Author's note: This chapter is nothing but fluff (as fluffy as you can get with a character like Snape anyway). Enjoy!

6. Under the Influence

On a Saturday in February, Callie and Severus sat across from each other at the kitchen table, the former holding a heart-shaped bottle of Amortentia beneath her nose and inhaling deeply. "It's so weird," she remarked. "Every note is distinct. They all come at the same time, but-" she gave it another sniff "-they don't mingle."

As she dabbed a bit of the shimmering potion on her wrists, Severus asked, "Is there any particular scent that stands out amongst the others?"

Thinking it over, Callie replied, "The incense. That sandalwoody blend you used to burn in your quarters to cover up the cigarette smoke." Sitting back and folding her arms across her chest, "You always smelled of it - the incense, I mean. It clung to your clothes and hair." With a slight smile, she mused, "Classical conditioning, it is. Never thought the scent of incense was particularly alluring, 'til I started associating it with you."

"Right," Severus said. "I've had the same experience with Firewhisky." The cinnamon-flavored alcohol was his lover's drink of choice, and he'd been able to taste it on her lips the first time she had kissed him. Following that, the spicy-liquor scent had come to have an almost aphrodisiacal effect.

Presently, he took her hand in both of his and placed his mouth at the spot on her wrist where she'd dabbed the elixir. Despite the fact that Amortentia smelled differently to every individual, its taste remained the same to all - a sweet, pleasant flavor.

"I really don't see a point to this," he remarked. "No elixir could enhance my desire for you. It's already at its peak."

With a shrug, Callie replied, "Well, then it couldn't hurt. Lots of couples play around with love potions." She poured out two half-ounce doses as she went on, "And according to Imogen, they may be made illegal one day. So we oughta have our fun while we still can."

She slid one dose over to him and held the other in her hand. Severus picked up the shot glass of shimmering liquid and studied it as though he hadn't seen Amortentia a hundred times and even brewed it himself in the past.

"I'm not taking it until you do," Callie said. She knew the effect Amortentia could have on a person, even if they were already in love. While under its influence, the drinker typically became embarrassingly amorous towards the object of their affections, completely controlled by their desire to please them, and to earn the other's love in return.

The last thing she wanted was for Severus to back out at the last second, after she'd already taken her shot, then have to suffer the indignity of devolving into his little love slave while he sat back and smirked at her foolishness. That was very much the kind of trick he'd pull.

And of course, the man wasn't so keen on putting himself in a position in which he had no control. Callie was surprised that he had even considered her suggestion to experiment, and she was positive he would never consent to take the potion on his own, without her doing it at the same time. It was only the fact that they would both be in the same stupidly lovey-dovey state of mind that had swayed him into humoring her.

He brought the potion closer to his lips, but paused and set his eyes on hers. With a forbidding look on his face, he warned, "I swear to Merlin, if I drink this and you don't, I am going to curse you in ways you could never imagine."

"Don't threaten me with a good time," she replied cheekily. "The both of us at once. No tricks."

Severus hesitated, then raised his glass and said, "To foolish pleasures."

She clinked her glass against his, and asked, "We go on three?" He nodded. "One... two... three."

They drank.

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Neither of them had ever taken Amortentia, and they weren't entirely sure how to expect to feel as it took effect. But Callie would describe it as a lightweight, heady feeling, similar to that of being slightly drunk. The difference was that liquor tended to blur one's focus, and while it was true that everything else had seemed to fade away into the background, she was acutely aware of the man sitting beside her, as though he were the only thing in the world that existed.

If they could've seen themselves from a non-intoxicated perspective, they'd have already been ashamed of their embarrassing behavior. For the last ten minutes they had simply been staring at each other in silence, eyes locked, their expressions rather dazed. The slightest of smiles was pulling at Callie's lip as she thought, So damn dreamy, he is.

Severus was the first to speak, his eyes still set on hers. In a quiet voice, he remarked, "You have the filthiest mind I have ever known."

Taken aback by the comment, the other asked, "Are you reading me right now?" She'd been imagining all the raunchy things they might get up to, and apparently he'd gotten a glimpse of it. "I just thought you were..." a shrug "...gazing lovingly into my eyes."

"I wasn't attempting to," he said. "In rare instances, however, one's thoughts may be so powerful that they can invade the consciousness of a practiced Legilmens. Involuntary projection, so to speak."

Callie considered that, and was reminded of a matter she'd been wondering about for some time. "Do you read my mind when we're in bed?"

"No. Legilimency requires concentration, deliberate effort... That sort of mental exertion would be impossible to maintain while in a state of arousal." Regarding a certain sexy idea that had crossed her mind and projected into his, he raised a brow and asked, "Would you really let me do that?"

There was a moment of silence before Callie smirked to herself. "How about you come along and find out?" she suggested, rising up from the sofa and pulling him toward the stairs.

By the time they'd made their way to the bedroom, they were already half-nude. Callie lay back on the bed, and the Defense teacher wasted little time in pulling off her trousers. But then he stood gazing at the woman, who was clad in red lace undergarments, and murmured with an admiring expression on his face, "You really do look like something out of Eve's Garden." Eve's Garden being a witches' lingerie company.

Christ, how she loved it when he praised her like that. The woman smiled devilishly at the thought of all they were about to do, but then, as she stared up at him, a realization suddenly occurred. "Oh, my God!" she exclaimed. "You look like Leonard Cohen!"

With a furrowed brow, Severus asked, "Who?"

"Leonard Cohen, he's a muggle singer," she explained. "You look like him a little. It's the nose." She got up on her knees and moved closer to study the similarities. "Bloody hell, I have got to hear you sing I'm Your Man." When he was feeling generous, he would indulge her with that sexy lounge singer voice of his, and it never failed to get her going.

Neither did the tickle of his breath in her ear, or the way he worked his lips beneath her earlobe, which he did at present. It would've made a lot of sense if he had read her mind during sex, because he'd always had a remarkably good idea of what she liked, even from the beginning. She'd once reminded herself that he wasn't particularly experienced, and thus, he shouldn't have been that good in bed. But when she'd asked him, rather bluntly, where he'd learned how to fuck so well, he'd replied simply, "I pay attention."

It helped that she wasn't shy about expressing her appreciation when he did something especially stimulating. At the moment he was gripping a handful of her hair and giving it a light tug, exposing her neck so he could graze his teeth along her skin. He seemed to be enjoying that just as much as she was, if the sounds emanating from his throat were any indication.

With a satisfied, and somewhat amused, smile on her face, Callie noted, "Bloody hell, you're actually growling." Very literally growling - like a wild animal.

Pausing in his ministrations, he muttered, "Sorry."

But she assured him, "No, I love it," and smashed her lips to his, pulling him down to the bed with her.

They proceeded to have what was probably the quickest and most frantic sex they had ever engaged in. Ordinarily he would last a lot longer, and she would need a bit more time to reach her peak, but it seemed as though the potion had rendered them both hypersensitive and unable to control themselves. Thank God he didn't need a lot of time to recover, because she was already jumping him a second time ten minutes later.

Afterwards, Severus lay on his stomach while Callie examined the scratch marks on his back. Looking down at her right hand, she muttered, "Oh, damn it, I broke a nail." But she didn't pay the matter much mind, returning her attention to his marred skin and wincing. "That really looks like it had to hurt," she said.

"It didn't. Not in the moment, at least."

Callie was struck by a pang of guilt. "But it does now?" she asked.

He rolled over and replied, "Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have said anything, it's only a mild sting."

She wasn't reassured. However, before she could express her remorse, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down beside him, taking her face in his hand and setting his mouth to hers. Between kisses, he murmured, "Merlin, I could do this forever and it wouldn't be enough."

As he trailed his lips along her throat, Callie spoke up. "Tell me something. I'm curious." He stopped what he was doing and met her eye. "When did you begin to look at me as someone... shaggable?"

"Hmph," he huffed, amused by her choice of term.

"You could've had me years ago, ya know. I'm almost positive I would've let you take me to bed that night in sixth year." The one that had started off innocently enough with a one-on-one Patronus lesson, and ended with a sort of "awakening" for the sixteen-year-old.

"You were a child then," Severus said, a look of revulsion on his face. "I don't get excited by teenage girls."

To that, Callie rolled her eyes. "I looked exactly the same back then as I do now." To prove her point, she informed him, "A while back I tried on the dress that I wore to the Yule Ball. Still fits perfectly. I didn't have to let it out anywhere." Glancing downwards at her larger-than-average chest and wide hips, she asked, "Was I really this developed at fourteen?"

The man wore an impassive expression as he said, "I hadn't noticed."

Repressing a smirk, Callie thought, Oh, come on, you aren't blind. But she had to remind herself that there had only been one woman on his mind for thirty years, and even the most perfectly-shaped female probably wouldn't have caught his attention.

"Seriously, though," she went on after a pause. "When did you notice?"

He gave it a moment of thought, then appeared hesitant to provide whatever answer he'd come up with. But eventually he said, "The first time you countered the Cruciatus Curse at Azkaban." He held her gaze as he said this, but there was an odd look of unease in his eyes. "That night. That was the first time I thought about it."

She had to admit she was surprised by that answer. Fighting off the curse had been the thing to turn him on to her? He really was a bit weird sometimes.

"I don't get it," she remarked. "That was sexy to you somehow?"

"No. It just happened to have been the same night that the attraction began."

"Oh. So why then? What changed?"

Again he was hesitant, lying back with a sigh before stating, "You kissed me. You were falling-down drunk, I went to put you to bed, and you were on the verge of blacking out. We spoke for a while and the next thing I knew you were kissing me."

Callie was speechless, her mouth hanging open as she gaped at him. The woman had absolutely no memory of what he was describing, and after a moment she stammered, "Wh- You're putting me on, right?"

But he replied, "No. It didn't last very long. You blacked out right after."

Mother of God - exactly how wasted had she been that night? She could remember having stopped into the Hog's Head with Neville for a couple of celebratory drinks, but then...

Come to think of it, she couldn't recall anything after that.

"Bloody hell, why didn't you tell me?!" she practically shouted.

"You didn't remember the following day," Severus said. "I saw no purpose in bringing it up."

"So what happened? I kissed you and... blacked out and that was it?" A pause. "I mean... did I do anything else? Did you?"

"Almost immediately I pushed you away. Not a minute had passed before you fell unconscious. Then I left."

It hurt a lot more than it should have to hear that he had not been appreciative of her ill-advised and liquor-fueled attempt to make a move on him. Perhaps it had been for the best that he hadn't spoken of it, or else she might never have been able to face him again. "Was it a decent kiss, at least?" she asked in a wounded sort of tone. "Couldn't have been that awful for you, seeing as it made you want to bed me."

"It wasn't awful," he said. "It was the first time I'd been kissed in nearly twenty years. It was incredible."

She looked over at him, entirely caught off guard by such a claim when one second ago he had told her that he'd pushed her away almost immediately.

"I hadn't wanted to admit that I'd enjoyed it," he explained. "But..." looking uncharacteristically bashful, he confessed "...I'd found it very difficult not to imagine kissing you again."

As if she wasn't already completely overwhelmed by her love for the man, his words brought a rush of affection that compelled her to reach over and meet his lips with all the fervency of someone who'd just gotten out of prison. Then she was struck by a realization that set her to giggling, and Severus pulled away, eyeing her curiously.

"What?" he asked, too enchanted by the sound of her laughter to distress over the troubling idea that she was laughing at him.

Unable to control herself, she lay back and put a hand to her head, still cackling. "I got drunk and kissed you and I didn't remember it!" she exclaimed. "You got drunk and I kissed you and you didn't remember it!"

The Defense teacher furrowed his brow, utterly confused as to what she was saying.

She went on, "Christ, it's a miracle we ever got it right!"

"What are you talking about?"

She propped herself up on her elbow and met his eye. "I kissed you in sixth year," she said, her laughter dying down. "It was right before Dumbledore died. You called me to your quarters 'cause you didn't want to be alone. You knew what was about to happen and you were scared and you'd been drinking." She paused, her expression turning somewhat solemn. "I was certain you were going to die, what with the curse on the Defense job and all. And I wanted to know what it like to kiss you. So I did. You don't remember that, do you?"

She couldn't be serious. No, after what he'd just told her, she was obviously making up a story to get even with him. With a roll of his eyes, he replied, "Do you expect me to believe that?"

"It's true. Get the Pensieve, I'll show you." With a cocky smirk, "Didn't push me away that time."

He sat up and stared at her. "You're telling me," he said, "that before you were even of age, we had...?" He trailed off, horrified by the thought that he could've put his hands and his mouth on a sixteen-year-old girl while inebriated.

"Don't worry, it was barely more than a friendly type of kiss," she informed him. "And my being underage at the time is canceled out by the fact that you were under the influence. From a legal standpoint, we were both at fault."

Her nonchalance about the incident would've been enough to infuriate him under any other circumstance, but as long as he had Amortentia coursing through his system, he simply couldn't manage to be angry with her. Raising a brow, he asked, "Was it a decent kiss, at least?"

Her grin widened as she teased, "It was incredible." Sitting up and putting a hand on his cheek, "And I found it very hard not to imagine doing it again." She met his lips, and Severus thought that if she'd kissed then the way she did now, he might've had to castrate himself to avoid getting carted off to Azkaban and labeled a predator.

God damn you, Calista. I have no defense against you. The woman was particularly enticing in her post-coital state, her hair tousled, her eye makeup slightly smudged, her lips swollen from the not-so-gentle nips he'd given them... Bloody hell, he would've been pouncing on her if only he'd been physiologically capable of getting it up for the third time in an hour.

But for the time being, he was content to ensure that his lover received every bit of gratification he could give. "Quite a brazen little stunt you pulled. Snogging a teacher?"

Flashing him a brilliant smile, she remarked, "So relieved I was that you didn't remember it. You always had the most creative punishments when I was... naughty."

Hmph. Jezebel. "Perhaps a lesson in keeping your hands to yourself would've been in order," he said, then summoned his wand. "Better late than never." Without warning, he performed the Incarcerous Spell, binding her hands and restraining them above her head.

As the man positioned himself between her legs, Callie thought, Now this is the kind of detention I would've enjoyed.

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"I'm starving."

Of course she was. They must've each burned about a thousand calories in the last couple of hours.

They made their way into the kitchen, where she fed herself a spoonful of honey straight out of the jar, while Severus downed half a gallon of water. The latter stood gazing at the woman as she went about in search of sustenance, thinking to himself, Christ, I love her. As though that realization was only now dawning on him. I can't look away from her. Why would I? What else is worth looking at?

With his eyes following her every move, he asked, "What would you like me to make?"

"Nothing," she replied, still holding the honey-dipped utensil in her mouth. There was something inexplicably alluring about that. "I wanna cook for you, for once."

Cocking a brow, the other reminded, "But you don't know how to cook."

She pulled out a recipe book that her mother had given her and flipped through the pages. "Can't be as hard as I'm making it out to be. 'Just like potion-making,' Mummy said." It seemed she'd come upon a dish that must've appeared relatively manageable, as she went over to the icebox and removed a package of fish fillets. "What is this?" she asked.

"Halibut."

"Is that anything like mahi mahi? The recipe calls for mahi mahi."

Severus considered it. "They both have a mild flavor and they're similar in texture," he explained. "You could probably substitute one for the other."

She went on to gather up the required cookware, then waved a hand in Severus's direction. "Go away, it's gonna take about a half an hour."

But he still hadn't gotten his fill of the woman he loved. "I'm happy to stay here and watch," he said.

She summoned a record and held it out to him - Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. "Put this on," she ordered. "Learn the lyrics. I was serious about you singing to me."

Over the next half hour, he replayed her requested song half a dozen times, committing the words to memory. In his normal state of mind, he would've scoffed at such ridiculous lyrics as "I'd crawl to you, baby, and I'd fall at your feet / And I'd howl at your beauty like a dog in heat." But as long as he was still high on love potion, he couldn't deny that he would do every one of those things if it would please his significant other.

Meanwhile, he was still having trouble keeping his eyes off the raven-haired goddess, who appeared to be dead-set on serving him a five-star meal. The woman went about her task with all the focus and precision of a nuclear physicist splitting an atom. Once again, Severus was overwhelmed by his love for her. Not only was she lacking in culinary abilities, but she had no particular interest in developing them. And yet, she was putting all her effort into doing something special for him.

I would fall at your feet, vixen, he thought foolishly.

"All right," she said, setting a plate in front of him a few minutes later. "I followed the recipe exactly. So if it's awful then it's not my fault, it's-" glancing at the cover of the cookbook "-Greta Hutchinson's."

He had already made up his mind that he was going to say it was delicious, no matter what it tasted like. But to his surprise it was actually good. "I'm impressed," he remarked, his heart melting at the look of delight she responded with.

"It isn't completely inedible?" she asked, a sparkle of hope in her eyes.

"No, it's lovely. Very well, you did."

So entirely pleased with herself, she was literally bouncing in her seat. "I cooked a meal and it didn't and up in the trash!" she exclaimed. "Thank you, Greta Hutchinson!" Starting in on her own plate, she asked, "It's not underdone, is it? Proteins always come out underdone when I cook them."

"It's perfect," he replied. However, his expression turned pensive as he chewed. "The coating, though... It was supposed to be hazelnut-crusted, yes?"

"Aye. But we didn't have hazelnuts so I used macadamias instead." Callie noticed the man's expression change ever so slightly, and her shoulders sank. "Oh, damn it all to hell!" she whined. "Did that ruin it?"

"No." He took a sip of wine before explaining, "I just thought it tasted a bit off from hazelnut."

She could see he was suddenly not quite as keen on her dinner as he'd first claimed. Raising a brow, she asked, "Do you not like macadamia nuts? You can scrape off the crust if you want to."

"The crust is delicious," he insisted. "Believe me, I'm enjoying this."

She didn't believe it, but he continued to eat. In fact, he had finished his meal before she was halfway through with her own - and then he was rising up and muttering something about a castle matter he had to attend to. Next thing she knew, he'd disappeared into the fireplace, leaving her completely bewildered.

He didn't return for about twenty minutes, and upon his arrival he found her sobbing uncontrollably on the sitting room sofa. Seeing her cry had always pained him, but now more so than ever, the sight and sound of it was particularly heart-wrenching. Sprinting to her side, he demanded, "What is this? Why are you crying?"

She held her face in her hands as if in shame; he tried to pull them away to get a look at her, but she wouldn't budge. Unable to control herself, she wailed, "I'm a... t- t- terrible... g- girlfr- fr- friend!"

Entirely taken aback, Severus asked, "What are you on about?" conjuring a handkerchief and setting a hand on her shoulder. "Look at me. Tell me what's come over you."

It took a while before she had calmed herself enough to speak, though fresh tears were pouring from her eyes as she choked out, "You cook for me, you organize my lecture notes, you teach yourself to play my favorite songs on the piano." Taking the handkerchief and dabbing at her eyes, she continued, "You leave me flowers and tell me I'm beautiful and what do I do for you, Sev? I can't even provide you with a halfway decent meal every once in a while!"

"The meal was fine, I said," he cut in.

"No it wasn't, you were patronizing me! I could see it all over your face, that stony look you get whenever you're displeased." With a sniffle, she went on, "And don't pretend to be so modern-minded. Every man would like a woman who can take care of domestic matters. I can't cook and I'm an awful maid on top of that."

In was true that, in addition to relying on others to keep her fed, she wasn't the best housekeeper either. The woman was more apt to simply buy new clothes than to do a load of laundry, her bathroom sink was a cluttered mess, and she often forgot that the floors needed to be swept and the furniture dusted more than once every couple of months.

This was in contrast to the Defense teacher, who preferred his living space to be organized and spotless. If he found himself with nothing particularly stimulating to do when she wasn't around, he would busy himself with some household chore or another that the woman had neglected. More than once she had told him that it wasn't his responsibility to keep her house in order, but he always insisted that he didn't mind.

Presently, she claimed, "A woman ought to be able to maintain a pleasant home life for her... mate."

Severus never would've thought that he would hear such a statement from someone as progressive as she. And did she truly believe him to be the sort of '50s male chauvinist that seemed to confuse his life partner with his house-elf? "Bloody hell, Calista, I don't care about domestic matters."

Meeting his eye, she argued, "If there's one thing you hate, it's incompetence. And I'm incompetent!"

"Rubbish!"

"You didn't like my halibut!" she cried. "And that's how it starts. All the quirks and shortcomings that are endearing at the beginning of a relationship become irritating after a while. Hermione told me that." A rather horrified look came upon her as she said, "Good Christ, you're Hermione in this situation and I'm Ron!" With that came another wave of tears. "That's why you ran off after dinner, you couldn't even look at me!" She proceeded to bury her face in the cushions, stifling the sound of her sobs.

Severus couldn't stand to see her in such misery. Caressing her hair in a soothing manner, he stated, "I'm allergic to macadamia nuts. I had to go to the hospital wing to get an anti-anaphylactic potion. That's why I ran off."

Taking in that information, the woman fell quiet, then looked up at him with a puffy wet face. "What do you mean, you're allergic?" she asked. "Since when?"

Thinking back on it, he replied, "I believe I was nineteen or twenty when I made that discovery."

She merely gaped at him a moment, before sitting up and reminding, "I told you there were macadamias in the crust. Why the hell did you keep eating it?"

He shook his head slightly and admitted, "You were so bloody proud of yourself. I didn't have the heart to tell you."

She continued to stare at him in disbelief. "Merlin's beard, it's not as if my feelings would've been hurt because you didn't want to kill yourself eating my fish!"

"How could I not have?" he asked. "So determined you had been to do something considerate for me, and I didn't want to ruin that."

A moment of silence passed, before a look of pure adoration came over her face. "You risked anaphylaxis so as not to upset me," she cooed. "I can't decide if that was really stupid on your part or insanely sweet." She reached out to caress his cheek, then ran her hand down his neck, pushing his collar out of the way. "Bloody hell, I can still see the hives."

"Never mind that. I'll be fine."

She gazed at the marks a few seconds longer, then rose up off the sofa, holding his hand in hers. "Come upstairs with me," she ordered. "I'll run you a bath. I've got skin-soothing oils and an oatmeal soak."

He'd insisted that that was unnecessary, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. Ten minutes later, he was lounging in the steaming water while Callie sat outside the tub, massaging his shoulders from behind. Severus couldn't deny that he was very much enjoying this treatment. "You have good hands," he murmured, his eyes shut as he delighted in the feel of them.

Moving down to his chest, she remarked, "You have good pecs." After a beat, "Seriously, I don't remember them being this solid the first time I saw them. And your arms have gotten bigger, too." With genuine curiosity, and a strong note of amusement in her tone, she asked, "Have you been working out?"

He didn't answer right away, embarrassed to admit that he had taken to doing a round of pushups in his quarters every day after his final lesson. Despite his lover's claims that he was, quote, "the sexiest man she'd ever known," he knew that if she'd had a choice in the matter, there were aspects of his physical appearance she would change.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, he muttered in a small voice, "You noticed."

The woman was quiet for a moment, before she leaned in to murmur in his ear, "I do appreciate it. But you don't have to change anything for me, Sev. I can't get any hotter for you than I already am." Bulking up was not the first thing he had done to try and make himself more attractive to her. Back in November, she'd looked at him one day and realized that his smoke-stained teeth were significantly whiter. He hadn't made mention of having had them treated until she'd pointed it out herself.

When the man didn't speak, she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, "If you only knew how many dirty fantasies I had about you all those years... you wouldn't be so unsure of yourself."

He did have some idea, as the two had acted out quite a bit of those fantasies over the last eight months.

Coming around to the side of the tub to meet his eye, she said, "Only one thing I'd change," then summoned a bottle of ink and a quill.

As she leaned forward, bringing the quill to his chest, Severus furrowed his brow and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I just wanna see something." The woman signed her name across his left pectoral muscle, then sat back to examine her work. "Yeah, I like that," she said, more to herself than to him. With a slight smile, she met his eye and asked, "What would it take for you to have that done for real?"

Though he'd never had any desire to mark up his body the way she had hers, he didn't hesitate to reply, "I would only request that you do it yourself. I don't want anyone else's handwriting on my skin."

Callie perked up in surprise at his response. "Really? You would let me brand you?"

Holding her gaze, he declared, "There is nothing I wouldn't let you do to me."

She bit her cheek in thought, then got a devilish glint in her eye. "In that case..." she said, "stay here while I go get my piercing gun." She made to rise up on her feet, but halfway there, Severus grabbed her and pulled her into the tub with him.

Cackling with delight, she shrieked, "Oh, damn you, nothing's worse than the feel of wet clothes!" She was dressed in a camisole and lounge pants.

"I can take care of that," Severus said, then pulled the top over her head and tossed it aside.

While he trailed his lips along the scar, Callie shut her eyes and murmured in a dreamy voice, "Amortentia's fun. I don't want this to end."

"Why does it have to end?" he asked.

Still with her eyes shut, she reminded, "Because I have classes on Monday, and you have to go to work."

The man huffed in irritation. "Why do we bother? The both of us have got enough gold to sustain ourselves. And I derive no pleasure from spending my days shut up with the brats and imbeciles who come through my classroom." He tugged at her earlobe with his teeth before going on, "If you're absolutely set on becoming a healer, I can be your patient."

"Hmph," she smirked, then sang a modified lyric from the Cohen song. "If you want a healer, I'll examine every inch of you..."

"Not a bad idea," the Defense teacher growled.

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"If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you"

He was indulging her with his "lounge singer" voice as the two of them danced in the sitting room. The woman was wearing an emerald green nightie she'd slipped into after the bath, and once again, Severus couldn't keep his eyes off her.

"If you want a partner, take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man"

When the song was finished, he held her close and slid his tongue over the erogenous zone beneath her ear. "Gévesai san Parádeisos," he murmured. You taste like Heaven.

As they continued to sway, Callie asked, "Do you know any other languages?"

"I do," he said, then listed them off. "Romanian, Italian, Spanish, German, and French. Not completely fluent in all of them, but..." He trailed off with a slight shrug.

The woman pulled back to raise a brow at him, then commented with a note of snark, "Overachiever. Is there anything you aren't good at?"

The question had been meant as rhetorical, but after a moment, he replied, "I failed Arithmancy in fourth year."

Her mouth fell open as she gaped at him. This was even more astonishing than the excessive amount of foreign languages he knew. "Dios mío!" she exclaimed. "You actually have a weakness!"

Unbothered by her teasing tone of voice, he declared, "You're my weakness," and raised her chin so he could put his mouth at her throat. "Se agapó," he spoke between kisses. "Te iubesc. Ti amo. Te amo."

"Why did you say that twice?" she cut in.

"I didn't. One was Italian, the other Spanish. The languages are remarkably similar." Another kiss, before he went on, "Ich liebe dich. Je t'aime." He straightened up and set his eyes on hers, caressing her cheek as he concluded, "I love you."

As she held his gaze, Callie recalled telling Adrienne that he was the kind of man women dreamt about, gifting her flowers and calling her a goddess. And now she could add that he was someone who would tell you he loved you in seven languages. Merlin's beard, he was like something out of a sappy romance novel, and all she could think was, I never want to stop reading.

Once again, she threw herself at him, and they ended up shagging atop the piano. She was happy the following day was a Sunday, because the two of them were going to need a good amount of time to recover.

When they were both satisfied, the Defense teacher collapsed on top of her and breathed, "Christ, Calista, you really are going to be the death of me." After a beat, "Hell of a way to go, however. I won't complain."

He seemed reluctant to pull himself away from her, but eventually he stood up, covered himself with a lounge robe, and went to pour them both a drink. Callie propped herself on an elbow, biting her lip at the sight of the fresh marks she'd left on the man's naked skin.

Setting her eyes on his backside, she asked, "Has anybody ever told you that you've got a nice arse?"

"No," he replied.

"Well, they should have. I'm not even an arse woman, but I like yours."

He brought their drinks over, handing her a glass of red wine and then reaching out to run a hand along the curve of her bare waist. Grasping her bum, he remarked, "I'm rather fond of yours as well." To that, she smiled slyly and shot him a wink.

Next he took a seat at the piano bench and asked, "Have you any requests?"

"Yeah, I do." Nodding to him, she ordered, "Lose the robe."

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A while later, they were lounging in front of the fireplace, enjoying a dessert of strawberries and chocolates. "Are you going to be upset if I put on a little weight?" Callie asked, biting into an almond truffle. "I can see myself getting fat at some point."

He didn't take long to consider it before he said, "I could handle a bit of excess flesh. But I don't see how that would happen. You are exceptionally active."

To that, Callie chuckled and replied, "You have a surprising amount of stamina yourself. Six times in one day? I was under the impression that men of such advanced age tire much more easily than their twenty-year-old counterparts. Not to mention that you've got a damaged heart."

Severus bit into a strawberry, then brought the remaining half to Callie's mouth, slowly painting her lips with the juice. Next he leaned forward to lick it off as he kissed her. When he pulled away, he remarked, "Truth be told-" nodding to the staircase "-I'm not entirely certain I could make it up those steps."

"That's all right. I like this setting." She snuggled up close to him and gazed at the crackling flames. "We oughta put a fireplace in the bedroom," she suggested. After a pause, an idea came. "Stars! I want stars on the ceiling like in the Great Hall."

Severus took it upon himself to summon his wand and perform the spell that bewitched the ceiling to look like the night sky. With a smile, Callie said, "Thank you, doll," and placed a quick kiss on his shoulder.

They lay in silence for a moment, before Severus spoke again. "My hair isn't going to stay black forever." Callie noted the slightest hint of unease in his voice as he said this, as though he'd been trying, and failed, to sound nonchalant. "Are you going to be upset if I become grey?"

Grinning to herself, she replied, "I can appreciate a silver fox." Then it struck her. "Ha! Your Patronus!" Which used to be her Patronus, but it had taken on the form of the doe two summers prior. At the time, the ruddy thing had seemed to be the universe's way of mocking her, as she'd been convinced that he could never love her the way she loved him.

But her breath had been completely taken away when he'd shown her that his had changed, too. That her feelings hadn't been as one-sided as she'd thought.

"You were made for me," he'd said. "Let me show you I was made for you, too."

He didn't have to do that; she had already known.

Presently, she looked up at him and said, "Let me see it."

Once again he raised his wand, conjuring the glowy forest animal. A contented smile came upon Callie's face as she watched the fox leap around the room before disappearing, and when it was gone, she was left with a very pleasant sense of security and comfort.

Holding tighter to the Defense teacher, she murmured, "My favorite animal."

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The both of them had drifted off, but Callie awoke at some point in the night and remained in his arms, savoring the feel of his skin against hers and setting a hand on his chest to feel his heartbeat. Checking the clock, she saw that it was two in the morning, and thought to herself, The potion has to have worn off by now. A half-ounce dose was supposed to last about twelve hours.

But if she hadn't known that, then she wouldn't have been able to tell whether or not it still lingered in her system. There wasn't a whole lot of difference between her current state of mind and the way it had been affected by the Amortentia. That feeling of all-consuming love and desire for the man remained as she gazed up at him, and it was a struggle to be so close and restrain herself from jumping him.

Don't wake him up, her more rational, considerate side was saying. He hardly ever gets a decent night's sleep. But all she wanted to do was kiss him, and touch him, and have him touching her. Unable to contain herself, she reached up and pressed her lips to his, just softly enough that it might not rouse him. Soon enough, however, she was losing her restraint, and actively trying to pull him out of unconsciousness.

"Mm..." Severus muttered, halfway between sleep and wakefulness. For a good twenty seconds he thought that he was dreaming, but even so, he moved his mouth with hers, almost instinctively, holding her close and burying his fingers in her hair. "Calista," he breathed.

With a cheeky grin on her face, she asked, "Wanna go for lucky seven?"

His response was to roll her over on her back, pinning her beneath him. The woman is a God damn nymphomaniac, he thought. It had to have been the potion that had given him the endurance to keep up with her. Ordinarily, he could only manage two rounds in one night. Certainly no more than three.

By the grace of God, he still had it in him to go once more, without the influence of Amortentia to spur him on. He wondered if she was still feeling its effects, as she wrapped her legs around him and held him close, as though afraid that he would disappear if she let him go.

Then again, this was typical of her when they were intimate. Her hands would be all over him, her breathy voice whispering his name, and when she'd meet his eye, there was no inclination to look away. Sex with her was so much more than just the physical sensations. Never in his life had he felt as wanted as he did when they were together.

He was now fully awake, his movements having started out slow and sluggish but his pace quickening with the encouraging sounds and touches of the woman underneath him. As he rocked his hips against hers, she threw her head back with a sigh, leaving her throat exposed for him to graze his lips and teeth against it. "God, Severus, you're so good," she moaned.

The slightest of smirks curled his mouth. Nothing was quite as satisfying as the knowledge that she was enjoying the things he was doing to her.

Though he preferred leaving her hands free to explore him, she had a penchant for being restrained every once in a while. Thus, he pinned her wrists above her head with one hand, stroking her breast with the other before trailing his fingers downward and gripping her waist. Perhaps surprisingly, her stomach was his favorite part of her body. He would give it a good amount of attention during foreplay, and the sight of her in a top that showed off a bit of her midriff - a sparkling gemstone decorating her navel - never failed to excite him.

Presently, he was becoming more and more fervent, unable to control himself as her moans grew louder and she sunk her teeth into his shoulder. That was always a sign that she was approaching her climax, but Severus wasn't ready for this to end.

Coming to a halt, he demanded, "Turn over."

The woman licked her bottom lip, before replying, "Yes, sir," and giving him a devilish wink.

Once again, the Defense teacher held her wrists to the floor while he took her from behind. She'd told him in the beginning that she wasn't opposed to a man who could be dominant in bed, even a bit rough, but it had taken a while for him to figure out whether he was crossing a line or else not even close to approaching it. Thankfully, she hadn't been shy about offering him a bit of guidance, and he didn't have to wonder anymore if he was pulling her hair too hard or being excessively forceful.

"Touch me," she begged, and he released one of her wrists so he could reach down and slip his hand under her pelvis. "Merlin, you're a god!" She began to roll her hips against his touch, and within a couple of minutes, she was grasping the plush blanket beneath them and crying out that she was coming.

There was only one thing that could bring him to his own peak faster than those words. Leaning close, he whispered in her ear, "Tell me you love me."

Between heavy breaths, she purred, "I love you."

That was all it took to push him over the edge. His whole body went rigid, his eyes scrunching shut, his grip on her wrist so tight that she would find a purple bruise there the following day. But God damn if they weren't both completely satisfied, the Defense teacher collapsing on top of her, and the trainee healer brushing her fingers over the back of his hand, which had finally released her.

Gasping for breath, Severus murmured, "You're amazing, Calista." He slid his arm under her torso and pressed his lips to the spot below her ear, overwhelmed by the intensity of his love for her. "Please," he begged in a barely audible voice, "don't ever leave me."

Callie smiled softly to herself as she replied, "I wasn't planning on it."

After a while, he rolled over on his back, and the other cuddled up against him, resting her head on his chest. "I hope you're not upset that I woke you," she said. "Are you going to be able to get back to sleep?"

"I don't know. I don't care. You never have to be sorry about waking me up for sex."

The woman shut her eyes, and they lay in silence for a moment before she spoke again. "I am officially exhausted. Tomorrow we're spending the entire day in bed."

"Hmph. I like the sound of that," Severus remarked.

Still with her eyes shut, Callie teased, "Old, dirty bastard."

Soon she had drifted back to sleep, but Severus remained awake a bit longer, recalling his words from earlier in the day: "No elixir could enhance my desire for you. It's already at its peak." Perhaps he'd been wrong about that, because he felt that he had never loved her more than he did now.

Still, he was certain that the potion had had nothing to do with that.