Content warning: Violence, Bullying, and Mentions of the Previous Sexual Assault

Chapter 16: Finally

The weeks since Easter break had flown by and it was suddenly June. Brixton had continued teaching the first years with great success and had managed to keep a comfortable, yet professional, friendship with Snape. She was brewing extremely advanced potions exceptionally well, and everything was set for her to take over as Potions Mistress by start of the next term. Severus' mood had seemed to greatly improve after his talk with Harry and he had begun eating his meals in the Great Hall with everyone else.

Brixton had been continuing to wear scarfs well past the point of comfort to hide her scars on her neck. Thanks to the Daily Prophet, everyone had known about Rikkon attacking an unnamed student and the nature of the attack. Gossip had spread through the campus like wildfire as everyone tried to guess at whom it might be that was cursed. Today was the first day that Brixton was going to be without the protection of her scarf and her stomach was filled with knots. She didn't want anyone knowing her personal business or that she had been a victim of any kind. She didn't want the stares or whispers and she certainly didn't want the sympathy.

"C'mon," said Luna next to her with understanding, "I'm right here with you." She put her hand in Brixton's and laced their fingers together.

They entered the Great Hall hand-in-hand and Brixton kept her eyes on the ground. Before they even made it to the Gryffindor table to meet their friends, a chorus of whispers filled the massive room. Brixton turned red and said quietly to Luna, "I don't think I can do this."

Luna just gripped her friend's hand tighter and said, "Yes, you can. I'm right here with you. I know exactly how it feels to be the center of gossip and hateful comments. I know that you can get through this with your head held high."

"Thank you, Luna," Brixton responded. She looked up from the floor and her eyes went to the High Table. She caught Severus' gaze and he seemed livid. She could only assume because of the way she was being talked about. He quickly turned to Headmistress McGonagall and said something to her with fervor.

Only moments later, as Brixton and Luna reached their friends and had a seat, McGonagall stood up and walked to stand in front of the High Table. She put her wand to her throat to project her voice and said calmly, "Attention, students. May I have your attention, please?" She waited a few seconds until the room was silent and then continued, "As you know, today begins the O.W.L. examinations for fifth year students and N.E.W.T. examinations for seventh year students. I expect exceptional behavior throughout the course of the week and I will not tolerate any distractions such as gossip or otherwise unkind comments towards any students. Additionally, as you all should know by now, no magical quills will be allowed during the exams and your quills will be inspected before you can begin testing. Good luck to you all and I hope that you all put your best foot forward as you take these tests that will determine a lot about your future. That is all."

Brixton blushed and turned to her friends and said, "I wish she had not said that about me. She just confirmed what everyone was thinking." By now all of her closest friends knew about the attack and the curse, but she did not want the entire school to know about it.

Neville was the first to speak up, "Brixton, you are soon going to be a professor here. You cannot hide behind scarfs and turtleneck sweaters all year. Students are going to know thanks to the Daily Prophet's reports on Rikkon being sent to Azkaban. But you are so much more than someone who was cursed. You are brilliant and brave and survived something horrific. Don't let the few students with bad intentions spoil what you have worked so hard for. You have nothing to be ashamed of and I want to see you hold your head up high."

There was a chorus of agreement amongst her friends and then Ginny said, "Those scars don't make you any less beautiful."

Brixton blushed and thanked her friend. Harry spoke up and said, "Yeah, and being a prefect you can take points away from anyone that would say anything nasty about you."

Hermione chimed in with, "As Head Girl I will do the same. I won't allow anyone to gossip about you or bully you."

"Thank you, Hermione. I don't want to make a big fuss over it though. Please don't engage with anyone talking about me. I'm afraid it will only make it worse. We only have a couple of weeks before the end of term and summer break. I am sure it will all blow over by the time I am teaching next term," Brixton said as she forced a smile for her friends. She hoped she would be able to stay so optimistic about the gossip and her scars as the weeks passed.

The week of testing went by rather smoothly for Brixton. She was good at taking exams and she had studied thoroughly. She felt confident that her N.E.W.T scores would mostly be Outstanding. Although classes had finished for the seventh and fifth year students, she was still expected to teach the first years. There was still one week left of school before the end of term and everyone left for the summer.

It was the end of the day and Brixton was headed to the Potions classroom to brew with Professor Snape. She was thankful for their continued lessons because she did not like the idleness of waiting for the week to pass. Everywhere that she went she was sure to hear whispers about her scars; speculation about how much of her body was covered in them, and how far Rikkon Brisbane had gotten with her. It made her stomach turn, but she did her best to keep a calm demeanor and ignore them. Most of the gossip came from seventh years so she reminded herself that they would not be there next year to cause her any problems while teaching.

Just as Brixton was within sight of the Potions classroom door she heard footsteps rapidly approaching her, but before she could turn and react she was shoved against the cold wall to her right. "Hey!" she shouted but a hand went over her mouth to silence her. Brixton shut her eyes in fear. Her heart was racing and the moment brought back a flash of memories from when Rikkon had assaulted her.

"You are a freak. Do you know that?" it was Pansy Parkinson who spoke.

Brixton's eyes flew open and she pulled her hand away from Pansy's hand. She snapped, "What the fuck do you want, Pansy?"

"Oh, I'm just trying to find out what everyone has been making such a fuss about all week," Pansy sneered.

"Why don't you just leave me alone? What happened between Rikkon and I is none of your business," Brixton snapped back.

Pansy laughed and pulled out her wand, pressing it into Brixton's rib cage menacingly. Her voice was thick with hatred as she sneered, "You don't have your little Potter 'army' to protect you now, do you? Just admit it. Rikkon ruined you for any other man, didn't he? Let me see how bad those ugly scars are." As she said this Pansy reached up and yanked on Brixton's white button up shirt until it a few buttons came undone.

Brixton reached to cover her chest as her shirt was open enough to expose her bra. "Stop Pansy! Why are you doing this?"

"Because you think you are so much better than the rest of us. Getting to train to be a professor doesn't make you shit. You are still a nasty little mudblood and an ugly disfigured one to boot. No man would ever want you now, just look at you," Pansy laughed mockingly.

Brixton pushed back against Pansy enough to give her the space to grab her wand from her robe pocket. Just as she was about to disarm Pansy an angry voice said, "What exactly do you think you are doing Miss Parkinson? Fifty points from Slytherin and you will spend the rest of the week doing detentions with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest."

Pansy pulled away from Brixton and both witches turned to see Professor Snape standing a few feet from them glowering. Pansy sputtered, "But, Professor, that's so many points! You are my Head of House; surely we don't need so many points deducted. I didn't hurt her. I was just having a bit of fun."

Severus snapped, "Silence. Clearly Miss Winchester is not having fun. Despite how I may have handled similar instances in the past, this kind of behavior is unacceptable. When you are outside these walls you can use whatever language you want but you will apologize immediately for calling Miss Winchester such a nasty name. Then you will get to your dormitory without another word. You are lucky that your punishment is not more severe."

Pansy turned back to Brixton, who was finishing buttoning up her shirt, and said, "Sorry," and nothing more before scurrying off deeper in the dungeons towards the Slytherin Common Room.

Brixton was a bright shade of red and her head hung low as she said, "Thank you, Professor."

"Follow me," was all Severus said as he turned on his heel and marched towards the Potions classroom door. His dragon hide boots echoed through the hall. Brixton wondered how he was able to be so silent when he wanted to be.

As Brixton entered the classroom she fell onto the floor in a heap and began shaking. She was reeling from the encounter with Pansy and still having flashbacks of the incident with Rikkon. She shuddered to think about how much Severus had heard Pansy say. This was twice now that he had seen her at her weakest point and unable to defend herself. She could not stop the flood of tears that fell down her face.

Severus extended a hand towards Brixton as he said, "Get up and stop crying. I know that was horrible, but life is going to throw awful things at you and you are going to have to be strong."

Sniffling, Brixton took his hand and stood up. She smoothed her pleated skirt and adjusted her tie. She said quietly, "That is so easy for you to say. You have years of Occulmency training to hide behind. I have nothing. I wear my heart on my sleeve. While I have heard the word before, I have never been called a… Mudblood before. I've kept my head down for the most part and avoided the wrath of Draco and his cronies over the years. Hermione has always gotten more crap from them for some reason. Maybe it's a Gryffindor thing, I don't know. I didn't expect a simple word to hurt so much."

Severus shook his head, "'Dirty blood'. Like that even means anything. You could out wit and out brew any of those dunderheaded Purebloods. You are worth so much more than some silly made-up nonsense. That took me far too long to figure out. I've been called all manner of things from a 'greasy git' to 'the Bat of the Dungeons'. Sure it hurts, but you have to consider the source. It is always going to be people beneath you that stoop to such childish insults."

Brixton wiped the tears from her face and said, "How am I supposed to pretend like what they say doesn't hurt me?"

"Practice," Severus said sternly, "You can start by pulling yourself together and brewing the Draught of Peace. As Potions Mistress you will need to be able to brew consistently regardless of what you are feeling or experiencing. I will be brewing with you today as the infirmary is in need of this potion. I know I taught you this one during your fifth year, but do not allow your emotions to affect your brewing. Remember, if you are too heavy-handed with even a single ingredient it will put the drinker into a deep, sometimes irreversible sleep, so do use caution."

Brixton watched as Severus went to his storeroom to gather ingredients. She took several deep breaths and began mentally preparing herself to brew the draught properly. What she wanted was comfort, but she knew that in his own way he was trying to help her. She walked over to a nearby bookshelf and pulled out the book that had the Draught of Peace recipe in it and set it at her usual workstation. She opened it to the proper page and read the instruction twice to help her focus. She then fetched cauldrons for herself and Severus as well as stirring rods. The ingredients were all already either powders or syrups so there was no need for mortars, pestles, or knives.

When Severus returned he placed the ingredients on each workstation and turned to Brixton. He said in the silkiest of tones, "I know you are upset, but you can do this. Control your emotions and rise to the challenge. You were the only one who brewed this potion perfectly in your fifth year, so I know you are more than capable of doing this now even with your emotional state."

"Okay, I can do this," she replied and lit the flame beneath her cauldron. She began pouring in the powdered moonstone and stopped the instant that it turned green. She began stirring until it turned blue. She poured more powdered moonstone until the potion turned purple then allowed it to simmer. As she watched her potion she said to Severus, "Thank you for coming to my aid… again."

He placed a hand gently on her shoulder and said, "I always will."

Brixton's heart began thudding and the pit of sorrow and embarrassment in her stomach she had been feeling turned to a tingling sensation of warmth. She looked down at her potion and realized it had turned pink. She quickly added the syrup of hellebore until the potion turned a greenish blue. She allowed it to simmer some more and watched it closely. Brixton knew that watching for the exact moments when the potion changed colors would be vital to brewing the potion properly. As the potion simmered she shook the glass container of powdered porcupine quills hard to prepare them. The moment the concoction turned purple she added the powdered quills to the potion until it turned red and began to stir her mixture clockwise rapidly.

She shot a glance over to her professor to see that he was just a step or two ahead of her. She smiled as she watched him work over his cauldron. His hair hung down around his face and his robes were draped over his lithe frame. Heat rose to her face and she looked back at her own potion just in time to see it turn orange. She added more powdered quills until the potion was back to a greenish blue. She allowed that to simmer for several moments. As she did this she took a deep breath and asked, "How much of what Pansy said to me did you hear?"

Severus cut his eyes over to Brixton allowing them to meet hers. He said, "Most of it, I believe. I wanted to intervene sooner. However, I wanted to have enough evidence to give her a harsh enough punishment to deter any other students from engaging in similar deplorable actions against you."

Brixton flushed with embarrassment and didn't say anything in response. Instead, she watched as her potion turned purple and then added more powdered moonstone until she saw the potion turn a greyish hue. This meant it was time to allow it to simmer more. Several minutes passed until the potion was orange again. When this happened, she stirred rapidly and added powdered valerian root until the potion turned while. She glanced over and realized that Severus' potion was finished and emitting silver vapors and that he had shut off his flame, allowing the concoction to cool. She turned back to her own potion and lowered the heat of her flame before adding seven drops of hellebore. After stirring a few minutes her own potion emitted its own silver vapors and she shut turned the flame off.

She turned to Severus, smiling, "I did it! I was really upset and distracted, but I did it."

He nodded, "You did indeed."

Without the potion to distract her, Brixton remembered Pansy's words. 'Mudblood', 'ruined', 'disfigured', and 'ugly' rang in her ears. This time she was unable to stop the silent tears that flowed down her face.

Severus pulled his wand out and with a quick utterance of "Accio" a small blue mug flew into his hand. He dipped it into his Draught of Peace and then cast a spell to cool the potion down. He walked over to Brixton and put the mug into her hands. "Drink," he said.

She looked up at him with her tear-filled green eyes and said, "Thank you." She quickly drank from the mug until it was empty and then sat it down on the work station. Almost instantaneously, Brixton's whole body began to relax. Her muscles loosened and she felt a strong sense of calm. Her mind was still on what Pansy had said, and what other students were surely thinking, but it was as if those things did not matter as much anymore.

"Do you feel better?" asked Severus.

"Yes, thank you," she replied, turning towards him. "Do you think Pansy was right? Do you think that I am ruined for any other man? That is what Rikkon wanted after all."

Severus narrowed his eyes in anger and spat, "Curse Rikkon, curse Pansy, and curse the whole damn school for all I care. You are beautiful and brilliant and those scars don't change how I feel about you whatsoever."

Brixton knew that she had promised to respect his boundaries and keep things professional, but the draught washed away all her worries and inhibitions. She closed the gap between Severus and herself, stood on her tip toes, and pressed her lips against his in a searing kiss. This time there was no hesitation. Severus wrapped her in a tight hug, pulling her body against his. She gasped a little at the contact and he used the moment to dart his tongue into her mouth and her tongue pressed back against his. Their kiss became like a dance, neither one of them fighting for dominance, but instead working together.

Brixton reached up and pushed his cloak off of his shoulders. Severus pulled away from the kiss long enough to shake himself the rest of the way out of the cloak and toss it onto a nearby empty work station. He then removed her robes so that she was left in her white button up, tie, and pleated skirt. Looking down at her glossy eyes, he stopped for a moment. His voice was barely above a whisper as he said, "This is wrong. The potion is clouding your judgement and I would be taking advantage."

She shook her head, "No, the potion just calmed my nerves. I have wanted to be with you all damn year. Please don't stop."

That was enough to convince him and he grabbed her by her Ravenclaw blue tie and pulled her close to envelope her in another searing kiss. His hands went up to cup each side of her face and she felt a deep sense of caring from him in that moment. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as she hoped that maybe one day he would love her back the way she suddenly realized she loved him. She dared not say it though, and instead tried to tell him with her kiss. She moaned in frustration as he pulled away from her lips to plant his on her neck. She wanted him so badly. She could no longer stand on the tips of her toes and stumbled a little as she went down on the flats of her feet.

Remembering their last kiss, he quickly scooped her up and carried her over to an empty workstation and sat her down. Severus pushed her knees apart and stepped into the gap they made. He went back to kissing her neck fervently. With nimble fingers he pulled off her tie. She gasped loudly as he began unbuttoning her shirt and kissing her chest. He paused for a moment and pulled his wand out of the breast pocket of his shirt and flicked it towards the door. With a nonverbal spell the door was locked and then he waved his wand across the room.

"What are you doing?" she asked, puzzled.

"Silencing charm, so that you can be as noisy as you like without getting us caught," he uttered with an expression of intense desire on his face.

She blushed and kissed him quickly, not wanting the moment to be ruined with words and explanations. After a few minutes, he pulled away from her mouth and went back to kissing her neck, slowly working his way down her chest. To Brixton it felt as though he was showering every scar with affection which warmed her in ways she had never felt before.

Soon, her shirt was off and discarded to the table to the left of them. Still kissing her chest, Severus wrapped his arms around Brixton to unhook her bra. It was unceremoniously tossed atop her shirt. Brixton gasped as the chill of the dungeon hit her nipples, making them stiffen. Severus smiled down at the view before taking one nipple into his mouth, sucking gently, and cupped the other breast with his hand. He flicked his tongue over her pert nipple provoking a breathy moan from the young witch. He switched to the other breast and continued his ministrations.

Brixton leaned back and enjoyed the attention her professor was giving her. She put her weight on one arm outstretched behind her and raked the other one through Severus' hair. After a while of toying with her breasts, he slowly began kissing down her stomach towards her belly button. When he got to her skirt he flipped it up swiftly, exposing lacy black panties. He leaned forward to kiss the side of her face and groaned in her ear as he rubbed his thumb against the thin wet lace covering her mound.

He teased her slowly and tantalizingly before trailing his hands up her warm thighs and hooking the fabric around her hips with his thumbs. Soon they were pulled down around her dangling ankles. His eyes were filled with desire as he looked down at her wet womanhood. He paused just long enough to pull his wand back out and quickly transfigure a nearby stool to the perfect height. He pulled the stool towards him as he pocketed his wand and sat down. This gave him the perfect position to place his face right between her knees.

He started with her left knee and followed it up towards her center, leaving a trail of kisses in his wake. When he got to her smooth center he licked up the slit between her legs pushing his tongue between her folds. Brixton gasped and gripped a handful of Severus' hair as he did so. He chuckled against her, his hot breath sending tingling sensations up through her core. He bent his head to suck on her clit, causing shockwaves of pleasure to rush through the witch.

Severus licked and sucked on her pussy at length until the witch was gasping shamelessly and had fallen to lay flat against the table on her back. Her thighs were pressed tight around his head as he explored her entrance with his mouth. He gripped her by the hips and pulled her closer to him. After doing so, he kissed her mound gently and then thrust two of his long fingers inside of her without warning. "Oh, Severus!" she panted. He smiled and looked down at her hungrily as one hand went up to play with her breast and the other thrust in and out of her rapidly. He pushed his fingers deep inside of her and curled them upwards as he pulled them out. The sounds that Brixton made were absolutely sinful and only encouraged him to fuck her harder with his fingers. He could feel her clench around his fingers and he flicked his tongue against her clit vigorously as the witch came undone. Her pleasurable cries vibrated off the dungeon walls.

He slowly pulled his fingers out of her, watching as she shook in the aftermath. He smiled at the fruits of his labor and she looked up at him and breathily said, "Finally! I just can't believe what just happened. You have no idea how long I have been waiting for that."

He laughed and said, "Not bad for a beginner, eh?"

Brixton's eyes were still hooded with desire as she said, "I have nothing to compare it to, but that was absolutely amazing."

Severus smirked down at her and bent to pull her panties back up. He imagined her having to walk back to her dormitory a sticky mess and the idea thrilled him. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I have been holding back the desire to do that for quite some time."

"Don't you want to fuck me now?" she asked.

Pressing his forehead against hers, Severus all but growled, "Not yet."

"Why?" she asked shyly as she stared into his obsidian eyes.

"Because you deserve a proper date and you will have to wait at least another week until the students are gone and you are officially a professor for that," he replied.

After dressing herself, Brixton pressed her lips to her professor's and found that she enjoyed the taste of herself on his lips. He kissed her back passionately before pulling away and smoothing her hair with his hands. Since it was getting late, Severus said he would finish bottling up the Draught of Peace and sent her on her way.

Brixton barely made it out of the classroom before throwing her back against the wall, gasping. She was an absolute mess and could still feel her fluids soaking her panties and thighs. She was still in shock at what had just transpired. She had no idea how anything could be better than what she had just experienced, but she knew she was already looking forward to another rendezvous with the dark and brooding Potions Master.