Second Place - Romance

Having been summarily dismissed for the rest of the day, Harry and Severus began the trek back down to their dungeon chambers. As they neared the door to their rooms, Harry started laughing. His mate looked at him askance, wondering at the sudden mirth he could feel through their new bond.

Harry waited until they were safely shut away in the sitting room before he dared to share his thoughts with his husband. ~Sev, I have someone in my head. At least you can't complain that my head is empty anymore.~

Despite his best intentions, Severus chuckled at the young man's cheek. ~Well, at least you will have an intelligent thought cross your mind from time to time now,~ the potions master rejoined.

Harry responded in the way typical of a cocky young man: he stuck his tongue out at his mate. Severus glared, but the look was devoid of the disdain that might have once been present.

"So, Sev, somehow I don't think we got very much information out of the headmaster. So what do we do now?" Harry asked aloud.

"Hmm, I do believe that you are correct, Harry. As usual, Albus was being his charming, obtuse self. However, I do think that simple occlumency will serve us here."

Harry groaned, remembering the exercise in frustration and futility that their earlier lessons in occlumency had been. "I don't know, Sev. I mean, will you actually teach me how this time, or are you just going to beat my brain in again?"

"Impertinent brat. If you had been willing to listen to me then, you would have learned," the potions master responded haughtily.

The expression on the young man's face showed what he thought of that statement. "Admit it, Sev. You didn't want to help me then. At that time you still thought of me as someone who was just wasting your time. And I am willing to admit that I didn't trust you enough then to actually listen to what you were trying to teach me."

Severus was about to angrily answer when he stopped himself. Harry had a valid point. At that time in their lives, both had been too stubborn to even think about meeting the other half way. Inwardly, Severus was proud of the young man who was now his husband. Such an insightful statement illustrated just how much Harry had matured.

Feeling a certain astonishment and sense of joy filtering through to his mind, Severus looked up to see Harry widely grinning. "Do you really think that I am growing up and maybe even growing wise?" Harry shyly asked.

The two got comfortable in the sitting room as Severus patiently explained the theory behind successful occlumency and its cousin legilemency. A light finally seemed to come on in Harry's befuddled mind as he began to grasp the concept that a competent occlemens would be able to erect a wall preventing intrusion, but that an expert occlemens would be able to not only block a successful intrusion, but would also be able to plant false memories that would fool even an accomplished legilemens. For the first time he began to see it as a workable problem rather than an unsolvable puzzle.

The practical session went remarkably better than before also. Harry found this Severus to be a much kinder, and more patient teacher than he had previously been towards Harry. After a couple of hours of hard work, Harry was making progress, albeit slowly. As lunchtime approached, Severus suggested that they break for a time. Harry gladly agreed as his brain hurt from all the mental work. He reluctantly acknowledged that even with a �nice' teacher, it was a difficult subject to master. He stuck out his tongue to his mate when he felt Severus' smug reaction to that thought.

By mutual agreement, lunch was taken in their chambers, with Tizzy bringing them a delightful tray of soup, sandwiches and fruit. Harry was beginning to realize that either Severus or Tizzy had a thing for fresh fruit, as it seemed to appear at every meal. Cold pumpkin juice rounded out the meal and Harry sat back happily after eating his fill.

After the lunch was cleared away Severus pulled out a book he thought might be helpful for his mate in his quest to master Occlumency. Severus of course, conveniently neglected to mention that he himself could have easily have blocked any and all of Harry's thoughts. But the experience was so unique and interesting that after his initial bout of nausea upon the intrusion of Harry's thoughts and emotions, Severus was in fact relishing the sense of intimacy.

Harry dutifully studied the dull and meticulous tome on the mastery of Occlumency while sitting in one of the plush, dark green armchairs in the sitting room. Occasionally he would steal glances at his husband, only to quietly sigh when the man seemed to be immersed in his own reading. The truth was that his mind had thought of some very interesting uses of this empathy they now had and his body was definitely interested in experimenting with his mate.

Severus hid a smirk behind his potions manual as he sensed the direction the young man's thoughts had taken. In fact, he was even willing to award points to Gryffindor for creative thinking. But of course, he managed to quell that impulse before things got out of hand. After all, he still had a reputation to uphold. Instead, he decided that his husband's ideas had merit and he decided to help things along.

"Harry," the potions master said in a velvety voice. He felt the sensation his voice caused as he watched as a shiver ran down Harry's spine. "Harry," he said again as he placed his potions book on the side table and smoothly rose out of his seat. Crossing the short distance, the older man gracefully dropped to his knees in front of his husband. Harry looked up in surprise, unsure of what Severus was planning to do. Long fingers gently took the book from Harry's hands and moved it to the side. Then those fingers swept aside robes and unfastened trousers to expose the young man to his dark gaze. Harry moaned as Severus brushed against his erection and the blood all seemed to rush to that part of his body. The young man's legs fell open so that Severus could gain easier access and Harry was rewarded when cool air met his hot throbbing cock. Severus smirked as he bent his head for his first taste of his young lover. He drew the tip of his tongue across the end of the purpling member and was rewarded with a gasp and a small thrust of the hips. The potions master placed a steadying hand on a hip to prevent Harry from arching up into him as he brought his lips down to the tip of the firm cock.

Sensation ripped through them both as Severus could feel Harry's arousal through the bond. The musky scent of his partner was an aphrodisiac to the older man and he continued to caress the cock with his tongue and lips. This was something he had never been forced to do in his services to his father and uncle or to the Dark Lord and for that Severus had always been grateful. He had always thought that performing fellatio would be rather debasing and had never before considered performing such a service to anyone. But now, faced with this delectable young man and realizing the amount of pleasure he was imparting to his beloved Harry, Severus understood why someone would want to do this. Though he was ostensibly the submissive one, the amount of power he was able to wield was amazing. He was the one bringing pleasure to Harry; he was the one deciding what happened. Oh, yes. This was definitely something he could enjoy doing.

Harry had never felt anything so gratifying as this before. He never knew it could feel so incredibly good to have a tongue stroke and lips caress his cock. But he wanted more. Mewling, he tried to thrust his hips up into that willing and talented mouth, but the firm grip on his hip prevented that. Obsidian eyes, glazed with lust looked up at him and Harry wove his fingers into the silky strands of hair surrounding his mate's face. Dimly it registered in Harry's mind that the hair was not oily at all, but rather soft and luxurious and the young man smiled at the thought that this would be his secret. All the better to keep Severus to himself.

Taking his time getting acquainted with the large, throbbing cock in his hand, Severus experimented with different tongue movements and strokes. He found that thrusting the tip of his tongue into the slit in the top of the cock caused ripples of pleasure to course through Harry's body. He found that drawing his tongue down the vein on the underside of the cock made Harry squirm and moan, the resultant waves of pleasure washing over into his mind.

Severus groaned at the shared sensations and he reached down with a hand so that he could free his own erection. He sighed around Harry's cock as cool dungeon air breathed on his own cock. The older man bobbed his head up and down over his husband's cock as he stroked his awakened erection. Smoothing a thumb over the weeping tip, Severus groaned around the younger man's cock, causing a tremor to ride along Harry's body. Knowing that neither would last long now, Severus gave into the desire throbbing in his body and sucked his young lover in deeply, feeling the tip touch the back of his throat. A cry was wrenched from Harry's throat as he threw his head back and rushed towards completion. Unbeknownst to him, Harry began muttering in Parseltongue and Severus reacted by moaning around the Gryffindor's cock as he felt his own cock throb in need. The vibrations around his cock were all it took to send Harry over the edge and he erupted down his lover's throat. Severus greedily swallowed the creamy liquid even as he speeded his strokes on his own cock. As he allowed the now softening member to slip back out of his mouth, Severus thrust into his hand and he moaned as spurts of semen shot out of his cock and onto his hand. Feeling sated and entirely pleased with himself, Severus looked up into the bemused face of the man he loved.

Harry weakly brushed a strand of hair out of the older man's face as he smiled at his husband. The young man felt as amazed and satisfied as did Severus. There was simply no describing the sensation of feeling both of their emotional and physical responses at the same time. Harry leaned forward and kissed the older man who was still kneeling before him. "Sev, that was great, but next time I think I would like to try doing that," Harry murmured.

Severus smiled and decided that that could certainly be arranged.

That night, Harry gladly snuggled into his husband's lean form. He was feeling rather good, after a somewhat successful evening session of occlumency and a rather spectacular blowjob. What was more, he could feel the satisfaction humming in his mate and he was pleased that he had had at least a small part in that. Closing his eyes in contentment, Harry reflected that being married to the �greasy git' wasn't really so bad after all. Hearing a snort, Harry also �heard' his husband's dismissive response to his thought. Harry smirked himself, feeling no true rancor through the bond. Sleep quickly found the young man who surprisingly found himself at feeling at ease with his new circumstances and partner.

The Flipside of Sanity - Chapter 18

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