Dianthus Stories
Chapter Forty - Idle Conversation
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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 Chapter
Forty. This chapter contains no
smut. But it’s on the horizon, just
ahead in Chapter Forty One, so if you’d like to,p ahp ahead.
bit confused if you don’t read the in-betweens.
*****
Chapter Forty –
Idle Conversation
Dianthus sat
sullenly on the couch while Snape made them tea.
shower. He’d carefully bundled her into
a heavy bathrobe and steered her into the living room, before conjuring himself
a long white nightshirt and heading for the kitchen.
bed, but she sat in the dartil til he returned with two steaming cups that gave
off a wonderful fragrant aroma. He
looked around and sighed.
life in her fireplace. He sat next to
her on the couch.
“It will not
always be like this, Dianthus,” he said bleakly.
“But it will be
for a good long time, won’t it?” she replied tonelessly.
“Yes, it will
be.” Snape took her hand.
“No,” she
muttered.
“Then can we be
satisfied with what we have?”
“It’s hard,” she
whispered. She was close to tears again.
“Drink some tea.”
He watched her
closely as she brought the cup to her mouth, and she narrowed her eyes at
him. “What did you do to it?”
“Just a mild
sleeping draught,” he said casually. “I
bought it this morning.”
“I don’t want to
sleep.”
“You need to,” he
insisted. “You were exhausted when I got
here.”
“I can sleep after
you leave,” she pointed out. “Hang
on. When are you leaving? Are you
giving me this so you can leave after you’ve knocked me out?”
intended. She put the cup down hard on
the table.
“No, no,” he said
quickly. “I don’t have to leave until
tomorrow afternoon.”
Her mood lifted
slightly. “Really?”
“Really.”
“So we can have a
lie in, cook breakfast, things like that?”
“If
you like.”
She took a ragged
breath. “Okay.”
He picked up her
cup. “Drink this, Dianthus.”
“I don’t want it,”
she said, pushing it away.
“Drink,” he said
pointedly.
“You are extremely
bossy,” she grumbled, taking it from him.
“And you need a
firm hand,” he said smoothly. “You are
very fortunate that I am able and
willing to provide it.”
Dianthus snorted
into her tea but took a long sip. They
sat in silence f mom moment, and then Snape said, “Did you see Aster?”
“No,”nthunthus
said sadly. She gave him a brief
synopsis of her visit to Broadgate.
He looked troubled
when she had finished. “She’s still
using the ?”
“Yes,” Dianthus
said, through a huge yawn.
“That can be
dangerous,” he said, still frowning.
“
the wizarding psychologist’s office.”
She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands.
“Enough talk,”
Snape said suddenly.< sty style='mso-spacerun:yes'> “Time
to get you to bed – no arguments.”
She sneered, but had no argument to give.
slightly.
“What the bloody
hell did you give me?” She yawned again,
and staggered a little. She felt like
someone had stupefied her, she was off-kilter somehow.
“Just a little
something,” he said, sweeping her up into his arms.
“This is
completely unnecessary,” she said, leaning gratefully into his shoulder.
He carried her to
the bed and she stretched as he untied her bathrobe and removed it.
protest once. She’d never been so tired.
“What the hell are
you talking about?” he laughed, crawling over her.
off the nightshirt, and she was glad for it.
“You called
me…Carmen or something,” she murmured.
“I called you ‘
“Oh,” she yawned,
snuggling closer to him. “I…like that.”
“Sleep now,” he
said, and as if he had commanded it, she dropped like a stone into
unconsciousness.
She woke with a
cry after only a few hours. She’d been
having a nightmare, that much she knew, but she was
still groggy and off-balance from the potion, and she couldn’t remember the
details. Something about spiders –
they’d been closing in on her when she woke up.
She didn’t try to remember any m spi spiders terrified her under the
best of circumstances. Snape pulled her
back down to him. “Just a dream,
Dianthus,” he muttered sleepily, throwing a leg over her.
But now that she
was awake, she didn’t want to go back to sleep.
She struggled out from under him and rolled off the bed.
exasperatedly at her. “Come back to
bed,” he said, in a voice still hoarse from sleep.
“I’m ready to get
up,” she replied, over a yawn.
“You’re not,” he
groaned. “But you are extremely
stubborn.” He threw back the blankets
and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“I don’t care if
you sleep some more,” she lied, pulling her bathrobe closed.
“I don’t want to
sleep some more,” he said quietly, “if you’re not in
the bed with me. I’ll make us
breakfast. You take a shower.
“Shower
– by myself?” Her face fell.
But he bullied her
into the shower alone, only to return a minute later and step into the stall
with her. “You can’t resist my charms,”
she said gleefully.
“You flatter
yourself,” he snapped. “I’m worried
about the aftereffects of the potion.
You didn’t sleep enough. You
might slip and fall.” But she noticed
that he took his time soaping up her body.
“Maybe we should
go back to bed,” she said thoughtfully.
“Your little mate is awake.” She
stroked his erection fondly. “
“I’ve created a
monster,” he snickered, turning away from her so that she could scrub his
back. “You cannot fuck me until after
breakfast, and that’s final. Copious
amounts of honey are not sufficient to satisfy me, even when I’m licking it off
your body. You ate most of the peach,
and we never got around to having any dinner.”
“You’re always
hungry,” she grumbled. She yanked his
hair and he bent a little lower; she applied shampoo lavishly to his head.
“Fucking you so
frequently and so strenuously depletes my energy at an astonishing rate,” he
shot back, as she vigorously rubbed shampoo over his head.
stream of water. “God damn it, Dianthus,
my hair is full of knots now.”
“Here,” she said,
handing him a bottle of conditioner.
“That makes my
head itch,” he groused. “Let’s get out,
and I’ll use my wand.”
“And then
breakfast,” she said. She was starving
suddenly.
It turned out that
her only contribution to their breakfast effort was making tea.
but somehow, even with her standing over them with her wand raised, they turned
into a congealed and lumpy mess, with burnt bits sticking up at odd
angles. She prodded at the horror in the
pan, hoping to improve it with a little magic, but he sniffed suspiciously from
behind her and peeked over her shoulder.
with an irritated sigh after one glance, and pointed one long finger toward the
dining room.
She slunk into a
chair and then spent an enjoyable half-hour watching him dart about the
kitchen, flicking his wand this way and that, setting potatoes to peel and chop
themselves, mincing herbs, monitoring sausages.
well. They followed his silent
directions instantly, and flipped themselves gracefully in the pan.
cooking, just so she could watch him move.
“This is quite
good,” she said, through a mouthful of eggs and potatoes.
“Yes, it is,” he
said, immodestly.
They spoke of
mundane things: her upcoming coursework
(he was furious that she hadn’t begun studying in earnest yet; she pointed out
that it was at least partly his fault she’d been preoccupied); the settlement
her grandfather had left her – Snape approved of Ogey
Charmichael’s conservative approach, but he laughed
heartily when she described the old lawyer’s mansion.
over it that prevents the Muggles from seeing it properly,” he chortled.
“I never thought
Aster would lliviliving among that sort of display, she was always such an
outdoors type of girl,” said Dianthus, her grin fading.
“She’ll come
around, Dianthus,” Snape said soberly.
“Charmichael seems to be making quite an effort with her.”
“I just neveroughought it would come to this.” Dianthus
felt a lump building in her throat.
“Let’s talk about
something else,” said Snape quickly.
“Let’s talk about the next time we can be together.”
Dianthus
grunted. “Christmas,
or something?”
Snape looked
elaborately surprised. “No,” he
said. “Dumbledore had a fabulous idea,
didn’t I tell you?
“When would you
have told me?” she shouted, angry that, as usual, he had all the information,
and was doling it out piecemeal.
“Dianthus, be
quiet,” he said sharply. “It’s not even
eight yet. Your neighbors are still
sleeping.”
“Tell me about
Snape cleared his
throat. “Are you sure I didn’t tell
you?” he said with a smile. “Dumbledore
suggested that on some of the nights I don’t have duty, I come here.”
“And how often is
that?” she said promptly.
“Well, last year
it was one night every couple of weeks.”
“What do you mean,
‘duty’?”
He raised his
eyebrows. “Monitoring
the castle, looking for idiotic little wrongdoers roaming the halls.
with a spiteful smile.
“Shut it about
that,” she snarled. “One little mistake,
and I’m branded for life.”
“You were as drunk
as an Abraxan filly,” he snorted.
Astronomy tower on your own.”
“I wasn’t planning
on making the attempt right then! And
you didn’t help, dragging me behind you like a sack of robes–”
“You deserved it,”
he said viciously.
She took a deep
breath. “I didn’t realize you were
required to – monitor the
castle. I thought the teachers did it so
they could catch students from other houses and take house points.”
“Well,” he
admitted, “that is quite enjoyable. But
there is definitely a schedule. Everyone
has to help keep the students in line.
Even with the prefects, there are so few of us to keep the little
fuckers under control.” He looked extremely
unhappy at the thought of returning toe lie little fuckers’.
“If you hate it
so, why don’t you leave?” Dianthus said kindly.
“Can’t,” said
Snape grumpily. “Not yet.”
“Someday,”
Dianthus said, not nearly as kindly, “you’re going to tell me the whole story,
and I’m going to be supremely pissed.”
“You undoubtedly
will be. But I hope that day is a long
time coming.” He gazed calmly at her,
but his eyes were completely shuttered over his emotions.
She sighed and
stood up. “Well, I might not be able to
cook worth a damn, but I’m a fine cleaner.”
She picked up her wand and waved it toward the sink.
full, and Dianthus waved her wand again – the dishes scattered on the counters
and table floated into the sink and began scrubbing themselves.
“So,” she said,
setting the wand back on the table, “one night every couple of weeks.
nowhere near what she wanted.
“I thought it was,
considering what it could be,” he said reasonably.
“And you’ll let me
know beforehand?”
“Perhaps,” he said
silkily. “I’ll want to test your wards
on occasion. Come,
show me what you’re doing to secure this flat at night.”
He pushed her
before him into the living room, where he watched her cast several spells, the
ones she normally used to protect her windows and doors.
“They’ll do fine
against the Muggles,” she protested.
“Not good enough,”
he repeated. '> “Is that all you’ve been
using?”
Snape taught her
at least a dozen spells she’d never even heard of, much less used, and he
forced her to repeat them time after time, until he was sure she wouldn’t
forget them. She was astounded at the
number of protective spells he knew, and even more astounded that he would want
her to use all of them every night. It
took hours; her flat was locked down like a Gringott’s
vault before he let her rest. She didn’t
know if she’d be able to get in, even.
“Are you expecting “I don’t want to “I am a fully “It’s an ugly “I promise,” she “ “You enjoy “You enjoy being
an attack?” she said quizzically.
“That’s an awful lot of proten.”
have to worry about you,” he insisted.
“Promise me, Dianthus.”
qualified witch,” she reminded him.
world,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.
“I won’t be happy if I can sneak in here as easily as I did, and
it to your bedroom unnoticed again.” The
thought of it sent a shiver up her spine.
“Promise me.”
said, a little frightened at the dark intensity in his face.
she tilted her head back.
bullying me,” she said breathlessly. His
tongue had found the erogenous zone below her ear.
bullied,” he reminded her softly, tugging on the belt that held her bathrobe
closed.