Shiver

Shiver


Severus awoke to the feeling of a hot body plastered against his, an arm wrapped around his waist from behind. He groggily opened his eyes and looked down, seeing his own hand covering the hand that rested on his stomach just above his pajama pants. His brow frowned in confusion. Severus' hips twisted slightly as he pushed himself up on to his elbow, looking over his shoulder in shock.

He took a deep breath and looked skyward before looking behind him again.

“Lupin?”

~*~

Layla looked at Harry as he slept from her position on his chest. Her wings were still unfurled and they helped press her down against Harry with enough weight that he was starting to take notice. Harry's fidgeted underneath her and he finally opened his eyes sleepily to look into hers.

“Hn?” he managed to force out.

“Where's Remus?” she pushed herself up onto her elbows, taking most of her weight off of Harry.

“In the infirmary. Albus came while we were sleeping to get Remus' help with a patient. He said that if we really needed him then we knew where to find him, but that he wouldn't be long.” she nodded, looking down at his chest, her finger tracing invisible lines. Harry took her hand in hers, making her eyes flick up to his again.

“Is something wrong, Layla?” she tugged on her hand, but Harry's grip tightened. “Layla, answer me.” she stopped trying to free her hand and rested her head on his chest, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly.

“I don't know.” he let go of her hand and ran his fingers through her hair gently. He smiled softly and pushed himself up, Layla moving with him until they were both sitting cross-legged on the bed. She looked at him softly, her head slightly tilted to the side.

“Layla, you can talk to me about anything.” she smiled and nodded.

“I know.” Harry leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. She smiled and scooted forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, her legs coming to rest on either side of his legs.

“Harry?” he looked into her eyes and kissed her again.

“Yes, Layla?” she glanced down quickly before looking back up into his eyes.

“I want to find Remus.” he smiled and nodded, gently pushing her from his lap.

“Alright. Come on, we can floo to the infirmary, ok?” she smiled and eagerly slid from the bed, her wings relaxed against her back. Harry stood from the bed and grabbed a pair of pajama pants, handing them to Layla.

“I think it'd be better if you wore these, so you wouldn't get cold.” she nodded and slipped them on, over her short shorts. Harry smiled and took her hand, leading her into the living room and to the fireplace to floo to the infirmary.

~*~

Remus opened his eyes slightly, feeling movement from the person he was holding tightly. He sat up fully when he heard his name called from the other person. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes with one hand, his other still resting on Severus' stomach.

“What, now?” he looked at Severus curiously, wondering why he woke him up.

“Lupin, would you kindly explain to me why your hand is where it is and why I'm sharing a bed with you?” Severus' insides clenched tightly as he felt a pooling heat in the bottom of his stomach. Remus wriggled his fingers, trying to figure out where his hand was. His eyes widened slightly when he realized he was only a fingers length away from touching Severus in an intimate way.

“Well, you see...” Severus turned around fully, dislodging Remus' hand. He had to bite his tongue to keep from whining softly from the loss of contact.

“Yes, Lupin?”

“Well, you were so badly injured from what Voldemort did to you that Poppy and Albus couldn't use magic on you to heal you. They feared they might make it worse...” he looked down at his hand, tingling from where it had been touching the other man's skin. “Albus came to me while I was with Harry and Layla and he proposed that I-”

“What do you mean when you were with my mates?” Remus cleared his throat softly.

“After you had been gone for awhile, Albus called me here to help comfort Harry and Layla because you weren't here.” Severus sucked in a deep breath. He kicked the thick blanket from his legs and tried to get out of the bed, but Remus stopped him, his arms coming around his waist tightly, pulling him nearly nose to nose with the other man.

“Severus, you can't leave. Poppy still needs to make sure that you're ok and well enough to leave to go back to Harry and Layla, all right? Harry knows where I am and he knows how to find me. If either of them need something, then you'll know, because I'm here with you, ok?” Severus looked into Remus' eyes and nodded softly.

“All right.” Remus smiled and continued, never loosening his grip on Severus.

“Albus proposed to me that I bind my magic and my mind to yours, so that while we were being bound together, Poppy and Albus could heal you quickly and efficiently, knowing that because your magic and mind would be preoccupied with me, they wouldn't be hurting you any more than you already were.” Severus looked down, noticing how his skin pricked in the areas where Remus' skin touched his. He looked back up to Remus' eyes and questioned softly,

“You realize what this means, don't you?” he gently placed a hand on Remus' chest and watched in slight amusement as Remus shivered slightly.

“Yes, I do. But I will distance myself if I have to. I won't allow my addition to hurt any one of you three. I don't wish you any of you to be hurt.” Severus smiled softly and ran his hand down Remus' stomach. Remus closed his eyes and shivered again, his skin prickling as Severus' hand made its way over his skin teasingly.

There was a knock on the door and Severus' eyes snapped towards it, a soft growl forming in the back of his throat. Remus moved one of his hands up his back, stroking the skin softly. Severus turned back to Remus, his head burying into his neck. Remus continued stroking his back and called softly,

“Come in.” the door opened and Poppy slipped through, closing the door behind her quickly. She bustled over to the bed and waved her wand over Severus, smiling softly.

“He appears to be back to normal, though he might be a tad tired for awhile. Best to let him sleep when he wants to.” Remus nodded and smiled and Poppy softly. She smiled back.

“Congratulations, I believe are in order.” a soft purr that he would deny ever making later, started to come from Severus' throat.

“Only if it's ok with everyone Poppy.” She smiled wider.

“Well, I guess we'll be finding out soon, now won't we? Harry and Layla just flooed into my office, looking for you. Layla seemed to have a death grip on Harry's hand, the poor dear.” Severus turned his head to look at Poppy.

“Is something wrong with them?” she shrugged.

“They're here to see Remus, I suspect. Seeing as how they did ask where you were, Remus.” Severus looked into Remus' eyes and sighed softly.

“You can go talk to them first, before letting them come in here. I don't want them to be too shocked to see me.” Remus smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to Severus' cheek.

“I'll be as fast as I can, all right?” he let go of Severus, rubbing his arms as they prickled, sliding from the bed and watching in soft amusement as Severus rubbed his skin, too. Remus took a deep breath and followed Poppy out of the private room, closing the door behind them and into her office.

Layla immediately broke away from Harry, nearly flying over to Remus as fast as she could, her arms wrapping tightly around him. Remus rubbed her back gently, pulling back to look into her eyes.

“What's wrong Layla?” she shook her head, her wings wrapping around them. Remus looked over her should and her wings at Harry questioningly. He shrugged.

“She just wanted to see you, Remus.” He looked back down at Layla and managed to lift her chin.

“What is it, Layla?” she looked into his eyes and he saw tears.

“You left.” his brow furrowed in confusion.

“No, I just came to the infirmary to help someone...” she shook her head.

“No, you left. You left without telling me. I don't want you to leave.” he smiled softly and stroked her cheek.

“Layla, I'll never leave you if I can help it. I don't want to hurt you.” she sniffled and held him tighter. He wrapped his arms around her waist firmly and kissed the top of her head. “Now, I need you two to listen to me, ok?” she looked up and nodded, moving one of her wings so that Harry could stand next to them.

“What Albus and I didn't tell you, because we didn't want you two to get your hopes up, is that Severus has been found.” he pressed a kiss to Layla's forehead, stopping anything she was going to say. “He's ok and he's awake now. Albus called me away to ding my magic and my mind to his, so that he and Poppy could heal him.” Layla's grip tightened.

“Where is he?” Remus smiled softly and pulled back.

“He's in a private room. He wanted me to come out to talk to you two first, so that it wouldn't be a big shocker for when you actually saw him.” he looked at Harry and saw that he had his eyes closed.

“What is it, Harry?”

“He's going to be mad at me.” Remus wound an arm around his waist.

“For what, Harry?” he opened his eyes and looked into Remus'.

“For feeding from you.” Remus couldn't help it and chuckled softly.

“Harry, I don't think he'll be mad. He might actually like the idea, I believe.” Harry looked confused and Remus only shook his head, pulling back from the embrace and took them both by the hand. “Now, come on. I believe that you two have a mate to see.”

Layla pressed against his side as they walked to the private room, Harry only a step behind them, still confused to what Remus had said. And meant.