Chapter 11: Secret Lovers
It was hard, very hard, for Amarana to act as if she and Snape were nothing more than student and teacher. She felt that every time she looked at him, her love and longing were written all over her face and she was sure Snape avoided looking at her for that very reason. Throughout all her classes, every meal, every evening in the Slytherin common room, Amarana thought of Snape.
She hardly paid attention to anything her friends were talking about, preferring to put all her energies into thinking of her lover and doing her homework. She still made it a priority to do better than Granger in every subject, feeling that Snape would be very disappointed if she allowed a Mudblood to do better than she . . . especially one who was Potter's friend.
She had completely forgotten about Draco's kiss, until a few days after the Hogsmeade visit when she realized he wasn't talking to her. Amarana felt horrible, especially since she had counted him as her best friend. To her surprise, however, a week before Christmas holidays began; Draco began to talk to her again, acting as if the kiss and subsequent ignoring never happened. He was looking even sicklier than before, and was disappearing for even longer periods of time. It was something that kept nagging at her mind, even through her euphoria about Snape.
The Quidditch match that evening was an example of Draco's odd behavior. Draco, insisting he was too sick to play, stayed up in the dormitory with Antonin Vaisley, who couldn't play, either. Antonin had a bad head injury from being hit with a Bludger at the practice the day before, which earned him a bed rest order from Madam Pomfrey and an earful of criticism from Snape. It seemed odd to Amarana that Snape would hound Antonin and not Draco. It was also strange that instead of looking worried, Pansy had a strange, knowing look on her face as she and the others went down to the Quidditch stands.
All thoughts of Draco went away the moment Snape entered the stands, coming to sit next to Amarana in the back row. The quick glance he gave her was full of longing and repressed desire. "Miss Ravinike," he said quietly, his eyes boring into her. "Misses Marron, Greene, Parkinson, Corpus-Addelston, and Slaherly." The others murmured their greetings, surprised that Snape was sitting beside them. Amarana shot Snape a sly sideways smile as a thought entered her mind.
"Articulus Psyche," she thought, aiming her wand at Snape under her robes.
"Merlin, Amarana!" Snape said as she touched his consciousness. "The ability to communicate telepathically is a feat only the most highly advanced wizards are capable!" He gave her a purely appreciative glance. "Why are you still in school?"
"I'm not that smart or else I would have thought of this before," Amarana said with a shrug. "Anyway, my love, I'm worried about Draco."
She told him all her concerns, and then waited for an answer. To her chagrin, all Snape did was keep his gaze on the field, watching as the Slytherin captain, Ralphidius Urquhart and the Gryffindor captain, Potter, shake hands as if they desperately wanted to break each other's bones.
"Why isn't Draco playing today?" Amarana insisted.
Snape kept his eyes on the game. "He's ill, Rana."
She coughed. "He's been looking more and more ill all this year, like I told you," she said. "And he just keeps looking worse."
Snape said nothing, curling his lip in irritation as he watched Ginny Weasley score a goal for Gryffindor.
"Aren't you concerned?" Amarana prodded. "Pansy keeps going on about 'current Slytherins being Death Eaters' . . . but that's impossible, isn't it? Draco couldn't be working for the Dark Lord, right?"
To her amazement, Snape's fists clenched tightly. "Stupid boy," he murmured, his black eyes glinting in anger.
"What do you mean, stupid boy?" Amarana asked, shocked. "It can't possibly be true! Draco couldn't be a Death Eater!"
He glanced over at her, fists unclenching slowly. "Of course not, my darling," he said, a little too soothingly for Amarana's taste. "There is one character trait of Draco's I am sure you must be familiar with. The boy has a tendency to be a braggart."
Amarana frowned. "The only things he brags about are things that are true. He's not one to brag about just anything, Severus. How dare you talk about him that way?"
"I see you care a lot about Malfoy," Snape retorted angrily. "Soon I'll be hearing you say you are in love with him."
"That's ridiculous," she answered haughtily. "I would be as worried if Pansy or Delilah began acting the same way!" She snorted audibly. "Would you then say I was in love with one of them?"
"Forgive me," Snape answered finally. "Having never had friends, I can assure you, I have absolutely no idea how to act towards them."
Amarana dropped her gaze into her lap and said nothing. After sitting in silence for several minutes, Snape finally reached out and touched her hand gently. She didn't move.
"If it pleases you, Amarana, I will look into it," Snape said, glancing over at her with a resentful look as he drew his hand away.
"It would please me, Severus," Amarana said quietly. She gave him a knowing glance from underneath her lashes. "Severus?"
He glanced at her, his eyes still angry.
"Draco is my friend, nothing more. You have no reason to be . . . well . . . no reason to think otherwise." Amarana watched as the wrinkles in his forehead disappeared.
"Having never been in love before you, I obviously don't know how to treat a woman," he told her wryly. "Forgive me, love. Your compassion for your friends only makes me the more in love with you."
She smiled up at him with a look in her eyes that made him shudder with desire. Her tongue moved across her lips and she blinked slowly. "You want me to be wholly yours, don't you, Severus?"
He nodded, his gaze on her lovely mouth.
"Of course I am all yours, Severus Snape. Of course I belong to you and you alone. Don't you know that, my love?" Her lips parted slightly and she smiled.
Snape nodded again.
"I only want you."
He said nothing, and after a minute or two she glanced up at him. His eyes were blazing with an intense heat that made her want to crawl into his lap there in front of everyone. Amarana clenched her hands together to keep them from touching him.
"Merlin, how much I love you . . . my Rana."
She met his gaze.
"I want you so . . . my Severus."
The crowd surrounding them broke into cheers as they watched David Harper, Draco's replacement for Seeker, pull into a steep dive. The Slytherin spectators all watched as Potter followed Harper, watching with their breath held as Harper fumbled the Snitch, giving the win to Gryffindor. Loud boos and shouts of disbelief rang out all around them. The wrinkles in Snape's brow returned, his expression grew livid. He stood up and stomped down to the field to yell at Harper.
A few days after the Quidditch match, Amarana was sitting in the Slytherin common room with Draco, Delilah, Nott, and Blaise, relaxing after a hard batch of end of term tests. The others had left a few days early for the holiday vacation, something many students were doing that year. They were sitting in silence, watching the fire crackle, when one of the Slytherin first years approached them timidly.
"What do you want?" Draco asked harshly, raising his head from Amarana's shoulder where he had been dozing.
"Th . . . these are for . . . Miss Amarana and . . . Mr. . . . . Mr. Blaise," she whispered timidly.
Amarana and Blaise took the proffered scrolls from the girl and watched with amusement as she scurried away, a terrified look on her face. Blaise rolled his eyes as he read the contents.
"What is it?" Delilah asked.
"An invitation to Slughorn's Christmas party," Blaise said in a bored tone.
Amarana rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "Miss Ravinike," she read. "I would like to invite you to my Christmas party, which will be held tomorrow evening at eight, in my office. You may bring one guest. Hope to see you there! Professor H. E. F. Slughorn." She laughed. "It amazes me, how much of a kiss-arse Slughorn can be. Of course, I admit, he could be useful as a contact, once I've graduated and I may need something, but really. Slughorn should stick to kissing the arses of the Mudbloods and blood-traitors of the school. They're the ones who will need him most."
"He got Gwenog Jones her position with the Harpies," Delilah pointed out.
"True," Amarana said thoughtfully, tapping her chin with her fingertip. "But he's just so . . ."
Blaise rolled his eyes. "I understand completely, Rana. He's a great wizard and all, you have to give him that. It's just that he's . . ."
"Not what one is used to," Delilah finished. "Our families would never be so . . ."
"Bloody embarrassing," Blaise said, raising his eyebrow at Delilah. "You aren't going, are you, Rana?"
Amarana shrugged. "I don't know. Probably not."
"Why not, Rana?" Delilah asked. "You might meet some interesting people. I heard some of the teachers say that there would be a famous author there, as well as someone from the Weird Sisters. That's why most of the teachers are going . . . and why Sluggy didn't have the party when most students would be here. You wouldn't necessarily have to stick with him the entire evening."
"Well there won't be anyone Rana wants to meet there," Draco said with a snort. "Of course she won't go."
"Exactly Draco," Blaise agreed. "But if you do decide to go, Rana, I'd be happy to go with you."
Draco glared at him.
"I'd go, if I wasn't leaving," Delilah commented before Draco could say anything. "And if I had an invitation."
Nott nodded. "Yeah, I'm supposed to leave tomorrow, but I could stay another day if someone invited me . . ." He glanced hopefully up at Amarana.
She ignored him. "Draco, do you want to go?"
"I can't. I've got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow," Draco answered, looking nervous.
"Like what? The term's over!" Delilah answered, staring at him with surprise.
Draco shrugged.
"You know," Amarana remarked, looking at Draco thoughtfully. "Maybe I will go. Tomorrow, everyone who's not staying will be gone, so it won't be much fun here anyway. Draco will be busy, as he said before, and I don't want to be stuck here entirely by myself until I absolutely have to."
Blaise looked at Amarana with triumph. "So I guess we can go together," he said.
"Yes . . ." Amarana answered slowly. She grinned wickedly at him. "But just as friends, remember that, mister."
Blaise's grin faded a little. "Understood," he said with a sigh. Draco looked slightly mollified.
"Well, I need my beauty sleep," Amarana said, standing up.
"Me too," Delilah yawned. "See you boys when next term starts."
