Darkened Lust

Part Two

\"We need to figure that out...\" Becca finished, \"But, first, I think we should all sit down and relax for a bit.\" She flicked the lights and walked towards the kitchen, calling as she did so, \"Professor? Sir? Would you care for a drink?\"

\"Nothing alcoholic in this house, I\'m afraid.\" she continued. \"Let\'s see, we have Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Coke...and water. Looks like they got rid of the milk and everything else perishable before they left.\"

\"Water will be fine\" Snape replied absently as he explored the house. Large living room, large kitchen, hallway, two bedrooms. Becca found him in the doorway of her brother\'s room staring in bemusement at the jumble of electronics inside. There was a small \"path\" from the door, to the computer, to the bed.

Seemingly every other square inch was filled with computer equipment, video game systems, a television, dvd players, vcrs, guitars, amps, pedals...and other things she couldn\'t begin to name. \"Tell me\", Severus said in a strangled voice, \"tell me that I don\'t have to sleep in this room.\"

Becca hid a smile. \"No sir. You can use my parent\'s room. It\'s just as small but not quite as full.\"

Looking across the hall at the other bedroom, Snape nodded. \"Acceptable. Except that the bed is rather...small.\"

Ami had joined them in the hallway after helping herself to a soda. Peering into Face\'s room, she said, \"Sir, Becca & I don\'t mind sleeping in her brother\'s room. I know that we\'re used to electronics.\" She took another look inside. \"Maybe not quite this much in this little space,\" she said humorously, \"but at least there\'s nothing on the bed itself.

\"What is your brother, anyway?\" she whispered to Becca, \"a nerd or a rock star?\"

Becca laughed. \"A bit of both\" she whispered back.

\"If you ladies have quite finished?\" Snape inquired. The looked at him in chagrin, \"I know this...metallic mess...doesn\'t bother you. However, I don\'t feel quite safe about having the two of you away from my side for the entire night.\" He waved his wand at Becca\'s parents\' bed.

The night-tables moved over each about a foot as the bed expanded, going from a full size to a king. Snape looked satisfied and put away his wand. \"That should accomadate us all, don\'t you think?

\"Now, Miss Middleton...about that glass of water?\" He swirled around and went back to the kitchen, leaving Ami and Becca staring at each other in utter confusion. He wanted them to sleep with him? They wouldn\'t be safe if they didn\'t? Or had he meant that he wouldn\'t be safe? Did sleeping with him also mean...

What had they gotten themselves into?

Ami was the first to speak and her voice trembled, \"Becca...are you thinking what I\'m thinking?\"

Blinking, Becca looked from the bed, back to her friend and replied, \"Oh, god...\" she said, \"He wants us to...sleep with him...\"

\"Yeah, but...\"

\"He wants us to SLEEP WITH HIM!\" Becca stage whispered, \"Do you think he means...?\"

\"That we\'re going to end up doing the horizonal bop?\" Ami asked as her friend winced. \"Nice choice in wording, there, girl.\" Ami shrugged, but her carelessness was belied by the blush staining her cheeks. \"It\'s what we\'ve always fantasied about, isn\'t it?\"

\"That was just talk, Ami!\" Becca said, her eyes wide as she stared at Ami in utter shock, \"This...this is real! It\'s not a fantasy any longer!\"

Walking over to her, Ami asked, slowly, \"Are you scared?\"

It took a moment before Becca could answer, her blue eyes downcast; \"Yeah...\"

\"Me too,\" Ami said, \"But, I trust him. Don\'t you?\"

This time, Becca looked her friend in the eyes, \"Of course, that\'s never been in doubt.\"

\"I know that whatever happens between us,\" Ami said, \"No matter that I\'m trembling like a leaf at the idea of sharing a bed with him...and not all from fear, either...I know he\'d never harm us.\"

\"Yeah,\" Becca said, \"I just...Oh, wow... I guess...\"

\"He makes me neverous too,\" Ami grinned, \"Do you think he practices that or it just comes naturally...? Making people ill at ease?\"

\"Oh, I think it\'s a gift!\" Becca laughed and added, \"I\'d better go get that water!\"

Ami followed Becca out of the bedroom with one last look at the newly adapted bed, towards the kitchen, where they found Severus waiting.

Becca stopped, and pulled Ami back into not her parent\'s room, but her brother\'s. \"Am I the only one who feels guilty?\" she asked.

\"About our families, you mean?\"

\"No. Maybe it\'s horrible, but I don\'t feel guilty about that. We know we\'re going back, we know we love them.\" Ami nodded. \"It\'s that Snape is clearly in desperate trouble, he needs our help, and the biggest question on my mind is whether or not he...we...\"

\"Are we going to get to fuck him?\" Ami finished.

Becca smiled. \"I guess it\'s not just me.\"

Ami snorted. \"After that little show with the bed? No. It\'s not just you.\"

\"Let me put an end to this as of now,\" Snape said from behind them. Both women jumped in surprise, Becca moreso than Ami because he hadn\'t made a sound. If asked, she would have said that no one one earth could have walked through that hallway without her knowing it. She had spent her first eighteen years in this house, knew it like she knew her own body. But she hadn\'t heard a sound from him.

\"Though you are muggles, neither of you are stupid. Therefore I did not think I had to spell it out for you. Obviously I was wrong. So...listen closely. Take notes if you must.

Both of you are going to find out how truly sexually depraved I am. If that isn\'t clear enough, let me put it more bluntly.\" He looked at both of the piercingly. \"I want to fuck both of you, and I fully intend to.\" Without further warning he jerked Ami into his arms, kissing her deeply. Cupping her rear he molded her against his body and thrust his hips gently against hers.

He released her just as suddenly, and she sank against the doorway for support. He then turned to Becca, subjecting her to the same treatment. His kiss was almost brutal, her mind was flooded by images of him tearing her clothes from her body and plunging into her, and she wondered if Ami had seen the same things in her mind.

As he released her, she was only able to keep from crumpling to the floor by grasping her friend\'s shoulder, feeling a comforting hand on her arm.

\"In any case, I\'m glad to see there will be no jealousy between you,\" he remarked. How could there be? Becca thought. If someone handed one of us a check for ten million, telling us we could only have it if we shared it with the other, would we be jealous?! Not likely!

But Snape was still talking. \"...and if we have gotten the important matters out of the way, perhaps we could finally have that drink and discuss the much less interesting problem of ensuring my safety?\" Both women blushed at his sarcastic tone and this time meekly followed him to the kitchen.

\"Uh...yeah...\" Becca mananged, still hanging onto her friend, \"R-right away...sir...\"

Severus snorted and cocked a brow, \"I think we can dispense with the formalities at this point, don\'t you agree, Becca?\" he sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, crossing one leg gracefully over the other and folded his arms across his chest. He looked like a man who had complete control of the situation...and knew it. \"After all,\" he went on, \"I did just have my tongue in both your mouths.\"

Severus smiled to himself as both women blushed. They had such fair skin that every flush was so pronouced he could have probably seen it from miles away. He found himself enjoying the way they looked when flustered. Becca composed herself enough to fetch the water for Severus, her fingers fiddling with the tap to turn it on, her hands were still a bit shakey.

Ami leaned against the kitchen doorjam and reached a hand up to shove her hair from her face, \"Si...Severus, I don\'t know much about the wizarding world, but in the muggle world, we do have such things as protective...well...charms and spells...for lack of a better word.\"

Severus forced himself to stay objective, but couldn\'t resist retorting, \"Muggles do not understand magic.\"

\"N-not wizarding magic, no,\" Ami said, as Becca handed him a glass of icewater and took a seat next to him, listening intently, she wondered just where her friend was going with this, \"Our magic is more...subtle...there are actually several spells one could do to prevent people from intruding psychically and sending out negative energy.\" She paused, looked at him and shrugged, \"It\'s not as strong as your magic, of course, but I just thought...\"

\"That the old adage; \'two heads are better than one\' applies?\" Severus asked, looking contempulative for a moment, \"Hmm...combining wizard with muggle magic...that might actually be good idea, Ami...\"

\"Will that strengthen the wards against detection and whatnot?\" Becca spoke up and Ami grinned at her, for her friend was a clever one to understand what she was getting at. Severus replied to them both; \"There is a way to make this house completely unmappable as well,\" He took a sip from the water, swallowed and set the glass down. His fingers wet from the condisation of the liquid on the glass, \"To muggles as well as to wizards...Ami, you and Becca get started with the muggle end...and...yes?\"

He had stopped speaking because Ami was looking at him with a question in her dark brown eyes. She pushed her glasses further up her nose and said, softly, \"I...w-we need some things...for the spell...\"

\"I can provide you with whatever you happen to need,\" he said, \"Speak up, if you would.\"

Turning her gaze inward, Ami stuggled to recall the last time she\'d preformed the protective spell and the items she\'d used. At last, she spoke up, listing things off as if she were tallying items to buy at the market for supper.

\"I\'ll need a mirror, one black candle, one white candle, and some cinnamon, frankincense, gardenia, or sandlewood incense. Oh...\" she turned to Becca, \"I\'ll need to find dig a small hole in the ground...is it all right to use a small area of the woods around your parent\'s house? I promise it won\'t be a large hole, just small enough to bury a bit of candlewax.\"

Severus nodded. He recoginsed the spell as a simpler form of one he\'d seen preformed countless times at Hogwart\'s, with stronger elements of wizarding magic blended in. Remembering he\'d left his wand in the other room, he summoned it now; \"Accio wand!\" and, within seconds, cast another spell. Ami and Becca watched as the kitchen table was suddenly filled with all the items Ami had listed.

\"If I am not mistaken,\" he said, gesturing towards the items, \"The muggle version of the protective spell must be cast for three nights straight.\"

Ami nodded, \"After which we have to bury the burned-down candles. So, Becca, is it all right to dig a hole in the woods?\" She finished.

Becca snorted. \"You forget my parents have a grandchild. Dig a hole in the backyard; they\'ll just think he did it. This kind of stuff is your forte, after all.\"

Becca noticed that Severus was finished with his glass of water and atuomatically reached to pick it up. Before her fingers could close on the glass, Severus\'s closed around her forearm. She looked into his eyes, feeling the crawling sensation in her skull that was quickly becoming familiar.

\"There is one thing I do not know.\" he said. \"I have tried to find the answer in both of your minds, but you are guarding it well. I can\'t find it without hurting you. I don\'t want to do that...\" The regretful tone of his voice, however, left little doubt that he would if he had to.

\"What do you want to know, Severus?\" Ami said in a guarded tone, distracting him from his probing of Becca\'s thoughts. He released her arm and Becca groped for the other free chair and sat down, breathing hard.

\"How did two American muggles find a British wizard?\" he asked. He noticed that neither woman would meet his eyes now, and for the first time looked very secretive. \"Every time I\'ve tried to find the answer, all I can see in either of your minds are the words \"Harry Potter\"...in a very distinctive print.\"

Now Ami and Becca were looking around at everything in the room except him and each other, both looking more ill-at-ease than ever. \"What does Harry bloody Potter have to do with how you were able to find me?\" he spat out. Still recieving no answer, he went on. \"One thing more, mostly in your mind, Rebecca. The words \"Dark Tower\"...and a field of roses.\"

\"Severus...I...we...\" Rebecca trailed off and hid her face in her hands.

\"There are hours yet before nightfall and time for Ami to work her magick, my pets.\" His voice had become silkier, yet more threatening. \"Hours in which I could find the answers for myself. But as I\'ve said, it\'s apt to be a painful experience for you both. Save yourselves the pain. Tell me.\"

Ami took Becca\'s hand and looked into her eyes. \"Go ahead. You figured it out, after all.\"

\"You made it work!\" Becca replied defensively.

\"My patience is wearing thin.\" Severus remarked to the air.

\"All right!\" Becca snapped, evidence of her distress. She knew this would come up, but she hated the idea of telling Professor Snape that in the muggle world, he was legend. To a lesser degree than Harry Potter, of course, but still quite famous.

Also that, despite his fame, not a muggle alive besides herself and Ami had ever believed him to be real. Coming to a decision, she muttered, \"Excuse me\" and went to her brother\'s room. She came back with a large book and an audiobook cd. Handing them both to Severus, she said, \"This is how we found you.\"

He looked at the items. The smaller one had the words Harry Potter and the Sorceror\'s Stone, the book\'s cover read Stephen King--The Dark Tower VII--The Dark Tower. \"Explain!\" he growled.

Fearfully, she told him how both she and Ami had been reading the books about Harry Potter for years, that the last one released had ended with the death of Dumbledore and Snape\'s flight from Hogwarts. A woman called Rowling was the author, and the books were hugely popular.

\"Someone is writing about my life?\" he asked incredulously. Not exactly. It was fiction, this Rowling woman thought she had invented everything. However, after many many readings of the other series of books, The Dark Tower, Becca had realized that King wasn\'t just making things up, that every book written, characters created, actually existed in an alternate reality.

She was still unclear on whether they existed before the authors began writing, or if the authors were unknowingly recieving \"messages\" from places and beings that already existed. In his case it mattered little. To himself, the wizarding world, and to his two muggle admirers, he was perfectly real. In any case, once Becca had convinced Ami of this fact, it was with Ami\'s knowledege of magick, that had found or created a doorway into his world, the same one he himself had come through to find them.

\"Why did the two of you guard this so well against me? Did you think it would hurt my feelings?\" he smirked, \"to find out that your world doesn\'t believe in me?\"

Ami looked at him with a nakedly fearful expression. \"No, Severus. It\'s that there is one more book to come. And there\'s the big possibility that you will die in the final book.\"

To his astonishment, she had tears in her eyes. Glancing at Rebecca, he saw the same expression on her face. Against his will he was touched by their concern and devotion.

Rebecca spoke up then. \"And we learned in the Dark Tower series that an author cannot be persuaded to change the ending of a book...because they don\'t know themselves how it will end until it does. So, we\'re afraid for you.\" She burst into sobs.

\"So, there are ruddy books written about Harry Potter?\" he snorted in a half chuckle, his dark eyes narrowing slightly as he said the name like a curse, \"It shouldn\'t surprise me in the least. After all, The Boy Who\'s Been A Constant Thorn In My Side for six years is a big celebrity in my world, why shouldn\'t he be one in yours as well...?\" His voice faded off in disgust and he grew silent for a long time, taking in everything they just told him, forgetting about his least-favorite former student.

Of course, he\'d heard of alternative universes. There was a room in the Ministery of Magic that sported several...\"gates\" that he knew of. Once, when he\'d been younger, he\'d nearly stumbled into one. And of course, he\'d used one such \'gateway\' to cross over into their \'world\'.

Becca and Ami waited, as he continued to look inwardly, seeming more and more ill at ease. Ami had taken her glasses off and was swiping at her eyes. Her chin quivered. When he finally spoke, it was a in tone that was more...tender...than either of the women had ever heard him use before.

\"Ami...Becca,\" he stepped across the room and pulled Ami over to sit in the chair next to Becca, \"My...story...hasn\'t ended yet,\" he loathed to think that his life was merely the imaginings of some creative muggle woman and that his fate rested with her, \"Until the time comes that one day some muggle\'s penstroke will loosen me from the mortal coil,\" he cringed at the words, \"I will continue on as I have.

When it is my time to go, it is my time to go. I...we have too much to accomplish yet...\" he paused, and cocked a dark brow at them both, \"Besides, it is just a possibility that I may...perish...in the next book,\" he ignored their muffled cries of alarm, and went on, \"I refuse to live in fear...and I want the both of you to promise me that you will not let fear rule either of you as well.\"

He stopped speaking and Becca looked at her hands. Ami was putting her glasses back on. He spoke up, his tone more demanding and less...soft...\"Promise me!\"