Pride and Passion

Chapter 6: Pride and Passion

Hermione was strolling along the forest path, which was now a jungle path, which was now a savannah path. She was a queen, a lion queen, but she paused often to rest her hand on the head of her companion: a snake, a large snake, a ferocious snake that she should fear but didn't.

They were in the shade of a copse of trees when the snake put a coil around her. Hermione knew it was dangerous, but she put her arms around the snake and embraced it. The snake completely encircled her. She should have felt helpless, she was helpless, but she felt cherished. She kissed the snake, her warm and cuddly snake who gave her warm and cuddly kisses. The snake put its tongue between her lips as if she was his lioness, and her mouth sighed, yes. Its coils fondled her breasts as if she was his queen, and her nipples rose, yes. Its length caressed her thighs as if she was his lion queen, and her legs opened for him, yes. She coiled around her snake, told it she was his, and asked it to possess her, yes.

The snake took Hermione in the strangest way. It unraveled his coils from her, admired her bushy mane and her intelligent eyes, and kissed her deeply. For the longest time, Hermione had thought that no one would want a lion queen, that no one would dare approach her, that she was doomed to a life of regal loneliness. Now she was being admired as a lion queen. She was being taken as a lion queen. Her snake wanted a lion queen. Her defenses fell, she fell open, and she accepted him entering her.

Her snake possessed Hermione in the strangest way. He made love to her...gentle and urgent love that told her that he admired her, he wanted her, he could not resist his lion queen. She could not resist. Hermione was a lioness...clinging, moaning, sweating, yelling, loving, rutting. Hermione was a kitten...purring when the iron grip of orgasm had finished with her. She was curled comfortably in her lover's coils...her fierce snake protecting her. But she was a lion queen, and woe betide anyone who threatened her snake.

Hermione slowly opened her eyes. She, her nightgown, and the sheets were wet and sticky. She sat in bed looking at the clouds and the moon and the sky. She knew what the dream meant: she was becoming attached to Lucius, and she could not afford to do that. He was the enemy. She wrote him a letter that she could never see him again. To signal the affair was truly over, she returned the Hadley text on Druid Numerology with the letter. She cried the rest of the night.

'Like mother, like daughter,' thought Lucius as he consigned the letter to the flames. He flipped through the Numerology text before shelving it, but there was no chapter on decoding the human heart.

The next several weeks passed strangely for Hermione but very well for her friends. She could gather them closer by helping with their schoolwork. She let them copy her notes without protest. Faced with the demands of upper level classes and involved with Quidditch, the boys did not question their good fortune and ask what was wrong with Hermione.

It was the end of a Potions session, and it struck Hermione that it would be kind to tell Professor Snape that he had conducted a good class. 'Dare I?' she wondered. She felt light headed at the thought. 'What would he do?' She dawdled picking up her things because she wanted to wait until they were alone to tell him, but other students were even slower, and she had to rush to her next class.

Her Charms essay was large enough that Ron and Harry could have a separate half. To disguise the plagiarism, she refrained from pointing out their mistakes. 'I'm pathetic,' she thought, 'but I need the company.'

She arrived at the next Potions session a wreck. 'I only want to tell him that he's teaching well,' she thought. 'There's nothing wrong with that.' Her nervousness had its effect, and she nearly botched the preparation. "Hermione, don't add it now," Ron had barked at her. She thought Snape was glaring at her. 'I can still say something,' she thought. 'I can apologize and thank him for his patience.' She dawdled again, but when she looked up, Snape was gone.

Hermione spent the rest of the day certain she had ruined her chances with Professor Snape. Late the next afternoon, she was on her way to the library.

"You're letting them walk all over you," Ginny was telling her. "You're on your way to the library to look up a bunch of stuff for them, aren't you?"

Ginny had met Hermione in the corridor, and Ginny had persisted in walking with her on the way to the library while telling Hermione she should let the boys fend for themselves. Hermione didn't want to hear it.

They were at the library door when Ginny said, "You're not their mother."

Hermione turned in shock to look at an angry Ginny. She was about to tell Ginny that it wasn't her business when Professor Snape walked out of the library.

Hermione had been certain the pain from Lucius would overwhelm everything else. She was surprised her heart was pounding and she could barely speak. "Professor Snape ... Professor Snape ... I ..."

"Yes," he said.

Hermione managed to croak out, "I want to thank you for your good Potions classes."

Hermione felt hot and flushed. Ginny and the professor were staring at her. She turned to run into the library.

"Miss Granger," said Snape.

She turned to face him, wishing Snape and Ginny would just vanish, wishing the two of them would forget this had ever happened.

"I suppose I should thank you for your kind remarks," said Snape.

He paused. "It is gratifying when a good student appreciates a professor's efforts."

He continued on his way. Hermione was floating a foot off the floor, and Ginny was giving her friend a puzzled look.

Hermione gazed wistfully upon the departing Potions professor. She remembered how dashing and friendly he had been last summer. She knew that if he were a student, he would be too proud to copy her work.

"The library is so stuffy in the late afternoon," Hermione told Ginny. "Let's walk down to the lake before tea."

Too stunned by the prospect of what might be happening to comprehend it, Ginny accompanied Hermione to the lake.

Hermione's mood was joyful as she and Ginny walked to the lake, but it slid from joyful to moody as the week ended and Professor Snape had paid her no special attention. During Friday's dinner, she kept waiting for him to notice her. She wondered if she dared speak to him after dinner, but when the meal ended, he had vanished.

The next day was a Saturday the students could spend in the village. Hermione had dressed carefully...mousey brown was appropriate. She was at an outdoor table, hid in the glare of the sun.

'I'll sit here and watch everyone else have fun,' she thought.

Hermione saw Lucius Malfoy, and anger welled up inside her. He had let her dump him, practically tossing her aside. How dare he trample her feelings like that? 'That bastard, I'll give him the You-Stole-My-Virginity glare.'

"Right," said her inner voice, "while you weren't looking. You were rather busy."

"Shut the fuck up," Hermione told her inner voice, "I am preparing my A-1 glare."

Before she could execute same, however, Mr. Malfoy was joined by a lady friend. His wife sat down and put her arm across his shoulders in a possessive manner. Hermione's insides went through a wringer. 'That's unseemly, you old hag,' she raged. She looked elsewhere...not able to bear the sight of such brazen behavior. 'There are schoolchildren around, you hussy.'

She saw Professor Snape. It would be simple courtesy to walk over, greet him, and offer to share a table and coffee with him. Before she could act on her gracious impulse, he was joined by a lady Hermione recognized as Mrs. Nott. They were talking together in an animated manner. 'Sure, monopolize the conversation, why don't you?' thought Hermione. 'There's no reason to give any one else a chance to be polite and sociable.'

Hermione was certain a mature lady like Mrs. Nott should be able to flirt more subtly and not make such a spectacle in public. 'Why, she's practically drooling over him. What's she going to say next? "Come over and see my wild pussy willow; it only grows in one spot."' She saw Mrs. Nott take Professor Snape's hand. That was too much. 'Why don't you grab his cock and be done with it, herb whore?'

Hermione Granger was not having a good day.

Hermione would have been even more distressed if she had known that Professor Snape was considering a family life with Draupadi. He wanted to wait a year to see if she could take all his moods.

"I already know all your moods, Severus," she had said. "And living apart for a year isn't a real test. You don't know how irritating a woman can be until you're stuck in the same house with her."

Severus had no reply to that.

"And you're missing the romance phase of our relationship," she accused him. "You're missing the part where I'm a giddy little girl who's madly in love with you."

'Damn the school strictures and living arrangements,' thought Severus.

Severus recalled arriving at Draupadi's house last night. He had been apprehensive and stayed through the Friday dinner at school before leaving for her home. Draupadi expected him, but he had no idea how she would react. He was no longer competing against a real, present husband but against an idealized, absent husband.

When he arrived, Draupadi had sat him in front of the fireplace and brought him a brandy. He had silently admired, and resented, the trappings of old wealth the Notts had.

"Tell me about your week, Severus."

"I'm only a Potions professor," he said, noticing more valuable objects in the room.

Draupadi shook her head. "Even criminals use technology, Severus."

"I'm not following you," he said.

"I watch too much mundane entertainment," she replied. "The stories are about some super hero. Of course, he's after a super villain. It wouldn't do to have our super hero handing out parking tickets."

Severus wasn't following all of that, but he caught the drift.

"Well, there's the super villain flying around in his special, plush airplane," she continued, "and he's concocting these clever, diabolical schemes."

Severus nodded. He knew about airplanes.

"But none of his schemes are as clever as the airplane."

Severus nodded. He was beginning to get her point.

"At the climax of the story, the super hero gets in his airplane, and he saves the day by parachuting out the back of his plane in a super sports car. The hero is as brave as brave can be, but nothing he does is as marvelous as the plane, the parachute, or the car."

She could tell that Severus, not a devotee of mundane entertainment, hadn't understood all the details of the story. She tried again.

"When I was a little girl, I liked to read 'Toby, the Brave Wizard.'"

Severus nodded. He had liked the story, too, but he wondered what she was going to do with it.

"Toby undergoes all these trials and hardships to get the healing potion to his parents, but it wouldn't have done any good if the potion didn't work. Toby is a hero and saves two lives, but the Potions master who invented it saved hundreds and thousands of lives."

He nodded his understanding.

Severus, too, had read 'Toby, the Brave Wizard' when he was a boy, but he was a bit embarrassed that it had been one of his reasons for becoming a Potions master.

Draupadi moved closer to Severus. "I'm not certain heroes are anything special. They're the ones left alive on the winning side. We romanticize them because we want to believe that courage and kindness count. But they're just the people lucky enough to survive a few adventures."

She paused. "You won't try to be a hero, will you, Severus?"

"Not a chance," he said.

Draupadi had moved closer to Severus. He was thinking about the absent, idealized husband. She snuggled. He put an arm around her.

"You don't have to be so damned careful," she said.

Severus froze.

"I'm not fragile. And you don't always have to control yourself."

"You and Lucius. Lucius and you. You never lose your cool. You never make a move that isn't planned...thought through and planned."

"Lucius?" he asked. "Are you and Lucius ...?"

"How can you say that? How can you say that!" She was not calming down. "And don't sit there rationally planning what you're going to do next...how you're going to handle the crazy lady."

"If I thought going crazy would help, I would consider it," he said.

"Oh, sure, be an aloof prick. That should work well. That really touches my heart."

"It touches your temper," he said.

"Cold, sarcastic bastard. Why did I have to fall for you?"

"You are right," he said. "I act too aloof. But you already know that."

"That doesn't make it easier to take," she said.

"I'm not certain how to do this," he said. 'I better learn how,' he thought. He put his arms around Draupadi. She relaxed as he held her.

He wondered how stable Draupadi was. 'She's already considering having a daughter with me, and she has unpredictable outbursts.' His thoughts wondered to Miss Granger. 'What did she want? How stable was she?'

'Oops,' he thought. 'Better think about one lady at a time. Perhaps Draupadi's outbursts are a good sign. Is she romantically attracted to me? Are her emotions in control? That could be a good thing.'

Focusing on Draupadi wasn't difficult. 'She's a noble lady who's shown time and again that she's on my side,' he thought. 'Maybe she cares for me and wants the same from me.'

She stood, took him by the hand, and led him into her bedroom. Severus unclipped her hair and let it frame her face and flow across her shoulders. 'How is it I'm always struck by how beautiful she is?' he thought.

"I ... I shouldn't," she said.

'That's a reversal,' he thought, but he felt sympathy for his Draupadi. "That's true. You shouldn't let me hold you."

"I've never ... I didn't think ..." she began.

"You've never been in a passionate relationship," he said. "You planned a quiet, ordered life. You picked a proper husband. You raised a son. You've been a model wife and mother."

"Oh ... I can't help it," she said, embracing him.

"You didn't think anything would intrude," he said, stroking her hair, "that you would never meet anyone who cared for you?"

"Do you care?"

"Very much," he said. "I would leave you alone if I could. I would leave you your perfect existence."

"It's not that perfect," she said.

Her existence had not had wild, heart-pounding embraces. It had not had total focus on one person. 'How is it I never knew how much I wanted him?' she thought.

She was not prepared for a world that contained only two people. She was not ready for a world where only the moment existed. She had no defenses for his wanting her. She had no resistance to pressing against him and offering herself to him.

Severus was reminded that Draupadi was a practical soul. She took off his shirt and then took off her blouse. She paused to kiss him. She took off his trousers and then took off her skirt. She paused to kiss him again ... a practical soul with a romantic streak. Their shoes and socks followed. She sat him on the bed, stood in front of him, and unfastened her bra. She sighed and held his head as he paid attention to one breast then the other...golden, pert beasts with brown nipples. Severus thought them perfect.

Practical, romantic Draupadi removed their final garments. Severus coaxed her on top of him, and then he intruded on her existence ... an intimate, invasive intrusion ... her existence seemed perfect to him.

This was the Draupadi Severus wanted, a Draupadi free to move and do anything she wanted, but who chose to be wrapped around him and caressing him, wrapped around him and caressing him most intimately.

He was kissing her. It didn't matter that he was clumsy. He was kissing her as if she was lovely and talented and loving and she was the one he wanted.

He was pressing into her. He couldn't help himself. He needed more of that warm, welcoming intimate caress. Her looks of pleasure drove him on. Her animal sounds tore away his reserve. She was class and beauty and sex. He had to have her.

Talking to Severus...arguing with Severus...had lowered Draupadi's defenses. 'I'm getting too much,' thought Draupadi. 'I wanted him to want me and give me sex, but he's lusting for me and making love to me. I like it, and I can't get enough. I'm going to lose control the way I did the last time. I want all of him. It's too much, and I can't think anymore.'

She was a tigress mating. He gave her the gentlest of kisses and caresses. She was hot, sweaty, and undulating. He gave her the gentlest of kisses and caresses, held her firmly, pushed into her, and let his sweating, grunting Draupadi squirm. Her heart was pounding. She was contracting on him. She was contracting on him again. She was lying still, breathing heavily.

A little later, she noticed that he was limp and sliding out of her. 'I drove him over the edge,' she thought, pleased with herself. 'I got him excited enough to come inside me.' She felt complete ... and a bit smug.

In something of a daze, Severus and Draupadi showered and returned to bed. Under the covers, she snuggled next to him. She had never spent the night with anyone before. She found it awkward but thought she could get used to it.

In the morning, Draupadi was at a loss for what to do but decided to fall back on routine. She would fix morning tea and then breakfast.

Severus woke when Draupadi stumbled out of bed. He went to the kitchen where she poured him his wake-up tea.

"You toss and turn," he said grumpily.

"Well, you snore," she said in reply.

"You're all knees and elbows."

"You swipe the covers."

They kissed each other affectionately. 'Okay so far,' they thought.

"You're going to stay tonight, too, aren't you?"

"If you can stand it," he said.

Draupadi sat and stirred her tea. "This might work," she said. "You wake up grumpy. We squabble. We kiss and make up. We go to our separate jobs feeling we're not alone in the world. In the evening, we tell each other what happened at work. Then we go to bed where we toss and turn and snore and rut and wake up refreshed and ready to do it all over again."

"You paint an irresistible picture."

"Later, there'll be the pitter-patter of little feet," she said.

"There'll be the pitter-patter of little feet as she digs up valuable herbs and breaks potion equipment."

"There, you see," said Draupadi happily. "You're getting used to the idea already."

Severus admired her logic but felt he was being outmaneuvered.

He didn't know how to explain his biggest fear: He would be like his father. She would want him to have recovered, but it wasn't that easy. His father was the only role model he had. He didn't know how to do it any other way, and that way was terrible. The worst part was that the child Severus thought it was all his fault.

"Oh, I almost forgot," said Draupadi. "My husband hid something in the back greenhouse. He may be spying on us."

"Did he have help?" asked Severus.

"Four other Death Eaters. I don't know why it took so many."

"Did you ask him about it?" asked Severus.

"He told me it was important documents. The Death Eaters don't trust their safe houses anymore because of a raid at the beginning of summer."

"I heard about the raid," said Severus.

"I think they're overreacting, and I don't like Death Eater stuff in my greenhouse, but my husband said these were special documents that no one could figure out. They're afraid the stuff is super-powerful. What a load of baloney."

'It's strange how things work out,' thought Severus.

"Have you thought about the new plants and how they're changing the field of Potions?" she asked.

"This early in the morning, no."

"I'm serious," she said.

"You want me to write a Potions textbook. You want me to have a daughter. You're full of things for me to do."

"Not all at once," she said. "And if you don't do it, I don't think it will be done."

It was quiet for awhile.

"Well, it's true," said Draupadi.

"Maybe when the damned war is over," said Severus.

"The 'damned war' is going to tear everything to pieces, and you know it. People hope the Potter kid will zap Voldemort, and it'll be over, but it's not going to be like that. Besides, Voldemort might zap the Potter kid."

She drank her tea. "I'm sorry, Severus. I want us to be together. Everything's in the way."

She paused, looked at him hard, and said, "Maybe you don't want us to be together."

"I've been alone for a long time. I'm still adjusting," he said.

"You adjusted pretty fast last night," she said.

She continued. "And I know you're involved in the war. I don't know what you're doing, but I know it's dangerous."

"Hogwarts is becoming a dangerous place," he said. "We're seen as a bunch of idealistic scholars and students who are not going to yield to the dark side ... or to the Ministry of Magic either."

"You're doing more than that," she said.

She sighed. "I'm sorry I'm yelling at you."

In a motion that seemed natural, Draupadi moved over to Severus and was sitting in his lap. Her hair was normally tied back tightly, but it was now loose and wild. He could smell its fragrance as the strands irritated his eyes and nose. 'This is great,' he thought. 'It's calming and relaxing.'

While he was holding her, Severus recalled that Draupadi had been aloof at school and ignored the immature boys; she had been aloof to romance and had married for convenience and wealth; and she had been aloof to her husband and his being a Death Eater. But the world and her emotions were not going to let her remain aloof.

He broke the silence. "I didn't intend to spend the morning squabbling with you."

She held him. "I don't care whether we squabble or not. I want to be around you."

'Perhaps Draupadi's right in her aloofness,' he thought. 'Failure to develop the new healing potions will cause more suffering than the war. The war is against a simple evil fought with physical courage and supported by comrades. Developing potions is a contest with nature. It's isolated, intellectual courage, and I don't know if I can do it anymore.'

Draupadi considered the morning's conversation and summed it up. "The war is taxing the system. We're sliding downhill."

Severus thought Draupadi was all too correct.

She brightened. "We can have some more tea, and I'll fix porridge. I need new gardening gloves. Will you come with me? We can buy a pair for you, too."

That is how Draupadi came to meet Severus in front of a shopping-square store in full view of Hermione.

Hermione's thoughts about Lucius weren't any more comforting. She could imagine him beginning his Saturday morning with one of his defense exercises. The house-elves would enchant croquet balls and send them at Lucius.

"I suspect they enjoy it," he had confided to her.

He had told her that he would fend them off while standing, and then he would mount his broom and conduct a mobile defense. Hermione was imagining him returning to the broom room where Narcissa had watched him from the doorway. Hermione pictured Narcissa having a reaction to his display of power and coordination. Just imagining it, Hermione was breathing heavily and pressing her thighs together. Hermione could see Narcissa removing the cloak from his warm body as Hermione had done. Hermione imagined Narcissa laying her head on Lucius...a Lucius reeking of wild wind, morning dew, and male exertion. Hermione moaned just imagining it. Narcissa's knees must have buckled.

Hermione winced as she thought about Lucius leading Narcissa to the same couch that she and Lucius had shared. Hermione thought about Narcissa in the grip of those strong hands as they flowed over her blouse, over her hips, and up her legs...as his lips nibbled her, devoured her, and sought her essence. Hermione thought about Narcissa's blouse and bra landing on the same spot Hermione's had landed, of Narcissa's panties dropping to the floor the same place Hermione's panties had dropped.

Jealousy ripped through Hermione as she realized she had only experienced the gentle side of Lucius. Narcissa was stretched out on the same couch that had experienced the taking of Hermione, but the coils of the snake held Narcissa's hands above her head, the coils of the snake spread Narcissa's legs, and the coils pulsed with the power of their entry into Narcissa. Hermione looked at Narcissa's lush hair and imagined it spread as wide as her thighs. Hermione could vividly see Narcissa's weak struggles and hear her hapless sounds as the snake undulated inside her. Hermione observed Narcissa's elegant legs and imagined their final thrashing. Hermione could imagine Lucius enjoying Narcissa's spasms and then withdrawing from her while still erect...leaving Narcissa aching to be completely possessed. That cruel, cruel man.

In the shopping square, Hermione watched Narcissa cross and uncross her legs and swing her feet. 'Ache, do we?' Hermione watched her persuade her husband it was time to go home. 'Have urgent business, do we?' Hermione pictured Narcissa's lovely face in ecstasy. Hermione knew Narcissa would surrender quickly. Once home, Lucius would press her against a wall, and Narcissa would barely have time to whimper before she unraveled in his coils.

The spoon clinked against Hermione's teacup.