Ingredients
by Juliane

Severus Snape is a character created and owned by J.K. Rowling. Viviane Chance is a character created and owned by me.

Viviane was sprawled out on her chaise longue, indulging in a book and a glass of Beaujolais. The sudden lowering of the Guard Spells surrounding her flue made her sit up, and then fall back, snorting with annoyance, as Severus Snape stepped out of her fireplace.

“Go away, I’m reading,” she said, waving vaguely in the direction of her fireplace and turning away from him, to rest on her hip. “Go on, shoo.”

Severus ignored her demand and slid onto the chaise next to her, folding his long legs underneath it as he sat. “Why waste such a lovely evening on solitary pleasures?” he asked, trying to capture her chin so he could turn her lips to his for a kiss.

She shook his hand off. “Because I want to. I’ve had a difficult day-“

Chuckling, Severus dropped a kiss on her neck. “I heard. Madame Pomfrey is most upset with you – she ran out of beds for the students.”

Viviane scowled. “Do I have to throw you bodily out?”

He laid a hand lightly on her waist, and rubbed his cheek against her hair. “Oh, come, my dear, don’t be so prickly.” His hand slid around to the front of her and began to work its way up her torso, fumbling unsuccessfully with clasps as he went.

Until his hand encountered hers, which gave an unnecessarily hard squeeze before throwing it back to him. While distracting her thus, he snatched her book with his other hand. “Hmmm….the diary of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Quite a woman.”

Viviane made a grab at the book, but he held it out of her reach. “She was an alumni of my school, and left all of her magical archives to us. Give it back….I’m at the part where she goes on the Crusade-“

“And finds her Uncle Raymond to be quite the Adept. Yes, she was a quick study, and most uncomplimentary about Louis, I found.”

Stopping her struggle for the book, Viviane sat up in surprise. “You’ve read that?”

Snape removed his mouth from her wrist long enough to reply, “Yes, of course. You always fall asleep directly after sex, and I find I can’t. So I browse your library.” He began to trace the lines of her palm with his tongue, and slowly brought his legs up to cross them negligently along the length of the chaise. “This is a most comfortable sofa. A pity we’ve never used it before-“

“That’s because it is made for only….one…..person….” Viviane found that her efforts to push him off were futile, and the more she struggled, the angrier she got, her eyes beginning to spark and her mouth constrict into a forbidding line. Laughing, Severus managed to wrap his arms around her, and, with a few skillful wriggles, trap her under his body.

“Mmmm….I do love the vetiver you add to your bath,” he murmured, his lips rough against the warm skin of her shoulder. “Vetiver is most useful in making aphrodisiac potions, as I’m sure you know. Unlike aconite, for example, or erumpent, or nettles…nettles would be an appropriate scent for you.” He shifted, the better to ease his hands down to her hips. “Abyssinian shrivelfig, though, carefully peeled, can yield some amazing results, as will graphorn…lacewing flies, also, especially combined with a good sized” – he paused to kiss the hollow at the base of her neck – “scarab.”

“Severus, get off-“

He moved her hair aside so he could breath directly into her ear. “Asphodel. Belladonna. Valerian. Hyssop.”

“Severus, you’ll pay dearly for this….ohhhhh….”

“Stinger of velvet ant.” Her lover had abandoned her ear and, sliding his body down hers, began to insinuate his tongue into the vee of her robe, his voice muffled in the space between flesh and raw silk. “Wormwood. Pennyroyal. Powdered” Kiss. “Vietnamese” Kiss. “Giant” Kiss. “Centipede. Exuo.”

“Much, much better, decidedly better,” he said, ignoring her gasp of outrage at their sudden nakedness, followed by the arch of her back as he paused just above her torso, breathing on but not touching the skin. “Ergot. Fluxweed. Senna.”

Viviane began to giggle as she tried to push him away. “Stop…stop. You’re tickling me-“

“Tansy.” He spoke against her skin, his lips eliciting a shriek and more giggles. “Filaria toxin.” He slid back up to look her in the face, curious to see the expression in her eyes, and finding it not dangerous, kissed her. She responded with the headlong passion that had intrigued him from the first, and, testing her intent, he slowly began to raise himself, propped on his hands. She rose with him, draping her arms around his neck so as not to break the kiss. He was the one to do so, in order to allow himself a triumphant grin. Viviane frowned at him.

“Don’t be so smug, Severus. I could still throw you out, and besides, I haven’t finished my reading,” Viviane said, lying back down and reaching for the book.

Severus caught her arm. “She gets divorced, has an affair with Geoffrey, marries his son, begets five ungrateful children and ends up a prisoner of her enraged husband.”

“Gee, Severus, thanks for ruining the end-“

“Boomslang, my dear,” he whispered, just before stopping her protests in the time-honored way of all lovers.