Disclaimer: I own nothing but my plot and characters

A/N: Ummm... At least ten more chaps. I know I said seven before but that was before I realized what I'm doing. So, ummm... (likes writing ummm a lot.) GUESS WHAT? There's going to be more fanfics of this! Yessssss. It doesn't end here. The only thing that's going to be changed is time passage. But that's not until later so I'm not discussing this any further for now.

AHH TYPOS ATTACK OF THE TYPOS!

Chapter 34: Business Mixes With Pleasure

Sigh, another Sunday in the life o' Maranda. The morning and afternoon were spent in the library and in my room writing in my journal. I also played with Serenity, rolling a balled up sock to her as she pawed it back to me. Basically, it was a lazy day. But as five o'clock neared, I prepared to go to Sev's room so I could go over my lesson plan for teaching tomorrow.

I walked over to Snape's room with Serenity by my side. She had just finished eating and couldn't go to sleep. I knocked on his classroom door and heard him say 'come in.'

"Hello, Severus," Serenity ran in before I could approach his desk, "Do you mind if my kitten stays in here for awhile? She's not sleepy yet."

The door shut itself behind me, so I could safely wish for a greeting kiss. Snape stood up and glanced at Serenity, who was jumping on the desks in the first row. He came over to me, handed the lesson plan to me, and stated, "She's like you on good days."

"Oh gee, thanks." I smirked as he cupped my chin in his hand. He brought my lips to his and planted a small, but very much needed kiss as planned. When he let go, we walked over to his desk and sat in our normal spots.

Sev had his own copy of the lesson plan to read along with me, "Alright, Maranda, you're ready to teach. Tomorrow should be relatively easy as an opening day for you. All I want the students to do is make an advanced sleeping potion, which knocks the person into a slumber of at least seventy hours."

"Who'd want to sleep that long?" I questioned in disbelief.

"The potion can be used for medical reasons," He explained while staring into my eyes, "if someone is hurt and needs to be put to rest, so be it. The rest of class you are to roam around with me and check their potions and see that they are not fooling around. You've been in my class, so you know exactly what I mean. Now, the first year class is going to make a simple antidote to nausea tomorrow. Same procedure goes on here. This class, despite the age, is a little more tame than the upper years. You won't have a problem with them. Any questions thus far?"

Slipping my foot closer to his, I shook my head. He continued going over the schedule, and I listened to every word. But what he did not notice was my foot inching towards his. I began to rub my foot against his lower calf. For some reason I felt very brave today.

Serenity mewed and jumped near the chalkboard. Severus looked at her and then back at me, finally realizing what I was doing. He lowered his paper and inquired, "What, may I ask, are you doing to my leg?"

"Hehehe...I'm rubbing it." Why must I explain what I'm doing when he knows perfectly well?

Placing his leg beneath the desk, he teased, "You're feisty, hmm?"

"You don't know how feisty I can be" I didn't even know how feisty I could be. Leave it to my mouth and brain and other body parts to randomly come up with a new trait for my personality.

"During the second year class," he ignored my comment and continued reading the paper, "as I aforesaid, you must hand out the tests and I will take over from there."

This was a time to stop a foolish snake from talking too much. I slowly inched to the edge of my chair and stared at Snape. He was oblivious to my movement. In one swift motion, I reached my hand out and ran my fingers through his hair. He hid a smile and kept reading. I stood up and placed my lips on his forehead for a second. The reading would not stop, so I decided to take more evasive action. I have no idea where this bravery came from, but I moved some hair out of the way before lightly nibbling and licking along the outermost part of his ear.

"Oh Merlin," He mumbled, "Stop."

Haulting my action I turned and faced him. "What's wrong? Is the classroom becoming warm?"

"You are murdering me." Alas, he put the paper down, "Can I help you?"

My subtle smile grew, "Yes, I think you can."

The next step I took caused me to nearly trip over myself, but Sev took my hand and helped me gain balance. Boy was I a dork when trying to flirt. Standing up, he now towered over me with his own subtle grin. Recognizing pure happiness in his eyes caused my stomach to embark on a cartwheeling journey, and my heart to pump fast with racing blood. I was decieved into thinking my lips would meet his. Instead, he pushed my hair to the side, kissed my neck once and nibbled on my ear. I didn't want him to stop.

"That was payback," He pulled away and intensly stared at me, "I will punish you if you don't behave. You can't mix business with pleasure."

After he chuckled under his breath and took his seat, we finally spent the next half hour going over the lesson plans once more. It was almost supper time when we finished, so we parted our ways. I brought Serenity into my room and let her snuggle on my bed sheets. I left the room and headed for the Great Hall with no intention of misbehaving...Tonight.

0o0o0o0o

Leaving the world behind for adventurous dreams was my way of ending a weekend. As a normal Monday morning, I dragged myself from layers of comfortable sheets and changed into my teacher robes. I took a few deep breaths and then put some make-up on. Lip gloss for kissable lips, eyeshadow for eyes Sev will yearn for, and a touch of foundation powder to rid my face of any shine. Underneath my robes was a red shirt and black skirt. I would've worn new clothing today, but no one could see it anyways, for we are required to dress in these robes until the weekend. That's why on Mondays I didn't care what I wore. It was the beginning of the week and held no purpose but to jump-start the week.

Breakfast was skipped this morning by me, for I needed to feed Serenity when she woke up. And then I realized something as I fed her: Serenity was named for reminding me of peace. Earlier in the year Sev gave me serenity potion to calm my nerves. I think I had figured out an accidental connection with both. Perhaps my little mind directed itself towards Sev-related words and names when I first got my kitten. Either way, if he hadn't noticed this yet, I was free to let it go.

First period I had free due to it being the third year class. So I spent time thinking about what I would say to the students when my turn came to teach. I was so thankful that Sev decided to let me try actually teaching.

"Good morning, Maranda," Severus greeted me as I walked in after first class ended, "I see you're not sick, as Hermione and I considered. We weren't sure why you skipped breakfast."

I started writing on the chalkboard and said, "My kitten was hungry. I couldn't let her starve. Besides, it was kind of nice having a break this morning. I enjoy Mondays that begin like that."

"You do know the advanced class is going to walk in this room in no less than three minutes. Are you well prepared?" He checked that all of my chalkboard information was correct.

Placing the chalk down and turning to face him, I replied, "Yes, Sev, I know. I'm ready to do this."

My nerves were trying so very hard to explode through my system. The only thing keeping me from internally combusting was knowing Sev believed in me. He didn't admit it, but obviously he asked me to teach with knowledge that I could succeed. To think, I would have deciphered his attitude as one to make me fail if we hadn't gone through the infamous Snape Night.

"Good morning class," I began in a half-cheerful tone when everyone settled in their seats. "Professor Snape has allowed me the pleasure of teaching today. I suspect you all have your books. Turn to page three-fifty and read the proceeding potion you will all create by the end of class. It may seem as if this specific potion has a lot of ingredients and work to be done, but you are all capable of it. Advanced Potions is what I took last year, and it is what you're taking now." I heard someone mumbled duh, but I continued on, "I just wanted to make sure this class is aware of what year they're in because you all act like three year olds at times. Well, I have already discussed with your professor that from now on, even in my hands, if any of you step out of line, we are sending you all to the Headmaster's office. Now...Begin reading please."

As the class fumbled around to retrieve their textbooks and turn to the correct page, I sat down next to Sev.

"Good job," He said no louder than a whisper, "but it might get a little harder from here on in."

And he was right. Advanced Potions was rougher to teach than be in. The students began making their potions, adding ingredients in the right order and following directions. A few students would not take my threat seriously, but that was expected when I wasn't even the real teacher. Despite the restlessness and immaturity that showed itself here and there by rambunctious students, the class went pretty smoothly. I, for once, did not stutter, blush, worry, or care because of nerves. Thank you Severus for giving me freedom today from all oogly boogly feelings.

Class after class passed by faster than I prepared for. The first year students were horribly easy to teach, and they cooperated like money-hungry businessmen talking to Bill Gates. No one was out of line at all in that class, so mostly everyone passed with an A for the day. (This made Snape secretly yearn to fail someone, of course.) The same went for the second year classes, leaving everyone with a B or above. Second years were like first years, but a bit more daring and blunt. They actually liked having me as a teacher, though, as a group of girls said so before they left. One compliment like that made me feel appreciated for the rest of the day.

"Ahhh man," I let out a long and well-deserved sigh, "It's over."

Snape stared happily at the empty room, "Yes, it is. Students will not pile in for the rest of the day. I must say, Maranda, you've really made me proud of you."

"I have?" I crossed my legs sitting near his desk once again.

"You taught without any obstacles, which is very surprising. I considered what I had put you through by asking you to teach, and my prediction was that you would, no offense, become too nervous. But, as you've proven me wrong, I commend you." He shot me a mysterious look I had not seen before. It was a look of admiration and gratitude.

Letting out a small string of giggles, I said, "Thank you. I don't like taking compliments one-on-one. It makes me blush." I can't believe I told him that! Gah!

A few minutes passed by with nothing to talk about or do, for Sev was in a correcting papers mood. I spoke on that, "You never take a break from correcting papers, do you?"

"I'm a professor; Of course I don't." He sounded so serious, but clearly was joking.

"I know you do have time, Sev," My eyes smiled along with my mouth; The Irish in me shown through. "You set off incense, have a balcony, get teacher's advantages, and everything! You're entitled to roam around and intimidate kids who are nothing but annoying. How can you complain?"

He raised his eyebrows, leaving me cowering in his seductiveness. "I didn't complain, my dear, so maybe you should get your ears cleaned. My response to your earlier comment was sarcastic. I thought you were well acquainted with it."

"Yes, I am acquainted with it," I giggled, "You are sarcasm! Ok…Ok.. I'm just kidding, Sev."

"What's wrong, then? You're acting quite strange." He could sense my guilt.

I wanted so badly to tell him that Hermione and the gang knew about us, but there was no way to do so without upsetting him. I had promised not to say anything to anyone, and by lying to him, breaking the trust after the first day of being together, I was ashamed and filled with compunction. I needed to be vindicated, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

Only a moment went by after he asked me. I answered, "Nothing's wrong. I think I'm just getting tired. Sometimes I start acting weird when I become drowsy." That wasn't a lie. My drowsy self probably acted as bad or strange as the self that accidentally drank alcohol from spiked punch.

The night ended quickly as supper soon dragged us down with its sweet aroma of luscious food. I found myself not very talkative. Hermione was reading while eating, which was rather odd. She said it was for an experiment McGonagal wants her to do next week on all the ways to transform animals into everyday objects such as toaster ovens, water goblets, plates, glasses, feather dusters, and much more. Why not leave the animals alone? I would hate to transform Serenity into a plate.

Barbaric worlds. I guess mine wasn't the only one.

Stepping into my room, I found Serenity clawing at the nightstand. I fed her, played with her for a few, and prepared to take a shower. Tonight I would go to sleep early and hope to get a good start on tomorrow. The next teaching day I would have would be Wednesday.

Things were starting to look up, even better than before, and I was ready to take on any obstacle that passed me by. Only a few more months to go before I headed for college in hopes to begin a career, which I did not know of yet. When I had just gotten used to this world, I had to start preparing for the next. How ironic.