An Acquisitive Core

Disclaimer: Except for an OC, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling.

The Weasley boy was in a sour mood. He didn't speak when Severus entered the lab and kept his head down. It was a sign of a coming bad day that the surliness of Ron was preferable to the bubbly effusiveness of the girl or the thoughtful glances of the other boy. To top it off he was late, and that put him on a bad footing.

At thinking of feet, he wiggled his toes inside his new boots. His tardiness was due to the snake-skin boots he was wearing. Who would have thought that Longbottom would share Nagini's skin in such a way? He supposed that once one got over the mental barrier to imagining Neville as the killer of the snake, anything was within the realm of belief. He couldn't directly blame his former student for his tardiness, anyway. The boy had left over an hour before. It was Katherine, he mused, who was to blame. She was the one who insisted on kneeling at his feet and changing his usual boots for these boots, and then when she was down there, she started doing things that soon had them both on the floor under the table.

He cleared his throat and his mind. It wouldn't do to think about what happened next. The students wouldn't see the effect of his thoughts through his robes, of course, but his pants were starting to feel snug. He would have to see about extra cushioning under the carpet in the dining room. It was quickly becoming his second favorite room in the flat. It was hard on Katherine, though. She would never admit it, but the injuries she had received all those years ago had not healed properly and occasionally pained her. Perhaps she wasn't even aware of it, but he saw her hold her hip and breathe deeply after he helped her up that morning.

That brought him back to the present situation. He had the witch and two wizards working with him brewing three different pain-killing potions. They varied in strength and mechanism. He had given the most difficult one to the surly boy, wondering how he would react. Ron had complained the loudest about slicing the fruit and vegetables for the Pimm's Punch at the beginning of their collaboration, but he had also done the best job, making even slices that were nearly paper thin. Molly Weasley had done so much of her motherly duty in training the boy, no doubt setting the lad to peeling and slicing fruits and vegetables from early childhood. The potion he was making required just that sort of slicing of one of the roots involved.

The Granger girl was given the easiest for once and didn't seem up to it. She kept trying to find reasons to ask questions and come to his side. He fielded the questions, for which she had known the answer since she was a know-it-all first year. He stepped over to Potter's cauldron, which was bubbling nicely, and a delicate odor informed him it was just right. He continued on to Weasley's work bench.

"Oy! What's on your feet?" The young wizard's freckles stood out on a very white face as he looked at the boots.

"Do you like them?" The boy was moving around the counter to get away.

"Is that snake skin? It looks like the skin of Voldemort's snake." The boy was stopped in his attempt to get away by the wall.

"Points to Gryffindor. It is precisely Nagini's skin, Weasley. Your classmate presented these boots to me this morning. He said that although he had killed the snake, he thought it would be fit."

As they spoke, Granger and Potter came to look. All three suddenly started talking about their last views of the snake. The very last was when its head had gone flying from its body, separated by the sword of Gryffindor. They were warming to their second-to-last view of the snake when Snape cleared his throat. "Interesting as you might have found that episode, I assure you, I would prefer not to relive it." Cheeks reddened, they quieted down and each went back to a partially finished potion.

Katherine walked quietly through the Potions shop. Something had caught her eye and made her want to find out what it was. She edged forward and caught a glimpse of a maroon hood at the end of an aisle of enhancement potions. She slid her way closer. She found a rather grubby looking woman holding several wands and trying each in turn, muttering a charm and pointing the wands at a glass case at the end of the aisle. Finally, a stubby oak wand seemed to do the trick, and as Katherine looked on, several gold watches disappeared from the case and reappeared in the dirty hand of the witch. She reached for her wand.

"Hold it right there!"

Katherine looked up and saw that an Auror was standing on the other side of the maroon-robed witch. "Silvia!"

Silvia said the standard binding spells and looked up. "Hello, Katherine, what brings you here?"

"Freelance work. I believe if we look, we will find that handful of wands belongs to Ollivander."

Silvia took the wands and watches and looked at them. "How can you tell?"

Katherine showed her that they only had a portion of the trademark on them. "This small oak wand seems to be pretty handy for some walks of life. I'll have to ask what's in it."

She accompanied the Auror to the Ministry and helped fill out the reports necessary to begin the process of charging the shoplifting witch. Silvia Greenlee was an Auror she had worked with in the past when breaking up a major crime ring in Dover. She had also been part of Kingsley's security detail when he came to officiate the Snapes' wedding.

They filled out the paperwork and moved on to small talk. Silvia looked down at the table and adjusted the quills lined up there. "So how's married life? Are you... and Severus... happy?"

Katherine almost let a gasp escape. The other witch was a little too casual. She looked her over and for the first time noticed just how pretty the other witch was. She had perfect dark hair and a creamy complexion. She was that petite size that men loved to snuggle at their side, and her sweater stretched in all the places men loved, too. What was curious about Sylvia's comment was the way she used Severus's first name. Witches usually referred to him by his last name, unless they had a special relationship with him.

"We're enjoying it greatly," Katherine said while letting a dreamy smile cross her face.

"I can't imagine being married to him and not being happy."

It was an awkward comment. Katherine couldn't answer. She recalled her wedding and remembered that Silvia had been looking oddly at them much of the time.

"So, how did you catch him? Did you manage to get knocked up? He's pretty careful to avoid that."

Katherine winced. "No, no children yet. We just found that we had a lot in common."

"I didn't think he had anything in common with any woman."

"I guess you thought wrong." Katherine's smile got a bit fixed on her face as she searched her mind for a new topic of conversation. "So how is working for the Ministry now under the new regime?"

This proved fruitful. Silvia had a lot of opinions about the Ministry as well as its past, present, and future. When they filed the reports, Katherine received permission to take all the stolen wands but one back to Ollivander. She left as quickly as she could.

"Why would you put niffler fur of all things in a wand?" Now that she knew what was in the core of the oak wand, Katherine almost wished she didn't.

"There are valid situations for its use..." the old man said in a subdued voice. Then his demeanor became eager. "How did it work?"

Katherine was starting to realize that Ollivander's interest in furthering his craft overrode the interests of society at some points. She shook her head. "All too well."

"And they wouldn't let you return it to me?"

"No, the Department of Mysteries is going to look it over."

"Well, thank you for your assistance again, my dear. Thanks to you, I've been able to sell a wand to all the first years who have come to my shop so far."

"I'm glad to help," answered Katherine. The old wizard patted her hand and she left.

She walked home slowly, troubled in mind. How did she manage to catch Severus's attention and heart? She knew she was pretty enough, but not in the league with so many other women, some of whom he must have dated. Did the things they had in common override that sort of thing?

When she got to the apartment, she half-heartedly wondered what surprises he might have in store for her. Would he have painted the hallway in stripes of Slytherin green and black? Her heart skipped a beat as she wondered what he would do in an effort to make her amenable to it. There was nothing new in the hallway, so she went to the sitting room and stopped short.

He watched as the three who worked for him finished their potions and cleared their workspaces. It seemed they would be done in good time this evening. The air shifted in the room. "Severus, you amazing man!" He barely realized it was his wife talking before she was in his arms, kissing him for all she was worth. Not being of a mood to deny himself, especially when something was so lavishly handed to him, he returned the kisses in kind.

He cleared his throat when she let him up for air. "My assistants will think that working for me comes with a floor show."

"It's probably nothing they haven't done." She smiled into his eyes.

He winced. "That's a mental picture I didn't need. To what do I owe the honor?"

"As if you don't know. You got my coffee table, even though you won the bet."

"Ah, yes. Well, I was hoping you would be inclined to show some gratitude." He lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered. "I was hoping we could repeat that earlier adventure. Since the time of year is changing and it will be cold soon, I thought maybe we could take advantage of this evening's mild weather?"

Katherine's response was an affirmative-sounding sigh. "You didn't have to bargain for it. I would have agreed in any case."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Hours later, they shivered under a warm eiderdown and asked Fern to bring them hot tea. They had been thoroughly enjoying the warm evening when a cold front sent a burst of frigid air under their robes at an inopportune moment. They looked at each other and laughed.

"I guess we won't try that until next spring," laughed Katherine.

"It depends upon whether I can find a better warming charm. You didn't seem so cold when I did this." Severus dove under the covers and quickly elicited a shrieking laugh from his wife. They warmed each other up by the time Fern brought the tea.

"You know," said Katherine after equilibrium was re-established, "this whole marriage thing is very pleasant. It's a good thing to be able to come home to you after the sort of day I've had."

Severus leaned back to look at her. "What sort of day was it?"

"I ran into Sylvia Greenlee today." She looked to see how he would react.

All the disquiet she had felt that afternoon vanished when he gagged. "That is one cold... er... witch."

She wasn't exactly expecting that. "How so?"

"Hmpf." He drifted off in a memory. "About ten years ago she seduced me in a night I wish could be Obliviated from my mind. It was a rather clumsy attempt to infiltrate the Death Eaters, such as we were during the years when the Dark Lord was dormant. She thought she would get ahead in the Auror Corps that way. I've never had such a coldly calculated experience in my life. I saw what she was trying to do and left her unresponsive behind on a chair at Florean Fortescue's. She created a scene by telling me I was the last man on earth she would want to be seen with. I believe it made the back page of Wizarding World Inquirer."

"Oh! I remember that!" He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well, every witch ends up standing in the check out line at an apothecary shop once in a while." Katherine mulled it over. "But why would she ask me how I 'caught' you and make it sound as though she wished she had become Mrs. Severus Snape if she could have figured out how to do it? She suggested that I had trapped you by getting pregnant."

He sighed. "I think she found out that I have a certain amount of wealth. Some friend of a friend kindly informed her about what she had so publicly given up. A month and a half later, she tried to seduce me again. She had taken some fertility potion. It was absurdly easy to probe her thoughts and see that she just wanted to make use of the laws on community property. She didn't want to have children, she just wanted the money it would get her."

"So she wasn't jealous over you, just your money?" Katherine laughed and then sighed. She would give all her money to have her husband's child. She stretched and winced. There was an odd catch in the small of her back.

"Here, let me rub that." Severus loved that particular spot. More importantly, he wanted to see if he could notice any injury there. Perhaps there was a medicated massage oil he could develop. He heard her sigh and tried to think of some pretext for getting her to St. Mungo's. If she didn't relent soon, he would have to offer to visit her uncle.

"I must be stiff from the cold," she mused.

"I didn't get all stiff," he answered.

"Well, not entirely," she answered slyly. "And you were doing so much of the work it must have kept you warm."

A/N: Thank you, Trickie Woo, for beta reading.