Best Served Cold

Chapter
13

“...Centaurs,” Severus answered dryly, but there was a
slight spark in his gaze that told Sirius just how amusing he found
the idea of Dolores Umbridge being dragged through the Forbidden
Forest by a group of angry centaurs. “It was centaurs. Did
Potter not tell you?”

Sirius laughed heartily. “I'm afraid my near-death experience
somewhat overshadowed it. It just dawned on me that I never did find
out what happened to her in the end. What about the twins' bog?”

Severus tilted his head in an appeasing manner. “I was kept
rather busy handing out veritaserum, wasn't I? I hardly had the time
for cleaning up the Weasleys' practical jokes.”

“I'm so sure,” Sirius answered. “More tea?”

“Please.”

In the months since Severus had said, in no uncertain terms, that
romance would never bloom between them, they had spent several nights
like this one – seated by the fire with tea and cakes. They
had formed a manner of truce based on the honesty between them that
they had never before shared.

Sirius knew this was as far as their relationship would go. Severus
knew there was, for the first time in many, many years, someone in
his life who would miss him if he were gone. Not since Lily had he
felt what it was like to have a friend. Without all the chasing and
evading, they'd reached a certain rapport that fulfilled something
both of them had needed badly: company.

After another half hour of quiet conversation, Severus set his cup
down. “In any case, I really must be going.”

“You should stay, keep me company,” Sirius joked in that
way he had that wasn't really a joke at all.

It ruined the mood. “You know I can't,” Severus answered
seriously.

“I know,” Sirius answered quietly. Here. I'll walk you
out.”

Severus paused at the door. Initiating a conversation here, after
he'd said he had to leave was hardly typical behavior for him, but he
had the strangest feeling – he would call it a premonition if
he believed in such things – that if he didn't say something to
Sirius now he may not get another chance.

“Something on your mind?” Sirius asked.

“Our conversations,” Severus answered. “They have
been...pleasant.”

“Hey, don't say that. You make it sound too much like a
goodbye.”

“Perhaps it is.”

“It's not,” Sirius said confidently.

“Oh? And you have inside information on the matter, do you?”

“Mmhm. Goodbyes have kisses. I won't let you brush me off
without one,” he flirted shamelessly.

“So be it,” Severus replied tersely, and for a moment,
Sirius felt his heart thunder as the other man leaned toward him.

Severus knew how ill-advised this was, but Sirius had a way of
causing substantial lapses in his sanity. He carefully leaned in to
press his lips chastely to the corner of Sirius's delectable mouth.
But Sirius had other plans and tilted his head just so, laced his
fingers into Snape's hair and held him firmly in place.

Severus found it impossible to resist him. He didn't even put up
enough of a fight for show. He simply fell into the kiss, opened his
mouth softly to accept the other man's tongue. He curled his arms
around Sirius's back. If only this moment could last forever. If
only he didn't have to return to Hogwarts, to protecting Harry, and
also – as he'd so sworn – Draco, or to the power struggle
between Voldemort and Dumbledore, which Dumbledore, sadly, was
losing...to playing both sides and truly belonging with neither. If
only he could just let go, fall in to love again, but that was
impossible now, and if it wasn't impossible, it was exceptionally
ill-advised.

When the kiss broke, Sirius pulled back with the most mischievous
smirk on his face. Severus watched the pink tongue dart across his
swollen lips.

“Now, see, that felt quite a bit more like a hello,” he
quipped. “I think you'll have to keep trying.”

“Goodbye, Sirius.”

“Goodnight, Severus,” Sirius insisted, but on
second thought, stopped him again before he could leave. “Sev...”

“Yes, Sirius, things are really that bad, and yes, they are
only going to get worse.”

“And you? Stuck dead in the middle of it all. What's going to
happen to you when it all crashes down? Is there nothing I can do?”
He felt completely impotent, chained to Grimauld Place like this.

“Nothing,” Severus answered.

Sirius accosted him suddenly with another kiss, this one full of all
the passion, worry, and well-wishing he could muster, because it was
the only way Severus would allow him to say those things, not with
words. Severus didn't push him away.

“If things were different?” Sirius asked.

“Perhaps,” Seveurs replied.

Sirius knew that was as close to a yes as he would get and held onto
the man for a few moments longer before letting go with some more
manly shoulder patting. “Take care of yourself, Snape.”
It was all he could do to maintain the machismo. There was something
in Snape's posture that felt foreboding.

Severus managed to maintain his indifference until he made it back to
his quarters. The way his hands shook when he tried to pour himself
a brandy was testament to just how much of an effect Sirius had on
him.

“In a different life, perhaps, Sirius,” he
whispered. “A different world. But I imagine you will come to
loathe me again in the very near future.” He downed the brandy
in one gulp and poured another, with steadier hands this time. Now
was no time to dwell on the man he almost considered loving. There
was work to do and there were preparations that required attention.
There were bonds to sever.

To
Be Continued...