Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Web of Redemption COMPLETE	By : FemmeBono Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 3455 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
Chapter 12: The tapestry unfolds
    As the weeks passed and Cassie prepared to miss the
Thanksgiving holiday, she did find many things to be thankful for. One of these
was every stolen moment she had with Severus. His note had mentioned the two
nights a week helping with each other's rounds which always ended with a
smoldering kiss that left them both breathless, before he swept down the hall
leaving her standing at the door, just on the verge of asking him in. Then there
was the fact that one or the other of them would flue into the other's office or
quarters almost daily. It was of utmost importance too, that no student should
discover their secret, both to avoid any accusations of impropriety and even
more, to keep the Death Eater's children from reporting back to their parents
that Severus Snape was taken with a Muggle woman. Aside from being a lethal
misstep, it could also blow Severus' cover.
    As the winter pressed on though toward the Christmas
holidays, Cassie still found her sleep disturbed, but now instead of the hideous
face of Lucius looming over her, it was the warming caresses of Severus' hands
or the kisses they found themselves tangled in during their nightly patrols. Yet
the one thing that cropped up, unbidden, from the back of her mind was Lily. Was
Severus indeed moving on and moving past the memory of a woman that Cassie knew
she would never live up to otherwise? Or was he projecting those unfulfilled
desires onto her? She was loathe to bring up such a subject, but that niggling
fear remained always at the back of her mind.
    In the last remaining days until Christmas break, on the
forefront of Cassie's mind was what in the world to get him. Everyone else had
been easy enough. Earmuffs for Minerva made with the McGonagall tartan, a scarf
of deep blue velvet embroidered with twinkling stars in constellations for
Aurora, an extremely large moleskin hat with flaps for Hagrid, and a gift box
from Honeydukes for Dumbledore. For Severus, however, she wanted to get
something special. Typically, Cassie was in the habit of giving one gag gift and
one good one. For everyone else, she'd given products from Weasley's Wizard
Wheezes, but for Severus she had finally decided on the perfect thing, which
fortunately did not come from some of his least favorite red-heads. Instead,
with Winky's help locating scraps of fabric and stuffing, she had fashioned a
voodoo doll, complete with pins for any "dunderhead" students. To her
mind, it was like giving Severus a stress ball, only more fun. And finally,
after much debate, she settled on a bottle of the blood red elf-made wine that
she remembered he kept at home.
    Christmas Eve day dawned bright as the winter sun bounced
off the newly fallen snow with blinding brilliance. Knowing that they had a
Christmas feast the next day with all the staff and students who had stayed
behind, Severus and Cassie enlisted the house elves to help plan for their own
private dinner that night. They had decided on lamb with mint sauce, roasted
potatoes, parsnips, and while Severus opted for a dessert of bread pudding,
Cassie preferred a custard tart. Their plates appeared on the side table
promptly at seven, and Cassie already had Severus' presents wrapped and waiting
on the mantelpiece, with a fire roaring in the grate. When he arrived she met
him at the door and leaned up for a kiss.
    "Password," she asked gaily.
    "Mmm," he said, leaning down and touching his
lips to hers. "Happy Christmas, sweet. Where shall I put this?"
    "On the mantle's fine," Cassie said, as she
cocked her head at the tiny box. "Hungry?"
    Placing her gift next to his own presents, he turned and,
taking her in his arms for a more full-bodied kiss, squeezed a hand over her
bottom. "Oh yes, quite."
    Cassie's throaty laughed mocked him, her eyes dancing.
"I meant for supper, smart guy."
    "Of course. Shall we?" He was at the table in
two strides, uncorking a bottle of spiced mead from the Three Broomsticks. As
they settled in and caught each other up on the events of the day however,
conversation moved to more serious matters. "Dumbledore says he has good
news, but wants to wait until Potter returns so we may all meet in his office.
One can only presume that one of the horcruxes has been found."
    "Good. That leaves only one to go, if that's the
case," she said, blotting her lips. "I ah...spoke to Harry about
you quite a while back. Don't think I'd mentioned it before."
    "I wondered why his glare had lost some of its
intensity."
    "Well, I think it helped that you seemed to show such
deep concern for a mere Muggle professor getting injured," she said slyly.
"But I also mentioned Lily."
    "Not so much your relationship to her," Cassie
added quickly as his gaze snapped up. "But just that even though you
loathed his dad, you had nothing against his mom. That of course was punctuated
by you carrying me off to the hospital room after yelling at two boys who he
knows are the sons of Death Eaters. So I think he may have revised his opinion
of you somewhat."
    "I see."
    "He also came back to me and asked how I knew about
that muffliato spell. And I may have mentioned that the potions book he's
enjoying so much these days happened to have been yours."
    "Ah, the mystery of Slughorn's newest prodigy is
revealed. He's profiting off my work, the little blighter."
    Cassie laughed aloud at this. "You can't possibly
care, really? Everything you learned in all your years of potions you've passed
onto them in class anyway."
    "A fact he never seemed so enthusiastic about before
now, I must say."
    "Well at least he's learning something, besides, the
fact that you're half-blooded rocked his world a little bit too. In fact, in
light of everything else he's learned, I don't think he knows what foot to stand
on with you anymore."
    "Good to have him off-balance at least."
    Sighing and reaching for a change of subject, she asked,
"are you sorry we missed Slughorn's party?"
    "Hardly. My years of turpitude in bowing and scraping
are nearly blessedly over. I have had more than I care for glad-handing and
politicking with Death Eaters, let alone barmy old codgers like Slughorn."
    "Good. I didn't warrant an invite anyway and can't
say I care for him all that much to begin with. He does fawn on Harry for a lot
of reasons though, in the first since he's the Boy Who Takes a Licking and Keeps
on Ticking, but also because of the leaps and bounds he's learning in potions.
Slughorn keeps saying that it reminds him of Lily." She glanced, almost
unwillingly up at him, her custard tart barely touched. Now was the time, she
thought, before this went any further.
    "His eyes are, unfortunately, the only thing he got
from her. He is not, however much as Slughorn may believe, a natural at
potions as she was."
    "You said once that I reminded you of her. Why?"
    "What I saw in you, my dear, when I met you was that
you have this sort of audacity of hope," he said, leaning forward in his
chair and pushing the plate away. "That, in a word, you could be shaken but
never cowed. She had that same spirit. It is rare for me to have seen it in
anyone else."
    "Is that where your feelings for me come from then?
Because I remind you of her?" Cassie's throat tightened.
    Seeing the lines of worry etched in her face, Severus
shifted out of his chair and, catching her up in his grasp, held her tightly
against him. "Good god, woman. Is that what you think?"
    "I couldn't be sure. I knew you'd loved her and then
you said that--"
    "Yes, of course I did," he said, shaking her
slightly and tipping her face up to his. "I loved her as much as anyone can
their first love. I loved the girl she was and the great person she should have
been had she not been cut off in her prime. And true, I never loved another.
Before now." Keeping her chin in his hand and her eyes on his, he
continued, "you do remind me, briefly, fleetingly of that girl. But I never
knew her as a woman, seeing that she never spoke to me again. I would like to
think she would have been something like you. But I love the woman you are, and
in a much deeper, truer way than ever I was able to love her. That, even at
first blush, does not compare to this."
    Too overcome for words, Cassie placed a hand on either
side of his face and kissed him, pouring all of herself into it. "Severus,
I love you too." At that, he pulled back abruptly, palming the box on the
mantelpiece and holding it out to her.
    "I think you should go ahead and open this
then," he said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and watching her
expectantly.
    With shaking hands, Cassie untied the ribbon and,
abandoning all pretense, ripped through the wrappings and lifted the lid. There in the satin-lined box, lay a sapphire heart necklace on a delicate
shimmering white gold chain. Gasping at the ornate beauty, she looked up at
Severus, her eyes filling again. "Oh Severus, you..."
    "It's goblin-crafted gold. And don't say I shouldn't
have. You deserve it, for everything you've brought into my life. You taught me
I could love again, sweet. That's worth all the jewels and trinkets in the
world."
    "Oh, honey, thank you." With that, she stepped
between his knees, linking her hands around his neck and they met again in a
kiss at once full of both passion and sweetness. His arms came around her waist,
and he rested his forehead to hers briefly, before lifting her up as he stood
and laying her gently down on the mattress. As he rose above her, running
fingertips through her hair, soft fragrant rose petals in pink and red began to
fall from the air over the bed.
    Their mouths met, lightly brushing at first, then deeper
savoring the taste of mead on each other's tongues. Severus swept her curls back
from her face, before tracing a line across her jaw and down to the tender flesh
of her neck. Nipping ever so lightly, he slid his hands, down, down her sides
and up again while she traced her fingertips down the length of his back, taking
in every sinuous curve. "Let me see you," he whispered, tracing his
hand down the front of her robes. As he did so, the buttons unfastened,
revealing the soft ivory mounds of her breasts, flushed pink under his gaze.
Cassie leaned up a bit, shrugging out of the long sleeves and taking her time
with his frock coat, impatient for the first time with not being able to do
magic. Taking her hands in one of his, Severus saved her by repeating the same
gesture on himself before releasing her. She slid his now open frock coat and
shirtsleeves down his shoulders and arms in a slow, gliding caress, never taking
her eyes from his when she moved to undoing his trousers. Somehow, his boots
were off already as she helped him out of the rest. Finally, unencumbered by
their clothing, their gazes lingered over each other's bodies, taking in the
planes and angles as if committing them to memory.
    Again he covered her body with his, hands fisting in her
hair and claiming her mouth as his. Her hands sliding up into his hair, he began
a descent kissing first one breast, then the other. Teasing her nipples until
they were taut, tracing lazy circles around them with his tongue, lapping at the
underside of them, just at the swell of them. His hands traced down further,
lighting on the sensitive flesh of her belly as her own hands raked across muscular
shoulders. tracing the line of an old scar. His hands rough, fingers strong, he
slid them up her inner thighs, taking a moment to slide in and out of her
already wet folds, touching gently against her already swollen clitoris.
"Severus, please," she moaned, arching against expert hands. He rose
over her again, and at last they came together in an ancient dance, bodies
entwined, moving as one. Her legs wrapped around his hips as he sheathed himself
fully inside her and began to thrust, she lifted her own hips, matching him beat
for beat while her hands stroked down to cup his buttocks. He moaned into her
neck, building a steady momentum, nipples brushing against each other, he thrust
deeper, faster, as she pulled him into her. Their breaths quickening, muscles
tensing, nerves bunched, she cried out as she flew, higher on the edge of a
powerful orgasm as he gave one final thrust and climaxed, catching her mouth in
his as he pumped his seed into her. As they both lay panting, she framed his
face with her hands, peppering it with kisses before placing one lightly on his
chest before he buried his face in her hair and breathed deeply in the scent of
it.
    She woke the next morning curled into him with his arm
draped over her waist, her hand covering his. She lifted it, kissing his palm,
and opened her eyes. Seeing what awaited her, she lifted her head and glanced
around the room. Covering every flat surface, every table and shelf in the room,
were hundreds of roses. All different colors, some buds barely in bloom, others
a full riot of color, petals opened wide, their heady scent filled the room. As
she turned to face him, he tightened his grip pulling her closer and opening
sleepy eyes. "Merry Christmas," she whispered, kissing him lightly.
"I still owe you your presents."
    "You already gave me everything I want," he said
groggily. "Stay here a bit longer. love."
    "Okay." They can wait, she thought. Then she
chuckled as she finally registered the sound coming from somewhere under them.
    "What is it?"
    "I think we may have embarrassed Lump last night. It
sounds like he's snoring from under the bed."
    At this, Severus let out a full-bodied laugh, shifting her
over on top of him.
    "Listen to you," she chuckled. "Are you
happy, Professor?"
    "Quite. And love?"
    "Yeah?"
    "Let's scare him again, shall we?"
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Web of Redemption *COMPLETE*

Web of Redemption COMPLETE