CHAPTER FIVE
Severus swore as he slammed shut yet another dresser drawer. Glancing up and around the room from his position on the bedroom floor, he was at a loss to explain where the hell his book was. Moments later, he heard the fall of feminine footsteps coming down the hallway and spun on his rear on the floor to greet Hermione with a grin. He'd been searching and had left her alone for far too long, apparently, and she had decided to hurry things along.
As the figure of a woman entered the room, his grin quickly turned into a scowl, however. Scrambling up from his rather undignified position on the floor by the dresser, he leaned against it and calmly said one word.
"Catherine."
"Severus."
They stood for several tense moments, examining each other and mentally assessing the situation and their past. Their last face-to-face meeting had entailed a lot of screaming, books flying across the room, a hex or two and a good deal of name calling.
"No luck?" she finally said. He released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.
"No. I don't know what I did with the damn thing," he said, attempting a rueful grin. "Usually, I may not know where my quill or my keys are - but I always know exactly where every book I own is."
"And what pages the bookmark is resting between, as well," she remarked, coolly. He simply nodded in agreement. She raised a delicate hand into the air and cried: "'Accio book!'"
A dusty book flew out from underneath the bed - their old bed - and landed in her arms. She walked to Severus and handed it to him.
"Thank you. I didn't think about trying that for some reason," he said, shrugging.
"Little Muggle-born girlfriend make the powerful Severus Snape forget about magic?" she teased without warmth. "Why, Sev, there was I time that I thought you were the most powerful wizard I knew - other than Dumbledore. Losing your touch?"
He bristled and tried to not give in to her obvious attempts at a fight.
"Hermione has nothing to do with you and I, Catherine," he said, slowly. "You know that. Leave her out of it."
"She's sitting in my living room, Severus. That's a little hard to do," she said. "I assumed you would be gone by the time I finished my movie and shopping."
Severus couldn't help but grin a bit as he remembered the activities that had made them late for lunch and the rest of their day.
"We got a little held up this morning," was all that he said.
"I bet." Catherine took a step closer to Severus and gave him a cool and seductive look from head to toe, lingering on his groin. He shivered in response.
She took another step. Backing unconsciously into the corner created by the dresser and the wall, he returned the cool glance of his former lover and mentally compared her to Hermione. Where Catherine was calm, Hermione was full of fire and energy. Where Catherine was cool, Hermione was demonstratively affectionate. Where Catherine had become jaded and somehow old because of the war, Hermione was still full of youthful enthusiasm, despite the horrors she has seen in her life. Where Catherine was sultry and a deliberate seductress in bed, Hermione was warm and playful and - he struggled to describe it - she was simply real.
As Catherine advanced on him a bit more, he made one final mental comparison.
Catherine didn't want to marry him and would rather terminate a pregnancy than carry his child, while Hermione was actually excited about the prospects of both. In fact, he had caught her that morning in the bedroom, staring out the window with a wistful smile on her face and a gentle hand covering her lower abdomen. No competition there, he mused. A small smile settled into the corner of his own mouth as he gazed at the Auror intently. She slid a white hand up his throat and it settled on his nape, buried in his long, black hair.
"Catherine don't - Cat," he stammered. "I don't exactly know what you are doing, but it isn't appropriate. I'm with Hermione now, it's a serious relationship and I'm not about to leave her. Besides, if you remember correctly, you kicked me out."
He didn't know what to do. Catherine, the ice queen whose serene composure had so calmed and intrigued him for so many years, looked like she was about to cry as she pressed her body against his lean one.
"You can't have been with her for very long, Severus," she said, sniffing. "And you spent eight years with me."
Crying women were not his specialty, he thought to himself. Another voice in the back of his head reminded him that Hermione would most likely soon be in the throes of pregnancy hormone induced crying jags, so he had better get used to it. The thought of Hermione quickly chased away his traitorous body's reaction to Catherine's breasts pressing against his chest.
"Then at least kiss me goodbye, Sev," she whispered, leaning into him. "The last time I saw you was so terrible. The years we had were so good - leave me with one final good memory."
Severus Snape was torn. Before Catherine, he was lucky if a woman glanced at him with anything less than revulsion. Then after a few months of working with Catherine, she had become the first woman to look past his greasy hair, self-hate and dark appearance. Now, the first woman he had ever let himself love was begging him to kiss her. But then, the woman he currently hoped to spend the rest of his life with was mere yards away, possibly carrying his child. The decision suddenly seemed ridiculously easy.
He opened his mouth to tell her 'no' but she quickly swooped up to capture his open lips in a kiss. Jerking his head back, initially, Severus soon found himself wrapped in an embrace that was familiar and very comforting. He abruptly leaned into it and roughly began kissing Catherine back while his free hand reached to clench the top of the dresser. He didn't know how long they had been standing there kissing, but suddenly one of Catherine's hands had drifted to his groin and began stroking him. He gasped and instinctively dove in for a deeper kiss, caressing her tongue with his own as she began to softly moan.
Then he heard it. Somewhere in his lust and memory fogged mind, he heard the heartbroken gasp of Hermione. He wrenched back from Catherine, using one hand to tug her hand from his erection and his arm to shove away from the wall. He pushed Catherine back and the silent room was filled with the noise of his beloved, previously lost potions text clattering to the hardwood floor, the spine breaking. He glanced from Hermione to Catherine and saw his former lover smiling coldly at his future. Capturing Hermione's eyes yet again, their gazes locked for a heartbreaking second before she clamped her hand over her mouth and ran from the room, sobbing.
"Dammit," swore Severus, following her with long strides. "Hermione! Wait, please - Hermione!"
Hermione left the apartment with a slam of the door.
He was left standing in the lounge of his former home, face white with shock and gasping for breath. He turned his haunted eyes to his former lover and stood speechless as she advanced on him, a sultry look in her eye and a hand beginning to unbutton her blouse.
"Severus," she hissed. "It's been a long time."
"And it will be even longer, Cat," he snapped. "I'm leaving."
He tried to brush past her to retrieve the book that started it all and that lay on the floor in their former bedroom. Catherine stopped him with a strength that always shocked him, due to her tiny frame and feminine curves.
"No. Sev, we spent too much time together to let it all go to waste. Why do you think I kissed you today, when I knew your little Muggle girlfriend - the famously nosy Hermione Granger - would be certain to walk in on us?" she said. "She's just a fling, Severus. Come home."
He glared down at her and attempted to compose his thoughts. Hexing the bitch was, unfortunately, out of the question.
"This is no longer my home, Catherine," he said. "My home is with Hermione."
"Doesn't look that way to me, Severus," she said, gesturing to the door. "You told me you loved her, but you wouldn't have been kissing me if -"
"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" he accused, suddenly realizing exactly what had happened. "I'll take full blame for my stupidity, I was an idiot and I should have hexed you into the middle of next week the moment you kissed me. But, I told you when we spoke yesterday that I was involved with someone and that it was serious. You bloody KNEW how I felt about Hermione. I -- I think you planned this. Did you?"
Catherine didn't answer. Instead she returned his accusing glance and coolly waited for him to continue.
"Merlin! I'm an idiot. I even felt sorry for you. I don't know why I kissed you back. Maybe it WAS goodbye. I don't know. I just don't know."
He suddenly seemed lost for words or thought and sat down on the sofa dejectedly.
"She's just a child, Severus," Catherine said, softly. She sat next to him and began to gently rub his back. "It was just a fling."
Severus suddenly stood and walked to the bedroom. He picked up his book and made his way to the front door. Stopping with his hand on the doorknob, he turned to look at Catherine. It was a look that few people ever saw from Severus Snape and lived to tell about it. It was a look of pure hatred.
"It is NOT a fling. Hermione is NOT a child," he spat, heatedly. "I am going to go to her and beg her to forgive me. You are a cold, calculating bitch, Catherine. Did you know that?"
"I've been told so, on many different occasions," she said calmly, holding his gaze.
"Well, then here's something you apparently didn't know," he said, stealthily moving until their faces were just inches from each other. "Hermione and I are in love. In fact, we are trying to get pregnant, Catherine. Does that sound like a fling to you?"
Catherine looked like she had been slapped and she took a few shocked steps back from Snape.
"Now if you will excuse me, I need to go convince the woman who is most likely carrying my child to forgive me for being a total bastard," sneered Severus as he walked to the door. "And -- Catherine?"
"Yes," she whispered, Auror confidence apparently gone.
"I never fucking want to see you again."
Severus left the apartment with a slam of the door.
Catherine walked to the sofa and sat, one delicate and shaking hand rising to her chest where it began the work of rebuttoning her blouse.
Severus swore as he slammed shut yet another dresser drawer. Glancing up and around the room from his position on the bedroom floor, he was at a loss to explain where the hell his book was. Moments later, he heard the fall of feminine footsteps coming down the hallway and spun on his rear on the floor to greet Hermione with a grin. He'd been searching and had left her alone for far too long, apparently, and she had decided to hurry things along.
As the figure of a woman entered the room, his grin quickly turned into a scowl, however. Scrambling up from his rather undignified position on the floor by the dresser, he leaned against it and calmly said one word.
"Catherine."
"Severus."
They stood for several tense moments, examining each other and mentally assessing the situation and their past. Their last face-to-face meeting had entailed a lot of screaming, books flying across the room, a hex or two and a good deal of name calling.
"No luck?" she finally said. He released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.
"No. I don't know what I did with the damn thing," he said, attempting a rueful grin. "Usually, I may not know where my quill or my keys are - but I always know exactly where every book I own is."
"And what pages the bookmark is resting between, as well," she remarked, coolly. He simply nodded in agreement. She raised a delicate hand into the air and cried: "'Accio book!'"
A dusty book flew out from underneath the bed - their old bed - and landed in her arms. She walked to Severus and handed it to him.
"Thank you. I didn't think about trying that for some reason," he said, shrugging.
"Little Muggle-born girlfriend make the powerful Severus Snape forget about magic?" she teased without warmth. "Why, Sev, there was I time that I thought you were the most powerful wizard I knew - other than Dumbledore. Losing your touch?"
He bristled and tried to not give in to her obvious attempts at a fight.
"Hermione has nothing to do with you and I, Catherine," he said, slowly. "You know that. Leave her out of it."
"She's sitting in my living room, Severus. That's a little hard to do," she said. "I assumed you would be gone by the time I finished my movie and shopping."
Severus couldn't help but grin a bit as he remembered the activities that had made them late for lunch and the rest of their day.
"We got a little held up this morning," was all that he said.
"I bet." Catherine took a step closer to Severus and gave him a cool and seductive look from head to toe, lingering on his groin. He shivered in response.
She took another step. Backing unconsciously into the corner created by the dresser and the wall, he returned the cool glance of his former lover and mentally compared her to Hermione. Where Catherine was calm, Hermione was full of fire and energy. Where Catherine was cool, Hermione was demonstratively affectionate. Where Catherine had become jaded and somehow old because of the war, Hermione was still full of youthful enthusiasm, despite the horrors she has seen in her life. Where Catherine was sultry and a deliberate seductress in bed, Hermione was warm and playful and - he struggled to describe it - she was simply real.
As Catherine advanced on him a bit more, he made one final mental comparison.
Catherine didn't want to marry him and would rather terminate a pregnancy than carry his child, while Hermione was actually excited about the prospects of both. In fact, he had caught her that morning in the bedroom, staring out the window with a wistful smile on her face and a gentle hand covering her lower abdomen. No competition there, he mused. A small smile settled into the corner of his own mouth as he gazed at the Auror intently. She slid a white hand up his throat and it settled on his nape, buried in his long, black hair.
"Catherine don't - Cat," he stammered. "I don't exactly know what you are doing, but it isn't appropriate. I'm with Hermione now, it's a serious relationship and I'm not about to leave her. Besides, if you remember correctly, you kicked me out."
He didn't know what to do. Catherine, the ice queen whose serene composure had so calmed and intrigued him for so many years, looked like she was about to cry as she pressed her body against his lean one.
"You can't have been with her for very long, Severus," she said, sniffing. "And you spent eight years with me."
Crying women were not his specialty, he thought to himself. Another voice in the back of his head reminded him that Hermione would most likely soon be in the throes of pregnancy hormone induced crying jags, so he had better get used to it. The thought of Hermione quickly chased away his traitorous body's reaction to Catherine's breasts pressing against his chest.
"Then at least kiss me goodbye, Sev," she whispered, leaning into him. "The last time I saw you was so terrible. The years we had were so good - leave me with one final good memory."
Severus Snape was torn. Before Catherine, he was lucky if a woman glanced at him with anything less than revulsion. Then after a few months of working with Catherine, she had become the first woman to look past his greasy hair, self-hate and dark appearance. Now, the first woman he had ever let himself love was begging him to kiss her. But then, the woman he currently hoped to spend the rest of his life with was mere yards away, possibly carrying his child. The decision suddenly seemed ridiculously easy.
He opened his mouth to tell her 'no' but she quickly swooped up to capture his open lips in a kiss. Jerking his head back, initially, Severus soon found himself wrapped in an embrace that was familiar and very comforting. He abruptly leaned into it and roughly began kissing Catherine back while his free hand reached to clench the top of the dresser. He didn't know how long they had been standing there kissing, but suddenly one of Catherine's hands had drifted to his groin and began stroking him. He gasped and instinctively dove in for a deeper kiss, caressing her tongue with his own as she began to softly moan.
Then he heard it. Somewhere in his lust and memory fogged mind, he heard the heartbroken gasp of Hermione. He wrenched back from Catherine, using one hand to tug her hand from his erection and his arm to shove away from the wall. He pushed Catherine back and the silent room was filled with the noise of his beloved, previously lost potions text clattering to the hardwood floor, the spine breaking. He glanced from Hermione to Catherine and saw his former lover smiling coldly at his future. Capturing Hermione's eyes yet again, their gazes locked for a heartbreaking second before she clamped her hand over her mouth and ran from the room, sobbing.
"Dammit," swore Severus, following her with long strides. "Hermione! Wait, please - Hermione!"
Hermione left the apartment with a slam of the door.
He was left standing in the lounge of his former home, face white with shock and gasping for breath. He turned his haunted eyes to his former lover and stood speechless as she advanced on him, a sultry look in her eye and a hand beginning to unbutton her blouse.
"Severus," she hissed. "It's been a long time."
"And it will be even longer, Cat," he snapped. "I'm leaving."
He tried to brush past her to retrieve the book that started it all and that lay on the floor in their former bedroom. Catherine stopped him with a strength that always shocked him, due to her tiny frame and feminine curves.
"No. Sev, we spent too much time together to let it all go to waste. Why do you think I kissed you today, when I knew your little Muggle girlfriend - the famously nosy Hermione Granger - would be certain to walk in on us?" she said. "She's just a fling, Severus. Come home."
He glared down at her and attempted to compose his thoughts. Hexing the bitch was, unfortunately, out of the question.
"This is no longer my home, Catherine," he said. "My home is with Hermione."
"Doesn't look that way to me, Severus," she said, gesturing to the door. "You told me you loved her, but you wouldn't have been kissing me if -"
"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" he accused, suddenly realizing exactly what had happened. "I'll take full blame for my stupidity, I was an idiot and I should have hexed you into the middle of next week the moment you kissed me. But, I told you when we spoke yesterday that I was involved with someone and that it was serious. You bloody KNEW how I felt about Hermione. I -- I think you planned this. Did you?"
Catherine didn't answer. Instead she returned his accusing glance and coolly waited for him to continue.
"Merlin! I'm an idiot. I even felt sorry for you. I don't know why I kissed you back. Maybe it WAS goodbye. I don't know. I just don't know."
He suddenly seemed lost for words or thought and sat down on the sofa dejectedly.
"She's just a child, Severus," Catherine said, softly. She sat next to him and began to gently rub his back. "It was just a fling."
Severus suddenly stood and walked to the bedroom. He picked up his book and made his way to the front door. Stopping with his hand on the doorknob, he turned to look at Catherine. It was a look that few people ever saw from Severus Snape and lived to tell about it. It was a look of pure hatred.
"It is NOT a fling. Hermione is NOT a child," he spat, heatedly. "I am going to go to her and beg her to forgive me. You are a cold, calculating bitch, Catherine. Did you know that?"
"I've been told so, on many different occasions," she said calmly, holding his gaze.
"Well, then here's something you apparently didn't know," he said, stealthily moving until their faces were just inches from each other. "Hermione and I are in love. In fact, we are trying to get pregnant, Catherine. Does that sound like a fling to you?"
Catherine looked like she had been slapped and she took a few shocked steps back from Snape.
"Now if you will excuse me, I need to go convince the woman who is most likely carrying my child to forgive me for being a total bastard," sneered Severus as he walked to the door. "And -- Catherine?"
"Yes," she whispered, Auror confidence apparently gone.
"I never fucking want to see you again."
Severus left the apartment with a slam of the door.
Catherine walked to the sofa and sat, one delicate and shaking hand rising to her chest where it began the work of rebuttoning her blouse.