Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Hogwarts castle buzzed with excitement on the night of the Winter Ball.
Although little Sev's age prevented him from attending the event, a genuine smile lingered on his face while he chatted with his roommates in their shared dormitory.
Maggie and Scorpius had always been kind to him.
He remained hopeful that they would both enjoy their evening.
While the students flurried around the castle, Severus knocked on the closed door of the spare room in his office.
"My love......?" He drawled, "Are you nearly ready?"
"Nearly, yes!" Harriet called back, "A moment more, that's all I need!"
Severus sighed as he let his hand fall away.
As headmaster, his punctuality at school events remained an unspoken expectation.
The door to the side room opened.
Severus's dark eyes widened as his jaw dropped.
Harriet stood in front of him, dressed in an exact replica of the green and black gown she had worn to the ball so many years ago on the first night Severus had taken her as his mate.
"My love........" He whispered as he gazed at Harriet, "You're........."
"Older?" Harriet laughed.
".......Beautiful." Severus declared.
She chuckled to bat aside the mounting tension that crept between them while her husband held her under his intense gaze as his hands slipped over her hips to cradle her waist.
Harriet's soul burned as she noticed the look of desperate longing in Severus's eyes as she studied his face.
"Do you remember that night?" She asked playfully.
His already apparent answer needed no words.
"............Yes." Severus whispered.
"Do you remember tearing my robes off of me?" Harriet smirked.
"...............Yes." Severus whispered again.
He failed to return Harriet's chuckle as a serious frown of rapt concentration marred his pale face.
"Do you remember what we nearly did under your desk?" She laughed.
Severus could stand his wife's cruel teasing no longer.
With all the portraits in the headmaster's office watching, he leaned down and placed a gentle, loving kiss to Harriet's lips.
Squeals and cries rang out from those inside the portraits, complimented by encouraging shouts and a round of applause as the bored spirits who dwelt within the paintings witnessed a bit of happy excitement.
Harriet delighted in her mate's affectionate kiss but as one minute turned into two, she realized Severus had no plans to end their display of affection.
As he slowly pushed her backwards, her spine pressed against the wall while he deepened their kiss until Harriet managed to pull away from him as she gasped, "T-They're waiting on us, Sev. We should go now."
"I am the headmaster." Severus whispered with a huskiness in his decadent voice that made Harriet's cheeks flush, "........And you are my wife."
"Sev.....You and I will be free to be together as soon as we've opened the ball and said hello to everyone......Won't we?" Harriet asked with a smile as she laid a hand on Severus's cheek.
He held eye contact with her as he turned his head to the side and pressed another kiss directly into the center of her palm.
"I see that the passage of years has not diminished your penchant for tormenting me, Mrs. Snape." Severus quipped as he reluctantly released Harriet's waist.
"I promise....." Harriet grinned, "After you and I.....do what we have to do, say what we have to say.......I'll make the wait worth your while."
Severus frowned.
Harriet blinked as she walked past him and shrugged, "Everyone will be busy enjoying themselves, anyway. Who will notice if the headmaster returns to his office for a moment? Plenty of faculty will be there to chaperone."
Severus hoped he could trust the remaining members of the castle's workforce.
During the ball, he intended to return to his office with Harriet for far more than a moment.
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That same evening, Lucretia set into place the ominous scheme she had envisioned for five long years.
It was simple enough.
She would lure Maggie into the Forbidden Forest, throw her out of her chair, call the centaurs, and feed her to the creatures.
With her rival finally out of the way, she and Scorpius could have a proper go at being together.
Lucretia wouldn't even give him enough time to notice that her enemy had gone missing before she began pulling at his heartstrings.
Maggie's foolish nemesis remained ignorant about her private education at the hands of her great-great grandmother.
The note Lucretia had passed her enemy earlier that day had been clear enough:
Meet me by the Lake at seven, next to the forest.
Two minutes past the hour, Lucretia's dark eyes narrowed as she wondered where her irritating foe could be.
A crunching noise sounded.
Lucretia looked towards the castle.
No.
No one headed towards her.
The crunching noise sounded again.
Lucretia turned towards the forest as she recognized the sound of snapping tree limbs.
Her eyes narrowed.
Louder and louder, the crunching noise became a deafening boom until finally, the cause of the racket revealed itself.
Lucretia gasped as she looked up, up, up.......
She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her own terrified scream.
"You wanted to see me tonight?" Maggie called from her perch.
Ancient magic had many forms and many uses, most of which Maggie had acquired enough familiarity to at least utilize.
Wanting to save her strength for the ball, she had instead used her uncommon skills to secure an alternative chair for her meeting with Lucretia.
Sitting atop a massive Acromantula that could have easily bested Aragog in a sizing competition, Maggie's emerald eyes gleamed threateningly in the moonlight.
"I.......I......" Lucretia fumbled.
Her mind raced as she thought of what to say.
What should she do?
Her entire plan had been rendered worthless!
"I expect you and I won't need such a meeting again." Maggie nodded, "I have chosen my path and you have chosen yours. Lucretia, we're nearly grown! Surely we can put our differences aside, can't we?"
The formidable Acromantula rubbed its front legs together as it opened its mouth to let out a sinister hiss.
Lucretia gulped as she watched the venom drip from its fangs to land on the fallen leaves with a horrible splat.
"I-I....." Lucretia sighed in premature defeat, "I-I suppose we may."
Maggie kept her eyes on her enemy, even as her ride for the evening turned and made its way back into the deep recesses of the Forbidden Forest.
Lucretia trembled with fear after Maggie had gone.
She silently decided then to let go of her hatred and abandon her pointless quest to steal Scorpius's heart.
It was unheard of for anyone to ride an Acromantula, a willful predator with a mind of its own and a taste for human flesh.
Lucretia shuddered.
If Maggie Snape had the ability to convince one to let her broken body use it merely as a means of transportation, what else did she have the ability to do?
Lucretia was not known for her bravery when faced with a challenge.
She set off at a sprint to return to the castle, content on abandoning her dream of becoming Scorpius's mate.
To Lucretia, no alpha was worth getting ripped limb from limb by a spider as big as a house.
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With Lucretia no longer a threat, Maggie found herself free from worry as she prepared for the ball.
As soon as she made it back to her dormitory, she dressed, brushed her hair, and painted her lips with the new lipstick Harriet had given her specifically for the night.
She took a deep breath once she had finished.
Her eyes closed as she placed them on the arm rests of her chair and slowly pulled herself to her feet.
With her shoulders thrown back and her head held high, Maggie Snape walked out of Ravenclaw's dormitory.
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Scorpius's gray eyes had nearly popped out of his head when his beloved had finally met him outside the entrance of the Great Hall.
Maggie's smile had been radiant and proud, its glow illuminated her fair face as her dark tresses fell around the tops of her creamy shoulders, exposed by her robes.
"You look beautiful, Maggie." Scorpius managed to utter as he offered his darling his arm.
".........And you look very handsome, Scorp!" She said with a nervous chuckle.
A tense silence fell between them as Maggie took Scorpius's arm and let him lead her into the Great Hall.
They took their place on the dance floor along with all the other couples and suddenly, Hogwarts changed.
It was no longer a school.
Instead, the castle became a different sort of place with a different sort of feeling.
A soft blush covered Maggie's pink cheeks as she gazed up into Scorpius's handsome face.
She melted under the warm smile he cast her.
Maggie and Scorpius shed their mutual titles of friends, students, and children.
For the first time, they saw each other as man and woman.
"The.....The decorations are lovely, aren't they?" Maggie asked as she anxiously glanced up at the ceiling.
The temperature in the room seemed to increase with each passing second that Scorpius's hand lingered on her waist while they waltzed the floor.
When the music stopped, Scorpius led Maggie into a deep and unexpected dip, with her back over his knee.
The unexpected squeal he earned from her lips thrilled him on a primal level as he leaned close and whispered, "......Not quite as lovely as you."
Maggie's eyes widened.
Scorpius had waited for years, he refused to relinquish his opportunity then.
Harriet and Severus watched from across the room as Maggie and Scorpius leaned in to share their first, awkward, peck of a kiss.
Harriet watched Severus's hand ball into a fist before she grabbed his wrist and laughed, "They won't leave the room, Sev! Look, they're already done now, wasn't that sweet? Our little girl's really growing up!"
Severus cast his wife a dangerous scowl.
Harriet found herself met with silence for the rest of the evening, but Severus's broody mood didn't surprise her.
After the ball had ended the night, once the castle's inhabitants had gone up to their rooms, her husband made love to her in the private, separate room in his office.
His hands squeezed her flesh as his lips crushed against hers.
In the midst of their passion, Harriet frowned.
Severus loved her, she knew it, and she loved him, yet somewhere inside his dominance, a fragileness lingered.
Maggie was growing up.
The very idea terrified Professor Snape and in his horror, he clung to the only constant comfort he could count on to be unchanging.
He relied on Harriet, his beloved wife, to distract him from the atrocities reality continued to impose.