A/N: Sorry this chapter is so late! I had a little bit of writer's block but I think it turned out okay. Just a little warning about some smutty goodness. As always, let me know what you think please!
"Dan, you really don't have to," I said.
"I told you, Slytherins aren't afraid to go after what we want. And right now, I want to pleasure you."
I was in no position to deny him.
He reached down and unbuttoned my shirt, tossing it on the floor. He then quickly shrugged his off of his shoulders and dropped it next to mine, leaving him completely naked. Leaning down, he recaptured my mouth in his. He kissed me passionately and gratefully. I had not noticed that his hands had slid onto my bare chest until a shock pulsed through my body when I felt him roll my nipples between his fingers. He removed his mouth from mine and placed it over one of my nipples. Swirling his tongue over it and sucking hard, he continued to tease my other one with his fingers. He gently tugged with his teeth, sending sensations of pleasure all the way down to my toes and causing my nipple to harden. Satisfied with his work on one side, he switched, capturing my other nipple in his mouth and teasing it with the same pattern of licking and sucking and nipping.
My nipples hard, he brought his face back up to mine and kissed me again. His hand confidently moved down my chest, put paused at my waist. I broke away and looked at him. There was a mixture of desire, uncertainty, and fear in his eyes.
I swept his somewhat sweaty hair out of his eyes and cupped my hand to his cheek. "You don't have to do this, Dan," I whispered gently. My body screamed in protest at my words; I was uncomfortably hard underneath my pants, begging Dan to give me the release that I sought.
"Shut up," he said softly, silencing me with another kiss.
His hand slowly made its way into my pants. He wrapped his large hand around me and used thumb to gently stroke my length in the confined space of my pants. The hand that was not busy in my pants roamed up my chest and began to massage the back of my neck. I wanted nothing more than to rip off my pants and shove his mouth down onto my shaft, but I restrained myself, letting him take this at his own pace.
At a tortuously slow speed, he removed my remaining clothes. First my belt, then my pants, then my boxers. I lay there, completely exposed underneath him as he rubbed his hands around my inner thighs, traveling around my most sensitive area, but not touching it. A pressure was beginning to build inside my abdomen as my body ached for his touch.
Finally, he wrapped his large hand around me and began to stroke up and down, first gently then with more strength and pressure. I tried to control my breath, but it started to come out in ragged gasps of need. "Dan, I'm close!" I managed to cry out.
The words had barely escaped my lips when I felt his hand leave me. My eyes shot open in disbelief. He climbed off the couch and began to rummage through our pile of clothes. Stretched out naked on the couch and throbbing painfully with need, I watched him take something from his pocket and put it in his mouth. He chewed for a second then swallowed, grinning mischievously.
My confusion disappeared when he remounted me and dragged his tongue up my length. Behind the sensations of pleasure, I could feel the tingle of a mint sensation from the sweet he has just eaten. He blew gently on my shaft which was now wet with a mixture of my own pre-come and Dan's saliva. The sensation of his minty breath on me sent shivers of pleasure down my spine.
I saw him smile at my reaction as he kissed my tip and let his tongue trail slowly over my slit. My eyes rolled back in my head and I squeezed his shoulders in pleasure. Suddenly, he took me in his mouth. He managed to entirely consume my admittedly rather large length. He must have absolutely no gag reflex. Impressive.
He sucked and swirled his tongue over me as he pulled up, before plunging back down onto me. Again and again he thrust his mouth down onto me and I could feel my head hit the back of his throat. I tangled my hands through his hair and began to move my hips in time with his thrusts, not wanting the pleasure to stop, but desperately seeking release. I could no longer control the moans that were escaping my lips, but they only served to make Dan go harder and faster.
"Dan, I'm gonna come!" I cried in a constrained voice as all the muscles in my body tensed in preparation for my release.
Dan just moved faster and harder in response, causing me to explode inside him within seconds. My body trembled as my orgasm shot from my core to my limbs. I saw Dan smile as he swallowed.
I was lightheaded as I came down from my high. Pulling Dan back up on top of me, I rolled over and wrapped my arms around him so that we were lying face to face on the couch.
"You learn fast," I said.
"It's because I have a good teacher," he responded.
I kissed him gently on his nose and grabbing the blanket that was draped over the back of the couch, I threw it over us, and we let ourselves drift off to sleep in each other's arms.
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I woke up the next morning to see Dan curled around me. I was lying on my back and Dan had one arm draped over my torso and his head was curled up on my chest. One of his legs had managed to wedge itself between mine. A lazy smile spread across my faces as I recalled the events of the night before. I almost could not believe it but the evidence was literally staring me in the face. The blanket had slipped off of our upper bodies during the night and I greedily ran my eyes along Dan's exposed back. His golden tan skin seemed to have a faint glow that somehow matched the honey scent of his hair. I slowly raised my hand to grab a lock his hair between my fingers.
As I gently played with Dan's soft hair, he slowly stirred.
"Good morning, sunshine," I said softly when he had moved enough for me to know he was awake.
He tilted his head up and peaked at me through half-closed eyes. "Hi," he said, quietly. Carefully disentangling himself from me and pulling the blanket up to his eyes he said, "Did we really… last night…?"
"Mmhm," I responded, smiling. I could tell he was blushing under the blanket, but there was a smile in his eyes as well.
"Oh…"
"Well don't sound too excited," I said, bringing myself to eyelevel with him and scooting closer.
"Its just… are we together now?" he asked.
"Well, do you want to be together?" The idea of being officially with Dan made my stomach do a little flip. I had not seriously considered it until now, but of course I wanted him to be okay with it before I agreed to anything.
"Do you want to be together?" he responded with the same question, giving me a cheeky smile.
"You tell me," I said, poking him in the ribs with one finger under the blanket.
"Phil!" he laughed, flailing his arms and slapping my hand away.
"Are you really that ticklish?" I giggled, surprised at his unexpectedly violent reaction.
"Yes! Don't do that!"
"What? This?" I said innocently, poking him again.
"Stop it!" he laughed, spazzing as much as he had before.
"But you still haven't answered my question," I said. I quickly moved both of my hands to his ribs and began to tickle him in earnest. He squirmed underneath me, his legs jerking back and forth and his arms desperately trying to push mine off of him while trying to keep the blanket from slipping off his body. His loud laughter was infections and I never wanted it to stop.
"Fine! Yes!" He managed to get out in between his fits of laughter.
"Yes, what?" I asked, slowing my hands and allowing him to breathe.
"Yes, I want to be with you," he said looking into my eyes.
I could not keep the smile from spreading across my face. "You really want to be my boyfriend?"
"Yes."
I looked into his eyes and I could see that behind the tears of laughter, there was sincerity.
"Then yes, I would say we are together now," I whispered. I curled my hand behind his neck and brought my lips to his. As our lips moved in perfect synchrony, a sense of wonderment and peace settled over us.
"Phil," he breathed against my lips.
"Yeah?"
"I would still rather not have everyone at school find out about this… about us."
"I understand," I said. "I feel the same way."
"Good."
As I looked at him I saw a mutual understanding. We were comfortable being together, but in such a small school it would be difficult to escape ridicule if anyone objected to our relationship. Though I was not ashamed in any way of being gay, it was easier to not have to deal with the people at school who might see it as wrong or abnormal. Having other people know only made things more complicated for the both of us. I was glad that he felt the same way and I did not need to explain my feelings to him. I made to bring my lips back to his, but he stopped me.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Morning breath," he giggled.
I just rolled my eyes at him but laughter soon spilled out of my mouth and mixed with his in the morning air.
When our laughter died down Dan sat up, throwing his feet over the side of the couch. He stretched and I watched as the muscles in his back elongated, rippling through his perfect skin. He rummaged through the pile of our clothes that were strewn on the floor and pulled on his boxers then his pants. I let my eyes rake shamelessly over his body as he redressed.
"Enjoying the view?" he asked as he turned around and noticed my unabashed stare as he buttoned up his shirt.
"Of course," I said, winking at him.
As he finished the top button, he sat back down next to me on the couch where I was still lying, half exposed. He placed one hand on my chest and said, "Thanks. For last night."
"Anytime. Seriously," I smiled back.
He leaned in and kissed my forehead, his fingers digging into my chest gently, but suddenly pulled back.
"What?" I asked, curiously, seeing a gleam of excitement in his eyes.
"Stay here," he said, getting up and picking up his cloak.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go bring my new boyfriend breakfast in bed."
A smile immediately split across my face. I could not figure out which was more adorable: the fact that he and thought of bringing me breakfast, or his excitement at doing it.
"I won't move a muscle," I said, adopting an upright-seated position and making myself go motionless, and which he chuckled.
"I hope you like toast. I don't know what I'll be able to fit under my cloak."
"Just hurry back," I said.
And with that he slipped out the door.
I figured I should make myself look decent so I relaxed from my motionless position and began to pull on my clothes.
Boyfriend. The word still rung in my ears. I could not believe it. Dan. My boyfriend. I never thought I would be in a relationship at Hogwarts until 10 minutes ago when Dan asked if we were together. I truthfully been perfectly happy being single, but after the idea was planted in my head of being in a relationship, I do not think I would have been happy had he said he did not want to be with me. Again, it dawned on me how lucky I was. Not that I believed in it, but I thought I would have to ask if my stars were aligned during my next Divinations lesson. That could be the only explanation for having the fortune of being in this room, putting my clothes back on after a passion-filled night, and waiting for Dan to return with my breakfast. It was too good to be true.
Dan returned quickly with our breakfast, plopping back down on the couch next to me. As we nibbled our toast, we chatted casually. Even though we had only really met two weeks ago, I found I was very comfortable talking to him. Conversation flowed easily and we had the same sense of humor. He could easily have become my best friend if he were not already my boyfriend.
I learned that he had a brother named Adrian who was a first year. Apparently, they did not get along too well. Dan thought that Adrian was too obsessed with blood and was too intent on redeeming the family of the disgrace of their great grandfather's marriage to a muggle, which muddied their rather pure bloodline.
I told Dan about how I was muggle born and about my older brother who was not a wizard. Dan found it exceptionally funny when I told him that my brother was a lawyer. He tried the word out several times and could not stop giggling. His loud laughter was infectious and we soon lapsed into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
I do not think there could have been a better way to spend that Sunday morning.
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Monday afternoon Transfiguration was a rude awakening. I of course was extremely distracted and could not help but start day-dreaming every thirty seconds. Alex had to poke me in the ribs a few times to get me to focus because McGonagall was beginning to notice. We were still working on vanishing spells but were beginning to move onto bigger objects. McGonagall made Alex bring around a box full of animals for us to choose from. I ended up with a turtle and he had a guinea pig. As we started practicing, I was thankful that I chose a slow creature because it would doubtlessly have been able to escape off the desk because of how little attention I was paying to it.
"Evanesco!" Alex said beside me. His guinea pig squeaked but otherwise had no other sign of being changed.
"Close, Mr. Day," McGonagall said, making her way over to our desk. "Try it with more emphasis on the third syllable though."
"Evanesco!" Alex said again. This time, his guinea pig turned bright purple. He peaked up at McGonagall, clearly worried at his lack of success.
"A few more tries and I think you will have it," she said, encouragingly. "Now lets see you try, Mr. Lester."
I cleared my throat and tried to focus my mind on the task at hand. "Evanesco!" I said, without much conviction. Nothing happened.
"You are not trying hard enough, Mr. Lester," she reprimanded. "Clear your mind. Focus. Mr. Howell always closes his eyes briefly before he performs any advanced magic. Perhaps try that. It seems to work for him."
A shock ran through my body when she said Dan's surname. Even though I had been thinking about him already, it was still odd to hear his name come from someone else. It reminded me of the reality of my relationship with Dan. Since we had departed from the room on Sunday afternoon, everything before had felt like a dream. McGonagall managed to remind me that he was indeed not a figment of my imagination.
"Yes professor," I managed to say.
"Take a second to focus and try again," she instructed.
I had no idea how I was supposed to focus now. I had already been distracted before she came over and mentioned Dan. But now, vivid memories of our night together were coming flooding back and I had to breathe deeply to keep the nature of my thoughts from becoming embarrassingly obvious.
I tried desperately to clear my mind and focus on the task at hand—making the turtle vanish.
"Evanesco!" I said. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.
"Well, I think you need to practice a little more for homework."
I groaned inwardly as McGonagall walked away and Alex gave me a sympathetic look. Remembering that PJ said he was having advanced lessons in Transfiguration, I planned to ask him for help.
Thankfully McGonagall ended class soon after and Alex and I descended into the dungeons together with the rest of the Hufflepuffs. Shortly after we had entered the classroom, the Slytherins followed.
"Today we will be brewing the Draught of Peace," said Slughorn when everyone had settled down. "Mr. Lee, do you know what it does?"
Caspar Lee, a Slytherin who took particular pleasure in tormenting me during Potions, shrugged. "Makes peace?" he suggested.
"Can you be a little more specific please, Mr. Lee?" Slughorn prompted.
"I don't know. Why don't you ask Phil? He always knows everything," Caspar said, snarkily.
I rolled my eyes, not in the mood for another day of the Slytherins' snide remarks.
"Well it seems as though you leave me with no choice but to ask a more qualified student," Slughorn responded with equal vehemence. "And ten points from Slytherin for not being prepared and having done the reading." This made all of the Slytherins who had begun to whisper after Caspar's comment go immediately silent. "Mr. Lester, do you know the answer?"
"It's used to reduce anxiety and agitation," I replied quietly. Though Slughorn had good intentions at reprimanding Caspar, I knew that this would only antagonize the Slytherins further and I was going to have to be wary of my potion potentially blowing up in my face.
"Thank you, Mr. Lester. Ten points to Hufflepuff."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caspar roll his eyes. I did not know exactly what made him hate me so much. I supposed it was just the fact that he was struggling in Potions and I was a lot better than him. Whenever he was having a particularly difficult time with a potion, I knew I had to prepare for him to try to tamper with mine or make me make a mistake in some way. He used my "failure" as a way to distract from his own. The rest of the Slytherins joined in because, well, they were Slytherins, and making peoples' lives difficult was what they did best. I did not resent them for it, but it was greatly annoying and frustrating to be half way through a really difficult potion only to have it rendered unusable by one of their pranks.
"The instructions will be on the board," Slughorn said, interrupting my thoughts. "Now, they are very detailed. Every ingredient must be added in the exact order and amounts specified. If you do it correctly, it should be turquoise blue and have a slight silver vapor coming from it. If you need any help, you are welcome to ask for it. But as long as you have done the reading, it should be manageable," he said, looking pointedly at Caspar who just glared back at him.
I went to the cupboard to gather the necessary ingredients with the other students then came back and lit my cauldron next to Alex.
"I can't believe you haven't challenged him to a duel or something yet," said Alex, referring to Caspar. "Especially after what he did last time."
"He's not worth it," I responded. "And the last thing I want is the rest of the Slytherin house to turn against me.
"Yeah, but if you hurt him badly enough, they would all be too scared to ever touch you again."
I laughed. "Well, they wouldn't be able to either because I would be expelled."
"Oh yeah, that would be a little bit of a problem," he laughed too.
"But if I made it look like an accident, it just might work," I joked.
"That's the spirit!" Alex said, clapping me on the back.
"I can I see it now," I said, pausing in the middle of grinding my moonstone into a finer powder. "I'll hex him in the corridor then I'll put his wand in a statues hand and make it look like be did it."
Alex just laughed at my ridiculous plan. "Yeah, or you could shoot a trip hex his way when he's walking down the stairs and send him and his big head crashing down the stairs."
"That could work," I said, pretending to be debating between the ideas. "But broken bones can be fixed in a heartbeat. I would want something more permanent. Like making his ears vanish."
"What?" laughed Alex. "Of all possible permanent curses you go with ear removal?"
"Well I don't want to be too cruel."
"You really wouldn't hurt a fly would you?" laughed Alex.
"Flies have feelings too!" I pouted. It was common knowledge among my friends that I had a moral objection to hurting any living thing, whether it be a human, an animal, or a plant.
Alex continued to laugh at my expression as I went back to grinding my moonstone. Satisfied with its consistency, I added the required amount to the potion and waited until it turned the proper shade of green then began to stir. When the potion turned blue, I repeated the process, letting it turn purple then pink as described by Slughorn's instructions on the board. Glancing over at Alex, I saw that he was struggling with his potion. It was more red then pink and he was muttering over his cauldron in frustration. This was one of the things I liked about working next to him. He knew I was good at potions but he did not constantly bother me for help when he was struggling as some of the other Hufflepuffs did. Instead, he would do his best to figure it out himself before he asked.
"Try adding a counterclockwise stir," I suggested to him.
He did as I said and the potion suddenly turned the correct color. "Thanks mate," Alex smiled.
"No problem," I responded, adding the syrup of hellebore to my potion. As it began to simmer I prepared my porcupine quills carefully. The directions specified that we had to shake them "vigorously," so I did just that.
Forty minutes later, I had followed almost every instruction perfectly and was three steps away from completing my potion. It was in its most volatile stage, a sickly shade of gray and I quickly prepared the remainder of the porcupine quills. I was solely focused on crushing them into the finest powder as fast as possible when I suddenly felt a sharp burning sensation on my hand. I screamed out in pain and saw that my potion had splashed out of my cauldron and all over the desk. Alex had just narrowly escaped its path and was looking at me with a horrified expression on his face.
"Phil, I think you need to go to the hospital wing," he said quietly. The rest of the room had gone silent at my scream.
Looking down at my hand I saw that it appeared as if the flesh was melting off.
"Professor?" I said, alarmed.
"Yes, go!" he said, looking as horrified as Alex. "Mr. Day, please accompany him."
As I rushed out of the room, I saw Caspar hiding his face behind his friend and shaking with laughter. My anger at what he did distracted me from my pain. I had been so close to finishing my potion and it had been so perfect. Of course Caspar would screw it up just to get back at me for his losing ten points, even though it had not been my fault in the first place. As I sprinted my way to the hospital wing, all I wanted to do was go back to Potions and punch Caspar in the face.
"Some of his potion got spilled on him," Alex explained frantically to the healer.
"Come. Sit," she instructed. "What potion?" she asked, taking a look at my hand.
"Draught of Peace, right before adding the last porcupine quills," I responded.
"I have just the thing," she said, and hurried off.
Taking a closer look at my hand, I saw that it really was a ghastly sight. The skin was bubbling slightly and looked more liquid than solid. I quickly averted my eyes so I would not get sick. The nurse thankfully returned with a bottle in hand and, grabbing my own hand, poured the liquid over my skin. The intense burning immediately disappeared and my skin lost its liquid quality, though it still looked a little deformed.
"Thank you so much," I said, relieved.
"Don't mention it. Just try to be a little more careful next time. I don't have remedies on hand for every injury. Next time it might be a little more permanent."
"So my skin will heal completely then?"
"Yes," she said, bandaging my hand. "Just leave this bandage on for two days and you should be back to normal."
"Perfect."
"I'll bet pushing Caspar down the stairs doesn't sound like such a bad idea anymore, huh?" Alex asked as the nurse bustled away to attend to someone in the bed next to me.
"Yeah, or pushing him off the astronomy tower," I said, darkly. "I'm so fed up with all of their crap! Those fucking Slytherins are going to kill me some day."
"They probably won't get the chance," Alex said, hiding his surprise at my swearing. "I'll bet Slughorn went mental."
"I sure hope so. If they don't have negative points, I'm going to complain to Dumbledore."
As I stood up I heard the whole castle rumble as students began to leave their classes for dinner. Alex and I slipped out of the hospital wing and joined the flow of students down to the Great Hall.
"Alex! Phil!" We turned around to see Carrie's bushy blond hair bobbing hurriedly through the throng of students toward us. Her face was contorted in some strange combination of concern and giddiness. "How is your hand?" she asked.
"Its great. Should be better in a few days, thanks."
"You should have seen Slughorn once you left! He completely lost it! He immediately cleared your cauldron and found a dungbomb," Carrie said quickly. "No one would say who did it so he questioned everyone individually and one of the Slytherins eventually told on Caspar. Slughorn took about a bazillion points off and Caspar pulled his wand on the kid who said it was him, but Slughorn disarmed him and then he took a bunch of more points off and Caspar has detention every night until Slughorn decides to stop. It was mad!"
"Fucking hell, I knew it was Caspar," I muttered under my breath in exasperation.
"At least Slughorn got him though," said Alex.
"Yeah, I guess."
When we walked into the Great Hall, I was still fuming over what Caspar did but I could not help but smile at the sight of the green hourglass being nearly empty and the look of shock that was plastered onto every Slytherin's face. It was almost worth the pain, frustration, and humiliation just to see how distraught their entire house was…. Almost. But knowing that they would all blame Caspar for their sudden drop from first place to dead last made it better. And I was made even happier by the fact that Caspar did not make it do dinner. I imagined him in detention or standing in Dumbledore's office with Slughorn, being forced to explain what he did. Though I knew he would not actually be expelled, I reveled in the thought of him packing his bags and watching Dumbledore kick him out of the castle.
Despite these thoughts, however, I was still rather grumpy when we left the Great Hall after finishing dinner, mostly due to the fact that the bandage on my hand had made it very difficult to eat and it was serving as a constant reminder of Caspar and his irrational hatred toward me. As we walked back to the Hufflepuff common room, I noticed that my bag felt lighter than normal. Glancing inside, I realized that I was missing my transfiguration book.
"You guys go ahead, I'll meet you back at the Common Room," I said, exasperatedly to Alex and Carrie before turning around and trudging back to the Great Hall.
Sure enough, the textbook was right where we had been sitting. Picking it up and angrily stuffing it into my bag, I marched back out of the Great Hall and restarted my journey to the dormitory. Just as I began to descend the first staircase, I heard my name being called out from behind me. The scowl that had been plastered on my face suddenly shattered and was replaced with a smile. I knew that voice.
I turned around to see Dan striding toward me. I could not help but marvel at his perfect features as he approached me.
"Have you seen Slughorn? He said he wanted to have another meeting on Friday," Dan said, smiling at me.
"No I hadn't" I responded. "Thanks."
"How's your hand?" asked Dan, his expression turning concerned.
"Oh, you heard?" I asked, a bitter edge seeping into my voice. "It's alright."
"Look, I'm really sorry for what Caspar did. And I'm sorry that you got hurt."
"Don't apologize. It's not like it's your fault."
"I know, but I just feel like someone in Slytherin should apologize and I know that he's not going to."
"Thanks," I said. Even though his words did not change anything, I felt a lot lighter and it seemed as though the incident in Potions were inconsequential. Just being in Dan's presence, seeing his smile, hearing him speak, made it feel as though a giant burden had been lifted from my shoulders. And the fact that I could look at him and know he was my boyfriend, even if I could not announce it to the world, was like icing on a cake. All I wanted in that moment was to kiss his tender lips, but, glancing around, I saw that there were still too many students out to have any chance at a moment of privacy.
As I walked the rest of the way back to my dormitory, I felt as though I were walking on air. I no longer felt the need to strangle someone; instead, I felt the urge to skip and dance through the corridors. Fortunately, I was able to suppress this urge. But I still could not keep the smile from spreading across my face as with every step I thought of a different aspect of Dan that I adored.