Chapter 32 Professor Evans' Charms Club
Thankfully, not all of Lily's days were as eventful as the first, the next few weeks passed in somewhat of a blur for her and Severus. The beginning of term was always eventful for the teachers just as much as the students so they'd hunkered down and got to work. Naturally, Severus had adapted far quicker to his role as an educator than Lily had, owing to his experience accrued in his previous life. Lily sometimes felt in awe of his time-management skills and was envious of just how easy he made life seem. Granted, she got her things done on time, assignments were marked, given thoughtful feedback or corrections, and returned to the students in a prompt manner, and she oversaw most detentions personally—some she'd pass off to Gurge the caretaker but that was neither here nor there. She'd also kept up with her planning work as far as working on the logistics of her Charms Club. She was getting her work done, there was no question about it; it was just that she had to work so much harder than the nonchalant Severus, who was seemingly able to accomplish the same amount of work with much less effort. She was almost green with envy.
One week into term, she finally decided to swallow her pride and ask Severus for help on how she could improve her time-management. She'd grown tired of watching him move about his day unbothered throughout the wee while she was just-barely treading water, she wanted to know his secrets. So on Sunday night after their first week of term she pulled him aside and asked just how he managed everything so smoothly and how she could improve her own time-management skills. Do you know what Severus' response was? A small smile and chuckle, before he rambled on about how time management and multitasking were essential to him as a quadruple agent. His smug advice only caused the fiery redhead to grow even more frustrated but before she could throw a fit, Severus calmed her right down and explained it to her in simple terms. Plan. Budget time each day to work on certain things and shift things aside if they are taking up too much time and are of little importance. He left the room to go finish marking his 5th Year's papers as Lily stood there pondering his advice.
Heeding Severus' advice had worked wonders for her time management issues during the second week of classes, the only problem that arose was that she had to put her spellcrafting work on the back-burner so she could focus on settling into her life as a full-time professor. Still, by making a regimen for herself and a timetable to follow as well as setting limits on how many detentions she could oversee within a standard work week, she was able to relax far more than she had over the first week of term. Severus too noticed the improvement and commended her on her ability to adapt quickly. With her scheduling issues sorted, they now at least had a little more time for each other which was always appreciated, especially considering the fact that Severus oftentimes saw Lily for less than thirty minutes each day when she'd been desperately trying to keep her head above water during those early weeks of struggle. So on an early Saturday morning after a tiring evening and night spent marking her entire cohort of 4th Years' Papers on the numerous applications of the summoning charm, she roused Severus early to ask him for something.
"Sev? Sev can you wake up please?" Lily whispered, trying to keep her tone quiet and subdued so as not to alarm him.
"Mmm…what is it Lily?" Severus groaned, rolling away from her and onto his front, "it's Saturday morning just sleep in," he muttered, his voice swallowed by the pillow.
"Sev I need your help, it's about the charms class. Can you be up in half an hour? I want to go talk to Albus as well?"
"Albus usually sleeps in on weekends. Give it a rest and go back to sleep," Severus muttered.
Lily gave a quiet sigh, and slipped from the bed. The cool morning air chilled her bare arms and legs the moment she slid out from the covers and she couldn't help but shiver at the sensation. Hugging herself tightly, she draped a bathrobe over her shoulders and headed from their bedroom into the bath. She took a warm shower that worked miracles as far as waking her up and undoing the kinks in her back went, feeling refreshed and ready for a day full of marking and planning for her club, she stepped from the bathroom and into their shared living space. Quietly, she summoned Nam and ordered herself and Sev some breakfast, and then got to work jotting down notes for how she wanted her club to be structured. Summoning her trusty notebook and pencil, she began writing down some ideas she had for the club and how she wanted it to be run. She barely noticed Nam pop back into their quarters a few moments later with her and Severus' food, such was her focus on scribbling away in her notebook.
About half an hour later, Severus came out of their bedroom wearing groggy eyes and a worn smile; he unceremoniously lowered himself into his chair with a sigh and murmured a quiet thank you to Lily for ordering him breakfast. With a lazy flick of her willow wand, the stasis charm she'd used to preserve the meal's temperature was lifted and Severus began to eat. For a while, Lily let him eat, focusing on writing away in her notebook and bouncing ideas off the paper and hoping some would stick. Severus stole a glance of her well-worn book and noticed that there were more scribbles and crossed-out bits than there was actual substance. Such was the inner machinations of Lily's brilliant mind. She constantly came up with new ideas, some of them piss-poor but she held a remarkable efficiency it sifting through all her thoughts and musings before picking which ones could go or stay. Severus was well aware that his work-ethic trumped Lily's, it trumped most people's as a matter of fact, but he did envy her ability to simply…draw up ideas from thin air and sort through them so fast his brain hurt just thinking about it.
"See something you like?"
Lily's wry voice laced with amusement, snapped him out of his trance and he glanced up from her littered book to see a pair of humored emerald eyes staring at him.
"Just thinking some things over," Severus replied, bringing his eyes back to his cup of coffee. Delicately lifting the cup with both hands to his lips, he drained it of all that was left before setting it back down on the saucer.
"Sev I want you to be a part of this too."
"A part of what? Your Charms club?" Severus asked, his brow raised playfully. "This is your idea Lily, and you are the Charms Professor, what would you need me for?"
"Because you know better than anyone, even Slughorn, how to interact with the Slytherins. You still remember what I said on the day the students came yeah?"
"I do," Severus replied, giving her a single nod.
"Well this is part of my plan, it'll kill two birds with one stone if all goes well," Lily said, smiling in self-satisfaction. "Firstly, it'll help people that want to become spell crafters, enchanters, or charms weavers out and I can give them advice and guidance towards their chosen profession. Secondly, it will give me a chance to reach out to some of the Slytherins you know? To help steer them away from all that blood purity crap and ensure another Dark Lord doesn't rise up in Tom's place. If we are in a position to use our roles as teachers to influence them from young when they're in our classroom…then why wouldn't we?"
"So this whole Charms Club thing is really just a front to influence the blood-purity following Slytherins then?" Severus asked, releasing a quiet chuckle. "I must say Lily, that is quite Slytherin of you, I must admit that I'm impressed you possess such cunning and guile. Perhaps there is some merit to your idea…it's almost like a more wholesome version of Horace's Slug Club in a way."
"Well thank you for your praise Severus, you're only too kind," Lily said, grinning at him as she placed her hand delicately over her chest in mock-flattery. "But how is it like the Slug Club?"
"You don't see the resemblance?" His brow arched. Lily's questioning look remained, sighing, he decided to elaborate. "Well…for one thing, you are using your position as a teacher at this institution to further your agenda are you not?"
"Well sort of…but it's still kinda—"
"And by doing so, you are 'collecting' a group of individuals, in your case, talented charms casters and attempting to leave your mark as a Charms Mistress on them, yes?"
"I am, but I am equally invested with all my students unlike Horace. Horace only…cares about the ones that benefit him," Lily protested. She was giving him a scrutinizing look—it was almost displeased, actually; displeased that he'd found a comparison between her and Slughorn.
"Indeed. I never said you weren't Lily and that is one of the differences between your aspiring club and Horace's. Lastly, you are attempting to mould the students of Slytherin to your liking. In Horace's case he's attempting to forge connections with them, whereas with you, you are attempting to influence their ideology and help them realize that their bigoted ways are not the answer," Severus explained calmly, his low tone Professor-like, almost as if he was lecturing a one man class. "You may be a Gryffindor Lilian Marie Evans, but make no mistake, you're the most Slytherin like Gryffindor I've ever met."
"I'm flattered Severus, but truth be told I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult, and that makes me feel rather stupid—"
"Oh it's a compliment Lily, you should know that by now," Severus chuckled, "if a Slytherin calls someone who isn't a Slytherin, Slytherin-like, that is just about the highest honor we can bestow. It is a true mark of one's cunning, guile and intelligence."
"Ah yes I should've thought of that," Lily replied, reaching down to stroke the passing Plato's dorsal fur. "After all…all you Slytherins are rather pompous and do think quite highly of yourselves don't you?" Lily teased, her lips quirking upwards into an easy grin.
"Indeed we do think highly of ourselves," Severus conceded with a small nod. "But the same can be said of you and your braggadocios Gryffindors too can't it?" He posed.
Lily raised her glass of Orange Juice in a mock toast, conceding the point. "Touché."
"But getting back to what I was saying, I think that if you came along and were involved in the club, then it would greatly with the second thing I'm hoping to accomplish. After all, no one understands Slytherins and how they think like you do Severus. You were a much better head of house for them than Horace ever was, so if anyone truly understands how they think then it'd be you, right?"
"If you want…I can try," Severus agreed, "but I make no promises. And if I am to be involved in your little venture, it should be under the pretext that I am a fellow spell-crafter, which I am, not as someone that allows you to relate to the Slytherins."
"That's precisely why I want to have you, Severus," she explained. "You see…you understand the Slytherins like no one else does, and if anyone can help change them, it's you," she insisted. When he looked up, he saw her eyes large and pleading, begging him to believe her. "You truly know what it's like to change…to leave those harmful beliefs in the gutter where they belong. You Sev, you changed your ways, changed your beliefs and embraced the light's ideology in every way. So if anyone knows what it's like to change for the better—" her smooth fingers rose to cup his cheek, tilting his head ever so slightly so their eyes could meet—so he could see her sincerity and the utter lack of deception in her gaze. "—it's you, Sev. You more than anyone else can help them. And I need you."
"That I can't deny," Severus agreed, giving a soft chuckle. "After all…where would you be without me?"
"My point exactly," Lily laughed. "Anyways…I took a look at our schedules and saw that both of us are free on Tuesdays and Thursdays after classes, so would those days work for you?"
"I suppose I can make it work," Severus replied, looking as if he was deep in thought. "Not this week though," he cautioned, not wanting to raise Lily's hopes too high.
Lily pursed her lips as a frown crossed her face. "Why not then?" She asked, a hint of disappointment in her tone.
"I am supervising a detention on Tuesday after fourth period, it is too late to reschedule and I'm meeting with Albus on the Thursday," Severus explained. "I scheduled both of these things last week."
Lily bit her lip, nodding in understanding. "Okay…so this week is out. But if I were to start holding sessions on the fourth week of term instead of this week, would you be able to help?"
"I will make time for it," Severus agreed. "But in the meantime I want you to walk me through your plan. Explain to me how you plan to run your club and what you plan on me helping with."
A broad grin bloomed on her face as she reached for her notebook and then slammed it down on their coffee table in excitement. "I was hoping you'd ask that sooner or later."
Severus didn't know what he was getting himself into. For the next hour, Lily's chatter would refuse to cease as she took him through every aspect of what she'd had planned out for her club.
Throughout the third week of term, Lily would advertise her charms club during all her lessons and tried to entice as many students as she could to join, regardless of their ability in charms. Unlike Slughorn, she wasn't trying to sort through her students based on natural talent or ability, more so based on enthusiasm for the subject and she was pleasantly surprised come Friday to see an array of names from all houses and years on her sign-up sheet. Given her experience guest lecturing in Marjorie's classes throughout last term, the students were quite familiar with her and her style. So as the end of September neared, she made final preparations for her first class to be held on the Tuesday of the fourth week of term. To her delight, a little over twenty students—twenty three to be precise—had registered for her class, including five from Slytherin which was definitely a plus for her. There were six Hufflepuffs, seven Ravenclaws, but only five Gryffindors.
Lily only had two classes on Tuesdays, Second Period First Year Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and Third Period Third Year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, so she used her fourth period to plan out her class and she was able to get Severus involved owing to his free period as well. She liked the U-shaped desk arrangement so she opted to keep that, but she wanted to create a little more space in the middle of the classroom for people to demonstrate their work. She scheduled her club to run from four thirty to six two days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so as she laid the finishing touches on the layout of her classroom, the door swung open admitting the first few students. Severus was stood in the back, by the elevated podium where her desk sat, Lily, nearer the front smiled broadly as a herd of Hufflepuffs shuffled into the class.
"Welcome you guys! Thanks a lot for coming!" Lily beamed, gesturing for the quartet to come further in.
There were two fourth years, Margaret Ellington and Liana Haywood, a second year named William Haywood, Liana's brother, and a fifth year named Edgar Warrington. All four of them greeted Lily with kind nods, but cast cursory looks at the sullen DADA Professor standing at the back of the room. Soon after, more students began filing in as the clock ticked over closer to Four Thirty. Just one minute shy of the commencement of the session, the last two students arrived, a pair of Slytherin third years, Cassius Yaxley and Debra Rowle. Predictably, they took their seats with the rest of their fellow Slytherins, towards the back of the class and as far as could be from the Gryffindors. Neither Lily or Severus could miss the nasty sneers exchanged between the Lions and Snakes, and so the charms Professor decided to get involved before those sneers devolved into something more serious.
"Whatever issues you may have with one another outside the classroom, they do not belong here. We are all here because we have an interest in charms, not because we wish to fight. If that is what you wish…take it up with Professor Snape and he can start a dueling club," Lily said sternly, glaring between the two groups.
The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws seemed rather bemused by the situation, but quickly the silent stares disappeared and the students' attention was focused in on Lily herself.
"First and foremost, I would like to welcome you all to the Charms Club. It is an honor and privilege to be able to teach you, and I hope that by the end of the year, all of us, myself included, will be better off as a result of the experiences we shall share. I would also like to say that this class isn't just for those who…might have an easier time picking up or learning charms, or for those that want to pursue a career in charms crafting, this is for everyone who has an interest in charms and who seeks to better themselves as charm casters," Lily stated, her tone filled with pride as she looked over her students who faced her with rapt attention.
"Although I am your Charms Professor, I shall not be teaching this class alone, on some sessions, Professor Snape shall drop by and assist me in teaching you lot and helping to demonstrate some charms of his own," Lily said, gesturing to Severus who stood a few meters away, propped up against the wall. "He, like myself, is a very gifted Charms caster and he knows just as much as I do about what it takes to create a charm, and what it takes to perfect one. He shall be here to help you, just as I am," she explained in a reassuring tone of voice.
One hand rose, it was a Hufflepuff Seventh Year and one of her top students in her NEWT Class, Thomas Chamberlain. "Yes Mister Chamberlain?" Lily asked, gesturing to her star pupil.
The boy smiled briefly and nodded his thanks. "Professor, will you be assisting us in creating charms of our own? Or is this class mainly intended to help us get better at charms in general?"
"An excellent question," Lily replied, smiling back at the boy. She turned to face the rest of the class in a broad, sweeping turn that kicked up the hems of her robes. "This class is for anything charm related. Whether you just want to talk and discuss charms-related career advice, or if you want help in creating a charm of your own; or also, as Mister Chamberlain pointed out, if you simply want to improve your charm casting ability. If you need any help for anything and everything related to charms, that is what Professor Snape and myself are here for," Lily explained.
"Thanks Professor," Chamberlain replied gratefully.
"You're most welcome," Lily said in turn. "Now are there any more questions? Or shall we get this thing underway?" She asked, turning to the class at large.
Another hand shot up, a fifth year Gryffindor girl, Lysandra Harkness.
"Yes Miss Harkness?" Lily asked, gesturing for the girl who looked way to eager to merely be asking a question to go ahead.
"Can we use this class to work on our assignments?" She asked quickly.
Her question earned her a few laughs from her fellow Gryffindors as well as some of the Hufflepuff contingent. All but one of the Ravenclaws, a first year, and the Slytherins remained unamused. Lily herself had to purse her lips and bite back the smile that threatened to bloom, but in a neutral tone of voice she replied; "yes you may, Miss Harkness, provided your assignment is charm related. If it is not then you'll have to finish it outside. As I said just now, anything charm related is welcome in this class, even enchanting."
"Enchanting, Professor?" This time it was a Slytherin speaking, the third year Cassius Yaxley, he bore a curious look.
Lily turned from the Gryffindor Fifth Year to the Slytherin Third Year and gave the boy a nod. "Yes Mister Yaxley, if that is an interest of yours, I can certainly help you there. Myself and Professor Snape both have experience in enchanting, and given that it is an offshoot of mainstream charms-crafting, it most certainly can be covered in this class if you wish," Lily replied.
"Thanks Professor," the boy replied, nodding gratefully.
"Now are there any other questions? Or shall we get this thing underway?"
A series of shaking heads answered her and so it began. Lily moved about the students with a well-practiced grace in her unusual classroom layout, answering questions from anyone and everyone, as quickly as she could. Severus for the moment stood off to the side, amused at the display and how efficiently Lily was able to move from person to person, doing her best to aid them in their queries and set them upon the right path without outright answering their questions for them. Severus himself had not been called upon yet so he took up station observing if any misbehavior was afoot amongst the students. Loathe as he was to admit it, Lily had certainly done well in corralling and then eradicating counterproductive behavior within her classes, certainly far better than he had done when he was twenty and starting out his own teaching career. Lily moved about the room, answering her students' questions as quickly as she could as well as trying to foster discussion between students of different houses that she noticed possessed the same interests, and while Severus still stood off to the side, it seemed he wouldn't be out of things to do for long since a Gryffindor Girl, Miss Parkinson, waved him over. Sighing, Severus pushed off the wall and stalked annoyedly towards her. He missed the broad smile Lily flashed his way at him finally joining in.
Severus neared the girl and summoned a chair with a lazy wave of his wand, he felt a little bit of his pride swell at the surprised and slightly impressed look that crossed the girl's face. Pulling his chair underneath him, he sat down across from Parkinson on the other side of her desk. "Yes, Miss Parkinson?"
"Sir, I wanted to ask for some advice…" she began, her tone calm and measured. "Is that alright?"
"Ask your question and I'll see if I can help you," Severus drawled, not bothering to put a dampener on his annoyance at finally being called into service. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Lily who just so happened to be moderating a debate between a pair of Slytherin and Ravenclaw Seventh Years, shoot him a reproachful look for his disinterested response.
Despite his very visible annoyance, Parkinson smiled broadly and thanked him. "On the topic of spellcrafting sir, how would you say is the best way to go about it? I'd read that some people start by adapting existing spells for their own uses and focus on changing the workings of the incantation or wand movement of other spells. I also know some people prefer to create spells instead from the ground up as opposed to—"
"Get to your point Miss Parkinson, I do not have all day," Severus drawled, shooting his pupil an annoyed look. Merlin, this girl can be so long winded…so bloody annoying.
The girl flushed faintly from embarrassment and nodded quickly to appease him. "Right. My point, sir, is what do you recommend? As a spell-crafter yourself what do you believe is the best option?"
Severus raised his hand to his chin in thought, pondering her question for a moment. "the answer you seek is not so simple," he began, his tone thoughtful. "You see…if you have never created a spell before then the best way forward would be to modify an existing one. it is easier, and it certainly allows you to craft a spell far more quickly than one might take following the second method. The drawback is that the range of spells that you can create with this method is far less broad. In your case however…it should be the method you use. You have never created a spell before, correct?"
"Yes sir," Parkinson replied, nodding intently.
"Then there's your answer," he said simply in his monotonous drawl. Without another word, he stood from the chair and stalked away, leaving Parkinson behind to ponder his advice.
To Severus' delight, the group of students despite their varying ages and house affiliations were quite well behaved. This had been Lily's doing, she'd put the hammer down early on any attempts at acting out in her class and had thwarted any potential acts of rebellion against the new teacher early and harshly. Severus couldn't help but smile at the thought of Lily crushing insubordinate students under her iron fisted rule. It seems like she's learned from the best then, I couldn't be prouder. One of these days I'll have to sit in on one or two of her classes, just to see what she's like. It seemed Lily had learned a few more things from him than he'd thought because Severus himself had employed very similar tactics himself when he started out teaching for the first time in his past life. When he was but a twenty year old teacher, the youngest in Hogwarts' illustrious history, he was expected to teach students that had seen him at the lowest of lows, him sans all clothing; so when Severus Snape arrived as Hogwarts' newest teacher and the long awaited replacement to Horace Slughorn, he'd put the hammer down hard and fast, and kept it down throughout his tenure.
While Severus watched, Lily was moving about the room, fostering friendly debates where she could and doing her best to instill a sense of camaraderie between the members of her club. From Severus' observations, she'd been doing an alright job so far and he was pleased to see several inter-house debates going on. There were three distinct groups of students there, the first group being the ones that occasionally called on Severus or Lily for help with an assignment that was charms related, the second being those that were interested in learning more on charms theory and expanding their views, and the last being those who sought to learn new charms. Lily herself tasked Severus with helping the first group, while she herself led the latter group on the basics of various charms she thought they ought to learn. When squabbles broke out, it was the iron-fisted Severus that would spring into action and put down any contest, with some points taken away as well, of course. Now more than ever, Lily was grateful she had Severus with her in the classroom, it really wasn't her style to come down harshly on misbehaving students, but she'd done it nonetheless on several occasions when the situation demanded it.
As time wound on, and the clock inched closer to Six, Lily began to wrap up the class by instructing the students to put away their wands, books, quills or whatever they just so happened to be using at the moment. Once the students had packed away their things, she cleared her throat and drew their attention back to her.
"Before you all go, I would like to thank you all for coming today. This really means a lot to me as it does Se—Professor Snape," she began, shooting him a brief glance of apology for almost speaking his given name. "We really enjoyed our time with you all today and when you come on Thursday, I expect all of you to be ready to cast some charms since that will be a strictly practical lesson. Moving forward, I will be holding two classes a week, on Tuesdays like today and Thursdays, the former being for theory and the latter for practical," she elaborated, gesticulating broadly to the entire class.
"So it's up to you guys really if you want to attend the first or second session, or both even if that's what you want. I'll come up with a list of the most essential charms all of you should know and we can go about practicing them in detail on Thursday, those of you that decide to come of course. How does that sound to you lot?" She posed.
A symphony of words of approval met her ears, causing the young red-haired Professor to smile.
"Brilliant," she smiled. "Professor Snape and I might even put on a little demonstration for you as well," she added, turning to throw a quick wink at Severus who stood a few meters away in the shadows.
The wolf-whistles that rang out caused the bubbly charms professor to release a few chuckles but a silent glare from Severus suppressed the students' antics very quickly. Lily herself even had to silence her chuckles under her fiancee's stern glare, pursing her lips and biting down to quickly stifle her laughter.
"As I was saying, Professor Snape and I are rather talented duelists and for those of you that decide to come on Thursday, we'll start the lesson with a practical exercise and gauge your ability more broadly from first year charms all the way until the year that you're currently in. After that, to end the lesson, Professor Snape I will conduct a demonstration on how charms can be used in combat." Her tone dropped several octaves and a fleeting grim look crossed her face as she continued; "that of course, is something I hope none of you will have to deal with, but it is good to be prepared for life beyond the walls of this castle. Application of charms and enchanting in magical combat is a very important skill, one that I hope all of you will learn."
"Yes Professor," the class chorused.
Feeling satisfied with their response, Lily gave a nod. "Anyways that's all from me today," she said, her voice regaining its usual high-lilt from the previous uncharacteristic drawl it had dropped to. "I'll either see you in class or on Thursday, take care!"
And with that, the students murmured their thanks, a few coming up to Lily and even Severus to thank them in person; either with a few kind words or shakes of their hands, before leaving the room through the far door. As the last student left the room, Lily cast a locking charm on the door and whirled around to face Severus.
"So how was it?" She asked, smiling in anticipation of a positive answer.
"Truth be told it wasn't half bad, better managed than Harry's that's for sure. Merlin knows your son was rather poor at organizing things," Severus answered, the quirk of his lips providing context for his words.
"You're such an ass," Lily teased, grinning almost daringly at him.
"Oh I know," Severus hummed, twiddling his wand between his fingers lackadaisically. "But it takes an ass to identify another, doesn't it?"
"Oh you're so getting beat, Severus!" Lily exclaimed, rounding on him in an instant. "When it's Thursday, I'm so gonna kick your ass, how're you gonna feel then, huh?"
"I believe you should amend that statement Lily," Severus said lightly, an edge of tease in his tone. "You'll certainly try to, and I quote; 'kick my ass', of that I have no doubt, but the question is if you'll make a fool out of yourself when you inevitably fail."
"Don't get ahead of yourself Severus, I've been due for a win for quite some time now," Lily countered, half-glaring and half-grinning back at him.
"And you'll be due a while longer I'm sure," he sniped.
Lily gave a resigned sigh, throwing in the towel at long last. Giving him a withering look, she asked; "Will you always be this insufferable?"
Severus swept across the room in a whirl of black cloaks, invading her space in the blink of an eye and holding her close in a way that took her breath away. Unable to help it, she lost herself in his obsidian-eyed gaze, letting herself get entranced by those bottomless irises she was addicted to more than anything.
"Always, Lily," his voice was firm, as was his promise. He grasped her by the chin and tilted her head up, lips just inches from each other. His eyes darted away for a split-second, finding her soft lips, then back to her dazzling emeralds. "You and me. We're the two most stubborn people on the planet, and the most insufferable to boot, do you think we'd fit better anywhere else?"
Smiling, she shook her head. "Because I know it's easier to move mountains than it is to move your convictions Sev. I love that about you."
"I love that about you as well," he replied, speaking much softer than before. He reached up, and brushed a lock of hair from her face, he could now see directly into her eyes. "We're made for each other, see?"
"Oh I know we are," she said. Still breathless, yet unable to get enough of his intoxicating scent from being so close to him, practically breathing in his essence. She kissed him gently, and he responded instantly, their lips on each other was the most heavenly thing on earth to them, only love-making could be considered better.
Smiling, not smirking or grinning, but properly smiling as wide as could be, Severus took a step back and placed her palm on his chest. "It beats for you, my love. No one else."
She did the same, placing his palm, in turn, on her chest; feeling the warmth he had to give and allowing it to cascade over her like a sun-kissed waterfall. "As does mine, Sev. As does mine."
She believed him, and he believed her too. They could never lie to each other, anyway.