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Last day of the holidays, Ben’s last day of freedom before he’s thrown head first back into piles of schoolwork, way too much homework, and for the first time ever, the stress of his NEWTS assessments. Most were relaxing in Hogwarts, maybe overdosing on sleep because they’d be getting roughly none at all from tomorrow on. Some might still be with their families, Ben envied them, he’d had to be stuck at Hogwarts for the whole holidays because of some last-minute, probably bullshit business trip. He hadn’t seen his mother for much too long, he was starting to feel much too independent. A feeling that had resulted in him ending up alone in the Three Broomsticks.Drowning his jealousy with the butterbeer clutched in his hand, Ben scoped out the rest of the bar. A good lay would definitely help get him settled into the school year, besides, he had nothing better to do. Joe was probably crashed in his room, Rami was likely wherever Lucy was (probably the library or Quidditch pitch) and Allen… well, who knows where Allen was, ever.Ben brought the mug of butterbeer to his lips, the blond’s eyes sliding shut as his mouth filled with the faint butter-scotch flavoured liquid. As he drank, he heard the bell to the bar twinkle, and he let one eye slip open, upon seeing who’d just entered the bar, he nearly wound up choking on his own drink. Quickly placing the mug down and trying his best to mask his coughing in the green scarf wrapped loose around his neck.He’d never seen them around before (not that he was here often, mind you) and he knew this because there was no way one could forget someone that stunning. Ben watched him with baited breath as the tall, bearded male made his way to the counter, Madam Rosmerta quick to take his order, and she too, looked a bit shocked at the sight of the new customer. Ben didn’t have much of an interest in other boys, but this wasn’t a boy, it was a man, a man Ben knew he had to go talk to.The blond steeled himself, throwing back the rest of his butterbeer and psyching himself up for a moment. He hadn’t been with anyone in a while (anyone other than the girls in his own grade) so he was already at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of ‘pulling’ ability, but he’d always been confident enough for six people, so hopefully that would suffice.“One butterbeer please, madam” Ben requested smoothly, catching a look at the tall brunet male out the corner of his eye. The blond gathered his confidence as the drink was deposited in front of him, before he turned to the unfairly attractive man next to him. The two locked eyes for a moment, and Ben forgot what he was going to say.It took him a good couple of seconds to regain full control of his brain, taking a long sip of his drink, he wasn’t going to waste time with a guy like this, nope, he was going to cut right to the chase. “What’s your opinion on bar hook-ups?”The brunet, whom had been mid drink, almost ended up inhaling half of his whiskey at hearing the question, putting the bottle down, he spared a cough or two into the shoulder of his jacket. A little shocked and hopefully a little turned on, the older male gave Ben a once over, his face unsure “depends whose asking, and why they’re asking.”“we both know whose asking, and we both know why they’re asking” Ben was slipping comfortably into the plan, he flashed a suggestive smile at the man next to him, teeth dragging over his lower lip, before shuffling a top the stool he was sat on, his knees moving farther apart (giving the other a nice long look at ‘the goods’). He revelled in the way the stranger’s eyes dropped towards the movement, hungrily taking him in, before they caught each other’s gazes again, Ben mustn’t be doing too badly, seeing as the other looks so intrigued (likely intrigued as to what’s beneath Ben’s jeans).“Well, tell the person that’s asking that I’m not much of a taker, if this person knows what I’m talking about” Ben felt a flash of arousal rush south at the other’s words, this was way easier than he thought it would be. Not about to ask questions, Ben took another sip of his drink, aware of how the brunet’s eyes followed his mouth.“This person has no problem with that and wouldn’t mind receiving you loud and clear” Ben wasn’t sure if that had made sense, but he assumed it must not have been too gibberish, because there was now a pale pink blush working its way onto the other’s cheeks.Though, Ben saw his plan starting to keel sideways once he saw the brunet’s eyes drop to his grey and green scarf. His heart skipped a beat, praying that his stupid house pride didn’t cockblock him. “Tell me, how old is this person?” Ben chewed on the inside of his cheek, his heart racing now, of course, he just had to be invested in all that ‘house pride’ bullshittery, and of course he’d had to wear his school scarf to a fucking bar, and of course, possibly the most attractive person he’s ever seen would catch on.“Twenty” Ben lied, hiding his worry behind his mug of butterbeer. He could feel the other’s stare burning into his face.“Well, you’ve got that Slytherin ambition, I’ll give you that. Sorry, mate, maybe another time” the tall male declared, Ben feeling his skin heat with quickly growing frustration as the handsome stranger finished off the rest of his whiskey, placed the money for both his and Ben’s drink, before turning towards the door.“Wait, I’m not- I’m seventeen” he argued, moving with the other as they head for the door, he wanted this guy so bad, he’d suck him off in the bathroom without a second thought. He couldn’t just leave like this.“Sorry, you’re too young, can’t risk it” the brunet clarified, letting himself out, the door nearly slamming on Ben’s face.“Can’t risk it? What do you…” Ben trailed off as he managed to get through the doors. “Fuck!” the blond huffed, looking wildly around for the other male. He was gone though, and Ben was left just as alone as he was when he first showed up.That night, he soundproof spelled his bed, and got off to the thought of the stranger, the thought of his voice, his gorgeous eyes, his thighs- his fucking thighs, Ben wouldn’t mind sitting on those thighs whilst he rode him, that beard chafing red marks into the pale skin of his chest. Ben came embarrassingly fast, his orgasm 2x more powerful than usual. The blond didn’t feel at all ashamed of his imaginings, and after cleaning the mess up with a well-practised scouring spell, he fell asleep, dreaming of what might’ve been. Defence Against the Dark Arts wasn’t the worst way to start off the new year, even though he was still a bit crestfallen about yesterday’s missed opportunities. Their professor was late- of course they were, they were always late for Ben’s favourite classes, the blond tapped the feathery end of his quill against the desk, stifling a yawn that was cut off as the door to the classroom swung open, their professor finally here.“Sorry I’m late, this castle is a bloody maze, your professor was hurt on holiday- something about dragons, so I’m going to fill in until they get back,” Ben furrowed his brow, somewhat recognising the voice, sparing a hesitant look up, the blond felt his heart drop, and then at least half the blood in his body went directly south.You’re fucking kidding me. The handsome stranger from yesterday had spotted him, and their eyes locked for a few long, agonising seconds, before the male looked away, a slight blush on his cheeks. Ben’s brain couldn’t compute what the fuck was happening right now, all he knew was that he needed to will down the huge stiffy between his legs, and that he was going to end up on top of those thighs one way or another.

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Gwil couldn’t believe how shit his luck was right now.Not only had his first official day as a substitute started with getting lost in a castle and almost pummelled to death by a vengeful poltergeist, but he’d also been saddled with a class that contained the single most attractive ma- boy, that he’d ever seen. Not only that, but, this guy (Ben-hell, he even had a gorgeous name) seemed deadset on making Gwil’s life absolute hell.Ben was of course, in the front row, so there was quite literally nothing Gwil could do to avoid looking at him, he was just there, elbow on his desk, cheek against his hand, and those predatory green eyes following Gwil’s every move. The brunet was half tempted to move him, but unfortunately, the sixth years now were a great deal better behaved than they were when Gwil attended Hogwarts several years ago, and alas, he held no valid excuse. It also didn’t help that the class was mainly Ravenclaw’s and Slytherins, which garnered no inter-house rivalry, which meant even more flawless behaviour (Gwil was convinced the universe hated him).The first class of the year was mainly going over what they’d be doing, talking about different units and of course, the dreaded NEWTS exams- that one got a collective sigh when Gwil mentioned it. Not from Ben though, the blond was much too distracted by looking at something suspiciously low on Gwil’s body.Whilst being continuously checked out by Ben (and a fair few other students- he’d noted- not that he can blame them, most other teachers here are ancient) was less than ideal, Gwil could at least rest assured that it wasn’t the worst predicament in the world. He hated to think what would have happened if he’d not been able to extract himself from the Three Broomsticks yesterday when he did, hated to think how difficult this class and his life in general would’ve been if he’d actually slept with Ben. It was horrendous that he still wanted to as much as he did, that he wanted to call Ben back after class and go to town on him, him and those perfect pink li-.Gwil only just managed to catch himself in time, turning to face the chalkboard, he took a moment to gather his thoughts, to ban all Ben-related thoughts from his mind. The brunet swallowed thickly, trying to recall where he’d been at before his train of thought slipped. He wondered how long he’d just been standing there, thinking about the blond male behind him, surely it could’ve been no longer than a few seconds?“Where was I?” he whispered to himself, eyes glancing over the chalkboard- which he’d been thankfully been taking notes on. Second unit, great, okay, don’t look at him he repeated to himself over and over again as he turned back to face the class. “Sorry, drew a bit of a blank for a second” he remedied, forcing a bit of a laugh as he looked over the students. He could see that damned blond Slytherin who shall not be named from now to the end of class smirking at him, fingers running in long, even strokes up and down his quill. It wasn’t even subtle by this point.The excuse, however, hadn’t gone questioned, and Gwil returned to outlining what the second unit was about and how it would relate to their later tests. Gwilym assumed that the students weren’t going to question his stuttering and stammering too much, considering he was only a substitute. It also probably had something to do with the fact that he was an auror- which usually translated roughly to ‘probably a bit psycho so don’t push their buttons’ in the minds of most students. Whilst it isn’t entirely true, Gwil wasn’t complaining.The problem with Defence Against the Dark Arts, is that it was quite the practical class, which for Gwil meant that he couldn’t just keep the blond-who-must-not-be-named stuck behind a desk. Nope, he’d have to get involved with him, show him how to duel, or perform a spell, or resist others, all of that, all whilst trying not to appear in any way at all suggestive in front of an easily aroused sixth year. It was a mission which he was likely doomed to fail, all he could hope for was that he put up a good fight for as long as possible.As the class drew closer and closer to its end, Gwilym became horribly aware of what he had to do. He had to call the blond currently giving him the eyes back after class, yes, he knew it was the exact opposite of avoiding him, but he knew he had to be professional, and that meant setting the rules straight.After Gwil finally dismissed the class, he took a moment to steel himself before requesting that ‘Mr Hardy’ (lord give him strength) remained seated. He felt uneasy at the way that the blond’s eyes lit up at the request, and once the classroom was otherwise empty, he moved forward to stand in front of the younger male’s desk.“So, this is what you meant by ‘too risky’” Ben stated, resting back against his seat, hands rolling up the few sheets of parchment in front of him (Gwil wasn’t sure how he managed to get any work done, seeing as every time the brunet looked at him, he was checking him out).“Perceptive. Okay, Mr Hardy, I called you back because I want to get it into your head that nothing is going to happen between us. Yesterday was a close call, but we didn’t do anything, and we will continue to not do anything. Are we understood?” Gwil tried to sound formal but using his threatening auror voice just came too naturally, and so he failed miserably.Ben arched a brow, studying Gwil’s face for any cracks in his resolve, any places where he could wriggle in and get under the substitutes skin. Gwil clenched his jaw as the blond hesitated on his answer, before finally caving, though not exactly how the brunet would’ve hoped, “Okay, sure, whatever you say, just know that you’re not fooling me, and I know you want the exact same things as I do.”With that, the blond was standing up, sending Gwil back a few steps, “I won’t hesitate to remove you from my classroom if you can’t focus next time” he threatens as Ben starts towards the door.The blond turns to face him, wearing a confused expression “I thought it was the respectable thing to look at the person that was talking, and believe me, I took a long, hard look- because I’m polite, of course” then the younger male was gone, the door to the classroom swinging shut behind him and leaving Gwil to question every decision he’s ever made. Though he was mostly questioning why he was stupid enough to take this job in the first place.Though, he had little time to recover, because soon his room was filling with loud, hyperactive second years. Luckily for Gwil, he was able to pull the ‘I’m an auror’ card, and most of them soon shut their traps in fear of being sent to Azkaban.If only he could be sent to Azkaban, then he wouldn’t have to deal with the struggle of trying to teach Ben without letting the blond into his pants.

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Since their post-class meeting, Ben had decided to back off a bit; not because he wasn’t infatuated with professor Lee, no, it was mostly because this class turned out to be a great deal harder than he first thought (there was nothing like complex theory work to beat the spirit outta you). Though, going into the third week of school, professor Lee announced during their unforgiveable curses theory that they’d be moving onto more practical work next lesson. At this, Ben immediately felt a million-idea’s pop into his head, because whilst he doesn’t doubt that Lee could and probably would punish him for any missteps, Ben also knew that the older male definitely still harboured some physical attraction to him. It was almost too easy to point out.Sometimes during class, when they’d been set some work, Ben would look up and almost 70% of the time would find himself staring professor Lee down, and almost 80% of the time, Lee would quickly avert his gaze. But the remaining 20%, well, when that happened, Lee wouldn’t look away, and they’d watch each other until Ben deemed the other’s eyes too much, then, when he would back down, he’d still be able to feel that hyper focused gaze on the top of his head. He often thought of that look late at night, in the safety of the curtains surrounding his bed, he hoped that somehow Lee knew, knew that he was getting off to the thought of him. Who knows, maybe Lee was getting off to the thought of him too.Ben was snapped out of his thoughts when suddenly there was a loud scraping of chairs and heavy tap of people walking about, the blond was somewhat confused, but followed the rest of his class to the side of the room. Ben watched as professor Lee slipped a long, jagged black wand out of a holster on his hip, then with barely a whisper, he sent all the tables sliding to a corner of the room, leaving a huge empty space in the middle of the classroom.Most in the room were focused on the movement of all the tables, but Ben couldn’t tear his eyes off of how good the older male’s fingers looked clutching the wand (from a critical stand-point of course).“Okay, so, as I said, today we’re going to be attempting nonverbal spells, for this you’ll need to pair up. Now, if you’ve done the reading, you shouldn’t find it to be too much of a challenge,” Ben watched the brunet for a moment, before seeking out a partner in the form of Lucy (they never really sat together in class for the sake of Ben not wanting to hear her gush about Rami, but whenever pair ups came around, she was his go-to).“Alright, first spells I want you all to try is the levicorpus jinx. When properly executed, it will suspend your target by the ankles. It also happens to be the easiest spell to use nonverbally, I should hope at least one of you can perform it by the end of today,” professor Lee explained, retreating to the closest desk, and resting back against it before gesturing for the students to begin.“You too Mr Hardy” did he have to say that? I’m going to be literally Hardy in a second. Ben grumbles to himself as he was caught staring at the brunet’s thighs and how damn tempting they looked right now sitting on that desk. He turned to look at Lucy to already see the blonde already stuck into the spell. Her lips pursed and her arm out, wrist flicking dramatically as she tried desperately to get the spells to work.Ben loosened his shoulders out as he slipped his wand out of the pocket of his robe, the pale wood a stark contrast to the black and dark green material, he runs his thumb over it a couple times as he moves into a proper stance. Fixing his eyes and the tip of his wand on the blonde Hufflepuff (one of the only Hufflepuffs in the whole class) currently struggling a few feet from him.Flicking his wrist, Ben chants ‘levicorpus’ in his head, and finds himself greatly disappointed when nothing comes of it. Pressing his mouth into a fine line, the young male puts more exaggeration into his flick, now yelling the jinx in his head. Still, nothing, but after taking a quick look around, he finds most are having the exact same difficulties, even the kid genius Ravenclaw’s.Relaxing somewhat at knowing he and Lucy aren’t the only ones struggling, he returns to trying to get his damned wand to work, the pale wand not so much as even sparking as he continues to wave and flick it and think nothing but ‘levi-fucking-corpus.’Out of the corner of his eye he can see professor Lee standing himself up, before starting towards what Ben assumes is likely a student making a fool of themselves. Ben hums in amusement, but he then finds himself almost jumping out of his skin at the feeling of a hand on his elbow, then he comes to the realisation that it seems he was the one making a fool of himself. Goddammit.However, he can’t even stay frustrated for long, because now professor Lee is pressed to his side, hand adjusting Ben’s grip. “Aspen?” when Ben nods, a bit confused at the question, Gwil hums “you might need to steady up with it a bit then. I’m no wandmaker but I know these are spectacular in duels,” he explains, and Ben can hardly focus because he can feel the other’s body heat seeping in through his robe, and his warm hands feels so damn firm and strong against his.“Boynton, just give your wrist a bit more of a flourish, yeah, that’s good, keep yourself relaxed and you’ll have Ben dangling from his ankles in no time,” the taller male corrects, Lucy beaming at the help and making Ben feel torn between both scared (from Lucy looking scarily focused) and aroused (because Lee’s free hand is cupping his hip and pressing in- even if it is only to correct his posture, and oh my god I can feel his hips against my arse, merlin give me strength).Blaming his hopeless attraction on the fact that professor Lee seemed overly close, Ben tried his best to focus on trying to recast the spell, even with the other male still pressed ENITIRELY against him. “Sir, I-I can’t…” Ben stammers, trying and failing to swing his wand with the other’s arm against his.“Oh, yeah- sorry, remember to keep it gentle” the brunet remedies, unplastering himself from Ben and leaving the younger male feeling suddenly cold all over except where he can feel Lee’s hand still anchored to his hip. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Ben softly swishes his wand, quietly thinking ‘levicorpus’ as he flicks his wrist.Then, as if the professor’s skill had seeped into him, sparks of colour were jumping from his wand and hurtling towards Lucy, the blonde flinching, before sparing a giggle, the magic having done nothing more than disturb her shoelaces. “Clear your mind Ben, you’re thinking too much,” professor Lee observes, his voice torturously close to his ear, sending a wave of chills down the younger male’s spine.That’s because you won’t take your hand off me and it’s making me think of all the wrong things, and if you think I have enough self-control not to tackle you and kiss you in front of the whole class then you’re dead wrong. That’s the kind of thought that went through Ben’s head at the older male’s words, but, being ever the painfully aroused but obedient student, he instead settled for a very soft “Okay professor, thank you.”“Impressive, Ben, you may out grade me after all” Lucy teases as she flicks her long blonde hair over her shoulder, regaining her stance and returning to trying to literally sweep Ben off his feet. Thankfully for the young Slytherin, at this, professor Lee suddenly remembered that he indeed had other students and left the two to their practising.Now left to do his own thing, Ben tried again to empty his mind like he had before but found he could only focus on how his hip still buzzed where the professor had put his hand just moments before. This time, when he tried the jinx, only a single spark fell from his wand, and it disappeared before it even got close to Lucy.“I thought emptying your mind of all thought would’ve been easy for you” Lucy giggled, swishing her wand and managing to stir up enough magic that Ben felt a soft tug on one of his ankles. The male rolled his eyes, shuffling his foot to brush off any remaining magic, huffing at Lucy to be quiet as he continued to try and get his damn wand to cooperate.“Y’know, I’d hate to be a legillimens stuck in a room with you” Lucy hummed, again her magic strong enough to tug at Ben’s leg. The latter frowning and asking her what she meant, playing dumb despite his heart giving an alarmed thump. “you can’t stop thinking about our professor for one minute” she giggled, and Ben felt his cheeks flush red indignantly.“I’m not the only one, I’m pretty sure half our potions class is trying to brew amortentia on the sly for him” Ben pointed out, his tone momentarily defensive before he started to chuckle towards the end.“You’re not the only one” Lucy started, trailing off before she gave her wand a great flourish, her nose wrinkling and suddenly Ben was off his feet, crying out at the sensation of a greater force tugging at both of his ankles, then, all at once, everything in his pockets fell out. A small pile underneath him consisted of a few sickles, some best blowing gum, and the whistle Ben had stolen off of Rami when he’d gotten too cocky about being Gryffindor Quidditch captain.He watched as Lucy’s polished shoes made their way towards him, and she made a noise of amusement and pride at what she’d accomplished “You’re just the worst at hiding it” she finished, before she turned, professor Lee’s feet coming into view.“Well done Lucy, ten points to Hufflepuff,”Ben groaned uncomfortably as all the blood rushed to his head, and he wiggled to get a better view of the professor, the brunet noticing and coming to crouch near Ben’s head. “Morning, sir, you look lovely from this angle. Mind getting me down?”“Why thank you, but if you did the theory work instead of… ‘getting distracted’ during class, you’d know how to get yourself down” the older male pointed out, and Ben scowled, not even their (hopefully) mutual attraction could help him now, and he tried desperately to remember the damn reverse incantation.He looked to Lucy, whom was grinning smugly, but mouthed ‘liberacorpus’ once the professor stood himself up, his back to the young girl. Ben took note to thank her later as he tried his best to perform a spell upside down. It wasn’t pretty and he fell hard to the floor after the third attempt, a ripple of laughter washing over the class at the blond, whom after realising there was no way to recover his dignity, set about gathering up the things that had fallen out of his pockets.“Alright, that’s enough, I think this is a good spot to end it, class dismissed, next lesson we’ll give this another go,” professor Lee announced, gesturing for the room to clear out, a barrage of female and some male voices dreamily telling the young professor they’d see him later. Ben would’ve rolled his eyes if he wasn’t almost the exact same.“I wasn’t lying, you do look lovely today, sir” Ben said, standing up as he shoves all his dropped belongings back into his pockets. Lee spared a bemused smile from where he was sorting things on his desk.“See you next lesson, Ben.”Ben furrowed his brow, corner of his mouth curled “I have a sneaking suspicion you enjoyed me dangling by the ankles a bit more than you let on.”“See you next lesson, Ben.”

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“Ben, the band’s going to Hogsmeade and you’re coming.”The blond had nearly jumped out of his skin when Lucy had suddenly appeared in front of him at breakfast, Ben taking a second to stop himself from falling off the bench as his still sleep weary brain tried to comprehend what was happening. Looking at the Hufflepuff, Ben narrowed his eyes, shaking his head “Nah, sorry I’ve got an insane amount of DADA homework to get through. When I think of professor Lee being up my arse, six sheets of parchment due tomorrow is not what I envisioned.”Lucy wrinkled her nose, letting out a noise of disgust, but not even that was enough to scare her away “maybe if you did all your work during class instead of daydreaming about… that, you wouldn’t have to do it. Besides, if you come, I’ll help give you my notes” when Ben didn’t respond, she tapped her foot irritably “come on, Ben. The guys want to hang out, they’re really bummed you’re not in many of their classes” Lucy begged, and then she was climbing over the Slytherin table, stepping carefully over the few plates and bowls, before landing lightly beside Ben.He was about to ask her what she was doing when he felt two sets of hands clamp around his upper arms, it had been a distraction, and now he was being abducted by Rami and Allen. “Come on, buddy, don’t fight it. You’ve had your permission slip signed righ’?” Allen asked as they dragged the slightly irritated Slytherin down the hall towards the entrance. Ben saw no way out of this, and hesitantly grumbled an affirmative as he was marched towards the Slytherin dungeon.“I think you can put me down now, also, where’s Joe? Is he the next person you’re going to abduct? Just a hint, maybe you should whack him over the head with a textbook, he’d put up a lot less of a fight” Ben suggested, before letting his legs fall limp, both Allen and Rami letting out identical groans of annoyance as their job became two times more difficult.Lucy sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as Ben lay motionless on the cool floor of the dungeon hallway, Allen still trying to drag him along by the ankle. “Alright, time to use plan B” the blond heard her say, and then she was kneeling next to him. “I may or may not have overheard professor you-know-who saying he’d be at Hogsmeade today.”It took them a whole two minutes to reach the entrance hall door.When they arrived, permission forms in hand, Joe was already there, looking much too energetic considering what time it was, and when he saw Ben and the rest of the gang, he only got happier. “Guys, what took you so long? Half the school’s probably there by now, I was this close to abandoning you.”Slowly, all heads in the group turn to Ben, and the blond rolled his eyes. “Someone decided he’s too good for us, so we had to use alternate methods of persuasion” Rami explained, slinging an arm around Ben’s shoulder, “but in the end, we’re just too damn tempting, eh Ben?”Cautious of how Joe’s eyes lingered on Rami, Ben was quick to nod and slip free from his grip, starting towards where Filch was collected forms, the gang following close behind, Ben suddenly feeling a renewed sense of purpose. It totally had nothing to do with professor Lee at all.The walk to Hogsmeade was a short one, but it was made just that bit more tedious by having to stare at Rami and Lucy’s linked hands (and Joe’s blatant staring at said hands). Not to mention the fact that Allen kept trying to ‘imitate’ the couple in front of them with Ben. Allen wasn’t too bad, but he wasn’t a tall, dreamy auror, so Ben found himself lacking any significant interest, so, he did what any logical human would do. He threw a snowball at the Gryffindor’s face.Allen fell flat on his arse, and for a moment, Ben was concerned maybe he’d been too harsh, but then the brunet was jumping to his feet and hurling snowball after snowball at the Slytherin, Ben cackling in delight as he felt cold bundle after cold bundle hit him all over. His face was pretty much frozen after the second hit, but he could still feel his cheeks ache where his smile sat.Hearing the commotion, Joe, Rami and Lucy all turned to see what was happening, all three of them breaking into identical grins as they watched Ben pound Allen into the snow with a barrage of strategic (lucky) shots. The Gryffindor mock screaming as he curls up, clothes damp with the frozen liquid, “I concede defeat, I yield, Slytherin is better” he cried, hands up to cover his face as Ben used up the last few snowball’s clutched against his chest.Dusting the snow off himself, Ben helps pull the downed boy up off the ground, Allen whinging about his damp clothes. “You’re a psycho” he whined, trying to warm up his nose in his gloves. Ben felt a pang of guilt, and slipped his wand out of his front pocket, waving it towards the Gryffindor and chanting an incantation under his breath.At this, a small spiral of hot air flowed from the tip of the pale wand, connecting with Allen’s cold wet robes and acting as a sort of magical dryer. The Gryffindor smiling gratefully as his clothes warmed and dried against his cold skin, Ben could see the other’s starting towards the village again by this point, likely not fans of standing around in the cold. Ben was eager to get going and perhaps catch a glimpse of professor Lee, but he managed to stave his desperation until Allen was no longer in danger of getting frostbite.By the time the two reach the village, Ben is quick to enter the first shop he sees, and thankfully, his eyes quickly fall upon the rest of the gang. Ben tapping Joe on the shoulder as he comes to the amazing discovery that they’re in Honeydukes, surrounded by candy.Joe turns and a look of relief washes over his features as he looks at Ben, “thank god you two are here, they tried to take me to the Tea Shop, I may be a Hufflepuff but I was this close to pushing them into the snow” Ben found himself sucking his bottom lip into his mouth and biting down in an attempt to hold back his laughter. You see, it was kind of hard to heed Joe’s words seriously when the Hufflepuff was moodily pulling sweets such as ‘sugared butterfly wings’ and ‘pink coconut ice’ off of a shelf.“Yeah, well at least you didn’t have to hear Allen make up a million and one excuses for why he didn’t beat me in a snowball fight” Ben chuckled turning to look at where Allen had been, only to find him gone- like, actually gone, where the fuck was he? Furrowing his brow, the blond turned back to inspect a bag of crystallised pineapple, his few sickles feeling particularly heavy in his pocket.He and Joe decide to split off from Rami and Lucy (Joe takes a bit of convincing, but then Lucy plants a kiss to the Ravenclaw’s cheek and the red-head is off and racing). They both pile their chosen sweets onto the counter and hand over most of their savings, their pockets straining as they leave the store.“Zonko’s?” Ben asks hopefully, still trying to tempt his jacket into not tearing at the seams with the amount of candy shoved into the pockets. Joe looks disagreeable, grimacing and tipping his head from side to side for a moment before sighing.“Fine, but only if you come with me to check out Dogweed and Deathcap” Ben should have seen it coming, and he lets out an annoyed groan, Joe looking smug as he tugs the Slytherin along towards the joke shop. Honestly, Ben will never understand Joe’s fascination with herbology- who the hell wants to study plants? Like, BOOM! Some grass, BOOM! Some maneating kind of fern. Why is that so damn interesting?“Whyyyyy? It’s just some creepy shop full of shovels and different kinds of actual shit. Joe, come on, there was literally a tub of unicorn crap last time we went there.”“You’re just upset because you thought it was fairy floss- Merlin knows why- and tried to stick your hand in it and got chased out. Don’t try and worm your way out of it now, Hardy, I have to look at inane and unfunny jokes, you have to look at ‘shovels and shit.’” Joe pointed out with a chuckle, pushing the door to Zonko’s open and pulling Ben in after him.“Why’re we even here? Usually it’s Allen wreaking revenge on everyone” Joe whined, five minutes after being in the shop, Ben rolled his eyes, sorting through a crate of ‘Ever-Bashing Boomerangs.’ Abandoning the box, he weaved around a group of fourth years to get his hands on some frog-spawn soap.“Because, one of my roommates keep tying my scarf to the canopy of my bed where I can’t reach it… and he also called my ferret a rat, so…” Ben explained, deciding to leave out the part where he set said ferret loose in the guys bed. Joe sighed and mumbled something along the lines of ‘you all need to calm down’ as Ben grabs a bar of the joke soap and then some bulbadox powder on his way to the counter. “You wouldn’t be playing pacifist if you had to use a coffee table from the common room to get your scarf down. The nonces steal my wand so I can’t even use that to get them down” Ben points out, handing his last few sickles over, before stuffing his revenge propaganda into the pockets of his pants.Once they start towards the plant shop, Ben spies Rami and Lucy sitting together at the tea shop together (don’t tell Joe, but they made a pretty cute couple), the Slytherin making the choice not to point it out to Joe (whose forgotten all about his jealousy in favour of buying some herbology gear).Ben finds himself freezing on the spot moments later, his eyes falling upon professor Lee making his way out of the quill shop, arms full of scrolls of parchment and his newly bought quills. Ben watches the tall male beeline towards the Three Broomsticks, and after a moment, Ben feels his legs moving to follow.He can hear Joe call after him, the blond yelling back something about him needing to ask about homework, the Hufflepuff not pursuing the matter any further. Ben breathes a sigh of relief that Joe is way more interested in plants than he is the Slytherin’s odd behaviour.Following Professor Lee towards the pub, Ben felt a tremor of excitement run through him, reminding him of what had nearly happened the last time they were here. The blond waited a few moments before walking into the pub, and upon entering, he was surprised how empty it was, as usually people were here to escape the cold. Aside from a few seventh years, a group of third years, and their weird astronomy teacher, the space was barren, and it brought a relieved curl to Ben’s lip.Looking around, he finally set eyes on Lee, in a corner of the pub the brunet sat, sipping a butterbeer and… marking homework? Oh, he definitely needed company, he’s just lucky Ben’s here to lend a hand. The blond didn’t allow any space for doubts, he just started towards the table and tried his best to think up a plan before he got there.Upon sitting down, Lee instantly looked up, his hand had flinched a few centimetres to where Ben knew his wand sat in its holster, not a good start. “Woah sir, I’m all for my mind being blown, but we won’t be needing that” he stated, eyes flickering towards the hand halfway to his wand. Lee rolled his eyes, instead reaching for his quill.“If you’re here just to make inappropriate jokes I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave. Just because we’re not in class doesn’t mean I’m going to let myself be propositioned by a student,” he grumbled, quill scratching over the parchment. Ben bit the inside of his cheek, he really had no plan whatsoever, he shouldn’t have come.But I’m here now, and he almost definitely likes me more than he lets on, this pub is the perfect example. Sorry sir, but you can’t pretend like you never nearly hooked up with me on my watch. The blond ran a hand through his hair, eyes running over the now tense form of Lee, pulling the small packet of crystallised pineapple from his pocket, and popping one into his mouth. He could see the older male watching him from the corner of his eye, watching as Ben’s tongue ran over his bottom lip to catch any loose flakes of sugar.Taking a deep exhale, professor Lee reached for his mug of butterbeer, bringing the rim to his lips and entrancing Ben with the gradual bob of his Adam’s apple. This was very much a battle of control. Something told Ben that he likely wouldn’t win, but then again, Slytherin’s weren’t known for giving up.Giving the bag a shake, Ben offered Lee a crystallised pineapple, his heart thumping as the brunet sized him up, eyes raking over his face, before falling upon the bag, and he hesitantly nodded. Ben smirked and tucked the pineapple still in his mouth into his cheek, mock frowning when he ‘discovered’ that the bag was empty “damn, sir, it seems there’s only one left.”Then Ben went for it, he leant in and then their lips were touching, and Ben’s slipping the final bit of crystallised pineapple into Lee’s mouth. His mouth is soft and butterbeer flavoured and everything Ben could have ever dreamed of (sappy, he knows, but holy hell).And then Lee’s pulling away, harshly, and the gravity of the situation hits Ben like a piece of concrete wrapped in rusty chain covered in flames.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

And then Lee’s pulling away, harshly, and the gravity of the situation hits Ben like a piece of concrete wrapped in rusty chain covered in flames.
Ben can only stare, shocked at himself and scared of the other’s reaction, Lee is all the way at the other end of the table now, the sweet that had formerly been in Ben’s mouth looking like a lead weight on his tongue. He’s considering whether to spit it out or keep it, and the blond male feels woozy as his heart thumps against his ribcage, finally, he’s able to find his voice, “professor Lee-”“Detention… detention” the brunet stammers, the second time his voice coming out shocked and intimidatingly commanding, Ben feels fear turn to anger in his chest, the feeling surging up and turning the blood in his veins to lava.“You’re joking? How long are you going to kid yourself, Lee? You can’t- this is fucked!” the blond can’t believe he would do this, yeah, Ben was stupid and a whole lot of reckless to have done that, but you don’t give him fucking detention! Ben would have taken a condescending pat on the head and a ‘you don’t understand’ over this.“I’m not joking, and it’s ‘Sir’ or ‘professor Lee’ to you, and I have to ask you to leave, Mr Hardy” Ben can see his formal mask beginning to crack, revealing underneath something Ben would have done anything to see (anything except leave him alone). The blond can feel his eyes stinging, and not wanting the older male to see him cry is enough to get him storming out of the pub, the cold air as soon as he opens the door like a slap to the face.He doesn’t bother to try and hunt down any of the others, just starts back towards the castle, his tears freezing against his cheeks as he tries to navigate with his vision half ruined. His teeth hold his bottom lip in a death grip, holding back the pitiful noises threatening to escape. He isn’t even sure whether it’s the pain of rejection or the extreme anger that’s fuelling his sobbing, but he decides it doesn’t matter, in the end he’s still crying over his damn professor.He finds his way to his room, and collapses on his mattress, he can hear the scratch of a quill, and he hopes it’s one of his more decent roommates. Pulling the curtains shut, Ben buries his face in his pillow, cursing all the god’s that made him so damn stupid.Why did he even do it, besides the obvious reasons? Was he actually gullible enough to think that Lee would reciprocate? That he would put himself on the line to feed some desperate and confused teenage boy’s crush? Ben was an idiot; a cocky, reckless idiot.He skipped lunch, instead choosing to feed his hurt feelings with candy instead of real food, and he spent the rest of the afternoon thinking up the most incorrect answers to his homework that he could.Why are nonverbal spells so important? Your wand has social anxiety and doesn’t like to be yelled at.How do you get a nonverbal spell to work? Sing the national anthem whilst stabbing your foe with your wandWhy are nonverbal spells more complex? Because your wand can’t read minds, obviously.Whilst he knew he’d likely end up caving and rewriting all the homework, it was therapeutic nonetheless. At dinner, he ate quickly, weary that he might have a breakdown if he had to face any questions from his friends. He hated to think what would happen tomorrow in DADA, with Lucy likely wanting answers, and Lee probably ready to ‘avada kedavra’ him if Ben so much as looked at him funny. The thought’s made his heart twist, and the Slytherin soon found himself returning to sulking in his room, rewriting his homework all over again.At some point, he fell asleep atop his homework, and in the morning, he woke to his ferret, Frank licking at his nose, the pale mustelid likely annoyed at being left alone all day yesterday. Peeling the sheets of parchment from his face, the blond took his time getting ready, dreading the moment that he steps into his DADA class, the moment he finds out whether Lee was actually going to give him detention for being no more than a stupid, horny teenager.Breakfast went by fine, he brought Frank with him, kept him in the pocket of his robes, slipped him some treats every now and then, the ferret acting as a good distraction device as the minutes till facing the music grew shorter and shorter. Ben had a bad feeling that this was going to be possibly one of the worst classes ever endured, and he wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up stabbing himself with his own wand halfway through.As he made his way to the class, he caught sight of Rami and Lucy walking together in front of him, and the blond ducked his head as he passed them, partly because he didn’t want to get ambushed, and mostly because they were snogging. Though, not a few moments later, he heard rushed footsteps and then felt a hand landing on his shoulder.“Hey, Ben, where’d you go yesterday? Joe said you vanished” Lucy sounded more confused than interrogating, so Ben supposed that was a start. The blond shrugged, slipping a hand into the pocket occupied by Frank to scratch the ferret between the ears, he wasn’t sure what he could say to her without giving away the fact that he’d made possibly the biggest mistake of his schooling career.“Uh, yeah, I didn’t feel too good, had too many sweets I suppose”“That’s interesting, because Joe said you abandoned him to chase after professor Lee,” here came the interrogation, and Ben felt his skin prickle with uneasiness as they neared the classroom.“I needed to ask him how many sheets of parchment he wanted us to hand in. I got the answer, and then I walked back to the castle because I felt sick. Happy? Not everything I do is a conspiracy theory, Lucy” Ben lied, and he could see the girl consider his words, her teeth finding her bottom lip a moment, before she nodded, accepting his excuse.“Alright, whatever you say, just give us a little warning next time, we were stuck looking for you all afternoon,” she sighed, holding her textbook to her chest. “Joe was really upset, too, I don’t think he much likes me. D’you think he… never mind.”Frowning, Ben had a sneaking suspicion as to what she was going to ask but decided not to chase it any further for obvious reasons, the two walking the rest of the way to class in complete silence.Once they got in, Ben hesitantly made his way to the front, not daring to look at professor Lee as he placed the homework on his desk, before retreating to his usual (and situationally unfortunate) seat in the front row. Luckily, they were just going to be practising non-verbal spells again, so in theory, if he didn’t do too badly, he’d need not interact with Lee at all.Throughout the lesson, Ben found himself sneaking looks at the older male, hoping maybe to figure out what Lee was feeling, it sounded easy in theory, until you take into consideration the fact that professor Lee is an auror and therefore very good at putting up a front (this front was called frustrating neutrality). All Ben managed to achieve was distracting himself to the point of Lucy leaving him dangling from his ankles again, except this time, Lee didn’t so much as spare the Slytherin a second look. Lucy must have noticed the blond’s gloominess, because she took the mercy of undoing her spell on him, and then to retrieve Frank (who’d fallen out of Ben’s pocket when Lucy had used the jinx).The lesson ended with a few other students left suspended by the ankles, each of them being showered with, in Ben’s opinion, way too much praise (aka they’re lucky that Ben didn’t give them each an insect jinx). The blond swallowing the lump in his throat as he tried to get his own nonverbal spells to work, Lucy offering tips that helped approximately not at all.Ben had thought perhaps Lee had decided to rescind his detention, but just as he’d turned to leave, he heard the professor call him back.“You have detention this afternoon with professor May, he needs some help with the magical creatures. I would have made you write lines with me but we both know that would likely not end well,” Ben thought for a moment that there was a hint of regret in the other’s voice, but it was drowned out by rigid formality before he could fully comprehend it.Ben clenched his jaw, not wanting to make the situation any worse somehow, and mumbling a ‘yes sir’ through gritted teeth, stroking Frank so he doesn’t wound up accidentally throwing something. Ben meets Lee’s eyes a moment, the two staring each other down, the blond trying desperately to see through the façade, the brunet holding his gaze, and Ben can feel his inside’s tremble at the silent command in his eyes. The younger male forcing himself to look away and start towards the door.The rest of the day goes by slowly, except during potions, Allen manages to turn his hair green and Joe, trying to fix it, end’s up only making it worse and turns the now green-haired male’s skin blue, leaving their potions professor fuming and Ben walking Allen to the sick bay. Ben had been under the impression that Allen would’ve been the last person he wanted to be around, but the Slytherin actually ended up finding his shameless flirting kind of comforting (almost like a reminder that if he wanted to he could totally make Lee jealous).He tells Allen about his detention and the Irishmen hums, “tha’s not too bad, May’s alright, plus, you’ll just have to feed animals n’ shit. What did you do to Lee anyway? On second, thought, whatever you did you’re lucky he didn’t jus’ zap you, aurors are crazy,” Ben felt a stab of possession run through him at Allen’s words, his want of defending Lee outweighing his annoyance for a moment.“I didn’t do my homework, also, I know May’s alright, I he taught me last year, he was there to pull a knarl off my arm, you were there, you’re the reason why it bit me” Ben recalled, glaring at the blue-skinned male, Allen falling silent for a moment before he started laughing, recalling the event.“I was aimin’ for it to bite your nose, but they’re not the smartest creatures.”“Five-star friend right here, you see, this is why I don’t feel bad that you look like a blueberry right now.” By the time it came around to detention time, Ben was feeling a great deal better than he’d been that morning, but it didn’t last long, because he soon found himself shovelling hippogriff shit for the herbology classes. Not only that, but professor May and professor Taylor had been ‘talking’ (they were totally flirting) the whole time. There were some things that you could never truly recover from.Once he’d done that, May, still ‘discussing curriculums’ with professor Taylor, sent Ben off to feed the thestrals, which was interesting… because he couldn’t actually see them. He ended up just pouring the raw meat out of the bucket he’d been given in the middle of the paddock and hoped the invisible creatures didn’t die of starvation.Perhaps the best part of the whole detention was feeding the nifflers, because Frank (who’d he’d accidentally forgotten was in his pocket) decided to try and pick fights with the little echidna looking creatures. The nifflers, not knowing why this elongated mole was having a go at them, assumed Frank was after their gold, and chased the ferret around their enclosure while Ben fed them and cleaned their water. Frank quick to clamber up his legs and back into his pocket once he realised he likely wouldn’t win this fight.Reporting back to professor May, Ben had to awkwardly stand in the doorway for around five minutes before the older male actually noticed him, which meant five minutes of listening to their (very) cringy flirting. Ben was just about ready to avada kedavra himself when May finally dismissed him for the night.If anything could make him not want to ‘misbehave’ ever again, it was that.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The worst part about telling Ben off, was knowing he didn’t mean any of it.That fact had hit Gwil like a train, every word that had come out of his mouth had been utter bullshit and Ben had known it but nevertheless had looked like his whole world had been torn down around him. The brunet had been unfocused for the rest of the day, trying his best to teach his classes even when his head had been swimming with the truth.The truth that he couldn’t even give an iota of legroom to because it might end up destroying his career and Ben’s life. Then worse still, he couldn’t shake the memory of how the younger male’s mouth had felt pressed to his, so soft and sure and where the hell had he learnt the candy manoeuvre?Gwil sighed, running his hands over his face at an attempt to wipe his brain of the feeling, it failed, and the auror was left to try his best to mark homework with Ben’s wide green eyes in his head and a phantom kissing sensation driving him up the walls. He’d likely have to request a sleeping draught tonight if he wished to not stay up with Ben stuck to the backs of his eyelids.He ached to go find the young male, tell him that he acted irrationally and shouldn’t have blamed Ben for feelings he’d only naturally made a big deal of (feelings caused by Gwil being too stupid to realise the man chatting him up that fateful day had actually been a boy until he’d almost rented a room for the night). Ben was a teenager, it was unreasonable for Gwil to expect him to just drop it, he was the mature one, he should be rational, but by punishing the other, he was no better than the reckless teenager who’d kissed him in a bar surrounded by other students. The next day he’d caught a glimpse of Ben at breakfast, and he’d for a moment found himself moving towards him, the brunet quick to freeze and shove the notion of approaching him from his mind as best he could. It was borderline ridiculous how difficult he found ignoring the young male, and as a grown man, he was somewhat embarrassed by his desperation, luckily for him, that was enough leverage to last him through breakfast.His classes went by slowly, even if the subjects were some of the more thrilling offered at the school. The sixth years absence hung heavy in his mind, every blond student in his classes acting as a painful reminder that he’d seriously fucked up and had to let Ben stew in his own heartbreak until the following day. He was sure his students noticed, but luckily, they were too intimidated to really ask him outright what the fuck his problem was (though, most behaved a great deal better, so at least something came out of how miserable Gwilym felt).By the end of the day, Gwilym hadn’t been able to help himself, and at dinner, he’d asked Brian about how Ben’s detention had gone. Not that the older man was much help, seeing as he couldn’t recall much aside from Ben not misbehaving and doing all that needed to be done. Gwil blamed it partly on the fact that he and Roger’s teaching spaces were much too close together. Gwil had woken a few hours earlier the next day, having slept fitfully thanks to a certain pair of green eyes that wouldn’t leave his head, he was tired, but once remembering that he could finally try and smooth things over with Ben, all traces of tiredness disappeared. He had the sixth years third period, and he was going to be introducing them to the subject of patronus charms, a lesson that would be conducted practically, with plenty of opportunities to help students and possibly apologise to those Gwil had wronged.All morning the brunet had been able to think of nothing but talking to Ben, he even accidentally called a student ‘Ben’ at one point (luckily their name was ‘Dan’, so it wasn’t too far off). He hadn’t felt this much anticipation ever since he’d taken his final auror test, and he rearranged the newspaper clippings of his former arrests three times before the sixth years finally started pouring in, most buzzing about finding out what their patronus is.When Gwil finally lays eyes on Ben, he can’t help but stare, his guilt weighing on him like a lead blanket as Ben keeps his eyes stubbornly off the professor as he makes his way to his desk. Gwil can’t blame him for still being upset, but that doesn’t stop a small part of the brunet from feeling irritated.He’s quick to get the lesson underway, briefly going over the theory to the patronus charm and trying his best not to look too heavily at Ben (who’s still staring adamantly at his quill). He’s quite intrigued to hopefully find out the blond’s patronus, who knows, it might reveal a lot about him. Gwil was almost embarrassed as to how badly he wanted to know the other, hated how his own self defence mechanisms had likely fucked all chances of that over by this point.Moving all the desks to the side of the room, Gwil took up position at the front of the room, slipping his blackthorn wand out of his holster smoothly as he explains the spell. The wand is ridged but smoothed out by years of use against his fingers, he can see each student (even Ben, though he’s got his eyes firmly set on the magical stick in the older male’s hand) watching him with baited breath as he loosens his shoulders and assumes his casting stance.Extending his arm, Gwil lets his mind drift to the day he got accepted into the wizarding defence force; how complete he’d felt, the feeling of his parents hugging him, even the way the owl that had delivered the letter had looked, sleek and proud and professional. He felt his heart turn fuzzy at the memory as he loudly and clearly commanded “expecto patronum!”His hand gave a fast and hard flick and instantly a beam of radiant blue light erupted from the end, filling the room with its glow, he heard a few gasps as the light died down, slowly a shape forming from the ball of brightness. It weaved around the room as it solidified until finally the creature became clear, students moved aside as a glowing phantom in the shape of a wolf stalked around them, giving a leap as it ran through the air as if on solid ground, pausing somewhere behind Gwilym and breaking the silence of the room with a loud howl.“That, students, is what you’ll be aiming for this lesson. Find a space and do as I just showed you, remember, you have to think of the happiest memory you can, dig deep students” he stated, gesturing for them to move around the room, Gwil felt his pulse skip when Ben hesitated, eyes on him, before the older man realised he was just looking at the wolf now stationary next to Gwilym.Once the canid dissipated a few moments later, the blond moved off to stand with Lucy, the two sharing a quick exchange before they started attempting the spell. Gwil inhaled slowly, before starting his rounds of the classroom, leaving tips and reminders as he passed each struggling student. He badly wanted to approach Ben, but the logical part of him said that he likely shouldn’t without good reason at the risk of putting the blond in anymore uncomfortable situations.Time passed quickly, and gradually, there grew some progress; a few of his brighter students had managed to get a light going, no patronus, but a steady beam. Gwil took his time going over the spell with the few unlucky students whom could only conjure a weak blue puff from their wand. Both fortunately and unfortunately, Ben was amongst those students (probably because it only took one look to see that he was caught inside his own head).Approaching the blond, Gwil waited until his current go ended until he interjected. “You need to clear all thoughts except for your happiest in order for this to work, Ben. Also, it might help to just relax your shoulders a bit, you look like you’re about to snap” the older man pointed out, feeling a bit dejected when Ben merely hummed and shrugged off the hand that had come to rest on his tensed shoulders.Ben tried the spell again, his wand lighting up for a moment before immediately falling dark again. The professor watched the rhythmic tense of his jaw, the muscle pulling taught under the skin of his cheeks and leaving a catch in the brunet’s breath. Again, he repeated his advice, this time moving to adjust Ben’s shoulder’s by hand “You need to keep your emotions under control, focus on your memory,” then all of a sudden, the blond was flinching away.“Don’t start on me about emotions professor! And I can’t focus when you’re hovering trying to talk to me about my feelings, back up!” the whole class fell silent as students turned to face the commotion, Gwil felt a surge of anger rise up in him a moment, he and Ben’s eyes meeting and locking for a long moment, yep, he was still incredibly pissed off at Gwilym.Then, Gwil did the last thing a teacher would, he backed down, seeing an opportunity in the outburst, “alright, Ben, sorry mate, I’ll back off, but you’re definitely seeing me after class” he started off soft and (hopefully) reassuring, but towards the end kicked his commanding auror voice into high gear, and only moved on once he saw and heard Ben accept the demand.Retreating, Gwilym ordered the rest of the class to get back to work, and given they were all eager to be the first to make a patronus, they did.It was another five minutes before something happened, something in the form of a quick-moving phantasmic red panda speeding around the classroom, it’s fluffy tail wiggling and waving along behind it. Gwil looked around for the source and found it had been one of the girls from Ravenclaw, her face one of pure delight as the blue creature bounded around her head, brushing against her elbows and weaving around her friends.This made an efficient distraction for the whole class, Ben’s outburst likely long forgotten as they all rushed to get their own patronus’ to work, the red panda gliding between them for a few more seconds before it too dissipated. Gwil gave the girl five points to Ravenclaw and asked her to do it again, as a way to cement the process in her mind.He’d not even finished talking before there was a gasp from the other end of the room, and then a rush of cool air past Gwil’s head as a small ball of blue light zips around the classroom. He turns to the source to see resident spell-wiz kid Lucy clutching her wand to her chest and grinning ear to ear, when the brunet turned to look at the patronus again, it had fully taken its form as a small sugar glider. Said creature flying around the classroom with it’s patagium out and showing everyone where it got its name from, making its way to Lucy, the glider landed briefly on her head, before taking flight- or glide rather.“Well done Lucy, five points to Hufflepuff! The next person to get it will also get some points, so get your wands up and think happy thoughts” he announced, looking to Ben for a moment, he wanted to use any excuse to get near him again, but after the outburst, he knew that that would likely be the worst possible thing to do right now.He moved away from the two and gave assistance where it was needed around the room (though he suspected after a while that some were playing dumb as an excuse to get his attention). They were entering the final moments of class, and he was feeling a bit defeated that not more people had managed to figure out the patronus charm, when all of a sudden there was a great commotion at the opposite end of the room.He turned to find a student on the floor, and a very excited pale blue dog gallivanting around the space, twisting between people, racing through their legs and almost knocking a few more off their feet. Gwil only just managed to avoid becoming a casualty too as the pooch investigated everyone and everything.“Alright, who’s the border collie?” Gwil asked, the dog much too energetic to be any other breed. It was chasing its own tail now, before returning to circumnavigating the classroom once it bumped into one of the Slytherin’s.“Mine, c’mere boy, c’mon” it was Ben’s voice, and Gwil turned to see him beckoning the bouncy collie over to him, the patronus barking excitedly and play bowing at him, tail like a helicopter rotor. Ben’s face was taken up by his ecstatic grin, and Gwil had to take a moment to gather himself before he continued.“Incredible, guess you didn’t need my help after all, five points to Slytherin” he congratulated, letting the boy and dog mess around for a few more minutes before finally calling an end to the lesson, relaxing against his desk as the students filed out. “Not you, Ben, still need to have a chat with you.”The blond paused, waiting until the class had cleared out before finally turning to Gwil, his grin from a moment ago completely gone and replaced by a look of irritation. “Look, I’m sorry for insubordination or whatever excuse you’re going to use, but if you think you can pat me on the shoulder and I’ll get over you giving me detention for questioning the rubbish you keep telling yourself, then I’m sorry but you’re dead wrong.”Gwil knew this was coming, knew he couldn’t work his way around it, so he sighed, and steeled himself for a moment, before meeting Ben’s shockingly cold gaze. “You’re right, I’ve been horrendous to you because I was being selfish. I was foolish enough to have given attention to you in a bar I knew would likely hold students I might teach, and I encouraged you and then I dropped you when things got a bit too real- things that were only that way because I made them so,” he took a deep breath, eyes still on Ben’s face which was now the perfect picture of confusion.“Is that all you called me back for ‘oh yeah sorry Ben, I was a bit of an idiot and I tricked you and used you and now I’m a bit scared, so I fucked you off, but things are all good now because I told you what you already know’?” Gwil pressed off his desk, straightening himself as Ben ran down the wrong path, hardly stopping for a breath as he debunked what he thought was going on in the auror’s head. “You’re going to keep deceiving yourself. Is that it? You’re going to lie and let me go knowing that you’ve manipulated me, and I wasn’t worth it, so you chucked me out like a broken quill? I always thought auror’s were tactful, but I guess what you don’t want doesn’t need a gentle send-off.”By this point, Gwil’s hand had moved to where his wand sat holstered, Ben had noticed, and a flicker of fear appeared in his eyes. Waving the wand minutely and waiting to hear the door click, Gwil then surged forwards, Ben flinching back like he was going to be attacked until their lips joined in a searing kiss.In the few short moments, Gwil let his hands come to rest against Ben’s cheeks, thumbs smoothing over the soft skin as he tried to put all his feelings into this one damning action. Ben had one hand pressed to the auror’s chest and the other clutching a wrist, his grip gentle but firm, not wanting to let Gwil escape reality this time. He need not worry, escape was the last thing Gwilym wanted at this moment.Pulling away, they let their foreheads rest together, breathing against each other’s mouths, it was then that the brunet finally deemed it right to correct Ben’s earlier assumptions. “You are worth it, you are so, so worth it. You were right about everything except that.”Ben didn’t respond, he didn’t need to, his eyes said it all. A great relief swam in the circles of green, a softness and slight daze to the line between his brows, Gwil found himself pressing a light kiss to the spot. Before sliding his hands down to grip the blond’s wrists, he spared a glance to the door, and sighed “Alright, you better get going to your next class. I’ll see you afterwards for your lines.”For a moment Ben looked very much offended and looked like he was about to argue before he caught the upwards twitch in the corner of Gwil’s mouth. A sudden realisation dawning on him “oh, yes, I’ll see you later professor for ‘lines.’”“Cheeky bastard” Gwil hummed, amused as Ben released his wrists and turned to start towards the door, yelping as the auror’s hand connected with his arse on the way out.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Professor, I believe I’m here for my lines”Looking up from the work he’d been marking, Gwil was out of his chair in an instant, his legs moving quickly to get him to the smirking blond. The door locking seconds before they pick up where they earlier left off. Ben’s lips were soft and eager underneath the older males, and it didn’t take much tempting to slip his tongue into the other’s mouth.The two stumbled back until Gwil had Ben pressed against his desk, pushing some of the stuff out of the way to make room for the younger blond. “I have… a staff meeting… in ten minutes” Gwil breathed as they parted, before eagerly re-joining their lips, Ben humming and using his legs to pull the professor against him, working a groan out of Gwilym’s mouth at the sensation.“We can work with that” Ben panted, slipping a hand down between the brunet’s legs and leaving him gasping for air, hips bucking against the hand. Gwil taking a moment to enjoy the sensation before removing the offending hand, “killjoy” Ben whined in annoyance, though he soon got over it when the other male’s lips drop to his neck. Gwil didn’t want to leave any marks, but that didn’t stop him from thoroughly exploring the pliant body underneath him.He let his hands slip under Ben’s robes, fingers tracing over the taut muscles and blunt nails dragging up over his chest, the action tempting an array of bitten off moans and shaky breaths out of the (very) aroused male- if the bulge pressed to Gwil’s lower torso was anything to go by. How he’d love to unwrap Ben like a present and go to town on him, put the desk to good use and finally claim what he’d denied himself for much too long. Except they were already risking a fuck ton just doing this, to have mind-blowing sex a few minutes before a staff meeting would be suicide. He’d already done a lot of waiting, he could spare a bit more.Reattaching their lips, Gwil felt a shock of arousal as Ben’s teeth dragged slowly over his lower lip, the blond’s tongue then laving over the spot, his fingers running up and over the auror’s scalp, pulling their bodies ever closer together. Ben wrapped a hand around Gwil’s wrist, pulling it down until it sat flush against his erection, the touch instantly tempting a sob of relief from the young male, Gwil went to pull away, but Ben’s grip tightened. “Please, sir, I don’t have anywhere to be after this, I’ve waited so long for it,” he leaned in towards Gwil’s ear, teeth grazing the lobe “I’ve touched myself and imagined it’s been you far too long.”Swallowing the lump in his throat, Gwil fought off the shivers running up and down his spine as he nodded, Ben had a point, and even if he didn’t, Gwil couldn’t bring himself to say no. The brunet started to rub at the hard line of the blond’s cock through his trousers, Ben panting and moaning into the older male’s shoulder, his sounds of unbridled ecstasy torturously close to Gwil’s ear as he worked at the boy.Ben’s hips rolled languidly into Gwil’s hand, the friction not enough as he clutched the brunet like a life line, breathing hot and heavy against his ear now and testing every ounce of self-control that Gwilym held. Pitying the desperate teen, Gwil slipped the hand down under Ben’s waistband, his finger’s quick to wrap around the other’s hot, leaking cock. “Please, professor Lee, please, yes,” Ben gasped, bucking up into his hand and letting out a string of choked moans, his mouth parted, and lips pressed to the space on Gwil’s jaw just under his ear.Frowning at the title, Gwil fixed his mouth to Ben’s briefly, the kiss more of Ben just moaning against his lips than an actual kiss of any kind. “Gwil, call me Gwil” he breathed, before pressing more kisses to Ben’s neck, beard dragging along the pale skin until it turns a bright pink.“Whenever you- ah, used that wand, mmm, all I could imagine is how good you could handle a cock, fuck, Gwil, yes. I see now I was right,” Gwil felt a rush of blood south at how nice his name sounded coming from the blond’s downright sinful mouth, especially seeing as it was breathed into his ear as a soft, bitten off moan.Sensing their time was limited, Gwil started to speed up the pump of his hand, twisting on the upstroke, Ben’s whole-body quaking and tensing each time, his teeth clamping down on the auror’s trapezius as his climax starts to build in his pelvis. Each stroke from Gwil’s talented, calloused and delightfully firm hand pulling him closer and closer to the best orgasm of his life.Running a thumb over the bright pink head, Ben’s hips gave an erratic succession of quick thrusts, his moan sounding like more of a sob, Gwil groaning at the feeling of teeth against his shoulder as Ben tried to keep himself quiet. He could feel his own erection straining against his pants and knew that having to will it down would be a bitch, but as if Gwil would risk ruining this because he couldn’t control his own body.Ben is whining and begging now, his words turning muffled against Gwil’s flesh, his ankles digging hard into the backs of the brunet’s thighs as he chased his release. “Come on Mr Hardy, come for me love” Gwil murmured against the blond’s ear, his tone quietly commanding, Ben could only moan at the demand before he was spilling all over Gwilym’s hand.Ben’s hips kept fucking into Gwil’s hand as he rode out the high, Gwil letting him tire himself out, keeping his free hand against Ben’s back so he didn’t collapse backwards and knock his head on the desk. The blond released Gwil’s shoulder, leaning back against the hand to catch his breath, Gwil then realised he’d been stupid to assume he was out of the woods. Ben looked unfairly pornographic post-orgasm, his cheeks bright pink, his lips plump and bitten, neck covered in red marks from Gwil’s beard. The brunet had to look away before his situation got any worse.Checking the time, Gwil was quick to utilise a scouring spell to clean them up, having only a few minutes to get himself sorted out before he was due at the meeting. Helping Ben off the desk, he pressed a long kiss to the blond’s soft mouth, the blond humming appreciatively as he tucks himself back into his pants. “Have fun trying not to think of me at your meeting,” he drawled, quickly grabbing at Gwil’s erection before the older male could stop him, the latter involuntarily gasping as he pulls the hand away.“You’re going to get me in trouble” he growled, leaning in towards the blond and catching his bottom lip between his teeth, Ben exhaling shakily as Gwil slowly tugged, before releasing and soothing it with a kiss.Releasing the younger male, he turned him towards the door and dismissing him with a soft spank, the blond grumbling about Gwil making a habit of it before sneaking out, leaving Gwil with the difficult task of losing the erection. Ben was right, even now, having only been separate for ten seconds, he could shake the thought of the sounds he’d made, of his face post-climax. God, Gwil was no better than a horny teenager.He was late for his meeting.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The staff meeting had not gone exactly to plan.In fact, it had gone heart-wrenchingly bad.Gwilym had been informed that the teacher he’d been filling in for was almost fully recovered from their encounter with a dragon, and that they’d be back before the end of next week. This meant that Gwil and Ben’s time was numbered, and that the brunet had had to act thrilled when he’d heard the news, even if it felt like he’d just been kicked in the stomach six times.He knew it was childish to be so invested in a relationship (if you could call it that) that had only actually started ten minutes ago, Ben is… I dunno, this feels like something real. He wasn’t sure how he’d break it to Ben; the blond was in way over his head, even after the run-around Gwil had given him, he was still stuck in his own fairy tale. The rest of the meeting had gone relatively unheard by the young man, too busy planning out how he’d break the news to pay any attention.Walking back to his assigned room, the auror was in damage control mode, deciding how he’d tell Ben, and how he’d deal with the subsequent lashing out (because Ben wasn’t exactly tactful when he was upset). Gwil ran a hand over his face, releasing a long breath as he let his had come to rest on the door to his room, turning back to look around, he was relieved to lay eyes on a sixth year he taught. Catching the student’s attention, he requested they track down Ben and send him up (along with some excuse relating to his less-than stellar behaviour as of late).Collapsing into his armchair, the brunet steeled himself for the moment Ben arrived, for the moment he has to watch his happiness die in his throat and realise all of this had been for nought and they’d be split again by factors out of their hands. The thought had Gwil’s heart twisting painfully in his chest, his breaths coming with a struggle each time, this had been always been a factor of getting involved with Ben; eventually Gwil would be returned to his actual job and they’d probably not cross paths again, it’s just… he didn’t expect it to happen this so fucking quickly. Before they’d properly explored their relationship, before they’d squeezed every drop of excitement and intrigue from it. Fuck.He was broken out of his thoughts by a knocking, the brunet sniffing and wiping at any wetness that had gathered around his eyes as he stood up and tried to regain himself. When he opened his mouth to call Ben in, his voice caught in his throat, no sound apart from his own breathing escaping, it took him a few go’s after that to finally bring himself to actually speak and beckon the other in.The aching in his chest was only made worse when the door opened to reveal Ben, green eyes bright and excited and a beaming smile on his face as he made his way towards Gwilym, “miss me?” he asked softly, pulling the taller male down to join their lips in a kiss that felt eerily too final for the brunet.It was then that he felt a faint tugging at his belt, and when they parted, he saw Ben’s finger eagerly working to undo the clothing piece. Not wanting to get sidetracked, Gwil wrapped his fingers around the blond’s wrists, “what? What’s wrong?” Ben asked, sounding genuinely confused and a little hurt, the tone only managing to make things harder, but he couldn’t not tell Ben, he had to, and he would.“Ben… your professor’s coming back.”Suspicion “and?”Gwil chewed the inside of his cheek, steeling himself a moment “and I’m going to be returning to my old job… I’m leaving soon.”Silence, and then there it is, Ben’s happiness turning to ash on his tongue. His green eyes went from a calm rain-drenched forest to a jagged piece of broken glass in .3 seconds as he processes the older male’s words, a foray of different emotions washing over his features before his settles on disbelief.“No. No, you can’t leave, you have to do something- arrest them!” he suggested, voice raising as fear-fuelled anger fills his veins.“On what charge?” Gwil was up for anything at this point, anything to stop having to see Ben in such distress. A small voice in the back of his head said maybe leaving would be for the best, if all Gwil’s ever done has caused Ben such misfortune.“Villainy, assault- anything! I don’t want you to go” Ben whined, eyes brimming and voice uneven as he tries to swallow the sounds of tragedy trying to escape. Gwil is quick to wrap his arms around the blond, cheek pressed to the soft pale strands as he lets Ben curse and threaten and deny into his chest, almost like he’s experiencing the five stages of grief all at once.They stand there like that for a few long moments, Ben gripping Gwilym like he was going to fade away. After a moment, they pulled back and the taller male leant down to press a long, firm kiss to Ben’s mouth, their lips gentle and slow as they accepted what was going to happen. Ben would likely deny it at first, but Gwil knew he was too smart to repress it until it was too late.The best thing they could do was enjoy the time they had left, and it seemed Ben was already moving onto that stage, as his hands had started on Gwil’s belt again. “Hey, we don’t have to… we can just talk or make out, we don’t have to-”“Shut up. I told myself I was going to end up on top of your thighs one way or another and I’m not going to let my only opportunity slip through my fingers, so, respectfully sir; be quiet and take your clothes off,” Ben ordered, pulling the belt free and throwing it to the floor, his hands moving to deal with his uniform. Gwil hadn’t known being told what to do could be so damn hot until now, suddenly feeling great pity for all the times he’s ordered Ben around during class; he’d hate to think how teasing it had been.They make quick work of their clothes on the way to the bedroom, Gwil trying his best to kick off his jeans with his wand holster making the task 120% harder. Luckily, he manages to get free only seconds before they collapse in a pile on the bed, Ben’s lips eager and skin hot against Gwil’s. He can feel his erection straining against his underwear and doesn’t miss the way the other male’s eyes rake hungrily over the tent, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows thickly at the sight.Almost the second those briefs are off, Gwil is being pushed onto his back, hardly able to work out what’s happening until he feels Ben’s hot mouth around his cock, the brunet biting down on his hand to stop the loud moan giving them away. He hesitantly opens his eyes and almost comes on the spot at the sight of Ben’s face, pink lips stretched satisfyingly around his length, green eyes watering as it hits the back of his throat.The hot slide of Ben’s tongue is intoxicating, and it’s almost painful to have to pull him off after a few moments, the brunet worried he’d otherwise last an embarrassingly short time. Ben hums in annoyance but can’t stay irritated when he’s pulled up and onto his dream spot- Gwil’s lap. The latter then flings his hand to the night stand, blindly reaching around for something slick, finding it a bit difficult to focus on what he’s grabbing when Ben’s so slowly grinding their hips together.Mercifully, he’s able to get his hands on something suitable, and he’s allowed to get payback by stretching Ben out nice and slow, the blond flushed from head to chest and barely able to form a coherent thought as Gwil flexing and curls his fingers. Ben is begging for more, begging for him to go faster, but the auror does neither, his two fingers sticking to the gradual pace, the blond’s nails digging into Gwil’s shoulder’s, his hips moving desperately. The brunet had never seen something so incredibly graphic in his whole life, and he soon found himself running out of self-control.Slipping a third finger in, the auror is quick to stretch him out, all whilst curling and twisting against his sweet-spot as much as possible, the writhing blond moaning into his shoulder and quivering with each thrust of Gwilym’s fingers. “Gwil please, stop fucking with me, I won’t” he cut himself off briefly with a shaky moan “I won’t last long, come on.”Pretty desperate himself, Gwil took pity on the other and slid his fingers out, hands coming to rest on his hips, fingertips digging in as the blond finally sank down onto his cock, both males moaning through their teeth at the feeling of finally achieving what both had been yearning for since the start of term. Sliding a hand up over Ben’s (incredible) stomach muscles, to graze his palm over the Slytherin’s pert nipples, his fingers digging into the flesh of Ben’s pec and tempting a breathy chuckle out of the male.Once he feels comfortable, Ben shifts his knees a bit and starts the slow rise, slowly pulling the air from Gwil’s lungs as he goes, both the brunet’s hands back to pressing marks into his pale hips, head tipping back as he tries desperately to catch his breath. The satisfying clench around his stiff cock driving him mad as Ben continues his slow pace.As Ben goes, Gwil sees his head tilt, eyes stuck on something below his left collarbone, “what’s that?” he asked, nodding to a long, jagged scar, the auror humming before telling him it’s from a rogue jinx, something flickering in Ben’s eyes before he pouted, rolling his hips sharply and rendering them both out of breath. “That… must… have hurt” he pants, corner of his mouth curling before he leans in and licks up along the mark, holy fucking shit.Now getting quickly impatient, Gwil laces a hand into the blond’s hair, knotting the strands around his fingers gently, before sharply pulling back, Ben’s neck pulling taut with a gasp, the ridge of his Adam’s apple jutting out sharply and doing a many number of things to Gwil’s mind with every swallow. “Come on, gorgeous, don’t wanna have to finger you until you scream, best hurry that perfect arse up,” he mumbled into the other’s ear, Ben moaning, body racked with shivers at the words. Once Gwil’s hand falls from his hair and back to his waist, there’s a marked improvement in speed, the blond holding Gwilym’s shoulders tight and rolling his hips with reckless abandon.“You gonna- god fucking dammit, let me suck you off under your desk? Try not to- holy hell, come whilst you’re teaching? Every time y-you look d-OWN, ohmygod, you see me choking on, mm, your cock.” Gwilym swallowed thickly, groaning at the pictures forming in his mind, the blond chuckling airily as he watches the auror process his words, “bad professor indeed.”That’s all it takes for Gwil to slam the younger male down into the mattress, knocking the air from Ben’s lungs as he lands on his back, falling limp as Gwil slips out and flips him easily onto his stomach. An excited laugh escaping him as the brunet pushes back in, propping Ben on his knees “now I’m fucked. I was wondering when you were going to properly punish me” he was about to continue on when Gwil slammed hard into him, ripping instead a ragged moan from Ben that had luckily been mostly muffled by the bedsheet. Yes, he was indeed fucked.The older male started a harsh pace, fingers gripping his hips hard enough to bruise, and Ben’s legs spread so if Gwil angled himself right he could hit the younger male’s prostate every time. Determined to achieve this, Gwil slid a hand down to press into the back of Ben’s shoulder, effectively holding him in just the right spot and ensuring that most of the blond’s (very loud) moans were muffled. Perfect.“Thought you were cute, ah, when you’d stare at me during class… you probably would’ve ridden me in front of everyone if I’d asked, would’ve… screamed and moaned your perfect voice out. If I offered a fuck for every question you get right… you’d ace every test,” Gwil groaned, Ben moaning into the bedsheet, his head nodding eagerly as he tried to thrust back against Gwil’s cock. The brunet gasping at the tight drag and fucking in time with Ben’s pushes.He can feel his climax start to build in his hips, his thrusts getting feverishly quicker as he pursues his high, the hand on Ben’s back now slipping to wrap around his abandoned, leaking cock. The blond lurching forward and back arching harshly as soon as he feels Gwil’s fingers, his ruined voice roughly begging for more, for anything, he was so close.Gwil groaned in acknowledgement as he squeezed his eyes shut in focus, his hair hanging limply over his forehead and tickling his nose as he slammed quickly and shortly into the body in front of him, his orgasm building almost teasingly slow. He stroked the hand around Ben’s length in time with his thrusts, the blond’s hand fisted tightly in the bed sheets, his body shaking and legs straining to hold him up. Just a bit more…Ben hardly had a second to warn Gwil before he was coming with a bitten off shout, the brunet’s hand covered in spend. The auror’s climax hitting him seconds later with enough force to almost send him collapsing onto Ben, his hips moving erratically as he comes deep into the blond, the latter falling limp against the bed, Gwil’s sensitive cock sliding partially free and tempting a wince out of the taller male.Exhausted and thoroughly satisfied, the brunet lays himself down beside the fucked out Slytherin, his plump lips parted in a continuous pant, face contorting into a grimace as he rolls onto his back, his arse more than likely a bit tender. Gwilym reaches down beside the bed, wiggling free his wand and only just managing to get a scourgify charm working, the magic cleaning them up (which is lucky because both males feel pretty boneless at that moment).After a quiet moment, Ben turns his head to look at Gwil, a mischeivous smirk on his tired face, his voice half gone and gravelly when he speaks, “if you think I was joking about that desk blowie thing, you’re dead wrong, sir.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Ben really hadn’t been joking, and he’d all but leapt under Gwil’s desk the following day after class, the brunets hand flying to his wand to lock the door as the blond starts on his belt.“Fucking hell, Ben, you’re gonna get us caught out you maniac,” Gwil whispered, relaxing back in his seat as the younger male pulls his cock out, tongue on it almost instantly. The brunet cursing under his breath before lacing his fingers into the pale locks, Ben humming appreciatively at the feeling and sending vibrations up Gwil’s length that left him almost choking for air.“I’m gonna miss you so much, love” he gasped, hips stuttering against the younger male’s mouth, the latter making a noise of agreement and following it up with a particularly high-spirited suck that has one of Gwil’s knees jumping and smacking hard into the desk. At hearing the thump, Ben pulled off a moment, opening his mouth to ask if Gwil was okay, before the latter cut him off.“Keep going, if you don’t keep going I’m going to fucking cry” for a moment Ben looked like he was going to make Gwil beg, but then he’s sliding the brunet’s cock back into his mouth and Gwilym swears he can see God for a moment.Somehow, Gwil ends up not being able to hear the approaching footsteps, nor the  knocking, and then all of a sudden the door is being forced open and professor May is striding into the classroom. Gwil feels his heart stop, eyes going wide as he tries to tap on Ben’s head, the blond still bobbing away on the end of his cock.“Gwilym, might have to get your door looked at, it was a bit jammed. I was just hoping to collect those bowtruckles I lent you, if you’re finished with them, that is. I do worry that they’re unhappy away from the rest of their family” the older male explained, pausing a few feet from the distressed professor’s desk.Trying to subtly kick at Ben, the blond gave a disgruntled groan and only sucked harder, the brunet, swallowing the sounds threatening to escape as he tries to collect himself enough to respond to the waiting professor. “U-uh, yeah, t-that’s all good, Brian, feel free to take them back,” he stammered, hand gripping hard at Ben’s hair (the blond had obviously realised they weren’t alone and had decided to test his luck).“Where’re you keeping them? This room’s a bit of a mess” Brian asked, starting towards the wrong side of the room, Gwil was panicking by this point- if he went to far in the wrong direction he might see what was currently unfolding under the desk.“No! They’re the other side, small tank next to the werewolf claw’s, yep, right there” he blurted, hands now gripping the arms of his chair, knuckles white and shaking with the power behind the grip, his climax wasn’t far off, and every time Ben’s worryingly skilled tongue stroked up the underside he grew even closer.He shut his eyes for a moment, swiping his fingers over his hot cheeks, trying to muffle his whiny exhales with his hand. Brian had turned by this point and fixed him with an odd look, to which the brunet removed the hand and forced a grimace until the dark-haired man turned back to inspect the bowtruckle tank.“You defence teachers, borrowing my perfectly healthy creatures and returning them with one foot in the grave. Bloody hell,” he mumbled in annoyance, picking up the tank and starting towards the door, for a moment making Gwil think he was in the clear, except just before he left, Brian turned around, and began back towards the desk.It was this moment that Ben decided to start performing the fucking dementor’s kiss of all blowjobs on the head of Gwil’s cock, his lips and tongue lapping eagerly at it and forcing Gwil to completely tense up, eyes flying shut as he tries desperately to fight off the wild shudders racking his spine. Then his knee is bouncing like mad and he’s wishing for the sweet release of death.“Gwilym you alright? You look like you’re being crucio’d” Brian pointed out, Gwil forcing his eyes open and feeling his skin crawl at the suspicious look on the man’s face. Fuckfuckfuckfuck.“Yeah, just a bit of a sore spot, peeves threw a rock at me last period” Gwil lied, rubbing at a spot on his torso for extra effect, Brian made a face, before a smile appeared. The brunet wasn’t sure how to feel about that.“Roger might have something herbal for you, he’s always got a cure for everything that man,” Brian suggested, an odd smile appearing on his face. Gwil hummed uncomfortably in agreement, even make a simple noise was difficult when you’re trying not to scream out in ecstasy because there’s a gorgeous blond under the table sucking your dick like it’s the only thing keeping him alive. All Gwil wanted was for Brian to take his bowtruckles and leave, but it seemed even that request was unreasonable.“These little guys love climbing about in his nursery, exploring and playing about, you must come watch them before you go,” Gwil had been nodding softly, eyes closed, when all of a sudden a hand came up to cup his balls, giving a long, soft squeeze as Brian said ‘go’, the sensation had Gwil moaning through his teeth, and he had to force a fake growl of discomfort on the end to try and pass it off as his ‘rock wound.’Brian seemed to hesitantly disregard the noise, and after casting a glance down to the little twig creatures, he sighed, nodding “alright Gwilym, I’ll tell Roger about your ailment and I’m sure he can find something to help, save you the trip to the sick bay.”Gwil couldn’t tell if Brian was genuinely invested somewhat in Gwilym’s wellbeing, or if he just wanted an excuse to visit Roger, but he wasn’t about to ask because Ben was still squeezing and licking and sucking and his hips were aching, begging to thrust hard into that hot wet mouth and grasp the relief he’d been yearning for the past few minutes.Brian finally left, quietly mumbling to the bowtruckles as he went, and almost the instant that door was closed, Gwil had both hands on Ben’s head and was thrusting in short, quick movements into his mouth. The blond made no attempt to move away, just gripped the backs of Gwil’s knee’s and let the older male chase his climax.“Close love, god your mouth is so fucking perfect” Gwil whined, voice high pitched and laced with deep, heavy breaths as his pelvis filled with searing pressure, thrusts turning uneven and out of rhythm by this point. It was then he came down Ben’s throat, only just managing to muffle the loud moan in his hand as his vision filled with multitudes of little black dots, his limbs buzzing as his orgasm subsided.Ben took a moment, swallowing around the sensitive cock, before pulling off with a cough, wiping at any come that hadn’t made it down his throat, he fell back against the desk, eyes red and watery, the green standing out more than ever. His breaths came heavy, but he wore a self-satisfied look on his face as he raked his eyes over Gwilym’s dishevelled form.“I’m never doing that again, I don’t care how good you are with your mouth” Gwil panted, running a hand up over his slick brow, pushing the hair away from his eyes as he goes. He can hear Ben groan in annoyance at the comment, the blond begrudgingly tucking the brunet back into his pants.Ben mumbles a scourgify, his pale wand lighting up underneath the desk as the charm goes to work, the hand that had been getting himself off squeaky clean in a matter of seconds. Gwil scoots his chair back and the younger male climbs out from under the desk, Gwil then feels a smirk work its way onto his face as Ben moves away from the table.“If you think this gets you out of last lessons homework you’re dead wrong.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

One morning, Ben had walked into class and Gwil had been there.The next morning, Ben had walked into class and Gwil hadn’t.The room had completely remodeled itself, gone were the posters of untradeable goods and newspaper clippings and random bits of auror paraphernalia, now they’d been replaced with multitudes of bottles, jar and dusty old bits of parchment. It’s like every trace of Gwil had been wiped. Ben knew it had been coming, Gwil had told him after they’d laid together the previous day, he’d be gone, just like that, replaced. Ben would have to grin and bear it, even if it felt like someone had placed a ball of barbed wire in his chest.He’d only have a few more lessons before the end of term, before he could go home and lick his wounds, act like he didn’t completely hate having to sit around in his father’s office all day because last time he’d been home alone he’d accidentally let the house become overrun with gnomes. as much as he doubted being in the ministry would help him recover from hurricane Gwil, it wouldn’t necessarily hinder him either.Shaking the thought off, he turned his gaze to the front, where the professor was going over what they’d learned previously with ‘Professor Lee.’ Ben took a glance around the class, everyone else looked equally forlorn, and upon his gaze resting on Lucy, the blond spared him a sympathetic smile, though it did little to ease the ache in his heart.He felt weirdly disconnected from everyone for the rest of the week, and he was sure his friends knew something was up, but none of them said anything about it (he figured maybe Lucy had told them to leave him be or something). By the time term wrapped up, Ben wanted nothing more than to curl up in his room and cry about boys (well, one boy, and he was a man, a gorgeous, caring, intelligent man, that Ben would never see again). Once the holidays kicked off, and he’d left Hogwarts, he got letters from the gang, mostly Joe complaining about Rami not responding quick enough, his plants having not been watered enough and Allen trying to meet up. It’s dramatic enough that Ben can for a moment distract himself from how horrible he feels, burying himself in the realm of Joe’s mundane friendship problems.
He’s probably somewhere with Lucy, like, she’s cool and all, but we’ve been friends for so long, and now he has the audacity to not respond to my letters? Maybe I should let Allen have a go, it’s better than being ignored I guess. Could I? I know you and him are… I don’t know what to call it, but I’ve heard him say he wants to grab your arse before so I’m not sure what’s going on.

Joe.
Ben frowned, did Joe really think there was something going on between him and Allen? Of course, he did, rolling his eyes, Ben was more than happy to hand Allen off to Joe.
He’s a man in love, Joe. Also, yes, please let Allen have a shot, if I have to read one more letter from him I’m going to avada kedavra myself.

P.s he’s already grabbed my arse before, I can assure you it wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen to me, have fun.
The blond knew that if anything came of Joe and Allen, he’d likely be put on the back burner for the rest of the break, and whilst the more selfish part of him hated the idea. He knew Joe deserved better than trailing around after Rami, so he’d for the time being deal with it for the sake of his friend’s happiness. It’s not like he was doing too well to begin with anyway.So just as planned, by the third day his father dragged him to the ministry, Ben running on a few hours of sleep and residual loneliness. He spent most of the morning sitting around and listening to his father explain a disturbing amount of irrelevant shit, though it acted more as white noise as he started on all his holiday revision. All the questions blurred together after a while, originally, he thought it was out of boredom, but he quickly came to realise it was the tears brimming in his eyes. Hot, wet tears threatening to spill over his eyelids and paint his cheeks.He didn’t know where it came from, but now his parchment was getting wet, and he was up and running out of the room, feet taking him down the semi-familiar path to the bathrooms, his sobs coming in great gasps as he moved. Even when he finally burst into the men’s room and washed his face with cool water, the tears kept coming, his body racked with sobs and gross, ugly noises falling from his mouth. Mercifully, the room was empty, so he let it all out (not that he could stop it if he tried).Eventually he felt his legs buckle and he fell to the floor, quick to press his face into his knees as he let everything out. The bathroom of the Ministry of Magic was perhaps not the best spot to cry your eyes out, but it was the closest, and Ben wasn’t picky.At some point, his eyes ran out of tears, and the crying was replaced by an unbearable throb in his head. Dragging himself to his feet, there was a moment he felt like he was about to pass out, and he gripped the sink like a lifeline, his head spinning and eyes aching, throat and mouth filled with thick spit, so he felt like he was drowning without even being underwater. Maybe drowning wasn’t the worst that could happen.Taking his time to calm down and wash his face, Ben still ended up looking like a mess by the time he’d left the bathroom. The cry however had done little to nothing to budge the beartrap over his heart, the trap that would clamp down every time Ben caught a glimpse of blue eyes or long legs. Rubbing at his eyes, Ben hurried his legs up, wanting to get back to the relative safety of his dad’s office before he broke down again.Upon entering, he noticed the room was significantly fuller than it had been before, and that was all thanks to the two people talking to his father, their voices serious as Ben awkwardly stalls in the doorway. Noticing him, his father paused the conversation and beckoned the blond in.“Ah, Benjamin, as I’m sure you’re aware, there’s been a bit of unrest in the Ministry lately, so these two have been appointed to keep me safe at least until the problem’s are dealt with,” the older man explained, resting back in his chair and gesturing to the two. “This is Anne and Gwilym, you’ll probably be seeing plenty of them.”
What the fuuuu
He must have been staring quite intensely, because now his dad was narrowing his eyes at him “D’you know each other?”Gwil and Ben couldn’t look away from each other, but the blond managed to nod numbly “I suppose.”