Becoming Familiar with a Man of Misery

Chapter 78 ~ Settling In

The next few days were filled with people stopping by to see the twins. The first onslaught was truly daunting, it was Albus and the entire female staff of Hogwarts. Severus stared in amazement as witch after cackling witch streamed out of the floo. He glared at Albus as the brood of witches clucked their way down to the nursery, to where Hermione and the babies were.

Albus looked at him and shrugged.

“Well, they wanted to see the babies, Severus. Who was I to tell them they couldn’t?” the Headmaster said, shrugging his shoulders.

Severus scowled at him.

“But Albus, all at once?” he asked the twinkling eyed wizard.

Albus looked back at him an eyebrow arched.

“But Severus…that is how witches travel…in a group. Have you never seen them all get up together to go to the bathroom when they are out in a public place?” Albus asked the Potions Master.

“Yes, but this is not a public place, this is my home,” the Potions Master replied, “plus all that cackling might frighten my sons.”

Albus laughed.

“Your sons will be fine, Severus. Babies loved being cackled over,” Albus replied, walking toward the nursery.

Obviously, Demetrius and Eli did love being cackled over. They gurgled happily as they were passed from witch to adoring witch, lips pressed to their tiny hands and foreheads. Severus scowled at the witches from the doorway as they passed his boys around, chattering, laughing and sighing. Hermione was grinning from ear to ear and practically buried in baby gifts. Eli was kept hopping bringing in glasses of pumpkin juice.

“Oh they are just darling, Hermione!” Minerva gushed, holding Eli and pursing her thin lips at the baby, who looked up at her stoically. The babies were passed around some more, the witches contorting their faces at them in what Severus found an alarming way.

“Good thing they can’t see well yet,” he thought to himself. “They’d be scarred for life.”

“Cute kids,” Madam Hooch grunted, holding Demetrius at arms length as if he would poop on her. Madam Sprout took him away from her quickly.

“Really, Rolanda,” the Herbology Professor chided, “The baby won’t bite you.”

Madam Hooch made a face.

“Him biting me wasn’t what I was worried about,” she replied, sniffing delicately in the baby’s direction. Rolanda Hooch just wasn’t a baby person.

Albus held both babies in his arms, looking from one to the other and unabashedly talking baby talk as the witches gathered around him, oohing and ahhing.

“He’s going to turn my sons into idiots,” Severus said under his breath.

He couldn’t understand why people babbled at babies when they obviously needed to be talked to sensibly so they could develop a vocabulary. He was quickly coming to the end of his wand.

Hermione happened to glance over to the door and see Severus’ scowl growing blacker and blacker as he watched his sons being passed around the room. She acted quickly before he did something that would be quite unhostlike. She restored order, placing the boys down for a nap and hustling all the complaining witches and Albus out of the nursery, leaving Eli to watch over the babies.

Then the witches descended on Severus himself. To Hermione’s relief he took their comments stoically, thanking them for their compliments and well wishes. Finally, they left.

Harry and Ron visited also.

“They’re beautiful, Hermione,” Harry said, letting Demetrius clasp his forefinger in his tiny hand, “Strong too. He won’t let me go.”

Ron was quite amazed that anything coming from the loins of the Potions Master could be so cute.

“They must have a lot of you in them, Hermione,” he commented, studying Eli carefully. “No way could they look this good if Snape had the dominant genes.”

“Ron!” Hermione hissed at him, looking about…hoping that Severus hadn’t heard the red-haired wizard.

But Severus did.

He was walking down the hall toward the nursery when Ron made the comment. The Potions Master didn’t say anything, but did hit Ron with a tripping spell as the Aurors stepped through the floo to leave. Wherever he came out at, he probably landed face first.

Molly Weasley’s visit was heartwarming. She gathering both babies in her arms and just stared at them, tears in her eyes.

“Oh Hermione…Severus, how beautiful they are. Look at their tiny hands. Oh look, Arthur,” she keened, as her husband smiled at both her and the babies. Molly was so ready to be a grandmother. They had a time getting the boys away from her.

When Hermione’s parents visited, Hermione’s mother also sat with both babies in her arms, crying softly and kissing them over and over. Mr. Granger slapped Severus on his back hard.

“Twin sons, eh? Well, that was some fine shooting there Severus,” he said jovially, conveniently forgetting how he had wanted to twist the Potions Master’s head off his body when his little girl came up pregnant.

“Thank you, Jonathan,” Severus said as his back throbbed.

Finally the flow of visitors stopped. Isadora dropped by daily, but she only stayed a few minutes each visit. She called it her “Daily Spoiling” and loved the fact she could pick up the babies, feed them, smother them in kisses and then return them to mommy and daddy. She couldn’t wait until they got older and the spoiling really set in. She intended to get them each their own private two-way mirror to contact her, especially when their parents said “no”.

Because of Eli, Hermione did not have to go through the trials of night feeding too often. The elf was always there for the boys, attending their every need lovingly. Hermione had a couple of cases of self-cleaning diapers, but she and Severus were the only ones who used them. When Eli was in charge, it was only cloth diapers for the babies’ tender bottoms.

“I just don’t likes them, Mistress,” Eli told Hermione when she tried to point out that it would be easier on him to use the self-cleaning diapers. They were good for three usages before they had to be changed. It would be less work.

“But Eli likes work, Mistress,” the elf argued.

Hermione gave up.

Severus generously gave Hermione more than a week to recover. But she quickly discovered that the Potions Master had a taste for breast milk, and his suckling her was very arousing. But he wouldn’t fuck her.

“You need time,” Severus would say, gathering the frustrated witch in his arms and going to sleep.

Actually, he was more than ready to start riding Hermione again. Severus had found her desirable when she was pregnant, but now that she was back down to size, he could do the things he wanted without worry. She was bendable again.

But there was a very good reason the Potions Master wasn’t partaking of her charms yet. It was all part of his Master Plan. By the time he was ready to ‘vindicate’ himself…Hermione would be begging for it. He was going to make her wait at least a month. It was difficult, but he was still rather disciplined, even though her hot little hands clutching at his body made his resolve waver now and again. But he was determined to reach his goal. By the time he took Hermione she’d be pleading with him to do whatever he wanted to her. Then he’d get his due.

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Both Remus and Isadora had spent a very restless week apart, Remus so affected he wasn’t sure if he should return to the witch’s flat. As far as Isadora went, she wanted to see the werewolf, though she had no intention on letting him know that he had become a nightly visitor in her dreams since she had seen him last.

Finally Remus decided to return to the witch’s flat. She had invested time in his training, and he really did need what she was offering him. Most of Isadora’s clients were quite wealthy and the commissions were astounding. It was the best opportunity he had ever come across in his entire life, and he would be a fool to let it go simply because his libido was on high. He would just have to continue to use restraint. It wasn’t as if the witch were attracted to him, after all. Isadora was just another witch he didn’t stand a chance with. A beautiful witch, but unattainable just the same.

He stood outside the door of her flat, hesitating before he knocked. He took a deep breath and rapped on the wooden door. It opened almost instantly and Isadora beamed up at him.

“Remus!” she said, greeting him warmly as she let him in.

Remus’ eyes drifted over the witch. She was in a gray button-up blouse, black stretch jeans, and her beautiful black hair pulled back in a long, shining ponytail.

“Hello, Isadora,” he said softly, trying not to think of his dreams. Seeing the witch threatened to drag them to the forefront. He quickly walked over to the computer terminal and turned it on.

“I’ve got a lot to catch up on,” he said shortly, sitting down and waiting for the machine to open to the ‘Welcome’ screen.

Isadora watched the wizard walk quickly to the terminal, and felt a desperate need to look into the eyes that she saw every night for the past week, to see if they were still as gentle as she remembered, not full of heat like they had been in her dreams.

“Can I get you something to drink, Remus?” she asked the werewolf as he set up the typing book on it’s stand and opened the word processing program he used to practice his keyboarding.

“No, thank you,” he said, still looking at the monitor.

Isadora walked over to him, pulled out the chair resting in front of the other monitor and sat down.

“Severus has started building his lab. He says he will be starting on the cure in about a week,” she informed the wizard, wishing he would look at her.

“That’s wonderful,” he said, starting to tap out the first line of ffff jjjj dddd kkkk etc.

“I hope he is successful Remus,” she said softly.

This time the wizard did look at her, and yes, his eyes were still sad and gentle.

“It would be the answer to a long held prayer,” he responded quietly, “but still, I don’t dare hope for it, Isadora.”

Isadora frowned at the wizard slightly.

“Why not, Remus?” she asked him.

The wizard sighed.

“I have hoped for so many things in my life, Isadora, only never to have them materialize. After a while, I just stopped hoping and resigned myself to the fact that for some people, there is no hope. I am one of them,” he said softly. “Although Severus has agreed to work on a cure, that doesn’t mean he will find one. I have no reason to believe he will.”

Isadora studied him.

“Are you always this defeatist, Remus?” she asked, “because with an attitude like that, you hold yourself back. You won’t act on things you should act on, things you would probably succeed at simply because you don’t believe they are possible. You have to try before you write something off as being impossible, Remus.”

The wizard stared at her, and a strange feeling washed over Isadora. His eyes hadn’t changed, neither had his expression, but a powerful vibe exuded from him as he gazed at her. Something primal, slightly frightening, yet magnetic. Then suddenly, Remus turned back to his monitor his eyes again glued to the book. He didn’t want to continue this conversation.

Isadora got the distinct impression that something wasn’t said, that should have been said. She was wondering what to say next to the wizard when there was a knock on the door. She looked at her watch.

“Oh, it’s my two o’clock,” she said to Remus, who looked up at her.

“Your two o’clock?” he asked uncomprehendingly.

“My two o’clock appointment,” Isadora said, brushing at her clothing before walking toward the door. She paused.

“How do I look?” she asked the wizard.

Remus looked at her, hoping his eyes didn’t betray him as they took her in. She was so lovely.

“You look fine,” he said shortly, returning to his typing.

Isadora walked through the foyer and opened the door. She extended her hand.

“Hello, my name is Isadora Snape. Welcome to Snape Travel, Mr…”

A pair of twinkling violet eyes looked down at the witch, the wizard they belonged to giving her a slow, lazy smile.

“Delaluci. Mr. Delaluci…but you can call me Marcus,” Marcus replied, taking her hand gently and bringing it to his lips.

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A/N: Ah. The visitors come and go at the Snape residence…Isadora and Remus are together again after a week off, and Marcus shows up to look at packages, hoping to eventually give Isadora a look at his own package. Heh heh. Anyway, please review.

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The Burning Pen

Becoming Familiar with a Man of Misery
by Ruth Solomon

The story content is adult in nature and can contain graphic sex and violence. Those under the age of 18 are asked to leave this site immediately. You are not welcome here. The author is not responsible for those under-aged who view these works.

CHAPTER 79

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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