Over the next few nights, conversations with Severus have been short and to the point. Paige fought any urges she had for him every time. No messages ever needed to go out by Dumbledore and Paige didn't have anything to report for him. She wanted to talk to him more and more each night, she wanted to say to hell with her job, her whole career and just kiss him. Otakemaru stayed relatively silent while Paige struggled with her thoughts internally.
It was one night about two weeks later that she couldn't help it any longer and her emotions boil over. After reporting nothing from either side, Severus was turning to walk away back to the castle.
"I finished that book." Paige blurts out like word vomit.
Severus turns back around and walks back towards her.
"And?" He asks.
"It was really good." She admits, while digging in her bag to retrieve the book. "Helped connect somethings for me, not everything though I feel."
"Do you know when you'll be available for that lesson?" he asks her as she hands him the book.
"I have a day off on Saturday." She says, her stomach tightening just thinking about being alone in a room with him.
"Saturday at night then?" He asks. "The kids have the option to go to Hogsmeade that day."
"Saturday worlds for me." She says, trying to smile through her nerves.
Severus stares into her eyes for a moment before he breaks his gaze and turns away.
"Goodnight." He says, walking away from her.
"Night." She whispers.
Paige sighs and leans against the tree trunk.
"I'm afraid. I don't know what to say." Otakemaru whispers in her ear.
"You should say that what I'm doing is stupid and that I should let him know tomorrow night to cancel the lesson." She says in a monotone voice.
"Nah, it's just a potions lesson. What could possibly happen in an empty classroom with most of the kids over in the next town?" He says sarcastically. "Nothing wrong will happen at all."
Thunder suddenly rumbles in the distance and the wind began to pick up.
"That's not some sort of bad omen, is it?" Paige asks as she sees dark clouds move briskly across the sky.
"Nah, no. Nothing is going to go wrong. I wouldn't even worry about it." Otakemaru says, denial in his voice.
Paige lets out another sigh as big drops of rain start dropping from the sky. She puts her hood over her head and curls up on the branch, trying to hide from the rain with the leave on the tree.
"Yeah, job is totally going great too. What could possibly go wrong?" Otakemaru says as a flash of lightening flashes across the sky.
The rain didn't let up for days. The grounds became so muddy that everyone tried to avoid walking on the grass. Paige and her team didn't have a choice, so being muddy was a new normal for them. When Saturday arrived the rain still hasn't let up, and Paige wasn't able to call off the Potions lesson from Severus.
She arrives at the near empty castle just before noon, dripping wet from the tracheal downpour outside. She was dressed semi causal, with jeans and a casual black sweater. She decided to still wear her combat boots though. She removes her hood and checks that her long blonde hair was still dry after deciding to leave it down today. Paige walks to the basement of the school and towards Professor Snape's classroom, her nerves getting the better of her as she approaches his door. She knocks on the door, and it opens slightly. She pushes the door the rest of the way open and enters the classroom. It was rearranged, with all the cauldrons now missing except one in the front of the classroom. She didn't see Severus anywhere inside. She removes her cloak and puts it down on a nearby table and starts looking at different items around the classroom. As she gets to his desk, she sees a piece of paper that catches her attention. She picks it up and reads it. There was a bunch of names written out in ink, her name being one of them. She quickly puts the paper back on the desk when she hears footsteps approaching. She pretends to look at something on the shelf near his desk as the footsteps stop.
"Early I see." Severus says from behind her.
"I've only been here for about a minute." She says, looking over her shoulder at him.
He waves his hand to where the lone cauldron is. She sees that he's holding a book in his other hand. Paige felt so nervous about doing the potion with him. She's done potions in front of Potion Masters before, but he intimidated in a different way. She takes a deep breath and walks over towards the cauldron, trying to get a grip.
"I've never seen you with your hair down." Severus says, glancing at her before opening the book in his hand.
"Oh yeah, I try and keep it out of my way when I'm at work." Paige says while grabbing a strand of her hair.
Severus continues to flip through the book without saying anything.
"What potion were you thinking of doing?" Paige asks, trying to break the silence.
He stops flipping through the pages and sets the book down on the table next to the cauldron.
"I thought we would start with a simple enough one." He says, as he walks to a closet in the class, opening it and disappearing inside.
"Start? Like there will be more than one lesson?" Paige asks herself while she waits for him to return.
"This one will take about a month to finish, but we can at least start it today." He says, re-emerging from the closet.
He's carrying a few items in his arm and brings them to the table with the book on it. He sets them down on the table as he points his wand at the bottom of the cauldron, the bottom of it catching fire.
"We're going to be starting a Veritaserum potion today." He says looking at her.
"The truth serum?" She asks, "Isn't it prohibited?"
"Prohibited to use, not to make." He says as he glances over at the book. "Now read the directions and tell me what you would do."
Paige walks over to the table, looking down at the book. She reads the first steps to the potion before looking back at him.
"So, what's first?" He asks.
"Cut the Anjelica herb and add." Paige says, unsure on why she he made her feel unconfident of her answer even though she just read it.
He nods and looks at the Anjelica herb on the table. She grabs the stack of dark forest green leaves and grabs the knife next to them. She takes one of the leaves and holds it down on the table and holds the knife to the stem. Paige's heart starts pounding harder and faster as she feels him behind her. Her hands shaking slightly as he presses up against her. He reaches his arms around her, grabbing onto her hands with his icy cold hands. He steadies the knife in her hand.
"Do I scare you?" He whispers in her ear as he moves their hands with the knife down the stem of the leaf in the straight line.
"No." she says starting at the leaf in front of her, trying to regain feeling back in her body.
He removes his hands from hers and steps back.
"Then I'm surprised someone of your statue can operate with such shaky hands." He says with a smirk on his face.
Paige, a little annoyed with his attitude, takes a deep breath to try and steady her hands. Now that he wasn't standing right behind her, she feels like she can focus more. She finishes up with the leaves and throws them into the cauldron. She reaches for a small blue bottle on the table, but he grabs her wrist to stop her.
"You should always double check." He says, letting go of her wrist.
"Yes Professor." She says, feeling lectured.
She glances at the book and confirms the next step was in fact the blue bottle. She glances back up at him, and without breaking eye contact. Grabs the blue bottle from the table.
"You might want me to do this part." He says as Paige unscrews the cap to the bottle.
"For what reason?" Paige asks, squeezing some of the liquid into the dropper that was attached to the lid.
"One to many drops will cause-" He starts to say, but Paige holds the dropper over the cauldron before he could finish his sentence. She takes a deep breath, not wanting to show him weakness.
"Catastrophic outcomes." He finishes as Paige squeezes two drops into the cauldron.
The liquid inside turns a bright white color before bubbling up and turning a dark forest green color again. Paige replaces the lid back on the bottle and glances back down at the book, double checking the next step smugly.
"Jobberknoll feathers." She says out-loud.
"And what do you do to the feathers before putting them in?" He asks, crossing his arms.
Paige's mind races as she tries to remember anything from her studies about Jobberknoll feathers. She quickly glances at the textbook for answers, but it doesn't say to do anything to the feathers.
"Well?" He asks her.
"I'm unsure." She admits.
He smirks and uncrosses his arms.
"It was a trick question; you don't have to do anything to them." He says looking down at the textbook on the table.
Paige closes her eyes in embarrassment as she picks up the feathers and adds them to the cauldron. She glances back down at the textbook.
"Says we wait a week to add the next ingredients." Paige says, looking up from the book and looking at Severus.
"Very well, I guess we are finished for today then." He says as he closes the book.
Paige walks over to the table with her cloak, disappointed in being done so soon with the lesson. She drapes it over her arm and her and Severus walk towards the classroom door.
"Thank you. That was…enjoyable." She says as he opens the door for her.
Paige looks into his dark eyes, desperate to know what he was thinking. They stood staring at each other in the open doorway of the classroom for a moment. Paige thinks about if he rejects her. He would tell Dumbledore, who would tell Colonel Andrews, who would then fire her. She would have to go back to Theodard a disgrace and have him disgusted by her actions. She suddenly felt nauseous, and her mind finally coming to its senses, she breaks eye contact with him.
"See you tomorrow night then." She says as she turns to leave the classroom.
"Yes, of course. Tomorrow night." He says looking down at the ground.
"Damnit Paige, I've tried to stay out of this, but I can't any longer." Otakemaru screams in her ear as she leaves the classroom.
"It's too much of a risk. It's too much to lose." She says as her heart pounds in her chest.
"Remember? Back in Russia? You chose to take a risk and trust me to get you out of there." Otakemaru says desperately, trying to get her to stay. "Then we met Dumbledore and he saved your life."
Paige stops herself a few steps away from the door.
"It's not always worst-case scenario." Otakemaru says to her.
Paige looks back at Severus who is watching her. She drops her cloak on the ground and walks back towards him. She enters the classroom again, not saying anything, just keeping eye contact with him. He slowly closes the classroom door and locks it, all without looking away from her. She walks closer to him and glances down at his lips. She holds her breath and putting everything on the line, she leans in and kisses him. Paige's body flooded with white hot electricity as he pushes his lips back into hers, pushing her back slightly into the table behind her. She inhales sharply as he pushes her up on the table, moving between her legs. His lips move to her neck and causing her hips to move forward into his. He bites down gently on her neck as she starts unbuttoning the front of his robes. He quickly grabs her hands to stop her.
"The students should be returning soon." He says stepping away from her. "It's best we stop now."
Paige exhales and hops off the table, her feelings of confliction and confusion mixing inside her.
"Right, you're right." Paige says as she fixes her hair and walks towards the door.
He opens it for her and she walks out not saying anything else to him as she leaves his classroom. She picks up her cloak in the hallway and puts it on while she climbs the stairs to the main level of the school.
"Was that normal?" Paige asks herself.
"I don't know what that was." Otakemaru replies.
Paige bit her bottom lip thinking about him kissing her neck. Her face felt red hot as it hit the cold rainy air outside.
Otakemaru doesn't say anything to her on her walk back to Hogsmeade, leaving her to relive the moment in her head. She walks up the stairs to her hotel room in a foggy daze. Her legs wobbling and shaking, but she manages to make it back to her room and flops down on the bed, laying on her stomach.
"If I ever needed a moment of privacy, now is that moment." Paige says out-loud to Otakemaru.
"I'll do my best. Take all the time you need." He whispers to her.
Paige slowly turns onto her back, running her fingertips down her shirt and between her breasts. She keeps going further down to her jeans and unbuttons them. She reaches her hand down her pants and under her underwear, feeling herself. She was surprised to feel how wet she was. Thoughts of pressing her hips into Severus' flashes across her mind as she begins to slowly rub her clitoris. She bites her bottom lip and grips the blankets with her other hand as her memory flashes back to him biting down on her neck. She moans softly as she rubs herself a bit quicker, the pleasure increasing. She imagines him on top of her, wishing it was his hand touching her right now. She remembers him pushing her up against the table, her legs around him. Her body tenses up as she reaches her climax.
She exhales slowly as she body releases.
There was suddenly a knock at the door. She quickly removes her hands from her pants and buttons her jeans back up. She fixes her hair before answering the door. Ripley stands on the other side as she opens the door.
"Rip. Everything okay?" She asks stepping aside to let him into her room.
"Yeah, everything's fine." He says, walking into the room. "Just wanted to see what you were going to do for your day off."
"I was just thinking about maybe grabbing something to eat and then probably sleep." She says with a slight chuckle.
"Oh nice. I was thinking about going for a hike along the pass behind these mountains." He says looking out her window to the mountains. "Wonder if you wanted to join me?"
"Perhaps another time. Feeling tired, might even skip the food and take a nap." Paige says with a fake yawn.
"Well, if you change your mind and want to hang out with a friend." He says as he starts to walk out of her room. "I'm the room across the hall."
"I promise I'll go next time." Paige says with a smirk.
Ripley smirks back leaving. Paige sighs and closes her door. She flops back down on her bed, burying her face in the pillow.
"Hey, not trying to rush you or anything, but you still need more alone time?" Otakemaru whispers in her ear.
"I'm good now, thanks." She says to him in a muffled voice though the pillow.
"Everything good?" He asks her.
"Terrific."