** I apologize in advance for the grammar and spelling mistakes you will surely find...

A/N: I'm sorry for the delay, I hope you enjoy this part. ^.^ I'm sorry if I rush things or if you dislike the progression of the plot, the original idea was never meant to be so long and I've done bad decisions in thsi story that now I have to "correct" somehow.

The punishment - 10

.

SEVERUS

"I've told her the truth, what nobody was supposed to know. I was sincere, for once I stopped lying and kept no detail to myself... but, she didn't respond, she said no word... " I said, "she rushed into my bedroom and I left regretting every word. I told you she wouldn't listen."
"I'm sure she listened," Poppy Pomfrey reassured me from the other side of her desk as we enjoyed a hot afternoon tea. "She only needs time. You must understand it can't be easy for her to believe you while she's a prisoner in your quarters."
"She's no prisoner, I'm only trying to keep her safe, and I've explained it to her as well..."
"I'm afraid that is something hard to understand for someone who is used to be on her own... so go and talk to her again, calmly." Sometimes Poppy reminds me of Albus, seeing things simpler than they really are... but anyway, I did as she said.

Back in my quarters there was no sign of Minerva, so I guessed she would still be in my bedroom. I knocked the door and receiving no answer I knocked again and tried to open the door. She'd locked it.
"Minerva, I know you're in there, please let me in so we can talk..." I tried to sound polite but the truth is she was putting me into my nerves.
"Are you going to let me out?" she asked from the inside.
"We already discussed that," I murmured.
"Then I rather be my own prisoner than yours," oh, she was stubborn!
"Minerva, please, this is ridiculous!" I yelled.
"If you want me to come out you'll have to let me leave your quarters," she insisted.
"This has no sense at all," I don't even know why I tried to reason with her, "at some point you'll have to come out to eat something."
"I'll starve to death before pleasing you."
I was going to reply but held myself before putting up a fight. At least, she was save.

MINERVA

"Alright, Minerva, it'll be your way, then..." he said and I couldn't believe he was finally giving in, "good night."
Wait, what? He was actually letting me stay in his bedroom without any food? Oh, was he impossible!
I sat on the bed after listening to his steps leaving, I laid my back on the cold wall, and distracted myself by drawing light figures in the air with my old wand.
He wanted to talk again, what about? Hadn't he said enough at midday? Was there anything else to add to all that story about Albus' death? I didn't even know if I wanted to believed it... If it was true then Severus would somehow be innocent of everything I had accused him of, but then it would mean Albus had decided to die... he had sacrifice himself for... what? the war, Harry, Severus? I sighted. It wasn't hard to believe that but... then he'd had betrayed me because he would have planned all that without saying me a word and that... that wasn't fair.

I felt asleep while trying to make up my mind and when I opened my eyes it was dark and I needed to use the toilet. I uncharmed the door and crossed the corridor the bathroom and since I was out of the bedroom I stepped into the living room with the intention of grabbing something to eat. As I looked through the cabinets of the small kitchen I was startled by a hand on my shoulder. Severus was up.
"I knew you'd come out at some point, but I never imagined you'd had so little resistance..." he mocked me.
"I needed to go to the restroom," I said making an effort not to sound offended by his comment..
"If you're hungry, your dinner is on the table," he pointed at the furniture where we let our passion go the day before and there was a plate of chicken soup. I avoided his look, but I bet he was grinning and happy to see me sitting down. I took out my wand to warm the soup and left it by my side. Severus sat down in front of me, crossed his arms on the table and remained in silence while I sipped my soup..
"I don't like being watched while eating," I declared.
"If you'd come out at a proper time for dinner I would just join you, but since it's two in the morning, I have no other thing to do than watch you," he replied and I had another spoon.
The silence was oddly uncomfortable, and I say oddly because we were used to say no word to each other, but this time was different, I was trying to read his mind and I could feel his eyes doing the same on me... things had changed.
"I guess that even if I believed you, things wouldn't be like they were before, right?" I asked.
"Do you?" he wondered.
"Do I what?"
"Believe what I told you..."
"I don't know," I tried to be honest, "if it's true, it means Albus died willingly and I don't like to believe that; but if it's not, it confirms that you are a cold blooded killer, and I don't like that either..."
"I am not a cold blooded killer," he said staring at my eyes. I looked at my soup and none of us said another word until I was finished.
"So, what now?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we have established that you and Albus had a plan thanks to which everybody hates you, although you're partly innocent, but you won't let me leave so... what happens now?"
Severus stood up and walked around the table towards me, standing in front of me he seemed taller.
"What if we move near the fire and talk while sharing a glass of wine," he said while offering me his hand, "and by talk I mean no wands involved," he pointed taking out his wand and leaving it next to mine on the table.
"The wine sound good," I said standing up but rejecting to held his hand.

SEVERUS

I took a bottle of french red wine from the kitchen cabinets and two glasses and went back to Minerva, who was sitting on the couch, with her bare feet on the pillows.
I explained her everything not to leave any voids or doubts on her, I gave her every detail of Albus plan and all we had found out about Voldemort and the Horocruxes, I confessed every thought that had passed through my mind during those months, even that night at the end of July when I thought the best I could do was finish with my own life.
"I spent the entire afternoon brewing a potion that would stop the heart of whoever drunk it in thirty minutes," I explained, "the Dark Lord wanted it to interrogate some prisoner, blackmailing him with the antidote. I was tired of obeying orders, of being part of a plan, of having so much in my hands, of being responsible for so many lives... when I finished brewing it I grabbed a spoon and tasted it." Minerva let go a silent cry and opened her eyes widely, "I knew that dosis wouldn't even have the slight effect on me but it was the taste of death, of relieve... three full spoons of it and I would join the Headmaster in his eternal peace... I would be free." I could feel Minerva's worry about my happy tone while talking about death.
"What prevented you to do it if you were so close, if it seemed so easy?"
"The thought of Dumbledore peacefully watching me from wherever he is," I said and she frowned her eyes brows, "it's true, I didn't wanted to be like him, he left me here on my own, not really knowing what to do, and if I took my life away I would do the same with Potter, Hogwarts... you..." I looked at her and took my hand to her face caressing it softly from the corner of her eye down to her chin, "I already knew the Dark Lord was planning on taking the school and I couldn't leave you fighting the Death Eaters on your own..." I confessed, "Although maybe then the Carrows wouldn't be here and you wouldn't have been lashed..."
"I'm glad you came back to sense that night," she smiled, "and about the Carrow's punishment... I asked for it on my own, you tried to prevent it to happen all the ways you could without risking your position so... stop blaming yourself about that..."
"I can't, I keep remembering when I helped Poppy clean your wounds and your marked skin... thinking that I had something to do with it..." while I talked Minerva knelt down giving her back to me.

"Unzip me," she said, "come on," she insisted seeing my hesitance. I did as I was told and pulled the zip of her dress down from the back of her neck to the lowest point of her back. Slowly she freed her arms from the tight fabric and then slide it down to her waist. Her back was completely naked in front of my eyes except for her underwear. "Now, how many recent marks do you see?" she asked, and it took me a while to realize she was actually talking to me.
I scanned her pale skin, there were those old wounds I had already noticed in the hospital wing that afternoon, and above them, still in blood-red color, there were four straight lines marking her back like the scratch of a giant beast. Carefully, I brushed them with my fingers, like if I was counting them, and she shivered.
"There are four," I murmured, still in contact with her skin.
"That's right, only four, not six..." she was right, "your lashes didn't leave any mark, Severus... like Poppy said, you did try not to hurt me..." she was going to turn around to look at me, but I didn't let her, I bend down and left a kiss on every one of those wounds and she moaned. I liked that sound on her mouth.
I knelt down as well behind her and kissed the mark under her neck, it was a thin like about four fingers long, almost unnoticeable.
"What's that from?" I asked.
"During the war, in the fields of Scotland, a man stabbed me with a daga while I was dueling with another," she explained.
"That was not a fair combat," I added.
"A couple inches to the left and I wouldn't have been able to tell," her voice broke, my hands on her waist so she wouldn't turn around, "fortunately help arrived on time."
I bend down again and kissed the mark of an old burn under her shoulder that continued down to the middle of her back, "what about this?"
"An explosion, they attacked the us during a meeting, this time I could escape on my own feet but others couldn't."
"And this?" I asked brushing with my finger a scar that began at the right side of her back and continued to under her breast, so I crawled on the floor to follow it and I stopped in front of Minerva, with my hand under her breast.
"That's from the stunning spells I received a couple years ago..." yes, I remember that, I couldn't believe when they told me and I had visit Minerva in St. Mungo but she was always unconscious.
"I wish I had been there to give it back to that old toad," I said and she left go a laugh that became another moan as my hands massaged her breasts on my way to the rear of her bra. Once I had undone it I slowly slide it down her arms and let it fall to the ground as I contemplate her naked torso. Was she beautiful!

MINERVA

He came closer to me and as he kissed me under my chin drawing a line to my ear, he undid my hair and let it fall down my shoulders. He slightly made me lay down on the ground, pulled up my legs so my hips didn't touch the floor and pulled down the rest of my dress. He climbed up my body leaving a path of kisses and being on top of me he stared at my eyes, left a soft pick on my lips and then really kissed me.

When I opened my eyes the sun was completely bathing the room. I was lying on the stone floor. I turned around and I met Severus, resting his head on his left hand and gazing at me.
"Hi," I said.
"You look beautiful on the morning," he said and moved closer to kiss me.
"Thanks, I guess," I muttered using my hand as a brush to comb my hair, but he held it and left a kiss on its back.
"Stop it, you do look beautiful," he repeated, "and you make my life seem beautiful," he added and I melted at his words, "I love you." It was almost a whisper, but I heard those last three words clearly... before I could react he had pulled me into his embrace and was kissing my neck as his hand was going down my body.
"Let me go," I murmured and he moved apart.
"Did I hurt you?" he wondered with a worried tone.
"No, Severus," I sat down with my back on the couch feet and using my dress to cover myself, "you said you love me, if you really do, let me go, let me free..."
"I can't," he also sat down, his back on the armchair's feet.
"I'll leave, I'll go back home, I'll keep myself away from Amycus Carrow if that pleases you but... I can't stay in here pretending that door isn't locked..."
"I could unlock it," he said, "if you promise not to go out."

TO BE CONTINUED...