A Dark Time For The Light

66

The weather grew colder and before they knew it, Christmas was upon them. On the day itself, they all convened at the House. Harry, Draco, Seamus, Terry, Hermione, Ginny, George, Colin, Dean, Remus and Severus. They ate a brilliant dinner cooked by the old team of Seamus, Dean and Colin and watched random TV, an old James Bond movie in the afternoon. They’d all exchanged gifts and there were piles of presents around. They played board games, those that could. Seamus had gone for a lie down and Remus was crashed out on the sofa. Harry and Draco noticed Sev’s concern as he looked at his sleeping lover and asked tentative questions, “He’s so tired of late. He’s losing weight. I keep trying to get him to a doctor, but he refuses. He says Muggle medicine is barbaric”, Severus shook his head, “Stubborn old Wolf”, then smiled and took his sleeping lover in his arms. The sleeping man adjusted to his lover lying beside him with a pleased smile, sleepy arms pulling Severus close. The boys smiled and let their ex-teachers sleep.

They were led to the Games machine upstairs. A computer version of Quidditch had been released, the author deliberately obscure. Draco and Harry pitted themselves against each other as rival Seekers and even on a computer game, Harry caught the snitch first, the game ending 60-170 to Gryffindor. As usual it was Harry that made all the points. Draco cast the joypad away in disgust, then leaned over and kissed his beloved senseless. As they emerged, Draco moaned and griped, “You always get the damned snitch”. Harry just smiled and pulled his beloved on top of him, “I always will”, delivered in a tone that made Draco shiver to his core then open beneath his Harry and allow himself to be fucked, coming long and hard impaled on that beautiful cock, to feel it fill him moments later. Harry murmured ferally, “It’ll always be me. That catches the snitch. That gets to kill Him. Life ain’t so great being a winner. Sometimes it sucks”. Then Draco’s lush mouth covered his and he knew he was the luckiest man on the planet with the sexiest man in the Universe in his arms and gave in to the most delicious kisses as Draco laid him out and fucked him to oblivion, making Harry pass out as he came.

Somehow they staggered home, clinging to each other. The girls saw them out, giggling, then threw a blanket over their ex-teachers before heading to bed themselves arms wrapped around each other, kisses mounting in intensity as the heat built with tongues and fingers then a toy they had. Hermione was comprehensively fucked while she writhed on the tip of her girlfriend’s talented tongue as the toy plunged her depths. After the flush of orgasm left her, she turned on her Girlie and tied her to the bedposts and made her scream over and over.

This woke their guests on the sofa in the living room. They were clothed but covered. In short order, they were naked and Remus was ploughing into the willing heat of his beloved, facing him, looking deep into his eyes, “I love you, Sev, and I’m going to fuck you ‘til you scream”, and so he did. The room was off limits to even casual folk who needed a glass of water, until the sounds ceased and folk could creep past their spent ex-teachers lying asleep in each other’s arms. As she traipsed through in next to nothing, Ginny pulled the blankets over her ex-teachers after getting a good long look first. She took in Severus’ solidity contrasted against Remus’ delicacy. The long inky black hair meshing with sandy liberally peppered with grey. She saw the way they lay together, totally tangled up, but with a giggle, she could make out the bits and bobs. Snape was bigger than Ron and that was saying something, but even in his detumescent state, she could tell Remus was longer. She didn’t have ten zillion brothers for nothing. She chuckled as she covered them, Severus had an arm and a leg flung over his partner in a possessive manner. She glanced at his hairy legs and smiled. Remus was rubbing up against him in sleep. She stepped back and murmured, “Merlin!. You two are hot”, before she covered them again and went back to bed with the love of her life.

She danced into the room to the low music that played. As the rhythm picked up, she twitched her hips. In an instant her lover was behind her matching the rhythm, then they dirty danced in each other’s arms their kisses getting deeper and wetter, then Hermione laid her beloved out over their bed and took her, hard, and soft, and wet, and rough. Theirs were the last screams recorded by the fabric of the House for that night as they passed into sleep, smiling against each other’s mouths.

The morning was different. Ginny awoke to familiar noises. Dean had stayed and was being fucked rigid by his ex. Seamus and Terry were up to no good in the shower and she could hear moans from the back room where her ex-teachers lay twined together on the sofa. Her own lover woke up fully sensible to the sounds, rolling her sweet lover towards her in that delicious half-sleep and fucked her to oblivion. Her screams were the loudest of them all, provoking cheers as she almost lifted the rafters of the House.

Boxing Day and all appeared in various states of befuddlement, not to mention in various states of deshabillement. The girls wandered about in bra and pants, making tea and toast and kissing each other like they meant it. Severus and Remus were seated at the breakfast table only dressed from the waist down, devouring beans on toast. Various folk drifted in. Dean and Colin grabbing quick coffees before disappearing again. The girls in their undies needed to refuel, Remus filling plates for them once the toast was done. They all sat around the breakfast table. The boys checking out their half-clad ex-teachers. Seamus gulped as he saw the riches on display, The hair on the older guys the raw sexuality displayed as Remus took his lover’s neck as his lover ate. They fed each other Severus grinning into his lover’s mouth, “Want you, babe”, he whispered, “Need you” and they were directed to the middle bedroom and made helpless pleading sounds until they both moaned each other’s names as they came,

There was a general air of licentiousness around the house that Boxing Day plus lots of food and beer and joints. Music was on in the lounge and six people lay about in a loose circle playing a fast dice game with Hermione keeping score as the only person who could add up in her head when drunk.

They had the heating up high and the boys were all topless and the girls only slightly better covered. Remus scratched at his back then leant forward to take his turn and noticed blood on his fingertips, “Shit. Got a tissue, ‘Mione?. I must have scratched myself a bit hard, I don’t want to bleed all over the place”. She went into the kitchen and wet a piece of kitchen roll then knelt beside him, he made to take it off her but she swatted his hand, “Give over. Let me see. You can’t see anyway”. She bent him over slightly to locate the wound and gasped. Remus himself didn’t notice, nor did the other lads, but Severus did and his brow knotted. Hermione cleaned up the blood and handed the towel to Remus to clean his fingers. She said nothing and the game continued.

Later she was in the kitchen alone waiting for the kettle to boil when Severus joined her. “Hermione, what did you see when you bathed Remus’ cut?”. Hermione snapped back to herself and quickly looked around, they were alone. “Severus, you must get that man to a doctor. It’s not a cut on his back, he has a bleeding mole and it looks messy. I’m no medic but my parents are. You need to get that mole checked, Sev, it could be cancerous and melanoma is a swift killer. I don’t mean to be melodramatic or anything, but if he refuses to go then body-bind him or call us and we’ll tie him up Mundane-style”.

He leaned against the kitchen counter and regarded her. Her attempt at levity belied her expression. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”, he asked. She bit her lip and nodded. “It’s how my uncle Bob died. By the time he found out it was too late. He was only 38”, her voice was a whisper.

He slumped, his head in his hand, “He’s been tired too, not eating too well. Oh fuck”. “If he is to have chemotherapy as well, you will need to find a Medi-witch or –wizard, find out how the treatments are going to affect his changes and whether Mundane medicine will even be effective. Bloody hell, Severus, what wouldn’t I give to have Poppy Pomfrey here right now. She was Mundane-trained before there was a spot open for her at St. Mungo’s. Maybe we can find her”, Hermione’s eyes narrowed and Severus saw she was in thinking mode.

“Come on”, she grabbed his arm and led them to her and Ginny’s room, sat at the desk and booted the computer. She got online and started searching for Medical Registers. A list scrolled up. Doctors, nurses and midwives, but when she tried to go into the lists, she was blocked by the need for passwords and verification. “Bollocks”, was her wry comment. “We need passwords and stuff. It means that probably only other medics can use it. Damn”. Severus suggested tentatively that perhaps Hermione could call her parents. She winced and balked, “I, er, haven’t made my peace with them yet. I did some pretty awful things when I was addicted. Shite. Now what?”.

They both thought harder, “Alice. She has a friend, whassisname, dark-haired bloke, a nurse. Met him at Harry’s birthday party. Maybe he can help”. Both of their faces brightened and Severus dipped into the lounge to find his phone. The others were in front of a movie and his lover was asleep at one end of the couch. He re-entered the room, his phone at his ear, his other hand raking through his hair. Hermione watched as he talked, then idly noted the cut of the man, not skinny and rangy like the boys with that slight concaveness of youth, the smattering of black chest hair thinning to a narrow line that disappeared below the waist of his pants to reappear as a fine dust over his feet.

She was brought out of her reverie by Severus gesturing to her, ‘pen and paper’, she came to and provided a pencil and the back of an envelope, he quickly wrote a number down and ended the call. “His name’s Matt, and she reckoned he had a shift today and should be home by now”. He dialled and was answered quickly, saying he hoped he hadn’t disturbed the man but the matter was rather pressing. Within moments he had his log-in code and password and had jotted them down. He thanked him profusely, wished him seasons greetings and rang off.

Hermione typed the info into the log-in screen and they were in. They tried the nursing register first. No joy. Then General Practitioners. Still nothing. It was when Hermione typed the name into the Midwives Register that she came up trumps. “Here she is, she’s a practicing midwife at the main hospital in Aberdeen and there’s a number for her at work. It’s probably a bit late to call her now. You need to get Remus to the doctor’s first, then call her when the world gets back to work again, though knowing the vagaries of medics, illness and babies don’t observe Bank Holidays”, she added wryly and prepared to close the machine down.

Severus stayed her hand. “Is there a web-site that has information on the condition?”. She turned back to the screen and re-launched her browser. She typed in ‘malignant melanoma’ into the search line and pressed enter. A list was instantly before them. Both peered closely at the screen. Hermione scrolled down, muttering, “Too technical. Eeeww, pictures, no thankyou. Oh here we go”, and selected an entry on the list. An information site run by a major cancer charity written for the patient rather than the doctor. She let the screen appear then stood to let Severus take her place and read the site. He asked if she had a printer. She pointed to it, so he printed the information off with her help.

Further down the page, there were pictures of cancerous moles in the different ‘stages’. Hermione winced as she viewed them, “I’d never make a medic like mum or dad, I squick too much even at pictures, but I’d say, looking at these, he could be a stage 2, but it depends on how far it’s gone into other tissue”. She leaned down and retrieved the pages from the printer to hear a noise beside her, as she sat up and turned, she saw Severus crumple into his hands and sob.

In an instant, she had her arms around him and pulled his head onto her shoulder, “Hey, hey, it mightn’t be so bad. I didn’t mean to scare you, but you see the reason for taking action, don’t you?”. The man nodded and sniffled in her arms, “You have to get him seen and the sooner the better. I know the Magical world’s opinion of Mundane medicine, but it’s not all bad. Let’s face it, Mundane medicine made Harry see again, there was nothing the Magical world could do for him”.

Just then, Ginny walked in and her eyebrows raised at seeing her lover with a half-naked man weeping in her arms. Hermione ‘shushed’ her from any rude comments, “He’s a bit upset”, she mouthed. Ginny murmured, “The boys have gone to crash out and Remus is still sparko on the settee. I was just coming to see what you were up to”. Hearing her voice, Severus rose with a sniff and rubbed at his eyes, “Sorry, girls, I’m keeping you from your bed. Thanks for that, Hermione. It was a great help. All of it. See you in the morning, ladies”, and he staggered out clutching his print-outs.

Ginny cocked her head at the door, “What’s up?”, she whispered. “I don’t want to reveal anything too personal, but I think Remus isn’t very well and it upset Sev. We’ve located Madam Pomfrey as well. It could get complicated. Shit, I’m tired and half pissed and stoned. Time for bed, my sweet girl. Don’t say anything to anyone, will you?”. Ginny shook her head as Hermione drew her towards her and laid her head on Ginny’s flat belly, her arms around her beloved’s waist, “Merlin, I hope he’s okay”.

Severus had them registered at the doctor’s and an appointment made as quickly as he could. Remus had balked but Severus had shown him the print-out and then led Remus to a mirror. “Her parents are medics, they may be dentists but they do most of the medical training before they specialise. She recognised immediately what this may be and threatened to come here and hog-tie you herself if you refuse. Stubbornness is not an option here, Wolfie. You. Are. Going. To the. Doctors. End of story”, and Remus submitted, suddenly scared that what had been a bit of tiredness and an itchy back had grown into a monster.