Chapter 14

A/N: Aaahh! I finally graduated, hence the delay. It's been hectic. Hopefully now I can get this story back on track!

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All of the anxious fear that had been writ across her features had subsided as she sat there staring at the smirking man lying underneath her, seeing him with new eyes. She'd just witnessed him perform magic— real, actual magic— and he was smirking up at her with the most handsomely smug expression she'd ever seen. His arms were still holding her as protectively as when he'd caught her, and a slight warmth spread over her as she realized how remarkably safe she felt in those arms. Just as soon as the thought had a moment to register, she felt his hands tense at their positions on her hip and back, causing a tiny thrill to flutter in her stomach; she watched his smirk falter as the warmth in his eyes was replaced by a gently assessing gaze. For just a moment she thought she recognized trepidation ghost across his features, but whatever she saw reflected there now was entirely inscrutable.

Severus hadn't missed the slight increase in her body temperature as she sat there staring at him with open wonder; nor had he missed the sharp dilation of her pupils as he'd suddenly become quite aware of the position of his arms around her body. Though a distant part of him tried to warn himself about the way she was looking at him, for the moment he was too thoroughly captivated with the novelty of being at the receiving end of such an ardent gaze. No woman... girl... had ever looked at him quite like that before.

He watched at she raised a tentative hand to his face, staying perfectly still as her fingers neared the skin of his cheek. Should he allow her to touch him? He would— just one touch. Surely one gentle touch couldn't hurt... as her fingers finally made contact, he winced in surprise, hissing in a small breath - it did hurt! He saw her wince apologetically in response, pulling back her hand and examining the little bit of blood on her fingertip. The scratch marks; of course. He'd forgotten to heal them.

Raising his right arm from its position around her back, he muttered a low incantation as he waved his wand across the marred flesh, watching her expression the whole time. She gasped as she watched the skin heal over, leaving only trails of drying blood behind. Impressed, she smiled at him with a look of understanding in her eyes, as if he'd just confided some great personal secret to her. She lifted her thumb to her mouth and wet it with her tongue, then moved to wipe at his face as he reeled back in discomfort. She let out one of her musical little laughs and caught his face with her other hand, holding him in place while she smeared at the blood marks. She quirked her lips when she saw the rosy hue left over from her ministrations, and he frowned in response. Now she was teasing him. He grabbed her wrist and held it away from his face as he pulled himself up, lifting her along with him. He pushed her back until they were clear of the space, then swished his wand as he conjured the couch back into place. She reached out and touched it, confirming that it was was really back.

"Where did it go?" She asked, her face beaming with curiosity.

"Into a static dimension," he casually replied, "a temporary holding place."

She considered this for a moment before asking another question. "Would it have stayed there until you called it back?"

He attempted to pull an irritated expression, but she saw the glimmer of amusement that proceeded it.

"If I hadn't conjured it within a certain amount of time, the hold on it would have faded and it would have reappeared. Unless I had vanished it entirely."

"Oh! Do that! I want to see you vanish it!" She exclaimed with excitement.

"Why would I want to do that?" He huffed, "I sleep on that couch, you silly fool."

She laughed, and the look on her face told him what was coming before she said it.

"You could always share the bed with me," she smirked.

Despite his disparaging glance, she continued smirking at him like an idiot.

"Not ten minutes ago you sat there accusing me of Satanism, convinced I was planning to murder you in some diabolical scheme— and now, after a few waves of my wand, you're ready to offer your bed to me?"

Once again his threatening tone failed to intimidate her, and he watched with dismay as her smirk only deepened into a sultry look that was entirely too genuine this time. She wasn't toying with him anymore; he recognized true attraction for him, and it was just as unnerving as it was thrilling.

"Well... maybe if you waved that wand of yours around sooner, I wouldn't have jumped to such ungenerous conclusions..."

"And just how can you be sure that I'm not a scheming Satanist with a wand? I can assure you, there are plenty of dangerous wizards out there who can perform the simple parlor tricks I've just demonstrated."

"There are?" She gasped, "How many?"

Severus raised an astonished eyebrow, surprised again by her open excitement.

"How many wizards are there? Do you know? Are you all men, or are there female wizards? There must be female wizards too, right? Or can you mate with non-wizards? Well, I'm sure you can, I mean, I know you wanted to mate with me... but maybe you can't...? Is that why you pushed me away? Does wizard sex involve weird, kinky magic.."

"Miss Granger!"

"Who?"

Severus was looking at her in agitated shock, unable to formulate a response. That he'd slipped and used her surname to address her was a reflexive reaction to her onslaught of questioning; he had to remind himself that he had no influence over her as a teacher now, and that he was practically a stranger to her, as far as she was concerned.

"You overwhelm me. Please try and limit your questions to one at a time, and please don't make them so inane."

Hermione furrowed her brow, frustrated to have to restate what she believed were perfectly reasonable, straightforward questions.

"How many of you are there?"

He quirked that damnable eyebrow again. "Fortunately," he started, "or, perhaps unfortunately," he said quieter, "there is only one Severus Snape."

She cocked her head at that, the name bouncing around in her mind as if it were trying to find purchase somewhere, wanting to belong someplace that didn't exist.

"Severus Snape..." she repeated quietly, making his face go quite still as she spoke it. His eyes bored into hers, and she met them curiously.

"That's your name then, is it?"

He nodded once, slowly.

She gave him a small smile. "Funny I never knew until now..." she said. She took a step toward him, causing him to reel back slightly. "Nice to finally meet you, Severus Snape," she smirked, holding out her hand, "I'm Nina. No last name, I'm afraid. Just Nina."

Severus eyed her hand awkwardly, but shook it out of compulsive politeness.

"How can you not have a last name?" He asked, with that strange, apologetically prying look on his face again.

"I know," she said as she dropped her eyes to the floor, "it's weird, but a lot of us girls don't have real names anymore. They just kind of get lost along the way sometimes."

"Because you've actually forgotten, or because you don't want to remember?"

Her eyes snapped back to his, flashing between vulnerability and defensiveness.

"Hey... I thought I was the one with all the questions..."

"Quid pro quo?" He offered quietly. Her lips twisted and she glanced back at the floor.

"I guess I can't remember anymore. Maybe I don't want to, either. But 'Nina' is the only name I've got."

Severus was quiet for long moments before releasing a sigh, prompting her to look up at him again. She couldn't identify the look he now wore on his strange, unaccountably handsome face.

"Our numbers are small in comparison to the wider population, but we still have thriving communities in nearly every part of the world. There are roughly 3,000 witches and wizards in the U.K.— yes, there are witches." He said as he looked at her rather intensely, "They are our female counterparts, though not all witches or wizards marry magical folk. Some take muggle spouses."

"Muggle? I think I've heard you use that word before..."

"Yes," he answered, "Muggles are non-magical humans."

"Like me? I'm a 'muggle,' then? Hardly a complimentary term, is it..."

She narrowed her eyes slightly at the odd look he gave her.

"Alright then, I'm a 'muggle.' Brilliant. But you can still mate with me, right?"

Severus scowled at her, making her grin back at him.

"You can, can't you? But you still don't want to... you said 'there are rules,' before— remember? Did you mean rules against mating with muggles? Is it considered beneath you, somehow? You say that some take muggle spouses... are they frowned upon in magic society? Are there 'magic supremacists' or something? Is that what you are?"

She paused when she noticed that his sardonic eyebrow had regained its favored position high on his brow.

"Oh, I'm doing it again, aren't I."

He took a deep breath before deigning to answer her.

"There are, what you'd call Blood Supremacists, who don't believe in diluting the gene pool with non-magical blood... I, however, am not one of them."

She smiled at him so genuinely that he almost smiled back.

"That's nice, Severus. I'm glad."

His blood tingled as he heard her call him by name.

"That's not to say that I have any interest in mating with you, ...muggle or not."

Her smile faltered, and her face grew slightly petulant before she quietly responded:

"We'll see about that."