“Sorry my dear, I did not mean to startle you.”
Morgan smiled pleasantly at the old man, “no harm done, you just made me jump a bit is all. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“And I was not expecting to be here, but I stumbled across something that I thought I should inform your husband of.”
“He went down to get some papers from his office. Dierna was working on something down there, I’m sure he’ll stay down there to help her for awhile.”
“I’ll just wait until he comes back up here. It gives me time to share your company for a bit, that git never lets me near you.”
Morgan laughed, “Sev is a bit overprotective.”
“A bit? My dear, if he had his way you would not set foot out that door without him by your side… or a group of armed guards handpicked by him, which means they’d all have to be eunuchs.”
Morgan laughed harder, “I know, I know… but it’s sweet really, especially when he’s trying his best to be indifferent.”
“He thinks the world of you my dear. No… that’s not quite right… his world revolves around you.”
Morgan looked down at her hands, “sometimes I think he relies too much on me.”
“That’s because you are the first person to ever love him completely.”
“When he speaks of his mother…”
“Yes, she was a fine woman, but too brutalized by Tiberius to ever be a truly loving mother. She was kind to him, but only as kind as she dared be without Tiberius finding out. You are Severus’ salvation.”
“He has me set up on this ridiculous pedestal…” Morgan shook her head, “I’m so sorry Eric, please have a seat.”
Eric smiled, “I was beginning to think I should have to spend the entire night standing,” he set his cane down and sank into a chair. “Do you mind if I indulge?” he drew a pipe from his pocket.
“Not at all.”
“Good, because I would have anyways,” Eric winked at Mrs. Snape as he lit the pipe and raised it to his lips, “I had my doubts when I heard that Severus had married you. I knew that Dumbledore had something to do with it… he always did love to meddle… and despite how I trusted him I couldn’t help but think that he must have finally lost all sense when he sent Snape to the home of a freshly graduated, seventeen year old Gryffindor, on the pretext of returning some school papers.”
Morgan smiled, “I had my own doubts as well.”
“But you two made it, despite the odds, and you saved him in more ways than you can imagine.”
“But there is still something there… lurking beneath the surface… something that I can’t touch, that I can’t fix, no matter how hard I try…”
“Not all wounds are easily healed.”
Morgan sighed, “I am being an absolutely worthless hostess.”
“That is my fault for distracting you.”
“I don’t know why my husband is always complaining about you.”
“Because he has seen the other sides of my character. I am very much like your husband Morgan, and you are the sort of woman who brings out the best in men such as us. Yvonne was the same way.”
“And you are the sort of complex men that keep women like us constantly on our toes.”
“I think you enjoy the challenge.”
“Some days less than others.”
“By being close to him you have had to make many sacrifices. And I dare say you have regretted some of them.”
Morgan looked down at her hands as she thought of a very small tomb marker in the graveyard in Hogsmead. “I love him Eric, and I will never stop loving him. He is a dark man with an even darker past. He cheats when playing cards with our children, he refuses to act like anything other than a miserable bastard while in public, and if he has a bad day he tends to take it out on me. But I love him and I will not leave him, even if it meant that I would be in a much safer position.”
“He is very lucky to have you.”
“I remind him of that on occasion.”
Eric snorted, “I am sure you do.”
“What is it that you need to discuss with my husband?”
Eric leaned back in his chair, not quite meeting Morgan’s eyes, “I cannot tell you at the moment, I must speak to him about it first.”
“Are you trying to protect me too?”
Eric sighed, looking very tired and very old, “partly, but it is also a very touchy subject for your husband. He deserves to hear it first, and he deserves to have the option of telling you about it if he so chooses. And I’m sure he will, because it will come to light eventually. I just hope it works out in a manner that is favorable to us, because if it doesn’t… Severus doesn’t deserve that. He has given up so much already, it may well kill him.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Severus was in shock. One part of his brain was furiously working to figure out if his heart was still beating, he was fairly certain it had stopped, or possibly exploded, while the other part was futilely trying to process reasons for his daughter and the boyfriend of his other daughter to be on the floor in the state they were in. She would not do that, not to her sister , not out in the open, and certainly not in my classroom. This is all some bad joke, or form of torture. The Dark Lord has finally managed to get inside of my head and is planting images there to drive me mad.
He was vaguely aware that several bottles had just exploded, somewhere, deep in his mid, he realized that he had caused them to explode. However, all semblances of reason were starting to deteriorate quickly. He barely registered Dierna's gasp of horror at being caught, Nick's frantic look as he desperately searched for his shirt, and the loud buzzing sound in his ears, which he couldn't explain. It was possibly the sound of his blood boiling.
"Dad, I know this looks bad," Dierna prefaced, but Severus cut her off with a downward slash of his hand.
"Where are you clothes?" Severus' voice sounded far too calm, even to his own ears. It was the lull before the storm. What were you thinking girl?! Behaving like a tramp and for all the world to see... I have certainly never condoned this sort of behavior, I have never approved of any action that would lead to you acting like this, filthy little...
"Ummm..." Dierna cast about for the soggy remains of her robes, knowing that they were useless, but they would at least offer a bit of proof for her story. She just hoped her father would remain rational long enough to let her defend herself. Obviously not, as he wasn't even going to give her time to locate her discarded robes. She didn't bother to protest as her father shrugged off his own robes and wrapped them around her shoulders. Not wanting to have to hold them closed for the coming confrontation she grabbed Nick's tie and used it as an impromptu belt so that her hands would be left free, most likely so that she could cry into them. Tears could very well be the only thing to save her at this point.
"My office, now," the words were short and clipped. If Severus hadn't known the way from his classroom to his office by sheer muscle memory he would never had made it there. All he could see was red And some black spots. He told himself that the spots were due to the lack of oxygen to his brain since his heart had stopped. "Sit."
Dierna desperately wanted to reach across the short distance separating her and Nick so that she could clutch his hand, but had a feeling that it would only make things worse. “Daddy, will you please let me explain…”
Severus could tell that his temper was going quickly, “I’m not sure I care to hear any excuses at the moment.”
“Dad, I swear, we weren’t doing anything!”
“Watch your tone young lady.”
Dierna couldn’t stay silent though, “No matter what it looked like we weren’t doing anything wrong, Nick was just…”
But Severus had reached the end of his very small supply of patience, “Before I have you both expelled, explain to me precisely WHAT YOU WERE DOING IN THERE!!!”
Dierna and Nick both winced as Severus glared down at them both.
“I am waiting,” Severus’ voice was deadly low.
“Dad I swear it wasn’t what you think it was,” Dierna clutched her father’s robes tightly around her shoulders, at least she didn’t have to try and reason with him while still lacking a shirt.
“EXPLAIN TO ME HOW THE TWO OF YOU HALF NAKED ON THE FLOOR OF MY CLASSROOM ISN’T WHAT I THINK IT WAS!!!!”
Please please please please please let Mum decide to come down here right about now Dierna prayed to whatever deities were listening. “I came down here, just like I said I was going to, to try the sleeping solution again…”
“And how does Mr. Wood figure into that?” Snape growled.
“Daddy, I swear, it was not what you think, please just listen to me,” Dierna pleaded with him.
“Mr. Wood, return to your Common Room, you are suspended until further notice.”
Nick didn’t move from his chair, he didn’t know what to do.
“Just go,” Dierna whispered furiously, “please Nick, just go, don’t make this worse.”
Nick gave Dierna’s had a quick squeeze before leaving the room. However, he didn’t head for the Gryffindor tower, he headed for the direction that he knew the Snapes’ private chambers were in. His plan was to find Mrs. Snape and send her down there to keep the professor from murdering Dierna.
“Dad, I know it didn’t look good, but honestly, Nick was here just to help me. I had to add several ingredients at once and I need the help. And then…” she trailed off. She had a feeling her father wasn’t hearing a word she was saying.
Severus had turned away from her, his shoulders shaking slightly, and Dierna knew it wasn’t from amusement.
“Dad…”
“How can you keep doing this Adelaide?”
Dierna winced at the use of her given name, especially the way that he said it, like it was a bad word. “Doing what?”
Severus rolled up the sleeves of his frock coat, suddenly realizing how overly warm the room felt at the moment, “acting like some… woman of ill-repute… throwing yourself at every species of the opposite sex that you come into contact with. Propositioning Mr. MacNeill, and now this… this bloody… symposium… in my own classroom! I never knew that I had raised such a loose, foul, little who...” he cut himself off before he could finish the word. He had just caught sight of Dierna’s stricken, and very pale, face.
She looked as though she had been slapped.
And he knew that look very well, it was the way she had looked at him after he had slapped her.
“How can you say that, how can you even think that?!” Dierna rose, trembling. “You always do this, you assume the worst of me without even listening to what I have to say. I think it would kill you to keep your temper in check for even five minutes once you latch onto some irrational idea! You should have thanked Nick, not threatened to expel him! If you had even taken a chance to look around you would have seen that my robes were completely eaten through, if you would just listen you would know that Nick pulled them off of me so that I wouldn’t get hurt.” She turned on her heel and stormed out of his office.
Severus followed her, realizing that the bits and pieces of her story did fit together rather well. As Dierna knelt on the floor, packing up her books he spotted the soggy remains of her clothing, most of it had been eaten away by now, and the results of the explosion were clearly visible.
Dierna slung her bag over her shoulder, “a person can only take so much. One day I may very well walk out of here and never look back.” She glared up at her father, disgust written in every feature of her face.
Severus found he was having trouble meeting his daughter’s accusing glare. He shifted his gaze to the ruined cauldron and the desktop that had started to disintegrate. By this point he was certain that his heart had not, as he originally thought, exploded. He could feel his pulse very clearly now. “I thought I told you not to change the order you added the ingredients in for the base, I told you exactly what would happen.” He surveyed the wreckage as he shifted the topic.
Dierna blinked slowly several times, as though she hadn’t heard him right, then narrowed her eyes to little more than angry slits. She didn’t say anything, just headed for the door.
Severus realized that it would probably be prudent to go after his daughter, or at least call her back. But he didn’t.
“Sev?” Morgan stuck her head around the door, stepping aside as Dierna pushed past her. She had practically run down here after Nick showed up, banging on the door. She had feared walking in on a yelling match, however it appeared that things had been settled. “Sev, what happened?” she glanced at the destroyed corner of the room, feigning ignorance.
“Let me be Morgan,” Severus said heavily.
Morgan looked at her husband with concerned eyes, he looked like had aged several years in the last half hour. “Severus, are you sure you want me to leave?”
Severus walked to his desk and sat down, pointedly ignoring her. He pulled a stack of papers waiting to be graded in front of him, but didn’t see what was written there.
“Don’t worry my dear,” Eric came up behind Morgan, leaning heavily on his cane, “I’ll stay here, make sure he doesn’t do himself any harm. I recognize the sort of mood he is in just as well as you do.”
“Thank you,” Morgan said softly, feeling completely torn as to what she should do. She hesitated by the door for a moment more, not wanting to leave, but knowing that with Eric there she didn’t have to stay. She felt useless. She wanted to be there for her husband, but she wasn’t needed. Not when someone else could sit by and make sure he didn’t do anything rash. She shrugged her thing shawl a bit tighter around her shoulders against the chill dungeon air, and turned to go back to their chambers. Alone.
~~~~~~~~~~~
