A magical love affair - Severus Snape x Petunia Evans

Chapter 20 - Tight hugs awake one's hopes!

But first, she needed to help him renovate his kitchen, learn how to brew a potion and interpret his body language right. Gazing up from her huddled position in his arms, she noticed that his obsidian eyes were gleaming with pride, happiness, and gratitude. His facial expressions were relaxed and his arms clutched her body tightly. God, she could stay forever in his embrace. But she needed to end it so that she could encourage him to redecorate his kitchen and start brewing the Laughing Potion with her. She really wanted to see him brew because she couldn't imagine how graceful, powerful and sexy he must look behind a cauldron with his long, nimble fingers cutting ingredients, his capable, masculine hands stirring the ladle and his raven black, long hairs hanging in his face.

Besides her fascination for his sexy looks behind his cauldron, she really wanted to test her abilities at potions brewing and feel like a human being with magical powers for some minutes. For she believed that she could be talented in Potions because she loved science and cooking. Therefore, she wanted to encourage him to face the disastrous state of his kitchen. The place, where his mum had been beaten to death by this bastard Tobias. She hoped that she could be there for him and help him with the interior design as she had done with his living room.

She still couldn't believe how fast he could renovate his whole living room due to his magic. It was awesome and she couldn't wait to see him gracefully cast some spells in his kitchen. She realized that she would most likely have to comfort him in his drab kitchen because it really must burden him to change the room magically where his beloved, magical mum had been murdered. He surely associated some bad memories, dark images and painful actions with his kitchen. Thence, she wanted to be there for him, help him process his grief, change his kitchen décor and create new good memories. Sighing deeply, she stepped a little back, lessened their close embrace, looked him into his beautiful onyx eyes and addressed him, taking all her courage in both hands in a calm, melodic voice.

"Severus, I'm still amazed by the miracles your magic can accomplish. Thanks again for your trust in my abilities as an interior designer. It really means a lot to me. Perhaps, I can help you to christen your living room in the future. I hope that you still like it. If you're are a fan of my design genius", here Petunia paused, laughed a bell-like amused laugh and nudged Severus good-naturedly in his shoulder, "I can help you redecorate your kitchen in the same fashion. We don't have to change it today if you're not ready for it. I would totally understand it. So, do you want to redesign your kitchen now or should we start to brew your Laughing Potion? I'm really excited to learn how to brew it."

Severus returned from his dreamland in a daze. Petunia's melodic voice had awoken him from his daydream and the feelings of happiness, contentment, and hope he had felt while being enveloped in a fierce embrace with Petunia. He had enjoyed breathing in her floral, fresh scent – roses, orange blossoms, mandarin, vanilla -, basking in her body warmth and feeling her perky, full breasts pressed into his skinny, muscular chest. Merlin, he really needed to suppress his sensual thoughts because he had gotten all warm and fuzzy and noticed something stirring below his waistline. With thoughts of Prof. Dumbledore in heart-patterned boxers, he had solved his little problem. For he didn't want to chase Petunia screaming away from his house thanks to his uncontrolled hormones and sexual urges.

At first, he hadn't really known how to tackle his little problem without an embarrassing stunt because he hadn't experienced anything like this during a close hug with a girl he felt attracted to. Sure, like any male teenager he had his sexual needs, raging hormones and wet dreams full of sensual images. But he had managed to keep cool, suppress his urges or satisfy them with some quick, secret and silenced hand jobs under the shower. No girl had ever hugged him closely like Petunia, engaged him in a passionate make-out session or – Merlin forbids – even asked him to shag her. Sure, he knew that his looks weren't desirable and his sullen personality didn't charm the witches either so that he had had to survive lonely, sexless teenaged years. Well, he hadn't planned on losing his virginity to a random fun Slytherin girl anyways because he wanted to experience his first time with a girl he truly loved.

Sure, until recently he had dreamed about Lily being this girl for they had already exchanged a wet, awkward kiss on the lips their fourth year in Hogwarts. Foor experimenting reasons as Lily had labeled it. He had been madly in love with her since and she had been his absolute dream girl with her stunning emerald eyes, shining dark red hair, kind heart, and magical brilliance. Merlin, his experience in kissing was reduced to this awkward, foolish first kiss, some "Truth or Dare" peck on the lips with a female Slytherin yearmate in his fifth year and a few passionate kisses with the Rawenclaw outcast Pandora Rosenstein behind a library bookshelf in his sixth year. Well, his love life or better lack thereof was rather pathetic. And he hoped that he could change this in the future. Perhaps, he could make some new experiences with Petunia because he was really attracted to her, comfortable in her company and loved being physically close to her. And it seemed that she shared his sentiments if he could trust her shy blushes, tight hugs, and happy smiles. He would test out the waters this night if he could muster up all his courage.

First, he really needed to face the issue of renovating his kitchen. Petunia had done an amazing job of helping him redesign his living room and he would need her help in the kitchen too. He was so grateful that she offered her help and support, for the kitchen would be a different story as his living room because his mum had been slaughtered there. Breathing deeply, he gazed back into Petunia's sapphire eyes, squeezed her hand gently and answered.

"Although I must confess that redesigning my kitchen will be a difficult task, I know that I can master everything with your help. Therefore, I would tackle this issue now because we really should have a nice place where I can cook an easy dinner for us later. Thank you so much for your help, you're really a lifesaver and talented interior designer. I couldn't ask for a better friend. I promise that we will brew the Laughing Potion in one hour. But first, let's head to the kitchen." Severus grabbed her hand, held it easily, smiled at her and let her to his kitchen. There was much work to do.