"Ginny." he said. "How do you feel?"
"Good morning to you, too." she said, sounding more like Snape then herself. "I'm feeling... very good about things, surprisingly as I remember being in a blind panic not so long ago." she said, a little confused now. Why had she been so scared? She felt like there were some details she was forgetting.
"The spell, I suppose. By giving in to our more... pressing urges we have completed the spell." she couldn't tell if he was happy or sad.
"Are you... I mean, do you regret?" she couldn't bring herself to ask if she had been bad.
"There is nothing I regret about you." he said sincerely. "But even with magic on our side, this will not be easy. I can't imagine what parents will say, what the staff will say and I can't imagine your older brother who despises me anyway will much appreciate the fact that not only have I bedded his youngest and only sister, but that we cannot stop seeing each other and live." He pulled her in to his arms, pressing her nude form to his. "Regardless, though, I am happy to have you here."
"I am too. Though I'd not thought about Ron or Harry. I'll have to tell them, Mum wanted nothing to do with it." she thought for a moment. "Severus?"
"Hmm?"
"I feel very close to you but I still don't know you. Don't you think we ought to resume our quest for friendship even with this new snag?" she asked.
"I think that's a very good idea. I was planning on working in the classroom today, preparing for the new term. I would have asked for your help regardless." he said.
"I'd love to help." she said.
"Go on and get ready then. I need to speak to the headmaster." he said. Nodding, she pulled on her clothes and left the warmth and safety of his... of their? bed.
The rest of the vacation went on in a blur and suddenly, the students were returning. They'd not made love again after the first night. She wanted him, surely, but she understood that the first time was hardly a choice but now that they could control that urge, it was much more appropriate to wait until she was at least no longer a student. As long as she spent time with him during the day, it was okay. When they were away for too long, she found, a dull thudding started behind her eyes and she felt weak and tired - revitalizes only by him. She could tell that it worked both ways. Sometimes she would be in the library or on the grounds and he would come into the room and just sit next to her or put his hand on her back. Touch always helped. It was strange but comfortable. They worked out a pattern.
Of course, the new term disrupted it and called for a lot of secrecy. She suddenly envied Harry's invisibility cloak and despised his map. It gave away all their secrets. Dumbledore had informed her head of house, McGonagall, but very few else. Ginny had little doubt Hermione would figure it out and Ron and Harry would probably know something was up from spending their holiday with her mother.
When everyone returned, Hermione noticed her ring instantly.
"That's pretty, Ginny." she said, pulling her hand for a closer look. "And it promotes interhouse unity!" She rolled her eyes. Hermione was head girl now and it showed.
"I thought that ring didn't fit properly." Ron said, eyeing his sister.
"Does now." was all Ginny said. She didn't mention Severus. He'd, smartly, taken to wearing a dragon hide glove on his left hand while in class and working with potions. He didn't know how certain ingredients would react with the metal of the ring and since he couldn't take it off, he had to take other precautions. So it was a while before anyone saw his left hand bare. It was Harry who saw it first because he spent a detention with Snape in his office while the potions master graded essays.
"That ring..." he said, looking up from his pile of cauldrons to clean without magic. "Is that new?"
"Keep scrubbing, Potter." Snape sneered, ignoring his question.
"Because it looks just like... hold on." Harry said and Snape could see him putting two and two together. "What exactly happen with Ginny while we were away?" he demanded and Snape felt no obligation to tell him anything.
"I suggest you keep your nose to the grindstone lest you earn yourself more detentions, Potter, and if you have any questions regarding Ginny you can ask her yourself." he spat. But they both noticed his mistake though Harry smartly made no comment. Snape had never called a student by their first name before. He'd just given himself away. He was tired and he'd only seen Ginny at meals which hardly counted since she was across the room. He had a headache and he found that he missed her as well and that had nothing to do with the physical part of the true love spell. He wanted to spend time with her just because she was her and that had little to do with rings.She was, as she had originally wanted, his friend. Eventually, he tired of Harry's attempted questions and sent the boy away.
In the common room, Ginny was packing up her school bag to go to the library for the last hour it was open. There were only two hours until curfew and she had to see Severus before she went to bed. As soon as she saw Harry enter, she knew that Severus was finished with detentions and so she slung her bag over her shoulder and started for the portrait hole.
"Ginny." But it wasn't a greeting and Harry didn't look happy to see her. "Where are you going?"
"Library." she said and she narrowed her eyes.
"How come you've started wearing that ring all the time? I remember you weren't particularly thrilled on your birthday." he asked, changing tactics.
"I changed my mind. Harry, what are you getting at?" She asked though she had a sinking feeling that he knew and would not be keeping her secret. She was not, after all, really his sister even though he'd become a surrogate part of the Weasley clan.
"Are you dating a Slytherin? Where's the match, Ginny? Let me see it." he demanded, walking towards her until she had to sit back down in her chair and he towered over her, his face red.
"No." she said.
"What did he do to you?" he yelled and now everyone was watching, but no one was moving. Ron wasn't there but she wasn't sure whose side he'd choose.
"Harry..." she said. "Harry, you don't know anything." she pleaded and her eyes filled. She was actually scared. She'd never been on this side of Harry's anger and he wasn't the boy who lived for nothing. He was strong. He was power.
"I know enough." he said, his voice low.
"Mr. Potter." Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. No one knew how McGonagall managed to always appear right in time from seemingly nowhere but she was here now. "Step back." Harry looked at his head of house and took a step away from Ginny.
"Sorry, Professor." he mumbled. He did manage to look sheepish.
"Why don't you two follow me?" she said and so Harry and Ginny followed her quietly to her office. Inside, she turned to Ginny. "I would have thought you'd told him everything by now."
"It's nobody's business." Ginny said. "But mine and his."
"In an ideal world, perhaps." she said.
"Tell me. I'm sorry I yelled." Harry said, automatically, looking for answers. She doubted he was sorry.
"Harry, nothing is a secret in this school and this isn't the sort of thing that people can know." Ginny said, tired and sick now. Her skin was beginning to look yellow and her hands shook.
"I think that you need to go see Severus." McGonagall said, standing to put a hand to Ginny's clammy and hot forehead. "Have you seen him today?"
"Only at meals." she said and McGonagall tsked.
"I'll write you a note." she said. "In case you miss curfew. Potter can take you. You and Severus can decide what to do." she said, signing a piece of parchment and magically sealing it so only staff and prefects could read it. "Help her Potter, she's not well." Harry was bursting with curiosity at this point. McGonagall shoed them out of her office and Ginny leaned heavily on Harry's arm even though he'd looked as dangerous as ever not ten minutes ago.
"Ginny? Is he hurting you?" Harry asked. "I just want you to be safe."
"It's not his fault." she wheezed, knowing Severus was probably sick by now as well. "The rings had a spell on them."
"But why does he have the other?" Harry asked.
"Harry, try to understand that I like professor Snape. We spent Christmas holiday together. I gave it to him as a token of friendship but it had a spell and we were..." she tried to think how to put it. "We were bound together."
"I don't understand." he said.
"We have to spend time together. If we are apart, we get sick." she said. "Harry, these are wedding rings except I didn't really know what that meant. Snape and I are kind of... we're married." she said.
"MARRIED?" he yelled and she shushed him.
"Magically, of course, not legally. But we can't ever... be apart." she said. "Harry, it's totally against school rules but it's such a celebrated and rare spell that there's no counter-spell." she said. They were at the dungeons now.
"Where is he?" Harry asked.
"You should go now, Harry. He's in his private rooms. I'll come back in a while if you still want to talk." she promised. He looked reluctant but finally nodded. "Please don't tell Ron." she called after him, hoping he could contain himself.
Severus was on his bed, seemingly asleep. He'd given her access and she reset the wards behind her and kicked off her shoes and climbed on the bed with him. Immediately, the pain went away. She curled up next to him and remained silent while he slept. It wasn't soon before he rolled over and wrapped his arms around her, burying his nose in her hair. She hugged him back tightly. They still hadn't made love again and she found herself missing that. It'd been her first time, of course, and she'd been scared underneath the haze of passion but it'd been nice and she though that being that close to Severus again would be wonderful.
"How long have you been here?" he asked, his breath blowing her hair about.
"About 15 minutes." she said.
"Did you talk to Harry?" he asked. "Loathsome boy figured it out, I think."
"He figured something out. Professor McGonagall made me tell him, sort of. Harry was yelling and she walked in." Ginny said. "I explained about the rings but he doesn't know just... just what bonded means."
"Did Minerva give you a note?" he asked, tiredly. His eyes still were not open.
"Yes."
"Good, then you can stay the night." he said. He'd never asked this of her before and she was surprised. Usually he was 'the strong one' and pushed her out his door but he didn't seem to want to let go tonight.
"I think Harry is waiting up for me." she said, uncertainly.
"Let him wait." Severus said, scooting down to press his lips into the soft skin of her neck. Oh yes, she thought. They'd been so good, so distant in their togetherness.
"Severus, what are you doing?" she asked, gasping as she felt his tongue dart out to taste her skin.
"Breaking the rules." he said, his words muffled by her collarbone where he was tugging at her t-shirt. "Ginny, I realized today that despite the bond, despite the pain and distance, that I missed you. I missed you like I would have missed your company before the spell. The way that you made me feel that first day in Hogsmeade, so beautiful and alive and demanding." he was so sincere that she felt like crying.
"I don't want you to... to ah... um... lose your job." she said, her fingers reaching to loosen the top buttons of his extensively buttoned robe. But he didn't respond and she found that she didn't have much to say for the rest of the night either.
In the morning, she felt vibrantly alive. This was the way the spell was supposed to work. They weren't supposed to deny each other, they were supposed to be together like this. She slithered out of the bed and tiptoed around finding her scattered clothing and putting the pieces on one by one. He was still sleeping but if she left much later people might see her. She watched him for a moment longer, looking peaceful and young and then left, closing the door silently behind her.
In the middle of charms, her first class of the day, and owl called her to the headmasters office.
"Ginny, you can't spend the night in Professor Snape's chambers." he said when they were all seated.
"It was my idea, sir." she said, automatically. "We were tired and ill."
"We need to find a schedule because I can overlook only so much." he said, sternly.
"I know it's inappropriate but I don't know how much longer I can live like this, sir. With the being apart, sir. It's hurting my concentration and my grades." And it was. All she thought about was him. "We're always trying to sneak time together during the day. If I could have my days back to be a student and then just have the entire night to recuperate with him, then don't you think that's better?"
"It would be better but students can't live with Professors." he said. "It's against the law. You're underage."
"I'm not in a few months." she pointed out. "Fred and George didn't even have to finish school. My birthday is March 6, I'll be 17 and of age." she said. "I don't want to leave Hogwarts but I don't want to be sick all of the time and I don't want to be away from him." she said. What was she threatening? Her mother was going to kill her if she dropped out of school.
"When you're a legal adult, we'll talk about options." he said, sighing. "In the meantime, wake up in the tower." she nodded. She would have to last.