Chapter thirteen - Thrown out

Severus had felt a little nervous that morning. He had only seen Gina from a distance since their their get-together in the greenhouse and he had two thoughts in mind that worried him. She could have second thoughts about continuing to see him, having time to think about it... or even regret sleeping with him, or she could have suddenly turned into a giggly, flustered schoolgirl who was incapable of hiding the fact that he had very inappropriately jumped on her when she had been in detention. He did not know which scenario was worse.

To his enormous relief she acted like nothing had happened, simply acting like her usual self all lesson, continuing to work on the Antidote to Veritaserum they had been working on for two weeks. It needing to stew for seven days and was now ready to process further. The students had to add Flitterby and Moondew to it today, a delicate job that could go wrong if done at the wrong temperature or when the ingredients were added too quickly.

He had deliberately walked over to Gina her table twice, commenting on Belby's and Boot's potions while glancing at her. Her pupils had widened as though she had looked directly into sunlight and the corner of her mouth had twitched for a fraction of a second, but otherwise she had kept her face straight, looking away and getting back to pulverising her Wiggentree bark.

Severus had a hard time staying professional himself when he saw Fawcett lean towards her and whisper something in her ear when he had walked over to the next group of students. He supposed giving detention for quietly talking was a bit... capricious, even for him. But Fawcett better continue with his potion soon. Severus would jinx his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Or make his toenails grow so fast Fawcett would jump up and sprint to the hospital wing in less than a minutes time... His eyes met Gina's again. She gave him the tiniest of fleeting smiles before returning to her book, turning her back on Fawcett.

Severus suddenly felt incredibly happy, but could not help throwing Fawcett a cold, deadly look. The boy turned a little pale and quickly turned back to his own cauldron. Severus walked back to his desk, suppressing a smile. He still sat there long after the class had left. He had an appointment with professor Dumbledore this afternoon, on his request. When Gina had been in the dungeon, he had felt elated and strangely calm, but now she was left, undoubtedly off to lunch with her friends, he was starting to feel nervous. He knew he was mad for doing what he was about to do. He wondered for a moment what Magdalena would say if she knew. But he felt like he didn't have a choice.

Severus was in Dumbledores office, sitting in the chair in front of the Headmaster's desk where he had sat so many times before. He blurted out what he had to say.

'I am here because we have an agreement, that- is based on trust,' he began. 'I am...' He shook his head ever so slightly, still feeling dazed, and continued in a more quiet, hoarse voice.

'I'm in love with' -he hesitated, than pressed on, wondering for a fleeting second if he was signing his death penalty- 'with one of the Promodores students, Gina Aldaya. I cannot for the life of me get her out of my head. I tried. But she tried to kiss me last week and I' -he hesitated again, looking into Dumbledore's of a brilliant, soul-piercing blue eyes- 'I swear I did not do anything she did not consent to.' He closed his eyes. 'I know you have every right to dismiss me, but I beg you not to. I- I love her. I think I have since the moment she came here. And I do not want to lose her.' And I'll do anything.

When Dumbledore finally spoke, his voice made Severus look up bewildered, startled. The old man's voice was sharp, trembling with what sounded like suppressed rage.

'Do you really think, Severus, you can come in here and inform me you are involved with a student?'

Gina went by Snapes office in the dungeons that evening, an hour before curfew. She knocked quietly and waited until he opened the door. He appeared a minute later, looking as unruffled as always. He looked at her for a moment.

'Gina.'

He hesitated, than opened the door. She walked in. His office looked a lot like the potions classroom, with shelves lining the walls, caring jars of potion ingredients. One wall was covered with bookcases and she could see the private stores she had heard students talk about, because it carried dangerous and rare ingredients that weren't in the student's cupboard. Snape had walked to his desk and sat down while she looked around. He had seemingly been reading a thick, new looking book, Agnoiology: What We Don't Know, as it was lying next to a silver goblet.

'I have been wanting to talk to you actually,' he said slowly. He looked calculating, Gina thought.

'That's not what I am here for.'

He ignored her.

'I was out of line, earlier... I apologise for that and it will not happen again.'

It was Gina who raised her eyebrows this time.

'I would be' -he looked at her- 'grateful if you wouldn't mention it to anyone.'

Gina frowned. This wasn't going at all the way she wanted to, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. 'You insult me. I would never do that.' She walked to his desk. 'Can I call you Severus?'

'I would rather you didn't.'

'You call me Gina.'

'I cannot lose this job,' he said slowly. 'And I would.'

'No one would know,' she said. 'You don't think I can lie?'

'I do not care if you can- what are you doing?'

She had put a hand on her upper leg, running it slowly upward, showing the outside of her thigh.

'Thàt is not happening.'

Her hand was up by her waist now, showing she wasn't wearing anything under her skirt. He stared at the place the panties strap should have been. His eyes narrowed.

'Get out,' he said in a low voice.

She didn't move.

He stood up.

'No,' she said simply.

She started unbuttoning the upper buttons of her blouse one by one with her other hand.

'You are unbelievable,' he growled, sounding very angry.

He walked around the desk and lifted her up. Gina put her legs around his waist and he pushed her against a bookcase. He looked so angry she did not dare kiss him. He jerked open his belt and trousers and came inside her roughly. She closed her eyes in ecstasy when he came inside her, filling her with his hard, thick cock. She wanted to put her hands around his neck but he took her wrists and held them above her head, pushing them against the bookcase with one hand. A few books fell out around them. She groaned and tilted her pelvis to receive him deeper.

'Quit,' he hissed.

She moaned softly. He pounded hard, thrusting deep inside her. Gina was panting, trying not to make a sound as she started coming. Hot waves of delicious electricity were running through her body. He pumped a few more times and finished with her, pushing his forehead into her neck painfully, groaning without making a sound. She felt waves of his hot seed inside her, his contracting cock prolonging her incredibly intense orgasm. He suddenly pulled back and let go of her. She gasped of fright and surprise and her eyes widened when she looked at his face. He looked furious.

'Get out,' he spat. He was still panting and zipped up his pants.

Gina straightened her skirt and blouse for a second, looking defiantly at him, than bit her lip and left.

Severus felt terrible. Fragments of his conversation with Dumbledore and with Gina in his office kept flying through his mind. He knew he could stop it, put it away in a box and seal it so carefully he would never have to think about it again if he chose not to, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to make sense of it all, so he let the painful memory of Gina's hurt expression pass his minds eye, and than Dumbledore who looked at him with his startling blue eyes, piercing him.

Dumbledore hadn't fired him. After his initial anger, which had seemed more directed at hòw Severus had told them than whàt he had actually said, Dumbledore had listened to Severus speaking himself into silence without interrupting him or showing any kind of judgement or surprise. Severus even wondered if Dumbledore already had suspected it or even had known, but couldn't think how he possibly could.

Than Dumbledore had asked an awful lot of questions, which Severus had answered truthfully. If he had harassed her. If he had forced her in any way to do something she didn't want to. If he had abused his position of power over her, as her teacher. If he had suggested, in any way, that there would be consequences to denying him anything. Who had passed the line of a professional relationship and how. How Severus was so certain Gina wasn't afraid of him. What had happened and when. He even asked if they had discussed the Triwizard Tournament.

When Severus had told him everything -well, almost everything. He had left out the green house- Dumbledore had sat silently, gazing at him for a long time. Severus had never felt so naked and vulnerable as of that moment, not even when he had his first, open heart to heart with Dumbledore.

Than Dumbledore had told him that under no circumstance he could have a romantic or physical relationship of any kind with a student, even if she was of age and officially a student of a different school, and that Severus needed to end any inappropriate behaviour immediately, and that he, Dumbledore, would have to fire him if this continued any further. 'And we both know what the consequences of that would be...'

But he had stared at Severus so intensely while he said this, that Severus couldn't stop thinking this wasn't what he had meant. Despite Dumbledore's words, Severus wasn't terrified of Dumbledore firing him anymore. It was something else that was bothering him. Dumbledore had asked if Severus had told Gina about his past. Or what the old man believed to be his past...

Severus felt nauseous. He kept thinking about Gina's notes in her Spanish potions book. He wanted to see her other books. Question her. Suddenly her beliefs were more important to him than anything else. He needed to know. But if he was honest with himself he already knew...

She had not asked him a single question about his parents or his family, which must mean she was not strictly limiting herself to physical intimacy with Pure-bloods, as so many of his... fellows did. He had read about her Royal Family line and the Aldaya's strong preference for witches and wizards descending from long lines of all wizard families, making them the longest line of Pure-bloods that was documented in Europe. Severus knew there existed a powerful upper-crust of pure-blood nobility in countries such as France, Italy, and Spain. He knew her ex boyfriend, Alejandro Martín Vargas, was from a family part of the Doce Sagrada, the Spanish counterpart of the Sacred Twenty-Eight in Britain, and even her Northern friend was said to be a Pure-blood, a distant descendent from the former Finnish Royal House even, which up until two decades ago had been ruled by wizards. If the Daily Prophet wasn't making things up as usual that was...

Yet Gina had initiated a physical relationship with him without bothering to find out if he was from an all wizarding family. She had danced with Fawcett at the Triwizard Ball. Fawcett, a Muggle-born.

He had heard Lucian Bole complain about Gina, that she had made jokes about coming from a Muggle family just to annoy him. That she had a strange attitude for a Pure-blood witch from such a known family. She was openly friendly with Bill Weasley. The Weasleys were widely known as blood traitors, at least to those who cared about blood status. And Severus had never heard Gina talk about Muggle-borns or half-bloods. He supposed that said everything. She wasn't a pure-blood supremacist. And she would not have been on his side during the war.

He felt sick.

Gina didn't see Snape all weekend. He wasn't present at meals that often, and Gina and Jonne usually ate late, when the great hall was less crowded. Jonne, being Finnish, was very accustomed to eating at Spanish hours. On Sunday morning he taught her a little Finnish, something they regularly did.

'Pidän roolipeleistä,' said Jonne. 'It means 'I like role play'.'

'Pidän roolipeleistä,' repeated Gina.

'Haluan mennä kotiin kanssasi,' said Jonne. 'I want to go home with you.'

'Haluan nukkua kanssasi,' said Gina. I want to sleep with you.

Jonne laughed. 'Glad you remembered that one well. He touched her cheek for a moment. 'Minä rakastan sinua.' I love you... He looked at her. 'Hän ei ole parempi sängyssä kuin minä, eihän?' He's not better in bed than me, is he?

Gina pretended she didn't understood him.

'Oh, you know what I said.'

'Jonne...'

'Come on, tell me.'

'Se oli... erilaista,' Gina said slowly and truthfully. It was... different.

She felt a strange mixture of painful longing in her stomach when she thought about the last few days.

'Different... good?' Jonne asked, looking questioningly at her and raising his eyebrows.

She nodded, blushing.

'You don't seem finished with him,' Jonne said doubtfully.

'That's enough,' Gina said, giving him a little push and pouring herself more another cup of coffee. She fumbled with the letter in front of her. She had finally received a letter from her press team about Isabel Vane. They had not found any information about her so far. Nobody seemed to know miss Vane, which made it probable it was a recently made up pseudonym. Drinking coffee with Jonne and staring around the great hall, Gina wondered if the person behind Isabel Vane was a student, trying to earn some Galleons. Somehow this bothered her less than the idea of another Rita Skeeter on her tail.