A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy this chapter! I did ;)


Chapter 5

A crack sounded and after a bit of swirling, Severus and Riley stood wobbly with their arms linked together. Riley's hand was wrapped around Severus' bicep when she gently squeezed it. Severus slowly unwrapped her fingers from his arm with lithe fingers and dropped her hand like a used tissue. Severus and Riley silently walked back into the castle. No emotion was claiming Severus' face and Riley appeared to be nothing but complacent and calm. Nothing was about the damp, cold halls that they entered. Tapestries hung on the walls from centuries prior, the eyes of the figures in the woven portrait and oil paintings shifting with the sound of the click of their shoes. Not a living soul was insight as they quickened their pace along the stone floors. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Riley life her hands up to her mouth and press her tanned fingers to her cherry lips. Her hands pressed deeply to her mouth like a person trying to keep a genie in the bottle. The crystal of her blue eyes twinkled like refracting light on cut glass. Severus had not seen her eyes yet from his side by side stride to see them pool with mischievous intentions. A tiny, muffled snort barely squeezed its way out between her laced fingers. Severus immediately switched his dark eyes over towards Riley, venom leaking into his eyes.

"Don't you dare." He said his voice barely above a whisper. Each word he said was staccato to emphasis each syllable and disdained dripped from each letter.

Giggles, tinkling like church bells, erupted like magma pouring from an ancient volcano. Riley stumbled in her platform shoes upon a dislodged stone in the floor and without removing her hands from her clenched mouth, stabilized herself. Severus' eyes were on fire now, his hands opening and closing by his slender sides. She was tipsy. Great, he thought. Not only did she drag him out of the castle this evening, but she was going to get them caught with her idiotic school girl giggling. The common rooms weren't close enough. Who knows what would pop out of that mouth next.

Severus was more than ready to end the evening when Riley's hand shot out and yanked his forearm. Another tiny tinkle of a laugh tried to escape her lips yet again. He was so startled by the abruptness of her gesture that he was not prepared to be catapulted into a partially opened doorway. This spontaneity thing was getting old fast. His eyes blinked their long lashes as they adjusted to the darkness of the room.

"Lumos!" Riley whispered, gently shutting the wooden door behind them, encasing them in the room. Her wooden wand flared to life at its tip and the room was permeated with light. He squinted his eyes yet again at the adjustment. Once his vision was focused, he could now see the walls and furniture that sat before him. The familiarity of the seating arrangement and posters lining the walls rand clear in his head. Muggle Studies, he thought. The elective was not one of his favorites, but it was needed in most wizarding careers as of late. He felt uneasiness settle into the pit of his stomach as he saw the girl grinning at him like an idiot. She hopped around the front of the classroom, looking this way and that. This was not worth his time. Entertaining the antics of a tipsy school girl was the last thing he wanted to do at this point in the night, he thought begrudgingly. He could just turn around and leave, but part of what she was up to tugged at his curiosity. Severus reminded himself thought that curiosity and stupidity could go hand in hand. He settled his eyes with a sigh back on the bouncing figure, listening to things clatter as she dug around the materials in the room.

"Ah ha!" She exclaimed and then remembered her place in the silent room and pressed her own index finger into her lips to silence herself. She giggled again, irritatingly so, as she whipped herself around. Standing in her concert attire, she held up a box shaped object in triumph and placed it on a stone table in front of her. She waved him over with her free hand as she opened the box. He grumbled to himself, crossing his blazer covered arms and strode over to her in his normal gliding pace.

"What did we break into this classroom for?" He rumbled in his natural baritone. She looked up at him from the stone table she was currently bent over and something passed in her blue eyes that he didn't recognize at the sound of his voice. She tucked the her chestnut locks that hung in her face behind her ear as she placed a long piece of plastic on a round moving object inside the mysterious box. He stared at the box. It was unfamiliar to him which did not sit well with him, since he prided himself on being comfortable with every situation. The box was wooden on the bottom with a plastic lid that sat open as a plastic, black object spun round and round. The long plastic object she set on the rotating piece of black plastic made the machine hum to life. As he was watching the rotation, Riley's tan fingers, soft and petite reached a dial of some sort and turned it to the right. A sudden sound came from the box, making Severus jump. Annoyance crept on to his face at his own gesture. He did not like tricks of any kind. Riley laughed into the palm of her left hand, but cut her own reaction short at the sight of his death glare. She swiftly turned around and deftly for someone who had been tipsy, transfigured a wooden stool into a brown leather couch. She gently, like a person handling a wild, hurt animal, took his arm and drew him down to the couch with her. He reluctantly followed her actions as he surprisingly heard as the hum from the machine turned into a melody. A familiar voice flowed with passion from the box in front of him. "Oh, oh, oh, you don't have to go…" It sung gently.

"It's a music maker." Severus muttered under his breath.

Riley lit up like fireworks in the sky and set her fingertips on his knee as she nodded at his observation. It was then he noticed how close he had been seated next to girl. His jean covered knee touched her jean covered knee. His bony hip was rested against her soft hourglass figure. His wider, masculine shoulder brushed against her trim, lean shoulder. Her finger tips had not left his knee but dangled dangerously on his leg. He felt the heat radiating from the pressure of her hand and suddenly he could not breathe.

"Perhaps, it's best we went to bed." He mumbled, eyes lifting from his knee to the blue glittering eyes that he now saw were seated inches from his face. He could study her in detail from this point. She was his opposite in each and every way. From her tanned skin with rosy cheeks, to the light blue of her eyes surrounded by a forest of heavy black lashes, to the button nose, and cherry, warm lips. She looked so warm even in the cold room. He felt so cold. Her gaze on him deepened, warmth seeped into his cheeks, flushing them pink. She had trapped him under that gaze. He felt like he was locked in place and wasn't even startled when the music hummed once again and changed its tempo. She had completely ignored his words and allowed her hand to drift up from his leg to his face. She settled her pleasantly heated fingers on his jaw line and traced his cheekbone with her fingertips. He should have pulled away at that point, not being used to human contact and never in such proximity, but he felt the tug towards her. His heart beat so loudly in his chest, he swore she could hear it, but she made no indication of noticing. She traced his bottom lip with her finger tips, the softness of them enveloping him. Her blue eyes were suddenly hungry like a shark. She settled her hand on his broad shoulder, which she gripped tightly as she moved her face towards him, closing any gap appearing between them. She was leaning over his lap; his heart was hammering in his chest. He felt the soft cushion of her breast against his clothed chest as she pressed tighter against him. His eyes rested on her cherry lips as she placed them on his. The alarms in his head died away as her mouth moved over his. He closed his eyes and tasted her lips. They even tasted like cherries. His arms lifted from the uselessness at his sides, and he wrapped his long arms around her back. He could feel her ribcage under his lengthy fingertips and the smooth fabric of her shirt. The warmth of her bewitched him and he reciprocated by kissing her back. She murmured happily in reply, her lips vibrating across his, and he intensified the kiss. He felt such a hunger for her, his hands trailed through those chestnut locks that he stared at so many times before. He pressed her head closer to her, so that her lips parted in bliss. She wriggled against him in pleasure and he suddenly felt very conscious of the tightness of his pants. He broke his lips away from hers and leaned back slowly, opening his eyes. He could feel the desire in every fiber of his being. Her eyes fluttered their dark lashes open due to the movement and he could see the desire in her eyes. It was too powerful, the hold she had on him. Her fingers lingered on his shoulder and swept up to his cheekbones again. She grazed her fingers into his black locks of dark hair that were silky between each finger.

"I've wanted to do that for a while now." She whispered her voice husky. A coldness suddenly ran over him like freezing bath water. She was nearly in his lap and he stared at her with frustration crossing his face. He dropped his hands at his sides and removed them from her slender waist. Questions popped into his mind, why would anyone want to do this with him? Lily Evans wouldn't even do this with him and she'd known him since they were children. The questions invaded his consciousness like a bombs going off in a war zone. The darkness crept into his eyes and his soul felt a sudden sadness. This wasn't real, he thought. It couldn't be. He could not feel such pleasure. He was a person incapable of feeling for anyone—except Lily. Lily, he thought in horror, as the image of her filled his mind.

Riley watched, her hands still entangled in his black, curtained hair as the expression on Severus' face changed from blissful peace to stark, white terror. She untangled her hand quickly and felt a soberness wash over her. She had pushed too far, she knew it. She knew she had to be gentle with him, like one would be with a wild creature. But she had gone too far and mucked it up. Crap, she uttered in her mind. She watched in unease as he gathered his long limbs and scooted her off him, quick as a whip. He stood up from the leather couch, looking at her a dark sadness, her eyes filled with what he believed was pity, but in her eyes it felt like disappointment. That look in her eyes sent him flying out the room, gliding through the doorway and away from her vision. Damn, she thought as she sat alone in the classroom on the now cold leather couch listening to the record's scratching ending sound echoing against the walls.