Amortentia Dolorosa

Roddy wasn't sure what in Merlin's cavity-ridden left testicle his brother was doing home, this weekend, and he didn't really want to know. He'd leave Babs to the cousins and ask Clover, later.

Instead, he rang up Lucky and Sev, catching them in the midst of bottling. Even through the floo, he could tell something wasn't quite right. Lucky moved very carefully, and Sev was trying very hard not to look at him. Lucky broke off the call, saying they'd be done in an hour. Naught to do but wait, then. And have a sandwich. Auntie bless the Earl of Sandwich, for teaching a man the right use of bread... even if he was English.

He stepped out of the floo, into the middle of ... something unspeakable and irrational, in the Greatroom. At a glance, it seemed to involve three of the cousins, Babs, and one of the Red Men. With a look of dismay, he froze, not more than a step from the fireplace.

"Rodolphus, I think your cousins are trying to ... I don't know what they are trying to do, but it definitely involves your brother!"

He smiled as he stepped through the floo, and took in the room. Deciding it was best to leave Babs to, well, whatever the hell was going on over there, he smiled at Roddy winningly. "Hey Roddy. So just what is the plan this afternoon?" Lucky found a chair, and sprawled in it, with his usual graceful slump, before shifting position slightly.

"I thought we'd tilt a few pints and watch Babs take a tossing." Roddy cocked his head in the direction of the five-man pile. "As to whether it'll be tossed off or tossed out, I haven't the least."

He pulled one hand from behind his back and tossed a bottle to Lucky, before handing the other to Sev. "But, the two of you, you're wojus off, today. Who set the banner ablaze, this time?"

Severus struggled with the bottle for a few moments, before Roddy took it from him, and opened the lid with his teeth, before passing it back. "Thanks."

He took a shallow sip and watched the fight. "I do not believe a man should hex his own family," he said, seemingly apropos of nothing. "Things like this --" He pointed at the roiling heap of flesh. "-- this isn't really dangerous. There are spells and potions for bruises and broken bones. But, you don't hex someone unless you truly mean them harm."

A palpable tension surrounded him, as he struggled to keep everything in the abstract. He just wanted Roddy to tell him what he already knew -- that what Lucky's father was doing was dangerous and improper.

Lucky chuckled genially. "Just a bit of a disagreement with my old man. Sev's blowing it out of proportion," he said, smiling at Roddy, and opening the bottle, taking a long pull. "And you could've mentioned it was old home week, you know," he said gesturing at the pile in the corner.

"Blowing it out of--! I am hardly blowing it out of proportion!" Severus ran a hand through his hair, angrily. "The cure is worse than the hex? You'll have it as long as he decides you'll have it, because there's nothing to be done for it? No, I really don't think I'm blowing it out of proportion, Lucius."

He looked frazzled, greasy hair knotted and tangled from all the times he'd pulled at it and twisted it, just to keep his hands moving. But, his dark eyes were very clear -- limpid, even -- and they gleamed with a concern heavily tainted with wrath.

"Your da throws toasters, Sev. I'm not sure you've got what to stand on, here." Roddy lazily poured beer into his mouth and leaned back against the corner of a bookcase.

He looked at Lucky. "But, he's right, all the same." Pointing the bottle at the match on the floor, he continued. "That's an equal match, it is. There's no politics, and only a few hard feelings -- and most of those are elbows."

Caolan took one to the teeth, and Roddy winced. "Mum's like to give you a matching one, if you get blood on the carpet again."

But, it was too late to worry. Sully had already swabbed his hat in the mess, and Caolan was pounding at the side of his bloody-auburn head.

"And what Sev's talking about was parental discipline, nothing more," he said, his voice calm.

"One hex, gentleman. Which I'm likely to have the results of for about a week, since I have no desire to grovel. It's my choice, one way and another. Sev just happened to be in the labs when I slipped downstairs to take care of it." Lucius sipped at his drink again, his expression an almost bored mask, as he tried to finish the discussion.

"And that's another matter entirely, anyhow. A friendly brawl, such as it is," he said gesturing at the rolling pile of bodies on the floor.

"I should point out to both of you that the biggest thing my mum's ever hit either of us with was a wooden spoon. And that's only because we're stealing from the pot, while she's cooking. And Da hasn't ..." Roddy laughed. "Da usually just threatens us with Mum, or if he's right sputtering, he'll send us to Granny's. After the time we watched Granny rip that sheep apart and eat it, I don't think we needed all that much discipline, isn't that so, Babs?"

Rabastan ignored him, headbutting Sully, before Cathan knelt on his gut.

"Even Mum just gave us spankings." Roddy shrugged. "No one of us was throwing hexes or kitchen appliances."

Severus cocked his head at the fight, watching two of the cousins do something entirely unnatural -- he would've said physically impossible, until that moment -- well before he registered what Roddy had said. "That's completely disgusting." He sounded awed.

"Oh, what? Yes." He shook his head and drank more beer. "Your mother smacked you, not hexed you."

He shook his head, again, and his hair fell into his face. "And it's still a week, Lucius. My mother may not be right and dandy, but she can still make a healing potion, and so can I. And they work. I'm out a few hours, on a bad day. He leaves you to suffer like a Muggle."

Lucius rolled his eyes. "For Merlin's sake," he said, exasperated. "He's never laid so much as a finger on me. Much less thrown things at me."

Tapping one hand against his leg, he spoke. "And he'd undo it, if I were willing to admit I was wrong. Which I wasn't, so I won't. That's my choice. And the stuff I've got for it works, just not instantly." Lucius really wished they'd both just change the subject.

Sully batted Cathan into a couch and looked back and forth between Lucius and Severus. "I could kill 'em and eat 'em, if you want. All both of them. Haven't had a meal that fine in a goodly long time."

Roddy cocked his thumb at Sully and stretched. "I stand with Sully on this one. They're no good for either of you, they aren't."

"I'd let you, but there wouldn't be anyone left to pay the house, and any number of other things," Severus muttered.

He squinted at Lucius. "If he died, you know, you'd get everything. And you're old enough that the Ministry can't take it from you. I'd say we should let Mr. Sully take care of the problem, but if I recall correctly, there won't be enough left to call it a death, as opposed to a disappearance."

"Merlin's bloody buggering arse!" Lucius was getting rather irritated with the whole matter. "And this, Severus, is exactly why I told you not to mention anything." He glared at the younger boy. "Once. He's hexed me this once, in the past year, and now there are death threats. And it wasn't even anything serious."

"I hadn't realised we were on a touchy subject at dinner, and I was a bit out of order." He shrugged. "He's in a temper. And generally speaking when that's likely to be the case, I vacate the premises. Just as I do when I'm in a bit of one. It's sense, that's all." Lucky finished off his beer, and set the bottle on the floor, with a loud thunk.

"Yes, Lucius, there are death threats." Roddy slammed his beer down on a bookshelf and stalked across the room, to tower over the chair in which Lucky sat. "We wouldn't stand for this in our family, and you are my family, Lucky. Someone hurt you. It doesn't matter a whit who it is, excepting that if we don't know him, we can't have at him. Someone hurt you enough that Sev is upset by it. When have you seen Sev upset by violence? It's usually sex!"

He half stepped forward, resting his knee on the arm of the chair, and grabbed Lucky's chin, looking into his eyes. "Merlin's balls, Lucky, I love you like one of my own cousins, and I wouldn't stand for this shite on them, and neither would you."

"And I really don't understand why the bloody fuck he is," Lucky said, staring at Roddy. "He's seen it, and it's nothing serious." He pushed Roddy away, stepping out of the chair.

"Here," he said, unbuttoning his shirt. "Since it's the subject of so much bloody discussion, I may as well show everyone, so we can move on." He let the shirt slip to the floor, revealing a bandage taped to his side. "And the first one of you tries a healing spell on it gets my fists. That'll just make matters worse." The bandage was square, and covered about a foot of skin. He started pulling at the tape carefully, his face hidden for the moment behind his hair. When he'd loosened the tape, perhaps a dozen shallow wounds were visible.

He tossed the bandage to the floor. "Go ahead, take a nice look," he said icily, his head thrown up to face the room proudly.

"You know, it was bad when the English did it to us, but that was war. Now they're doing it to their sons?" Sully shook his head.

"Ulster, tonight?" Connall asked, with a bitter grin.

"Ulster, tonight." Sully grinned back, but there was no humour in either of them.

"Now, if you'd got the like of it in a pub fight, I'd be offering you a beer and asking what the other gobshite looked like," Cathan said, shrugging. "As it stands, I'll still get you another beer."

Roddy just punched the bookcase, hard enough that books leapt off it. He caught his beer as the bottle followed the books. It was completely out of character, for him, and the cousins all turned to watch.

"This ... " Roddy didn't finish the sentence, just his beer, and smacked the empty bottle back onto the bookcase. Cathan quietly collected the empties, and left the room.

Severus had backed into the corner between a couch and the perpendicular wall. His eyes were shut tight, his face, a sickly grey, and both hands tucked into his sleeves. The surgical precision of the lines nauseated him in ways he couldn't begin to explain.

And he'd never, ever seen Roddy get angry. Proud? Sure. Violent? Regularly. Catty? More often than not. But never actually angry.

Lucius shrugged, utterly bewildered by the reactions in the room. He reached for the bandage, and put it back in place, before the small drops of blood forming on the edges of the wounds had a chance to make a mess. As soon as he'd replaced the tape, he slipped his shirt back on, and sat sullenly back down.

"This what, Roddy?" he asked, trying for a moment to understand. "This is nothing." he said, shaking his head slightly. "I've gotten similar for so much as slouching, from the time I was seven," he said, rubbing at his face in his confusion. "The furniture was hexed, or at least the pieces I was permitted to sit on."

Lucius chuckled softly. "How else do you think I learned proper posture, and company manners?"

"Bloody buggered arse, I dunno, Lucky, maybe you learned it like the rest of us did? No dessert? Getting sent to bed for all the good parties, until we could behave?" He swiped a bottle, as Cathan stepped back into the room. "I figured your people weren't so different from mine."

Cathan handed another bottle to Lucius, and then poked Sev in the shoulder. "Got you another pint, kid. They'll wear down, eventually."

Roddy looked like he was about to say something else, but his attention slid off Lucius like whiskey off a duck.

Severus screamed. Not an angry scream, or even particularly a frightened scream -- a despairing scream. A sound that went better with Dementors than with blokes trying to hand you another pint. His eyes flew open, but they were already rolled back in his head, showing nothing but white.

The cousins stopped and stared, as he tried to climb backward through the wall his back was pressed against.

"Everbody out," Lucky said, his voice cold and hard. His attention was suddenly hyper-focused on the boy in the corner. "Sev?" he said, his voice still calm, and a good deal gentler. "It's Lucky." He watched carefully for the most minute of reactions, as thoughts spilled through his mind in a jumble.

Roddy set his drink on the nearest flat surface and dropped to his knees. It wouldn't do to be taller than Sev, right now.

He looked back at his dazed relations and cocked his chin at the door. One by one, they made gestures of offered assistance, and filed out, except Rabastan, who merely gave Roddy a hard eye, on his way out the door.

"Severus-love, it's just us." He put his hands palm-up on his knees, entirely visible and entirely empty.

After a moment, he hissed at Lucius. "Get your head down. You're taller than he is."

Severus hissed, squeezing more tightly into the corner, as his eyes drifted back down and caught on Lucius's gaze, like barbed hooks. "Nnnn..." he started, but the word faded as his face shifted, sliding down into a dull, stunned look.

"Bloody hell. Bloody fucking hell." The voice was still mostly his, but the accent was Lucky's.

His face twisted up, into worry. "Fix this. I have to fix this."

And then it all faded away, and his expression went blank, as the song bubbled from his lips. "Oh show me the way to the next whisky bar..."

A light smile crept across his face, like a dazzling madness come home to roost. Smiles didn't usually look good on him, but this one looked terrifying. Finally, his unblinking gaze broke away from Lucius, but before he could retreat back into his terrors, he caught on Rodolphus.

"'Oly fagging twice damned shite. Legilimency. A natural legilimens." Severus gaped, stunned and fearful.

"How it must be to know every thought as the blows connect... I'd not bear to know the truth of those things, always. What a strength!" Awe and determination spread across his face.

"I did this. I couldn't just shut my damned mouth. Too worried about one to see the other." He curled in on himself in shame and spite, and broke the gaze.

This time, he simply slid down the wall. "No more. Take my eyes. I keep falling. Keep falling... keep falling in..."

He trailed off and sagged into an unconscious sprawl.

"Right," Lucky said, his voice still calm. "C'mon Roddy," he said as he moved towards a far corner, crouched low to the ground. "We'll wait over here, for Sev to calm down. If he can't meet our gazes, it should help." When he'd reached the corner, Lucky settled against the wall, careful not to be facing Severus directly.

Motherfucking Merlin's saggy left testicle. He got past the bloody ice, and he wasn't even trying. Lucky took a few deep slow breaths. We'll just see him to the other side of this, and then I can go find the bottom of a bottle. Or something, anything.

"He can't see, Lucky. I think he's down like the Cannons in the fifth match of the season." Roddy leaned forward and prodded Sev's foot. "He's really out. I think I should put him on the couch, at least."

He carefully lifted the limp body, relieved to feel Sev's breath against his chest, and laid the boy on the largest couch in the room. Pulling one of his mother's innumerable 'drunk's blankets' from under the couch, he laid it over Sev, and then went to sit with Lucky.

"Did you know he could do that? Because I didn't. And I don't think anyone else should." Roddy rubbed his face, absently.

"No, Roddy, I didn't. And I don't think so either. " Lucky sighed, and rubbed at his face for a moment, not even noticing that Roddy had just done similar. "I suspected he had skill at it, but that it was natural, and that good? Not at all. He blew right past my shields before I had time to notice." Lucky took a deep breath. "I don't suppose there's whisky in the room, is there?" he asked. "Because I needed another drink before this happened."

Brigid appeared in the doorway. "Now, what was all the yelling about? Your cousin Sully told me not to come back this way -- that poor Severus had lost his mind, and the two of you were trying to find it."

She glanced at Severus. "Is that an honest sleep, or did one of you have to punch him out?"

"No, mum. He's really just sleeping. Well, actually, he passed out, cold," Roddy replied, twisting his hair, nervously. "Is that cabbage I smell? If it is, can we have some?"

"Don't go changing the subject on me, Rodolphus."

"Yes, mum. He's fine, I think. Just fumbled his reality a bit." Roddy scratched his nose, idly. "Me and Lucky, we were doing rounds about some damn-fool thing, and Sev just... He doesn't really like arguments. But, you know how we go round, mum. Always something, never anything two shots and a punch in the eye won't cure... somebody totally else's eye, of course."

"You and Sullivan, always with the barfights." Brigid rolled her eyes. "I'll bring you some cabbage, so you don't have to leave Severus by himself. What about you, Lucky?"

"Not an incorrect assessment of things, honestly," Lucky said carefully. One hand was picking idly at his pants leg as he spoke.

"I ate with my father before I came over, though. I don't think I could eat anything else at the moment." Lucky swallowed convulsively, licking at his lips momentarily. "Hopefully, he'll be fine when he wakes up. He went down on his own, though."

"I don't suppose I could talk you out of some whisky, Ma'am?" he asked, as the thought of a drink rather insistently re-entered his mind. He seemed to not be looking at any one thing for too long as he spoke.

"You boys and your trouble. I can't tell if you make it, or if it just follows you around like a lost kitten." Brigid shook her head. "Whiskey for one and cabbage for the other. Y'just promise me there's not any drunken brawls to come. There's already been one in this room, today."

She pointed her spoon threateningly at Roddy, and left, muttering about having a house full of boys, and why couldn't more of the cousins have turned out like Murphy or Ceofine.

"She doesn't believe us. No, sir, not at all at all." Roddy laughed, shakily. "But, she'll wait until it's not a critical moment, to come weasel it all out of us."

Lucky nodded slowly. "But I told her the truth," he said quietly. "At least about what she actually asked."

He sighed, and kept picking at his trousers. "At least she's not mad at us," he muttered shakily. "I don't think I'd handle that one well just now."

Lucky paused, seemingly lost in thought for a moment. "And he seemed to be taking things so well, at the Manor. I mean, I didn't know he was there, initially, or I wouldn't have been half naked quite so quickly, but he was taking it in stride, or at least he seemed to be. "

"Lucky, what in the hell would she be ticked at us about? My brother was just in here, getting his arse handed to him by four of our cousins. If that doesn't light a fire, a little bit of shouting's not gonna change a thing, it ain't." Roddy picked up Lucky's hand and kissed the palm. "Besides, what's she going to do? Cuff me in the head, and we all laugh it off. At worst, she'd tell me to get my own twice-damned cabbage. She's not going to get scary with you -- not unless you break something more than my nose. That'd be a scene, it would."

Roddy was still laughing at the idea of his mother smacking Lucky with a spoon, over a few busted fingers, when she returned with dinner.

"What're you giggling about, boyo?" Brigid demanded, with a suspicious smirk, as she handed Roddy a bowl and set the bottle between the boys. "Keep on like that, and I'll think you've started drinking early, today."

Roddy coughed, trying to keep the rampant grin off his face. "Nothing, mum. I was just telling Lucky what a fortunate fuck he is."

"You and your mouth. You and your cousins! I give up." Brigid threw her hands up and walked out, shaking her head.

"Because she didn't believe us?" he said in reply, waiting until Brigid had left to say anything. "Or because that wasn't a bit of shouting. I don't know what to call the noise he was making," he said, his hand still in Roddy's, and trembling slightly.

Lucky reached for the bottle, and opened it with his free hand. He lifted it, and nearly had it to his mouth, before lowering it again. "Glass, I need a glass. I'm not at home, and it's not mine," he said, the latter part more to himself.

"Y'don't need a bloody glass. It's whiskey. It's not like you can get germs in it." Roddy swiped the bottle, took a slug, and handed it back.

"And mum's ... used to these sorts of things. She's ... well, to be honest, she's older than the house. He's not bleeding, he's not dead, and neither of us is Babs, so she's not as worried as she might be. If it was important, she'd care." He stopped to get a bite of cabbage. "And don't tell me it's important. The town's not in flames, nothing exploded, Auntie's still at the palace, and nobody's let out the hounds. Whatever this is, it's a minor inconvenience."

Roddy paused, to tie his hair in a knot. "This isn't to say I'm not concerned. It's just a matter of perspective, it is. Drink up. It'll look a little better when it's hazy."

He took a large swig from the bottle, winced for a second as it burned on the way down, and then took another equally large swig. "Of course it will," he said. "Hazy usually makes everything better."

Lucky nodded slowly. "I suppose. She's certainly got different standards than any I grew up with. I might say it's significant, but that's only in the short term, at this point. And Sev being Sev, there's unlikely to be political fallout from whatever that was."

Lucky took a few deep breaths, and stared at the bottle, before setting it back on the floor, his apparent composure coming back one slow piece at a time.

"Of course there's no political fallout. You're not saying anything, I'm not saying anything, and I really doubt Sev's saying anything," Roddy muttered, around a mouthful of cabbage. "Momentarily significant, sure it is, but unless he does it in public, it's nothing of lasting consequence."

He held out a hand to the kneazle that stalked into the room, but it ignored him, proudly, sniffing at Sev's hand, instead.

"Katoey, leave him alone. He doesn't want to play."

The kneazle blinked at him, slowly, and then leapt up onto Sev's chest, curling up to sleep. Roddy looked on in mortified dismay.

Severus muttered something inaudible and dropped a hand on the sleeping kneazle, without waking up.

"Usually things do, though," he said. "At least where I'm expected to spend my time. Blackmail and threats, bribery, it's complicated."

Lucky picked up the bottle again, and took a much smaller drink this time. When the kneazle settled on Sev, Lucky started giggling quietly.

"Sh-- She's fifteen bleeding pounds! And you've seen him sleep! He's always up at the slightest, he is!" Roddy blinked a few times. "Merlin's balls, I truly hope he'll be right and good."

He eyed Lucky's gigglefit and cracked a grin. "It's quare darling, though, it is. Y'got the camera with you? This needs pictures, it does."

Lucky kept giggling, quietly for a couple of minutes, shaking his head no in answer to the question. When he'd finally managed to stop, he looked over at Roddy. "And why would I have brought one?" he asked, his eyebrows raising.

Taking all of this into consideration, he scooted over to lean up against Roddy. "I think so," he said. "And I'm not surprised. After that, he's most likely to be down pretty solid for a bit."

"Ah, pfft. I can't get up and get ours, what with you draped all on me," Roddy protested, half-heartedly, draping an arm over Lucky's shoulders and twisting a lock of blond hair around his finger. "I'll put my foot in your arse, if you get hair in my cabbage, though, I will."

He craned his neck to kiss the top of Lucky's head, and then went back to the bowl of cabbage. "Like as not, you're right. It's just a rare day someone screams themselves into unconsciousness, here."

"Eh, someone will look in on us in a few, send whoever it is after one," Lucky said, relaxing against Roddy. "And it's a rare day most places, I would hope," he said, casting his gaze over at Severus again.

He moved one hand to rest one one of Roddy's legs. "I don't suppose I could stay the night here?" he asked quietly. "I'm rather disinclined to go home yet, after all this."

Roddy grinned wickedly and tugged playfully at Lucky's hair. "Only if you stop wearing your trousers," he laughed, before offering a real answer. "Of bloody course you can. You practically lived here, the other summer."

His ear twitched, and he glanced at the couch. "Is she purring? Is she seriously purring? You traitorous, cheating tabby! You never purr for me, any more."

He stuck his tongue out at the kneazle and got a mouthful of Lucky's hair. "Thppt. Teach me to talk over your head, that will."

Lucky started giggling again, reassured by Roddy's answer. "I still had to ask," he said quietly. "Especially after everything, and with Sev staying here all summer. Your family, as welcoming as it is, doesn't exactly have endless space in the house."

Lucky snorted. "She's purring, because he needs it. And how do you know she doesn't? She might just wait until you're asleep," he said teasingly. He patted Roddy's leg affectionately.

"Lucky, you don't actually take up space. You sleep in my bed, and the whole family doesn't fit at the kitchen table, anyway. Severus takes up space, though possibly less, now that he's been declared part of the furniture..."

Roddy rubbed the side of his head against Lucky's. "And as for purring, you always purr for me when I'm awake. Unless you've taken up doing it while I'm sleeping. I might have to object to that, I might, what with me not being awake to enjoy it and all."

"One wonders what your brother will think of that, if he's staying the night," Lucky mused idly, before giggling at the thought of Sev as a permanent part of the couch.

Lucky smiled at Roddy's comment. "I might have to take it up, now that you mention it."

"Sotted geebag," Roddy scoffed, gnawing at the side of Lucky's head, affectionately. "D'you think he'll stay down for a bit, yet? I'm thinking you're getting more interesting than the cabbage, as time goes on. And you know Babs will only see what he wants to see -- especially when it comes to you. He'll just blame it all on me, like he does."

"And here, I was trying to behave and not distract you from your dinner. Just because I've had mine, doesn't mean you don't need food," he said, his head tilting towards Roddy. "I will need to wash off the cabbage bits in my hair now, though," he said with a teasing frown.

"I'll never understand why he's that way with you," Lucky said. "But then, I mostly have him convinced not to start about you, if I'm around. And somehow, I think I'm responsible enough to make my own decisions."

"I did not get cabbage in your hair. Feh. If I don't want your hair in my cabbage, why would I want my cabbage in your hair?" Roddy set the bowl off to his other side. "I am bright enough to swallow when I've a mouthful of something I like, you know."

He paused a long moment, to let that sink in.

"Merlin, himself, couldn't change my brother's opinion of me, if he used the Imperius. If he catches us, then it'll just be me taking advantage of you, while you're drunk. I can live with that, since he'll be the only one who thinks it. It's not the kind of thing he'd let on, since it would do worse to you than me. He likes you. He just kind of -- I'm his brother, I am. He has to put up with me, because it'd be wrong to kill me, and he's too lazy to do his own research." Roddy sniffed, haughtily. "He can just fuck right off."

Lucky chuckled. "Daft bugger, that one is. Because I let so very many people take advantage of me," he said with a snort. "And he is rather disinclined to do research, most of the time. A shame, that is, so very many interesting things can be found in books," he said, his hand squeezing Roddy's thigh.

"But perhaps if we want him to think I was drunk, we ought both get that way," Lucky suggested, gesturing to the bottle. "After all, we can't let the fine whisky go to waste."

"Fine whiskey and very good company," Roddy purred, grabbing the bottle and taking a swig. "And neither of these should go to waste."

"Aren't Narcissa and I the only ones taking advantage of you? Maybe some day when she's a little less crazy, we should all get together. I'm sure the two of us could come up with some new things to try on you. She seems like a smart one." He laughed and tapped Lucky's hand with the bottle.

Lucky laughed. "She's much less crazy now, than she was after Andi left," he said, taking the bottle. He took a swig, and passed it back to Roddy. "Still, it's not like I've exactly told her I'm sleeping with you," he said quietly.

"I didn't want the jealousy, honestly. And she's rather insecure at times, about that sort of thing." Lucky shrugged. "Ahh well, at least I made my point clear about not marrying Bella, again tonight."

"You're going to marry her. You're just going to bugger me bloody. I'm not seeing that I pose a threat, here. But said and done, I'm sure I don't want the wrath of a scorned Black on my head." Roddy took a swig and passed the bottle back. "And all that noted, I don't want to be able to walk before noon, tomorrow."

He tugged Lucky down into his lap. "And that Bellatrix is a mad baggage, she is. I pity the third son who gets passed off on her."

Lucky kissed the side of Roddy's neck gently. "I hope we'll marry. My father is pressuring me otherwise again, that's what the whole debacle earlier was over."

"Oh really?" he asked, his breath warm on Roddy's neck again. "Are you sure about that one?" he asked, moving his head so as to take a drink.

"What, that she's a mad baggage? Of course she's a -- oh." Roddy paused as Lucky nuzzled his neck, the scent of whiskey rising with the warm air. "Oh. Yes. Noon. Don't make me have to get a hangover for that, aye?"

His fingers toyed with the hem of Lucky's shirt. "I'm going to have to be careful with you. Just slap me if I stick a finger in one of those gashes. And on that, your father's a mad baggage, too, but I'll not start that again, at a time like this."

"You know you matter, right?" Lucky asked. "You're my brother, in all but blood," he said, his hands slipping down to rest at Roddy's waist.

Roddy threw his head back, smacking it hard on the wall, and laughed. "Ow, shite. You're gonna blind me with sentences like that. Sure Jeez, are you for dead sure we're not related, if you're handling a brother like this?"

Lucky chuckled. "Not that I know of," he said. "And how could I not tell you?" he asked. "I don't need you feeling insignificant, after all."

Lucky reached one hand up and cradled Roddy's hand, kissing him gently. "We are what we are for each other. It's not a thing that most would understand, but then, it's not like I care about that."

"Now, there's a thing of it. The Old Master says that we'll all be just wizards, when we've won. There'll be no more bombings. But, d'you think it'll be right and fine to go on as we are? D'you think we'll all really be 'just wizards'?" Roddy sighed and kissed Lucky's hand. "One step at a time, yeah? We'll win the war, and we'll all be just wizards of the wizarding nation. Then, I suppose we can worry about cock-loving wizards of the wizarding nation."

"And, on the record, I'd keep your dong for my familiar, if such a thing could be done. Sure I'd get more respect out of that than from this one."

Lucky choked for a moment, and then started laughing. "You would, would you?" he asked with a grin. "I think there might be a few objections there."

"And I really don't see a problem with loving cock. It's not like loving cock and most other things are mutually exclusive, after all." Lucky shifted position in Roddy's lap so that he could wrap his legs around the other man. "I think, when we are powerful enough, we shall do as we choose," he said, kissing Roddy again.

"We shall do as we choose..." Roddy grinned, devilishly, looking up into Lucky's bright blue eyes. "Say it again. That sounds sexy when you say it."

He slipped a hand under Lucky's shirt and ran the backs of his nails up the Englishman's back. "Of course, you get me wound up like this, and everything sounds sexy, when you say it. You've just got one of those voices..."

"We shall do as we choose," he said, chuckling.

He stretched as Roddy's nails ran across his back. "Mmmm." Lucky smiled contentedly. "And how did I get you so wound up?" he asked, his hands sliding down to cup Roddy's arse.

"Might have sommat to do with the part where you're utterly lush and groping me. Oh, and you're in my lap. That helps." Roddy grinned and pulled Lucky's hips down. "It's always a rush when you look down at me, like that. Like you're king of the world, and I'm going to do anything you want and love every minute of it."

A momentary look of dismay touched his features. "Oh, and here I am, begging to get bent over and banged by an Englishman. Oh, my Irish pride, where have you gone?"

"Fuck it. If you suck me off, first, you'll have some Irish in you," he laughed.

Lucky laughed. "You're the one who put me in your lap, you daft git," he said with a grin. "And I didn't start groping you, until you told me you wanted me to bugger you silly.

He kissed the tip of Roddy's nose, and then lifted the bottle of whisky again, gesturing with it as one hand massaged Roddy's buttock. "I already have some Irish in me, Roddy," he said teasingly.

Roddy squinted up, contemplatively. "You're still lush. And if you've got enough whiskey in you to count as genuine Irish content, you're a lush, too."

He sighed, dramatically, draping a hand across his forehead. "I'll take the whiskey for an answer, I will."

Lucky snickered. "Hey now, I never said I wouldn't blow you, I just said I already had Irish in me." His hand moved, slipping to grab Roddy's bare arse underneath the kilt. He leaned in and kissed Roddy fiercely, the taste of whisky still in his mouth.

"Ah, feck, Lucius. You've got a wicked mouth, you do, no matter what you're doing with it," Roddy muttered, pulling him down for another kiss. "Tongue like yours shouldn't be legal, but when we run the world, I don't suppose it'll matter in the least."

He squirmed a bit. "Be careful, yeah? I don't want to break your fingers under my bony arse."

Lucky laughed, enjoying Roddy's squirming. "It's no matter. I can fix it if we manage to be that unfortunate," he said, giving Roddy's arse another squeeze.

His other hand snaked around to slip underneath Roddy's kilt in the front, running along his thigh. As he was doing this, Lucky tilted his head so that he could pull Roddy's earlobe into his mouth, running his tongue along it as he did so.

Roddy's teeth snapped together, and his eyes gleamed dazedly. "You're going to be the death of me, one day. Just gonna wind me up 'til my heart explodes from the strain."

He tipped his head to the side, to expose more of his neck, and ran his hands up Lucky's thighs. "It's just you, it is. No, really, it's just today. Something's off for me to be so on, but I don't think I care, just now. I can give a fuck later, yeah, and get a fuck, now."

Lucky chuckled, his mouth against Roddy's neck. He licked and kissed his way down it slowly. "But it would be such a good death. Although I admit I prefer la petit mort, myself."

Lucky slipped off Roddy's hips so that he could slid his hands up Roddy's legs underneath the kilt.

"To die once in your hands would be sweet. To die and die again in your hands, all the night long, would be bloody brilliant. 'La petit morte,' indeed." Roddy arched his hips up and gave Lucky a wry look. "So, grab my sword and slay me, Launcelot."

He laughed and ran a finger down Lucky's nose.

Lucky's hands moved along Roddy's thighs, spreading them wide before one hand slipped around Roddy's cock. "As you wish," he said, leaning in for another kiss.

"Ádhraím thú," Roddy breathed, pulling up one knee and resting his elbow on it. "You spoil me so."

He tilted up his chin, to steal another kiss, while Lucky's hands kept up their devilishly good work.

"An' ever I meet a woman who does such things as you do to me, I'll marry her overnight, and propriety be damned."

Lucky laughed again. "You say the sweetest things," he said, kissing Roddy again, as his hand worked the other man's cock. His free hand caressed Roddy's cheek gently.

Lucky moved again, slipping his head beneath Roddy's kilt, and licked at the tip of Roddy's cock delicately as his hand kept working.

Roddy's shoulders tensed, and his hands twisted at the fabric of his kilt. "It's a good thing you don't like candy. I'd never keep a straight face to see you with a lolly, after this."

Lucky chuckled again, sending vibrations along Roddy's cock. One hand was stroking the length of it, grasping it firmly, as the other went to play with Roddy's balls. His hair moved along Roddy's thighs as Lucky took most of Roddy's length into his mouth.

"Blood and bones," Roddy gasped, hips twisting slightly, as he remembered not to thrust. "You are a wicked thing, sure you are."

He looked up from the enrapturing scene in his lap, to find Clover leaning in the doorway, looking terribly amused. The youngest Morgan cousin -- just a little older than Lucius -- batted its eyes playfully at Roddy, who replied with a wry twist of his lips and a pointed glance at the back of Lucky's head. A conversation of facial expressions ensued.

Can I play, too? Clover asked.
Ask me tomorrow, Roddy replied.
Is he any good at that?
Wouldn't you like to know?
Oh, I see~.
Keep my brother out, would you?
Sure, sure. But, I'll do it from here.
Enjoy the view.

And then, whatever it was Lucius was doing with his tongue got distracting. Roddy grabbed at the Englishman's hair and writhed, a thin whine trickling past his clenched teeth. He forced himself to let go, gripping a fold of his kilt, instead.

"You cheat!" he hissed, finally. "You picked that up from me! Trying to get me to Irish you up right quick?"

Clover snorted, quietly.

Lucky chuckled his amusement, sending vibrations of laughter along the length of Roddy's cock as he pulled it in and out of his mouth. His tongue darted across the head each time he nearly pulled back, and then he'd move downward, seeing just how much of Roddy he could hold.

There was a sentence. Roddy was sure of it, but he had no earthly idea what it was, any more. He was pretty sure it wasn't that important, all in all. He sputtered vapidly for a few moments, before his jaw locked and his eyes rolled back. Almost every muscle in his body tensed, in a series of long ripples, up and back down. He nearly vibrated. His hips rolled between Lucius's lips and the floor and his head tipped back, sliding down the wall and pinning his hair in a way that would likely be uncomfortable, later. Later, when he could care about things like his hair and uncomfortable...

As his fingers kept worrying the cloth of his kilt, panting sounds of desperation pushed out of his mouth. Lucky was too good at this to be marrying a woman, even if she was from one of the best Wizarding families in England. But, that was unquestionably his own technique being used against him, which gave Roddy an irrational surge of smug pride. If he was this good, of which he had no doubt, then he was truly a demigod among men.

Oddly, it was the nudge to his ego that pushed Roddy over the edge.

"Lucius," he breathed, as his hands splayed across his thighs, and then the world spun round.

Lucky swallowed convulsively, milking the last drops of cum from Roddy's cock before giving it a final set of demonstrative strokes with his tongue.

His work there done, Lucky moved his head from under Roddy's kilt, to lay it on one of Roddy's thighs for a bit.

Roddy giggled inanely and ruffled Lucky's hair. He slumped, lazy and boneless, against the wall and grinned dangerously at Clover, who raised an eyebrow and merrily golf-clapped.

"So, how's that for a chaser?" Roddy asked, picking up the whiskey and taking another swig.

Lucky groaned softly, and then spoke. "You could've mentioned we had an audience, Roddy," he said sourly. "I do tend to like to know these things, after all."

Lucky grabbed the bottle from Roddy, and sat up enough to take his own swig of whisky.

"It's just Clover. Might as well be my evil twin," Roddy laughed.

Clover sauntered into the room with a wide smile, flipping a gold coin and always catching it on heads. "I didn't want to interrupt. Didn't know you were here until Ceallach said something about it, Lucky. And here's my pleasant surprise to catch you up t'something so ... undignified."

Roddy shrugged, lazily and gestured out with one hand. "But, really..."

"Y'look good with my Roddy's kilt for a hat." Clover bent over and tapped Lucius on the nose. "Were you lookin' t'know I was there s'you could drag me into your debauchery? We could be twins, but I dunno which one's the evil one."

"You," Roddy insisted. "I'm too sweet and innocent for that."

Lucky laughed at the pair of them. "Not tonight, Clover," he said with a grin. "I believe I still owe Roddy a thing or two, and I intend to see him paid in full."

Lucky watched Clover covertly, looking for a reaction as he stretched, his head remaining on Roddy's thigh.

"You don't. You intend to pay him in full. I intend to see him get paid in full." Clover laughed. "Unless one of you obj--"

Clover stopped suddenly, looking at the couch in utter bafflement. "That's -- Is that Severus sleeping on the couch with Katoey? And yis didn' wake him? Are you for really real?"

"Yeah, it's Sev. He is sleeping. And for a bit, yet. No relation to current events," Roddy clarified. "And for all that I'd never object to your pretty face and smart mouth, I'm thinking Lucky might not be in the mood for company."

"Ought not be doin' things of that sort in the great room, then, y'ought'nt," Clover pointed out.

"And I think we won't be, at least not the rest of them," Lucky said. "Last thing we need is poor dear Severus waking up in the midst of it."

Lucky sighed. "And most unfortunately, I didn't seem to think of that earlier. But then, it's been a bloody bollocks of an evening already, it has." He shifted his head slightly to eye Clover. "And I did say, not tonight, Clover. This doesn't mean not sometime, but not tonight."

"Y'said you weren't wanting to let me play. Y'said nothing about watching." Clover sat in front of the couch, and pet Katoey. "But, now you've said. S'quit wasting yezzer time and go up. I'll sit for Severus."

Roddy opened his mouth to protest, but Clover cut him off. "He's sleeping. You know I only like awake people. How much of that bottle's gone in you?"

Roddy's response consisted of a single finger.

"You 'eard Lucky, not tonight."

"If he wakes, and wants one or both of us, you come get us, Clover. Don't send him up," Lucky said, a serious look on his face. "I don't think he needs to see what we're like to be doing. And you, at least, will enjoy the show if you walk in on something."

Lucky kissed Roddy rather thoroughly. "That is, if you think it's a reasonable idea?" he asked.

"Zwa?" Roddy blinked stupidly, for a moment, having been taken by surprise. "Oh, right. That. Aye. You fetch us, not 'im. Don't want Sev or Babs t'be seeing this affair."

Clover looked up at the two of them, insulted. "I'm not stupid. Get on with yis."

"Soon as this deadweight's off me. I'm going, I am." Roddy elbowed Lucky jovially.

"Thanks, Clover," Lucky said seriously, as he got up, offering Roddy a hand. With that he, turned and headed out of the room, and up the stairs.