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Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 8 ~ Cutting Up in the Kitchen
Severus was in the living room with Kingsley, transfiguring some of the furniture into tables and chairs when he saw Hermione walking slowly down the stairs carrying an armload of plates and glasses. His eyes narrowed. As the witch stepped off the staircase he started to crook a finger at her. Kingsley grabbed his hand.
“Don’t you do it, Severus,” the Auror said, a smirk on his face.
The Potions Master looked at the Auror, then shook his head ruefully.
“You spoiled it, Kingsley. It was such a perfect opportunity,” he said looking longingly after the witch. “I was just going to make her stumble a bit.”
“Then she would have spent the next half hour repairing the dishes,” Kingsley responded.
“It would have kept her in one place longer than ten seconds,” the Potions Master muttered as he transfigured an end table into a chair. “How many Order members are we expecting tonight?”
“About thirty. Just the squad leaders. Albus is going to give us an update on the latest information that’s been gleaned from the deatheaters we caught in the last raid. Then we’ll have the mixer. A few more people will be arriving then. There will be some music too, for dancing and such. Albus thinks we aren’t having enough fun.”
“At least he isn’t decorating this time,” Severus said, “Doesn’t the man realize there are other decorations besides hearts and cherubs? Gods.”
Kingsley chuckled.
“Albus is a romantic, Severus. He likes to spread the love around,” the Auror said.
“All he does for me is spread the nausea,” the Potions Master snorted.
They finished setting up the living room. It now held two large long tables with chairs lining both sides, a podium where Albus would deliver his information, and several rows of chairs in the back of the room. Severus looked toward the kitchen.
“I believe I’ll see if the ladies need any help,” he said walking toward the kitchen door.
Kingsley shook his head. He wondered how many seconds would pass before Hermione came flying out the kitchen. He watched as the Potions Master pushed open the door and entered. The Auror waited. And waited. And waited some more. Hermione didn’t emerge.
Tonks must have given her quite a talking to.
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Hermione had scourgified all the plates and glasses collected from her room, and magically stacked them in the cabinets. She was helping Tonks make some snacks and sandwiches when Severus entered the kitchen.
“Hey Severus,” Tonks said, smiling at him as she flicked her wand at a pile of cold cuts that neatly rolled themselves up and arranged themselves on a platter.
“Good afternoon, Nymphadora,” Severus replied, smirking as the Auror scowled at him. He wasn’t above picking at Tonks either. She hated her name. Hermione didn’t speak to him. She was slicing tomatoes for salad with a knife, the muggle way. Her cuts became a bit more vicious. Severus walked over to where she stood, standing unnecessarily close.
“I see the fox has finally come out of her den,” he said, smirking at her.
“And I see the snake has slithered out from under his rock,” Hermione replied, picking up another tomato and not looking at him.
Severus raised his eyebrows. This was the first thing the witch had said to him in days. He stood there looking at her. Finally she turned to him.
“If you’re going to stand around in the kitchen, Severus, make yourself useful. Fill up the pitchers with pumpkin juice,” Hermione said, gesturing to several pitchers on the table and a huge container of juice. There was a bowl of never-melting ice next to it.
The Potions Master scowled at the witch for attempting to order him around.
“Do I look like a house elf to you?” he asked her, his nostrils flared.
“No. A house elf is much more attractive,” Hermione replied, “and useful.”
Tonks snorted loudly. The Potions Master scowled at the Auror.
Severus was tempted to tell Hermione she found him attractive enough in the Room of Requirement, but held his tongue. So the witch had found her nerve again. Fine. He actually preferred her like this. Making her flee him had been enjoyable because she was normally so unflappable, but it didn’t allow him to try and test the waters. It is hard to talk to someone who is constantly moving away from you. Instead of filling up the pitchers, the Potions Master shouldered in next to Hermione at the counter.
“What are you doing?” she said frowning at him, trying to ignore the tingle in her arm where he had pushed against her. The Potions Master picked up a knife and a head of lettuce, and expertly started chopping it.
“Helping you make the salad. At the rate you are preparing the ingredients, the mixer will be over before it is completed,” he responded, making short work of the head of lettuce and picking up another one.
Hermione didn’t respond. He was standing so close to her. She studiously sawed at the tomato. Suddenly she felt a pale hand covering hers.
“You don’t saw at the fruit like it’s a tree trunk,” Severus said. He took her hand and showed her how to cut the tomato with one stroke, “You have to do it slow and easy. Pierce the flesh and pull back. Pierce the flesh, pull back.” he said silkily, helping Hermione cut the fruit in time with his voice.
Tonks made a choking noise. Severus was something else. Only he could make slicing a tomato sound like sex. She was dying. Poor Hermione.
The Potions Master took his hand away. Hermione was staring at him.
“Think you can handle it?” he asked the witch, rather suggestively, his black eyes glinting at her.
Tonks choked again.
“Excuse me,” the Auror said in a strangled voice, almost running from the kitchen.
The Auror ran into the living room where Kingsley was, holding her hand to her mouth so the couple in the kitchen wouldn’t hear her hysterical laughter.
“What’s wrong with you?” Kingsley asked her, his eyebrows raised at the tears streaming from the Auror’s eyes.
It took a minute or two, but Tonks managed to stop laughing long enough to tell Kingsley what Severus was doing in the kitchen.
“He’s using salad to seduce her,” the Auror laughed. “He’s good at it too.”
Kingsley shook his head.
“You know, I suspected that Severus wasn’t with anyone because he might be awkward around women. I guess I was wrong,” he said
“So, so, wrong, Kingsley,” Tonks replied, “I better get back in there before he does her on the kitchen table and ruins the food.”
When the Auror returned to the kitchen, she found Hermione at the kitchen table, pouring the pumpkin juice, and Severus still working on preparing the salad. Hermione must have managed to pull away from him. She looked a little flushed though. At least she didn’t break and run.
Tonks walked over to the cooler and took out another pile of cold cuts and brought them over to her side of the counter. She looked at Severus. He was slicing cucumbers now, but seemed to be mulling something over as he sliced the long green vegetables.
Hermione was done pouring the pumpkin juice and covered all the pitchers with their tops and carried them two by two over to another part of the kitchen, setting them up neatly on the counter, ready for consumption. She then wiped off the kitchen table and looked at Tonks.
“Anything else I can do, Tonks?” she asked the Auror.
“Yes,” Tonks replied, her mouth twisting slyly, “Go back over there with Severus and help him finish cutting up the veggies for the salad.”
Hermione scowled at the Auror.
“You can scrape the carrots,” the Potions Master said off-handedly, “Ought to be right up your alley, since you’ve been running through Grimmauld Place like a rabbit lately.”
Hermione frowned at him as she stalked over next to him and picked up a bunch of the freshly washed carrots. She picked out a large one, picked up a knife and started scraping it rather viciously. The Potions Master looked over just as she savagely chopped the top off of it.
He winced.
“I’m not running now,” she said, smirking with satisfaction at the uncomfortable look on the Potions Master’s face. She bet he was thinking about her knife and his private parts. Severus’ black eyes met her amber ones for just a moment, then he looked back at the job at hand without comment. She had made her point.
She could handle him.
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A/N: Ah, Severus is smooth. “Pierce and pull back.” Lolol. Twisted. Please review.
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