The golden Head Boy badge sat proudly on Jared's left breast, and the smile on his face could have powered the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross to Hogsmead. A small cluster of house prefects babbled excitedly in their private compartments, the newly appointed fifth-years torn between nervousness, excitement, and the earnest desire to make the school a better place.
"Do you remember being so idealistic?" With her large, luminous eyes, Keira was the archetypal English Rose to his sunny Texan charm. Like Jared, she wore a heavy gold pin, HG instead of HB. Jared blushed furiously, a habit he had never been able to break himself of, and she laughed quietly besides him. "That's right. You've never stopped." Keira's smile turned less teasing and more gentle. "This year is going to be a great year for us, Jared."
She left him with a lingering touch to his arm. Besides him, one of the younger Gryffindor students giggled behind her hand.
Perfect, he thought morosely. How was he supposed to keep order amongst the students when he couldn't look his partner in the eye without blushing like a thirteen year old witch at her first dance?
He sighed.
Before they had even pulled up at Hogsmead, Jared had the lingering burn of her lips against his. Slytherin or not, she was right. It was going to be a great year.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After directing the first year students to Hagrid, Jared hopped aboard one of the horseless carriages that ferried students from the village to the school. The playful chatter around him was so familiar; he'd forgotten how much he's missed the simple atmosphere of Hogwarts. The classes, and the challenges, and the wonderful things he learned, yes, he'd missed those every day. A Hufflepuff third year smiled at him and Jared couldn't help but grin back as they wove their way through the trees.
Waiting at the school stairs was his head of house.
At little more than a foot and a half tall, Jared had close to four feet on Professor Flitwick.
In accordance, he kept his strides almost hobblingly short, painfully aware of the size difference between him and his cheerfully chattering Charms teacher.
"-lot's interesting things for you all this year," Flitwick enthused. "Minerva and I've spent weeks synchronizing our teaching plans and ah- yes yes..." Flitwick's eyes narrowed as they fell to a stop outside the entrance to the headmaster's office. His lips twitched as he faced the gargoyle seriously, and said, "Custard Creams."
Jared smiled until Flitwick tugged at the hem of his robes. "Tell me Jared, these custard creams..."
"I'll get my mom to send some." Jared promised. It was a well kept secret, but the tiny Charms Professor had a sweet tooth to rival the headmaster's.
Flitwick's small hands clapped together in delight. "Wonderful. Well, I shall leave you to the headmaster. Try not to be late to the feast this time."
Jared's smile twitched into a grimace. "No sir." He was never, ever going to forgive Peeves for that.
Keira was waiting for him outside the door to professor Dumbledore's office. She smiled sweetly in a way that few Slytherin students ever did, and he held the door open for her.
Dumbledore was exactly as he remembered. His smile was warm and comforting, and his eyes twinkled like a church full of candles. "Jelly Bean?" He enthused delightedly, and offered the bowl full of confectionary to his Head Boy and Girl. "The Muggle kind, I am afraid, but decidedly safer."
Keira shook her head politely. Jared snagged a green bean and smile at the headmaster. They both loved Muggle sweets.
"Now then, how was the journey?" Dumbledore kept them both busy with questions and curious queries. So busy, in fact, that Jared very nearly overlooked the forth presence in the room. Standing in the darkness, fully cloaked and still, a figure watched them silently.
It was a task, but Jared was able to keep his eyes from curiously seeking out the hooded presence as Dumbledore politely enquired as to their holiday activities, the small bowl of Jelly Beans passing to and fro between them. Over Dumbledore's shoulder, the empty portrait of Headmaster Everard filled with a flushed and panting figure, the elderly man's silvery hair fluffy and wildly disproportionate to his thin face.
"Excuse me, Jared, Keira." Dumbledore said regally, returning a freshly plucked yellow bean to the ceramic bowl, and raising to speak to the portrait.
Without the distraction of the headmaster's company, Jared couldn't help but peer across at the black-clad figure standing so ridged and still. Even though he couldn't see a face beneath the low hood, Jared got the distinct impression that whoever the figure was, they were watching him far more intently than he was them.
"Wonderful, thank you." Dumbledore said quite loudly, the hint of reservation Jared had detected dissipating into the hair. The clocked figure sagged somewhat, as if the news was good, and desperately awaited.
The headmaster turned back to Jared and popped a bean into his mouth. "Jared, Keira, I'd like you to meet Jensen Ackles. Jensen will be completing his education here at Hogwarts." Then, as if it was an afterthought, the Headmaster smiled. "Jared, I believe Mr Ackles originates from Texas, much like yourself."
Besides him, Jared could feel Keira twist in interest. Slowly, as if he was nervous, or reluctant to step out of the safety of anonymity, Jensen Ackles stepped from of the shadows and lowered the hood of his cloak.
Keira practically purred.
Whoever Jensen Ackles was...Jared didn't like him. Not one bit.
"Jensen has been sorted into Gryffindor house, I trust you both can make sure he is introduced to Arthur Weasley at the feast?"
Jared nodded, already plotting how quickly he could get rid of Jensen Ackles and his big green eyes before Keira threw herself at him.
"And I'm sure you won't mind making sure Jensen settles in to life here." Dumbledore continued, utterly ignoring Jared's strained jaw, Keira's come-hither stare, or Jensen look of utter disdain. "Well then! Off to the feast we go!"
Only for Dumbledore could Jared muster any kind of enthusiasm, and he had a sudden, desperate need to throw his Head Boy badge at Jensen's pretty face.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The feast passed uneventfully. They'd missed the sorting, and after depositing Jensen with the overly rambunctious Gryffindors, Jared took a seat amongst his friends. Dumbledore opened with a welcome to new students, including Jensen Ackles, and introduced the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, a Professor Altrix, also from across the pond.
"We're being inundated with you Yanks." Terry Clearwater grins across the table at Jared.
Jared managed a polite smile in return. He'd been born in the US, in Texas even, but his mother had married a wizard working for the Ministry of Magic. Jared hadn't seen the land of his birth for years.
"So, what do you think of the new kid?"
"He's kinda hot."
And arrogant. And self centered, and it didn't matter that he had never spoken to Ackles. Sometimes you just knew things by looking at someone.
Jared speared the table with his fork, and completely missed his introduction as Head Boy.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Thanks to a full timetable and a mountain of extra curricular activities, Jared had very little time to think. Every time he considered checking up on Ackles, some new crisis arose that demanded his attention, and almost three weeks passed before Jared saw Jensen Ackles again.
And by saw, he meant stepped on.
Under the shadow of night, sheltered by the eaves and rafters of the owlery, Jared tripped over Jensen's outstretched leg. His arms windmilled uselessly in an attempt to balance himself, but a tangle of limbs and clothing brought him crashing down on the reclined teen below.
Jensen grunted as Jared's elbow collided with his belly, and Jared felt his teeth clash when he knocked his chin on Jensen's shoulder.
"You're a goddamned hazard to society." Jensen grunted, trying unsuccessfully to untangle himself from beneath Jared's sprawl.
It had been years since Jared had heard a twang as heavy as Jensen's, and memories of rolling sun kissed country and blistering summers swept over him in waves. He shook off the taste of sweet tea and apple pie and belatedly realized that for all intense and purposes he was still pinning Jensen to the owlery floor.
Instantly he tried to scramble to his feet, stepping on Jensen's fingers and elbowing him in the thigh as he went. "Oh god, sorry! I, here, let me...sorry! Wait; hang on, aw, crap, sorry!"
"I got it!" Jensen shouted. "Keep still."
Jared obeyed, and Jensen carefully untangled them both.
"Sorry." Jared muttered again, blushing furiously and unable to even consider meeting Jensen's vivid eyes. "What are you doing here, anyway?" Standing still in the darkness, Jared realized that even as a seventh year, Jensen had no permission to be out of the common room in the middle of the night.
Jensen obviously realized that as well, for when Jared looked up to meet his eyes, he was scowling fiercely.
"Like you weren't following me." He said stiffly, hands fisted by his sides.
"I? What? No!" Jared had no idea where that paranoia came from.
Jensen snorted and rolled his eyes. "I know Dumbledore asked you to keep an eye on me. I've seen your girlfriend following me around like a lost fucking sheep. Quite frankly, it's kinda pathetic."
Jared bristled. "Well far be it from anyone to try and make you feel welcome." He snapped.
"Right." Jensen drawled. "Cos you were so damn quick to roll out the welcome rug."
"You don't have to act as if the whole world is against you." Jared said coldly. "No one forced you to come to Hogwarts."
Jensen's only answer was to step aside to avoid an incoming of owl droppings.
~*~*~*~*~*~
By Halloween, Jared had decided that he truly and distinctly disliked Jensen Ackles.
Whatever doubts he had had about Ackles' ability to settle into life at Hogwarts had been trampled beneath a rampaging hoard of centaurs. Not only had Ackles successfully mastered the Gryffindor art of succeeding without effort, but he'd gone out of the way to make Jared's life difficult.
Of course, he had no proof that Ackles had been the one to bewitch his Head Boy badge to swear every time someone said 'wands', and he supposed anyone could have put the Ever Changing Color Charm on his hair...
No. Ackles was to blame, and Jared was entirely at a loss as to explain what he had done to warrant enchanting a suit of armor so it followed him to dinner every night...
When one of the pumpkins at the dinner table tried to take a bite out of his hand, Jared snapped. Ackles wasn't the only one who could play dirty with magic. A covert conjunctivitis curse had his target stumbling from the Gryffindor table and out into the Great Hall.
As Jared passed the Slytherin table, he leaned low to whisper in Keira's ear. "Keep an eye on things?" He asked, not waiting to see her response, and largely ignoring the glares of derision from her housemates.
He caught up with Ackles in the second floor boy's bathroom. Jensen was leaning heavily against the far sink, eyes red and blotched, and Jared ruthlessly crushed down on the swell of guilt that rose in his chest. Ackles had started this.
"You need-?" He didn't for a moment doubt that Jensen would be able to remove the curse himself, but he laid the offer out on the table, as close to a hand of truce as he could manage.
"I'm fine." Jensen said gruffly, and scrubbed at his face until his skin was pink. "You play dirty, Padalecki." There was a grudging tone of respect somewhere amongst the drawl, and Jared felt his face flush as quickly as it did when he was alone with Keira.
"I didn't mean...you're okay, right?" His lips stung as he chewed it, and shame took over as the driving force behind his flushed cheeks. Some Head Boy he was. So much for not sinking to their levels.
"Don't apologize for winning. Christ, you've been outta the states too long, dude. You're too damned polite."
Jared couldn't remember the last time someone called him 'dude' and had to remind himself that he didn't like Jensen Ackles one damn bit.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Three weeks before the Christmas break, and Jared found himself presented with the prefect excuse to knock Jensen's pearly white teeth out.
"Okay," He fixed each of the tiny first years with a glare that had them blinking back the tears. "Run that by me one more time...who taught you that spell?"
The four Gryffindor's glanced tentatively between themselves, obviously weighing up which was more important, Jared's good graces, or house loyalty. Jared resisted the urge to shake them, knowing full well that he could pick up all four of them at once. "Let me put that another way." He suggested. "You can tell me who taught it to you, or I can take you to Professor Sykes. I'm sure he'd be interested to know why you felt it necessary to hex two of his students."
"Jensen." One of the four boys blurted out.
The other three all turned and glared, "Peter!"
"Ackles?" Jared waited for clarification.
"Mm, yes sir." Peter said, not looking at his companions, who were all wearing one form of surly expression or another.
Jared nodded slowly. "Go back to your common room." He ordered. "And twenty points from Gryffindor."
As the four boys sprinted quickly away, cursing him in harsh stage whispers, Jared's fingers tightened around his wand.
Jensen Ackles was the worst thing ever to happen to Hogwarts. Worse than the hailstorm of frogs in 53. Worse than the time the house elves missed Christmas...
Jensen had no right to teach those sorts of hexes to first years. To anybody, for that matter. Inter-house rivalries were bad enough without arming students with spells that dangerous.
No. Jared didn't care what things were like over the pond. This was Hogwarts, not some cowboy conjuring college. It was high time Jensen embraced the culture of his host academy. Culture, laws, and goddamn common courtesies.
"What are you four doing?" Jared snapped The four boys he had scolded loitering still, only just around the corner.
"Nothing Mister Head Boy, sir." One said saccharinely, his grey eyes full of mischief. The others sniggered.
Jared's eyes narrowed in to the flaming red hair and faces full of freckles. "You're Orion Black's son, aren't you?" He remembered now. Kiera had mentioned it more than once. Heir to the Black fortunes, a Gryffindor. The scandal.
"What if I am?" The boy, Serious, no, Sirius, glared at him, the other three boys all bristling, ready to rally to his defense.
Just what he needed. "Do you have class, or would your prefer to spend the afternoon cleaning trophies?"
He tried not to feel too bad when they scuttled away from him as if he had a confirmed case of Spattergroit.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Jared wasn't sure if it was Jensen's smirk, or Keira's lingering kiss that spurned him to such levels of anger, but when he almost trampled a herd of first years all muttering excitedly, his ears caught the word 'Jensen' and he was inextricably drawn in by curiosity.
"Spreading rumors, are we Miss Boot?
The small girl with bunches of strawberry blond hair looked up at him as if he were a giant. Or a Dragon.
"No." She said dreamily.
"Did you know Jensen Ackles got expelled for killing a teacher?" One of her classmates piped up.
"Of course he knows!" Bunches hissed back.
"I hope he kills Trelawny." A third added thoughtfully.
"No one is going to kill Professor Trelawny." Jared said dryly. No matter how much people might want to.
The students dispersed, plots for the batty Divination professor's demise bouncing gleefully back and forth.
"Who killed your pet toad?" Speak of the devil and he appears. Jensen lumbered almost dejectedly down the stairs, his usually taunting tone rather sullen.
Curious, Jared simply blurted out his question. "Did you really kill your teacher?"
Jensen nodded. "And the nosey Head Boy."
The way he said Head Boy was slurred with disdain, rippling the usual calm of Jared's temper. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was disrespect for authority, and Ackles had that in the trunk loads.
"Why do you have have a problem with the fact that I am Head Boy?" He hissed, careful to keep his voice low to avoid attention.
Jensen, it seemed, had no such concerns. "Maybe because it makes you such a fucking dictator."
Okay...what?
"What did you call me?"
Jensen's eyes were blazing, all differences in their height forgotten. "You heard me. Everything's got to be your way. Your fucking rules. Jump. Sit. Eat. Breath. I'm sick of people thinking they can control my life."
Only the sheer absurdness of Jensen's little spiel kept Jared from reaching out and wringing his neck. Instead, his eyes were fastened warily on Jensen's wand hand. It was then he noticed the crumpled letter between his fingers, and things made a little more sense.
Jensen wasn't angry with him, he was just angry. With his parents, by the sound of things, and Jared was the only authority figure he was able to vent on.
Well to Hell with that. Jared didn't wear his badge to suffer abuse at the hands of spoilt brats with bigger balls than brains.
Keeping his voice almost deathly calm, he ignored the gathering spectators and stared Jensen down. "You need to work on that temper of yours, Ackles."
"Fuck you." Jensen hissed.
"And your language. It's no wonder you've been shipped over here, if that's the way you act normally. It's a miracle anyone can stand you."
He expected the usual flow of foul language and had a silencing charm on hand. What he hadn't expected was the way Jensen's eyes filled with tears.
He'd expected anything but.
Words of apology automatically sprang to mind, but before he could utter a single one, Jensen turned and sprinted from sight.
A loud tutting from around his left knee drew his attention. The four Gryffindor boys stood there, identical looks of outrage on their small faces.
"That," The boy with glasses started
"Was so not cool." Black finished.
Wonderful. He was being lectured by pint sized eleven year olds.
Just to make his day worse, Peeves he poltergeist chose that moment to pelt him with bits of chalk. Even making him pop and whiz off like a large ghostly balloon couldn't erase the image of Jensen's tear filled eyes from his mind.
He wasn't supposed to want to comfort someone who had done nothing but make his life a misery from the day they had met.
But then he wasn't supposed to make people cry, either.
Just another way Jensen Ackles had made things more difficult than they needed to be.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"He's not going to listen-"
"totally his fault anyway."
"Couldn't we just go to professor-"
"No, Moony! She'll just give him detention."
"You're really not good at this whole covert thing, are you?" Jared cut across the quiet chattering of the Gryffindor boys with all the patience he could muster. The one evening patrol he had that week, and he had to stumble across the Jensen Ackles Fan Club.
"We were looking for you." Black said cheerfully. He elbowed the messy haired boy on his left. Something Potter, Jared thought. "I told you he was here."
Jared wasn't even going to ask.
"So we found you." Potter said brightly, shoving the quiet, sandy haired kid next to him forward a few steps. "And we came to tell you that Jensen is missing, presumed dead, and it's all your fault."
Jared blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You heard." The quiet boy spoke.
"Jensen's dead." Said Black.
"Probably eaten by the Giant Squid." Potter added.
"You'll have to tell McGonagall." The blond, Peter, put in.
"She fancies him." Black sniggered.
"It's kinda wrong." Potter shuddered.
"It's very-" Black continued.
"What the hell are you on about?" Jared barked, cutting through the dizzying dialogue with a flail of arms.
The four boys shared a look that spoke volumes of their regard for his sanity.
"Jensen. Never. Came. Back. After. You. Were. A. Git."
"And it's raining. Really raining."
Sadly, raining was too delicate a term for the horrific weather wrapped around the castle. It was black outside, mutinous clouds blocking out the sky, and howling winds threatening to blow the tiles of the roof of Hagrid's hut.
"Please don't tell me the stupid git is outside in this weather."
"Ding ding!" Said Gryffindor number one.
"He's not as dumb as he looks." Black cackled gleefully.
Jared was already counting the number of hexes he was going to pelt at Jensen fucking Ackles. "Get back to your common room before I count to ten and I won't have you in detention until Christmas."
The smug looks turned to concern. "But what about-?"
"I said NOW!"
The boys scampered, but Jared was already running towards the Great Hall.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Stupid goddamn Gryffindors." Jared cursed, wondering once again why he had though being Head Boy would be a fun, rewarding position. All he'd received so far was a bucket full of abject humiliation and a wicked case of blue balls. "No sense, no feeling, I'mma kill him." A list of all the hexes he would like to aim in Ackles' direction gave him energy enough to battle through the storm. Though he couldn't see more than an inch in front of his nose, Jared's feet knew the steps down to the Lake well enough.
"Who in their right mind would...but he's not in his right mind, is he? No, sanity is too good for Jensen fucking-" his feet hit water and the tirade of injustice fell silent. Raising his wand above his head, the wide beam of light did nothing to dispel the heavy downpour.
A thick, hulking figure loomed out of the darkness as the giant squid drew close to shore. One heavy rubbery tentacle fell out of the sky and narrowly avoided Jared's head, only to deposit Jensen's senseless form into his arms.
Jared took back everything he had ever said or thought about Gryffindors. They weren't stupid. They were really stupid. There was no use putting a drying charm on Jensen's clothing; he was soaked to the bone. Who knew how long he had been outside.
Instead, he huddled himself over the unconscious teen, trying to protect him from the elements as best he could. Placing his wand against the skin on Jensen's neck, he whispered, "enervate."
Almost immediately, Jensen's eyes fluttered open, and Jared saw the heavy set of sickness in his feverish gaze. He'd obviously been out for a long time before Jared had come after him.
"Stupid son of a troll and goblin whore!"
Stiff fingers coiled around Jared's wrist. Jensen blinked up at him in confusion. "Jared?"
Jared was about to reply when Jensen passed out. Swearing, he jerked his cloak from around his neck and did his best to wrap Jensen up in its warmth. It's a pity Jensen was such an ass, because he really was pretty, and right then, all Jared felt inclined to do was hold him for the rest of the year.
Then thunder cracked overhead, and Jared hastily hoisted Jensen up into his arms. Even bogged down by wet clothes, Jensen didn't feel particularly heavy, and as he made his way back to the castle, Jared thanked his father and the rigorous Auror training programs he had practiced over the summer.
Madam Pomfrey was not mollified by Jared's status as Head Boy when he turned up at the Hospital Wing with an unconscious student. Within minutes she had Jensen clean, dry and buried under a mountain of blankets. A goblet of steaming red liquid was thrust under Jared's nose, and he drank obediently under her stern glower, steam shooting from his red ears.
"Don't you dare think of catching a cold, boy, you hear?"
"Yes ma'am...I mean no ma'am...I..."
"Mr Padalecki!"
The dulcet tones of a raging Professor McGonagall broke the sterile silence of the ward. Madam Pomfrey bristled immediately, but kept her attention fixed on Jensen. With no such distraction, Jared turned to face the music. McGonagall was wearing the most hideous tartan nightgown and matching cap. Behind her, his little legs working overtime, Professor Flitwick hurried into the wing, and Jared's heart sank.
"Mr Padalecki! Never in all my years at Hogwarts has a Head Boy behaved so irresponsibly! What kind of an example do you expect to set the younger students? That it is acceptable to be roaming the grounds at night? That endangering the life you one of your classmates is a wise and-"
"It's not his fault!" McGonagall's outburst had accomplished what Madam Pomfrey's spells had not. Blinking furiously and wriggling under the healer's grip, Jensen looked up at the deputy headmistress imploringly. "It's not his fault." He repeated.
Jared, who had retreated to a tiny little shell of delusion whilst under attack, looked at Jensen as if he had grown a second head. And a pair of horns.
"Well then, perhaps you can explain what happened Mr Ackles?"
Flitwick looked up at Jared, then across to Jensen, his white beard quivering. Ashamed, Jared couldn't meet his eyes.
Jensen choked as Madam Pomfrey poured a thick liquid down his throat, but when he spoke the next time, his voice sounded far less rough.
"It's my fault." He said softly, every inch of him radiating remorse. It was the patented Ackles Charm, and Jared was seeing it in full effect for the very first time. "I got a letter from my dad and well, I wasn't feeling so great. I skipped classes and sat out by the lake. When it started to rain I must have slipped and hit my head. I don't know how long I'd have been out there if Jared hadn't found me."
Jensen's gaze turned from his folded hands to fix on Jared. The effect was instantaneous. It felt like drowning. Now Jared felt guilty, horrified, even, because it had been his words that had sent Jensen running, his words that had sent him to the lake.
McGonagall nodded slowly, her dark little eyes looming down on Jared's hunched over form. "And how, Mr Padalecki, did you come to be in a position to so heroically save the day?"
Jared considered telling her that four little birdies told him.
Again, Jensen spoke up for him. "Jared was going to help me with my Charms revision. I guess I missed our date." The shy, tentative smile on Jensen's face was so unlike the cold, arrogant smirk Jared was used to seeing that he was momentarily stunned. The pranks Jared had been subjected to over the past few months had made it perfectly clear that Jensen needed no help with his Charms work.
"So you went looking for Mr Ackles?" McGonagall asked Jared, and either thanks to Jensen's pleading gaze, or Jared's own sense of self preservation, he nodded.
He wasn't sure if McGonagall believed him, or was simply under Jensen's spell, but she nodded. "Very well. Professor Flitwick, Mr Padalecki is your student, I leave him to you." Flitwick's white beard twitched. McGonagall's gaze spun back to Jensen, and Jared cringed in sympathy. "As for you, I believe Professor Dumbledore made it quite clear that you were not to leave the castle under any circumstances."
Jensen cast his head dejectedly. "I know. I'm sorry."
There were a hundred things Jared wanted to ask, but being Head Boy was as much about knowing when to keep quiet, as it was knowing when to stand up and act. Following Flitwick's lead, he cast a final, confused look in Jensen's direction, and left him to the two most formidable women in Hogwarts.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Why'd you do that?" Jared asked. Jensen had been assigned detention in the Trophy Room. Filtch looked as close to happy as Jared had ever seen him. No magic, and a hundred plus trophies. It hadn't taken too long for Jared's guilt to drive him into offering his services.
Whatever Madam Pomfrey had forced down Jensen's throat, it had done the trick. The terrifying paleness of his skin had faded away to his usual sunny complexion.
Jensen continued to polish the shields laid out in front of him. "Do what?" He looked up startled when Jared caught him by the wrist and stilled the slow, hypnotic movements of his fingers.
"Lie for me." Jensen hadn't exactly been untruthful, but they both knew he might not have been caught in the rain if Jared hadn't been so insensitive. Whether Jensen deserved it or not was an entirely different matter.
Jensen's green eyes were deep enough to drown in. "Why'd you come after me?" he asked just as quietly. The apology Jared had practiced seemed weak and hollow.
"I guess I didn't like seeing you upset." He admitted.
Jensen snorted. "Dude, that's kinda lame."
"It's totally lame." Jared agreed. "But also the truth."
Jensen said nothing. They were standing so close, that all Jared had to do was dip his head, and he could press his lips against Jensen's pink ones.
So he did.
They were soft, like Keira's, but fuller, and they parted almost immediately. The shield Jensen had been polishing fell with a clatter as warm arms reached up to wind themselves around Jared's neck, fingers sliding though his hair. Something about kissing Jensen made his knees feel weak, like he'd been hit full on with a Jelly Legs Jinx. Breaking away, he shuffled backwards until his knees hit the edge of one of the four plush chairs. He sank down, and pulled Jensen with him.
Jensen, he decided, was much nicer when he was kissing instead of scowling.
"Better." Jensen agreed as he crawled atop Jared's thighs. One hand tangled in the Ravenclaw blue tie around his neck, tugging him forwards and up to renew the contact between them.
Right there and then, as Jensen arched against him, tongue hot and slick and talented, Jared knew he could happily spend forever and a day just kissing him.
He tried to put that feeling into words, but his usual eloquence failed him, and instead of 'I love kissing you' he blurted, "I like your mouth". It wasn't quite the romantic declaration he had been hoping for, but Jensen grinned deviously.
"You do, huh?"
Jared nodded mutely.
"I can do all sorts of neat things with it. I can say spells and curse and kiss, and I can even suck you off." Jared's jaw hit the floor, and if possibly Jensen looked even more sinfully enticing. "You want me to, huh? Want me to wrap these pretty, cock sucking lips around your dick? I need to thank you for saving me, after all."
The sound Jared made couldn't have been translated for all the gold in Gringotts.
He moaned in disappointment when Jensen slid from his lap and knelt gracefully between his knees. "You're gonna have to keep watch, Jared." Jensen said slowly. The fastenings on Jared's pants clicked open of their own accord, whilst Jensen bunched up his long robe and held it up to Jared's navel. "Anyone could come in and see their Head Boy with his dick down my throat. You know what a role model you are. If people see you doing it, everyone's gonna want to."
"God," he gasped. "Shut up. Shut up."
The cold hit his legs suddenly as his boxers were jerked to his ankles. "Make me." Jensen taunted. "Make me shut up."
Jared had never felt so blindingly hard in his life. Granted, his sex life was not all that wonderful...or all that existent. The closest he'd come to getting his dick in anyone's mouth had been Elouise Byrant last summer, but she'd chickened out at the last hurdle.
Jensen purred, and Jared gasped. No way was he going to tell Jensen that this was the first time anyone had sucked him off. No. No way.
"Jesus," Jensen peered up from between his legs, green eyes dark below thick lashes, his lips glistening and pink. "I'm gonna have lockjaw after this."
He didn't sound upset, quite the opposite. Nor was he in the least bit hesitant. Faced with another man's dick, Jared wouldn't have a clue where to start. Jensen simply braced himself against Jared's thighs, and licked a wet line from base to tip.
"Oh fuck!"
"Quite Jay." Jensen said serenely. "Wouldn't want to attract an audience. You know how much Peeves likes the Trophy Room..."
The idea of anyone, anyone seeing this, seeing Jensen on his knees for Jared, was abhorrent. This was for them and them alone. Laying one hand on Jensen's head, Jared bit down on the other, muffling his moans as Jensen threw foreplay out the window and damn near swallowed Jared's dick whole.
There could be nothing in the world more erotic that seeing Jensen's lips spread so wide around him. Jensen was good. He knew what he was doing, no teeth, but a firm, consistent pressure, and Jared didn't last anywhere near as long as he would have wanted.
He tugged lightly on Jensen's hair, wanting to give him enough time to pull back. Instead, Jensen simply carried on, until Jared was coming harder than he had ever done before in his life.
"Oh fuck," Jared gasped. "Oh fuck." Jensen sat back, smug smirk firmly in place as he licked his lips contentedly. "You're gonna kill me."
Jensen shrugged, cleaning them up with a few mumbled spells and a sly smile. "Yeah, maybe. But tell me you can think of a better way to go."
The sad this was, Jared really couldn't think of a single one.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Defense Against the Dark Arts was leaving him as closed to bruised and bloody as he could be. Certifiable genius though most seemed to consider him, Professor Altrix was nothing if not enthusiastic. Curses had become considerably darker and harder to fight off, and Jared's ears were still smoking when he stumbled out of the classroom.
That said, it was his exhaustion and that alone which had him leaning wearily against a suit of arms, hidden from plain sight as Jensen slunk along the corridor and slipped into the classroom. Jared thought nothing of it at first, content to wait and scare the crap out of him when he reappeared.
At the first sight of Jensen leaving the classroom, he started forwards, only to slink back into the shadows as Professor Altrix followed. Confusion replaced his exhaustion as he watched Altrix push Jensen back against the door, his face bitterly angry, though his words lost to whispers.
As much as Altrix's actions confused him, Jensen's answering expression was down right astounding. He looked exactly the way he had looked in the Great Hall, when he had told Jared to go fuck himself.
Not the expression one usually directed at a teacher.
Before he could decided what course of action to take, Jensen had thrown off Altrix's arm and stormed down the passageway. Altrix stared after him for longer than Jared dared hold his breath.
~*~*~*~*~*~
As Head Boy, Jared felt it was his duty to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas, and he woke up to a small pile of brightly wrapped gifts and a warm mug of coffee.
"Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas!"
And a "Bah, Humbug!" From Peeves, and Jared strolled into the Great Hall to a mass of reds and greens. The Christmas trees all glittered and shone, and the seven hours he had spent helping Hagrid and Flitwick was worth it for the wondrous smiles on the faces of the younger students.
He took a seat at the single table, and nearly had a heart attack when Jensen, wrapped up in an emerald green sweater and charcoal colored slacks, slid in besides him. The sweater made his eyes even brighter and looked as if it had cost more gold than Jared's parents saw in a month.
"Why aren't you back singing with the Alamo?" Jared asked curiously, dishing them both out a round of sausages, bacon, eggs and toast. Jensen poured two goblets of pumpkin juice.
Jensen shrugged artlessly. "Ain't gonna be anyone at home but me and a house elf. Figured it'd be more fun to hang around here."
Jared thought of his own parents, and the dazzling Christmases he was used to at home, and couldn't help but feel sorry for Jensen. He added another two rashers of bacon to Jensen's plate almost in recompense.
The small mountain of food made even Jensen's eyes widen in surprise. "Are you trying to tell me something here?"
Swallowing a mouthful of juice, Jared shook his head. "Nope."
Jensen frowned, but nodded, and the silence they fell into lasted so long that Jared began to mentally run over various ways to break it. Before he could let his tongue loose with any more embarrassing statements, Jensen spoke up.
"So," and his smile was as close to devastating as Jared had ever seen before. "When you gonna let me give you your gift?"
Gift? Gift? Jared spat a mouthful of pumpkin juice over a third year prefect, blushing furiously as Jensen absently waved his wand to clear up the mess.
"Ugh..."
"I'll surprise you then, okay?"
"Ugh."
"Pass the sugar, please Jared." Even though he was sitting three seats away, Dumbledore's eyes sparkled in a way that made it perfectly clear he knew what naughty, dirty thoughts were running through Jared's mind.
Jared nodded meekly and levitated the sugar bowl up the table.
~*~*~*~*~*~
By midnight, Jared had discovered that Jensen really needed to work on his 'surprise' techniques. Half-way threw his NEWT Transfiguration notes, and he was belted in the ear by a half dozen irate Christmas tree baubles.
"What the?"
Numerous attempts to shoo them away, from magic to good old fashioned force, failed to establish much more than the impatience of the multi-colored decorations. When one conked him on the nose, the others hovered enticingly by the door.
"You want me to follow you?"
Another bopped him on the side of the head.
"Is that a yes?"
Three more attacked.
"Alright already!" With his own air of impatience, Jared left his notes and contritely followed the row of bouncing baubles, praying to god that everyone was too full from dinner to venture into the halls.
Once he had begun to follow, the baubles were remarkably well behaved, even waiting for the staircases to move into place before leading onwards.
As Jared begun to wonder just where he was being taken, they finally came to a standstill outside of the prefect's bathroom.
"Did you, like...take a wrong turn, or something?" Jared asked the closest bauble.
"You questioning my charms, Padalecki?"
If there was one thing Jared would never do, it was question Jensen's charms. He made to turn around, but strong hands held him in place, his back to Jensen.
"Would I?" He paused. "Don't answer that. Just tell me your fan club aren't going to pop up and hex me for trying to molest you."
Jensen's laugher was light in his ears. "You're kinda optimistic, ain't ya?"
"You promised me a gift." Jared pointed out playfully. He had no idea where his sudden nerve had sprung from. Maybe some of Jensen's Gryffindor recklessness had begun to rub off on him.
"So I did...close your eyes."
Obediently, Jared trusted himself to Jensen's hands, and was instantly rewarded with the brush of something impossibly soft against his face.
"Is a blindfold really..."
"Totally necessary, yes." A warm had slid into his and Jensen muttered the password to the prefect's bathroom.
"How do you-?"
More soft laugher, and he was led across the threshold. A billow of steam rushed out to meet them, and if Jared had felt flushed before, it was nothing compared to the rush heat he felt at Jensen's touch.
"If I told you," Jensen whispered, fingers busying themselves with the fastenings of Jared's clothing. "I'd have to kill you."
Heavy fabric hit the floor, Jensen hands guided him out of his jeans before brushing the shirt from his shoulders. Fingers lingered over flushed skin, and Jared was immensely glad the blindfold spared him from seeing Jensen's expression.
A puff of heated air against his chest made him jump, his heart pounded embarrassingly loud in his ears.
"Gorgeous." Jensen whispered, so reverently that Jared felt the blood in his body rush to only two places; his cheeks, and his dick.
A heated breath became a warm touch, fingers and lips mapping his chest for Jensen's own curiosity. Jared didn't dare imagine what he looked like, standing naked in a steamy room, his dick hard and another man's hands on his skin.
Jensen continued to whisper endearments and compliments to the wind, as if Jared was something utterly amazing...unique even. Bolstered by the courage his blindness gave him, Jared reached out, his fingers brushing bare skin, caressing contours and sharp curves until they landed, almost by accident, on Jensen's naked hip.
He was standing naked, on school property, with Jensen Ackles.
"I want to see..."
"Nuh uh." Jared found his hands caught in Jensen's own. "No peaking. A boy has to preserved his virtue, you know."
Virtue...right. "I'd have believed that if you hadn't blown me in detention."
"You complaining?"
"N-no." He was lead forwards again, slowly, gently, until his toes curled over the edge of the pool. Still clinging to Jensen's hands, he cautiously took one step down and into the bubbles.
As soon as he was comfortably seated on the underwater ledge, Jensen removed the blindfold.
Before Jared could even begin to appreciate the feel of a wet, slippery Jensen in his lap, he was overcome by the mountain of bubbles in the pool-sized bath.
Jensen even blushed. "I got a little carried away." He admitted.
Of their own accord, Jared hand's slid down to ghost against Jensen's spine. "I can't see you now."
"So use your imagination."
Unfortunately for Jared, it wasn't that hard. His dick, hard from the moment Jensen had led him into the bathroom, brushed against Jensen's ass, and from the feel of the rest of him, Jensen had a pretty awesome ass to boot.
"Can I kiss you again?" Shy. He was naked, in a bath with another man, and damned shy.
Jensen sighed, looking thoroughly put out. "I suppose you-"
Whatever he had wanted to say got lost against Jared's mouth. One hand remained on Jensen's back, just in case he worked up the nerve to move it lower, and the other pressed Jensen closer to him. His tongue brushed against Jensen's.
Jensen moaned, and Jared threw caution out of the window.
His hand shifted lower and squeezed. Jensen gasped, and with every noise he wrung from the decadent man in his lap, the bolder Jared's touches became.
"Wait...wait!"
Instantly, Jared stilled.
"Sorry!"
Jensen grunted impatiently. "No, you just gotta, come'er." Jensen's hand slipped beneath the water, finding Jared's own and guiding him until one of his fingers pressed against the very tiny, very private part of Jensen's body that-
"Oh man, I'm gonna..."
"Don't you dare, Padalecki. I'll hex you." Jensen threatened. "Just, you know," His ass wiggled on Jared's lap. "Yeah, better."
More by Jensen's doing than any action on Jared's part, his finger slipped past the tight ring of muscle. It was so hot, and tighter than he'd imagined it could be possible. There was no way he could ever fit. He wasn't being conceited...it just couldn't happen...
He looked to Jensen for guidance, but was met with a solid wall of pleasure he couldn't bring himself to disturb.
He could do this. He just had to explore things in a manner he was used to. He could think of things as a class experiment. With one hand braced against Jensen's hip, he wiggled a second finger alongside the first, and began to cautiously examine the different reactions he could wring from Jensen's lips.
Each sound inspired him to press on, until he had three fingers inside Jensen, and the hand holding him down had surreptitiously found it's way to Jensen's cock.
"Can I?" He wasn't sure what he was really asking for. Not much made sense. Just the knowledge that if he didn't do something about the ache inside of him, he might never feel sane again.
Jensen nodded mutely, all attitude and experience stripped bare. In an act that was startling in it's tenderness, Jensen shifted forwards, arms wrapping around Jared's neck, and his head nestled against Jared's shoulder.
When Jared was finally able to replace his fingers with his dick, he thought that maybe, just maybe, Jensen Ackles wasn't quite so bad after all. Still a spoilt, bad tempered bitch...but maybe one he could tame.
The tight muscle that had ruthlessly squeezed his fingers made the blood in his veins boil. Jensen gasped and moaned, barely moving in Jared's arms, simply holding on for dear life as Jared gently thrust his hips back and forth.
As much as it shamed him, Jared didn't last long. The pleasure that rolled over him in waves was an impossible force to contend with. He came panting against Jensen's cheek, his lips too stung to do more than whisper his thanks repeatedly like an incantation.
Jensen's eyes were wide blown and sparkling, but he smiled coyly, plump lower lip caught between bright teeth.
"Merry Christmas." He said, and though it was all in Jared's mind, he saw mistletoe bloom from the rafters above.
