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"How are you feeling, my girl?" Severus said, examining her closely. "I was worried about you."

"I'm fine," replied Zelda impatiently. "Waking up to find you conspiring behind my back with Michael does nothing for my disposition, however. Why'd you tell him?"

"Why should I not? Is there anyone, any friend or relative, that you would prefer to Michael?" asked Severus. "If something happens to you because you know me, what would your children think? Potter was right when he said someone should know the truth of what I am doing. The same is true for you. When Michael impudently showed up to ask me what my intentions are, and we conversed, I soon realized that he is the best person to know."

Zelda glared furiously. "I thought he was joking when he said he'd ask you what your intentions are. I'm going to make him extremely sorry he ever had the nerve to do it."

Severus tried to wipe the smirk off his face before she noticed, and almost managed it. He kissed her apologetically.

"Sev, Michael's a great guy and I know perfectly well he's not going to forget this, but I know he's crazy enough to think he can shoot it out with evil wizards if they come after me. I couldn't bear it if something happens to him because of me," she said, feeling wretchedly worried.

She got up and paced back and forth agitatedly, but he stood up and put his arms around her.

"You worry too much. Do not move, my girl," he said, and suddenly with a pop, they were standing in the back garden.

"Wow!" She laughed delightedly. "That was incredible. I want to do it again."

He chuckled at her excitement and looked around. Each time he had been out here in the past two days he had grown the shrubs and trees a little more, and the space was now shady and enclosed. He murmured a Muggle Repelling Charm over them, and then smiled wickedly, pulling off his t-shirt.

"It is too perfect a day to spend indoors. Take your clothes off, my darling," Severus said casually.

"Here?" Zelda asked nervously. "But... it's the middle of the day. What if someone sees us?"

"Look around you," Severus said, standing bare-chested and confident before her, a warm breeze stirring his limp black hair.

"Oh... Sev..." She realized that she was standing in quite a different place than she was used to, surrounded by a natural privacy fence that seemed to have grown overnight, with an amazingly sexy man.

"We will go into the house if you prefer it..." he offered, his eyes glittering. "But I hoped that you trusted me."

She laughed at his challenge and throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him adoringly. Then she unbuttoned her sundress and slipped out of it to stand naked in front of him. The soft breeze playing over her bare skin made her feel utterly wanton.

He cupped his hands under her breasts and smiled at her as he squeezed them. "I love that you are so accessible, dear girl. Do you ever wear underwear?"

She quivered as his lips began to follow his fingers over her skin and whispered, "Of course, but while you're here I'm ever the optimist. Why bother putting something on that'll just be a hindrance?"

"Why indeed?" he murmured, pleased with her practicality. He moved his hands lower, caressing her buttocks and making her feel exquisitely vulnerable. "How does it feel, my pet, to be so completely aroused in a public place?"

"Severus... I..." She was speechless, and looked up, blushing furiously, and offered him the submission he craved with a shy smile. "I adore you and I love it." She wriggled deliciously against him.

Severus was enchanted. Much as he wished to make love to her immediately, he wished to savor this moment when she generously offered herself to him without reservation. He moved his hands more slowly, touching and kissing and squeezing, and looked in her wide blue eyes to see her reaction.

She giggled and rubbed her face adoringly against his neck, before kissing him lingeringly all over his exposed skin. She knelt to kiss him on the belly, rubbed her face lower on his jeans, and looked up at him, a question in her eyes.

"Not yet, my darling," he said, pulling her to her feet. She pouted, but accepted his dictate. He realized joyfully that she perfectly understood this game and loved it as much as he did. He rewarded her with a long, long kiss, running his hands over her body as she squirmed splendidly. His clever fingers moved playfully between her thighs again, completely shredding every last bit of her self-control. Then he stepped back to see what his deliberate actions had done to her.

As he removed his hands from her, Zelda whimpered, "Severus, please don't stop..." She tried to move close again and have him touch her some more, but he quelled her with one severe look, and she stood obediently for his inspection, an ironic smirk on her lips.

He was delighted. He saw uncontrolled desire in her eyes, and her deep desire to please him too. There was no more hesitation at being naked under the blue sky; on the contrary, he could see it was even more exciting for her this way. "To the hammock, my girl," pronounced Severus gleefully.

Zelda's smile was luminous as she obeyed him. She was thrilled when he allowed her to undress him, and when their bodies were finally joined she laughed and cried at the same time. Her feelings for him were there in her eyes for him to see, and at the moment of their climax they were utterly as one.

Severus had never known such exquisite joy in his life.

Afterward they lay together, gazing into each other's eyes, extremely relaxed and happy, and reveling in the freedom of the small garden paradise.

"Severus, are you aware that we're outside, and, well... /nude/?" Zelda asked. "What happened to your dreadful inhibitions?"

Severus smiled smugly. "You are what happened to my dreadful inhibitions and my rage... and my obsessive misery. I adore you, my sweet Zelda. Are you still afraid to believe that we are soul mates?"

She nuzzled his neck, one of many loving gestures that were uniquely Zelda's, he thought smugly, as he waited for her answer. It made no difference really, whether she believed it or not. The bond was there. As he had moved through the day he had tested the idea repeatedly and he was now quite certain that she belonged with him.

"I don't know," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right... you seem so familiar and so dear to me. I feel like I've come home when I'm with you. I could never, ever be like this with anyone else."

Severus kissed her lovingly. "Whether you believe it or not, my girl, the bond is there, and it is real," he said. "I believe it changes nothing between us in this life, but we have known each other before this. What we do with this connection is for us to decide."

"I'm too overwhelmed by what's happening now in this life. I can't deal with cosmic reality." Zelda said. "But are you disappointed?"

"You do not disappoint me," he said gently. "I was serious when I asked you to marry me, though. Not now, but after this, when I am finally free to have something that is more like a proper life. Is it really such a terrifying prospect?"

"Can't I just be your scandalous mistress?" she asked hopefully. "I've always wanted to be scandalous."

Severus chuckled at her absurdity and hugged her. He was silent for a long time and finally said slowly, "Zelda, I have never admitted this before, even to myself. But... I have always wanted to be married... to belong with someone who loves me." He flushed, continuing, "It seems that I am pathetically conventional, but I want to marry you. I want us to love each other and care for each other as long as we live."

Zelda could feel his love and commitment and her soul yearned toward him. The difficulties, where they would live, how to reconcile their completely different backgrounds, overwhelmed her. She quelled the panicky fluttering in her chest and forced herself to examine all of her emotions. Most terrifyingly, under all her evasions, she realized she wanted precisely what he did, to be with him and love him as long as she lived. Among the terrors, there was also a fragile glimmer of hope that it might be possible. She offered her conclusions to him with tears in her eyes, but in unflinching honesty.

Severus understood her worry about the practicalities of the matter, and it would be difficult, but he believed it could be resolved. "It may not be possible, my girl. But if it is... will you marry me?"

"I'd be Mrs. Severus Snape..." Zelda said slowly, with a tremulous, happy smile. She took a deep breath, trying to grasp the way things had developed between them.

Severus was watching her closely and saw it when she finally accepted that perhaps they could be together. His eyes gleamed joyfully, he had never imagined being with such a wife.

"Yes," she said simply, examining this man she was promising to marry. Happiness shone in his black eyes, and she knew then that it was inevitable. For better or worse, Severus Snape had changed everything for her. "I don't dare to dwell on it, because I want it more than I've ever wanted anything. Sev, I'd love to be married to you... if you're sure."

"I am sure, my skeptical little love," Severus pronounced. He took the opportunity to study her, memorizing again the sparkling blue eyes and mischievous smile of his future wife. Then he hugged her and she kissed him. Before they knew it the next two hours had gone by in a delicious blur of sunshine and blue sky, bare skin and laughter, and the birth of a new confidence between them.