Chapter 11
"And so, therefore…"
Severus tuned the old woman out, instead looking out over the dance floor which was growing sparse after the bride had groom had left for the snow-covered love nest the bridesmaids had apparently made for them. He had no idea how weddings were normally planned and so consequently had no idea who was going to tell all of these people to go home. Or, in the students' case, back to their common rooms.
He was pleased to see that Mae – because he was stuck calling the infernal girl that now – and Andrew had apparently enjoyed dancing together so much that they were still doing so. Though he still didn't understand what his dancing with Lucy had had to do with it. Or why she wanted to dance with him so much and even leaned her head on his shoulder while doing so.
It had been strange, to say the least. And yet, he had recalled Dinah's words to him from a while back, assuring him that it was okay to like being liked. That everyone did.
He wasn't used to such a thing, but in all honesty, it was sort of… nice that others seemed to like him now. That they could be comfortable around him. Though it still clashed with his desire to terrify people. He supposed it depended upon his mood and the circumstances which he would prefer at any given moment.
And Dinah had been so ridiculously pleased that he had allowed the bride - their friend - that courtesy. Though apparently, not pleased enough to keep her head nestled in his shoulder when he had told her that though the experience with Lucy had not been terrible he much preferred her there. Well, it was between him and cake, and these days cake seemed to win out more than he would like it to. Unless his wife was having a 'not-hungry' day.
"Don't you agree, Severus?"
Lovely. The woman had finally stopped babbling and decided to ask him a question. How was he to make her think he had been listening? "Hm," he agreed, hoping that was enough.
"See, Ed, I told you Severus would agree with me!" she gloated to Dinah's father, her brother, and then turned back to Severus. "So your child will spend two weeks with us every summer."
"What?" he demanded. That was what he had agreed to? "How did-"
"We're back," Dinah smiled, settling down into her seat again, putting a much-appreciated space in-between himself and Aunt Mildred. "Lucy just loved the little room we had bewitched for them. She was so happy."
"Probably much happier now that they're alone, especially since the groom was so anxious earlier," Aunt Mildred teased, winking.
Larry groaned; "Mum, stop."
"What? It isn't as though it's some kind of secret," she waved her son off.
"Is the wedding over yet?" Severus asked his wife. He didn't need to listen to Aunt Mildred babbling at him and he didn't need her making decisions about their unborn child and he most certainly didn't need to hear her talking about Lucy and Sirius having sex, which they knew plenty about already given the pair's own inability to keep quiet on the subject. "We still have to walk your relatives to their Muggle vehicles and it is surely dark by now."
Dinah nodded; "All right. It's starting to slow up here; I think we can make a quiet escape."
"Good," he replied, standing. At least his wife could be merciful towards him sometimes. Really, he understood what she was trying to do, get him used to Aunt Mildred, but he could only take so much and at least she seemed to understand that.
The woman in concern sighed dramatically, "Oh, all right, I suppose we should be getting back home anyway."
"Yes, your home, not ours," Ed told his sister, who just rolled her eyes at him. The more he saw of their interactions, the more Severus pitied his father-in-law, who seemed eternally exasperated by his over-the-top sibling. Winston, on the other hand, was very quiet. Almost too quiet, although the few times he'd put his foot down he'd proven to have the most control over his wife than any of them. Why he didn't use it more often, Severus could not guess.
"Give Lucy and Sirius our best again," Dahlia told Dinah, "and thank them again for inviting is. It was so nice of them to do so. I'm still surprised they did."
Dinah smiled, "You'll find Lucy is a very affectionate person. Obviously she took a great liking to all of you that time you walked back to your cars with her after our wedding." Her eyes glinted mischievously, "Although, apparently in your conversations the taboo subject of Dad's old flame, the infamous Florenci-"
"That's enough, dear!" Severus's mother-in-law held up a hand, flushed with indignance but smiling slightly as her husband and Dinah laughed; "Honestly, you all insist on ragging me about that so much!"
Severus cracked a smile. He enjoyed watching Dinah and her mother tease each other. He often wished he could have had the same kind of relationship with his family that she had with hers. But it had been impossible, unfortunately. Still, he had the opportunity to change things with his own, when the baby was born, and he hoped he could do it right…
"Well, let's go," Aunt Mildred was saying. "Larry, dear, would you like to go and say hello to the girl who caught the bouquet?"
"I really don't think that's necessary," Dinah's cousin grumbled, and Severus scowled at the thought of going over and communicating with Granger. It was bad enough that she would apparently be taking over Dinah's class for a while when the baby was born.
Dinah shook her head. "No, I think we should just escape quietly," she repeated for emphasis. "Severus has had enough Weasleys and Potters and Grangers to last a lifetime, I think."
Severus felt a wave of gratitude towards Dinah for her comment. Her understanding was one of the best things about their relationship. Not only that, but she was absolutely stunning in her bridesmaid's dress, despite the fact that it was red and gold. He almost wanted to go and dance with her again, but it was more important that they get their relatives – because they were his relatives now too – out of here so that he could take her back to their rooms for the night. Back to their quiet life together… even if it was punctuated by annoying appetite issues.
Not only that, but the cut of her dress in the front was…
"Sev?" Dinah said, cracking an amused smile; "You're staring at me."
He cleared his throat and slipped an arm around her waist; "Yes. Sorry. Let's go." He could look at her dress all he wanted later. Though it would probably spend most of the night in a heap on the floor. He had to admit though, Lucy definitely had good taste.
"Do we really have to go?" Lucy asked, looking around her snow-covered bower that had served as the location of her honeymoon.
"Probably," Sirius said, lounging on the bed, "Especially if you want to teach your students."
Lucy sighed, "I suppose you're right. You think it's late enough that we can sneak back without getting caught?" They hadn't planned on staying here so they were stuck with only their wedding clothes to wear back to her…their rooms.
"If I say no will you come back to bed?"
"No," she giggled, "Even though I don't want to we have to go back to the real world sometime and I'd prefer to do it late at night rather than rushing around tomorrow morning."
"All right," he said, heaving himself out of bed. Together they snuck out of the room, leaving the forest behind. Sirius carried Lucy's blue shoes and she held up her skirt, their free hands clasped together. They had one more flight of stairs to go down when they came across Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris, prowling the hallway.
They stared at each other, Filch inspecting the couple. The older man didn't say anything. Really, what was there to say? They weren't students caught out of bed after hours. Filch sniffed and turned to go down another hall, muttering something neither of them could hear.
Sirius and Lucy looked at each other and laughed. Their laughter continued as they ran the rest of the way to their home. Closing the door behind them, they leaned against the wall, trying to catch their breath.
"So," Sirius said, looking around rooms that hadn't changed all that much since last year, "this is where I live now?"
"This is where you live now," Lucy confirmed.
"Aren't you getting up?" Lucy asked Monday morning, as she stood in front of the mirror doing her hair.
"Wasn't planning on it," her husband said, putting his hands behind his head as he watched her. "I don't have anything to do today."
"You don't even want to come up to breakfast?" She didn't mean to whine, it was early after all, but she'd been looking forward to eating breakfast with him in front of everyone.
"Lucy?" he asked, sitting up, "Is there something going on?"
She sniffed. Darn hormones. "No, nothing. It's just Minerva set aside a chair for you. It's been sitting there empty all week and…" she plopped down on the end of the bed and started wiping her eyes as tears started to sneak out. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry. I'm really not that upset. It's just…these stupid hormones."
"Hey," Sirius said, reaching for her, "it's okay. If you want me to come to breakfast, I'll come to breakfast. It would, after all, be our first one together as a married couple."
She smiled and laughed a little, her tears drying up, "What about those pancakes we had yesterday?"
"That doesn't count. It was two in the afternoon, hardly breakfast."
Again Lucy giggled, "You'll come then?"
"Of course." He brushed a few remaining tears from her cheeks and got out of bed to dress.
They were a little late to breakfast, but Lucy didn't care. She couldn't keep the smile off her face as they entered the room, again holding hands. A part of her felt it was a little odd that she needed to touch him all the time again, but the reasons were different this time. It had nothing to do with a fear of him disappearing; she just wanted to touch him.
The couple entered the Hall to a round of applause and students offering their congratulations again as they passed on their way to the head table. It was a relief to know that when they sat down Slughorn wouldn't be regaling Sirius with tales of his family, but instead they'd have the quiet presence of Eugene. All around them people smiled at them, giggling a little as the newlyweds held hands while eating. It made things a little more difficult for Sirius who was forced to eat with his left hand, but he didn't seem any more interested in letting go of her than Lucy did of him.
Lucy grew a little panicked when she realized she hadn't taken her anti-nausea potion since the day before the wedding. She felt fine though, and continued to feel fine throughout the meal. Maybe the nerves had played a larger part in that then she'd realized.
She waved at Dinah and Severus as the other couple left a little early, presumably to head to their classrooms.
"Class first thing?" Sirius asked, putting down his fork.
"Yes," she told him, "I won't have a break until about three, but I'll see you here for lunch?"
"And dinner too," he assured her.
"Oh. I was thinking we could have dinner back in our rooms. You know, take advantage of these pent up hormones?"
Sirius got that look in his eyes that appeared when there was the prospect of sex. Then Eugene cleared this throat.
"Sorry," Lucy apologized, blushing.
"Quite all right," said Eugene, who looked a little red himself.
"Professor Ketteridge?" Agrona asked, raising her hand during Lucy's second class of the day. "Oh! I'm sorry. I mean Professor Black?"
Lucy grinned, this wasn't the first time she'd had to go through this today and it wasn't likely to be the last. "It's going to take us all sometime to get used to my new name. I'm not going to deduct points or anything for calling me Ketteridge."
"Well," Agrona said, standing, "I'm sure you've been getting this all day, but well, we all talked and we just wanted to say thank you for letting us come to your reception. And Mr. Black too of course. We," she motioned to all the seventh years in the class, "wanted to get you something but we didn't know what you needed…"
"Oh," she said, touched that her students wanted to do such a thing for her and Sirius. Of course that meant her hormones started up again and her eyes started to tear up. "You don't have to do that. I appreciate that you'd want to but it's fine. We don't really need anything and I'm sure we'd both rather you all save your money for yourselves."
Agrona sat down without comment but somehow Lucy didn't think she'd succeeded in discouraging them from spending their hard earned money on her.
