This is part two of my story. I think you guys will like it.

PART: II

A ray of light crept through the window of Nymphadora's room. He could feel the chill of the morning tickling his feet. Under his arm, she laid asleep with her palm opened across his chest. He could still see where the tears had dried on her face from the night before. Her pink hair that matched her cheeks fell dishevelled on the pillow. She felt so small and fragile to him. He was almost afraid to let her go; he felt like he did, she would shatter like a piece of delicate porcelain. He passed his hand trough her tresses once more. He frowned at the sight. He hated that she allowed a lesser mortal like Remus Lupin to break her sprit. She deserved so much more.

He slowly attempted to move his arm that had long fallen asleep under her weight without waking her. The change in his position caused her to move away from his embrace and turn her sleeping face from his gazing eyes.

He crept out of the bed and pulled on his shoes he took off the night before. He took one last look at her before leaving the room through the red door.

-o-o-

Severus sat at a round wooden table in a small kitchen with a two year old boy swinging from his leg. A smoking goblet lay in front of him and from beyond the fumes he could see a stressed Remus Lupin looking down at his hands.

"Dodger stop that, you're bothering uncle Severus," he mumbled.

Not to his surprised, the kid with ice blond hair carried on like he had not heard a word of what his father said. "It's quite alright, I'm not allergic to children you know," he said matter-of-factly.

Remus let out a heavy sigh and passed his hand through his hair. "How is she Severus?"

Severus drummed his fingers on the table. "How do you think she is?"

With his head in his hand, he mumbled, "I should talk to her, explain how it happened?"

"That's just the thing," Severus said watching as the child had taken a new interest in pulling at a piece of loose tread on his pants, "How did it happen."

He looked at his child. He got a far away look on his face, the past seemed to be reflected in his eyes. "When I came here I was in darkest place possible. I couldn't bear to be in my own presence. Everywhere I looked it seemed like nature would mock me. The sun was always shining, birds would perch on my window singing some happy melody and even the sunsets seemed more beautiful than usual. I was very lonely. When I met Chelsea we intended to keep each other company for one night."

Despite of fact that he preferred Nymphadora as a person he couldn't completely fault Lupin for what had happened. He felt the same way when he came to the city. A one night stand was all the emotional attachment he could allow himself to indulge in. He met a woman who just like him was at a junction in her life and was just passing through the city; it was a mutually beneficial agreement. He was fortunate that he never managed to form any permanent commitments with any of his partners.

"So I had to do the responsible thing, I had to marry her. And I can't say that I regret it, she has been a good wife to me, she gave a beautiful child and I am happy for the first time in a long time."

"I see what you're saying but at the same time. When I first met you had me believing that she ended the relationship. Now I find out form her that you left a note and walked out on her. I can't see why you would do that, knowing how fragile she is."

"I thought I was protecting her. When I left her I did it because I did love her."

"Well it didn't do her any good. I always thought you were too weak to deal with her."

He looked down at the child that now was chewing on the tread he retrieved form Severus's pants. "Maybe I was."

Severus got up from the table, and stepped away from the child. "Drink the potion straight. Don't come to my apartment. I will bring it here."

"I think I should stop by and explain to her."

Severus held up his hands. "Please don't, you'll only make it worse. I'll take care of her, I'll see she gets back to London okay.

"Tell her I'm sorry," Remus said.

Severus looked at him. "I really don't think that will make any difference."

-o-o-

She sat at the window looking out at the ocean. The sun was shining brightly, giving the ocean the effect of being covered in jewels. She could see birds hovering near the surface, diving for fish. She tried to focus on the scent of the salty ocean blowing into her room or at the sight of a fisher man in his boat heading off into the horizon. She tried to focus on anything that wasn't Remus or his bloody perfect wife.

Her hair fell damp, cascading down her shoulders in waves. She held some locks in her hand and examined it. During her shower it must have turned to its natural brown. Her bubblegum pink hair, that signified her hope more than anything else was gone. She was so certain that she had been right in loving Remus, that her feelings were returned. It hurt so much to think about it being over.

A felt a warm tear rolling down her face. She let it fall. It hardly made sense to wipe them away. They all came back anyway. She remembered how she cried the night before. She had position herself comfortably in Severus of all people's arm and cried and allowed him to hold her. He had a talent for kicking people when they were down but she saw none of that. He held her all right places, kissed her when she needed it and told her what she wanted to hear, that every thing would be alright and that it was not quite the disaster she imagined. But she knew it was a lie. She knew her life was a huge disaster and it was not likely to get better anytime soon. However, it felt good to hear him lie to her because his voice sounded so convincing when he told her she was worthy of more.

When she woke up that morning she found that he wasn't next to her like how the had fallen asleep the night before. She stayed in bed hoping that he would return but after an hour when he hadn't shown up in her room or his, she went to take a long shower, just to feel the water washing away all the tears she had shed the night before.

-o-o-

Around midday he walkedher room and sat opposite her and looked on at her.

"How are we feeling today?" he asked.

She looked at him and trying to force a smile to shine through her morbid expression. "I'm okay," she lied.

"The hair?" he asked, reaching out and holding a lock up to the sunlight.

She shrugged. "I felt like a change."

"Change it back," he said in a demanding tone that suggested the request should be fulfilled.

"Why?" she asked looking at him.

"Because if you sink into this it would be impossible to get you out, change it back and keep the way it is."

She had no idea why she felt it was okay for him to talk her like that or why she even listened but for some reasoned she concentrated with much more effort that it usually required and changed her hair back to the pink waves she came to the city with.

He moved his hand from her hair and to her cheeks. He cupped it gently, letting his thumb finger wipe away the tear that was falling down her cheeks again. "Now you look like you have some hope."

"He who lives on hope dies of starvation." She said looking at him in his eyes that were highlighted by the magnificence of the sunlight.

"Come now Nymphadora, not even I can be that pessimistic."

-o-o-

Snape was a very light sleeper; the slightest stir and he would be up and alert in a second. This was one of the things she noticed while sleeping next to him. It not like he had imposed himself upon her but rather it was her who imposed herself upon him. After two days of sleeping in his arms, she had grown to love the sensation. When he left her room the following night, she found that she couldn't sleep. She crept off her bed in the pitch black night and made her way to his door to knock. When he opened the door he didn't seem to need to ask her any questions. He let her in the room and allowed her to crawl under his covers with him. She couldn't determine why he allowed her to do this as he was always a very reserved person or why he saw it as his duty to take care of her. At first she thought just for a slight second that he was in love with her but then she realised that it couldn't be. If he loved her he would have wanted to make love to her and not once did he gave any sign that he wanted to. In fact it was almost odd that he had never once touched her inappropriately or even reacted to her touch when she pressed her body against his. He would wrap his arms around her waist or her shoulders, he would pass his fingers through her hair and make some comment about it, he would kiss her, forehead, cheeks and hands but he hand never kissed her on her lips, not even by accident. If she stayed close to him for the entire night, he wouldn't even attempt to move away because he had no reaction to it. It was like he wasn't aware that she was there except for the fact that he would talk to her every now and then.

In the day he was a different person. He would be cold and demanding and he would hardly ever touch her. He would leave for hours at a time and return in a grumpy mood. Sometimes he would act like he didn't want her around at all and then when she left him on his own he would demand that she return to his presence. It was almost like she was back at school and she was a student and he was a teacher again. But all of that would change once the night fell. He would treat her like she was a little thing that he needed to look after but rather a woman whose company he wanted.

It was definitely a good distraction from the fact that Remus was a few minutes away form her. If she spent all her time trying to figure out Severus, there was no way she could think about Remus.

It had become so easy to avoid the subject of Remus all together there were times when she actually forgot about him. It was easy to go to the restaurant around the corner and order a huge slice of Bavarian cream cake and a foamy cup off coffee and forget about the fact that she had no where to go and no one to go there with.

Everyday she found herself at this restaurant where there was soft music playing and lively conversation. Everyone around her would look so happy. It seemed to be the only mood the city would allow. The first time she came here she just sat in the corner with her cup of coffee stirring in sugar and watching everyone having a good time. When it became obvious that she was alone she had been invited to dine with almost everyone there, when she declined they insisted they order something to cheer her up. This was how she began her cake ritual. Someone ordered that very cake for her and she became addicted. The chocolate glaze and the custard filling had the effect of euphoria in a slice. She found herself happy just feeling the contrasting bitter sweet flavours mingle in the throat. It was the best part of her day.

It was a Saturday night and she had already been in the city two weeks when she met Severus sitting at the in house bar nursing a glass or dark liquor. She called him over to her table and he reluctantly took a seat opposite her while she slowly enjoyed her cake.

"Do you want a piece?"

He knitted his brows like it was the most absurd question he had ever been asked. "No," he said simply.

"Thank heavens I would have been devastated if you sad yes."

He looked at her and brought his drink up to his lips. She looked at him and smiled and took another piece of cake to her mouth. They sat there staring at each other. His eyes looked so dark in the dimness of the lights that emitted a soft glow. She could tell that there were a million things running trough his mind but she couldn't figure out what they were.

"I flattered that you find me so interesting that you feel the need to stare at me."

She bit her bottom lip and looked away from his gaze.

"Severus," she heard a disturbingly familiar voice say.

Nymphadora turned her head in the direction the voice was coming from. There, a table away from her and Severus was Chelsea. She was waving at Severus with her eyes sparkling and her hair shining and bouncing with her every move. The pregnant woman took it upon herself to vacate her seat and walk over to the where she and Severus were sitting.

"Severus, I thought I saw you sitting here." She started.

Severus didn't speak he just looked from Chelsea to Nymphadora like if asking permission to talk.

Chelsea followed Severus' eyes and it dropped on Nymphadora. "Hey, you're Remus' friend aren't you?"

She wanted to strike her across the face but instead she just nodded and took another piece of cake to calm her nerves.

"So you're still in town, I thought you were just passing trough."

She looked at her and smiled. "Oh I said that didn't I but I ran into Severus a couple to weeks ago and we were doing some catching up."

She mouth opened in realisation. "Oh, you two are on a date, am I disturbing. Remus is joining me any second now, maybe we could double."

"No we were actually getting ready to leave." Severus said, trying his best to sound disappointed.

She had no idea what she was doing but she started to speak. "Where are your manners Severus, we've hardly been here fifteen minutes. I think we can squeeze you two at our table."

-o-

Remus was now seated opposite Nymphadora and he and Chelsea were on either side of her. He looked at her as she rimmed her second drink with her fingers. The entire evening he was holding his breath thinking that she would say something that would make things complicated but she hadn't, for some reason she was acting like she and Remus were hardly friends when they knew each other back in London. He could tell from the small beads of sweat on Remus's forehead that he was deeply relieved and anxious at the same time.

"So," Chelsea started looking at Nympadora with a playful look in her eyes. "Give me some dirt on Remus, something really embarrassing."

Remus passed his hand over his forehead and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He noticed a hint of excitement flash across Nymphdora's eyes at the same moment. She had been good before then but he had a feeling that the reason why she invited them to sit was beginning to come into play.

She took a sip of her drink and looked at Chelsea and smiled. "I'm sure you realised by now that he can't hold his liquor."

"He hardly drinks at all. The strongest thing I have seen him drink is a beer."

"Well with good reason," Nypmhadora said. She then got a totally orchestrated pondering look on her face. "Should I tell you, she said. "No," I shouldn't."

Remus sat up straight in his chair and stared at her as if trying to get her stop through stares.

"Tell me," Chelsea urged on.

"Okay," she said smiling. "A friend of mine was actually crazy about Remus, totally in love," she started. Chelsea looked at Remus and smiled and he simply put his elbows on the table to prop his head up. "But he was never very receptive."

"That's just like him. It took years for him to talk freely to me."

Nymphdora had a look in her eyes that made Severus know she appreciated the irony of the moment. "Exactly," she said. "But this girlfriend of mine was having a drink with him one day and she swears that it was just one drink. She told me that he got so drunk that he was hugging and kissing everyone in the room and really making an ass of himself so she carried him to his room. He was still hugging and kissing and then he started touching. She told him that he was drunk and he actually started to cry."

Chelsea seemed amused by the story. "He's one of those who gets sad when they drink?"

"That's what I think. She said that he started to cry and say; oh, no one loves me, why don't you love me. I love you, I'll give you everything you want if you love me, please say you love me. And he apparently went on like this for an hour until she said that she loved him."

"And," Chelsea asked, now slightly worried about the idea of Remus loving anyone else.

Severus looked at Nypmhadora closely trying to catch her eye. He knew she was trying to hurt Remus but it would have been a whole other thing to hurt Chelsea, she really didn't have anything to do with it. She was innocent. Nymphadora took another sip of drink.

"Don't worry it was a whole bunch of crap. He didn't mean a word of it and forgot he even said it. They did date for a little while after but they broke up because he got bored I guess."

"I wasn't bored," Remus said quietly. "Don't talk like that, especially when I'm right here."

Nymphadora eyes opened in surprise. "Oh he likes to be the innocent one all the time, poor Remus right."

"I don't like to be the innocent one I just don't think I should be painted out to be a villain either."

Tonks looked at Chelsea and rolled her eyes. "Men," she said. "But I must congratulate you on taming his wild heart. I think my friend would be a little disappointed but she will get over it eventually anyway."

"I'm sure she will," Remus said and Severus could tell from the reaction on Nymphadora's face that he said the wrong thing.

"So what's she like," Chelsea asked.

"She's okay, really moody, can't sit still but really she can't hold a candle to you Chelsea, you have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Good to know." She said raising her glass of her orange juice. "So what about you Nymphadora, you said that you and Severus were on a date. How long have you two been seeing each other?"

He looked at her and he could tell that she was going to make up some elaborate lie. "We just started really, about two weeks ago."

"Oh so you two connected here, isn't that nice Remus."

By now Remus was looking so angry that he hardly even looked at his wife. He sat there glaring at a salt shaker like it had offended him in the worse way. "Wonderful," he said.

Chelsea looked at Nymphadora. "Is it weird that he used to be your teacher?"

"How did you know?" Nymphadora asked.

She tilted her head to Remus who sat back with his arms folded like he didn't believe that she and Severus were in any sort of relationship.

Tonks looked away form Chelsea and looked right at Severus. "Yes, he use to be my teacher but I can tell you since I was sixteen I had a fantasy of him fucking me right there in the classroom."

Seveus felt his eyes involuntarily go wide at what she had just said. Even though he didn't believe it the way she said it was very unsettling.

Chelsea looked at her with her eyes wide open. "Oh my, what was going on in that school Remus."

Remus voice sounded like he had enough of the conversation. "I don't know but in my day teachers didn't sleep with their students."

"Don't be silly I didn't sleep with him in Hogwarts, I said it was a fantasy. I sleep with him now, seeing as it's legal and all, why waste a good opportunity to have a man I fancy f..."

"I think it's getting late," Remus interrupted looking to Chelsea. "Mrs. Drake must be half asleep by now."

"I think you're right," Chelsea said as if coming out of a daze form what Nymphadora had just said. She stood up as Remus helped her out of her chair. "It was nice having the chat."

"Yes it was lovely, we really have to do this again," Nymphadora said with a smile that suggested that the evening was a success and nothing was wrong.

Remus and Chelsea left some money on the table and they walked out the restaurant without him saying anything to her or even looking at Severus.

"Fucking asshole," she said emptying her glass of its contents.

He folded his arms over his chest. "Are you completely insane?"

"Oh get off it. It's not like you've never heard a curse in you life."

"I was referring to the suggestion that you and I have any sort of sexual relationship. I don't want to get dragged in the middle of this."

"There's nothing to get dragged in the middle of. Besides what should he care, he has a wife."

"Believe it or not he still cares about you Nymphadora."

"I don't accept pity form anyone, not even that self righteous bastard.

Her body seemed to be emitting heat. Her brows were knitted, her arms folded and lingering under the angry face was a look that was tragically sad. He could tell that if he allowed her to sit and think about the whole encounter she would be reduced to sobbing mess in the restaurant. "It's best we be heading home," he said putting some money down on the table.

-o-o-

Because he was convinced that her reference to them having a sexual relationship was solely for the purpose of infuriating Remus he thought nothing of letting her crawl under the sheets with him that night. She moved under his arm like she usually did and rested her small palm on gently on his chest.

Seeing that they had negotiated the terms of their sleep and it was assured that they were both comfortable as possible, he allowed himself to begin to doze off into a sleep. Being a man with the past he had his state of sleep was never complete; he was always barely awake and the slightest disruption would rouse him.

He was in his semi asleep mode when he felt her hand leave his chest and began to travel further down his stomach. He thought nothing of it at the time; the sensation was not vulgar and it certainly wasn't unpleasant. It was actually having a soothing feeling that was allowing him to drift further into sleep.

He didn't know how far her hands had reached until he felt the sensation of her small hand stroking his member softly. At first he was quite removed from the situation and believed himself to be somewhere else so it was allowed to continue for some seconds.

However her sound of her voice had the effect of an electric shock surging trough his veins.

"Do you like it when I do that?" she asked

He opened one eye slowly and looked down to see a pink haired female with her hand deep in his sleeping trousers. "Nymphadora what are you doing?"

She giggled in a girlish laugh that made the situation even more outrageous. "Well I'm trying to get you in the mood."

"For what?" he grunted trough his teeth

"Brick laying. What do you think Severus."

His body was actually called into action when he realised that she was not mistaken and she knew exactly what she was doing. He took his hand that was not around her shoulder and pulled her hand out of his pants. "Have you gone crazy," he hissed at her.

His actions seemed to have offended her. She sprung up from the bed. "What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem, but apparently you do. Why on earth would you think it's appropriate to touch a grown man like that?"

Her jaw dropped. "I am grown too Severus," she shouted.

He coughed at this. "You are not grown. You are like a little thing, running around with rosy cheeks and pink hair. I don't get aroused by little misses."

"I am not a child," she complained.

"I know you are not a child but you are certainly not a woman either. Don't mistake me for Remus Lupin I have no time for this."

She looked at him. "Are you seriously saying this."

"It would seem so, wouldn't it?"

She stared at him and then sat on the bed with her back against him. She seemed to mumbling but it wasn't to him she was having a conversation with herself. "Why doesn't anyone want me?" she asked in a whisper.

"Because I'm a joke," she concluded.

She never looked at him again. She got up form the bed and crossed to room to the door and headed out the room mumbling to herself some more. He listened to hear the closing of another door which meant that she went into her room and was not wondering around in the night. He slammed his head down on the pillow and looked at the ceiling.

He knew he hurt her feeling but he couldn't help it. He felt no sexual attraction to Nymphadora. In many ways he felt connected to her but it was because he appreciated what she had gone through. He had seen her struggle at school to deal with her parentage, he saw how insecurity plagued her as an adult but mostly he saw how heart broken she when she learnt the truth about Remus. His felt like it was his duty to comfort her because she was so much like himself. He knew the sort of pain she felt and he knew if he had someone there to just hold him and tell him that everything would be alright it would have been better. That was what he tried to do for her but she mistook his concern for flirtations.

He sighed. He would deal with it in the morning. He would tell her that she was drunk make her believe it. He would give her what she needed to be on her way to London. He could contact Horace Slughorn to secure a job for her and give her enough money to hold her over for a couple of months. She would be gone from the city by week's end. It would be good for her. It was not healthy to stay that close to Lupin.

NOTE: This story is so much fun to write but for some reason I'm not getting any reviews. Is it because that it's so long that you haven't reached this part yet?

Anyway if you read will you please review? I have a wonderful part three planned.