CHAPTER FORTY-ONE—Raucous

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Severus only went to these things for appearances. He was not like Lucius or Narcissa. Crowds and small talk bored him. In defence of Lucius or Narcissa, they were not bad at small talk. They were also not bad at holding conversations of depth. He could not say the same for the other people at this particular party.

Instead of the usual Ministry-rife crowd, the Malfoys could only invite Death Eaters and their children. It was certainly a different…atmosphere this year.

Severus was fortunate that he had brought Alecto to this party and not Amycus. She and Severus discussed Astronomy. Not his favourite course of study, but it was preferable to Amycus's constant off-colour jokes.

Alecto had her hair down. It was starkly straight compared to Hermione's puffy mane. Hermione was also shorter, even if Alecto wasn't in high heels.

A quartet was set up in one corner of the sitting room. The Dark Lord lapped up the schmoozing from his followers and their wives and daughters over by the hearth. Severus noted that Nagini was not in attendance, nor Pettigrew. He wondered where both of them might be.

The congenial atmosphere was tested over in the dining room—where Yaxley and Rodolphus downed bottle after bottle of Firewhiskey.

Serving food would not have been a bad idea, in Severus's opinion, but they already took a risk in Imperiussing the quartet and Lucius wasn't confident they could also wrangle a caterer.

He and Alecto watched a few of their compatriots attempt to dance. The party had only been on for two hours and the moves were already sloppy.

This is going to be a long night.

Alecto laughed. Amycus had convinced Narcissa to dance with him.

"The poor woman!" Alecto held her stomach as she laughed.

Severus agreed. Narcissa, he could tell, had to take the lead.

Lucius was as baffled as Alecto was amused. Zabini nudged Draco's arm and pointed to the spectacle.

Draco shrugged, face a mix of panic and disgust.

"This party, so far, has been a great time," Alecto snickered into her wine glass. "Are they normally like this?"

"No."

Alecto examined the mansion. "I don't even know what I would do with a house this large. I suppose parties would be my hobby, just to have it filled every once in a while!"

"It's too much," Severus agreed.

"I never had my own room, until I left Hogwarts," she said. "Living with four other girls was a sight better than sharing with Amycus, though."

"I can imagine."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No."

"They can be…interesting."

Amycus did get Narcissa to laugh. A real one, as far as Severus could tell. But she declined a second dance. Amycus bowed low and she laughed again.

Draco was mortified.

"When you become headmaster," Alecto began, "I imagine you'll cut down the budget."

"How so?"

"Oh, please, Severus—we won't need Muggle Studies anymore."

"You want to remain an instructor?"

She became sheepish. "Maybe. In a more useful subject."

"If you can suffer through the rest of the year in Muggle Studies, I am certain you can be moved to a more fulfilling role."

She gave him an excited grin. "It will be an exciting day when you are promoted."

He gave her a grin back.

He did not want to think about it.

The party went on much the same, but grew in volume as the night went on.

By midnight, the guests were becoming more raucous. Narcissa and Lucius tried to remain gracious hosts. Draco and his friends stayed out of the Dark Lord's way, and were the more reserved bunch at the gathering.

Severus was not as pissed as he led the others to believe. He could not say the same for Alecto. It was fortunate that she did not want to partake in forcing the house-elves to harm themselves in more vicious and creative ways as the drinks went down.

Alecto had her arm looped through his by the end of the night. It was more to keep on her feet than to lay claim to him, he thought.

He had stayed longer than he meant to, with her on his arm like a weight.

The musicians lost their place in the music when some of the uncouth guests began to heckle.

Severus disentangled himself and Alecto from Nott's group. They stood in an alcove in the foyer. Other couples had come in here for quiet conversation. They were still near the open door (and the music) so he had to lean down to ask:

"Shall we return home?"

She put both hands flat against his chest. "You will have to take me." Her lips darted against his chin when she talked. "I am not fit to be alone."

Severus splayed his hand at the small of her back to lead her to the door.

He should have thought this through. Severus did not imagine Alecto would actually be interested in him—nobody had been before. Now what was he to do when he got her to the castle?

She was not unattractive, as if he was one to talk. She was not uninteresting. And he hadn't had sex in two years, so his body was very eager to accept her fingers trailing over his neck or her lips against his ear.

But he was married.

No, they were not in love or anything trite—but he felt wrong when his heart pumped faster as Alecto rammed her tongue into his mouth on Narcissa's front steps.

His traitorous brain remembered Hermione's warm lips on his.

"I'll see you at the front gate." Alecto winked at him before she disappeared.

Severus's head pounded once he spun out of the Apparition.

His guts churned. Alecto clutched his arm. She was drunk. And giggly. Severus raised his wand to open the gates of Hogwarts.

He and Alecto trod through the path Hagrid had shoveled earlier, but snow had since fallen. Their feet crunched through the new, soft layer to the compacted snow beneath.

"Severus, I have wondered," Alecto said, "how do you stay warm in the dungeons?"

"I am afforded a fireplace," he replied, trying to be humourous.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "No one to share a bed with?"

"Are you suggesting house-elves are…"

She batted his chest and turned up her nose. "Goodness, no. I rather thought you would use students."

His stomach clenched. How had she caught them out?

"Especially now that you are highly regarded in the Dark Lord's circle."

His pulse calmed but he still felt the prickle of adrenaline under his skin. "No. I wouldn't find any of them worth the time."

Alecto shrugged. "Potions is a difficult subject. I slept with Grubblyplank because I found his class boring. A few nights a month with him in 'detention' and I missed all the class I wanted."

"Anybody can pass a Magical Creatures N.E.W.T. if they studied hard enough," Severus sniffed. "I doubt your methods would have worked on an entire N.E.W.T. board for Potions."

She shrugged. "Forgive me my curiosity. I meant no offence to the great and important study of Potions."

He gave her an unheated scowl so she could smirk back at him. This flirting was as boring as small talk. But, as Hermione had said, if it threw off suspicion, it was for the best.

Severus gripped the door handle to the Entrance Hall. The castle recognized him and unlocked the door as he tugged.

A few of the lamps were lit in the hall. He dragged the door shut behind them. Alecto grabbed his collar with both hands and pulled him into the nearest corner. Her blue eyes never left his until she kissed him.

Severus was angry when his brain felt Alecto pulling on his shirt and he remembered Hermione do the same. He had to stop thinking about her.

Alecto wrapped her arms around his neck but he did not move closer to her.

He and Hermione had no romantic inclinations. Their marriage was a business transaction. For mutual protection.

Alecto ripped away and pulled him by the hand across the hall, to the marble staircase. "My bed isn't cold," she said, "and you are welcome to see what that's like."

"Even without any classes to skip?" he asked.

She growled and dragged him down for another haphazard kiss. They struggled to get up the stairs in this manner.

No. This was a terrible idea. Keeping a wife a secret would be even harder if he led Alecto to believe they were an 'item' or whatever term she wanted to use.

At the end of the third-floor corridor, Alecto would not release him.

But then she squinted towards the stairs. The two quickly stepped apart as Filch's labored breathing came nearer.

"Oh, good, you're both here!" the caretaker wheezed. "Those Ravenclaws are sneaking into the library. I don't trust the other professors to handle this appropriately." He gave them a lopsided smirk.

"Shall we?" Severus asked Alecto.

The witch's face tinged green. "I think—I may have drank too much." She ran off towards her room, hand over her mouth.

Severus had never been happier to see Filch.

"Let's take care of this little problem," Severus said.

Filch bounced on his feet. "Happy Christmas, Professor."

"To you as well," Severus replied.

Filch was stunned as Severus walked past him to the stairs.

Severus stood in his bedroom. The headache would not go away. At this rate, he feared he could not Apparate to Grimmauld Place even after a night's sleep.

With a huff, he exited out the back gate to Apparate to London.

The house was silent. Even the screaming nightmare of Walburga Black did not wake as he crept through the front door.

Firelight flickered underneath the library door. No one else would be awake at this hour but a bookworm.

He opened the door with care.

Hermione lay on the couch, on her stomach, ankles crossed in the air. She was in her usual nighttime attire of shorts and a t-shirt with a blanket covering only a bit of her back and legs. It looked as if she had a perfectly lovely evening not trading inanities with other people.

She let the book fall flat on the sofa before she turned to catch him staring. The light flickered perfectly over her arse.

"Party over already?"

"I doubt it."

"Have a pleasant time with Carrow?" Her brown eyes roved over his mussed-up hair.

"She is a chatty drunk."

"I'm sure the conversation was delightful." She turned back to her book.

Severus regretted his decision to come early.

Hermione sat up, eyes still in her book. "What would you have done if I wasn't awake when you got here?"

Severus took care in shutting the door. "A story apart is closer than several hundred miles."

"I couldn't sleep either," she said.

Severus sat on the couch where her legs had been. They both tried to be quiet but sighed when the pain receded.

"I suppose you like Alecto Carrow better than me," she remarked.

He could not tell what she was pretending to read even at her elbow. Her question didn't make a lot of sense. "For what?"

"Snogging for one thing," she snorted.

"I'll be sure to ask your permission next time."

They sat glaring at each other, elbows and knees touching despite them sitting on a large couch.

"Denied," she said.

"Is that so?"

"I said you could do better than Alecto Carrow."

And they lunged at each other mouths first, her hands tugging on his collar. He had one hand under her ear, and the other arm pulled her closer. The book clunked to the floor as she crawled into his lap.

Her legs hugged his hips. The coffee and vanilla smell wafted around him when she looped her arms behind his neck. He clutched her shoulder with one hand, the other gripping her ass to pin her against him. She was warm.

His scalp tingled when she twined her fingers in his hair. Her mouth opened against his lips. Her tongue glanced his bottom lip, tentative. Severus held the back of her head so his tongue could slide between her teeth. She gave a tiny moan and his cock strained against his trousers. He tangled her hair around his fingers.

She undid the buttons from the top down. With frustration, she said, "You can't possibly unbutton all of these every time."

He shook his head and forced their lips together, no interest in talking.

He clawed his fingernails down her back. Hermione shivered. She threw back her head to get her hair out of the way. Severus pressed his mouth where her jaw met her neck. Her pulse beat against his tongue before he scraped his teeth over her skin.

She muffled her groan by biting on her bottom lip. She gave up on his coat to unbutton the shirt beneath. She pressed her warm hand to his chest when she had enough skin bared. He felt lightheaded as she ground her cunt against him.

Severus maneuvered them across the couch, he on his side, Hermione on her back, stretching up to kiss him. He traced one of the muscles in her inner thigh. Her legs trembled, and her arms looped around his neck.

Severus jolted from sleep when the cat leapt onto his legs.

He let his head return to the pillow. He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. A headache courtesy of the Malfoy's wine thrummed in his head. Or, more likely, from the lack of wife at his side.

His very young, unhappy wife. That he'd just dreamt of in an inappropriate manner. After kissing another woman.

He rather wished for some of that wine now. Even thinking that Hermione cared whether Alecto made a move on him was inappropriate. He was not beholden to her in anything but the barest agreement to be married for a very practical purpose. And if Alecto wanted to serve a separate, practical purpose, that was his business.

The cat started to gnaw on something in the bed. Something that had paper to rip.

Severus flicked his fingers at the lamp nearest him. He squinted at what Crookshanks was curled around. It was a small package in red paper with a gaudy gold bow on top.

Only two witches would gift him something, let alone something in red and gold. Crookshanks had ripped the bow off with his teeth.

Severus let the cat have at it, but his presence did derail his plans to take care of the problem currently throbbing between his legs.

Then Crookshanks ripped the card in half so Severus had to bat him away.

For the cat hair.

-Hermione

It was a lint roller from a Muggle shop.

He felt even more repulsive than when he woke up.

Not only did he have inappropriate dreams about her, he didn't even get her a cheap implement as a gift in return.

Well, the problem certainly went away.