Sub Rosa

A/N - All right, I admit it, there is some shameless plugging of my friends\' bands in this chapter. However, they are really good bands and you would do well to check them out at www.allrisemusic.com! I\'ve been to The Viper Room several times to listen to them and as they say, Write what you know.

This is a short chapter, mostly a bridge for the lemons to come, so don\'t shoot me.


Chapter 30 – The Viper Room

Pansy was easy to link back to the hex, her handling of it had marked her clearly and a simple spell by Albus had revealed her as the culprit before the entire school, covering both Severus and Draco’s assistance.

She was packed up and taken away the next morning. Parvati and Dean sat side by side and watched as the Aurors removed her. She was too young to go to Azkaban, but she would stand trial for use of an illegal hex.

Kathryn’s eldest brother, Michael jr., and his wife Perrine were contacted and it was arranged for Lillith to come visit Hogwarts next Hogsmeade weekend and for Draco to visit Lieu D’Asile during the Yule holidays. Kathryn wasn’t sure how Harry would feel about that.

In the meantime, Saturday night was upon her and she and Severus had a date in LA.


Kathryn pushed through the line to the doorman. She gave their names and they were found quickly on the list and passed through. She had convinced Severus that his usual muggle mufti was simply not up to an evening in Hollywood.

A quick shopping trip later and he was decked out in a pair of soft black wool Armani trousers and a black silk shirt. His hair was pulled back and bound with a black leather cord and his boots were gleaming snakeskin. A black trenchcoat completed the ensemble and Kathryn was hard pressed to take him out instead of just taking him home. as das decidedly yummy.

She herself had chosen a tight black miniskirt, a sparkling silver tank top and soft leather boots that folded over at the knees. Her cz-75 compact fit snugly into the right boot, her wand into the left and no doorman had ever noticed them there.

The first band was playing and she smiled at the familiar crowd. “H is Orange” swung into “Bullet Point” and the crowd swayed and gyrated in the tiny space.

The Viper Room was small black and crowded, the stage was shoved into the corner of the room and the band was cramped. The acoustics were poor, the drinks expensive and the crowd was there to be seen as much as to listen to the music. Still, it was famous and trendy and it looked good for a band to say they had played there.

Adam slid through the crowd and hugged Kathryn. She grinned and shouting, introduced the curly haired lead singer of Allrise to Severus. Adam was short, willowy and had bright friendly blue eyes. Confronted by the tall, severe, dark-eyed form of Severus Snape, he blinked once and extended a hand in welcome. Severus took it gingerly and shook it.

Kathryn knew that Adam was the least judgmental person on the planet. In fact she couldn’t think of a single time she had heard a negative word come out of his mouth in all the years she had known him, so she was completely unsurprised to see him shouting cheerfully to Severus, drawing him out and sharing his enthusiasm for the bands playing tonight.

Kathryn was grabbed and hugged by several people who were all complaining that she didn’t come by enough. She laughingly explained that she was teaching in England for a year and got told that is was insufficient excuse.

Severus stood behind her as they listened to the band finish the set and she relaxed against him, his arms encircling her. After their set ended, Troy, the guitarist, waved at her and gave her a fly-by hug as they lugged their equipment off stage. Ali waved at Kathryn as she rushed by. The Raz then began setting up their equipment.

“You will really like them, Ali has a Janice Joplin meets Alanis Morisette voind tnd the rest of the Raz are pretty amazing too.” Severus cocked an eyebrow at her.

“I liked the previous band as well, though I prefer Punk.” It was Kathryn’s turn to be flummoxed and she looked up at Severus with wide eyes and parted lips.

“You listen to Punk?”

“I used to sneak away from Hogwarts to go to hear the Sex Pistols play.” He gave her the wicked smile she had come to love and she found herself kissing him on the dance floor. It was far too brief for her liking, but Ali was about to start.

Several hours later found them all laughing and talking at the Red Rock Bar down the street. Adam, Dave, Murph and Sherman from Allrise were exchanging stories with Guy, Marcel and Troy from H is Orange and Ali was deep in a conversation with Severus about the music industry and the club scene in LA. The rest of the Raz and Sam were chatting up the large group of fans who surrounded their table and filled up several others.

Kathryn caught up with the lives of several close friends and felt very much at peace with the world. Severus had been accepted and absorbed by these friends of hers as though he had always been there and she smiled.
They were an amazing bunch and Kathryn had no doubts they would be welcoming, it had been Severus who had surprised her. They were all fairly young twenty-somethings in the bands and she hadn’t been sure his sarcastic tongue wouldn’t be used against them. Instead, he seemed to be more at ease talking to these muggles than he was talking to the wizards and witches he dealt with every day.

He used wide gestures, he smiled and he was open and friendly. It baffled her for a moment and then she finally got it. This was the real Severus, she realized with a burst of illumination. This was Severus outside of his role, not playing at being the loyal Death Eater or the snarky Potion’s Master, but the man he really was under all the layers. He an ian intelligent, deeply curious person with a genuinely compassionate soul. She snuggled against his side and he slipped an arm around her absently, his attention wholly on the discussion of A and R’s role in the record industry.

She took the opportunity to study him in this unguarded moment. To store up memories and observations for the time when he had to slide back behind the mask. She had known that the Severus she saw day to day was not the real man. She had felt the real him during their lovemaking, his kisses were genuine she knew, but this was altogether different. This was the real him, interacting with interest and enthusiasm, with other people. It was a revelation and she soaked it up, cherishing it for its rarity.

Hogwarts was bathed in afternoon light when they arrived at its gates. She looked at her lover and watched as he straightened his clothes and released his hair to fall forward in concealing strands once more. The role claimed him and she watched the transformation with a small pang. So many years of this was carving itself into his soul and she only hoped the man she had met tonight would survive the game to its end.