My body ached pleasantly from my recent activities while the smell of peppermint and clove tickled my nose—bringing me gently out of my restful sleep. Slow rhythmic breathing and the steady rise and fall of his broad lightly muscled chest that my head lay upon was incredibly soothing. It made me feel safe—something I hadn't felt in a long time.

     I had a million thoughts as I took in the room for the first time. I was surprised that it wasn't dark or void of color as I expected. With the exception of the black comforter, matching silky sheets and walnut furnishings, the walls were a creamy almond coloring, and the oak planked floor had various oriental rugs with intricate patterns in deep rich colors.

     I finally had him and, Merlin, I want him again! Should I wake him up or let him sleep longer?  It has to be passed noon... I wonder what time it is.

     He looked so peaceful that I didn't want to disturb him and suddenly recalled countless hours spent at St. Mungos, staring at his gray-sickly skin. I'd worried if I'd done the right thing or if in the end he was going to die anyway and he'd just had a much longer death throw because of my need to always prove that I'm the brilliant witch that everyone says I am. Thankfully, with the aide of time, he'd gained his coloring, and I stopped worrying if he would live to wondering when he'd finally rouse. 

     Suddenly I recalled seeing him grab his arm before looking at me when I was trapped in inside that bubble. My eyes darted to his arm and realized I was a bit preoccupied with other parts of his anatomy to have noticed that plain black leather was bound around both his wrists.

     Propping myself up, I reached over him and gently rolled his arm so I could see the underside of the plain opaque strap. 

     An uncontrollable smile pulled across my face as my eyes landed on a teardrop-shaped crystal quartz, embedded in the leather. Carved on its small surface was beorc—the same rune that opened my puzzle box—meaning family.

     I should have known he'd put a charm of some sort on my necklace—it's exactly what I would have done were I him. I wonder what all he used?

     Heat spread through me, and as if pulled by magnets, my eyes roamed down to where the dark sheet barely covered his semi-erect member. My waking body began aching with the desire to have him again. 

     I stared at him, and for some unknown reason, I was suddenly a little nervous about waking him and taking what I wanted. But the ache between my thighs had grown to such an uncomfortable degree that it was painful, and only Severus could cure it.

     Swallowing my nerves, I made my move. The feel of his skin brushing against my leg as I straddled him felt like strong silk that sent electricity through me.

     My heart rate shot to astronomical proportions as his hands shot out and possessed my hips as his dark dangerous-looking eyes studied me.

     Slowly—as if I was being hunted by a dangerous animal—I rested one hand on his chest, and the other found his quickly hardening member. The size of him throbbing to life in my hand made me feel giddy and powerful as I pressed the tip of him against my moist opening.

     He sucked in a deep, shuddering breath as he eased me down around his circumference. Jolts of electricity pleasantly zinged my body fully awake as he continued moving me with his skilled hands.

     Oh, Merlin! He feels so good!

     "Severus." I breathlessly moaned as he found the spot deep inside me, stroking to life a fire that would soon explode and end my ache.

     He sat up, wrapping a hand to my backside while the other held me against his chest as he kissed my neck. We moved as one, our breathing had become ragged, sweat coated our skin, and he knew where to be with each thrust and rock of our hips. Every throaty growl and moan from him made me feel high off the power it imbued in me.

     "Mmm," he growled once more, and my muscles uncontrollably quivered, and I began losing touch with reality.

     He silenced my scream with his invigorating flavored mouth, quickly driving me towards the edge. I melted like putty under his ministrations and felt liquid burst forth from deep inside, covering him and bringing a satisfied primal glint to his dark eyes.

     He sucked in a sharp breath, and I felt his body tense. Determined to please him as he did for me; I circled my hips and withing moments, his seed burst into me. Filling me in a way that made me feel complete, made whole by his pleasure and all its aftermath.

     Several moments passed as we stared at each other, "Good morning, Kia."

     I scrunched my face in confusion as I wiped silky raven strands from his damp forehead.

     He kissed my nose, "Or should I call you, my Know-it-all?"

     "Oh," I felt the heat rise into my face as I realized the meaning of the name. Of course, he could call me quite a few names that would be inappropriate in polite company and I'd still willingly come to them, but Kia was, well...perfect.

     "If you don't like it, I'm sure that I can come up—"

     I kissed him to thank him for the nickname, "Good morning, Sev."

     The warmth of his ensuing chuckle flooded through me as he nodded in approval at my use of his shortened name. "I think I'd like to be woken up like that every morning."

     Wrapping my arms around his neck and wiggling my hips, I suggested, "I think the only logical thing to do in this instance is that whoever wakes first gets to rouse the other."

     "In that case, tomorrow, I'm pretending I'm still asleep," he nibbled my neck.

     Tomorrow!? He wants me here again!?

     Suddenly he pulled back and looked at me like I was daft, "Yes, why wouldn't I?"

     My heart jumped into my throat, "I didn't speak just now."

     He cupped my chin and ran his thumb over my lips, as his eyes searched mine, "Of course. Heightened emotions."

     Now I was baffled, "What?"

     I sucked in a shocked breath as his voice whispered in my head, "Nod if you can hear me."

     I did as he commanded, and an incredibly sexy I-love-being-right smile pulled across his face, "I suspect that's why we connected in such a way the first time we kissed. Facing death was incredibly alarming."

     Why didn't I think of that?

     "But I'm not a Legilimens, so really, you're the one doing all the work."

     "I've never been able to speak in someone's head like that before, only you. And I have to focus to perform the spell; it's physically taxing." He stopped speaking out loud, and I heard him in my head again, "This doesn't. And its only words and emotions, not visions." As he finished, I felt lighter—as if I was being lifted into the suns warm rays—and that I was the most beautiful person in the world.

     The admiration coming from him felt comforting but being the ever-curious person I was, I lifted his arm and pointed to his wrist, "What about this?"

     His lips twitched, "Of course you found that already."

     I quirked my brow and waited.

     "Its a charm that's connected to your necklace and was only meant to warn me if you were in danger." He stared at his wrist in thought, "However, it did zap me hard enough to make me think I was going to lose my arm."

     I giggled, "You mean you made it work, too well?"

     "I think we have a connection like nothing I've heard of before." He sighed loudly, "Are you certain about your bloodline?"

     "No. But because of what's happened, it means that both my parents have to have a magical heritage to be New-maj's. I only ever suspected my father's side of the family tree but never had evidence to prove it. The answer must be on that parchment we collected."

     He nodded as if he was thinking the same thing, just as my stomach rumbled loudly. I was starving, but I had no desire to ever leave his bed.

     "We can wait a little bit longer before checking it. I'm hungry too." With that, he gracefully moved from the bed into the adjoining bathroom. Watching his nicely toned legs leading to his sculpted backside, trim waits and broad back made me giddy with the idea of exploring every inch of him.

     Water in the shower was turned on, and a few seconds later, he popped his head around the corner. "On my back, there's a spot that is really hard for me to reach," his eyes ran over me, making me giddy. "Maybe you'd like to help a perfectly aged man out?"

     I smiled broadly, "Yes, I believe I would." I joined him in the shower, where we washed each other until the water ran cold.

     Once we were out, he kissed the top of my damp head and told me to take my time while he makes us an extremely late breakfast. When I'd offered to help, he insisted that he could do it himself and then reminded me of my attempt to poison him with my cooking last summer. I could chop things... I had to concede to his logic on the matter and decided that I would take care of the cleanup instead.

     After savoring the delicious veggie omelet and kalamata olive bread that was lightly toasted, Severus asked, "Did you wish to visit your mother today? It's getting a bit late, but if we go now—"

     "Maybe in a bit or tomorrow," I smiled weakly as he pulled my hand to his mouth and kissed my fingers.

     "Tell me," his dark eyes bore into mine.

     "What?" I tried to act confused.

     He quirked a black brow at me and spoke in his disapproving professor tone, "I thought we'd established no time-wasting, Kia—we both detest it."

     "Severus, she didn't know who I was," I swallowed hard. "I knew that it was going to be difficult seeing my parents in such a wrecked state, but there wasn't even a glimmer of recognition in her eyes..." I trailed off not sure what I could say without breaking down, and that was the last thing I wanted to do in front of him—especially after the amazing night we'd spent together.

     "Then we will wait and visit her tomorrow," he kissed my fingers again. "But tomorrow afternoon at the very latest."

     "Ok," I sucked in a shocked breath as I remembered the family tree parchment and jumped to my feet to find my carelessly discarded purple bag in Sev's study. Digging out the scroll once I'd returned to the kitchen, "Let's take a better look at this." I smiled and unrolled the large paper across the table after I magicked it clear of all our meals mess.

     The tall wizard, pointed to the circle mark on the bottom corner, "I've seen this before and wasn't sure if it was the same one or something else."

     I stared at the symbol that looked like one square laying over the top of another one at a thirty-five-degree angle, making it look like a jagged circle. I grew uncomfortable as the image scratched at something in the back of my mind, and the handsome wizard's silence next to me was making matters worse. Finally, I blurted, "What is it, Sev?"

     "Have you heard any tales about The Circle?"

      The cult?

     I scrunched my face in confusion as well as worry, "You can't possibly mean the jibberish that is told to kids to keep them from misbehaving is a real thing!?"

     His eyes locked on mine, and his expression was deadly serious, "Yes. But it's not gibberish, at least that's what this symbol and this whole mess would suggest. And unfortunately, it makes the most sense."

      "How do you know it's real?"

     "Lucius Malfoy."

     Even though Severus is friends with Draco's father, I still didn't care to be associated with him and let's face it—he's creepy. I felt my worry deepen, "You mean he's part of this Circle?"

     Severus shook his raven-haired head, "No, I don't believe he'd be willing to sleep with anyone but Narcissa, he loves her and takes his wedding vows very seriously."

     "Then how—"

     His dark eyes mesmerized me as he spoke, "As a child, my kind and caring mother would always threaten to send me off to the Circle—where it's said they sacrifice children—if I misbehaved. One day, after the hundredth warning, I talked with Lucius about what nonsense I thought it was. He informed me that it's a pure-blood secret society that practices blood, dark, and sex magic—anything that gives them the upper hand. Of course, they are powerful people in the wizarding community, but he couldn't tell me who belonged to it—no one could. Without any evidence, I didn't believe Malfoy... until now."

     My stomach sank realizing we were dealing with a society that's been around for decades, if not centuries, one that could probably squish all of us like little bugs underfoot, "Wonderful."

     Just as we leaned over the table to inspect the parchment further, a loud frenzied knocking sounded on the front door before bursting open with a loud bang. Our confused eyes locked on one another's.

     "Don't just barge into his house!" The familiar voice of Yasmine Abdelaziz sounded down the short hall leading to the kitchen.

     Loud clomping sets of multiple footsteps headed our way.

     Severus waved his wand at the scroll, making it roll back up with a lite shifting paper sound. He grabbed my hand and held my eyes with his, "There must be news. We can study that later, without visitors."

     I nodded in agreement and took several deep breaths feeling the excitement building in every cell of my body—something big was happening if they were bursting through the door like this.

     "We don't have time for common courtesy. Plus Snape told me to interrupt at any...time." Markus said with an almost embarrassed look on his face when his gaze landed on us once making it to the kitchen entryway.

     "Explain, why you felt the need to barge into my home," Severus glared at the tall blonde in his surprised cobalt eye.

     As the words left Severus' mouth, Kingsley Shacklebolt, rounded the corner with Yasmine Abdelaziz and the Ministry's office oddity—that reminded me of a young Professor Trelawney—named, Juniebee Jenkins. Disbelief ran through me as my gaze locked with the bright green eyes that I've come to know well over the last eight years.

     "Harry?" He gave me a guilty look as I asked, "What are you doing here?"

     Shaking his raven-haired head and darting his bright-green eyes around, "I—I was—"

     Shaklebolt cleared his throat, "Miss Granger, I had Harry doing some quiet investigating with his partner, Juniebee Jenkins. Without Snape on the pure-bloods trail, we needed someone that could do some sleuthing, and they were the best option."

     "But then Harry was in danger this whole time."

     "I was," Harry stated matter of fact. "But seeing that you are my best mate, I would have been watched anyway so why not give them what they want, keeping them busy with my antics and get the job done to boot."

     I gave him a warm smile, "Thank's Harry."

     "It's not over yet, and you don't have to thank me."

     I scrunched my face in confusion as my gaze landed on Juniebee Jenkins, "I'm sorry, but what does an environmental biologist witch have to do with any of this?"

      The red-spectacled whisp of a woman opened her mouth to speak, and Abdelaziz cut her off, "Miss Granger, that's not important right now. What is important is that we go now. They are already gathered and who knows how long they will be there."

     I was even more confused and looked to Harry, "Hermione, your dad is there."

     He's alive!?

     I felt my mouth drop open in excited disbelief before my new counterpart asked, "Who is at this gathering?"

     Harry spoke, sounding a little befuddled about what he was about to say, "Someone called Grandmaster is there, and some freaky cult thing is happening."

     Severus and I locked eyes and spoke in unison, "The Circle."

     The Minister of Magic nodded and spoke sounding a bit surprised, "That's what it sounds like."

     "And Greyback?" Severus asked with a note of hope in his tone.

     "Yes, as well as a new recruit," Markus announced.

     "A new one? Since yesterday?"

     The tall blonde nodded.

     "There are also three New-Majs, as well as Wendell Granger. They most likely are all able to perform magic with enough skill to injure or possibly kill us," Abdelaziz warned.

     "I believe that chopping the head off the dragon will make the rest crumble," Severus spoke in a deadly tone.

     Shaklebolt nodded and looked around the group—like a coach giving his team the gameplay, "We are outnumbered more than two to one, but we have years of training and first-hand battle under our belts. Let's get there and quickly identify the Grandmaster. We want the leader as well as Greyback..." his dark brown gaze zipped to Markus, "...alive. Contain and arrest as many as possible. Everyone follow Snape's lead. Any questions?"

     No one said a word.

     The Minister nodded and stuck his hand out; everyone gathered placed their hand in like a huddle before the game.

     And break!

     There was a tug on my body as I was pulled through space and within moments we landed in the middle of a forest.