#I agree with anything regarding severitus

[halfblood-princes-crown]

Not trying to completely deride James, but... he didn't deserve to appear to Harry via Resurrection Stone at the Book 7's climax. Harry didn't really know his father at all, and he knows it. I wish it was Snape who appeared to Harry instead.

Anon if snaters find this

[felixfeliciswriterblog]

Snapetober 2020 - Day 18: Falling

This was inspired by my main Snape x OC Severitus fic. Snape is married to another teacher, Skyrah, who also happens to be Voldie’s daughter.

Notes: references to sex. This isn’t a smutty fic though (sorry to disappoint). It’s more of a rom-com, angst mix.

Length: 2849 words.

SEVERUS SNAPE AND THE VARIOUS ARTS OF FALLING

Severus was sitting on the leather armchair opposite Minerva’s, separated by a circular table. On it, there was a chess set, a bowl filled with Honeydukes’s toffee and two cups of tea. The players had gathered a small fan club that showed so much interest one would think the final Slytherin versus Gryffindor Quidditch Cup match was taking place, rather than a regular wizard’s chess match.

“Severus will win,” said Filius, standing on a stack of books.

“It wouldn’t be the first time Minerva’s beaten him when all hope seemed lost,” countered Albus.

Skyrah didn’t agree nor disagree with either of them. Her eyes were focused on the position of the pieces, envisioning possible moves and its consequences. She barely heard her husband teasing Minerva, with that arrogant expression and matching tone of voice.

“I’m afraid you’re losing your touch. Your mind used to be sharper.”

“You all used to be quieter, too,” snapped Minerva. “It’s impossible to concentrate.”

Her excuses amused Severus, who took his mug to take a sip and, thus, hide his smirk. It didn’t hide the shrewd glint of his eyes. His face, however, creased into a deepening frown when he saw Skyrah whispering to Minerva.

“But why would I–”

“Trust me, Minerva. I’ve watched Severus play against Harry before. I know his weaknesses.”

Severus narrowed his eyes at Skyrah. “Have you just told my opponent what to do?”

A cheeky grin was the answer he got. The more Severus stared at her, the more the grin broadened as if her lips had touched some swelling solution. Insufferable witch.

“If you heed my wife’s advice, you’ll be cheating,” he said, eyeing Minerva. “You wouldn’t go against the values of your ‘noble’ House, would you?”

“Considering you spent almost ten minutes discussing a move with Filius, I believe Godric Gryffindor himself would allow me to ‘cheat’, as you put it.”

“I didn’t follow his advice in the end.”

“It still wasn’t fair play. I’m entitled to listen to Skyrah. Bishop to C4.”

The men in the room were left with identical puzzled faces as the piece advanced.

“Bishop to C4? I had figured you would have seen that was exactly what I wanted you to do. It doesn’t benefit you. In fact, it brings me closer to victory,” said Severus matter-of-factly, looking at Skyrah in search of answers.

He had never played against her. She preferred to watch him and Harry and offer the boy some advice when it was clear he was stuck. Since Harry’s skills couldn’t compare to Severus’s, he allowed it. With that said, the advice Skyrah offered Harry was certainly wiser than the advice she had just offered Minerva. It could only mean she was pretending to help Minerva while silently teaming up with him, couldn’t it? Not that insufferable, after all. 

“Your turn, Severus,” replied Minerva, grinning so slyly one would think she had more Slytherin in her than she let on, when, in truth, she was utterly confused and had simply pinned her faith on Skyrah. 

If Severus hadn’t been a Slytherin himself, he would have believed her confidence. He saw straight through her, though. Yes, Minerva, trust my wife, Severus thought with a crooked smile, taking another sip.

“King to B5.”

Minerva resisted the urge to cover her eyes, already picturing one of the black pieces kicking off her white king like the black king was doing with her bishop. She regarded the remaining pieces and took a sip herself, hoping they wouldn’t notice how nervous she was getting. Severus beat her the last time they played. Another defeat wouldn’t do her reputation as a chess player good.

“Bishop to…” Minerva trailed off, seeing Skyrah was subtly shaking her head. “Pawn…” She received a nod and watched as Skyrah made a C-shape with her fingers, only to dissimulate by tucking a lock of hair that had escaped her bun behind her ear. “To C...” Skyrah adjusted one of her shirt cuffs visible under her outer robes, holding out four fingers in the process. “Four. Pawn to C4.”

“What in Salazar Slytherin’s name…” started Severus. It hadn’t escaped him that Minerva was nodding her thanks at Skyrah. Advice on one move, he could tolerate. Two moves, though? Even if she intended to secretly help him by misleading Minerva, he wanted to win by himself. He didn’t fancy his wife intervening more than necessary. “Skyrah, if you are so keen on chess, we can play later. This is between Minerva and me.”

Skyrah raised an eyebrow at him. “Afraid you’ll lose if I help her out?”

“Not at all. Minerva and I began the match. We should finish it,” he said, ignoring her question on purpose.

“And you will… with some help. Filius appears as excited as me to join the match. What do you say?”

“I’m in,” said Filius, not waiting for Severus’s opinion.

“It’d be the fairest solution, Severus, considering you and Filius have already acted as a team. The same can be said about Minerva and Skyrah,” Albus approved, putting a toffee into his mouth.

It wasn’t like Severus could say no to the headmaster. He grunted, and sneered, and inwardly cursed Skyrah for being so charmingly meddlesome, and the rest for accommodating her. After discussing with Filius, Severus ordered the king to kick off the other bishop and grinned triumphantly. Minerva had already lost three turns ago. Now she would move her pawn and it would give him and Filius the chance to checkmate.

Or so they had assumed until Skyrah spoke.

“Queen to B3.”

Filius gaped. 

Albus clapped. 

Minerva almost bounced in her seat.

Severus stared at the chessboard unblinkingly. Skyrah’s been playing against me all this time. 

“I didn’t see that one coming.”

“Obviously, Filius, neither of us did, or else we wouldn’t be facing our upcoming defeat,” hissed Severus. It was a good thing the Hogwarts staff was used to his temper. 

“There must be a way to get out of this one,” insisted Filius, touching his beard pensively.

Amused, Albus unwrapped a second toffee and said, “I’ll be greatly surprised if you do.”

Fortunately for Albus, looks, however deadly they looked, couldn’t kill. Otherwise, Filius and Severus would have finished him off already.

The men’s team began discussing possible strategies in vain. The more the minutes ticked by, the more frustrated Filius got. Severus should have been as annoyed as him. He was, at first, but then he realized how brilliant Skyrah’s initial advice to Minerva had been, letting him think his victory was nigh and even helping him achieve it when, in reality, Skyrah had forged an alliance with Minerva and was already thinking ahead and taking advantage of his overconfidence. He banished his feeling of irritation to the point he couldn’t help but stare at her and her self-satisfied smirk in silent admiration, with his mouth half-open, threatening to curve into something akin to a smile. 

“They’ve won. We can only move the king to A5,” concluded Filius, getting a distracted nod from Severus, who was too busy thinking about how kissable Skyrah’s lips looked, wondering if a kiss from her would taste of toffee. Had Albus been the only one to eat some?

“Queen to B5. Checkmate,” concluded Minerva.

Accepting defeat, Filius shook hands with both witches and congratulated them on the entertaining match. Albus did the same. 

“You didn’t tell us you play chess, Skyrah,” he added.

“I don’t often play it. Even as a kid, I preferred exploding snap. That doesn’t mean I’m bad at it.”

“That is evident,” claimed Filius. “Queen to B3. Magnificent. Simply magnificent!”

“Is Severus okay?” asked Minerva.

Simultaneously, their heads turned to him. He was still wearing that awe-struck expression on his face. Skyrah had seen it on him on numerous occasions. 

When she put her hand on his cheek on their wedding night, and kissed it.

That one time she pretended she hadn’t become aware of his presence while she sang to herself in their garden in Cokeworth.

When she gave him and Harry a small History lecture while visiting a muggle museum.

After he made her laugh with his sarcastic sense of humor.

The few first seconds after discovering her patronus matched his.

In the afterglow of sex.

It was the first time that he looked at her like that in front of his colleagues.

“I thought you’d take it badly,” she said, approaching him.

“Mmh?”

“Your defeat.”

“Ahh… Yes. Me too,” he admitted, back to his senses. Out of embarrassment, he didn’t even glimpse at Filius, Minerva and Albus.

“So you aren’t angry even if I took Minerva’s side?”

“No, although I am confused,” he admitted, rising from his seat. “What, pray tell, motivated you to do such a thing? I had figured you’d choose to be part of my team, considering you took my surname. I thought you had until it was too late.”

“I wanted to get even, childish as it may sound.”

“Whatever for?”

“This morning you took the last brownie we baked,” she reminded him, poking his chest for emphasis.

“Allow me to object to your statement. Reading the recipe the house-elves lent you plus measuring the ingredients hardly counts as anything remotely close to baking.”

Nor did the stolen kisses and teasing touches he received throughout the baking process. Not that he’d say that out loud.

“It was the first time I attempted to make brownies. I didn’t want to spoil them.”

“You two made brownies?” asked Minerva, covering her mouth to hide her smile.

Albus and Filius appeared intrigued and surprised respectively.

“Is it funny?” asked Severus in a tone that told her it wasn’t the time to tease him.

“We would have never guessed you have a sweet tooth,” Filius answered for her.

“My wife does.”

“Nonetheless, you ate the last brownie,” Albus pointed out, eyes twinkling.

“I swear by the four Hogwarts founders, if any of you tells our colleagues, or Merlin forbid, a student, I will–”

“Oi, Severus! Don’t finish that sentence. Your reputation will remain intact,” Skyrah assured him. “If you ask them kindly, they won’t tell because they respect you. Besides, nobody would believe them even if they swore on it.”

That, fortunately, was the truth. Filius, Minerva and Albus still got a menacing look from Severus. Skyrah put her hand on his cheek to stroke it and draw his attention back to her. 

“It’s a pity you aren’t in the slightest mad at me,” she whispered, her lips brushing his ear. “I really enjoyed myself that time we had angry sex. I was hoping to repeat it.”

Oh, Circe. Yes. He had enjoyed himself too. A lot. The make-up sex that had followed had been glorious as well. At the memory alone, he had to bite his lip to hold back a faint moan. But then he remembered they were being observed and had to overcome his urge to laugh at himself. By Merlin! He had just fallen into her trap. The chess match had never mattered. She had only cared about him later making her scream his name in pleasure while she scratched his back with her nails and he gripped her hips almost painfully. Her Horned Serpent Slytherin mind never failed to surprise him. He found the way it operated so fascinating that he was starting to feel as giddy as if he’d just had two glasses of Superior Red, the kind of wine Lucius liked to serve.

Her master plan had failed, though, for rather than having angry sex he felt like meticulously worshipping all her body. He wanted to take his time, be gentle and caring and vulnerable with her, touch her heart and soul, and pleasure her until she was physically drained. He would make her fall in love with him all over again as she was doing to him with that smug grin of hers he so craved to wipe off her face with a long kiss.

Before he could reply, she added, “I have to go to my office now.”

“Why? You finished planning next week's lessons before having lunch. I thought we could go to our quarters and… relax.”

“I’d love to, but Fred and George Weasley were prowling along the corridors past curfew last night, plotting only-Merlin-knows-what. I had to put them in detention. I’ll meet you in our quarters in about an hour and a half, all right?” His ears, covered by his hair, began to blaze after she sealed the deal with a kiss on the tip of his hooked nose. “I love you, even if you eat my brownies.”

“Our brownies.”

“A-ha! You admit it! I also participated.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“You still tolerate me quite well.”

His heart stopped beating for a moment. Once again, he was amazed by her, hypnotized by the way she teased him and joked with him and beamed at him. She gave his cheek a final caress and nodded at Filius, Minerva and Albus as a goodbye, promising to play chess with them more often.

If she had looked back before shutting the door, she’d have caught Severus bringing his hand to the place her palm had been, with the silliest grin Albus, Minerva and Filius had ever seen on his face, exhibiting his uneven teeth. 

“He reminds me of someone...” murmured Minerva low enough Severus wouldn’t hear her. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had been louder. He was unaware of anything other than his fantasies, some of which were more innocent than others, and his racing heartbeat. “Have you caught sight of Mr. Longbottom drooling over Ms. Lovegood in the Great Hall lately?”

Filius snickered.

Holding a laugh back himself, Albus advised, “Don’t let Severus hear that comparison, Minerva.”

It wasn’t until Filius and Minerva left the teachers’ room – the former under the petition of a Prefect and the latter to grade a pile of assignments – that Albus put a hand on Severus’s shoulder, bringing him back to reality.

“You are falling in love. Terribly fast. Deeply.” Severus opened his mouth, to say what, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like denying the truth worked when Albus was involved. Anyway, Albus interrupted him before Severus could defend himself, his tone nostalgic, “It is an exhilarating feeling, isn’t it? I am happy for you.”

“...However?”

“You are playing a dangerous game, one more complicated than wizard’s chess, with rules imposed by her father. He didn’t choose you as her spouse for you to love her. In fact, I dare say it was for the contrary.”

“What do you suggest? I can’t stop myself from feeling what I feel for her.” In a lower voice, he confessed, “I don’t want to. I’ve never felt so… alive.”

“I would never ask you to stop loving someone. I’m asking you to be extra-careful during Death Eater meetings. The smallest mistake could give you away. It would put you both in peril.”

Severus gulped, his mouth suddenly dry. What kind of torment would Voldemort put them through if he decided that Severus wasn’t adequate for Skyrah anymore? Severus could very well suffer Skyrah’s ex-fiancé’s fate: death. Or worse. Voldemort could spare his life if he had other plans for him, and Severus would have to see how Voldemort forced his daughter to marry a fiercely loyal Death Eater and ask them to deliver him an heir. The thought alone sickened Severus.

“The Dark Lord doesn’t suspect us. He never will. Skyrah and I are adept at Occlumency and know what is at stake. We play our roles well.”

“I trust you,” assured Albus, squeezing his shoulder. “I know you will do the right thing. The wizarding world depends on you, the world in which you will rear your future child.” 

Severus shut his eyes momentarily, getting a sudden flashback to the morning he swore he’d make sure their baby girl grew up in a safe world, only to lose her that same day. It still hurt. They hadn’t really tried conceiving ever since. Not yet. They were too afraid of going through something similar while still grieving the daughter they would never hold.

“I fear Tom may start thinking you are testing his patience. It’s been about six months since you got married,” continued Albus. “Poppy could run fertility tests on you and Skyrah to make sure you aren’t unsuited to the task you must fulfill.”

“My wife and I are perfectly capable of conceiving a child. We only require more time.” Albus stared at him as if he intuited there was something Severus was keeping secret. “If that is all, I’ll go to the Greenhouses. Pomona mentioned she has herbs that the students could use in Potions class.”

Albus nodded and watched as Severus headed for the exit.

“Severus, one last thing.” With a lifted eyebrow, he turned to face Albus. “I expect you to save me a brownie the next time you and Skyrah decide to make some. I’m sure Minerva and Filius would appreciate it, as well. Christmas is around the corner...”

.............................................................................................................................

A/N: I probably wouldn’t have been able to post this on time if it had been betaed, so I apologize for any possible mistakes you may have encountered. I did my best.

If you liked it, you can read the main fic here: AO3, FFN.

Have a nice day, y’all! And thanks for taking the time to read this little fic :)