This chapter is a little longer than usual, but it is full of vaguely important bits and (hopefully) super-sweet entertainment value, so don't go skipping over it. The shit, it gets so real you can smell it. ...I think I'll use a different metaphor next time.

Chapter Thirteen: Explosive

I was awake at six. This was important. It was important because Severus usually woke me at six and I constantly resisted, grabbing snatches of extra sleep whenever I could. But Severus wasn't with me, seeing as I was back in my old quarters, and my waking up at six could be ascribed only to the inhumanly early night I'd gotten. It wasn't my fault I just slept when I didn't have anything better to do though. It was an admirable quality, really. I'm sure very many people would be extremely jealous of it. A sharp knock at the door roused me from my stupor and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion momentarily. Who on earth would be knocking at the door? Who knew I was there? Only Ana, really, and it was hard to believe she'd be wanting to come and study at half past six on a Monday. I stumbled sleepily over and swung open the door to see McGonagall walking swiftly away. At the sound of the door opening, though, she turned, and a look of intense relief spread across her face.

"Raphaela," she said, walking back towards me. "What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm just standing here," I said defensively. "What are you doing, more like."

"Ten minutes ago Severus comes storming into my office trying to round up a posse, for Merlin's sake." She even looked annoyed with me now, and I felt somewhat sheepish, though I still couldn't make head nor tails of what she was talking about. "Eventually I got him to agree to wait half an hour, and if I couldn't find you by then, we'd rally the troops, so to speak."

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded. She took my by the arm and started leading me away from my lovely warm bed in the direction of her office. I was still in the tank top and shorts and it was cold, damn it.

"There isn't time to explain everything to you, Raphaela. Merlin, sometimes I think you're as thick-headed as Severus always says." How rude! We'd see who was stupid when… when… well, I couldn't think of an ending to that. But it was still rude. I followed her a surprisingly short distance to her office, where Severus was sitting very tensely in a hard-backed chair. McGonagall moved around to her chair behind the desk and glowered at the both of us. "She was in her old quarters, Severus, and I'm surprised you didn't think to check that before involving me. I don't know what's going on here and quite frankly I don't want to know, but you two need to learn to resolve your disputes without my assistance. Severus, I have recovered your wife. I suggest both of you leave my office this instant."

We complied instantly, Severus storming out angrily and me slinking sheepishly. I'd always hated getting McGonagall mad when I was a student, and when she was my boss it was no different. The cold stone was freezing my feet numb so I walked as quickly as I could back down to the dungeons, and incidentally that just so happened to be keeping up with Severus' storm. I was somewhat out of breath by the time we got back to his place, and as I dove onto the bed to plunge my icy feet under the blankets, Severus slammed the door shut and turned to glare at me.

"Quit that, I'm the one who should be glaring," I said roughly, waiting for my feet to warm. It was taking a stupidly long time. "You're the one who got McGonagall involved just because I wasn't here."

"Exactly, Raphaela," Severus said, still glaring daggers at me. "You said you were going out and then you didn't return by the morning. I was not to know you were simply hiding out in the castle."

"And where was I going to go when I was barefoot in my sleep stuff?" I said in a condescending tone. So I was trying to make him feel as stupid as he always made me feel, I admit it. We weren't nearly equal in that regard. "Besides, we both know that you only freaked out because you're so completely insecure. You know I only want you, but you still freak out just because you imagine I'm with someone else. That's what happened, isn't it?" It wasn't really a question I wanted an answer to, I was just trying to prove a point, but he looked like he was about to spit venom, he was so enraged.

"You don't understand," he said, nearing a yell now. "You have absolutely no idea."

"What are you talking about?" I said, yelling back. Well, I wasn't about to take his raised-voice lying down, was I? Yeah, didn't think so.

"This is not about me," he roared. It was even beginning to frighten me, and I felt myself edging back to press against the bed-head, away from him. "You come home, and you're walking into doors, and you're falling on things, and you're hitting your face against things so hard you almost pass out, and you don't remember any of it in the morning." I would've opened my mouth to respond and argue, but the back of my head was pressed hard against the stone wall, my eyes were wide and my jaws were clamped shut. There was no way I was saying a word while he was like that. "Then you spend the day convulsing on the bathroom floor and walking around like a bloody Inferi, for Merlin's sake." He was still raging, storming around the room and grasping the backs of chairs so hard that his knuckles went even whiter than usual. I wondered how much he wanted to throttle me that hard. In that state, I wouldn't have put it past him, so I still didn't utter a sound. I willed myself through the wall, to somehow escape from that room, but it remained cold, hard and unyielding. I was stuck, it seemed. "You could have been dead, every night for the past three nights you could so easily have been dead. London is dangerous, even if you weren't a clumsy, drunken imbecile of a girl. Do you not comprehend that I don't want you dead? Or do you think I stay awake waiting for you just because I don't enjoy sleeping?"

He'd reached the end of his tirade, it seemed, as he was visibly winding down, like a battery had run out. He turned his head towards me, seemingly wondering why I hadn't said a word in the past three minutes (new record, I guess) and I saw a stab of realisation in his eyes. I knew what he was seeing, a terrified girl pressed hard against the wall, eyes wide as saucers and mouth slightly agape. He moved over to the bed swiftly and knelt on it, seemingly alarmed at what I looked like. I still hadn't moved a muscle, except for my eyes, which had never stopped being locked onto him. Usually if someone was angry with me I'd look away, or down at my feet, but to be honest Severus' temper frightened me. I was going to make sure I could see him at all times, in case he tried something. No, I couldn't even finish that thought. That… it wasn't the kind of thing he'd do. The kind of person I'd be married to wouldn't be the kind of person who'd do that. He made a sudden move toward me and I flinched involuntarily, causing him to retract as though he'd been slapped. He looked surprised, at what I couldn't say, but his expression softened. He moved more slowly towards me this time, and I realised that all he was going to do was to put his arms around me. He did so, gripping me so tightly I could barely breathe, but I still didn't move. I felt paralysed. Consciously, I knew that Severus loved me, that he'd never do anything to hurt me, but when someone's screaming at you, torturing chairs and making sudden movements towards you, animal instinct kicks in.

"I don't want anything to happen to you," he muttered, not letting me go. "Despite appearances… I like having you around."

"I know," I said in a monotone. I wasn't sure if I'd blinked at all. Finally, instinct left my body and rational thought became dominant once more, and I returned his vice-like grip. "Heh, good thing I didn't really know you when you were doing all that Voldemort stuff, right? Otherwise I'd be the one yelling at you to stop being such a damn fool and you'd be the one scared out of your wits." He didn't reply, he just continued with his python-esque grasp. "Then again, you don't really scare easily. I might have to put a sheet over myself so I look like a ghost to really frighten you." He still didn't reply. "But then you might just get cross with me for cutting eye-holes in a perfectly good sheet." Still nothing. "Or maybe your terrible fear of ghosts would just take over and you'd just hide under a desk while shrieking 'a g-g-g-g-g-ghost!' like on those old cartoons." Was he ever going to talk again? "Then I could be all like, 'why, Severus, you look like you've seen a ghost'. I've always wanted to say that to someone at an opportune time. Like, if I'm pretending to be a ghost. Which I will be. Pretending to be a ghost, that is. Because if there's one thing that gives you the heebie-jeebies, it's ghostly apparitions. Isn't that right?" It wasn't, obviously, but he wasn't denying it. It was beginning to weird me out. "I hear that… um… broomstick prices are pretty high. What do you think of that?" This was very odd. "Aren't you going to tell me to shutup, that my inane drivel is like a skewer to your ears?"

"Not at all," he finally said. "Drivel on."

"Then drivel on I shall!" I cried, grinning like an idiot. I could barely believe I'd been scared by this guy. He was just lovely. The loveliest of lovelies. He thought my drivel was awesome. And he was all mine, forever.