Baby Joy - Severus Snape x Nymphadora Tonks

Chapter 4 - Sometimes your life can be turned upside down!

Forest between Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, August 1996

Tonks stumbled over her feet on the forest ground. Thankfully, Severus managed to catch her falling body and threw her in his arms. She felt a little dizzy from her fast apparition and was glad that he steadied her with his strong embrace. She inhaled his herbal masculine scent, smiled at him apologetically and addressed him in a playful tone. "Thanks, Severus. You're a life saver. Without you, I would have surely broken my neck in this beautiful forest. My apparation skills in uneven surroundings seem to be a little rusty." Severus chuckled at her joke, his deep baritone vibrating in his ribcage and sending shivers down her spine. He locked his onyx eyes with her indigo ones, embraced her tighter around her waist and mumbled into her face. "Well, I hope that you will train them, for I can't guarantee you that I will always be by your side. And as a bad-ass Auror, you should really be able to apparate into any environment. I would be devastated to hear from your death due to clumsiness." He smirked smugly at her, inhaled her strawberry and vanilla scent and basked in her embrace for another minute.

"Merlin, I could fall easily for this vibrant, brave and strong woman. Her smiles and closeness warm my heart and I'm ecstatic that such a beautiful creature wants to be my friend. But I can't effort to be distracted by a sordid love affair. Although my heart screams at me to be happy, to forget my sorrows and hardships as a spy and kiss her already, my logical mind shouts at me to keep some distance between us, enjoy her friendship and don't fuck everything up with some half-cooked kiss. Thankfully, my mind is always able to control my emotions, for I couldn't bear to endanger her and lose her like Lily." Severus thought in an emotional voice, breaking their embrace and trying to dissimulate his feelings. To his luck, he managed to keep his longing for love and happiness at bay with his Occlumency skills and nudged Tonks playfully in the side.

"Come on, we should hurry up to get into my chambers. Though the sun is still burning down at us and illuminating everything in a bright light, we shouldn't waste our valuable time enjoying the landscape of Hogsmeade and dallying around. Let's see who can get to my chambers faster with magical means. I will even grant you a head start." He expressed in an excited voice, his obsidian eyes sparkling like stars in the night sky and his facial features softened slightly.

"God, he looks ten years younger when he laughs and acts carefree. It would be easy to fall for this intelligent, brave and good-hearted man. His darkly handsome looks and mysterious aura intrigue me and it still baffles me that I managed to crack his protective walls to be his friends. But I shouldn't think romantically about Severus, although I can't deny that I dreamed about doing naughty things to him recently. He is my friend, taxed by the demands of Dumbledore and Voldemort and on his breaking point due to his sacrifices for the Light Side. While some happiness and love would undoubtedly do him good, I doubt that he would be open for a romance anyway. He is the guy how sacrifices his chance at happiness and love because he is scared of endangering his loved ones. Besides that, my twin pregnancy would certainly throw him off, for I can't imagine that he wants to play dad to some toddlers. No, Tonks. Stay in the friend zone with him before you mess everything up, although it's going to be hard." Tonks mumbled in a regretful voice inside her head.

She overrode her sad emotions with a beaming smile, locking her indigo eyes with his onyx ones and remarked in a humorous tone. "I bet that I can beat you every day, old man. I don't need a head start to wipe the floor with your rusty bones. I guess that you have managed to forget that I'm a wicked smart Auror who learned some nifty tricks during her training. On the count of three, we're going to try to get as fast as possible to your chambers." She nudged him playfully in the shoulder and counted down, "1, 2, 3. Go!", running at lightning speed through the forest with her Fast-Running Spell.