The moment the bookcase closed behind Albus, I had an armful of laughing Harry. His chuckles were half relief and half-excitement. I know that I was still stunned by the revelations of the last hour. All these years I had believed two lies. The knowledge that small Thomas had indeed been my son was bittersweet. I would have to mourn him later, for now the realization of what was to come had a solidity that I'd never felt before.

The countdown had begun in earnest.

For the first time since I'd come to the cottage, I allowed myself to acknowledge that when we left here, I would be pregnant with our child. Our child, what an amazing concept that was.

"We're really going to do it, Sev." Strong hands cupped my face and I melted at the sight of two starry green eyes. "Really and truly create our child."

"It seems so, Harry. Once we get the rest of the ingredients, I'll distill the potion. Tomorrow we need to hike over to the hot springs and take some supplies with us." I was trying to plan ahead but my concentration was hard pressed to ignore the tempting body so close to mine.

"That's tomorrow, Sev, we've got tonight to celebrate one more nasty lie biting the dust. I knew that She wasn't telling the truth." He sounded downright vindictive and I hid a smile in his hair.

"My valiant protector, you were quite right. How shall we celebrate?" I smoothed my hands down his back to that pert ass that tempted me daily.

"Just a little more stretching and you can come inside of me." He pulled far enough away to look up into my eyes. "That's what I want, more than anything else."

"Are you sure? We're still so new that we could wait until after the spell is done." I was the one who was unsure. I feared hurting him worse than anything else.

"No, it's time for you to come inside of me, giving me your strength and power." He said simply with that beautiful smile that had melted all my barriers.

"Very well, Harry, you'll need an enema to clear the way." I was nervous but part of me yearned to know what it felt like from the giving point of view rather than the receiving.

"Yes!" He lit up and took my hand, pulling me towards the stairs. "We've got everything ready upstairs. I can hardly wait to feel you inside me."

I laughed out loud and felt my nerves settle a little. Harry had taken me five times already and it was still the most wondrous feeling in the world to feel him move within me. There'd been a little pain at first but nothing like the agony that had attended my raping by Voldemort. Harry had made sure that my eyes stayed open and fixed on him when he first slid inside of me.

'See me, Severus, see only me.'

And I had both seen and felt the love that he gave me with every look and thrust. For the first time, I knew what making love really meant. Every stroke he panted through was one more bad memory erased until all that was left was him, filling me to the brim with his love. I'd felt every sensation as if for the first time. In the wounded part of my soul, this time replaced the other one completely.

It was a gift I'd never expected to be given and I cherished it.

But now a second gift was being given and I was almost afraid to accept it. Surely the gods would look on my good fortune and decree a fate worse than any that had come before.

"Don't brood, Severus." Harry's voice broke through my introspection and I saw that he had us both completely stripped. "You deserve every single good thing that is possible, just the way that I do. Now, get me ready before I get nervous."

I kissed him with a chuckle. "You know me much too well, Harry. We shall have to be Academy Award actors after this week. You've destroyed every wall I had and each sour thought is completely gone."

"Good," he nodded sharply. "You hid behind them, alone with the pain, for much too long. Of course, if you hadn't, I would have come along too late to love you because some lucky wizard would have snapped you up."

I shook my head. "I'm beginning to think that we were fated from the moment either of us were a gleam in our parent's eyes."

"Kinky, Sev," he kissed me briefly before turning to the sink where we had our supplies. "Now, our child is a gleam in our eyes. We'll have an interesting story to tell him when he comes to us and asks us how we met."

"Good heavens, Harry. Talk about kinky." I held the bag while he measured in the herbs that I'd been using to clean myself out for him. He heated the water to just the right temp before adding it. For the first time, he looked a bit nervous and I wondered if he'd changed his mind. "Second thoughts?"

"No, just wondering how we do this? You always did it in private before."

"Ah, well, you can do it in private or you could lay across my lap while I fill you up." I offered.

He perked right up. "That sounds like fun. Where will you sit?"

"Right here on the loo." I sat and he stretched across my lap, face down. I used a little lotion on the guardian muscle that he'd insisted I keep stretching. "Ready?" At his nod, I inserted the nozzle and unpinched the tube.

"Yikes! It feels really hot." He squirmed a little and I smoothed my hand over those downy cheeks that had been tempting me since we arrived. "It feels odd."

"Bad odd or different odd?" I asked, while watching the bag begin to deflate.

"Really full odd. How much room is in there?" He said rather plaintively.

"More than you think, love. It's almost done." I finally was able to slip the nozzle out and lay the empty bag aside. "Hold it in now for a few moments."

"I think I'm getting dizzy, Sev." The blood was rushing to his head and I raised him up a little with my right arm. "Okay, that's better. Um, Sev, I'm getting an urge to let go."

"A few more moments, Harry, let the herbs work." I could feel his cock between my legs and I slipped my hand between his legs to stroke it.

"Sev! That's not helping." He was gritting his teeth by now and I decided that I'd teased him enough, although he had started to harden at my touch.

"All right, Harry, up you come and we'll change places." I helped him stand and watched his face contort with the effort not to let go. "I'll go turn down the bed. Come to me when you're done."

Leaving him some privacy, I left the door cracked just a bit in case he called out. It was my bed's turn tonight since we'd been alternating. I turned on the bedside lamp and let its soft yellow light splash around the room, creating friendly shadows among the chintz fabrics of the second guest bedroom. It had always been my favorite and I'd chosen it without a second thought when I first came four days ago.

Could it really be almost a week since Albus had sprung his surprise on us?

What a long way I had come. To lose the icy core of my frozen heart to the warmth of Harry's fire was so far beyond what I'd ever dreamed that I had to pinch myself to make myself believe this wasn't a dream. Pulling the duvet to the foot of the bed, I made sure that we had oil and a towel. Harry had been an enthusiastic lover and I now knew that sometimes lovemaking came with laughter and tears at the same moment.

What a blessing he was. Smiling, I cast a warming spell on the sheets and lay down. Part of me was concerned about what we'd being doing in a few moments but most of me was almost as excited as Harry had been when he came inside of me for the first time. What would it feel like?

He was much warmer blooded than I was. He felt extremely hot around my fingers. But Harry was smaller than I was and I worried that I could hurt him before either of us realized it. The fear should have deflated me but instead only served to harden me.

"What did I say about brooding, Sev?" His laughing voice reminded me of his earlier request. "Stop it and get me ready for you."

"It will take time for me to unlearn the lessons from the past, love." I pulled him down to me and rolled us so I lay atop him. "Keep reminding me."

"I'll just keep loving you, Sev. I'll fill up all those cold, dark places with my love until there's no room for anything else." He cupped my face and kissed me with one of those achingly sweet kisses that my starving soul needed so badly.

When we needed to breathe, we just looked at each other for a long moment. I wondered what he saw when he gazed at me. I know that I saw a young man full of life and passion, someone that had turned my life upside down and given me more than I had ever thought possible.

"I see the man who loves me." He read my mind with ease. "What do you see?"

"A miracle, that's what I see." I leaned in and kissed him again, just a brief reminder of what we were doing then I settled in to make him moan.

My hands were slick with oil and he took two fingers easily. Harry held up his own legs and I thought how very decadent he looked. His organ waved between us and I leaned in to suck just the crown into my mouth while he moaned my name. I loved the sound of my name breathed with passion. But it was time to try for more stretching and I watched him closely while folding a third finger through the outer muscle.

"Oh," was all he said but I felt the tension flood his body. "That's full, Sev."

"Too much?" I was more than ready to stop here.

"No, it's getting better." I felt the muscles loosen a bit and I ventured deeper to spark his gland. "Oh yes, there, Sev, right there."

I smiled and went back to sucking him deep. I'd read that true relaxation comes from a good orgasm and I thought that might be the time to try entering him. Winding Harry tighter and tighter, I pushed him closer to the edge. Twisting my fingers surprised him and he climaxed with the loudest moan yet. It was still my name and when I felt him relax completely, I slid out my fingers and popped my crown just inside the outer muscle.

"SEV!" His cry almost alarmed me but his hands had grabbed my hair. "Don't move."

I froze in place and thought of everything that might have gone wrong.

"Wow. That feels ... amazing." He panted again and let go of my hair. "Big, really ... really big. Okay, move more."

"Out or in?"

"In, Silly Sev, I want to see what he feels like instead of fingers."

"Rest your legs on my shoulders, you're trembling." I helped him and felt him relax even more. "Better?"

"Yes," he opened those brilliant green eyes and the sparkle in them told me more than any words. "More, Sev, give me more."

"Greedy, aren't you?" I slid in further, then further yet until I could go no further. He'd flushed beet-red when I brushed across his gland.

"When it's you, I'm very, very greedy. It feels like I'm riding a broomstick." His innocent look made me laugh out loud.

"Ah, Quidditch will have a whole new meaning when you get back." I pulled out a little ways then thrust back in the way that he had pleasured me. His reaction was another breathy little moan that fired my blood. I was beginning to find a rhythm that suited both of us

"Sev! More! I'm burning alive." His dark head thrashed back and forth on the white pillowcase while his hands gripped my arms as if to pull me further in.

I didn't want to hurt him with over enthusiasm but I was on fire, too. His sudden climax surprised me and the inner muscle contractions pulled my own from me. Harry looked so surprised when I flooded him with my seed. I'd never come that hard in my life. I collapsed on him when my arms failed to hold me. I had enough presence of mind to roll us onto our sides or he wouldn't have been able to breathe.

But I never once let go of him nor he of me.

My heart finally slowed to its normal beat. I smoothed his hair back from his sweaty face. His eyes opened and the stunned look there brought back speech. "What's wrong, Harry? Did something tear?"

"No, I'm fine." His fingers trembled slightly when he brought them to my lips. "That felt like ... I don't know what." Then that beautiful open smile dawned and he leaned in to kiss me gently. "Now, you're a part of me just the way that I'm a part of you."

"Harry, you've been in my heart since we started this mad adventure."

"And you're in mine, Sev, but we're physically a part of each other, too." He brushed my hair back behind my ear. "I'm probably not saying it right. It just feels right to have you inside of me, like it's a piece of me that's been missing all my life."

Out of the mouths of babes, I thought while dropping little kisses all over his face. "You said it just fine, Harry. It feels exactly like that to me, too. Together, I truly don't think there is anything we can't do."

"Like create the Child of Love?" He teased me gently and I rested my forehead against his.

"Exactly, Harry, I can hardly wait to combine part of us into new life. He or she will be a very lucky child to have you as a father." I could feel myself shrinking a bit and I knew that I could hurt him right now without meaning to. "Relax, love, we're about to make a mess of the sheets."

"Yeow," he gritted his teeth when I popped out. "Okay, so much for afterglow, it feels like you parked a steam engine inside of me."

I chuckled and rolled him towards me so I could see to mop up the discharge. When I saw no blood, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Hardly that, love, but I'll put some healing cream in to soothe the pain."

It was the work of a minute to heal the ache and then he was in my arms for our goodnight kisses. Each one was better than the last and I tried not to think ahead to the days when we'd be parted at night. We still had four more days to create enough memories to tide us over.

And one special child.

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The end for now