Soon All the Suns Will Rise

Love Isn't Always On Time

Chapter title from "Hold the Line" by Toto
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"You'll find the shame is like the pain— you'll only feel it once."

Their weekday movie echoed through the basement room— Rhiannon's selection this time. She liked to choose sexy dramas, and tonight it was Dangerous Liaisons. Colleen would usually choose romantic comedies— almost always something she had seen multiple times before. She said she liked the comfort she found in old favorites. Sirius chose action, of course. His most recent selection had been Top Gun, and he directed the enchanted CD player upstairs to play "Danger Zone" multiple times a day. Lucky for him, Severus was at the school more often than not now that it was back in session, and he didn't have to suffer through Sirius's rock n' roll songs or their Muggle movie nights in the basement.

For her part, Rhiannon escaped Hogwarts as soon as the moment would allow each day. The Carrows had cast a suffocating darkness over the school after only a week. They'd insisted the students walk in silent formation between classes. Meals were pre-portioned and stripped of any sensual pleasure, now designed to meet minimum nutrition standards and quite utilitarian in their presentation. It was all part of the Carrows' focus on discipline, entrusted to them by the Dark Lord. Severus could have overridden the new measures, of course, but he didn't really have a convincing reason to do so. He had to choose his battles wisely, and based on the Carrows' lesson plans, he would need to choose the ones that involved sparing the students from pain when possible. Of course all the new restrictions ultimately reflected on Severus, in the students' eyes, which also impacted their views on Rhiannon. All the pair could do was segment and try to find happiness at home. Because at Hogwarts, there was none to be found.

Ben was tucked into bed, no doubt filled with excitement about turning five tomorrow. Tonks was in the throes of first trimester exhaustion and queasiness, so Remus often whisked her upstairs to the top floor after dinner to cuddle and care for her. Movie nights were usually a threesome— though a mostly platonic one. Sometimes they would lay in a pile on the oversized sofa with Colleen sandwiched in the middle, wrapped in her husband's arms with her own wrapped around the witch. Rhiannon would let her arm lounge on Sirius's lower leg in this position, sometimes stroking his calf muscle affectionately. It was harmless and innocent enough, but it was all designed, in Rhiannon's mind, to build their comfort level with one another and make the end game inevitable.

Tonight, Rhiannon sat at the far end of the sofa with Colleen at the other. Sirius was seated on the floor with his head between his wife's legs, enjoying a massage. He'd been stressed at dinner this evening, having seen Hermione Granger's name listed in the Prophet as a Muggleborn wanted for interrogation. Sirius still saw himself as guardian to Harry and his friends after their time together at Grimmauld Place, and his helplessness ate away at him. He knew they were only camping at his old house temporarily, and his mind raced with worry over where they would end up next. Colleen tried to ease his strain as much as she could, her fingers buried in his luxurious brown curls, raking them and twisting them around her fingers as she massaged his head.

Rhiannon loved Sirius's hair. She could tell Colleen was obsessed with it too. It truly was like the hair of a god, and Sirius would make a point of sweeping the mahogany curls down a lover's body so she could experience its soft caress. Colleen's long, red-tinged strands were gorgeous too of course. And Severus's dark ones. He'd let it grow longer, and the water in the house from the seaside lochs agreed with his latest shampoo creation so that it fell in enviable raven waves. Rhiannon longed to dive in the center of their tangled pool of hair and limbs and lips. And soon she would.

After Severus's cavalier suggestion that day at the beach, she'd made it her goal to have them all thoroughly seduced by her birthday. She had Colleen and Severus onboard— Severus having come to the conclusion naturally after weeks of close contact in potion brewing sessions. He was now tantalized by erotic fantasies of his smart, capable, and angelically beautiful Muggle assistant.