"I'm a risk taker."

"You're a cocky bastard."

"And you like me that way."

Remus hides his smile behind his glass as he takes a drink. "When will you leave?"

"Tomorrow at dawn."

Remus cocks an eyebrow as Charlie lifts the bottle to his mouth and takes a long swallow. "And yet you're here."

"I didn't have anywhere else to be."

"What about the dragons?"

"This has nothing to do with dragons." Charlie gets to his feet, bottle still in his hand. "I can see I shouldn't have come."

"If you hadn't come, you wouldn't have my bottle in your hands and what would you be drinking?" Remus stands as well, finishing off the burnished liquid in his glass and setting it on the table. They fall into step with each other, no one noticing them as they move through the pub like quicksilver, sliding between tables to the darkened stairwell. "Dawn, you say?"

Charlie nods as he turns and presses Remus to the wall, his knee edging between both of Remus's legs. "First light."

"We haven't much time then." He holds up a thin metal key curved into the shape of a skull, the teeth like the forked tongue of a snake. "One more for courage?" He smiles as he takes the bottle from Charlie's hand and forces another swig down his throat.

"One more for bravery," Charlie counters, letting his lips and tongue follow the trail of the bottle, of the liquid. His mouth is like raw heat against Remus's, his body hard and muscular against his own - too thin, but wired with fear and force and need. Charlie breaks away, both of them breathless.

Remus lifts the bottle again. "One more for strength." He holds the bottle out to Charlie, putting some distance between them. "And let's leave it at that, or I'm quite likely to be unable to fight if all the blood in my body is in my prick." He smiles. "Not much time until dawn."

"This had better not take long then." He steps away from Remus and nods toward the stairs. "If the Death Eaters keep me from my last shagging in three months, they're really going to be sorry."

"Be careful. Dumbledore hears that, he's likely to institute it as a policy."

Charlie shudders and grabs the bottle, draining it. "One more then. For the road."