Darkness Falling

Darkness Falling

*

Bloody Reunion

*

"So."

"So."

Lucius and Severus stood there for quite some time, just looking at each other. Then Severus abruptly broke their gaze contact to walk to a nearby door. "This leads to my quarters," he explained while opening the door, turning then to look at his companion over his shoulder. "I'll just get your potion, I've already brewed this week's batch, it only waited to be sent over." Lucius nodded, understanding what he was talking about.

A moment later Severus returned, a steaming goblet in his hands. He handed it to the other man, who downed it gratefully. Putting the goblet then aside, he sat down on a nearby couch. Watching the other man getting seated next to him, he said, "You were surprised to see me here."

"Of course I was," replied Severus, leaning his head against one of the blond's shoulders. "I mean, you are about the last person anybody would expect Dumbledore to help -- and especially the last person to ever accept his help. You haven't been in the best terms with him lately, you know."

"That's what it looked like, isn't it?" answered Lucius, chuckling a bit. "Fortunately Voldemort thought that, too. I've been spying for Dumbledore a few years now -- not to do 'the right thing', mind you, but because I want to be on the winning side, whatever it is in the end. How do you think I got out of Azkaban? It was all Dumbledore. Just like he got you free back then, his word also freed me now."

Severus nodded slowly. Lucius had spent most of the previous year in Azkaban. He'd thought that the man had been released because of the Malfoy name, however, not because of Dumbledore.

"Your hair," said Lucius then, fingering one undeniably greasy lock. "It's going bad again."

"Blame the potion," Severus said with a sigh. "It looks bad, but it's better to be known as the greasy git than as the murderous monster." As he said this, he smirked a bit. "Not that I haven't been many times enough called a vampire, or the giant bat," he added then. Oh, he did know what the students called him.

"You should have called me, you know," Lucius said haughtily, suddenly standing up and taking a couple of steps backwards, away from the couch. "It's not like I would have refused you. I've never done that, and I certainly wouldn't have started then."

"I thought it better not to bother you," replied the dark-haired man with a shrug. "And besides, you spent most of the last year in Azkaban. I hardly could have come to visit you regularly just for a feeding. It was hard enough to get your potion to you, and even that managed only because Narcissa told the Ministry that she'd sue them all if they let you die of lack of blood into your cell."

"Yes, Narcissa is a quite strong-willed woman," Lucius said, smirking slightly. Then he added, "I am here now, though, and here I will stay. There's no reason why you couldn't use me to help yourself."

"But --" Severus still tried to protest, only to find a long, pale finger pressed against his lips as Lucius leant forward, at first silencing him, then pulling him up to his feet.

"Hush," the blond man said, smiling a bit. "You'll soon need your mouth for something else than talking." And with this, he quickly pulled off his robe, then opened his high-collared shirt enough to get it fall past his shoulders. Feeling the other man's hungry eyes on his skin, he smirked as he opened the rest of the buttons purposefully slowly. At last, he had got the shirt entirely off, candlelight flickering on the pale skin of his torso. "All yours," he said, smirking and reaching out his hands. "Come on, Severus, you need it."

He needn't say anything else. His fellow Slytherin sprang forward, unable to hold himself back anymore. Lucius winced a bit as he felt the pair of sharp fangs penetrating the skin of his neck, but soon forgot the pain as the familiar lightheaded feeling of pleasure filled him. Severus sucked greedily, drawing blood from his veins. Oddly pleasurable cool shivers flew through his body, and for a moment he felt like all blood had left him and flowed into Severus's mouth, and he did not care, it felt too good at the same time...

At last, the blond was released from the iron grip of the half-vampire's arms, and warmth returned to his body, although the slight dizziness didn't disappear anywhere. Severus drew back, looking him in the eye, then leant again down to seal the wound with one lick of his now crimson tongue. Then the half-vampire reached up, sharing the taste of Lucius's own blood with him in a morbid, yet oddly arousing kiss.

"Oh," said Severus, not sounding the tiniest bit surprised, when his hand wandered to Lucius's crotch and found something interesting there. "Looks like I caused you a bit of a problem."

"It's not like this was the first time," murmured Lucius before kissing him again. "And it's not like you didn't know how to deal with that problem... or like you didn't have the same problem yourself." With the last statement, he smirked against Severus's lips and pushed his hips against the other man's, finding a similar bulge there. The other man groaned and bucked his hips, pulling him into yet another kiss.

Somehow they managed to get through the door leading to Severus's quarters, then to the Potions Master's bedroom. Discarded pieces of clothing marked their path as they made their way towards the large bed that was familiar to them both. At last they fell down onto the bed, Lucius's taller body on top of Severus's, both completely naked.

"It's been a too long time," murmured the blond, kissing his lover. "Merlin, I've missed you..."

"Then stop babbling and get to it," mumbled Severus, kissing him back. "Don't let the time be any longer..."

And soon they were both lost in their passion.

*

It was a lot later that the two men lay together on Severus's bed, their limbs entangled, Severus's head resting on Lucius's sweaty chest. The half-vampire's pale finger drew tiny circles on the blond's lean stomach while one of Lucius's hands caressed Severus's back. For some time, both were quiet.

At last, Severus spoke up. "We're not getting out of this alive, are we," he said quietly.

"We have to hope so, at least," replied Lucius just as quietly. "Or at least we have to hope that Draco might survive, and the others who don't have the Dark blood so strong in their veins."

"If it goes by that merit," snorted the Potions Master, "then Lupin will be taken down long before us. He must understand that, he's not a stupid man, and still he's just as calm as always."

"It's not like the black skull was the first death warrant the Ministry has given him," muttered the other Slytherin. "He showed me the werewolf ID number on his arm, Severus. I'd always thought that it is maybe some kind of a magical tattoo or a brand, those are painless, you know, but no. It'd been carved into his skin repeatedly until it was scarred so deep into his skin that nothing can ever clear it -- he was five back then. Probably a cloth around your arm isn't that bad after three decades with an engraving on your skin."

Severus nodded slowly. He'd known that life wasn't easy to Lupin, being a full Dark creature and all -- being half that was certainly bad enough -- but it wasn't until now that he realized just how bad it was to the quiet man. He could only wonder how Lupin could take it all and still remain so calm and controlled.

"I hope Dumbledore manages to keep us safe," Lucius sighed. "If everything else fails, I'll take you and Draco and flee to France -- but that won't be easy. Let's just hope that the other countries stop Fudge before he manages to murder us all."

"I doubt that," snorted Severus. "After all, if the other countries' Ministries are just as full of idiots as ours is, we have no hope ahead." Then he snaked out of Lucius's arms and sat up. "I'm going to take a shower," he said, sending a sly glance to his lover's direction. "Would you like to come with me?"

Lucius smirked as he, too, sat up. "Only if I can wash your hair," he said, then added, "several times."

"Shut up, you prick," murmured Severus, then grasped his hand and dragged him to the bathroom.

*