Belonging

After, Bath -Severus Snape-

-Severus Snape-

Thursday Night

On the way down from the Headmaster's office emotions ran rampant inside Severus. Ebbing and flowing waves, crashing anger, yet the strong urge to comfort rather than rage was stronger than he knew he was capable of. So he steered his little treasure all the way downstairs where he could care for her. Once he had her in his rooms he was set on one thing only, to take her mind off the incident. To take his own mind off of murder.

"Severus... please promise me you won't murder him on my account..." his mate keenly observed the slowly boiling rage he thought he was concealing. She was touching his arm with concern, her eyes reading his face intently.

"I... will endeavour not to..." he promised tightly, petting her hair, forcing a small smile to seem relaxed.

"Not convincing..." she smiled. At least she was smiling. She hugged him. He hadn't known he had missed hugs until her. He rubbed her back and when she hissed in pain he pulled away to observe her.

"I think I got bruised when his friends threw me into that railing," Madelyn made the mistake of saying out loud. They both knew he had missed that little detail, and now he was adding two more murders onto his list. He tried his best not to show exactly how angry he was.

"I believe a restorative bath is in order," Severus announced to deflect, and fairly dragged her to the bathroom before she could say no. "Brush your teeth first, so you can fall into bed and sleep soundly after it," he instructed, kissing her on the forehead before going to draw her bath. He selected a salt that had been imbued with the oils of plants that act as a muscle restorative and tried to push his murderous thoughts under his ones of caring for his little wife. He could do nothing about it at present.

" Your bed?" she asked as she toyed with the tooth brush in her hands.

"You must let me care for you all night or I shall brood and go hunting teenagers for sport," he smiled in a way that showed his joke was a little too true. She rolled her eyes and began brushing her teeth. He was adding bubbles to the mix, a joyful novelty, to cheer her up. Severus took his own bathrobe from the hook and gave it to his mate and left her to have some privacy.

As soon as she was out of his sight his love turned into rage again. Crawley was not in his class, he had not done well enough to reach the upper levels of potion making. As he was not in any of his classes, punishing him became harder. He had to find him in the wild so to speak, catch him doing something... Easier said than done. He sat on the bed and clenched his fists into the covers.

He thought of all the nasty things he had called his beloved. Humourless bitch was the one that stuck out the most, because his Madelyn was quite witty. But the ones that made his blood boil were the actions, the one where he mimicked her sucking a cock with his telescope. The ones that made the other students imagine his Madelyn in that light. Crawley had made her feel shame. He had made her into a spectacle for everyone else's consumption and Severus wanted to make him pay for it.

He heard soft footfalls and looked up to find the object of all his desires, the centre of his world, the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on in nothing but his bathrobe. "What are you doing?" she asked softly, she came to stand between his knees and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Dwelling," he grumbled but he was hardly able to hold onto his anger now when she was here. She reached out toward his buttons. "What are you doing?" he asked back.

"Are you going to have a bath in your clothes?" she asked, her fingers nimbly made too much progress on a task he wasn't sure he was ready for her to do.