Say You Love Me

Chapter Three
Denial

Hermione was both confused and stunned at what she had seen and her own reaction to it. She went to bed and attempted to sleep. She kept waking up for the remainder of the night with her stomach tied up in knots. Saturday morning found her groggy and sitting on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands.

She should not be upset, she told herself firmly. She should be happy that Professor Snape had found someone who would tolerate his cold attitude and hateful demeanor. Why then, did she feel like she was about to cry?

~*~

Severus had spent the night prowling the halls, leaving Ecclestia to her own devices. If it weren't for his position in the Order, he would simply disappear from here and never be heard from again as many other wizards had done at the start of the war.

Severus had never wanted to marry, let alone Ecclestia Poe. The woman was ruthless and evil. He could remember her from his youth. Even then, she had been nasty and eager to kill. She had looked down on most of her fellow Death Eaters with disdain and preferred the company of Lucius and the men rather than stay with the other females. The very idea of bedding her made him ill. He had been celibate for quite some time now and intended on staying that way. His life was complicated enough without adding emotions to it.

Last night had seemed nearly unreal to him. Everything that is, except for the look on Miss Granger's face when she had spotted his wedding ring. Severus was still puzzled about that. Her face had crumpled, and for a moment he was afraid that she was going to cry. Severus hated tears of any sort. He had come up against enough of them in his teaching career at Hogwarts to be able to ignore them, but somehow the idea of Hermione Granger crying did not sit well with him.

Maybe he was going soft in his old age, he thought as he entered the great hall for breakfast and stopped short. Ecclestia was sitting next to his assigned place at the table, red nails tapping impatiently.

"Ecclestia," he said formally, acknowledging her presence. He sat down and glared at the plates and bowls of food, not wanting to eat but knowing he needed sustenance.

"How dare you desert me like that, Severus," she hissed, keeping a smile on her face. "You are every much the coward that Lucius said you were."

Severus ignored her, choosing instead to crack the shell on a soft-boiled egg.

"If you think that you are going to get away with ignoring me, then you are sadly mistaken. You are my husband and I expect you to act like one."

"Since I am your husband, and I might add, not by choice, Ecclestia, I will dictate the rules here and I will not take orders from you."

"Don't push me, Severus."

"I have no intentions of pushing you, as that would require too much of my resources that are needed elsewhere," he replied calmly, biting into the egg and taking a bit of toast with it. "Since you are on Hogwarts grounds, I regret to inform you that your magical abilities are limited."

Ecclestia's black eyes shot over to Albus momentarily, narrowing in speculation.

"Your assumptions are correct, darling," Severus said sarcastically. "Since you insisted on accompanying me here, you automatically agreed to having your actions monitored by the Headmaster."

"Dumbledore is an old fool."

"He may be an old fool, but he is not as foolish as you give him credit for being." Severus was beginning to enjoy her discomfort. "I would suggest, wife, that you watch yourself and don't do anything that would draw attention to you."

"You may think you are winning, Severus, but you underestimate me. I fully intend to carry out my mission of destroying this place and Dumbledore with it."

"Do as you wish, Ecclestia, but be prepared to suffer the consequences of your actions."

Ecclestia was furious with the wizard who sat next to her, calmly eating his breakfast and coolly replying to her threats. He was a cheeky bastard, this one was. She was an idiot for having decided that she wanted him. Now that she had him, she wasn't so certain that he was a prize at all. Lucius had warned her that Severus wasn't to be trusted, that he was helping the Order instead of the Dark Lord, as he should be doing. Perhaps Lucius was right. She might be better off destroying her husband instead of Dumbledore. At least that way, she could remarry and marry someone who knew how to worship her in the proper way.

The students were nudging one another and whispering amongst themselves when the strange witch had appeared at the staff table this morning. They were still watching with speculation as Snape came in and sat down, looking very unhappy.

Hermione had eventually shown up to take her place at the Gryffindor table, eyes bloodshot and red. Ron and Harry exchanged puzzled looks behind her back, not daring to ask. Even her hair was bushier than normal today, which told them that she hadn't bothered with a spell to calm it down.

McGonagall tapped on her water glass loudly.

"Attention, may I have your attention please?"

The room went silent as Dumbledore stood up.

"Good morning, everyone. I have an announcement to make this morning. I would like for you to welcome an addition to Hogwarts. Our own Professor Snape was wed last evening, and has been joined by his bride. Please welcome Ecclestia Snape."

The Slytherins applauded wildly, all except Draco, who leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed.

Ecclestia stood up momentarily, bestowing the crowd with a smile meant to charm but thinking to herself that she would like to see all the disagreeable brats blasted to smithereens.

"I am sure that you will welcome Mrs. Snape and show her the same respect that staff receives. Have a pleasant day." Dumbledore sat down and continued eating.


"Snape? Married?" Ron spit out the piece of chicken he was chewing on.

"Gross, Ron," Seamus laughed.

"The chicken, or Snape being married?" Neville teased nervously.

"Both," Seamus replied.

"Bloody hell. I can't believe anyone would marry Snape," Ron said.

Only Hermione was silent, forcing herself to chew on her ham and not show any emotion. Harry was the only one who noticed that she had not made any comments.

"That poor woman," Ron continued. "Can you imagine her having to sleep in the same bed as Snape? Ewwwwww."

"Shut up, Ron," Harry said quietly. "I don't like Snape any better than you do but he does have a right to be happy."

"Yeah, but he is such a gross looking git that I can only imagine---- owwwww, why'd you kick me, Harry?"

Harry glared at Ron and only slightly tilted his head in Hermione's direction.

"What's eating at you, Herm?" Ron asked, ignoring Harry's frantic gesturing.

"Nothing, Ron." Hermione looked at her remaining food, wrinkling her nose. Somehow, she felt nauseated at the sight of it. She dropped her napkin on her plate and grabbed her book bag. "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go to the library."

"I'll go with you," Ron said, jumping up. Harry kicked him again, hard this time. "Watch it, why don't you?"

"No thanks, Ron," Hermione replied. "I'll see you later."

She walked off without a backward glance.

Ron sat down, rubbing his shin and glaring at Harry.

"Why'd you keep kicking me?"

"You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut," Harry said. "Something's up with Hermione, but she obviously doesn't want to share with us."

"I've told you repeatedly that she goes mental every now and then. She's just being a girl."

Harry privately thought that there was more to it, but it wasn't any of his or Ron's business. Hermione had always been bossy and mental but her red eyes spoke volumes.

Hermione spent the balance of the day with her nerves on end; her emotions buried deep and her nose buried in her books. She didn't realize how lucky that she was. In the dungeons far below things weren't as quiet. Severus had attempted to work in his lab, only to be interrupted by Ecclestia, who was determined to bed her spouse.

"Our Lord will be most displeased with you, husband," she purred, her hand dropping deliberately to his crotch, squeezing his thickness and coaxing it to a half-hard state.

"Ecclestia, there will be no discussion about this." Severus attempted to remove her hand. His body, longing for release that he had long denied it, responded to the groping, growing harder.

"You must please me," Ecclestia replied, grinding against him and attempting to kiss him. "If you don't, we both know what will happen to you, now don't we?"

"Don't threaten me. You will neither manipulate me nor use your influence with Voldemort to force me into something that I do not wish to do."

"I am your wife now, Severus, and as your wife, I demand my rights." Ecclestia's eyes became slits of menacing hatred. She popped the buttons on the fly of his pants open, and his rampant organ sprang free, much to his displeasure. She dropped to her knees and her mouth captured him before he could move.

A strangled sound erupted from his throat as he tried to break free without injury. Her long fingernails dug into the flesh of his buttocks as she sucked him into rigid hardness. Severus' own anger broke loose and savagely, he wrapped his fingers in her long hair, jerking her head back. A wordlessly mouthed binding spell left her helpless and glaring. She couldn't scream, for he'd silenced her as well. Breathing hard, he released her hair.

He performed a cleansing spell on himself, then restored his buttons.

"When I say no, I mean no," he said in a deadly voice. "If you are my wife, then you will obey me without question. If you do not agree, then you may leave where I do not have to look at you."

Her smoldering hatred was plain on her face. She would go straight to Voldemort with her complaints, but Severus didn't particularly care. The Dark Lord would not destroy him. He was too valuable to him as a "spy". The worst might be a cruciatus or two. Or, he might be made to sleep with her, an idea that he did not relish.

Love had never figured in any of his sexual relations anyway. He wasn't about to start now. He did not love Ecclestia, and never would. He was not capable of love or so he thought. No one had ever loved him and he had taken his physical relief when he could get it. As he'd grown older and become more disgusted with the war and the things that he was forced to do, sexual gratification hadn't mattered as much.

His hand was preferable to Ecclestia. Even the annoying Hermione Granger would probably be a better lay. Severus shook his head. Now where in Merlin's balls had that thought come from?

He left Ecclestia alone on the lab floor, ostensibly to teach her a well-needed lesson about taking him on in the future. She would be furious with him, but perhaps this little lesson might warn her away from the dangerous dark wizard that was now her husband.

~*~

Hermione came out of the library; weary from the reading she had forced herself to do. Harry and Ron were nowhere about, thank goodness. She was still fretting and upset about Snape's marriage and upset with herself for caring. He was a greasy, hateful, despicable git of a wizard, and the nasty looking witch was a good match for him.

If that was the case, why did she still feel like crying?

"Watch where you're going, Miss Granger." The voice that assaulted her ears made something inside her melt. She looked up at Professor Snape who was frowning at her.

Without warning, the tears she'd been fighting all day broke loose and ran down her cheeks, which made Severus wonder what plagued the girl.

"Sorry, Professor," she squeaked, looking away and taking off up the hall at a run which was expressly forbidden.

"Ten points from Gryffindor and a detention for running in the halls, Granger," Severus hissed after her. She completely ignored him and for a moment, Severus contemplated going after her. He decided to let her go for the time being. He could interrogate her during detention, and whilst tears held no weight with him, he did wonder why she was crying since he hadn't had a chance to make any cutting remarks to her.