I'm so glad you're all still reading! Any ideas how I can get more readers will be welcome. I have now finished writing this story (it runs to 22 chapters) and of all the chapters, I have found this next one the hardest to write. You wouldn't BELIEVE the number of variations it has been through! I've been really chuffed with your comments about how I have kept Snape in character, and I'm trying hard to keep it that way as his armour begins to crack - no easy task. I hope I don't disappoint.

Your reviews mean so much to me - please keep them coming.

Chapter Fifteen

LOLLIE LENDS A HAND

"Lollie?"

Andi had opened her eyes and seen through a blur of sleepiness, a small person moving around the room.

"Yes, Miss. Lollie is sorry she is waking Miss, but it is time to be getting ready for dinner.

"Erm..." Still confused from sleep, Andi scrunched her eyes in an effort to take in what the elf had said. "Dinner?" She reached for her watch. "Lollie - it's six-thirty...in the evening?"

"Yes Miss. Professor Snape instructed Lollie to let you sleep."

Andi looked at her.

"Did he? That was very...thoughtful of him."

"The Professor said he wanted Miss 'out of the way'."

Ah! That sounded more like it.

"I have run Miss' bath for her..."

"Lollie - you don't need to do that..."

"...and have put out a dress..."

Andi followed the elf's gaze to the wardrobe.

Hanging on the outside of the door was a deep royal blue silk dress. It looked to be floor-length, cut on the bias so it hung beautifully and it had just one long sleeve.

Andi went to it and stroked it.

"Oh, Lollie, it's beautiful but...I think it's probably a bit too fancy for dinner with Professor Snape."

"Lollie thought the sleeve would hide Miss' injury." She looked at Andi expectantly.

Andi looked into the mirror which ran down between the two doors of the wardrobe. She pulled open the neck of her nightdress and winced. The bite was now a red scab.

"Well, it certainly needs to be covered," she agreed. "I wouldn't like to be sitting opposite that while I ate."

She took down the dress and held it up against her. It certainly was lovely, and she was very tempted, but...

...would he like it? He gave nothing away, so she had no idea what his tastes might be. Would he like the fact that one of her shoulders was bare? It was so difficult to tell...

WHOA!

What the hell are you doing? This isn't a date! Stop it! Stop it, right now!

"No, Lollie, I'm sorry, this dress is too much. I don't think I should..."

"Miss' eyes shine like sapphires."

Andi looked - and gasped.

She'd never seen her eyes looking so blue.

She held the dress away from her and her eyes went back to their normal flaccid blue. She brought the dress back and immediately her irises came alive.

Wow!

"Miss' bath is ready..."

Lollie was acting like a lady's maid. She busied herself around the bathroom while Andi took her bath; handed her a towel; watched, fascinated, as she applied her make-up.

Andi put the dress on.

Lollie scrunched her face.

"What?" asked Andi.

"Will Miss allow Lollie's adjustment?"

Lollie pointed her finger at Andi's head. There was a startling 'phsssst' that made Andi jump, then realise she'd felt her hair shift. Looking in the mirror, she gasped...

"Lollie! That is definitely too much!"

Lollie had coiled her hair into a soft knot at the back of her head, leaving two corkscrew curls hanging before her ears. Andi couldn't believe her hair was long enough to wear it like that.

"Miss looks very...elegant..." Lollie turned away as she spoke, leaving the word hanging in the air.

Elegant?

Andi looked in the mirror again. Yes, she did look elegant - more Audrey Hepburn than Katharine - but definitely elegant; and wasn't that what she secretly longed to be?

But...no, no...it was too posh, too fancy...

"Please take my hair down," she said to the elf.

Half-heartedly, Lollie lifted her finger, but then stopped and cocked her head to one side, her ears flapping slightly.

"Lollie is hearing a strange noise..."

"Huh?" Andi listened and sure enough there was a strange bleeping noise coming from somewhere near her handbag.

Andi walked over. The noise was coming from inside her bag. She opened it and, scrabbling through all the junk, she lighted on her mobile which was flashing a red light and making the bleeping noise.

She stared at it.

"Professor Snape said muggle things didn't work at Hogwarts."

Lollie looked at the flashing light.

"Lollie is thinking, perhaps the storm..?"

"Storm? There was a storm?"

"This afternoon. It sometimes disturbs muggle things..."

Frantically Andi began pressing buttons, trying to see if there was a message or whether she could ring out - but no. There was no reception, nothing. Andi pressed the silence button, dropped the phone back in the bag and took out her personal cd player. When she pressed the button, the light on that came on, too. She pressed 'play', put the earpiece to her ear and sighed as music wafted into her ears.

She could have listened to the whole CD, but it was time to go.

Lollie was standing by the door with a bowl of green apples in her arms.

"Are those for Professor Snape?" Andi asked, remembering seeing the empty bowl on his table last night.

"Yes, Miss."

"Well, here...let me take them..."

Andi was half way down the corridor when her step faltered.

Hold on a moment...what was going on here? A sexy dress picked out for her...her hair put up...a bowl of apples to be delivered...

Andi had the distinct feeling she'd been manipulated.

What was that elf up to?

"...Miss Carver!"

"You...you were expecting me?" she asked, wondering why he looked so surprised.

He didn't answer.

"Professor?"

"No...I had assumed you would prefer to dine in your own room this evening."

She caught sight of the candlelit table, set for two.

"Oh, I see - you have company." An absurd disappointment welled up inside her. "I'm sorry...I didn't realise. I'll go back to my room..."

Snape followed her gaze and raised his eyebrows.

"It seems the house-elves know better than I - that certainly was not there a moment ago." He turned to her. "I do not have 'company', Miss Carver and, as the food is now here, we may as well dine."

She stepped into the room just as the fire burst into life. Andi stared - she could have sworn she'd just seen Lollie disappear into thin air.

"Erm..." Dragging her eyes away from the fireplace, she turned to Snape and held the bowl towards him. "Apples for the teacher."

He took them slowly, silently.

"I noticed you'd run out," she smiled. Well, it wasn't a lie - she had noticed, last night.

"Thank you."

Snape gestured her into the room and held the chair out for her.

The fire was crackling in the hearth; the table laid with tureens of vegetables and chicken in...Andi sniffed...white wine; the candlelight reflected prettily on the crystal ware. It all looked very...

...oh dear...

...romantic.

"You are recovered?" he said, as he dished chicken onto a plate and handed it to her.

"Oh, thank you," she said, taking the plate. "Yes, I'm feeling much better, thank you, Professor. Potatoes?" She dished two spoonfuls onto his raised plate.

"Thank you. Although I suspect from your eyes there may be a trace of the poison still present..." he said, lifting the lid on a dish of steaming buttered asparagus.

"My eyes?"

"Yes. They are a much deeper blue tonight. Asparagus?"

"Oh!" She smiled, lifting her plate. He placed the asparagus on it. "No, it's this dress - it brings out the colour."

His face fell. He looked nettled - as though she'd tricked him. He looked at the served food, dropped the lid back on the asparagus with a loud 'chink' and then glanced at her hair and the dress.

"A little excessive for a simple dinner, perhaps?" he said, spitefully.

She coloured.

"It...it hides the sting, that's all," she said quietly, a lump rising in her throat.

Silence.

"Wine?"

"No thank you. I think I've had enough mind-altering substances recently..."

He picked up the water jug in his right hand and went to pour some into her glass. Andi could see the jug was full, but to her surprise, nothing came out.

"What the..? That damned house-elf...she has given me a leftpaw jug..." He transferred the jug to his left hand and then stood up and walked round the back of her chair.

Andi held her breath as his arm stretched across from her left to the water glass on the right. She felt his right hand on the back of her chair and became aware, once again, of the sweet herby scent of his body.

Her eyes travelled the black sleeve of his shirt and noticed how the cuff reached deep along the back of his hand and was shaped to a point that finished at his knuckle. His fingers were curled around the handle of the jug with only his thumb wholly visible as he poured. Her mouth had gone dry, her heartbeat increased. She was acutely aware of how close his body was; she felt enclosed by it, sitting in the semi-circle his arms had made around her. She felt very hot, very heady. His right hand had actually brushed against her bare shoulder...

A crash and an oath brought her back to earth. Her empty wine glass had fallen onto a serving dish and smashed. Water was spreading over the table from her overfilled water glass. With a yelp she leapt up from her seat before the water could reach the edge of the table and soak her dress.

Snape was cursing under his breath as he began mopping the water with a table-napkin.

"My apologies," he said, a tinge of a flush appearing high on his cheeks. "I do not seem very adept at pouring with my left hand."

He dried the table while she collected the glass.

They sat back down.

The accident seemed to have unnerved Snape. He looked annoyed and uncomfortable. He shook his hair from his face and cleared his throat before saying, without looking at her,

"I have heard from the Headmaster."

"Oh, really?"

"You are to be returned home tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh."

Well that piece of news had been delivered rather clinically, the relief in his voice, very clear.

"There are some official Ministry papers you will have to sign, therefore the Headmaster will be here at nine tomorrow morning with the Minister for Magic, who will explain exactly what it is you are signing."

"Sorry, the what?"

"The Minister for Magic - Cornelius Fudge."

"Minister for Magic? You mean, he's like a Prime Minister or something?"

"I believe your Prime Minister is the equivalent, yes."

Andi had a picture of Tony Blair postponing meetings with international dignitaries to come and see her - it just wasn't going to happen.

"Is there anything special I should know? Do I have to curtsey or anything?"

He looked at her as if she were mad.

"No, Miss Carver, a simple handshake will do."

She stared at the candle flame.

"So - goodness - this is my last dinner here..."

"Indeed."

Andi swallowed. Three days ago this would have been the best news; now it didn't feel so comfortable.

She looked at him and raised her water glass towards him.

"Well, thank you Professor, for putting up with me - I know it's been a trial for you."

He looked at her glass, disdainfully.

"Miss Carver, that is a muggle custom."

She smiled.

"Indulge me."

Their eyes met across the table and Andi saw something flare momentarily behind his eyes that sent her insides into a total frenzy.

She had difficulty keeping her gasp silent.

She didn't know what the hell it had been but...

...good God! It had completely turned her on.

Slowly he raised his glass and clinked it against hers as though nothing strange had happened.

"And thank you, Miss Carver. It has been...an experience."

She lowered her glass with a shaking hand.

There was a silence.

What in God's name had he just done to her?

Desperately, she looked around for something else to say, to occupy her mind.

"Um...Professor, about the poison - with LSD I've heard there can be flashbacks. I'm a little worried..."

"Yes, I believe the muggle manufactured drug can cause what are known as 'flashbacks'," he said. "A vivid replay of what one saw whilst affected. However, the tiger-fly injects a pure form of Lysergic Acid which will not cause any delayed or repeated reactions."

"Oh, thank goodness! I would hate to be playing in a classical concert and suddenly break into the overture for 'Grease'" she smiled.

"Grease?"

"It's a musical - a play with songs."

He looked contemptuous.

"Only a muggle could conceive a show about a lubricant."

She giggled.

"Actually, it's a very lively, energetic show about the ups and downs of High School romance."

"I cannot imagine anything more nauseating."

She regarded his look of distaste.

"No," she said, quietly. "I don't suppose you can."

And despite how that look had made her feel a moment ago, somewhere in the deeper recesses of her mind, a door closed.

The dinner was over.

As they moved towards the door, she suddenly remembered last night and the expression on his face when she'd kissed him on the cheek. What on earth would he have done had she followed her other urge and kissed him on the lips? She couldn't help a huge smile form on her face at the thought.

"Miss Carver..."

Before she changed her expression, she turned, giving him the full force of her smile.

He had his mouth open to speak.

She waited.

"Professor?"

"Ahm..." He blinked and shook his head quickly. "Nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Try not to be late," he said, abruptly.

"I won't be late. I'm just going..."

He closed the door very quickly.

"...for a last stroll by the lake..."