Chapter 10
A Game of Cat and Mouse
Sex has a way of clearing one's mind of all worries. Good sex, for him could do the trick for a couple of days, and great sex for even longer. Which must have made it the best vice Severus had. With his day to day life a horrid mess, when he discovered that he took after his father in more than his looks, he used sex to free himself from his own mind regularly.
At the tender age of 17, not long after he willing took the mark, Severus discovered that his father was something of a Lathario in his hay day. Rumors of Tobias' swagger and skills in the bedroom made him the talk of Cokeworth. It must have been what attracted Severus' foolhardy mother to him. A promise of a good time and a prize to nab up. But after a few years with his mother, he traded his vise of sex to liquor and became the worst kind of man. Astounded by the turn of events, Severus took his newly found admiration that came with being a death eater and in the muggle world, a new kind of self confidence he never had. Which if he was honest with himself now, was mostly bravado. He began taking partners, and built up his own reputation.
Armed with the knowledge that sex helped him feel free from his torturous school life, the pain of seeing his mother's terrible life choices, from remembering the things he had to do for the cause, and hole in his heart from the rejection of the only other person in the world he cared about. He claimed the title of a tramp like a badge of honor.
And much like any other vise, with each hit, it made him need more and more to free him from his pain. Especially as the years became longer and harder to bare. After his mother died, most likely at the hands of his father, he went on a bender in the Netherlands for six months. He took to smoking and sex wherever he could. And there was a long black out of time after Lily died. He honestly didn't know where he ended up or how many beds he laid in. Even now, when the expectations became too much for Severus he would find his freedom in between the legs of whore, muggle or magical, it mattered not. So as long as he could feel the wonderful nothingness that accompanied the act.
Tonight though, it was better then great. It was phenomenal. He felt nothing painful, just the bliss of pheromones and life altering sex. And the small niggle of regret for storming out on his, for all intended purposes, mate. It wasn't truly her fault that she didn't know she had to be in her ancestral form for the bond to be completed. In fact he was very eager to be alone and naked with her as such. But he wasn't ready for intimacy that was required for post coital relations. He had never cuddled the ones in the past, and while this situation was vastly different. It didn't lend him the ability to want to stay around. Then he felt like a heel, he knew this was her first experience. And that he was probably the only man that would ever touch her. And internally he enjoyed the possessiveness that came with that knowledge. But in that moment, alone in his room naked and smoking a cigarette, all he wanted to do was enjoy the bliss of freedom for however long he could hold on to it.
IPM
At first light Hermione bounced from her bed, ran to the bathroom and showered. She could feel the unfamiliar aches in her lower regions, from the events of last night. As the warm water cascaded down her body, soothing away the achy muscles. She thought back on her evening and the emotional roller coaster that it was. The snogging session, the summons, the hours of complete terror and finally the relief of his return. Then there was the whole other beast of her amazing first sexual experience. She was slightly taken aback at his skill and the fact that during the whole experience he made her feel, well sexy. Something she, herself never thought of herself. And while she was mildly miffed at his reaction to the news about the magic, she fully expected the first time and maybe even the next few subsequent times they got to lay together, that he would quickly disappear. It didn't mean that it stung any less. She never pegged him as a snuggler. But she would have liked to have at least felt his body weight atop her a bit longer.
Hermione exited the shower and dressed and plaited her hair quickly. She was a woman on mission, things needed to change and quickly. Severus couldn't hide from her forever. But she needed to get her ducks in a row before she could finally get her magic back and begin to train with her newly awaken talent.
She ran to the floo, called out her destination. In a puff of green flames she vanished away.
Irma was just about to prepare her morning tea, when a whoosh came from her floo and flash of green, suddenly appeared. She was startled by her young ward falling on to the floor near the hearth. Hermione coughed a bit and got to her feet. Brushing away soot as she went over the still surprised Librarian.
"Morning Irma." Hermione said with a goofy grin
"Why, Hermione. What a lovely surprise." She didn't sound upset by the intrusion, but not terribly excited to see her so early, either. "I suspect everything was well with Severus when he returned?" Irma noticed the slight blush that bloomed on the young witch's face. "Is everything alright? I know last night, you were not in any state to chat." She saw Hermione's blush deepen and in the next few moments heard an explosive explanation of the whole night. Sans the more salacious details. The librarian felted a bit overwhelmed by the young woman's account and the dreamy look on her face as she recounted her leap into womanhood.
"And then he stormed off, because I hadn't know I needed to be ancestral form for us to complete the bond. I mean suspected, but had no way of knowing for sure."
"It seems rather like him, actually. Since he couldn't be mad at you about the events prior." Irma said gently, to which Hermione blushed again. "He decided to blame you for a lack there of knowledge."
"I actually fully expected him to run off, but now I fear it will take twice as long to get him to um return for another go." She said sheepishly. Hermione cleared her throat. "But I hadn't come to vomit my entire experience to you, but to ask you to teach me the summoning spell. Please, if am presented with another uh… opportunity, I want to make sure my bond is completed and magic restored."
"Perfectly understandable, dear." Pince lead the determined witch to the tome and opened to the page. "I also found this book." The matron raised her hand and wandlessly summoned a book to her hand. "It has some translations. Maybe you can use it to help you with your diction."
Hermione took the book graciously. "Thank you, this will be of much good use." She said with a large smile on her face. As the elder witch went back to morning routine, as she contemplated the long road ahead of her protégé.
IPM
Hermione worked all day on getting the summoning spell down. The translation book came in more handy then Irma had originally planned because after (albeit difficult) Hermione managed to translate the whole spell and come up with a counter spell, it bothered her that she would be stuck in her ancestral form for hours after, especially if it was required of her to be just Hermione, shortly after needing to be Veela Hermione. The true difficult task was translating it back to the ancient language. But after a few failed tries managed it.
Once she returned to her quarters, she went back to working diligently on the pins. She wanted them ready by the time they finalized the bond. And as she stared at her notes. She was reminded of the conversation she had with Severus about the charm work. And something he said stuck out. "Portkeys are are essentially a locator spell, tapped to an item."
It was a genius idea, she scraped the work she was doing to reverse engineer the portkey charm and began working on locator charms. She found far more literature on how to manipulate those and soon found a promising path.
It would take her two weeks to have a working concept to apply to the pins. She just needed her magic back to add the intricate charm work. She didn't want to deplete the last of her personal magic, that she would need when she finally did need to awaken her Veela.
However now that she was ready, it had become increasingly harder to find the man in question. They lived in a single space, but she hardly saw him. She took to sleeping on the sofa in order to catch him coming or going. She naturally assumed he was using a disillusioning charm to get by her. Which she found chuckle worthy, that her full grown dark and intimidating Professor was hiding from her.
However as the days progressed, she became desperate for help, that she had an elf take a note to Professor McGonagall asking for her to join her for tea.
The tea set blinked into existence nice and hot, the two Gryffindors made their tea to their liking. Hermione had been trying to think of the best way to ask for the knowledgeable witch's help all day, and still wasn't sure. She was fiddling with her spoon when,
"Ok, dear. I know you didn't ask for me to just come by for tea. And considering your only concern at the moment is Severus and your absent magic. So I'm going to venture a guess that it has to do with that."
"Well, yes. You see, Prof…Sna…Severus and I made an attempt" Hermione's face flushed, feeling less inhibited then she did with Irma, explaining this to her Head of House "to return my magic a couple of weeks ago and well it wasn't successful. But I know how to fix the problem, but he's avoiding me."
"Unsuccessful?" There was an odd amuses look on McGonagall's face.
"We discovered I need to be in my Veela form in order to complete the bond and return my magic. So yes, it was unsuccessful in that manner." Hermione couldn't contain the blush any longer and turned her face in embarrassment.
"Oh I see." Then the elder started chuckle. "So he's hiding from you?"
"I believe he's disillusions himself to avoid me. Since I've been spending all my time in the common area to try and catch him and I never see him leave." This elicit a full on belly laugh from Minerva.
"I'm sorry, Hermione. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at his childish behavior. Because I can absolutely imagine him doing just that. For all of his serious demeanor, acts like a complete child if the situation warrants it."
"I guess I just wanted to see if you could help me figure out how to draw him out."
"Dearest did your mother ever tell you the quickest way to a man's heart?" Hermione just tilted her to the side in confusion. "Food, dear."
A dawning moment appeared on the younger witch's face. "Oh!" Then she frowned. "We have yet to have a real meal together, I don't know what kind of food he likes."
"Then it's a good thing you are talking to me, since I've known him for three decades and have had many meals with him." She saw her cub pout. "No need to look so hurt, he will come around. But I will let you in on his biggest secret." Minerva looked around and leaned in close to Hermione's ear. "He has an insatiable sweet tooth." Hermione giggled at the big bad potion master enjoying sugary sweets. "He particularly loves Sticky Toffee Pudding."
Hermione's face lit up. "Really? It was my father's favorite too. And every year for his birthday my mum would attempt to make it for him and it always came out wrong. But I know the recipe well. I'm sure I can make it."
Minerva smiled wide. "I am glad I was of assistance. I'm sure if you ask your elf for the ingredients, you can make it here in the kitchenette."
"Thank you, Professor." Hermione said as she got up and hugged McGonagall. "I will. I appreciate you coming to see. Hopefully, I will be able to venture from the dungeons soon."
McGonagall got up and winked at the young woman. I don't doubt it. She thought to herself as she walked out of the Slytherin head of house's quarters and straight into said man's office. Throwing open the door in the fashion that would rival said man's own dramatic entrance and threw a hex at him, causing his tongue to swell up. When he stood to question/ berate her, she began to walk out the door. Then said over her shoulder. "Grow up man! And stop hiding from Hermione." And she strode out of the office with her head held high as she heard his muffled growls at her from down the hall. She laughed to herself as she continued away.