My Mate

Ginny woke with a pounding head and icy coldness drawing the heat out her body. She shivered and tried to open her eyes and quickly found that she couldn’t move. A survey of the situation revealed that she was roped down, outstretched on a cold stone slab. Her dress was gone, leaving only her white slip she’d had on underneath. She was painfully aware of the thinness of the material and felt horribly exposed.

Dear Merlin, where was she?

Ginny tried to remember what had happened. Her mind felt sluggish. She’d apparated to Hogsmeade to get a pint of butterbeer before trudging back to Hogwarts through the snow. Something to warm her insides before going back out into the frigid November air.

She had been walking up to Hogwarts shivering and clutching her cloak tightly around her and then nothing. Her memory was blank.

She looked around. It was dark and cold and damp, a flickering torch off in the corner, revealed instruments of torture hanging on the walls that scared the crap out of her almost literally. Hideous dark arts objects were hiding in the shadows. Fear and panic welled up so fast that she couldn’t even scream, but she wanted to. Oh how she wanted to.

She struggled frantically with her bonds and flicked her eyes around the room hoping no one was coming for her. It made her blood run cold when she thought about what they might do to her. Her wand was gone and without it, there was no way she could get loose. There was some sort of magic keeping the ropes in place.

She couldn’t escape. The realization slammed down on her mind with all the finality of a prison door. She was completely at the mercy of whoever had kidnapped her and her heart felt as though it would beat right out of her chest. Ginny whimpered and then closed her eyes and tried to reach out to Draco. She couldn’t feel anything. Maybe the fear was blocking her ability to relax and connect with him. Plus she wasn’t nearly as good at it as Draco was. And who knew if it worked over long distances? She could be in Africa for all she knew!

Her breathing was strangled as she tried to breath deeply and force herself to relax. Terror was consuming her. The dampness and darkness and helplessness was horribly reminiscent of the Chamber of Secrets.

“Oh Merlin! Please!” Ginny murmured and tried again to reach Draco.

A black hooded figure appeared out of the shadows and Ginny screamed.

(Earlier that day)

Severus scooped Narcissa up in a bundle of blankets with a jostle that shook her awake.

“What are you doing?” Her voice was tremulous and she stared up at him with wide frightened eyes. She didn’t have enough strength to struggle.

“What do you think Narcissa? Or are you really as vapid as everyone thinks you are?” Severus’ tone was biting, but there was a quality that she couldn’t quite identify, that gave her pause.

He was whisking down the corridors to the dungeons and Narcissa’s heartbeat picked up as she realized where he was taking her and why.

Severus noticed her expression. “I refuse to be interrupted by Poppy. I am not a hapless sex-crazed teenager and I will not be treated like one by that unbearable woman.” Narcissa tried to hide her smile at the injured air he projected despite his coldness.

He took her straight through to his rooms which she had never seen before and didn’t stop until he laid her on the bed.

“I’m still married Severus.” She didn’t want to say it, but she had to. While she hated Lucius beyond anything else, Narcissa would not break her wedding vows. There was precious little that she had in her life to take pride in and her honor was one of those things.

Severus’ entire demeanour iced over and he fisted his hands. “Far be it from me to remind YOU of this Narcissa, but you’ll die if we don’t mate.”

“Unless we are legally divorced, or Lucius is dead, I cannot sleep with anyone, Severus. I just can’t.” Her voiced broke and Severus looked as though he wanted to hex something, or someone.

“Fine!” He leaned down and bracketed her face with his hands. “We’ll complete the first step only. That should buy you some time until we can figure out a way out of this, but…” He snarled. “…you won’t be allowed to take the easy way out of this. Death come soon for you, Narcissa, DARLING.” He sneered and bent his head toward her neck.

Michelle poured over the text, her eyes blurring with fatigue. She was gathering as much information on veelas as she could. It would hopefully come in useful for Draco and Ginny since they were both fairly ignorant about it and now after the shock about Severus and Narcissa, it was even more important.

Narcissa had confided to her that she couldn’t mate with Severus until she was divorced legally or a widow and since neither of those seemed to be about to happen soon, Michelle wanted to see if there were anyother way to stall.

She hadn’t done much research since about her third month of pregnancy. Bill had wanted her to cut back since she was so tired and still had bouts of morning sickness. It pretty much came down to the fact that he was a worry wart and he didn’t want her becoming overly exhausted as she was wont to do if left alone with research for long periods of time.

In fact, he didn’t know what she was up to, since he’d been extremely busy communicating with his family about the wedding. Ginny had delegated him as the liason, since she was too busy with classes to get caught up the in the family feuds that seemed to arise with increasing frequency. Ron was still having trouble dealing with it and Charlie had been told and was taking it very badly as well.

Michelle stretched her sore back in an effort to relieve some of the weight of her pregnancy. A sharp kick made her gasp and smile. She would swear her child was practicing to be a Beater. She wished he wouldn’t do it quite so hard though. She took some deep breaths and straightened just as a pair of hands clamped down on her stomach.

Her first reaction was a stifled scream and an involuntary arm flail backwards that caught her husband on the head.

“Ouch!” His hands tightened and then swung her out of her chair and up into his arms. Oh dear. Bill did not look happy at all.

“I’ve spent the last three days degrading myself by dealing with Weasleys and wedding details that no man should ever have to do…”

“You didn’t want me to do it.” Michelle volunteered, but Bill cut her off.

“…and now I find out that you’ve been doing research behind my back?” His face was turning as red as his hair, a very bad sign. It would have been one thing if it were just the fact that he’d found her doing some research, but he knew that she’d been doing it longer than just today (probably from that stupid Madame Pince) and he’d been stuck with wedding detail and relations and was already in a crabby mood.

“Would it make a difference if I said that I haven’t been overdoing?” She asked sheepishly.

“No.” Was his clipped reply before he started to turn towards the door.

“Wait! Let me get my research! Bill, please!” She wailed. “Don’t let it be for nothing! Severus, Narcissa, Draco, and Ginny need this!”

Bill did an about face and let her lean down and pick the papers up, and then without another word headed for their rooms.

“On a scale of 1-10, how much trouble am I in?” Michelle quipped.

“Eleven.” Bill answered, but Michelle just grinned. He was irritated and upset and concerned with her health, but he would vent his frustration in a way that left them both pleasantly sated.

She twined her arms around his neck and sighed happily.

Simeon smiled nastily as he watched Olivia peer right and left down the corridor and nervously dash out of her room and scurry towards the Great Hall. He fell into step behind her and enjoyed her slight pause and quick uneasy glance behind, her eyes passing right over him.

He loved Invisibility Cloaks. He was a cat and she was the mouse and toying with her was oh so satisfying, but it would be immensely more so when he pounced. The poor thing would never know what hit her.

She turned a corner and Simeon felt the cloak being jerked away from him. He spun around to see Severus sneering at him, the invisibility cloak dangling from his fingertips.

“A bit juvenile don’t you think?”

Simeon glared at his father. “What I do is none of your concern old man.”

“Old man!” Severus gaped. “Old man! Why you little whelp!” He stepped closer and fixed his burning eyes on his son’s.

“Whelp! I’ve lived for twenty-five years without your parental concern so you don’t need to start now.” Simeon snarled.

“A fact which I hold against your mother.”

“She’s not my mother. All I had were godparents in Miriam and Hiram Keppers. All anyone knew was that I was a Black bastard and not even which one’s.”

Severus sniffed. “Well, now you know.” He brushed past Simeon, who in turn followed him.

“Yes. Now I know. I know that the nice witch who used to bring me presents and treats and her son to play with me, the woman whom I wished was my mother, actually was my mother and Fate was just playing a cruel joke.” Simeon’s bitter words stopped Severus at the entrance of the Potion’s classroom.

“She visited you?” He sounded incredulous. “Narcissa actually came and visited you? She brought Draco to see you?”

“Until Draco turned ten I think. Then the visits stopped and I didn’t see him again until the war.” Simeon’s face was shuttered and Severus hesitated before striding into his classroom.

“If you’ll excuse me Black, I have potions that need attending.” He swooped inside.

Simeon followed him in.

“I’ll take my cloak back if you don’t mind.” Simeon snipped angrily. He came to a stop by a bubbling pot, that looked like sludge and smelled just as bad.

He grabbed a pinch of crushed newt and tossed it into the pot. Severus had just turned around to blast him and caught the action. His mouth dropped open rather comically.

“What the bloody hell do you think you are doing, you insolent pup!” He roared and stormed over, black robes flapping. It was a sight that every Hogwarts student had seen many times over the years, but a first for Simeon.

“That’s my wolfsbane potion and it’s a delicate time consuming process and you could just bloody well have ruined it! I do not spend my precious time in such endeavors only to have interlopers contaminate my batches!”

Simeon was stiff as a poker, his eyes cold.

“I think, sir…” He intoned nastily. “If you check it, you’ll see that a pinch of newt was called for and it is now well on it’s way to being able to make a tame canine out of a werewolf.”

Severus stopped short and stared down at the kettle. It looked exactly how a wolfsbane potion at this particular stage should look. His eyes sought his son’s.

“How did you know that?”

“I dabble in Potions.”

“Where were you schooled? You didn’t come through Hogwarts.”

“I didn’t attend.”

“You expect me to believe that you taught yourself Potions! By yourself?”

“Personally, Professor, I don’t care if you believe me or not.” His haughty tone, convinced Severus.

The Potions Master fired off question after question and got correct answer after correct answer. In a snotty tone of course, that raised Severus’ hackles. As his amazement grew, so did a sense of fatherly pride that completely took him by surprise.

Of course, the insolent pup still needed to learn some manners and the finer nuances of Potion making, but he was certain that under his tutelage, his son would become just as great a Potion Master as himself. A slow disturbing smile pulled at his thin lips.