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The Cuddles under the Coverlet

Packing for this trip was different then the last journey they had taken together. It was solemn and had the press of doom against it. When their bags were stowed by the parlor fireplace and the supper dishes washed up they curled up together on the parlor sofa.

"I've written to inform them that you will be accompanying me," Severus said over their evening cocoa. "It sounds as though Remus is still questioning your freewill. I had wondered if you would allow—never mind." He trailed off with a sigh.

Elaine plucked a marshmallow from the brown foam, "Are there tests they can do for magical er… coercion?"

"Yes—but I would not have you frightened for the world. I forget this is all very common to me."

She smiled at him, reassuring herself by offering him encouragement. "Whatever you think Severus. If they will cease bothering you if I submit to some sort of… examination."

He reached for the chocolate pot with a sigh, poring himself another cup before settling back to wrap his arm around her shoulders. "I will speak to Mr. Potter about it when we arrive. I won't have just anyone near you."

She curled into him with a sigh of her own.

"I promise Elaine, as far as it is within my power, no one will hurt or frighten you again," there was a cold sort of harshness in his tone, and his fingers dug themselves into her shoulder slightly.

She took a drink of her cocoa and smiled up at him. "Severus, really, I'm asking to come with you. I'll try not to be too excitable."

He favored her with a halfhearted glare.

A few hours later, when the chocolate had been finished and the parlor lights dimmed, Severus still showed no signs of getting up. Elaine brought woven blankets from the chest in the corner and settled them around them as though she were a nesting bird.

When she urged him to tuck his legs up, so they could lay side by side, he did so without complaint.

She slept without waking until morning when the scent of coffee had her blinking into a shaft of early sunlight. Her human pillow released her so she could sit up to stare at the percolator and the coffee mugs.

"Did you get up already?" She asked sleepily, glancing down at her couch-mate.

He looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering solemnly, "No."

She regarded the steaming coffee again, convincing herself that it was, in fact, real. "Magic?"

"Yes."

She turned back to give him a severe look, "You mean to tell me, Severus Prince, that I have been making you coffee by hand for months and months when you could have been doing it from your bed?"

He gawked at her for a moment, his jaw slightly slack before throwing his head back to laugh, long black hair falling over his shoulder. "Shall our morning coffee be my responsibility from now on, in penance?"

Cocoa, #54