Severus awoke to a heavenly smell. He quickly got up and took a fast shower. He then dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a gray shirt. With that he went downstairs and into the kitchen, where Jaci had her back to him. He watched her for a few seconds; she was dressed in hip-hugging jeans, a white halter-top, and black flip-flops. He cleared his throat.
Jaci turned around, surprised; she hadn't expected her guest to be an early riser. But she smiled.
"Good morning, I hope you like pancakes," she said. Severus smiled.
"Pancakes are just fine." He went into the fridge and took out the syrup, butter, and orange juice. He quickly set the table. Jaci leaned over the counter, watching him.
"So, who taught you your way around the kitchen?" Jaci asked. Severus smiled.
"My mother." Jaci smiled. She got the pancakes and went to the table. She quickly served him a stack and then herself.
Severus was full! He had never eaten so much in his life! But it had all been good. He looked over at Jaci and tried not to gap as she served herself another two pancakes. Wow could she pack it all in. When Jaci was finally finished, they both cleared the table and washed the dishes.
"Well, I didn't expect you to be up so early," Jaci started as they finished putting away the dishes. Severus smiled.
"Sorry, I'm an early riser."
"Well, I was going to go to the store, we're running low on food, do you want to come with me? Or you could spend a boring day here," Jaci added. Severus pondered on it for a moment.
"All right then." Jaci smiled.
"But you'll have to go change," she pointed out. Severus looked at her confused.
"Why?"
"Because it's a 110 degrees outside, you'll boil in that clothes."
"But, I don't have anything else." Jaci rolled her eyes. She took out her wand and first pointed it to his pants. She transfigured them into loose fitting jeans, and then she transfigured his shirt to a nice light green t-shirt.
Severus immediately felt cooler in this clothing; in his old clothing he had felt stuffy. He looked down at his feet, all he had were business shoes, but Jaci quickly took care of that too. She transfigured them into new Nikes. Severus smiled.
"Thank you," he said. Jaci smiled.
"You're welcome, now come on let's get going." Jaci walked through the house, locking up and Severus ran up to grab his wallet and run a brush through his hair. When he was done, he quickly ran downstairs and found Jaci turning off the lights, she didn't see him and turned quickly, she lost her balance, and Severus caught her.
Jaci looked up into Severus' eyes, they were pure black! How strange. She put on a smile.
"Thank you, I have my clumsy moments as well," she said. Severus laughed.
"You're welcome."
"Thank you for saying you're welcome," Jaci said, a small glint in her eyes. Severus cocked his head to the side and looked at her, but then he got it, he smiled.
"You're welcome for saying thank you." Jaci laughed.
"Wow, you're like the only person who's figured that out, that's pretty sweet." With that they walked out the front door.
Boy was Jaci right about it being hot out, he was glad he was wearing what he was, he would have died in his old clothing. He looked to Jaci who handed him a bottle of water.
"Keep yourself hydrated, I don't want you dying on me," Jaci said. Severus laughed and accepted the bottle of water.
Jaci led him to a car that he hadn't noticed yesterday, was parked in the driveway. It was a silver car, he didn't know brands or anything, but he saw the words GT and a horse on the side, he shrugged. He noticed though, that the top of the car was black, and it was a clothy material. As soon as they got into the car, Jaci let the air condition go full blast for Severus, he didn't noticed that he sighed, but Jaci smiled when he did.
She started the engine and they headed off. Severus said nothing, but looked out the window, it was so amazing to see so many cars, and the biggest trucks he'd ever seen in his life going so fast. Not that he hadn't seen any cars or trucks in London, but these were going so fast! And Jaci was right along with them. He had tried not to gasp out loud when she made the sharpest turn of her life going down the highway, but he had failed, it left Jaci laughing. He had glared at her, but then turned his head to continue looking at the cars passing by.
"Here's our first stop," Jaci said, she pulled into a parking lot of a huge store. Severus looked up at it and saw the letter H-E-B. He cocked his head to the side.
They walked into the brightly lit store and Severus noticed how cool it was in there and how many people there were. He stayed by Jaci's side through most of it, wondering if Muggles really did buy all these things.
He was rather curious to see how much money that Jaci was holding in her hand and how much they were going to pay for all the food. Jaci caught him looking at them and smiled. When they were done, he helped her carry the bags to the car and place them in.
After that they went to two other stops and then they headed back to the house, Severus was shocked to find out that it was already 3 in the afternoon! It felt as if they had just left the house. He helped Jaci take everything back inside and then he helped her put the things away.
"Are you hungry?" Jaci asked him, he nodded. She sighed. "Come on, I'll make something really quick." She made spaghetti and she used her magic to speed up the process. Soon they were sitting at the table, eating their food. Jaci looked out at the pool and gazed at it. Severus noticed this, but when Jaci saw he was looking at her, she quickly frowned and looked down at her plate. He quickly finished eating and began to put things away. He noticed that Jaci was still gazing out to the pool as she washed her dishes. He mumbled an excuse and retreated to his room to write a letter to Albus. While he was up in his room, he heard splashing and looked out his window.
Jaci was wearing that bathing suit that barely covered her again, but this time she was swimming in the pool; she was swimming with long even strokes. Severus found himself mesmerized for a while, but he quickly snapped out of it and finished writing his letter, he growled as he realized he would have to use her owl and the owl was outside. Sighing he began to make his way downstairs.
Jaci looked up as she heard the back door closing. She watched as Severus walked to her owl and coaxed it into take a letter for him. She watched him watch the bird, and then began to turn to go inside.
"Do you want to come in?" Jaci heard herself asking him. Severus stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to look at her.
"What?"
"Do you want to come in for a swim?" Jaci forced herself to say. Severus raised his eyebrow.
"Uh-, I don't have any clothing for it." Jaci knew he was going to say that so she swam over to her wand before he could finish his sentence and transfigured his pants into swimming shorts.
"Now you do," she said. Severus rolled his eyes and sighed, but he nodded.
"Sure, why not?"
Jaci couldn't believe how white his legs where! I mean she knew he was pale, but not this pale. A few hours in the sun would do him good. She tried not to watch as he walked to a pool chair and began to undo his shoes, take his socks off, his watch and finally his shirt. She saw him reach for a rubber band she had on the table and place his hair back in a ponytail. She then began to study his body, he was a bit thin, but he had a broad chest and wide shoulders and it wasn't a bad picture from where she stood.
Severus began to make his way slowly into the pool, the water wasn't freezing but it wasn't warm either. He looked up and noticed that Jaci wasn't in the pool, he looked everywhere but couldn't find her, he was still on the first step, and he hadn't even gotten his waist wet yet.
"Looking for me?" a voice whispered directly into his ear. He tried to turn around, but he was launched into the pool face first. When he surfaced sputtering he saw Jaci standing at the edge laughing her head off. He growled and glared at her.
"I-I'm sorry," Jaci managed to choke, "I just couldn't help myself." She reached over and extended her hand. "Truce?" she asked sincerely. Severus smiled and took her hand.
"Truce." Then he pulled her into the pool and grinned as she came up sputtering as well. She glared at him.
"That wasn't very friendly."
"And neither are you," Severus put in. Jaci glared at him and he glared right back. Severus sneered at her and began to swim laps. Jaci soon followed his example. Before they knew it they were unconsciously racing each other, every time that they came up for breath they would check to see if they were the first ones to reach the end of the pool. It continued like that for about an hour or so until neither of them could feel their legs or their arms from all the burning. They sat on the second step with their heads leaning back against the pool wall trying to catch their breaths.
"You're good," Jaci said.
"So are you."
"I know." Severus lifted his left eyebrow.
"Modest are we?"
"Very." Severus rolled his eyes. He turned around and began to get out. Jaci followed him, but she stretched a bit. She smiled to herself as she felt him looking, but when she stood suddenly to try and catch him off guard, he was drying himself off. She raised her eyebrow, but shrugged it off and walked inside.
Severus was going to kill Voldemort for making him stay here! He didn't want to be here in this horrid place with all the heat and the sun he wanted to be back in beautiful freezing London and be inside his castle with his quarters and in the dungeons with his potions. He growled as he made his way downstairs to the kitchen.
Jaci looked up as Severus walked back into the kitchen. He had pulled his hair back into the ponytail again and it looked nice on him. She noticed that he was wearing blue jeans and a red shirt now she smiled mentally to herself but kept her face stony and remained quiet.
Severus looked up and mumbled something that sounded like a 'hello.' Jaci inwardly sighed she was going to go insane if they kept this up. As he sat down to begin eating Jaci decided to make conversation.
"So…what do you do for a living?" she asked. Severus looked up at her a bit shocked at first, but he quickly recovered.
"I'm a Potions Master, I work at Hogwarts." Jaci's eyes widened.
"Not uh! That's so awesome! I've always loved Potions and at Hogwarts? Damn that's fucking sweet." Jaci noticed Severus wince. She thought it was strange but continued. "So do you get to do rare potions and like blow people's brains out? That's awesome. Here they only taught us crappy kinds of potions but I'm sure at Hogwarts they taught you damn amazing stuff!"
"WOULD YOU STOP CURSING!" Severus shouted. Jaci looked at Severus strange.
"Why? I'm not hurting any fucking body." Severus growled.
"Don't you have any dignity and pride?" he asked. Jaci got mad.
"Of course I fucking do!"
"Then stop cursing! Didn't your parents teach you anything about pride?" Jaci stood up and Severus stood as well. Even though he was taller than her she stood her ground and glared up at him.
"You're a fucking asshole. You have no right telling me what I can and can not do, my dad know that I curse shit up and down, you bastard, but he can't stop me and neither can you!"
"You're worthless! You have no pride or dignity…" He stopped short as Jaci's fist collided with his stomach. Severus doubled over, trying to catch his breath.
"You fucking piece of shit. Don't you tell me I have no pride, don't you tell me that I have no dignity because you have no idea how much those two things mean to me!" Severus glared up at her.
"A proper witch wouldn't…"
"Look around you fucking idiot you're not in London, you're not in shit-hole Europe anymore you're in Laredo, here if you don't know how to fucking tell assholes like you off then your are worth nothing. Stop pretending you're in your little 'proper' European world 'cause you're not. Now I'm going to my room and I don't want to be bothered!" Jaci turned on her heel and walked calmly to her room.