Smoke & Mirrors

Disclaimer The characters and sheer genius belong to J K Rowling. Any smut is mine, but I don't make a penny/eurocent/cent from my warped imagination.


Chapter 1 Typically Slytherin

"I love your sex smell," Severus Snape groaned.

"My WHAT?" Harry asked, pushing him away.

"Your sex smell, the smell you get when you're aroused, like now ..." Severus nosed back into Harry's groin, inhaling blissfully. "It makes me want you even more," he said, his voice roughening, his hands reaching round to clutch the youth's buttocks.

Harry looked down at his lover's black hair and smiled ruefully. It had only been about a month and a half since they'd really been able to get together after Harry's prolonged stay in the hospital wing. But that six weeks had seemed to be nothing but sex. It wasn't that he had anything against sex, especially with Severus, who was an experienced and inventive partner. But it did seem to be ALL they did together...

Bizarre as it sounded, Harry couldn't help feeling that Severus was concentrating on sex as a way of keeping him at arm's length. Well, not literally, obviously. But by playing up the sexual aspect he could avoid, well, anything more ... intimate. Though they were intimate, of course... Harry stopped trying to put words to his worries, and gave himself up to the pleasure Severus's lips and tongue were bringing him.

But his worries wouldn't go away, and later that day he found himself confiding in his best friend, Ron Weasley. Ron and Hermione were both still at Hogwarts, even though term had ended several weeks ago; they were trying to catch up on NEWT work, suspended during the last few years while war with Voldemort raged and now resumed after his final destruction. A few members of the Hogwarts staff were staying on to hold a summer school until the first week in August.

Harry and Ron were strolling aimlessly beside the lake, every so often stopping to throw a stone into the water and watch the ripples spread.

"How's it going, Harry?" asked Ron. "You've been looking a bit peaky lately. You sure you completely got over the curse that greasy old git hit you with?" He hurled a particularly large stone into the lake. A tentacle rose out of the water and waved around indignantly.

"I've told you a million times -" Harry began exasperatedly.

"Not to exaggerate!" chortled Ron.

"No, be serious. You've never been fair to Severus. It wasn't his fault that curse hit me, and you know we're ... "

"An item now, yeah, and a bad thing too if you ask me," said Ron. He threw a stone viciously at the tentacle. "Is he treating you OK, though?"

"Yeah ... I suppose ... Yeah, he is really," Harry said.

"You don't sound too sure, mate," Ron said, looking concerned. He threw another stone at the tentacle. "What's the matter, aren't you getting enough?"

"Oh yes, too much, if anything," said Harry. He didn't look at Ron, concentrating instead on the giant squid, which was now thrashing around in the water trying to find out what was daring to attack it. "It's - well, it's just - he seems to be shutting me off from his emotions again."

"That git hasn't got any - " began Ron, stooping to pick up some more ammunition. He broke off as he heard the clink of a stone being dislodged behind a nearby group of rocks. "OI, YOU, COME OUT OF THERE!" he bellowed.

Harry and Ron stared as a tall blond youth strolled out from behind the rocks, looking unconcerned.

"Fuck off, Malfoy," Ron said roughly. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"It's a free country, Weasley," Malfoy drawled. "Just as well, for impoverished families like yours." He took a step back as Ron clenched his fists. "If you must know, I've come to arrange about my NEWTs - the Ministry think I should have some qualifications, just a formality, of course." Draco Malfoy was now working for the Ministry of Magic and sharing an office with Percy Weasley, to their mutual disgust.

"You don't need to hang around the lake for that," said Harry. "Or are you signing up for NEWTs with the giant squid?"

"Very funny, Potter. I've already registered for my courses, I just wondered what you two were up to. There are drawbacks, of course," Malfoy went on, keeping a careful eye on Ron. "Apparently that Mudblood Granger will be taking all the same classes as me. Even he" jerking his chin contemptuously at Ron "is struggling through a few of them. We'll be classmates again, won't that be nice?"

"DON'T CALL HER THAT!" Ron shouted.

"Ooh, touchy, aren't we?" Malfoy sneered. "Funny, I didn't think you two were getting on quite so well nowadays."

Ron turned bright red and threw a punch at Malfoy, who dodged it easily and quickly strolled away, laughing. Ron glared after him. "I'd like to break that tosser's neck," he growled savagely.

"Forget it," Harry advised. A sudden horrible thought struck him. "Hey, he's not going to be playing in this Quidditch friendly you're arranging for the weekend, is he?"

Ron snorted. "Not likely! We had to have a couple of Slytherins in it, but he's not one of them." He looked sideways at Harry. "Uh, I'm not supposed to tell you much 'bout this weekend," he said. "But, well, expect to meet a few old friends, yeah? It IS the weekend before your twentieth birthday after all."

Harry groaned. "Not a surprise party?" he said.

"Not allowed to say, mate. Hermione's orders!"

"Can't you at least tell me who we're playing?" Harry asked.

"Nope. But I can tell you we won't be having Snape refereeing," grinned Ron. "Our team's good enough to win without him unfairly favouring you."

Harry smiled, thinking back to his first year when Snape, for the first time in living memory, had refereed a Quidditch match. Everyone had thought he'd done it so he could award unjustified penalties to Gryffindor's opponents - which indeed he had - but it turned out he was also trying to protect Harry from Lord Voldemort's tool, Professor Quirrell.

"That reminds me," Harry said. "Must take a look at the Quidditch kit. There's not been a proper Quidditch captain since I left, God knows what sort of state it's in by now."

*****************************.

"TOO MUCH!!!" Snape exploded. He fixed Malfoy with a piercing black glare. "I can't believe he'd complain I was giving him too much sex ..." His glare intensified; Malfoy looked innocently back at him. "Hmmm, I see you're telling the truth, Draco ... although there's something you're witholding from me - "

Malfoy quickly looked away. "Yeah, I could hardly believe it when I overheard them. Ungrateful brat, isn't he? After all," he smirked meaningfully at his former teacher "sex with you is something special."

Snape gave him a cold look. "If you're referring to the one night stand we had in your fifth year, I've told you to forget about that." He narrowed his eyes, groping for his wand. "In fact, maybe I'd better make sure you do."

"No need for that," Malfoy said, hurriedly backing away. "Maybe you'd better keep him short for a while, teach him a lesson."

"That's my concern, not yours," Snape said softly.

"No, really, perhaps you better had," Malfoy insisted, now halfway through the door. He vanished with the parting shot: "He told Weasley you keep making him so sore he can hardly sit down."

Severus Snape frowned. He'd been careful with Harry, he was sure he had ... to the detriment of his own enjoyment, sometimes. And now to be told he'd hurt the young man ... who hadn't even told him, but was complaining behind his back ... and to that lout Weasley ... Snape scowled blackly. Maybe a little abstinence ,would be good for Potter. He wouldn't stay aloof for long, he wasn't that vindictive, not to Harry nowadays anyway, but still .. a few days without sex would soon teach the brat to value what he had ...

In the storeroom devoted to sports equipment, Harry carefully lifted down the large crate with "Quidditch" stencilled on the side. He opened it up and began methodically checking its contents. One Quaffle, yes, seemed in good nick ... two Bludgers ...

"Ah, here you are, Potter."

Harry looked up to see Draco Malfoy leaning against the door post, sneering knowingly at him.

"Getting ready for your birthday treat? Afraid I won't be here for it - some of us have to work, you know -"

"I'll try and get over the disappointment," Harry said sarcastically.

"You'll be, what, twenty? My, doesn't time fly ... of course, it means your, er, touching relationship with Severus Snape will be coming to an end," Malfoy said maliciously.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked quickly, trying to ignore a sudden icy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Oh, you'll see, once you've turned twenty he won't be interested in you any more."

"What do you mean, Malfoy?" Harry demanded.

The blond youth smirked unpleasantly. "Get real, Potter. Severus likes boys. He gets off on fucking young rent boys and imagining they're his pupils."

"LIAR!" Harry shouted.

"Of course, sometimes he doesn't need to imagine ... some of us were, er, special to him ..."

"Shut the fuck up, Malfoy," Harry snarled. "He's been jumping me like a jack rabbit for weeks."

"Of course he has," Malfoy said contemptuously. "Been making the most of it, hasn't he? Your final teenage days ... quite sad, really. In fact I'm surprised he's still fucking you at nineteen, he likes them much younger than that as a rule - but then you've always been rather immature, haven't you Potter?"

Harry felt uncontrollable rage welling up inside him; he snatched up the first thing that came to hand, which happened to be a Quidditch Quaffle, and hurled it at Malfoy's head. Malfoy ducked, the heavy ball just missed him and thudded into the door frame, which splintered.

The two young men stared at each other, breathing heavily. Harry didn't want to believe Malfoy, but a conversation he'd overheard once between Snape and a group of Dark wizards was insisting on replaying itself inside his head:

One of the Death Eaters had asked Snape: "Did you have a good time with those whores the other night?"

And Snape had replied ...

"Yes thank you. They were very... inventive, especially the little blond one - what's his name? ... he reminds me a bit of one of my old pupils .. he could be most, ah accommodating at times... "

Malfoy saw the change in Harry's expression, and smiled derisively. He pushed himself away from the door post and lounged away, murmuring softly "he said sex with me was the best he'd ever had, but he even lost interest in me when I, er, grew up ..."

Harry stood desolate, alone in the empty room, Malfoy's mocking parting shot ringing in his ears:

"Have a happy birthday, Potter!"

TBC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>