No Exchange
by Juliane

Severus Snape is the character and property of J.K. Rowling. Viviane Chance was created by me, and the idea for the Talisman came from Catherine Cook.

Severus Snape: Potions Master, Hogwarts

Viviane Chance: French ex-lover of Snape and head of security at Hogwarts. He broke off their affair when he learned that years ago, she’d killed a friend (and fellow DE) of his named Cordelia. (Snape is so good at bearing grudges!)

Talisman: a powerful object created by Severus and Viviane that could help defeat Voldy.

Viviane sat morosely at the Muggle bar, dangling her legs off of the barstool and shifting her weight, as she sipped her neat whisky. The information she’d gotten regarding Voldemort and the recruitment of disenchanted Muggles was horrifying, and she was trying her best to momentarily forget it. The sight of some comely Muggle men in tight jeans, bending over a pool table, uncomfortably reminded her of her recent, unwilling celibacy. She crossed her ankles, bound by the intricate straps of her high-heeled sandals. Viviane was not one to worry about adding to her already striking height.

"How are we doing, luv?" asked the bartender, a hefty man with spiky hair and a knowing grin. "A woman like you shouldn’t be sitting alone. Waiting for somebody?"

Viviane laughed. "I wish. No, I’m here by myself."

The bartender leaned towards her, sneaking a peek down her low-cut blouse. "Well, I think he’s waiting for you," he said, trying to imitate a sexy growl as he nodded in a direction over her left shoulder. "He looks a tough customer. If you need any help getting rid of him, let me know." He walked away after a quick squeeze of her elbow.

Someone? Waiting for me? Viviane’s hands tightened around her drink, memories of Bill flashing through her mind, making her skin flush and her eyes brighten. She turned around, Bill’s name already forming on her lips, but was met by the image of Severus Snape, glowering at her from a corner near the doorway. He was clad in Muggle clothing – a pair of perfectly tailored woolen trousers and an uncompromising black turtleneck, his lank hair held back with a small silver clasp that glinted discreetly in the dim light. Her hands closed over the back of her chair in a desperate attempt to keep from falling off, but after a moment she peeled them loose and turned away, willing them not to shake as she polished off the rest of her drink in a gulp.

Gesturing towards the bartender, she called, "Another, please, Mac, and make it a double." As the drink was set before her, a familiar arm snaked over her shoulder and claimed the glass.

"Not bad," Snape commented, after a sip. "You aren’t concerned over Dumbledore’s expense account, by any means." He spoke directly into her ear, his voice resonating through flesh to sink into her bones.

"What do you want?" snapped Viviane, taking repossession of her drink. "You’ve treated me like hell these past months, pretending I don’t exist. So I don’t, not for you. Go away."

Severus laughed and insinuated his fingers under her hair, around her neck, his nails digging in with a hint of viciousness. "You can’t be trusted on your own, among handsome Muggle laddies and an endless supply of whisky. Albus knows that only too well, and knew I was the only one fearless enough to drag you back where you belong. I assume you’ve discovered nothing of interest?"

"Would I tell you, if I had?" Viviane was shrugging madly and twisting her head, trying to break free of his grip.

"Of course not, that would be too logical. Dance? The Muggles are staring."

Viviane held herself to her seat with both hands as Snape pressed upwards on her neck, trying to lift her to her feet. "Get away from me, go back to Hogwarts," Viviane hissed. "I-"

Snape loosened his grip on her. "Albus won’t like it if we have to cast an entire pub full of Obliviate Spells. Now get up and dance with me. You do know how to dance, Muggle fashion, do you not?"

"Oh yes," purred Viviane. "Bill Weasley dances divinely."

Snape made no answer, but grabbed her arm and pulled her off of her seat. She had no time to recover her balance as he pushed her to a corner of the pub, where several couples were glued together, barely moving to the music.

He yanked her into the approved Muggle mating-dance embrace, holding her carefully away from him by several inches. His attempt to touch as little of her as possible was helped by the fact that Viviane’s hands were braced flat against his chest, elbows stiff, to keep him at a distance.

"This is awkward, at best, Severus. We look like a couple of grade-school children forced together by our parents. Why not just drag me back under orders –surely you’d get satisfaction out of that?"

"How do you know what gives me satisfaction, these days? Move your feet." A new song began and both of them tried to blend into the Muggle couples crowding the dance floor. "I want to know what you’ve found out. If I take you back to Hogwarts, you and Dumbledore will shut yourselves up in that office of his and I’ll probably only get the information he decides I should have. I’m tired of being condescended to, Viviane, and I want the whole story, unlike the recent debacle with the French delegation." His hands, draped loosely around her waist, tightened incrementally. "I was never told until recently that they were after your blood."

Viviane gazed over his shoulder. "Why should I assume you would care?"

Snape looked over at her through half-closed eyes. "If Hogwarts faculty are being ambushed by foreign governments, I want to know. Speaking of which, you’ve found out something, or you wouldn’t still be here." He shook her, still holding her body well away from him but leaning forward to hiss into her face. "What is it? What have you found out?"

Viviane chuckled. "Do you know where you are, my love?" she asked, getting a suspicious glance from Snape as he caught the amusement in her voice. He settled back into their former wary embrace and his expression once again became guarded, only the glitter of his eyes conveying interest.

"In a disreputable Muggle bar, Viviane. A milieu for which you are admirably suited."

"So far, so good. And the people?"

"What about them?"

She leaned forward and allowed her lips to brush his ear as she whispered, "They’re escorts. Prostitutes. Whores. Some men, some women, all being paid to dance and perform…other acts, for the right price. Which of us, do you think, appears the master, and which the whore?"

Snape removed one arm from her waist to fumble in his pocket, producing several crisp $100 bills. He kept them both swaying to the song drifting through the pub, but with his free hand folded the bills with his dexterous fingers, making neat creases as he quartered the paper into a small rectangle. Staring straight into Viviane’s puzzled eyes, he slowly bit down on the money, holding it in his teeth for a few seconds, lips parted in a savage grin.

Without warning, his hands gripped her waist so tightly she could not draw breath, and he buried his nose in the neckline of her blouse, burrowing past the silk to her soft cotton bra. He shoved the folded bills into the material over her left breast, disregarding her flinch when the sharp edges of the paper sliced her flesh. Snape remained there for a moment, his tongue lingering to catch the sweat trickling down her cleavage.

Viviane had stopped, rigid with shock and outrage, only her hands moving to push him back, away from her. With a satisfied smile, Snape resumed his careless grip on her body and began moving his feet to the treacly ballad that had just begun. "To answer your question, Viviane, there is no longer anyone here who has a doubt about which is the whore."

"If you – if you think – that I’m going to – "

Snape made an amused sound. "That wasn’t for the use of your body. That’s for the information I want. You’ve learned something, something important, and don’t bother lying to me because I know you too well. Whatever you learned has thrown you off your game. You’ve been a step behind me all evening, my dear, and that is unlike you. The money can buy you an infinite number of red-haired Muggles to do your bidding. Fair exchange?"

"No exchange." The vision of Muggles, made capable through the Dark Arts of casting low-level spells and having no idea that they were merely cannon fodder, made Viviane squeeze her eyes shut and drop her head on Snape's hard, unyielding shoulder. It stayed that way, oblivious to her mute plea for comfort.

"Exactly how high are those shoes you're wearing?" Snape asked. "You don't think you're tall enough?"

"They're supposed to be four inches, but really, they're only three and a half." Her muffled voice had a high, nervous edge to it. "Could you please go back to Hogwarts, and leave me alone?"

"That's what you want?" Against his will, Snape's fingers had begun to press more firmly against her back. He felt the thin, raised line of a scar through the flimsy silk of her blouse, and he traced its well-remembered path in the air over her body, as it curved around and down her side.

I should Disapparate now, he thought. Take her at her word, why not, yes, perhaps it is time we started taking each other at our own valuation instead of …

His train of thought was broken when he found that his hands had rediscovered other scars, the threadlike, barely noticeable one that shot straight up the right side of her back, following the line of her body, and another, the livid mark of a scimitar that curved across her shoulder blades. His hands followed them, traced them up her back and down again, gently pressing her towards him. The strands of her hair, so seldom unbound, tickled the long bones of his hands as they moved over her body.

"Viviane," he murmured, "Viviane." He gave in, his fingers yielded to her hair, the texture of the skin at the nape of her neck, the long, hard muscles under soft flesh that stirred as he touched them. Scarred and perfect, wild and refined, tormented and so unrepentant. He closed his eyes and buried his face in the curve of her neck.

Viviane drew back, trying to escape from his touch. "I thought you said the money was for information. If you want anything else, try one of them." Viviane jerked her head towards the bar, where a row of women sat, shrewdly eyeing the crowd over come-hither smiles. She tried to pull away from him, but he slid one arm around her and, grasping her jaw with the other, looked into her eyes. The spark of eroticism he saw under the anger made him draw in his breath and swear under it.

"I'm afraid no one else will do," he said. Snape pulled her hard against his body and kissed her brutally, claiming in one all of the kisses that he'd dreamed of and rejected during the length of their estrangement.

Viviane finally wrenched away, and Snape took advantage of her momentary loss of balance to grab her arm and yank her across the pub, pushing his way through amorous couples and solitary Muggles looking for a partner. Outside the pub, he stopped abruptly. "Where are you staying?"

Viviane laughed, a note of triumph lingering in her voice. "Next door. It's seedy, but serviceable."

He took her arm, and she lead him into a Georgian mansion gone bad, bricks filthy and lintels chipped, and up a staircase black with dirt. The room she unlocked and stepped into was not much better, containing only a narrow bed with a tarnished brass headboard and a bureau with nary a handle to its drawers.

She swung around to face him, but before she had time for anything else, Snape's hand shot forward and he pushed her backwards onto the bed, sending her sprawling across its length. He drew his wand with the other. "Slytherian serpens," he whispered, and two Asian green pit vipers appeared, coiled in poisonous green heaps at the foot of the bed. They moved so quickly that Viviane only had time to gasp before they circled around her wrists, binding them firmly to the uprights of the headboard. She struggled, trying to grasp their heads, but they wound sinuously out of reach, occasionally dipping down to caress her neck and ears with their flickering tongues.

Viviane finally gave up trying to free herself and glared at Snape. "Call off your pets. And stop staring at me like that."

Snape stood casually at the foot of the bed, hands in pockets, as he watched her with a self-satisfied smirk. "At last, you resemble a proper Slytherin lover," he remarked. "I'm considering just what to do with you; endless possibilities, many of them quite interesting, come to mind."

"Decide already," Viviane snapped, then tensed and dug her head into the lumpy mattress as one of the vipers laid an enthusiastic series of licks down her collarbone.

Snape continued to stare, watching her long neck stretch and turn in reaction to the attentions of the snakes, noting how her breath was coming faster as her breasts rose and fell ever more quickly. "Do you know, Viviane, that I’ve had…thoughts of revenging Cordelia." He began to pace slowly along the foot of the bed. "To pay you back in turn, in your own coin. It tempts me just a little, even now, especially with your neck so deliciously exposed." He removed his hand from his pocket to brush a fingertip over her shin. Her body jerked upward, and her leg kicked out at him. Swiftly, he wrapped his hand around her ankle, then captured the other, spreading her legs and holding them down as she struggled. He placed one knee on the bed and bent towards her.

"It was one of the reasons I agreed to this little expedition. If I came back and said you’d been killed in some stupid fight of your own instigation , nobody would question me. It gave me options. Now, stop struggling, or I won’t be responsible for a change in the mood of those vipers."

"You rotten bastard," spat Viviane, "If you try anything, it will go the worse-"

"With me?" he laughed. "I doubt it. Now, stop struggling." With a hiss of fury and a glance at the snake to her left, she did. Snape drew his other knee onto the bed and sat back on his heels, dragging his fingers lightly up and down Viviane’s legs, exploring the fine webs of skin behind her knees, occasionally giving them a sharp pinch, fingering the notch in her calf left by the mace of an adversary. With half-closed eyes, he watched hers glaze over and then close as he started again at her ankles, tracing the convergence of fine bones up into the hard muscle and bone of calf and shin and on to the circles of her kneecaps. Snape tilted his head the least bit as his fingers found the small gullies in the back of her knees that led up to her thighs, and he sighed contentedly as he ran his palms over the smooth skin, reaching up under the wool of her short black skirt.

"I could kill you.’ His voice pitched low, sent vibrations through the both of them. "Another corpse in another wretched Muggle hotel, who would care? But that would take away a source of pleasure for me, a great deal of pleasure. Pleasure I’ve missed, these many weeks. Cordelia is long dead, but you are very much alive, the first woman in many years complex and ruthless enough to interest me, and so flatteringly receptive to…"

He drew a long breath as he moved his hands higher, up the sides of her legs to her hips. When he got there, he raised an eyebrow. "No underwear, Viviane? Playing the part to the very best of your ability? But then you never do anything halfway, do you?" Her eyes opened as his thumbs, then his palm, sought and smoothed down the curls over her pubic bone. Snape paused to scrutinize her expression. She was watching him carefully, scanning his face, but Snape could not tell if she were amused, infuriated, or very much turned on. He gave her a slow smile as he slid his hands under her, to cup her buttocks in a gentle squeeze before pushing her skirt around her hips. As he did, he found her wand stuck in the waistband, concealed beneath her blouse. "Ah well, we won’t need this, will we?" he said, tucking it into his own belt.

Scooting closer to her, in the space between her legs, he began to caress the moist folds of skin, holding Viviane’s eyes with his, matching his strokes to the ministrations of the serpents as they slid about her neck. Viviane began to breath through her nose, jaw clenched. Severus laughed. "My dear, you needn’t pretend. I know you’re enjoying this." He held up his slick fingers, rubbing them together. "I am." He dropped his hand back down to her sex, and slowly inserted one finger, his eyelids drooping with sensual surfeit as he felt the wet heat of her. Viviane arched and turned her head away, as Snape inserted a second finger, then began to rub her clitoris with his thumb. With his other hand, he reached over and grasped her jaw, turning her face to his. "No, I want to see you, I want to see the effect I have on you. Look at me."

Viviane stared up at him, her lips parted and reddened from where she’d bitten them. Snape ran a gentle finger over their softness, continuing down to trace her jaw line, and began to accelerate the movements of his fingers. Eyes shrewd, he gauged her breathing, watched her eyes soften, felt her muscles begin to clench around his fingers. He stopped suddenly, waving the serpents from her face.

"Severus?" Viviane whispered. "What is it?"

He bent closer, until they were nose to nose, and smiled evilly at her, eyebrow raised, but said nothing.

Viviane arched her body, trying to make contact with his fingers, but Snape held them away, not breaking eye contact with her. She narrowed her gaze and bared her teeth. "Please, Severus, damn you," she growled, the words forced and harsh.

"What was that?" Snape said, brushing his fingers over her swollen clitoris.

She writhed, and whispered, "Please, please…ahh."

Snape reinserted the fingers and began pleasure her again, flicking his thumb with quickening rhythm until she clenched around him, flooding his hand, taking several deep breaths, and finally going limp upon the dirty bedspread. Snape began to chuckle. "Your attempt at self-control is-"

Suddenly a heel, as slender as the point of a quill, pressed into his chest, while another was placed against his neck.

"Call off the snakes." Viviane was glaring up at him.

Snape tried to bat the foot away from his chest. "What are you-"

"Now." The other heel pressed into his throat and across, slicing through the fine cashmere of his turtleneck, and a trickle of blood, warm and viscous, slid down his skin. He clapped his hand to the area and stared at the blood on his fingers as he took it away, then looked at Viviane, stunned.

"What – what – "

"Razor sharp titanium. Unbind me, or the other one will be buried in your heart. I suggest you not try anything stupid, because I’m faster than you are. Reach for your wand, make the snakes disappear, then drop the wand next to the bed."

Snape looked down at her, reluctant admiration joining the shock in his eyes as he reached for his wand. "Reverso," he said, dropping it and holding up slender hands for her inspection as the serpents disappeared. Before he could take another breath, Viviane grabbed a fistful of his shirt, threw him upon the bed, and rolled over on top of him to kneel, knees planted on either side of his chest. She reached behind her to reclaim her wand from his belt and slid forward so that her still-moist sex was inches away from his face.

"Just one question, Viviane," Snape said. "You could have stopped me. It would have saved you the trouble of a pointless, if stellar, attempt at nonchalance and saved me the bother of watching it. Why didn’t you?"

Viviane threw back her hair and laughed, eyes sparkling. "My dear Severus, why interrupt a rencontre that was so pleasurable for us both? Although-" She paused, and frowned, then bit her bottom lip. "I didn’t appreciate your little interruption. I don’t like being made to beg." She looked at him and turned her ankles to dig her heels into his sides. "Let me think about how I shall correct that."

"Will you have the courtesy to inform me if and when you decide?" asked Snape, trying unsuccessfully to wriggle away from the titanium pressing into his ribcage.

"Oh yes, you’ll be the first to know," replied Viviane, in a dreamy voice, running her hands absently over her breasts and down her torso.

"Do you need any help with that?" Snape reached up to grasp her waist, then reached for the buttons of her blouse.

"No, and hands off," snapped Viviane, coming out of her near-trance. She grabbed his arms and held them over his head, running her palms over his. "I’ve decided to be generous, and let you have another attempt at pleasuring me. Without interruption. Without begging. I think I’m being exceptionally fair, don’t you?" She gave him a quick poke with her heels.

Snape winced. "Er, yes. Yes, indeed. Very nice of you, Viviane. Exactly how-"

"Stop being ingenuous and get on with it." She began to lower herself towards him, releasing his hands and trailing her fingers down his arms, stopping to trace the outline of his Dark Mark. Snape shivered.

"Viviane, one more thing-"

"Mmmm?"

"Your heels, they’re already uncomfortably nestled between my ribs. At the point of your, er, ultimate satisfaction, how can I be sure I won’t suffer a collapsed lung or maybe a punctured spleen?"

"You can’t." She leaned back and ran a finger down his nose. "Makes it more exciting, don’t you think?"

Snape raised an eyebrow. "You think I need anything else to excite me? When I’ve got this-" he raised his head and trailed his tongue carelessly down one side of her – "so near?" He felt her calf muscles tighten in response and he tried to reach up, to pull her closer to him, but Viviane caught his arms and moved closer on her own. Snape gave a contented chuckle as she offered herself to his mouth, and he took the opportunity to explore her at his leisure, losing himself in the warm, salty tang of her body, accompanied by the whiff of stale pub smoke that clung to her skin.

Viviane’s eyes closed and she threw her head back, her shoulders contracting up into an involuntary shrug. As he slid his tongue into her, she grasped his arms convulsively, and Snape thought he heard her whisper his name. He worked his way back up to her clitoris, enjoying how her flesh swelled as he teased it, eliciting a gasp from her as he used the slightest unnecessary force. Once again, he considered stopping, knowing that she would end by begging for release, but the prick of her heel in his side warned him to stay the course if he valued his life, or at least his internal organs.

Too soon for Snape’s preference, her body stiffened and she began to laugh wildly, falling back to sprawl across his body in a wanton heap. He discovered, after a few discreet wriggles, that he had avoided injury by shoe.

Viviane finally stopped laughing and sat up, smoothing her hair. "Marvelous, my dear. You really do have a talented tongue." She swung one leg and then the other off the bed, pulling her skirt back down her thighs and walking towards the door. "Ta, as you Brits say."

Snape, in one swift, motion, caught up his wand from the floor and pointed it at Viviane, whose hand was on the doorknob. "Petrificus totalis!" She fell backwards, and Severus caught, then wrestled, her stiffened form onto the bed. He knelt over her, as she had done to him, and casually flicked open the top button of her blouse, running a finger down the soft curve of a breast. "Mmmm, the possibilities this presents, but no, as you would say, my French doxy, we have other matters at hand." Despite the curse, he thought he saw her eyes narrow with rage at his words. Snape grinned and reached out to trace her right cheekbone, then turned his hand over to smooth her cheek with the back. "Exquisite, in your own way. I’m going to lift the curse, but don’t try anything. Reverso!"

To his surprise, Viviane merely lowered the hand that had been stretched towards the door and eyed him warily. "What do you want?"

"To start, I’d like the information I paid you for."

"I didn’t offer it for sale – take your money." Her eyes glinted up at him and he began to chuckle in spite of himself. "Oh no, my dear, insatiable woman. You’ve had enough for one evening – you aren’t going to trick me into stripping you. Now it is time to even the score."

"Your turn? I believe you had a turn, complete with serpents, not too long ago."

"I said nothing about turns. I was talking about equal time, and so far, you’ve gotten far more of mine than you’ve given me. You haven’t even given me a kiss, yet." He slid down to cover her body with his, long legs sliding against long legs, hipbones settling against hipbones, thin torso covering voluptuous curves. He brushed his cheek against hers, to speak directly into her ear. "Kiss me," he said.

"I have so kissed you, what do you call that…that…attack on me, in the pub?" Viviane tried to sit up in protest, but Snape held her down, continuing to murmur against her skin. "I kissed you. I pleasured you. I wanted you, badly enough to forget who you are and what you’ve done and toss myself into this decrepit Muggle town to find you. Kiss me."

Viviane reached up to grasp Severus’ face, her brows slanted in concentration as she ran her thumbs over the creases around his mouth and nose.

"Who I am…what I’ve done. You hypocrite, you’ve been skulking in a dungeon, secure under the protection of Albus, risking nothing and losing nothing, all these years." She continued to caress his features with sensitive fingers, ignoring his outraged intake of breath. "Yet you fault me for risking all to exact the revenge due to me, for daring to act instead of hide." Viviane’s hands found their way to the back of his neck, where they unfastened the small silver clasp that held his hair. "And yet I still want you. I want you, even so." Released, the lank strands slid forward to brush Viviane’s face. She laced her fingers into the hair just above the nape, and drew him down to her. Gently, she brushed her lips against his, then pressed against them more insistently, yet pulled back when Snape responded.

"Sshhhh…"she breathed. "I’m to kiss you, remember."

Severus tried to relax and simply luxuriate in the feel of her lips against his, but it was hard not to respond to the spark of excitement behind the languorous exploration of his mouth with her tongue. "Mmmm," she said, the sound coming from the back of her throat, and she moved against him, stretching catlike under his body. He forgot her injunction and twined his fingers into her hair, holding her still as he nibbled gently on her lower lip, then met her tongue with his. Closing his eyes, he gave himself up to the senses, feeling the weight of logic and control, and all of the false structures that made up the day-to-day Severus Snape, fall away. He matched his breathing to hers and knew nothing but mouth upon mouth until he felt her draw his shirt out of his trousers, then run her hands voluptuously under it, against his skin, up his back. Severus arched against them, wanting to feel more strongly the friction of her skin on his.

Viviane took her mouth away and chuckled. "Arms above your head, my dear, and don’t worry, I’m not going to rob you." One corner of his mouth pulled down in a wry smile as he complied, and she drew his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. "Roll over," she commanded.

"Take off those damned shoes first," demanded Snape. "I’ve no intention of being killed by footwear in a seedy Muggle hotel."

Viviane began to giggle, reaching up to tweak his nipples. "Sorry, I – oh Severus, the look on your face when you realized-" She burst into laughter, mirthful green eyes peering up at him.

"Fine, I’ll do it myself," he snapped. Sitting up, he grabbed an ankle and yanked at the thin, patent leather strap, finally getting it unbuckled after a short struggle, tossing it aside. Following suit with the other, he paused for a moment, then ran his finger down the sole of her foot. He was rewarded with a shriek and wriggle. "That was effective," he remarked, doing it again.

"Stop it," Viviane gasped, "that tickles."

"Does it? What about this?" He tried the sole of the other foot, but was interrupted as Viviane sat up and pulled him to her, rolling him over and kneeling astride his thighs.

"Now, we’re getting somewhere," she said. Viviane began to stroke his chest with her palms, broad, slow gestures that rippled up his torso and somehow penetrated to his spine. She watched him with barely focused eyes, her face gone slack in erotic concentration. "How I’ve missed this," she said, her voice thick. Her fingers paused to play with the curls of hair dusting his chest, then she bent down to brush a nipple with her nose, before applying an enthusiastic tongue. Severus groaned and reached up to grasp her waist as tendrils of silky hair cascaded over his face and neck. He took the opportunity to undo her blouse, giving up on the buttons halfway and resorting to a strong pull, eager for the flesh underneath.

Viviane shrugged off the remnants of her blouse, then her bra, as Snape’s clever fingers unclasped it. She sat up, flicked the money off of his skin and traced his lips with a finger. "My dear Potions Master…." Viviane started to say, but ended with a gasp as he cupped her breasts, thumbs brushing lightly over nipples. "Oh, Sev," she whispered, as her fingers tightened against his ribs. She closed her eyes and her head dropped back as she gave herself up to his caresses, but suddenly her hands slid up his arms, to close around his wrists.

"I do believe I’m supposed to be taking the initiative here," she said thoughtfully, and casually brushed the bulge of his erection with the back of her hand. Snape froze. Viviane bent down to worry the narrow belt out of its clasp with her teeth, then unbuttoned the fly of his trousers, drawing both them and his underwear down his legs as she wriggled backwards down his body. She stood up at the end of the bed to pull them completely away, then unzipped her skirt, stepping out of it as it fell around her feet.

They stared at each other for a long moment, reacquainting themselves with bodies intimately known and sorely missed. Viviane dropped one knee upon the bed, and then the other, never breaking eye contact. She hovered over him, not touching, but finally looking away from his face to take in every detail of him, her breath quickening as she gazed. Bending forward, she trailed a line of slow kisses from the hollow at the base of his neck, down the crease of his breastbone, over his pale, taut skin, following the faint line of hair down to his erect cock. She rested her chin on the tip, looking back up at him with a glint in her eye, and slowly moistened her lips.

Snape gazed back at her. "Your turn," he smirked. "And no biting."

In response, Viviane tilted her head forward to catch the tip of his cock between her teeth. She applied the faintest pressure, simultaneously scraping a light fingernail down the rough length of his scrotum. Ignoring his gasp and flinch, she began to caress him with her tongue, her soft lips cool against his heated flesh as she took more of him into her mouth.

A complicated series of licks, flicks, and twists ensued, causing Severus to grab the sides of the mattress and make an heroic effort to control his breathing. Viviane's lips slid back up his length, leaving a broad, wet trail on the way, then she released it, ending with a lingering kiss on its sensitive tip. Snape opened his eyes to find her grinning at him, chin resting on her interlaced fingers, and he could just see her casually crossed ankles hovering over her, toes flexing. With a wriggle, she trapped his cock between her breasts, moving her shoulders to create friction that made Snape gasp, "Great bloody Merlin," and shut his eyes again.

Viviane was humming the tune of a bawdy chanson learned in her schooldays as she watched, amused, Severus’ hands clench and unclench in perfect timing with the movements of her shoulders. She glanced down and noticed that the ruddy head of his penis, peeking up from between her breasts, had acquired a drop of liquid at the tip, so she used a finger to lightly spread it around and down. His body went rigid, and a pair of hands grabbed her arms, pulling her up and under, insistently parting her legs. "Enough of that. I want to be inside you," growled Snape, suiting deed to words.

They both took long breaths as flesh slid into waiting flesh. Snape ran his hands down her back to clasp her buttocks, while Viviane draped long legs over his waist. "Ahhhh," he sighed, and dropped his head upon her shoulder, not thrusting, just content for the moment to be enfolded by her soft heat. Viviane kissed his ear, traced the sharp bones of his shoulders and back with a light touch, and resumed her song. "M'a pris sans deffiance, mais au penre sans lance, m'a navré durement," she sang, her lips just brushing his neck.

In response, he began to move slowly against her, chuckling as she broke off singing to concentrate, eyes closed and brow furrowed, on matching him thrust for thrust. "Viviane?" he queried, wanting to see her eyes, and she did open them to look up into his. In answer to her mute question, he said, "We fit together well, in this if nothing else, do we not?" She did not answer, but scraped her nails up his back as their rhythm began to accelerate, exquisite, excruciating pressure building at the core of them both.

Neither noted much of anything about the other as they climaxed; they were busy reveling in sensations that they’d gone without for too long. Trust enough for abandonment, comfort enough to discard protective facades.

~*~*~

Snape opened his eyes and looked over at his lover. She was contemplating the pitted and cracked ceiling, eyelids half closed. The small crease between her brows had deepened the slightest bit since the last time he had looked at her this closely, and the dark smudges under her eyes had gotten darker. Her skin stretched more tightly over bold features, throwing into sharper relief the high bridge of her nose and her oddly angled cheekbones. Viviane’s weary expression caused him to reach out, to run his hand down her breastbone, over ribs that were, for the first time, visible to him.

"You’ve had a rough time of it. It must have been difficult, to face betrayal by your own countrymen."

Viviane’s eyes sharpened and she made a great show of examining a cuticle. "It wasn’t so bad. Minerva and Albus have been….very kind. Very supportive."

Snape propped himself on an elbow so he could sneer down at her. "Oh, kindness. Supportiveness. How touching. How bloody condescending. Tell me, since when has your Devereaux spirit accepted such tepid consolation?"

He stopped her protest with a kiss, sliding both arms around her waist to pull her against him, then broke away to give her a hard look. "I can’t offer you such things; I’m not capable of them. But I can offer you a modicum of understanding. And a pair of arms for when the nightmares occur."

Viviane looked away. "Until the next time you decide I don’t exist. Severus, I can’t-"

His fingers pressed against her lips. "Viviane, the past is past. We face an uncertain future, but you and I make a powerful team." He held up his left hand and placed hers against it, palm to palm, their long fingers nearly matched in length. "Accio." Something golden flew from an inside pocket of his discarded shirt and into his outstretched hand. He took it and slid the golden oval between their fingers, to dangle between their palms, then slowly wound the links of the fine golden chain between and around their fingers, binding them together.

Viviane, eyes wide, looked between their bound hands and Snape’s solemn expression. "The Talisman?" she whispered. "I thought you must have destroyed it weeks ago."

Snape made a noise between a bark and a laugh. "Merlin knows, I tried. But I could not bring myself….we’d be fools to rely on Potter to destroy Voldemort. This gives us a second try at him." His fingers pressed more tightly against hers. "We are the ones who know best what Voldemort is capable of. We’ve had to listen to him, had to watch as he laid waste to our lives. We have lost far more than Potter has, and it should be our privilege to destroy Voldemort and his followers." Viviane’s eyes began to glow in fierce anticipation, and she pulled him down for a passionate kiss, her free hand holding him by the neck. He struggled away from her.

"You’ve thrown it in my face that I’ve been hiding at Hogwarts, behind Dumbledore’s robes. No longer." He shivered and let his breath out in a hiss. "I’ve waited a long time for a chance to act. They have begun to call me, and I have begun to go." Snape bared his teeth. ‘The stupidity….the shallow, disgusting talk I’ve had to listen to…"

"He’s found the secret of Transferral," Viviane said, bluntly.

Snape froze. "What?"

"The information you wanted so badly? Voldemort has begun to transfer magical abilities to Muggles. They don’t have much power, but there have been reports of strange burns and sudden blindings among the people here. I’ve found out that other Muggles were responsible. Voldemort is finding the discontented, and promising them power if they fight for him, and against us, power they can then use against their own people afterward. They don’t realize that as soon as Voldemort has no use for them, he’ll kill them. The implications for the division between the Muggle and Wizard worlds-"

"Great Merlin, not this, too," Snape whispered, and leaned his face against hers, but was startled into sitting up by the sound of her laughter.

"Oh Severus, what is one more problem, amidst everything else?" She rested her hand against his cheek, her thumb tracing his lower lip. "We’ll win against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. We’ll destroy those stupid bastards, one by one, if need be. This little problem will just be another cleanup operation."

Snape looked down at her, a reluctant smile starting at his mouth and finally reaching his eyes. "You truly believe that, don’t you? You have no doubt that-"

"None at all," she whispered. Snape slid his hand out of the golden net he had woven around their fingers, then unwound it from hers, kissing each finger as he freed it from the chain. He placed the Talisman around her neck. "You almost convince me."

Viviane pulled him towards her. "Don’t take any wagers against us," she chided, and kissed him, her tongue meeting his with fierce intent. He responded with bruising force, his teeth grazing her lips, swallowing her breath as he closed his eyes and thought of Voldemort defeated, his Dark Mark erased. He finally removed his mouth from hers long enough to say, "I believe the Talisman could use some recharging, but this isn’t the place to perform that sort of magic. Shall we adjourn to your bedroom?"

Her eyebrows raised, Viviane laughed. "Of course, shall we gather our clothing? But I may need a nap first."

Snape stood up and swept their scattered belongings into his arms. "Forget the nap. I’ll just brew you some coffee," he said, and they Disapparated to Hogwarts.