Sweet misunderstandings, pt II
"I want to tell you something," the sound of their conjoined voices.
"At three?" He nodded in agreement with her question.
"1..." , "...2"
"...3 Ilikeyou!" they both exhaled at the same time.
It was all still for a couple of seconds. Time seemed to stop as they stared at each other with a pained look of relief and bewilderment plastered on both of their faces. Breaths were held, eyes were locked in conversation, and tension overflowed through the corridor as silence finally took over. Then one step, two steps, clothes grazing, fingertips touching, his hot breath held for too long, caressing her face...
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN IN THE DUNGEONS!"
In the blink of an eye, Severus caught Ana by the waist and pushed her into his quarters, his index fingers by his lips, signaling to her to keep quiet as he quietly closed the door. If their hearts were bursting after that confession, now they were threatening to leave their chests. It was a dull ache in the left side of their chests as they used Nox to extinguish their wands.
"I am sorry if I hurt you, Ana, but I just couldn't let that blabbermouth run around the castle telling everyone what he just saw," Severus confessed while keeping his eyes away from hers.
"It's fine, I don't like it either when strangers meddle in my personal life." There was a stupid smile now turning the corners of her mouth, and oh, Merlin, how he adored to look at it. He could watch her smile his whole life and never want anything else.
"About that note. I delivered it to your chambers after my last class. It's obvious by now, I guess, that you didn't receive it. "
"When was that?"
"A little after five."
"I was in my office at five, preparing next week's lessons. Electricity and circuits. Lots of cables, batterries, transistors... All students' favourites by the next exam. " Her smile was now a slight smirk and he enjoyed it nevertheless. Severus remembered all the times they complained to one another about the little devils they were expected to teach. At least on his part, it started as venting to one another, content to find someone that shared his views on that matter. And in a month or so, he couldn't quite put his finger on the moment the cord snapped and she was all he could think about when he tested students' potions or closed his eyes. Severus started to crave this interaction and need it like a fish needs water to survive. "After I saw you were missing from dinner, I got to your office to search and wait for you," Ana continued.
"And I arrived straight after to my quarters to prepare this." He nodded towards the table, avoiding her eyes as he spoke. As she could see clearly now in the candle-lit living room, there indeed was wine, glasses, and plates with a selection of the servings of tonight's dinner, all her favourites, or at least what Severus noticed that she enjoyed more.
"Did you really do this for me?"
"Yes, I wanted..."
"Don't tell me you waited for me to eat; you must be starving by now. Let's just have a seat and we can talk after you have something in your stomach.
They headed for the table, and after he helped her take a seat, he reheated the food with a wave of his wand. They ate in silence, both of them now avoiding looking directly into the other's eyes and only throwing glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking.
The first wine bottle was almost over when Severus got up from his seat swiftly, startling Anastasia from her thoughts.
"I got a vinyl and a vinyl player the last time I went to London, and I thought about you when I saw them. It's Paloma Faith, I know you like her," he mumbled while rummaging in his bedroom for them. After he set them up and the music started playing, Severus extended a hand towards Ana and, using his deep voice, he asked, "Care to offer me this dance, Professor Cromwell?"
"Thought you'd never ask, Professor Snape," she giggled, and he couldn't help the tension in his cheeks anymore, and so a smile seemed to bloom and soften his frown. It was their inside joke - everytime the situation got serious and one of them addressed the other as Professor, their carefully crafted facades involuntarily seemed to crumble and they smiled at one another with their eyes only, as if this must be kept a secret and revealing it would make the moment dull and faded.
They started swaying to the rhythm, his hands over her waist, her hands around his neck. Embraced and lost in the warmth of this moment. As the music played, they moved as one body, balancing between left foot and right foot and then back again on the left foot, a million thoughts hitting his skull with light speed. She liked him and he liked her, but there were consequences for both of them if this turned out dangerous. Severus couldn't put her at risk, his feelings for her now too powerful to not maim the one to whom they were directed, as he now realised. He...
"I can imagine myself loving you," he heard her say from where she seemed to have hidden her face.
"I don't think you want me to love you." You'll be better without me. Trusting me without even knowing the extent of what I am capable of doing is as dangerous as it is. "
"As a matter of fact, I don't know if you'll want to even stay beside me in the Great Hall if I ever tell you what I did. I understand, but it hurts thinking about it. "
"I know, I hurt too."
They kept dancing for a while, then they started another wine bottle while laughing about this and that, and how unfair the world was, and about the staff's gossip about the students that dated at Hogwarts, and so on. Their minds were getting numb from alcohol, and the mood lightened, so they were now gazing at one another, and he thought the awquard moment of confessing was over, that they put an end to it even if it all ended, when it didn't even start when, out of the blue, he heard Anastasia.
"You know? I don't care what happens if you love me. I want it all, and I want to love you as well. "
Looking back at this moment, he didn't know what made them do what they did next. It might have been the wine, or the music that now played in the background, or the candlelight that filled the room with a warm glow and made Ana's eyes sparkle; the light made patterns on her skin; he saw the hunger in her glance, and the quick breaths drawn through parted lips that made her breasts tremble gently from the rapid movements of her chest.
The next moment, her lips were on him, and he tasted the wine and her lipstick, his favorite lipstick. He loved how it looked on her. Hands started roaming with no clear destination, firm thighs gripping his and a pleasant pressure against his lap as she made herself comfortable straddling him.
They were seated on the little couch in the living-room when it all started. Tounges tasting, hands undressing slopily and caressing the other body. Buttons were undone and skin was shown. Minds now lost in the bliss of pleasure and exhaustion, but never letting go of the other, more fearful than ever that the other will stop and refuse them forever.
The tiredness was the common enemy of their lovers' fight as it slowed their movements and she collapsed against him, her bra visible through the few buttons Severus managed to undo in the haste of the moment, her trousers open revealing her panties as well, her hands over his waist and her lips in the crook of his neck. Ana fell asleep kissing him there, and Severus soon followed, one palm against the back of her head and the other cupping the firm muscles of her posterior.
It was almost seven in the morning when Ana opened her eyes to see pale skin covered in lipstick marks. She couldn't resist and resumed her assault of last night, nipping gently at his neck, kissing his jawline and caressing his chest.
"You are really planning to ruin me and my reputation, isn't it?" Severus said, more like a growl from the depths of his chest than the voice she knew and loved.
"I believe you are already aware that I mean what I say and even if your intentions with me weren't quite innocent, judging from your wine selection, I do intend to keep my word."
"Does this mean we are together?"
"Only if you want it too."
"I do."
"Severus Tobias Snape, do you, sober and unconditioned, take me to be your one and only until you get sick of me?"
"I do! Although I'm not sure about the last part. I was planning to never let you go once you accepted. " "Now, what is your middle name?"
"I don't have one."
"My turn. Do you, Anastasia Cromwell, sober and unconditioned, take me to be your one and only until you get tired of me? "
"I do! But, if I may be honest, you should try harder to get away from me. I confess that making me tired of you made me smitten with you in the first place. "
He cupped her face between his palms and kissed her with all his might, as if the moment they would get up and exit his quarters would be the last time he saw her. Anastasia responded with the same passion and moaned in his mouth as his hands made their way around her waist.
"Come on now. I have to tell Filch I already took care of those nosy students that roamed the dungeons last night."
"And I can guarantee that you did a really good job," she mumbled against his neck.
"Same place tonight?" Even though she more than accepted his feelings for her, anxiety was now creeping in the back of his mind as he waited for her answer.
"Only if you promise not to let me drink that much."
"It's a date then." It seemed like that was the queue for another session of sloppy kisses that made them more breathless and disheveled by the time they managed to break apart and go into the next day, anticipation for the night that wouldn't come faster coursing through both of them.