Chapter 9 Flowers and Candles
Severus cautiously makes his way into his house, muttering under his breath about not even being safe in his own home.
"It's your fault!" Cadence snaps, appearing out of nowhere.
Severus lifts an eyebrow, warding the door behind him. At least she wasn't ambushing him with furniture.
Cadence shrugs. "You're the one that brought me here. It's not my fault you didn't realize what you were getting yourself into."
"I have something for you." Severus informs her, choosing to ignore her comment. He pushes his hand into his pocket and pulls out a rose. A wilted…dead…dried up rose.
"A dead mangled plant?" Cadence sneers, staring at it in disgust. "How charming!"
"Just take it!" Severus snaps in frustration.
She laughs. "You're joking, right? I don't know where the hell you've had that thing, but it looks like something that had crawled up your arse and died before you decided to pull it back out. You're mad if you think I'm going anywhere near that thing!"
Resisting the urge to threaten her into obeying him, he forces himself to soften his tone of voice. "Please take it."
"I prefer living flowers from real men." She replies stubbornly, turning around and walking off down the hall. "And I'm hungry!" She snaps, not bothering to turn around to face him again.
He curses under his breath and makes his way into the parlor, tossing the dead rose, which he had enchanted to burst into life at her touch, carelessly onto the center table. He pulls off his cloak and uses his wand to send it flying up to his room before sitting down at his desk. He pulls out the daily prophet, which had been delivered that morning just before he left. Normally, he would try to find a bit of truth buried beneath all the rubbish it contained, but tonight he couldn't concentrate.
His earlier conversation with Draco had forced him to realize that he really hadn't been trying to win her over, which had been the general idea when he had started this mess. He pushes his fingers through his hair, leans back in his chair, and closes his eyes.
Perhaps the rose had been a bit much. Its complexity required her to have at least a fraction of trust in him, which, judging by her reaction, was too much to ask. Not that he could blame her. He had gone too far with the kidnapping scheme, but he had only been trying to kill two hypogriffs with one hex. The two hypogriffs just happened to be a couple of continents apart. Keeping deatheaters from turning against him and simultaneously winning over a very stubborn witch was bound to be complicated. He would probably have more luck with a more obvious approach. Subtlety may be his strong point, but he'd have to push a bit harder to get through to her. Through obstacles that he himself had created.
"Bloody hell," he mutters under his breath. This would be a hell of a lot easier if he could pin the blame on someone else.
"Dumb git doesn't have a clue," Cadence mumbles under her breath. She was making her way to the second floor balcony, where the house elf, Knox, had informed her that his master had dinner prepared. The oaf probably had some other foolish idea that he thought would make her like him. If he thought a dead flower was a brilliant idea, she shuddered to think of what he might have prepared for dinner tonight. Baby rats, perhaps? She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly opening the doors to the balcony. Her lips part in surprise.
The railing along the balcony was covered with some sort of vine looking whit flowers. In the center of the balcony is a small circular table covered by a floor length white table cloth. Two tall white candlesticks cast a dim light over everything. The plates were already prepared with what looked like steak and some sort of pasta. He'd really out done himself this time. Had it been under different circumstances she might have been impressed. As it was…
Severus, who'd been sitting at the table tapping his fingers on the edge of his plate, quickly stands up and moves to the other side of the table, pulling out her chair for her.
"Oh, this is really starting to get pathetic." She laughs mockingly. "Do you really think showing off your great knowledge on how to set a table is going to impress me?"
"I thought the candles would add a nice touch." He answers calmly, though inwardly he was bordering on furious. What was it going to take?
"Think again," she throws back. She turns on her heel to leave, but he stops her with something that sounded just short of a threat.
"I thought you were hungry?" He points out.
"I'm a vegetarian." She snaps without looking back. Food wasn't something he could use against her. She had done without before. She could do without now. She walks back into the house without another word.
Severus moves back to his chair, sitting down heavily. It was going to take more than just flowers and candlesticks.