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"Flammagelos!"  Alaric pointed his wand at the raging flames.  The flame-freezing charm was not strong enough to put out the fire, but at least he could clear a path through the blaze.  "FLORIAN!" he shouted.  "FLORIAN, WHERE ARE YOU?  CAN YOU HEAR ME?"  Above the crackling of the fire, Alaric thought he could hear someone groaning.  He tried to listen so he could tell where the sound was coming from.  He thought it was through the next doorway.

"Florian!"  The slender body of his companion lay spread out on the stone floor.  He was trapped by a smouldering beam that had fallen from the ceiling.  Smoke had overcome him, and he was unconscious.  "Leviosa!" said Alaric, pointing his wand at the beam.  It flew through the air and landed against the wall.  Florian must have tried to put out the fire with his robe.  He had taken it off, and now he was wearing nothing at all above the waist.  His bare chest and arms were smudged with soot.  So was his golden hair.  Alaric knelt over his friend and brushed the golden hair from his forehead.  "Don’t leave me, Florian!" he pleaded.  "I’m going to get you out of here!"  He lifted Florian’s limp body in his arms.  He still had his wand in his hand, under Florian’s shoulders, and he used it to cast the flame-freezing spell again.  Alaric carried his friend through the burning blaze, while big pieces of roof fell down behind him.  At last, they were outside, in the fresh air.  There was a stream at the bottom of the hill in front of the mysterious house, and Alaric carried Florian down to it and laid him on the grass.

Florian began to cough as he breathed the fresh air.  But his eyes were still closed, and he tossed his head back and forth, thinking he was still trapped in the fire.  Alaric tore off a piece of cloth from the end of his robe and soaked it in the stream.  Gently, he began to wash the soot from Florian’s unclothed body.  The cool water was soothing, and Florian stopped tossing about.  Alaric rinsed the cloth clean, and let the water drip on Florian’s brow, and lips.  At last, his blue eyes opened.

"Alaric!" he said.  His voice was still hoarse from the smoke. "The fire!  It was a trap!"

To be continued…

Kevin Grahame chewed the end of his quill and read over what he had just written.  He thought about going back and writing some more about washing off the soot, but he decided he could do that in the next chapter. Florian was dirty enough, he could probably use a proper bath in the stream.  Alaric was probably pretty dirty, too, saving him from the fire and all.  Yes, that would be a good start to the next chapter.

Kevin stretched and sat back against the pillows, wondering how late it was.  He was in his bed in the Ravenclaw Fourth Year Boys Dormitory, drapes drawn shut around him, the candles above his head still casting their soft, golden light down on the parchment spread across his comforter.  The rest of the dormitory was silent.  He hadn’t meant to stay up so late, but he’d been so engrossed in penning Chapter Four of The Adventures of Florian and Alaric, he hadn’t been able to stop.  Even now, he snuggled back into the pillows and closed his eyes, drawing out in his mind what would happen between Florian and Alaric once they got in the stream.  He couldn’t put all of it on parchment, of course, but he could still imagine it, and it made him smile.

It was late March.  More than two whole months since the magical night in the greenhouse when Kevin had finally admitted to Freddy Shrike that he had a crush on him, and Freddy had said he loved him, and Kevin had said he loved him, too, and they had held each other, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed…  It was incredible, better than even his most wildly romantic fantasies, Freddy’s lips against his, responding to his touch in a way that was all at once shy, and eager, and tender, and passionate.  So sweet, so perfect… Kevin sighed.  Being in love with Freddy was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him.  The only problem was, they could do so little about it.  Getting the greenhouse to themselves had been pure luck.  Ever since then, they’d had trouble managing any more than a hasty smooch while hidden deep in the library stacks.  About the best they could do, on any sort of regular basis, was to claim a desk in one of the more secluded alcoves of the Common Room, where they could sit shoulder to shoulder and pretend they were working on something very important together, while they kicked off their shoes under cover of the furniture and rubbed feet with each other.

Freddy had turned fifteen on Valentine’s Day, and Kevin had left a special gift under his pillow.  He’d felt a bit awkward about it at first, afraid Freddy would think it was stupid, but Kevin had written him a story.  They had talked, in the greenhouse, about the wild tales they had built around their earlier fancies, and reflecting later on their conversation, it had given him an idea.  That was how the Epic Saga of Alaric and Florian had begun, with Alaric (the powerfully-built, dark-haired, amazingly handsome Wizard with the broad shoulders and smouldering brown eyes – Freddy had offered this description for inclusion in Chapter Two, since Kevin wasn’t vain enough to come up with it, himself) being attacked by a giant squid while crossing the Bottomless Lake in a tiny boat and finding himself in grave danger of drowning, until Florian (the slender, golden-haired, amazingly handsome Wizard with the long, supple fingers, and the elegant, chiseled features, and eyes the azure blue of a summer sky – Kevin had come up with all of that on his own)  had swooped down from the clouds on the back of a magnificent Swedish Short-snout and saved his life.  Folding and sealing the parchment, Kevin had drawn on the outside of it, with a shaky hand, a lopsided flower meant to represent a Daisy – his nickname for Freddy – and had scribbled beneath it, I wrote this for you.  It’s pretty silly.  P.  P was for Pudgie, Freddy’s nickname for him.  He had snuck the story under Freddy’s pillow that evening, while everyone else was down in the Common Room, and had had no idea at all if his friend had even found it, until the next morning, when Freddy had caught him alone long enough to say, "Did you write that?"

"Yes," Kevin turned pink.  "I warned you, it was silly."

"It was great!" Freddy’s eyes had glowed beautifully.  "You’re going to write more, aren’t you?  I want you to rescue me – I mean, I want Alaric to rescue Florian from something next time, all right?"

"What do you think Florian would like to be rescued from?" Kevin had asked him, delighted with the idea.

"Mmm," Freddy considered, and came up with, "an Acromantula!"

And so, in Chapter Two, poor Florian had been entangled in a giant web, struggling valiantly against his bonds while an enormous spider prepared to devour him, until Alaric arrived in the nick of time and cast a leg-locking spell on the Acromantula to Save Florian’s Life.  Chapter Three had involved Alaric suffering Multiple Life-Threatening Injuries in a duel with Otho the Odious, their evil Wizard adversary (who bore a suspicious resemblance to Freddy’s own odious brother), and bleeding quite a bit while Florian ripped up his own robes and tenderly bandaged his wounds.  Kevin didn’t dare to write anything like a kissing scene between his heroes, since there was always the chance that some unwanted person might stumble upon a stray chapter left lying about, but he was becoming very adept at getting the Amazingly Handsome Wizards out of their robes at the slightest excuse, and every near-fatal experience always led to some round of the rescuer reviving, comforting, or tending the wounds of the rescuee, who was always extremely grateful for the attention.

Now, Kevin rolled up the parchment containing Chapter Four, and used a bit of wax from the candle on the headboard to seal it.  Parting the curtains and slipping out of bed on the side next to the wall, where his desk stood, Kevin put the parchment in a drawer, and extinguished the candle.  In the dark, he padded out to the bathroom one last time, thoughts still wandering in the sunlit stream where Alaric and Florian were ducking each other in the water and engaging in a little mutual back-scrubbing.  Tired as he was, Kevin was still not ready to go to sleep.  When he came back into the dormitory, he stopped, and stood, and stretched again, and looked the length of the room to the windows, where there was nothing but a fragment of moon to faintly light the vast, dark grounds.  It was so quiet.  Even the steady breathing of the other boys was muffled by the drapes that enveloped their beds.  The room might have been deserted, no one would ever have known, all he could see were blue drapes, all hiding their own secrets…

Kevin was suddenly aware of his own breath, coming rapidly, racing with his heart.  On his left stood his own bed, a dark wall of curtains.  On his right stood a matching wall of heavy cloth, with someone else slumbering behind it.  No one would ever know who was in which bed, unless they looked, and there was no reason for anyone to do that.  Holding still long enough to listen for any other signs of stirring, Kevin slipped quietly out of sight, between the wall and the bed on the right.  Finding the divide in the curtain, he softly eased a hand through, and pushed it back just a bit.

With the rest of the room in darkness, he was surprised to find the candle still glowing faintly.  Its dim light revealed Freddy’s slender, sleeping form, curled on his side with his back to Kevin and his arms folded around a spare pillow.  Hope that’s meant to be me, Kevin thought to himself, smiling at the picture.  Carefully, he reached for the top of the comforter and drew back the covers.  There was barely enough space for him to kneel on the mattress and twitch the drapes shut behind him.  Freddy stirred slightly at the shifting of the bed, and Kevin was suddenly afraid that he would wake all at once and shout with alarm at the intrusion.  Caressing the uncovered shoulder and giving it a slight push, he whispered, "Daisy.  Psst.  Daisy."

"Mmph," murmured Freddy, wriggling under the blankets and nuzzling the pillow.

Gosh, I hope that’s me, thought Kevin, bending closer to whisper again, "Daisy, wake up."

His fingers brushed Freddy’s neck, and the sleeping boy squirmed a bit and mumbled something that sounded like, "Pudgie, that tickles…"  When Kevin stroked the hair back from his ear, Freddy finally turned his head, and blinked, and opened his eyes.

"Shh," Kevin motioned him to silence.

Scooting onto his back, Freddy raised himself on his elbows.  "What are you doing?" he whispered, as softly as he could.  He looked startled, but not unhappy.

"I couldn’t sleep," Kevin kept his own voice hushed, as well.  "Can I come in with you?"

"Pudgie, do you think you ought to?" he wondered, but he was chucking the extra pillow out of the way and making room for him as he said this.

"Why not?  Everyone’s got their drapes closed, you can’t tell who’s in what bed!  We should have thought of this sooner.  You said you wished we could sleep together," Kevin reminded him.

It was true, Freddy had said this, one evening when they were down in the Common Room, and Kevin’s toes were tickling the arch of his foot.  "We wouldn’t even have to do anything," he had said, voice heavy with longing.  "Just sleep."

"We’ll have to be quiet," Freddy warned now, lifting the blankets so Kevin could slide his legs under.  "And what about in the morning, when everyone’s getting up, you can’t come crawling out of my bed--"

"It’s all right," Kevin assured him as he took off his glasses.  "I always wake up once before it’s time to get up, 4:30 or 5:00.  I’ll sneak back then.  Can I put these in your desk?" he asked, indicating his glasses.  "I don’t want to leave them lying out."  Freddy said yes, and Kevin poked back out of the curtains on the wall side of the bed long enough to stash his glasses in Freddy’s desk drawer.  With a little more squeaking and rustling than they meant to make, the two of them snuggled down under the covers, and worked out how to get their arms around each other in a comfortable tangle.  Freddy scrunched down just enough to rest his head on Kevin’s shoulder, and Kevin lightly stroked his back.  Freddy had the most amazing pajamas; the blue silk was like liquid, every curve and angle of his body could be felt beneath it.  They were made of some sort of Wizarding fabric, he supposed, worked with a subtle pattern of dragons, and cut in an exotic, Oriental style, fastened down the front with knots and loops of silk cord.  Kevin had nothing so elaborate as that.  He slept in a plain, white, cotton undershirt, and a pair of tatty, plaid, flannel pajama trousers.  This apparently met with Freddy’s approval, however, as he ran his hand appreciatively over Kevin’s bare arm and shoulder.  "You’re getting hair, Pudgie," he whispered, laughing softly as his fingers brushed Kevin’s chest just above the neckline of his shirt.  Gosh, Freddy had lovely fingers, they were long, and slim, and sensitive, but surprisingly strong.  Honestly, the slender boy was stronger than he gave himself credit for, thought Kevin, as Freddy’s arm slid under his and around his back, tightening his embrace to pull them closer together.  "Have you been writing?" The teasing of soft breath and delicate lips at the base of his throat made Kevin ache deliciously.

"Mmm," he murmured, combing the blond hair.  "I’m done with Chapter Four."

"What happens?"

"I can’t tell you.  You have to read it."

"Tell me what happens or I’ll tickle you," purred his sweet Daisy, hands creeping under his shirt, fingertips tracing the valley of his spine down to the hollow at the small of his back.

"Hey, stop," he hissed, trying to pry Freddy’s hands loose.  Gosh, he was strong.  Turning his face into the pillow to smother a laugh, Kevin mumbled, "You’re the one who said we have to be quiet."

"But, I want a bedtime story, Pudgie," he wheedled.  He did relax his grip, and stop the dance of his fingers on Kevin’s back.  "Tell me how Alaric saves Florian this time."

"How do you know that’s what happens?" Kevin teased.

"Because it’s my turn to be rescued.  What do I get saved from?"

"I’m not telling," Kevin kissed his forehead.  "But they both get dirty.  And there’s a stream."

"Do they get in it?"

"Not in this chapter, but they’re going to."

"Then what?"

"What do you think?" Kevin squeezed him.

"I think…" Freddy said softly, punctuating his thoughts with random kisses dropped on whatever bit of the other boy was convenient, "that they wash all the dirt off of each other…  very slowly… and very carefully…  then – is the sun out?"

"Yes, it’s afternoon, very sunny."

"Good."  More scattered kisses, neck, shoulder, the small span of bare chest above his shirt.  "They lie out… on the grass… under the sun… to get dry."

"Is that all?"  Kevin had already thought this far on his own, he was hoping Freddy would contribute some further ideas.  More than that, he was hoping that Freddy wouldn’t get tired of nibbling on him any time soon.  It was just exciting enough, and just comforting enough, and Kevin would not have minded a bit if he’d kept at it all night.

"They’ve got their robes off, I hope?"  His hands were still under the back of Kevin’s shirt, and his lips were still roaming somewhere in the vicinity of Kevin’s collarbone.

"Of course they do, they wouldn’t get in the stream with their robes on."

"All right, then," Freddy proceeded, with more punctuating kisses, "they lie out on the grass… under the sun… together… with their robes off… and…"  With a smile, he stopped here and nuzzled Kevin’s neck.

"And what?" Kevin had slipped his own hands under the back of Freddy’s pajama top.  "You can’t stop there."

"Yes, I can.  You’re supposed to be telling this story, remember?  What next?"

"Well…" the author whispered, "I suppose they’d do something like this…"  Kevin raised himself slightly on one elbow, the better to reach Freddy’s mouth with his own, but he was surprised when Freddy fell away from him, both arms behind his back pulling him along until Kevin was resting half on top of him, looking down into his eyes.  Kevin hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was such a good idea, but Freddy was closing his eyes and spreading his lips, and…

Kissing in the greenhouse had been sweet, but not like this.  Curled together in the bed, in near darkness, there was nothing to distract from the pure, sensual pleasure of contact.  It was the first real kiss they’d had since their initial binge of experiments, but there was no hint of clumsiness, or uncertainty this time.  They sank into a delirious meeting of mouths and minds, driven by weeks of pent up desire.  When they tore apart at last, Freddy smothered a groan of satisfaction in Kevin’s shoulder.  Kevin cradled him in one arm, and caressed his face with his free hand, tracing the crisp edge of his jaw, his thumb settling in the slight hint of a cleft that distinguished Freddy’s chin.  From there, it was only natural to let his fingers travel the length of the slender neck, and put them to work on undoing the topmost fastening of the silk pajamas.  The blue eyes opened and looked up at him inquiringly as he did this, and, with a tender, reassuring smile, Kevin undid the next fastening, and the next.  The liquid silk rippled back at the slightest motion, and, heart pounding, Kevin let his hand slip under the fabric and around Freddy’s ribs, then he bent his head to the smooth, bare chest, and tasted the untouched skin. 

"Aa-aah!"  Freddy bit off the cry and choked it down, as his slender body rose to meet the curious explorations of Kevin’s lips and tongue.  This is madness, the last rational thought in Kevin’s brain was pleading for his attention, but he wasn’t listening.  We’ve got to stop this before…  With a sudden heave and twist, Freddy’s body shifted beneath him, and before he knew what was coming, Freddy’s hand was shoved down the back of his pajama trousers and the strong, delicate fingers were digging into Kevin’s rump.  It was all at once Too Much and Not Enough, and Kevin struggled away from him, falling back onto his side of the bed.

"Gosh, Daisy," he gasped, "what happened to ‘just going to sleep’?"

"Don’t ask me, you’re the one who started unbuttoning things."

"I think that’s enough writing for one night," Kevin decided, laughing a bit as he said it.

"I say, though, Pudgie," Freddy smiled at him, "that’s a nice seat you’ve got.  Must be all that Quidditch practice."

The two of them did nothing for a moment but smile, and search each other’s eyes in the dim candlelight, and Kevin wished they really had been Florian and Alaric, lying naked in the grass beside the sunlit stream, older and wiser and free to satisfy all the desires that had to be cut short and choked off as long as they were a couple of teenagers stuck in a crowded dormitory.

"I think we’d better get to sleep, Daisy, really," he finally said.

Freddy agreed with a sigh, and moved to turn himself over.  "I’m not turning my back on you," he whispered, as he proceeded to do just that.  "But, I’m more comfortable this way."  They sorted themselves out as Freddy nestled down with Kevin’s arm under his neck, and they snuggled under the blanket, bodies spooned together.  Freddy drew Kevin’s free arm around himself, and fondled his hand.  "Do you mind if we leave the candle burning?  It’s not that I’m afraid of the dark or anything," he insisted, a bit too hastily.

"I don’t mind," said Kevin.  Freddy’s shirt was still open, and he could feel the smooth skin against his hand, but it was comforting now.  "And it’s all right if you don’t like the dark."

"But, you’re not afraid of anything," he accused.

"Oh, gosh, that’s not true," Kevin protested.  "I’m afraid of lots of things.  Bees, and Alsatians, and water – I can’t swim, remember?"

"That’s all right," Freddy yawned.  "If you were ever in danger of drowning, I’d save you."

"Mm," Kevin chuckled softly.  "Then I could show you how really really grateful I was…"

THE END

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