#8 ~ A Rather Catty Situation

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JKR (except Odessa Divine). All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 7 ~ Severus’ Secret

Hermione lay in the four-poster bed, her fingers idly trailing across Severus’ chest. She looked at her husband.

“Severus?” she asked.

“Yes, Hermione?” he answered, his eyes closed and hands behind his head as he relaxed next to her enjoying her touch.

“Why haven’t you become an animagus?” she asked.

“I am an animagus,” he replied.

Hermione sat up in the bed. “What? And you never told me?”

He turned his head and looked at her.

“I did tell you. Years ago, when you observed that my eyes were like those of a serpent in your dream. I told you I was the serpent in your dream,” he said, closing his eyes again.

“But I didn’t take it literally!” she exclaimed.

“And that’s my fault?” he said a little snarkily.

She scowled at him. He sighed.

“I transform into a black Reticulated Python,” he said, “of enormous size.”

“Why have you never transformed?” Hermione asked him.

Severus shrugged. “Well, I kept my ability a secret so Voldemort wouldn’t want to use my gift to further his evil. And I just didn’t have an occasion to use it over the years.”

Hermione looked at him,

“I want to see it,” she said.

Severus sighed again. He knew he shouldn’t have told her. Now she’d be nagging him for days.

“It’s too big for the bedroom,” he said, “and I haven’t done it in so long, Hermione. I’m probably out of practice.”

Hermione frowned at him. “Nonsense. Once you connect with your animal nature, you can always transform. The ability never changes once you’ve accomplished it.”

“Maybe later, ok?” he asked, looking at her rather tiredly.

Hermione realized this was as close to a concession as she was going to get from her husband.

“All right, Severus,” she said in a pouty voice. She looked at him curiously.

“How big?” she asked. “How big is enormous?”

Severus rolled to face her, his eyes narrowed a bit.

“Enormous enough to wrap around your lioness form several times,” he purred.

“Do you have the Slytherin coat of arms on your head?” she asked, remembering her dream.

“No,” he replied, “If you saw that in your dream, it was probably your subconscious trying to warn you about a rather randy and lascivious Slytherin planning to desecrate your supple, virgin flesh.”

He grinned at her.

“You didn’t listen well, did you?” he said silkily, drawing one finger up her arm. He sobered a moment, thinking about her transformation.

“Er, Hermione…is there any danger of you transforming during sex?” Severus asked her, raising himself up on his elbow and looking down on her, his brow creased with worry.

“No, I will remain human during sex, Severus. Don’t worry,” she responded with a smile.

He fell back to the bed.

“Good. I love you very much, my sweet, but I draw the line at bestiality,” he said, replacing his hands behind his head. He lifted his head slightly, “although I’ve been told that being embraced by a serpent is quite sensuous. It did Eve in, after all.”

Hermione remembered her realistic dream of the huge serpent coiled around her nude body possessively, its warm coils shifting against her body gently. Severus noted her faraway look and gently probed her mind, seeing the erotic image for himself. He started, and withdrew without her knowledge. So, his wife had a thing for big snakes, eh? Then he snorted, trying to hold in his laughter, thinking about his cock.

“What?” Hermione said, looking at him suspiciously. Severus just waved his hand at her, unable to speak. She put her hands on her hips.

“I hate when you do that,” she said.

“What?” he gasped.

“Hide things from me,” she scowled. Oh, oh. This was getting serious. He didn’t want her in a bad mood, so he just told her.

“I saw the image of my animagus form wrapped around your body in your mind, and thought, ‘my wife has a thing for big snakes’ and then…and then…” He looked down at his loins meaningfully and grinned before looking up at her with a little gleam in his black eyes. “I realized the truth of that statement.”

Hermione slapped him on his shoulder.

“Severus, you’re so wicked!” she said, laughing despite herself.

“No,” he said, “just observant,” he responded, kissing her hand. “you have a distinct preference for things serpentine and oversized my dear, and if Pomfrey hadn’t said you needed your rest…”

Here Severus’ eyes glittered hotly,

“I’d thoroughly show you how I ‘came’ to that conclusion,” he finished, with a growl.

Hermione went wet instantly. Her husband was so fucking sexy.

She thought about something she meant to tell him that would probably make him feel better about taking Odessa to the lower levels tomorrow.

“Severus,” she said, “I wanted to let you know I have a spell you can use tomorrow to clear out all the vermin at once, so they won’t return. I developed it a while ago for a wizarding extermination service that went out of business before I could get it to them. I’ll give it to you in the morning. That way you won’t waste your time trying to hunt them all down. One cast will do it.”

Severus looked at her. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spell to make new staff members disappear do you?” he asked, irritation in his voice.

“No,” Hermione replied, “or Marcus would have been gone years ago.”

Severus snorted with laughter. Then he sobered.

“Hermione, I need your help with this…this new staff member, Miss Divine,” he said to her seriously.

“How can I help you, Severus?” she asked, frowning slightly.

“You know I have little patience for foolish questions, and hate having to take time out from my work for incidental things like unrelated inquiries…”

“Yes,” she agreed. Little patience did not come near to describing the explosive reaction her husband had to anything that he felt inane and wasted his time.

“I believe that you would be better suited to help Miss Divine make her way around the castle and answer her questions than I would. Most likely I would have her cringing and in tears inside of half an hour. It wouldn’t be the best way to introduce her to Hogwarts. The Headmaster forgets that I am not the social butterfly he would have me be. I would rather not deal with the woman any more than necessary. Would you help me out with this?”

“Of course I will, Severus. I like showing people about and familiarizing them with all the different aspects of the school. I think it will be fun,” Hermione replied.

Severus breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, now all I have to do is show her around the blasted lower levels and be done with her. Thank you, wife.”

He kissed her and drew her close in his arms.

“Come on,” he said, “let’s take a nap before supper.”

That sounded nice.

“And I hope I won’t be waking up with whiskers and fur in my mouth,” he stated firmly.

“I don’t think you will, hon,” Hermione said, getting comfortable.

“I hope not,” he snarked, closing his eyes and tightening his grip on her.

Hermione snuggled against her husband and closed her eyes. When she slept, she dreamed of a huge black serpent wrapped gently around her, its black eyes glowing with love.

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A/N: So Severus is an animagi. He’ll show Hermione his form in a future chapter. Please review.