Knight in Tarnished Armor

After they both polished off a glass of wine and picked at the appetizers the elves started to bring in the dinner. “Well since you will be staying here for some time I best introduce the rest of the staff,” each elf proudly stood in full view of Adraya. “You know Flopsy already she will continue to be your primary assistance however don’t hesitate to ask for the help of any of the others. On her right is Mopsy,” taller and thinner than Flopsy and a lighter shade of green. “To the left of Flopsy is Peter,” nearly the same height as Mopsy and a bit darker than both she and Flopsy.

“Hmm, Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter, all we’re missing is Cotton Tail.” Adraya’s chuckle was cut abruptly short when Peter stepped forward.

“Oh Missy, Cotton Tail will be right out. Cotton Tail is busy making Missy’s supper look pretty.” And without further ado a short stout elf the same coloring as Peter came bustling in with a tray. She removed two plates and placed one in front of each at the table. Peter smiled at both and clapped his hands and all the elves disappeared.

Adraya was left with a Cheshire cat like smile and was desperately holding back laughter. Finally Severus could take it no longer and asked her what she found so amusing. “Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton Tail and Peter, really? That seems so unlike you, it makes me believe Fluffy really isn’t a three headed dog at Hogwarts and any minute now a poodle will come jumping along looking for a treat. HA, you with a poodle.” No longer holding back her humor she laughed until tears sprang to her eyes.

Embarrassed Severus drank up his wine and rather snappishly replied, “It was a favorite children’s story of mine growing up. That was around the time we acquired four new houselves. My mother thought it would be ….. cute.”

“Absolutely adorable, she was right.” She smiled back at him, “and I thought my grandmother naming our pet rabbit Mr. Twitch was odd.”

“It has become apparent to me that everyone’s family strives to embarrass them in every possible way.”

“It wasn’t embarrassing it was just odd. But then again that was so like her, odd yet she knew everything. Everything I needed help with at least.” Adraya lowered her eyes to her plate and her humor seemed to dissipate as she paused in somber reflection.

Sensing the awkwardness approaching Severus cleared his throat. “Yes, well you must have had a very full childhood. Tell me did you live all your life in that house?”

“Yes, my mother was raised there as well.” Grateful for the topic change she dug into the dinner set before her.

“I noticed it was surrounded by woods did you explore them much?”

“They’re not as deep as you would think but I did spend a lot of time in them.” Pausing to swallow a sip of wine she continued with a smirk, “If I wasn’t gathering potion ingredients for my grandmother I was hiding from my mother. She wanted me to be more feminine and ladylike and I wasn’t having any of it. Once she got so mad that I wouldn’t drink with my pinky out when we took tea that she threatened to send me to finishing school. I was so terrified of going I ran into the forest built a tree house, using magic of course, and didn’t come down for three days until my grandmother assured me I’d stay put. You would think a parent would cave if their child was living in a tree for days but negations lasted nearly three hours before I got my mother to give up forcing me into pink dresses and bows.”

In his mind’s eye he imagined a smaller version of Adraya shredding a pink dress and waving it as a flag while hanging in a tree. The image caused him to smile briefly. Though the smile disappeared as quick as lightning Adraya still caught on. “What?”

“Oh just wondering what your side of the agreement entailed.”

Shrugging, “It could have been worse; all I had to do was act somewhat civilized and refined.” Throwing in her best exaggerated Jersey accent she said “Ya know be a classy broad.”

“Well up until then I thought you were quite ladylike and,” in a husky whisper, “feminine.”

The word slid over her skin like warm silk enveloping her and causing and involuntary tremor through her body that she barely managed to stifle. “Well it’s a good thing I came out of the tree then.” Not knowing what else to do she finished off her glass of wine in one long gulp. “Oh look at that it’s all gone.”

Smugly satisfied that he now had the upper hand Severus gladly refilled both glasses. “So tell me, you talk of your mother and grandmother and nothing of your father. What does or did he do?”

“My mother for one thing.” Scowling she speared a piece of potato as Severus chocked on the bite of chicken he was chewing. Dryly she interjected “oh forgive me that was inappropriate, I just couldn’t resist. The truth is I have no idea. Other than he was two years older than my mother, British and utterly destroyed her I know nothing about him.”

“Forgive me I didn’t know. But you said he was British?” Now very curious Severus tried to pry as gently as he could.

“Yes it seems to be the curse of the Eberstark women, to fall in love and have their hearts broken by British men. Well my grandmother’s heart never really broke because she never really stopped loving her man. Come to think about it, it’s all very complicated.” She stopped halfway to her wineglass. ‘No I better not there’s a ton of work to be done.’ Sighing she grabbed the glass anyway, “to hell with it.”

“To hell with what?” but he already had his answer. Severus found a lump had formed in his throat as he watched her take a long lingering sip. Her eyes closed and head tilted back, her delicate fingers gently wrapped around the glass. Swallowing hard he was transfixed by the sight of her pink tongue darting out to capture the last remnant of taste on her lips.

Relishing in the warm feeling welling from within her Adraya slowly opened her eyes and locked onto Severus’s own. “Work,” knowing that the balance of power had once again shifted in her favor she plotted her next move carefully. If it worked she could kill two birds with one stone. “I’ve done a lot as it is today and thought to hell with it. Give in have a little fun, a little pleasure.” The last word she let roll off her tongue. “After all I'll need access to a potions lab to run some tests and I’ve yet to see yours.”

Hurriedly finishing his own glass Severus realized he needed something stronger to combat the utterly sensuous stare he was receiving from the pair of eyes that looked as if they contained bottomless oceans. “Well my lab is in the basement,” struggling to form words, he felt as if with each passing second he became more and more enveloped in the swell. He swallowed hard again, “But soon I’ll be going back to Hogwarts and it would be better to start from there don’t you think. What I mean to say is it’s more troublesome to start here only to stop in a few weeks and try and transport it to Hogwarts.”

“So you’re saying you want me to go with you to Hogwarts?”

“I think it would be the safest option. After all they would expect you to accompany me and for some reason you appear to be in harm’s way. I’ve already cleared it with the Headmaster and we have a meeting scheduled. I mean if you have no objections to that.”

She smiled at him, it wasn’t a smirk and it wasn’t in humor, it was a sly sexy smile that told him he’d been eating out of the palm of her hand for the last ten minutes and didn’t even know it. He was flirting with danger quite literally in at that moment he would have given her anything she wanted. As it happened she leaned forward, his gaze momentarily drawn from her eyes to her breasts, and whispered, “Severus, how about dessert?”