Thank you all so much for leaving reviews. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. I'm looking forward to your thoughts and comments.

My thanks as always to JessiokaFroka for betareading.

Lol, Severusgirl.

Chapter Twenty-eight

OUT OF BOUNDS

A few days later news came through that, despite careful timings and potion applications on the part of their captives, there would be no pure-blood heir to the House of Snape from Mercedes.

Severus, released from the Hospital Wing that same day, came to Andi's quarters to impart the news. Although the relief was great, Andi found the mental pictures of Severus and Mercedes together still cut deep.

"I was being controlled by one of the most powerful spells known to the wizarding world," he explained. "The Mulcibers are experts in administering the Imperious Curse. Deirdri Mulciber struck before I was fully conscious - giving me no chance to put my Occlumency skills into action. I had no choice in the matter."

"I know, I know," she said, thickly. "I just can't... I mean you must have... oh..."

"You must not imagine she means anything to me," he said, quietly.

"But..." She looked away, her eyes smarting. "I mean... you had to... you know..." It was as though her mouth would not permit her to release the words, to voice the wound which cut the deepest. "Oh, for God's sake, Severus - you must have reacted physically to her, or the act couldn't have taken place, could it?" She sniffed back tears.

He led her to the sofa and sat her down, taking both her hands in his.

"I cannot explain what it is like to be under that curse," he said softly, patiently. "I fought it. For three days and three nights, I managed to block their attack; but it takes its toll...

"We were both being controlled by outside parties - yes, even during the sex act. There was an audience and we were the entertainment - we were treated no better than circus animals being put to stud. For want of a better description, we were raped by magic."

Andi swallowed. Of course, she hadn't known these extra details. Now she felt horribly guilty for shouting and swearing at him the other day. A fierce anger flared against those who had humiliated and debased him so.

She slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, finding reassurance in the warmth of his body against hers, the familiar contours of his muscles as she stroked across his shoulders and back, smelling the wonderful scent of him as she buried her face in his neck and began kissing the pulse that beat there.

"Andrea," he murmured.

"Oh God, Severus, I've missed you so much."

She felt her body respond as they cuddled and caressed. The heat in her rising as the need for him became greater.

And he was responding to her, pulling her closer, his hands running the length of her back, his mouth in her hair, nuzzling her head until his lips trailed down her face to find hers.

"Andrea," he said, quietly. "I cannot return to you yet."

She pulled her head away and faced him.

"Huh?"

"I am married."

"Not in the true sense of the word."

"Nevertheless, until it is officially annulled, I remain married. It would not be right."

She stared at him.

"Who for? Me or her?" she spat, instantly regretting it as his eyes closed against her words. She raised her palm to caress his cheek in apology, silently communicating that regret.

"Believe me, right now I want nothing more than to take you into that bedroom and make up for all the nights we've missed," he told her. "but I feel... unclean, and I have no wish to return to you feeling like that. It would not be right."

Andi's heart sank.

"I see," she said. "If you feel that strongly about it..."

"I feel it is the right thing to do. The annulment should be complete in a few weeks."

"Weeks!"

He sighed.

"When Snape Towers was attacked, letters were stolen; letters written between my Father and Señor Valdez, betrothing me to the first female born to the House of Valdez. With the death of my Father and my coming of age before any Valdez female reached maturity, anything written in those letters became unenforceable. Deirdri Mulciber will use the letters in her defense and argue against the annulment when she is brought to trial."

"You... you mean, you might have to stay married?" Andi could feel the blood drain from her face.

His own face softened.

"No," he said. "Divorce, although rare, does exist in the wizard world. But it will not come to that. No court could uphold the contents of those letters. It will just be Mulciber's way of making things as difficult as possible, and delaying her sentencing." He picked up a few strands of her hair and studied it as he let it weave between his fingers. "Until then..."

"No sex," she pouted.

"Unfortunately, no."

She looked away towards the window with a resigned sigh.

"And there's no use getting

Into heavy-petting.

It only leads to trouble

And..."

He silenced her with a kiss.

"But we are allowed to do that!" she said breathlessly, as they broke away many moments later.

"Not if it disturbs you..."

"No, no," she said quickly, lowering her eyes in an attempt to hide the arousal that must be shining in them. She was ready to cope with anything if it meant she could at least have his lips. "It's good. It's good," she nodded. We'll... we'll date. Yes, that's what we'll do, we'll date. Would... would you like to have dinner with me tonight? No strings and no going past first base."

"First base?"

"This," she said, pulling him closer.

The wait was torturous. Both agonizing and joyous.

Steadily she physically recovered from the attack; the cane was no longer needed and her body had returned to its pre-pregnancy state. She was so ready to begin having some joy back in her life and yet, it had to be postponed.

If they happened to meet in the corridor during school hours, his eyes, his manner would betray nothing, whilst she found herself blushing furiously, trembling like a teenager; the desire for him exuding from her very pores until she imagined everyone could see it as wispy tendrils that snaked out towards him, enveloping him in her emotions.

They spent more time together in private and they now talked a great deal or sat by the fire, marking homework, preparing lessons.

Some evenings were spent in the music room where, at his request, she would play the piano for him; he sitting beside her on the stool, watching as her hands flitted over the keys. Beethoven was his particular favorite, and Mozart - although she was rewarded with a scowl if she dare stray into any cocktail music or pop song.

She'd thought she'd got away with it one evening.

Spending hours arranging the tune herself, she had managed to get a classical slant on 'Here, There and Everywhere', and slipped it in after a piece of Chopin.

'To lead a better life

I need my love to be here.

Here,

Making each day of the year.

Changing my life with a

Wave of his hand:

Nobody can

Deny that there's something there..."

Silently she sang the words as she played the tune with heavy frills and improvisation, and despite the beautiful simplicity of the original, she was pleased with her efforts.

"A style I have not heard before," he said, thoughtfully as she finished, and her heart swelled at his attempts to learn and recognize different composers' works. "Not the same era as Chopin, obviously."

"No," she said. "A much more contemporary piece, by two composers actually - Lennon and McCartney."

She felt a little wicked in duping him like this. Music was, after all, the only subject where he was uneducated and she had the upper hand, but there was so much beautiful music that would be lost to him otherwise.

He nodded in consideration.

"I would like to hear more of their work... that is, when you have the time to change The Beatles' songs into classical music..."

She looked at him quickly and saw his mouth pursed with amusement.

"How on earth did you know?" she said, giving in and laughing. "I thought I was being so clever."

"There was one Muggle singing group who crossed the boundaries into the Wizarding World - causing much fuss, I remember. I confess I have never, until this evening, acknowledged their music; nevertheless I did recognise the names Lennon and McCartney."

He gave her an annoyingly smug look which made her laugh and vow never to try and put one over on him again.

He stood and held out his hand.

"Come, it is late. I shall walk you back to your rooms..."

They reached her door. She turned to face him, leaning her shoulder against the door frame and looking up at him with her sweetest smile.

"Thank you for seeing me home. I'd ask you in for coffee," she teased. "But my parents might still be up. They're a bit strict and don't approve of me dating."

He whispered the charm she knew concealed them from onlookers and kissed her goodnight.

She watched with longing as he turned and began walking away down the corridor. Oh, why couldn't she be his mistress! Well, if they couldn't have sex together...

"Oh, Professor?"

He turned.

"I was thinking," she continued, coyly. "Are you still keeping an eye on me - as you did last July, down by the lake?"

There was interest in his face as he walked back towards her.

"Possibly. Do you feel in need of being watched?"

"I think perhaps tonight I might. I can be quite a naughty girl when I'm all alone - as you know, and I need someone to watch over me. Will you be watching me, Professor?"

"There is every probability," he said huskily, taking her in his arms again and kissing her quite thoroughly, pressing up against her in the doorway, making her aware of what the prospect had done to him.

"Then goodnight, Professor. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but happy is the thought I shall be under your watchful gaze. Hurry back to your quarters before I'm naughty behind your back."

She giggled as he disappeared down the corridor in a flurry of robes.

Once during this enforced celibacy they had, quite by accident, spent the night together in his room.

After two glasses of rather heady wine, she had fallen asleep with her head in his lap, on the sofa where they had been reading. She woke in the early hours to find herself still there, a blanket over her, his arm over her and he with his head lolling, fast asleep.

Then came an evening when she realized his own frustration equaled her own, and at the same time, made a startling discovery about herself.

They were in her rooms. She, sitting on the sofa pretending to look at a magazine while he paced the room, seething about the latest in a long line of imbecilic students, one of whom had blown up a cauldron, resulting in five students being sent to the hospital wing.

In the past she would have been able to calm him by distraction, gradually building up the petting like a hypnotist slowly bringing a patient to calm; until he could be led, almost docile, into the bedroom; or the most effective way when she quite simply dropped to her knees in front of him, which never failed to grab his immediate attention.

Neither, however, was an option this evening.

Andi was only half-listening. There was music playing on the gramophone, for one. The real reason, however (and she would never admit this to anyone, not even Liz), was that his vitriolic attacks could still scare her. That such bitter loathing lurked inside him, manifesting in verbal abuse that was as sharp and as swift as a rapier, made her flinch outwardly and cower within, and she knew now, without doubt, that she never, ever wanted to know how all this hatred had been utilized during his Death Eater days.

Then the name 'Potter' reached her ears. She looked up.

"Potter? Harry Potter? Plays Quidditch for Gryffindor? He helped me out once when I was lost." She swallowed and continued, bravely. "I thought he was very sweet..."

There was an expelling of air reminiscent of Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist', and more expletives.

"Goodness, he's just a boy..." she ventured.

He moved out of sight behind her, behind the sofa.

"He is not 'just a boy' - he is 'The Boy Who Lived'. It is terrifying in the extreme to think all our hopes of victory lie in the product of James Potter's loins..."

"Who's James Potter?"

"Don't ask... Just what is this dirge we are listening to?" he spat, turning his attack on the music coming from the gramophone.

"Albinoni's Adagio. And it's not a dirge - it's beautiful. Listen to it, it might help calm you down."

"I do not need calming; I need..." His sentence broke off, and in the second she thought to turn to look at him, he had caught a handful of her hair, pulled her head backwards and smothered her mouth with his, kissing her so fiercely and for so long, she thought she might pass out.

His free hand had snaked down her taut throat, down under her shirt and into her bra, where her enforced posture had caused her breasts to jut forward. He filled his hand with her, kneading her, squeezing her quite painfully, but fuelling her desire until she felt her very womb might be on fire.

Her right hand traveled at speed up his arm, along his shoulder until she could palm the side of his face, holding him there, desperately hoping he would continue, forget his vow of temporary celibacy and...

"Sev... Severus... please..!" she begged, even as she kissed him, her body practically screaming out for him.

There was the tiniest indication he was about to move away. Panicking, she grabbed his robes and pulled him closer, further down towards her and, meeting with a slight resistance, pulled yet harder.

Evidently she was stronger than she thought.

With a surprised grunt, he lost his balance and came tumbling over the top of the sofa, landed half in her lap with his legs still following the momentum of the fall, and as his backside bounced on the seat, his whole body slipped off and onto the floor, bringing Andi down giggling on top of him.

He was winded, and so was she, but having got him prostrate on the floor she was damned if she was going to let him go.

She locked her knees either side of his hips.

The first button of his tunic undone, the second, only then to realize she had the shirt underneath to deal with also. This had to happen quickly, before he knew what had hit him. She abandoned the top half and slipped her hand down to the real business of his trousers...

"Andrea... I thought I... NO!" He threw his weight against her, knocking her sideways and rolling her over so that now he was on top and the hearth rug rucked up beneath her.

"OK, this way round then." Still giggling she wrapped her arms and legs around him, trying to reach his mouth with her own. He snatched her hand away as it moved yet again to the front of his trousers.

"Andrea, do not make this difficult for me..."

"I wasn't planning to."

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

She giggled again.

"Ohh, am I making it hard for you?" she said in mock sympathy. "Mmmmm yes, I see I am!"

He buried a growl into her neck as at last her hand cupped the hidden treasure. Then with a startling roar, he snatched both her wrists and pinned them down painfully on the floor either side of her head.

She swallowed, panting heavily as he drew himself up above her, the look in his eyes silencing her giggles.

Instinctively she tried to pull back from the unsettling shadow that now darkened his face, and in a dangerous voice that paled her flushed cheeks, he drew close to her ear and very slowly, salaciously, murmured,

"Yes, I could take you right now on this stone floor. I could fuck you so hard in so many ways, you'd be begging me to stop, exciting me further, urging me on until I'd made sure you had taken every last drop of me in every fuckable place you possess." He pressed himself into her belly all the while he was speaking. "And when that piece of paper arrives giving me my freedom, trust me, I plan to do just that. Until then - no. No sex. Do you understand?"

She swallowed. His darkness seemed to have expanded to envelop her. He loomed over her, his face close, completely intimidating.

"Do you understand?" he demanded again.

"Yes," she answered in a small voice.

He relented, and let out a heavy breath, as though switching off. She stared at him, taking her breath in gasps, her breasts heaving underneath him as she watched the shadow pass from his face and the Severus she knew, return.

He swallowed and lowered his forehead to rest on hers.

"I... apologize. I am aware I was the perpetrator in this." His eyes closed briefly. "Carnal urges were a lot easier to deal with before you came to the school."

He released her wrists and took his weight on his elbows as his hands caressed her head, his thumbs stroking her temples.

"I must apologize also for my crudeness..." He looked at her and frowned. "Andrea, have I..?"

She was still staring at him, still breathing hard - speechless.

"I hurt your wrists I think..." There was concern in his voice.

She swallowed.

She licked her lips.

She had to clear her throat to speak.

"N... no, it... it isn't that."

He studied her intently. His frown disappeared and was replaced by a tiny glimmer in his eye. His mouth quirked.

"Andrea..?" he said, his interest roused.

Her cheeks flamed as she realized he'd guessed...

He'd seen...

that...

...when he'd spoken in her ear in that way; restrained her wrists so tightly, pressed himself against her belly... the whole dark, threatening manner of him had fired sparks in her brain, sending a heat so intense throughout her body she was a volcano ready to erupt. A pulse beat hard, almost painfully, between her legs and what there was of her little thong was soaked.

She could see by his eyes there was no need to explain.

Oh, why should such a confession, even a silent one, be so embarrassing after all the intimacies they had shared? But for some reason, it was; and the way he was looking at her now - studying her with interest, as if he were collecting her thoughts together... making her feel so... open and vulnerable.

With a squawk, she covered her burning face with both her hands and tried to turn away from him, feeling more exposed than the shedding of clothes and spreading of legs could ever do; convinced he would ridicule her for being so aroused by what he had just done.

But he was handling her again, allowing her to turn, helping her roll over and then without any warning whatsoever, he brought his hand down on her bottom with a stinging whack that made her yelp with pain.

"OW! Wha... what was that for!" she cried, shocked.

He brought his mouth close to her ear and using the same voice as before, murmured,

"For behaving like a little slut and admitting to such a disgusting thing; and while I think of it..." He flipped her skirt up over her back, exposing her thonged bottom. "I neglected to punish you for the other night, when you were alone and being so very, very dirty..."

Once again his hand came down hard, this time on her bare flesh and she shrieked as now a quite different set of cheeks burned.

"And now I shall leave you to consider your conduct. Remember, I shall be watching; and if I find you continue to misbehave, if I see you pleasure yourself again, there will be further punishment, mark my words."

He got up and moved away.

She went to turn over.

"No - you are to stay where you are," he commanded. "You will not move until you hear the clock strike the hour. I wish to admire the view as I return to my chambers." There was a short pause and she sensed him stepping closer, inspecting her. "Hmmmm, as I suspected. Goodnight, Professor."

She heard the door open, felt the cold air from the corridor race between her legs, and then the door closed, leaving her alone, in silence.

Andi lay there obediently, face down on the floor, her rear burning and throbbing and her mind reeling.

What on earth was going on here? She'd never before considered...she'd never indulged in...

She wriggled her hot buttocks, feeling the coarse hearth-rug rub against her pubes, and slipped her hand down underneath her belly.

Yes, it must have been very obvious to him just how much he'd aroused her, she thought, as her fingers pulled aside her soggy thong and found a home in another throbbing and very, very wet part of her body.

Gasping and moaning into the rug, she found her rhythm and, concentrating on the burning impression his hand had made on her buttocks, came almost immediately.

A/n - 1) The 'heavy-petting' lyrics are from the song 'Touch-a Touch me' from The Rocky Horror Show (Richard O'Brien).

2) OK, confession time. For me, Albinoni's Adagio is Snape's theme tune. Whenever I listen to it I picture him swooping silently through the corridors of Hogwarts, robes billowing. I couldn't resist putting the two together - the music and Sev pacing the room before pouncing on Andi. If you know the piece, or have a chance to listen to it, I'd be interested to know what you think.

breziebear - I'm quaking in my boots! I'm so glad I redeamed myself. Phew!

Hysterically Insane Author - Thank you. I wanted Sev's return to be the key to her mourning.

Kerichi - Oh, not another film I'm reminding people of. Girl Scouts Honour I am owning up to any inspiration when it happens - I haven't seen Who's Afraid... The baby Snape took was Neville, and in answer to your other question, no it isn't so. lol.

Emma Barrows - Thank you, but only one update a week from now on I'm afraid.

Thouandl - It was a dodgy thing having Sev get emotional, so thank you for your comments.

Mark Darcy - With you on the Dumbledore thing. Sev as Nathan? Surely not. I think he'd be very sexy as Frank-n-Furter (I was a big Rocky Horror fan - hence the quote in this chapter). Actually, I think there is a fan fic here somewhere 'Hogwarts does Rocky Horror' - or something like that, but I haven't checked it out, so I don't know who plays Frank.

Helena Oe - I wanted the loss of Josephine to bring them together and I wanted to bring Sev as close to emotional as I dared, so thank you for your positive comments on this.

Kerry Bo Berry - Thank you for your review. I blush.

Queen Of The Faeries1 - Thanks for your understanding and lovely comments about the previous short chapter. The remaining chapters are about the same length as the one above. Btw - I shall spend my Thursdays picturing that jig now!

bittersweet angel - Thanks for your review. I do not want to be blamed for any mortalities amongst my readers!

Kristi M - thanks for your review. I enjoyed your bit-by-bit comments and apologise for having turned your stomach with Genevieve's indiscretions!

Aries1 - Hey, welcome back. Thanks so much for reviewing. lol.