Chapter 20

Severus was still carrying her things as they crossed the threshold into her cottage. He stepped into the pale lounge and saw it to be homely in a sparse kind of way. He'd half expected hundreds of trinkets to be scattered everywhere, but instead there were choice pieces on display here and there, with a few graceful paintings along the walls. There were some low book cases and another tall case to one side filled with hundreds upon hundreds of what he assumed were also books, but with very thin spines and of uniform height. Star-shaped fairy lights adorned the fireplace, which she had now switched on, and various pieces of electrical equipment he did not recognise were arranged in one corner.

Sarah turned to him to relieve him of the bags. "Thank you for carrying my things, darling," she said as she took them from him and placed them on the side. "Please take your shoes and coat off, and sit down and relax whilst I get myself out of this dress and into something more comfortable. As much as I love this dress, it's terribly constrictive, and I'm dying to put my PJs on," she said with a smile before turning out of the lounge.

Severus heard her footsteps leading up the stairs. She called me darling, he thought, mouth twisting. He did as she requested, taking off his frock coat and slipping his boots off, placing them all neatly in the hallway. He then strode over to the unknown electrical equipment for closer inspection. He peered at a flat box containing a large, black piece of glass in it. He could see his reflection in it. Maybe it's a Muggle's version of a Sneakoscope, he thought. There was also a silver box with buttons all over it, flanked by two other boxes covered in what looked to be gauze. One of the buttons said "ON", so he pressed it gingerly. Blue lights flashed a welcome message at him, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise. He also saw a button marked "PLAY", so he pressed this one too. The box began to whirr, and suddenly electronic music began to flood out from the boxes either side. Severus cocked his head. A music box! How quaint.

The music was like nothing he'd ever heard before. There was a swell of some instrument he didn't recognise, with some strings lightly piercing the background. Then there were handclaps, followed by fast, rhythmic drums and a deep, booming bass as the melody continued over the top. The effect was quite ethereal and yet made his foot tap. Not quite sure how to turn the damn thing off again, he walked back across the lounge and sat on Sarah's squashy red sofa, looking around the room once more. Just as he was getting comfy, a clattering noise startled him from the kitchen. Instinctively, he reached for his wand, but then instantly relaxed when he heard a familiar meowing. Bernard.

Bernard came trotting into the lounge, looked at Snape as if to say "You?" and mewed again accusingly. "She's upstairs," Snape told the cat. The cat seemed placated by that and then jumped gracefully on to the sofa and proceeded to stalk across to where Snape was sitting, tail held high, on the hunt for affection. "Come here, then," he drawled, amused, as the cat rubbed its head under his fingers and padded on to Severus' lap.

When Sarah returned downstairs, she was met with the rather odd sight of Bernard happily curled up in Severus' lap, his left hand scratching the cat idly behind one ear, the right tapping merrily away to the music.

"Do you want me to turn this off?" she asked, walking through the lounge towards the kitchen at the back.

"No, this music is... acceptable," he replied, watching her form. She'd changed into what looked to be very thin pyjama bottoms and a black vest top, and she'd taken her hair down.

He heard her clinking around with glasses, and in a few moments she'd returned with two large glasses of red wine.

"I would have never in the life of me thought that wizards would like drum and bass," she grinned, handing him a glass.

"Drum and bass?" he repeated with a frown.

"It's what this type of music is called. It's not hugely well known in my world, but it's a type of music that people dance to at parties and festivals." She shook her head with a smile. Trying to describe music was tricky at the best of times. Trying to explain an alternative form of dance music to a wizard seemed nigh-on impossible. "I'd just thought of you as more of a classical music sort of person."

Severus wasn't sure whether to be insulted by this or not.

"And what, exactly, would a 'classical music sort of person' be like?" he asked slowly. "Let me guess: boring, uptight, and old-fashioned?" He quirked an eyebrow for effect.

Sarah giggled. "Not at all! I was thinking, intelligent, educated and refined, actually," she said with a smile, before taking a gulp of wine.

Severus rolled his eyes in mock-annoyance before taking a deep swig himself.

"I'm so happy with my wand, Severus. It's so beautiful," she sighed, changing the subject.

"You do realise that your wand is exceptionally rare, don't you?" he asked after a moment.

"Mr Ollivander did give me the impression it was... unusual," Sarah replied.

"Unusual? It may well be the only wand of its kind in existence!"

Sarah's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What makes you think that?"

"Ollivander makes wands with only three magical cores: unicorn hair, dragon heartstring and phoenix feather. For whatever reason, these are the magical cores that are most conducive to producing magic and are the cores of every British witch and wizard's wand. My own wand contains dragon heartstring, which is why I'm guessing you were able to produce some effect from the ones you tried with that core, as you were able to perform a basic spell with my wand yesterday." He continued scratching Bernard with his long fingers, as the cat stretched its neck and grinned, eyes shut.

"Your wand, however, contains centaur hair, which Ollivander admitted was an experiment and that no-one had been able to master that wand. It's my theory that, as it was an experiment, it is more than likely to be a one-off and, given the circumstances of your magical ability, that you would be the only person the wand would choose."

Sarah blinked, then put her wine glass down and reached for the box containing her wand. She opened it slowly and carefully, taking the lid off and gently removing the wand from its tissue-paper bed. She gazed at it, stroking it lovingly, while little sparks came out of the tip. Severus watched her with a flash of affection. He was exactly the same when he first bought his wand. He remembered how powerful it had made him feel, how different and how, fleetingly, special.

"Lumos," she muttered, flicking the wand ahead of her. A bright white beam issued from the end.

"Impressive," remarked Snape. "Do you see the difference between the strength of the spell between your wand and mine? Your own wand is much more powerful when performing magic."

She nodded before extinguishing the wand. "Would you like to have a go?" she asked.

Severus hesitated for a second. It wasn't really "wand etiquette" to let people "have a go" on your wand, unless really necessary. But he was curious about the wand with the strange core and wondered if he could produce an effect. He held out his hand as Sarah passed it over.

It was a very beautiful wand; there was no doubting that, he noted as he admired the carvings. He then held the wand up. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he commanded, swishing his wand at a candlestick on the fireplace. It hovered a foot above the shelf before setting down again.

"Pathetic," he muttered, handing Sarah her wand back and then reaching into his waistcoat for his own. This time when he performed the spell, the candlestick soared many feet up, and as Severus dragged his wand around the room, the candlestick followed.

"Teach me!" she begged, following the candlestick with round eyes.

"Tomorrow," said Severus. "We'll start your coaching tomorrow evening. If you are free, that is," he added softly.

Sarah nodded with a smile and reluctantly packed her wand away, again taking great care to place it just so on the tissue like a newborn baby before replacing the lid. Severus couldn't help but smile.

"Bernard's really fond of you, isn't he?" she asked after putting her wand away.

"What's the matter? Jealous?" teased Severus in a low voice.

"I am, actually," replied Sarah playfully. "I was rather hoping I'd get to sit on your lap this evening." Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Oh really?" he drawled, quirking his eyebrow once again. "Well, we'll have to see what we can do about that, won't we?"

He shifted his legs so that Bernard was forced to stand. "On to the chair, please," he told the cat. To Sarah's surprise, Bernard stepped up on to the arm of the sofa, leapt skilfully across to the armchair, and sat, paws tucked in underneath him.

Severus looked over at Sarah. "All yours, my dear."

Sarah's mouth twisted into a seductive smile as she crawled along the sofa towards him before straddling his lap and placing her arms around his neck.

"That's much better, isn't it?" she asked in a husky voice. Severus could see by the swell of her breast that she was not wearing a bra, and the knowledge made him giddy.

"Hmmm, but do you purr if I stroke you?" he replied, running his fingers up and down her sides lightly.

"There's only one way to find out," she whispered, before bringing her mouth close to his. They shared a few heady moments of the anticipation of their kiss, breathing each other's breath, before their lips met in a symphony of nerve endings. Sarah's hands reached to hold his face as Severus' raked lightly down her back and crept up her vest top. Sarah's hips began to push forward, and the feel of her heat through her light cotton pyjama bottoms as she brushed against his groin sent his passion flaring.

He moaned as he kissed her deeper now, and she took his large, pale hands in hers and placed them firmly on her breasts. He withdrew for a moment and looked into her eyes, and saw her pupils were still dilated from the wine earlier. She looked like lust personified; her mouth slightly opened as he kneaded her breasts gently. She threw her head back and let out a little yelp as Severus began to tease each awakened nipple between finger and thumb.

Now she arched forward to start nipping and nuzzling his throat as his hands tangled in her thick brown hair. She could feel his bulge forming underneath her and wanted to see it with her own eyes and feel it with her hands. The ritual had required that she was passive throughout, and although she knew he was big by the way she had felt incredibly full, she wanted to know just how big.

She began to move down his body, dragging her hands down his fully clad form, until at last she was kneeling between his legs. She began to stroke his thighs, moving upwards until her fingers brushed the straining swelling beneath the wool of his trousers, and gasped. He was huge! She leaned forwards and opened her mouth, tracing her lips all the way along the clothed outline of his rapidly stiffening manhood. Severus jolted as if electrocuted.

"Sarah," he muttered thickly.

Sarah froze. Please, no self-doubt, or unfounded teacher-pupil angst, or anything else, she prayed silently.

"Can we move? Bernard's staring at me."

Sarah turned her head and saw Bernard scowling at them both, and she laughed. "He really hates it when he's not getting any affection. Just like me." She stood and offered Severus her hand. "Let's go to my room," she whispered, leading him up the stairs.