An Irritable Capricorn

Severus Snape gazed out the window at the winter storm he had been out in twenty minutes earlier. The cottage was warm and he'd changed clothes, finally able to relax on a dark, chilling afternoon.

"I wish you'd let me have a birthday party for you," said Zelda Snape. "Why are you so stupidly stubborn?"

"Why are you so persistently impudent?" replied her husband. "I detest people and I'm not interested in smashing a bloody piñata, drinking myself into a firewhiskey-induced stupor or some equally pathetic nonsense."

He glowered in order to quash her mad, hopeful smile. It was difficult to meet those twinkling eyes and maintain his nasty expression. He knew she wouldn't really subject him to the horrors of a big party…

When she smiled wickedly, he drew her against his side and murmured, "You always give me a fine birthday when we're alone, my vixen."

"Are you sure you don't want something more?" she asked.

Severus Snape pondered his previous birthdays. Before Zelda, they were remarkable only for wretched misery. But once his stubborn wife learned when his birthday was, she'd started a tradition that should embarrass a grown man, but because it was their secret, he could admit he loved it. She spent one day giving her complete attention to him, and they would do whatever he wanted. A slow smirk appeared on his lips as he remembered past delightful birthdays.

"I want you," he murmured. "I suppose cake too, since Emmie enjoys that nonsense, but nothing more."

"May we have dinner in your rooms at Hogwarts? That way Alaric can join us," she suggested. "I'd like us to be together, if it's okay with you."

"Our rooms," he corrected sternly.

"Whatever," she said, curling her lip.

"Aren't you planning to bring Rowena and the cats along?" he asked sardonically. "You always say they're family."

"Brat," she hissed in mocking imitation of him. "I'll admit I'm managing you, if you'll stop teasing me."

Severus loved bickering pointlessly with his wife. It was splendidly trivial and so unlike his earlier grim life. Knowing she loved him dearly allowed him to play with her. Within their relationship, there was nothing she would not understand and forgive.

"When will Emmie be home?" he asked as he squeezed her firmly.

"She's staying for supper at Harry and Ginny's, so she won't be home for hours," she replied, kissing the side of his neck. "We could start celebrating your birthday now. The half-century mark deserves a week of wifely attention."

"Whatever I wish?" he asked, ridiculously pleased.

"Anything," she murmured provocatively.

Being alone with her was a rare event, since the children were born. He pointed his wand at the drawing room door and windows, assuring their privacy.

"I want you to undress me and make love to me here," he told her. "We don't do the deed, as you say, outside our bedroom any more.

Her eyes glowed with fun as she began unbuttoning his shirt.

"It seems like this should be all about making you happy, not me," she said, pushing the shirt back off him and running her hands over his chest. "Ah, look how gorgeous you are."

Severus felt warmth kindle in his belly as she unfastened his pants. Her hands slipped inside and she squeezed his arse firmly before she pushed down his pants. Looking up at him, she knelt to finish stripping him, removing his boots first and then everything else. She rubbed her cheek against him and showered lingering kisses over his skin as she caressed his bare legs.

"So sexy," she purred, and he felt himself grow harder as she breathed on him. "Come lie down on the couch, my beautiful wizard.

She meant that, he thought smugly. After nearly thirteen years together it still thrilled him that she loved him so profoundly. It was odd, considering his reputation as ugly, cruel and evil. Then there was his time as a Death Eater, which he recalled with deepest self-loathing. But Zelda refused to let him close off any part of himself. She knew the wounded part that had so longed for a friend, for love, ever since Lily ended their friendship. He'd locked emotions inside, unable to bear rejection again, but Zelda saw it. She'd seen all of him, and over the years he was occasionally able to admit to her, in times of greatest intimacy, how grievous it had been.

"What you see as weakness is your strength, Sev," she'd told him years ago. "Your generous heart makes you wonderful."

He didn't care about that, he'd replied, he only wanted to take care of his family and do his work, but her response startled him.

"What's more wonderful than that?" she had asked softly.

The fire was the only light as he lay down on the couch. Her hair shone gold and red, reflecting the flames as she knelt next to him, and her eyes sparkled with delight. She pressed her face to his chest for a moment and then began kissing him. She kissed his cheek on the way to his ear, which she nipped hard, making it sting. Then she buried her face under his hair and began pressing light, teasing kisses all over his neck, tickling him. He squirmed faintly as sensations flowed through his body, and then she was kissing his chest as her hands moved all over his sides.

"Happy birthday to you," she sang softly as she caressed and mouthed at him. "Happy birthday to you…"

As moved down his body, she began stroking his cock rhythmically and she continued, "Happy birthday, dear Severus… Happy birthday to you."

If only he'd known, when the bloody Marauders were making his life a living hell, when Lily told him she wanted nothing more to do with him. His housemates had pressed him to be loyal to them, and he'd been miserable. But his future had held the joy of his life, his sweet Muggle wife who adored him.

"Zelda, come here," he said, holding out his arms to her as a rush of emotion flooded him.

She quickly divested herself of her clothes. Smiling into his eyes she slipped into his arms and looked expectantly at him.

"I shouldn't be alive today and I don't deserve such happiness," he said softly.

Her hands resumed caressing him and his skin tingled in response to her touch.

"You deserve to be happy," she chided. "Your existence makes me amazingly happy and you're a wonderful dad."

If he lived to be as old as Dumbledore, he could never take his good luck for granted, he thought. But fear stabbed at him suddenly, knowing she would age faster than he, and life without her would be far worse than when Lily ended their friendship. He tightened his grip, wanting to feel every inch of her body touching his, and buried his face against her neck.

"Sev?" she murmured softly.

He couldn't say it, but when he raised his head, he allowed her to see his fear and grief at the thought of losing her to old age and death. He saw sorrow in her eyes.

"I know. I try not to think about it, but you don't look one day older than when I found you," she said slowly. "I can't say that about myself."

"I don't care!" he burst out, desire turning to panic at the thought of her mortality.

"I know. It's an odd thing to feel more secure than I ever have, even as I see myself beginning to look older," she mused. "I don't care about that, all I can think is that someday I'll die and you won't be with me. I can't bear it, but it's reality."

He felt warm tears on his chest and could do nothing but hold her as she wept. Knowing she hated the idea of being parted as much as he did was slight consolation, and he wished with all his heart that the Philosopher's Stone had not been destroyed.

"Do you think of it often?" she asked hesitantly. "I do try to live my wonderful life and appreciate every day. It's not healthy, definitely co-dependent, but I never claimed to be a poster child for mental health. The idea of being without you paralyzes me with misery."

"I think of it," he said brusquely, relieved in a way that it was out in the open.

"It doesn't change anything, but I'm glad to know," she told him. "I feel dreadfully guilty, being like your psycho Lord Voldemort and wanting not to die."

Her innocence, imagining that she was anything like the Dark Lord, touched him profoundly.

"I don't hate the thought of death. I expected it at any moment for so long. But I cannot bear to think of being without you. Is co-dependence a bad thing?"

She sighed and her mouth twitched wryly. "At fifty-four years old, I don't want to work at getting emotionally healthy. My love life started dreadfully and so did yours. It may be unhealthy and pathetic to cling so desperately, but that's the way I am. You don't seem to mind."

He kissed her furrowed brow, loving how she tore into a subject, analyzed it and worried at it like a dog with a bone.

"We share the same tenacious, clinging nature," he said. "Your fierce love for me makes me feel better than I ever have."

"Me too," she replied, nestling her face against his neck. "Luckily I'm not likely to die or actually get decrepit for a few more years."

Tenderness filled him at her words. Absurd vanity made her touch up the color in her blond curls and there were a few more wrinkles at the corners of her eyes than when he'd first known her, but she was bright and quick, with the same energy she'd always had. And she was as passionate a lover as always, generous and inventive. There was joy in their life together, and laughter.

"I spoiled the mood," he said regretfully.

Zelda smirked faintly and said, "Did you think I've forgotten that I'm here with a scandalously naked, amazingly sexy wizard? I try never to miss an opportunity to appreciate your magnificence, my splendid husband."

"You're outrageous," he said, forced to smile at her exaggerated admiration. "Stop talking that way. It's embarrassing."

She kissed the tip of his nose, then his chin, and began tickling his neck with soft breathy kisses. It was gentle and lighthearted. She looked into his eyes and offered a bright glimpse of mischief, inviting him to put aside his worry and play with her.

"You like it," she challenged, running her hand down his torso and pressing firmly on his belly. "You love that I can see brilliant, arrogant you, in all your glory."

"I'm not arrogant!" he protested, his breath catching as that hand moved down lower.

"Of course you are," she said earnestly. "It was immersed in guilt for too long, but you know your worth, Sev. Your magic, your brilliant mind, your magnificent nose and your gorgeous, sexy body."

She began following her hand's journey down his body with her mouth, kissing and licking, but paused again.

"You've heard me mention your fabulous big dick enough times too," she said, greeting it affectionately. "Ordinary wizards would burst into tears if they knew they shared the planet with it."

That was a new one, he thought, torn between laughter and lust. She was right too, about everything except his physical appearance. He knew his own strengths and reveled in them, although he hoped no one realized the extent of his intellectual vanity but Zelda.

"Tell me more about my 'fabulous big dick,' my girl," he murmured, flushing faintly with pleasure.

A knowing grin appeared on her face and she rubbed her cheek against it.

"Mmmm… I never imagined anything could be so satisfying. Sometimes when you're not here I daydream about it and think I'll go mad if you won't come right home so I can appreciate it."

His cock throbbed as she brought it to eager attention, her words working with those clever hands until he felt as though all of him existed there in her possession, in complete delight.

"Zelda…" he moaned, "I need you now."

"I need you too," she whispered.

He lay still as she straddled and then plunged down on him, burying him inside her. He grasped her breasts, squeezing convulsively. A glow of pure joy filled him at their mutual delight; when they were together their life was wonderful.

She laughed with delight, pleasuring him as they stared into each other's eyes. But he wanted, as always…

"My turn, darling," he said softly, lifting her off him and sliding her to the side.

He'd always craved to be in control, to be on top, and this moment was no different. He loved that she deferred to him, as though she weren't infinitely wiser in all the ways that mattered. She smirked at him, giving him his wish and losing herself in passion. He knew how to please her as well as he knew how to please himself and he was, he thought ironically, ridiculously proud of this fact.

"Happy birthday to me," he whispered, shuddering to a climax and feeling her body quiver deliciously.

"Oh, Severus," she sighed, tightening her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. "Wonderful wizard."

"I now have a whole week to whinge and demand your attention," he murmured. "Perhaps birthdays aren't completely useless."

"I knew you'd see it my way," she said complacently, kissing him and snuggling close.