Chapter 17: Sixth Year: Summer Holiday Part II
Severus and Calli settled into domesticity easily. Since she had a vastness of power that even he was still unaware of, learning with him by her side to keep house was simple. She'd found his cookbooks in the kitchen and with the careful understanding she had of the Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, became a willing student to the art of cooking. As long as the larder was kept full, they were able to make meals that made leaving their bed agreeable. Learning their favorites and playing together in the kitchen became a daily habit that they both loved.
Keeping the house clean, as cooking was, simple with the two of them working side by side. Anything to keep one another within touching distance.
The only issue, and it wasn't a terrible one, was that if they were within arm's reach they had to touch. Touching would not satisfy, so soon their clothes would lay forgotten and she'd be pressed against the bookshelf, lifted onto the countertop, spread across the desk or the dining room table and soon screaming his name as they came together. The boiling that once held her blood hostage was replaced with a near constant need for him. For the length of him pressed deep inside of her, or taken deep into her mouth, tasting him as he had tasted her.
His need for her was as strong as hers for him. Broken, unwillingly only days into their marriage, by the first summons from her father. She'd pouted, adorable in their bed, a tempting sight that he fought against-leaving her or facing her father's wrath if he didn't heed his call.
"I have to go," he groaned, knowing that ignoring her father would mean physical pain that he'd endure if he must, but cringed against feeling. "You know that." He was pleading.
She smiled and kissed him. Their foreheads touching, she sighed. "Go. I love you, Severus. Be safe." Released from her pull, he'd gone to her father's side.
Apologizing for his delay, he'd risen to face the man who had helped create the woman he loved.
"Understandable, Severus." The cold eyes studied him. "You are a newlywed after all. Though perhaps a reminder of who you serve is due." And with that, the curse released from his serpent tongue, making his hero scream.
Calli knew, after his return from that first summons, she would never detain him again. Seeing him try to mask the torture her father had inflicted, the pain he'd been assaulted with because of her, reminded her of her father's ruthless evil. So she smiled and nodded when his mark seared his skin.
And she would spend the time he was gone searching for distraction. Reading the books that he stocked in his library. Attempting to tame the small back garden of their house. Even making subtle changes to the bleakness of their home. Fear blossoming as the time ticked by on the enormous grandfather clock. Minutes, more often hours passed as her fear grew. Worry that her father had seen through the careful mask her husband wore. Terror that he'd harmed the man she loved, that he would take Severus from her permanently. Nightmares she wouldn't share with Severus. Couldn't share with him because of a certainty that voicing them would make them manifest.
He would arrive home. Tired, but after the first summons, not physically harmed. The summer was like a wave rising high-their solitude, the love they shared and explored and crested- every moment he had to spend in attendance to her father. Days, weeks, a month passed.
One night, the final day of July, he'd gone. He came back, hours later, sweaty with tortured eyes and he clung to her. Only days earlier he'd shown up after a meeting with her father, eyes glistening in tears he daren't spill in his presence. He'd held her then, but not like this. The way he was clutching her was like a liferaft. Like she was the only thing tethering him to the world and keeping him sane. As her touch, the feel of her holding him as he held on to her, finally calmed him and let sleep take him. What had her father forced upon him this time?
Before what would be her final year of school could dawn, Severus pulled her onto his lap. He'd returned from another summons, only an hour before, and she'd been pleasantly surprised by his quick return. Now, as she sat on his lap in their library, she played idly with the hair at the nape of his neck.
"My beautiful, wonderful wife, Calli." He whispered, kissing her gently. "We haven't really discussed your continued education. A gross oversight on my part, my darling."
She pulled back, studying his face. "I'd thought that I'd do an independent study. I do have a rather gorgeous tutor under roof, after all. I'm sure private NEWT testing can be arranged."
He smiled at her, so clever. "Or-" he stopped, taking the hand that wore his mother's ring. "You could return to Hogwarts, as the new instated Headmaster's wife and favorite student."
Calli was shocked. Severus made Headmaster of the scene of the crime, literally? She realized that staying hidden in their bubble, and not taking note of the world outside had been her oversight.
During all those hours waiting for his return from her father's presence, she'd never picked up the newspaper. She hadn't wanted to see Severus' face plastered on the front page, labeled a murderer. A monster. She alone knew the truth, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. The ruination of his reputation wasn't something she cared to follow.
Now she was curious about what else she'd missed. "Severus, what are you saying?" She asked, cupping his face between her hands. Looking deep into his eyes, she felt him dropping this guard, inviting her to see.
The punishment by her father during the first summons, the killing of the teacher of Muggle Studies, the ambush of Harry Potter's flight to adulthood, blood flashing as a Weasley twin lost an ear instead of his life, chaos interspersed with his aid to the other side. She saw him cursing a shifty man to change the plans of Harry's removal from his family's house, felt his fear and frustration at not being able to save a fellow teacher. She saw the fall of the Ministry into her father's waiting hands. Terror raining down on the world from her father's most loyal, her mother an eager participant. All happening while she had stayed happily in her pretended bubble.
The last thing she saw was the latest meeting. Her father, standing over the man loved, gave him this assignment. And the additions of two new 'teachers' to join him at Hogwarts: the Carrow siblings. More spies, she thought, pulling free of his mind. She hadn't noticed her own tears falling. Not until he brushed them from her damp cheeks.
Calli allowed him to comfort her, knowing he dreaded the return to Hogwarts as much as she did. She also knew, drawing back from his embrace and kissing him, that together they were stronger than apart. She would follow him to Hell and set up house if he had to go.
"So back to school I go." She whispered with a dark chuckle. "I hope the benefits of being the Headmaster's wife-"
"And favorite student," he added, in case she'd forgotten.
"And favorite student," she amended, "may prove distracting."
Groaning, he turned her body so she was straddling him. A flick of his wrist and they were both gloriously naked. "Shall I show you just how distracting it will be, Mrs. Snape?"
Giggling past her worries, she nodded and let herself be pulled back into the safety of their passionate bubble.