#6 ~ A Matter of Matrimony

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JKR (except Marcus Delaluci). All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 19 ~ The Serpent and Dragon Dance

Severus apparated outside the club and strode past the long line of waiting patrons to grumbles and muttered threats. He totally ignored this as he walked up the stairs and approached the two huge bouncers at the door. They looked at him blankly.

“I need to get into this club immediately, “ he said in a low voice, scowling at the two wizards.

“Well, you have to get in line like everybody else, Mister,” growled the bouncer that checked the wands, taking a deep breath and seeming to double his size. It was illusion of course.

Severus gripped his wand tightly in his robes pocket. If he had to hex his way in…

“Hold it,” Mathias said, putting his hand on the other bouncer’s arm to restrain him. Mathias eyed Severus up and down.

“Ain’t you that Professor Snape guy?” he asked, his eyes widening.

“Yes, I am, “ Severus said, wondering how the bouncer knew this.

Mathias grinned. “You’re the guy who duped Voldemort all those years!” He elbowed his fellow bouncer. “Yo! Bultruss, this is the guy who spied on the Dark Lord and suffered all those Unforgivables, man! He’s a fucking hero!”

Severus winced a bit at this loud pronunciation. The line of patrons were now leaning forward, looking curiously at him. He didn’t need this attention now. Severus looked at Mathias with a little less of a scowl.

“I would prefer to be incognito, if you don’t mind, Mr…”

“Mathias,” the bouncer offered.

“Mr. Mathias,” Severus repeated after him, “I’d preferred my identity not be so openly referred to. I don’t need to be mobbed by autograph hounds at this particular point in time.” He looked at the mustached bouncer pointedly.

Mathias winked at him, “Sure thing, Mr. Snape sir. I understand completely. Must not be easy to be a celebrity.”

“No, it isn’t.,” Snape said dryly, “Now, may I please go in?”

“Sure thing. But you have to check your wand at the door,” Mathias said as Bultruss ran the magic detector over Severus’ person with no reaction.

“My wand?” Snape said, starting to bristle.

Mathias pointed to a little window. Severus could see tagged wands stacked in piles on a counter. He removed his wand and handed it to Mathias, who tagged it and stamped Severus’ hand with a fluorescent double-headed dragon with the number four hundred and four beneath it, and checked it under a black light.

“You’re good Mr. Snape, sir, “ Mathias grinned at him, his gap showing, “You can go on in.”

Severus started to enter, than paused.

“Is magic allowed in this club?” he asked.

“No sir. There’s a magic dampening field surrounding the whole area. You can’t work magic within a hundred yards of this place. Too many duels. We just take the wands and charms for extra security. You never know when someone’s developed a new spell that can break the field.”

“Thank you,” Severus said, entering the club.

The club was too loud, with too many lights, and too many people. They had to be breaking some kind of health code. Severus worked his way through the crowd, looking for Marcus and Hermione. A woman caught him by the arm.

“Hey, tall, pale and dangerous,” she purred, looking up at the Potions Master. Severus fixed her with one of his most potent glares. The woman’s eyes widened, and she melted back into the crowd. He smirked. He still had it. He pressed on, looking over the heads of the milling, gyrating crowd in the direction of the tables lining the wall. Then he saw Hermione. She was drinking a out of a large goblet. She set it down, stood up and started to dance her way into the crowd, Marcus following her like a big lap dog. By the way she was moving, Severus knew she had drank too much. And that meant trouble. He pushed his way through the throng, trying to reach them before Hermione clicked over into sex mode.

When next he saw her, he knew it was too late. Marcus was all over her. Severus’ blood ran cold as he saw the blonde wizard run his hands down Hermione’s thighs and press her into him. A rage began to build inside him, and he felt as if he were going into berserker mode, without his sword, which was impossible. He swallowed, and forced himself to calm as he worked his way toward them, but was blocked by a group of wriggling women, who tried to pull him into their dance. By the time he broke away, Marcus was kissing Hermione deeply, and she was responding. He saw Marcus whisper something in her ear, and Hermione’s eyes glazed over and she replied nodding. By Marcus’ reaction, he knew what she’d agreed to. Marcus began pulling her off the dance floor, and Severus changed direction, seeking to head them off. He met them at the edge of the dancers, his arms folded, his black eyes glittering with fury.

Marcus bumped right into him, towing Hermione behind. She was still moving to the music.

“Shit,” Marcus thought as he looked into the Potions Master’s furious expression. Damn it! He pulled Hermione around so she stood between them and released her. She was still gyrating to the music, her eyes closed in abandon. Severus’ eyes ran over her, softening for a moment, then snapped back to Marcus’ violet ones, which were still normal at this point.

“Planning on going somewhere, Mr. Delaluci?” Severus said in a dangerous voice.

“As a matter of fact, we were,” Marcus replied, his eyes flicking over the dancing Hermione meaningfully, “Hermione here has an itch she told me she wanted scratched, so we were on our way to take care of it,” here Marcus leaned in, “She told me she wanted me, Snape. It’s consensual. That’s all you need to know.”

“She’s drunk, Mr. Delaluci. She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Severus replied, holding his eyes steadily to the blonde wizard’s, willing himself to stay calm.

Marcus watched Hermione swing her hips suggestively, “I don’t know about that,” he said, his eyes focused on her ass lustfully, “she looks like she knows what she’s doing to me.”

Severus was about to reply when Hermione blurted in sexily, “Boys, you don’t have to fight over me, there’s plenty to go around,” before spinning away.

“Hermione!” Severus cried out, shocked.

Marcus chuckled, looking after her, then looked back at Severus, his eyes telescoping slightly.

“Maybe we should both fuck her, Snape. Seems she’s up for it, and it would solve this little standoff nicely,” he said smoothly. He was serious, “Who would have known that beneath that bookish exterior lay the heart and soul of a total slut.”

That was it. Severus drew back and punched Marcus in the face with all his might. Blood flew as Marcus staggered back into the crowd, who caught him with a joyous yell and threw him back toward Severus. Marcus was clutching his busted nose, but managed to hit Severus with a staggering right hook, knocking him into the guardrail.

The two bouncers came rushing in. Mathias quickly assessed the situation, and held Bultruss back. “Look, it’s Mr. Snape and Marcus.”

He shot Bultruss a sly look, “Hey mate, why don’t we just let them have at it, eh? They ain’t using magic, so most likely all they’ll do is tear up the place a little. We can fix that. What you say?”

Bultruss watched as Severus charged and caught Marcus around the waist, bringing him down to the floor, robes billowing, his fist pounding away at the blonde wizards face as they wrestled. The crowd backed up to let them fight, cheering. Hermione was still dancing, oblivious to the mayhem behind her.

“All right, mate,” Bultruss replied in a deep base voice, “Ten galleons on Marcus.”

“Done,” said Mathias, giving his partner’s hand a quick pump, before settling in to watch the two grappling wizards.

Marcus had managed to partially roll over on top of Severus, who was busy trying to get his legs around those of the larger wizard. Marcus gave him a hell of a kidney punch, and Severus retched for a moment before digging his thumbs into Marcus’ eyes, making the wizard cry out and kick away from the Potions Master. They both leapt to their feet.

With a snarl, Marcus threw both of his hands forward, palms facing Severus. A weak ripple resulted, and that was all.

“No magic in this place, mate!” called Mathias loudly, “you got to beat him fair and square.”

“Shit,” Marcus thought as Severus flew at him, foot extended in a nasty front kick. Marcus managed to spin away, avoiding him. Severus landed in a crouch and spun, his black eyes hungry for blood. His eyes flicked over to Hermione, who was still dancing. The only one, as the rest of the crowd was watching Marcus and he, money exchanging hands.

Marcus charged him and he met him mid-way. Both men wrestled furiously, trying to get a hold and slipping free, connecting with an errant punch here and there. Marcus managed to get both arms around Severus, and squeezed him so tightly, Severus’eyes bugged out, before he gave the blonde wizard a crushing head butt which forced Marcus to release him. They both staggered back, dazed. Severus was the first to recover, and once again smashed Marcus in the face, knocking him to the floor. Marcus swept Severus’ leg out from under him, bringing the wizard down to one knee, then caught him with a left hook that nearly spun him like a break-dancer.

Hermione was starting to realize no one else was dancing. She turned and saw two men on the floor, rolling around. It looked funny to her, and she giggled. But then her eyes began to focus, and she saw Severus, then Marcus, locked in battle. It must have shocked her system because she let out a scream that made everyone look at her.

“Stop it!” she cried, running forward, “Severus! Marcus!”

“Somebody grab her!” Mathias shouted, laughing, “’fore she breaks up the fight and makes everybody lose their money!”

Several hands reached out from the crowd and held Hermione back. She struggled, too inebriated to really fight. After a while she just stood there, horrified, watching the two main men in her life at this moment try to beat each other to a pulp.

Both men were on their feet now, Marcus with his back against the guardrail and Severus with his back to the crowd, who were cheering and hooting for them to continue. Both men were breathing deeply, trying to catch their breath, looking for an opening. Severus’ mouth was bleeding from the corner and he had a nasty bruise on his right cheek. His side hurt terribly. One of Marcus’ eyes was swelling, and his nose was broken, blood still leaking from it. He was missing a tooth.

“Not bad for a dungeon crawler,” Marcus panted, feeling his nose. Suddenly he reached over the guardrail and grasped a chair, flinging it with all his might at Severus, who leaped over it. It crashed into the crowd. Several wizards and a woman fell to the floor as the crowd cheered and moved back collectively.

“Don’t worry. We got healing draughts out back!” Mathias cried, swaying and dodging a bit as he watched the two wizards.

Severus grabbed the chair and rushed at Marcus, bringing it down on the larger wizard’s arm, which was thrown up to protect his head. The chair shattered, and so did Marcus’ arm. He yelled in pain and tried to spin away from Severus, who wasn’t having any of it, and caught Marcus by his injured arm and pulled him into him, stunning him with a right cross. Then he locked him with his back against the guardrail and started pummeling the wizard in his face with terrible, crushing blows, knocking his head back, spittle flying from the blonde wizard’s mouth.

Marcus’ legs were buckling, and still Severus didn’t stop. He beat Marcus viciously, clearly intending to kill the man with his bare hands. Marcus leaned back over the guardrail, arms slack and unresponsive as Severus continued to beat him. Finally, Mathias and Bultruss rushed forward and pulled the Potions Master away. Marcus slumped to the floor unconscious as Severus wrestled with the two men, intent on finishing the job. Finally, he calmed and they released him. Severus looked down at the unconscious wizard, and stifled the urge to kick him in the face. He straightened his robes, and turned to look at Hermione, who was silent now, her eyes wide as she looked at him. He was a mess. He started to walk to her and winced. He was sure he had a cracked rib or two.

The crowd released Hermione. Severus strode up to her, fighting the pain in his side, and looked down at her imperiously, his eyes dark and intense. He held out his arm.

“If you love me, if you trust me, if you believe in me, Hermione, take my arm and come with me…if not, stay with him.” Severus said in a low voice.

Hermione looked up at him, the man she loved, and then at the wizard that was her friend, crumpled and bleeding on the floor. Something had gone on here, something that she didn’t understand.

“Will you tell me?” she asked timidly,” tell me everything?”

Severus looked down at her.

“I will do better than that. I will show you, but first we need to get back to Hogwarts. I need to tend to my wounds. Take my arm, Hermione, and if you do, know I will never let it go again.”

Hermione slipped her arm through Severus’ and he pulled her to him for support, as they slowly walked through the cheering crowd.

Mathias ran up to them, his big hands full of galleons.

“So pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Snape. Marcus needed his ass kicked. He’s an arrogant git. You’re welcome back any time, sir.”

Severus paused. “Don’t hold your breath,” he said tiredly. He and Hermione continued on, Severus wincing at the occasional slap on the back he was getting from members of the crowd. He had made some of them a bunch of galleons. He had been the underdog.

Outside, Hermione collected their wands while Severus leaned against the wall, holding his cracked ribs. She helped him down the stairs to the perimeter of the dampening spell and they both disapparated.

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A/N Well they didn’t duel, but I’m sure Severus was satisfied beating Marcus to a pulp. Nothing like being hands on. Please review.