Return To Me

She felt him approach in the darkness before his hand was upon her shoulder, but she kept her eyes to the sky, the storm clouds rumbling overhead. “You shouldn’t be here.” She said. “I can’t absolve your sins, Severus.” A fierce wind whipped around them, sending her long black hair flying in all directions, but he only tightened his grip on her shoulder. Thunder cracked the sky, the lightening just a moment before, the storm was raging, rain all but falling from above.

“I did what I had to do.” He said, his voice low, near her ear.

“You shouldn’t be here, they’ll expect you to return here, the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime.” Her voice was strained; he could hear the tears though he could not see them. She would not turn to face him.

“I’d take my chances…for you…” he whispered, and wrapped one arm around her stomach.

“Don’t, Severus, please, just don’t.” The tear stained eyes of Aurora Sinistra were turned toward the sky, watching every last twinkling star disappear behind the violent clouds of the storm. Her fingers gripped the edge of the parapet tightly; the first drop of rain trickling down onto the tops of her hands.

“Aurora,” he muttered and pressed himself against her back, pushing her to the stone wall.

“Please, don’t, I won’t ask you again.”

“If you were going to send for them, you’d have sent for them by now…” he whispered, and pulled her head back against his chest. She gave out a soft cry but closed her violet orbs, letting the tears leak from them. “I told you things would get worse…you knew things were going to be difficult.”

She tore at once from his hold, spinning around, eyes burning wide as she faced him. “This isn’t difficult, Severus, this is impossible! You’ve killed the hope of the wizarding world! They believed they were safe with Albus here that he would guide Potter through this all and things would be alright!”

“I did what I had to do.” His face was plain, ever the firm stone, betraying nothing, showing no emotion.

“You act as if there wasn’t any other way!” she spat, a streak of lightening illuminating the Astronomy Tower, followed by a tremendous crack of thunder.

“There wasn’t,” he said, taking a step toward her.

“Don’t!” The word flew harshly from her mouth as she reached for her wand, but as she did, he advanced, and pulled both hands up above her head, pressing his lips to hers. She struggled for but a moment and then gave in, collapsing against his chest, her lips moving against his. “Why?” she whimpered.

“I never asked you to trust me, Aurora,” he whispered, and ran a hand through her hair. “I told you from the very beginning I didn’t want you involved, I didn’t want—”

“I can’t help what happened between us anymore than you can,” she said, pulling back slowly from his chest, gazing up, searching his eyes. “But how could you?” Her fists were balled, wand discarded, having rolled across the stone floor of the tower over to one of the support columns. “How could you?” she beat her hands against his chest, “Answer me!”

“I told you, I did what I had to do!” he shouted, not because he was losing his control over the anger and pain and the regret that bubbled inside of him, but because thunder was raging through the sky so loud he could hardly hear his own voice. The sky split in two and water, as if gushing to flood the world, tumbled down in sheets, soaking them.

“You killed a man! And not just any man, Severus, the only chance we had against him! How could you do it? So easily and then come back here and act as if nothing’s happened?” Her voice was equally as loud, only she was far less successful at forcing down her emotions, the rage and hurt brimming straight through her eyes and out her mouth.

“I don’t have to justify myself to you!” he snapped, taking a step back from her, not caring that rain soaked through his clothes, through his skin, chilling him, he felt numb regardless. His hair clung to his face, covering his eyes, and he raked a hand through it, pushing it back trying to see her.

“I loved you, Severus! You should—”

“I didn’t ask you to love me!” he growled, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her hard. Aurora’s body fell back against the parapet, and she felt as if he let go, she would tumble over the side, but she did not bring her arms to touch him. Her tears were no longer distinguishable from the rain.

“What was it to you then?” she shouted back, “Just some ridiculous game because it felt good?” A bolt of lightening lit the sky, flashing brighter than day against the indigo evening. It lit his eyes, and she saw, for the most fleeting second, a world of things she’d never been laid privy to, and her arms pulled around his neck, bring his face close to hers. “What was I to you?” His lips covered hers, pressing her further back against the parapet, and her fingers tangled in his hair, and she kissed him, forcing her tongue to fight his. But she pushed him away just as quickly, “Please, god damnit! What was I to you?”

Another crack of thunder filled the sky, the storm raging on, water pouring down over both their faces. His locks hung round them like a curtain and he moved his lips to her ear. “You were all I needed to get through, Aurora,” he whispered. She felt his chest, heaving against her own, and knew better than to look for tears, for even without the torrential downpour, she would not have found them. “I told you I didn’t want you to love me, because I knew you would get hurt.”

“Severus,” she bit her lower lip, and held him tightly around the neck, frightened that she would slip and fall. Her tears fell, but the rain washed them away, making her blink far too many times. But when he leaned over her, pressing his body to hers she whimpered, trying to pull up into him. “Please, Severus, why…”

“It’s for the greater good,” he whispered against her ear. “I did what I had to do. Call them, send them after me, but no good will come of it, and I cannot explain it, you should know better,” he said, pressing his finger against her lips. “I am sorry and not a minute goes by without my heart filled with regret, for bringing you into this, for letting you love me.”

She buried her head against him, sobbing until his lips sought her out, kissing her, and keeping a hold on her, the rain thrusting down, making them slick against each other. His hand slid easily over her collarbone, the water slippery beneath his palm as he cupped the back of her neck, trailing his lips down the side of her jaw. “You couldn’t have stopped me,” she whispered. A crash of thunder startled her as he dropped the hold around her waist, grabbing at the hem of her robes to hoist them up. She fell back, leaning further out over the parapet. “Please, don’t let me fall…”

“I would never,” he hissed near her ear, again bringing his lips to hers. The water stung her cheeks as it pelted down, though she was shielded mostly by his face and his hair, trembling beneath him, bent back over the parapet. Aurora Sinistra was not afraid of the man atop her, the man she loved, but slipping from his grip and tumbling over the edge of the Astronomy Tower was another matter entirely.

He pushed her robes roughly up to her hips, dragging down the soaked scrap of clothing that separated him from her, his trousers undone, but only just so. “You’ve come to say goodbye, then,” she panted, soaked through to the bone, the rain distorting her voice.

“Perhaps,” and he pulled her upright, so that she stood on both feet, no longer forced back over the edge. “Nothing is certain,” his eyes searched hers. “I don’t want it to be goodbye.”

“It’s pouring, Severus,” she said, turning in his arms, leaning back against his chest, eyes up to the sky. “I can’t see the stars…”

“When I look up, I’ll see the stars,” he whispered against her ear, pushing the soaking mass of her hair to one side, bringing his lips to her neck. “And I…”

“..will think of you,” she said, though was likely unheard as another crack of thunder split the sky, rain seeming to sheet down even harder if that were possible. “Please, return to me.” She said, and then turned in his arms, forcing herself up onto her toes, her lips to his.

Wet robes meshed together, hers bunched around her hips, and again Aurora found herself to be leaned back against the edge of the parapet. One hand was supporting her, his other roaming beneath the bunches of her robes, feeling her sex, covered in raindrops, his hand wet with them too. “I did what I had to do…” he said, and kissed her. It was a brutal kiss, but she returned it, matching the man that was arching forward into her, pushing her exposed back up against the slick, rough stone, the edges digging into her skin.

Bright bolts of white zigzagged through the clouds, flashing across the night sky, followed by a roaring rumble of thunder. He was swift, thrusting into her, and she cried out, the sound lost in the rainstorm. With every stroke he pushed her harder and harder back against the jagged stones, blood finally breaking and spilling down her back, flooded with rain, all washing away to the ground. She was tight, he was hard, and she cried out with every movement, clinging desperately to him.

Skin slid easily against skin, making him thrust faster, the rain unrelenting, like the man inside her, and she sobbed. His lips caught her cries, stroking a hand into her hair, no longer holding her around the waist, and she slipped further back, bent completely over the parapet, her waist being pinned by him the only thing keeping her from tumbling over the edge. “Severus,” she howled, eyes tearing open despite the rain.

Her body jerked into spasms, muscles clenching, and her eyes, though try as she might to focus them on him, rolled back into her head, the slippery stones behind her making it easier to slide further back over them. But his strong hand grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her roughly against him, forcing himself deeper into her, and he too began to spasm.

The weight of the water pulled him back and he dug his fingers into her shoulder. As he pitched back, she fell forward onto him, collapsing atop him as he hit the stoned floor of tower. Harsh pellets of rain shot down on her exposed back, washing the fresh scrape wounds and she cried out, shaking and whimpering atop him, as he pulled her, sliding backward, until they were under the overhang.

She was panting, as was he, and his arms wrapped around her, kissing her cheeks, embracing her. His muttering, a bit of wandless magic, soothed her wounds and she fell limp against his chest. “Please, promise me,” she panted, grateful to be shielded from the torrent of the storm, though she was completely soaked through. “Please, promise that you’ll return to me.”

Severus touched her cheek, kissing her gently as he pulled her to her feet. “I have to do what is best for the greater good,” he whispered, and then as if he’d never been there, he stepped back into the darkened corner of the tower and vanished.