Chapter 4
Detained
Author's Note: This story is based off of an passage in the story Detained ( http://chasers . magical-worlds . us/eFiction1 . 1/viewstory . php?sid195&warningR-18 - remove spaces) by the most wonderous ceejay. She has given me permission to do this. While reading Detained is not necessary to understand this story, I would greatly recommend it to anyone who likes snark, or great writing, or hot romance. So I encourage the reader-ly consumption of ceejay's fic.
On another note, I wrote all references to Snape being bat-like before I read Deathly Hallows. I felt very validated when I read "The Sacking of Severus Snape," and I have much love for that chapter in general. Snape was hilarious and McGonagall rocked!
"You know that this is all your fault, right, Katie?" Marcus asked in an entirely too calm voice.
The urge to violently attack him was becoming very hard to reign in, but Katie was able to force herself to take a deep breath and turn to Marcus. "And what brings you to that conclusion?"
"Well, if you had not been blatantly flirting with that Ravenclaw, then none of this would be necessary." His voice was still too reasonable.
"What are you on about? I have never flirted with Benjamin!"
"You were flipping your long honey tresses at the little twat!" Marcus growled.
"Pardon me?" Katie asked disbelievingly, before continuing without a response from him. "I was not! I was walking through the Entrance Hall when a gaggle of itty-bitty Hufflepuffs opened the Great Doors, which created a gust of wind that blew my hair everywhere. I pushed it out of my way so I could see, you twit, not to lure Benjamin into my lair of unbridled sexuality!"
"If that is the case," Marcus gave her a look that telegraphed how much he doubted it, "then why were you two standing so bloody close together?"
"We had just come out of class with Professor Flitwick. We did Exploding Charms today, both of us are somewhat limited in our auditory range at the moment."
"I dun'na care wot yer auditory range is at the mo'. Keep yer mouth shut 'til we get t' yer 'ead of 'ouse's office!" Filch rasped out.
The procession continued through the many hallways of Hogwarts, silent but for the caretaker's occasional hacking cough. When they made it to the office, Filch bustled off into Snape's inner sanctum, leaving Mrs. Norris to guard the Slytherins. She looked them both up and down, as if to assess their threat. When she deigned them to be suitably terrified of her exalted presence, Mrs. Norris jumped rather gracefully into Snape's personal cauldron next to his desk, which was, to her credit, empty. Her eyes had a clear view over the rim of the cauldron and she seemed to be extraordinarily smug to be so protected from the large and potentially volatile Slytherin boy. Katie had no doubt that Mrs. Norris was fully aware that Snape had spelled the cauldron and stand to make sure that "bumbling fools" would not be able to knock over whatever he was brewing at the time.
"One of my roommates, the one you aren't allergic too, is convinced that Mrs. Norris is actually Mr. Filch's lover that he turned into a cat in his one great fit of magic." Katie tried at conversation, since Filch was, more then likely, embellishing the story that led them to this predicament quite a bit; therefore, they had time to kill.
Marcus growled something rather uncomplimentary in relation to the size of Flich's equipment then muttered something about the vacuous tendencies of her collected roommates. He was still sulking about this whole production that had led them down here.
"Oh, please. Morgaine is not as bad as you like to paint her. And Anastasia is merely…" Katie trailed off in an attempt to positively portray her other roommate, for whom she was forever indebted to keeping Katie supplied with the informational muggle romance-novels. "… Anastasia." She concluded, lamely.
At his continued glare, Katie rolled her eyes at Marcus as she leaned back on Snape's desk. "Oh, get off it. If you say one more time how this is all my fault, I will make sure I lose control of my broom next practice and accidentally fly into vulnerable parts of your anatomy."
Before Marcus could go off on a rant about what constitutes an accident, Snape swooped in, his robes billowing behind him, and made his way over to his desk. There was a brief moment that he paused, but merely to glare at Katie and Mrs. Norris to convince them to remove themselves from his property, and he settled behind his desk. Mr. Filch took a guard-stance next to Snape and Mrs. Norris jumped into his arms, so she could stare down the students.
"If what Mr. Filch tells me is true, there was some fracas that involved the two of you; which led to a Ravenclaw being sent to see Madame Pomfrey." Snape gestured his hands slightly. "Care to explain?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Katie saw Marcus clench his jaw as he straightened his shoulders. Since it looked like he was priming himself up for another rendition of "This Is All Her Fault," Katie hastened to explain. "Professor, Benjamin Corvus and I had just had a class with Professor Flitwick about Exploding Charms and as a result are both hearing impaired at the moment." At that reminder, she lowered her voice to what sounded like a whisper to her, but was probably about the correct range that the volume should be at. "So as to not disturb the rest of the student population from their own travails, Benjamin and I were walking more closely then is the norm. Marcus, undoubtedly, believed that Benjamin was trying to besmirch my honour and attempted to prevent any harm from coming to me before I could explain that there was no need." Katie folded her hands in front of her, hoping to channel the sincerity and trustworthy-ness of her little old Gram from Devonshire, who had been a Head Girl and a Ravenclaw to boot during her time at Hogwarts. "In all honesty, there is really no one to blame: Benjamin and I were afflicted by something that caused us both to be unnaturally without respect for propriety and Marcus was merely concerned for me."
Thankfully Marcus didn't argue the story, though he did add a: "He looked like he was about to try something, sir. Can never be too careful."
Katie rolled her eyes and hoped that only the cat noticed.
Snape glared at them separately then collectively before raising an eyebrow at them and began to speak. "Despite Mr. Flint's attempted heroism and the reason behind Miss Bell breaking social norms, what happened today reflects poorly upon Slytherin and, as such, consequences will need to be handed out. This is not a detention, merely a task for you two so that the likelihood of such a misunderstanding lessens." He turned to Filch. "Thank you for bringing them to me, I will ensure a proper punishment is dealt out."
As visions of boiling young Hogwarts students in cauldrons of Corrosive Potions were dancing in Mr. Filch's head, he made his way out of Snape's private office. He let out a cackle then closed the door but they could still hear him for quite some time, hacking and wheezing as he staggered out of the dungeon.
'Apparently,' Katie mused to herself, 'we are all going to stand here quietly until Filch is completely out of earshot. Marvellous. The joys of being a Slytherin with a pack of unrepentantly over-cautious males.'
She and Marcus were still standing stiffly before Professor Snape's desk, though Marcus' posture had relaxed a bit after he got to misalign the unsuspecting Benjamin's character.
Since he was staring intently at what looked to be an ink-stain on the Professor's desk, Katie allowed herself to study him. He was now over 185cm and still was showing no signs of tapering off any time soon, which was irritating because, while she was still the respectable height of 170cm, she had not grown a millimetre since last year. Marcus' hair had now reached, what he called, "liability length;" meaning that it was now long enough that some one could reach out and pull on it during a match, it hung in his eyes but was not yet long enough to touch his collar. His eyes, which were indeed green in colour, while tensed at the corners, were clear and Katie hoped that meant that he would not continue on his "This is All Your Fault" rant should he get the chance.
With his uncanny ability to tell if people were watching him, which would account for his unnaturally large ego, he looked up at Katie and held her gaze.
It was a rather uncomfortable moment for Katie, forced to keep eye contact after being caught staring. She imagined that this was probably similar to what it would feel like to have some one use Legitmency on you; as if they could look into your soul and there was nothing you could do about it. After Marcus was apparently satisfied with his inspection of her psyche, he gave a short nod and went back to staring at the inkblot. Katie sighed, as quietly and inconspicuously as she could.
Snape turned to face them again, signalling that his inner sneak-o-scope could no longer detect non-Slytherins within an area the size of a Quidditch pitch. "This will not happen again. Mr. Flint, you will reign in your impulses to violently deal with those in your general vicinity. Miss Bell, you will maintain the decorous personal distance that is expected from Slytherins."
Katie forced her face not to react to that comment. Didn't Snape realise that for every decorous student in Slytherin House there was an amazingly active nymphomaniac? She decided that her theory was perhaps too avant-garde for the Potions Master, so she nodded demurely to his demand.
"Furthermore, I believe that my cabinets have gone to complete disorder after an incompetent Hufflepuff attempted to organise them. You may retire for the night after the cabinets are once again usable." With that he stood and was about to flap his way out the door, like the gigantic bat that he was.
"Sir, may we seek our evening meal before we begin?" Marcus asked quickly.
Snape looked over his shoulder at him before arching an eyebrow. "You should have thought of that before you so zealously protected Miss Bell's honour." He opened the door to the hallway and gave them a look that communicated that they were supposed to follow him.
The three moved to the Potions classroom, Snape waved a wand over the wards to deactivate them. Marcus nodded approvingly as Katie rolled her eyes at the unnecessary precautions. When they entered the classroom, Snape pointed his wand at the bank of cabinets and all the doors opened to reveal hundreds of ingredients. At the sight of all they had to do Katie groaned at the same moment that Marcus' stomach growled. Looking at them pitilessly, Snape preformed a complicated wand movement and a ledger appeared on the desk closest to the cabinets.
"All of the contents of the cabinets are written in that, in the correct order. Good night, children." And with that Snape took his great batty form out of the room in a flutter of dark, drab robes.
With a piteous moan once she guessed Snape was out of earshot Katie shuffled over to the ledger then moved on to the cabinets. It didn't surprise her that Marcus took well over five minutes to join her in the task. When he did join her, he decided to antagonise her by standing so close to her that their robes were brushing against each other, she was pressed close to the cabinet to begin with and Marcus was giving her no way out. She could feel his breath on her neck and could smell the faint spicy scent of cloves that came off of him.
"Yes?" She asked, hoping that confronting him would be the fastest way to get him to leave her alone.
"That Ravenclaw isn't worthy enough to clean your shoes, let alone touch your hair." He growled.
Faintly, Katie recalled Marcus yelling something similar to that while he attempted to rearrange Benjamin's facial structure. Even more vaguely Katie remembered Benjamin batting some of her long hair out of his face so that he didn't swallow it during their conversation before Marcus beat him halfway to Scunthorpe. Again hoping to move with the path of least resistance she asked what she thought Marcus wanted to her to ask. "And who is worthy, then?"
"The strongest, the smartest, the most cunning, the swiftest, the one of the purest bloodline, the greatest to be had." Marcus, still behind her, reached out and stroked his large hand over her long honey-coloured hair and down her back.
Katie was proud that she was able to dull the shudder that wanted to rack through her body at his caress to a minute tremor. "A paragon of virtues, to be sure. With you at the top of such of a list?"
His hand tangled in her hair as he laughed bitterly. "Not hardly, Bell. I don't even rank on that list." Marcus physically lifted her around so that they were now facing each other, then with his hand still in her hair he forced her to look up at him. "But that doesn't matter; only I am going to get to touch your hair. I have never played by anyone's rules and I'm not going to start where you are concerned." He declared. "You are mine."
Yarding on her hair again, he exposed her to his mouth where he began bite and nip her neck; completely confusing Katie, who had believed that Marcus was going to kiss her on the lips. As he scraped his dangerous teeth along the column of her throat, he used his body to trap her against the cabinet. Very overwhelmed at the sensations that were trilling up and down her nerves, Katie felt that she should do something but was very unsure what to do. Acting on a tightly curbed desire, she allowed herself to put her hands in his hair. Despite the inherent dangers of having it this length in a Quidditch match, Katie truly enjoyed being able to get a solid fistful of Marcus' black hair. She gave a hard tug on his own locks as divine retribution for all the times he had pulled her hair over the years.
Katie felt Marcus' lips twitch in amusement against her neck before he nipped her and pulled back. "Are you wanting something, Katie?" He voice was a low rumble that she could feel through their touching bodies.
She ran her hands down through his hair to his broad shoulders before dragging them back up again, successfully mussing Marcus' hair. While she did this, Katie glanced at his mouth and looked away only to find her slide gaze back on his mouth.
Marcus' lips twitched again. "You want me to kiss you? But I've done that before." He sounded mockingly petulant.
"What on Earth do you mean? The closest you've ever come to kissing me was when your mother made you buss my hand and you licked it instead. Don't think your mother or I have ever forgiven you for that!" Katie pulled his hair sharply.
He grimaced. "I kissed you two practices ago." Marcus admitted.
Katie frowned at him. "Are you talking about when you bit me along the jaw bone?"
"It was a kiss, you moved the wrong way." He explained wearily.
"I got a face-full of teeth when I was supposed to get a kiss?" She glared at him.
He snorted. "Well, you moved."
"Bloody Hell, I want something a bit better then a mad scramble for my first kiss!" Katie stamped her foot.
Marcus' eyes darkened from a deep green to black. "First kiss?"
"Oh, get off it. Like you didn't know." Katie rolled her eyes.
"So, no bloody Ravenclaw gits and no psychotic roommates?" The hand that wasn't deeply ensnared in her hair flitted against her cheek.
Katie pulled a sickened grimace. "Why would I kiss Ravenclaws? And my roommates are girls; I don't want to know what boys do after curfew if you would even consider the possibility."
Without waiting for any more response, he slid his free hand into her hair and used both hands to pull her mouth to his.
They were still for a moment before Marcus broke the silence with a growl and bit her lower lip and sucked it into his mouth. Reacting to this, Katie pulled at him with her hands while she shifted her legs, trying to get him closer anyway she could. With another rumbling laugh Marcus centered his hips over hers and rocked, just once. Katie moaned into his mouth and began to agitate her body against his, hoping to feel that again. When she was becoming fretful at not being able to recapture that sensation, Marcus pulled back, smiled, dropped a kiss on her lips, then on her nose and stepped away.
Katie, braced on the cabinet, blinked several times to clear her vision. "Why did you stop?"
His lips, which looked infinitely more enthralling, now, were twisted in a small smirk. "We need to finish what we started."
"Exactly. So, why are you over there?"
Marcus pulled Snape's ledger from the desk behind him. "To get the tools needed to complete the task properly. We can't let the much praised Professor Snape down, now, can we?"
She regarded him disbelievingly. "We are going to organise Snape's potion ingredients?"
"Of course." Marcus smiled benignly. "What else would we do?"
Katie attempted to push away from the cabinet only to discover that her legs were not strong enough to support her. With her hands firmly grasping the cabinet, she sucked a breath in through her teeth. "I'm sure I have no idea."
Marcus leaned forward and ran a hand down her over-sensitized body and gave a low chuckle when Katie shuddered. "No," he agreed. "You don't."
Disclaimer: The characters and many of the locations described herein are the property of J. K. Rowling and all of her varied associates. The situations are based on passages by ceejay. I own whatever creative licence is leftover.