It's complicated – 7

…

Back at the school, Severus opened all the drawers on his desk and took out every paper in them.
"What is he doing now?" Professor Black wondered from his portrait "Doesn't he know what time it is?"
"I'd say he's looking for something..." Fortescue pointed.
"I just want to have some sleep so please ask him to do it on the morning!"
"I have to do it now," Severus answered the portrait without stopping his search "I have to find it."
"Find what? We could help you..." Headmistress Derwent offered.
"Yes, we know where everything in this office is. Let us find whatever you're looking for so we can go back to sleep." Professor Black said.
"I need professor McGonagall's address in Scotland."
"I told you he would go after her at the end. He loves her!"
"That's not it, I mean, I do love her, but... just tell me where the damn address can be!"
"All the staff information is in the drawer behind you," Dylys Derwent told, she was always the nicer of all of them.
Severus turned around and opened the drawer with the letter m but Minerva's name wasn't in there.
"It's not here…"
"It's hidden; Dumbledore wouldn't let anyone find it… You have to say Inquiro and her name."
Severus did as she said, and among all the files, it appeared all of a sudden one more with Minerva's name on it.

Minerva was having a bath when the doors were opened noisily, interrupting her peace.

"I know you think you own everything around you, Tom, but I would really appreciate it if you could knock the door when I am naked." she said very calmed, not bothering to cover herself, neither to look at him, since she knew nobody else would have dared to come in but him.

"You lied to me," he said, standing in the middle of the big bathroom while Nagini, who was always with him, dragged her long body closer to the bath.

She had told many lies to him since they met in the Scottish woods during the battle; she had had to explain why she disappeared from his life and the truth would have only make things worse. When he had required why she was still alive, she told him the curse that was supposed to kill her just hurt her, causing their baby to die. When he had wondered why she never went back to him, she answered that she was sent to Azkaban, where she learnt about his death. And when he asked her if she would join the cause again, she said that it was the actual reason she was in the woods that night, the cause, his cause, their cause. Lies… all of it were just a bunch of lies she had to tell in order to stay alive a little more… She wondered what he had actually find out to be so mad at her, but she stayed calmed.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, not looking at him. Instead, she would take one leg out of the water and caress it with the sponge, showing him her nudity, hoping to awake the man inside the beast to soften his anger.

"You never went to Azkaban... you didn't even were judged..." while he talked, the snake had climbed around the white marble bath and Minerva could now see her hypnotic eyes.

"I... I can explain..." she said moving her legs away from the animal, "let me explain..."

"I won't give you the chance to lie me again," and he made a movement of his hand and Nagini came even closer showing her sharp teeth ready to attack.

"I was afraid!" Minerva said, thinking quickly. "I... after learn I had lost the baby I was afraid you wouldn't want me anymore and Dumbledore..."

"Dumbledore?" his tone softened, she knew anything bad about the old headmaster would delight his ears.

"He convinced me you would reject me after losing our baby." She told him while she came out from the bath. "He gave me a job and hide me in the school..." she approached him ignoring the snake behind her steps. "I was scared..." she insisted with tears on her eyes "I betrayed you, I'm sorry..." She knelt down in front of him and the snake surrounded her legs causing her to shiver "Tom, I'm sorry... I don't deserve your love, please, kill me." after those words she could feel Nagini tightening her knot.

"I'm not going to do that..." he said and with his hand he made Nagini leave "but I'll make sure you don't lie me again. Now, get dress."

Once he was gone, Minerva didn't allow herself to sight on relief. No, because she could imagine many punishments worse than becoming Nagini's supper, but she had to stay alive, at least, until she could talk to Severus one more time.

He apparated at the top of a cliff at the Scotland east coast. A few feet away from him there was a little wooden cottage surrounded by thistles. "It has to be it," he said to himself while walking closer.

The door was unlocked and inside it looked like if nobody had been there in weeks. He had no clue of what he was looking for, but Minerva had said he would find it in her bedroom. The first door he opened was the bathroom, after that, he found a sweet master room with tartan sheets and curtains.

He began the search in the chest's drawers, and he blushed himself when he opened the one were Minerva kept her underwear. Not having found anything special there, he looked into the night table, but apart from a couple books and an old pair of glasses, he found nothing. Just when he began to think Minerva had given him the directions wrong, he thought he could look under the bed.

"What's this?" he wondered when he saw a metal box that he took on his hands. He tried to open it, but it was impossible. He did not understand, because it had no locker, so he tried with a couple easy spells and then with a few more but… there was no way to open it. He was sure he had definitely found whatever it was that Minerva had asked him to.

…

TO BE CONTINUED…