#8 ~ A Rather Catty Situation

Chapter 11 ~ Odessa Arrives in the Dungeons


Finished with her lunch, Odessa clandestinely watched Hermione and Severus finish their meal. She was interrupted several times in her surveillance by other staff members welcoming her to Hogwarts. She made small talk and sent them on their way. When she saw Severus pull out his wife’s chair, she hurriedly picked up her bag and approached them.

“Excuse me,” she said. Both Hermione and Severus turned. Hermione smiled at the woman, while Severus looked at her expressionless.

“Yes, Miss Divine?” Hermione said pleasantly.

Odessa smiled at her.

“I need to get down to my rooms to unpack. I understand we are neighbors. Would you mind if I accompanied you?” she asked the witch, trying not to look at the Potions Master.

“Certainly,” replied Hermione, “We’d be happy to show you the way, wouldn’t we, Severus?”
She said this rather pointedly. Severus’ drew his brows together.

“Delighted,” he said sarcastically.

His tone wasn’t lost on Odessa, but she pretended not to notice as she followed them from the Great Hall. Severus put his stride on and walked several feet ahead of the women, his robes billowing. He didn’t intend to put in any extra time showing Miss Divine around. She was beautiful all right, but reminded him of Bellatrix, except for the green eyes and curvier body. She had a kind of animal magnetism about her. Something distinctly feline. But other than that, he saw nothing special about her and certainly didn’t want to be in her presence any longer than necessary.

Hermione walked alongside Odessa, occasionally looking sidelong at her, trying to remember where they might have met. Finally she asked,

“Miss Divine, have we met before?”

“No, I don’t believe we have Lady Snape, and please, call me Odessa,” she said with a smile.

“Only if you’ll call me, Hermione,” Hermione replied, gracing Odessa with a smile of her own.

Odessa nodded her head toward the scowling wizard in front of them.

“Your husband doesn’t seem very pleased to have me tagging along,” she observed.

Hermione grimaced a little.

“Well, he can be a bit aloof. It’s not you. He’s like this with everyone,” she said.

“Even you?” Odessa asked.

Hermione grinned.

“Not so much with me. I’m his wife after all. I can make life miserable for him in a number of nasty little ways,” she laughed. Odessa gave her a wry smile.

“You’ll get used to him,” Hermione added.

“I intend to,” Odessa thought. Then out loud she said, “Well, he’s going to be showing me around the lower levels later. Is there anything I can do to make him less…er…aloof?”

Hermione thought about this.

“Yes. Firstly, bring a quill and parchment and write down whatever instructions he gives you. He hates to be asked about something more than once,” she told the witch.

“All right. Anything else?” Odessa urged.

“Well he’s not much for small talk, so he might get a little snarky if you try to engage him in conversation not related to the tour of the lower levels. I would suggest sticking to questions that you really need to ask.”

Hermione lowered her voice.

“He’s not very sociable. He’s brilliant, dedicated to his work, but not sociable. Just remember that if he says something hurtful. It’s just the way he is with people,” she said, trying to apologize in advance.

“I understand,” Odessa said. So the witch assumed that her husband wouldn’t be amicable to a little friendly chitchat. Well, she’d just have to test that theory. They arrived at their rooms. Severus unwarded his office and entered without a word. Hermione and Odessa stopped in front of the Potions office. Hermione pointed down the hall.

“Your rooms are right down there. They should be unlocked. You can place your own wards on the doors once you get settled in,” Hermione said, “Do you need any help unpacking?”

“Oh no,” Odessa replied, “I’ll be fine. Thank you for showing me the way, Hermione.”

“You’re very welcome. If you need anything, just knock. I’ll be glad to help you, Odessa, ” Hermione replied stepping through the office door.

“Ok,” the black-hair witch said with a smile, “I guess I’ll see you later, then. Bye.”

“Bye,” Hermione said, closing the door.

Odessa stood there a moment, then headed down to her own rooms. Professor Snape was being less than cooperative already, and she had seen that he didn’t have the reaction to her that most men did. That fell in line with her view of him not being like other men. Of course he wouldn’t throw himself at a woman because she was sexy and beautiful. He wasn’t an animal like other men. He had pride, and was selective. A woman would have to offer more to turn his head. She wondered what Hermione had offered him. She was pretty, yes, but seemed a little, well bookish and reserved. She had a fair body, but certainly was no sexpot. And compared to her own ample charms in both the looks and body department, Hermione faded away into the background like morning mist before the sun.

Well, she had landed the man somehow, so that meant he could be reached. Plus he had been with Hermione for several years…the fires must have died down by now. They were married after all, and familiarity was supposed to breed a modicum of contempt. He might be in the place where something new might appeal to him. But how to offer it without chancing him distancing himself from her? She had a lot to think about. And there was always the third option if all else failed. She clasped her bag to her tighter as she arrived at the door to her rooms. She opened the door and walked in, setting her bag down in the center of the room. She looked around.

She was in a study/living room. There was a couch, two end tables, and two comfortable looking armchairs set in front of the fireplace. There was a bookcase on one side of the wall, and a liquor cabinet. There was also a window, spelled to look as if it opened on the Hogwarts grounds even though she was in the dungeons. That was a nice touch.

There were two doors off the living room area. She opened the first. It was her bedroom. It had a large four-poster bed with blue silk sheets and a comforter, along with an assortment of pillows. There was also a bedside table, dresser and large stand-alone closet. She walked into the loo. It came equipped with a marble bathtub that could fit two people comfortably and a number of faucets surrounding it. There was also a separate shower and sink, and shelves for her personal items. She exited the bedroom and checked the other room. It was empty except for a desk and chair. It had shelving built into the wall, and a smaller room for storage. That would be perfect for her Snape memorabilia. It would serve as her shrine to all things Severus. It wouldn’t do to have his pictures all over her rooms. Someone might see, and she wanted him all for herself. That would be the first room she worked on. Humming, she took out her wand and levitated the box holding her most treasured items into the smaller room and started sorting them out.

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Back in his office, Marcus sat at his desk, thinking about Odessa Divine. She oozed sex, and was used to men bending to her will, he could tell. Well, Marcus planned to be bending something, but it wasn’t his will. What kept him from being swept up like most of the other males in Hogwarts, was that Marcus always took the women he wanted, with the exception of Cassandra. He had never let a woman lead him around by his cock, and had always found a way to get at a woman he wanted. With the exception of Hermione. He had come close though. He didn’t give women the power, and so Odessa wouldn’t be able to exercise any power of persuasion over him. If she wanted information from him, she was going to have to give up the goodies. Plain and simple. And he needed some goodies badly.

Marcus sighed. This was going to place him back at square one with Cassandra, but he hadn’t made it to square two yet anyway, and it had been months. A man has needs. He pushed the Obeah to the back of his mind, uncomfortably aware that she probably already knew his intentions. He couldn’t hide anything from her. But she also accepted him as he was, so he knew she wouldn’t turn him away as her ‘special friend’ as she liked to refer to him.

He had a feeling about Odessa. She seemed a little off. Not quite right. And it wasn’t her love of bloody meat that threw him. It was something in her eyes. She had a secret of some kind, he was sure…something other than her weird fixation on the Potions Master. She wasn’t into dark magic he was sure, his talent would have warned him. But there was a sense of danger about her, which kind of appealed to him actually. He liked living on the edge. He knew one thing though, he wasn’t going to tell her anything before he got what he wanted. He had a feeling this was the safest route to go with the woman. As long as he had something to offer her, she’d be compliant. He had a feeling she could be quite a handful if he didn’t have leverage. He had no idea how right he was.

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“Severus! That was just plain rude!” Hermione scolded her husband, who looked totally unrepentant of his treatment of Odessa after lunch.

“Hermione, I was just being the way I always am,” he grumped, “I have to be with the woman for probably two or three hours tonight, as she pokes around the lower levels, asking me all kinds of stupid questions that I’ll have to answer. Why would I want to spend even more time with her? I’m sure you told her what she needed to know.”

Hermione put her hands on her hips.

“That’s not the point, Severus. You could have at least spoken to her,” she said.

“I did speak to her. I said we’d be delighted to show her to her rooms,” he replied, scowling at his wife.

“You said one word. One word, Severus,” Hermione countered.

“Yes. But it covered all I needed to say to her at that time,” he retorted.

“Severus, I want you to be nice to her,” Hermione said, walking up to Severus and glowering at him.

Severus looked shocked.

“Nice? Hermione, you know I don’t do ‘nice’. Particularly with pain-in-the-ass staff members who cut into my time,” he snorted.

“You will be nice, or I won’t be…understand? And I can be ‘not nice’ for quite a while, if you remember,” she said warningly.

He did remember. Hermione had cut him off sexually for almost two weeks because of some inane argument they had. And when Hermione cut him off, she made sure that every night she came to bed smelling wonderful, her hair brushed and shining, wearing her silkiest, shortest nightwear, or just panties, and taunting him horribly the entire time until he broke down like a little bitch and apologized. Of course, he fucked the shit out of her afterwards, but she enjoyed it immensely, so it was a hollow sense of vindication. But he didn’t want to go through that again.

“Hermione, don’t you think asking me to be ‘nice’ is a bit much?” he said reasonably, “how about being more ‘patient’? I will try to be ‘patient’ with her. How’s that?”

Hermione considered him a moment.

“I don’t want you insulting her intelligence, or making her feel insignificant, or an undue burden,” Hermione said, eyeing him.

Severus was with her up to item three. Odessa was an undue burden. This whole situation was a burden.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione had her arms crossed and that “not nice for weeks” look in her eyes. He shut it and sighed.

“Very well, Hermione,” he conceded, still scowling.

Gods, he wished for the good old days when he could just order her to the bedroom and make her forget everything and everyone but him. One good screw and he could tell Odessa what he really thought of her infringing on his time without any fear of repercussions from Hermione. But marrying her was the best thing he could have ever done for himself, and he had no regrets.

She rewarded him with a smile and a kiss.

“Thank you, Severus,” she beamed, “it’s hard enough being in a strange, new place without being made to feel unwelcome.”

Severus grunted. Hermione looked at the clock and gave him a wicked smile.

“Since you have the afternoon off, and I’m all caught up with my spell work for today, how about I break out the relaxo spell and show you how thankful I am?”

Severus looked up her sharply as if she were playing with him.

“Really?” he asked.

She nodded.

Well, things were looking up.

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A/N: Sorry no lemons with this chapter. Hermione really knows how to put Severus in a good mood, doesn’t she? Next chapter, Severus takes Odessa to the lower levels. Please review.