In Need

A/N - Hi everyone! Here\'s a longer chapter for you.

Thanks for the sweet reviews - you are all wonderful and I love hearing from you. Please let me know what you think.

My best to you all

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The next two weeks flew by. Between organizing her office and classroom, planning her lessons, attending staff meetings, and training with Professor Snape, Megan hardly knew where the time went.


For as busy as she was, though, she was still able to accept several invitations from Bill, and they met a few times for dinner, drinks, walks, and conversation in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Bill was getting very hopeful about his prospects with her, and had also been feeling a physical attraction that was increasingly frustrating to put on hold. On the night before the students were due to arrive, he was dropping Megan off after dinner and he said with a smile, “You have become a very busy woman here very quickly, Megan. All of your work sounds so exciting - I only just wish I was able to see you more often.”


Giving a little laugh, she said, “I’ve really had a great time with you. I love my work here, but there has already been so much to do - I don’t know where the time has gone already.”


Bill looked at her standing in the dark blue evening - she was wearing her long silky hair down, and it was blowing in the light breeze. It had already changed color to light red, instead of the fair blonde she’d had when he met her. The weather was warm that evening, and her light robes were open, showing the dress she wore underneath, which wrapped around her curves and showed off her long legs. He put an arm around her waist and drew her up against himself and leaned forward to kiss her. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth and softness of his mouth. He parted her lips with his own and gently ran his tongue over her lips and then over her tongue. He felt her breasts pushed up against his chest, and he ran his hands over her tight waist. As he kissed her more deeply, he felt his hardness pressing up against her. He wanted her so much -


He broke away from the kiss and said quietly, “I would really love to go upstairs with you, Megan. I know this might be moving kind of fast… but you have no idea how much I want to spend the night with you.”


His golden brown eyes searched her face hopefully.


As she looked back at him, she considered it. He was really very handsome, had an amazing build, and she’d had a great time with him every time they had gone out. If his kiss was any indication of his lovemaking, she could tell that he definitely would know what he was doing. He was a great catch by anyone’s standards, and they had really been compatible so far.


But the fact that she had to consider it gave her pause. She had a strong hunch that with the way she felt right now, she wouldn’t be sorry in the morning if she said no - and she couldn’t be as sure about saying yes. She could tell that Bill really wanted her (even without feeling the evideof hof how turned on he was pressing up against her pelvic bone). She liked him very much and because of that was hesitant to agree to something about which he currently appeared to feel more strongly.


In a way, she couldn’t understand her own hesitation - he seemed to be the complete package of everything she had always looked for in a guy. There was just that nagging feeling holding her back - almost like when you feel that you’re forgetting something but can’t remember what it is.


Kissing him on the forehead, she said, “No - I’m going to say goodnight now.”


Sighing, he said, “Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying anyway. If the time comes when you change your mind…”


“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.


Bill kissed her deeply one more time and then said goodbye, crossing the Hogwarts grounds to get to a place where he could apparate home.


Severus had returned from a death eaters’ meeting recently enough to hear the whole exchange. “What a terrific finish to an already perfect evening,” he thought bitterly as he stood there, aching, tired and sore from the evening’s activities. He wasn’t about to barge through their little tete a tete, so he waited, hidden to the side, for them to leave.


He found himself seething at Weasley’s proposition to Megan. With some small strange sense of satisfaction, he heard Megan turn him down, but then moodily figured that it was only a matter of time until Weasley got through to her and wore her down. The image of Megan kissing Bill burned tauntingly in his mind. Filled with hurt and feeling discouraged, Severus went to his quarters, limping slightly, and downed a sleeping potion - admitting to and dealing with certain feelings was quickly becoming unavoidable, but after the night he’d had already, he granted himself that respite.


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On the night that the students returned to Hogwarts, the sorting hat sang its song and placed the first year students into their houses at the great feast. Harry, Ron, and Hermione caught Megan’s eye and waved to her, and she cheerfully waved back at them. Ron said to Harry, “I sure am glad that Bill isn’t here too. He was driving me up the wall when we were back at Black Manor.”


“Yeah,” agreed Harry, “he’s gone totally nuts about her. I mean, it’s all well and good to like a girl,” he said as he gave an unconscious look in Ginny’s direction, caught himself, and blushed, “but you don’t need to get like *that* about it.”


“Well, I think it’s rtic,tic,” said Hermione. “I mean, don’t you think they would make a great couple? They’re both smart and sweet - and they look good together too.”


The kids continued chatting with each other and saying hello to their friends, glad to be back at Hogwarts. All of the seventh years had mixed feelings about it being their last year there. Among the greetings that people were giving each other, Harry also noticed that the members of the DA group he still led were catching his eye. He nodded to each of them, and decided to set a meeting time for the next day after classes.


While they no longer needed to meet in secret because of school rules that had been in place when they first formed the group, they still kept quite private due to the nature of their gatherings. They didn’t want to be open to everyone - especially not to people who would only participate to later use the skills against them. Some Slytherins, for example, had approached Harry about joining the group last year, but after discussion with the rest of the group, they decided not to admit them. They only people they had allowed to join were those for whom another member of the group could personally vouch.


Finally, everyone was very pleased to hear Dumbledore’s welcome speech, and everyone was even more pleased to begin the feast that appeared on the plates in front of them.


Megan spoke to Severus over Professor Flitwick’s head, “I’ve missed you the last couple of days. What have you been up to?”


“The usual things. Would you like to meet for training?”


“Yes, I would like that very much.”


They agreed to continue their training that had been put aside recently. Megan didn’t know that Professor Snape had seen her with Bill, and if she had, she would have been surprised that it was the reason he had steered clear of her the last few days.


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“Come on, you guys,” said Hermione rather impatiently the next morning. “We’re going to be late for our first class if you two don’t stop that.”


Ron and Harry, who had gotten into a contest to see how many pieces of toast they could fit itheitheir mouths, looked reproachfully at her with humongous bulging cheeks. Harry said, “Aw, lighten up Hermione.” Except that it sounded more like, “Aww, hmmom uhh hummiomee.”


She rolled her eyes, finished her coffee, and folded up her morning newspaper, tucking it into her bag. “We have double charms. Are you coming - or will you have a little more toast first?”


Harry, chewing with effort, quickly washed his down with a glass of juice, grabbed his bag, and jumped up to go, followed by Ron whose face was still bulging. On the way out of the great hall, they went past Draco Malfoy. Since his father’s imprisonment, he was even meaner than he had been before. It hadn’t been confirmed by anyone they knew, but they suspected that it was almost a certainty that he had taken the Dark Mark already and was biding his time at Hogwarts until he could take his place in the death eater’s circle full time. He had started to grow his silvery blonde hair long over the summer, and was looking more like his father than ever.


“Oh, look at poor Weasley,” Draco said, looking at Ron trying to finish his toast. “I guess they couldn’t afford to feed you over the summer, so you have to make up for it now. Sad, really.”


Harry put his hand over Ron’s mouth to prevent him from spraying the whole mouthful out at Draco, and they went on to their classroom.

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They caught up to Hagrid who was carrying an enormous sack over his shoulder. “What’s that?” they asked.


“It’s summit’ fer yer class comin’ up now. Ye’ll have teh wait an’ see now, won’t ye?” he said with a grin.


He went into the charms classroom and plunked the bag down on the floor, turning it over and emptying it’s contents into a pile in the corner. Teeny Professor Flitwick hurried over to Hagrid, thanking him in his squeaky voice. Ron looked at the heap in the corner and wrinkled his nose.


“What is all that? It just looks like a big pile of junk!”


“I think it is,” said Hermione, starting to sort through the odds and ends. “Look, it’s rags, pieces of rope, old pillows, sticks, cans, brushes - what in the world do you suppose all this stuff is for?”


“Well, if you don’t know, then I’m pretty sure the rest of us won’t either,” said Ron.


Professor Flitwick called the class to attention. By now they had all noticed the pile in the corner and waited curiously to hear what they were going to do.


“Welcome back, students! Here we are, beginning your seventh year at Hogwarts. I have been so pleased to teach you over the years and see the many ways in which you have grown. You have all learned well, and are nearly ready to enter the world as adult witches and wizards. Today we will be working on a project that you will need to complete in order to begin participation in your defense against the dark arts class. Who here knows what a golem is?”


Naturally, Hermione raised her hand. When Professor Flitwick saw that hers was the only hand raised, he chuckled and called on her. “Yes, Miss Granger.”


“A golem is an animated model of a person that is made out of inanimate materials.”


“Excellent, Miss Granger - you are exactly right. Ten points for Gryffindor. Today, you will each be making a golem of your own, constructed of the materials over there,” he said, waving his hand to the corner. I will write the incantation on the board necessary to assemble the pieces, and under it I will write the incantation needed to animate the golem. After you have that done, we will learn how to remove and reapply the animation charm, so your golems are not running free every moment that you aren’t watching them. Please make them the approximate size and shape of an average adult.”


Class continued with the students assembling their golems and the professor circulating among them to help adjust for things like shaking and flailing. By the end of class, they had all finished their golems and un-animated them - some of them rather frightful looking figures. They collected them together with the rest of their class materials and headed to defense against the dark arts.


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Megan greeted the class and said, “Good. I see that you all have your golems. They are going to be an essential part of the work that you will do in this class, so you will need to bring them to each session until further notice. The practice of defending oneself against dark forces sometimes requires moves of offense, and that is what we are going to begin with. For the first section of this course, we will be learning various spells to preemptively fight. This is where your golems come in - many of the spells that you will be learning will be too dangerous to use on an actual person unless absolutely necessary. Any misuse of the magic that you are learning will be punished and you will be dismissed summarily from the class. Do you understand?”


They spent the rest of the class learning two new spells to stun and shock. Megan was pleased to see most of the students pick up on the material rather quickly, and she walked through the class to give further instruction where needed. She was a good teacher and expected a lot from her students. The friends who had met her over the summer saw a new side of her from what they already new - she ran the class with as much of an iron hand as Professor Snape ever did. On the other hand, they were relieved to see that that was where the comparison stopped - it was easy to see that she loved working with the students, and her enthusiasm for the material was contagious. It seemed like class had barely started when it was already time to un-animate their golems again and go to lunch.


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Over the next few weeks, Professor Snape was quietly amused to see the effect that Megan had on her pupils. He noticed, for example, that many of the young ladies had begun wearing their hair in similar styles to hers. As for Professor Waters’ own hair, Professor Snape noticed it becoming brighter red every day. Although he didn’t think that she had seen much of Bill Weasley these days, he found himself looking forward to when her hair moved on to its next seasonal color and provided less of a visual reminder of that acquaintance.


Professor Snape was, in part, responsible for Megan’s lack of free time. They had been spending longer hours on their training than ever. While he admitted to enjoying the time with her very much, their time together was also very productive. He continued to be impressed with her magical abilities, and she was pleasantly surprised at his patience and interest. Because of their easy rapport that had developed and because they met so frequently, they started training in each other’s quarters.


When Severus first visited Megan’s quarters, he was struck by how pretty and comfortable they were. Her sitting room was warm and comfortable in the cool autumn evening, and it was tastefully decorated with sofas in various coordinating prints of light-colored heavy silk. She had small ornately carved tables holding pots of orchids and framed photographs of her family. On the floor was a hand-knotted wool rug with a vine pattern woven through it, and the tall bookcases with crown molding that lined one wall were filled with all sorts of books.


Severus stiffened when her cat ran into the room to greet them - he had never been fond of cats. He was small and black with a white throat and stomach and white paws. This tiny beast didn’t seem to know the difference, though, as he wound through Severus’ legs, purring loudly. The cat was distracted by a moth that flew into the room, and he ran after it happily, jumping to catch it.

“What kind of a witches’ cat is this supposed to be?” asked Severus.


“What do you mean?”


“Look at him,” he said, as the tiny animal, distracted by an imaginary piece of fuzz, rolled onto his back, bared his teeth, and started to kick enthusiastically with his hind feet, “he looks like an angry stuffed animal.”


Laughing and picking Ernie up, Megan said, “Well, he serves this witch just fine. And look, he likes you too.”


Ernie had squirmed out of Megan’s hands and dropped neatly to the floor, resuming weaving through Severus’ legs.


Severus was somewhat taken aback, because his dislike of cats was normally mutual. “Er, yes... Shall we begin then?”


In their practice, they moved on to more challenging material, including the blocking of the imperius and cruciatus curses. Megan was able to resist his imperius curse, but was reluctant to try either receiving or giving the cruciatus curse.


“But I’m asking you to,” he argued. “You know that I will be able to resist it better when the time comes if we practice it now.”


“I know… but if you aren’t able to block it, then it will hurt you,” she said, looking sadly at him.


“Megan,” he said - for they now used their given names with each other - “I don’t think that the pain will come all at once. I… have already had some practice in receiving this curse,” he finished grimly.


Megan felt a pang for him. “So, you think that we’d have a warning then? If I hit you with it, it wouldn’t have the full effect?”


He caught the look in her eye and was touched. “I think that is what we can expect.”


She gritted her teeth and pointed her wand at him “Crucio!”


Severus winced. “Do it again,” he said after a moment.


Once more, Megan threw the curse at him. This time, he flinched visibly, but still stood. After the next time though, he grabbed onto the back of the chair he was next to and eased himself into it. He closed his eyes and Megan ran over to his side.


“Severus?”


He heaved a shaky sigh and rubbed his face, and then said, “I think we can call it a night now.


Megan refused to leave him until she believed that he was really alright. They had missed dinner, so she ordered food to be served in his quarters. They enjoyed the quiet meal together, and Megan left soon after, satisfied that Severus was really having no ill effects from receiving the cruciatus curse.


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