The Affair of Severus Snape
Chapter 9: Winter Celebrations
The next few weeks continued in much the same fashion as it had after McGonagall had approached Professor Hernshaw about her time with Severus. They continued to meet on a regular basis every week to discuss spell crafting and mind arts, as well as the daily goings on of the castle. Sometimes when the mood seemed to strike the professor Severus would have the pleasure of holding theses meetings within her private quarters.
These handful of times were usually accompanied with a warm meal, a glass of the professor's preferred wine and happy banter that usually threatened to keep Severus out past curfew. Despite that he never complained about it getting too late.
Professor McGonagall had stopped her constant observation after two weeks, but Severus could still sometimes find himself under her calculating stare, especially on the days after their usual meeting.
Regardless of this, everything had been running smoothly for Severus. The marauders stayed out of his way for the most part, and the Slytherins remained impassive to him. He still had not managed to gain any information as to what they might be planning for his professor, but he took that as a good sign. If he had been unable to notice anything out of the ordinary, he assumed it meant that they still had not come up with a viable means to get rid of her. If they had, he was sure they would have boasted it to him.
The only thing that seemed to be an imminent upheaval from his relatively peaceful past few weeks had been announced at breakfast the previous week. A ball. It was to be held the evening before the winter break began. Normally this would not have sent Severus into any sort of agitation, but this year was slightly different. Unlike previous years where he knew the marauders would have never let him have a dance with Lily, this year there were less people that would take immediate action if he took a dance with the object of his affection. After all, it was not unheard of students taking a dance with some of the professors, even if it was slightly out of character for Severus.
The only flaw with this plan of course was that if he did plan on dancing with Professor Hernshaw, he would have to learn how to dance first. And it was therefore, because of this, that he found himself standing behind a shelf in the library wondering just how long some of the other boys were going to take standing in front of the wizarding etiquette section looking for books that might help teach them how to properly woe their ladies for the winter ball.
Frowning to himself, Severus continued to pretend that he was highly interested in the section of books pertaining to merpeople as he waited for the section to clear out. he wished they would hurrier up and make their choices or just leave, it had been over a week since the ball had been announced! There was only so long that he could pretend to have an interest in merpeople!
Severus stalked down the halls, looking at the students mingling about in slight disgust. There were too many giggling girls hanging about in the hall, and too many single boys casting shy looks towards them. It only exasperated the entire problem. Severus kept his pace firm as continued down the hallway towards a less used section of the castle.
As he progressed the amount of students began to diminish until he was finally able to move down a corridor and slip into an unused room, unseen by any of the other students. The room was small, but still big enough for his purposes. He unslung the book-bag from his shoulder and pulled out the book. It was an old faded volume on etiquette that had escaped the interest of some of the other boys due to it's outward appearance. It did however, have a detailed enough section on dance technique to give Severus the knowledge that he needed. Sitting down against the wall, Severus flipped it open to the preferred section.
His mind baffled at the diagrams that showed a range of steps. Setting his resolve he set his mind to learning what he could about the art of dancing from the book. Severus was enthralled by the intricate twist, turns, steps, and shuffles described in the book. Finally after a good deal of time Severus stood up, propping the book on the window ledge.
Feeling a bit foolish, but not enough so to deter him, he pulled out a small wizarding wireless that he had nicked off of one of the first years. Taping his wand to it, a slow waltz emitted into the room. Smiling slightly to himself, he glanced once at the book. Then, imagining his fair skinned professor, he slowly bowed.
The image in his mind smiled back and he placed one hand on the imaginary waist, and gently took up her other hand in his. He slowly started practicing the steps described in the book. After having stumbled a few times he slowly became more self assured and the grin on his face grew. He would have his dance with Professor Hernshaw. She would smile and laugh with him, and he would get to hold her close.
Just as the song was finishing, he could imagine bending down over her and placing a soft kiss on her warm lips. He could almost hear her moan in pleasure.
"Oh, James," came the soft voice, floating across the room from the door that had quietly been opened.
Severus spun where he stood, one arm still raised. "Lily!" he gasped out in surprise. Just as the song had ended James Potter and Lily Evans had stumbled into the room, too involved with each other to recognize that it had already been occupied.
His surprise was enough to break them both out of their enamored kisses and Lily straightened quite quickly. Her cheeks were crimson red, and her hands went up quickly to straighten the clothing and hair that Potter had disheveled. "Severus," she choked out, looking frantically between him and the door. She was like a deer in the headlights. "What, um, what are you doing here?"
"Studying," he replied, although he could feel his cheeks starting to redden as the next waltz quietly came from the radio.
"Studying?" Potter scoffed, as he realized immediately what Severus had been doing in the room. Lily took a glance at the book on the windowsil and then her eyes widened as she saw the footing diagrams.
"Oh, Severus," Lily sighed as she looked at Severus with a does of pity and apology in her eyes, "James already asked me." Severus felt his insides begin to boil as anger welled up. He might have considered trying to ask Lily last year, but did she honestly think she was the only one that would ever catch his eye? Especially considering they had hardly seen each other this year and had only had a few brief impersonal encounters in the library.
"That was quite obvious," Severus replied, unable to keep the slight sneer out of his voice as he walked to the window and stuffed the radio and book back into his bag.
"Maybe I can save you a dance though," Lily replied, completely oblivious of the way in which she was fueling Severus's aggravation. He turned and stared into her bright green eyes.
"I wouldn't want to take any of your time away from your precious Potter," he replied with a scowl before he stalked out of the room. He could hear her call for him to wait, and Potter telling her to just leave it. He paced quickly down the hall, his frustration pouring off of him in waves. He liked Lily, they had been good friends when they had been younger, but sometimes she could be a bit too self-important.
Well, he didn't need her pity or apology. He wasn't learning to dance for her. It was for her, Professor Hernshaw.
"Come here I want to show you something," she called from the living room. He exited the kitchen with two glasses of wine in his hand. Tonight was one of those special evening in which he had been invited into her quarters. It was exactly what he needed, calming his nerves from his encounter with Lily earlier the previous week. He had spent most of the week stewing over it, and was glad to be able to unwind in the company of Professor Hernshaw. He went to go sit down in the armchair as he usually did.
"Come sit over here," she said before he had a chance to sit fully. He looked at her in surprise. She had never offered to have him sit on the couch next to her. Straightening his back, he walked around the table and handed her a glass before sitting gingerly down onto the short couch. In front of them was spread the final diagram for his spell.
They sat close. Her body was close enough to him that he could feel the warmth radiating off of her, and the delicate almost unnoticeable scent of her perfume waifed to his nose. He turned his head slightly to gaze at her, she was so close.
"I think that it is finished," she said triumphantly as she raised her glass in victory, turning to smile at him. "Just in time to go home and use it next week. Congratulations!"
Her eyes were shinning and her face took up his entire view. He raised his glass to hers and clicked them together. "Thank you," he replied, unable to keep a slight smile off of his own face as he raised the glass to his lips while watching her mirror his actions. "I couldn't have done it without you," he said softly after he had taken a sip.
She laughed, her eyes crinkling in pleasure. "You would have figured it out even without me, Severus," she replied, her voice tinkling in his ears. She had never called him Severus to his face before. He felt his chest grow warm, his eyes working to memorize her happy face.
"Regardless, thank you . . . Georgia." The name slipped from his tongue like pure honey. It was a forbidden feeling. Intoxicating. You weren't suppose to do this with your teacher, but he could not bury it, the feelings that had grown in him.
He watched her face freeze momentarily before she swallowed reflexively. "Severus..." she trailed off, her eyes seemed to search his as he held her gaze. "I don't know if," she paused and took in a gulp of air, "I don't know if you should..."
He didn't care anymore though. It had been weeks since he had meet her. Weeks since he had begun to fall in love with her. Weeks of patiently watching her from afar. He don't know when he had decided it, but he was done waiting. He leaned down and he kissed her.
Her lips were soft and sweet beneath him. He pulled back slightly, he could feel her breath fluttering across his lips and then heard the slight happy sigh that escape her. Her eyes had closed and he brought a hand up to caress the side of her face. It was just as soft as he had imagined it would be. She leaned into his hand before turning her head slightly and giving a small kiss to the tips of his fingers. "I have wanted to do that for weeks," he whispered, as he ran his fingers into the hair that had fascinated his thoughts since she had arrived into his life.
She looked up at him, a soft smile splayed across her lips before she took his hand in hers. "I would be foolish if I said I had never considered it in these past weeks. Especially after Minerva..." she trailed off, shaking her head. Severus reached out and grabbed her chin and then leaned in and gave her another kiss. This time it last longer, his lips moving over hers, willing her to be quite and let him kiss her.
She obliged, bringing her hand up to rest on his shoulder as she leaned into him. His hand traveled down from her hair, across the soft skin of her arms and down to rest on her petite waist, his thumb rubbing patterns across material. She let out another soft moan and Severus leaned her back into the corner of the couch, pressing his body against hers, feeling her pert breast push back against his own body.
She tilted her head up towards the ceiling, and he continued to kiss her along her neck, stopping only when he came to the juncture of her loose fitting blouse. It was then that he froze unsure of what to do. He had never been this close to another woman. She apparently felt his hesitation though, because she let out a soft amuse chuckle as he pulled his head back towards his, and she kissed him softly.
He pulled back, holding himself up over her, "I have never," he began but she cut him off putting a finger up to his lips.
"Hush, be happy with your kisses tonight," she said as she leaned up and gave him another kiss, her tongue darting out to give a quick lick to his lips. He hummed happily at the ministrations before falling back against the couch next to her and then reached out to her waist and drew her up on top of his lap.
His head fell back against the couch as he looked up at her, her lips and cheeks looking slightly redder then when the evening had begun, and her hair falling about her face.
"You are beautiful," he said as he reached his hand up to caress her cheek again. She let out a soft smile at his compliment and leaned down to drop a kiss on top of his forehead.
"We will apparently have to be a bit more conscious of our meetings now," she said with a soft laugh as she leaned her head down into the crook of his neck. "Wouldn't do for Minerva to get on our case again, even though now her argument is valid." This seemed to amuse her to no end and she laughed in delight, and Severus found it infectious. A smile split his face as he ran his hand across the small of her back.
"I would be willing to put up with any of the professors for this," he replied quietly.
"I know," she whispered back, and then she kissed him again.
a.n.: Merry christmas! I hope you have enjoyed it, sure took them long enough and I wasn't even planning on having them get their first kisses in this chapter.
