tightrope.
The second he left and saw Severus his heart fell and plummeted to the region of his toes.
Severus had another man pinned to the wall. They were kissing fiercely and neither pair of hands could be seen as they were fumbling under clothing.
Harry looked at the ceiling and blinked. He hated it when bits of dust got in his eye.
He had no one to talk to, he didn't want to dance with anyone else, he didn't want to even get close. He could still feel Severus' breath tingling on his skin.
He sauntered over to the bar and got a drink of whiskey. He downed it and got another, and another.
Harry's memory began to get fuzzy after that. He racked his memory.
Maybe a few more drinks.
He stumbled over to Hermione, a drink clutched in both hands.
"How's it goin'?" he slurred.
"Good," Hermione replied, "People loved the music; we've already been invited to 5 more gigs. Enjoying yourself?"
"Having time of me life," Harry hiccupped.
He looked across the room; Severus was with a new guy, dancing close to him in the middle of the dance floor. Harry could almost see their body friction.
"What have you done so far?" asked Hermione.
Had she been probing? Harry was too drunk at the time to tell.
"Drinking, dancing," Harry said absently, his concentration wondering as he tried to figure out where the stranger ended and Severus began.
A man approached the DJ desk. Toni removed her mixing headphones and bent down to talk to him.
"Do you have 'Push the Button'?" he shouted over the music.
"What was that?" Toni shouted back, "I can't hear you,"
"Sugarbabes – Push the Button!" he shouted again.
"Lostprophets – 'For all these times?' Great choice sir," Toni smiled at him.
The man tried to say something but Toni had put her headphones back on. He turned to Hermione but she seemed to have gone mysteriously deaf.
He turned away looking slightly disgruntled. He was immediately picked up by Severus, who had moved on again.
"She suffers from selective deafness, poor girl," Hermione told Harry, "And I'm sure it's not healthy for a man to go through that many orgasms in this amount of time," Hermione continued nodding at Severus.
Harry tried not to look too bothered, but turned away to get another drink.
It could have been his drunken mind but he could have sworn he heard a 'yes' and a slap of hand behind his back, but when he turned around Toni was mixing again and Hermione was flicking through the CD rack.
All he remembered after that was Severus, dancing, drinking, against the wall, going to the bathroom, with countless men.
Harry buried his head in the pillow and waited for his headache to settle enough to get up.
SSHP SSHP SSHP
Harry was making a strong cup of coffee when the door bell rang.
He slouched over to it and yanked it open, glaring at Frizz on the threshold.
"Oh, you're up. I thought you might still have a hang over. Not that I called to spite you or anything. It's just that I was wondering if you wanted to go skiing with me, but not, you know, if you still have a hang over. But if you don't I thought it would be fun to go together again, because it was quite fun last time, well, I thought it was, I don't know if you did,.
"Yes, I'll come," said Harry quickly before she could continue. He needed to get out, to clear his head.
"So what did you think of the party last night?" asked Frizz as Harry pulled on some trousers and grabbed his skis, "I mean, like, apart from the fact it got you that headache this morning – apart from that did you have a good time?"
"I don't know."
"What kind of answer is that?"
"I don't know," Harry slammed the apartment door and they started toward the ski lift.
"What's up, Harry? You're so down. You're thinking about something."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are. If you had your mind on the present you wouldn't have let me watch you get dressed, you would have fussed like a little girl."
"I am not like a girl."
"And there will be no distracting me either. I promise I won't go off on a rant in the middle."
"Leave me alone! I want to keep it to myself, back off!" Harry shouted at her, stopping in his tracks.
"Let's play a game," Frizz turned around and grinned at him.
Harry was thrown but continued to walk beside her.
"It's a 'What do you think?' game. I say a word and you say what you think of it, and then you say a word and I say what I think. It's a good way of getting to know each other better."
Harry narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything.
"I'll start... what do you think of... Lord of the Rings?"
Harry thanked his lucky stars for his Muggle upbringing. Maybe this would keep Frizz at bay, plus it might be quite fun. He would just have to be carful not to let any magical words slip.
"Overrated, but still quite good. What do you think of ... Kids?
"Unrivalled pain. Dogs?"
"A force to be reckoned with." Harry had never forgotten the time Aunt Marge's dog had chased him up a tree, "What about rugby?"
"Lots of muscled men running around in tight shorts trying to jump on top of each other. Paris Hilton?"
Harry racked his brain, that name had been quite recent... where had he heard it?
"No, I take that back, I want to ask you a different question."
Harry made a silent prayer in his mind.
"What do you think of Toni?"
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
"Hey, no fair!"
"Oh yes it is."
"I don't want to play!"
"Go figure. You can't be that much of a wimp, can you?"
"I will not be called a wimp."
"You just were."
"I'm not a wimp."
"Prove it,.
What harm can it do? Harry asked himself.
"She's funny for sure, and daring, but sometimes you wonder whether it is safe to be near her. Same question right back at you."
"She can be quite mean, but I suppose you have to know when she's joking, but I've never been able to read her, like what she really thinks or feels you know what I mean, like, she'll always express an opinion but I… I don't really know what I'm trying to say- she's a bit like Severus."
"Do the answers have to be that in depth?"
"I just wanted to see if you've noticed the same thing."
"Well, I didn't notice, but now you come to mention it I think you're right. Two Severus's though, I shudder at the thought."
Frizz grinned, "Anyway moving on, what do you think of Hermione?"
"She has a sense of humour but doesn't make that many jokes other people get. I think she would rather curl up in an armchair for a year than stand near the edge of a cliff and when I'm around her I feel as if I'm wrapped in very tight cotton wool. She's the kind of person who would make her children wear helmets in case they bumped their head. Basically the exact opposite of Toni. In depth enough for you?"
"Just about. I guess you're firing the question right back?"
Harry nodded.
"She's so nice, such a sweetie. I only really see her lose her rag with Toni, if you can call it losing it. She kinda wears her heart on her sleeve too, like you Harry, only not quite to your stupid extent,"
Harry let the stupid comment slide, after all it was true."
"Really? I don't think she does."
"I mean she shows her feeling but she doesn't give them out. Like she is wearing her heart on her sleeve only it's chained there."
"Yes, I can see what you mean by that."
"Anyway, now we're into a good old bitching session let's get on and finish it off – what about Severus?"
Why not? thought Harry. Might as well now.
"I hate him but I don't."
"Wow, Harry, I was so confused before but you've cleaned it all up now."
"Okay then, so what do you think of him?"
"He's a man full of mystery and he's a really nice guy when he's not saying anything."
"You're almost as good as describing him as I am."
"I'm sorry, Harry, but no one can beat the description you gave back there."
"Fine, I'll try again... his eyes are really deep, sometime I think I could just fall into them, and the things he says, even when he's trying to be mean he can make me laugh, or feel better. Sometime just seeing he makes my heart skip a beat because now I can forget other stuff when I'm around him. I wasn't going to tell anyone this, but I think me..."
No, not Harry, please, not Harry!
Stand aside you silly girl, stand aside, now!
Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead – have mercy!
Harry felt cold hit him in the face. He was shaking as his eyes shot open, lying in the snow.
"Harry? What's up?"
"Just forgot to take some pills I was supposed to be taking, and I'm still feeling a bit hung over. You do a couple of runs by yourself then come and get me."
"Oh, okay,"
Frizz strode off and got on the ski lift.
Harry dropped his skis and poles. He took off his heavy boots and threw them down and he ran back towards his apartment.
What was that black shape he'd seen in the window? The frosting glaze over the glass gave him a pretty good idea. What if they had found Severus? He had been out when Harry got up this morning, but he might have come back, and with no wand...
Harry sprinted even faster. He ran up the steps and into the stone hall outside his room. He ripped off his socks because they were know caked in snow and making him slip.
He fumbled the keys and ripped the door open, and stopped in his tracks.
Sprawled on the floor was Severus, a small trail of blood dripping from his mouth onto the stone, his black eyes cold and glassy.
Harry was by his side in a second, his hand frantically searching for any sign of life, a pulse, a heart beat.
None.
Harry whipped around as he heard the door creak.
"Mr Potter, how have you been?" came the unmistakable drawl of Lucius Malfoy from the shadows.
Who's the evil bitch who leaves horrible cliffies?
Sorry for bugging you all about reviews before, just been pretty stressed out, but I would just like to say a huge thank you to my reviewers. You have made a very mad old lady a very happy mad old lady.
Another sorry. Sorry this chapter took so long to upload, I was very busy before, and then I stopped being so busy and I got ill so I couldn't write. I can't promise anything, but the updates should be more frequent now.
Anyway hoped you liked the chapter (I know I bloody didn't).