A/N: Hello there! It's been a very long time since I've updated, hasn't it? Well, to tell you the truth, things have been looking grim for me and I've been posting one-shots that have been making me happy. I have had some dark days and I mean, dark! I needed to do this update and it's not that long, but it's something. I thank those that have continued to stick around because I don't think that there's many that are. I hope that you enjoy this…

OOOOOOOOO

Snape rolled off of Avonlea and slid onto his side, watching in slight amusement as the girl tried to catch her breath on his bed. He had merely wanted to teach her what his hands and mouth could do for her, but after seeing her expressions, the dark professor had become too aroused to not touch her completely. His mate blushed as he traced his fingers over her stomach and she quickly wrapped an arm around her chest, hiding herself from him.

"Why do you do that, Miss Raven?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Do what, Snape?" Avonlea asked, turning her gaze back on him.

"Hide from me," Snape said, touching her arm with his fingertips. "I have seen all of you. I have tasted your flesh. There is nothing for you to hide from me that I have not enjoyed." He looked into her eyes. "Why do you do it?"

Avonlea shrugged a shoulder, but kept herself hidden. "I just don't know if I feel right being exposed like that. Even if you have touched me or seen everything…I just feel weird."

Snape's hand touched her arm. "Lower your arm, Miss Raven."

"No."

She's stubborn as well as shy, Snape realized, glaring at his young mate. "Miss Raven, you do realize that you are safe here with me, don't you?" She nodded. "Then you do not need to hide yourself from me. I am not here to judge you on your body. Have I not proven that I enjoy it?"

Avonlea's cheeks flushed with heat. "Snape…"

Snape's hand slid along her arm and tugged at it. With little resistance, he managed to pull it away from her chest and settled it against her side. His eyes roamed over her chest and then back up to her eyes. Avonlea stared back up at him and he smirked at her.

"Was that so hard, Miss Raven?" he asked.

"I wish that I had a blanket," she muttered, shifting her body next to his.

"So you can hide from me completely," Snape guessed, sliding his hand along her body.

"No because your room is chilly," Avonlea stated, frowning at him. "And because I feel exposed in here, Snape." Her eyes returned to the ceiling. "Even with you. This bond is weird."

Snape felt her discomfort through their new bond and sighed. He reached behind him for the blanket that he had cast off when he had begun their lessons and threw it over their bodies, shielding them both from the slight chill in the room. Avonlea put her arms over the blanket and settled closer to him, looking content.

"You will have to get used to this bond, Miss Raven," Snape told her, watching her emotions play out behind her blue eyes. "Neither of us may particularly enjoy having such a connection, but it is there and we must accept it."

Avonlea stuck her tongue out at him and then laughed. "I felt that."

"Felt what?"

"Your annoyance with me, Snape. You don't like it when I stick my tongue out at you."

"Nor do I like it when you call me by that name," Snape told her, frowning down at her. "In private, you may call me by my first name, Miss Raven."

Avonlea shook her head. "I'm so used to calling you 'Professor' or 'sir' or 'Snape'. I don't know if I could call you by your first name."

Snape lifted an eyebrow. "You have done so before."

"I had to!" Avonlea exclaimed, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "It was part of the bonding process and you read about it, Snape! And yes, I called you that! So there!" She stuck her tongue out at him and then looked back at the ceiling. "I'm calling you Snape forever."

Snape shifted his hand under the blanket. "Are you quite sure of that, Miss Raven?"

The Veela-Halfling nodded. "Yes."

Severus Snape put his hand on her breast and ran his thumb over the tip, causing her to draw in a sharp breath. "I believe that you will change your mind rather quickly."

Avonlea bit her bottom lip and shook her head furiously, her cheeks flushed. Snape rolled the tip of her breast between his fingers and watched her eyes, patient to a point. But he knew that there was a stubborn streak in this girl. She had, after all, refused to tell him anything about her finding out who her mate was until it was almost too late.

"Miss Raven," Snape said quietly, fondling her breast now. "I will have you say my name. Or you shall scream it."

Avonlea shook her head and bit harder down on her bottom lip. Snape could feel her chaotic thoughts brush against his and knew that she was feeling pleased and embarrassed by the way that he was touching her.

"If you will not obey this way," Snape said, pushing the blanket off of her chest. "Then I shall have to make you obey another way."

He lowered his face to her chest and then cast a glance up at her face, waiting to see if she would

react. But she was still biting her lip. Snape lifted his hand from her breast and closed his mouth over it instead. Avonlea gasped as the dark professor worked his tongue over her sensitive flesh and she threaded her fingers through his dark hair, tugging.

"S-stop!" she gasped, arching into him.

Snape ignored her and continued to work on her breast with his mouth.

"Please, Snape, stop," Avonlea moaned, tugging at his hair harder.

Her emotions were chaotic against his and Snape pushed them aside, craving only one thing from her. He bit down on her tip and she screamed.

"Severus!" she cried out, her back arching off of the mattress.

Snape slowly lifted his mouth from her breast after soothing the burn that his bite had left with his tongue and then looked into her eyes. "Yes, Miss Raven?"

Avonlea scowled at him and tapped her fingers against his cheek. "That was a dirty trick, you!" She slid her hand down and cupped his chin. "You don't see me grabbing anything of yours and making you say my name."

Snape smirked at her. "Would you like to grab something of mine, Avonlea?"

Avonlea squeezed his chin and ran her thumb over his bottom lip. "I would not, Severus. There I said your name. Are you happy now?"

Snape slid his tongue across the pad of her thumb and watched the color return to her cheeks. She made a soft sound and lowered her hand back down to her chest.

"I am as happy as I should be," Snape told her softly, placing a hand on her stomach. "Considering the circumstances that I have been given. And I suppose that it could be worse. This could not be happening altogether."

Avonlea nodded and closed her eyes. "I could be dead right now. Cold and unfeeling. Feeding on the blood of others just to survive." She turned her face away from him slightly. "And you could be just as lonely as you were before this whole Veela-mating thing was ever brought up."

Is this the burden that she bears? Snape wondered, watching her breathe in slowly. Did she constantly think that I would be alone if I were to reject her before her birthday? Hm. She is quite a fascinating little creature, isn't she?

"Avonlea," he said, stroking the soft flesh of her stomach. "Look at me."

The Veela-Halfling kept her eyes closed. "If I refuse, are you going to put your mouth on me again and force me to look at you, Severus?"

"No."

The blonde opened her eyes and turned her face back towards him. Snape lifted his hand from her stomach and caressed her face, tracing the contours of her cheekbones.

"I will not say that I want this bond between us," Snape said softly, looking into her eyes. "But I can say that I find that I am falling into it, piece by piece. I do care for you, Avonlea. More than I did before this bond happened. Before we started becoming more than professor and student. I cannot say that this is love yet, but I do believe that there is something there. That I could fall in love with you one day." He traced a finger over her lips. "As you may fall in love with me."

Avonlea stared up at him in wonder as he slid his hand down into her hair. "Severus, can – can you do something for me?" she asked.

"What is it you would like for me to do?"

Avonlea grabbed his hand and shifted it under the blankets, placing it at the apex of her thighs. Snape lifted an eyebrow at her as she held his hand there.

"A repeat lesson, Avonlea?" he asked in a low voice. "I am surprised. For such a bright student, I would have assumed that you would have wanted something new."

Avonlea gave him a look. "Severus, please…"

Snape bowed his head and pressed a kiss to his mate's lips. "Very well." He moved his hand free of her grip and felt her spread her thighs for him as he slid a finger inside of her. "Let us begin…"

OOOOOOOOO

Avonlea walked with Snape back to her common room, feeling oddly satisfied and content with herself. She had a small smile on her face as she wrapped her arms around herself, glancing up at Snape as he talked quietly with her. She could almost forgive him for the odd ache between her thighs where he had roughly taken her on his bed, again, when he was only supposed to use his fingers on her.

I really need to stop looking at him like that, Avonlea told herself, looking away from the dark professor and focusing on the hall ahead. If someone notices, our secret could be revealed and I can't do that to him. I don't want him to lose his job because of me. If I don't see him, what point is this whole bonding thing anyway?

True, if he got fired and had to leave Hogwarts, Avonlea would only be without him for a few months until she graduated, but she still refused to do that to him. Because he needed his job and she needed him here.

"Dragon bogeys," Avonlea whispered to the painting in front of the door.

The painting swung open and she stepped through the entranceway, letting the warmth of her common room seep into her body. The Veela-Halfling hadn't realized how chilly she had become in Snape's room and almost made a comment on it before becoming aware of a noise. Her blue eyes turned towards the window and saw her mother's owl beating its wings against the glass.

"Oh Merlin, what does she want now?" Avonlea muttered, crossing to the window while Snape watched.

She opened the window and the black owl glared up at her like she had done him wrong. Avonlea frowned at him and stepped back, waiting for him to fly into the room and out of the cold. But he merely stuck his leg out where a piece of parchment was tied with a piece of black cord.

"If you insist," Avonlea said, plucking the parchment off of his leg. "I'm not sending a letter back nor am I giving you anything. So, you can leave." She pointed to a tower in the distance. "That's the owlery. You can stay warm in there with the other owls, if you'd like. Or you can return to Mother."

The owl hooted and turned his back on her, taking flight. Avonlea quickly shut the window and walked back into the main portion of the common room, plopping down on one of the couches. She ran a finger over the parchment, wondering if she should read it in Snape's presence or not.

I should just get this over with, Avonlea thought glumly, unrolling the parchment.

My dearest Avonlea, I hope that your birthday has come and went as well as expected and that you are a Veela-Halfling and not a vampire. I want you to come to the brothel tonight. I want to have you back home with me, my baby girl. And you could bring your mate along too, if you'd like. I would like to meet this boy that has saved my daughter! I hear that your father might be making a visit after all of this time and that he'd like to see you for the first time since you were a baby. Wouldn't that be something? Please come soon, my dear. I will be expecting you! Love, Your Mother

Avonlea tore her gaze away from the parchment in her hands as Snape sat down next to her.

"What does your mother want?" he asked quietly, watching her face.

"Here," Avonlea said, shoving the short letter into his hands. "See for yourself."

Snape took the parchment from her without question and Avonlea put her face in her hands, sighing heavily against her palms. She waited a moment as Snape read her mother's letter and heard him set it aside.

"Well?" she asked, not lifting her face from her hands.

"Your mother wants you to come back to the brothel tonight," he said slowly. "With your mate."

"Who she doesn't think is you," Avonlea muttered, closing her eyes against her hands. "Everyone is going to think that he's not you. And I know that it has to be that way, but she's expecting this miracle person and I can't deliver." She shook her head. "I don't want to go."

"Not even to meet this father that has been absent from your life since you were born?" Snape asked.

Avonlea lowered her hands slowly and looked at him. "Why should I want to meet him? He's been avoiding me for seventeen years, Severus! And he didn't have the decency to tell me that I could have become a vampire if I didn't find my mate before my seventeenth birthday! He's been sneaking around with my mother whenever I've been here and never once asked about me! I shouldn't want to meet him!"

Snape held her stare. "But you want to meet him, Avonlea."

Avonlea sighed. "Yes…I want to meet him. There are so many things that I want to ask him. So many things that I want to yell at him." She frowned at Snape. "I actually would like to punch him in the face for what he's done to me. Is that wrong?"

Snape shook his head slowly and put his hand lightly on her knee. "I do not believe so. I can feel the range of emotions that you feel for this man that has been absent from your life for so long…It is understandable to feel something of rage towards him."

Avonlea briefly rested her cheek against his shoulder. "I still don't want to go there. Because if I have to deal with Mom and him at the same time, I am going to explode and nothing is going to stop my wings from bursting out of my back. I'm going to go into full Veela mode and things are going to get ugly."

"I will be there," Snape reminded her quietly. "And we will have our few moments together, Avonlea. If you feel that angry, you can come to me."

Avonlea closed her eyes and let her breath out through her nose. "I know that, but the Madam of the house is not going to be pleased if I burst into a fit. Even if you are there to keep me somewhat calm." She shifted her face to look up at him. "Even if Carissa and the others are there, it's going to be hard. I wish that I didn't have to do this, Severus. I wish that I could just stay here and forget about all of this."

"Running away never solved anything…"

Avonlea nodded and held her hand out, letting him take it in his. "I guess I'm just going to have to face the music and deal with this with as much grace as I have."

Snape brushed his lips against the back of her hand. "I will be with you, Avonlea. Even if I can't be present for it all, I will be there."

"Through our bond," Avonlea guessed, feeling his calm thoughts brush against her raging ones.

"Precisely."

Avonlea glanced at his lips and then at his eyes, trying very hard not to think about kissing him. Snape seemed to read her thoughts though and pressed his lips against hers in a tender kiss. Avonlea leaned into him and kissed him back readily, forgetting about her anger towards her mother and her absentee father.

"I think I need to work on control next," Avonlea muttered when she parted from Snape a few moments later. "As well as shyness."

Snape smirked at her as he brushed back a strand of her hair. "I will help you with that, Avonlea."

"I'm sure you will, Professor," Avonlea said, grinning at him as she rose to her feet. "I need to pack, so go be annoyed in your own room while you pack your own bags. I'll see you at the brothel in a little bit." She squeezed his hand. "And thank you for coming with me…"

OOOOOOOOOO

A/N: What did you think of this? I don't know how well I did, but I'm trying. I'd like to have a review or two or three that I can respond to. Maybe. I don't know when the next update will be because I've got a lot of ongoing projects on here as well as novel projects in the non-Fanfiction world. I will try to get back to Lost In You when I can though. I hope to see you around, my lovelies. Thank you! -Scarlet