Part Fourteen
A/n: Okay, sorry I haven't written anything for a while, I'm not even going to attempt to think of an excuse because: one, I suck at excuses and two, I want to get onto the fic as quickly as possible before I loose the urge to write. And of course, we wouldn't want that to happen would we, because who knows how long it'll be until I turn my word processor on again!
Minerva laughed shakily.
"Okay, that wasn't funny. Not in the slightest. Except maybe the mental images that you having a high school sweet heart entail."
"Well if it wasn't funny, why are you laughing?"
"Because I either laugh or I cry and I don't like crying!"
"Me either. I can't handle people crying. Especially women. Please don't." There was a note of panic in his voice. She sank into a chair slowly.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to. Besides, I have no reason to cry. Right?" Now she was the one sounding more than a little panicky. He sank to his knees beside her chair and took her hands in his.
"Definitely not." He kissed her cheek gently, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Rebecca is an old friend, and maybe we were more at one time, but I haven't seen her for years and there is absolutely nothing to get worked up about. She's part of my past. You're my future." She paused.
"That's the sweetest bloody thing I've ever heard you say. Are you feeling alright?" (Ick ick ick, sappy sappy sappy:-P)
The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully, and it wasn't until later that evening, when Snape was sat alone in his dungeon classroom marking the pathetic excuses for essays he had been handed by a group of first year Hufflepuff students, that he and Rebecca had a chance to talk.
When the door at the top of the stairs creaked open, he glared upwards impatiently. Whoever it was had better have a damn good reason for disturbing him; if there was one thing he couldn't stand it was being interrupted when he was giving out low grades.
However, the woman at the top of the stairs, now descending slowly, wasn't one he was keen to turn away. She smiled, as she jumped down the last few steps and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into another, breath takingly uncomfortable, hug.
"Oh Sev, I've missed you so much!" She squealed. Severus winced. He had somehow managed to forget just how high her voice could go. And, come to that, how she had an annoying habit of hugging him so hard he couldn't breath. But nonetheless, he hugged her back, and said:
"I've missed you too. Kind of."
"And what's that meant to mean?" She asked, hitting him playfully.
"That's meant to mean that, I missed you for a few days, maybe a week or so after you left, but then I joined forces with You-Know-Who and stopped missing you." She looked a little disturbed, but laughed it off and hugged him even tighter, saying:
"Oh Sev, you always were a joker!" He paused.
"No I wasn't."
"Well maybe not, but you always made me laugh. Okay, so maybe alot of the time I was laughing at you not with you, but well-"
"Okay, I missed you to Rebecca, you don't have to go into detail."
"Sorry, but you were so sweet when you were a kid. Remember how you didn't use to have any friends except for that Malfoy character and his cronies?"
"Yeah, and remember how we only ended up together after Malfoy turned you down?" He asked wryly. At this she blushed and looked a little embarrassed.
"Yes, well, you have to admit, Lucius Malfoy WAS a hottie."
"Not much changed with you then?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well you still look and sound like a complete airhead...." She hit him again, though maybe not quite so playfully this time. He held up his hands in defence.
"Joke! See, I really can be funny when I try."
"Please don't try. It's painful."
"Thanks, but I'm not the one who referred to Lucius Malfoy as a 'hottie'."
"Well I'd be worried if you had done...."
"So would I strangely enough." She laughed.
"Okay, lets drop that for now! So, wanna hear what I've been up to?"
"I don't know, do I?"
"Yes you do."
"Okay then, what have you been up to?"
"Well first of all, I learned Polish in like a week, which I was really proud of, and started working for the Polish Ministry of Magic. I worked my way up the ladder of employment, all the time gaining more money for my study of Polish Greens-"
"Polish Greens?"
"The dragons I moved to another country to study remember? Your hopeless, you really are. Anyway, eventually, I wrote this groundbreaking report about how the Greens in captivity are constantly tormented, and how their living conditions were appalling, and ended up making a whole lot of moolah."
"What was so appalling about the way they were kept that would make people take notice of anything written by you?" He teased. Suddenly, a wicked grin spread across her face.
"That's the beauty of the thing. There was nothing wrong with the way they were being kept what so ever!"
"Then why say there was?"
"Well come on, what's groundbreaking about a report on how Polish Greens are wonderfully kept and are such friendly and human reliant creatures that being set loose would probably kill them?" She chuckled. "Aren't I evil?"
"That'll be the Slytherin upbringing." He remarked, wondering how the Polish would manage to disguise a flock of dead dragons falling from the sky from the muggles......
"Let me guess, you came back here so that when it turned out that the dragons weren't actually being tormented they wouldn't be able to find you?"
"Well that and, I wanted to boast to you about what I did." She grinned. "Aren't you proud of me Sev?"
"Well I guess if you think you did something to be proud of then I am. But couldn't you have told me all that in a letter? And maybe moved somewhere like Alaska where the Polish people would never think to look for you?"
"Oh but that wouldn't be fun now would it?" She whispered huskily. "No fun at all." She was now standing a little too close for comfort, and Snape was about to take a step back when she threw her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear:
"I'm looking forwards to picking up right where we left off." And before he could even begin to protest, she had covered his mouth with hers and was kissing him hungrily.
Added on 2nd A/n bit: Okay, I just want to take this opportunity to say yay me! My writer's block is gone! Completely gone! And tonight while I was writing this I finished part 15 as well! I'll either put that up tomorrow or in the next few days, and now I'm gonna go and be happy because I can write again!J