The Art of Love, Both Confusing and Simple


Author's note: I know the first two chappies are a little slow and I seemed to make things lead you on, but in the end that didn't happen. So now I'll heat things up a little, but not too much so as to keep you guys interested. And to let you in on a little secret, Kara and Harry get together in this chappie and Snape gets jealous! Please R&R!

Chapter 3: Love or Lust?


Last Time:

Meanwhile, Kara was running through the halls not paying attention to where she was going. She let her feet take her to the place she believed she would get the most comfort. She soon came to a familiar picture in the dungeons and leaned against the wall. She slowly slid to the floor into a crying heap and pulled her legs to her chest. Kara cried softly into her hands hoping no one would come around, especially some Slytherin who could use a good fight. Kara just sat there, crying, for her last spark of hope seemed to vanish deep within her waiting for just the right moment to come out.


This Time:


Severus hummed to himself a tune he had heard before, but couldn't place as he finished his shower. He climbed out, dried himself off, pulled on some boxers, and then on his green sweatpants he normally wore to bed. He looked at his bare, pale chest in the mirror and then brushed his teeth. After he finished in the bathroom he came into his own personal common room where he sat on the couch and settled down with a good romantic book he liked to read in his spare time. (He'd hunt me down if I told anyone, so if you happen to see him don't tell him it was me who told you.)

After about an hour, Severus checked the time. It was only 11:00 PM, but tomorrow was a Quidditch game between Slytherin and Gryffindor. It would be a very interesting game. Severus marked his page and put the book on the side table. He heard running down the hall and then someone seem to fall to the ground in a heap. He then heard someone crying out in the halls right across from the portrait that led to his "dorms" so to speak. Severus smirked and went towards his portrait hoping to taunt the student that dare come crying near where he is.

Severus swung the portrait open and his face suddenly fell. His eyes softened and his smirk turned to a frown and a pain tugged at his chest as he looked at Kara, just sitting there so vulnerable and hurt.

"Kara?" he asked softly, but he saw her tense and pull her legs closer to herself. Severus walked over to her, barefoot, and stood in front of her. He overshadowed her and the light from his "dorms" were no longer shining on her, but the light of the moon through a window was enough light for him to still see her clearly. "Kara, look at me," Severus continued firmly, but kindly. Kara shook her head no and he sighed.

Severus kneeled in front of her and gently placed his hand on her chin. He tipped her face up so her watery gaze met his soft one. When Severus let her face go she averted his gaze and turned her head to the side. Severus grasped her chin and turned her face towards him once more. "Kara," Severus just whispered her name. This time when Severus let her face go Kara kept looking at him. When he whispered her name it assured her she wasn't just there and that her life was still moving even if it was moving slowly. "Kara," Severus whispered her name again. Whispering her name gave Severus reassurance that she was still with him and not thinking of leaving. At least he hoped he wouldn't. "Kara," Severus whispered one more time before Kara managed to reply.

"What?" Kara said softly.

"Please don't cry," he said and Kara remembered Sara had said the same thing in her letter. She fell into his arms in a heap, sobbing on his chest as he just held her close to his beating heart that he knew then beat for her. They just sat there for a few moments before Severus felt Kara's breathing deepen as she slowly cried herself to sleep. He would have carried her back to her common room, but that would look odd, considering he was the Head of Slytherin not Gryffindor, so he picked her up and walked over to the closed portrait.

"Una volta uno Snape, sempre uno Snape," he told the picture of his dead grandfather as he opened his mouth to ask for the password, considering he just watched what his grandson had did right in front of him and knew it was him and not some imposter. It was Italian for, 'Once a Snape, always a Snape.' The portrait swung open and Severus carefully stepped in so as not to stir Kara in her sleep. He laid her down on his couch and flicked his wand. A silver comforter appeared and landed lightly over her body.

Severus yawned before going to his own bed in his bedroom and climbing in. He couldn't sleep well and faced the wall just looking at it. Severus heard a rustling of covers from his common room and then the soft footsteps of Kara. Severus didn't get up or look at her when she walked into his bedroom. He just relaxed and pretended to be asleep. He felt the bed shake a bit as Kara climbed in next to him. He tensed a bit as her arm wrapped around his waist, but relaxed as she pulled herself close to him and nuzzled her face into his neck.

Severus sighed in comfort and closed his eyes when he heard Kara fall asleep. He soon found himself waking up the next morning on his back. It was just before breakfast and he felt oddly warm. Last night's events came back to him and he opened his eyes. Kara lay next to him, part of her up on his chest. Her right leg was in between is own and her head rested on his right arm that extended onto both his pillows in the king sized bed.

Severus quietly and carefully began to climb out of bed, but as he was about to climb off a strong arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him back. He chuckled softly to himself as Kara pulled herself closer to him and held him tight so the warmth wouldn't escape. Kara's head now rested in his lap. Severus eventually got out of bed and after showering and changing he came back to see Kara still asleep. Not meaning to Severus kissed her forehead and whispered, "Sleep well, my angel." He realized his words and quickly left to let her sleep in. It was Saturday after all. As he left he failed to notice the small smile that appeared on Kara's soft, full lips as in her sleep she had heard his words.


Kara awoke with a start about half an hour after Severus left. She felt warmer than usual and a faint scent that wasn't her own drifted into her nose along with the scent of man's calone (sp?) from somewhere out of the room she was in. Kara stretched; her eyes still closed, and realized the bed she was in wasn't her own. Her eyes flew open and she gave a sigh of relief when she realized her clothes were still on. Kara sat up in the big bed and looked around. The bed she was in was of silver and green sheets with two, large, entwined S's on them and the walls were painted green with little silver S's on them. Through the door was a wall with pictures of people related to someone who looked very familiar. In the corner of the bedroom she was in now was an oak wardrobe with only one picture on top of it. It was a picture of Severus and Lucius and looked like it wasn't taken too long ago.

Kara knew then she was in Severus's bedroom and last night's events came rushing to her. She got a warm feeling that invaded her body and her spirits seemed to rise as she got out of bed. She flicked her wand and a pair of short shorts, a tank top, some knickers, and a bra appeared on the bed. It came from her own trunk and she walked into the bathroom with her clothes. It smelled strongly of men's calone, but it smelled good. Kara took a shower and then got dressed. She dried her hair with a spell and walked into Severus's own personal kitchen and grabbed a cup from one of the cabinets. The cup was green with two entwined silver S's on it.

Kara filled it with some coffee Severus had made just an hour before and walked out of the dorms while sipping it slowly. It was still hot due to a spell Severus put on it. Kara got to the Great Hall in the middle of breakfast. Harry and Ron were eating hurriedly because they had to leave soon to get ready for the big Quidditch game against Slytherin today. Kara smiled and sat down at the table. She was even happier now considering she hadn't had coffee in a while, especially straight black coffee.

Kara sat down next to Hermione and across from Harry, who was next to Ron who was across from Hermione so it was a square-like-thing. Kara had the S's towards her so only she could see them. Harry and Ron didn't even notice she sat down, but Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Where were you last night? You never came back," Hermione whispered to Kara so no one could hear.

"I'll have to tell you later. At the library where no one will hear. I guess you could call it Top Secret information, but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

"I promise, but you better tell me the truth." Kara smiled and looked up at Severus, who was watching her slowly as he ate his breakfast and drank coffee from a cup identical to her own, only it was silver with green S's.

"I will. Trust me, I will," Kara said before turning to face Hermione. Hermione looked up at Severus and raised an eyebrow guessing it had something to do with him. Harry and Ron, along with a bunch of other people, stood up to go get ready for the big Quidditch game. "Hermione, we can go to the library really quickly before the game so I can get this one book," Kara said as she stood up and quickly hurried to catch up with Ron and Harry at the doors to the Great Hall. They smiled as Hermione and Kara drew closer. Hermione glanced at Kara with a knowing look as she finished her sentence.

"Good luck, Harry," Kara said kissing his cheek. Harry blushed as Ron looked at him and then Kara looked at Ron. "Do well," was all she said before both her and Hermione walked out of the Great Hall and towards the library.

Severus sat at the Staff Table when Kara came in for breakfast. He sipped his coffee from his mug and then realized Kara had taken his matching one from his kitchen and was drinking coffee as well. Severus liked his straight black, but he had no idea how Kara liked it. When Kara kissed Harry's cheek as she wished him good luck rage and jealousy boiled within him and he glared at Harry as if that would make a difference. Sad to say, it didn't. Severus sighed and then glared at Albus when he chuckled after realizing what seemed to be happening.

"Shut up, Albus," Severus said as Albus opened his mouth to speak.

"I see you have taken a liking to the girl, Severus," Albus said anyways. "But it seems she has taken a liking to someone else. You may be jealous all you want, but please don't take it out on the students."

"What makes you think I would?"

"I've known you, Severus, since you were eleven and now you work for me. Do you really think I don't know you that well?"

"Yes. In fact, no one knows me that well. And they never will," Severus growled before standing up and marching angrily from the Great Hall.

"Perhaps a young student could change that," Albus mulled with a small smile and a twinkle in his eye as he watched Severus leave. "Just give her a chance."

"All right, Kara, tell me," Hermione said as they sat down in the library. Kara sighed and then began from just after she had left the common room. When she finished Hermione was open mouthed, but was smiling. Hermione stared at her and then suddenly they both laughed.

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone."

"You actually believe I would tell anyone something like that?"

"No. I just made sure because if it hadn't of happened to me I probably would have told everyone!" Both girls laughed before standing up and hurrying to the Quidditch game. When they got there they took their seats with the rest of the Gryffindors and cheered as the game began. "Have you ever sung a duet, Hermione?" Kara asked suddenly.

"Nope. I never sing much really."

"Why? You have a beautiful voice!"

"Not as beautiful a voice as yours."

"True, true, but if we sang a duet it would sound really good. Before she went to St. Munggo's, Hara gave me some music we could work with. We'd sound really cool!" Kara sounded excited by this so Hermione smiled and shrugged. Kara took that as a yes. "Yay! We can get the music after the game." Kara looked back to the game and a few minutes later Harry had the snitch, Ron had blocked all the goals, and Draco looked really pissed. (Speaking of Draco, we're doing a history project in school and I'm doing Draco. Only this Draco was an ancient dictator of Greece, not some Harry Potter character.) Both Kara and Hermione fell into fits of giggles as they walked to meet Harry and Ron. They waited for Harry and Ron to finish changing and showering in the locker rooms before Ron came out. Hermione and Ron started talking and Kara waited for Harry to come out.

As Harry opened the door Kara ran over and jumped into his arms. He spun around so as not to fall. Kara was laughing when he put her down and he was grinning. "You did great," Kara said and then someone shoved by them. Ginny looked as pissed as Draco and glared at Kara as she passed them. Harry didn't even notice. Kara rolled her eyes and turned back to Harry. "The game didn't even last that long and you should have seen Draco afterwards. He was so pissed." Harry chuckled and there was something in Kara's eye before they turned back to delight. Harry didn't notice it, but if you had it might have looked something like a feeling of guilt.

Kara sighed and then did something she couldn't believe she did. She stood up on tip-toes and pecked Harry on the lips. Harry had a surprised look on his face and Kara was blushing. Then before Kara knew it Harry had crushed his lips on hers. Kara kissed back and it would have been longer if they hadn't have heard oddly loud coughing. Kara pulled away and both her and Harry blushed as they looked at the coughing Hermione and Ron who stopped and smiled.

Hermione scanned the crowd coming to congratulate the team and her eyes stopped on a certain professor who was watching Kara very closely. Hermione coughed a bit and Kara looked up to see who Hermione was looking at. Kara just smiled at Severus who looked at them and glared. Kara turned back to Harry, Severus's eyes still on her, and hooked arms with him. Then the two of them, followed byRon and Hermione, walked back to the castle, the coffee cup still in Kara's hand the whole time though it was now empty.

Monday came quickly and Kara walked in, hand in hand, with Harry for Potions. Harry sat down with Ron who was already there and Kara put her bag down next to Hermione. "I'll be right back," Kara said and showed Hermione the coffee cup. Severus was sitting at his desk making a mental role-call when Kara blocked his vision.

"What is it, Ms. Simmons? I ask that you hurry or I'll just have to take house points off and give you extra homework."

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Or maybe you just forgot your morning coffee," Kara said with a teasing smile as she placed the coffee cup down on his desk. Then Kara spun on her heel and walked back to Hermione trying her best not to laugh out loud. Hermione was grinning and was trying not to laugh either. Kara, as she sat down, coughed to stop herself from laughing. Hermione started coughing too and the both of them went into fits of very fake coughs.

"Silence," Severus hissed as he stood up and the two of them shut right up. Severus got them all settled with different potions to work on with their partners. Kara pulled out her ingredient thing and so did Hermione.

"I got a letter from Hara this morning," Kara said. Hermione looked up and smiled.

"You didn't tell me that! So, how is she?"

"She's doing really well and she sent me this perfume. I have it in my trunk. She said she didn't like it much."

"Then why did she send it to you?"

"I usually end up getting what she doesn't like because I like it."

"Do you like the perfume?"

"Love it! It's Midsummer's Night or something like that."

"Isn't that the name of a movie?"

"No, that's A Midsummer's Night Dream. I saw it once. It was good. This is from Yankee Candle."

"I know that place! My parents go there all the time."

"My mom used to go there too before…" Kara trailed off and looked down. "I never liked my mother much." Kara said. She had never talked about her parents with Hermione before. "She used to treat Hara like she was Queen and then she cared about Sara, but she didn't give a damn about me because I was the middle child. My father…he always knew what to say when someone was sad, never wanted to keep them sad for too long. When my first boyfriend dumped me for instance, he said it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. I told him it was from a famous writer and everyone knew that, but he just said it didn't stop him from doing anything." Hermione laughed.

"So what happened?" she asked suddenly wanting to know more. Kara looked at her with confusion. "I mean, why did your dad become a Death Eater?"

"Oh. That. He said he couldn't always just be hanging around the ministry and working all the time. He said he needed to belong. He never liked Fudge and he's glad Fudge isn't Minister anymore, but he still needed more. So he joined the Death Eaters. My mom seemed happy for him, Sara had no idea what a Death Eater was or is, but Hara and I were worried. We told him he'd get caught, go to jail, and we'd never see him again. He just looked at us and shoved us out of the way before heading into his study. Being a Death Eater changed him. It changed us all. He went from kind loving father to one who ignored his children. Sara fell and scraped his knee in front of him once and all he did was laugh at her before leaving. I walked into his study one night and he was crying. He told me something and then screamed at me for interrupting him while he worked. It was as if he had forgotten what happened just a few minutes before. Eventually, he got caught. When he went to Azkaban my mother went crazy and had to go to St. Munggo's. There wasn't anything anyone could do for her and they wanted to keep her there, but Hara and I wouldn't let them. That's the story."

Hermione frowned and then the two of them got onto the subject of boys as they finished their potion. For once Severus didn't give them any homework. Kara and Hermione were laughing as they walked to the door. They put their bottled potion on Severus's desk and as they walked away he stopped them. "You seem happy, Ms. Simmons, considering your sister's in St. Munggo's." Kara turned around to look at him and Severus smirked. She had a serious look on her face as if she were about to tell him to mind his own business, but she didn't. A smile formed on her face when she looked at him.

"Including my little sister, Professor, two very special people to me told me something. They told me not to cry." Severus's smirk turned into a frown as he thought. With that Kara and Hermione walked out of the classroom with large grins on their faces and they could be heard laughing as the door closed behind them.


That Friday after all classes and at dinner Albus stood up. "Attention, please. Attention." Everyone stopped eating and looked at him. "For the Christmas Ball this year we have decided to do something special. For all fourth years and up there will be a Masquerade!" Almost all of the fourth years and up cheered, but the third years and below grumbled. Kara and Hermione cheered loudest for they had been reading The Phantom of the Opera and loved the idea of Masquerades. "Tomorrow we will allow fourth years and up to go to Hogsmede to buy masks and dresses or suits for the Masquerade! You may finish your dinner and then go in peace." Kara looked at Harry sitting next to her and kissed him. Everyone cheered and the Masquerade was the subject on everyone's mind for the rest of the night.
Well? What did you think? Was it better than chappie one or two? I would really like to know. I'll add more Harry/Kara romance in the next chapter if it makes you feel better. I do hope you like it so far. Please R&R! And soon!