In Need

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Megan sat in front of the fire in Severus\' quarters with Ernie curled up asleep on her lap. She had long since finished grading her papers, gone for a run, helped Madam Sprout in the greenhouses, and distractedly started and abandoned several attempts at playing her violin. In short, she had used up everything she felt like doing to occupy herself, and Severus still wasn\'t home from the death eater meeting that he\'d been called to that night.


Worry gnawed at her as she stared into the flames. Why was it taking so long? What if he had been spotted on the scouting mission to the giants and was now facing consequences? What if he had disregarded Dumbledore\'s wishes to not bear the brunt of the evening\'s torture events and was lying wounded - or worse - somewhere? Megan found it impossible to stop the endless cycle of dire possibilities that ran through her mind as the hours dragged by. It was now long past the time it usually took him to return, and there was nothing to do except wait.


Megan picked up a book and more or less began to read it, one ear to the door and her magic mirror on the arm of the chair.


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It was nearly an hour later that Severus burst through the door and slammed it hard behind him. Ernie, who had been sound asleep, sprang up and darted under the sofa, his ears flat and his tail puffed out like a bottle brush.


Snarling, Severus ripped off his cloak, flung it down onto the floor behind him, and hurled his mask across the room. It smacked loudly against the wall and clattered to the floor. Breathing heavily, he snatched up a decanter with trembling hands and poured himself a drink, but then hurled the full glass at the wall too, roaring in anger that seemed, for the moment, to be beyond words. The dark liquid flung itself out over the rug, and the glass shattered against the wall into tiny crystal fragments.


Until this point, he had given no indication of noticing Megan, but now, with his back to her, Severus ran a hand through his hair and gruffly said, “Go. Now.”


She had watched the whole thing with eyes wide in shock. “Are you kidding me? What the hell happened?”


Severus felt like a thousand demons had been unleashed inside him and, at the moment, had no idea how to get them back under control. One thing was clear to him though - he did not trust himself to remain civil and wanted Megan out of the path of potential misplaced anger. He would never raise a hand to her, but knew all too well how terrible and cutting his words could be when his limits were tested. He stood in the middle of the floor, his hands drawn up into tight fists, and struggled to keep a grasp on his mind and his heart, because tonight\'s meeting had threatened the well-being of both.


It had been by far the worst meeting in nearly two decades. Close to twenty new recruits had been initiated, many of them still students at Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were among them, and had, embracing the inevitable, received their dark marks. New recruits had been trickling in over the last few years, but this meeting marked a turning point in the power of Voldemort’s forces, which were now growing at a more alarming rate than ever before. The mass initiation had given a festive air to the dark forces tonight, and the gruesome revelry it incited was beyond belief.


There was nothing Severus could have done tonight to save the lives of the people brought in as the entertainment, even if he hadn\'t promised Dumbledore not to help them. The acts done to the captured victims, both as whim and as parts of initiation ritual, were unspeakable. It was as though the cruel imaginations of the death eaters strove to create ever more perverse and extreme means of gaining satiation and giving themselves nse nse of power and superiority.


“This is not the time for questions,” Severus hissed at Megan through clenched teeth, and squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to block the memories of the dismembered bodies and what had been done to them.


Megan was torn. She wanted to give him time alone if that’s what he really needed, and at the same time was reluctant to leave him like this. She didn’t want to establish a habit of needing to clear out if he was upset about something, but sensed that this time was different and trusted that he would come to her when he could.


With her brow furrowed, she said, “I really hate to leave you like this… Come and find me later, okay?”


After seeing his slight nod of assent, she went to the door of her quarters and said, “Accio Ernie.” The little cat came sliding out from under the couch, sailed through the air toward Megan, and she caught him gently in her arms. Ernie clung wide-eyed to Megan’s shoulder, his claws digging sharply through her clothes as she went up the stairs. As she got into bed, a very clingy Ernie burrowed under the covers and curled up to sleep behind her knees.


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Severus was relieved by Megan\'s response. In its own way, it helped him to begin to calm down. She hadn\'t cringed away from his temper and had granted him solitude when she understood how much he needed it. After awhile, he realized that even as upset as he was, he didn’t actually want solitude at all - he wanted her. It no longer felt right to keep it to himself, and he sought her out to unburden his heart.


He went up to her quarters and, seeing that it was dark, walked softly over to her bed and whispered, “Megan, please wake up, love…”


But she wasn’t there.


Cursing softly under his breath, Severus raised the lights to look around. She wasn’t anywhere in the quarters, and run running shoes were lying unused in the corner. Ernie, who was curled up on the bed, blinked sulkily up at him. Severus absentmindedly picked him up and scratched him behind the ears as he tried to think of where Megan could be. Her magic mirror was still on the chair where she had left it, so there was no chance of contacting her that way, and he didn’t have the energy to do a more elaborate location spell. Her mind wassed sed off so completely that he was having difficulty sensing it at all - it was her habit to be more guarded than usual when he was at a meeting to fend off the greater likelihood that someone might be able to reach her through him.


With a mixture of pride in her strength and annoyance at not being able to penetrate her defenses when he wanted to, he left to look for her. It really would have been so much easier if he had just noticed the note on his pillow.


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After roaming around the castle for more than an hour - and venting some frustration by taking away liberal quantities of house points whenever he came across students out after hours - Severus finally found Megan in the room of requirement.


She was, to his surprise, engaged in a rather vicious fight with a shadowy figure, and Severus’ wand was at the ready in an instant. But then he quickly realized that it was only a conjured opponent, rather like a more sophisticated version of the golems that she was having her students practice on. Megan, however, was not using her wand at all, having hoped that she could relieve some of her own frustration and insomnia by kicking some fake opponent ass. She and the unknown figure went round and round and must have been at it awhile, judging by her hair, which was falling out of the tie that was supposed to be holding it back, and by the sweat that made a wide dark stripe up both the front and back of her shirt.


Megan noticed Severus come in, and she finished the fight. The shadowy figure lunged at her, its hands outstretched menacingly, and she kicked it squarely in the chest with a hollow thud. It landed on its back, and she held it still with one foot while she took out her wand and evaporated it with a quick incantation. She looked up at Severus, trying to gauge his mood.


“Since when do you practice with shadow opponents?” he asked.


She picked up a neatly folded towel that the room of requirement had considerately included, pressed it to her face, and then wrapped it around her neck. “I’ve been coming up here for awhile. Mostly since you’ve been working on the formula, but I guess really since we’ve stopped doing as much of our own practicing like we used to.”


He was stunned. “Why on earth would you not seek me out for that?”


She walked over to him and he slid his arm around her waist.


“Because,” she said, “you have been busy with the formula - that’s too important to interrupt. Besides, I mostly do non-magical fighting up here and I have never really wanted to practice that with you.”


Severus was insulted. “You don’t think that I would be careful with you? We have always been able to set appropriate limits with magic - what makes you think that I wouldn’t be able to control physical challenges as well?”


Megan smirked at him, copying his trademark look a little too well for his taste.


“Aren’t we the big bad guy?” she said. “If you must know, *I* was actually worried about hurting *you*, Mr.-thinks-he’s-so-tough.”


He snorted incredulously, the darker remnants of his terrible mood evaporating. He put his face very close to hers and said silkily, “We both know how terrifying you really are, Professor Waters. I happen to know that the moment you so much as chip one of your pretty pink fingernails, you will be begging for mercy.”


She pointed a finger (admittedly, a very nicely manicured one) in his face, poked the end of his nose, and said, “You’re on. You name the time and the place, and I’ll be sure to have a bed in the infirmary ready for you.”


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The banter served its purpose and the tension was broken. Both of them were grateful to finally be close after such a difficult evening. Severus pulled Megan into a hug and she rested her head on his shoulder. His hands moved over her still-damp back and he delicately traced the outline of her spine.


“Will you come back down with me?” he asked.


“Yes. How are you doing, anyway? That really shook me up tonight, you know,” she said quietly.


“I am sorry, Megan - I did not want to shut you out. I fear that in certain situations I am still learning how to react. If you will permit me, I would like to share tonight’s meeting with you,” he said tentatively.


“Of course love - we can talk about it whenever you want.”


“No. I think it would be better to show you.”


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They went to Severus’ office, he unlocked a cabinet, and took out his pensieve. Megan watched as he put his wand to his temple and used it to pull a silvery strand out of his head. It dad frd from the tip of his wand, and he touched it to the surface of the pensieve where it was immediately absorbed. The liquidy surface of the pensieve began to swirl, and Severus looked at Megan. “Are you ready?” he asked.


She nodded and looked in, and found herself falling down into a forest clearing.


As she stood there and let her eyes adjust to the dark, Severus appeared beside her. They looked on as the death eaters gathered into a circle and admitted the new members. Megan drew in a sharp breath as she recognized some of her students before they were given their masks, and she walked through the circle to get a better look at them.


The strategist in her thought ahead to the coming battle and tried to note as much as possible, and mentally jotted down questions to ask Severus later. The rest of her cringed in unspeakable horror as the evening’s events unfolded. As she watched the initiation and subsequent torture, she fought back an almost overpowering urge to scream as it progressed beyond belief.


She experienced dread at the thought ofnginnging the Order and its allies here to fight this fiendish army. There would be no mercy and no limit to what the death eaters would do - for them, nothing would be out of bounds, and Megan knew with near certainty that the Order would not be able to emerge unscathed.


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Severus brought them out of the memory, and they were suddenly back in his office. “This one was the worst I can remember in a very long time,” he explained. “It was easto sto show it to you instead of regaling all of that.” He hesitated for a moment. “Also… I think that it will be useful for you to get a feel for the battle site and opponents. But we can discuss that further at another time - tonight has held quite enough already.”


Megan closed her eyes and put her hand over them. “Thank you for sharing it with me, love,” she said quietly.


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Awhile later, Megan and Severus lay next to each other in his bed. They were wrapped closely around each other. Maybe it was in defiance of the chaos and destruction they had witnessed, maybe it was to block it all out, or maybe it was in recognition of reaching a new level of closeness between themselves. Whatever the reason, they found themselves in desperate need of being as close as possible to one another.


He kissed her deeply, his tongue moving over hers. They lay facing each other, and amid whispers of endearment, he breathed in her scent and moved his hands over her warm skin. She draped a leg over his hip, opening herself up to him. They moved against each other in a steady rhythm, and she put her hands on his backside and pulled him in close to her. Her folds spread her wetness as she moved back and forth against his pelvis, and she adjusted her angle to get more pressure where she needed it most.


He reached down and took his erection in one hand and spread her folds open with the other. He pushed just the head of his hardness into her and teased her by pushing and pulling just the very end into her. She made a pleading noise, and he shoved into her all at once, eliciting a gasp. With sure strokes and a practiced rhythm, they moved together.


Severus gently pushed Megan over onto her back and settled over her, pushing her legs wide apart and thrusting into her in increased pace. She pushed back up against him, and began to frantically tell him what he was doing to her and begging him to continue it harder and faster. He drew his breath in sharply as she stopped in mid sentence and began to come.


Drops of sweat gathered on his forehead as he pushed back the darkness and lost himsel her her wet warmth. He was aching for release, and he felt it building. As he teased her sensitive nipples and felt her shuddering in pleasure in his arms, the sensations overwhelmed him and he came. Throwing his head back and crying out, he released himself in jerking spasms into her and collapsed onto her. He rolled them back over onto their sides, still in her, not wanting to lose any bit of contact. She found his hands and twined their fingers together and hooked her ankles around his. She kissed him softly and deeply, lingering over him and needing him.


Megan moved tentatively against him and found that he was still hard inside of her. She slowly, almost dreamily, started to move against him, and he soon joined her. Trading off, she took his shoulders and pushed him flat onto his back and straddled him. She grasped the edge of the headboard for leverage, and rode him, his hardness stretching her opening and filling her.


“Yes, love,” he coaxed in his silken voice as he watched her face express her pleasure.


She leaned over and offered her breasts, which he kissed and sucked as she moved, worshiping her already hard nipples. He put his hands on her most sensitive spots, teasing her gently, and she went over the edge, grinding furiously into him and crying out sharply. Her spasms rippled around his hardness and he pumped faster into her, getting lost, once again, in her. Her cries of pleasure brought him over the edge and he bit down on his lip as he came in her once more.


Sweaty and sticky with love, they stayed wrapped around each other and succumbed to their fatigue.

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Thank you so much to all of you who have been reading, and special thanks to all of you who have reviewed. You totally make my day, plus I love hearing what you think about the story. So drop a line and let me know what you like and what you don\'t like!


lilyadar - Hey there - welcome to the story! Glad you liked the beginning, and I hope that you will enjoy the rest too. Thank you for your insights and sweet comments - I was so pleased to hear about the specifics of your impressions.

deblovesdragon - Tee hee! (Twisting my pretend mustache evilly...)

Maggie - LOL, Thanks! Yeah, there are definitely going to have to be some conversations with those 2... I\'m sort of at a crossroads about it, and it\'s a matter of picking one way or another. (2 options outlined).

Red Writing Hood - Wow! Not to get off track of your comments, but what a cool surprise to hear from you! I have been following your story \"To Love and to Lose\" and can\'t wait to check out your most recent update. You can get pretty mean with the cliffhangers. ;-) But anyway, thanks for reading, and yeah - I hope that V & H can get their heads on straight too.


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