Chapter Twenty-One- The Seduction of Severus Snape

"He is impossible, Albus!" exclaimed Severus as he began to pace across the Headmaster's vast office.

"Severus, please try to be patient with him. Not all wizards are as natural with Occlumency as you were when you first started learning. You know how important it is for him to keep his mind closed," pleaded Albus.

"It has been a month and if anything, he has gotten worse. It is a complete waste of my time. I have better things to do than waste it probing his adolescent mind."

"Yes, I am quite aware of what you would rather be doing with your time," Albus said, his blue eyes twinkling.

"What is that supposed to mean?" huffed Severus.

"Clara tells me that you two have been spending time together outside of your lessons," he muttered, eyeing Severus from over his half moon spectacles.

"What are you getting at, Albus?" he hissed.

"Nothing, my boy. You are free to do whatever you want with whom ever you want. Clara is a lovely girl, don't you think? I think spending a little extra time together is a wonderful idea."

"You know meddling is not a very endearing characteristic," snapped Severus as he made his way to the door. "You already control enough of my life, Albus. Don't you think you could leave the small amount of personal time I have alone?"

"Severus, calm down. I am merely saying I am pleased that Clara has someone other than myself to spend time with in the castle. She has been lonely and these past few weeks I have noticed a change in her demeanor. She seems happier, that's all."

Severus' scowl softened just a bit as he thought back to his time with the young woman. Could it be that I have been making her happy?

"I am sure she has just become acclimated to her life at Hogwarts."

"Perhaps, but I think otherwise," Albus replied with a smile.

Later that evening, Severus sat at his desk contemplating the Headmaster's words. The young woman seemed to actually enjoy his company. At first it unnerved him that she seemed at ease around him. He usually prided himself on his gift for intimidating others, but having this one person who seems relaxed in his presence didn't bother him at all. The time he had spent with Clara had been the happiest moments since his time with Lily. No, don't think about Lily right now. Severus had found that after spending time with Clara he would often feel guilty. He knew he didn't deserve another shot at friendship, but he couldn't stay away from her. The way he felt in her presence was like a drug and he wanted more and more of it. He knew it would never be more than friendship. He wouldn't dare think that Clara would see him in any other way than just friendship. Besides, Lily had been the only one he had ever wanted in the romantic sense. No, it was best if he kept seeing Clara only as a friend. Hopefully he would not mess this one up like he always had a tendency to do.

"Good evening, Severus," said a cheerful voice from the far side of the room. "Did I catch you day dreaming? I didn't think somber professors like yourself did that."

"Hello, Clara. I was not day dreaming. I was merely contemplating new methods in which to torture you with in your lessons today," he said with a sardonic smile.

Clara rolled her eyes and made her way past him and into the training room. "I'm going to go ahead and stretch. I think I pulled a leg muscle last week and I would rather not walk around with a limp for the second week in a row. Just come on in and get me when you're ready."

After a few minutes, Severus finished up his marking and made his way into the training room. His breath caught in his throat when he opened the door. There, in plan sight, was Clara bent over with her ass up in the air, clad in her tight black pants. Severus knew he should look away but the sight was so delicious, he couldn't help but gaze. "I knew those pants were a good idea," he thought to himself as he continued to watch her stretch up and down and side to side. It only took a few minutes of gawking before his body started reacting. Before he knew it his mouth had begun to water, cheeks started to burn and a certain prized part of the male anatomy was painfully hard. Dammit! Severus, control yourself.

Severus was so enamored by her backside that he didn't notice Clara had bent all the way over again and was now peering at him upside down through her spread legs. "Enjoying the view, Professor?" she said with a grin.

Shit "I was ummm…just coming to tell you that I…ummm…that I have to run an errand before we get started. I will be back in a moment," he stammered, not at all sounding cool and collected like he normally did. He quickly turned and fled the room, slamming the door behind him. Clara jerked upwards, her eyes wide in surprise. "Did that really just happen?" she thought to herself as she thought back on the man's behavior. She had seen it. It was clear as day since he was not wearing his teaching robes. His body had defiantly shown the telltale signs that he was turned on by the sight of her. "What does this mean?" she thought, growing increasingly nervous yet excited at the same time. Her own body began to react as she thought back to the heated look in his eyes. A rosy blush spread across her warm cheeks and her tummy began doing flips in anticipation of seeing him again.

Severus in the mean time fled into his potions lab. He quickly made his way over to a sink and splashed the frigid water onto his face. He had never been so humiliated in his adult life. He wasn't sure if she had noticed his bulging pants but he was sure she had noticed him openly staring at her glorious ass. Just thinking about her again made his body temperature start to rise. Absentmindedly, he let his hand drift down to the front of his trousers, briefly grasping his hardening member. "NO!" he thought out loud as he jerked his hand away. "Not like this…I can't do this. She is a friend and a colleague. Stop acting like a randy fifth year!"

Clara was left alone for a few minutes before Severus returned with a dark and almost menacing look in his eyes. With a flick of his wrist, the door slammed behind him causing a loud bang to echo throughout the stonewalls. Clara flinched as his dark gaze met hers. "Shall we get started?" he snapped.

"Oh, okay, Severus. Is everything okay?" she asked softly, confused as to why he seemed almost angry with her.

"Fine, we just need to get going. You have not been progressing as quickly as I would like." The truth was, he was angry with himself and embarrassed by his behavior. Clara unfortunately was now on the receiving end of that anger. "I am going to work you hard today, Clara." Oh, sweet Merlin, now everything sounds sexual. "I mean we are going to work on your hand-to-hand combat today. No more dummies and no more gloves. You will attempt to strike me, and I will attempt to block."

"What? Severus, I don't want to hurt you. What if you don't block me? Please just let me try again with the dummies," she pleaded.

"Clara, you have about three seconds to attack me before I attack you. Trust me, you don't want that to happen," he smirked, his obsidian eyes dark with purpose. And trust me, Clara, I want to attack you.

Still confused by his sudden shift in behavior, Clara lunged forward aiming for his stomach. Without any effort, Severus grabbed her fist, twisted her arm behind her back and spun her around until her back was against his chest. "Not good enough. Your movements are predictable…again," he hissed in her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

"They are predictable because you taught them to me. Cut me some slack," she replied, now extremely confused.

She once again tried in vain to throw a few punches. His large hands blocked each punch with ease. After a few frustrating minutes, she decided to mix things up so while Severus was eyeing her fists she kicked her right leg up hoping to make contact with his hip. In one swift sweep, Severus locked both hands firmly around her ankle and yanked her up until she was dangling upside down.

"WHAT THE HELL? PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" she yelled as she attempted to grab at his legs. Severus had not actually meant to do this to her, but her kick had almost taken him by surprise and he didn't want her to know it. "So help me, Severus, when I get down you better start running. I am going to kick ass!"

Severus couldn't help himself and began to snicker at the infuriated woman. "Element of surprise, Clara. I have it in abundance, my dear, and I'm afraid you don't. Until you learn it I will continue to block you and so will anyone else."

"Ugh, you drive me crazy, Severus Snape!" fumed Clara, still dangling upside down.

With great care Severus gently laid her down on the ground. Clara sent him back a glare as she tried to smooth down her tangled mane of hair. "You know you are going to pay for that, right?" she snapped, trying to repress a smile from curling on her lips. It really was hard for her to stay mad at him for long. Although she didn't appreciate being flipped upside down, she really did enjoy their playful banter. She just hoped he was playing this time. Sometimes it was hard to tell. "I would love to see you try," he drawled, crossing his arms in front of him.

Clara popped up from the ground and charged at him but just as she was about to reach him, she tripped on her untied shoelace. Her sudden shift in momentum caused her to face plant right into his chest. Severus' quick reflexes helped prevent her from completely falling over and instead caused her to once again be wrapped in his arms. "Oops, sorry," she whispered as she looked up at him with a sheepish grin. "I'm a bit of a klutz."

"Indeed, you know, for one that was supposedly a ballerina for the Royal Ballet, you certainly do not posses an abundance of grace," he replied as he helped the woman regain her balance. He really could not afford to have her body in such close contact with his for a prolonged amount of time.

Clara had bent down to tie her shoe lace when his words finally hit her. She immediately froze as the memory of a past conversation came back to her. "Yes, and I suppose you would know all about me since you are a spy for the British government. Or perhaps we are both in the business of making things up," she spat as anger coursed through her body. "Or perchance, you are more in the business of lying."

Shit! Severus knew immediately what he had done. He had just let slip the one secret he would have never wanted her to know. In a moment of blind panic, he carefully guarded his expression as he locked eyes with Clara, who was now standing right in front of him.

"Care to explain how you just repeated something from a dream that I supposedly had all by myself, Severus?" she asked, never blinking from her eye contact. "And don't play dumb with me. I know what you said."

"I…well…I suppose I did not completely tell the truth," he murmured, now too embarrassed to look her in the eyes. This was not good and he knew it. Severus was an extremely private man. For her to know that he was acting on his own accord during the dream was completely humiliating to him. He needed to find a way out of it and quick.

"You're damn straight you weren't truthful. I was so confused when I first met you and you made me feel like an idiot. Why didn't you just tell me you were a part of the dream as well?" she asked, looking hurt. "It was a lovely dream," she whispered as she turned so he could not see her reddening face.

"Yes, I would image you would think that," he snapped. "You practically threw yourself at me. Tell me, Clara, do you make it a habit throwing yourself at strange men in real life or do you just reserve that for your dreams."

Clara spun around, her eyes once again shining with a mixture of hurt and anger. "Excuse me? I did not THROW myself at you. If I am not mistaken, your words were 'we are very close to the point of no return'," she droned in her best Severus Snape impression. "You had me pinned up against that tree…not the other way around!"

"Well, I believe it was you that kissed me first before I was even awake…or asleep…or whatever that was. I opened my eyes and you had your hands all over me," he retaliated.

"Well, I may not have a whole lot of experience with men, but I am pretty sure I felt the effects of you being quite satisfied with the situation pressed up hard against me. You were not acting at all as if you were in a situation that was anything but arousing," she said, taking another step closer to him to show that she was not backing down. This comment completely set Severus off. Humiliation combined with the feeling of being powerless around this woman completely drove him to the edge. Without raising his voice, he bent down till he was just beside her ear.

"Oh, my dear. With you so wantonly making yourself available to me like a little back alley whore, who would have turned down that offer. I was merely partaking upon what was being dangled so eagerly in front of me," he whispered venomously.

The slap came before he could even react. Its sharp sound echoed throughout the room and took a few seconds to die off. The blood red whelt on his cheek would take much longer to disappear. As soon as Clara's hand made contact with his cheek, she regretted it but refused to let him know. "Element of surprise, my dear professor. I guess I have it more than you think," she spat. She didn't leave any room for a response or retaliation. She quickly turned on her heels, fled the room and slammed the door behind her. Severus stood in shock, absorbing the pain on his cheek that he knew he deserved. He had once again let his anger and embarrassment get the best of him. He debated running after her but his Slytherin pride kept him rooted to his spot. Oh Clara, what have I done?

Clara spent most of her Saturday in a frenzy of mixed emotions. She had cried her self to sleep the night before, woke up so angry, she was ready to charge down to the dungeons and slap the other side of his face and by lunch time she was feeling pulled to seek him out to ask for forgiveness. "I know he felt something when we kissed," she pouted to herself. She had seen the passion and the fire burning in his eyes from the moment their lips had touched. She had seen the way he looked at her in the training room while she was warming up. He had even seemed to be enjoying her company the past few months. Did he really not care about her at all?

Clara decided to take matters into her own hand. Severus needed to be taught a lesson and she needed to know how he felt about her. His constant shifts in moods had left her dizzy and embarrassed time after time. It was time he had a dose of his own medicine. She had a plan and if she could convince herself not to chicken out, she planned to start it that evening.

At ten o'clock sharp, Clara stood nervously in front of her fireplace. After pulling her red cloak tightly around her body and positioning the tea tray comfortably on her hip, she stepped into the fireplace. When she arrived into Severus' office, he was not at his desk like he normally was this time of night. After looking around she noticed that one of his storage room doors was ajar. This actually worked out to be in her favor. This would at least give her time to calm her nerves and get ready.

Severus had been passing the hours reorganizing his potions into alphabetical order. It was the only thing he could think of doing to keep his mind off of the events from the previous evenings. He had been mentally berating himself all day for what he had said to Clara. Flashbacks to the look on Lily's face when he called her a mudblood kept replaying over and over in his head. Now a new pair of eyes full of tears haunted his thoughts. "I should have just told her the truth. Is it so bad that I'm attracted to her? I am a man after all," he thought as he straightened the same row of potions for the fourth time. "No, no, no, I don't have time for this. She is a friend and ONLY a friend. You have Lily and now, you have her son to protect. No more distractions."

He was just about to start on another row of bottles when he heard the faint tinkle of clanking china out in his office. Severus was surprised to find Clara sitting casually in one of his office chairs drinking a cup of tea. His heart immediately began to pound in his chest. He didn't think she would show up tonight. Now, he didn't know if he should be relieved to see her or nervous. "Clara…what are you doing here?" he asked, looking clearly confused.

"It's ten o'clock, silly. You don't really think I would miss one of your tea times, do you?" She asked in an almost sickly sweet voice.

Severus stared down at her with one eyebrow raised. What is she up to? The now completely perplexed man tentatively walked over and took a seat directly across from her. "I didn't think you would come after what happened yesterday," he said softly.

"Oh, we were both just upset. That was in the past, Severus, and I'm over it. Now, don't you want your tea?" she asked as she picked up a teacup and began busying herself with preparations.

"Clara, I should not have said those things," he murmured. Clara nodded but continued to busy herself with the tea. "Why are you wearing your cloak inside?" he inquired gently.

"Oh…oops…silly me. I guess I forgot to take it off after I came inside from walking with Albus," she giggled as she stood up and slowly began untying the silk ribbon that held the cloak together.

If Severus had been drinking his tea at that moment, he would have spit it everywhere when he saw what she was wearing underneath. Clara had put on the tightest and lowest cut shirt she could find. Tonks had bought it for her last summer but she had never found an appropriate moment to wear it out until now. It was a black satin fabric with lacy-capped sleeves and a plunging neckline. After putting on her best push up bra and spending almost an hour in front of the mirror, she finally felt like it was perfect. "Alright, Sev, let's see what you do with this? Step one begins," she thought as she bent over slowly to pour his tea.

Severus' eyes grew wide and he tried, with all the self-control he could muster, not to look down at her chest. "Think about something else, think about something else," he kept chanting in his mind.

"Severus, are you alright? You're gripping the chair like your trying to keep from taking off." Clara asked innocently. Severus gave her a polite nod and loosened his grip. "Now, I thought you might like a change for tonight. How about some honey in your tea?"

"Oh…ok I suppose that would be acceptable."

Clara opened the lid to a small jar of honey she had positioned on the tray and took a large scoop of the amber concoction with a spoon. She deposited a small dollop into Severus' tea before handing his cup over to him. "Oops," she squeaked as she eyed the large amount of the syrupy substance that was still left on the spoon." Wouldn't want this to go to waste." After glancing up briefly to make sure Severus was watching, she carefully and slowly used her tongue to lick off the sugary goodness. She had no idea if this was really seen as sexy but she had seen it in a movie once, so she thought it wouldn't hurt to try. Judging by the fact that Severus seemed to be gazing at her, frozen, with his teacup subtly shaking in his hand, she guessed it was working. "Drink Severus, we wouldn't want it to get cold," she said. Severus merely blinked and let out a nervous cough before attempting to focus on the cup in front of him. Inside, he was thanking Merlin that he had kept his teaching robe on or he would once again be suffering from extreme embarrassment.

"It's good with the honey, isn't it?" asked Clara as she calmly sipped her own tea still trying her best to position herself in the chair to where he would get the best look at her voluptuous cleavage.

"Indeed…it is quite…tasty," he replied in a husky voice.

Clara decided to bump it up a notch to see how far she could really push him. Once again taking off the lid to the honey jar, she dipped a delicate finger into the nectar. After ensuring she had a fair amount, she slowly licked a small amount off before inserting her whole finger into her mouth. Clara contented herself with sucking all of the sweetness off of her finger as if it were a lollipop or a popsicle, making small satisfying noises to show her pleasure. Again, she had no idea if this looked sexy at all but she figured it was worth a try.

Clara's little moment of self-indulgence was interrupted by a crash from across the coffee table. She looked up surprised to find Severus sitting wide-eyed with his teacup shattered all over his lap.

"Severus! Oh God, are you okay?" she yelled, jumping up from her chair.

"I…um…guess I don't know my own strength," he murmured, attempting to pull himself together.

"Here, let me help you," she said as she grabbed a napkin from the coffee table. Without thinking about her actions, she started to dry off Severus' lap, inching slowly to his most sensitive areas. Severus sucked in a sharp breath and grabbed her wrist. "Clara…don't…I um- can do it myself," he whispered, his eyes now smoldering as he looked up at her.

"It's ok, I don't…oh…OH," she said,* suddenly realizing what she had done. Well, this worked out even better then I thought. "It really is no problem, Severus. Here I will just tidy you up and be on my way," she purred as she once again ran the cloth napkin across his leg making sure to lean forward as much as possible.

Clara could here Severus' breath become more ragged the higher her hand went up on his leg. Her hands radiated warmth that he could feel even through his many layers. He felt frozen to his spot, unable to protest or even form a coherent sentence. His mind was crying out 'stop' but every nerve in his body seemed to be begging for her to continue. Her warmth and touch, even her scent seemed to make him forget who he was and where he was. The only thing he could focus on was her and where her hands were traveling. Just another few inches…

As if Clara heard his thoughts, she abruptly stopped her ministration, effectively breaking the spell. "Well, I think that just about got it. I'll send a House Elf up to clean up the rest. This was a lovely evening, Severus. See ya later," she said cheerfully as she bounced into the fireplace. In a flash of green flames, she disappeared, but not without one last look over her shoulder. Step one…complete!

A/N: I have written a little one shot to tell the story of Minerva teaching Severus to dance. It is titled, The Snake Charmer. Take a look!

If you are looking for a new Severus/OC story to read, check out New Beginnings by my friend, mkwiant. Don't forget to leave her a review!