Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just frolicing in the world of it. XD

All credit goes to the amazing JK.

'Ugghh! That man can be so infuriating sometimes!' Minerva thought as she went down the spiral staircase, trying to stop scowling and recompose her facial expression. Didn't he realize that she was only worried about him?

"I mean, his hand is black and burnt looking, so it's only natural to be concerned. I'm his best friend and he won't even tell me how it happened!" said Minerva softly to herself as she walked swiftly to her quarters.

But she stopped short when she saw a certain black cloaked, greasy haired man standing right in front of the portrait entrance to her quarters.

"Good Evening Severus." She said, trying as hard as she could to not sound as annoyed as she felt. Obviously she let something slip because Severus didn't bother to return the greeting and simply raised his eyebrows and asked in a slightly sarcastic tone,

"Is there something the matter Minerva?"

Minerva sighed and retorted in an equally sarcastic tone "Nothing as important, I'm sure, as the reason you have to wait for me in front of my quarters."

"Oh, I doubt that anything involving Albus would be any less important than me asking your opinion on a matter." he replied with a smirk on his face and heavy amusement in his voice.

At that Minerva became even more agitated. "You know full well that I detest you using legitemens on me," she huffed "so why are you doing it to annoy me when I'm sure you can see how close to the breaking point I am!"

"Hmm…" he replied in a joking tone, "Minerva's breaking point is something I have never seen. That is very interesting, I must say."

"Severus, if you're going to tease me all night, I will gladly show you my breaking point right now and hex you into next month just so I can get into my quarters and rest!" she said, her face showing the same seriousness that her tone did.

"Now, now, we both know that if you try to go to sleep not knowing what's going on with Albus that you'll just lay awake for ages." said Severus with his usual condescending tone. But then his voice and facial expression softened "So let me help you figure it out… or at the very least vent." he offered.

Minerva was surprised at his sudden gentility but this was slightly lowered by following this saying "Besides, I don't fall asleep till the middle of the night regularly, so at least I won't be bored." But Minerva saw through his act and invited him inside for tea and a talk. Once inside, Severus declined the tea but obliged in Minerva's offer to sit on one of the chairs.

After making her tea, Minerva sat on the couch, took a sip from her fine china, and said "Hmmm, I don't believe you've ever been in my chambers before."

Looking around at the dark green painted walls and simple furniture, he decided that he quite liked the style in which Minerva's chambers were decorated, but didn't say so and replied with a simple "No indeed." Then he continued with saying "So what is your situation with Albus?"

"Don't pretend like you don't already know." she said, quirking an eyebrow.

"Now Minerva, I didn't reach that far into your mind. I only skimmed it and found that Albus had to do with it." he said truthfully "You don't believe that, me being such a private man, I would invade YOUR privacy TOO much." He stated this with a smirk and a teasing tone bordering on sarcastic.

"YOU? NEVER!" she said back, smiling as she did so. At this, Severus smiled slightly and then said, "Well, go ahead."

"Alright." said Minerva "Well, have you seen Albus recently?" Severus said nothing while remembering the state of Albus' hand, and simply nodded as she went on to say "I asked him if he was alright at first, and he said yes. And then I asked him how it happened and he told me nothing, absolutely NOTHING! And we argued a bit about him not telling me. Yet at the end he said he just didn't want me to worry, but that worried me all the more."

Once more, Severus simply nodded and she continued with saying "I am his best friend and I have the right to worry. So I asked him if he was going to be alright and he said 'absolutely', but for some reason I felt like he was saying that just to spare my feelings. So now I really need to find out what's going on with him without asking him directly."

At the end of her tirade, Minerva took some deep breaths, a few sips of tea, and then said "I know it's not like me to ask, but, what should I do?" Seeing Minerva like this was quite unnerving for Severus, so he had her wait patiently for his answer. Yet thinking better of going against Albus' wishes to keep quiet about his health condition, he said "I'm not sure."

Minerva looked shocked at that and said teasingly "The Great Severus Snape out of answers?" then seriously stated "You must know something I don't know then." He decided against lying and said a simple "Yes." which made Minerva set down her tea cup and say "Tell me what you know… please." Yet when he started to say "I can't…" she cut him off saying "You know my reason Severus, and I really need your help."

In this statement she sounded close to begging which had Severus saying, "You know Minerva, women never get anywhere by begging. Especially with me it just doesn't work." Yet this very statement gave Minerva an idea.

So she got up off of the couch and started to walk slowly to Severus. At least slow enough for him to protest, yet he didn't. She was glad to see that he stayed seated with a raised eyebrow and small smirk gracing his features as he realized what she was doing. She had been attracted to Severus since he was a student and she a new professor, but she couldn't act on it till he became her colleague. Little did she know that he was equally attracted to her and was elated by these sudden turn of events.

As Minerva edged nearer to Severus, butterflies ambushed her stomach and she was close enough that she felt he could hear them fluttering about. Yet coming to a point where she could walk no further, she hiked up he robes and straddled his legs, leaned in to him, and kissed him gently on the lips. Afterwards Minerva asked "How is that for persuasion?"

Smiling slyly he replied by saying "It's not enough" and promptly bringing her back in for a deeper kiss. After a bit they broke apart, but then puller he back for an even more passionate kiss while granting each other access beyond their own lips. After what seemed like ages, Minerva rose to her feet, leaving Severus disappointed. But it didn't last long seeing as she was dragging him to her bedroom for further "persuasion".

But before they got there Severus stated simply, "I won't tell you what's going on. I can't." At that Minerva turned around and said to him, "That's alright, just see to it that he stays safe." To that Severus nodded and went along with her to the bedroom until she stopped their progress and said with a smirk, "Just so you know, this is not for persuasion purposes… unless I can persuade you to share this with me very frequently."

This time he smirked and then kissed her, teasingly saying "But of course."

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