Double Dare

I rest my head against Severus' as he kissed my neck, gasping when he pinched my skin between his teeth. I tangled my hands in his hair, pulling on it occasionally; I could feel his hands travelling down my sides, slipping underneath my pullover and untucking my shirt from my trousers. His hands were cold and made me jerk towards him when he slid them underneath my shirt. He shuffled forwards in the chair so our bodies were pressed together, and pulled my legs round him. He stopped kissing my neck and looked up at me, I stared back, noticing the hungry look in his eyes.

"Severus... What do you want?"

Instead of replying he forced his lips to mine; I can't remember him ever being this passionate, but it was different, and I liked it. His fingers hooked themselves underneath the hem of my pullover and lifted it over my head, breaking the kiss for less than a second. I ran my hands down to his chest; Severus ran his down my back before sliding them round to my front, fiddling with the bottom buttons on my shirt. He swiftly worked his way to the top button, pulling my shirt open. His lips left mine, kissing their way down to my collar bone. I moaned quietly and dropped my head back, closing my eyes, as Severus kissed from one shoulder to the other, slowly stroking his hands up my waist. I looked back down at him and pulled his face up to meet mine. The two of us were breathing heavily, hands running over each other's bodies. I was stroking my hand down his chest, undoing his buttons when there was a noise back in the classroom. We both paused, looking at the door, waiting to see if it was someone just collecting something they'd forgotten. Someone knocked on the door. Severus jumped up, nearly throwing me to the floor. I stumbled backwards, he grabbed my arm to stop me falling and grabbed his wand off the desk. I was just going to redress myself when my clothes did it for me; I looked over at Severus who had his wand pointed at me. He opened the door, Professor Sprout was stood smiling.

"Professor Snape, you asked me to bring you some knotgrass," she said, holding up a wooden box. Severus smiled meekly and took it.

"Thank you."

She looked in and saw me, then, still smiling, she left. After putting the box down, Severus turned to me.

"You should go."

I sighed, wishing we could have continued; "must I?"

"Yes, leave."

I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder; "...What about us? Are we-"

"-We'll discuss it later."

I nodded apprehensively before leaving. I jogged up the corridors to the Transfiguration classroom, Draco was there, leaning against the wall. He jumped up when he saw me.

"What happened?!"

I took in a deep breath and leant on the wall; "I don't know."

"...You don't know?"

I shrugged; "he didn't really say anything... We just..."

Draco leant closer; "you just..."

I shrugged again; "we just, sort of... You know."

"Really? That's what he wanted?"

"Apparently."

"Git."

"It didn't happen! Professor Sprout interrupted."

A smirk spread across his face; "really?"

I rolled my eyes; "yes."

He chuckled; "sorry, but it's kind of funny... Did he not say anything else?"

"Not really, he said we'd talk later."

"Shag now, talk later?"

"I don't know what you're getting at Draco, it's a man thing isn't it? Except the talking bit..."

Draco laughed; "all right, fair enough, but still..."

Both of us fell silent, not sure what to talk about. I occasionally glanced sideways at him, remembering what he was hiding underneath his uniform. I sighed in frustration and turned away from him, trying to focus my mind on something else.

I didn't see Severus at all until after dinner, when he sent for me. I meandered down the corridors, apprehensive about seeing him in case he wasn't as "chipper" as he was earlier. When I finally got onto the corridor his classroom was on I noticed a tall black figure leaning on his door.

"Someone took their time."

His voice made me shiver; "sorry."

I hurried over to him; he held the door open for me and waited for me to talk into his classroom before following me in. I automatically walked through to his office and stood by his desk. Severus locked the door behind him - worrying me slightly - and sat down behind his desk; lacing his fingers together and looking at me expectantly.

"So, Lenore..."

I looked back at him, knowing he had something he wanted to say. I nodded, waiting for him to go on.

"...How do you intend on... Compensating me then?"

I noticed a small smirk tug at the corner of his mouth. I shook my head and shrugged.

"I don't know..."

"Well you'd better get thinking..."

He waved his wand in a circular motion and a chair appeared next to his desk. He looked at me expectantly, and watched me awkwardly shuffle over to the chair and sit down. It was as if he was my teacher again, not my husband. I knew I shouldn't be afraid of him, but scaring people was a skill Severus definitely had, and it came easy to him. As soon as I sat the chair he grabbed the leg and dragged it closer to him. I looked at him apprehensively; he slid his hand up my leg, resting it on my thigh. I could feel his breath on my face; I'd never felt this uncomfortable in his presence before.

"Severus..."

He glanced over me before looking into my eyes; "yes?"

"...What are you doing?"

"Surveying my wife."

I bit my lip and nodded, trying to look anywhere but at him. He lifted his hand to my face, cupping my cheek and stroking it with his thumb. I could feel his eyes boring in to me and could see a smirk spread across his face in my peripheral.

"Are you afraid of me?"

I took a moment to regain control of myself before answering; "not usually, but at the moment you're acting a little... Worrying... It's not you I'm afraid of, it's what you could potentially do."

"And what would I do, may I ask?"

I shrugged; "I don't know, this is why I'm on edge."

His smirk grew as he pulled my face closer to his, until our lips met in the middle. It started off gentle and nice, but after a few moments, once I'd sunk into it he grabbed the back of my head and made the kiss forceful. As an involuntary response, my hands began flailing. Severus grabbed them and pulled them round his waist, before grabbing my face again. I was feeling even more uncomfortable than I had a few moments ago. He pulled us up and forced me over to the wall, pinning me against it. He was completely dominating me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was afraid he wouldn't know when to stop. I pressed my hands up against his chest, trying to push him away but he was too strong. I couldn't even pull my face away because he had a tight hold on it. I squirmed about as much as possible hoping he'd at least get annoyed enough to stop. Eventually it worked. Still pinning me to the wall, Severus pulled away and glared at me.

"Now what?"

I looked at the floor and shrugged; "I just wanted you to stop."

"Why?"

I shrugged again; "I just..."

"Just what?"

"...I just didn't like it."

Severus sighed loudly and pushed himself off me, slumping down in his chair. Even though I hadn't done anything, he managed to make me feel guilty. I held my arms across my stomach and chewed my lip.

"Sorry..."

He pulled himself up to his desk and picked up his quill; "sorry for what?"

I shrugged, even though he couldn't see; "I don't know, for... Stopping you, I guess?"

"You don't even know what you're sorry for! You just throw it around, it doesn't even mean anything coming from you any more."

"What?! I've said sorry twice! Once just then, and when I told you about Draco! At least I apologise when I'm in the wrong! Even when I'm not, because I don't like the conflict!"

Severus turned round, a scowl plastered to his face; "apologising doesn't mean anything, it just points out you're aware you're in the wrong! You're yet to actually show me you're sorry!"

"How?! Having sex with you isn't going to change anything! You'll still throw it back in my face any opportunity you get!"

"You shouldn't have fucked this up then!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

I edged around the room, he followed me intensely with his eyes. I only needed to get to the door so I could leave, but I knew it wouldn't be that easy.

"Of course not, it was an accident, nothing's ever your fault, I forgot, everything's my fault. I'm the one who was mean to you, I'm the one who drove you away. You're not to blame at all."

"I'm not going through this again Severus. I explained myself, can we just drop the reasons that I did it?!"

"Of course we can't! That's the most important part! You cheated on me and you don't even have the grace to tell me why! Do I mean literally nothing to you?!"

"No, you mean so much to me, but right now I can't win! It doesn't matter how much I love you because you hate me right now!"

"I don't hate you, I'm hurt! Do you not think about what this is doing to me?!"

"Yes, I have considered your feelings, but you don't seem upset, or even angry, you just seem hellbent on making me feel like shit! So long as you get your payback, it doesn't matter!"

I finally made it to the door, I felt around for the handle before pushing it open.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

"Common room, I can't be around you right now!"

"Fine, off you go, run away from the problems. I bet in ten minutes I'll just find you in Draco's bed anyway!"

I was going to shout at him more, tell him he was being unnecessarily cruel, but I needed to get away more than I needed to tell him off. I grabbed my things and ran out, not wanting to look back. I ran up the corridors, ignoring everything and everyone I passed. I finally got to the Ravenclaw common room, quite a few people were there, milling around, reading and talking. I marched past them all and went up to my dorm, hoping it was empty. Unfortunately, everyone was in. Celeste, the twins, and the other girl who shared a room with us. I sighed and slumped down on my bed, hoping they'd at least leave me alone. Once again, my wish didn't come true. Celeste put her textbook down and turned to face me. However, she didn't look like she was going to taunt me about anything.

"Lenore. Are you all right?"

I looked at her sceptically; "...No."

"Oh... Do you want to come study with us? We're doing our Transfiguration essay."

"Oh, I've already done it, with, Hermione... Do you need any, help?"

The twins smiled at me; "please."

I watched them all suspiciously out of the corner of my eye as I grabbed my bag and pulled out my Transfiguration work.

"Is anything the matter? Do you, not want to study with us?" Celeste asked.

"I'm just a little, dubious as to why you want to study with me."

Celeste sighed and shared an uneasy glance with the twins; "Hermione talked to us earlier, I say talked, she shouted at us. For being shitty friends. How who we're going out with has nothing to do with who you can be friends with and all that. And, we feel awful Lenore, we've been the worst friends ever, and we want to make it better."

I nodded and looked at everyone. The twins had the same pitying looks on their faces. I decided to believe them for now, and ask Hermione about it tomorrow when I saw her in Ancient Runes. We worked surprisingly harmoniously, it was almost like old times, and they managed to take my mind off Severus, if only for an hour or two.

I woke up the next morning to the loud bang of thunder. It seemed to wake up the other girls too. It wasn't difficult to tell this was going to be a miserable Saturday, at least weather-wise. It was dark outside, the only light were the occasional flashes of lightening across the sky.

"Morning girls," Jade mumbled, rolling out of bed and stretching. We all mumbled a response. Celeste pulled the covers over her head and curled up. I sat up and looked at my clock, it was only eight in the morning. I groaned and rolled out of bed too. I managed to snag a shower before any of the girls and made my way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Judging by the large amount of students also in the Hall, I guessed the storm had woken other students too. Some of the first years looked a little shaken, there hadn't been a storm this bad since the beginning of the year. A couple of the teachers were going round telling them to not be afraid and to try and stay from high places and the towers.

"Easier said than done, some of common rooms are at the top of towers!"

I turned round to see Hermione and Ginny Weasley walking past my table. I jumped up and stopped them.

"Hermione, hi, Celeste and the twins said you'd spoken to them..."

Hermione smiled; "yeah, I told them to stop being terrible friends, and there's no reason for them to be so mean... Why, did they say something to you?"

"They asked me to join them studying."

"Oh that's good, what were you studying?"

"Well, I was helping them with Transfiguration..."

Hermione laughed; "are you busy today? I have some Ancient Runes to do."

"Sure, I have nothing planned."

"After dinner? The library's usually empty around then, hopefully this storm will clear though..."

I nodded; "sounds good... Have a good morning."

Hermione and Ginny smiled; "you too."

I sat back down and helped myself to some food. I sat alone for a while, drinking cups of tea and reading the Daily Prophet until a nice smelling Slytherin sat next to me.

"There appears to be a storm outside, did it wake you?"

I smiled at Draco; "no, I slept like a baby."

Draco laughed; "good evening? Did Snape... Behave himself?"

I sighed, I hadn't seen Snape since last night and he'd actually left my mind; "no, of course not."

Draco sighed too; "what did he do?"

"Doesn't matter at the moment, have some breakfast, then we'll talk."

He nodded and grabbed some toast. We sat in an awkward silence, watching each other drinking and eating, until he grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the Hall. We walked outside to the courtyard and sat underneath a large archway, protecting us from the rain.

"So, come on, tell me," Draco said, nudging me. I smiled and nudged him back.

"Well... I don't know, he just wasn't himself... He forced himself on me, then I pushed him off and he blew up on me. Shouting about how I never mean sorry when I say it, and how I slept with you on purpose to mess things up with him..."

Draco sighed and put his arm round me, pulling me into a hug; "he's a dick... You deserve so much better..."

I sighed too ; "don't, Draco."

He nodded and wrapped his other arm round me, pulling me onto his knee. I snuggled up to him, wrapping my arms round his neck. I knew it looked extremely dodgy to outsiders, and I knew Severus would go mental if he saw us, but at this moment I didn't care. Draco was one of the only people who was there for me, and snuggling up to him was the most comforting thing at the moment.