Snape In Love

Chapter 38

I Need To be Right By Your Side

And so, at last, the final weekend before the end of term arrived. The Quidditch final was due to start at ten o'clock that fine Saturday morning, so after breakfast the entire school began to make its way down to the Quidditch pitch. The midsummer sun was frequently obscured by thick white clouds, which made their way in a sedate procession across an azure sky, and I was relieved that they would provide some shade, since there was none in the stands.

Severus fought the urge to stride on ahead of me, slowing his pace considerably in order not to leave me miles behind.

"What on earth am I going to be like in a few weeks' time?" I complained loudly.

"You probably won't be able to walk at all," he commented dryly, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly as I shot him a dark look. "I should have brought my broom, you could have flown to the staff stand in style!"

"Hah! Not a chance! You won't see me on a broom again in a hurry!"

"Why ever not? What's wrong with brooms? Is this some strange quirk of character that's only revealing itself to me by degrees? Do you object to all magical modes of transportation on principle, is that it? Or do you have good reason?"

"I always have good reason!" I objected. "I just...well, the last time I was on a broom it nearly tipped me into a dormant volcano!"

"What?" He stopped in his tracks and stared at me incredulously.

"Oh, long story, never mind. It was an old broom, my charm went wrong, that's all."

Severus shook his head in resigned disbelief and we soldiered on.

"Morning, you two!" Sirius said as he bounded up behind us.

"Hello, Sirius!" I smiled. Severus inclined his head stiffly and then, making a supreme effort, which nevertheless came out as sarcastic and accusatory, said,

"We missed you at breakfast, Black, where were you?"

"Oh, I had a heavy night last night. Ended up taking a room at the Three Broomsticks rather than crawl all the way back here," Sirius replied happily, obviously not taking offence.

"Do we know the lady?" Severus asked archly.

I looked at him in shock, but Sirius simply laughed and said,

"I don't know what you mean, Snape!"

"Neither do I, Severus!" I admonished, but he simply raised his eyebrows and slipped his arm around my shoulders proprietarily.

We were soon joined by Remus, and together the four of us ascended the narrow wooden stairs up to the teachers' stand. The stitch in my side had come back by the time I reached the top, and I was hot and thirsty. I leaned against Severus thankfully, the musky, herbal scent of his frock coat contrasting incongruously with the fresh, floral fragrances wafting our way from the flower filled meadows off towards Hogsmeade, and he rubbed my side as he had done before. I breathed deeply of him, happily enveloped in him while he murmured softly into my hair in a mellifluous baritone that almost drove me to my knees,

"I knew this would happen..."

"And you're always right, I suppose."

"I'm glad we understand each other..."

"Arrogance personified, aren't you?" I teased.

"Here, Ella, I brought a drink this time!" said Sirius, handing me a flask of ice-cold pumpkin juice. I accepted it gratefully and we took our seats as the two teams flew around the stadium and then took their starting positions. The view was as spectacular as always, I thought. The mountains, the lake and the grey splendour of the castle as it rose from both. I sighed happily, and leaned into Severus as he took my hand.

The match was fast, furious and enthralling. The teams were very closely matched, and the score after an hour of play was one hundred and twenty points each. However, after a while I began to fidget and wriggle in my seat, and arch my back, which was beginning to ache after sitting still on a hard wooden bench for so long.

"Are you alright?" Severus asked solicitously.

"Backache," I replied, grimacing.

"Here, let me help," he said, releasing my hand and shifting in his seat so that he could slip his arm behind me. Using the flat and the heel of his hand, he rubbed the small of my back firmly, relaxing me instantly. I looked up at him, smiling blissfully,

"That feels wonderful, Severus!"

He smiled briefly, then glanced back at the pitch and said,

"Look, there's the Snitch!"

I followed his gaze and saw Harry shooting after the Snitch, which gleamed in the sunlight.

"About time, too!" I said, and then started to moan with pleasure as Severus' magic fingers eased my backache. "Mmm, Severus...ooh, don't stop! Aah..."

"Do you have to groan like that?" he murmured into my ear.

"Aah..."

"Only, it's very much like the sound you make when...well, people will wonder what I'm doing to you..."

"Oh, don't be such a killjoy!" I replied, putting my hand on his knee. "People can see your other hand, what's the problem?"

"Ella, I'm shocked!"

"Just keep on doing it, it feels so good!"

"Alright, as long as you want."

"Well, the next six weeks, for starters!"

"Hmm. How about the next six years?"

"Mmm, aah, whatever...a bit lower - oh, yes, that's it!"

"As you wish. How about - er - how about for - for all our lives?"

"Sounds better all the time!" I laughed.

His next words were indistinct because Ravenclaw had just scored again and the crowd was on its feet cheering.

"What?" I asked him.

"I said - all our married lives?"

He stopped rubbing, and waited. Slowly, I turned to face him, not daring to believe my ears. The roar of the spectators was a distant buzzing in my ears and all that my reeling mind could adequately process now was the look on his face. I could see anxiety half hidden below the shifting darkness of his gaze, and in spite of his efforts at concealment he looked more vulnerable than I had ever seen him. As I searched further below the surface I could see abject terror that I would turn him down. He raised his eyebrows enquiringly and, as I gaped at him in stunned silence, he continued,

"I know it's probably not the most articulate or romantic proposal of marriage you've ever heard, but...will you? Perhaps?"

My heart flipped over then, and the rest of the world disappeared as my brain finally shifted into gear and I gasped,

"Yes! Oh! Yes!"

I think Harry must have caught the Golden Snitch then, but I didn't notice because Severus and I were wrapped up and lost in one another's eyes, oblivious.

Eventually we realised that everyone around us was getting ready to leave. Remus touched my arm and I managed to tear my gaze from Severus' face long enough to beam at him quickly. He was grinning broadly, and asked,

"Is there something you two want to tell me?"

"Later, Lupin," answered Severus faintly in my stead, never taking his eyes from me. "We'll be along in a little while."

His rich, deep, wondering voice thrilled me and I pressed my hand to his cheek. He covered it with his own, kissing my palm in an unselfconsciously intimate gesture.

Remus clapped him on the shoulder, and left us alone, saying,

"Oh, by the way, in case you're interested - Gryffindor won by one hundred and forty points!"

"Oh well," I said to Severus dreamily, winding my arms around his neck now that we were alone and unobserved at last, "at least there's one happy Ravenclaw here today..."

"And are you happy? Do I really make you happy?"

I climbed on to his lap then, straddling him to be as close to him as I could be, and we kissed, a sweet, tender, lingering kiss that made the small of my back tingle unbearably and which I hoped answered his question.

"Severus, are you sure?"

"You keep asking me that, love! When have you ever known me to prevaricate?"

"Never..."

"Are you sure? Because, you know, once we're married, that's it - I'll never, ever let you go!"

"Oh, Severus..." I said faintly as his eyes pierced into me and I melted into his embrace.

"We'd better get back," Severus said at last, pulling apart from me at last and fixing me with his gaze. I tightened my grip around his neck and complained,

"Oh, not yet. This is nice..."

He continued pointedly,

"Much as I am enjoying this moment, you are getting rather heavy and besides, it'll probably take you half the afternoon to walk back up to the school."

I snorted in mock indignation and got to my feet, unwilling either to admit or deny that, once again, he was right, and we made our way to the stairs.

"Here, let me go first," Severus insisted. "That way, if you trip, I'll break your fall."

"Oh, Severus, that's so chivalrous!"

"I'm just being practical," he shrugged. "You aren't the most surefooted person I've ever met!"

"Honestly, I trip just once and I'm never allowed to forget it!" I complained. "And anyway, if I hadn't tripped over that root and been bitten by that snake, we might not be here together now!"

Severus turned to me, eyebrows raised, and said,

"Was I complaining? I was just making an observation, that's all. Now, mind your step!"

We walked hand in hand back up to the school and decided to go to my rooms, since they were closest. I flopped on to the bed and groaned. Severus sat next to me and took my hand in his, saying

"Wait here, and have a rest. I'll be back soon."

"Where are you going?"

"Just back to the dungeons. I won't be long. And then we'll need to tell the Headmaster our news."

I smiled happily and reached up to caress his cheek as he gazed down at me.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he already knew. Or if he's known all along!"

Severus leaned over me to kiss me lovingly, then left me alone to sleep.

After a twenty-minute nap I was fully refreshed, and by the time I had finished my shower, Severus was back. He sat in the armchair by my window watching me as I dressed, his legs crossed and his elbow leaning on the arm of the chair so that his hand, fingers curled, could provide a casual rest for his chin.

"The Headmaster is expecting us later," he announced, his eyes travelling up and down my body as if hypnotised as I slipped on a turquoise dress of floaty Indian cotton. "But first I need to say something - will you put the hairbrush down now, please?"

I complied wryly, shaking out my hair, and turned to give him my full attention.

"Ella, I've loved you since - well, not since I first laid eyes on you, but for a very long time."

"Since when, then?" I enquired, sitting on the floor at his feet and crossing my arms on his legs.

"What?" he replied, distracted by my question.

"When did you start to love me?"

"It doesn't matter, it was a very - "

"Yes it does, I want to know."

"Oh, well, alright, I suppose it was - when you sat at my feet by the fire that night, and rested your head on my knee."

"And here I am again!"

"Er...yes. Indeed."

"And you didn't start to love me until then? Oh..."

"Anyway, the point is..." he continued irritably, "...what do you mean, 'didn't start to love you until then'? When did you start loving me?"

"Oh, after that first evening in your office, working together. That's when the instant lust became love, I think."

"Oh..." he remembered, frowning as he rose to his feet and helped me to mine. "Ella, do stop getting me sidetracked, this is important!"

"Sorry..." I murmured, sitting in the chair myself now since he had indicated for me to do so.

"Anyway...I've tried living without you and quite evidently it doesn't work, and I never want to be in such an untenable position again. I want you to stay with me for the rest of my life, and I swear I'll spend all that time endeavouring to make you happy. So, that said," he continued, taking a deep breath and dropping to his knees in front of me, "will you marry me?"

I fought back the almost irresistible urge to ask him whether Sybill Trelawney had been giving him lessons in traditional romantic gestures, and as I looked into his eyes I was glad I had bitten my tongue, because of the obvious sincerity I found there. Furthermore, he then proceeded to withdraw a small green velveteen box from his robes and press it into my hands, which I found were shaking.

If his first proposal had left me weak at the knees and breathless, it was nothing compared to the way I felt as he opened the box and slipped the ring inside it onto the third finger of my left hand. A warm glow suffused the stone, a flawless emerald, the smaller twin of my pendant, which was surrounded by sixteen sparkling diamonds, and the glow spread from my finger to my hand and up my arm, until my entire body felt warm, tingling, and cocooned in his love.

"You've enchanted this!" I said faintly.

"I breathed my love into it," he admitted, dropping my hand then to take my face in his hands as he leaned over to claim my lips with his. The contact made me shudder, the sensations overwhelming me.

"Oh, Severus!" I breathed when he released me, barely able to speak. "Will the ring always make me feel like this?"

"I hope so," he smiled, "but don't worry, I dare say you'll get used to it! I assume your answer is still yes?" he added as a suddenly uncertain afterthought.

"Of course! And if you made love to me now? Would I be able to bear it?"

He stroked my cheeks tenderly with his thumbs.

"Let's find out, shall we?"

Dropping one hand from my face in order to withdraw his wand, he murmured

"Divestio!" and our clothes vanished, to reappear in a neatly folded pile on the other side of the room. I trembled as I looked at him, at his beloved face, lined and careworn and glowing with love, his shiny blue-black hair, his strong alabaster shoulders and chest, and beyond. The familiar tugging in my loins was intensified tenfold, and as his hand cupped my breast and stroked my nipple, I sobbed with love for him. I was drowning in his fathomless gaze again, and I had to circle my arms around his neck and pull him to me so that I could bury my face in his soft hair, unable to bear any longer the joy given me by the love in his eyes.

He embraced me, running his hands up and down my back. Each finger touch, each feather-light stroke, sent shivers racing along my spine, and I clung to him tightly, drawing him even closer. He knelt between my legs now, and I gripped him between my thighs, feeling his hard manhood pushing insistently at me. I moaned in ecstasy, my every nerve ending screaming out for him. He put his hands on my buttocks and gently pulled me towards him and onto his waiting member. I shuddered and threw back my head as he came to me, aware of every inch of his flesh as he joined with every inch of mine, feeling myself accept him, hold him there.

Now I was tingling inside as well as out, and as he began to rock himself slowly backwards and forwards I wondered how much more I could bear. He held me tenderly and then pressed his hand into the small of my back, indicating that he wanted me to release my hold around his neck. I arched my back, throwing back my head once more and freeing him so that his burning lips could scour my flesh, down to my hardened nipples, which had been begging for his touch. As soon as he began to stroke and lick them I was transported to a whole new level of sensation, and I knew I could take no more.

I was on fire, consumed by him, incandescent, the flame of my love for him burning brighter than ever before with the knowledge that he had now pledged to be mine, and mine alone, for the rest of our lives.

Remembering his words, and the look on his face as he had proposed, both times, was all I now needed to complete my bliss, and I clutched his head to my chest once more, grinding my hips into his and screaming out his name until I could scream no more, and bursting into tears as he held me in our afterglow.

Wrapped around him still, we whispered of our love into one another's' hair, then he helped me to my feet and led me over to the bed. Climbing in gratefully I held out my arms to him and we lay together on our backs, our legs entwined, watching the clouds scud across the sky.

Eventually I broke the silence.

"Severus..." I asked, gazing up at him, "...what magic was that? It was even more incredible than usual."

He smiled, and shifted so that he could look down at me. Stroking my cheek with his fingertips, then my ear, then tracing the line of my eyebrows, he said softly,

"What magic? I didn't use any magic. Not in the sense you mean, anyway."

"Well, what, then? You enchanted the ring, you said."

"You said," he corrected gently. "I said that I breathed my love into it. And so I did, in a manner of speaking. I didn't use magic on it."

"Oh..." I said faintly. "So everything I felt was real...oh, Severus, I love you, I love you so much!"

I kissed his lips, which were drawn back from his teeth in an exultant smile, and he said,

"I know!"

The ring felt very heavy on my finger as Severus and I made our way to Dumbledore's office, and I kept holding my hand up in front of me, turning it from side to side, the better to admire it. Severus stole frequent glances at me, indulgence in his eyes, and I spluttered with mirth as he uttered the new password, "Love Hearts!" that enabled us to ascend the spiral staircase to the Headmaster's office.

We entered Dumbledore's office trying not to smile too widely, and Severus released my hand in the interests of decorum.

"Ah, Severus, Ella, come in, come in!"

Our smiles faded as we saw the expression on the Headmaster's face, and Severus said,

"Headmaster?"

"Ah, I'm afraid I have some news which may trouble you somewhat."

Severus and I looked at one another, perplexed.

"What is it?"

"Rita Skeeter"

"What about her?" I asked as Severus expostulated,

"Damn that woman! What's she done now?"

"Nothing as yet," replied Dumbledore calmly, "but I fear there will be some choice gossip in Monday's Daily Prophet. I thought it only fair to warn you both."

"Yes, but what's going on?"

Severus glanced at me but didn't answer, asking instead,

"Was she here at Hogwarts?"

"At the Quidditch match today, yes. She was in disguise."

"As a beetle, no doubt?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"But she was seen?"

"Professor Sinistra swatted her, then recognised her distinctive carapace. But it was too late to apprehend her."

"Sinistra was sitting at the back of our stand, wasn't she?"

"Yes, I believe she was. She - ah - was in a position to hear everything, and I believe she will have got quite a scoop?"

His eyes twinkled then and he smiled at us both questioningly. Severus' harsh frown softened then and he said,

"Yes, Albus, Ella has accepted my proposal of marriage."

"Splendid, splendid! Congratulations to you both!"

"Thank you, Headmaster," I said, trying, and failing, to sound gracious, "but will somebody please tell me how on earth Rita Skeeter got into Hogwarts in the first place?"

"She's an unregistered Animagus. Or at least, she was. The Ministry of Magic has been trying for the last three years to get her registered. She isn't supposed to transform until she does. And I take it you do remember who she is?"

I glanced between Severus and Dumbledore and muttered darkly,

"She's that reporter from the Daily Prophet. She was responsible for that other little scoop about us, wasn't she?"

"Yes, she specialises in half-truths, exaggeration and scurrilous lies!" Severus explained, his hands on my shoulders as he looked down at me. "So whatever she saw or heard, she'll twist it into something unrecognisable, and the entire wizarding community will read it and be only too happy to believe it."

"I don't care!" I said defiantly. "Nothing can spoil today for me."

"It's the day after tomorrow that concerns me..." muttered Severus darkly.

"I take it you won't want the school to find out about your engagement by means of the gutter press on Monday morning, so may I suggest that an announcement at dinner tomorrow might be in order?" suggested the Headmaster. "I am sure that the entire school will wish to offer its congratulations."

Characteristically, Severus looked sick at the thought of yet another public ordeal, but I hugged him, saying lightly,

"Never mind. 'A moment of pain, a lifetime of gain'! Or so they say."

"Hah!"

He raised his eyes skyward and shook his head, smiling down at me ruefully.

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