The Middle

Severus spent every free moment with Kali. He wasn't quite sure how, but she almost always found a way to see him between classes. They spent their dinner hour down by the lake, talking about their school years. Kali often tried to ask him about his family by speaking first of hers, but he never once gave her an answer. Digging up memories that he had tried so strongly to bury was not something that he was willing to do, no matter how much he cared about her. He shared his worst memories with her, discussed his rivalry with James Potter, and occasionally tried to explain the essays that he was writing.


"What are you working on?" Kali asked one not-so-sunny afternoon.

"I'm trying to finish this essay on Mudfungus and it's uses in potions. I should have sent it in yesterday, it will never get there on time now," he said, feeling frustrated with himself.

Kali leaned over his should to read his essay, which was one of her more irritating qualities. She furrowed her brow, obviously trying to make sense of it, but eventually gave up and flopped down on the grass. "You work so intently," she said.

He tore his gaze from his parchment for the first time since they'd sat down and looked at her. He had been about to ask why she'd said it, but the expression on her face told him that it was just a passing comment. "How are your classes going?" he asked, putting down his work.

She smiled and looked at him. "The little buggers still can't control the reflection of the spells off of their blocking charms. The sixth years can't understand why a switching spell is a useful one when dealing with the Dark Arts. The Slytherin first years seem to think that my class should be teaching them how to use the Dark Arts, not defend against them." She sighed happily and turned to look at the sky. "You've got dirt all over your face, by the way."

Severus hurriedly wiped the smudges off of his face.


Kali, in turn, shared her past relationships, memories of her childhood and even took him to meet her family. They were a strange unit, but a tightly knit one. They showed him pictures of her as a little girl and told ridiculous stories. Apparently she had been quite feisty and mysterious, even as a child. She'd always had the ability to make friends easily, but had usually found more comfort in a book than in people.
"Mom, Dad! I've brought someone to meet -"

Kali's voice was halted when a younger girl, probably around 16 years old, jumped on her and smothered her in a hug. Severus clung nervously to his over-cloak and stood awkwardly at the door, waiting for the two to stop hugging. When they did eventually stand up, Kali took his hand and led him to the kitchen, where her parents were seated comfortably, talking to a dark haired man, who sat on the counter drinking a mug of something hot. They stopped talking and looked up at him.

"Hi, guys," she said, moving to give each of her parents a hug. They looked at him cautiously, then at the man seated on the counter. The man had cocked his head to the side and was observing Severus, which made him feel very uncomfortable. Finally the man smiled and slid to the floor, walked over to Severus and shook his hand. Kali's parent's relaxed immediately.

"You must be Severus," he said.

"Yes, I am," Severus replied, unsure of how to act. The family was so inviting, so unlike his own had been.

"I'm Apollo, nice to finally meet you. Since Kali has been so kind as to not introduce you to our family, I'll do it. This is our mother, Cynthia, our father, Leo, and that little one over there is Kairos."

"Nice to meet you," they said in unison, then laughed. Kali led him to the table, where they each took a seat.

"Likewise," Severus responded.

"Would you like something to drink, Severus?" Leo asked him.

"No thank you." He looked over at Kali, who was smirking wildly at him. He nudged her in the ribs, after which she kicked him under the table. He had to concentrate very hard not to change his expression.

"This is my boyfriend," Kali said after an awkward silence. Cynthia glared at him, but the rest of the family seemed to have accepted this already. "He's the Potions master at Hogwarts."

"How long have you been seeing each other?" Leo asked.

"Just over a month," Kali responded.

"Wanna see some really bad pictures of Kali?" asked Kairos. She ran off to get the albums before Severus had even opened his mouth to respond. He found himself smiling, and before long, he was talking animatedly about Quidditch with Leo and Apollo.

Kairos came staggering into the room, arms heaped with albums. Severus stood up and took more than half of them and carried them to the table. She smiled appreciatively and took her spot at the table. This family seemed to do that a lot… smile. It was something that he wasn't used to, but he found that he liked it.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

They had already finished eating and had retired to the living room, but Kairos was still showing Severus pictures of Kali. Kali had left to talk to her parents long before, and Apollo was reading quietly in a chair in the corner of the room.

"…and then she jumped out of the bathtub, put her hands on her hips, and vowed never to shower again," Kairos finished, laughing hysterically. Severus stared down at the picture. An eight-year-old Kali stood there with nothing on, half covered in bubbles, with her arms crossed over her chest. Her eyebrows were brought together, but her eyes were laughing.

Apollo laughed softly behind his book when Kali came into the room. "What's so funny?" she asked, baring the same expression as the picture. She looked down at the album, paused to scan the pictures, then screamed and slammed the book shut. Severus laughed, even though he knew he shouldn't have, and she punched him in the shoulder.


Three weeks later...


Severus realised little by little that he was in love with Kali. She was one of the few things in his life that made it worth living. He could even ignore the fiery pain in his left forearm for a time when he was with her.


"Severus, where are you going?"

"Nowhere, I just have some place to be," he answered, searching for his robes.

"I wish you'd tell me where you go when you leave. You can trust me, you know that."

"I do trust you, I simply don't want to involve you. Just being with me involves you more than you can imagine," he said, anger and sadness creeping into his voice.

"Then I deserve to know what it is that I'm involved in," she argued.

"I love you," he said for the first time, though it came more abruptly than he had meant it to.

"I… I love you too, Severus."


He wasn't sure what exactly it was that made her so different than anyone else. Her eyes contained so much depth that he couldn't help but look into them when she spoke.
"Kali, what are you doing?"

"Going swimming. Care to join me?" she answered while undressing.

"That water is freezing, it's the middle of October."

Despite his warnings, she jumped into the lake. He watched desperately, waiting for her to resurface. When she didn't come up after a minute, he too jumped into the water, fully clothed.

He stayed under the water for as long as he could, searching for her, but finally had to come back up for air. He subconsciously cursed himself for not thinking to cast a heating charm.

He broke the surface and looked around frantically. There on the shore stood Kali, completely unclothed, laughing at him with her eyes.

"That was not funny," he complained, swimming lazily back to the shore. "I was really worried about you."

"I know, I'm sorry," she said, wrapping her arms around him. Her body was warm, quite contrary to his own. She'd obviously remembered to cast a few spells herself. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"Put some clothes on," he grumbled, turning away from her. Despite the fact that he could not see her, he knew that she was smiling at him.

A few minutes later see sat down beside him and laid her head in his lap, now fully clothed. "I really didn't mean to scare you. I thought that you would realise that I'd cast a spell."

"I know. I'm just glad that you're alright," he said, stroking a piece of hair out of her eyes.

"My sister wrote me and asked me to say hello. She sent you cookies as well."

"Be sure to thank her for me."

"Severus, do you love me?" she asked after a pause.

"You know I do," he said, his deep brown eyes staring down into hers.

"Yeah, I guess I do," she replied, staring off into space.


They came from such different lives, and yet they were so alike. Her younger years had been full of joy and love - something that Severus had rarely experienced - yet she seemed to understand him so well. She could tell when he was upset about something and always tried to help in any way that she could. If he asked to be alone, she didn't mind - she simply picked up one of his Potions texts and went into another room to read quietly while he sorted out the problem. She shared his horribly sarcastic, dark sense of humour, and though she never laughed, her eyes did it for her.
"Severus, what's wrong?"

"My experiment is not working quite the way I expected it to and it's quite frustrating."

"Anything I can do to help?"

He looked up at her and well near smiled. She cocked her head to the side and smiled back at him.

"You've already done it," he said.

"I haven't done a damn thing and you know it," she said, eyes laughing.

"Yes I do. I just need some time alone to work on this."

"Of course. I have papers to correct anyhow. I'll be in your room when you've finished."


A/N: Alright, so I just thought that I might need to explain this chapter before the complaints about it's choppiness ensue. In case you didn't catch it, this chapter is a memory chapter up until the last scene. Severus is reflecting upon his relationship with Kali, and we all know that people don't organize their thoughts based on fluidity, they often just pop into our heads. If anything, the fact that Severus manages to think entirely about her is a sign of how much he cares about her.

Each scene is proceded by a paragraph relating to it.This is because Severus thinks of their relationship in generalities before remembering specific events. I don't know, it makes sense to me.

p.s. In case any of you were wondering, the children's names all have meanings and were very carefully chosen based on that. Kali means Dark Goddess, Kairos means Last Born Goddess and Apollo is the God of Truth and Light. You may want to re-read the scene containing them, as their names do play a part in that. Let me know if you have any guesses, either in a review or in a personal e-mail.