Halrloprillalar   prillalar@gmail.com   http://prillalar.com/

December 29, 2003

RATING: R.

FANDOM/SPOILERS: Harry Potter. Books and movies.

SUMMARY: Marcus/Oliver. Talking about Quidditch.

DISTRIBUTION: Archive anywhere. Email forwarding allowed.

DISCLAIMER: Rowling, not me.

NOTES: Follows "In Love". I wrote this as a feedback cookie and
thought that enough time had passed for me to post generally.


THE ART OF CONVERSATION
by Halrloprillalar - prillalar@gmail.com

"We have to talk about Quidditch," Oliver said.

Marcus grinned. He'd been "talking about Quidditch" with Oliver a
lot lately. Maybe three times a week. And sometimes four. Oliver
had shown Marcus how to do a lot of things, some things Marcus
hadn't even thought about before. And Marcus was getting quite good
at them, at least he thought so. Oliver never said, of course, but
he reacted. And they kept doing them.

It was like Marcus's extra Charms tutorials. When there was someone
right there to show Marcus what to do, he could figure out what he
was doing wrong and fix it. Charms was only twice a week, instead
of three or four, but Marcus was getting good at that too.

"Sure," said Marcus. "I have Herbology. I'll meet you after."

"No," Oliver said. "I really have to talk to you about Quidditch."

"I could miss the lesson." Now that he'd started thinking about
meeting Oliver, Marcus didn't want to wait either. He looked at
Oliver's mouth and thought about kissing him, about touching him.
And all the other things. It gave Marcus a twisty hot feeling.
"Let's go now."

"No, Flint," Oliver said. "I mean: I have to actually talk to you.
Like if I needed to talk to you about homework. Only about
Quidditch instead."

"So, you want to talk about Quidditch. Instead of ... talking about
Quidditch." Marcus thought he had this worked out. And it was
rather disappointing.

"Well," Oliver looked at Marcus and smiled a little bit. "Not
necessarily instead."

Marcus was glad to hear it. "Now?" He almost took Oliver's
shoulder, but remembered not to.

"I have Arithmancy," Oliver said. "After." And he looked at Marcus
for a few moments before he left.

It made Marcus shivery and distracted. He went to Herbology and
accidentally destroyed the Creeping Snickweed he was pruning
because he was thinking about Oliver. Professor Sprout frowned and
took ten points from Slytherin, but otherwise Marcus didn't get in
any trouble.

Afterwards, he headed off to the storage room where he and Oliver
always met. He waited around in the corridor. Students looked at
him, but nobody said anything. Marcus was beginning to suspect that
everyone knew about him and Oliver, but so long as they didn't
actually talk about it, everyone would pretend not to know. At
least when they were around Marcus. It seemed rather pointless to
Marcus, but since the end result was that he could get off with
Oliver, he played along.

When the corridor was empty, Marcus went into the small room and
lit a candle. The room was cramped, full of stacks of boxes. A few
times, Marcus had found other couples in here and had to throw them
out. But that didn't happen any more.

After a few minutes, the door opened. Oliver came in and put a
Locking charm on the door. Marcus thought about asking if he could
do the charm, so he could practise, but instead he took Oliver by
the shoulders and kissed him.

They kissed for a long time, until Marcus's mouth was watering and
Oliver's robes were crumpled on the floor and both were breathing
raggedly against each other's necks.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Marcus said.

"What?" Oliver said, so far as Marcus could tell. Oliver had his
mouth on Marcus's cheek and it was hard to hear him.

"You said you were going to talk to me," said Marcus. "About
something." Then he found the spot just behind Oliver's ear, the
spot that made Oliver shake when Marcus sucked it, and sucked it.
Nobody had had to teach that to Marcus; he'd discovered that all on
his own.

Oliver shook and dug his fingers into Marcus's arms. "After" he
said. "Now, shut up." Then Oliver pulled Marcus's shirt free of his
trousers and put his hands up inside, on Marcus's skin.

So Marcus shut up. He kissed Oliver again and pressed him close,
one hand around Oliver's waist and the other behind his head.

Oliver stroked Marcus's back and sides. His hands were cold, but
they warmed up quickly. Then Oliver moved Marcus away a little and
unfastened his trousers. He pushed Marcus back to sit on a pile of
boxes and put one arm around his waist and did one of those things
to Marcus.

Marcus could never think while this was happening, he just felt
things: heat on his skin, a pressure in his chest, something deep
inside winding up tighter and tighter until it was too tight to
wind any more.

When he came, he felt himself jerk, like something else was moving
him. He said something that didn't make any sense. And he felt
very, very good.

He had to catch his breath a moment. Then he stood and hauled
Oliver up with him. He got one hand inside Oliver's trousers and
the other on Oliver's neck. Oliver put both his arms around
Marcus's shoulders and kissed him.

Marcus kept his eyes open so he could look at Oliver in the
candlelight. Whenever Oliver could, he'd snuff the light before
they began. Whenever Marcus could, he'd leave it burning. But they
never talked about it.

From this close, Marcus could see Oliver's eyelids, his ear, his
hair, untidy now. And when Oliver came, Marcus watched his forehead
crease and his eyes screw tight. Then they stood for a minute,
close together, not moving. Marcus could feel Oliver's heart
beating against him.

This moment always made Marcus almost say the things he shouldn't.
Like how much he liked this, how happy it made him. When he almost
told Oliver that he loved him. One day, Marcus wouldn't be able to
help himself anymore.

But Marcus thought a few quiet words in Oliver's ear might not
cause a row like a few loud words in public had. He supposed he'd
find out, eventually. But for now he just bit his tongue.

Oliver took a deep breath and shifted a little. Marcus's face was
against Oliver's hair. "What did you want to talk about?" Marcus
asked.

"Hmm?" Oliver said.

"You wanted to talk to me about something."

Oliver stepped back and picked up his robes. "Damn it, Flint, I
can't remember."

Marcus tucked and fastened and pulled things back on. "Maybe it
wasn't very important."

"No," Oliver said. He stood there, robes in hand, and rubbed the
side of his face. "I'm sure it was. Wait a minute, it will come to
me."

"I have to go," Marcus said. "I have a tutorial. Tell me tomorrow."
He smiled. "We can talk about Quidditch some more."

And then he left and went to study Charms.

F I N I S

Halrloprillalar   prillalar@gmail.com   http://prillalar.com/