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Chapter 10

It was growing closer and closer to Christmas as Riley ran her laps for the final Quidditch practice before the break. She needed a good run as she soared around the Quidditch pitch, her hair whipping behind her in a tight ponytail. It had been a frustrating day or two and she needed to burn off some steam. She pumped her arms back and forth and lengthened her stride. It was times like this she'd kill for a record player that you could take with you. She focused on her breaths flowing in and out of her body when she caught sight of an unruly mass of black hair. James had slowed down his pace ahead of her. She had been meaning to talk to him about the other night. She knew he was not quite happy with the outcome of her choosing Severus over his buddy. Sirius was a sweet guy most of the time—when he wasn't aiming a wand at the object of eyes' face. Sirius had been avoiding her like the plague, no longer hanging around the common room and not showing up at Quidditch practice like he used to. In class, she tried to talk to him but the time never seemed right. She didn't feel like she had to explain herself, but she wanted to end this year as friends and not fill a vault at Gringotts full of enemies. Maybe now that Severus paid more attention to her than Lily, there would be less tension in the air with everybody.

"James!" She called out as she neared him. She slowed into a jog and then walked her way towards him. The dark haired boy looked up from the water bottle he was opening and stared at her. His expression wasn't exactly thrilled but it wasn't completely disgusted. Riley took that as a good sign as she approached him.

"I wanted to talk to you about the other night." She said, taking a deep breath before hand.

"Listen, Riley—" James started, raising his hands up into a stop signal.

"No, you're going to hear me out." She said, placing her hands on her hips. Her stature was shorter but her body language and the quirk of her brow showed her determination. She was not going to back down so easily.

"Sirius and me—it's never going to work out romantically. We're destined to be friends. I need you to tell him that—that I will be his friend and we will be speaking to each other in the near future. I will not take no for an answer. You know me, do I ever take no as an answer?" Her hands and arms folded together in front of her, showing her finality in this decision. She waited for him as he gathered his thoughts.

"Well, Sirius is a bit heartbroken. You did a number on him." James said, shaking his head and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"He's quite good looking, I'm sure he'll recover in no time. I'm sure there are plenty of girls ready to comfort him." Riley added with a smirk. James nodded in reply and took a sip of water out of the bottle before handing Riley another bottle. She could see from his face that he knew this would be true, regardless of how much he was disappointed in his friends not forming a relationship. Suddenly, he grimaced and took another sip with a pained appearance.

"But seriously, Snape?" He spat out, his repressed thoughts bubbling to the surface. A look of disgust crossed his face as he spoke Severus' last name.

"I know you don't like him for some reason, but you don't see him like I see him." She said confidently and with a now sweeter tone to her voice. Her face softened at the thought of Severus and her lips turned upwards.

"You're really into him, huh?" James said looking at her bemusedly. He studied her change in countenance through his smudged glasses. "I'd hate to tell you, Riley, but Snivellus practices dark magic."

"I wish you wouldn't call him names. What proof do you have of him doing such things? Have you seen him do these things in person? Have you ever caught him red handed? I'll be the first to admit that he'd not perfect. None of us are." She glared at him briefly before continuing on, "But you have to give him a chance."

"I heard things. Dark things are happening in Slytherin." James said quietly as if Salazar Slytherin would hear them from beyond the grave.

"Well, it's a good thing that he'll have a Gryffindor by his side then." Riley threw on her patented smirk and smacked James in the arm in a jesting manner. James shook his head and ran a hand through his messy hair.

"I'm trying to say be careful. Not that I approve." He said bluntly, "And I'll talk to Sirius."

"Thanks, James." She said, her face lighting up graciously. "I knew you'd come around!"

She grabbed her broom and handed him his as they placed their water bottles down on the bench. She hopped on and kicked her feet off the ground in a thrust up into the sky.

"Race ya!" She called out behind her.

"Hey you." Riley said, settling down next to Severus in the library. Most people had gone home for the holiday break and the castle had a very empty feel to it. The library was quieter than usual with no foot traffic twisting through the book shelves. Riley smiled as she sat next to Severus, crossing her legs in her plaid skirt. She chose to stay because her parents were going home to America for Christmas. She also didn't want to leave Severus by himself at the school. He was also choosing to stay at school for the holiday because he couldn't stand his parents and hated his life outside of school. Riley didn't understand why he disliked his parents so much when she loved hers, but she decided not to pry due his anger at even mentioning them.

Severus picked up his head from the large tome he was reading and turned his head to her as she sat next to him. He smiled the briefest of smiles, which he seemed to be doing more and more as of lately and closed the book. She quickly glanced over the title of the book he was reading when he leaned over the closed book and kissed her gently on the lips. She got instantly distracted and grabbed the front of his black turtleneck and pulled him towards her. His lips reached hers first and pressed them hard against his. Fireworks lit up inside her brain, shutting all thinking back into a little trunk in her mind. With his lips still together with hers, he swept the book out of his lap and grabbed her hands. He removed them from his shirt and held them in his hands as he pressed himself over her, laying her down on the library floor. He held her hands above her head as he lay on top of her, kissing her deeply. He flicked his tongue towards her lips and met his tongue with hers. She wriggled underneath him in pleasure as she kissed him back eagerly, loving the feeling of his weight upon her. His body was actually warm and he smelt masculine and clean. He let her hands go and wisped her chestnut hair from her ear. He nibbled at her earlobe and led a trail of kisses down her neck. She moaned gently into his ear, urging him to move forward with whatever he was planning to do with her, her hands roaming his back. She felt good against him, her breasts tight against her sweater, pushed against his chest. His hands grew restless and pulled themselves down towards her sweater's hemline. His long fingers crept under her hemline and clawed at her smooth stomach. Up and up his hands ventured until—

"Ahem…"

Severus lifted himself quickly off of Riley at the sound, pulling himself to his full height and into a standing position. He dusted himself off while looking into the eyes of annoyed older librarian. She tapped her foot in her black pumps and folded her arms in front of her as Riley got herself off of the floor, looking for once in her life, a little bashful. She was not expecting to get so enveloped in Severus from just one innocent kiss. They had a magnetism that pulled them together. A magnetism that kept stealing all of her attention. She licked her puffy, cherry lips and tugged her tight, red sweater down, so that it covered her stomach completely. There was so much tension between Severus and her. It would constantly build up each time she laid her blue eyes upon him and then something would pass in his black eyes making her lose complete control of herself. They totally had other things in common other than making out, but it was just so fun to do. She had never felt like this for anyone ever before. Just a look and she was all over him. Not to mention how he had been all over her too. She could cross her legs in her school skirt and he'd have that hunger in his eyes. They had been having very meaningful conversations as of late, but his intelligence was just an even bigger turn on. He could literally just read from a potions book and his voice alone would have her hand groping his knee under the table. Potions class had been hard to get through recently without trying to jump his bones. It was a good thing they were on vacation.

Severus reached back for her hand from his standing position facing the librarian. She placed her smaller hand in his as they mumbled apologizes to the older witch and dashed out of the library. Riley began to laugh as they reached the hallway from their nerve-wracking encounter, never being able to hold it back very well.

"Good job getting us in trouble, Severus." She remarked with laughter in her eyes, tugging on his hand.

"You're the one who can't your hands off of me." He said with sarcasm in voice.

"You can't keep your hands off me." She said with a lazy smirk, shooting a response back at him. She grinned like a shark as he pulled her around the corner of a hall and took her by her slender shoulders and pressed her up against a stone wall.

"You're right." He merely said as he held her against the wall and laid his lips over hers, capturing her bottom lip with his teeth. His hands repeated their pattern again, dancing up her stomach, under her sweater. He reached up caught her bra in his hand and she gasped. "I think we need to go somewhere else." He rumbled in her ear. She nodded and watched as he pushed himself away from her and the wall. She felt odd without the warmness of his body against her. He pulled out his wand from his jeans and tapped the top her head. A weird feeling, cold and wet, dripped over her like someone cracking an egg on top of her head. Her face looked puzzled but trusting at the same time.

"Disillusionment charm." He answered, seeing the question on her face.

"Mr. Snape, where are we going this time?" She said with humor in her voice. He leaned in, close to her ear and used the voice that he had recently realized made the Gryffindor girl shudder.

"You'll see." She shuddered on cue as his baritone voice vibrated within her and followed behind him.