22. Chapter 22

Rey doesn't follow Professor Solo out the side door— she's not that stupid, even if she does have a one-track mind when it comes to him these days.

Instead, she leaves the Great Hall via the cavernous main entrance, and then she hikes up her skirts and she runs, circling the exterior of the vast chamber until she spies him disappearing up a flight of stairs.

Glad that she hadn't let Tallie bully her into wearing heels, Rey gives chase, clattering up the steps at such speed that she's out of breath by the time she sets foot on the second-floor corridor that Solo is currently walking down on in swift, long-legged strides. There are no portraits here, it's dark and quiet with everyone else at the ball, so she makes her decision, calling out, "Professor— wait—"

Her cry echoes through the still, shadowed air.

He stops, then turns around slowly.

There's shock written all over his face, and something that could almost be hope, although maybe she's the only one hoping—

But, as she races to close the distance between them, his Occlumency falls into place, shuttering over his pale features until the expression that he fixes her with once she's skidded to a halt in front of him is quite dispassionate.

"Miss Niima," he says calmly. "Is something the matter?"

"Why— why did you leave?" she pants, slouching to rest her hands on her knees as she inhales one much needed lungful of air after another.

He doesn't say anything at first. She suspects that he's waiting for her to catch her breath— and, indeed, he speaks only once she's straightened up.

"I'm not a fan of these types of events, but the faculty was required to put in an appearance for the dinner," he explains. "Now that I've done my duty, I'm heading to bed."

"I thought we were meeting at the Room of Requirement later. You said..."

She trails off as she remembers exactly what he'd said.

What he'd murmured in her ear as she sat on his lap and his hand crept under her skirt.

He'd told her he would lick her pussy until she couldn't see straight.

They both fall silent, there in the deserted corridor. Warmth suffuses her cheeks. In the torchlight she notices that the tip of his ear is poking out from the glossy waves of his luxurious hair, and it's flushed a little red despite the fact that he's Occluding.

"You should enjoy the rest of the night with your friends and with your date," he says, his tone strangely hollow. "Don't concern yourself about me too much."

Rey's hands ball into fists. "You walked out as soon as the band started playing slow music."

Solo's Adam's apple bobs in his throat. Eventually, he quirks an eyebrow at her. "And so?"

"And so I just— I just—" Words rush up from her chest and are summarily discarded in a frantic, never-ending muddle. I want to know if it was a coincidence or if it was more than that. I want to know what you're thinking. I want to know if I affect you in any way beyond the physical.

I want to know what place you hold in your heart for you and me.

"You just what, Miss Niima?" Solo prompts. So impassive that he could be carved from marble, or from ice like those statues that glittered against the Northern Lights in the Great Hall.

She stares up at him, willing him to see what's in her eyes. Too afraid to say any of it out loud.

And that's when she hears the sound of her name being called from the direction of the stairs. By two voices accompanied by two pairs of footsteps, steadily growing louder as they draw nearer.

She'd know those voices anywhere— it's Finn and Rose. Seff must have told them that she'd left the ball in a hurry and, like good friends, they'd come looking for her.

And now they're going to catch her alone with the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in a dimly lit corridor.

Solo's face is as white as chalk. Rey grabs his hand and tugs him into the nearest empty classroom, keeping her wits about her long enough to retrieve her aspen wand from the holster sewn on the inside of her sleeve and cast a quick Silencing Charm on the door so that it makes no sound when she slams it shut and throws the bolt. She stumbles in the dark— stumbles into him— and to stop her from falling he holds her by the shoulders, pushing her up against the wooden door.

There are no torches in this room. The faint golden beam filtering in through the crack under the door and the pale moonlight that soaks through the windows are the only sources of illumination. In the moments before Rey's eyes fully adjust, she sees only shadows, her other senses kicking into overdrive— and all of a sudden she's much too conscious of Solo's broad frame pressed against hers, the scent of him closing in like a trap from which she has no wish to escape.

"You're sure you saw her take the stairs up to here?" Rose's question is muffled through layers of oak and stone.

"Yeah," comes Finn's reply. "She might've gone to the loo?"

"Could be." Rose sounds doubtful. Her and Finn's footsteps thud in a steady rhythm parallel to the walls of the classroom. "I do hope she's all right. She's been acting weird lately, haven't you noticed?"

"She has," Finn agrees. "Almost like she's hiding something."

Rey's heart slams against her ribcage. Solo squeezes her hip as if in reassurance, his shallow breaths fanning at her temple.

"D'you think she and Seff are dating?" Finn continues, and Rey's eyes widen. "That would do the trick."

Whatever Rose says in response is lost as she and Finn walk past the closed door and out of earshot. Rey can't relax just yet, because Solo's gone very still. His fingers dig into her hip nearly hard enough to bruise but not quite. She can see the rows of empty desks behind him now, silhouetted in moonlight. She can see a little of that moonlight reflected in his pupils as his narrowed gaze hones in on her.

Rey opens her mouth to say something— anything, whatever thing that would stand a chance of defusing the tension— but then Solo pounces, like it's precisely what he'd been waiting for. He sweeps his tongue between her parted lips, kissing her so hard and so thoroughly that her knees buckle. She clutches at the lapels of his dress coat for support, kissing him back as best as she can, because there is a part of her that has missed him, that has missed being held by him.

She never wants to stop, but after much too short a time he pulls away. "Well?" he demands, the words carved into a tense growl. " Are you dating Hellin? Or planning to?"

Rey blinks.

She's well aware that she's not the brightest bulb in the box. Six full terms of Potions and Transfiguration at Hogwarts go a long way towards instilling humility in just about anyone. But she's also not completely oblivious, she is more than capable of putting some things together, and what a small and secret corner of her being had started to suspect from the moment Solo left the Great Hall right as the students were pairing up to dance now fully affixes in her mind and refuses to let go, his thunderous scowls whenever he saw her talk to Seff throughout dinner abruptly making sense in her head with sharp clarity.

To her surprise, it doesn't feel all that good to be vindicated in this matter.

To her surprise, the fiery lash of her temper flares.

"Why are you asking me that?" she demands.

"I would just like to know," he replies curtly. "There are certain expectations that need to be managed. I don't wish to impinge on—"

"All you had to do was say you didn't want me to go with him!" Rey snaps. "I asked you, and you told me it was fine—"

Solo swears under his breath, no doubt because of her raised voice. He retrieves his blackthorn wand from the inner lining of his coat and deftly weaves a Silencing Charm all throughout the classroom. When he's done, he whirls to face her again, his bared teeth flashing white in the silver-stained darkness.

"It is fine by me," he hisses, but there are cracks in his Occlumency where there weren't any before, various emotions flickering through him like fault lines. "Who am I to dictate your actions? Do you think me so selfish—"

"It's not selfish to act like you care!" Rey shouts. "Would it honestly be fine by you if I dance with him?"

"Yes," Solo grits out, jaw clenched. "If that's what you want."

"What if I let him hold my hand?" she challenges. "What if I want him to do that?"

Solo's only reply is a quick, terse nod, although that telltale twitch has made its appearance in the hollow beneath his eye.

Rey sees red.

"What if I let him kiss me?" She takes a step forward, striding into even more of Solo's personal space as she lifts her chin in defiance. Goading him. "What if I let him touch me everywhere your fingers have been?"

"Rey." Solo utters her name like it's a warning. "Don't."

But she's too far gone, she's carried away on the currents of her anger and of her desperation. She has to shatter that mask once and for all. She has to, or else—

— or else it will always be like this—

"What if I sleep with him?" Tears spill down her cheeks as soon as the words tumble past her lips. God, she can't even stomach the mere thought of doing anything she'd just mentioned with anyone other than Ben Solo— she feels sordid and stupid and horrible and petty, but it's too late to stop— "What if I suck him off, because I want to? Would that still be fine by you, professor—"

She's crying so hard that she doesn't see Solo lunge forward— she only feels it as he crowds her back against the door, his brawny arms caging her in. He buries his face in the slope of her neck and she feels wetness and warmth dripping onto her skin and the realization hits with all the force of an electric shock that he's crying, too.

It arrives as a bloom of pure instinct, the desire to comfort him. She loops her arms around his waist and he's so tall and broad that she kind of feels like a koala clinging to a tree, but it can't be helped. She sniffles against his chest and his fingers disappear beneath the curtain of her hair to cup the back of her neck, all while he dots tender, soothing kisses along her jawline.

"Don't cry anymore," he mumbles. "Please."

Look who's talking, she thinks mutinously, but what she actually ends up saying is, "I hate it when you use Occlumency when it's just the two of us."

"I'll never do it again," Solo vows, his lips drifting down her neck in a slow, sensuous way that makes her traitorous toes curl.

Rey is mollified, but just barely. "And I also hate it when you can't just admit that you're jealous. Even when I'm talking about shagging some other guy—"

Her mind blanks and she forgets the rest of her tirade, because he bites down on her collarbone. Not hard enough to leave a mark, but enough, that sharp, fine line between pleasure and pain rendering her breathless.

"Do you really want to know what it does to me when you talk about kissing or holding hands or doing— anything— with somebody else?" He hasn't raised his voice at all, but nearly every word is spat out. Nearly every word is trembling at the edges.

She nods. He slants his mouth over hers— savagely, so savagely, his velvety tongue and his soft lips insurmountable weapons against the last of her defenses. She revels in his uncontrolled approach, thinking that it'll be another delicious memory to sustain her through the rest of the night after he's sent her back to the ball so thoroughly kissed, but then—

— then he claws at each side of the deep, V-shaped neckline of her gown. The charm that Tallie cast earlier has assure that the bodice stay in place on its own, but it's no match against strong, grasping hands.

Rey gasps as her breasts pop free— miraculously, the delicate fabric of the gown doesn't rip at all— and Solo wastes no time in sealing his lips over one nipple while he rolls the other between forefinger and thumb.

"Are you— ah—" she yelps as he sucks hard and stars dance across her vision— "are you crazy? Finn and Rose will be coming back this way any minute—"

"Silencing Charm," Solo reminds her.

At least, that's what she thinks he says.

It's a little difficult to make out his reply, seeing as he's got her tit in his mouth.

When Rey hears footsteps along the corridor, her soul all but leaves her body. Solo lifts his head from her chest and freezes up, as though he doesn't dare move a muscle.

There are several pairs of footsteps— coming from the direction of the staircase, not the second-floor girls' bathroom, so it's pretty safe to assume that none belong to Finn or to Rose.

"I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to do this here." Rey stifles a groan of dismay as she recognizes Tallie's voice.

"C'mon, Lintra, live a little," wheedles a second voice that Rey thinks is Zekk, one of the Slytherins. "There're no portraits in this corridor, it'll be all right."

"Keyan!" Tallie says her boyfriend's name like she's calling for backup.

"I don't know about you, babe, but I could use a hit," Keyan Farlander replies in his deep bass rumble. "Shag Kava's on! Ought to get mashed off me face before they play 'Dark Eyes, Warm Thoughts'— proper listening experience, you see—"

"Smart man." Azlyn Rae, the Hufflepuff Keeper, is slurring her syllables in a way that implies there's at least one bowl of punch in the Great Hall that won't pass a breathalyser test. "Very smart man."

"Fine." Tallie relents with a gusty, put-upon sigh. "But it had better be the quality stuff. Don't need one of you lot screaming your head off because you think the whole castle's turned into bees."

There are chuckles that taper off into silence which, after a while, is followed by a series of coughs.

The faint, unmistakable, muddy odor of smoked shrivelfig leaf wafts into the air.

"You've got to be kidding me," Solo grumbles. "Those damn idiots. I should give them all detention."

Despite herself, Rey snorts. For him to complain about people breaking the rules when he's got her pressed up against a classroom door with her breasts hanging out of her gown, her nipples flushed and taut from his ministrations—

"Oi, quit hogging the joint," says an annoyed voice that is undoubtedly Rosh Penin's. "C'mon, Zekk, pass it here— oh, bother—"

Two pairs of footsteps. Coming from the direction of the bathroom.

And then the situation truly cannot get any worse, because—

"What in blazes," says an appalled-sounding Finn, "are you lot doing?"

"'Blazes' is right," quips Keyan, prompting a round of sniggers from his group. "Move along, this doesn't concern you—"

Yes, Rey wordlessly beseeches Finn and Rose, move along— our D.A.D.A. teacher's just gone to town on my nips on the other side of the door, so please, please move along—

"Tallie? We're looking for Rey," Rose explains. "Have you seen her?"

"No—" Tallie coughs— "no, I haven't, actually."

"Look, Evans, Tico— either you take a hit, or you stop disturbing us," Zekk pipes up. "What's it going to be?"

"What an impossible choice, however are we going to live," Rose deadpans. "Let's go, Finn."

The relief that courses through Rey when she hears her two best friends walking away is immense but far too fleeting, owing to the fact that the other students appear to have made themselves comfortable there in the hallway outside the classroom. It's somewhat worrying that the wetness between her legs hasn't abated in spite of the circumstances, her every nerve ending remaining abuzz at Solo's proximity. He's still got a bit of an erection going on, too— she feels it poking at her abdomen.

She opens her mouth to tell him that this is messed up— that the two of them are so messed up— but then Penin says something that turns Rey's veins to ice.

"Can't believe Niima actually scored a date. She's always just been... there. And she even looks passable tonight. Who would've thought?"

"Charity work pays off, I guess," Keyan muses with a laugh. "Right, Tallie?"

Rey looks down at the floor. Solo's grip tightens on her shoulders, but she can't bear to acknowledge him. It's so humiliating that she wants to disappear.

She wishes that Rose hadn't brought her up to their schoolmates. Nothing good ever comes out of being noticed.

"Rey's brilliant," Tallie argues. "You're all just bitter that she keeps kicking your asses on the Quidditch pitch."

Solo chuckles. Rey does glance up at him then, but it doesn't last long because he ducks his head to start nibbling a hot trail down her neck once more.

"Bunch of small-dicked idiots. Calling you passable when you were the most fascinating sight in the Great Hall this evening." As if to emphasize his point, his hand traces the bare swell of her exposed left breast. "Stupid, stupid boys."

He tweaks her nipple gently and her spine arches off of the wooden door, helpless to the feeling.

"If they only knew what I was doing to you right now, not even ten feet away." Solo's words are a fevered rasp on the column of her throat. "If they only knew how you drive me out of my fucking mind."

His lips find her breast again, picking up where he left off. Rey doesn't stop him, too caught up in a rush of vindictiveness that far outweighs any guilt or hesitation that she might have felt. A vindictiveness that combines with the pleasure in her system, producing the headiest of combinations.

Her peers at Hogwarts might think that she's not worth a second glance, but here— like this, with him— she is beautiful.

She's not so far gone that she can't muster some gratitude when Tallie shifts the conversation away from her; however, it's not long before Tallie and everyone else and whatever they're saying are all consigned to the indistinct veils of oblivion as Solo gets down on his knees, rucking up Rey's starry skirts and mouthing at her sex through her knickers.

Rey shouts. It echoes through the otherwise empty classroom, safely contained within the Silencing Charm. Outside, her schoolmates are smoking shrivelfig leaf and chatting about the ball, while she's writhing on the other side of the door and holding up her pretty dress and bucking her hips against her teacher's mouth as he sucks on the damp outline of her clit through her underwear.

It's almost ruthless, the way he does it, with a pressure that would have been too much without the barrier provided by the thin cotton. He drags her into orgasm in what can't have been more than five minutes, maybe even three, and she hasn't quite finished squirming through the aftershocks when he pulls his blackthorn wand out of his coat again and—

— and—

— banishes her knickers—

Rey blinks down at Solo, quivering with shock and arousal. "You— you—" she sputters, and he shrugs.

"Sorry," he says, not sounding sorry at all as he cups the globes of her bare ass and pulls her toward him.

She instinctively hikes her gauzy skirts up a little higher and he starts from the beginning, his tongue licking a broad stripe alongside her entrance and then dipping in and, oh, God, he's fucking her with his tongue, flicking it shallowly as his nose bumps against her clit and she rides his face with wild abandon. The motley gang of Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, and one Gryffindor in the hallway are coughing and laughing still, none the wiser, and damn if Rey doesn't begin to like it.

To like breaking the rules so flagrantly.

"She's always just been... there," Rosh Penin had said.

That little shit doesn't know what I'm capable of, Rey thinks, and it's her last coherent thought for the next several seconds as she comes all over Professor Solo's face.

✨✨✨

Two consecutive orgasms in such a short span of time leaves her reeling and winded. She slumps against the oaken door, her knees all but collapsing out from under her, and she honestly believes that it's a miracle she's still conscious.

He rises to his feet. He holds her up with an arm wrapped around her waist while his other hand fumbles with the fastenings of his trousers. "I'm not done with you yet, Miss Niima," he says darkly.

Oh, God. Rey gulps, right before Solo leans in for another rough kiss, his tongue delving into her mouth and her own taste washing over her like a drug.

"I just had a thought— maybe Niima's off getting lucky with Hellin," she hears Zekk suggest on the other side of the door. "That's why her friends can't find her."

Solo tenses up against Rey for several short beats, and then he kisses her even harder, his hand sliding down from her waist to lift up her thigh.

"Even if she were, that's hardly any of your business," Tallie waspishly retorts. "Seff and Rey are cute together, so just leave them alone, yeah?"

Solo breaks the kiss and Rey watches— doing her utmost to stay balanced on one leg— as he aligns the tip of his cock with her entrance. She's breathing heavily, trembling with anticipation, luxuriating in the mess that he's made of her.

"They are kind of perfect for each other," Azlyn concedes. "Just a couple of little nerds. I approve."

An animalistic snarl claws its way out from between Solo's lips. His hips snap forward and Rey— who is on the border of overly sensitized, who is blissed out yet somehow still aching— throws her head back in a hoarse cry as he slams what feels like his entire length into her in one smooth, swift stroke.

There is no pain— she's much too wet and pliant for that— but it's intense. He doesn't give her any time to recover, pressing even more firmly inside as he wraps her other leg around his waist as well and begins to thrust.

"Holy shit," Rey whimpers, throwing her arms around Solo's neck, splinters of reckless, wildest delight skating across her vision in flashes of white as if they were solar flares. "Merlin— fuck—"

"This is what it does to me when I think about you with someone else," Solo growls in her ear. "It makes me want to lose all of my control—" His fingers dig into her thighs— "makes me want to take you so hard that you never forget that you're mine—"

Rey's cunt throbs with a fresh surge of arousal. His. She's never been anyone's before.

It's a nice thought.

It's so nice that it excites her in a way she hadn't expected, adding to the thrill that she already feels at getting absolutely railed up against a door while her oblivious schoolmates smoke shrivelfig leaf outside.

"I don't know, I think— I think Tallie and Azlyn might have a point," she pants. There's a devil perched on her shoulder, encouraging her to goad him. To uncover more of his darkness and to take it all. "Seff and I do look cute together."

"You wicked little witch." Solo grates out the words through clenched teeth. "Talking like that when you've got my cock in your tight little pussy—"

"I'm sorry." Rey doesn't know where she musters the energy to giggle, but she does, breathless and utterly debauched. "I've been a bad girl."

"Ought to throw you over my knee," he grunts and, oh, how she clenches down on him at that mental image, moaning something like assent. " Jesus, Rey—" Solo's rhythm falters. He peers down at her, slack-jawed. "Do you— do you want that—"

"I want whatever you want," she murmurs, a little impatiently because he's slowed down and it's not what she needs right now. "Please, sir, harder— teach me a lesson—"

She breaks off into what is very nearly a shriek as he complies, increasing his pace. The door creaks and her teeth rattle from the force of his thrusts. She can't really move in this position, she can only close her eyes and let him bounce her on his cock while her third orgasm of the night hovers tantalizingly within reach.

A muffled peal of laughter emanates from the hallway. Solo leans in close so he can growl in Rey's ear again, and it's the sweetest song. "Can't believe you like this." He sounds almost broken. "Can't believe you like getting fucked by your professor with your cute tits hanging out of your pretty dress while your idiot classmates are just outside—"

"I love it," Rey mumbles. "I love being your dirty girl." She imagines what they must look like, her starry skirts crushed between their bodies and his fancy black trousers sliding down his muscular thighs because he couldn't even wait until they'd taken their clothes off, he'd slid inside her just like that, possessive and primal, man made of darkness, and she is wanted, someone wants her, she is his—

Solo is the first one to reach climax, swearing as his hot come drenches Rey's inner walls. The feeling is enough to set her off, enough to haul her into orgasm as well, her ears ringing and her heart pounding as she quivers around him, as he rocks her with a few more haphazard thrusts like he wants to wring out every last drop of his spend inside her sloppy, well-used cunt...

Finally, he slumps against her and goes still, resting his head in the crook where her neck meets her shoulder. She runs her fingers through his hair, marveling at how strong he is that he didn't drop her all throughout or even after, marveling at how he takes care of her so well. They wait patiently in the dark and in each other's arms as their breathing returns to normal. As they listen to the sounds of the other students walking away.

✨✨✨

They cast Lumos spells and rearrange their hair and clothes by wandlight, aided by rays of silver moon. She fixes his rumpled cravat for him, following his quiet instructions until the gold silk has been adequately retied.

"I wanted you to have fun tonight," he explains softly. "At your age— I just— I just thought it would be untenable if the experience was marred. I didn't want you to feel bad because of me."

"I did have fun," she quips, wagging her eyebrows at him.

He laughs. She beams, gratified. "I told Seff that I'd only go with him as friends, anyway," she continues, tucking Solo's cravat back into his waistcoat. "Didn't want to lead him on. Not when— when I wanted to spend the evening with someone else."

They fall silent. She can tell that Solo's letting her declaration sink in, and she wonders how he'll react.

"You—" He clears his throat— "you know that was my Patronus, right? That night, when you were in detention..."

Rey's hands drop back to her sides. He's watching her carefully and she's struck by how open and earnest his face is, his expression wrenchingly vulnerable without the benefit of Occlumency.

"D'you think I just kiss random people's Patronuses on the nose, then?" she quips, dimpling up at him.

"You— you did?" He swallows, hope gleaming in his gentle dark eyes, too lovely to look away from. He appears as though he's wrestling with some agonizing internal decision for several long moments, and then he ventures, with a hint of exhaustion, with an air of surrender, "Then... before you go back to the ball, perhaps— perhaps you can kiss me as well?"

"I'm scared," Rey whispers. He's being honest and so she has to be honest, too. "The last time I made the first move to kiss you— in the greenhouse— you pushed me away."

Solo winces, his face paling. But he stays where he is, even as his hands clench into fists like he's abstaining from reaching out to touch her.

"I was scared then, too," he tentatively admits. "I will always regret that. But— Rey, if you kiss me now—" That deep voice of his that has usually been so confident and so smooth for as long as she's known him, it cracks, and he has to try once more. "If you kiss me now, I won't push you away. Never again. I'd rather face another manticore than do that."

She takes a leap of faith and believes him, closing the distance between them and rising up on her toes so that she can press her lips to his. Solo immediately wraps his arms around her in a tight embrace and kisses her back, and Rey swears that all she sees are stars.