Snape on My Nape

Chapter 9- The Three Broomsticks

Snape pulled me away silently into the back door of The Three Broomsticks. His cloak the color of raven feathers was pulled taut around him, and the hood drawn close over his eyes to shield him from any suspecting gazes. He guided me swiftly to a corner table, with him taking the seat facing the wall where he was more likely to be passed by, mistaken for a common bloke.

"Rosmerta, the barkeep, knows my intentions quite well, and so I feel that this is the safest place for us to reside for now." Snape whispered brashly while tugging at the sleeve which hid his Dark Mark just below. Rosmerta came over and served us two Butterbeers, then lowered the candlelight at the table so as to better hide our existence lurking in the corner. Snape took a quiet sip of his drink and gingerly placed it on the old, sticky table.

"She seems to know the drill." I lightly joked as I then took a sip of my Butterbeer.

"This is far from the giddy youthful days at Hogwarts I spent gawking over you. This is somehow. . . less romantic despite us being free from the rules of Hogwarts." I sighed as I cracked a peanut shell from the bowl of nuts taking refuge at the far end of the table. I kept my gaze locked on the peanut rather than Snape's face.

"Well, I have a confession that may bring back that sense you have been craving." His venomous smile revealed his sharp, perfect teeth before he took up another mouthful of Butterbeer in a polite fashion. I stopped at once the peeling of the nuts and looked at him, anxiously awaiting for him to set his infernal mug down so he could explain what he meant. After he set the mug down he reclined in a sweet silence.

"Well?" I leaned over the table, my hands fidgeting with the peanut shells beneath my chin.

"I had brewed a serving of Amortentia on the day you had left Hogwarts. I had feared you would have forgotten about me, or forgotten about how special you were, and to ensure I could protect those memories, I had brewed the potion just for you, should you feel repelled by me." Snape leaned to his side and dug around in his charcoal pockets. After a moment, he produced a vial with the pearly pink substance known as Amortentia held within it, and held it up for me to see.

"So while I practiced perfecting the deathly potion every night, you were probably planning my submission to you." I raised my eyebrows in an amused disbelief at Snape. He bowed his head down.

"It's quite a recipe for maltreatment, please forgive me." Suddenly the stoic front he always presented had crumbled. This was the moment, right now, to tell him the worst part of it all.

"No, I can do you one better, I assure you. Since my first days at Hogwarts, my parents had been persuading me to catch your attention, as you were the strongest and one of the youngest Death Eaters known at the time. They wanted me to lure you in, so that my family could at last associate their name to an elite Dark wizard and ensure my success as your partner in serving Voldemort." I short Snape a painful smile, to which he laughed genuinely at in response.

"We both got our mad sides, don't we?" His stare was bold, intimidating, and yet soft. I could not help but to stare, mesmerized and enchanted by his dark eyes and hair. Rosmerta came to the table, breaking my trance, and set down to keys on the table. I looked up at Snape.

"What are those for?" I pointed at the two keys laying on the table.

"Those are for us." He handed one of the keys over to me, then stood up with his cloak still secure around his body. We left the dining room and began our ascent up the stairs to our lodging, which was easy to find as it was within the first two doors on the landing. While he inserted his key into his door, and I inserted my key into my door, I paused and turned to him.

"You know you will never have to use the Amortentia potion on me because while my family painted a life for me that was fake, I found something real within it." He smiled with embarrassment at the crusty wooden floor, whose nails enjoyed poking the bottom of people's feet.

"Goodnight, Jade." He whispered.

"Goodnight to you too, Severus." At that he closed his eyes and breathed in the moment. He felt the air in the room and became enmeshed with reality. He savored his own name which ran off my tongue and between my lips to his starving ears. I turned the lock and entered my room, and Severus did the same, yet when we took a step forward, we entered the same room through two different doorways. We both paused, perplexed, and studied the scene. Severus walked in and out multiple times, only to be herded into the same room as I each time.

"This is rather strange." He thought aloud, furrowing his bold brow. He pounded on the doorframes and stomped on the floor as though either would reveal the answer to the problem. His gaze fell from the ceiling and upper doorframe to me.

"For the record, I did not plan it to go this way." Severus pointed his finger at nowhere in particular, but simply straight up in a matter-of-fact manner. I looked about the room myself, though I was not nearly as proactive as Severus was on the matter.

"Look here." I whispered sonorously to the dry, stiff room.

"Lumos" I commanded with the flick of my wand, and my wand heeded the order at once. Below a dusty old mantle, a rigid sentence was scrawled meticulously into the maroon wallpaper which doused the room.

"Unlock the door to see desire's core." I turned my head toward Severus, who stood behind me with his finger resting against his lip. His hands dropped and he let out an annoyed breath.

"Cheeky Rosmerta." He snarled to himself .

"Do you know what it means?" I asked. Severus nodded his head, and with that motion a flood of red bled across his cheeks in embarrassment. I have never seen him any other color than gray, and on a good day, perhaps taupe.

"These keys lead us to, or what, we desire most when we use them in any lock." He examined his key, flipping it carefully through his fingers with a sharp eye for coordination.

"And our keys did not lead us to where or what we desire most, but rather to whom we desire." I ran my thumb anxiously against the brass ripples dotting the key to ease my nerves.

"Precisely." He weakly mumbled through his self-conscious armor which protected him from the social evils since boyhood. I stared around the room, to the plump, regal bed, to the fireplace, and to the set of chairs tucked away in the corner.

"There is no use in trying to get a new key when all it will do is take us to one another every time. We may rest elsewhere, as long as it is safe from the stalking Death Eaters. If you would like, we may try Marunweem or the Clagmar Coast region." Severus unfastened his magnificent cloak and draped it carefully over the chair in the corner he marked as temporarily his. He looked nearly naked without his cloak, for he always wore it no matter the weather or day. Though he wore it well, it was the first time I could make out general features across his body. For one, he appeared taller without his cloak, and therefore more lean.

"We could stay here. I would hate to jeopardize your safety at the expense of comfort." I responded.

"Who said anything about me being uncomfortable here?" Snape lurched. I was taken back by his sudden change in tone.

"No one. I'll conjure myself a bed." I drew my wand and began to whisper the spell.

"There is no need to conjure another bed." Snape interrupted, then shyly lowered his head and licked his lips.

"What? Would you like me to use Engorgio then to make the bed bigger?" I shrugged rudely and made an irritable face.

"My dear, we will not be needing the Engorgio spell this evening. Not for the bed, and definitely not for anything else." I tried to hide my blushing face and keep myself contained. I was Jade, the most advanced Dark Arts witch Severus had ever come to know. I could not show my emotions so easy to him. I wanted him to have to dig hard, to earn them from me.

"Are you sure about that?" I joked.

"Quite sure." He smirked, curling his mischievous lip in the way that I despised, yet loved.