I'm currently loving the English heat wave and this little gem of inspiration popped into my head. Hope you enjoy it : )

It was so hot. Hotter than English summers had any right to be. Where had the cool breezes and reliable clouds gone? Soothing in their chilly consistency. Instead he was being forced to endure oppressing temperatures in excess of 30 degrees.

"Severus! There you are, would you like some lemonade?"

"No thank you, Molly"

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure indeed. Thank you." The words were bit out.

"Well, I'll leave the glass here anyway for if you change your mind."

His grimace must have looked significantly more convincing than it felt because the wretched woman left, but not before urging him to quit his room and join them all in the garden frolics. Severus sneered. This damn heat wave was stretching out beyond the weekend in a most unpleasant fashion and the smothering, sultry air outside the sanctuary of his magically cooled room and decidedly unpleasant. Simply considering the heat made Severus feel uncomfortable.

xxxxx

The kitchen at the Burrow was a hive of activity with vegetables being chopped and salad tossed and assorted meats being grilled. Severus stepped from the fireplace, dusted his robes down and was engulfed by Mrs Weasley into a rib endangering hug. Ever since his espionage had been revealed and repeatedly vouched for by assorted Important And Respected People the Weasley matriarch had taken it upon herself to make Severus feel loved, from bringing him food to giving spontaneous (and disconcerting) embraces and browbeating the recalcitrant Sirius Black into giving him somewhere to stay.

With another grimace Severus extricated himself and opted to join Shacklebolt and Lupin near the whiskey.

Looking around he noted that everyone under the age of twenty five was vanishing in the direction of the pond. Severus mentally shuddered at the thought of so many people flailing around in such a small space. It made his internal professor cringe at the prospective carnage.

Black seemed obnoxiously unaffected by the oppressive heat. He looked cool and even refreshed in a light tshirt. Severus sneered slightly and turned back to Lupin who was enquiring about the latest book he was reading.

xxxxx

The heat wave was stretching into its second week when Severus finally snapped. The house was completely deserted since everyone had opted to go swimming at the Burrow again. He seized a book, swept down the stairs and out into the garden before stopping short.

Skin. Lots and lots of toned skin, gleaming and tanned and taunting him. Then the skin started talking. "Never seen a sunbathing man before Sevvie?" And with that the paralysis that had gripped his limbs was gone.

"Black, I have seen men doing many different things."

"I always reckoned you'd be more of the watching type." Sirius leered.

"You must have seemed so witty when you were twelve."

"Oh sod off Snape."

"Very Oscar Wilde."

His splutters of indignation almost made up for the fact that Severus' sun time plan had been thwarted. Almost.

xxxxx

"Remus!" Feet pounded on the stairs.

"Remus!" More running.

"Remus where-" Black burst through the door "Snape."

"Black."

"What are you doing in here?"

"It's a library, use your imagination."

Black snarled and stormed out of the room.

"Remus, are you still on for tomorrow?"

"Of course. Meet here?" The voices came through the cracked door from the landing outside, faint but clearly audible.

"That would be the easiest place."

"Alright, I'll see you at ten."

"See you then. I'm heading off home now."

Black chuckled, Severus told himself that the sound grated over his nerves and that was why he shuddered. With disgust.

"Marital bliss."

"Nothing quite like it Sirius."

xxxxx

At 10.30am precisely Severus gathered up his book and strode purposefully from his room to the sun drenched garden of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

The luxury of having the time to finally finish his absorbing book had put him in an unusually buoyant mood and he pottered around the kitchen arranging lunch, disregarding Kreacher's muttered obscenities and references to the many and varied dire fates suffered by "dirty half bloods in this very room".

He must have fallen asleep, stretched out on the bench with the sun soaking into his bare back. Heat surrounded him, sweeping up and gliding over his skin.

Severus arched his back, not wanting to lose the sensations.

xxxxx

A deep chuckle broke through his sleep and sun dazed mind. A chuckle was a human sound. A human sound comes from a person. There must be a person with him and therefore he wasn't as alone as he had thought. Furthermore that chuckle was uncomfortably familiar.

Severus forced his eyes open and began to struggle up, raising his head from where it had been resting on his arms, a weight was pinning him, preventing him from moving. How dare this person have the temerity to actually hold him down!

"Now now Severus. I much preferred you all relaxed and pliant."

"Get off me Black." Severus employed his most vicious snarl, guaranteed to reduce students of all ages to quivering wrecks.

The detestable man had the audacity to chuckle again and continued to move his hands down, shifting lower.

"But Severus," his voice was silky, almost unrecognisable, "you need to be protected in this heat, your skin is after all delicate."

Black's hands continued their downward journey, smoothing the lotion into his skin. When they found a particularly sensitive spot Severus shuddered and subsided back onto the bench. Too relaxed and sun drunk to muster the energy for properly effective resistance.

xxxxx

Sirius smirked as he felt Severus relax beneath him. Working his hands lower he could see muscles flexing and bunching in response to the pressure. It was fascinating.

Then he moaned. Low and faint, almost inaudible, but undeniably there.

Sirius froze for a moment before shifting to the side and turning Severus over onto his back, running his eyes up to meet his inscrutable gaze.

Hesitantly Sirius reached out to touch his shoulders, continuing to rub circles onto the sun warmed skin. Moving more slowly now, maintaining the eye contact, observing every miniscule shift of Severus' expression.

xxxxx

It was hypnotic. That blue gaze locked with his, strong hands roaming over his body, stroking from his shoulders slowly, inexorably down his chest. When Black caressed a particularly erogenous zone low on his abdomen Severus couldn't prevent himself from biting down on a moan.

The tension that had been ratcheting up between them burst into a flurry of movement.

It was impossible to tell whether Severus reached out and hauled Black into his lap or if he straddled him of his own accord. It was immaterial.

Hands twisted into dark hair, tongues intertwined.

They were panting and biting. It was more of a battle than anything else. Nothing softer could possibly come from the two of them. Black was writhing on his lap, expertly making his way from Severus's mouth down his neck, biting and mouthing whatever skin he could reach, tracing a path only he could see on his downwards journey.

xxxxx

The front door crashing open and the subsequent screams and curses of that wretched portrait broke through the haze that had come over them both.

"Looks like playtime is over." He had been aiming for light and jokey but his voice came out rough and utterly wrecked. Severus looked similarly affected.

"Indeed." Sirius shuddered at the sound.

xxxxx

It had been almost a week since their interlude in the garden and there hadn't been a single sunny day since then.

"Black, have you seen the weather forecast in the prophet? It looks rather promising."

Sirius took the proffered newspaper gingerly and cast his eyes over the page, noting that the next day was being predicted to be "the hottest day of the year".

"Indeed. Perhaps hot enough for a swim in a pond."

"Perhaps even some sunbathing on that old bench outside."

Thoughts?