Journey To Passion

Chapter Nine –






Chapter Nine – The
Prevailing Man of Principle

 

Snape
stood up and walked over to a cabinet standing against the wall. He kept
several remedies inside, some of which he had used for himself after his
confrontation with Fluffy.

Jessica
watched him as he came back to the couch with a bottle of clear solution and a
clean cloth. With a small sigh, he sat back down on the couch and turned
Jessica’s back to him. “Now, I’m going to ask you a very important question.”

“What’s
that?” she asked.

“Are
you going to take this off, or shall I just tear it open?” he asked as he
rubbed the silky material of her shirt between his fingers.

Jessica
laughed quietly and turned her head around to look at him. He had cocked an
eyebrow and had put a small jovial smirk on his face.

“It’s
polite to ask rather than to assume what the patient prefers,” he said.

“I
know,” she agreed and turned back around and began unfastening the buttons
along the middle of her silk pyjama shirt. “But at least my shirt is still in
one piece, and you can’t deny that you would have gotten even more angry if I
insisted you take your pants off.”

“Perhaps
I would have,” Snape admitted. “However, now that th bet between us are
different, I promise not to be so hesitant next time.”

Jessica
didn’t need to be an empath to feel the amount of suggestion that sounded in
each word. It sent a chill through her body that made her feel uncomfortable
and aroused at the same time. She knew Snape was attracted to her, but so far
he had kept all of his sensual feelings to himself.

Jessica
sat with each unbuttoned corner of her shirt in her hands and waited for the
butterflies in her stomach to pass. Her eyes closed and Jessica took a deep
breath as she reached up to her collar and pulled the material off her
shoulders.

She held
her position for a moment with her eyes still closed and breathed deeply.
Suddenly she began having second thoughts about letting Severus nurse her
wounds. Perhaps she should have gone to her Uncle Albus. At least he already
knew what she had hidden bd thd the curtain of her thin silk shirt. Dumbledore
had already been through the shock of seeing what happened to his grandniece
after every time she overpowered the calling of Lord Voldemort. On top of that,
when she exposed her flesh to him there were no sensual or arousing feelings,
only the need to care for her wounds.

Severus’
feelings for her were passionate and Jessica knew that if she let him do this
to her, his feelings and his yearning to hold her against him would only become
stronger.

Warm
hands covered Jessica’s twitching fingers and took the collar from her grasp.
He gently continued pulling the shirt down her arms for her and then folded the
blood stained material in half before setting it aside.

“Severus…”

“Shh,”
he hushed. “It’s all right.”

His
words were soothing and eased her tension. He had her there now and he wasn’t
going to let her leave until he could help her. He was a wizard and had seen
many things both in his days as a Death Eater and after. Her wounds weren’t
going to alarm him because they were gruesome – they were going to disturb him
because he loved her so much already. However, they were something he had to
see eventually. Slowly, Jessica reached her hand behind her neck and began
pulling her hair over her shoulder.

“Sweet
mother of Merlin,” she heard him cry. Just as she had expected, Jessica felt
Severus flood with an abundance of fuming emotions. His hand grazed gently over
her back and his eyes followed from her neck to the faded Dark Mark at the
small of her back. Five long jagged cuts tore her skin in the form of a giant
hand with sharp claws.

Beneath
the fresh cuts, her back was scared with deep red cuts exactly like the one
that bled now. Snape could tell by the direction of each set of slashes that
she had been scratched at least three times previous to tonight.

“I
know how horrible you think I look,” Jessica said as she picked up on how
appalled he felt. “I can’t blame you for feeling so disgusted with my body.”

“I’m
not disgusted with your body, Jessica,” Snape ensured. “This doesn’t take away
from how beautiful you are.”

Jessica
wrapped her hands around her arms and hugged herself tightly as she choked back
a few tears. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do Severus, but you’re
forgetting one thing. I can sense just how disgusted you feel.”

“I am
disgusted,” he confirmed. “However, it isn’t your body that makes me feel that
way. What appals me is that someone would have the nerve to do this to you – to
such a beautiful and perfect being. Though it may be too late to change what’s
happened, it isn’t too late to start believing that when I look at your body I
see only unmatched beauty. Your body and your skin are nothing less that
perfect.” Snape bent his head down and dotted the nape of her neck with soft
kisses.

“Thank
you, Severus.” Jessica smiled as the loose strands of his hair tickled her
shoulders and sent tiny shivers down her spine. “You’re the only one I’ve ever
wanted to see this much of my body.”

“I’m
glad to hear that.” His hand crossed over to her stomach and caressed her skin
gently until a thought crossed his mind. His fingers traced slowly over each
scratch that ran along her back. Although he thought it unlikely, the jagged
marks looked very much like they could have belonged to something else other
than the illusion of Voldemort.

“Jessica,”
he began and hesitated as he tried to find the right words. “Tell me again,
where did this happen?”

“In my
bedroom,” she answered.

He
suddenly felt suspicion brewing in the pit of his stomach. Jessica turned
around to face him only to see a nasty distrusting look on his face. “You don’t
believe me,” she announced.

“Forgive
me for being suspicious,” Snape began as he stood up. Jessica picked up her
pyjama shirt and held it in front of her as the wary professor stepped into her
view. He crossed his arms over his chest and slowly exhaled a full breath of
air. “I have been fooled enough times in one life time and I will not be fooled
again. I am on my guard with everyone, especially telepaths and empaths who
come to me in the middle of the night bearing the mark of an evil wizard and
claw marks that could easily belong to the very same beast who attacked me on
Halloween night.”

Jessica
stared blankly up at the man who only two minutes ago felt certain that he
loved her. Her jaw quivered and another tear dripped from her eye. It was
difficult to decide whether she should be upset with him for accusing her of
such a thing, or if she should be pleased with his faithful sense of vigilance.

“You
know who I am, Severus,” Jessica finally spoke. “I may be the daughter of one
of Voldemort’s followers, but I’m not here to do any of his dirty work.”

Snape
inhaled again and his dark eyes turned cold. The distrust he felt bothered him
even more than it did Jessica. She could feel that his vigilance was a duty he
took on to protect Hogwarts, it’s students and especially its headmaster.
“Prove it, Jessica. I can’t read your mind as well as you can read mine, so you
had better be flat out ingenuous with me.”

“I
don’t have to prove anything,” Jessica said immediately. “Uncle Albus wouldn’t
allow the two of us to be together if he knew either of us were here to turn
against him. Regardless of what you may have done in your past, he told me I
can trust you, and I do. If you can’t trust me, then you don’t deserve me. I
don’t know what attacked you on Halloween night and I’m all right with not
knowing if you don’t want me to, but if you think I’m trying to hide something,
you’re wrong.”

Jessica
walked around him to her dressing gown and slippers. As slowly as she could,
Jessica knelt down and picked up a corner of her robe and the belt beneath it.
The cuts on her back made it especially painful to stand up straight again.
Jessica kept her back to the professor as her face squeezed up in the agony.

When
she put the robe back on and tied herself up, Jessica took one last look at
Snape and squeezed the pyjama shirt in her hands. “Once you have time to decide
where your trust lies we can have another little chitchat. You know what to do
until then.”

With
her slippers on, Jessica began heading for the door. She could feel Snape’s
emotions changing as she walked away, but she wasn’t going to let his feelings
stop her from leaving. A sincere verbal apology was all Jessica was going to
accept.

A few
feet away from the door, Jessica thought she had heard him say something and
cam a s a sudden halt. She put her ear over her shoulder and listened. Snape
said nothing, but the voice in her head repeated again.

Don’t
walk out that door, Jessica. Please don’t walk out that door!

She
could hear his thoughts! Only when she wanted to read someone’s mind could she
hear the exact words, and she had always needed to have eye contact. She
couldn’t see him, and she certainly didn’t wish to hear his thoughts. It just
happened.

If
you leave I will follow. If you stay I will…

Jessica
turned her head a little further over her shoulder and waited to hear the rest
of his thoughts. For a moment there was only silence, like his mind had gone
blank. His feelings of anger and remorse were still strong, but the words had
faded.

“Go
on,” Jessica urged. She then turned herself around and faced him.

With
his arms still crossed over his chest, Snape stood tall and wore the trademark
smirk that named him the monster of Hogwarts. “Go on what?” he shot back. “I
thought you were leaving.”

“Not
if you only intend to follow me,” she told him.

The
crease between his eyebrows slowly evened out and the horrible look upon his
face turned into a penetrating stare. His hands slithered across his stomach
and joined at his hips. In slow steps, he began walking towards her. “I’m not
going to play games with you, Jessica. I don’t want you to leave, not when
there’s no one else to help you with your wounds, but I’m not going to
beg you to stay.”

“Then
what were you going to do?” Jessica demanded.

Snape
took one step closer to her and lifted her chin with his hand. “I was going to
help you,” he answered loudly, “and I am still going to help you.
Regardless of how this happened to you, I don’t like seeing you in pain and I
won’t stand here and let you walk away like this. You could barely bend down to
pick up your clothes.”

When
Jessica trio tuo turn her head away from him, Snape put his other hand to the
side of her face and stopped her. He firmly held her face in his hands,
practically forcing her to look at him. The look in his eyes penetrated so
deep, Jessica wondered if he could see right through to her thoughts.

He
kissed the top of her head so softly Jessica could barely feel his lips
touching her hair. He held himself still for a moment and then slowly let out a
warm breath of air that smoothedrtoprtop her head.

“Let’s
not waste anymore time, Jessica. This foolish nonsense with get us nowhere. Sit
down and I’ll take care of everything.” Snape took Jessica by the hand and took
a step back towards the couch.

Jessica
squeezed his hand and kept her feet planted into the floor. She pulled him back
to her and linked each of her index fingers through the belt loops at his hips.
A small playful smile tilted the corner of her lips. “We aren’t wasting time,”
she told him. “Not when we’re together.”

With
warm affection in her eyes, Jessica tilted her chin up anosedosed her eyes as
she touched his lips with hers. Her kiss was warm and overflowing with more
affection than he thought he deserved at the moment.

He’d
doubted her, quarrelled with her and nearly drove her away yet again.
Nevertheless, there she was with her hands pulling him closer to her body and
her lips delivering a kiss he could only have dreamed about until this mo.
.

Careful
not to touch her back, Snape gently placed his hands overtop Jessica’s
shoulders and let the stroking of her lips match his own. With each passing
moment, he widened his kiss and eased Jessica into a more passionate kiss. She
hardly needed any coaxing. Very shortly after his tongue first touched hers,
Jessica firmly pressed her fingers into his dress shirt and slithered her hands
up his chest until she had her arms chained securely around his ne
A
After
sharing the most passionate kiss she had ever experienced, Jessica pulled her
head back and looked into the professor’s eyes and smiled a smile that came
with a little bit of laughter.veruverus,” she began and tightened her arms
around him. “I can’t begin to tell you how badly I wanted you to stop me from
walking through that door tonight.”

One
way or another he would have stopped her. Jessica knew he would have. He wanted
her to stay even more than she wanted tay.tay.

He
smiled ar anr and then kissed her one more time before lifting a finger before
her. Jessica locked her eyes with his as he slowly touched his finger to her
collarbone. Then, very slowly with his gaze still holding her captive, Snape
eased his finger down the middle of her body, through the valley of her
breasts, dolonglong her stomach and then stopped once he reached the belt tied
around her waist.

The
intimacy of his small touch wrought a tiny shiver and caused her skin to gle.gle. His long calming breaths reminded Jessica to breathe again. She had no
idea how long she had been holding her breath. It was probably when he first
placed his finger on her that he took her breath away.

The
ensuing tingling rush that sped through her body deepened when Severus took
each end of her belt in his hands and began to pull the knot loose. She closed
her eyes and sighed deeply and unevenly as he leaned forward to kiss her cheek.
He stroked his lips soothingly over her skin and gently placed his eager hands
over her waist, gently parting her robe.

Her
pulse kicked up a notch at his touch and her body rapidly began overheating
with the increasing intimacy of their passionate rendezvous. His hands grazed tly tly over her skin and teased her body’s senses when he glided his hands back
down to her hips after every time she thought he’d reach up anp hep her in his
hands.

Not
once when he caressed her did Severus let his hands touch the bare skin of her
breasts, and for such a sex-starved man, it pained him to draw the line where
he knew he could manage to walk away from the intimacy. If he had let his hormones
take over his actions and allowed himself to touch her so intimately, Snape
knew he wouldn’t have been able to stop. The craving he had to give Jessica all
the pleasure he was capable of giving her ached throughout his entire body.

If it
weren’t for the wounds on her back that he had already obligated himself to
care for, Snape was certain he’d have swept Jessica off her feet to carry her
back to his bedchambers where he’d allow himself to explore all the many
offerings they had to share with each other.

Now
wasn’t the time to be so selfish. Jessica was in pain and it was time to
relieve her of as much of that pain as he could. Snape began by walking her
back to the couch and sat her down before sliding her arms out of her robe.

He
first used a simple solution to clean the open cuts and then an alora
ra
solution to speed the healing. “You should probably see Madam Pomfrey in the
morning. There’s plenty she can do that I can’t.”

“No,”
Jessica said and shook her head gently. “She mustn’t know what did this to me.
Only my uncle can hear of this.”

“Your
uncle trusts Poppy,” he told her. “And you should, too. She’s the only one who
can really you you.”

“Then
why didn’t you see her the morning after your horrible accident like you said
you would?” Jessica challenged. She turned her head over her shoulder so she
could see him react to her question. She smiled and then let him carry on with
his work.

“I
turned to someone else I trust more than her,” he said.

“Just
as I have.”

Snape
threw the bloodstained cloth into the fireplace and placed the caps back on
each of the small vials. He used one last ointment to numb her pain and then
placed a white bandage over the wounded area before he handed the pyjama shirt
back to her. He’d first cleaned the shirt of bloodstains with a standard spell.

“Thank
you,” Jessica said as she took the shirt. “It feels much better.”

“You’re
welcome,” he said quietly and put each of the vials back in place. “It’s nearly
four in the morning. Can I walk you back to your quarters?”

The mere
mention of going back to the place Voldemort’s presence had tried to seize her
wrought a tiny shiver. Jessica stood up from the couch and stepped closer to
the professor.

“I’m
frightened to go back,” she told him in a whisper. “Now that he knows I’m here
and that I’m alone I’m terrified to think that he’ll come for me again.”
Jessica put her hands overtop of his white dress shirt again and looked humbly
into his eyes. “I haven’t got the strength to fight him off again.”

Snape
tucked her dark hair behind her ears and then put his hands over her shoulders.
He nodded in sympathy and understanding. “Then what do you suggest?” he asked,
not wanting to be the one to suggest that she stay there with him until
morning.

“I
don’t care where I am for the next few hours,” she said. “I just want you to be
there with me.”

“If
that’s really what you want, I will be.” Snape made fists in her hair and
gently pulled her into his kiss. He let his lips stroke over hers several times
before he pulled back. “Come on, I’ll give you something that will help you
sleep.”

As he
began to lead Jessica back to his bedchambers, she took his hand in her own and
squeezed him gently. “I’ve already got all I need for a good night’s sleep.”
When he looked at her she showed him a smile and hugged herself around his arm.

In the
next room, Snape walked Jessica over to his bed and pulled the dark green
quilts back and guided her onto the mattress. Her head fell gently onto the
pillow and a moment later her eyes closed.

He
tucked the blankets around her body and took a couple of steps back to look at
Jessica lying in his bed. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful, and so much
like she belonged there.

As
quietly as he could, Snape unbuttoned his dress shirt and put on his own pair
of deep cherry red pyjama pants. He crawled into the other side of the bed and
curled his body up against hers. Sitting up on his elbow, Snape leaned over to
look at Jessica and then gave her one last kiss on her cheek.

Good
night, my love.

Then
with a soft command, the lights dimmed and Snape put his head down onto his
pillow and wrapped his hand around Jessica’s stomach. His eyes slowly closed
and a peaceful sleep quickly prevailed.