A/N: Here we have a slight expansion on Dinah and Severus's wedding night, but the main attraction is the scene after the divider, which is exclusive to this bonus story :D


FROM: CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY – Joined


"Shall we see then..." Severus teased, his fingers wandering down to the top button on her dress; "how these shiny buttons of yours work?"

She giggled; "I've been looking forward to giving you a taste of your own medicine, I must admit."

"Hmm," he frowned, pretending to struggle with each button very slowly; "quite difficult."

"You joke about it now, but wait until you get to the third one," she grumbled, reaching up to fumble with his own buttons.

"I remind you," he took a break from her buttons to lower his lips to her neck, "you were the one that insisted I get said buttons on my dress robes."

"Well, they're frustrating but sexy. I confess it's a dilemma," she murmured, closing her eyes as his lips caressed her skin, thin and soft and talented. He released her neck and instead kissed her lips, reaching to carefully remove her veil and slide his hands through her hair as he climbed on top of her, and she felt him growing against her. Oh yes, he was going to be very frustrated with her buttons soon.

"Severus," she murmured, sliding one hand through his hair as the other freed his infamous third button; "Should we use a protection spell?"

"Hm," he paused, lifting his head to watch her with consideration. A slight smile formed; "People generally don't on their wedding nights, correct?"

"Well, not traditionally," she admitted.

His smile grew; "I have considered this. Perhaps the best method is simply to let nature take its course and let what happens happen. That is, if you weren't opposed to the idea."

Dinah felt a blush rising in her cheeks and a small smile form and she shook her head; "I'm not opposed. I mean, maybe you're right and this is the best thing to do. For all we know nothing could happen for years or ever. And yet if it did, and we are both open to the idea..."

"Open. Yes. Quite open," he admitted, and she felt her blush deepen as he kissed her; "And given your concern about our ages there is, I don't think, any reason to wait. As you say, it is possible nothing could happen. Therefore, simply seeing where things take us seems the most logical choice."

Looping her arms around her husband's neck, Dinah teased; "Oh-so-logical. You know, I think your third house must be Ravenclaw."

"Likely yours as well, my love," he responded, working some more of her buttons free; "You are quite intelligent. After all, you grasped today's weather patterns much more easily than I did."

"Oh, hush!" Dinah laughed, squirming a little as he freed enough buttons to lower his lips to the bottom of her collarbone, her chosen lingerie just slightly revealed to him; his hand took hers and guided it to rest on his bulging trousers and she did not try to tease him about it, rather stroked the spot to elicit a tantalizing growl of pleasure from him; "You know-" she gasped as his hands traveled along her waist and down to her thighs, reaching under her skirt. He would find the garter soon. "I still think it's so fascinating that we share second and third houses but our first and last are completely opposite."

"What was the popular phrase?" his eyes widened briefly when he stumbled upon the garter, and then he slowly smiled, reaching his other hand under her skirt to grasp it with both.

"Opposites, um... match?"

"Attract," he chuckled, leaning forward to kiss her lips as his fingers caressed her thigh; "But 'match' is as good as anything. Especially for us," he whispered, his lips smiling against hers as he removed the garter. He drew back long enough to inspect the object in his fingers; "Interesting. Am I to assume there is more of this under... there?" he tossed the garter aside and rested his hand between her breasts, sliding it down underneath the still-unbuttoned shirt to caress one.

"Yes," she murmured, arching her back into the caress; "Much, much more of it."

"Not too much more, I hope," he laughed, the sound warm and inviting and arousing. Dinah had no choice but to shift to a kneeling position and crawl forward, wrapping her legs around his and rocking against him as she unbuttoned the rest of his shirt, soothing both of their desires a bit as they tried to unwrap each other.

"Do you like the buttons?" she asked after awhile.

"I love the buttons," he admitted, his tongue tracing her ear as she massaged his hair and neck with her fingers; "As long as you remain against me like this while I undo them."

"I could be nowhere else," she admitted softly, pressing her lips into his neck; "Ever."

"I know," he murmured, his tongue taking a short break as he wrapped his arms around her; "I love you, Dinah Snape."

"I love you, too, Severus. You are my life."

"As you are mine," he drew back to kiss her, his hands drifting over the finally revealed lingerie; "Beautiful..." he murmured against her lips.

She blushed; "Severus..."

His smile was teasingly light as he rested his forehead against hers; "Shall I attempt to take it off?"

"Please," she agreed, her hands sliding across his bare chest; "You're not shiny anymore."

"I can live with that," he laughed, leaning forward so he had her pinned flat on the bed, removing her dress the rest of the way as she removed his trousers and pants. Next his fingers removed the lingerie and he came into her, joining her, them completing each other, their whispered names on each others' lips as they united.

Married.

Peaceful.

Not alone anymore.


"Do we really have to do this?" Severus demanded, glaring out at the water.

"I keep telling you," Dinah laughed; "You'll like it once you're in the water."

"What is the purpose of stripping down to near-nudity and frolicking around in water? We are not fish! We have legs and not gills for a reason, Dinah."

"Honestly, one little swim?" she laughed, wrapping her arms around her husband's waist. "This is our honeymoon. It's supposed to be like a vacation. And we waited until nightfall, what more do you want? I demand that we go swimming! Besides, we won't be stopping at near-nudity," she nipped at his ear.

"If you wanted to have sex in water the bathtub should have been sufficient," he continued to glare out at the pond.

"I'm used to bathtubs. We need to broaden our horizons, love."

"Freezing... cold... pond..." he snarled.

Dinah laughed again; "If you're going to be that squeamish you can heat the water with magic, darling. But it would taint the... 'naturalness' of things."

"Naturalness is not a word."

"Sorry, I'm a bad third-house Ravenclaw," she lifted her hands to his frock coat and began undoing the buttons, slowly, one by one; "As my husband," she whispered in his ear, causing him to flush; "you should humor my whims. I humor yours, Mr. Shoe Fetish."

"You are impossible and I do not have a shoe fetish," he growled, kissing her. "Fine. We will 'swim'. But we will not stay long."

"Fair enough. I doubt it will take long, anyway," she pushed his frock coat from his shoulders and used her wand to make quick work of the remainder of his clothing, leaving him in his pants; "Never thought I'd see you in a swimsuit," she grinned.

"My normal pants are not a swimsuit, Dinah."

"That's all right. Neither is this," she removed her bathrobe to reveal the green and silver Slytherin lingerie she had bought with Lucy on Monday; "Almost looks like a bikini though, doesn't it?"

"Mmm," his eyes flashed with desire as his hands reached down to rest on her waist; "If we're going to do this we should start now."

"Point taken," she smiled, prancing teasingly away from him and running into the pond, jumping in at once to take on the cold in one easy swoop. She shrieked as she resurfaced; "You're right, it is freezing cold. Come on!"

The death glare he gave her was unsurpassed; "You did not say you were going to rush in without me!" he hissed.

"Aww, I'm sorry sweetheart," she cooed teasingly; "But I was only nice yesterday. Today I begin messing with you again. Did I forget to tell you?"

"You... you..." he sputtered his annoyance; "I am not going in there!"

"Oh... really?" she reached down and removed her bikini bottom, lifting it up to show him; "Now are you not coming in?"

He growled and his 'swimsuit' visibly expanded; "You dare remove that on your own? I thought the purpose of this was to-"

"If you don't come in I'm removing the top on my own, too."

"FINE!" he bit out, taking a hesitant step towards the water. And then another. Dinah began humming the 'Jeopardy!' theme song and he glared at her again; "Why are you singing?"

"Ah, my silly Sev, so ignorant of the Muggle world," she teased, lifting her hands to take the strap on her left shoulder and teasingly lower it down onto her upper arm.

"Stop that!" He was getting as flustered as child Severus. It was adorable, so Dinah did the same with her other arm. "You insolent little-!"

She laughed; "I can always put the items back on, you know."

"I don't know that I'll have enough patience for that," he muttered, eyeing her bare shoulders as he dipped a hesitant toe into the water. He hissed and pulled it back, his expanded pants, unfortunately, shrinking a little; "Are you mad?"

"Probably. But I promise if you just get in here the cold shower effect will vanish. You've just got to get used to it, like me. Jump in all at once. It's how all the best of us do it."

"The best of what?"

"People who actually enjoy swimming, silly."

"Unreasonable, strange people," he snarled, dipping his foot in. The cold shower effect intensified and he gave her a skeptical, annoyed look, but she beckoned for him to keep coming.

By the time his shins were half-buried in water he was entirely focused on glaring at the liquid and was pretty much not in the mood anymore. But Dinah was confident that would not last as soon as she got him in here. But he seemed to be frozen in place.

Sighing, she walked forward, not putting on her bottom as she emerged from the water, and he at least managed to look up at the sight. Grasping his arm, she pulled, and the floor of the pond was slippery enough that he couldn't plant his feet to resist her, and followed tumbling into the water with a growl of protest.

Dinah had to laugh at the splash he made. He righted himself with a vicious glare at her, flinging strands of wet, greasy-black hair out of his face; "This is the last time I EVER agree to do something like this, do you hear me? It is freezing in here! And you are standing there looking amused!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't help it if your reactions are amusing," she grinned, but tried as best as she could to soften it; "See? Coming all the way in is better, isn't it?"

"I don't know. I think I'm numb," he glared down at where he had wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Really?" she brushed her toe against his and his head jerked back to her, the lust returning to his eyes just a little bit. She crept closer to him and stood on her toes, forcing his arms from around his waist – he made a point of grumbling about this – and letting hers take their place as she kissed him, lifting one hand to brush the backs of her fingers against his cheek as her tongue traced his lips. When his hands reached down to grasp her bottom and pull her against him she had a feeling he was glad she had forced his hands free. That and his light growl of pleasure in combination with his 'swimsuit' bulging against her once more had her thinking he wasn't so cold anymore.

"I still think the bathtub would be more reasonable," he grumbled, his fingers lifting to tug at the bra straps she had lowered to her arms, pushing them down further before he thought better of it and instead undid the front clasp, then pushed the bra from her shoulders, his hands caressing her breasts as their tongues danced together.

"We can't stand up in the bathtub," she breathed when they took a break; "Well, we can, but we can't stand up and be completely submerged."

"Magic could certainly be used, but you seem to prefer to do things 'naturally'." He smirked; "I just thought of something."

She blinked; "Yes?"

"Aren't you the one who always says magic is caused by 'natural' energies?"

Dinah growled; "Oh, you think you're going to win this one, do you?"

"I admit the argument is a good one. You should admit it, too," he reached down between her legs. She gasped and rubbed herself against him, letting herself get as wet as possible before they did this, or else it wouldn't work properly.

Dinah made quick work of his pants, trailing her hands down over his legs to pull them off and then stroking him in turn, both of them aware that they had to make this quick; "I admit you make a point," she purred, pressing her lips to his collarbone and listening to the satisfied noise he made, both because she had allowed him a small victory and because of what their hands were currently doing to each other. She grinned and lifted her head to meet his dark eyes; "However, I have a counter-argument all ready for you."

"Oh?" he growled, lifting her left knee up and pulling her tight against him to enter her; "That's not all you have all ready for me, is it?"

"Mmmm, you found me out," she groaned, wrapping the left leg of concern around him as he thrust into her. She let her right leg remain planted on the ground to offer them some stability. Sex standing up without a wall for support was not so easy.

He groaned along with her as she met his thrusts and they intensified; "Your... counter-argument?"

"Ah... yes... well..." she managed between gasps, hardly believing they were holding such a conversation at this time. But it was fun; " 'Natural' is a challenging word to define. One definition may be 'without human interference' and I think that's the definition I normally... imply... in these sort of... situations..."

"Mmm?"

"But a deeper definition of 'natural' may be 'everything that exists', in which case even Muggle technology is natural because ultimately it is all derived from natural items and energies as well, such as metals and ... ahh, electricity!" she hummed out that last word as she felt herself approaching climax.

"Appropriate word, for the moment," he admitted against her lips, laughing; "So the ... ah, normal... energies you are talking about ..."

"Well, I meant the first definition, in which case magic is energies manipulated by humans to do things they wouldn't do on their... own... Severus!" she shrieked as they both slipped on the bottom of the lake and went tumbling backwards into the water at the exact same time as they released.

She was laughing when they resurfaced and he was as well. Which was good because she had half-expected him to be growling again. But he was clearly used to the water by now; "Are you sufficiently satisfied that we expanded our horizons now?" he asked.

Giggling, she pushed a few strands of wet hair out of her face and nodded; "I think so. Well, that was interesting anyway. I'd try it again, though."

"Maybe," he grudgingly admitted.

Dinah laughed; "Well, now we can just play around, right?" she splashed him.

That got him to growl; "Dinah! Do not- Dinah!" he raised his hands when she splashed him again. Then he tackled her back into the water, but she easily slipped away from him, having much more experience with this than he did. He growled some more and chased after her as she ran up the embankment, finally catching her waist when she was about halfway up the bank and sending them tumbling in a heap onto the slippery mud.

She sighed, adjusting onto her side to face him; "Now I'm all dirty."

"Hmm, you could always use magic to clean yourself," Severus offered.

Dinah smiled, reaching to brush some hair out of his face and rest her hand on his cheek; "I could," she leaned across to kiss him and then folded her hands comfortably beneath her ear as if she was about to go to sleep, grinning playfully at him; "So, in conclusion..."

"Yes?" he raised a perfect eyebrow.

"Sometimes I don't like to interfere with things at all, rather leave them just as they are."

He laughed; "All that debate just for that conclusion?"

"Mm, well you started it."

Severus just smirk-smiled in response and Dinah closed her eyes. No, she was not going to fall asleep out here, but just relaxing comfortably for a moment and taking in the visceral sensations around them, the pond water lapping at their feet, close to each other in the comfortable night air, was wonderful. His contented sigh next to her, also, brought about the feeling that they were at peace and had an endless happy future ahead of them.