Severus looked up from the papers he was grading, “no.”
“Oh… alright then…”
Severus dipped his quill in the scarlet ink he used profusely while grading, “were you in need of a distraction?”
Morgan shrugged, “I don’t know… I just thought I’d come see what you were doing.” She picked up a crystal talisman from his desk and turned it over in her hands.
“Do not touch anything on my desk,” Snape commanded, a glower falling into place.
Morgan summoned the most innocent look she could as she reached out the place the talisman back on the desk. She knocked a stack of papers to the floor in the process.
Severus sighed in exasperation and looked up to berate his wife. He frowned, she was smiling a particularly devilish smile. The little minx had done that on purpose! He was about to get angry when he realized that she was teasing him. He knew he was staring like a fool, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t remember ever having a woman, more particularly such an attractive little thing like his wife, ever teasing him like that. He settled on glowering at her again. Although he figured that after such a lapse it was less effective.
Morgan’s grin only widened, and keeping her eyes firmly locked with her husband’s she reached out and tipped his inkwell over.
She ran.
Severus realized that he was meant to chase, and he did. Morgan’s short legs didn’t stand a chance. He caught her within seconds and grabbed her from behind. When she tried to twist out of his grip he tossed her over his shoulder.
“Put me down!” Morgan squealed.
“It’s your own fault, I only intend to see that you get what you deserve.”
“Severus… please… I didn’t really mean it…”
Severus smirked, he could hear the pout in his wife’s tone. “You are in for it now miss.” He dropped her onto their bed and stood over her, “now what to do with you…”
Morgan stuck her tongue out at him.
“You look all of twelve when you do that.”
Morgan rolled her eyes.
“That is not going to improve your position.” He didn’t like any reminder of how young his wife was. There were still times when he felt he was bedding a child. She certainly didn’t have the voluptuous body of a woman. But he was starting to find a certain comfort in her soft, if somewhat lacking, curves and how he was increasingly waking up in the morning to find those supple, lithe limbs wrapped around him. And her body, which she was starting to yield to him so willingly…
“Severus…” Morgan sing-songed his name as she knelt on the bed, “I think I’ve lost you…”
Severus cocked an eyebrow as he observed his wife’s smug smile… the little vixen was planning something… He was pleasantly surprised when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. So far the only intimate contact she had initiated had been a peck on the cheek. He instantly became suspicious, “what is it that you want Morgan?” he placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back from him.
Morgan looked up at him with large, confused eyes, “I just thought…” she frowned, “I thought this is what you wanted?!” she placed her hands on her hips and glared up at him.
Severus frowned down at her, “what is it that you thought I wanted?”
“This!” Morgan gestured at the bed, “you tell me to either put out or get out, and so I try to do things that…” she sighed in frustration, “I’m just trying to be a good wife.”
“I…” Severus dropped down onto the bed next to her, he wanted to say I’m sorry, but he didn’t use that phrase. “I am used to dealing with people who have ulterior motives, you trying to give of yourself… it takes some getting used to.”
Morgan pursed her lips as she narrowed her eyes, “are you trying to apologize Severus Snape?”
“Perhaps.”
“Hmpf… I shall make a note of it, although I don’t think anyone will believe me… I shall have to write to Remus about this…”
“You will do no such thing!” Severus snapped. He shook his head in disbelief when he realized Morgan was giggling. She was teasing him again! He might perhaps know what to do with a seasoned woman, be he was at a complete loss as to what to do with one who had barely left girl-hood. “You are exasperating.”
Morgan grinned, even as she blushed.
“You have no idea what to do now, do you?”
Morgan’s cheeks flamed as she shook her head no. “I still need…” she cast about for the right word, “direction… but I am trying. I want to please you.”
“Do you fancy yourself in love with me?”
“No. But I’m rather starting to enjoy your company.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you have merely realized that you enjoy... the more intimate aspects of marriage.”
Morgan snorted, “if that’s all I wanted I could have had any of the Weasley boys that I wanted.”
“Imp.”
Morgan responded by sticking her tongue out again.
“I am going to teach you how to properly use that thing,” Severus growled as he forcefully covered Morgan’s mouth with his own.
Morgan was left breathing rather heavily to catch her breath when Severus finally released her. “Can I see it?” she panted.
Severus stared at his wife in shock, had she really just asked him that? “You’re becoming quite brazen.”
Morgan’s eyes turned panicky, “no, not that! I mean… I was referring to…” she continued to sputter on, all the while glowing a very pretty shade of pink. “I… I want to see the Dark Mark.” She nervously chewed her lip as Severus’ eyes became hard. “Severus, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it…” she clutched his arm. “It’s just that I know it’s there, and we’ve never… without the lights on, and I know that that has been my choice. So … I just… so it’s not a shock later…” she knew it sounded incoherent, but it was the best she could do.
Snape rose, “I will not participate in your quest to fulfill your morbid curiosity.”
“No, that’s not it… well, I am a bit curious to see it, but you are my husband and it’s just… I don’t know why I want to see it!”
“Fine,” Severus rolled up his sleeve and thrust his arm towards Morgan, “here, see what sort of man I am. Look well on that mark, it is a symbol of who I am, a murderer, a rapist, a man with a dark past and a dark future, a man…”
“All I see is a blemish on the surface,” Morgan interrupted him as she gently twined her fingers in his. “It is superficial, it does not represent who you are.”
“You know nothing of life Morgan. I have raped women stronger than you in the dark revels, I have murdered women to serve the Dark Lord. You are not safe with me.”
“I’m not scared of you.”
“You should be.”
Keeping her eyes firmly locked with her husbands Morgan gently pressed her lips to the Dark Mark. She felt him shudder at the contact. “I know you are capable of hurting me, but you won’t. I think you’re falling hopelessly in love with me,” she flopped back down on the bed.
Severus snorted as he rolled his sleeve back down, “what would give you that ridiculous idea?”
Morgan grinned devilishly, “look at me… what isn’t there to love?”
“You are incorrigible.”
“Well… now that you’ve assisted in satisfying my ‘morbid curiosity’…” she mocked his tone and raised eyebrow.
“I believe I was still trying to figure out what to do with you for disrupting my work.”
“Oh… right…” Morgan began to look nervous again. “I think I’m going to go for a walk…”
“Coward.”
“There is nothing cowardly about a well planned retreat,” Morgan shot back, head held high. She was certain she had managed to bring her husband back out of the dark mood her request to see the Dark Mark had brought on, but she still didn’t like the slight smirk she saw hovering about his mouth. She had a feeling it meant trouble for her.
A quickly muttered spell divested Morgan of her clothes as Severus snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her back to the bed. “Time to pay the forfeit.”
Blushing, Morgan let her husband play her, his hands moving like those of a musician over a cherished instrument. She was learning a lot, and quickly, but she still had moments where she was very unsure of herself. She hated those feelings of deficiency. She didn’t want to be a disappointment, not when Severus had already suffered so much. And she was only just beginning to see into the depths of his past. She was more than a little scared.