Tweak

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Tweak says, "i'm having a baby. holy crap."

in_the_grass (in_the_grass) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-10-31 19:53:00

Entry tags:

!2003: 10, !incomplete, !open, essery oakby, fleur delacour, severus snape

Who: OPEN to anyone at Hogwarts during or after the Halloween Feast.
What: The Halloween Feast!
Where: Hogwarts, the Great Hall; possibly other places.
When: Tonight
Warnings: TBA / Up to you.
Status: Open - I've put up some subthreads, just to keep things organized for anyone who wants to hop in. If anyone wants to divide them further, do so to your heart's content!

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in_the_grass
2010-11-10 03:03 am UTC (link)

"No? You surprise me." He refrained from saying that he almost never accepted anyone's generosity, and hadn't done so for years. Not many people had offered, anyhow. He straightened a little, pleased. "You've always seemed very - open. But everyone's House is subject to certain stereotypes, aren't they." He knew he wasn't mistaken in his impression. She was kinder than most people he knew. It wasn't a trait he valued in the abstract, but in her it was hard to look away from.

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oakbye
2010-11-10 03:05 am UTC (link)

She shrugged at that, but there was definitely more colour to her cheeks when she lowered her glass this time. "Well, being friendly and inviting people back to your rooms to share homemade dinners from your mum are two very different things...." She trailed off then rolled her eyes at herself. "Maybe I'm just apologizing for being so ridiculous, that last chess game." Might as well get it out in the open.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-10 03:16 am UTC (link)

The smile that had started on his face stiffened a little when she brought up the last time they'd parted. It wasn't a pleasant memory, but calling it ridiculous didn't sit terribly well with him, either. His first inclination was to wave it off and blame it on the wine, which seemed like it might be the polite thing to do.

But he still didn't know what to say, any more than he had last time. "There's no need to apologize." He was sure he had said that at the time. It was only now that he realized fully why he hadn't wanted her to be sorry. It was probably wrong, and he probably should have tried to keep it to himself as hard as he had ever tried to hold onto a secret. "I suppose everyone says things they don't mean." He knew it. He rather hoped it wasn't true in her case, but he'd been known to hope after things that weren't there.

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	oakbye 2010-11-10 03:23 am UTC (link)
	Essery looked at him from the corner of her eyes, her smile faltering a little, and she took another sip - well, gulp - of wine, then shrugged tightly. "I didn't say I didn't mean it." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-10 03:32 am UTC (link)

It was a moment before he spoke again; he had fixed her with another deadpan arch of his eyebrow, as though he meant to laugh it off. But there was a hint of a smile pulling at the edge of his mouth. "Then you shouldn't say you're sorry." It felt reckless, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. This was what he'd wanted. Why should he have to push it away? "You'll notice I didn't tell you to leave." he tried to straighten his face. He didn't want her to think he was laughing at her.

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	oakbye 2010-11-10 03:39 am UTC (link)
	She looked surprised, but, to her credit, she recovered almost at once. "As I was running out the door, you mean?" she tried to laugh, and it came out a little more breathless than she'd meant. He hadn't told her to leave. And was he... teasing. That could mean a lot of things... "No, I didn't notice, then." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-10 03:45 am UTC (link)

He didn't know quite what to make of the surprise, but chose to interpret it as realization. It was possible, albeit very unlikely, that they had just stumbled onto the same thing. "Yes, then. I didn't think you had." He took a sip of his wine that was longer than it needed to be, half stalling and half bracing himself. Putting the truth out for a definitive answer was not his usual modus operandi. "You ought to have come back, actually." At least half of him was screaming that he was a bloody idiot.

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	oakbye 2010-11-10 03:47 am UTC (link)
	Essery didnt know how to do this. Sure. She knew the steps - with a normal bloke, who she didn't think of as a friend, or who wasn't her boss, and who hadn't been her former professor. Basically, with lot of men who weren't Severus sodding Snape... "Oh? Why's that?" she tried to keep the question light, but a lot seemed to hinge on his answer. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-10 04:02 am UTC (link)

Severus didn't know how to do it at all, which might have been part of the reason his mouth tightened slightly and his eyes narrowed, almost imperceptibly. He thought he had already admitted everything. Why do you think? he wanted to ask, as though telling a student to spell out an answer he already knew perfectly well.

But maybe he hadn't said enough. He never had before, and now that he wanted to it was hard to formulate the words. "Because," he said, his wine glass held in one hand almost like a shield between them until he set it away, a little harder than he needed to. "- I wanted you to stay. You could have stayed as long as you liked." It came out a little too fast, and none of it sounded good enough to him. He was more than a bit frustrated with himself. He reached out to put his hand on her arm, but diverted at the last second to plant it on the back of the sofa just beside her shoulder. "I wasn't - wasn't asking you up because I like chess." Obviously.

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oakbye
2010-11-10 04:06 am UTC (link)

"Oh..." Essery didn't sound surprised. She sounded... young, though. The word coming out in a breath that she hadn't been aware she'd been holding. She looked for a second at his hand planted there beside her shoulder, and she could read some of the frustration in his expression. The words had been so halting, so quick, like... well, like the teenager she felt like, really, and that was endearing and new, the men she'd been with had been smooth, had known what they were doing.

Snape, obviously, didn't, and it was endearing in the same way it was aching, because there had to be more to the story than just being stuck at Hogwarts during two wars...

"Well," she finally said, and she shifted a little closer to him, not quite touching him but letting her knee almost against his. "That's good. I'm absolute rubbish at chess, if you hadn't noticed."

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in_the_grass
2010-11-10 05:26 am UTC (link)

"I have, actually," he said, with an almost explosive relief. She had said it was good, and that was something much better than what he'd been waiting for, no matter what it actually meant. "That is - I'm no great master, myself." He was sure he sounded like an idiot; she didn't give a damn about how good she was at chess. And she had come nearer. It emboldened him just enough to lean slightly forward; his knee pressed against hers, and his thumb that was digging into the fabric of the couch brushed her arm.

There were so many reasons not to do this. He resented every single one of them, which was a little painful in itself. He made himself touch her shoulder as he'd meant to, lightly, but surely enough that he wouldn't be able to deny the obvious any longer should he be tempted to do so. If she threw him out, that was that. "I don't mind playing, though. If it means good company."

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oakbye
2010-11-19 01:58 am UTC (link)

The touch on her shoulder made her shiver - which was stupid. It was just her shoulder! Not even her bare shoulder! But somehow it seemed like such an important thing for him. He'd barely brushed against her before, and now he was touching her. She thought, and couldn't seem to remember having seen him never touching anyone, really.

She moved a bit closer to him on the seat, and felt foolish doing it, but then her hand fell to her lap, then to his knee instead, as if she could anchor him that way. "Well, now we'll have other options. Aside from chess. To keep one another company with."

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in_the_grass
2010-11-19 02:17 am UTC (link)

He felt the shiver move through her. It seemed like the sort of reaction that could mean a lot of different things, and for a moment he was floundering between wondering whether he had repulsed her or something else - and that grounded him a little. He knew how to read people, and very well, no matter what his other shortcomings might be. He stopped and took her in, carefully.

He needn't have bothered; her hand was on his knee a moment later, and that was ... clear enough. He did feel anchored. And he thought she looked pleased - among other things, of course. "Yes." His fingers pulled briefly through her hair just above her ear. Very soft. He felt curiously steady. "I wouldn't want to bore you. And you don't need to wait for an invitation, you know."

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oakbye
2010-11-19 02:21 am UTC (link)

"Oh, careful..." She smiled, and tried to keep breathing past the idea that Severus Snape was fingering her hair. That idea did very strange things to her, not the least of which was remembering she wasn't fifteen any longer and he wasn't her professor...

"Offer things like that, and I'll be underfoot whenever I'd like..." She was aware her voice was suddenly a bit breathier than it had been, her fingers not quite still on the fabric of his trousers.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-19 02:36 am UTC (link)

He felt more alert now that he was sure that he was walking down the right path, more aware of everything now that he no longer had to waste his energy in worrying or hoping. His pulse was a touch faster, he thought her color was a little higher, and he wanted to be closer to her. "You know what I do all day," he said with a dismissive flicker of a sneer for everything he'd left up in his office. "Stupid letters. Overly sensitive children. The less agreeable segments of the staff. You may feel free to drop in." His hand slid further into her hair, long fingers tending to the back of her neck. "Please." He felt rather more intoxicated than he really was, which was just as well.

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	oakbye 2010-11-19 02:45 am UTC (link)
	"Not for chess..." She pointed out, teasing almost, and then his fingers were stroking her neck, sliding through her hair, and her eyes closed for a moment, head dropping forward in that same moment to give his fingers free reign. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-19 03:01 am UTC (link)

"Not unless you want. No." He had all sorts of other entertainment options, he thought, and if the only thing that sprang to mind at the moment was books, well ... there was always wine, and there was always this. And that seemed ideal, really. It felt right enough that he probably should have been able to proceed without hesitation, but for some reason there was a lost moment then when he felt almost paralyzed. But the only thing that had served him well tonight was boldness. He kissed her, just pressing his lips to the corner of her mouth. He wasn't quite as sure-footed as he might have liked, but he couldn't bring himself to worry about that or anything now. This was a good feeling, and it was threatening to push everything else out.

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oakbye
2010-11-19 03:08 am UTC (link)

For a moment, her eyes still closed, Essery wasn't sure that it was his mouth against hers - she could have been imagining that. He seemed far too stilted for him to have really been the one to kiss first. Her eyes opened just a fraction, like to check, and then she knew what she was feeling.

... Which might not have been the best thing, because Essery liked to kiss. Loved to kiss. But it was a sudden, nearly palpable need in her to kiss him back, and the way she surged closer and turned her mouth to catch his full on, the insistent and dominating way she kissed him back, or turned the kiss into a real one and not the chaste thing he'd so obviously intended...

Well, later she might be sorry for being so ferocious.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-19 03:19 am UTC (link)

Severus tensed, his back stiffening and his fingers pulling just a little tighter in her hair. it had been unexpected, to say the least, and for a moment he wasn't sure what he should do.

But that passed very quickly. His hand that had been clenched into the upholstery of the sofa - he hadn't even realized until now that he'd been gripping it so tightly - came to rest at the side of her face, slipping behind her jaw eagerly, almost possessively. He still had the presence of mind to feel clumsy as he kissed her back, his teeth scraping gently across her lower lip - it had been a very, very long time - but she was giving him more than enough to follow. Amid the heated, urgent, confused outpouring of feeling there was definitely gratitude.

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oakbye
2010-11-29 01:00 am UTC (link)

She wouldn't have understood, and she would have, if she'd known it had been so long for him. She didn't stop to think about that, or ask, though. She sank into the kiss in a fever, a small noise of relief welling up in her throat because the tension that had been building was finally, finally broken.

Her hands ended up on the front of his shirt, gripping there and pulling him in with it, and when his teeth scraped her lips, they opened, her tongue snaking to taste his lips too.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-29 01:32 am UTC (link)

He'd never been the sort to stop and think about exactly what he was feeling, but there was certainly some self-reproach involved - in the moment, it was hard to think of why he'd waited so long - mixed in with the relief and the odd light-headedness that made it difficult to think about anything. One of his arms slipped away, hesitated, hovered, and then slipped around her waist. Most of the halting uncertainty had left him. "I'm -"

Her tongue against his mouth pushed whatever he had been about to say well out of his mind. He drew her closer and let himself shut up and settle into kissing her again, pulling her near enough to feel her pressing against him, trying to keep in mind that he should keep his head. But when he broke away, gently, to say what he had meant to (had it been an apology?), all he did was try to fight a grin. "Sorry," he said, and he didn't sound sorry at all. "I didn't intend ... that is, I realize you only asked me in for dinner." Why the hell was he trying to talk at all?

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	oakbye 2010-11-29 01:34 am UTC (link)
	"Right, dinner..." She sounded breathless and heady and pleased, and when her eyes opened slowly there was a half-sated, half hungry sort of look in them. She smiled at him, and didn't try to pull out of the hold he had with that arm around her. "Well, you did eat, so we got that much right." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-29 01:58 am UTC (link)

It wasn't that he'd never noticed that she was beautiful - he hadn't let himself think too long on it, that was all. Now there was no reason at all to refrain, and he might have looked a little distant, a little dazed, as he smiled at her, maintaining his usual dry edge of a smirk. "I did. Thank you - quite a generous invitation." He smoothed her hair behind her ear with his thumb, looking quite content to stay where he was. "I find I'm no longer hungry, but ... so long as I'm not intruding." He would much, much rather stay.

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oakbye
2010-11-29 02:01 am UTC (link)

"No, not intruding." She said it as a fact, and couldn't suppress the urge to chuckle, because honestly, after the way he'd kissed her - or, fine, the way she'd kissed him - this seemed so formal. There was something about him, though, that made that suit - she didn't have trouble believing that he'd been caught in those formalities before, not really allowed to enjoy being out of them.

She thought about asking, but those were the types of things men told you when they were ready. Besides, his arm was still around her, and she wanted to take advantage of that before he changed his mind, decided on decorum. So her fingers, still curled in his shirt, tightened again, and she leaned in one more time to kiss him. Not quite as frenzied as the last had been.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-29 02:16 am UTC (link)

Good. He didn't say it, but it was clear enough from his expression, the way his smile softened ever so slightly and his eyebrows lifted a little, pleased, that he was happy with her response. With all of this, really. He was painfully formal, although some of it was just a way of speaking, a heavy dose of irony that always seemed to permeate everything. But the way he returned her kiss was as earnest as he ever was - warm and eager, if not quite as intense. He leaned back a little, very slowly, against the arm of the sofa. He wasn't going to change his mind, and he was going to enjoy this for as long as he could before she decided to throw him out.

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