Thanks as always for your reviews and support. Grateful for every one. Lots of love, Severusgirl xxx
Thanks to JessiokaFroka for betareading.
Chapter Nine
CONTACT
Taking heed of Dumbledore's advice and giving Severus the time and space to think about the situation was agonizing.
She spent the rest of Sunday in her rooms reading, marking and getting her lessons prepared for the next day.
She saw him briefly at lunch and then again at dinner, but never to talk to. In the evening she thought - she hoped - he might come to her. The wait was worse than willing the phone to ring after a first date.
He didn't show.
Her walk into the Hall at mealtimes gradually eased in tension and the noise level did not dip very much on Monday when she walked into breakfast. There was no acknowledgement from Severus whatsoever.
That morning she saw two pupils, both girls, who sailed through their lessons without any reaction to the events of yesterday.
At lunchtime she saw Vincent in the Staff Room. The sight of him brought all her suspicions to the fore. Her panic and heartache at perhaps losing Severus over this episode, exploded within her, expelling any rational thoughts. She strode across the Staff Room floor to the armchair he was sitting in. She bent over him, her arms held stiffly on each side of the chair, her anger barely contained.
"If I find out it was you who spoke to the newspaper," she hissed to his astonished face, "I shall have Severus hex you to oblivion." Without waiting for a reaction, she threw herself upright and left the room. She was shaking. Part of her frustration spent.
Jupe Quinn arrived in the afternoon, his arm in a sling.
"Jupe!? What happened to you?"
"Oh, nothing."
"That does not look like nothing to me. How did you do it?"
"I...I got into a fight."
She looked at the quiet, worried boy, amazed that he would find himself in trouble. "Oh, it was you out by the Quiddich pitch on Saturday."
He nodded.
"What on earth were you fighting about?"
"Greg Horriss slagged off my dad."
"Ah."
"He said my dad had muddied the Quinn name and he said some really bad things about my Step-mum because she's a Muggle."
Andi sighed. She was obviously aware of the prejudice against Muggles, particularly from the Slytherins at school. She had stumbled or dropped books so many times when passing groups of Slytherins, that it was easy to suspect they had hexed her - but of course, she had no proof. She had also noticed there were no Slytherins amongst her pupils.
She couldn't think of anything to say to the boy. Instead she just patted him on the back and said,
"So, you're going to be playing with just your left hand today, hmmm?"
---------
She was curled up on her sofa with a book, reading the same paragraph over and over, when there was a knock on her door. She looked at her watch, it was just past midnight. It couldn't be anyone but him, could it?
Her heart in her mouth, she opened the door.
"May I come in?"
"You know you don't need to ask."
She shut the door, enclosing them in privacy at last, and leaned back against the door, her hands behind her back.
Neither spoke.
She watched as he wandered around the room pretending to look at objects she had scattered around.
"How many students have you caught tonight?" she asked.
"Hmmmm? Oh, none. Then again, I haven't exactly been looking."
That seemed to indicate this midnight trip was solely for her benefit. Loathing to get the conversation onto the subject she feared most, but feeling one of them had to, she said, "I'm having my photo taken tomorrow, with Cornelius. Albus thinks it will help smooth things out at the Ministry and in the eyes of the public."
"Yes. One can usually rely on the Headmaster to 'smooth things over'."
Another awkward silence.
"I don't think we can expect him to smooth things over between us, though, do you?" she said, her voice trembling. "I think we have to do that ourselves."
"I tendered my resignation."
"Yes I know. Albus tore it up. Said you were too valuable. And I have to agree."
He looked at her. "And what would you know of my value to the Headmaster?" he
said, quickly.
"I wasn't talking about him. I was talking about your value...to me."
She looked at him, feeling sick that she'd opened up the conversation to such a high-risk subject.
"Do you understand the extent to which I despise my privacy being discussed in public, not to mention the very classroom in which I teach?" His eyes were staring at her, cold and hard.
"You make it sound as though I wrote that report. My privacy has been invaded too, you know. I'm just as stung as you are," she threw back. "More so, because they printed lies about me - at least what they wrote about you is true." She looked at him. "Was true." she whispered.
He looked everywhere but her, and her heart sank. This was it, then. This was the end. She braced herself, because she knew damn well it wouldn't be her that ended it. When the silence continued, she couldn't bear it any more.
"Severus, if you want this relationship to end, just say it and leave me. We'll manage to avoid each other somehow. We're pretty damn well practiced during the week, anyway."
He was looking at her and (thank God for the gift of clarity) she saw astonishment, as though what she was saying had been the last thing on his mind, and it suddenly dawned on her - he was here to make it good, but he didn't know how.
"Oh, Severus." She smiled at him, as she collapsed back against the door in relief, her hand going to her eyes to mask the tears.
"The Headmaster asked me to consider if the newspaper report had been the worst thing to have happened to me." She sent him an enquiring look. "Not. Even. Close," he said.
"Put it all into perspective, huh?"
"Yes. Also..." He stopped.
"Yes?"
"Never mind."
"No, go on. I want to know," she said, curious to see a mixture of mild amusement and annoyance on his face.
"It would appear I have gained a certain...'kudos' amongst the older male students."
She couldn't help but laugh. "And that's boosted your male ego, has it?"
He gave her a tiny smile. "Irritatingly, I must admit it has a certain...primeval appeal."
She rolled her eyes and gave him an exasperated look.
"Are you planning to move away from that door?" he asked.
"I was thinking about it."
"Would you mind acting upon it?"
She smiled and began walking towards him. "Have you ever had making-up sex before?" she asked, as she slinked closer to him.
"Might it involve you wearing a particular pair of shoes?"
She spluttered with laughter. "I'll see what I can do."
---------
Rita Skeeter met both Andi and Cornelius on Tuesday afternoon under the watchful eye of Albus, and they posed for photographs. Rita was quite adamant the story had not come from inside Hogwarts. The whisper amongst journalists was, she told them, that it had been Narcissa Malfoy who tipped off The Sleuth - although how and why, no one knew.
Andi remembered their accidental meeting with Narcissa in Diagon Alley. How Narcissa had looked down her nose at Andi - her whole attitude, in fact. It was clear she found the pairing distasteful. Had Narcissa exposed their relationship in the hope of breaking it up?
The following day, very meekly, very, very embarrassed, armed with a bouquet of rainbow Freesias, she found Vincent and made her apology.
"I was very uptight," she told him. "Please forgive me."
He took the flowers and sniffed them. "It wouldn't be a bad thing, Andrea, if you learned to forestall your knee-jerk reactions," he sniped.
"Yes I know-"
"You were very hurtful - I couldn't concentrate on a single thing for the rest of the day."
"I'm so sorry."
He looked her up and down. "But I know how devastated I would feel if I were in danger of losing someone as delicious as Severus so, apology accepted." He took her arm as they walked along the corridor. "And perhaps now we can discuss you lending me that baby-blue cashmere sweater of yours for next weekend?"
----------
The following Saturday, an owl arrived at breakfast carrying a copy of The Daily Prophet. Inside was Rita Skeeter's 'exclusive' report on the Minister and his new-found granddaughter.
'MINISTER UNITED WITH GRANDDAUGHTER'
Underneath the heading was a large photograph of Andi arm-in-arm with Cornelius and chatting together as they smiled for the camera.
"The Daily Prophet is delighted to bring you this exclusive first photo of the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge and the granddaughter he never knew he had..."
Andi folded the newspaper.
"You finished with that?" asked Sylvia.
"Yes. I don't need to read the rest. I know what it says. Ohhhh!" Andi squealed as a second owl flew low over the table and dropped an envelope on her toast. "What's this?"
"Post" said Sylvia, helpfully.
"Tch, I know that, but...it can't be Liz..." She took her butter-knife, carefully sliced open the envelope and removed the contents.
"Well, what is it? Fan mail?" Sylvia grinned.
"No," said Andi in a stunned voice. "It's a birthday card - from my mother!"
A/n
Josie - Thanx for reviewing. Glad you like the story.
Thouandl - How many times have I typed your name incorrectly? Every time! I am SO sorry. I have a slight dyslexia and obviously mis-read your name the first time and it stuck. Sorry, sorry, sorry. As for the image of Sev...you're very welcome.
Helena Oe - I kind of thought that Sev offered his resignation because it would be the 'proper' thing to do - to avoid scandal and embarrassment to Dumbledore, not because he was running away from the problem. I wouldn't want to write anything that would make you lose your respect for Sev. Never, never.
Intelligent Witch - Yeah those 5th year girls! Tch! No taste whatsoever.
JessiokaFroka - 'Gossiping beauty shop biddy'? Hahahaha, loved it.
Midnight Lilly - Hmmm, you have some interesting ideas...one of which has been correct. Thanks for your review.
FemmeLoki - You can get off your tippy toes now ( I hope you did ballet, or your toes will be very sore)
billiejoe - Thanks for your review. Yes, book and film Snape have to different. I can't think that Andi would fall for book Snape with his yellowing, uneven teeth and grey underwear. Trouble is, if you don't want a character to become sexy, you DON'T cast Alan Rickman in the part.