Kiss
Furtive glances in either direction revealed that no one was watching. In fact, there was no one in sight to watch. Either way, Severus Snape wasn't terribly concerned about whether anyone saw him acting suspicious, because he spent a lot of time being sneaky without trying to hide it in any case. Still, it was slightly more convenient not to have to glare anyone out of sight before he pushed aside the heavy tapestry bearing the whimsical (and in Severus' opinion, nauseating) embroidery of a knight and his lady love exchanging a kiss under a flower-drenched balcony, and slipped inside the hidden alcove the tapestry concealed, breath hitching slightly as he found it...
...empty.
Severus swore quietly, resisting the urge to slam his fist against the stone wall as well. Withdrawing his wand from an inner pocket of his robes, he muttered a spell he had researched just the other day, one that created a ball of light which could be conveniently directed to stay in a particular position without it being necessary to hold his wand raised as with a Lumos spell. He re-pocketed the wand, then slouched against the rounded half-circle of wall, arms folded, sulking.
The same picture on the front of the tapestry was also displayed on the back, oddly. Severus wondered why anyone would go to the trouble of designing a two-sided tapestry when one side was going to be against a wall anyway. And it didn't make sense to create it just for a sections of wall that had a mysterious alcove cut out of it. Besides that, who in their right mind would design such a horrible tasteless embroidery of a rather foppish-looking knight with silver armor and flowers in his hair, kissing a huge-breasted damsel who nevertheless looked more masculine than the male?
"A lunatic, that's who," Severus grumbled to himself, staring moodily at the woman's broad face. The picture didn't even seem to move. How useless.
He continued staring at the female, trying to figure out what other boys saw in them. It was a mystery to him, as the only person he had ever been interested in was decidedly male, and also not here when he was bloody supposed to be.
"Severus?"
That nervous whisper could only belong to one person, the only one brave enough to use his name that way.
"What."
"Oh, you're here, fantastic." A smaller youth slipped in carefully, giving Severus an apologetic smile. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I was afraid you might have left by now."
"Well, I'm still here. Maybe I should have left. We've only ten minutes before double Potions, you know."
"I know." Remus Lupin smiled wider, seemingly immune to the dark look Severus was giving him. He stepped a little closer, although the alcove didn't afford much room to move in the first place. "You've got to realize, it's pretty hard to get away from my mates at any given time. I somehow managed to lose them in the crowd downstairs, and well... here I am. Better late than never." He advanced again, until he was nearly pressed against Severus, who was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable. Remus had never done this before.
"Yes, well... well... don't talk to me about them. You know I don't care."
"Of course not. Something the matter, Severus?" Remus' amused tone irritated the Slytherin, but just looking at him, head cocked to one side, lips slightly parted, soft strands of brown hair hanging down one eye... Irritation melted into confusion and worry. Remus was attractive. Very attractive. And only inches away. Staring at him in a way he never had before.
"No!" Severus exclaimed, voice cracking slightly. He took a moment to mentally curse his fourteen year old vocal cords.
"Ah. So, what do you want to do this time? Ten minutes... something you want to talk about? Or maybe... maybe we could do something else."
Something else? Severus' mind started racing. What could Remus possibly want to do besides talk? That was all they had ever done before when they had secretly met here, but now... Was Remus staring at his lips?
Severus shifted from foot to foot, wishing desperately for his normal sarcasm and cynicism to return. What was wrong with him? "Something like... something like what?" he asked, willing his voice not to betray his nervousness.
"You know." Remus cast a mischievous glance from the tapestry back to him again.
"You want me to dress as a woman?"
"No!" Remus exclaimed, laughing. "Kissing. Want to try it?"
Did he want to try kissing? Did he want to try kissing?
Severus' voice had apparently died in his throat. But Remus was standing in front of him, wanting to kiss him, and he had to say something, something clever, something charming, something self-assured and confident...
"Uh. What?"
Nice work.
"I put my lips to yours," Remus chuckled, "and we go from there."
"I knowwhat kissing is," Severus snapped, some of his composure returning.
"Well then. Want to?" All traces of mirth gone, Remus was looking at him very seriously. Not to mention longingly. He did like Remus, very much, but enough to let the Gryffindor kiss him?
The answer to that question, as Remus traced two fingers delicately along his jawline, seemed to be "definitely yes". He nodded, and Remus smiled again, a beautiful, soft smile. Severus swallowed hard.
"Lean down a little. You're taller," he said, and Severus obeyed. Their mouths seemed to be moving together slowly, but rushing toward each other much too fast at the same time. Severus closed his eyes, wondering what it would feel like when
Their noses bumped together. Severus pulled back, startled.
"Oops," Remus whispered. He was obviously trying not to laugh.
"And I suppose you're going to blame that on me," Severus growled, suddenly very grouchy for some reason. Why did his stupid nose have to be so big, anyway?
"No, no. You just need to tilt your head a little more." It still felt to him that Remus might be mocking him, and he was about to make another sarcastic retort, but the other boy was reaching out to tilt his head for him, and their lips were closing the distance between each other again, and he forgot all about being angry.
When they touched, he didn't want it to end. It was like a spark of warmth had ignited deep in his stomach, where it spread and traveled down into lower portions of his anatomy at an alarming rate. Remus' lips were warm and soft, Remus' sweetly subtle scent was filling his senses, Remus' hand was pressing firmly into the small of his back, and who cared about anything else?
They reluctantly broke apart after some time, both panting a little. "How are we supposed to keep doing that while still needing to breathe?" Severus complained, trying to divert attention from the way he could practically feel his face glowing with the heat of his blush. Soon they wouldn't even need the light ball to illuminate the space, he felt certain.
"Relax," Remus said easily. "Breathe through your nose if you have to. Here, let me..." Remus was reaching for him again, and Severus could hardly protest that. But this time, he was very surprised when instead of simply kissing him, the shorter boy gently drew Severus' lower lip into his mouth, sucking lightly, then just barely nibbling at it with his teeth.
Severus gasped, then moaned, then tried to pull away in embarrassment, but Remus held firm until he had run his tongue the length of both lips, as though tasting them.
"Where did... you learn to do something like that?" Severus said, attempting to look anywhere but directly at the other boy. His face was just burning up for some reason.
"Oh... well, I've seen Sirius do it to girls loads of times. Drives them crazy, so..." Severus drew back, the name "Sirius" roughly equivalent to a gallon of ice water poured directly on his groin. "Oh, relax," Remus grinned. "He doesn't do it to me."
"What do you do, spy on him?"
"Er... no, he's not exactly... shy with his... activities."
"Spare me further details," Severus muttered.
"Of course," Remus replied, pulling him close again. "But only if you kiss me now."
Severus complied, forgetting all about everything all over again as he became brave enough to slip his tongue in to explore Remus' mouth. He felt their hips bumping together, but wasn't about to feel awkward about that until the kissing was over, at least.
There was just no need to keep unimportant things in his mind, like the fact that he was kissing a bloody Gryffindor, or the fact that class would start in two seconds, or
"STUDENTS SNOGGING IN A SECOND-FLOOR CORRIDOR! THEY'RE LATE FOR CLASS!"
Severus broke apart from Remus so fast that his head banged against the wall; he swore as the voices continued to repeat themselves, very loudly. One voice was low and throaty, the other high and nasal.
It was the tapestry. And the high-pitched voice belonged to the effeminate knight.
At least they had the time to exit the alcove before someone found them.
But it was two identically red-faced boys who were escorted into double Potions by a professor, where they spent the entire lesson (and indeed, the next several several weeks) being speculatively discussed by a large portion of the rest of the student population.