Prolific Author Arsenic Jade
And now for the seventh installment of our Prolific Author Series ... insert drum roll ... presenting arsenicjade. You may be familiar with her story, Pomegranate Seeds. It recently won first place at the Quill to Parchment Awards in the one-shot category. Ms. ArsenicJade is not a one-hit wonder--she has lots more HG/SS where that came from! If you fall in love with her writing as I have, perhaps you will read her other pairings as well. Enjoy, fangirls!
The first fangirl who posts a perfect score will get to choose the next quiz. Quick!
Rule of Law
Body of Knowledge*
Mating For Life **
Craving
Hideaway
Lines Undrawn
Collateral
Q&A
Rescue
Pomegranate Seeds
*First book in a trilogy
**Part of the Care of Magical Creatures series.
1. Granger dropped in again months later with a Luciana who was now sporting pigtails and addressed him as "perfessor," before climbing him like one would a rung ladder.
Severus gave Granger a pointed look. "Verbal manners are only an accompaniment to more basic ones, you do realize?"
"Make sure she doesn't fall," Granger said, smiling as Severus not-so-reluctantly pulled Luciana into his arms.
"You are a wretched excuse for a young lady," he told her.
"Perfesser," she said, fondness lacing the word.
Severus sighed. Granger said, "We can't stay long."
"And you didn't come to see me," he said, despite the fact that Luciana was nestling her face in his neck, making contented noises at the juncture where his collar met his skin.
2. He tells her while her knees are curled around him, while he is sheathed tightly inside her, while her neck is strained backward, open to his tongue, teeth, lips. He tells her while she cannot easily slip away, while he has as much of her as he will ever get. He says, "It. He. The Dark Lord. Voldemort. Was supposed to be. . .perfection. There's a number in arithmancy-"
"Not a number, not exactly. Numbers are mathematical, the rune equivalent value means that it's, um, well, not a number. But yes, the arithmantic seven."
Which is what he's talking about, she always knows these things. She always gets what he is trying to say. "It has a symmetry that's unknown in any other value-"
"You were looking for absolute beauty."
"The things that lie beneath the concept."
She stops moving against him, above him, perfectly still even as she breathes. She says, "We could not offer you that either."
3. "I don't give two figs about you and your rules and your limits, if you don't get out of this house and get me some Khorma I'm going to have this child right here on your bloody ancestral rug."
"That rug is nowhere near ancestral."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. Severus cursed himself for allowing her to pick up on that habit. "You know what happens when I go into Muggle society."
"They flee in terror and you get to jump ahead in queue? Yes, it's a bit like going out with you in wizarding society. Also, as a side note, why I married you. I abhor waiting on queue."
"There's always-"
4. Hermione was worn at the edges and oh-so-very tempted to snap back at him about arrogant, neglectful Potions Masters but she needed the man on her side. Draco's side. "Of a sort. Can we step inside, please?"
Snape sneered but pushed the door open and gestured for her to enter first. Hermione walked in and waited for him to shut the door before saying, "Tell me something to make me believe you care about Draco."
Whatever it was, whether her use of Draco's given name, or the urgency in her voice, or the way she felt tears of panic threatening, Snape didn't immediately return with some comment meant to cut. He watched her carefully for a bit before saying, "Draco's birth was the first and only time I thought of having children."
Given her observations of the man with human young over the years, Hermione accepted this. "He's in trouble."
5. Severus had thought about putting Granger in Lucius' wing, just for the prurient pleasure of watching her squirm a bit, but she had learned how to be surprisingly (annoyingly) placid in front of him. He had also considered putting her in one of the previously uninhabited wings, but for reasons that he wasn't interested in pursuing, the idea of Narcissa's quarters in the hands of strangers made him uncomfortable. He knew--with the same type of instinctual certainty that had lead him to revise and improve upon potions as a child--that Draco would never have agreed to having his mother's space taken over by some random witch or wizard.
6. Hermione very nearly made a noise. A snort, from the sound of it. Even in the dark, Severus suppressed his smile.
"--and received the shock of my life when it swung open to reveal dozens of industrious house elves hard at work."
Her breath caught on what must have been a question. He wondered what it was, if he could find an answer without the aid of knowing the actual inquiry. "I went in, because it seemed a perfect hiding place, and it actually was. Even after the older kids realized what I must have been doing, the elves were forever hiding me."
7. "What are you on about now?"
"Muggle thing, used for medical testing. The subject signs legal forms saying she understands the possible consequences. You could publish it in the Prophet, for all I care."
He looks at her assessingly. "Binding magical contract?"
She shrugs. "I'd want to look it over before I signed."
"The school keeps Wizengamot defense representatives on retainer."
"Really? Why'd the Headmaster never use them to help Harry out?"
"Because the Headmaster was better defense, obviously, idiotic child."
"I suppose."
He glances at her suspiciously, but doesn't pursue the thought. "I will see if Minerva would be so kind as to loan me one."
"Mention my name, she likes me."
8. "How did you get caught in the Curse?"
"It's not a well, Miss Granger, it's not something I fell down and couldn't climb my way out of."
But Compulsion Curses were large, they had to be. Compulsion was hard to weave at the best of times, doubly hard when the weave had to stick until someone, well, walked into it. "How did the Curse come into contact with your being?"
"I was not paying attention."
"When I was thirteen I watched you look in four directions all at once."
"I'm slipping in my old age."
Without thinking, Hermione said, "You aren't that old."
9. She was still taking a sip when Severus decided to say, "Perhaps it is long past time that we took some sort of vows or made some type of official commitment, then. When I get a moment, I'm sure I could look to see if there's any precedent for more than two people doing such with each other."
Hermione swallowed incorrectly and Remus stood to rub at her back while she hacked out dihydrogen monoxide infested carbon dioxide. When she had regained her breath it was Remus who used the returning calm to ask, "Official commitment?"
Severus drew himself into his most authoritative stance, as good a sign as any that he was feeling horridly insecure. "To give the mind something tangible to reference. After all, I find it perfectly understandable. We are none of us strangers to having loved ones abandon us in one form or another." His tone implicated that he was talking about the price of manufacturing new pewter cauldrons, but his eyes were a mix of vulnerability and frustration at that very emotion.
10. Hermione unsheathed a flask along with her bundles of papers. "It's a mild heal-all. We have to talk about the lack of evidence today, I thought you might want to feel decent before starting in."
"Who made it?" Snape's voice was raspy and there was a new cut above his eye but some of the bruises from her last visit were disappearing.
"Luna Lovegood."
Snape unstoppered the flask and drank it down. "She added lavender stems."
"She has her own style. Is it working?"
"Adequately."
Hermione took that to mean the effects bordered on the spectacular. "I'm going to go through some information unearthed at the previous trial to verify certain issues with you."
The first fangirl who posts a perfect score will get to choose the next quiz. Quick!
Rule of Law
Body of Knowledge*
Mating For Life **
Craving
Hideaway
Lines Undrawn
Collateral
Q&A
Rescue
Pomegranate Seeds
*First book in a trilogy
**Part of the Care of Magical Creatures series.
1. Granger dropped in again months later with a Luciana who was now sporting pigtails and addressed him as "perfessor," before climbing him like one would a rung ladder.
Severus gave Granger a pointed look. "Verbal manners are only an accompaniment to more basic ones, you do realize?"
"Make sure she doesn't fall," Granger said, smiling as Severus not-so-reluctantly pulled Luciana into his arms.
"You are a wretched excuse for a young lady," he told her.
"Perfesser," she said, fondness lacing the word.
Severus sighed. Granger said, "We can't stay long."
"And you didn't come to see me," he said, despite the fact that Luciana was nestling her face in his neck, making contented noises at the juncture where his collar met his skin.
2. He tells her while her knees are curled around him, while he is sheathed tightly inside her, while her neck is strained backward, open to his tongue, teeth, lips. He tells her while she cannot easily slip away, while he has as much of her as he will ever get. He says, "It. He. The Dark Lord. Voldemort. Was supposed to be. . .perfection. There's a number in arithmancy-"
"Not a number, not exactly. Numbers are mathematical, the rune equivalent value means that it's, um, well, not a number. But yes, the arithmantic seven."
Which is what he's talking about, she always knows these things. She always gets what he is trying to say. "It has a symmetry that's unknown in any other value-"
"You were looking for absolute beauty."
"The things that lie beneath the concept."
She stops moving against him, above him, perfectly still even as she breathes. She says, "We could not offer you that either."
3. "I don't give two figs about you and your rules and your limits, if you don't get out of this house and get me some Khorma I'm going to have this child right here on your bloody ancestral rug."
"That rug is nowhere near ancestral."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. Severus cursed himself for allowing her to pick up on that habit. "You know what happens when I go into Muggle society."
"They flee in terror and you get to jump ahead in queue? Yes, it's a bit like going out with you in wizarding society. Also, as a side note, why I married you. I abhor waiting on queue."
"There's always-"
4. Hermione was worn at the edges and oh-so-very tempted to snap back at him about arrogant, neglectful Potions Masters but she needed the man on her side. Draco's side. "Of a sort. Can we step inside, please?"
Snape sneered but pushed the door open and gestured for her to enter first. Hermione walked in and waited for him to shut the door before saying, "Tell me something to make me believe you care about Draco."
Whatever it was, whether her use of Draco's given name, or the urgency in her voice, or the way she felt tears of panic threatening, Snape didn't immediately return with some comment meant to cut. He watched her carefully for a bit before saying, "Draco's birth was the first and only time I thought of having children."
Given her observations of the man with human young over the years, Hermione accepted this. "He's in trouble."
5. Severus had thought about putting Granger in Lucius' wing, just for the prurient pleasure of watching her squirm a bit, but she had learned how to be surprisingly (annoyingly) placid in front of him. He had also considered putting her in one of the previously uninhabited wings, but for reasons that he wasn't interested in pursuing, the idea of Narcissa's quarters in the hands of strangers made him uncomfortable. He knew--with the same type of instinctual certainty that had lead him to revise and improve upon potions as a child--that Draco would never have agreed to having his mother's space taken over by some random witch or wizard.
6. Hermione very nearly made a noise. A snort, from the sound of it. Even in the dark, Severus suppressed his smile.
"--and received the shock of my life when it swung open to reveal dozens of industrious house elves hard at work."
Her breath caught on what must have been a question. He wondered what it was, if he could find an answer without the aid of knowing the actual inquiry. "I went in, because it seemed a perfect hiding place, and it actually was. Even after the older kids realized what I must have been doing, the elves were forever hiding me."
7. "What are you on about now?"
"Muggle thing, used for medical testing. The subject signs legal forms saying she understands the possible consequences. You could publish it in the Prophet, for all I care."
He looks at her assessingly. "Binding magical contract?"
She shrugs. "I'd want to look it over before I signed."
"The school keeps Wizengamot defense representatives on retainer."
"Really? Why'd the Headmaster never use them to help Harry out?"
"Because the Headmaster was better defense, obviously, idiotic child."
"I suppose."
He glances at her suspiciously, but doesn't pursue the thought. "I will see if Minerva would be so kind as to loan me one."
"Mention my name, she likes me."
8. "How did you get caught in the Curse?"
"It's not a well, Miss Granger, it's not something I fell down and couldn't climb my way out of."
But Compulsion Curses were large, they had to be. Compulsion was hard to weave at the best of times, doubly hard when the weave had to stick until someone, well, walked into it. "How did the Curse come into contact with your being?"
"I was not paying attention."
"When I was thirteen I watched you look in four directions all at once."
"I'm slipping in my old age."
Without thinking, Hermione said, "You aren't that old."
9. She was still taking a sip when Severus decided to say, "Perhaps it is long past time that we took some sort of vows or made some type of official commitment, then. When I get a moment, I'm sure I could look to see if there's any precedent for more than two people doing such with each other."
Hermione swallowed incorrectly and Remus stood to rub at her back while she hacked out dihydrogen monoxide infested carbon dioxide. When she had regained her breath it was Remus who used the returning calm to ask, "Official commitment?"
Severus drew himself into his most authoritative stance, as good a sign as any that he was feeling horridly insecure. "To give the mind something tangible to reference. After all, I find it perfectly understandable. We are none of us strangers to having loved ones abandon us in one form or another." His tone implicated that he was talking about the price of manufacturing new pewter cauldrons, but his eyes were a mix of vulnerability and frustration at that very emotion.
10. Hermione unsheathed a flask along with her bundles of papers. "It's a mild heal-all. We have to talk about the lack of evidence today, I thought you might want to feel decent before starting in."
"Who made it?" Snape's voice was raspy and there was a new cut above his eye but some of the bruises from her last visit were disappearing.
"Luna Lovegood."
Snape unstoppered the flask and drank it down. "She added lavender stems."
"She has her own style. Is it working?"
"Adequately."
Hermione took that to mean the effects bordered on the spectacular. "I'm going to go through some information unearthed at the previous trial to verify certain issues with you."