TITLE: A little nip of sin
AUTHOR: Zero
PAIRING: SS/Bertie Bott
RATING: Nc-17
FEEDBACK: [email protected] - I would very much like comments on the love scene and character interaction.
DISCLAIMER: Never read slash without plenty of cold showers nearby. This isn't for kids, but we knew that. I also realize that Bertie Bott exsisted well before even the Headmaster of Hogwarts, but it's all in the name of naughty fun. Characters aren't mine, blah blah legal crap...
SUMMARY: An old, and very unexpected friend stops by to visit Snape. Well... perhaps more than visit.
NOTES: Part of the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest. Paring 64 - Bertie Bott.
ARCHIVING: The Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest Archive.

Ron and Harry sat quietly, for a change, sharing an old favorite. A bag of "Bertie Bott's every flavor beans" lay between them as they sat on the rocky shores of the lake. The sky deepening in color as evening approached, all to quickly. There was the occasional giggle passed between them when one or the other caught a rather sickening flavor.

"Let's feed this one to the squid!" Ron exclaimed, spitting out an oddly pink bean.

Harry looked at him in mock shock, "I don't want you to kill the old thing! I've grown rather fond of him after all these years."

They laughed again and finished the bag while they spoke of everything and anything. Mostly what they had been through together. With the bag now empty, they agreed to head back to the castle. Dinner would be starting soon enough and Ron wanted to personally escort Ms. Granger to the Gryffindor table this evening. She was studying in the library... as usual.

In order to find Hermione the duo had to pass through the great hall. They were unexpectedly stopped by Neville and Lee Jordan, who seemed excited. After a few brief words and large grins Harry and Ron found their excitement contagious, and set out at a run for the library.

"Hermione! Hermione! Guess what we found out?!" Ron shouted dashing at full speed into the library. Harry gave a nervous glance at Madam Pince's desk, but thankfully she was not there. Harry couldn't help but be a bit paranoid, and looked about anxiously.

Hermione greeted the two of them with a scowl that could have frozen a flame viper in mid-slither. She didn't like her studies being interrupted for "childish" reasons. And was even less impressed by knowing Ron and Harry were spoiling necessary young male appetites on candy and other sweets when they needed solid food.

Completely ignoring her, Ron ripped the folded poster out of his pocket that Neville had passed him. Laying it out on the table (and across her book) for her perusal.

It was a brightly colored poster of "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans" but at the bottom read that the man himself, Mr. Bott would be appearing at the Honeyduke's candy shop.

As Hermione looked at the page in front of her, the frown deepened. Harry took a step back. This was a very dangerous warning. Exams must be closer than he had originally thought.

A large clock chimed from somewhere within the library. Glancing upwards over the mantle of a huge fireplace, the dusty clock read "Dinner time. Keep your books off the table!"

Ron frowned, "Now Pince has her propaganda in the blasted clock...?" he muttered nearly to himself. "Come on you two, before we're thrown out!" Hermione gathered her books quickly and shuffled the boys into the hall as fast as possible without another word. In their rush to please the frightening visage of Hermione Granger, they had left the colorful poster on the study table back in the library.

The divider to the restricted section of the library opened. Snape held the door for Madam Pince and the two moved in silence. Something they both understood of each other and both appreciated. He gave her a polite nod of his head, and secured several large books under one arm. She nodded in return, before turning a threatening eye to a small group of Hufflepuffs who had stopped studying and started chattering a bit to loudly.

As he moved to leave the library, something colorful caught his eye. Professor Snape paused a study table with a poster laying across it. He stared at it threateningly for several moments before snatching the parchment and tucking it into one of his many pockets.

At dinner that evening, most of the students were in idol chatter about the appearance of the famous candy wizard so dear to them. And on a Hogsmead weekend too! This must have been planned, "Arranged by a higher force I'd say!" Lee Jordan grinned widely.

"You may be right about that one..." Harry trailed off and looked towards the high table. The Headmaster's mischievous blue eyes were twinkling as wickedly as ever when Dumbledore smiled at Harry.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the table, Snape frowned in thought. Traces of an old memory running through his mind.

The flash of a wide boyish grin. Whispered promises and tender kisses in the dark of night.

An older class mate who had helped him through rough times. Teasing occasional smiles out of the somber young Slytherin. Bertie, was a nickname Severus had given him, and his strangely distant memory had kept that name, even after he'd graduated. Like the strange and unfulfilled promises that lingered hazily across Snape's brain, Bertie seemed so distant and phantom-like in his thoughts.

When the Potions Master slowly shook himself from his reverie, much to his surprise, Snape found himself alone in the great hall. Save for Albus Dumbledore, who seemed to be happily leering at him.

"What?" Snape grunted irritably.

"Nothing. Just watching you, Severus. I haven't seen you this distracted since you discovered how to make a love potion in your second year." The Headmaster's grin seemed to widen. "And sold them to older students who had crushes... quite profitable, I am sure."

Snape opened his mouth as if to interject, but ended up bowing his head with a resigned sigh. No arguing with the Headmaster. Snape had tried, most of his life in fact. He was the hardest person to get away from in arguments or in guilt.

"Albus... I'd like to help supervise the Hogsmead trip this weekend." Snape breathed in very depressed manner.

"I'll hold you to it Severus." Albus stated happily then excused himself from the table to head to bed.

Snape nearly cursed at the old mans odd manner. But couldn't pull his strangely disobedient brain away from his thoughts long enough to gather a proper insult. He grunted again and retired to his dungeon. His thoughts would be allowed to do as they pleased once he was in his own private rooms.

A soft brush of lips.

Severus turned in his sleep.

Fingers entwining into dark hair.

A restless groan.

Soft cries. Tasting of lips. Touching of flames.

Severus awoke suddenly, sitting up drenched in sweat. Not a cold nervous sweat, but the kind one builds in the heat of passion. He breathed hard for several moments before laying back down. He let his mind wander over those images.

So close and yet so far... He thought, Back in the day... I had only been - was that my 1st year when I'd first seen him? Yes... he smiled at me, always. Someone I did not originally trust, but he seemed to want to make people happy.

It was in my 3rd year when the feelings started. I didn't understand it at first. I shouldn't have felt this way about another male student. However, I couldn't find it in my heart for any female. Perhaps Lily, but she never even looked my way, unless I happen to be the backside of her boyfriend's evil pranks. The things they let children get away with in this place!

But he never did that to me. What was his name, ah yes, Bertaloremi. A seventh year, to my 3rd. I thought I would surely die after he graduated. Went out into the world, looking for a way to make a small something, something he had always done. Make people happy. Even if they were young disgruntled Slytherins.

He came back to apprentice with Flintwick and my heart was aflame again. He was learning charms of every kind. Eventually cheering charms powerful enough to make even me giggle, to smile unknowingly into his dark eyes. Enough to fall madly in love with him. His dark hair, his kindness.

Snape scowled nastily, of all the people to think about and miss anyone's kindness. It upset him greatly he was showing such a weakness even if he was alone and naked in his bed.

It was only the very last night. I was in my 6th year, when he finally came to me. After all the nights I had begged and prayed to any god I could reference or imagine existence. He finally came to me. Bertie a grown man, and I, his strange friend he'd met in the library. For some reason he chose me to befriend that night so long ago. Seeing to my happiness whenever my dark moods took to deep of a hold.

He often told me in the dark empty silence of that library, how he was obsessed with the senses. He wanted to know what he could experience and how to allow others to feel it as well. He wanted to taste life, success, the air and anything else there was to experience. Every sensation was sacred to him, not just what normal people thought of as pleasurable. The good, the bad, the painful. All of it.

"Sev, I want to taste you." He had whispered on his last night, into my ear, as he pulled my gangly teenaged frame into his arms. "I want to feel you, and share it with you." Pressing his body against mine. I could have sworn I heard his longing and desperation. "Not for the last time, I promise. When we meet again, I will have your taste and your scent in a bottle for the whole world to rejoice in." I was never sure what to make of that last remark, but at the time it had been seducing enough. We made love, at the risk of being caught by everyone, in the library just after midnight. I felt everything and tasted his lips, his body, felt his strength around and within me. Something I'll never forget until my dying day.

Severus turned over these thoughts and many like it within his skull. How, of all things, his brief lover and (hopefully) lifetime friend had become a candy maker. Infamous and amusing. He was still making people happy, in his own special way. No doubt charming every one of his candies with a small cheering charm of some sort. Even his longing to taste everything sacred or profane came through. Snape had never really thought of how much those little beans had actually represented his friend Bertie. Eventually he found himself chasing these thoughts around in his head until he fell asleep. Dreaming of strange sensations across his tongue.
Perhaps more remembering...

That weekend, Snape and several other Professors accompanied the 3rd years and up to Hogsmead. Most of them rushed straight to Honeydukes, and with many a self conscious glance around, Snape followed them.

Standing in the back as the crowd of student nearly rushed the stage. They had made it just in time, so it seemed. A tall slender man wearing an odd cross of muggle suit and robes took a make shift stage in a large and otherwise empty backroom of the candy store.

At once Snape caught the gasp in his throat. It had been nearly 20 years and he looked just as youthful as when he'd first caught a glimpse of the man as a teenager. Snape caught himself staring slack-jawed for several moments.

"Welcome to Honeydukes!" A stately and jolly voice boomed. "As a few of you may know, I was once a Hogwarts student, and Honeydukes was the only place I could get to sell my candy when I first started out. It was you students who helped me and now I want to help you." He smiled and his voice reflected it.

The man was tall, thin, and muscular. He was young looking with a shock of dark brown hair, well restrained in a wild ponytail. A giant face consuming smile, that flashed his white teeth. His suit was, predictable Snape thought. As it was made of his former house colors. A lovely royal blue with bronze touches here and there. He still radiated his happy and willing energy.

"You all, of course, don't have a clue who I am," he whispered to the crowd and they chuckled. "So allow me to make introductions. Mr. Bott to my employees, but Bertie to my very good friends -" And Snape's glare widened as the eyes of glacier blue darted in his direction and that giant smile broadened just slightly.

Snape drifted in a fit of memory while Bertie lectured the students about the process of making his candy and ideas of new flavors. He would be free for questions after all was said and done.

Snape had been wandering in thought for some time, when he came back to this world he was still leaning against the back wall and Bertie was sitting informally on the stage speaking with only 3 students. Harry, Ron, and Colin Creevey. Snape rolled his eyes. But felt the conclusion drawing near. "So here you are, my boys!" He handed them small red velvet bags, filled with the new flavors they were testing. I'll be in town a few days, please send me an owl about what you think."

With many a laugh and thank you the 3 boys set off about their business, finally leaving only Snape and his object of desire.

"Thank you for waiting..." The jolly voice turned softer, gentler just for him. "I have something I want to show you."

Snape shrugged and with one last glance around, followed him into a small make shift office.

"You haven't changed much, you know that?" Bertie stated, tapping a small desk lamp with a long white wand, then locked the door behind Severus.

"You'd be surprised what inward changes do not show in our daily masks..." Snape stated, a bit remorsefully. His mind strangely distant from where he desperately wanted it to be.

"You certainly sound the same." An arm encircling his Snape's waist. Pulling him close for a long, moment of silence. Just together. Warm bodies, soft breathing, alone from the rest of the world. Snape sighed inward and out. He had needed this for so very long. Severus felt as if he were reliving his childhood. Closed his eyes and felt himself younger, the hard library floor at his back.

He gently reach up placing his own cool hand on his lovers warm rich face. He bent his head back and closed his eyes, feeling a heat rush to his lips that had been long absent. Snape's lover leaned down to meet him, just lightly brushing together before a knock fell on the door. There was a silent snarl from them both.

"Mr. Bott? We'd like you to sign some autographs if you don't mind?" Came a muffled voice of the store owner.

Bertie sighed heavily, gazing at Snape with much longing and a touch of regret. "Later, tonight." He whispered. Snape nodded, feeling dejected and a bit betrayed. Then with a flash, that giant smile reappeared and Bertie unlocked the door. Swinging it opened he began to speak. "Thank you Potions Master for agreeing to evaluate my product." Snape gave him a mildly confused look. "I'll be by tonight for your opinions and any ideas that you can help me with."

Snape nodded dutifully before his friend pressed a black velvet bag into his hand. Severus noted it was different in size and shape than the one he'd given the children. Under it's soft texture he could feel the stiffness of paper. A note. Hmm...

He spent the rest of the day hassling children who couldn't believe their Potion professor was walking in sunlight with out any serious effects.

In the dungeons dark and cold, Snape withdrew the bag, mildly apprehensive and took out the note. On blue parchment with glittering bronzed ink, was the jagged hand of his former lover.

My love,

These are just for us, experiences I hope you still remember.
I'll be by tonight after dark, expect me.

B~B

From experience, Severus knew "after dark" was usually an hour after sunset. That gave him plenty of time to explore his little gift. He spilled the candies out onto his desk and began evaluating the scent and color of each one. Severus was not fond of sweets at all. Given the bean's reputation, he was justified in being apprehensive about placing the first in his mouth.

He'd selected a monochrome black and white, drew his brows together and closed his eyes, concentrating to figure out what he was tasting. It was startlingly cold on the tongue. Yet, refreshing... the scent of snow and frost flooded his nostrils and he remembered! His love had somehow captured all the tastes and smells of the cold wintry day, when the two had sat by the frozen lake and talked endlessly of romance and poetry. The scene was laid out in an ethereal blanket of white, where the powered snow covered everything and distorted the shapes around him. Any other colors showing through the snow cover showed as a strange black against the bright white. A silent monochromatic world. He relaxed in the memory. Savoring it as long as possible before choosing a new one.

This time an odd brown color. Severus wondered to himself if this was the box of chocolate frogs he'd given Bertie one February day. But his tongue, awaiting a soft sweetness was stung by a chard, acidic, burning cloud. He spit it out immediately, but the heavy smoking odor would not leave his nostrils! Ack! How irritating! It smelled just like his one and only potions mistake... And at that, Severus smiled. He had taken an advanced potions class in his 4th year and only messed up just once. He'd let the liquid thicken far to much, by mistake, and it set itself ablaze. Burnt black fumes never did leave that pair of work robes. Bertie had had a good laugh about that one. Snape couldn't resist a small, uncharacteristic chuckle. Of all the memories he had to find...

Just one more. Snape thought, glancing at the clock. So he selected a deep, blood red color. He hesitated. His sharp mind thinking quickly about what this one may contain. It paused briefly at a recollection of blood that had been savored and shared between them. One of Bertie's efforts to completely explore Severus and Snape's own strange obsession with the macabre.

Severus took a breath and lay the red bean on his tongue. Red wine melted across his mouth, accompanied with the slightest of tingling. Suddenly, as if hit with a bolt of lightning, his mind was absorbed in the memory. He lay naked and giggling on the cold, stone floor of the castle. A slight drunkenness over coming his senses. Severus had been seduced by his older lover. A bottle of red wine, the two had emptied earlier, lay on the floor. Bertie had poured the last remaining drops across Severus's chest. Licking them off very slowly with his warm tongue. Snape shivered and groaned at the touch of his lover's body.

Snape gasped just recalling. Then decided he would discover the others later. Sweeping the treats back into the bag, he moved to his office to await his guest.

Hot, pulsating flesh, moving in a timed rhythm. Two hearts pumping blood as hard as they could, beating in time with each other. Lungs filling and gasping with a single, shared breath.

"Severus?" A gentle warming voice stated from the office door. It broke Snape's reverie and took him a moment to focus back into the real world. Bertie, of course...

Snape shook his head lightly, "Enter, my friend." Snape offered a chair from across his desk. "A very unusual gift you gave me... I should like to know how it is that you captured a memory, and know it's taste?" Snape spoke all business, but somewhere in the depths of his stomach he felt a growing warmth. A slight giddiness that he knew would grow... There is a cheering charm on them, after all.

"We have far more interesting things to talk about than that, my dear." His voice was soft and sensual, as if he were to caress the wicked Potions Master with it. Like charming a snake. "I have not exhausted my gifts this evening." With that he gave a playful smile. Severus couldn't resist returning it and blushed slightly. Snape also repressed a giggle with all his might. The wicked devil... he thought, but he said, "You really should have been in Slytherin. It suits you."

Bertie smiled as wide as he could. "You are the one that taught me, Sev. Let me think... Ah yes, to 'use one's own methods against them'?" Bertie stood again and leaned easily across Snape's desk. Capturing those pale thin lips into a powerful, warm, wet experience. Lips rubbing together, tongues wound tightly. Eye lids fluttering against a cool pale cheek. Hot breath melting together as it so very slowly ended.

Trying to pant with dignity, Severus stood and beckoned his lover to follow. Entering a dark and hidden doorway at the back of the office. Its only decoration was a carved image of two snakes entwined. Soon enough Snape whispered to himself, fingers lingering on the wood carving, before pulling in his guest.

Black was the dominating color of the room, with a huge Slytherin crest hanging over the fire place. The occasional silver candle stick and small highlights of green here and there. Snape, free to do as he wished now, took his lover's hand. Ignoring the other rooms he went immediately to the back of his quarters, into a large bedchamber. Bertie sniffed lightly, "It smells of you." he whispered, hotly into Snape's ear. Bertie roughly placed his arms around Snape's waist and pulled the other man's back against his own chest. Nuzzling playfully into Snape's ear and against his neck.

Snape hissed viciously. But Bertie continued, not wishing to break the torment. Unbuttoning Snape's high collar and caressing the smooth throat with soft lips, Snape's lover elicited a gratifying moan. "This is much better than the library floor." He hissed and lowered a hot mouth to Snape's skin. A loud gasp issued.

"You are the only one I've ever let dominate me, in such a way." Severus sighed feeling his body react to the very warm touch that slowly moved to his chest. More buttons removed, and a layer of clothing falling away. The menacing black cape dropped to the floor. Snape's throat still under relentless attack and his chest continuously being brushed by warm hands while exposed to the cool air of his bed room. It was an odd combination of sensations.

In this game of power struggle, Severus was quickly losing. A brief pause of his lover and Snape moved with fast and shaking hands to undo the other man's large bow tie and popped off several buttons in an attempted to literally rip Bertie's shirt off.

"My turn" Came the deep rumble of the Potions Master, who instantly assaulted the tanned shoulders with bared teeth. He nipped gently at first, then grew more vicious. All the while, clawing off the blue coat and tore away the white shirt. Until only under garments separated them. Passion was swiftly growing within Snape's still black-clad loins. Snape suddenly tasted blood in his mouth and realized his ferocity was being well enjoyed. Bertie rolled his head back, savoring the pain. It's been so long, I can hardly control myself. Severus thought, then slowly sucked at the bleeding bite as if to apologize. Like he ever would.

Several moments of quiet sucking passed before Severus was once again the victim. Had he gotten so lost in such a small thing that he didn't see it coming? Bertie thrust a powerful hand into the mess of Snape's hair, pulling his head back, meeting his eyes. The two leered at each other. A single candle cast eerie shadows across their bodies. Then without warning lips slammed together. It was a suffocatingly deep kiss, tainted with blood. Only stopping to catch their breath.

By this time, Severus had forced Mr. Bott into a sitting position on the foot of the bed, and decided to use it to his advantage. Snape stepped forward to straddle the lap before him. Then he removed his own white shirt very slowly, revealing the pale flesh and refined chest muscles, in a teasing manor. His reward was a tongue wrapping about his left nipple. Snape signed inward and out, pressing Bertie's face into his chest, like a nursing child. Severus threw back his head and closed his eyes, far to distracted to notice the tan fingers creeping towards the laces of his black trousers.

Bertie moved slowly while Snape writhed on his lap, unconsciously grinding against the seated man's crotch. Only when his great phyllus had been freed did he notice the change in his partner's focus. If having a single nipple fiercely sucked was mind numbing, having those same lips slide over his very hard cock was paralyzing and fantastical. Severus shuddered and gasped, too overcome to fight back with his own passions. Helpless as he felt strong hands slide under his buttocks and rolled him onto his back, Bertie's face buried between his thighs.

At some point during the oral assault Snape felt himself giggling between sighs, far beyond his control. As if he were being tickled, instead of sucked into complete hardness. The magic in the candy was still working. His black pants were finally slipped away, and Bertie explored the entire region with fingers and tongue. Licking, sucking, stroking, probing the most sensitive parts of Severus Snape.

"Damn you!" came his nasty growl, Snape grabbed Bott's hair angrily. Pulling him roughly to meet his face. Severus latched onto the other man's throat with sharp teeth, then rolled Bertie onto his back. "I'll take charge here." Snape hissed violently, straddling his lover's throbbing erection. Squeezing gasps from his pinned lover with his tight thighs.

Bertie stroked Snape's thighs, chest, back, and anything else he could reach. Wondering what kind of unnatural control Severus had learned over his own body after all these years. When he was just a young Slytherin in Bertie's arms, Severus had begged for release after only a few minutes of fondling. Now, as Bertie struggled to remain in control of himself before the penetration, Snape pushed on with his endless foreplay. Bertie may have commented on it, were he able to form intelligible words.

Snape had learned to use every muscle within his body to torture his partner. He clenched and unclenched his buttocks and thighs around the erection pressed against him. He breathed in a timed rhythm to the pulse between his teeth, his large nostrils exhaling rough hot breath across his lover's face. Like a dragon would exhale it's flame. Snape lowered his shoulders and brushed their nipples together in time with Bertie's attempted thrusting. This play was so intoxicating, he didn't want to give it up. The salt of sweat, the scent of semen soaking through Bertie's under garment. The cool of his own bed chamber. Snape could even feel his own pulse growing stronger from the blood trapped within his penis. And that finally pushed him.

Severus ceased his torture but forced Bertie to lie face down into black satin sheets. He ran his tongue down his lover's spine, slowly, before tearing all remaining clothing from the tormented body. Snape positioned his very hard, powerful shaft at the sensitive male opening. He wrapped one hand around Bertie's own amazing erection. Then ran his claw-like fingernails across the shoulder and back of his lover. Deep bloody cuts followed, forcing Bertie to jump with surprise.

The moment froze in time. Snape, in one thrust, forced his full erection painfully deep into the tight opening before him. It was as if lighting had struck and the electricity had flooded him. All nerves stood on end and cried out in a single unified gasp. He was mentally and physically joined with his lover now. No separation between them. One joined mind, a single writhing body.

Thoughts became less and less clear as the world blurred, seemed so distant. The thrusting and crying out of pain and pleasure between them until it was only sensation. The moans, one sound between two voices perfectly attuned, shouts and cries. Orgasm approached and the magical bond pulled tighter. The entire universe was centered around a single pulsing thrust. Then it shattered. The climax ripped through them like a supernova. Fire that melted them both from the inside. Lava spilling across the molten flesh.

Several hours after the volcanic love making, the two lay together, held in weak, trembling arms. The mutual panting, slowly subsided, and the darkness reigned. Sleep took them completely, as they were to tired to dream.

The next day, late into the morning Snape awoke, to find the pair still naked in his bed, and Bertie gazing at him strangely.

"What?" Severus whispered hoarsely. Perhaps more moaning had gone on than he was aware of.

"You have matured into an amazing wizard, Sev. Not to mention lover." Bertie smiled, his broad, white grin. Raising a hand to shift a lock of black hair from Snape's face. Severus remained silent, studying his twice lover, cautiously. The shrewd Slytherin knew this would be the end and that it would be a great while or never would they be able to share this kind of love again.

However, as if reading his mind, Bertie spoke to comfort him. "Remember that promise, just after we had made love?" Snape frowned. He knew exactly that promise, but he said nothing.

"Accio!" Bott shouted. A small crystal vial slid from his royal blue trousers into his palm. "This my love, is that promise. And I believe you will be pleasantly surprised in a few weeks." He slipped it to Snape.

Severus studied the bottle, very carefully. Being the Master of Potions, this was probably one of the most interesting things he would see, outside of true potion making. The clear crystal contained an oily-looking black liquid, decorated with an occasional speck of emerald and silver. The bottle itself was charmed with at least 15 different protection spells. Strong enough to be sensed through human skin. This was no doubt, one of Mr. Bott's most prized items.

"May I?" Snape asked, unstopping the bottle. He flared his large nostrils and inhaled a very unique scent. Snape felt as if it was something he should recognize, but when a person is capable of smelling themselves, it is often difficult to place. The scent was sweet with heavy acidic undertones. Musky. Snape raised his eyebrows, and returned the bottle. The after scent in his nose was one of ash and brimstone. Interesting... he thought.

"I knew you would say that..." Bertie smiled and kissed Snape's forehead.

Severus returned to rest in his lover's arms, and the two were silent. Dreamless sleep took Severus again, no matter how hard he fought it.

Nearly two weeks later. Professor Snape set out for an autumn stroll around the lake. The leaves were turning color, and it was so rarely he could appreciate them. Dressed in his usual black, with a heavy cloak and his gray scarf, he breathed in deeply the frosted air.

Bertie had left in his sleep, leaving him loved and alone, again. Severus understood. It was a strange and unique relationship the two shared. Distant, yet always together, apart, but lovers forever.

He smiled sadly to himself. He knew his fate.

"Ron, is that one of the new ones?" Harry asked of his red headed friend.

Potter and Weasely! Snape had just come upon them, while he walked along the shoreline. He sneered at the two from a short distance, torn between kicking one of them into the lake, or returning the way he had come. He turned lightly on his heel, when he just realized what they were doing.

A bag of bertie bott's beans sat between them, as they picked through the various new flavors.

Severus raised an eyebrow, curiously. Harry had removed a shining black bean that Ron was doubtful of, carefully he took a nip of it.

It was nearly everything he could do not to gag. Harry made the awfulest face. Ron laughed long and hard. "What flavor is it?"

Harry tried his best to describe it. "It's really greasy for a sweet." He swallowed hard. "I think it's burning my tongue. Reminds me of potions class! GACK!"

From his small distance, Severus felt an unusual warmth within him, it started in the pit of his stomach and crept up to his face. The tiniest of smiles began. Snape shook slightly, before he could resist no longer. He realized a deep and jovial laugh that continued for several minutes.

Potter doesn't like the way I taste. Serves him right.

The two Gryffindor's turned to see their Potions Master laughing very hard, not far behind them. It was a frightening experience. The two were wide-eyed and nervous as Snape turned and staggered back into the castle. Holding his stomach, laughing all the while.

"Something was either very funny... or he's finally cracked..." Ron whispered to Harry as the dark figure finally wavered out of sight, gasping and chortling.

Thank you for that, Bertie... Snape heaved painfully, finally over his fit. It was all worth it for that exact moment.