True to the map, Braedus was sitting on the couch in front of the fire when Betony walked in the common room.
"Did you have a good time?" he drawled, his voice cold.
"As a matter of fact, yes, I had a splendid evening," she lied, and spun in a half circle.
"Is he a good kisser?" Braedus asked, voice dripping with ice.
"Not bad, why? You fancying a snog with him sometime?" she said waggling her eyebrows suggestively. She laughed inwardly because Braedus didn't know that he was Ace's type.
"Not hardly," he said waspishly.
She sat down at the other end of the couch and removed her shoes, pulling her feet up beside her. She knew full well, that leaning against the couch this way in that short skirt was allowing him to see quite a bit of her thighs. She shot him a wary glance, "Then quit asking questions that you don't need the answers to." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the couch and allowed a small smile to play upon her lips as if she were relishing the memories of the evening.
He snorted in disgust and jumped from his seat, striding across the room and into his own, slamming the door violently behind him.
The next morning, Betony awoke to the sun shining into her room. Yawning and stretching she sat up and headed to take a shower before she went to breakfast.
Upon reaching the Great Hall, she sat at the table beside Ace Zabini, carefully averting her eyes from meeting Braedus' gaze. He stared down at her from a few seats away. Eating slowly, she paused long enough to kiss Ace's cheek lightly, causing him to smile.
She noticed, out of her peripheral vision that Braedus had narrowed his eyes at this. Smiling inwardly she took another bite of toast. All around them whispers were starting up again and she saw Braedus lean over toward Draco Malfoy. She pretended not to notice, knowing that he and Draco were not the best of friends. Her attention was fully drawn as Braedus stood abruptly, shot her a dirty look and strode quickly from the Great Hall.
She shrugged indifferently, though her insides were churning as she wondered what Draco had said to him. Draco shot her a triumphant look from his seat.
Ace looked at her worriedly, but she shook her head as she rose from her stool. "I'll find out," she said.
She ran down the stairs to her common room, and entered to find Braedus pacing restlessly. "So you really did have fun last night!" he shouted at her.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Shagging Ace? Fucking him in the alcove! You are such a whore!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"First off, I didn't fuck him. We snogged and that was it! I am NOT a whore! Don't you ever call me that again, Braedus Cathey. Don't you dare!" she screamed, refusing to cry.
"How could you? How could you do that… to me?" he asked quietly, looking very morose.
"Do what to you? You have made it crystal clear that you don't want me. I put my arse on the line when I kissed you, and you pushed me away! You REJECTED ME! Not the other way around. You shoved me off and wouldn't even speak to me afterward for two days. Now I'm not up your arse anymore. What do you care?"
He looked at her hungrily, as she turned around to go to her bedroom. Hearing the door shut loudly, he sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
Several days had passed since their row, and she refused to talk to him unless she had to. In potions class she answered him in clipped tones, keeping her answers to his questions as short as possible. He had taken to asking her random questions, which she ignored.
Professor Snape sat behind his desk, watching the class. His eyes fell on Braedus trying to get her attention. His eyes narrowed.
Betony looked at Snape curiously, but thought nothing of it.
Later that night as she was doing her Head Girl rounds, she heard whispers coming from an empty classroom. Creeping closer, expecting to bust a snogging couple, the words she heard made her stop before she placed her hand on the door.
"She is Potter's daughter!" someone hissed.
"So what? She is my friend!" Braedus' voice answered.
"I am going to separate you two in class, this can't happen. No son of mine will be fraternizing with that…. That… imbeciles child. No doubt she seeks to ruin you!" the other voice answered.
'Separate us in class,' she thought. 'Son?'
"Father, she is my only friend. Please don't do this!" Braedus pleaded.
"Friends do not get you far in life. Cunning, skill, wits, and watching your own back, now those things take you places."
"How can you that? You said, more than once I might add, that she had a drive her father didn't posses. That she was one of your best students."
"I won't have it. I've seen the way she looks at you, the desire in her eyes. I'll not have her meddling about, ruining your life! I won't and there is nothing you can do to stop me. I am the Professor, not you!" the voice said harshly.
Her thoughts were racing, 'Professor?'
She heard footsteps, and backed away from the door casting a disillusionment charm on her self as she moved. She watched with sickening realization as Snape stepped from the room, his robes billowing out behind him. Her insides churned as she understood with full force what this revelation meant to her.
"Get back to your duties. This conversation is over," Snape said as Braedus stepped out of the room and into the hallway.
Snape turned on heel and disappeared down the hall. Betony whispered the disillusionment charm counter and reappeared, standing beside Braedus.
He gasped as she materialized. "You heard that didn't you?"
"Yes, I did," she said, her face filled with rage and hate. "You never told me he was your father. You said you didn't speak to your father on a regular basis. You said you barely knew him."
"Betony," he pleaded, "all of that is true. I don't speak to him as my father regularly. I do barely know him."
She held her hand up to stop him and walked off, back to the common room. "Head duties be damned!" she shouted over her shoulder.
When Braedus found her, she was sitting in front of the fire, nose buried in a textbook. She refused to look up at him. She refused to acknowledge him.
"Betony, please talk to me," he said, his tone low and silky and… 'Has he been crying?' she thought as she looked up at him, though she could see no signs of it on his face.
"What, Braedus, what could you possibly want to talk to me about? How you have lied to me for seven years? Or how you knew I was mad for you, yet kept things from me and wouldn't give me a reason? Is that what you want to talk about?" she asked, her voice flat and thin.
She rose from the couch, shutting her book with a snap. She turned away to head to her room.
She stopped as she felt him grab her wrist and pull her back. She landed hard against his chest as he looked down his nose into her eyes.
She opened her mouth to say something disparaging to him, but he silenced her with a kiss.
She felt her eyes flutter shut as she kissed him back, enjoying the sensations sweeping over her. He took her bottom lip in his teeth, nibbling gently and pulled her harder against him. She could feel his erection pressing against her stomach, but said nothing, instead breaking the kiss and gazing up into his eyes.
He leaned back in and kissed her again and she slid her arms around his neck and allowed him to back her up and press her against the wall. His tongue sought entry, and she allowed it, sharply intaking breath as he deepened the kiss. Her hands ran thorough his hair as if they had a mind of their own. They kissed hungrily, as if they hadn't eaten in days and the other person was their meal.
A voice just to Betony's left startled them, "Well, well, well, isn't this… cozy?"
Panting, they broke apart to see the Potion's Master watching them, an evil glint in his cold eyes. "I leave you alone for a second," he sneered, "and you are trying to eat her face?"
"Father…I…" Braedus stammered.
"I don't really care to hear it, boy, go to your room. Miss Potter and I are going to have a talk."
Braedus did as he was told, throwing a look back over his shoulder at Betony, who nodded. He shut his door quietly.
"Sir, I can-" she began, cut off by his voice.
"I'm sure you can," he said, looking her up and down, "But you are not going to. Especially not with my son. You do know he is my son, do you not?"
"Yes, but…"
"But nothing, Miss Potter. Obviously I have misjudged you. You seem to have the same disregard for the rules as your father, and his. It seems to run in the family."
Betony felt her temper growing and hung her head, saying nothing as she stared at her toes.
Gritting her teeth, she raised her chin stubbornly. "You are nothing but a washed up old has been who is just pissed off because you can't hack it as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. You think you can say what ever you want to who ever you want to say it to, regardless of the consequences. It is a miracle that Voldemort didn't kill you!" she spat angrily.
"A weeks detention scrubbing my classroom, Miss Potter, and fifty points from Slytherin for your loose tongue. And as for what happened in the past, frankly, that is none of your business." He turned with a flourish of his cloak and departed from the room.
"Betony," Braedus said, reentering the common room, "you really shouldn't have said that. He will punish you."
"Do you think I'm afraid of a week's detention? Scrubbing the classroom?" she scoffed.
"No, but I doubt that is all he will do…" Braedus said, walking over to the couch and sitting down.
A/N: I hope you liked it…. If you did please review. If you didn't, let me know what you think anyway. pats review box lovingly. Thatnks!