***Sorry it's been so long mates! Been very tired lately, wouldn't be surprised if I'm coming down with an illness. No worries though! It'll blow over fast, just overworked. Anywho, here's what you have been waiting for. Whether it was WORTH waiting for, well that's up to you I suppose. Cheers! Happy reading.***
It hadn’t taken Lennox very long after rising from a deep sleep to piece together that her day was going to be very bad. She had many days like it before, yet the sixth year still became quite irritable and nearly impossible to be around on such a day.
She had fallen asleep peacefully in her dorm at exactly ten the previous night, falling into a dreamful sleep, although she didn’t quite remember the details of it, and hadn’t even woken up one time to turn over in her bed.
Much to her misfortune and terrible dismay she was shaken awake by none other than her younger sister. Skylar. She hadn’t opened her eyes, but as the voice whispered in her ear just the tone of it could be distinctified as Skylar’s.
“Lennox.” her soft voice swam through the canals of her ears. Lennox fidgeted, waving a hand to shoo the person away. She had only felt a warm hand touch her bare shoulder, and she could feel her body being disturbed.
“Lennox.” the voice said a bit louder, but still soft enough as to not wake any of the other sleeping Slytherin sixth year girls. Lennox’s hand grew less friendly, now swatting her sister’s limb away. She only shook harder.
“What. Do. You. Want?” Lennox gritted quietly through her teeth. Skylar gently moved up from the foot of the bed to sit closer to her head. Lennox still kept her eyes shut, but fuming nonetheless at the young fourth year.
“I... er... am not tall enough to reach a book on the top shelf of the bookcase in the common room.” Skylar bit her lip, speaking as softly as she could, hoping that in return her older sibling would not get as upset.
Although she wasn’t sure what the decibel of her sound had to do with the level of anger her sister may or may not have at this point. Lennox’s eyes shot open, and she sat up in bed, combing the hair from her eyes, and snatching the watch from her bedside table.
“It’s five in the bloody morning... and you’re getting me up for a damn... BOOK?!” she exclaimed in a hushed tone. She heard an irritated ‘shh!’ from the bed to her right, but didn’t even bother to tear her eyes from Skylar’s.
“It’s freezing down here! Why are you only wearing... that?” she changed the subject, noting Lennox’s attire. She looked down at her bare stomach, noting the goosebumps. Although she was entirely too annoyed to generally care.
The only thing Lennox had remembered was that the dream she had, which she still could not puzzle out, had left her extremely warm, to which she immediately solved subconsciencley by taking her tshirt off and tossing it to the ground.
She had slept the whole night in sweat pants and a sports bra. She uncovered the rest of her body, feeling the cool air attach itself to her bare arms, belly, and back, and the top part of her chest. She motioned for Skylar to follow her.
“Fine then. Let’s get this bloody book of yours shall we?” her tone was dripping with sarcasm as she walked to the stone staircase to begin her journey to the Slytherin common room. Skylar looked unsure about the whole thing.
“Erm... shouldn’t you put a shirt on?” she said warily, following swiftly behind her authorative older sister. Lennox only scoffed, opening the door to the silver and green decorated area. She made her way across it, standing near the fireplace.
“It’s five in the morning. Whose gonna be here to see at five in the damn morning?” she snapped, folding her arms across her chest. A look of guilt splashed across Skylar’s face, and she looked down at the rug.
“So where’s this thing located?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow. Skylar took a few steps to the left of the fireplace, pointing to the very top shelf. It had a silvery lining on the red binding of the book. Lennox thought it looked familiar.
She hoped to herself that it wasn’t some rubbish book. She prayed silently to herself that it was a book that could help her in one of her classes, because there had better be a good damn reason for being woken at such an ungodly hour, especially when she had had her first decent sleep in five months.
Lennox reached an arm up, standing on the very tips of her toes to reach it. She had even hoisted herself up on the very first shelf to get a good angle on it. She was very nearly there when she had thought of something.
“Did you try Accio?” Lennox spat down at her. Skylar nodded quickly.
“It’s wedged in there too tight.” she replied anxiously.
“Brilliant!” Lennox muttered to herself, her fingers clawing at the back of the book, pulling with as much muscle as she had. It came out almost instantly, and she dropped it to the floor. Lennox hopped down and picked it up, reading the title.
Skylar went a bit white as she did so, realizing they were not alone in the room. A black clad figure had emerged from a usually locked door with about twenty or so books in his arms. He set them down on a table, and slowly began to find their rightful places.
“You woke me up for The Tales of Beadle the Bard?!” this had caught the attention of Professor Snape who had only just realized the two siblings were in the common room with him. He had quickly looked away once he realized that Lennox had been half n-
He stopped himself. No. He didn’t look in that direction, he turned away. Skylar made a subtle motion with her head in his direction. Lennox slowly turned, watching for a brief moment as he shelved the load of books.
“You could have borrowed my copy you know. And now look what you’ve gotten me into... you. Owe. Me.” she warned dangerously. Skylar knitted her eyebrows together, looking at Lennox with much curiosity.
“Your copy? You have one? And more important you brought it here?” Skylar asked almost mockingly, inquiring as to why a teenage girl, almost an adult, would bring a children’s book along to Hogwarts.
She backed Skylar into the brick of the fireplace, and fixated her green eyes onto the darker one of her younger sister. Skylar’s amused look turned to slight terror in a heartbeat. Severus watched the scene from the corner of his eye.
“It was the first thing dad gave me when him and mum adopted us. Being you find such a thing humorous then don’t ask me to do anything else for you ever again. Get Max or Liam to, not me. Because I won’t do it.
I find nothing funny in having something of sentimental value. If you had any sense of appreciation for anything you would know. I don’t laugh that you still sleep with Jango,” she had been referring to Skylar’s stuffed bunny.
“So do NOT find humor in something I treasure because it was the first nice thing that had ever been given to me in my entire life. Take the book and get out of here because I honestly don’t want to deal with you today.” she growled, and shoved her sister back to the common rooms.
She wasn’t sure if it was her general crabbiness, the fact that she and Skylar bickered a lot, or that she had been feeling particularly murderous today that had caused her to lash out at the terrified third year, but she really couldn’t handle it.
Severus had smirked to himself, finding her anger to be... quite attractive. He glanced at her as she rubbed her eyes near the fireplace. His eyes grazed over all of that... beautiful, flawless, tan skin. It was so appealing.
He watched as the light of the flames licked every inch of her body that had been uncovered, and although he knew how wrong it was to look, he could not find himself looking... away. It had been ages since he’d ever seen a girl that... exposed.
As much as he was ashamed to admit the fact to himself, he found himself aroused within a minute of watching her pace back and forth as he put books away. All of the skin that looked so... soft. He mentally cursed himself.
When she had jogged back to her dorm, he had found it best to make himself disappear, not wanting to face her when she was fully clothed and angry. She had put on a sweatshirt and grabbed Severus’s cloak and headed for the outdoors.
It was apparent to her that sleep was no longer an option. She would just head to the Black Lake, and let her mind wander until she would have to go to classes. It was still early after all, and she was sure that the rest of the day wouldn’t be handled so well.
When she had arrived at her destination, she had the realization that Harry was there as well, laying on the dry grass and watching the sun rise over the lake. She smiled at the sight, and lied down next to his body.
He twitched, surprised by another person, but then smiled when he realized who it was. Her body was close to his, and the generated quickly from person to person. Her head was in the crook of his neck and they laid happily, silent for the first few minutes.
“Rough morning?” she broke their silence, inquiring as to the reason he was awake so early. He could feel him nod, and heard a small ‘mhm’ come from his chest. The cool breeze flew over them, causing Harry to shiver slightly.
Lennox hadn’t been cold with Severus’s cloak wrapped around her. It was the most wonderful and warm thing she had ever seen in her life and she was positive she would eventually convince him to let her keep it.
“So er... there’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask you...” she could feel the tension in his voice as he bit his lip. She smirked, raising an eyebrow, but not looking at him. She bit back a smile and waited for him to continue.
“Yes?” she asked innocently, although she had a pretty good idea of what it was that had his mind itching. She could hear him breathing evenly, mustering up the courage to do it. He had to find the right words to say.
“Look erm... I know it’s ages away... and that I’m only a fourth year and you’re a sixth year... and that I’m in Gryffindor and you’re in Slytherin and-”
“Harry Potter!” she exclaimed, rolling over to hover above him on all fours. His eyes grew wide from under hear, but she only continued to smile. She didn’t want to make him suffer, so she had gone ahead with it.
“Are you asking me to the Yule Ball?” she giggled. He nodded slowly, his look growing horrified with each passing moment of silence amongst them. She had to think about it. Did she really want to go with Liam?
Probably not. Fred or George? They’d probably get real dates. She and Harry could go... who better than two Triwizard champions? She looked down at him, regathering her thoughts and then nodded quickly.
“Yes. Of course I’ll go with you.” she smiled. He beamed at her, his eyes twinkling and the color rising back to his cheeks. They stayed in that position, just smiling at eachother for what seemed to be an hour, and then of course... he had to come along.
“Kingsleigh!” his deep voice cut through the thin air. She glanced at her watch. It was six in the morning. What could he possibly want at this time of day? He was walking towards them, his black clothing making a shadow against the castle in the background.
“Ugh... the git!” Harry whispered quietly. Lennox smacked the back of his head as he sat up, gaining a curious eye from their Potions Master.
“Don’t call him that!” she scolded him. Severus internally smiled as she defended him, but then she turned and he now had her attention.
“What?” she returned back with as much gusto as he had. He stopped ten feet from them, and she rose to her feet. Harry’s eyes darted back and forth between them as they stared eachother down. Finally Severus spoke.
“You need to come with me for some... Tournament related issues. Potter. Get lost.” he tilted his head towards the castle. Harry got up slowly, dusting the grass off his trousers, and glared as he walked past his professor, and groggily stumbled towards the large building.
“Tournament related issues?”
“We’re venturing into the Dark Forest so you can get well acquainted with the demeanor of the dragons.” he explained. She looked down at the ground, putting her fists into her sweat pants pockets. She kicked around nervously.
“Right... should have told you before... I have uh... Drakonophobia.” she rubbed her arm, and then scratched the back of her neck. Severus genuinely could not believe his ears. She had to be joking. She had to be.
“The fear of... The fear of dragons? Give me a break! Why?!” he spat, grabbing her arm and pulled her towards the forest. She pulled away, but continued to follow him nonetheless. She wasn’t too easy feeling about seeing a bunch of dragons.
“When I was younger my mum... my real mum would always secretly put Nocturna Suppressio into my juice before I slept...” she began. Severus nodded in understandment. The nightmare potion. The mixture that would give one terrible dreams if something extra was added to it that was related to the nightmare.
For instance, he thought, her mother must have put dragon scales into it. Hence the bad dreams about dragons, which he pieced together to be the cause of her dislike for the creatures. He had to admit, it would be difficult for her to do this task if she was afraid of the damned creatures.
“My real parents were a tag team you see. My dad did the physical things and my mum the mental. It wasn’t enough to traumatize me during the day so they found a way to do it at night as well. Wonderful people my parents were.” she told him, looking ahead as she walked.
He felt a pang of deep sorrow run through his heart, and unknowingly let his mind wander back to this morning... all of her beautiful skin... he yelled at himself silently as he began to get, yet another, erection.
He took in a deep breath, thinking of something utterly vile to get his mind off of the subject... although the more he attempted to contain his thoughts, his mind had pictured more of what she would look like... with less clothing.
“Severus?” she had called him by his first name, which had only driven his mind into more of a frenzy, so it should not have come as a shock to him when he tripped over a rock, and grabbed the first thing his mind had seen to keep him from falling over.
Her.
He fell onto the soft leaves of the forest, laying on his back. He had grabbed her arm, but as she was so surprised by the whole ordeal hadn’t had time to react and fell directly on top of him. As he laid there, her body was on top of his.
It took him a moment to realize that this little charade had only caused more of a tightness in his pants, of which he was sure she had probably felt by now, although he hadn’t been thinking at the time and didn’t take note of it.
She had called him Severus... and strangely enough, he didn’t mind. She had done it by accident, but he didn’t get angry. Their legs had been tangled, and her hands rested on his chest, and they stared at eachother for an eternity.
Severus finally realized himself throbbing, and quickly, but politely, moved her body from his. Her heart was racing, and her mind spinning. She had been close enough to smell the very familiar cologne that his cloak had smelled like.
It was absolutely wonderful... And she was quite pleased with herself that he hadn’t objected to her calling him by her first name, even though it sort of slipped out. She hadn’t meant to do it on purpose.
And the fact of the matter was, she most certainly did not realize that the thought of her... and the smell of her... and her touch... had made him hard (or more specifically harder than he had ever been for anybody in his lifetime) but he wouldn’t think about the details.
“Sooo...” she breathed heavily, looking down at the ground as her feet carried her beside him.
“How about those dragons?”