A Delicate Obsession

Chapter 22 – The Queen of Night

It all belongs to Rowling, except what you don’t recognize


It was pitch dark in bed at the Little Library. So when Hermione felt her lover’s hand on her thigh she didn’t bother changing her appearance. She was half asleep and simply cuddled closer to him. Then she heard his voice say “Laura” in a gravelly, unused tone and her heart flip-flopped. She pressed her body against his, hopinghearhear him speak again after so many weeks and yet scared to say anything that might ruin the moment.

She felt his lips press against hers and she opened her mouth to him. She felt his tongue exploring. Then she moaned, overwhelmed by desire. It had been so long, so very long since Severus had made love to her.

There were times in the morning, since they had come to the cottage, where in dressing him for the day she had noted his morning erection. Once, unable to rein in her passion, she had taken him in her mouth and brought him to completion, but though his body was learning to react to her, his mind was still gone.

She wondered if this was just an autonomic reaction; however, he’d said her name. She held him tighter, hoping and praying that he was back to her. She felt his hardness against her stomach and she reached down and stroked him through his pajamas. His breath became shorter and she felt his hand reach down to her delta. ulleulled her knickers down and she kicked them off. She pulled down his bottoms. And then he was on top of her and in her. “Yes,” she couldn’t help but whisper, “yes”.

He began to move back and forth in her. It wasn’t his usually tender lovemaking; there was a jerky, uncoordinated quality to it, like he wasn’t quite in command of his body. At times he went too quickly and too hard and she gasped as he hit her cervix. Normally he was very concerned about her respon but but he went even faster until it seemed that it was no more than mindless rutting. She felt his body spasm and he grunted. The hot liquid filled her and he collapsed on her, breathing fast. She pushed him off of her onto his back and she climbed on top. She leaned down and kissed his face over and over as she moved her hips gracefully at first and then less so as she felt her own orgasm build. Shakily, she called his name and shuddered in climax. She hadn’t meant to, but she fell asleep.

When she woke in the morning, she would have thought she’d dreamt it all, except his seed was still wet and spilling from inside her and had also dried on him. It had been less than six months since she had taken the contraceptive potion, but if this were to continue she’d need a new supply in the next few weeks.

Hermione took a quick bath. While washing away the remains of their coupling, she felt a bubble of hysteria well up within her. The return of even a small part of their relationship was wonderful, but losing him all over again in the morning ripped her heart in two. Dumbledore had spoken of paying the piper… She put the melancholy thought away, and then got herself and Severus ready for the day.

&&&

“So there he was all dressed in formal black Wizard’s robes and with that huge beak of a nose-- he looked like some overgrown raven. And he was waiting for me after my lecture in the hot sun. The climate in Dharamshala is rather nice since it is so near the mountains, but that day it was very, very hot. And all I could do was laugh at him and sing ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.’ He smiled ever so nicely and agreed with me, even though he didn’t know who Noel Coward was! And I had no idea that by agreeing to combine our research I was going to walk into the middle of some Ann Radcliffe novel.”

“Ann who?” asked Hermione.

“Oh, she was a Muggle writer. Sorry, I’ve always been an Anglophile; I especially love Muggle lit and drama. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to try Tibetan style butter tea? Once you develop the taste for it…”

“No thanks,” said Hermione trying not to look appalled. “So that’s how you met Silanus?”

“Yes. It seems the translations of my published research from Hindi to English had been done badly and so without realizing it we had been duplicating each other’s efforts for years without even knowing of the other’s existence. Once he twigged onto it, he dropped everything and came to see me.”

“And you fell in love?” asked Hermione.

“No, no.” Yasmine gave her rich, dark laugh. “He seemed very strange to me and I didn’t trust him. And he didn’t tell me about his wife or son for the longest time. It was a strictly professional relationship and we never discussed personal things. And then once day, out of the blue, he asked me to marry him. Then I found out that his wife had just died and he had a son. So I told him, find yourself a nanny and get a mistress, you do not need me except for our research.” She smiled. “I was very wrong. It took a while, but eventually I was convinced of my error. Unfortunately, Severus always believedt I t I had somehow taken his father away from his mum.

“And speaking of Severus, how is that potion I made working for him?”

Hermione didn’t know what to say. Had it caused that sexual reaction? “I’m not sure. I thought I heard him speak last night, but I could have been wrong.”

“Hmm. That is interesting. Let’s go find him.”

They walked from the kitchen to the living room. “He’s gone!” Hermione was shocked. eft eft him right here.”

“Ah, here he is.” Yasmine called from the hallway. “Well, well. I’d forgotten,” looking a bit embarrassed.

Severus was standing in front of the bookcase under the stairs.

“What did you forget?” asked Hermione.

Yasmine handed her a book from the collection in front of Severus. On the binding it said Encyclopedia of Wizardry, but inside was a collection of both Wizard and Muggle erotica. “All the books in this bookcase are like that, boring on the outside and smutty inside. That potion has a side effect of making men feel rather, mmm, too good. I’m very sorry, I’ll change the formula.”

“Do you have to?” Hermione said shyly.

Yasmine snorted. “No, not at all.”

&&&

Hermione took Severus on a walk that afternoon. The air was quite damp and cool, but refreshing. She held his hand and remembered how good it had felt to be in his arms again. Hermione was starting to unwind from the ordeal of being at Hogwarts during the war and, as the numbness wore off, the pain of what had happened to Severus became stronger. Hermione was keenly aware that all of this was haultault. Quite, had she told him who she was, she would have lost him, but did she really want him like this?

The wind blew off the ocean and stung her face, but the tears in her eyes were from her own feelings of guilt. She never really looked at Severus anymore, the spark of intelligence was gone, and his face was left a bit too slack and relaxed for her comfort.

Hermione remembered how Harry had shown up uninvited at the door of the cottage last week and had begged her to stop punishing herself. He said that she had to forgive herself for Severus’ state and get on with her life. Then he told her how lonely he’d been without his friends around him. Too late, Hermione picked up on the signals and she suddenly found herself in his arms with his lips against hers. She’d pushed him away, saddened by the look of hurt on his face. Then she got angry, told him to take his own advice to get on with things and to leave her alone. She spent most of the night reading to Severus with tears dripping down her face.

&&&

When Hermione got back to the cottage she settled Severus in for a nap on the upstairs bed. There was something niggling in the back of her mind about the bookcase under the stairs. She checked each and every book and then felt along the wood of the case for anything unusual. Eventually she was rewarded with a click, and the bookcase swung open, revealing a hidden set of stairs to the basement.

She knew that it was probably not a good idea to go exploring hidden stairwells and basements alone. The problem was that she’d also been in Gryffindor too long to pay attention to her own wisdom anymore. She took a storm lantern from the kitchen and went down the narrow, rickety steps.

It was too small a room to be a basement; it reminded her more of a priests-hole where, during the persecution of Catholics, priests had been hidden. But the cottage couldn’t be that old. Hermione looked around her. There were artifacts that looked like they might be used for dark magical rituals: candles, a glory hand, incense, paint. Yasmine had been right, Hermione didn’t know anything about Dark Magic even though she’d spent countless hours in Defense Against The Dark Arts. She guessed that the items probably belonged to Snape’s mother, Melanie. Hermione began searching for any parchments or books.

In a dark, rather dank corner she found a few scrolls and a journal. Taking one more look about the room, Hermione headed up the staircase with her treasure.

She noticed that it had grown dark outside, one of those sudden storms that so often happened on the seacoast. She heard the sudden clattering of rain against the windows. Adding a few more logs to the fire, she fixed herself some tea and went into the living room to read. She only got a few paragraphs into the journal before her gorge rose and she had to run upstairs to be ill.

It wasn’t just the things that were being described in the journal; there was a malignancy to the words themselves that seems to quiver on the page in a greasy film of angry, sick energy. Hermione knew that she was way out of her depth. She would need to give the information to someone like Remus Lupin or Mad-Eye Moody. She felt like she needed to take a bath to remove the repulsive energy that clung around her from reading only a little of the journal. It was just then that she sensed another presence in the room. She spied something out of the corner of her eye, but it wasn’t enough warning before a very strong force lifted her up and slammed her out of the bathroom, down the stairs and against the front door.

Hermione helplessly watched ‘it’ approach her. It had too much substance to be a ghost; it appeared more like a person who had been sculpted out of ice or alabaster. She heard the words “Mudblood” in a hissing whisper before the front door slammed open and Hermione found herself hurled outside into the pouring rain. The thing, its face contorted into a mask of pure fury, screamed at her, “Interfering whore” and Hermione was again thrown up into the air like a rag doll and slammed to the ground. She felt several bones break and her vision went double. Then mercifully, the world went dark.

Snape awoke to the dark bedroom in what he immediately recognized as the Little Library. He felt a rush of panic because he couldn’t remember how he got there. In fact, he couldn’t remember a thing other than having been called to a meeting by the Dark Lord. And then, he felt it. The Dark Energies that were swirling around him and around the cottage. He hadn’t felt it since he was a boy when his mother would perform her rituals and summon her demon guide. Then, he remembered that he had been with his mother. But he wasn’t dead and she…

He heard a woman scream, her voice almost lost amid the howling of the storm. He ran down the stairs and outside to witness…

His mother’s demon, Bechard, sitting on a throne of bones surround by lightening sparks crackling through the air. He also saw a thing, which resembled his mother, on bended knee before him.

“Look Bechard, I bring you a sacrifice.” The great beast laid a horned hand on her head. Severus felt as rooted to the spot as he’s been as a child. He felt for his wand and gratefully found it up his sleeve. Quickly he placed a spell of protection around him.

The two creatures noticed that Severus had joined them. “My son. You are awake just in time to see my triumph. With this life sacrifice I shall rejoin the living.”

“Not so soon, little one,” said Bechard to Snape’s mother. “I have agreed to nothing yet.”

Snape looked for the body and saw a crumbled heap laying a few yards away. The rain was washing away copious amounts of blood surrounding the body. He heaved a sigh olieflief when he saw it was too light skinned for it to be Yasmine. He stepped forward but couldn’t recognize who it was; there was just too much blood.

“It was good of you to provide the Mudblood, my son.” The thing, which claimed to be Snape’s mother, said.

Snape bent down and pushed some hair out of the woman’s face. Know-it-all Granger! How did she get there? His heart beat quicker as he searched for a pulse and couldn’t find one. Finally, he found it, but it was weak and thready. He didn’t know what to do, but whatever it was it had to be quick, Miss Granger had little time left.

“I request of Lord Bechard to accept me in place of this innocent.” Snape came closer to the demon and raised his voice to be heard over the wind.

“NO!” screamed the thing.

Bechard stuck out his forked tongue and scratched its bowling ball sized testicles, which rested under a python-like phallus. “Well, I was hoping for a much better sacrifice than the Mudblood and I have been offered it. I haven’t tasted your blood, Severus, for many a year.”

“No. You cannot. He is under the Protectorate of the Black Phoenix. You cannot touch him.” The thing cringed.

Effortlessly, the demon grabbed the once-human thing by its hair and dangled her. “You dare to say ‘no’ to me? You forget who is in charge here.” The tongue came out and slurped along the thing’s neck. “I had forgotten how good you taste, too. Though bloodless now, your spirit would make a nice tickling in my tumtum.” It laughed and the skies got darker and cracked open into a downpour. “You were always a beautiful prize. You will come with me now, and you shall have an eternity pleasing me.”

The thing shrieked as the demon picked it up and put it into its mouth, which snapped shut with a nasty crunch. “Hmmm. Quite delightful.” He stared at Severus with his three blood-red eyes, “so do you have any favors you would like from me? I’m in quite a generous mood. Something that you’d perhaps trade that Mudblood for?” The long tongue flicked out again.

Severus shook his head. “My lord Bechard, there is nothing I desire. Please return to your world in good grace.”

It roared out a guffaw, “Very well my servant. Perhaps another time.” And in the next moment the creature faded into smoke and lightening and was gone. The air began to clear around the cottage and Severus ran to the broken girl. He dared not pick her up, she was so damaged, and so held her hand and Apparated them to St. Mungos.

A/N: Karena Elizabeth, MoD, Lady Aidil, Katharina, Halo, Andrian, Karen, Giova, and Ezmerelda. Big hugs all around. Here we are at the penultimate chapter!!! Many thanks for your support and the final on should be up this weekend.