His Sacred Dogma

By the Hippy Gypsy

Chapter 1: Summer Evening Snogging

We had just gotten in for the evening after a night out with a few friends of ours. Still dressed, although barefoot, my vest unbuttoned, sitting in my dark pants and shirtsleeves, I was sitting up right in bed, paging through one of my old Potions books from my library, trying to find if a form of limestone could be used as a substitute for a bezoar in an anti-poison. However, even though it was one a.m., I wasn't able to pay full attention for another reason.

Nymphadora changed into the nightdress she knew I loved, and she was carrying on her conversation, even though she had probably figured I wasn't paying very close attention for the moment. I was staring at her. She was beautiful, and I couldn't help myself. I gave a great sigh, and all I wanted to do for the moment was take her in my arms. Her nightdress was a deep blue and showed her shoulders and a good portion of her back, while the length of it trailed to her delicate ankles. But lord, I loved her back. It was so smooth, and all I ever wanted to do was touch it and gently drag my fingers across it.

"I'm really happy for Remus," she chatted away with a smile, oblivious that I was watching her so intently. She was picking things up about her, opening and shutting the dresser drawers. "About time he found a girl like Eve. They seem perfect for each other. Things have been really looking up for him since he's published those two Defensive Spell books. He's got a decent living now, he can feed himself, him and Eve have been together for a few months…" She stood up from what she was doing and smiled at me for a moment. "All he needs is to break that werewolf's curse and he's all set."

"Mmmhmm," I hummed in my trance.

She raised an eyebrow and snapped her fingers loudly, shaking me from my reverie. "You were watching me again, weren't you?"

I looked at her face and with a sideways smile replied, "It's hypnotism I tell you, and it was no more so than usual."

"Mmmhmm," she hummed deeply, mimicking my former tone.

Before I could retort, a small knock at our bedroom door interrupted us. Nymphadora looked to it and called, "That had better be you, Lily, because it's ten minutes passed your curfew."

The door opened and our seventeen year old daughter stepped in the door. She had her mother's face, and my sense of sarcasm and fast wit. I always thought she got the best of both worlds. "I've been home," she said with raised eyebrows, faying innocence. "I was just downstairs getting a snack. The last time I ate was around eight, so I wanted a couple of snaps."

I turned a page in my book and mumbled, "Now there's an excuse for staying out longer I've never heard before."

Nymphadora smiled and warned, "Severus…"

"Wanna smell the chocolate on my breath?" Lily replied, gallantly ready to prove her point.

"Why bother?" I said giving an open laugh. "I can already smell the stench of your presence over here."

And as expected, Lily charged me and tackled. Unfortunately for her, she was born with her mother's tragic sixth sense of being extremely ticklish. She kicked and scrambled as she held her sides with laughter. I prodded and ruffled her hair until she squealed, "Okay! Okay! I give!" As soon as I let her go, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around me, and I hugged my only living child with the purest look of content of my face.

This time, it was my turn to catch Nymphadora staring, but she could do nothing but smile. "How about it Dora?" I asked my wife. "Should we keep her?"

"You'd better," Lily answered quickly for her. "I mean, she's had to put up with your stink even longer than me!"

Nymphadora gasped with laughter as I resumed tickling my daughter, but after a moment, I stopped, announcing, "Alright. Bed for you young lady. The two of us have to head to Diagon Alley tomorrow, and I want you up by eight."

"Yes Papa," she replied obediently as I kissed her forehead goodnight. "I'm going to read for a half hour though. I'm about half way through Hogwarts, A History."

As she slid off the bed, Nymphadora asked her, "Is Padfoot fed for the day and settled?"

"Yes Mum. Is Tulio still up?"

"Should be."

"Good. I wanna ask him about possibly getting some concert tickets for me. I had a great idea for Jim's birthday."

As I had resumed paging through my book, I rolled my eyes behind the cover at the mention of my daughter's boyfriend.

"Sounds nice," Nymphadora replied. She kissed Lily's cheek and said "Sweet dreams love."

With one last smile in my direction for the night, Lily shut the door behind her.

I set my book aside on the nightstand and crossed my arms across my chest. "Ten minutes late, Dora. What if the next time it's fifteen minutes?"

"Oh Severus," she chided back, "You're only saying that because you don't approve of the Potter boy."

"Damn straight."

She turned back to me and shook her head as if I had said something so incredibly ignorant.

"It was probably snogging you know," I said with a slight grin.

"I realize that. I was once her age too," she replied some what exasperated. "I trust our daughter, Severus. She may be a growing girl, but I don't think she's going to do something we disapprove of."

My grin became a full smile. "You're right…but it was probably a 'I wish I didn't have to leave you' snog."

My wife smiled back at me. "A 'you look really nice in the star light' snog," she replied after a thought.

"A 'I'm going to be really lonely once you leave' snog."

She took a step towards the bed and began to crawl towards me. "A 'first French kiss and my heart is racing' snog."

My eyebrows furrowed in horror at the thought, and a new desire to wring the young boy's throat welled up in me. "How about a 'first French kiss and the Potter boy better hope I never find out what he did' snog?"

Nymphadora put a soft finger to my lips and stopped me. She leaned over me and her nose was barely an inch from mine. "I think I know what it was," she whispered. "It was probably a 'I'm going to be late for my parents curfew' snog."

I sighed looking into her eyes. "You know," I replied very softly. "I think you're right."

She nodded with a small smile, and whispered to me, "What is your favorite kind of snog, Mr. Snape?"

Giving a low chuckle in my chest, I readily replied, raising my eyebrows, "I'm rather partial to the 'my wife is a sensual, alluring nymph' snog."

"Mmmhmm," she hummed in reply and covered my mouth with hers.

Anybody who has closed their eyes and kissed their soul mate with the deepest intentions of love in their heart could tell you there's no other feeling like it in the world. And I'm not talking about sex. No. Far from. I'm speaking of that combination of that mental and physical state of being where the imagination begins to swim in a pool of haze and romance, and the body enters a state of nervous excitement, where it desires nothing more but the ability to explore.

To this day, that's what it's like when Nymphadora kisses me. It's nothing short of magic.

I let my finger tips brush her back as she gently slid the back of her hands across my face. I could have stayed that way forever, but eventually she came up for air. I blinked my eyes a moment and whispered, "Come to bed?"

She looked towards our bedroom window and replied, "In a moment. It's such a beautiful night out." With that, she escaped the circle of my arms and walked towards the small balcony that stood outside our bedroom. She opened the glass doors and the light summer breeze came in, ruffling her dark hair. The moon outside was beautiful, and I could partially see it illuminate her figure among the dark sky. To me, she was a celestial nymph.

I sighed in deeply, a memory I held dear floating to my mind's surface. She had that same alluring grace around her twenty years ago, and it had never left her. I was lost in her. She realized this pretty quick when she turned around and stated pointedly, "You're staring at me again, Severus."

I let myself indulge regardless and replied deeply, "I can't help it. Right now you look just like the way you did the night I fell in love with you."

She turned and smiled. "You mean after the play, with the roses?"

I shook my head gently. "No. The night of Voldemort's fall."

She looked as if she were caught slightly off guard. "Severus, that was practically the first night we ever sat and talked to each other without throwing an insult." Her eyebrows were raised slightly.

"Yes, I guess you could call it love at first sight, couldn't you?" I replied ignoring her.

She let out a small snort of laughter and looks at me with exasperated affection in her eyes. "You never told me that's when you fell in love with me."

"What? I must have. I know I have," a said my eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Never," she replied with a shake of her head. She walked back to the edge of the bed and laid down next to me. "Tell me about it," she said giving me a soft grin. I knew that grin. That was the one she had given me during our first conversation…that night long ago. It was that grin that made me fall madly in love.

I smiled down as her head rested on the pillow next to me and I took a breath. "Alright. I'll tell you."