My Father's Best Friend

Lily

"Tell me, Lyra, what do you see?" Severus asked urgently.

I took a step closer to the mirror and touched the reflection delicately, tears filling my eyes instantly. "I see...I see you," I said, my voice breaking. "You're holding me and telling me you love me."

There was a long silence that I barely noticed, because I was so captivated by the mirror. After a couple minutes, I tore my eyes from the reflection they had been fixed on, breaking myself free from the trance it had seemed to put me under. I turned to Severus. "What is this mirror, and why do you have it?" I asked him.

"It's called the Mirror of Erised, and Dumbledore asked me to keep it safe until he found somewhere else to store it." He walked over to face the mirror. "This mirror shows you the deepest, most desperate desire of your heart."

It took me a moment to process what he said - that meant that my deepest desire was for Severus to love me. The realization that my feelings toward him were that serious terrified me. "So what do you see?" I asked quietly, afraid of what his answer would be.

He looked down, and for the first time ever, I could've sworn I saw guilt in his face. He ran a hand through his hair , and when he looked up, he sighed deeply. "I see... the only woman I ever loved."

My heart dropped.

I guess I should've assumed that Severus had been in previous relationships, but to hear him say it out loud was like a punch to the stomach. And the fact that she was the deepest, most desperate desire of his heart while he was mine -  it stung.

"Can you tell me about her?" I asked quietly.

I saw the contemplation in his expression, but he nodded slowly. "Her name was Lily. She was Potter...Harry Potter's mother." He said her name so tenderly, as if something would break if he spoke too loudly. "We were close friends and attended Hogwarts at the same time. Things between us...didn't exactly work out, and we went our separate ways. However, as I'm sure you know, she was killed by the Dark Lord years later, the same day he tried to kill her son."

I drew my hand quickly to my mouth, shocked to hear that the only woman he ever loved was Harry's mother, and that she had been killed by the same person he was so faithful to. "I'm sorry, I just don't understand... how can you continue to be faithful to Voldemort, knowing that he killed Lily?"

Severus took one last moment to look into the reflection before picking the rug up from the ground and putting it back over the mirror. "It is true, I was once a loyal death eater. But I have not been one of them since the very day I found out that he was going to kill the Potters."

"What do you mean?" Not one of them? He wasn't making sense to me, at all...I had seen him countless times at meetings with the Death Eaters at our manor, and he was well known by them all for being one of Voldemort's most loyal followers.

He took a deep breath. "For the past 15 years, I have worked as a double agent for Dumbledore. I have played the role of a Death Eater, however, I am no more one today than Dumbledore is. I work undercover to collect information from Voldemort and his side - and convey that information back to Dumbledore."

"Holy shit," I breathed, shocked at the information I had just been told. "So you're a spy?"

Severus raised his eyebrows and nodded. "Yes, something like that." He suddenly developed a concerned expression and stepped forward. "Lyra, I trust that you will not say a word about this to anyone. Especially to your father. I have worked undercover for so many years, nobody can know."

I reached forward to grasp his hand, feeling my heart ache for the brave man that stood in front of me. "You can trust me. Your secret is safe from me."

His expression softened and he gave my hand a light squeeze. "Thank you."

I felt a weight on my chest as I searched his face with my eyes - I noticed now, more than ever, the shadows beneath his eyes and the frown lines etched into his forehead, clear indications of his difficult past.

"You still love her, then." I said quietly.

And almost instantly, I saw his emotional walls go right back up. His expression was suddenly cold and distant, and he pulled his hand away from mine. "Why do you think it's okay to pry into my personal business like this, Lyra?" he snapped, narrowing his eyes at me.

I almost laughed, I couldn't believe he was doing this, again. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I said, my voice shaking from anger, casting away any fear about what consequences using such crude language with him would have. "I am so sick of your shit, Severus! Have you forgotten the fact that your dick was in my mouth last week, or did that just slip your mind? Have you forgotten what happened in the dungeons? Have you forgotten the fact that you visited my room specifically to apologize to me for treating me like this?"

He brought a hand up to his eyes and began to massage them, sighing, as if I was in the wrong.

"You constantly back off and keep yourself from forming any sort of an emotional connection with me, and you always tell me that because you're my boss we can't be involved with each other, yet-" I realized I was rambling at this point, but I didn't care. "I have feelings, I have emotions, Severus, even if you don't. You're so fucking hot and cold, on and off, I can't handle it anymore. So unless you're going to-"

My sentence was cut short by him, as he suddenly stepped forward, closing the gap between our bodies. "Do not use that tone with me, Malfoy," he snapped. "I have been incredibly patient with you, but believe me when I tell you your future employers will not hesitate to fire you for that filthy mouth of yours. Watch your language."

I found myself stepping back until I realized my back was against the wall. "And what if I don't, sir?" I asked, looking up at him and narrowing my eyes.

Horrifyingly, I realized a blush was beginning to creep into my cheeks, so I brought my hands up to them to cool them down. Severus immediately clamped his hands around my wrists and pinned them to the wall. My breath hitched in my chest and I swallowed, hard, as I tried to ignore the fact that I was incredibly turned on by his dominance.

"I don't think you want to find that out," he murmured, the corners of his lips beginning to curl upwards and his eyes flickering to my lips.

My face was an inch away from his, and my heart pounded so wildly that I heard each beat in my ears like waves crashing onto shore. I let out a shaky breath. "Oh yeah? Try me, you fucking prick."

And suddenly, his lips crashed into mine, and we were kissing. It was pure fire, pure electricity, as his soft lips brushed against mine. He tasted better than I could've ever imagined, like chamomile tea and vanilla and a hint of smoke, and every second left me hungry for more.

He bit my bottom lip gently and slipped his tongue gently into my mouth, kissing me with the same sheer desperation I was kissing him with. His hands roamed up and down the curves my body, and my hands found the nape of his neck, my fingers intertwining into his hair as I pulled myself as close as I could to him.

Abruptly, he pulled away from me and stepped back, his hand immediately going up to massage his temples as he shut his eyes. I fell against the wall, panting, my lips tingling from the kiss. My heart was racing so fast it was practically jumping out of my chest.

"Don't tell me you're going to yell at me to get out of your office now," I said, smirking slightly.

A small smirk massed through Severus's expression, but it quickly faded and he furrowed his brow. "This...relationship is not a good idea, at all. I am your boss, after all, and- oh Merlin, can you imagine how your father would react if he knew what was going on between us?"

"I, like, really don't want to think about my father right now," I laughed softly, stepping closer to Severus.

"We should really stop doing this," he breathed, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me close to his body.

"We should," I murmured as he leaned down to kiss me again, "but we won't."