Spinner's End

Chapter 14

September first came upon them too quickly. Severus felt a frenzy for the two weeks preceding the first of September as he prepared to be Hogwart’s new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He was doing research for Dumbledore, making reports to the Dark Lord and preparing a complete year lesson plan for all seven levels at the school in his new subject. He knew that Raven was also another complication in his life, however she was also an outlet for him. To her he confided some of his problems. Never did he call them fears, for that would bring too much burden upon himself, admitting that he may actually be afraid.

The evening of August thirty-first Raven and Severus sat in her kitchen eating a light meal. Raven looked across her modest dining table, which Severus had conjured for her. She wondered if he were going to actually come back and see her or if he was going to disappear away to his school and not come back. She thanked Byron for her newfound ability to feel insecure about men.

“How soon until you can make it back to see me?” She asked suddenly watching the swing of his dark hair as he moved to take a forkful of salad.

“Soon Love.” Severus responded casually, reaching for a roll on the table.

“Well, like when?” Raven persisted. She heard a touch of desperation tinge her voice.

Severus heard the desperation in her tone. He looked up at her through the part in his hair, his eyebrows raised, concern in his dark eyes. He set his fork on the plate. He tilted his head to the side then snaked his hand across the table to take her hand, he said, “Believe me when I tell you that me being away at that horrible school, even hundreds of miles from here is not going to allow you any time to find some young, tight tee-shirt wearing man to bring home.” He shot his eyebrow up in a quizzical look as though he had asked her a question.

Raven was accustomed to this tactic from him. She was sure it was something he used on his students. It was used to make the recipient start stammering an explanation to an unasked question.

“You are my only tight-tee-shirt wearer and anyway mister, I don’t know this place, maybe you are having a hot and heavy with the school nurse or something.” She countered.

Severus smiled at Raven, but on the inside he was elated that she was as worried about losing him as much as he was in losing her.

“The school nurse is about 40 or 50 years older than me.” He said and resumed eating. “She can’t keep up with me.” He added smoothly.

“Actually.” Raven said spreading some butter on a piece of roll, “ I heard it was the other way around.” She popped the piece of bread in her mouth raising her eyebrow at Severus as if in question.

He chuckled and shook his head.
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September first came and went in routine for Raven. She came and went to work on her regular schedule. She worried immensely about Severus. He had told her many aspects regarding his life and work. She too knew that he left vast portions out of his divulgence to her. He had told her that his new position at the school was cursed. In a conversation with anyone else, she would have thought the person unhinged to believe something like that, however with Severus and his crowd, as she referred to them in her mind, she doubted that the position was not cursed.

She had asked him if she could go and see Hogwarts and meet the people of whom he spoke. She explained to him how she desired to be a part of his world. Gripping her shoulders, he had explained to her that it was best for now to keep his life of magic separate from her non-magical existence. It had unsettled him while he had explained that if witches and wizards were aware of her and his feelings toward her that there could be grave danger for her. He told her that if the Dark Lord were defeated, given his ever-growing disdain for everyone and everything in the magical world, he would consider joining her in the Muggle world. Raven felt so much fear through him regarding this Dark Lord character that she never pressed the issue again.

True to his word, Severus was never gone from Raven for long. Often he would be awaiting her arrival when she came home form work. The first such occasion she had open the door to her pink sitting room only to find a grand marble hall. Severus had made the entire ugly house into a palace fit for a king. He made marble floors, elegant velvet drapes at the windows, which now looked out over vast gardens. Gone was Raven’s meager furniture, replaced with ornate Rococo furnishings.

They spent a lovely evening together. Raven had begged him to leave the palace for her, to which he had responded that it could cause her problems if anyone discovered it. He also told her that he could get in trouble too as wizards weren’t technically supposed to do such things to muggle buildings. She didn’t seem to care about any of that. She stuck out her lower lip trying a pouting look to get her way. To which Severus just laughed and began kissing her protruding lower lip.

Often times he would complain about various students to her. Raven, having been a mediocre student at best could empathize more with the students as she imagined Severus was probably quite the taskmaster. She always tried to explain to him how the student was probably feeling and why they had acted a certain way. The only student she knew never to defend was the kid named ‘Harry’ or just ‘Potter’. Severus seemed to reserve some special emotions for that particular kid. Raven avoided all subjects regarding him.

Severus found it amusing that Raven sided with the student nine times out of ten. Sometimes he just made up strange stories to see what she would say in their defense.
He had once told her that his head had been enlarged to five times its normal size by a dunder-headed first year. Raven had merely asked if it was painful.

Severus actually found it easier to visit Raven from Hogwarts than when he had been staying across the street from her. He delighted in surprising Raven by making her house opulent in whatever style he could imagine. He had been happy to get rid of the old dilapidated smelly sofa and also made her other new furniture, fitting what one would expect in the neighbor hood and in that type house. Severus had to keep his emotional tie to Raven hidden from Peter Pettigrew, to Dumbledore though, he could release more. When he desired to see Raven he only had to be sure that Dumbledore was not leaving the castle at the same time. Severus was disturbed only slightly that Dumbledore would never tell him exactly where he went on his night time excursions. He was more annoyed that he was dragging the Potter kid with him. Severus felt that Harry Potter from the first day he had laid eyes on him was somehow going to be the bane of his existence.