Chapter Nine - Some Fun and Excitement
"Mr Snape, this is well beyond my comprehension. I just don't understand. I realise of course that it is entirely possible that your son is just a bright boy, but this surpasses all levels of comprehensibility. It seems that your son does not need school. School is only the foundational unit for further study and understanding but your son already has all the foundations. I just don't know how that's possible." Mrs Martin was flustered. She had never felt quite so inept before and the normally even-tempered woman was bordering on hysterics.
"It's alright Mrs Martin, calm yourself. Seb is a rather intelligent boy, I know, I don't blame you at all for being out of your element. But is there nothing more you could teach him?" Severus truly hoped there was, it had only been three weeks and Severus didn't feel like having to find another tutor. Mrs Martin was kind, intelligent and loved Seb and more importantly Seb loved her.
While Sebastian innately knew when people had good hearts or bad hearts, he was still a very impressionable little boy who could just as easily love someone with a bad heart as he could hate someone with a good heart.
Severus was beginning to believe that that was what had happened with Charlie.
Mrs Martin thought for a moment before speaking, "Well, you see, Seb has all the foundations, he can understand anything if you give him enough time. I suppose I could help him to shape his understandings. I could of course give him work that would relate more deeply to concepts and understandings of the world than just book knowledge. I could even further book knowledge, teach him other languages. I myself am fluent in Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, French and Spanish. If that's not enough I'll just have to teach myself more languages." The woman was speaking more to herself than Severus.
"That sounds excellent. I would like Seb to learn other languages most definitely but I think most importantly Latin. I believe you're right in giving Seb a wider knowledge of the world, rather than just understanding maths and science and history. Perhaps you could speak to him about philosophers and perhaps a high school English course would also be beneficial. After all, English is less about learning how to do something and more about understanding new ways of looking at things and people."
Mrs Martin smiled, apparently relieved. All was right with the world; she could still teach something to a five year old. "Yes, I think so too. Thank you so very much Mr Snape. I'll come back tomorrow with a new course outline and if it is agreeable we will start right then." Mrs Martin stood and Severus showed her to the door.
"That sounds marvellous. I apologise for the undue stress, but your efforts are most appreciated. Thank you Mrs Martin." And Severus closed the door as the woman walked easily down the garden path, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Silas was across the street, with Belle. He'd been there almost constantly since that stupid pizza night two weeks ago. That night still had Severus seething. He hadn't seen hide nor tail of Charlie since then and Silas and Seb hadn't brought her up either, intuitively knowing that Severus wished that she was rather on the other side of the world than just across the street at the moment.
The fact that Sebastian was a parselmouth still continued to shock Severus. It wasn't that he thought his son was dark or that he had any kind of disposition to being dark, it was just shocking. Severus had never even heard it spoken before and it was weird to hear something that he'd only ever read about, weird to see such blatant use of something that was supposedly extremely rare and practically unheard of; but he was adjusting, and Seb seemed extremely happy with Astarte and Rocky who had somehow formed a relationship. Rocky would sleep out on the paving stones in the front yard with the snake wrapped securely around him. Severus found that sight slightly disconcerting but Seb thought it was cute and Silas had just choked when he had first seen it and had run across the street to no doubt tell Belle all about it.
Currently, Sebastian was at the Malfoy's visiting with Draco. Draco had been reluctant to visit again, with the snake in the house so Severus had allowed Seb to go see Draco and spend the night. Sebastian would only be home the next afternoon, when Lucius would bring him home and discuss his findings.
Lucius had been diligently searching for any information on what Seb was going through, but he had no success until apparently last night and the man seemed most secretive of his discovery, which could only mean that he was terribly excited but Malfoy austerity called for a little more dignity than jumping around the house like a two year old who had consumed too much red cordial; in other words Lucius was too proud to behave like Silas normally did. Severus chuckled at his own private joke; making fun of his brother was just as fun in his head as it was to say it to Silas' face.
Silas had been down and moody since the end of the last school year. He'd seem completely relaxed and he'd play with Seb and laugh with Severus and then retreat to his bedroom and lie on his bed in such a state of apathy that Severus could not comprehend. But since that day that Severus had spoken to Silas and Silas had met Belle the boy had been so hyperactive, and all thoughts of possible depression were gone. Severus hoped it had just been a phase of typical teenage angst. Lord knew Silas was entitled to his fair share of that, Severus had been much worse, and he still was. You didn't grow up in the Snape household without having issues to deal with.
There was a knock at the door and Severus couldn't stop himself from grinning; Julia was coming round. It seemed like forever since he'd last seen her and he had truly missed her.
When Julia and he had begun she had just been someone to fill a need he had for adult female company. But overtime it had morphed and he'd grown to love the woman like he had loved no other. Sure he had loved Lily but it had been different love, that love had been decidedly juvenile and innocent and really very ignorant. They had not known anything about themselves, each other or the world; they just knew that they were in love. But that wasn't enough; it wasn't enough for a healthy relationship and it wasn't enough to raise a son.
Severus' love with Julia was adult and more real than Severus had ever experienced. They were both cold, distant people by nature, who could be cruel and malicious without intention but they were both so much more than that and they understood that about each other. They loved that about each other. They fitted so well together that Severus sometimes wondered how he could have possibly been so foolish not to see it from the beginning.
His love with Julia was not movie magic, all-encompassing love but a love that could last forever through wanting to see the other happy and well; wanting to spend their lives together rather than needing it; it was sensible love and Severus cherished it more than he could have realised.
He stopped himself from skipping to the door; barely. He flung it open to see Julia standing on the door step. She wasn't wearing heals today, just smart flats with black dress pants but a simple grey woollen sweater on top. It was the most casual he had ever seen her, and she still looked as beautiful as ever.
She gave him a small smile as he just stared at her, "Well, Severus, we could stand outside all night. Or, I could come in and you could make up to me the fact that I haven't seen you in nearly a month." She lifted her eyebrow.
He smirked and opened the door for her. She walked in and promptly seated herself on the couch, Severus joining her a moment later.
"Hello." He smiled, putting his arm around her shoulders.
She leaned into his embrace. "Hey." She spoke quietly, timidly.
"What's wrong?" Severus traced a random pattern on the arm his hand was resting on.
She sighed, "Just being an overemotional female."
He chuckled, darkly, "Now you have me worried. You are most definitely not an overemotional female Miss Hall."
She giggled a little too, which was decidedly odd because Julia just wasn't the giggling type. "I don't know. Just we hadn't really spoken and hadn't even seen each other since I'd, well, since I'd told you about my past. I suppose I thought that you maybe had decided that I wasn't worth it anymore." She mumbled the last bit.
Severus tightened his grip on her and turned his head to kiss the top of her head. "Never. You are worth everything I could possibly give you, and your past hasn't nor will it ever change that. I love you Julia Hall, always." He said quietly.
She lifted her face and searched his eyes, looking for the truth behind his words; finally, smiling, she nodded her head slightly. "I love you Mr Snape." Her smile turned rather coy and she lifted her face to his, kissing him softly; pulling delicately on his lips, reacquainting herself with their taste.
Severus let her, he didn't kiss back; he just enjoyed the sensation of being handled so tenderly, as if he were some sort of valuable breakable.
Eventually she pulled away. "Well, Severus I think you're becoming rather lazy." Severus opened his eyes and saw her teasing smile.
"We can't have that now can we?" He laughed and it was his turn to kiss her, but she responded and soon the kiss was much more heated than the living room of a family home was really allowed to see.
"OH MY GOD! I AM SCARRED FOR LIFE!" Severus jumped up from his reclined position on top of Julia, he hadn't even realised his shirt was off until he felt the breeze from his sudden movements press cold fingers against his heated body. He looked down, his fly was undone and his pants were already half way down his arse. He looked at Julia who was now using her elbows to see over the back of the couch, her sweater was off and her shoes were on the ground. She was just in her pants and bra. And finally Severus turned his wide, shocked eyes to Silas who was standing in the entry way, Belle standing to the left and slightly behind him.
"Silas!" Severus spluttered, trying to pull his pants back over his arse, and failing miserably.
"Severus!" Julia hissed, anxiously, and Severus grabbed the first piece of clothing that he could and handed it to her, watching as she pulled his shirt over her head, and covered her naked torso, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at that.
"I thought you were at Belle's!" Severus turned back to a stunned Silas.
"I was! But now I'm here!" Silas yelled, a little hysterically. "But now we're going back and we're going to stay there! For another two hours at least!" Silas ran to the door, flung it open and slammed it behind himself and Belle, no doubt running all the way across the street.
It was completely silent for a minute as the couple stared at the spot Silas had just vacated until Severus' attention was captured by Julia laughing. He looked down at her, she'd collapsed on the couch again and was now laughing absolutely hysterically.
"Julia?" He asked, questioning her sanity more than anything else.
"You should have seen your faces!" She gasped out before giggling madly again.
Severus huffed.
She calmed down a little and sent him a teasing smile. "And, he gave us two hours Sev. Imagine what we could do in two hours." She lifted her eye brow suggestively and Severus couldn't have been more interested.
She was just perfect, he knew. He loved it when she shortened his name like that; it was rare and that made it more special, more private when she used it. He also loved it when she missed the middle syllable in his name when she was tired, or distracted, it had to have been the cutest thing he had ever heard.
"You may regret that later." Severus grinned manically, making her scoff. He scooped her off of the couch and fairly ran upstairs with her before she could say anything else, he didn't think he could really take any more.
Yes, well um... this story seems to be getting progressively more and more dirty. And it's way not my fault, I begin a chapter with no real knowledge of what'll happen just that I need to have a certain scene in it or a certain piece of information and then the rest is sort of up to what the characters themselves decide and Severus and Julia seem to need me to write them having a lot of 'couple happiness'.
haha i sound so corny, anywho this is the latest chapter, as you can tell and um I just realised I'm already writing chapter eleven but I still haven't actually gotten to the crux of this story, and this was only meant to be like fifteen chapters. I'm considering splitting it into two stories, or just making this really long. But I feel if I do that then people tend to forget what they read in the first chapters and chalk that stuff up to being unimportant when I don't think it is. So I dunno what I'm saying here, maybe I'm asking for some advice?
hani: Haha thanks, I love the Malfoys too (when they're good that is, I don't like dark Malfoys). Yeah, you're exactly right, Charlie is still very childish. She's only about nineteen and even though she's only five years younger than Severus he's lived a whole life time compared to her in everything he's done and seen and accomplished. She needs to see that before she can actually see Severus. But she's on her way, I have hope for her. haha
cara-tanaka: Here you are, and even sooner than I usually do too!
Mira SeverusSirius Black-Snape: You may be more right than you know...haha
LemonDropsWoolSocks: And the virtual prize of 'something that I haven't even thought about yet' goes to...LEMONDROPSWOOLSOCKS! haha and yeah that's what I was going for, the goddess of fertility. Now you may be right about any one of those three scenarios and you've probably already guessed which one so I'm just gonna shut up about that right now. haha I love the reaction to the snake, my mum is just like that, my whole family went to the zoo once and my mother wouldn't even go into the reptile house. But don't worry Astarte won't feature too heavily in the story, you could probably just block her scenes out if it came to that. haha. I'm happy you like the story so much I hope this chapter filled your Severus/Julia and Severus Silas argument quota for the week, and look, I updated earlier than usual, a friday afternoon instead of a saturday one - you've just gotta be happy about that!
morsatra: Thanks so much! And I guess you'll just have to see what that fertility goddess means for this story! ;D
bookwormqueen7: Cool thanks and here you are.
Silvermane1: Thank you!
Celestialuna: Thanks dear!
