Chapter 32: Temptress
Severus was in a state of hell.
It was as simple as that. His mate was dancing with his friends throughout the night, the skirt he wore leaving hardly anything to the mans imagination. He knew how smooth the teens legs were, how his hair was as soft as his wings. He could easily see his underwear in the dim lighting, the brightness of the teens eyes, and most importantly he could see his gem wearing the jewelry he'd gotten for him.
The tail didn't help either because throughout the night it would wrap around his mate, push aside her skirt or brush up against her chest, tempting him so easily that he became almost envious of the thing. And the way Rie would make eye contact with him, light hitting her eyes in such a way that caused it to sparkle just like the ring on her left hand...
A possessive rumble would start up in his chest and he'd have to focus on another section of the hall, deducting points and issuing detentions to distract himself.
As for Rie, she would only feel the tail acting up when her mate looked her way. It was as if Hermione had made it more than just animated. She asked the other girl, and was given a hum of false contemplation. The siren was affronted by the thought that the longer she attempted to get her mates attention, the longer they'd both be getting teased by a fake tail of all things.
She danced to distract herself, but that made her mate look more. It made a lot of people look more, and after a couple hours she just sat down trying to calm the damned thing down. It had gotten to the point where Severus was avoiding looking at her and she was doing the same. His legs felt like jelly, he was fighting an erection, and his underwear was practically ruined. He ate a bit, and stayed hydrated, but not even watching her friends and sisters have fun could calm him at this point.
Taking a sip of his juice he tried to breathe, to get himself settled before he left for his dorm. But in that moment he felt his stomach drop, like he had eaten something extremely bad, or like he had fallen from a tall building.
He felt hot, but not like it had been when he was in heat, it was somehow worse. No he felt like there was molten lava running down his body. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he felt much thirstier than he should have been. There were hotter hands on his shoulder and just before he succumbed to the darkness in the edge of his vision, something blessedly cool touched his cheek.
His vision was blurry and his tongue felt two times it's normal size as he was asked something unintelligible by a muffled voice. Breath eluded him and as he helplessly gasped for air, the muffled sounds got louder and angrier until he was being lifted up and fed some water or a potion, he couldn't really tell. It wouldn't stay down, which caused him to cough solving that problem for a moment, but he immediately began to shake until he was almost seizing against whatever held him.
It wasn't until the coolness was back on him that he realized that he had been handed off to someone or something else for a moment. Then in only seconds, or maybe hours later, he was being set on top of something soft but stifling hot. A whine left him until that cool feeling was back. He was having trouble breathing again, but it wasn't for long as he finally gave in to the darkness that was calling to him.
HPSSHPSSHPSS
Severus was always a calm man. He knew what he wanted to do and he --more often than not-- got it done. But watching his mate fall face first into the plate of food he'd prepared for the teen made him irrationally scared.
Harry had only just taken a sip from the new glass, and within a split second the bond went off with a blaring warning, causing the dragon's head to snap in the direction of his mate. Maybe it was his adrenaline that did it, or it was the fact that his mate had gone limp and the bond wasn't detecting a steady second heartbeat, but he nearly shifted in his panic.
He caught himself in time, and made his way towards where the foolish children were screaming, hands that did not have the right to touch his mate were clutching him. The only thing he couldn't fault them for was that they'd pulled his mate away from the plate, keeping the contents from suffocating his gem further.
As soon as he got to the group he could not see past the various hands that were cleaning his mate, until they left the teen in acquiescence to his presence. It must have been the group of Ravens he called friends that had been his first responders.
Pulling the teen back into the seat, he placed a hand on the hybrids cheek, wiping away the sweat that had cropped up, and calming down further when his mate responded to his touch. The situation began to finally compute in his brain, and he made Harry take a small bit of water, knowing that the teen would start to cough and subsequently gain the air that his brain was lacking. Pulling away from the teen for only a moment, he told the stupid children to back away, but one was stupid enough to reach over and try to grab something from the table. He looked up at them and noticed that he was attempting to remove the glass.
"Drop it." He said. The two words filled with so much malice that the entire room was struck with fear.
Taking the glass, he smelled it, trying to find not only what was in it, but who else had touched the glass. A sneer graced his lips and he kept himself from tearing the students several new ones, by focusing on his mate. He hated to do it, not knowing exactly what reaction the teen would have, but he had Hagrid run the teen to the infirmary while he stayed behind.
A few other professors rushed after the half giant, checking the hybrids vitals as they went, but Severus simply stood and rounded on the students. His wrath was a palpable experience, leaving some students in fear of passing out.
"Who here was so excited to assault another student that they would spike his drink with not one, but three different love potions, a compulsive potion, a mental inhibitor, and the Draught of Living Death?"
The accuracy he used to pin point the cocktail of potions made those involved especially scared to come forward. But those small quirks of guilt that they displayed sold them out quicker than their friends did.
The dragon picked them out easily, and to no ones surprise the Weaslette was also a culprit. She hadn't given up on his mate, and this was another new low for the two youngest Weasley's.
"What is it with you Weasley's and attempting to rape your peers?" He didn't sugar coat anything, instead taking the group and having another few Professors escort them to the Headmaster's office. He stayed with the rest of the students, and just in case there were others who had somehow been able to not seem guilty, or just didn't feel guilt, he had them all go through the process of staying in the great hall until the Aurors could come to question them.
Minerva had been the one to call for the Aurors, and Severus had no choice but to escort everyone to separate unused rooms to be questioned and weeded out. The whole process of finding the last few members of the fan club to be involved in the attempted assault and near murder took over two hours, ruining everyone's night.
Severus refrained from speaking, as he hadn't wanted to let anything slip, but as soon as the last students were released he made his way up to the infirmary. There he was informed that Harry was in a stable condition after having his stomach drained. The teen was still conscious, but completely drenched in sweat.
No one was there after a moment, Poppy shooing most of them out knowing that Severus had already been fighting his instincts since the beginning.
The man could deny it until the cows came home, but the matron knew that he cared for the teen at least a little after tonight. He hadn't once called the 6th year a brat, whelp, or dunderhead. He simply sat and breathed, calming himself and touching the teens cheek. She assumed it was the unconscious bond they shared that made the teen visibly relax around the man he had never seemed to trust.
She did have a feeling that once the teen regained consciousness, and Severus regained his bearings that they would both recoil and avoid each other again, like the last time he had been in the infirmary due to his peers malice.
Harry had never truly been safe at this school, she realized, watching from a safe distance as the teen pulled the man's hand closer to himself. If she knew who his mate was she was sure that he would be infinitely more comfortable, but as his Professor was the only person he could be around until he stabilized more, she could only sigh.
It wasn't until the light came into the hospital wing one morning that the teen awoke. He had been floating on the edge of something for a long time but after his eyes opened, he remembered parts of the night in the great hall.
No one was there when he woke up, and he tried not to panic, but he was scared that his mate would not want to see him for getting into trouble sgain. In the long run he knew he shouldn't have thought that, because as soon as his heartbeat spiked, he heard a sound coming from the restroom, before his mate was standing beside him.
The dragon was almost looming over him, and when the teen opened his arms, Severus gently lifted him into a hug. Almost wanting to say that he wasn't fragile, Harry found that his throat was extremely dry. A glass was pressed against his lips, and he smiled, taking small sips while getting comfortable in his mates arms.
It wouldn't last long, this was something they both knew, so he tried to get his voice back to talk to his fiance.
"H-how long was I--" He tried after a good ten minutes.
"Two weeks. I haven't been here for the last week and a half. Between the dark Lord, rescheduled classes, and finding the culprits, the staff have been spread thin." The man explained shortly. He didn't have the patience to speak at the moment. He hadn't had more than a few hours of sleep in the last three days and he finally had his mate in his arms.
It wasn't until nearly forty minutes later when the dragon laid his mate back down and stood, backing away just in time for Madam Pomfrey to open the curtains.
As she came in she noticed both dragons looking anywhere but at each other, Severus drinking the water placed on the side for Harry and the teen refusing anything from the man. She knew they'd pull away again, but she hadn't expected it to be quite this bad.
She hadn't heard any arguing, but it seemed plausible that it was blocked by a spell as the man beside the bed was putting his wand away.
"Severus, she's just woken up, I would appreciate it if you did not antagonize my patient." She said in exasperation.
The dragon scoffed, "I am not antagonizing her. The girl would not accept anything to drink so I am demonstrating that it was not spiked like her last drink had been. If she had paid attention--." The man cut himself off, glaring at the girl in question as if she made his days worse. The way it was spoken was harsh but truthful, and the woman could only sigh. Severus had not changed at all, and while she cared for him, his matter of fact way of speaking was not the best solution at the moment.
"Even still, I would encourage you to give Rie some time so that she can recover in peace. The Headmaster will not change his mind, so you will need to get used to being around Ms. Dunhill." That made the teen look up at her and open her mouth the speak.
"Ms. Dunhill, I will not have you arguing or screaming more than you likely have been." The woman said, looking at the retreating back of the potions Professor. "However, I will inform you that until you are fully recovered you will be staying with Professor Snape."
The girl just shook her head, stopping when she got light headed.
"As I have stated, there will be no arguing. The Headmaster has already moved your belongings into Severus' quarters, and you will need to be on your best behavior. The sooner you recover the sooner you will be allowed to leave."
Harry made a small gesture to his wrist as if to ask how long he would have to be in the dungeons.
"At the very least for the weekend. We only need to monitor your vitals and how you move once you're up to it. If it goes on any longer then you may need to stay longer."
The teen simply closed his eyes and sighed. He tried to keep an angry look on his face but he knew his smile had started to come through when the woman warned him not to be obtuse just for the sake of annoying his Professor.
He wanted to laugh, that this was everyone's first idea of him and Severus, but he simply gave the woman an innocent look and watched her walk away shaking her head.
Finally alone he turned onto his side slowly, and tried to get a bit more sleep. He was absolutely exhausted.
HPSSHPSSHPSS
The weekend came up slowly, he was still in the infirmary for the rest of his first day awake, and though he only had less than one day to wait, he was still very fidgety.
His friends and sisters had come in once, but he had to ask them to leave, as it reminded him too much of the last time they had visited him.
Pomfrey thought he was trying to force his body to get faster, but he was just so excited. He was going to get to see his mate for more than just an hour. It wasn't ideal, but being able to live with Severus for even a weekend made his heart light up.
That night before he would be moved to the mans quarters, he had finally seen his mate again. The man was even more exhausted than he was earlier and after he took a good four hours of a nap with his mate, the man had been called by Voldemort. It was in the early hours of the morning, and the man only really had time to kiss Harry's forehead before he stalked out of the ward leaving a worried teen behind.
Saturday morning Harry woke up again. He hadn't had any dreams or visions, he was left unsure of what happened during the night, or even in the last two weeks while he was out of it. When Severus came to bring him to the dungeons, he said nothing. When they got to his rooms, Harry stayed quiet, but after a few hours of silence, just letting his mate take another nap he finally asked what had happened.
"Your fan club has been forcefully disbanded. Six of them were attempting to spike your drink on Halloween, including the youngest Weasley. There had been three love potions, one inhibitor potion, a compulsion potion, and the draught of living death. The rest had been planning to ambush you in some half planned attempt to make you reveal who your mate was. Two had been death eater children who only wanted a piece of the glory hurting you would gain from the dark lord. You were at high risk of overdosing on the potions, and even after they were out of your system, you were at risk of being in a coma for the foreseeable future." The man spoke, readjusting them on his bed, so that Harry was more comfortable on his left side facing Severus. The fire in his eyes was unmistakable, and caused the teen to place his hand on the mans cheek, feeling the recently shaved skin and smoothing out the scowl that took residence on his face.
"There was an investigation by the Aurors, so you were mentioned several times, which will be in the reports no matter what we do. The Dark Lord knows of the incident, and who was involved, he has plans to get several more 'promising' inmates out of azkaban in order to have them join him against you in particular. Finally he knows that you are in my quarters, but not of your true status as of yet. He believes you are simply here as a way for the Headmaster to keep an eye on the two of us, and wishes for me to continue to befriend you."
Harry silently took it all in, processing everything as it came to him. The ministry knew he had been targeted and nearly poisoned, but no reporters had shown up, so that was good...
Voldemort knew where and with whom Harry was staying, but not that he was stuck in a bed for the next two days. And the snake wanted to break out a few of the more 'If I can't have him' obsessive inmates. The only real upside to that was that Voldie didn't know about the attempted assault before that, or that he was unable to move as freely as he'd like.
"Sevvy, come here and befriend me." He smiled uncertainly. He didn't want to push, but being half a foot away from his mate was not very conducive to his recovery he'll have you know.
The man smirked, pulling his gem in closer. A long slow kiss was shared between the two before they settled under the covers for another bout of sleep. That was how they spent their weekend, resting, sharing easy meals, talking, and Severus making sure Harry was healthy and happy. The teen had no complaints really, as his fiance was covering all the bases. The man had been making sure he was ready to move before doing anything, and though they still could not do anything too intimate, they still got to snog every once in a while.
At the end of what was a really blissful weekend, Harry had his assessment and was able to walk with only a bit of trouble, but overall he was told he could leave, and that he would be expected back in class on tuesday.
Poppy watched the two as they all stood. Severus lifted a brow towards the teen and Harry nodded at him. It wasn't much, but she was just glad neither of them had murdered the other in their 48 hours together.
She felt a bit bad, knowing that Severus had had to stay on hand in case the teen took a turn for the worse, but she also knew they had the ability to be friends so the guilt faded fast. Harry hadn't had any bruises, or and injuries internally during his stay. He hadn't had any set backs, and it was as if the two had formed a truce in order for Harry to recover and leave sooner.
As the older woman left the room, she stifled a laugh. Sometimes their stubbornness worked in her favor she mused.
Twenty minutes later, Harry and Severus said their goodbyes and the teen made his way back to his dorm with his sisters. After they came to meet up with him, he finally got a chance to tell them what happened when they all got to his room. He spoke in hushed tones, checking his room for any cracks in his wards or listening devices and smiling when it came up empty.
His sisters watched as he went, saddened by his newfound paranoia but glad that he had checked because they hadn't thought to.
The three sat together for a long while, just keeping each other company, until it was time for the girls' next class. They promised to bring their lunch up with them, knowing that no matter where Harry was, his mate made sure his food found him.
Speaking of their brothers mate, they hadn't seen the Professor so frazzled or absolutely demonic as he had been that night on halloween. He had been angry about the potion mixture, sure, but he was absolutely livid over whom it was given to. He berated everyone over the subtleties of potions and why each and every one of them were stupid for believing that the concoction would have done anything other than backfire spectacularly.
Harry's friends could see the shift just behind his eyes, and that amount of control he had. His ability to keep the beast held back by a single shred of hope was as impressive as it was frightening.
The twins knew that it would be a hectic day in hell for the ministry, death eaters, the light, and the grim reaper if anything were to take Harry from him.
Grief was one hell of a Temptress.