#8 ~ A Rather Catty Situation

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JKR (except Odessa Divine). All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 15 ~ Confrontation and Questionable Contracts

The next morning Odessa woke early, showered, dressed and cracked the door to her rooms, watching for Hermione and Severus to leave for breakfast, so she could join them, seemingly by coincidence. When she heard the Potions office door open, she stepped out into the hallway.

“Good morning,” she called to the couple, approaching them.

Severus turned on Odessa wearing the blackest, most furious scowl she had ever seen. He looked like he wanted to say something, but then his black eyes shifted to his wife, and he stalked off wordlessly, leaving Hermione to deal with Odessa.

Odessa knew immediately that her kiss, intended to interest the Potions Master, had the opposite effect, and worse, by the glint in Hermione’s eye, she could tell that the witch suspected her of being more than interested in her husband. Shit.

Hermione walked up to her. Odessa was aware of something distinctly feline in her walk, and fought back the urge to hiss at her.

“Odessa, why did you kiss my husband last night?” Hermione asked with no pretense of trying to be tactful.

“Kiss?” Odessa said blankly. “Oh, you mean the ‘thank you’ peck I gave him? I was just being polite,” she purred. Hermione frowned at her.

“You haven’t known him long enough to be that ‘polite’,” Hermione said evenly, “and if you did know him, you’d know that he doesn’t appreciate that kind of personal intrusion. He is very livid with you, and would have given you a good dressing down if I hadn’t interceded.” Hermione paused, then said, “And I am not very happy with you either. He is my husband. You had no right to put your lips on him. A spoken ‘thank you’ would have been enough.”

“Well, I didn’t realized that he was so uptight,” Odessa retorted defensively, “or that you were so insecure. It isn’t as if I shagged him. It was just a thank you kiss.”

Hermione had a strong urge to slap Odessa. Or worse, beat her to a pulp. She felt like every hair on her body were standing on end. Then she looked at the witch, closely, her eyes widening. A cold feeling began to form in her belly as she realized where she had seen her before. The astral plane. Odessa was the very image of the woman her husband was fucking in her worst fear scenario. Rage started creeping over Hermione, and she clenched her fists to keep from physically grabbing the witch.

“You stay away from Severus, “ Hermione hissed, her eyes blazing, lips curling into the perfect facsimile of a snarl. “I know what you want!”

Odessa was taken aback by Hermione’s sudden accusation and ultimatum. Where the hell had that come from? Her hackles began to rise, and if she had been in animagus form, her back would have arched to the ceiling.

“And what is it you think I want from your husband?” she snarled back at the Spells Mistress.

“Him,” Hermione spat back, “and he is mine. All of him.”

Odessa began to walk away. “You’re crazy,” she said as she put distance between them.

“You try and get your claws in him, Odessa, and you’ll see just how crazy I can be,” Hermione called after her, not trusting herself to follow. “And keep that damned cat away from my door or I’ll turn it into a pair of furry slippers!”

Odessa flicked her arm at Hermione in a disdainful gesture, and headed for the Great Hall.

Hermione fell back against the wall, feeling nauseous. She really wouldn’t hurt an animal. She was just so furious at the woman she said the first threatening thing that popped into her head. Hermione held her stomach as she took several deep breaths. It wasn’t helping. Hot saliva was welling up in her mouth. Covering it, she ran back into the office, pushed through the bookshelf door and just made it to the loo before she vomited. She had nothing in her stomach, so all that came up was a bit of yellow fluid. Still she wretched. Finally after a few minutes, the queasiness passed. She walked over to the sink, and turned on the cold water spigot. She let it run a few seconds, then cupped her hand under the flow and drank deeply. She rubbed a little water over her face, and looked in the small mirror over the basin. She was very pale.

Still feeling a little sick, she was no longer hungry. She dried off her face with a hand towel and walked into the study, flopping down in the armchair before the fire, trying to process what just happened and Odessa’s presence at Hogwarts. She assumed that her worst fear was something that was drummed up from her imagination. But Odessa was real, flesh and blood, not a creation of her mind. Was her fear really a premonition? She felt chilled. Severus up to this point seemed to loathe the woman. But when Hermione attended Hogwarts, he had loathed her as a student, or at least that was what it seemed like. Later, he had explained the reasons why he treated her as he did, to challenge her, to make her stronger, and to insert a bit of cold, cruel reality into her life before all the constant praise and fawning of her other professors swelled her head and she really did become an insufferable know-it-all with no backbone, who felt she could do no wrong and make no errors.

Hermione was certain Odessa wanted to fuck her husband. She could see it in the woman’s eyes when she accused her. Plus, she didn’t deny she wanted him, but walked away. If she had no designs on him, she would have at least tried to deny it. Hermione had no doubt she could beat Odessa down into a greasy puddle, and although that would be satisfying, it would probably cost her position at Hogwarts. Although she was now a rich woman as the wife of Severus, and really didn’t need to work, Hermione needed her job for other reasons, the primary one being the challenge to her mind. Without challenge, she would fall apart. In addition, if she were away from Hogwarts, Odessa would have more opportunity to make a play for her husband.

Hermione trusted Severus implicitly, but Odessa was, let’s face it, a real sexpot. And even the best men could still be turned on physically by a beautiful, willing woman. If she caught him right, it could be possible he’d respond. That was the way men were made, to respond to breasts, hips and thighs automatically. Severus loved Hermione deeply, but she didn’t want him tested this way. Hermione would have to tell him who Odessa was, and what she represented.

Dear gods, how could this have happened? How could she have seen Odessa before she knew the woman existed? Then she remembered listening to a wizard on the wireless wizarding network, who was explaining his theory on how time worked on the astral planes. She had half listened, not believing in other planes at that time. He said that on earth, people lived a linear exsistence, able only to move from point to point in time, unable to see the next point until the arrived, and unable to return to the previous point after passing it. On the astral plane however, a being is beyond time, and can look down on it, like a river, seeing the entire stream of past, present and future at once. Hermione could only surmise that she had subconsciously tapped into that river of time and pulled Odessa out like a big, horrible, green-eyed fish from the future, and placed her in the midst of her present deepest fear. The wizard also said that time is like a fluid, and its future flow can be broken by individual events, plopping into it like stones, causing ripples that change the flow. So nothing in the future is assured.

So maybe what she witnessed in the astral plane was just a possibility. Maybe by finding out Odessa’s motives, she had cast the stone to disrupt that future, and that action would keep her from getting to Severus.

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Odessa stormed through the halls, bumping into to students without notice or apology, wanting to rake the little bitch’s eyes out of her head. Hermione was going to ruin everything. She walked into the Great Hall, her eyes narrowing as they fell on Severus, who glared at her as she passed. Shit.

Marcus was seated in his normal place, eating biscuits and gravy. He looked up and raised his bushy brows as Odessa approached, her green eyes glittering, her mouth pursed angrily. Uh, oh, she was pretty pissed about something. He noticed Severus glaring after her. Ooh, something juicy must have gone down.

Odessa dropped in the chair beside him, looked at him and said, “Okay.”

Marcus looked at her blankly. “Okay?” he repeated.

She looked at him with distaste.

“Okay, I will do what you want for that information. I need it,” she said, giving him a hard look.

Marcus smiled broadly, mentally rubbing his hands together as his violet eyes swept over her. Which end would he start with first?

“But…” Odessa said.

Marcus ceased his mental gloating. ‘But’ was always bad.

“But what?” he asked her.

“There are going to be rules as what you can and cannot do. And what to expect from me. You have to follow them or I assure you, there will be bad consequences,” she hissed.

Marcus looked at her.

“I can fuck you, right?” he asked.

Odessa sighed. She knew the bastard would go right to the point.

“Yes,” she said tightly.

“Well, as long as I can do that, then whatever rules you have, I’ll follow,” he said, leaning a bit closer to her. This sounded intriguing. “What are the rules?” he asked, his voice seething with curiosity.

“The major rule is you don’t try to make me climax,” she said.

“What?” Marcus asked, amazed. No climax! Hell that was part of the fun. Of course, it wasn’t necessary for him to make a woman to come to get his own rocks off, but he preferred to. It was an ego thing. He had never fucked a woman without making her come. Odessa was really strange.

“Why not?” he asked.

“There are reasons, believe me,” she said evasively.

Marcus was really curious now. What would happen if she came? He’d love to find out.

“Okay, no climax,” he agreed, having no intentions of getting off her until she was howling his name. And that meant the big O. He was sure she’d love it after it hit her. He licked his lips.

“And no kissing. Having you fuck me is bad enough. No oral sex either. And you can’t be seen coming to my rooms. When you come, you have to leave immediately. And I mean immediately. Pull out and go. No chit chat, no lounging,” she said, “you can give me the information later. Not then. Later.”

“You have a floo?” Marcus asked her, looking at her full, red lips. He would have loved to shove his cock deep in her mouth and gag her with it, she was such a bitch.

“Yes,” Odessa replied.

“I’ll use that. No one will see me arrive, or leave,” he said, enjoying the clandestineness of it all. His eyes fell on her curves. Odessa sure knew how to wear her robes.

“When?” Marcus asked, feeling himself hardening at the thought of fucking her. Good thing he wore his robes to breakfast. He would have been busting out of his jeans. He knew Odessa didn’t want him, and that made this conquest all the sweeter. It wasn’t non-consensual, but close enough to it where his darker urges would be satisfied. He hadn’t had an unwilling woman in ages, since he was an Eradicator, and making an unwilling woman come was so, so satisfying.

“As soon as possible. I need to do some damage control,” she replied, her eyes dark as she looked at him. It wasn’t the same kind of dark gaze that Hermione gave her husband. This was more of a look of deep hatred. Marcus was the kind of wizard Odessa despised. The kind who would manipulate a woman to get his own ends, the hell with what she wanted. If the situation was different, and she wasn’t at Hogwarts…she might have accepted him into her bed for an entirely different reason. But again, he had something she needed.

“How about tonight, after supper?” he asked, almost holding his breath.

Odessa looked at him, hating the eagerness and anticipation behind those violet eyes. The sooner she got this over with, the better.

“Fine. Nine o’clock is good,” she said quietly, surrendering.

Marcus heard the defeat in her voice, and his cock gave a throb. Oh yeah, baby. He’d won this one. He didn’t feel any remorse at what he was going to do to Odessa. She was after a married man after all, so that didn’t say much for her morals. As far as he was concerned, he was just cashing in on an opportunity that fell into his lap. He was going to enjoy this. It was clear to see that Odessa was one of those women who thought she was above the reach of mortal men. She knew she was beautiful and that most men wanted her on sight. And she treated them like they were shit.

“Well boys, I’ll be sure to give her the old heave ho for the brothers that aren’t here,” he thought lasciviously.

He knew she wasn’t all there either. Pining for Snape. Shit. What was it about the Potions Master that he attracted such twisted women? Women willing to do anything for him? Well, from what he had witnessed, he knew Snape could lay some serious pipe on a woman. But they didn’t know that at first. Maybe it was the dark wizard thing. Marcus was dark, but didn’t appear so. He hid it pretty well. It only showed in his actions and motivations for the most part. And when he got angry, which he avoided as much as possible. But Snape, in his severe dress, curt manner and lurking in dungeons brewing gods knew what, reeked of darkness. He seemed like the kind of man who would torture women before he fucked them. Maybe that was it. The danger of pain. Hermione certainly liked him to manhandle her. Well, if that was what Odessa needed, he could give it to her just as good as Snape could. And would.

Marcus drank the last of his milk down, then leaned into Odessa. She smelled like roses. He liked roses. She drew back. He smiled.

“I’ll see you tonight, then,” he said with an unmistakable note of promise in his voice that was lost on Odessa. She didn’t respond as he rose and left the hall. She looked down at her empty plate and murmured her meal request. A truly bloody steak appeared, along with some steak fries. She cut into it, imagining it was Marcus’ cock under her knife.

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Cassandra’s eyes flew open, and she sat up on her grass mat. Marcus. She seemed to listen a moment, then shook her head.

Ah, dragon man, you can’t seem to change. You still have wicked, wicked ways. Your darkness is still too strong, always wanting what you shouldn’t have. Always running to danger’,” she whispered into the darkness

The Obeah lay back on the mat, looking up at the thatch ceiling. She wasn’t angry with Marcus. She knew he wasn’t ready for a relationship. She didn’t know if he would ever be. But she knew he cared about her in his own way, more than any other woman, and the time they spent together was sweet and real, if not intimate. There was no pretense between them. He couldn’t help who he was or what he was. Life had made him that way. Still, her brow furrowed. Marcus, through his manipulations had brought this on himself, by taking advantage of a woman who wasn’t all there. Cassandra knew Odessa’s true nature, and Marcus was in way over his head.

“I love you dragon man, but this time…you’re going to have to pull your own ass out the fire. May the spirits of your ancestors be with you as you take this journey,” she prayed quietly, “ Maybe I will see you again.”

Cassandra closed her eyes and returned to the world of her dreams.

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A/N: Man, things are getting stressful. Hermione knows Odessa wants Severus. Marcus thinks he’s won and will be getting what he wants. Cassandra isn’t going to help him out if he finds trouble this time. :::shaking head:::: Messy. Messy. Let’s see what happens next chapter. Please review.