Figured You Out

11: A Long Awaited Secret

Snape laid Amber gently on one of the beds in the infirmary at Hogwarts and Remus set Harry down on a bed beside her. Madame Pomphrey came bustling out of her office, "what's going on? Oh dear, not Amber again! Harry too?"

"Amber maybe only knocked out," Snape informed the matron. "She was knocked into a brick wall, she may have hit her head."

"Severus, Harry is here too!" Remus said. "We don't know what's wrong with him either!"

"Probably in one of his little fits, nothing serious."

"Severus! It obviously isn't something good!" Remus stood in his face, his teeth bared.

"There's blood," Snape pointed to Amber. "Her's is more serious!"

As the two kept fighting back and forth, Amber stirred. She put a hand to her head, slowly opened her eyes in a raspy voice she spat, "will the both of you clam up!" She tried sitting up, but Madame Pomphrey pushed her back down.

"Stay down Amber, I don't want to take any chances." She told her. "I have to go to my office for the potions, I'll be back in a moment."

"Harry... How's Harry? Is he alright?" She asked immediately with her eyes closed, trying to drive the headache away.

Snape motioned to sit on the edge of the bed, but decided against it and walked out of the room. Remus pulled a whicker chair between both their beds and sat down. "Amber, do you remember what happened?"

Her eyelids were still squeezed shut and the heels of her wrists were massaging the temples of her head. "Arg, Voldemort," was all she said and she smeared the blood from under her nose. She opened her eyes to see the blotch on the side of her hand and she groaned.

Remus watched her, lying in bed, beautiful. He heard the words repeat over in his head, "I wouldn't have done that if I felt nothing for you." He sighed, feeling as if the time has passed in which he should have taken a chance, but to no avail he felt much older than what he was. This woman had a hold on him, no matter what she would do, he liked it and reveled in it. He would do anything to see her, even if his conscious crept upon him again and he'd ignore it. No matter what the cost, he had to hear the melody of her voice, the grace of her figure, and the fire and ice of her personality. He leaned back in the chair, running both hands through his hair when he heard a mumble from Amber below. He glanced down at her, she was smiling at him and then it hit him, she probably sensed me. That was one thing he was going to have to control from now on. As his gaze connected with hers, he said softly, "how are you feeling?"

She smiled wider and batted her eyelashes, "just a moment ago you were concerned about what I remembered and now... you care about how I am feeling?"

He raised an eyebrow, "I was hoping that it wasn't too serious. However I find that the name Voldemort is beginning to become all too familiar to me and I'm starting to fret."

She closed her eyes and sighed. Oh she looks so adorable when she does that. He thought to himself and her eyes opened again. "Maybe I should leave you and your thoughts alone for a while?"

"Don't you take privacy into account?" He smiled crookedly.

"Curiosity... such a hard aspect to turn down when you're anxious to know the truth," she winked at him. "However you should know that I hardly, ever know what you are feeling or thinking."

"Amber about that night, when you left..."

She closed her eyes, "no, I shouldn't have--"

He held up his hand, "Amber... I regretted what I had done, after you left - I - I realized how stupid I was. I must have hurt you terribly, not to mention the embarrassment."

She bowed her head, "quite used to the embarrassment part." She gazed up at him and smiled, her eyes holding a twinkle, "however I'm learning to forgive quicker than usual."
He slid off the chair and knelt beside her bed.

"I can't seem to find the will to stay angry with you, oh yes I've tried, but I always seem to lose." She took his hand off the side of the bed, traced her thumb over it and squeezed. With her eyes focused on their entwined hands, he squeezed back and drew it near. Raising his hand to her chin, he made her look into his eyes and slowly closed the gap between them. She felt her heart hammering against her chest so hard that she wouldn’t have been surprised if he heard it or felt the blood rushing through her veins. She bit her lower lip as he drew closer and with a quick decision on her part, she slipped to the side and nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck. He was obviously a little disappointed at her resolve, however he liked the intimate contact between them He moved and sat on the side of the bed with her still pressed firmly against him and started running his hand through her hair till she gasped. She pulled away from him with her hand suddenly pressed on the spot where his hand had been holding her head. With a sharp intake of air and her eyebrows furrowed, she pulled her hand away.

Looking down at his hand, he saw fresh blood smeared across his palm and saw the same on hers when she brought it into view.

“Poppy!” Remus called as he rose from her bed.

“What is it? I’m getting the potions ready!” Her voice came from her office.

“It – it’s Amber! She’s bleeding!”

“Yes, I know – out of her nose.”

“No.” Was all he said when he heard her bustling out of the office and into the room.

“Alright I have bandages and some salve. Will you help her while I tend to Mr. Potter?”

Remus nodded, took the dressings and salve and sat on the side of the bed. To his surprise, she had a mischievous grin stuck on her lips and she said, “I guess I’ll have to return the favor someday.” She winked, “however, don’t get any ideas.”

He was taken aback by her sudden change in mood, but smiled over the matter, still feeling content at knowing she was talking to him. She smiled softly, getting a sense of what he was feeling and whispered, “you don’t have to worry Remus, ‘cause I would have talked to you either way. To me, you are irresistible and I have never found myself direly infatuated with a man before.” She blushed, realizing that she said a little more than what she intended to.

His mouth was open, shocked at what she just revealed to him. Forgetting where he was, he groaned and attacked her mouth openly. Amber squirmed and squealed, feeling his hand on her waist and the other on the back of her neck. Soon, she gave in to it and kissed him back just as fiercely as the shocked matron stood still. Watching the adults kiss frantically on top of the small single bed in the infirmary, Madame Pomphrey was startled by their actions and couldn’t think of what to do until the door creaked open.

She turned to see who was entering and saw Snape followed by Dumbledore, Tonks, Ron and Hermione. The group of five stopped in their tracks, just as surprised by the sight before them. Tonks and Hermione snickered between each other, Ron shook his head with a grin, Dumbledore had his usual twinkle and Snape looked absolutely fierce. His teeth were gritted, as if trying to grind his teeth down to the gums, his eyes were darker than ever and looked as though he was going to curse Remus into oblivion. However that thought wasn’t lingering in his mind, for he fled to the two snogging adults and tore Remus off Amber. He glanced at Amber, her lips were swollen and face was flushed, as was Remus’. Barely letting Remus gain his balance, Snape attacked; he launched him self at the werewolf and started swinging his fists. On to the floor they fell, in a swarm of punches and enraged grunts.

“What are you doing!” Amber yelled, her voice worried and furious all the same. She moved to stand, but Madame Pomphrey pulled her back down, trying to keep her astray of the fight before them all.

The two grown men struggled onto their knees, Remus trying to hold Snape’s long pale fingers from grasping onto his neck. He pushed Snape to the side, pulled his fist back and it collided with his ribs, hearing a sharp crack. Snape groaned in pain as Remus hit him across the cheek, connecting with the bone. However Snape didn’t back down, he replied with his own series of unchoreographed moves, by throwing all his might into the punch that was returned to Remus’ side with a similar snap!

Amber tried wiggling herself out of the matron’s grasp, but when Tonks and Hermione came over and held her down, she gave up. “Severus stop! Remus!” She screamed. Letting her anger loose, she huffed, “Will you two children stop!” The floor shook, candles flickered rapidly before extinguishing completely and the beds rattled against the hard stone floor.

Hermione hugged closer to Tonks as Madame Pomphrey took cover underneath Harry’s cot and Dumbledore stood in the corner of the room, watching the events unfold.

With a final blow at each other, they noticed the reverberations flow through out the room and stood, trying to keep their balance against the wall. Closing her eyes, Amber took a deep breath and wrenched herself out of Tonks hold. She stood in front of the bed and pointed her finger at them both, “what in the name of Merlin do the both of you think you were doing?” She turned to Snape, “what were you thinking?” Her voice dangerously low as her eye brows furrowed. “Why did you feel the sudden need to attack him?”

Snape scowled at her, “what do you think you were doing? Snogging with this… this half-breed!”

“Don't you dare sat that about him! Why does it matter to you?”

“I forbid you to touch him. I prohibit you being near him again!” He growled.

Amber raised her eyebrows, “what makes you think you can order me around?” She let out a hoarse laugh, “you have no authority to tell me what I can and cannot do!”

“YES I CAN!”

Her face was growing red with anger, “I think not you – you—”

“Don’t you dare speak to me in that manner!”

“WHY!” She scoffed, her fists turning white as they bolted themselves to her hips.

“Because I ordered you not to!”

“What makes you think in your little tedious, insignificant mind that you can have sanction over me!”

With out pausing he bellowed, “BECAUSE I AM YOUR FATHER!”

It felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach, she couldn’t breathe and her face paled. She swallowed hard, trying to separate each word, to make it clear within her mind. It ran over and over, however not registering until her eyes crossed, rolled back into her head and fainted, landing on Tonks.