Autumn 1983;
post-Godric’s Hollow, pre-Philosopher’s Stone
Warning:
explicit sexual content, NC-17
If you do not want to access sexually explicit
material,
- welcome to read the PG-13
version
or
- return to the contents page.
“The
Gryphon Centre of Reproductive Health”, read the small brass sign on the green-painted door
of the large, elegant old villa. The black-clad young man approached it on a tiled
path across a meticulously groomed lawn.
The lion’s head in the middle of the door enounced clearly, in
spite of the brass knocker between its jaws: “Good
afternoon, Sir. Whom did you wish to see?”
“I
have an appointment with Mistress Achrya.”
After a brief moment, the lion’s head
said: “Yes,
Sir. Please come in.”
The door opened on a small entrance hall containing a
Regency desk serving as a reception counter, an Oriental rug, a combined coat
hanger and umbrella stand in brass, and little else: visitors were obviously
not kept waiting, at least not in each other’s sight.
The reception desk was empty.
The man walked without hesitation to the stairs on the
opposite side of the hall, and up two flights. He knocked on a door lettered “Sir
Alexander Hughes, M.H.”
“Come
in, Severus,”
said a woman’s
voice, and the door opened.
He walked through an elegantly furnished office
through another door, into a spacious, meticulously neat Healer’s
surgery.
The stocky short-haired woman in pale blue Mediwitch
robes welcomed him with a casual nod that he returned.
“You
look fit. So, how’s
our experiment going?”
“You
ought to know, Catrin – you’ve taken the potion yourself.”
“No
adverse effects so far. And you, no dizziness, nausea, headache?”
“Not
since yesterday noon.”
“Sounds good.” She opened another door with a
mock curtsey. “Please
proceed into the lab
and do your business.”
He replied with a somewhat tentative grin: “And you?”
“Well,
I won’t
keep you company,”
she snorted in mock indignation. “My samples are ready,” she
added in earnest. “I’ll be
with you in a moment, we’ll start
the analyses now and have the results ready after dinner.”
The analysis spells that they had activated around the
blood and urine samples were stabilized and contained by a glass cover, and
there was nothing to do but wait.
“Sir
Alex must be happy with his intern, to give you free run of his private lab
after working hours,”
remarked the black-haired young man.
“In
fact, yes, he may take me on as his apprentice for my specialisation.”
“Catrin,
you’re
joking. Would you become an andrologist?!”
“Severus,
I couldn’t
be more serious. Wizards’ reproductive health is fascinating. There’s so much
still to learn about the interaction of hormonal activity and magical powers.
And it relates
directly to the mind-body problem.”
“Well,
yes, there’s
the research. But the clinical practice? Would you really want to poke people’s cocks
and balls for a living?”
The vulgarity from his lips sounded innocently naughty
as he purposefully imitated her usual relaxed attitude. Catrin decided to tease
a little further.
“Not
to mention sticking fingers up their arses,” she
said, with barely contained mirth at his shocked and baffled face.
“What?!”
“The regular procedure for examining the prostate.
–
You do remember some anatomy, I presume?” she said in her best ‘exacting
professor’
voice.
“I
remember that much, thank you.”
“I’ve been
doing it for eight months now, including the full-time summer internship, so any disgust
on my part would have manifested itself by now.”
“I
was just wondering... You obviously don’t mind,
but how about the patients?”
“Considering
how many male gynaecologists there are, why should the other way around be a
problem?”
she inquired, seeing him blush. “Anyway, you’d be surprised. People know I’m gay, so
men tend to consider me safe.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not
another male, so there’s no feeling of competition, and I’m not a
potential sex partner, so they have no appearances to keep up.”
“That
makes sense, really, once you look at it that way,” Severus
said.
“Well,
that’s
it for now, I suppose,” he added after a moment.
“Yes,
I’ll
be back in a couple of hours to record the results, and we’ll
evaluate them in the morning.”
Still, Severus paced the floor, seemingly reluctant to
leave.
Catrin knew his moods well. She let him collect his
thoughts for several minutes before giving him a verbal nudge.
“Are
you sure you’re
all right?”
“Yes.
Well, no... there’s something...
someone... I need to talk to you.”
She nodded.
“Do
you want to talk here, or would you rather go somewhere and have a drink?”
“If
I relied on bottled courage for this one, I’d have to
drink so much I wouldn’t be able to talk at all. Let’s stay
here.”
He resumed pacing the floor. Catrin knew better than
to push. He stopped, looking out of the window, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Merlin,
I don’t
know how to say it,”
he murmured as if to himself.
Suddenly he swivelled to face her: “Catrin,
would you examine me?”
She opted for a bit of shock treatment.
“Of
course,”
she said, waving breezily towards the examination couch. “Take off
your clothes and lie down.”
His hands reached the top button of his robes before
the shock registered on his face and he went completely stiff.
“Please,” he
managed to bring out, “it's no joke.”
She crossed the room in three strides and clasped his
hands in hers.
“I’m sorry,
Severus,”
she said. “We’re
friends. You know I’ll
do everything within reason for you. I just don’t see why you’d want to ask for this particular thing. You’re young
and healthy, there is no reason for you to have this
kind of check-up.”
His eyes met hers, then looked away, then fixed on her
face again.
“I
need to know if I am normal,” he said, haltingly, in a very low voice.
“How? And
why? And what is ‘normal’?”
“Physically. I have
to know if I’ll
make a woman laugh, or make her sick from disgust.”
“You’ve met
someone, Severus! That’s wonderful!”
“She’s here in
graduate school. Second year. She understands that ‘happily
ever after’
doesn’t
apply to me, and, incredibly, she accepts it. She will return home to a dynastic
marriage after graduation, and she wants us to be together as long as we’re here.”
“Congratulations!
What’s
keeping you? You should be having dinner with her tonight.”
“Catrin,
she wants to take me to bed. Not just yet, but soon.”
There was panic in his voice and in his face.
“Don’t you
want to? Anyone has the right to say ‘no’, man or woman.”
Catrin directed him to a pair of comfortable chairs in
front of another window, and they sat down.
“You don’t
understand. I want it so much! But I don’t know...
anything. Oh, I’ve
read up on sex,
I know the anatomy, the mechanics, the protective charms and potions, the
cognitive and emotional implications, but it’s never
really been about me.”
His silence was not an unwillingness to speak, but a
pause to gather his thoughts. Catrin simply nodded and waited.
Shortly, Severus continued: “I’ve done a
lot of reading, but I’ve never had anyone give me ‘the talk’, to me,
personally. I’ve
had no giggling sisters, no gutter-mouthed brothers, no changing-room talk with
my mates; I’ve
always avoided or been made to avoid the common showers.”
“Yes,
you’ve
told me you were bullied at school.”
“And
then I studied. I learned about potions, about herbs, about the mind and the
body, about the foundations of magic, what it is that turns it dark, and how to
fight that. It’s been the
only really enjoyable part of my life. I understood
that ‘those
things’
were not for me, so I simply stopped myself thinking about them.”
“I
see,”
she said.
“Do
you? Catrin, no-one has ever seen my adult body!”
“And
comparing yourself to the pictures in the books is not enough.”
“No.”
“Do
you suspect any functional problem?”
“How
should I... ”
He looked away and said quietly: “No.”
“Still,
you think you need an assessment, is that it? A professional
opinion?”
He swallowed hard, and replied barely audibly: “Yes.”
“I
can do that for you.”
“Would
you, really? What do I do, make an appointment?”
“Your
appointment is for right now.”
“No!”
“Look,
Severus, this obviously bothers you a lot. So get it over with. You’ll sleep
better.”
“You’re right.
That’s
what I’d
say to anyone else,”
he almost managed an ironical smile.
“Good,” she
replied. “Here’s what I
suggest.”
He forced himself to look at her, black eyes wide
open.
“There’s a
standard procedure,”
Catrin went on, “that
we use to assess wizards complaining of diffuse potency problems. I know, that
isn’t
your trouble, but it’s
a handy way of checking that the equipment is in good working order, and to put
to rest any suspicions of anything really sinister.”
“That’s what I
had in mind, I suppose.”
“One thing. If we do
this, I want to put you through the whole procedure. Parts of it are unpleasant,
but I don’t
intend to miss anything important to save you discomfort.”
“Fair enough.” His posture was tense, but his
voice almost matter-of-fact.
“Apart
from a blood sample, I’ll only use my wand and my hands. No strange
implements. And you know I’ll do my best to make it as little uncomfortable as
possible.”
“Thank
you, Catrin.”
“Don’t thank
me yet. You’ll
want to say other things before we’re through,” she commented wryly.
“Well,
then, thanks for the warning,” he made an attempt at levity.
She stood up, went to the examination couch and pulled
up an instrument trolley.
“Come
and sit over here. I’ll
want a few drops of your blood. Shall I draw the sample, or do you
prefer to do it yourself?”
“Catrin,
your lancet is the least of my worries right now. Just help yourself.”
He held out his hand to her. His mind seemed to be on other things, and his
musing face never shifted, while she deftly pricked his finger and placed
several drops of his
blood on a glass
slide.
“I’ll go put
these through the analysis spells in the lab,” Catrin
said. “While
I do that, why don’t
you make yourself as comfortable as you can on the couch.
You have to remove all your clothes, but we don’t want
you to die of exposure. Here’s a blanket to cover yourself with.”
The blanket was a soft, light but thick cotton weave,
moss green in colour. Catrin found Severus stretched out under it when she
returned to the couch. Only his head resting on a thin pillow
was showing, and his eyes were shut. They snapped open when he heard her come
back.
“So
far so good,”
she said. “The
blood analysis says that everything is fine. – Let’s see how
to make you a bit less uncomfortable.”
She felt his legs through the blanket, and slipped a
rolled-up towel under his knees to help relax his back. Then she pulled up a stool and
settled down by his head. She felt the tense muscles in his neck and shoulders
and, instead of massaging them vigorously, she warmed them with her hands and
nudged them here and there to suggest a more relaxed position. The lines around
his mouth grew less deep, and his eyes closed again, lightly.
Unobtrusively she moved her hands to probe gently
below his jaw and in front of his ears. Her touch was steady, matter-of-fact,
professional, not cold or unkind, but without tenderness. Severus sensed it and
realised that he found it deeply reassuring.
“You
know as well as I do what I’m about, palpating your lymph nodes,” she
commented, standing up and moving to his side. “Those loci and conduits of thaumic energy are central to what distinguishes your physiology from that of a Muggle. - Well, let me
fold down the blanket a bit.”
She did so, uncovering his chest with a scattering of
curly black hairs. He shivered a little, but let her move his arms slightly away from
his body to feel his armpits. She was careful to touch him firmly enough not to tickle.
“All
right,”
she continued, picking up her wand. “Normally you wouldn’t feel
anything when I scan you with my wand. But you have used this one together with
me, so it is partly attuned to you. That means that you may feel a tingle of
energy while I scan you, and some stronger twinges at the major magical nodes.
It’s
normal if you do, but nothing is wrong if you don’t. Just a natural variation in
sensitivity.”
She directed the wand slowly along the contours of his
head and chest down to his waist. Then she swept the flat of it, not quite
touching the skin, in a few lines across his face. She touched
the tip to several points on his head and throat; the first touch made him
flinch, but then he lay perfectly still. Another series of broad sideways
sweeps across his chest concluded the scan.
“Next,
I’m
going to palpate your abdomen. I have to move the blanket a little more for
that.”
She uncovered his flat, firm abdomen with a line of
black hair extending from his navel and growing wider and thicker to where it
disappeared under the blanket covering his groin. Quietly she rested her hands
left and right from it.
“You
have excellent muscles here. I need you to focus on relaxing them,
otherwise I won’t be able to
feel much.”
He gave a shuddering sigh.
“Very
good,”
she said. “None
of this should hurt, so don’t play the hero. Let me know at once if
it’s
painful.”
Slowly, thoroughly, her hands travelled down his
abdomen from the waist to the hip bones, pressing here and there. Again, he
held himself perfectly still, until her fingers slipped underneath the blanket
to where the abdomen met the thighs. He flinched then, and his muscles tensed.
“Inguinal
nodes tender?”
she asked.
“No, not at all. It’s...” he fell
silent, breathing raggedly.
“Strange and uncomfortable?
Yes. Just let it happen. It’ll pass.”
Again she followed the procedure with a scan of her
wand, sweeping across his abdomen and touching the tip to various points. Then
she put down the wand, and he looked at her intently.
“Everything
looks and feels fine, so far,” she said, unsmiling, respecting his discomfort. “No sign
whatsoever of any physiological problem. But then, we weren’t
expecting any, were we?”
Dry-mouthed, unable to speak, Severus moved his head
from side to side.
“All
right, then, let me have a proper look at you,” Catrin
said, reaching for the blanket.
“No!” he
gasped and reached out as if to grab the blanket that she was folding back.
He did not complete the movement, though, and she
draped the blanket across his feet and the end of the couch.
When she turned to face him again, he lay shivering, his eyes squeezed shut, his lips tight, both his
hands clutching at his genitals.
“Severus,” she
touched his shoulder lightly.
“Hmm.” The noise in his throat showed
that he heard her.
“You
have asked me to examine you. I won’t force you. Tell me if you have changed your mind and
want to stop now. It’s
all right. But if not, you must show yourself to me.”
“I
know. I’m...
It’s...
Please go on. Please.” His voice was almost a sob.
“All
right,”
she said in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. “Let me
see you. Place your arms along your body. Do it now.”
With a jerk his hands left his groin, and he placed
his arms at his sides with a determined effort, the muscles tense, the fists
clenched.
“Good,” she went
on calmly. “I’m looking
at you. I see that your penis is whole, normal and healthy-looking. It is very well
proportioned to your body, and there’s no reason for anyone to find it strange or ridiculous. As
penises come, yours looks quite appealing.”
Tears
were leaking out of the corners of Severus’ eyes and
he was close to hyperventilating.
Catrin placed a hand on his chest and the other one on
his abdomen.
“Easy.
Don’t
overdo it. Find your normal breathing and focus on it.”
His ragged breath calmed somewhat.
Catrin continued: “That’s right,
focus on your breathing. In a moment I’m going to touch you. You may react to my touch, or
you may not. There is no right or wrong. Again, none of this
should hurt, so please, let me know if it does.”
Gently she gathered up his flaccid penis in her cupped
hand. A moan escaped him, both his hands
flew up to cover his face, his torso arched and his legs contracted.
“Sssh,” she
soothed him. “Relax.
Your arms along your sides. Focus on your breathing.”
She kept still while he complied and calmed down. Then
she felt his penis with her other hand, from root to head, kneading very
gently. It was semi-erect when she ended by manipulating the foreskin. She
moved her hands to his testicles and palpated them, gently and thoroughly.
“Now
the wand scan,” she
said, picking up the instrument. “I notice that you are very, very sensitive, and that’s a good
thing, but it may be quite unpleasant now. I’m going to
scan your groin, penis, testicles and perineum. Ready, or
would you like to wait and rest for a while?”
“Go
ahead,”
he said quietly and clearly.
The wand
ran along the jointure of his thigh and abdomen, first left, then right. He held
still, without a sound, watching her face from under his lowered eyelids. Then
the flat of the
wand swept along his penis, root to head, then on to where the penis joined the
testicles. The wand
rested there, releasing a jolt of energy. Severus flinched only very slightly.
The wand moved on over his testicles, around them in a
few sweeps. Her left hand cupped his testicles, the right slipped in between
his legs to direct the wand at the perineum. The surge of energy connected with
the powerful magical node deep inside his pelvis. The impact was strong, and by
reflex Severus tried to twist away. Catrin held him steady.
“That’s a bad
one, yes,”
she murmured, changing the angle of the wand. “Just a
little longer.”
A deep groan escaped him. He threw his arm across his
face and set his teeth in it.
“Almost done.” She moved the wand again
slightly.
“Count
down from five.”
He released his arm, but let it rest across his face.
He counted slowly and deliberately:
“Five.
Four. Three. Two. One.”
Catrin put down the wand and touched his arm. His hand
grabbed hers and clutched it hard while he recovered from the pain. His head
rolled to the side and his chest heaved with the heavy breaths. Gradually his
breathing calmed, he released Catrin’s hand and looked at her.
“There,” she
said. “You’ve made
it. The painful bit is over.”
“Isn’t it
finished yet?”
“Almost. There’s one
more part, not painful, but uncomfortable.”
“You
don’t
mean...”
he whispered, exhausted, embarrassed, fearful.
“Yes.
I’m
going to ask you to trust me very much. I have to feel inside you.”
Once again he grew silent, as if enclosed in a shell.
“I
won’t
use the wand on you at all,” Catrin went on, “only my
hands. The wand is just for me.”
She
picked up her wand and applied the protective and lubricating charms.
“Bend
your knees,”
she directed, “and
place your feet on the surface of the couch.”
His eyes
stared at her, his face was pale and framed in droplets of sweat, but he
complied.
“It’s not as
bad as you think,”
she commented. “Some
people even find the touch pleasurable. Those parts are very sensitive. That’s why it
will feel uncomfortable to you, but sensitivity cuts both ways. It all depends
on the circumstances.”
Her clinical manner calmed him somewhat.
She nudged his legs a little wider apart, laid her
left palm on his abdomen and reached down to touch his perineum with the
fingers of her right hand. Again, he flinched.
“You’ll be
able to help this time. You know that my finger has to get past your sphincter
muscle. The less tense you are, the easier will it be.”
He nodded and made a noise in his throat to show that
he followed her.
“Your
mental discipline is excellent, so we’re going to use that. I want you to show me how deeply
you can relax while I touch you like this.”
The task helped to take his mind off the discomfort,
the embarrassment and the unusual sensations. His hands were the first part of
him to relax.
“Should
I be quiet,”
Catrin asked softly, “or do you want me to help talk you down?”
“Please,
help me,”
he murmured.
“Breathe
normally and find your focus...” Her voice deepened a little, her enunciation quiet
but clear. “You
can feel the air filling you and streaming out... You breathe deeper and
deeper... You can feel the breath in your chest... behind your clavicles...
around your shoulder
blades... behind your lower ribs...”
Gently, imperceptibly, her fingers began to move,
massaging his perineum in little circles.
“Yes,” she went
on, “excellent.
You are focusing on your breathing. You can sense it in your
abdomen... inside your pelvis... in your groin...”
The pattern that her fingers were tracing expanded
little by little into a line towards his anus.
When she reached the sphincter
and began massaging that instead, his breath caught, but calmed
again as he re-focused on his task.
“You
are quite relaxed,”
she droned on, “and
you can go deeper still.”
Her fingers circled his tight opening, around and
around, her left palm lay soothing on his abdomen, rising and falling in time with his breath.
“Now
you will let my finger enter you. Take a very deep breath. Sense how the air
fills your entire torso. Hold it and feel the tension...
And let it out.”
There was a gasp and a shudder as he felt her
fingertip slip past the circular muscle.
“Good.
Find your focus again,” she continued. “Relax and
breathe. Breathe and relax. That’s it. Go on.”
Her finger penetrated a little deeper, deeper still,
and she felt for the gland inside him.
As she found it and brushed against it, his deep
relaxation cracked.
He groaned loudly, deep in his throat. His head rolled
jerkily from side to side and his arched torso attempted to drag his pelvis
away from her hand. She steadied him with her palm and
with her voice.
“Yes,
it’s
very, very much now, a lot of strange sensations. Try to relax if you can;
we’re
almost there. I just have to apply a little more pressure for a few moments.”
Her eyes closed; focusing on the tactile sensations
from her finger, she probed thoroughly and purposefully, barely hearing his
gasps. Then her hand stilled and the palm on his abdomen was almost a caress.
Slowly, gently, she withdrew her finger, and rubbed
the sphincter
muscle lightly before simply letting her hand rest between the man’s legs
for a moment.
She withdrew both her hands and banished the protective
charm from her skin.
“There,” she
murmured. “Make
yourself as comfortable as you can, and rest for a while.”
She
spread the blanket from his chest over his abdomen and his now stretched-out legs,
taking care to cover his feet well, tucking folds of the blanket between his
body and his arms.
He opened his eyes: there was fear in them, a query.
“Everything
is perfectly all right,” she said gently. “You have
a fine body, in good working order. There’s nothing
about your body to frighten a woman or make her laugh at you. I’ll give
you all the details you want anytime you like, but, to put it simply, you’re ready
to go.”
She finished with a smile that he returned, tired,
overwhelmed with new sensations, but relieved.
Catrin took the time to wash her hands very thoroughly
in the laboratory, mainly to give Severus a chance to remedy his state of
undress. But when she returned into the surgery, she found him still lying on
the couch, curled up on his side with his back to the room, clutching the
blanket under his chin. He was shivering.
She
propped herself up against the edge of the couch and laid a calming hand on his
shoulder.
“It’s all
right, Severus,”
she said. “You’ll be
fine. You’re
just reacting to a strong and very uncomfortable experience. Take your time. I’ll stay
with you.”
“I’m afraid,” he
whimpered. “I’m so
terribly afraid.”
“What
is there to be afraid of? Who wants to hurt you?”
She reached across him and found his hand with hers.
He clung to it.
“I’m afraid
of myself,”
he said more clearly. “I may hurt someone.”
“Why’s that?
Do you want to?”
“No.
But it’s
what I know. What I’ve
seen of sex. Rape. Torture. I
was quite young myself, so I didn’t have to… do things… but I was there. And did nothing to
stop it.”
With an effort, Catrin kept her voice clinically
detached:
“You don’t have to
force yourself to talk about it, but you might tell me a little more, if you can.
I may be able to help you. This place is safe. The rooms are warded, and I’m under a strong
geas not to disclose what patients tell me. If it’s told in
confidence, not even
Sir Alex has the right to question me.”
“It’s my
life. My past, my memories. How could you help?”
“It’s your
life, yes. But sometimes a different view can make things easier to handle. And if it doesn’t work,
well, what do you have to lose?”
He visibly decided to take the plunge.
“What
do you want to know? Where should I start?”
“Was
that some sort of gang that you joined?”
”Call
it that. Yes. To get back at people. To feel powerful. Dangerous.”
”You
wanted to get back at your bullies. And did you?”
”No. Yes. Not the way I
thought,”
his voice rasped. “It
was terrible. I tried to save her, but they killed her!”
“Was
that someone you cared about?”
“Loved
her,”
he murmured into the pillow under his head.
“And
the gang abused her?”
Severus rolled onto his back to face her.
“No,
no, no, thank Merlin, no. They did that to others. But she died. The leader
murdered her in cold blood.”
“And
then? Where is the gang now? The leader?”
“They’re in
prison, mostly. And people say he’s dead. I don’t believe it. He’ll be
back someday. I intend to fight him.”
“And
for that you have to stand alone, so as not make yourself vulnerable. That’s a very difficult
path to follow.”
“He’s killed
her already. So that can’t happen again.”
“And
earlier, were you and … she… together?”
“In my dreams. In real
life I was a horrible person. I destroyed it all. In the end I called her a horrible
name. She never spoke to me again. Married … someone else. Had his child.
And then she was dead. She is dead. Dead. Dead.”
Catrin paused and left him to his grief for a moment.
Then she continued, in a clinical tone:
“You
have no good mental images of sex at all. Only what you experienced with the
gang. No affection, no pleasure, no joy, only destruction and suffering. Is
that so?”
Severus only nodded.
Catrin went on: “You know
how the mind works. You understand that you need good experiences to compensate
for that. Otherwise you’ll always be afraid of yourself, of how you may react
in an intimate situation. “
Another nod.
“So
the lady in second year may be just the right cure for you,” Catrin
concluded.
Severus turned onto his side again, away from her. “Perhaps,” he said.
“But… “
The rest of his words was
mumbled into the pillow.
“I’m sorry,
Severus –
I can’t
hear you,”
Catrin said softly.
“It
can’t
happen. So there’s
no point talking about it,” he objected.
“Yes,
there is. Put a name to your wishes as well as your fears. It makes them more
manageable.“
“Catrin,
if I say it, you may think... it could... I don’t want to
harm…
us.”
“You won’t harm
us, Severus. You have my word on it. We are friends. Let me be the judge if this
thing is so terrible.
If it is, I promise to remove the memory and return it to you.”
Severus curled up harder on his side, clutched the
blanket and, with his eyes screwed shut, brought out between gritted teeth: “I. Wish. You. Could. Be. My. First.”
Catrin bit her lips and seemed to be working towards a
decision. Then she said gently, stroking his hair: “Is that a
daydream, a fantasy, or something you’d really accept if you could have it?”
“For real. You
wouldn’t
laugh at me. You wouldn’t be afraid. You wouldn’t let me
hurt you.
The first time. If I lose control.
You’re
strong and you know me.”
“Look
at me, Severus.“
He relaxed a little and turned his head towards her.
She asked:
“Would
you feel better about wooing your new lady friend after the experience?”
“Yes, very
much better. But I’ve
no right to ask you. I know you aren’t… interested in men.”
“Many
gays experiment with the opposite sex,” Catrin explained. “I’m not
inexperienced. And in fact it’s what
Severus had stretched out on his back again and
listened intently.
Now he sat up abruptly and swept the blanket about him
with a yank.
“Well,
that includes me out, anyway,” he growled.
“Drop
it, Severus,”
she said sharply. “Self-hatred
is very unbecoming. Especially vacuous self-hatred.”
“Catrin,
don’t
coddle me. I’m
ugly and I know it. I’ve learned to live with it.”
“Do
you know the saying about the eye of the beholder?”
“Yes.
I can face myself without a baby soother, thank you,” he
answered coldly.
“Hmm.” Catrin
paused to think.
“Let’s put it
this way: you’ve
asked me to go to bed with you.“
Blushing, Severus whispered: “Yes.”
“What
does that mean: that you find me attractive, or not? Or am I just someone to
help you deal with an annoying obstacle? An experienced prostitute would fit
that bill.“
“Please
don’t
speak like that. You’re
very, very attractive. I asked you because… because it’s you.”
“Well,
you’ll
never see me on the cover of ‘Playwizard’. I’m ugly by their standards. My tits are
too small, my butt is too big, my hair is too short, my grooming is deficient,
and, besides, I’m
too old. So what does that tell you?”
“Hmm… that it’s my mind
that finds you attractive?”
Lightening the mood, Catrin put on her best
schoolteacher demeanour: “Very good, ten bonus
points to Mister Snape, sit down.”
Then she cocked her eyebrow at Severus: “And kindly
grant my mind the same privilege.”
He could not suppress a grin: “If you
insist.”
“I do. – So, what
are we looking at: one night, no strings, no kiss-and-tell, and we’re
friends?”
“You
sound very business-like. But, yes, that covers it. Do you think it’s
possible?”
“I,
for one, intend to give it my best shot. And I’m sorry
if I sound callous. I just don’t want you to get hurt if we don’t talk
clearly.”
“Thank
you,”
he smiled. “I
never imagined a woman could think that way.”
“So,
did you have anything planned for the next twenty-four hours?”
“Arithmantic
Logic lecture at nine.”
“If I say
screw the lecture, we’ll catch up on our own?”
suggested Catrin with a cat-got-the-cream grin.
“I
say nothing else planned.”
”Well… Your
flat or mine? Personally I’d suggest neutral ground.”
“What’s neutral
ground?”
“I’ll tell
you in a while. Put your clothes on; I have to make a Muggle phone call in the outer office.“
–
Warren House, Elisabeth Drew speaking. How can I help you?
–
Elisabeth? This is Catrin Achrya. The Mediwitch from last summer, when the
young lady with the film crew needed help.
–
Catrin! How are you? What can I do for you?
–
Well, well! I take it the summer’s events ended to everyone’s
satisfaction?
–
You can say that again. It seems the starlet’s attacks
didn’t
come back, so she’s
told the tabloids
that the whirlpool at our Freesia Suite has healing powers.
–
Not too bad for business, then. Well, do you still think that you owe me?
–
I owe you. Anything I can do for you.
–
To the tune of twenty-four hours in the Cedar Suite? Starting just about now?
–
With all the trimmings, fully warded, your own house elf, and all you’d care to
eat and drink.
Are you sure you don’t
want anything more romantic than the Cedars?
–
I have a queer reputation to uphold, so don’t tell
anyone, but I’m
bringing a man. He doesn’t do
roses and curlicues.
–
I’ll
take up the iced champagne personally. Welcome to Apparate in whenever you’re ready.
“We
have our neutral ground,” Catrin said to Severus, who was buttoning up the
collar of his black
robes.
“Where’s that?”
“Will
you let me surprise you?” she asked. “I know you don’t like
surprises, and I’ve
just put you through almost an hour of torture, but I promise this one is a
good surprise.”
“Well...
if that’s
all you’ll
tell me, I just have to trust you.”
“Trust
me, Master Severus Snape. You are about to get laid in grand style.”
She snickered at his sheepish, blushing face.
“By
the way,”
she added, “aren’t we
forgetting something?”
His face went blank and she could almost hear him
think.
She opened a desk drawer and took out a small blue
vial.
“Here,” she
said, handing it to him: “You’re the potions master.”
He opened the vial and smelled the contents, poured
out a small drop on his fingertip, rubbed it between his fingers and tasted it.
“Oh,
he said. “The
Capotus potion. Contraceptive, prevents infections. Did you brew it?”
“With
my own not-so-milk-white hands,” she laughed.
“Somehow
I’d
imagined you to prefer charms.”
“You
seem to have given the matter a lot of thought,” she
teased. “No,
seriously, charms are too easy to forget or go wrong with. The Capotus is
effective for at least twenty-four hours, so you can
take it well before matters become too… um… hectic. – Speaking of which, I’m
thinking about your young lady. You do know how to brew this stuff, don’t you?”
“Oh,
yes, no problem. Except…”
“Yes?”
“It
takes almost two weeks to complete and mature.”
“In a
hurry, are we?”
she teased again, feeling very pleased with his progress. “Half an hour ago
you were gibbering with panic at the mention of sex. Oh, the resilience of youth!”
He shrugged his shoulders with another sheepish look
on his face.
“The
normal dose is three drops, so this should last you and your lady friend a
while, even if we do use
some of it now.”
She brought two small cups of water and motioned to
him to add the potion. He did, but handed the vial back to her.
“Catrin,
I couldn’t
accept. Just the ingredients are awfully expensive, and then there’s the time you
spent brewing it.”
“Oh,
stop it, you dolt. Of course you can accept it. Take it as my way of wishing
you good luck
with your sex life. –
Well, here’s
looking at you, as they say.”
She toasted him with the cup of potion-laced water and
drank it down in one gulp. He followed suit.
Catrin changed from her pale blue work robes to the
graduate student’s
brown and, automatically, picked up her Mediwitch bag. Then she stood next to Severus.
“Let’s move on
to neutral ground, then,” she said. “Put your arm around my shoulders and I’ll take
us there.”
He complied. She put her free arm around his waist,
and they Disapparated.
--- --- ---
“Oh,” was all
he could say when he looked around the room.
“Your
Lordship approves, I take it,” she said with mock noblesse.
“What
is this –
a palace?”
“It
used to be. A country house, anyway. Now it’s a
hotel, of the really nice kind. Both Muggle and discrete wizarding clientele. Flashy spells
get you banned for life.”
“We
can’t
afford this!”
“No,
we couldn’t
if we had to pay for it. The proprietor owed me a favour. This is what you
might call a really classy love nest, and it’s ours
until tomorrow lunchtime.”
The suite had a sitting room and a bedroom, both
sparsely furnished in a reddish wood that matched
the wide, polished planks of the floor. The walls were ivory in colour, with a Chinese
ink painting decorating each room. The furniture had straight lines, right
angles, and was upholstered in a subdued moss green. The modern Tibetan rugs on
the floor picked up the green, and the dark brownish red of the wood. The bed
was a four-poster, but built out of straight, smooth, thick boards with no
other decoration than their natural lines and knots, the frame a
perfect seven-foot cube. Its drapes of thick, loosely woven raw silk replicated
the moss green of the
upholstery.
As promised, on the coffee table a closely contained
cooling charm surrounded a bottle of Bollinger Grande Annee, swept
in a white linen napkin. Between the two champagne goblets next to it there was
a note on thick ivory paper:
‘Welcome,
Mistress Catrin and guest. Your house elf’s name is
Ceddie.
Enjoy your stay at Warren House.
–
Elisabeth’
“Well.” Severus
stood in the middle of the room, looking rather lost. “I’ll admit
I’m
completely out of my depth now.”
“You
could start by doing the honours,” Catrin said, gesturing towards the champagne bottle. “Alcohol
is a relaxant, as you know.”
“I
know that much. I just don’t know how…” and he gripped the neck of the
bottle.
“The
bottle is under pressure,” she explained. “That’s why the
cork has all the metal on it. You start by removing that.”
She showed
him how to untwist the wire and remove the metal cap. The bare cork remained.
“This
is what the cloth napkin is for,” she went on. “You use
it to get a steady grip on the bottle and the cork. Contrary to popular
misconception, you don’t pop the cork and shoot it into the air – that’s vulgar,
and a waste of good drink. You ease the cork out gently, so that all
the wine stays in the
bottle.”
His slender, strong hands, used to the meticulous potions
work, had no trouble dealing with the cork. He filled the two goblets and
handed one to Catrin. The rims of the goblets touched with a gentle ‘clink’. Catrin
took a few sips, savouring the wine that was far, far out of her usual more
affordable class. Severus sipped first, then emptied his goblet in a single
gulp.
“Traditionally,” Catrin
advised, “the
next move would be a passionate kiss.”
“My
mother kissed my forehead when I was leaving for Hogwarts,” Severus
stated dryly: “That
doesn’t
qualify as passionate by any standards.”
Catrin looked at his mouth and licked her own lips.
“Your
lips look extremely tasty,” she said.
“Um…” he
swallowed hard. “So
do yours.”
“Well,
then, come here and do something about it,” she
cocked her eyebrow provocatively.
He stood facing her indecisively. She reached out,
buried her fingers in his hair and pulled his head down to hers. Their lips
met; hers parted, inviting him to explore further. He turned
out to be a very quick learner.
When they came up for air, she removed her eyeglasses.
“Another
one, please,”
she said with a radiant smile. She took some more champagne in her mouth,
inviting him to share it. When they broke apart, his eyes were slightly glazed
and there were droplets of sweat on his forehead.
“All
right?”
she asked.
“All
right?”
he repeated. “That’s the
understatement of the year. Pinch me so I know I’m awake.”
Barely able to keep a straight face, she reached
around and pinched his bottom. He blushed crimson and hid his face against her shoulder.
She tilted her head, offering the side of her neck to him, and he needed no further
encouragement to explore it with his lips. She gave a murmur of
approval, and he made another try, this time with his teeth. She threw her
head back. “Yes,” she
moaned deep in her throat.
He stopped, confused, and kissed the spot that he had
bitten.
“Did
I hurt you?”
“Yes,” she
smiled, “exquisitely.
I felt it all the way you-know-where.”
“More?” he
offered.
“Please,” she
tilted her head to the other side.
“If
you bite down and suck quite hard, you’ll leave a mark,” she
suggested: “Would you like
that?”
He ceased his exploration long enough to ask: “May I?
Isn’t
it painful?”
“Go
ahead. You’ll
find out.”
He marked
her neck firmly, hearing her approving moans and feeling her move intriguingly
against his body.
Then she said: “Payback
time!”
She pushed him backward to sit on the sofa, and
straddled his lap. She explored his mouth thoroughly in a hungry kiss, and undid the top
few buttons of his robes. She nuzzled his neck gently, enjoying his shivers and
moans. Then she touched her teeth lightly to his skin and heard him cry out a
little. She bit down. Another cry, somewhat stronger. She sucked, lightly at
first, then harder.
“Please,” he cried
hoarsely, “yes,
please, please, oh, please…” The words were lost in a gasp.
She released him slowly, twisted around and sat down
next to him. He grabbed her hand and clutched it hard. She brought their joined
hands to her lips, kissed his hand and darted her tongue provocatively between
his fingers. Then she refilled their glasses and handed him his. This time he
did not toss it down, but savoured it slowly.
“Are
you hungry?”
she asked.
“No,” he said.
“I’ll
probably need something in a while, but not yet.”
“Then
I suggest a bath. This place is famous for its bathrooms.”
“Why?”
“Come
and see for yourself.”
The bathroom was the size of a regular hotel bedroom.
It had a separate large shower stall, and in the middle of the sienna-tiled
floor there was, instead of a bathtub, a small round pool. Bubbles and jets
erupted from the bottom and the sides when Catrin dipped her hand in the water.
“Make
yourself at home,”
she said to Severus, and pointed to two dolphin designs in the tiles on
the side of the pool. “Touch the red one for warmer, the blue one for cooler.
The green mussel stops the jets. Toilet’s over
there, by the way,”
she indicated a corner
shielded by an opaque glass partition.
Severus, overwhelmed by all the new sensations, was
grateful for some moments of privacy. He folded his clothes on a stool by the wall,
used the toilet, and slipped into the pleasantly warm water. Sitting on the wide tile bench
that surrounded the inside of the pool, he leaned the back of his head on the edge,
closed his eyes and just drifted.
After a while he heard barefoot steps.
“That
looks wonderful,”
Catrin said. “Mind
if I join you?”
She was completely nude, poised as if she was fully
dressed, carrying the wine and the glasses. Severus sat up straight, his eyes fixed on
the blue dolphin.
“Yes… no…” he
mumbled, “I
mean…
feel free.”
“It’s all
right to look,”
she said. “After
all, I’ve
seen you ‘au
naturel’,
and we’ll
share a bed
before this day is over.”
He smiled gratefully and devoured her with his eyes.
They held not only a man’s lust, but also the interest of the observant
scientist.
She submerged herself in the water and took a few
moments to relax.
“Mmm… lovely,” she
murmured lazily and closed her eyes. Then she opened them long enough to find
her wine glass, took a few sips and rested again.
As an afterthought she noticed Severus, who was still
sitting ramrod straight.
“I
didn’t
mean to spoil your bath. Come on, stretch out, put your feet in my lap,” she invited
him.
He complied shyly, but adapted quickly to the
situation and relaxed. She clasped his feet between her hands and began massaging
them. She traced the outlines of the soles, explored the arches, nudged the small
muscles between the bones of the foot into repose, kneaded the toes, one at a
time.
“If I was
a cat, I’d
be purring my heart out just about now,” Severus
murmured contentedly.
“Good,” Catrin
remarked. “That’s how I’d like
this to be. It should be about you and for you.”
“That’s not
fair.”
“Yes,
it is. Different people have different needs. To me, pleasuring someone I
really like is one
of the greatest
pleasures there is.”
“Catrin,
are you quite sure you’re real?”
“Absolutely
certain. –
On your part, think about giving and receiving. Nothing comes from nothing. You
want to make your new lady friend happy, to give her something good. So, how
can you be expected to give, if you’ve never received? If you don’t know
how that
feels?”
“But… Is there
nothing I can do for you?”
“You’re doing
it already. I’m
enjoying myself immensely.”
He shook his head musingly.
They relaxed in silence, the murmur and bubble of the
water the only sound in the room. Catrin propped up her feet on the submerged
bench next to Severus. After a while, he reached for them and imitated her massage.
She sighed and lowered her eyelids, not quite closing
her eyes.
“You
have very talented hands,” she murmured.
He glanced up at her and she responded with an
equivocal grin.
After the bath the house elf brought them a light
meal, but they ended up just picking at the food, the
tension almost palpable in the room.
“Let’s leave
this for later,”
she said, tossing a cooling and preserving charm at the food. “I hate
having sex on a full stomach anyway.”
They were wearing the hotel’s royal
blue bathrobes, long, thick and soft, with nothing underneath. Catrin took
Severus by the hand and led him into the bedroom. He followed haltingly, almost
reluctantly.
She ventured a joke: “Worried
about the moment of truth?”
He merely nodded.
“Remember,” she went
on gently, “this
is about you and for you, Severus. I won’t hit you
with more than you can handle. You can always stop me if you feel too
uncomfortable. I won’t get offended
or frustrated. Please feel free to ask questions, or ask for things to try. The
worst that can happen is that I’ll say ‘no’, and explain why. Don’t forget
we’re
scientists. There is nothing we can’t talk about.”
He nodded again, biting his lip.
“Catrin,” he said,
“I’m so
ignorant. You must tell me if there’s anything I should do. If there’s
anything I can do for you.”
She cupped his face between her hands and pulled him
down into a deep kiss.
“There
is something,”
she said. “A
beautiful gift that is yours to give.”
“What
is it?”
“Let
me look at you.”
“What
do you mean?”
“Let
me take off your robe, stretch out on the bed, and let me see you.”
“Of
course, but what’s
so special about it? At the clinic…”
“I’ll
explain.”
She waved at the lights to dim them with a spell.
“Here,
let me take this off.” She untied the belt of his robe, opened it and ran
her palms over the smooth planes of his chest. She reached up to his shoulders
and peeled the bathrobe off with a long, slow caress.
“What
about you?”
he asked. “Aren’t you a
little overdressed?”
“Possibly,” she
said. “Try
this way: you’re
taller than I am.”
She turned her back and leaned into him. “Put your
arms around me,”
she suggested.
“That
feels very comfortable, protected. And if you’re feeling
naughty, it’s
a good moment to show
the lady how interested you are.” She ground her bottom against him and felt his
reaction through the soft cloth. He understood and shifted his weight a little
forward to share the sensation. “Ohhh,” he sighed.
He needed no urging to caress the robe off her and
drop it on the floor next to his.
She took his hand again and led him to the bed.
“Please,
lie down,”
she said, her tone very different from the matter-of-fact Mediwitch earlier
that afternoon. He stretched out on the ivory silk sheets, still rather
confused.
“Thank
you, Severus,”
she said and knelt by his side on the bed.
“I
want to see you, look at you carnally, touch you with my looks. Now I don’t have to
maintain clinical detachment. I’m allowed to notice and tell you what a beautiful body
you have.
I imagine
my hands, my mouth, exploring your body and making you sense, respond, enjoy. I
see you with my entire body, and it’s incredibly erotic.”
Her voice shook with emotion and the sentence ended
with a gasp.
He looked aside, the blush spreading all the way to
his collarbones. “Please,
Catrin…
the things
you say…”
“You feel
embarrassed, but you don’t try to cover yourself up,” she said
quietly. “That’s good. You
can’t
suddenly change the way you feel, but you can learn to accept a compliment.”
“What’s the
good in that? Most compliments are false anyway.”
“Did
my compliment sound false to you?”
“No… not
really. But I don’t
understand. I’ve
always known that I’m… that I look…”
“You
are a gifted Legilimens. Even when you aren’t
performing the spell, you’re good at sensing people’s
intentions.”
“So?”
“When
a compliment is genuine, accept it. Enjoy it. Otherwise you’re
demeaning the other
person’s
judgement, telling them that their view of you is wrong.”
“Thank
you, then, Catrin. Thank you for your lovely words, for the anticipation. I can
feel it too.”
“Hmm… I see,” she
said, looking pointedly at his erection and making him blush again.
“Ready
to graduate from looks to touches.”
She stretched out on her side next to him and he
turned to face her. She embraced him, taking care to make as much skin contact
as possible, her arms stroking his back, her hands gently kneading his
buttocks, the entire length of their bodies touching, legs intertwined. Another
long kiss followed, teeth colliding, tongues duelling, voices moaning. Catrin pushed
Severus onto his back again and propped herself up on her elbow over him. She
smoothed back his hair and caressed his face.
“Focus
on feeling, sensing, receiving. It’s fine to move and to touch me if you want to, but you
don’t
need to do a thing. In fact, try to do as little as possible.”
“Why?”
“I
don’t
want you to worry about doing something wrong, or about having to be in charge.
You should have a chance to simply experience these feelings and reactions
yourself, before trying to cause them in someone else.”
Her fingers were gently toying with the shell of his
ear, and his low gasp showed that he was unable to speak. She leaned down to the ear
closest to her and nibbled it with her lips, then her teeth, then her tongue circled its
inner edges and folds. Severus made vague but approving noises that drove her
own arousal higher.
She let go of him completely, their bodies close but
not touching.
Severus’ low “Please” sounded plaintive.
Back on her knees, she ran her hands over his chest in
big, smooth, gentle circles, carefully avoiding the nipples. She caressed his
shoulders, then his chest again. And stopped.
Severus shivered in anticipation of something unknown.
“Feel
this one single touch,” she said, touching one of his nipples.
She rubbed it in little circles, his tiny moans
running shivers through her entire body.
“All
the sensations of your whole body are focused on the spots that I’m
touching,”
she murmured.
She was teasing both his nipples with her fingers and thumbs, his
responsiveness bringing her close to tears. She went on stimulating one nipple
with her hand as she touched the other one with her tongue, her lips, then her
teeth, biting and sucking gently. Severus gave a deep, low groan, and from the
corner of her eye she could discern his hand scrabbling at the sheets in an
effort to keep himself still. She gave a few slow, teasing licks to his nipples
and went on to exploring his entire chest with her lips and tongue, and an occasional
touch of her teeth. Severus’ breathing grew more and more ragged, and he let out
another plaintive sound when she, once again, broke all contact.
“Catrin,
what are you doing to me?” he moaned.
“It’s about
anticipation. Delaying the fulfilment. Is it too much for you?”
“Yes.
But don’t
change. Do what you like. I constantly feel that I’m going
to explode, but there’s always
more. Please go on. Please.”
“Thank
you, Severus. You’ve
no idea how beautiful it is. How beautiful you are.”
She moved down to his legs and swept her hands along
them, knees to feet and back again. Then she nudged his legs apart a little and
caressed the insides of his thighs. He shivered as she stroked them with her palms and
fingers; he moaned as she ran her fingernails over them, lightly, then harder.
When her hand reached higher, where his thighs and testicles met, he flinched.
“Sssssh...” she
reassured him. “I
won’t
touch you there.”
“Yes,” he
moaned, “behind...
the... balls... please... not the other one...”
Gently, her fingers sought his perineum, stroked,
rubbed, massaged slightly firmer. He was gasping with the effort to remain still, his hands
twitching; now and then an appreciative moan escaped his throat.
She moved
to kneel over him, supporting herself on her hands. Before he could protest at the loss of
her touch, her mouth was on his thighs, her head nudging them further apart.
She touched the sensitive skin on their insides with her lips, kissing,
nibbling, teeth nipping lightly, tongue laving in long sweeps.
“Catrin,
I can’t
anymore,”
he moaned urgently. “I
need…
need it…
need…
so badly…”
Her hands and mouth were on his testicles, kissing,
caressing, the tenderness mounting inside her so that she, as well, was on the
verge of exploding. There was his erect penis, straining, leaking, pulsating, to the keening noise that escaped his throat.
“Yes,” she
breathed.
She broke all other contact, poised her mouth over his
penis and licked in one long caressing stroke from the root to the tip. She
touched the hot, smooth, leaking head with the tip of her tongue, licked,
tasted, and began teasing it with her lips.
“No,
please,”
he croaked, “I
won’t
last.”
Caressing his penis with her hand, she released her
mouth long enough to explain: “No need. You’ll recover soon. We have time.”
In one sweep she took him in her mouth, as deep as she
could, and was rewarded with a deep rumbling moan of appreciation. The moans grew
louder and even more urgent as she licked, sucked, swirled her tongue.
Suddenly his hands grabbed her head and tried to pull
it away from his penis. She resisted.
“Catrin,
I can’t…” he
keened, “I’m… Have to…”
She twisted her head to make him release it, and freed
her mouth briefly: “Yes.
Come!”
The urgent syllables sent him over the edge. He
splayed his fingers about her short-cropped hair and, with an immense screaming
moan, his entire body spasmed as he released himself into her mouth, her throat
swallowing, her tongue licking, laving, her lips
nibbling, her own satisfied gasps and moans a counterpoint to his.
She stretched out her body along his leg, running her
hand tenderly, appreciatively, over his thighs and abdomen, caressing his testicles and
penis gently.
His hand tugged at her, inviting her to join him on
the pillow. Complying, she crawled higher. He lifted his head for a kiss, but
she shook her head:
“Mmm-mmm.
Clean up.”
“No,” he
protested and pulled her into his arms. “I want to
taste.”
“Scientific
curiosity?”
she smirked, but let him hold her close and explore her mouth thoroughly with
his tongue.
“Hmmm… not
entirely,”
he smiled, licking his lips, when the kiss ended.
His entire face registering relief, pleasure, joy, he
looked at her tenderly but with a glitter of pride at his new-found naughtiness.
Catrin felt her arm beginning to tingle, so she
scrambled across Severus to stretch out on his other
side. He rolled over to face her.
“That
was amazing,”
he said in a low voice, caressing her cheek with the backs of his curled
fingers.
“Not
too overrated?”
“Absolutely
not! –
But I still think it’s
unfair.”
“What
is?”
“You’ve given
me so much, and I haven’t even touched you.”
“That’s where
you’re
mistaken, Severus.”
She was careful to speak clearly in spite of her low,
tender tone.
“What
do you mean?”
“You
have touched me. You do touch me. With your looks, your murmurs, sighs and
moans, with the shudders of your breath and the shivers in your belly when my
mouth meets your skin. You touch me with the way your lips curve before we
kiss, with every single droplet of sweat along your hairline, with the sight of the sweet
shell of your ear and its memory on my lips. And you touch me, oh, how you
touch me, when you take my rules and make them yours and put your mental powers
into enforcing them in yourself, for nothing other than our mutual pleasure.
Your
touch has so much tenderness and strength, apprehension and courage, it is soft
and smooth and determined and completely overwhelming and oh, so sweetly,
painfully erotic.
It sweeps through my whole body, caresses my breasts,
swirls and coils in my belly, makes my cave weep in anticipation of receiving
you.”
“Catrin,
the way you speak,”
he moaned, “it’s too
much…
for the one-shot lover, or not enough for the scientist,” he
concluded as an afterthought, in a more controlled voice.
“Will
you show me?”
he added.
She cocked her eyebrow, scrutinizing his face.
“For
a moment, yes,”
she agreed. “It’s very
private and very intense. I want us not to touch at all, so you know for
certain where the sensations come from.”
They moved apart a little, and Catrin closed her eyes.
Severus felt a tendril of her thought, and suddenly he sensed everything she
had said and more, an overwhelming flood of tenderness, arousal, need,
pleasure, fulfilment, expectation, joy, all focused on him, caused by him,
intended for him. The tears that had been brimming in his eyes broke free and
flooded his face. His hand groped for Catrin.
She released the mental rapport gently and pulled him
closer, gathering him into her arms, rocking him, murmuring to him. His
breathing calmed gradually, his sobs ceased, he looked at her with a small,
musing, amazed smile. She disentangled her limbs from his, but stayed close to
him, stroking his hair. In a few moments he fell asleep.
Severus woke up slowly, gradually remembering where he
was and what had happened. Even before opening his eyes he reached out – and
found an empty expanse of silk sheet.
His eyes flew open as he sat up with a shout:
“Catrin!!!”
“I’m here,
Severus!”
She stood, smiling, as naked as before, in the doorway
to the bathroom.
“Sorry
–
I had to pee. Did you think I would sneak off and leave you?”
“I… didn’t know. I
wasn’t
quite awake; I panicked.”
He rolled out of bed in one smooth movement, and stole
a quick kiss as he passed her in the doorway.
When he came back from the bathroom, he found her
stretched out on the bed, smiling at him.
“Are
you hungry? Thirsty?”
“No,” he answered,
and added in a mock poetic tone, “my heart’s desire is here in this bed.”
“Not to
mention your cock’s
desire,”
she quipped with a sideways look at his semi-erect penis.
“Please!” he
affected offended grand manners. “How crude!”
He lay down on his stomach, mock-ignoring her.
She leaned over and began stroking his back.
“Are
you comfortable like this on your stomach?”
“Perfectly,” he
murmured.
Catrin worked over the muscles of his back, from his
hips up along his spine to his shoulders and neck, gently, but with no overtly
seductive gestures. Then she slid her hands along his thighs, down and up
several times, and began caressing and kneading his buttocks.
She ran the edge of her hand between them, again and again, causing him to moan.
Once more she ceased all contact, letting the tension mount. And then her palm
nudged the small of his back, stroking just the tiny hairs covering it, but not
the skin itself. His entire body shuddered.
“More,” he
moaned.
In a low voice she asked: “May I
straddle you, or would you feel trapped?”
“You’re
welcome to trap me,”
he murmured.
She placed a knee on each side of his waist and,
securely supported by her strong legs, lowered herself gently onto the small of
his back. Another shudder told her that he was aware of the touch of her
intimate parts.
She
resumed stroking his back, more tenderly this time, occasionally bending down
and adding her mouth to the ministrations. Finally her teeth locked on the
large muscle between his shoulder and neck, and she bit and sucked to mark him
once again. She could feel his deep, shuddering “Aaaaahhhh!” resonate
through his whole torso. She moaned in response, savouring the feel of skin against skin, and
her belly contracted, rubbing her sex against the small of
his back.
“I
want to see your face,” he whispered urgently.
She straightened and rose up on her knees, still
straddling him.
“Turn
around, then.”
While he scrambled about, she adjusted her position so
that her soft pubic hair and her damp entrance touched the shaft of his erect penis
when she leaned over him next.
“See,
I told you that you’d
recover,”
she said with a tender half-smirk.
“Please...” he
pleaded.
“Please?” she
repeated with a smile.
She
leaned forward, raised his arms to place his hands by his head, and pinned them
down.
“Please
what?”
she teased.
He could only whimper.
She claimed his mouth in a deep, raw, demanding kiss
that went on and on. He was twisting and moaning helplessly as she
straightened up somewhat to position her opening
over the tip of his penis. She let the head touch her, but no more, no matter
how desperate his moans and his attempts at thrusts.
Again she kissed him, focusing their attention
completely on their mouths, and worked her hips down
very slightly, allowing his penis to penetrate her barely an inch before
withdrawing just as slightly. Then she straightened up to give herself better
control. It was all he
could do to breathe, as she continued the teasing, irregular, unpredictable,
murmuring nonsensical endearments. Sometimes letting herself deeper down,
sometimes less, suddenly her opening was encircling the root of his penis as he
was completely buried inside her.
A sob
escaped him; opening his eyes seemed to cost him an effort. His breath came
raggedly as he
whispered in amazement: “I’m inside you...”
She held still for yet another moment, then circled
her hips a few times in a grinding movement to confirm his sensations.
Supported by her strong, firm thighs, she found a steady
rhythm, gliding up and down, flexing and releasing her inner muscles. Her lips
trembling in a tender smile, she drank hungrily in every moan, every
contraction, every shudder of the beautiful, sleek, sensitive body moving
beneath her. She rode him steadily, securely, tenderly, driving him further,
higher, savouring his mounting arousal, her own pleasure coiling harder in her
belly.
Once more she rose on her knees, sliding almost but
not quite off him. With an inarticulate cry he grabbed for her hips
desperately, in an effort to pull her down again. Her legs were stronger,
though.
“Ssssssh,” she
reassured him. “I’m here. I’m not
going anywhere.”
As she teased just the glans with the muscles of her
opening, he was past moaning; his mouth open in a silent scream, his head tossing from
side to side.
Catrin herself was aroused to the point of dizziness,
her own breathing reduced to shallow gasps, her throat burning with an unreleased
scream. She steered his hands back to her hips and lowered herself on him all the
way, encouraging him to set his own rhythm.
He was tossing, thrusting, moaning nonsensical
syllables, clutching her hips hard enough to bruise; the wave of his arousal
lifted her and she arched her back; they climaxed together with one single huge
scream from the two throats of their joined bodies.
Catrin folded herself over him, his penis still inside
her. She felt it, not yet quite flaccid, as she
contracted her belly and circled her hips. She growled deep in her throat.
“Yes,
take me, take your pleasure from me,” Severus murmured, holding her close in his arms.
Moving slowly and intensely against him, she let his penis stroke her to a second
climax.
After a moment of rest she rolled off him and they lay
side by side, two panting, sated animals, slowly gathering their wits as their
breathing returned to normal.
“Congratulations,
Severus,”
Catrin said with a contented smile, “you have been truly and properly
deflowered. How does it feel?”
“I
can’t
begin to tell you,”
he answered quietly. “It feels... so much. I never imagined...”
“You
don’t
have to –
I was teasing a bit.”
“Catrin,
I may I ask you something? Please don’t be offended...”
“Ask
away. If it’s
none of your business, I’ll simply tell you that, no offence.”
“After...
what just happened...” he began haltingly.
“Yes?”
“How
can you say that you are... you know, not attracted to men?”
“But
I’m
not. I’m
not attracted to a gender. It’s about persons.”
“How’s that?”
“Not
everyone is capable of understanding that, or even wiling to try, but to me gender
is incidental.
“Don’t call me
that!”
“Yes, I
will call you beautiful, and you will listen to me. You’ve chosen
a difficult path in life:
you will be forced to hide your best sides from almost everyone. You must
remember that they exist,
that they are real, no matter how deep you’re forced
to bury them. And I intend to remember it with you and for you.”
Her kiss prevented him from answering back. Once more
she claimed his mouth fiercely, violently, gradually reducing the onslaught and
ending in gentle, tender nibbles of lips on lips.
Severus’ stomach growled, and he blushed.
“Sorry.
How mundane of me,”
he grinned.
“No
worries, I’m
absolutely starving. Good sex tends to do that to people.”
“Really?”
“The
classics say that every animal is sad after intercourse. Personally, I get
exhilarated, but hungry
enough to eat a hippogryph.”
“Is
that usual in women?”
“Usual
enough for you to plan for in your future conquests,” she
advised, and went on:
“Do
you like shellfish?”
“It
wasn’t
really standard fare at Hogwarts, so I’m not sure.”
“Care
to try?”
“Order
of the day, isn’t
it. Yes, why not.”
Catrin summoned the house elf, and a short while later
she and Severus were sitting at a table in the outer room, jointly attacking a large
seafood platter.
Accompanied by more of the excellent champagne, the
seafood was a success. Severus’ dexterous hands were soon shelling shrimps,
dismembering a lobster and picking out meat from its claws at a speed that
matched Catrin’s.
Eventually only shells, a few toast crumbs and a smear
of aioli remained.
Severus sat leaning both his elbows on the table,
nibbling musingly at his third slice of "piel
de sapo" melon. Catrin tossed a piece of melon rind onto her plate,
grabbed another slice, devoured it in two bites and leaned back in her chair.
“I’m sticky,” she
licked her fingers. “And
I smell like a fishwife. – Shower?”
“I’ll race
you,”
he said, rising and peeling off his bathrobe.
Their urgent desires appeased, the shower was a
pleasant, companionable affair. They explored the planes and curves of each
other’s
bodies with hands slippery with soap, tasted kisses diluted with water, played
with the shampoo foam in each other’s hair, and finally Severus dared Catrin to shower as cold as he
did.
She took on the dare, and emerged spitting, shivering
and swearing.
“Wh…wh… what the
hell are you, a damned polar bear?” her teeth chattered.
Severus stood ready with a huge, soft bath towel. He
embraced her with it and began rubbing her.
“Just
my natural sneakiness,” he grinned. “A pretext to hold you close and warm you.”
“As
if you needed one, you sneaky sneak,” she grinned back, and leaned into the caress.
Clean and dry, they discovered that the silk sheets on
the bed had been changed. They lay down, naked, sharing a single big, light,
eiderdown duvet. Severus turned the lights out with a sweep of his hand, and
they fell asleep, touching casually, with smiles on their faces.
Catrin slipped out of bed and padded into the bathroom
sometime in the very early dawn. She returned to bed, next to Severus. He lay on his back,
fast asleep, his breathing occasionally turning into light snores. In the dim,
grey light she could discern his profile, the distinctive nose, the shapely
lips slightly open in relaxation. Deep inside her she felt a warmth
that had nothing to do with the luxurious eiderdown covering them.
Some time later she heard Severus visit the bathroom
and return. He leaned over her and touched her cheek and the corner of her mouth with his
lips.
“Ouch,” she
mock-yelped. “Get
out of here. You scratch.”
He snuggled under the duvet, on his back, eyes closed.
“Don’t want to
go. You Figaro me.”
“Should
I spell your beard? Are you serious?”
“Totally.”
“I’d have to
use my wand.”
Considering his latest experience with her wand, she
expected him to show reluctance.
“Go
ahead and use it. I won’t spend the rest of my life cringing from your wand.”
“All
right,”
she Accioed her wand. “Keep still, so I don’t give
you a spotty stubble.”
Propped up on her elbow, she ran the wand smoothly
over his cheeks and chin, murmuring the shaving spell.
“Mmmm,
nice,”
he murmured. Then he tipped his chin up to give her access to his throat. His
trust almost stopped her breath.
She finished the shaving spell, put away the wand and
took advantage of his exposed position to kiss and nibble his throat. He
murmured approvingly, then tilted his head down to her for a proper kiss. She
obliged, thoroughly.
“Good
morning,”
she commented. “Now
you’re
fit for female company.”
“It
makes sense for you not to like beards,” he
quipped.
“Prejudice,
prejudice. I do like proper beards. Long soft ones. What I don’t like is
prickles. I’m
queer, not a hedgehog.”
“You’re the
queerest queer I know.”
“And
your experience in the matter would be… extensive? – Anyway, being flexible has its rewards. It
doubles my chances,”
she gave him a mockingly lewd grin.
She sat up cross-legged next to him.
“I
really do want my tea now,” she said. “How about you?”
“Tea
would be nice.”
“I
drink Chinese. And you? Indian, or English?”
“Isn’t it
still my day for trying new things? I’ll join you.”
“Black,
red, oolong, flower, green?”
“Not
a clue, I don’t
know what those mean. Pick whatever suits you.”
Catrin summoned the house elf and had a brief
discussion with her. In the end she chose a mild but
distinctive oolong with a grassy tang, as far removed as she dared from English
tea habits.
They only
had time to exchange a few kisses before the house elf re-appeared with the tea
tray. Catrin spoke a spell to hold the tray steady in the middle of the bed,
and they sat down cross-legged on each side of it.
Catrin surveyed the equipment approvingly, Severus
questioningly. In a small, round, cast-iron kettle, a spell aided to keep the
water hot. The jug for surplus water was plain brown ceramics, glazed only on
the inside. An unadorned jar in greenish glass held large, tightly rolled
pieces of tea leaves. The tea set proper was made of translucently thin white
china, its outside
hand-painted with a design of bamboo and crickets that complemented the painted
scrolls on the walls of the suite. The set consisted of a bowl resting on a saucer
and covered with a lid,
and two small earless cups.
Severus watched with keen interest as Catrin began
preparing the tea. She poured some hot water into the lidded bowl, swirled it
about and poured it out into the brown ceramic jug. Then she opened the glass
jar and tipped a little of the tea leaves into the white bowl. Severus reached
out for the glass jar.
“May
I?”
Catrin handed the jar to him with a smile. He smelled
the contents, shook a piece of the dried leaf onto his palm, felt it, crushed
it between his fingers and thumb, and smelled it once more. His face remained
neutral, but interested.
Catrin poured a little water over the tea leaves, put the
lid on the bowl and swirled it again. Then she divided the water into the two
small cups, rinsed them with it, and discarded the water. She poured more hot
water over the leaves, covered them with the lid and waited. After only a short
while she cupped her hand over the bowl, tilted the lid to one side, held it
down with her index finger and filled the two cups, the lid separating the
leaves from the pale yellow liquid. When she put the bowl down, Severus lifted
the lid to look at the tea leaves. They were large, very close to their size
and shape when fresh. After just this brief time in hot water, they filled half
the bowl.
Catrin raised her cup as if to toast Severus with it.
He picked up his own cup and returned the greeting, then smelled the contents
with a puzzled frown. The liquid was rather hot. Catrin took a few small sips and set her
cup down to cool. Severus followed suit.
“Good
Chinese tea is supposed to be steeped more than once – up to
four or five times, depending on the quality. The first cup is said to be the
most fragrant one, the second the most flavourful,” she
explained.
She felt, smelled and tasted her tea again, and
emptied the cup quickly.
Severus did the same, and his smile changed from
puzzled to pleased.
“Fairly
subtle, isn’t
it?”
he said.
“Yes,
you’re
the only Brit I’ve
ever dared offer it to.”
“It
isn’t
exactly Earl Grey,”
he grinned. “Milk
and sugar would murder it. – Are we about ready for the next cup?”
“Do
I see you acquire exotic tastes?” she mused as she poured more water into the bowl.
“Your
tea has a lot more complex aroma than the usual English brew,” he
explained.
“I
think so, but it takes a potions master to discern it. You have the skill and
the focus.”
Gravely, he bowed from the waist, thanking her for the
compliment.
Then they looked at each other, two naked people
maintaining a semblance of modesty by means of silk sheets, pontificating over a cup of tea.
All gravity was gone. They smiled, snickered, burst into a spell of loud, liberating
laughter. The tea tray kept its balance only thanks to the efficient spell.
“Why
don’t
you pour the second cup,” Catrin suggested when they had calmed down. She showed
Severus how to handle the bowl and its lid with one hand, and he took to it as if it
were a new potions implement. Not a fraction of a leaf escaped into the cups.
The colour of the brew was deeper now, a golden
yellow, and its aroma more focused in the liquid than in the scented steam. They sipped in
silence, savouring the drink, their eyes meeting over the rims of the cups from
time to time.
The looks became longer, more urgent. Catrin’s lips
curved in an equivocal smile; Severus replied in kind. With a quick wandless
spell he transferred the tea tray in perfect balance from the bed to
the floor. He pulled Catrin down on the bed and stretched out next to her. They
kissed, the whole length of their bodies touching, legs intertwined, arms
caressing.
“Severus?”
“Mmm?”
“You’ve said
that you’d
like to do things for me – or would it be ‘to’ me?”
“Yes,
you’ve
given me so much pleasure, it doesn’t feel fair.”
“So,
what did you have in mind?” she asked with mock slyness.
“Hm… I don’t know,” he
almost whispered.
She laid herself out on her back, offering herself to
him.
“There’s less
difference than you think, apart from the obvious ones, between men and women,” she
murmured. “The
responsive zones are much the same – it’s mostly about what a specific person enjoys. About
being sensitive to your partner.”
Severus lay propped up on his elbow, looking at her.
He reached out and, gently, gently, ran his hand from the top of her head over
her cheek, neck, chest, waist, hip, thigh. Her movement followed his hand as
the various parts of her body sought out the caress and leaned into it. Severus
smiled at the delight of a newly-found pleasure.
“See
anything you like?”
she offered. “Or
anything that intrigues you? Touch it and find out what
happens.”
Still infinitely gently, he touched one nipple,
watched it rise and pucker.
“A
little harder?”
Catrin suggested.
“I
don’t
dare,”
he whispered. “I
wish I knew…”
“Knew
what?”
“How
it feels. How you feel.”
“You’d like to
know, really know?”
she asked.
“Yes!”
His palm was caressing her breast, her breathing
becoming somewhat ragged.
She looked at him intently.
“I
don’t
normally use mind magic in bed, it’s quite intense enough without, but…”
He felt a touch of her mind on his, then an impulse of
sensation that made him cup his hand about her breast and knead it, then gasp with the
reaction.
He recovered quickly and explored the double
awareness. Soon he was on his knees, caressing her breasts, kneading them,
pinching and twirling the nipples, his hands wandering off across the skin of
her chest to stroke the shoulders, the sides; his mouth on her
breasts, kissing, sucking, licking, nibbling.
Then he broke all contact, leaned over her and ran his
fingernails backwards over the thin skin of her inner arms. His gasps echoed hers.
She grabbed his head and pulled his mouth to the
juncture of her shoulder and neck.
“Bite,” she
gasped, and he complied, nuzzling, biting, sucking.
She had been right, the pain was exquisite; the
reaction resonated in his lower belly, and their
gasps and moans mingled again.
He returned to exploring her torso with his hands and
mouth: the hollow of her throat, the breasts, sides, waist, abdomen. He sought out spots,
tested touches, varied their strength, duration and urgency. His hair, trailing
along where his mouth passed, drove her to distraction.
Severus’ ministrations reached Catrin’s lower
abdomen, and he stopped himself suddenly, panting and shivering. She could
sense his arousal, excitement and confusion, mingled with apprehension.
She moved enough to be able to reach his penis with
her hand. Stroking his erection, she slipped out of the mental rapport, leaving him to his
own sensations. He said nothing, but there was relief on his face.
He
touched her pubic hair, stroking it like the fur of a small animal. He looked
into her eyes,
then away, biting his lip.
“Catrin,
may I...”
he began.
She waited.
“May
I look at you... there?” he said, close to a whisper.
She hesitated. The idea of being a biological exhibit
was not particularly appealing.
“If
you promise...”
she said slowly, “to
touch, as well.”
His blush told her that he understood.
Severus knelt on the rug by the foot of the bed.
Catrin moved closer, bent her knees and planted her feet on the sheet with her
legs apart. He had an unobstructed view of her sex,
and she could not help feeling somewhat uncomfortable, reduced to a sample
under a mental
microscope.
She
raised her head to tug a pillow into place. And she noticed his face. It held,
not so much
desire, as delight and admiration, bordering on awe. Then and there the memory
of his tale hit home. Severus’ childhood and youth. The constant, utter loneliness,
deeper than she could ever imagine. His belief that he would never know a woman’s body
unless he bought
or forced it. Being so convinced of it that he had begun training himself to
eliminate any such thoughts. Her own discomfort forgotten, she basked in his
emotion, relief and joy.
Then he touched her.
Infinitely gently, but with no trace of tremor in his
hands, he touched, stroked, explored. Pleasure burned in her belly, rose, grew,
coiled, twisted, and she
could not suppress a shudder
and a moan.
“Hurt?” he
asked.
“No.
The opposite. Can’t
keep still.”
With a sly grin he withdrew completely for a moment,
leaving her gasping and shivering with anticipation. He moved closer... and his
lips met her inner thigh. His kisses, nibbles and nips elicited deep, approving but
urgent moans from her.
He grabbed hold of her hips to prevent her from moving
as he, very lightly, kissed her sex. She could only moan out: “More!” in a
voice that rasped at her throat.
He
complied thoroughly. His lips and tongue explored where his hands had been
before, and Catrin’s hands
clutched at the sheets, her torso arching, head tossing. She tried to thrust
against his mouth, the effort bringing out sweat on her face, but he held her
steady.
“Please,” she
keened, “please...”
He broke all contact.
Perfectly aware of the answer, he asked: “Please
what? What do you want me to do?”
He enounced it quietly, slowly, his voice reaching the very core of her
pleasure.
She scrambled up in the bed to make room for him.
“Please
give it to me. Please do it. Please take me. Please fuck me. Please...”
Her belly contracted, the pelvis tilting in
invitation.
Instantly
he was over her, on his knees and elbows, ready to enter her. She directed his penis
lightly with her hand, and her hips rose to meet him as he lowered himself into her.
“Aaah!” he
exhaled with a sob, and they remained still for a moment, savouring the contact.
Then, instinctively, he began to move.
She did
nothing but follow, matching his pace, his rhythm.
Severus moved as if in a trance, sometimes slowly,
languidly, sometimes urgently, taking in her reactions with all his senses,
letting them drive him on and multiply his pleasure.
He felt safe, confident, fully trusting his senses and
his partner’s
responses.
Catrin sensed her own pleasure in their mutual
pleasure mount quickly, irresistibly, her climax approaching. She let herself
go and screamed out her ecstasy, her fingers clawing at his
shoulders. He followed with complete abandon, releasing himself, screaming,
moaning, in an orgasm that never seemed to end. Catrin’s climax
abated somewhat, but she
needed only to clench her inner muscles about his penis to peak once more.
Severus collapsed on top of her, unable to move. She
wriggled out partly from under him, and they lay in a scrambled heap, panting,
sweating, exhilarated.
Severus swept a cleaning spell over both of them. Then
he touched Catrin’s
cheek gently.
“Is
the animal hungry?”
“Hmmrrraarrr,” she
growled and gave his finger a light bite. “Ravenous.
The degree of my ensuing
hunger seems to be directly proportional to the quality of the intercourse.”
He acknowledged the compliment by a contented grin.
“What
would you like for brunch?” she asked.
“Oh...
something not too strange, if you don’t mind. Apart from that, I’m an
omnivore.”
When the
house elf had left to fill their brunch order, Catrin noticed that Severus lay
quite still on the bed, his face blank, his eyes distant.
“Brooding?” she
asked, sitting cross-legged next to him.
“Well...
it’s
finished now, isn’t
it,”
he replied reluctantly.
She stretched out on her side and propped herself up
on her elbow. She began stroking his hair gently.
“Not like
that, Severus, not like that,” she said. “It will never leave you, not unless you want it to.
The experience
is a part of
you now. A part of your mind, of your body’s memory.
Of your
soul, if you want to call it that.”
“I
never want to forget,” he pleaded. “I know what a hostile Legilimens can do, or a Dementor:
invade the mind,
rip out memories...”
“Encapsulate
it,”
she suggested. “Create
an object in your mind and enclose the memory in it. Only
your mind can access it there, only your free will can release and share it. An intruder,
however strong, will only perceive the object.”
She thought for a moment.
“In
fact, let’s
do it together, if you like. In rapport.”
“Are
you willing, Catrin? The connection would be very deep.”
“Deep,
but dormant,”
she said. “Like
an old, old rock on the bottom of the deepest pool.”
“Yes,” she
added, “I
should like that very much. – Come here.”
She motioned him to turn onto his side and rest his head
on her shoulder. Her embrace enclosed him, grounded him. Her mind reached out
to him, and there was the shared awareness, familiar and safe by now.
‘What
should it be: a rock, a jewel?’ she suggested mentally.
‘Something
living,’
he objected. ‘I
know: amber. It’s
a gem that has been alive.’
She created the image of a lump of Baltic amber,
irregular, about an inch big, clear, polished, pale gold in colour.
He reached in and changed the colour, making it
somewhat darker, like dark, reddish honey. She added little star-shaped golden
enclosures throughout the whole gem, and sensed his approval.
Together, they duplicated the amber image. And, still
joined in their minds, they each poured their memory of the past day and night
into the gem. The silvery threads entered the amber,
made it flare up once with an inner fire, and disappeared. Only the amber’s own
glow remained.
The spell was complete.
--- --- ---
The throng of graduate students jostled through the
exit of the lecture hall. Only very few of them were discussing the recent
lecture; the most minds, stomachs and words were focused on lunch.
Severus and Catrin made their way down the stairs, in
the direction of the canteen.
“Severus,” a woman’s clear
voice said.
His face lit up in a smile.
“Lucia,
good to see you,”
he answered, and turned towards Catrin. “Catrin,
meet Lucia Salvi.
Lucia, this is Catrin Achrya.”
The two women shook hands.
Lucia was as tall as Catrin, but much more feminine in
build: not even the bulky academic robes could disguise her round breasts. Her
hair fell like spun honey down to the middle of her back; her skin had a slight golden
tan. Her friendly, intelligent eyes were a deep sapphire, her eyebrows
startlingly black over an aristocratic nose. With shapely lips and a perfectly
oval face, she resembled a Venetian Renaissance painting.
“I’m very
pleased to meet you, Catrin. I have heard much about you.”
Catrin mock-glared at Severus: “Do I want
to know what?”
And to Lucia she said: “I’m happy
to meet you too, Lucia. Severus has been mentioning you a lot lately. – You
specialise in Arithmancy Theory, don’t you?”
“Yes,
I’m
looking into applications of higher-order magic squares in the classical
Agrippan method.”
“That’s a handful.
I have a lot of respect for Arithmancy, but not the patience.”
“I
understand that you are a Healer,” Lucia said.
“Mediwitch,” Catrin
corrected. “I
hope to qualify as a Healer after my thesis and special training.”
“What
is your speciality?”
“Wizards’
reproductive health. Their sex life, if you prefer. My thesis will be on the interaction
of magical and hormonal activity in males. Severus is helping me to develop
some potions to make the interaction less erratic and more predictable.”
“I
am impressed,”
Lucia replied. “For
myself, I’m
not even sure that I can pass my compulsory Basic Healing.”
“You
have to be joking. I’ve
never heard of anyone failing that.”
“You
don’t
know how impossible I am with anything biological. Give me a scroll full of formulas,
and if there’s
any sense to it, I’ll
find it. But I can barely heal a paper cut,” Lucia
explained with a sheepish grin.
Catrin changed the subject.
“Oh
–
are you and Severus having lunch?”
“Yes,” said
Severus, and “No,” said
Lucia, simultaneously.
“I
simply have to review Healing,” Lucia explained, seeing Severus’
disappointed face.
“Tell
you what,”
Catrin suggested. “Severus
and I have to run some tests at the Gryphon clinic later this afternoon. Why
don’t
you two have lunch, and, Lucia, you come along to the lab.
We’ll
let the man do the dirty work, and you’ll tell me where you’re stuck
in Healing.
I may
be able
to help you along.”
“That
would be wonderful –
but I can’t
impose on you.”
“Lucia,” Severus
interrupted, “there’s one
thing you should remember about Catrin. She doesn’t do ‘polite’. If she
offers something, she means it. And you couldn’t have a better
teacher.”
“Listen
to the expert,”
Catrin said with a hint of irony.
“So
that’s
settled,”
she went on. “Go
off to your lunch. I have some patients this afternoon, and the surgery closes
at three-thirty. I’ll
see you two then.”
She turned with a wave of her hand and left, her brown
robes billowing after her.
Severus put his arms about Lucia and kissed her gently
on the lips.
She looked at him musingly.
“Your
sister can be rather formidable,” she said. “A good thing that she approves of us. Or does she?”
“My
sister?”
Severus asked, momentarily confused. He found his bearings quickly.
“Oh,
yes, Catrin approves,” he assured Lucia. “She
approves thoroughly.”
If you want to move on fourteen years,
and learn how Severus spent some of his time
after Dumbledore’s death,
read
the next story.
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