Dianthus Stories
Chapter Twenty Five - Long Sought Answers
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Anything you
recognize belongs to someone else, namely, JK Rowling.
the HP universe, characters from same.
Sadly, I have no hope of publishing this story outside the fan fiction
characters I’ve created. Feel free to
give me critical feedback, including flames and harsh criticism.
personal embarrassment, but I do promise to read it and incorporate it if I
feel it improves the story.
*****
This is Twenty
Five. Smut begins in Chapter Twenty Six,
so if you’re only looking for that, feel free to skip ahead.
of the stuff in those later chapters if you don’t stick it out.
*****
By the way, this
chapter shares the same story as the short fiction called My Side, except that My Side
is told from Snape’s perspective, and this is told from Dianthus’.
one. You’ll find it on my author page.
*****
Chapter Twenty
Five – Long Sought Answers
cla class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%'>Dianthus and her
roommates shared a tearful goodbye on platform nine and three-quarters, with
many hugs and demands to owl all around.
Dianthus finally yelped, “I have to go, really!”
thirty
wouldn’t have time to shower. “I’ll owl
you!” And finally, wrenching
The Leaky Cauldron
was packed with newly graduated students and their families.
waited impatiently for the toothless innkeeper’s attention.
gave him her name. He chatted merrily
with his other customers while searching for her room key, which she grabbed
ungraciously from his outstretched hand.
“Thanks,” she called over her shoulder, already pushing back through the
crowd. She spotted several students that
she knew, but she avoided their eyes and tried to make herself inconspicuous.
“Hey,
Dianthus!” Someone grabbed her
arm, and she turned to see Althea Winter grinning at her, looking half drunk,
an empty shot glass in her hand. “I
never thought I’d see you here,” Althea bellowed, throwing an arm around
Dianthus as if they were fast friends.
“How’d you do on your N.E.W.T.s, then?
“I scraped through
them all,” Dianthus snapped. She took a
breath and decided she’d better make a little small talk and get it over
with. “Didn’t get Outstanding on that
one, did I, but I did okay.
Arithmancy, and Potions.”
“Of course,”
was a cert. Come have a drink, why don’t
you? Viv and I
were just going to get another.”
Dianthus groaned
as if the idea was very tempting. “Oh,
gosh, I can’t, Althea, not this time.
But owl me, okay?” And just to do
the thing properly, she asked, “How’d you do?”
Althea
chuckled. “Okay, I guess.
the Ministry.”
“That’s great,”
Dianthus said, with entirely false enthusiasm.
“But I’ve got to run. I’ll see
you soon, though.” She managed to
extricate herself from Althea’s grasp and hastened up the stairs.
then glanced at her watch.
She pelted down
the hall, threw open the door to her room, and slammed it behind her.
welcoming tray of tea waited on the table in the sitting area, but she ignored
both. She desperately needed a shower –
a summer day’s travel in the Hogwarts Express had left her feeling dank and
sweaty.
Stripping off her
shoes, socks, robes and underclothes on the way to the bathroom, she jumped under
a stream of fragrant hot water. She
soaped up and shampooed as quickly as she could, and breathed a sigh of relief
when she checked her watch again, after buttoning up a light and comfortable
robe. Five minutes to spare, a world
showering record, she was sure. She
dried her hair rather ineffectively with her wand and raced around picking up
her dirty things, cursing profusely. She
shoved the clothes haphazardly into the top dresser drawer just as a knock
sounded at the door. Smoothing her hair
as best she could, she took a deep breath and answered it.
Snape stood
rigidly in the doorway, wearing black summer robes and a frown.
tavern,” he hissed, swishing past her into the room.
establishment for this meeting? Perhaps
I should simply take an ad in The Daily
Prophet and be done with it.”
evening to you,” she said dryly, closing the door behind him.
she continued, hotly.
“I have just spent
the last ten months convincing the school that I am not a perverted deviant,”
he growled. “Only to walk up those
stairs–” he angrily flung out an arm and pointed a slender finger behind her,
“not five minutes after you rush past like a trysting schoolgirl!”
“You were already
down there?”
“Of course I was,”
he snapped. “One way to ensure a timely
entrance is to arrive early to one’s destination.
the detestable heartiness of those imbecilic simpletons.”
“Poor Severus,”
she smirked. “Forced
to wait among mortals.”
He advanced on her
menacingly, and she took an involuntary step backward – only to find her back
pressed against the door she’d just closed.
He stopped just short of her – so close that she could feel the heat
shimmering off his body, but not close enough that they were actually touching.
“The point,” he
said, in a low and furious tone, “is that some of them may connect my departure
with your flight up the stairs.”
“I doubt it,” she
said, fingering the door knob distractedly.
She felt uncomfortably warm and slightly sweaty again.
wind by this time.” She offered him a
faltering smile, but it faded under his blistering scrutiny.
“I think your
appearance may have overcome their inebriation,” he said softly, reaching out
to trace one finger along her exposed collarbone.
the stairs, believe me.” She shivered
slightly, and he withdrew his hand. “You
looked like nothing less than a woman hastening to meet her lover.”
where he had just touched her.
Dianthus leaned
her head against the door, savoring the gossamer caress of his long hair on her
skin. “Isn’t that what I was doing?” she
whispered.
“Perhaps,” he
breathed into her ear. “But does the
whole bloody world need to know?”
And then his mouth
was on hers, and she was unaware of anything but the sensation of the
moment. Snape’s hands skimmed up and
down her sides, and she buried her fingers in his mane of unruly black
silk. The kiss lasted an age, and she
wanted it to last another, but he broke away, panting slightly.
“I believe you wanted some answers? You
won’t get them with your tongue in my mouth.”
She let out a
frustrated breath, stalked to the couch, and sat grumpily upon it.
that he was right.
clasclass=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%'>“Yes, please,” he
said sleekly, sitting on the far end of the couch from her.
When she had
poured each of them a cup, she leaned back into the cushions and sniffed,
“Start talking.”
The smile slid off
his face and he made quite a business of taking a long sip of tea.
you had noticed my ring missing?” His
voice was carefully casual, and he seemed quite interested in the cup in his
hand.
“I remember you
went a little batty when I mentioned it, yes.”
He rolled his eyes
but otherwise ignored her comment. “Your
question made me extremely curious. I
told you on the occasion when you first noticed it that I hardly ever take it
off.” He stopped and looked at her.
your first year, I hadn’t removed it once.
Before that day,” he amended.
“But – I’m
certain–” she sputtered.
He waved a hand
for her to be quiet. “When you said that
you hadn’t seen it, I knew you were telling the truth.
the store room,” and here he gave her a sardonic smile, “so that I could
determine whether I could see it on your
finger.”
He stared down at
his hand. “I was able to see it,
obviously,” he continued. She fidgeted,
remembering how he had gone pale while looking at her finger that day, and
thought there must be something more to the story.
leave the castle grounds for the weekend.
He consented, and I apparated to my parents’ home to speak with my
mother.”
“What did she
say?” Dianthus whispered.
Snape did not
answer her directly. “My mother gave me
this ring when I was nine,” he said, in a contemplative voice.
all my cousins immediately. By the time
I arrived at Hogwarts, though, I was quite used to wearing it.
was beyond showing it off. When you
mentioned it, I assumed you were simply unobservant – as I believe I told you
after you tried it on the first time.”
He raised his eyes to hers.
“And dull-witted,”
she reminded him.
“Yes, that too,”
he smirked. “However, this time you
clearly noticed my not wearing the
ring, and then wearing it again.
Obviously, the ring was disappearing and reappearing, without my
intervention, or even my knowledge. I
deduced that it held additional powers, powers I had heretofore been unaware
of.”
“Why would a ring
disappear of its own accord, and then reappear later?” asked Dianthus, quite
befuddled.
“That was what I
wanted to ask my mother.” He
grimaced. “She was thrilled.
it for years, apparently.”
say?” Dianthus asked again, leaning forward.
Snape hesitated,
told me the ring was quite old, and had been in her family for almost
hu
hundred years. That I already knew.
insecure young witch, who happened to become my thirteenth great grandmother.
with certain spells and charms that she found quite useful.
wearer.” He stopped again.
“That one I know
about,” she pointed out. “What other
ones?”
“Another was to
aid her in ascertaining the feelings of others toward her,” he said, in a
constrained voice.
“What do you
mean?” asked Dianthus, mystified.
Snape looked as if
it were costing him a great deal to continue.
“My ancestor was quite paranoid, and worried constantly that she was
being used by people she thought were friends.
So she created a ring that would be invisible to casual viewers.
compelled tomentment on it. When anyone
asked her about it, it gave her a clear signal that the asker had affection for
her, because she also laid a caritas charm on it.
– love the wearer.”
Dianthus exhaled
sharply, her face flaming. She forced
herself to think rationally about what he’d just said.
hard time saying it. I already told you
that you were like a brother to me…”
Something was bothering her, though she couldn’t put her finger on.
He cleared his
throat before continuing. “My ancestor
eventually fell in love with a wizard much younger and far less clever than
herself. She doubted his love for her,
thinking that his declarations of passion were a ruse to help him expand his
own limited knowledge of magic. She
obtained a diamond and imbued it with the same daedalum
charm, but this time she placed a diligere spell on
it rather than caritas. Then she set the
diamond into the ring and waited for him to notice it.”
“Kind of passive,
was she?” asked Dianthus, weakly. She
took another sip of tea.
“Passive, but
quite clever, wouldn’t you say?” he responded.
“To charm it so that only someone in love with her would comment on it?”
“You – you saw a
diamond when I had it on in January?” she breathed, finally understanding his
reluctance to tell her the last part of the story.
realized you were in – in love with me?”
He snorted.
love with you, Dianthus,” he said, with a touch of exasperation.
return eelieelings.” He smiled bleakly
at her. “So you see why, after speaking
with my mother, I was rather keen to distance myself from you.”
Abandoning her
tea, Dianthus hitched up her robe and crawled on her knees along the couch to
him. “Severus,” she whispered, “I can
see it quite plainly now.” Leaning over
him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him tenderly.
“It is,” he
breathed, “but there’s one more thing I haven’t told you.”
continued. “My ancestor was pleased when
her lover noticed the diamond setting.
As her wedding gift to him, she forged another ring, imbued with the
same spells. My mother had been so eager
to tell me the full story because–” He reached into his robe pocket and
withdrew a tiny velvet pouch tied with a black silken cord – “because she’s
been waiting to give me this.”
ring identical to his own into his palm.
Dianthus struggled
for breath as Snape took her left hand gently and slid the slender band over
her finger. It was slightly cool to the touch, and she ran her thumb over it
incredulously, intoxicated by its texture against her skin.
each finger in turn, his eyes shining as he watched the emotions playing over
her face. “Never take it off,” he
murmured into her palm. Then he pulled
her into his lap and she lost sight of her new treasure, as she twined her
fingers into his hair and hungrily pressed her mouth to his.