Chapter 8: Necklaces and Insults
A/N: Thanks for hanging with me and I am sorry for the delay. The good news is I may have a lot of time for writing this week as I am on vacation and there is a giant hurricane barreling down on the house I rented! Damn you hurricane Mathew….
As September rolled into October Minerva had shared a large part of her romantic history with Severus. From her first engagement where she choose magic over love in her twenties that left her with a broken heart, to her liaison with a death eater in her thirties that left her with a Celtic Tattoo, to her marriage in her forties that in three short years left her alone again. She did most of the talking about the past but with 25 years more life experience than him, she assumed he simply didn't have as many stories to share.
Severus would open up about his childhood in terms of his parents and his trouble fitting in at school but he kept his feelings for Lily a secret. He wasn't sure why, Minerva opened up about her former lovers but he in some way felt he was being disloyal to one or both of them if he spoke about his feelings for Lily. He supposed he was a little afraid that she would figure out that Lily was the reason he now found himself in a "double agent" life. He was not prepared to rehash all his guilt over that tragic night.
The double agent life was becoming a larger and larger problem in his developing relationship with Minerva. Dumbledore had sworn him to secrecy about the fact that Dumbledore was dying and that Severus had made the unbreakable bond with Narcissa to help Draco kill Albus. Dumbledore's crazy plan was that he wanted Severus be the one to kill him. Albus and Severus had just had a major argument over it.
In Dumbledore's opinion Severus would be killing a dying man, could satisfy the unbreakable bond, save Draco from losing his soul to the dark lord, and preserve his cover. What Dumbledore didn't account for is how this would destroy Minerva. It was all Severus had been thinking about lately.
Tonight was the night before the first Hogsmeade weekend and the castle was a buzz. Severus was able to slip into Minerva's rooms for a few hours that evening. "Will you be making the trek to Hogsmeade tomorrow" he asked. He was sitting in his usual place on her couch and she was next to him but turned so her legs were draped over his lap.
"I would but Mr. Draco Malfoy is serving his detention tomorrow. He has been acting insubordinate all year so I thought depriving him of his Saturday might be a better strategy to get him back in line".
The mention of Draco was like a bucket of cold water thrown on his face. He grew silent and sulky for the rest of the evening.
The next day arrived and Draco spent the afternoon in detention. Minerva was in her office when Hagrid came running up to the castle with a student screaming about her being cursed. He quickly explained that Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Leanna had witness Katie Bell being controlled by a cursed necklace and were now heading up the castle. Minerva wasn't surprise, whenever something out of the ordinary happened at Hogwarts the Potter "trio" was always involved in some way.
She ran toward the steps and quickly encounter the foursome, as they explained that Katie was cursed touching a necklace (which was now wrapped in a scarf) she knew Severus was the one who could help the most. He would be able to discern what dark magic was placed upon the necklace and that would help greatly in curing Katie. She sent Fitch to deliver the necklace to Severus as she brought the students into her office.
In Minerva's opinion, the most concerning part of the whole affair was Harry's overwhelming belief that Draco Malfoy was involved. Draco did come from a lineage of witches and wizards that were well versed in the dark arts but she could hardly believe that Draco would be involved in that. First of all, he had spent most of the day with her in detention but secondly, he wasn't exactly a stellar student and that level of magic, dark or not, was probably out of his realm. She was explaining as much to Severus that night when she came to his dungeon quarters.
"Of course Potter would blame Draco" Severus said. He was in a mood from the moment she walked through the door. She was surprised because Severus usually didn't get upset in crisis situations which is something she always admired in him. "If any students were involved it was most likely Potter and his sidekicks" he said with disgust. She was not about to get into yet another petty argument with him about Harry Potter. It was a bit of a sore subject between them so she tried to avoid it whenever possible. Severus just couldn't separate his feelings for Harry's father from his feelings for Harry.
To help ease the tension she walked over to him and ran her hand down his arm, he pulled away as if burned saying "Not tonight, I need some time to myself to study the necklace further" and he walked away into his laboratory leaving her standing there alone.
She was miffed but she decided to give him a pass. She clicked her tongue to help her control her anger and then she turned and left his chambers. She felt a little better after she slammed his door on the way out.
Severus put his hands over his eyes when he heard the door bang. His anger had been at a boiling point for the past three hours, ever since he was handed the necklace. He knew this must have been Draco's weak attempt to kill Albus Dumbledore. What was he thinking trying to use other students? He realized he was going to have to offer his help to Draco now otherwise Draco might end up injuring or killing some other innocent person.
Severus had hoped that if he stalled, somehow the situation he was in would work itself out. His conscious self didn't want to admit it but he half hoped that the poison that had seeped into Albus's body would act quicker than he anticipated and death would come to Albus from other means. Then, he would get out of this without having to have a hand in Albus death, break his unbreakable vow, or destroy the relationship he had with Minerva. Now, it was impossible. He had come so far in his quest to rid his soul of his guilt over Lily that he couldn't let his liaison with Minerva distract him from his mission. I need to end this and the sooner the better he thought.
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As October moved into November Severus became more and more withdrawn from Minerva. It saddened her, as she missed the "old Severus". All those petty arguments over the years were some bizarre seductive foreplay. He could match her in wit and sarcasm and his mind was part of the attraction for her.
For the last three weeks he barely spoke to her. She wasn't even sure if he was in the castle half the time At first she was angry at him but she kept her emotions in check. She knew that playing a spy among death eaters was eating away at him so she tried to give him space. However, when days turned into weeks she realized that their relationship was over. Then, she got angry again at his complete lack of courage of telling it to her face. She decided it was finally time to give him a piece of her mind.
She knocked outside his doors and was greeted by silence. She knew he was in there as they had just broken from dinner and she practically followed him down to the dungeons. When she knocked a second time and didn't receive a response she took matters into her own hands. She conjured her Patronus and sent it through the door after him.
He was sitting at his desk in his laboratory trying to block out the knocking on his door. He felt her following him after dinner and he was not in the mood to have "the talk" with her. He assumed she would simply give up after the few attempts but when a silver misty cat came and hopped on his desk and started striding back and forth he put his quill down and looked up saying "What is it?"
It was amazing how even her Patronus could take on that haughty look of hers. It stared straight in his eyes saying "come to the door you coward"
It was the use for the word Coward that really got under his skin and caused him to storm through his laboratory and swing open the door in a rage.
When the door flew open she could see the anger in his body so she put on a polite face and asked "May I come in?"
He open the door wider for her and she entered. As soon as the door was shut he said to her "Explain yourself?"
That was all it took to get her temper flared and she raised he voice saying "Explain myself? I think you're the one that needs to do some explaining!"
Severus rarely lost a battle of words and mostly because he could deliver the worst insults in a calm manner. He turned his back to her saying in a flippant way "I guess you haven't found any other young man to use as your sex toy"
"How dare you" she said as she marched towards him. She grabbed his arm to make him face her. "Are you sure you are a young man Severus because you acting like a petulant child!"
"And how should I act, Minerva. It's over, we both took what we needed from one another".
She dropped his arm and crossed hers across her chest saying "What exactly does that mean?"
He got in her face as he said "You try to always play the morally righteous Minerva McGonagall. Always so fair and just when deep down what you really want is to feel anger and hatred. You said it yourself that sleeping with the enemy is how you fulfill your need"
Minerva reacted before she thought through her actions and she slapped him across the face saying "you bastard" and stormed out.
A/N: Reviews are very welcome and motivation. Thanks a bunch for reading.
