Taking a Stand

A/N: Sorry for the evil cliffie! Big thanks out to my beta, MadBrilliant! Please review! It's better than chocolate!

***

Diana and Severus entered into their private rooms. She went to sit on the sofa while Severus was already taking off his clothes.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Getting comfortable. The baby is very restless."

"You need to shower," he ordered.

"Not now... perhaps before bed," she said absentmindedly while thumbing through a book.

She watched him out of the corner of her eyes. He was getting nervous.

"You need to get clean so we can be together."

"Severus, I'm here. We are together." She smiled up at him lovingly.

"No, you know what I mean, you promised, now DO IT!" he raged.

She sat firmly on the sofa and slowly raised her face to his in indignation.

"You need to explain to me where you get the right to speak to me in that tone," she retorted icily.

"You are mine! They've been touching you, and I can't..."

"Severus, come here and sit with me," she asked sweetly.

"No." He was extremely agitated now, pacing up and down the floor.

"Severus, what does 'love' mean to you?" she asked.

He glared at her.

"That is an idiotic question! How does one begin to answer such drivel?" he sneered.

Diana sighed. "My father is older than my mum. He's a hard man. He isn't the kind to show displays of emotion, unless that emotion is anger or rage. Not that he ever beat us, mind you, he never did. He's just a deeply damaged person. He can't feel good about being happy. My mum tried to change him, and...well, basically she ended up adopting his personality, his hardness, and his coldness. She did what she had to do to survive since we were so isolated in the Highlands. I don't hate my parents for who they are and how they chose to turn me out of their home. It's the way they had to be...for them. I don't hate them, but I refuse to adopt their ways of loving and treating family."

She struggled out of the sofa and waddled her way to her lover. She took his face in her hand and lowered it to face hers.

"You told me you'd love me as much as you were able. I accept that. But this demanding possessiveness...that's not love...and that is not part of the deal. So, if 'love' means to you bossing me around, treating me like an object, and forcing me to be the person you want or need for me to be so you can feel better about your own insecurities, well I'm not in for that."

She went to the bed, changed her clothes, and lay down to sleep.

"I will not sleep with you tonight," he called out to her. Is that a threat or a manipulation? She couldn't figure it out.

"That is your choice, Severus," she answered.

***

Ginny Weasley Apparated outside of the Hogwarts Boundary Line for a very important meeting that same night. Soon, a beautiful, dark-haired beauty approached her. She smiled at the redhead and extended her hand.

"Well, well, Ginny Weasley! How is the famous Potter these days? Going to make an honest woman out of you one of these years?"

Ginny smiled back as she shook the woman's hand. "So good to see you again, Morgana. Harry and I are quite the 'busy little couple', to be sure." Her eyes sparkled back at the evil witch.

Morgana dropped the pretense. "Ginny, you should have been in Slytherin. What in the hell are you doing here? And what could be so bloody important to see you now at this time of night?"

"Well, you know me, 'Little Miss Gossip!' I reckon I shall take over for Rita Skeeter one day! You won't guess who popped up at our house during the Easter hols!"

"Hmmm." Morgana patted her index finger on her cheek in fake concern. "Oh, yes! Diana Maceachran! Am I right?"

"Yes," drawled Ginny slowly. "You and Professor Snape were quite the duo from what I recall. Rumor was you couldn't wait to get your legs around him."

Morgana laughed. "True, true! I did have the hots for his brooding type, but I decided it wasn't worth it."

"Wasn't worth it?" Ginny laughed. 'Come now, when has a conquest EVER not been 'worth your while?'"

Morgana looked around slowly and edged closer to the redhead. "Look, I didn't mean for things to get out-of-control the way they have; I mean it looks like they were destined to find each other, so maybe I helped it along. All I know is that Severus Snape is one real scary wizard. I was hooked...flirting, teasing, and basically I had him gagging for it. Well, one night, just as I was to close the deal, he saw me talking to a fellow Slytherin; I mean it was completely platonic. We weren't touching or anything...just talking. He comes along, rips me out of the hallway, drags me down to the dungeons, and starts raving at me, that 'I belonged to him and no one was going to have me but him.' He is insane. I had bruises all over my arm from where he grabbed me. There was no way I was going to let him fuck me."

She stood back, shaking in her remembering. Ginny was white with fear. Then she got angry.

"What did you do, Morgana? What's this 'destined to be' bullshite?"

Morgana licked her lips and crossed her arms. "Look, I'm not proud of what I did, but there was no way he was going to let me out of fucking him, not after I had pursued him for so long. So I sent a decoy and prayed he wouldn't kill her."

"My GOD! Morgana, do you know what you've done? You do realize that Diana is pregnant? You mean he...he raped her?"

"Probably! From what my father told me about Snape...look, I should have heeded warning and let him be. But, he was such a challenge, so aloof, forbidding, and so 'touch me not'...I found him to be irresistible! Please understand, I'm sorry Diana got hurt, but what was I going to do?"

"You are a coward!" Ginny spat at her. "You couldn't face the trouble you started and instead sacrificed a virgin to deal with your mess!"

"Hey!" Morgana yelled. "I'm no bloody Gryffindor. I'm a Slytherin. And we do things differently than you do. Diana hasn't hauled him in front of the Wizengamot. She hasn't denounced him for rape. For all of what that man has done, just her crying rape would get him a lifetime stay in Azkaban. No trial, no evidence, just on her say-so! But she lives in his rooms, sleeps in his bed, and she's marrying him. It might not be as bad as all that. Hell, for all you and I know, she might be having the time of her life in his bed! Either way, Diana is cut from thicker cloth than either of us. If any woman could handle that sick fuck, well, I'd bet on the Scot."

Then without warning she Apparated away. Ginny was left fuming with the information. She'd have to talk to Diana. If Harry found out about this, he would murder Snape or get himself killed trying!

***

The next day Ginny had Diana and all the women in Diana's life over to The Burrow for a heart-to-heart chat.

"Diana," Ginny said calmly as she took the woman's hands into her own. "We're here, just us women, to talk. We all love you and care deeply for you. There is nothing you can say that will shock us, or make us think less of you. Do you believe me?"

Diana looked at the gathered. Molly, Fleur, Ginny, Hermione, and Andromeda Tonks were around her, smiling and being supportive. She sat back into the sofa.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"

"Diana, how did you and Severus start becoming intimate?" asked Molly.

Diana flushed. Then she felt afraid they would take it for feeling shameful when she actually was remembering how erotic the encounter had been.

"What have you heard?" asked Diana shrewdly. "Maybe it's best to know what you know and start from there. It's complicated."

Ginny told the women about Morgana's deception, but did not reveal the reason behind it.

"So, Professor Snape thought you were Morgana Mulciber, his apprentice?" asked Hermione.

"'Yes, but he of course found out," she whispered.

Andromeda, who had known Diana since she was twelve, was the most distressed by this information. "So, you mean to tell us that your teacher, upon his realization that you were not the woman he had intended to be with, just carried on as if nothing were amiss?"

"No, it's complicated," said Diana as she shook her head.

"We were in the throes of passion. I'm eighteen. I'm a woman. Severus and I never spoke or had any dealings with each other. I was a Slytherin. I worked in the back of the class while he tormented Gryffindors. I did good work, kept myself busy, and never spoke to him. I was fifteen when he came back to Hogwarts. But I tell you when he discovered I wasn't Morgana, things were too far-gone to stop...and I wouldn't have wanted him to. It was pitch black. Morgana, to be clandestine, orchestrated it that way. If you've not noticed, I tend to resemble her. Afterwards, I ran out on him. He didn't know who I was, just that I wasn't Morgana. You should have seen him the next three months. He was a wreck, first trying to find me and then watching over me until he found out I was pregnant. He was not a man who was enjoying what had taken place. He was just as set up as I was!"

"Did he hurt you, Diana? Did he rape you?" asked Ginny point-blank.

"NO!" said Diana firmly. "When I came back to my room I did a thorough once over. There was not a bruise or a scratch on me. And I'll tell you all this for good measure...I had a chance where I could have stopped him! He actually stopped and told me I could leave before things got out of hand. But I didn't want him to stop. I enjoyed it."

That shut the women up. Diana's face was set. The time for questions had passed. There would be no more of this second-guessing from the family about Snape's intentions. He had allowed her to change her mind at the last minute, and she had stayed. Diana had enough second-guessing going on in her own mind and in her own home.

Ginny appraised the stoic face on Diana. She is cut from thicker cloth. Perhaps she and Severus, even though the beginning was less than ideal, could actually manage to have a happy life together, the redhead mused.

***

"Harry," Ginny said as she sat down at the dinner table to speak with him privately. "I spoke with Diana and another person of interest in their...'love story'. Harry, she wants to be with him. She was quite clear about it. She related the information on how she got pregnant, and although I'm not real happy about it, there was no getting around the fact that she was more than willing to be with him and she wants to continue to be with him."

"What happened, Ginny?" Harry demanded as he jumped up and rushed to her side.

She jumped up to face off with him. "I'm NOT telling you that, Harry Potter! That was a private and intimate moment that you have NO business knowing about. I don't even know all the details, just enough, as a fellow witch, to make sure she wasn't raped. And she was not raped, Harry. She was quite blunt about it," she explained sharply.

"But, she's Sirius' cousin! I care about her. He's not a nice man," the young man maintained.

"Harry," Ginny said as she took his hands into her own. "I understand you loved Sirius, and now you have this new connection to him...it's the best thing you can have next to having him back. But you have to realize that, although you mean well, you threaten Snape. I've been watching him whenever you come near her, and it is like he wants to kill you. You need to back off and let Snape take care of her. You talk about possession... well, Harry, you are teetering on the precipice yourself because of your feelings for Sirius."

Harry clenched his jaw and tried to move away. Ginny grabbed him by the waist and pulled him to her.

"Harry!" she yelled. "Snape and Sirius hated each other. Snape sees your concern and the looks of disgust at him, and it churns the past all up again for him. Now he has to fight you, your dad, and now Sirius once more! And why? So he can keep the woman he really wants to start over with. It's too reminiscent of what he had to go through with your mum. He's not equipped for this. You need to back off, or you will end up hurting Diana. He's her choice...understand? She chose Snape!"

Her eyes were flashing and her face was flushed. She hated having to be so hard on him, but sometimes she had to knock some sense into him for him to realize what he was doing was detrimental.

"Ok, Gin, I'll back off," he acquiesced. "But you'll have to help me because how he treats her is not right. He is entirely too domineering with her!"

Ginny closed her eyes and hugged him. "I know, Harry. We all know. It'll work itself out. It will. Diana is stronger than you realize." She backed up and faced him. "Think about where she's come from, what she's endured...what house she's from! She's a Slytherin!"

Harry snorted.

Ginny laughed. "I'm serious! She doesn't look it, but she's like a rock, born out of those crags in the cold Highland seas. She's been alone for a long time, and she's fended for herself smashingly! All Snape has to do is crash one to many times against that Scottish temper of hers, and she'll break him. You should have seen her today, Harry. Like steel. When she was done talking, we all knew...just from the look on her face...the subject was closed."

Harry released his tension. "Good, then this should be entertaining to see. Snape's going to get his!" He smiled wickedly.

"You are incorrigible, Harry Potter!" Ginny reprimanded him.

He kissed her then. He loved it when she got bossy.