The Prince in Exile

The Prince in Exile

Chapter Two:  Wine and Sympathy







\"I hope that I am welcome,\" she said, her smile broadening to reveal
her
exquisitely white, perfectly straight teeth.

\"Of course.  Won\'t you come in?\" he asked, bowing once more and
gesturing
toward the interior of the cave.

She nodded and brushed past him.  He took a moment to carefully
scan
the countryside once more before returning his attention to his
visitor.  She
had stopped in her tracks only a few feet into the cave, her fingers
still
clutching the edges of her lowered hood.  He noted that, unlike
the
last time he had seen her, her long blonde hair was carefully pinned up
into
an elegant chignon.  

He strode to her side and saw that she was staring at the interior of
the
cave with an expression of shock and revulsion.   Apparently she
had
expected that the rough and crude entrance of the cave would be, like
wizarding
tents, mere camouflage which hid a commodious and well furnished
exterior.

\"Oh, Severus,\" she whispered, shaking her head.

He had already deduced from the state of her elegant, spotless robe and
the
diamond encrusted barrettes in her hair that Narcissa\'s status as a
fugitive
from the Ministry of Magic had not necessitated too many economies upon
her
accustomed lifestyle.  

\"It is sufficient for my purposes,\" he assured her, shrugging his
shoulders.

\"You even have to sleep here,\" she hissed, pointing with her wand
towards
the low pallet at the opposite end of the cavern.

\"Yes,\" he admitted, frowning slightly, as he stepped towards it and
bent
down, quickly pulling up the blanket and straightening the covers.
 It
somehow disturbed him more that she had seen his unmade bed than the
general
meanness of his abode.  \"But at least I have been able to clean
the bat
excrement from the walls and coat them with a potion that prevents the
vermin
from returning,\" he added as he stood.  

Her only response was to shiver slightly and cast a worried glance
towards
the darkened ceiling of the cavern.

He strode over to the desk and placed the chair back beside the fire.
 \"Please
be seated, Narcissa.\"

She moved towards the chair and then stopped, looking around the cave.

\"Oh, but you have only one chair,\" she said, drawing out her wand
again.
 \"I\'ll just-\"

She stopped in confusion as Snape\'s hand darted out to grip her wrist,
gently
but firmly forcing the tip of her wand downward.

\"Yes, but I am afraid that it must suffice,\" he said, shortly.

She looked up at him and blinked in surprise.  For the first time
she could hear a hint of bitterness in his voice, and she could guess
that he was inwardly chagrined at the meagreness of his furnishings.

\"I regret,\" he said, his voice becoming more formal with each word,
\"The deficiencies of my hospitality, but the Dark Lord is quite anxious
that magic be used here only when absolutely necessary, lest my
presence be detected by Aurors sent by the Ministry or The Order,\"
he explained, releasing his hold.  He gestured towards the table.
 \"The magic produced by
creating and testing my potions is much more easily concealed than
other charms
or enchantments.  But we can not afford the luxury of-\"  He
hesitated
for a moment and then continued, \"superfluous transfiguration spells.\"

Curious.  He had nearly said \'foolish wand waving\'.  Even
stranger,
there had been a faint but definite twinge in his chest at the sudden
thought
that he would never again stand before a class of nervous first years
and
deliver his speech upon the \'subtle science and exact art\' of potion
making.

\"I see,\" she replied, still looking slightly nonplussed.
 \"Well,
I suppose-\"

She hesitated again as she studied the chair.  She seemed to be
debating
if she should remove her cloak.  Apparently she could not decide
whether
she preferred to continue to protect herself from the chill of the cave
or
to drape the garment over the worn surface of the chair to prevent any
of
its supposed filth from contaminating her skin.

\"Please do sit down,\" he urged her again.  He bent down to
retrieve
some logs from a pile of wood stacked next to the desk.  Kneeling
in
front of the fire, he carefully arranged the wood, finally managing to
coax
the dying embers into a roaring blaze. 

Still on his knees, he glanced up to see that she contented herself
with
undoing the buttons of her cloak but leaving the drawstring at the neck
securely
tied. This allowed her to drape the outer edges of the cloak over the
arms
of the chair while keeping her shoulders warmly covered. 

\"You\'ve learned to do quite well without magic, haven\'t you, Severus?\"
she
asked, as he rose and began to brush the dirt and ashes from his hands.
 

He did not respond immediately, concentrating instead on the task of
removing every trace of grime and soot from his pale flesh.  His
months of living in the darkness of the cave had left his normally
pallid skin even whiter than usual, making any speck of dirt easily
visible.  But after a minute or two he seemed content with his
efforts, and even allowed himself a small smile as he contemplated his
fingernails, still clean and neatly trimmed despite
his sojourn in the wilderness.

\"I have always been quite resourceful, Narcissa, if I do say so
myself,\"
he replied, raising his eyes back to her face.

\"Couldn\'t quite get the hang of a Muggle razor, though?\" she teased,
playfully
running her hands over her cheeks and chin.  \"I always did wonder
what
you would look like with a beard and mustache.\"

\"Ah,\" he said, reaching up to stroke his beard.  \"Yes, after a few
painful
sessions with a straight razor, I decided it was best to let it grow.
But
I have managed to keep it well-trimmed, have I not?\"

\"It\'s very becoming,\" she said, sitting back in her chair and nodding
her
head in approval.  \"Very becoming.\"  

Perhaps I should thank the gods that I did not have time to perform
a shaving charm.



She was still studying him intently.  

\"And not even a speck of grey in it-or your hair,\" she noted, a hint of
jealousy in her voice as she shook her head.

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

Oh, dear.  Might I infer that you are relying upon an
appearance-enhancing charm or two to maintain your fabled good looks
these days?  

\"Well, despite my appalling lack of furniture I have managed to acquire
two glasses,\" he assured her with a smile, crossing his arms and
leaning
back against his desk.   \"I am afraid that, unlike the last time
we
met,  I do not have any elf-made wine.  But I have been able
to
obtain a more than passable Beaujolais?\"

\"Yes, please,\" she said, smiling up at him again.

He busied himself for a moment with selecting a bottle from one of the
top
shelves of the desk and retrieving his remaining wine glass from
another.
 He cast a glance over his shoulder, hoping that she would not
notice
that he found it necessary to remove a water spot from the glass by
rubbing
it against his sleeve. But she seemed to be focusing her attention upon
the
fire, her hands held out gratefully towards its warmth. 

Her attention returned to him as he walked towards her with the filled
glasses
in his hands.  She accepted hers with enthusiasm and raised the
wine
to her lips.

\"To the Dark Lord,\" he proposed, his dark eyes watching her carefully
as
he held his own glass out in front of him.

She hesitated for the merest of moments.  \"To the Dark Lord,\" she
repeated,
in a voice so faint that he could barely hear it above the crackle of
the
fire.  Closing her eyes, she threw her head back and drained the
glass.
 He contented himself with a single sip and then placed his drink
upon
the desk and approached her once more.

\"Would you care for another?\" he asked, not waiting for a reply before
taking
the vessel from her hand.

\"Well, I-\"

\"You are chilled,\" he
observed,
\"And this is my second glass of the evening,\" he added, seeing her gaze
fall
upon his own wine glass.

He refilled the glass, this time pausing to cork the bottle before
bringing
the wine to her.

She murmured her thanks, taking another large gulp before bringing the
glass
down and holding it in both hands upon her lap.  She fixed her
gaze
upon the fire and a long silence fell between them.

Snape picked up his own glass and leaned back on the desk, positioning
himself
more comfortably as he took another sip of wine.  

\"How is Draco?\" he asked, his tone determinedly casual.

\"Well, he\'s-\"  She took in a deep breath and twirled the glass
nervously
between her fingers for a moment before continuing:  \"He is as
well
as could be expected.\"

He nodded thoughtfully as he waited for her to speak again.

She opened her mouth and this time her voice was low and quavering.
 \"Of
course, he-the Dark Lord-it was necessary-\"

\"The Dark Lord was displeased that he had not fulfilled his task,\" he
said.

She nodded and took another sip of wine.

\"He had to be punished for that,\" he observed.

She nodded again, her eyes filling with tears as she bit down upon her
lip.

\"Crucio?\"



She shuddered and closed her eyes.  \"Three times,\" she whispered.

Snape frowned and studied the floor of the cave for a moment, but said
nothing.

\"But he had succeeded where no one had before,\" she said suddenly.
 \"He
found a way to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts,\" she protested, her
eyes
shining even more brightly than before.  \"He should have been
rewarded,
not-\"

\"Narcissa!\"  Snape\'s voice was soft but full of warning.
 \"You
must not question our Lord\'s decisions.\"

\"No, of course, I don\'t!\" she said, startled.  

\"Others have been killed for lesser transgressions,\" he noted.

She shivered and brought a hand to her cheek to wipe away the solitary
tear
that had fallen upon it.  \"Yes, that is right.  I should be
grateful-I
am grateful,\" she assured him.  \"After all, the Dark Lord was
merciful and left him unblemished.\"

His years as acting as a double spy and his natural gift for Occlumency
served
him well at the moment.  He kept his face gravely neutral as he
raised
the wine glass to his lips and took another sip of wine.

Unblemished?  The boy had been raised by a cold, disdainful father
and
cosseted by an overindulgent and overprotective mother.  He had
been
told so often that he was far superior to others that it was no
surprise
that he had come to believe it.  Additionally, he had been
constantly
surrounded by the most evil and seductive implements of the Dark Arts,
and
encouraged to consider them as mere conveniences to use to his own
advantage.
  Draco\'s heart and soul had suffered irreparable damage years
ago.  Snape
was sure that the youth\'s hesitation to kill Dumbledore had been due to
weakness
rather than to any intrinsic goodness.  If there was the slightest
scrap
of selflessness or charity within the lad, it would soon be eradicated
by
his continual association with the Death Eaters.  But, yes, he was
sure
that for Narcissa outward appearances would always be more important
than
inner deficiencies.  Had he not raced to heal the effects of
Potter\'s
Sectumsempra spell upon Draco in the knowledge that Narcissa would have
been
inconsolable had he been left with a single scar?

He cleared his throat and spoke again.  \"Well, Draco style=\"font-style: italic;\">could have completed his mission
if he
would have allowed me to assist him.\" 

\"Yes, I know,\" she replied, nodding her head.  \"I kept telling him
that
he should ask for your help, but Bella-\"  Her voice faded away.

\"Ah, yes, your sister has gone to great lengths,\" he spat out
mockingly, \"to ensure that Draco distrusts me.\"

He placed the wine glass down on the table and folded his arms. 
\"That
made my situation extremely precarious.  Even if your son would
not confide
in me the exact details of his plan, some hint as to when the invasion
of
Hogwarts would occur would have been greatly appreciated.\"  He
shook
his head ruefully.  \"Instead, I found myself thrust into the
middle of a difficult situation and had time only to throw a few items
into my pockets before being forced to leave the castle forever.\"

\"If given just a bit of warning, I could have made preparations to
bring
some of the rare and irreplaceable potion ingredients I had collected
during
my tenure at Hogwarts.\"  He opened his arms and gestured towards
the
desk behind him.  \"As it is, it has taken me months to amass even
this
laughably small collection.\"

He sighed and stared down into the flames of the fire.  \"I am sure
that
by now all my other possessions have been ransacked by the Ministry and
The Order.\" 

He dearly hoped that Moody had taken on that job himself.  It was
quite
satisfying to imagine the old goat being blasted across the room by
some
of the hexes he had placed upon his belongings.  Though what
really turned
his stomach was the thought that Slughorn would have gotten those
greedy, pudgy little fingers of his upon the most precious items of his
collection.  \"I imagine that by now there is nothing worth
retrieving,\" he noted dryly.

He glanced back at Narcissa, and was surprised to see that she was
looking
quite distressed and more than a bit guilty, her own eyes focused upon
the
floor. 

\"Has something else happened?\" he asked.

\"U-um, well,\" she stammered.

Lifting her head, her clear blue eyes met his gaze for just a
moment. 
But it was enough for him to catch a glimpse of a smoking pile of
rubble
above which towered the charred remains of a chimney.

\"Your home at Spinners End has been destroyed,\" she whispered.

It was merely confirmation of the image he had already seen in her
mind,
of course.  But he still seemed stunned to hear the actual words.

\"That seems out of character for the Ministry,\" he said, trying to
block
out the image of his rows of books being consumed by insatiable flames.

\"It wasn\'t.\"

He looked back at her and understood.  \"Ah, the deed was performed
at
the order of Our Lord?\"

She nodded sadly.  \"Yes.  Someone had suggested that there
might
be evidence there that could be used against the Death Eaters,
especially
since you had worked as a double spy for all those years.  So, it
was
decided-\"

\"Someone suggested it?\" he
asked
mockingly.

\"It was Bella,\" she admitted, taking another large gulp of wine.

\"And did the Dark Lord reward her by allowing her to personally conduct
the
raid?\"

Narcissa looked distinctly uncomfortable.  \"Well, not exactly, you
see-\"

\"Of course,\" he sneered, reaching down to retrieve his glass. 
\"There
was such a mob of Death Eaters eager to storm into Spinners End that
they
had to draw lots to see who would have the privilege of taking part?\"

\"Oh, it wasn\'t like that, Severus,\" she protested.  But he saw
that
she was once again staring down at the floor, avoiding his eyes. 
At
the sound of his loud, harsh laughter, she glanced back up at him in
surprise.

\"Well, it is for the best.  Although, I cannot imagine that it
would
have taken much to bring that rat trap down,\" he observed.  \"It
must
have been rather like using a troll\'s club to squash a mosquito.\"

\"You\'re taking this very well,\" she said, sounding relieved.

\"It is for the best,\" he repeated, shrugging his shoulders. 
Raising
his glass, he added, \"A toast to your sister, who has once again proven
herself
to be a faithful servant to our Lord.\"

And a true and deadly enemy to me.

He knew that expressing
outrage
against the destruction of his home was pointless.  Had not the
Dark
Lord gone to great lengths to destroy any trace of his own Muggle
heritage? 
He hoped that Bellatrix would be quite disappointed by the equanimity
with
which he had apparently received the news.

\"Anyway, we\'ll all have beautiful new homes when our Lord has
completely
vanquished the Muggles and Mudbloods,\" Narcissa said brightly as she
lowered
her glass.

\"Oh, brave new world that has such
people
in it,\" he said very quietly.

\"What?\"

Of course, the allusion was lost on her.  Before he could reply a
loud
and prolonged howl rang through the air that was immediately answered
by
another.

Narcissa gasped and leapt from her chair, her empty glass slipping from
her
fingers and shattering on the ground beside her.

\"Werewolves!\" she cried.

\"Yes, my nearest and dearest companions these days,\" he replied,
frowning
slightly as he stared out into the darkness of the cave\'s mouth. 
\"And
with the full moon-\"  He stopped abruptly and turned back to her,
his
own face deathly pale as a terrible thought occurred to him.

\"Does the Dark Lord not know that you are here?\" he hissed, staring
down
at her suspiciously.

\"Of course he does!\" she protested, bringing her hands up to
frantically
clutch the front of his cloak as the howling grew louder and closer.

His eyebrows drew together in a frown as he reached into his cloak
pocket for his wand.  \"I assure you that we are in no danger, \" he
said.  \"They are under strict orders not to harm me.\"

At least until your work here is
finished. 
After that, Voldemort might fully intend to set the full pack upon
you. 
It gives one a new appreciation for the phrase \'being thrown to the
wolves\',
does it not?

Either the witch had not heard him, or she refused to believe
him, for there was still a look of abject terror upon her face and her
fingers remained entwined in the folds of his cloak.

\"Narcissa,\" he said,  \"I assure you that I will, to the best of my
ability, protect you from those hideous beasts.  But it is rather
hard for me to do so in our present circumstances.\"

She stared up at him, uncomprehendingly.

\"It you would be so kind as to extricate yourself from my robes?\" he
asked, raising his right eyebrow as he stared down at her hands.
 \"I do think I will be able to act much more decisively if I am
not forced to drag you along with me each step of the way?\"

She blinked and nodded her head, reluctantly releasing her grasp.

\"Stay here,\" he ordered, (quite unnecessarily he supposed), as he
strode towards the entryway.  Positioning himself at the mouth of
the cave, he held out his wand and stared into the darkness.  The
sound of the baying grew louder and continued uninterrupted for several
minutes, accompanied by vague rustling and thumping sounds.  There
were a few pitiable yelps and then a  prolonged, horrible
shriek.  In the silence that followed, it was hard not to imagine
the sound of flesh being torn by long, sharp teeth.

\"They appear to have found other prey this evening,\" he said, gliding
back
towards her.  \"Though I would like you-\"

He stopped and cleared his throat, looking rather abashed.  \"If I
might suggest,\" he amended, as he placed his wand back in his
pocket \"that it would be prudent for you to remain here until daybreak?\"

\"Oh, yes,\" she replied, nodding her head gratefully.  \"This is
probably
why Bella didn\'t want to come this evening,\" she added with a laugh,
\"I\'ll
bet she knew about them.\" 
She
shivered slightly and cast a long, mournful glance at the shards of
glass
at the side of her chair.

\"Why don\'t you take my glass?\" he asked, pointing towards the
half-filled
vessel.

She hesitated for only a moment before nodding her head.  Picking
up
the bottle, he uncorked it and refilled the glass to the brim.  He
had
barely finished pouring out the liquid before her fingers were wrapped
around
the stem.

\"Bellatrix was supposed to accompany you?\" he asked, frowning slightly
as
he watched her take another drink.

\"Where is my mind this
evening?\"
she asked in exasperation.  Setting the glass down very carefully
upon
the chair, she dug deeply into the pockets of her cloak.  She drew
out
a large leather pouch and dropped it into Snape\'s waiting palm. 
\"She
was supposed to deliver this to you.\"

\"Really?\" he murmured, opening the bag and giving its contents a
cursory
glance before laying it upon the table.  \"That is rather strange,
he
usually sends Wormtail as his courier.\"

Narcissa nodded.  \"Yes, he said Pettigrew was running other
errands
for him, and told Bella to do it instead.\"

I must keep an eye out for a rodent with a missing paw.  Or
would
it have a tiny silver appendage?

\"She disobeyed him?\" he asked, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

\"Oh, no.  She said that she would do anything for him, but that it
seemed
a waste of her powers to spend time bringing a packet to-\"  She
stopped
abruptly and picked up the wine glass, taking another drink as she sat
down
again.

\"To that greasy, overgrown bat?  Or did dear Bellatrix use some
other,
equally affectionate appellation?\"

She smiled ruefully as she shrugged her shoulders.  \"Well, anyway,
I
offered to take it to you instead, and the Dark Lord said it really
didn\'t
matter to him who delivered it.\"

He nodded thoughtfully.  He would of course carefully examine the
contents
of the bag for hidden enchantments before assuming they were merely his
latest
delivery of potion supplies.  But he had no real reason to suspect
that
the Dark Lord was trying to eliminate him.  At least not quite yet.

At any rate, he thought, glancing back at Narcissa\'s beautiful face, he
was
sure that she had no idea that her errand and presence of the
werewolves were
at all related.  She apparently had not been told that that his
mission
was to create an antidote to the Wolfsbane Potion, which of course
necessitated
an ample supply of test subjects.  It would definitely have
greatly
amused the Dark Lord to give her directions to his hideout without
mentioning
the fact that there were certain dangers nearby.  Voldemort would
have
found it almost as humorous as the fact that Snape himself was forced
to
work with the very creatures who had haunted his nightmares for years.

\"Well, even after all these months of solitude, I must confess that I
would not have welcomed a visit from either Wormtail or your enchanting
sister,\" he said.    \"But I am quite pleased to see you,\"
he added, with a smile.  \"It was most generous of you to offer to
come in her place.\"

\"Nonsense, Severus!\" she protested.  \"I should have come long ago.
 In
fact, I have been trying for quite some time to find a way to meet with
you,
to properly thank you for what you did.  I am so grateful for the
way
you protected and guided Draco.\"

He leaned back against the desk and spread out his hands.  \"But,\"
he
drawled, \"My dear Narcissa, what else should I have done for someone as
important
to me as you.\"  Again he hesitated and looked away, before
hurriedly
adding, \"and Draco, of course.\"  He placed his palms upon the edge
of
the table, grasping the edges with his fingers. \"Although,\" he
continued,
his voice tinged with a hint of reproach, \"I was rather disappointed
that
you thought it necessary to bind me with an Unbreakable Vow.\"

\"But I was desperate!\" she said, rising from her seat and approaching
him.
 Setting the glass down upon the desk, she looked down and fumbled
at
the drawstring of her cloak.  Finally freeing herself from the
garment,
she flung it carelessly over the chair and turned back to face him.
 There
was now a definite pink glow upon her fair cheeks and a few of her pale
blonde
strands of hair had escaped from the barrettes, the thin wisps framing
the
heart-shaped outline of her face.  

\"I thought-I hoped that I could trust you, but I couldn\'t be sure.
 I
didn\'t know where else to turn,\" she explained, her hands twining
nervously
in front of her.  \"I had already lost my husband.\"

\"Lucius is not dead,\" he said, gripping the table even more firmly now,
as
if fighting the urge to reach out to her.

\"No, it\'s worse than dead to be in that horrible place.  And if he
ever
is released, it will only be because the Dark Lord wants to send him on
a
dangerous mission, just like he did with Draco.\"

\"When we pledged our allegiance to the Dark Lord,  we knew that
certain
sacrifices would be demanded of us.\"

She cut him off with wave of her hand.  \"I don\'t mind dying for
the
Dark Lord, if it comes to that,\" she cried, pacing back and forth.
 \"I
would even have tried to kill Dumbledore myself upon his orders. 
But
it wasn\'t fair to ask that of Draco, or to ask me to stand by and watch
my
son sacrifice himself that way.\"

She stopped in front of him and held out her hands.  \"I didn\'t
know
where else to turn,\" she repeated.  \"I was alone, so alone.\"

\"You had your sister,\" he said quietly.

She laughed shortly.  \"She doesn\'t care about me, she only thinks
about
him.\"  She shook her head
and
another strand of hair fell down upon her brow.  \"If he told her
to
kill me or Draco, she wouldn\'t hesitate for a moment.  She\'d
strike
us down like that!\" she said, emphasizing the words with a snap of her
fingers. 
She was clearly distressed, her breathing ragged and uneven.

She closed her eyes and bowed her head.  \"I\'m so afraid,\" she
whispered.

\"You mustn\'t be.\"

\"So alone.\"

\"Never.\"

Very slowly he raised his hand to her face, brushing the hair away from
her
temple and tucking it behind her ear.  Her cheek felt burning hot
against
the cool skin of his palm.  Keeping her eyes closed, she leaned
into
him, rubbing her cheek against his hand like a cat seeking to be
petted.
 He studied her for a moment, and then brought his other hand up
to
her face, his fingers gently urging her chin upward.  Her lips
were
slightly parted and as he bent down over her he could feel her warm,
wine-tinged
breath against his skin.  He waited a few more moments, his thumbs
gently
circling the outline of her lips.  Then he suddenly brought his
mouth
down upon hers.  

She responded immediately, her arms wrapping around his shoulders as
her
body pressed against his.  He wrapped his left arm around her
waist
and slowly allowed his right hand to travel down the side of her body,
stopping
to caress the skin of her neck and shoulders before moving over her
breast
and down to the soft curve of her hip.  They stood that way for
several
minutes, pausing only occasionally to take in a breath before
continuing
their passionate embrace.

So she was utterly shocked to feel him suddenly stiffen and push her
away.

\"No,\" he said, his breath now as labored as hers.

\"No?\" she repeated dumbly as her forehead wrinkled in confusion.
 \"Don\'t
you want to make love to me?\"

He laughed and turned away from her, leaning down to support himself
against
the desk.  \"Narcissa, you cannot help but be aware of the physical
evidence
that I am quite eager to do so.  But,\" he said, taking in a deep
breath
and pivoting back towards her.  \"You are the wife of my oldest and
dearest
friend.\"

\"He won\'t know,\" she promised.

\"And I am your son\'s former teacher and mentor.\"

\"No one will know,\" she whispered.  \"I swear it.  I\'ll just
tell
them that I stayed here tonight because I was afraid of the werewolves.
 Please.\"
 She took a step forward and put a hand upon his arm.
 \"Please,
Severus.  You are the only one I can trust.\"

He stared down at her hand, the skin starkly white against the black of
his
sleeve.

\"I need you, Severus,\" she whispered.

A mocking smile flitted over his lips.  \"Yes, Narcissa, you need
me,\"
he repeated, drawing his arm away from her hand and turning his back on
her. 
\"As you needed me the last time you deigned to visit.\"

\"Oh,\" she said, comprehension slowly dawning across her face.

After a few moments of silence there was a series of strange, metallic
pings.
 He pivoted back to see that her diamond barrettes were now
scattered
on the stone floor, and her hair was now flowing freely over her
shoulders.
 She brought some of the blonde tresses forward, slowly moving her
fingers
through the strands and then bringing her hands up to undo the top
button
of her dress.

\"I want you, Severus,\" she said quietly.  \"And I know,\"
she added,
as her fingers continued downward to unfasten the rest of the buttons,
\"That
you\'ve wanted me for a very, very long time.\"  

With a shrug of her shoulders, the garment fell off of her shoulders
and
slowly slithered to the ground.  She stepped out of the discarded
dress
and kicked it aside.  

\"So,\" she said, a hint of challenge in her voice as she raised her
hands
to her hips, \"Why not take me?\"

He said nothing, but took a step backward as if to better study her.
 His
eyes traveled slowly up her body, taking in the high heels, the rich
silk
stockings and satin garters, the lacy black panties and brassiere that
she
wore.  

\"Indeed,\" he said, raising his right eyebrow and striding towards her.
 \"Why
not?\"