59. A Long Night
Severus stood in the bedroom doorway and watched Evangeline pack with a perplexed look on his face. "Please explain this to me again, Evangeline. I don't understand why it's necessary for you to leave me."
Evangeline finished packing the few things she'd need into her small overnight bag and sighed. "It's tradition, Severus, for the bride and groom to spend the night before the wedding apart. I'm going to go and sleep in my old quarters upstairs. It's only for one night."
Obviously there was more to wedding traditions than he'd realized. Not all of them pleasant, either. Greatly put out, he frowned darkly and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's a pointless tradition."
With an understanding smile, she picked up her bag and crossed over to kiss him on the cheek. "Nevertheless, it's one I intend to respect."
Before he could renew his protests, there was a knock at the door. Glad of the reprieve, Evangeline moved away from her aggravated fiancé and went to answer the door. Upon opening it, she found Eleanor Hamilton standing there holding a creamy white envelope with a heavy gold seal on it.
"May I come in for a moment and speak to Professor Snape?" the blond witch inquired with a smile.
"Of course, Eleanor." Evangeline held the door open for her friend to enter. Snape came forward with a questioning look on his face.
"Perhaps it's time for us to move to a first name basis, Miss Hamilton."
She smiled at him. "I'd be delighted, Severus, if you'll agree to call me Eleanor."
He nodded graciously. "Now, how may I be of service, Eleanor?"
The young woman smiled and fidgeted with the fancy envelope in her hands. "Well, when I came here I had a little mission that I was charged with by my bosses at Gringotts. They felt that you were never properly honored for all your help in securing the safety of our bank. They asked me to give you this with their compliments." She handed him the envelope.
Mystified, he opened it and removed a letter on heavy embossed parchment, which stated that for his service to the bank, his vault was now 1000 Galleons richer. In addition, all fees related to any banking services were being waived for the remainder of his lifetime. His eyebrows flew up to his hairline at this uncharacteristically generous gesture on the part of the goblins, and he regarded her in amazement, as he handed the letter to Evangeline for her inspection.
"This is exceedingly generous, Eleanor. I don't know what to say…thank you."
She smiled and nodded. "You're quite welcome. My bosses felt that you were very badly treated, considering the extreme service you rendered to us. Your actions saved the bank from utter ruin, after all. Your treatment at the hands of the Ministry of Magic appalled them, and they wanted to be sure you understood that they, at least, were very grateful. They also wanted me to extend their sincere congratulations on your marriage."
Exceedingly pleased, Evangeline set the letter on the desk and smiled at Snape in satisfaction. "Well, I'm glad that someone is properly appreciative of all that you did, Severus. Thank you, Eleanor, and please extend our thanks to your bosses for their warm wishes."
Eleanor smiled happily at the two of them. "Oh, it's my pleasure. This was a job I was very happy to be carrying out. Now I guess, I'll be going."
Evangeline put a hand on her arm. "I was on my way out, too. I'll come with you."
She turned back to Severus, who once more had an annoyed expression on his face. "I'll see you tomorrow, Severus…at the ceremony…not before."
Feeling slightly abandoned, he frowned darkly again. "This makes no sense, Evangeline."
"It's only for one night, Severus. Please, humor me." She smiled up at him anxiously.
Defeated, he sighed heavily. "All right. I'll respect your wishes, but I am not happy about this. I'll miss you. It'll be very lonely tonight without you."
She slipped up closer to him and kissed him gently on the lips. "After tomorrow, I hope you'll never be lonely again," she said in a loving tone.
He slid his arms around her, pulled her against him, and deepened the kiss. "I do not intend to be," he murmured softly against her willing lips.
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At loose ends that evening, a rather frustrated Snape sat in one of the wingchairs in front of the fire and considered going to bed early. The fire crackled merrily, but it did nothing to lighten his mood as he drummed his fingertips on the arm of his chair and brooded gloomily. However was he to get through this intolerable night? From here on out until the wedding itself, time was going to move agonizingly slowly, he could already tell. Patience may very well be a virtue, but it was one that he possessed in only minute quantities. Nothing could drive him over the edge faster than waiting…endless…pointless…frustrating…waiting!
"Just concentrate on the fact that after tomorrow, she'll never leave you again," he told himself. Everything he'd ever dreamed of wanting was finally within his grasp. Why did he fear he was about to wake up, and discover it had all been nothing but a dream?
Suddenly a knock at the door pulled him from his somber reverie. He frowned at the door. Who would be bothering him tonight? Hoping that the interruption would help pass the time, and wouldn't mean some sort of problem had reared its ugly head at the last minute, he got up and opened the door, to find Remus Lupin and Sirius Black standing there, with stupid grins on their faces.
A tremor of suspicion shot through him as he looked at them, and he found himself scowling darkly. "What do you two want? And why, may I ask, are you both grinning like idiots? Not that that's out of character."
"Thanks, Severus. It's always a pleasure to see you, too," exclaimed Lupin, as the two wizards grabbed his arms tightly and pulled him out the door.
"Where are you taking me?" thundered Snape in sudden alarm as he struggled uselessly with the two of them.
"Relax, Snape! You're going to enjoy this, I guarantee it!" Black exclaimed with a grin.
"Oh, right, I'm supposed to just take your word for that, am I Black?" exclaimed the extremely irked Potions Master.
Black grinned even broader as he struggled with the perturbed wizard. "Well…yeah, you are. You've got to learn to be more trusting, Snape."
"I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw you, Black," growled Snape as he continued to struggle to free his arms from their grasp.
Black snorted. "You try to do something nice for someone and what does it get you? Nothing but abuse. See if I ever do a favor for you again, Snape!" Black grunted in pain as Snape managed to land an elbow in his ribs.
Lupin grinned and tried to reassure the annoyed bridegroom. "Calm down, Severus. This'll be fun, you'll see."
Seeing no easy way out of it, Snape ceased his struggles and allowed them to pull him along as he transferred his scowl to Lupin. "Fun, you say?" His tone dripped sarcasm. "If Black had anything to do with the planning of this kidnapping, I sincerely doubt that anything about it will be "fun"."
Lupin just continued to grin at him while Black looked offended. "We really need to work on your manners, Snape," he muttered to himself.
They hauled him upstairs to the entrance hall and then headed down the hallway to one of the small conference rooms at the back of the castle. With a dramatic flourish, they opened a carved wooden door and shoved him abruptly into the darkness inside. As if his entrance was a trigger, the lights went up and everyone in the room yelled, "Surprise!"
Snape stood there and gaped at the room, now decorated with streamers and balloons. Floating candles came to life with golden flames, and there was a huge banner that flashed "Congratulations" in alternating letters of neon green and silver. An enormous cake stood in the middle of the room, and some of his colleagues stood around holding glasses of liquid and grinning foolishly at him.
Dumbledore, Hagrid, Flitwick, even Filch was there. Snape turned back to Black and Lupin with a bewildered look on his face. They still had those idiotic grins on theirs. How fitting.
"What the hell is going on?" he thundered darkly.
Black slapped him rather firmly on the back. "It's a bachelor party, Snape!"
The Potions Master struggled to regain his balance as he directed a glare at Black. Oh, god, another absurd wedding tradition he'd somehow missed hearing about.
Black rolled his eyes. The man really needed to get out more.
Lupin chimed in, "You know, Severus, where the groom's closest friends get together and help him make a fool of himself during his last night as a single man."
Oh yes…it did sound vaguely familiar, at that. He mused darkly.
Snape stared at Lupin incredulously and said, "Then it's a very good thing that I do not have close friends, isn't it?"
Without another word, he whirled around abruptly in a swish of silken robes and stalked off toward the door of the room. Just as he reached for the handle, it locked, and although he pulled hard, it simply refused to open for him.
Realizing that there was probably no way out of this that would preserve even a shred of dignity, he sighed in frustrated resignation and dropped his head to his chest. Slowly he turned around. Everyone was still standing there grinning at him like imbeciles.
"I'm not going to be allowed to leave, am I?" he stated in a disgusted tone of voice.
They all shook their heads in unison.
Black walked over and handed him a drink. "Nope. You might as well give in and have a good time, Snape. Whether you like it or not."
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Upstairs in Evangeline's room, the women were sitting around in a comfortable circle by the fire discussing the wedding as she was opening presents.
She smiled happily at Minerva. "This shower was very kind of you, Minerva, but I didn't need all these gifts. Your presence is enough of a gift for me."
"That's sweet of you, Evangeline, but you deserve a little party after all you've gone through lately. And besides, why should the men have all the fun?"
She looked at Minerva in puzzlement. "What do you mean, Minerva?"
Minerva smiled at her. "They're downstairs throwing Severus a bachelor party, as we speak."
Evangeline's hands flew to her mouth as she dropped the present she was opening into her lap. "Oh, Minerva! They aren't! Severus will hate that!"
Minerva shrugged and stated primly, "Well, he'll simply have to get over it, won't he? It wouldn't be right for him to spend the evening alone. If he could ever just relax, I'm sure he'd enjoy himself."
Evangeline directed an understanding look at her friend. "Severus can't relax in a large social situation. You should know that by now."
Ariantha rang in, in a puzzled tone, "Why ever are you marrying a man who can't enjoy himself, Evangeline?"
Evangeline sighed. "I didn't say he couldn't enjoy himself, Ariantha. He just isn't comfortable in large groups, and he hates to be embarrassed. Unfortunately, both of these things are usually components of bachelor parties."
Ariantha shrugged. "Well, I still don't understand what you see in him." A sly smile stole over her face as she glanced significantly at her friend. "He must be awfully good in bed."
Evangeline's face burned a violent crimson at Ariantha's comment and everyone else laughed.
Poppy grinned at her. "Oh, don't worry, Evangeline. I'm sure they'll figure out a way for Severus to have a good time at the bachelor party, even out of bed."
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Snape found himself standing next to Dumbledore with a drink in his hand, while Hagrid patted him on the back and offered his best wishes on a happy marriage. It was all very surreal to him. How much torture did he have to endure anyway before all these maddening people would go away and leave him alone? Here he was a reluctant prisoner at a party that was supposedly being thrown in his honor. How bizarre was that?
Suddenly he started to feel very strange. His perspective seemed to be a bit off. Everything was looking a little odd. It even began to feel like he was floating a few feet off the floor and looking down on himself and everyone else. What could this mean? He'd heard of out of body experiences, but they usually seemed to occur when a person was close to death! As far as he knew he was in perfectly good health. Suspiciously he looked across the room at Black, who was snickering drunkenly at him. Oh, god, now he was beginning to feel dizzy, too. The room was spinning lazily, and he was having trouble following the thread of the conversation going on around him. Not that it had really been worth following anyway.
The drink! What had that cretin Black put in his drink? He blinked his eyes hard. Abruptly he found himself back in his body, but he didn't feel in total control of himself. It was rather as if everything was moving in slow motion, and if he let his mind drift, even for a moment, he'd seem to be right back up there floating among the foolish balloons…and him without a pin.
Black stood up unsteadily and called across the room to him. "It's time to unwrap your present, Snape. We got something very special for your last night of freedom."
With a drunken giggle of anticipation, he clapped his hands, and with a loud bang, the cake split into two pieces. A Veela, wearing a rather seductive costume that seemed to be made of veils and little else, began to slowly dance her way across the room toward the flabbergasted Potions Master.
Her sensuous movements mesmerized Snape as she focused her gaze on him. With calculated slowness she undulated across the space between them and draped her body against his. The temptress pressed her warm soft lips to his own and rubbed her curvaceous self suggestively up and down his torso. His mind began to reel with the heady scent of her perfume and her natural allure. Once again, he had the sensation of floating above it all, of watching himself sink into a chair with the Veela in his lap, and everyone else standing around staring at them with silly grins on their faces.
Determined not to let Black make a fool out of him, he took a deep breath and tried to claw his way up out of the blanket of sexual sensations that threatened to overwhelm him with their smothering closeness. He closed his eyes firmly, and brought up an image of Evangeline's smiling face in his mind's eye. Then he opened his eyes again, took the Veela gently by the shoulders, and pushed her off his lap. He stood up and turned her around. Leaning down, he spoke softly in her ear. "I'm sorry, madam, there's been a mistake. I believe the gentleman who truly desires your attentions is over there." Gently he directed her across the room toward the rather drunk Sirius Black.
Black accepted her attentions happily, but Lupin frowned at Snape. "Severus, didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to return a present before you unwrap it."
Snape looked at Lupin coolly. "I believe that Black will appreciate this present far more than I would. I'm afraid it could never compare to the magnificent gift I'll receive tomorrow. I assure you, I won't fail to unwrap that one, nor will I ever return it."
For a moment their eyes locked, and Lupin realized why he'd been having so much trouble letting go of his feelings for Evangeline. Although he believed that Snape loved her, until this moment he'd never truly believed that a man like Snape deserved her. And in this split second, he realized that he'd been wrong. He smiled at Snape and gestured across the room.
"You're undoubtedly correct, Severus. Now, I believe Flitwick wishes to make a toast."
Snape nodded at Lupin, and they turned away together from Black and the Veela.
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