A Tale of Two Men

TITLE: A Tale of Two Men

Author: Lady Sirius

Pairing: SB/SS, HP/RW, HG/DM

RATING: NC17

FEEDBACK: darklove_zorg@yahoo.com

DISCLAIMER: Of course all rights belong to JK Rowling - I would claim Sirius if I could (but alas this is not meant to be!)

OOTP SPOILERS: Yes there are references, so don’t read if you don’t want to know.

DEDICATION: To my glorious, talented and wondrous inspiration - Gary Oldman


Chapter Three

A Bump in the Night


Harry and Ron stared at each other in shocked amazement, frozen in a naked tableau of tangled arms and legs. Swiftly they drew apart, grabbing for their clothes and yanking them on hastily. Just in the nick of time, for the bedcurtains were thrust aside, and they looked up in horror to see...

Dobby, the house elf, in his usual attire of mismatched odds and ends, a goofy grin pasted on his elfish face, looking back at them!

“Greetings, Mr. Harry Potter, sir!” he chirped merrily, “and to you as well, young Mr. Weasley!”


Harry rolled his eyes in exasperation, but was grateful that the interruption hadn’t occurred any sooner than it had, or he and Ron would have been caught in flagrante delecto.

“Dobby is sorry that he broke one of your fine things, Master Harry Potter,” the house elf
continued dolefully, “and Dobby shall put things to right, yes he shall, don’t you never fear about that - “

”Never mind about that!” Harry interrupted impatiently. “What on earth are you doing here in the middle of the night? You’re supposed to be keeping an eye on Sirius. Is something
wrong, Dobby, is something wrong with Sirius? Is that why you’re here?” He was getting scared now, which only made Dobby more nervous.

“No, no, no, sir! Dobby would never let anything bad happen to the famous Harry Potter’s godfather, no sir, indeed not!” Dobby closed his huge eyes and mumbled what must have been some sort of charm of protection in the elven world. “Dobby was told to watch out carefully
for Mr. Sirius Black, and that is what Dobby has done, yes indeed, Dobby atchatching out for Mr. Sirius most carefully. As is Winky. She watches too, except when she is drinking. Which is too much, Dobby is afraid, even though Dobby warns her not to be careless, but she does not listen to Dobby, Winky doesn’t, and sometimes she...”

“Dobby!” Harry roared in irritation, attempting to focus the rambling elf’s attention on
the matter at hand, “Dobby, what is it then? Why are you here in the middle of the night, interrupting my, er, my, uh sleep....” His voice trailed off momentarily and he felt Ron sniggering on the other side of the bed.

Dobby dropped his eyes, shaking his head in slow sad circles. He sighed heavily, tsk tsking for several minutes, causing Harry further aggravation, and causing Ron to double over in laughter, being careful at the same time not to awaken Longbottom. Finally he heaved a tremendous sigh and began to speak. “Well, Mr. Harry, Dobby wouldn’t be bothering the great and wonderful Mr. Harry Potter in the middle of the night like this, but this is the best time to come, now that Mr. Sirius is in bed, asleep, and Dobby can leave Winky to watch over him, just for a little while, you understand, while Dobby comes to Harry Potter to talk to him...”

Harry resisted the impulse to grab Dobby and shake the words out of him. He swallowed
some of his angst, realizing that it would do no good to rattle the house elf’s cage. “I appate ate all that you have done for me, Dobby. I really do. That is why I wanted you to keep an eye on Sirius for me, because I couldn’t be there myself. So please calm down and tell me what it is that you came to say, will you?”

Dobby gulped once and began. “Well, Mr. Harry Potter, sir, it’s like this... Dobby is
most concerned about Mr. Sirius Black, yes he is, he is indeed.”

“What is it - have there been threats against him? Has someone come to the house and
tried to hurt him? Just what is going on?”

“Yes, get on with it, man,” Ron complained, “we have to get up in a little bit for class,
and I haven’t had much sleep yet, if you know what I mean.” He winked mischievously at Harry in the dark, secure that Dobby wouldn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about.


“No, no, sir, nothing like that, sir. Doesn’t Mr. Harry know that Dobby would come to him
immediately if someone was trying to hurt his beloved godfather? Dobby would protect Mr. Sirius with the last ounce of his breath, the last drop of his elf blood! No, no, it’s not that. Mr. Sirius is acting not like the Mr. Sirius that Dobby has known. Dobby thinks maybe Mr. Sirius is sick, or perhaps, heaven forbid, even dying. Mr. Sirius spends a lot of his time up in the attic, and he makes much horrible noises, and moans and groans, and then sometimes Mr. Sirius leaves the house and returns with strange bottles filled with strange liquids which he takes back into the attic, and then the awful noises begin again.”

Dobby took a deep breath. “Dobby thought that Mr. Harry Potter should know, because Dobby
has nothing but the utmost respect for Mr. Harry Potter and wishes him to be happy, and how can he be happy if Mr. Sirius is ill, maybe even dying... No, not dying,” Dobby hastily added. “Dobby did not mean that sir, please do not trouble yourself on that score!”

But Harry disregarded this interpretation of Sirius’ strange behavious as being too farfetched, and was not concerned at the house elf’s implications. “You did right, Dobby, to tell me this. And I understand why you felt you had to come in the middle of the night, although in future, let’s try to avoid that, shall we?” He grinned at the elf good-naturedly, to show that he was not angry, and to conceal the worry that he felt for his godfather. “Good work, Dobby.” He patted him on the shoulder, which caused Dobby to glow.

“Ooh, you are too kind to Dobby, yes Mr. Harry is,” he beamed.


“Uh, Dobby,” Harry began, thinking rapidly as he spoke, “I think you should get back to
Sirius as quickly as possible. Now that you have informed me as to the situation, I can handle it from here. So go on back to the house, will you, and let me know if anything else unusual occurs, okay?”

“Of course, Mr. Harry, Dobby will be pleased and proud to do as you ask, your request
is my command!” And in a twinkling the mismatched house elf was gone.


Ron fell over onto the bed, holding himself in his efforts to contain his laughter.


“This isn’t funny, you loony git!” Harry admonished him. “I think there might be
something wrong with Sirius, and you’re splitting a gut!”


Ron sat up, wiping at his eyes with one hand, and reached out to Harry with the other.
He pulled him closer and kissed his cheek tenderly. “Sorry, mate, I don’t meant to make light of it, it’s just that he came so close to catching you and me, together, and yet he is so totally clueless - well, it struck me funnybone, it did. Of course I am concerned about Sirius. What do you think the problem might be?”

“I don’t know.” Harry shook his head worriedly. “You know that he never talks about
what happened to him in Azkaban. He just keeps it all bottled up inside. Maybe he’s having some sort of a breakdown, you know? After all, it’s a miracle just that he came out of that place alive, much less with all his wits about him, and still in possession of his soul.” Harry shuddered at the thought of the horrible Dementors, and what could have happened to Sirius had he been a lesser man. “When I try to bring it up, he goes all quiet, and tells me not to worry about him. But I can’t help worrying about him, Ron, I just can’t!” Harry cried out in despair, and Ron put a comforting arm about him.

“There, there,” Ron soothed him, “it’ll be allright, Harry, really it will. I tell you what, why won’t wve Sve Sirius meet us here when we can spend some time with him, try to draw him out. I’ll send a post to my mum and have her give me some suggestions on what to do when he gets here. How that does that sound?”

“Sounds good, Ron,” Harry smiled at his friend. He stroked the redheaded boy’s cheek
tenderly. “You’re a good friend, you really are.”

“And more,” Ron leered.

They came together for a soft kiss and Harry snuggled closer to Ron, who put his arms
around him. Reluctantly, they pulled apart.

“Let’s take advantage of the little time that is left to get some sleep, shall we?” Harry asked.

Ron agreand and they kissed one another good night before retiring to their separate beds.




Meanwhile, in another part of Hogwarts, in an area forbidden to students, another member of the academic communwas was wide awake at this very late hour of the night (or early
hour of the morning, depending on one’s point of view).

Severus Snape was a night owl who seldom slept more than a few hours per night, thus
contributing to the sallowness of his pale complexion. This did not bother him. He spent his time poring over his many volumes of alchemy and history and wizardry and in preparing lessons plans for his classes. But tonight he found it even harder than usual to get more than a few minutes of sleep at a time, so had abandoned all pretense of sleeping and was now comfortably ensconced in the privacy of his own bathroom.

The porcelain clawfoot tub dominated the room, emblazoned with gilt dragons with
bejewelled eyes of ruby and emerald. It was a secret vanity with which he indulged himself. Blood red candles flickered in niches about the room, casting constantly morphing shadows against the wall, while in the background, Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King softly played.

Snape was lounging in his tub, which he had filled with very hot water and a silky bath
oil which smelled of bitter almonds. Dark eyes closed, a glass of ruby merlot was clasped in one long-fingered hand. His plan had worked well, he had gained the attention of the notorious Sirius Black, but now what?

He replayed in his mind the moments of their recent encounter - the words that had been exchanged - unspoken promises of something more to come. So much more, hopefully. At the thought of Sirius, he experienced a reaction as he visualized the dark haired wizard in his mind’s eye. He felt himself growing hard with desire of a kind which he had never felt before, and his thoughts went back to an earlier time, a time when they were both young and foolish students at this very academy, sure that the world was theirs.

Especially Sirius. Sirius and his foolish friends - James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin. How he had hated them! How he wished that he had the power to hurt them in the same way in which they had hurt him!

But then, there was Sirius.... Sirius, and what had passed between them was totally different than anything he had ever experienced before...

He finished the merlot in one quick gulp, thrust aside the stemmed glass. The Hall of
the Mountain King had given way to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, and he felt the blood course through his veins in hot surges. His hand fell between his legs, caressed his sudden erection, and he thought of Sirius - Sirius naked, Sirius spreadeagled, hands tied, upon a large bed with many pillows, his taut buttocks smirking at Snape. Oh God, he was glorious, lean and muscular, and beautiful in his face... His hand grasped his hardness and began to move up and down the shaft of its own volition, as if it ha min mind of its own. The silkiness of the bath oil made his movements smoother, and his hand rose and fell with ease.

Sirius, Sirius, he moaned to himself, why am I so obsessed with you? And will I ever see
the day when you become as obsessed with me? Snape had been distraught when Sirius had
disappeared in so untimely a fashionind ind the veil, but had managed to carry on, and had hidden well his rapturous ecstacy when he had mysteriously returned. Up and down, up and down, he pumped his rockhard cock, thinking of Sirius - his eyes, his lips, his lean hard body... Would it ever be his to possess, to caress, to punish in any way he saw fit - to use, to abuse, to love and to cherish? He wanted to expend emotions on the man that he had never known he possessed. He wished to subdue him, and to be subdued, to whip him and to be whipped by him...

Faster and faster he beat at his meat, with the glorious vision of Sirius tantalizing him from behind closed eyes. He wished to exerience him, to taste him, to unite with him in orgiastic
splendour. Snape imagined Sirius bent over before him, begging for more, while the potions master thrust himself into his lovehold, and pushed, harder, harder, harder... Listened to the moans of the other wizard as he accept Snape’s love offering willingly, eagerly, happily, even as he moaned, “Severus, Severus, take me, take me now...”

Snape could contain himself no longer, and he came in glorious waves of delight which
sent shivers coursing throughout his body, from the top of his greasy head to the bottoms of his toes, his essence falling into the still warm bath water, where it floated conspicuously. Breathless and spent, Snape leaned against the back of the tub, happy and yet unhappy, for this wasn’t the real thing, but a pale substitute. How long would he have to wait? If necessary, he would wait for Sirius forever.