I'm running out of clever metaphors to compare the great creator and the one who uses her characters, so just know that most of this is J.K. Rowling's idea, not mine.

Chapter Eight: Replanting Old Relationships

It was an oddly cloudy evening when Ginny showed up in Spinner's End on the Friday evening a week before Christmas day. Her mother had sobbed about how her poor little girl was so brave to give up her virtue to such a rank man, and Harry had called Snape several colorful names that Ginny had never heard. The rest of the Order just gave her grim smiles as she Disapparated to a wizzarding town close by and walked the mile to Snape's house. She was wearing her black traveling cloak pulled over her head and a pair of spiky stiletto boots. Tonks said with a grin they would be more attractive. She approached the small house and braced herself. What would he say when he saw her? Would he slam the door in her face? Would he alert Lord Voldemort that the Weasely's youngest girl was trying to spy on the Death Eaters? Would he just laugh and think she was being desperate for more sex? She was about to find out, she supposed. She walked up the steps and gave a feeble knock on the door. She heard footsteps. She could leave now, if she wanted. She heard the key scrape in the lock. She could just Dissapparate. The door creaked open, and the pale face and hooked nose of her Potions master slipped into view.

For a moment, he just stared at her out of those icy black eyes. His face was emotionless, so Ginny couldn't be sure of what he was thinking. She was sure that he was searching her brain for any information, but Ginny was ready. Tonks had been teaching her Stealth Occlumency, which was undetectable and could be used to change thoughts into whatever one wanted, and Ginny seemed to have a knack for the art. She got the original idea from Professor Slughorn, who had taken over the Defense post this year, and had mentioned it to her with a faint wink. She guessed it was just her natural charm at work again.

"Weasely," Snape said with a sneer on his face.

"Sir," Ginny said, kneeling and kissing his long thin hands. A bit dramatic, but it got the point across. He took her hands and pulled her to a standing position.

"What a pleasant surprise." He held onto her hand and brought her into his house. It was small, dingy, and rather cramped, as if someone had not lived there for a long time but had stayed no where else for several months. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Snape asked as he took a bottle of wine and two delicate glasses from his cupboard. "Wormtail would do this normally, but he is away on business." He sat the glasses on the wooden table for one and poured a copious amount into both of them. "Please," He brought a chair from a pantry and set it across from his own, "sit." He took a seat himself.

Ginny sat down across from him, suddenly feeling very nervous about this whole ordeal. He stared at her questioningly as he traced a thin finger over his wine glass. "I was just," she started, trying to remember Lupin's reason for her visit, but it evaded her as soon as those dark eyes fell upon hers. "I can't stop thinking of the situation from my fifth year," she blurted out. Not quite what Lupin had suggested, but she thought it would do.

Snape continued to study her, then he let out a small snort. "Do you honestly think you will still get in trouble for that, Miss Weasely?" he asked as he stood. "The only ones who know of our little affair are sitting in a small house in a muggle neighborhood or are currently exploring a great adventure the weak call 'death'."

Ginny stared into her goblet of wine. She decided to ignore both the slight on Dumbledore and the fact that two people, one who was nervously waiting in a cramped kitchen and one who was working with her werewolf husband, knew about the affair. "Yes, but even so. . ." she trailed off. She had no idea of how she could work her way to the subject she so desired to discuss.

"Or, perhaps, you aren't worried that you will get into trouble," Snape said, looking out of his window and walking over to draw the curtains. "Perhaps you can't stop thinking of, dare I say it, the experience itself?" he looked back at her. "Tell me, Ginny. I won't penetrate your brain unless I have to; the Ministry could pick up my small amount of magic and arrest me at any moment if I perform Legilimensy. Are you here to tell me that you are disgusted by our little romance, or are you here in pursuit of more?"

Ginny looked into his face, which was oddly emotionless. He couldn't perform Legilimensy? That was good news. But she had other desires on her mind, much more primitive desires than to help the Order of the Phoenix. She stood and leaned towards him, standing on tiptoe, and brushing her lips against his.

He was taken aback so far that he actually didn't move for a moment. Then, he suddenly pushed her back into her seat and strode to the kitchen sink. "Miss Weasely, Miss Weasely," he said, shaking his head almost in mirth, "You are either up to something or are far too desperate for your own good. You attract men far too easily to be desperate for contact. What is it that you're doing?"

"Sir . . . Profess--" She searched for a proper title, but none came to mind, "I had to escape from my house at eleven at night to come here. Do you honestly think that anyone would approve of sending a witch that is barely of age to a Death Eater's house to do God-knows-what, just to get information?"

Snape considered. "I suppose not. And yet, here you stand. You have the male attracting power of a veela, Miss Weasely. I know that I am not the only one who was . . . attracted to you at Hogwarts. Lockheart spoke of you incessantly, Lupin went red whenever your name was mentioned, and even Flitwick said you had a certain charm to you that he could not identify. I happen to know that my looks are not extraordinary," he swept his long curtain of hair from his face to emphasize, "and my personality is not appreciated. Why are you here?"

"I want to be." Ginny said it as part of her work, but she realized that it was true. He had some sort of attracting power over her, much like the one she seemed to have over him. "I just want to be here. Is it so hard to realize that someone finds you very appealing?"

"Yes." He sat on the sofa, and Ginny followed suit. "I have yet to find anyone who has admitted to liking me in more than a platonic sense. Come to think of it," he let out a sneering laugh, "I have yet to find anyone who has admitted to liking me in any sense."

"Me," Ginny answered simply. "I told you, I--" but she was cut off by a pair of icy lips that pressed against hers. She was taken aback only for a moment, but she soon remembered what to do. She parted her lips questioningly and felt a quick tongue dart into her mouth, searching, probing like a snake in the grass. She trapped it lightly as it receded, grasping the strong muscle with her lips, teasing him and begging him for more.

He was the first to pull back, as usual. "I ought not to have done that," he muttered as he turned from her.

"Why not?" Ginny asked almost angrily. "We are both attracted to each other. I have not asked you a single question about your work."

"Yet," muttered Snape.

Ginny let out a cry of frustration. "Listen to you! You don't seem to be able to recognize that there is a beautiful young woman in front of you who wants you! Most men, Death Eaters included, would die for this, even if the girl is considered to be a blood traitor."

"You know, I think you're right," Snape said as he turned back to her. "I think some of them would die for this opportunity. Perhaps I would as well, but death does not exactly appeal to me at the moment. You and your Order would really like to be one-up on me for killing off your Headmaster, wouldn't you?"

"They would. I wouldn't. Like I said, no one but you and me know I'm even here."

"Ginny," Snape almost shouted in exasperation, "I don't think you understand my predicament. I have been playing a double agent for the Dark Lord for the past sixteen years. Your side thought me innocent because of my skilled Occlumency, and the Dark Lord has never forgotten that. He is still studying Legilimency just to make sure I do not get ahead of him. If he were to discover that I was with you, especially in bed, he would be very curious to know your motives, indeed."

"But He could tell that you and I were only . . . you know . . . and nothing more."

Snape stared at her thoughtfully. "Well, you seem to have thought this out. Maybe it's just me thinking everything will go wrong."

"It would seem so," Ginny almost purred. Now she was getting somewhere. Who cared if the Order found anything out? She might be able to have sex with him again.

Snape stood abruptly. "Very well, I can see no problems with the two of us having casual relations in exchange for nothing but our pleasure. Come." He took her hand as she stood and led her to a small room in the back of his house, looking back at her with a rare smile.