The Potion Master's Apprentice (A Severus Snape love story)

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

"Can you keep it down?" Severus growled, sitting upright beneath the covers and running a hand through his tousled black hair.

"Sorry." Florence responded half-heartedly before continuing with her loud rummaging and profuse swearing as she scrounged the room, looking for something to satisfy her grumbling stomach.

"What are you looking for?" Severus asked and she pulled her head out of a cupboard full of clothes, hair sticking up madly all over the place as she absentmindedly tucked it behind her ear.

"I'm starving, so I'm looking for food. You'd think that Dumbledore would create the room with a kitchen or someth- Oh!" She opened a seemingly locked door to find it swing open and reveal a gleaming black kitchenette, complete with small dining table and fully stocked fridge. She smiled softly as she felt a strong pair of muscular arms wrap around her waist and Severus pulled her against him, tender kisses running across her bare back that slowly moved up her neck and towards her hairline.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather be doing something else?" He breathed silkily, pressing his lips against every available bit of skin he could find, causing her to tremble slightly.

"Like what?" She breathed as he tugged at the clasping of her underwear and stroked his fingers across the delicate lace.

"I'll give you one guess." 

*~*~*~*

Argus Filch sniffed nasally as he heard a loud thudding noise followed by a bout of stifled giggles. He hitched his baggy, mouldering trousers a little higher up his skeletal, saggy frame as he limped towards the source of the noise.

"Who's there?" He shuffled forwards slightly  "It's past curfew! I'll report you to Professor Dumbledore!" He growled as Mrs Norris slinked around his legs, lamp-like eyes bulging as her matted tail swatted the air eagerly. Suddenly, two people burst out from behind a tapestry and nearly knocked the nearby suit of armour into Filch who jumped out of the way just in time. "Bloody kids! Out of bed past hours, sneaking around the castle like you own the place, well, If I were in charge then you'd be getting duly punished!" He yelled before dissolving into a bout of maniacal rhematismic laughter "Oh yes, you'd be strung up by your ankles quicker than you can say - Professor Snape!" His look of anger quickly changed to one of surprise as he watched the Professor straighten his robes and clear his throat.

"What punishments are you going to bestow on me and Miss Felicis then?" Severus asked as Florence glowered at the gaping man before him .

"I didn't mean you sir! No! Not at all, I was just saying, if you were out of bed past hours then-"

"We would be duly punished, yes, I get that. But what I don't get is why you seemed to think it alright to shout at me when I have every right to be 'Out of bed past hours' as you so wonderfully put it." Filch shifted his weight onto the other foot as Severus narrowed his eyes, lip curling angrily and hands clenched by his side.

"Professor Snape! I didn't mean to shout at you, you have my full respect and I would never even think of-"

"Stop grovelling you pathetic man." Florence growled and Filch gazed at her with anger.

"Don't speak to me like that! I remember when you were a student, rule breaker, thought she was so superior to everyone, but you're just a common slut who never got punished!"

"You dare speak to my wife like that?" Severus' voice was deathly quiet as he advanced on Filch who was trembling slightly, whether through fear or arthritis it's unknown. Snape's wand was jabbed sharply into his throat and he swallowed, eyes wide and mouth surreptitiously dry. The Professor's expression was unforgiving, eyes narrow slits that burned brightly with fury, teeth bared as his lips curled with disgust and his nostrils flared as he snorted loudly. "Filthy little squib, how dare you speak to her like that!" His voice rose in pitch so that he was yelling, spittle flying from his mouth and landing on Filch's terrified face. His angry shouts reverberated off the walls and it seemed like an eternity before the shaking man finally spoke and broke the harsh echo of Severus' words.

"Wife?" He stumbled backwards slightly. "But you-you," His pointed finger swung from Severus to Florence and back again and he seemed lost for words.  "That's just insane!" He finally mumbled as Severus indignantly glowered him into submission.

"Excuse me?" He hissed icily and Filch took another step backwards. "I think you'd better apologise or it will be you feeling my punishment." Filch gawped at him before staring warily at Florence who scowled profusely at him.

"Mrs Snape, I'm sorry." He mumbled and Severus raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't quite hear that."

"I said, I'm sorry." His voice trailed off as he muttered a few choice words that caused Severus to grow even angrier. Before he could humiliate or berate the man anymore, Florence placed a hand on his arm and guided him away.

"I've never seen you so feisty." She murmured and he frowned.

"I'm sorry-"

"I didn't say I didn't like it." She purred and dragged him behind a tapestry, into a narrow, deserted tunnel that lead further into the school. Pressing him against the wall she watched him shiver as her hands trailed from his neck, down his abdomen and towards his trousers. Her fingers fumbled with the zipper as his lips slid slowly from her lips and instead caressed her neck as he slipped the sleeves of her dress from her shoulders.

"But what if Filch catches us again," She lifted his head to stop his eager kisses on her navel. "I don't want to get in trouble..." She pouted falsely and batted her eyebrows. "I might have to get my knight in shining armour to save me again."

"I'll always save you Florence." He smirked as she tugged at his hair and synchronised kissing his lips with sliding off his shirt.

*~*~*~*

"No! No way! I am not putting my wife and unborn child's safety at risk with that mangy man and his mutt! No way on earth!" Severus was sitting behind his desk with an unread Daily Profit spread out before him.

"Oh come on, Severus! It wont be a full moon for a few more weeks and Remus didn't know that Marcus was infected too! They'll just have to find somewhere else to go."

"I said no Florence." He growled, standing abruptly upright as he made his way over to the shelving unit in the corner, a pair of reading glasses balancing on his nose as he leafed through folders and scraps of paper.

"Are you sure there isn't anything I can do to make you change your mind?" She asked, perched on the desk with one leg folded over the other, causing her dress to rise up her thighs considerably as she leant backwards, trailing her finger across the desk and fiddling with a pair of strange apparatus.

Severus stopped his rummaging and stayed incredibly still just staring at the shelves. Florence saw him sneak a glance at her before he sighed and continued searching for a document she was sure didn't even exist - it was just an excuse to not argue with her.

"Can I... persuade you somehow?" She blinked lazily, eyes running up and down his turned figure as she wanted her hands to. Severus raised his head and turned to look at her. She was now sprawled across the desk with one slender leg crossed over the other. She graciously received his lips against hers, his fingers tracing the contours of her body, his torso pressing against her, his hips digging her into the desk as he graced her skin with the sight of his hand.

"You can try." He breathed and she giggled girlishly as the dress was slipped from her body and dropped out of sight from the desk, along with Severus' robe and white shirt.