Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.



“Aren't you a sight for sore eyes? Emily, you've become a beautiful woman.”

As usual, the Headmaster was incomplete with his information. Emily didn't know what to expect when she went into the office and was surprised but not shocked to see Sirius Black standing there. He certainly knew what he was talking about when he mentioned sore eyes, as one was blackened and swollen. He held out his hands and reached for her, but Emily held out her wand defensively.

“Not too close, Mr. Black. You're a traitorous murderer, after all.”

“Emily, did you actually believe that?”

“It was difficult, Sirius, but how could I not believe it? After what happened to James and Lily, and I saw the baby right after it happened.” She took a deep breath to relax the tremor in her voice. “And what happened to Peter, and poor Remus was crushed...”

“Remus understands it all now, and Peter is very much alive.”

Emily waved her free hand. “It doesn't matter. I'm here in a professional capacity to examine you to see if you're sick or seriously hurt.”

Emily transfigured the desk into an examination table and told her patient to sit on top of it, at which point she drew near enough to start the exam.

“It was Peter, Emily. He was the spy all along. He turned traitor at least a year before it happened. Now he's escaped again and I'm going to be kissed.”

“What did you expect, Sirius? Even if your story is true, you and James were horribly naive, and a bit overly impressed with your own cleverness. Severus was completely eaten up by guilt over the riddle you used in your Fidelius Charm. Is there some reason you couldn't have used Dumbledore as your secret keeper?”

“James trusted his friends, obviously too much. How did Snape come into it?”

“How do think? Instead of opening History of Hogwarts, You-Know-Who summoned my poor husband, who thought he was being asked a question to test his loyalty. He was under directions to answer truthfully if it was something inconsequential and that seemed as though it was. It didn't matter that there were a hundred places where a person could find the answer. The one source chosen out of the hundred was Severus Snape and he's never quite gotten over it.” Emily put ointment on some scrapes and bruises she found on Sirius's hands and face and used spells to ease the swelling around his eye. “You look perfectly healthy, if a bit undernourished.”

Sirius grabbed Emily's wrist and pulled her close. “So, are you still married to him? The Death Eater?”

Emily wrenched her arm away. “He's not a Death Eater and yes, Sirius, we're still married. You didn't ask, but I'm still passionately in love with him, too.”

“Do you know what he did to me, tonight? At the Shrieking Shack?”

“No, but I can guess. He was mad enough to kill you, back when you were the reason his childhood friend died. Did he give you the black eye?”

“Er, no, that was actually my godson.”

“Smart kid.”

“Emily, Emily, if you know how I thought about you in prison...”

“You mean, the whole time you were saying, 'He's at Hogwarts?'”

“Emily, I've been in Azkaban for twelve years. Now you stand before me, and you look,” he sighed, “so good, and I feel so much...”

“You're trying to figure out how to escape, aren't you? I won't let you use me for that, Sirius. Your charm never quite worked on me even when you were young and dreamy looking.”

His gray eyes turned steely and hard. “Oh, it worked on you, but I misjudged my moment. I could have shagged you in spring of sixth year but I wanted you to want it more.”

“Even then I didn't quite believe in our supposed love affair; I never quite forgot that afternoon in Hogsmeade when you used me. Besides, Severus had already started to watch over me. You didn't have a chance, Sirius.”

“Go back to your no doubt lovely life with the greasy git then, and leave me to my misery.”

“Sirius, even if what you say is true, there's a level on which you chose this. James and Lily died because of the hubris you and James shared. Then, assuming what you say is true, you further allowed your pride to rule you by looking for Peter yourself instead of telling the ministry or your Order of the Phoenix or even Dumbledore what had happened. Now, if you don't mind, I should see if my husband has injuries from tonight's altercation.”

“Snivellus will get more than a caustic voice and some healing ointment, won't he?”

“Langlock! If that name disappears completely when they kiss you it will almost be worth it,” she hissed. Emily looked at her one-time boyfriend with stormy eyes. “Severus gets more from me than you ever did because he gives more. He always has. You never gave me anything, Sirius, because you were too busy taking. I am fortunate that I protected what was valuable when we dated.” She sighed and turned away. “I hope you are somehow shown mercy. Farewell, Sirius.”

Emily knocked on the door and the Aurors let her out. She released the Tongue-Tying Curse she had placed on the prisoner. She was barely aware that the Aurors went into the room to make sure she had not provided the prisoner with means of escape. She went back down to the dungeons, relieved at least that the one worry she had was not realized. She had nothing to fear from Sirius, at least not that way. Not seeing Severus in their rooms, Emily took a shower. She desperately needed to clean away the essence of the man she had just treated.

Emily was toweling off her hair when her husband blew into their sitting room. She peeked through the bedroom door to see him. Severus was still covered with the earth that lined the passageway between the willow tree and the Shrieking Shack. His face had various bruises and scrapes, and his hair was disheveled. His face was filled with rage.

“Were you part of this?” he asked, his eyes glittering.

“Part of what?” she asked.

“I captured Black. He was being held upstairs. Macnair was going to get the Dementors, and now Black's escaped.” Severus looked darkly at his wife.

Emily blanched. “Albus told me a patient was locked in Flitwick's office and that he wanted me to look him over, to make sure he was healthy. I discovered it was Sirius when I got there. I left and the Aurors were there, checking on him. I came straight down here and took a shower because the man was filthy.”

Severus's posture relaxed infinitesimally. “So you weren't involved in Black's escape?”

“He escaped?” Emily shook her head. “I thought Fudge was going to have the Dementors kiss him.”

“He escaped, and with him my hopes for an Order of Merlin.” Emily understood her husband's rage. The Marauders had beaten him, again. Sirius would think it a nice bonus to the day's events. Emily felt a flash of her own rage. For a fleeting moment, she hoped that wherever they were, Lily Potter was giving her husband a good slap.

Severus saw red marks on her wrist. “What happened to you?”

“It's nothing. He grabbed me and I pulled away.”

Rage was still in his face as he crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. “You're mine, Emily, mine and mine only.”

“Of course I am.”

He kissed her fiercely. She reached her hands around his neck and kissed him back. Somehow his dirty robe fell to the floor and soon he was undressed. He moved her onto their bed and pushed the dressing gown from her shoulders. “Did he try anything with you?”

“I wouldn't let him.”

“You are mine.” He was roughly nibbling a trail down her skin.

“Completely.”

His hands were aggressive and his mouth was ravenous as he worked his way down her body. “All of this belongs to me.”

“Just you.”

His hands pushed the robe the rest of the way off of her. “No one else will ever do this with you.”

“No one else. Oh, Severus...”

“You're mine, Emily, mine...”

He brought their bodies together and it seemed to Emily that Severus made love to her with an intensity that he rarely showed. Her whole world became the man who held her so tightly and she gloried in his possession of her. She moved with the same intensity he did, her passion meeting his need. She moaned as he caused her to explode, barely aware that he was groaning with his own intense feeling as they both reached completion.

Severus returned to his senses and felt shocked with himself. He couldn't understand what had happened. They were discussing Black's escape and then he couldn't help himself. He had taken his wife without the tenderness to which they were accustomed. He looked at her to apologize but she was looking at him with affection. He realized that where he would have taken her with force she had diffused it so that it had instead of being something almost like rape it had become intensely passionate lovemaking.

“Did I hurt you?”

“You are incapable of hurting me.”

“How can you say that? I treated you like...”

“You treated me like your wife, whom you desperately needed right then.”

“Oh, my Emily,” he said, pulling her into his arms, “I do need you.”

“I will always be where you need me.”

He kissed her then, and gently caressed her. Desire returned but he realized he was still dirty from his trip through that tunnel.

“Would that include the bath?” he asked.

“I'm right behind you.”

She paused just long enough to summon a House elf and request that the bed be remade with clean sheets. She then followed her husband into the bathroom, where he was filling the tub with hot water and bubbles. After they got in, Emily took a washcloth and dabbed gently at her husband's face and hands. She applied a healing ointment to the scrapes and bruises he received when Sirius had levitated him so clumsily. He described the scene in the shrieking shack and near the willow tree.

“I would have killed him. If he had just done something, I would have killed him, but then those children all hit me with Expelliarmus at once.”

“That explains this wound on your forehead.” Emily summoned her wand and used a healing charm. It reminded him of his greatest grievance.

“Black used my whore of a wand, Emily. It betrayed me. I'm not sure I ever want to use it again.”

“You know as well as I do that the magic is within you, my love. Sure he could do a few things with it, but the wand would never have worked for him as it does for you because it's your wand. Most importantly, you are the more powerful wizard.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Certainly in this room you are the only wizard.”

“But those kids...”

“All three were acting together and caught you off guard. I suspect you were so focused on Sirius that you forgot to pay attention to them.” He had to nod at the logic of that.

“Lupin and Black told some cockamamie story about the Marauders all being Animagi and how it was really Pettigrew who betrayed the Potters.”

Emily sat up. “Is it possible?”

Severus murmured into her ear, “Anything is possible when you move like that, dear.”

He took a moment and returned to a normal tone of voice. “When I woke I might have actually seen Pettigrew for an instant before he transformed into a rat. I definitely saw Black turn into a big, black dog. Dumbledore believed the story Black and the kids told him.”

“Severus...” A thought occurred to Emily.

“Hmm?” He was starting to relax and enjoy the possibilities offered by the position they were in.

“Could it have been him? I suppose he has been the dog we've seen from time to time this school year. You don't suppose Sirius was the same dog that walked past on that evening we sat on my front step, after we first made love?”

“Why not? He told you later that he saw us together. I wonder now more than ever how he didn't smell me on you. You looked and smelled just like a woman who had made love all day, with me.”

“He was pretty buzzed from the wedding, and I did tell him I had been with someone all day.”

That sat for a while and pondered the dog they had seen and the day that had preceded it.

“I saw the way he touched you and I had an urge to hex him from across the street, but I didn't have the right. I don't own you.”

“Yes, you do, and you did even then. You have owned me, body and soul, from the instant I became a woman in your arms. Maybe it doesn't work that way for everyone, but that's how it was for me with you.”

“Emily, I don't own you, you know. That was never part of our deal. You belong to yourself and can choose--” She put her finger to his lips.

“It doesn't work the way owning your wand works, Severus. I gave myself completely to you that night. It was my choice, freely made. I have perfect freedom within that context because you are such a loving and generous husband, but I belong to you.” She replaced her finger with her lips and kissed him deeply, pressing into his chest. “And you belong to me.”

“Emily...”

She washed his hair and rinsed it carefully. After getting out of the tub and wrapping a bath sheet around herself she held up another towel for her husband. She walked him to the bed and sat him down. After combing out and drying his hair, Emily had Severus lie down on the bed.

She summoned some soothing oils and rubbed his tired and tense body. After rubbing his back from neck to toe she rolled him over and rubbed the rest of him. When he reached for her, she gently rubbed his arms and hands and set them aside.

After finishing the massage, Emily started kissing her husband, starting with the wounds that were healing on his face. She worked her way over his whole body until he was muttering and reaching for her. She made love to him, then, and he felt her become warmer and sweeter until it seemed there was nothing left of himself apart from being joined to her.

In the way she had just taken care of him, Emily established her ownership of Severus and he found that he wanted to be owned in this way. He looked into her eyes and didn't want the moment to end. Perching himself up so as not to crush her, he watched the various emotions play on her face as he pulled the covers over their cooling bodies.

“You're right. You own me, too,” he said.

“Hmm?”

“Emily, you showed me tonight what I should have realized. I am my best self within your arms. We belong to each other. I love you.”

“I love you, Severus.”

He started to move away but she whimpered and tightened her arms around him, reluctant to be parted. He kissed her and rolled to his side, bringing her with him.

He awoke several hours later, feeling the stirrings of returning passion and the stirrings of his wife caressing his back and kissing his neck. “You will be too exhausted to work tomorrow,” he murmured into her hair.

“Healers are used to that sort of thing,” she responded.

“Are they used to giving treatment while sitting in their patient's laps, naked in bathtubs?” His voice was full of amusement.

“Only for my most special, personal patient.” She took his hand and kissed it, moving it to a place it was welcome and said, “Make love to me, Severus. I don't know why, but I feel as though tonight is special. I don't want to be parted from you until I have to leave for work.” Suddenly he felt her urgency and wanted her again.

A little while later they spoke of the fears and worries that had affected them all year, driving subtle wedges between them. Nothing was held back as the issues that were just resolved put everything in a different light. They made love almost continuously throughout the night and it seemed to them both that they went deeper and more thoroughly with each other than in a long time.

---

Dear Lucky,

My parents seem to be themselves again. Daddy's pretty mad about Sirius Black getting away, but Mum says things aren't quite what they had seemed like and it's not as bad as everyone thought. She's stopped being freaked out about everything and is a lot more cheerful since the Dementors have left Hogsmeade. They're all over each other again, too. It's kind of icky, but it's kind of good, too, since it means things are normal again.

I'm really proud of the way your exams and final grades turned out. You've been studying hard. We're going to the seaside again, but after that we will be spending some time at Grandma's house before going to Daddy's house. I hope to see you at the hospital. I've missed your Mum and Dad, and even your Gran this year.

Sincerely,
Hope

---

As they had done for the past two years, starting with the Summer Holidays after Hope's first year of school, the Snapes spent a week at the seaside. Severus had learned to accept the looks his wife received and even enjoyed some of the more foolish among her admirers. She found that this year she had to purchase new suits as those she had worn in the past didn't seem adequate to cover her bosom any longer.

Emily sighed and resigned herself to the possibility that older age was catching up to her figure as she went to the clothing store. Her bras and some of her blouses were getting tight, and the waistbands of her skirts had started to bind by the end of the day, too. Severus suggested that she wear more revealing swimsuits than in the past. He didn't notice any increasing of his wife's figure, certainly nothing that made her less desirable. After two years of taking this particular trip, he was starting to find the questionable coverage of bikinis to be fascinating.

Their lovemaking that summer seemed to be specially enhanced as well. Since the events in the shrieking shack, Emily could not seem to keep her hands off her husband. Severus was only too happy to respond to her touch. Somehow they had new eyes as they explored and re-learned each other. Margo took Hope for long weekends as the two celebrated a second honeymoon of sorts.

---

The summer vacation had its bad moments as well as its good ones. Severus began to notice a tingling sensation in the Mark he had received upon becoming a servant of Voldemort. Years before he had received a form of the Dark Mark. It was abbreviated from that of a true Death Eater in design but worked the same way. It appeared that the Mark was starting to work again. If the Dark Lord regained power, as Dumbledore expected, those Marks would serve as a system for alerting and summoning Voldemort's servants.

“It can only mean one thing, Emily. Somehow, he's managed to take on some kind of human form again. Dumbledore suspects that Pettigrew went to find him and assist him. It turns out he was a rat and not the hero everyone once thought. Forever from this day that man will be Wormtail to me. And,” he sighed, “that means Black wasn't quite the villain after all.”

Emily rubbed the Mark with the various preparations she knew that would cool and ease the increasing tingle as it slowly became an actual burn. She found many ways to make it feel better for a day or two but no way to remove it altogether. She watched as the burn seemed to enter his soul, and by extension hers, as worries about the future.

They had enjoyed so many years without living in fear of the Dark Lord, but now they would have to worry about him again. What would it mean for Severus? Would he be expected to return to spying for this master? Would he be trusted? Would he, on the basis of the Quirrell incident, be considered a traitor?

Emily realized that there was a possible concern for herself as well, although it didn't trouble her very much. When the Dark Lord realized she was barren, he would surely move on to another woman. Her thickening figure would no doubt dissuade him from pursuing her as well. Doubtless by now there were younger and prettier women who would be willing to receive his attentions. Her husband's health and safety were most important to her now, and she made love to him as though it would somehow protect him.

*********