Belonging

Hallows Eve Dance -Severus Snape-

-Severus Snape-

Severus had gone to his room in search of his happy place, where he imagined she would be at this hour unwinding before bed with a novel or some handcraft. It had been a dismal evening. Which was because he had ended up standing far too long on the uncomfortable stone floor repairing yet another burst pipe in yet another loo that some serial fireworks prankster had exploded. All Severus had very very much wanted to do was lie down and put heat on his lower back.

His eyes squinted as if to shield him, as from his bedroom emanated far more noise than usual. When he turned the corner his jaw tightened like a screw, his bed was covered in girls. His skin crawled at seeing a cluster of so many students in their knee socks on his most cherished private resting place.

Frocks for tomorrow's Halloween Ball seemed to cover his footboard rail, a half eaten bag of crisps tipped dangerously close to spilling its crumbs onto his pillow. Perhaps worst of all, his mate had her wrist in the arms of her friends who were diligently painting inky spider webs all over her flesh.

"David the spider must have nine eyes instead of eight and he lives as an outcast in Madelyn's elbow crook," Braithewait was giggling and proclaiming over the tattooing of his lover's skin.

"Out," he found himself saying the single syllable with intense volume. He hadn't meant to be so short, sound so... angry, but his back ached . More than that, though he knew he had never told Madelyn not to do this, he felt she should know this room was off limits to her friends. It had never occurred to him she would entertain guests anywhere but the sitting room. He certainly never had other teachers in this part of his chambers.

Madelyn's eyes bulged when she realized he was there, she flipped her watch toward herself. Clearly she had lost track of time. Her friends scattered quickly, filing out beside him and his mate had the bed tidied up with a wave of her wand. "Sorry," she whispered, hanging her dress back in her armoire sheepishly.

"I'd rather you not have guests in this room."

"They just wanted me to try on my dress and then-"

"It's a teacher's bedchamber. It's inappropriate ."

"I understand. Like I said, I'm sorry . It won't happen again." Madelyn sounded a bit annoyed at his scolding tone, but he could not stop himself from continuing.

"It isn't as though they can un-see this room now. I wish you'd exercised a bit more thought for me- What on earth have you allowed them to do to your lovely skin?"

"It's just temporary. For tomorrow. To match the spider print lace on my dress!" she was smiling at it. He hated it. He hated the lines over her, how the inked spider blocked him from beholding the colour of her.

His back twinged again and his hand followed the pain, pressing into the tender area above his arse. He sat on the bed and began working on removing his boots. Finally, he laid back on the covers and just as he closed his eyes his hand found a folded bit of parchment that had escaped the clean up. He pulled it up into his vision only to find it covered in hearts with the name 'Magnus Archer' filling each one like stuffing. He let it flutter to the floor with a sigh. He shouldn't know about the fancies of her friends. He groaned and sighed at the same time.

"What kept you so late anyway?" His mate asked, sounding like she was picking up the forgotten doodle and stowing it somewhere for him to forget about.

"Another firework exploded toilet this evening."

"Another? We have a pyromaniac on our hands. One obsessed with the loo."