Challenge # 19: New Year's Eve Challenge. Please include: 1) a spell or potion that has not worked as intended, 2) alcoholic beverage of some type, 3) a kiss at midnight…of course.
Title: Time Flows Ever Onward
Rating: PG
Pairing: MM/SS
Author's Note: While not officially a part of my ongoing "duel" with the talented "bleodswean" on LiveJournal, this piece was inspired by her desire to have me just go write more of this pairing while waiting for her response to one of my official pieces. :) So I did, incorporating it into this challenge.
"Time Flows Ever Onward"
Severus Snape entered his quarters just before midnight with a vial of potion in his hand and a black scowl on his face. The room was warm and inviting with the faint strains of music in the air and a silver bucket containing a bottle of wine sitting next to two crystal goblets on a table by the fire just awaiting his presence to complete the setting.
Minerva McGonagall rose from her chair by the fire with a nervous expression on her face and turned to confront her obviously troubled lover. Her heart beat madly from worry at the look on his face. Confrontation seemed the right word indeed…unfortunately.
She licked her lips nervously and then decided to brave his ire. Nodding towards the vial clutched tightly in his hand she asked, "Is that the potion, Severus?"
He glared at her and thrust the vial roughly into her hands. "Yes, of course it is. I promised that I'd brew it for you, and I did. I shouldn't have, though." He turned his back on her abruptly and paced over and stood looking down into the dancing flames as she held the vial awkwardly and simply stared at his stiff back.
"Take it at your own risk. I found my attention wandering so often during its creation that I can't guarantee that it's properly made." His voice was harsh and strained.
"I can't imagine you not brewing something correctly. You never make mistakes with potions," she retorted as calmly as she could.
He turned and stared at her with a pained expression. "I don't usually have so much emotionally invested in a potion, Minerva. I…if you insist on taking it, you should do it somewhere else. I don't want to see the results."
They stared wordlessly at each other for a few moments, then she looked down at the vial and spoke softly. "I thought you'd be happy to brew this for me, Severus. This certainly isn't the effect I expected when I suggested the idea. I only wanted to do it for you."
That statement caused him to leave the fireplace in an instant and move to her side grabbing her roughly by the arms and forcing her to raise her face to his in surprise. "For me? No." His frustration made his tone seem angry. "It's not for me. It's for you…only you. You refuse to listen to me! I've told you what I want but you do not believe me. If I wanted to caress skin like untouched porcelain rather than the warm living skin of a woman then that's what I'd pursue, but I haven't…doesn't that mean anything to you? Why must you doubt my word? You have gotten it into your head that I don't want you…but some image of youth that you can't provide for me. No matter how I've tried I simply cannot get you to see that that is not the truth. So go ahead…take the youth potion if you wish…experience a few hours of illusion…if that's what you truly want. I want no part of it."
She stared up at him in bewilderment. "I don't understand…why…"
He tightened his grip until his fingers were digging painfully into her skin. "Why?" he exclaimed intensely. "Why would I want you to be the woman you are and not some ghost of the woman you were?"
He paused and glanced away from her trembling form for a moment and then looked back and captured her gaze once more with his burning eyes. "Once when I was little more than a child I thought I'd fallen in love with my teacher. I was wrong though…I didn't know what love was…couldn't possibly have known, yet through many years of pain and emotional turmoil I continued to feel so much for you that I couldn't ever express…or even admit to myself…and my feelings have continued to grow. Time has forged our relationship, Minerva. For all its ups and downs it has brought us to be the people we are today…to have the feelings that we do today. I would not banish the years because they have made you the woman you are now…and I…I love that woman…no other. Can't you understand that?"
Her eyes filled with tears at this honest declaration from his heart that she never thought to hear from his lips. Though she would never have tried to beg such an admission from him…his offering of it was all that she'd ever wanted to hear. Without another word, she dropped the vial unheeded on the floor and wrapped her arms tightly around him. As the clock began to chime out the end of the old year, their lips met in anticipation of the new one as time marched on.
