Why Would You Hide. A Severus Snape Fanfiction (Stopped)

Chapter 19: A Dance of Equals

I walked into the hall with Hermione, and immediately Ron came over to us.

"'Mione, you look. Beautiful." He breathed, looking stunned. I grinned at my two friends as I watched Hermione blush at Ron kissing her hand. "Can I steal her please Amy?" He asked quietly, looking at me with a soft smile.

"Of course. I'm going to go and get a drink. I'll see you later Hermione." I said, not waiting for a reply as I walked over to the refreshments table, and picked up a deep pink coloured drink that smelt strongly of strawberry's. Not smelling any kind of Potion, I lifted the drink to my lips and took a sip. The chilled, sweet drink was heaven to my taste buds, and I smiled as I walked to a nearby table.

For the next half hour I watched as people danced, and closed my eyes as I listened to the noises. Music, laughter, the odd burp from a Teacher who was beginning to feel the effect of their alcohol. Almost as soon as I had finished my drink, I was asked to dance by a sweet Hufflepuff in my year. The evening past much the same. Dance for a while with someone, stop for a drink, dance with someone else.

It was in the middle of one such drink break, just after the younger years had gone to bed, that Hermione plopped down beside me, flushed, and exuberantly happy.

"Having a good time?" She enquired, her eyes brightened by whatever alcohol she had been given. I laughed as she smiled at me inquisitively.

"You definitely are!" I exclaimed. She began some long winded, somewhat slurred response, just as my eyes met ones dark as sin. I swallowed as his eyes flashed with pain, looking at me intently for a brief moment, and with a flurry of black fabric, swept from the room. I looked to Hermione, who seemed to be in some sort of trance, and clicked my fingers in front of her. She jumped and smiled up at me.

"Do me a favor?" I asked, and she smiled up at me happily, brown eyes glittering with joy. "Go to bed. Tell Ron you will see him tomorrow. You need to sleep. You're drunk." She looked mildly confused for a second, before she smiled once more and nodded. I watched as she walked over to Ron. I quickly walked to Rebecca, who refused to drink. "Can I ask you something?" I whispered to her, and she nodded in response. "Could you please take Hermione to bed? I have to do something." She looked over at said drunkard and laughed as she witnessed her almost falling on top of Ron in an attempt to kiss him goodnight.

"Of course. I doubt the school will have any Sober-Up Potion left tomorrow morning, for Hermione alone. Don't worry, I'll make sure she gets to bed okay. You do what you need to do." She said, before walking away toward the couple. I watched as she began to talk to Hermione, and with a deep breath, swiftly left the room.

Out in the empty corridor, the doors closed behind me, and the silence hit me with and unprecedented force. It left me to both sigh in relief and groan as a ringing in my ears became apparent. Quickly glancing down both sides of the hallway, I walked towards the doors leading outside. I needed to find him. I could only hope he had gone for fresh air.

I searched for about five minutes around a small section of the grounds, and was beginning to give up just as I saw it. The familiar flicker of black fabric. Stood almost completely hidden from sight, behind the bushes and leaves around the same tree I had sat upon so many weeks ago. I felt tears come to my eyes as I slowly walked towards him. And by the time I was stood directly next to him, I was struggling immensely to stop them from falling. He glanced towards me, and I heard a sharp breath leave him before he turned back towards the lake once more. The dark water illuminated by starlight that blinked in the gloom.

"Must you persist in tormenting me?" He asked quietly. I couldn't hold it back any longer, and at his words, my tears fell. He flinched at the sight of them, and swallowed noticeably. Without replying I took the paper from my dress, and handed it to him. He watched it nervously for a moment, before taking it and beginning to read. Once he had handed it back to me, I watched him carefully, fearing his reaction. His head fell back and his eyes glittered with moisture. "Your point?" He asked, his voice strained, and I broke.

"I... I," I began, through hiccupping sobs. "I should have researched it properly. I, I did what I did to, to protect you. And your career. I know now my decision was stupid. I have hurt both of us with what I did, and I know I won't be welcome back to you..." He suddenly span, his hands grasping my shoulders, his eyes, full of a kind of painful fear, locked to mine.

"Don't assume you know my choices! Don't..." He rested his forehead against mine, his eyes closing. And I lost the ability to breath. "Don't for one second think that you are not welcome in my life." He finished quietly, and I fell forwards, my arms wrapping around his neck, his holding me tightly around my back, as I cried. He lent back slightly, just enough for his lips to connect with my own. His pain, and passion, coming through in the way his tongue almost roughly claimed dominance over me. I could feel tears on our cheeks. Who's they were I was not sure of. My hands gripped in his hair as we continued our desperate reconnection.

After a decent length of time, he pulled away. His forehead once again resting on mine. We stood there, both breathless, as we let ourselves be held by the other. I barely even noticed as he flicked his wand, and a soft music began to twist its way around us. His hands gently moved mine in to position, his feet guiding me into a slow waltz as he kissed me again, softer this time. Eventually, the song finished, and I blushed at the thought of tears and make up. "Can we go to your rooms?" I asked, and with a blink of surprise, a smile, and a quick nod, he took my arm, and let me back across the grounds, and through the silent hallways to his door. Once inside, I moved to a small mirror on the wall, and was about to wipe at the grey streaks on my face, when a gentle hand caught my wrist.

"Don't." He said softly as his other hand spun me carefully and pushed me back so I was against the wall.

"Why not?" I enquired, staring up at him. The edges of his eyes slightly touched with pink from the effort of trying to hold back emotion.

"Because it shows that you care, it shows that your choice didn't just hurt me." He replied, eyes searching my own for a response.

I nodded, as I let my hand come up to the side of his face, my other at his hip, whilst both of his were on the wall behind me. He looked down at me ever so slightly, an arm either side of my face giving me a sense of intimacy with this man. The man I was in love with, and suddenly, I was desperate to be so much closer to him. To show him how much him meant to me. I pulled him down to meet me, and kissed him once more.

I was painfully aware of how perfect the silence was. Stories and Muggle films show of romantic music and candles, but his racing heartbeat, and short breaths were the only music I needed in that moment, the light of passion in his eyes enough for me to decide that I wanted him. All of him. I pulled his hips closer to me, and could feel the evidence of his desire press against my stomach. With shaking fingers, I began to undo the many buttons before me as his tongue stroked my own, pulling a heat from me that I didn't know I could feel. Once I had broken through the layer of fabric, I let my hands roam his chest, and grinned as I felt him shiver at the contact. He growled as he released my lips, eyes, now darker than I had ever seen them, bore into my own as he lifted my legs around his hips, his desire pressing into me just where I wanted it to.

"Bed." I whispered, and was shocked at how deep my own voice was. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly in response and he pressed me against the wall with just a little more force, his erection solid through the layers of fabric between us.

"You are certain?" He asked, his voice dry, and the sound of his own want for me only strengthened my resolve. I nodded quickly in response, my nails gently dragging across the bear skin of his back. With another slight growl, his lips met mine with passion fuelled force, and he carried me to his room.