DISCLAIMER: I just enjoy playing with JK's brain children.

Timeline: HBP compliant, beyond that is mine.

Rating: Mature … hot … sexy. You pick.

A/N: This chapter was easy to start but really hard to finish. Originally I had the next chapter as part of this one, but it got too long, and this was a good stopping point, so I should have the next one soon.

Thanks to DZMom for helping me out with the summary and such. Go check out her story Salubrious Snape Oil. You won't be disappointed!

Severus.

It was cold and Severus was whining, even if it was to himself.

He wrapped the wool coat tighter around his chest, flipping the collar up to protect his neck. He had never been able to understand why a rational human being would brave any kind of disagreeable weather to exercise. There were plenty of activities one could engage in indoors to keep fit. And they all involved climate control.

There was a reason he never played quidditch when he was in school. One season watching the Slytherin team practice through one of the harshest winters in Hogwart's history was enough to put him off when he was old enough to play. And Luicus was one of those captains that would never call a practice due to adverse weather conditions.

Severus looked up as Aurelia rounded his side of the track. She knew he was there, but she was apparently going to make him wait until she was finished. But he didn't mind watching her run. He liked the way her hair bounced back and forth with each stride and the sound her trainers made as they hit the ground.

Finally, she slowed, taking the last few meters toward Severus at a jog. She stopped in front of him, placing her hands at her waist, her chest heaving with each breath. The movement made him think of what they currently could be doing. No, should be doing. Which included being somewhere about thirty degrees warmer.

"I do believe I can come up with at least three activities that would not only exercise your body, but be far more enjoyable than running outside in below freezing weather."

She didn't smile like she should have.

"What did you do with Wilks' body? Did he have a wife, children? Is there someone out there who's missing him?"

He sighed and for a moment he watched his breath dance between them. He knew she had been thinking about what she had done. He would have been worried if she had not been a little disturbed by taking a life. But he hadn't known how much it had been bothering her.

"He was not married and had no legitimate children who would mourn for him. His father was killed in the Dark Lord's first rise to power and his mother lives in Wales. I have met her on three separate occasions. She is not someone who deserves your sympathy."

Aurelia seemed to relax at his words. He never answered her first questions. She didn't need to know that he had desecrated Wilks' body and disposed of it carefully so as to incriminate Bellatrix. She would deny the murder, of course, but any means of acquiring the truth from a psychopath was questionable at best.

"I know what you are feeling. It was difficult the first time I took a life."

Aurelia turned her back to him. "Wilks wasn't my first." She shivered and it had nothing to do with the temperature.

Severus reached a hand to touch her shoulder, try to comfort her, or maybe to get more information from her, but movement out of the corner of his eye stopped him.

The figure moving towards them was dressed in a security uniform. He was a muggle in his mid forties, a tall man with graying hair.

"Oi, Ari. This bloke bothering you?"

"No, he's fine," Aurelia said raising her hands in defense.

The man eyed Severus. "All right," he said reluctantly.

"I'm done for the night if you want to shut down the lights."

He nodded. "You be back before Christmas?"

"Not sure. I think it's supposed to snow."

"Well, if I don't see you, happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas."

The guard turned and crossed the track, disappearing behind the bleachers.

"Ari?" Severus questioned the name.

"He misheard my name the first night I approached him. Thought I said Arianna. He's called me Ari ever since. Haven't had the heart to correct him."

She turned back to face Severus and he was relieved to see her moment of self denigration had ended. She took a step forward and their bodies were almost touching. The track lights turned off with a sharp clunk. In the dark she slipped her hands inside his coat and he could feel how cold she was even through his sweater.

"Your hands are like ice."

She smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You mentioned something about warmer activities?" She leaned in to capture his mouth in a kiss, but he turned away, his gaze falling on the now dark seats.

"Your chaperone is still watching us."

She threw a look over her shoulder in his direction. "Let him watch. Maybe it will finally stop him from lusting after me."

"I'm fairly sure jealousy does not work that way." Severus knew firsthand what jealousy could drive men to do.

"Well, if you're not in the mood for an exhibition, perhaps we could go somewhere a little more private."

"And warmer," he added.

Aurelia.

When Severus had said he had other ideas for warm activities, Aurelia had assumed he was referring to shagging, not an hour of dueling. Not that she didn't enjoy dueling. She did. She was getting better, even Severus had to admit it, albeit begrudgingly. He, of course, attributed it to him being a good teacher.

Afterwards, they had settled on her couch in the study to read. She wasn't sure what he was reading, it wasn't in English, but he only made it about twenty pages in and he pounced, snogging her like a teenager. She wasn't sure what had gotten into him, but she wasn't complaining. Perhaps it was because he was finally on holiday. Christmas always seemed to make her feel like a child again.

She sighed when he kissed down her jaw and along her throat. It wasn't only the kiss she enjoyed, but the feel of his evening whiskers along her skin. When she looked, she could barely see the stubble forming along his jaw line, but she could definitely feel it. And he was taking his time, like he was trying to memorize every inch of her. And he was quite good at it, building up the tension, touching her in all of the right places over her clothing, and then backing off, kissing her sweetly.

She sighed with frustration, it wasn't as if he didn't want to just jump her. No, he was broadcasting that both mentally and physically. She groaned as he thrust his hips into her thigh that he was currently straddling. Finally, he reached under her shirt and unclasped her brassiere.

Good, she thought, she wasn't sure how much more of this teasing her poor body could take.

"Can we turn off the lights?" she whispered as he took a moment to pull his sweater over his head. He sunk down to the ground on his knees, between her legs and she couldn't help but admire his shoulders as his arms reached up to her hips.

"Why?" he asked lifting her shirt up to reveal her stomach. He ran his fingers over her flesh, tickling her with his calloused pads, and then placed a kiss below her belly button.

"We have only ever had the lights on."

"Better to see you with, my dear."

Aurelia laughed. He did make quite the good big bad wolf.

"Yes, but when you can't see, all of your other senses are heightened." Now she was just arguing to argue. She didn't really care if she could see or not, just as long as he continued in the direction he was going. South.

"I think all of your senses are all ready heightened," he said, flicking a hardened nipple over her shirt.

She squealed and then took a moment to catch her breath. "There are a lot of very important things done in the dark," she said with the most authoritative tone she could muster.

"Mmmm, like what?" he asked, unzipping her jeans.

"Like, uh," and she lost her train of thought for just a moment as he placed his lips on the band of her panties. He left her jeans on her hips and returned to her stomach. "Like astronomy."

"And?"

"And … um …" she struggled to clear her head enough to place a sentence together. "Collecting certain potions ingredients."

"And?"

Her eyes shot open. Collecting potions ingredient! "Stop," she said suddenly, pushing his head away from her flesh. She stood, having to hold onto the waist of her pants so they didn't fall off.

"Stop?" he questioned her from the floor. "I had no intention of stopping."

"Did you collect all of the potions ingredients that you gave me for the Seventh Dwarf?"

"What?"

"The antidote. Did you collect all of the ingredients yourself?"

"Most of them. Why?"

She grabbed the brown journal she was keeping her notes on the antidote in. She flipped to the right page. "The riftia pachyptila, that's a tube worm that lives on the bottom of the ocean, right?"

He sat up on the couch, frowning. "Yes."

"They are too deep for sun light to reach them."

"Yes." She could see he was trying to figure out where she was going.

"They're brought to the surface in brown bottles."

The realization was obvious on Severus' face. "But we don't brew it in the dark."

"I've read dozens of books that discuss the worms and it never mentions any aversion to light when brewing but perhaps this is more delicate than most potions calling for them." Aurelia picked his discarded sweater up off the ground and threw it to him. "Come down to the lab with me." She didn't wait to see if he was following her, she zipped up her jeans, her journal in hand and headed to the basement.

By the time Severus finally joined her, she had set all of the ingredients and tools on the table. She spared a glance in his direction, feeling his frustration. He had put his sweater back on, but his feet were still bare.

"Is this everything?" she questioned.

With a sigh, he quietly took inventory of her supplies. He nodded, satisfied with what she had laid out.

"Nox," she said and the room went completely dark. She opened and closed her eyes several times, why, she wasn't quite sure, but it didn't make any difference. There was no light in the room. "I've never brewed a potion in the dark," Aurelia said, suddenly worried.

"You don't need to light to brew." Aurelia felt Severus step behind her. "You simply have to know what you are doing. Know your ingredients. Know how heavy they are, what they smell like, taste like, the texture, consistency. The magic they give off. Trust your other senses." He was talking low and slowly, his voice almost hypnotic.

He pressed his chest up against her back and ran his hands down her arm. Not only were the emotions he was throwing at her a heady arousal with a hint of urgency, but his arousal was felt at the small of her back. How was she supposed to brew with him this close?

But his outward appearance never belayed anything but a cool controlled façade. He guided her hands to one of the ingredients. "Tell me what this is."

She had a flash of what it must be like to be in one of his classes. Although if he were her Professor, she was sure as hell they would have been breaking more than a few rules. But how hot would that have been?

Her attention was pulled back to the long box in her hands. She opened it and put it to her nose, taking a deep breath. The smell filled her nostrils. It was some type of plant, almost like sandalwood. She mentally ticked off the ingredients in her head, narrowing the list down.

"It's benzole root."

He hummed his approval, rubbing the side of his head against hers. "And what is the first step?"

"Um," she shook her head, trying to think clearly. He was really good at distracting her. "Slice it into twelve even pieces." She reached over to where she knew the knife was, being careful not to cut herself. His hand followed hers, easily falling into the appropriate rhythm, cutting the plant. She gathered up the pieces and placed them into the cauldron.

"Where's the next ingredient?" he whispered into her ear. His lips caught her ear lobe and she hated how reactive her body was to him.

"Severus, you are not paying attention and you are being distracting."

"Don't think I'm not paying attention simply because you can't," he corrected, guiding her hand to another ingredient. "It's here." Her hand wrapped around a dropper, she knew what it was even before he lifted it to her nose to smell. "Put the drops in, and then you find the next ingredient."

With a few helpful directions, she had the potion ready to the point of needing to light a fire to simmer for twenty minutes. She placed the lid over the cauldron and Severus lit the blue flame under it. The room glowed with the dark hue. He set a quick timing spell and turned to face her.

"See, you know what you're doing. You can feel it." With his arms on either side of her body, he pushed her up against the table.

"Thank you, Professor Snape." She had never called him that before.

He growled at the title, thrusting his hips into her stomach, he was done waiting. His hands moved quickly, pulling her into his erection by the waist of her jeans before he unzipped the offending clothing. He pushed her pants and panties down over her hips and let them fall to the ground.

Forcefully, he drug his hand between her legs, letting his middle finger slip inside her for just the briefest moment on his way across her clit. She bucked her hips toward him as he pulled his hand away from her. He made quick work removing his clothes, and she pulled her shirt over her head. He took one breast in his mouth, the other in his hand.

"Don't ever tell me to stop again."

He guided his erection across her moisture, getting him nice and lubricated, then he entered her, pulling her hips up toward him.

His slight pause would have been construed as teasing if she had not been able to feel his hesitation. She couldn't pull discern why he was hesitating, but he was, and there was even a hint of fear.

"Lose control, Severus. Whatever you're afraid of, it's not going to happen tonight. Forget about it. You can't control it. Let it be."

He growled, digging his fingers into her hips. He would leave marks, she knew. He pulled out of her and flipped her around, so she was facing the table, he pushed her roughly so her stomach and chest hit the table. He spread her legs with his feet.

He gripped her hips and entered her again. The new angle was divine, hitting the Gräfenberg Spot. He grabbed her hair and pulled. It hurt, but in that way that just made the please that much more. She needed him to lose control.

And he did. He thrust with no rhythm, his stomach slapping against her backside noisily. She was going to have bruises along her pelvis where the table's edge was digging into her flesh. She gripped the opposite edge and couldn't help the jolt of please as he finally vocalized, loudly.

"Fuck," he growled, like he was always meant to swear. "Oh my gods, fuck!"

He reached his hand around her and rubbed her, now grunting with each thrust. His hand stopped moving and he thrust once more, hard and deep, and she felt the warmth spilling inside her. She came just a moment after he, and he grasped her shoulder as if he were holding on for life.

After a moment, he staggered backwards, pulling them both down on their knees, then lying down, trying to catch their breath. She snuggled in, finding the spot just below his collar bone that her head fit in perfectly. The floor was cold and it felt good on her sweaty skin.

"Is that how you teach?"

He didn't open his eyes but did raise his eyebrows. "I have yet to lay a student over the lab table and take them from behind."

Aurelia snorted trying to suppress the laugh. "You never know, it could be fun."

He smiled and it was a real smile with no snark or sarcastic smirk. "I do know now. And it was fun."

"But I'm not a student."

"No, which is a pity. You would have been one of my favorites. But you would have never known it."

"Why's that?"

"I favor only Slytherins," he said as if it was something expected from him. "And you wouldn't have been placed in my house."

"Oh really? And why's that?"

"You talk too much."

"What house would I have been sorted in?"

"You're far too bold for Hufflepuff. Despite your parentage, I would hope you would be sorted into Ravenclaw."

"But no Slytherin, huh?"

He sighed. "I think I will just be thankful you weren't a Hogwarts student. I would have been fired. I can't quit you."

She couldn't help the smile. It was a heady feeling, knowing a powerful wizard such as he, wanted her so badly. Of course, it wasn't a one way street.

The alarm went off on the potion. Severus groaned and they both got up, Aurelia a bit more gingerly than he. Severus chuckled, but didn't say anything.

Aurelia went for the pile of clothes discarded under the table, but Severus grabbed her arm.

"No, I want to watch you brew like that."

"Are we combining two passions?" He just slapped her bare ass as response.

They set out the tools and ingredients for the next step. This was what made the poison special. It required two brewers to brew separately at the same time. They worked well together, Severus only taking one break to press his chest against her back, and kiss her neck.

Once finished, they both poured their section of the potion into the cauldron, and the room lit for just a moment with a dim yellow light, then it subsided.

"Well?" Aurelia asked, hoping Severus would be able to tell if it was successful.

"Perhaps we should test it." He took the poison she was keeping in her stocks and she took a ladleful of the antidote and they made their way to her wall of plants. Severus took one of the few living ones and pulled it out onto the lab table.

As soon as Severus poured the poison into the planter, the leaves began to turn brown and wither. Aurelia bit her bottom lip and poured the antidote in the pot. The reaction wasn't nearly as immediate, but sure enough, the plant stretched tall and the leaves turned from brown to a vibrant green. Even the bud that had been threatening to bloom opened to a beautiful crimson flower.

"Better than before," Severus said under his breath.

Aurelia squealed and jumped into his arms, almost crushing him with the embrace. She finally let go of him, but couldn't shake the brilliant smile. Severus took the poison in his hand and returned a much more subdued smile.

"To success."

"Success!" Aurelia beamed.

Too quick for Aurelia to react, Severus put the poison to his lips and downed the entire vial. Aurelia's mouth dropped open. Severus gave her one more glance before clutching his chest. He cried like a dying animal and fell to the floor. His skin flushed and broke out with a heavy sweat, then he turned to the side and began to vomit, his body attempting to void the poison.

Aurelia was shocked into action when Severus screamed. She dipped the ladle into the cauldron and fell to the ground next to the withering man. She grabbed his head roughly to steady him and put the ladle to his mouth. He sputtered on the liquid before getting one big gulp and then spilled the rest down his front. After a moment more of thrashing he finally calmed. He lie still for a few moments and then he opened his eyes looking up at Aurelia. He stretched and smiled.

"Better than before," he repeated.

Anger boiled up in Aurelia and she scrambled to her feet. "What the hell were you thinking?"

He climbed to his feet, looked more refreshed than he should have been after almost dying.

"It had to be tested on a person," and he looked smug.

"You bastard!" She slapped him across the face, hard.

His low chuckle made her even more livid. She wound up to hit him again but he caught her hand. She glared at him and swung her left fist at his face. He easily caught that hand as well. He shoved her against the wall, holding her arms on either side of her head. She couldn't help the tears as they sprung to her eyes.

His smile finally faded and he frowned. "Would it be that much of a loss if I was gone?"

She couldn't look at him, she hated that he brought her to tears.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. He released her hands and placed them on either side of her face. "I'm sorry." He pressed his lips to hers gently kissing her. "I'm sorry," he repeated, kissing each of her closed eyes.

She tried to swallow the sob before it was vocalized and only half succeeded. "In the future, just warn me before you do something stupid."