Sixteen

They returned to Hogwarts just after half past one having missed lunch, not that they needed it.

Hermione and Severus arrived back in the same classroom they had left earlier. He simply bent down to retrieve his robes and replaced them about his person.

"I am busy this afternoon ... unfortunately." He had reassumed the chill tones of intolerant schoolmaster.

"Yes."

"I know that Filch is cleaning my rooms this evening. I do not see how you can come tonight."

Hermione's heart sank. "Cleaning your rooms on a Saturday night?"

"I believe he prefers to work ... unencumbered by adolescents. I have a certain empathy."

"Surely magic is used to clean the castle?"

"Generally, but Filch likes to feel useful."

"You are kind to indulge him."

He did not respond.

A feeling somewhat like grief was sweeping through Hermione. Her gut ached with the thought of not being with him. "Can't you Apparate ... or whatever it is you do ... we could meet somewhere safe?"

"It would be a risk. It is harder to do so within the castle than beyond it."

"So I won't see you until tomorrow?" Her voice was desolate.

"It would seem that way." Snape's words were dismissive, but she still clearly heard regret in his tone.

He stood apart from her. It was nearly two o'clock. He would have to go to take detention. With feet of lead, Hermione turned to leave. "So ... until then, I suppose ..." She walked past him, but he caught her hand in his and stopped her firmly but gently. Slowly but deliberately he brought his head to hers.

The kiss started tenderly and languorously, but they were unable to stem the inexorable build up of passion, and soon their tongues and lips were mingling desperately as they tried to inhabit each other.

When finally they broke away, Hermione laid her head on his chest and Severus held her tight to him.

"I don't think I can stand being away from you." Her words were spoken from a place deep within.

He did not reply, but his hand moved in a circle on the small of her back, and she took his silence as concurrence.

At last she pulled back and with a final kiss whispered, "Goodbye," against his lips before leaving the room.

Hermione spent the afternoon in the library, trying desperately to fill the hollowness inside. At about half-past-three she heard footsteps approaching.

"Found you! 'Mione, it's Saturday! We're all outside. Don't waste away in here."

It was Ginny. Hermione smiled wearily up at her. "Hi, Gin. Sorry. I'm just trying to catch up on things."

"We missed you this morning too. Couldn't find you anywhere."

"I went for a walk." Hermione started to pack away her things, thinking it wise to show willing, but kept her head down.

"On your own?"

"Yep." She was happy to go with Ginny now, but did not want to be pressed.

"Shame. A certain Quidditch hottie was looking for you."

Hermione's eyes darted to Ginny's and she could not help but groan. "Oh god."

"Hermione! He's gorgeous! Everyone's so jealous of you ... they all know he fancies you. Why don't you just have a bit of fun ... let your hair down?"

Hermione could not stand it. "I just ... I'm just not interested in him," she said firmly.

Ginny paused momentarily. "Well ... is there anyone you are interested in?" She was looking at her curiously.

Hermione knew her face was reddening. She kept her eyes lowered and mumbled a barely audible, "No."

"Well, you've missed your chance with Lawrence for the day. He's in detention all afternoon."

"Is he?" She tried to appear nonchalant.

"You know he is," Ginny's voice had hardened somewhat. "I heard you were sitting right next to him when Snape laid into him."

"Oh yeah ... it slipped my mind." She still could not bring herself to look at her friend but could feel Ginny's steady gaze on her.

"Sounds like Snape was in typically sadistic form that day. What did you think?"

"I think Lawrence said something insulting to him," she mumbled.

"Really? I find it hard to believe it was that bad. You're normally the first to defend someone in front of Snape."

Why was Ginny persisting in discussing this matter? A sense of unease crept over Hermione and she heard her voice becoming defensive and tetchy. "I don't know. I can't remember. I wasn't really paying attention." She looked at Ginny abruptly. "Shall we go?"

Ginny held her gaze quietly and seriously for a while, as if waiting for something. She eventually lowered her head with a slight regretful smile. "Come on, 'Mione. Let's get you out of here."

The tension soon dispersed and the two young women walked out of the library together.

Being with her friends was good and eased the emptiness inside. Ginny seemed to have relaxed with her again and they spent an afternoon catching up and laughing. Still, their earlier conversation niggled Hermione. Had Ginny noticed? Part of her almost wanted to blurt it all out to her. She was a true friend, and Hermione trusted her completely but did not want to betray Severus. And Ginny certainly bore no affection for her Potions Master. She would find the whole situation incomprehensible, surely?

But as the afternoon wore on the two friends' easy and familiar good humour at last pushed the matter to the back of Hermione's mind.

She and Snape only overlapped briefly at supper, and Hermione was careful to keep her head down although the need for connection with him burned stronger than ever. She was also relieved to find Lawrence Filmore sitting a long way down the table from her. He looked utterly fed up after his wasted afternoon, and she was able to avoid any more awkward encounters with him.

After supper, she returned to the Gryffindor Common Room and sat reading quietly. Lawrence wasn't there again ... he had an equipment maintenance session. The Common Room had a relaxed, weekend atmosphere and her friends occasionally wandered over for a chat. Hermione would break away from her book and turn to them, conversing freely, lolling back languidly on the sofa. She felt increasingly relaxed.

At around nine o'clock the door opened and a scruffy-haired boy in a Gryffindor jumper came in. He must have been a fourth or fifth year. Hermione noticed him glance at her as he walked over to an armchair in the corner. He had an intense, brooding countenance which held something vaguely familiar in it. Hermione was sure she knew him but could not quite place him. She returned to her book.

The Common Room gradually thinned out. Hermione enjoyed the descending peace and stayed reading for a while. Eventually, she thought she should head for bed and lowered her book. Her eyes fell on the boy with the messy hair in the corner. He was looking at her intently. She quickly dropped her gaze. Shit. It was bad enough coping with Filmore. She really didn't want some hormonal teenager mooning around her too. She swiftly rose and went to her room.

She washed and undressed, grateful for the peace and solitude. Putting on her silk nightwear, she was about to get into bed when there was a knock on the door. It sounded like the sort of knock Ginny normally gave. Hermione rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood to be sociable anymore but went to open the door to her friend.

Standing outside was the scruffy-haired boy. Hermione stiffened and instinctively pushed the door shut a little. "What do you want?" she asked firmly.

"May I come in?" His voice was surprisingly measured for a young boy. She could not quite believe his audacity.

"Err ... No!"

But before she could stop him, he had pushed the door open strongly and moved into the room, shutting it smoothly behind him.

Hermione backed off, grabbing her wand quickly and pointing it straight at him.

"Right. You need to go ... now. This is completely unacceptable. If McGonagall hears about this you will be expelled."

The boy continued to walk silently towards her. He was remarkably tall for a fourth year, taller than she had noticed before. Hermione backed off further but held her nerve. "Stop! I'm warning you. I am not afraid to use this."

"I am sure you are not." His voice was deeper than she had anticipated.

His eyes stared into hers with a burn Hermione found almost painful, but as she looked back, she saw them darkening from a deep brown into black itself. The boy seemed to be growing taller with each step. His scruffy brown hair straightened and became a rich black, and his features shifted gradually, maturing, lengthening. When he at last stopped a mere step away from her Hermione found herself still clutching her wand staring up into the face of Severus Snape.

"I think perhaps you should put that down, Miss Granger."

"How did you ... but ... what ...?" Hermione could only gaze up in wondrous bewilderment at the man before her.

"Once again ... you forget who I am."

She flung her arms around him, her wand clattering noisily to the ground in the process. To have him to herself in the privacy of her room filled her with such deep joy, that all she could do was stand, clutching him as close to herself as was possible, breathing in the force of him.

"Can you stay?"

"That was the general idea." The sensual sardonic drawl had returned and throbbed through his chest to her, fuelling her desire instantly. But it was he who brought his hands up to her face and held her head up to hers, looking from one eye to the other with more searching tenderness than she had ever seen before.

"Hermione."

It was almost a prayer.

Hermione's eyes pricked and she knew he would see them growing moist. But before she could feel any embarrassment, he had closed the distance between them, his lips parting hers, warm but insistent. She melted into him and felt his tongue slip languidly into her mouth, flitting over hers to taste her sweetness as if for the first time.

At length his hands moved down to clasp her waist, and holding it firmly he spun her around, pulling her back hard into him. His mouth moved back to her head, and she turned instinctively to allow him to seek out her most tender spots. He moved over her face, planting delicious kisses as he travelled, coming to rest at her ear where he let his tongue explore the outer shell before slipping idly inside to tease and caress the sensitive place within.

He had never been so exquisitely sensual; her head fell back onto his shoulder and Hermione let her eyes close and her mouth hang open in lazy pleasure.

While his mouth continued its sensuous exploration of her ear, she felt one hand reach down to hold and squeeze her breast, his thumb rubbing lightly over the fabric encasing the nipple. She sucked in a sharp breath, but her pleasure was heightened yet further when his other hand slipped down her body, moving across it to the front. His fingers teasingly quested down into her silk pants, down, until they found her ripe and moist. Hermione gasped in a thrilled breath, pulling herself up towards his fingers. Reaching down under her, he thrust one finger hard up inside while the hand at her breast tugged the material down to roll the taut pink nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

His tongue was still circling idly within her ear, and the hand at her sodden pussy stroked and cajoled her so deliciously that she felt the familiar clenching in her belly swell to unbearable fullness. Her mind fogged and she focused only on the sensations he was drawing from the three parts of her body. At last it could wait no more, as with a final rub and twist at her clit and nipple she came completely, almost collapsing onto the hand that had brought her such exquisite pleasure. The hand at her breast moved to grip her body, pulling her close to his firm torso as she spasmed against him, a gasping cry wrenched from her.

Through her pleasure Hermione could feel him hard and insistent pressing into her back, and almost immediately the desire to reciprocate, feed on him, flooded through her. When she had recovered enough, she spun herself around and reached her hands down to his belt. But it was too frustrating, and she bent her knees, picking her wand up and muttering a spell all in the same movement. He suddenly found himself naked.

Severus raised a teasing eyebrow to her, but she frowned amidst her gasping need. "I need you ... can't wait ..."

She was still on her knees and level with his huge throbbing cock which swayed slightly towards her, seeking out its pleasure. She grinned in anticipation, a bubble of thrilled laughter sounding out of her before she opened her mouth fully and plunged her head down onto him.

He threw his head back and groaned long and loud. The pleasure this woman brought to him was indescribable.

Never had Hermione been so desperate to engulf him, swallow him as deep as she could. Her head moved rapidly, sucking hard. She did not tease this time as she would normally do; she wanted him as far down as she could take him. Bringing her head forward inch by inch, she drew more and more of him down her. She surprised herself at her ability to take him so fully. The man above her groaned, his mine beyond rational thought.

Then suddenly, she had to pull back, and dragged her lips hard over him as she went before releasing him with an urgent gasp, gulping in much-needed air. She glanced up to him ... there was an expression of awed wonder on both their faces ... before lowering her head swiftly again and repeating the process. As he descended towards her throat she felt him swell and she adjusted her ministrations, now twirling her tongue hard around his engorged head. Her hands came up to grasp his sac, and she sensed his readiness. With a final hard pull of her lips and tongue, she felt him tense within her mouth before hot bursts shot to the back of her throat. They hit her with such force that she struggled to catch it all. Moving off him a little, she captured the last spurts on her tongue, tasting it thick and salty in her mouth.

At last she leant back from him, releasing him tenderly from her swollen lips. Neither spoke. At that moment, words were so inadequate as to be obscene.

Severus stood above her, almost paralysed. She turned her head to look up at him. Holding his gaze, she swallowed hard, feeling his essence drip down into her. For the first time ever his eyes were filled with something she had never before seen in them ... admiration.

It struck her with wry amusement that after all her academic brilliance and strength in helping to defeat Voldemort it should be this act that would draw it out of him. He may be a supreme wizard and academic, but he was still a man after all.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a while neither could move. Hermione remained kneeling before him, her eyes gazing blearily up into his. Then suddenly he bent to her, grabbed her arms firmly in his hands and raised her up. It took her by surprise, but his display of force stirred the constant ache in her belly once again. She reached her arms out to him, running them along the sinewy muscles of his body, trying to lower her head to him, but she was prevented. He held her back and instead manoeuvred her powerfully to a chair at the side of the room. He pushed her slightly and she fell into it with a jolting gasp.

Immediately he knelt before her, pushing her legs far apart and lowering his mouth to the soft flesh behind her knee on which he planted a hot open-mouthed kiss, before dragging his lips and tongue up her inner thigh, gathering in the dampness which was already glistening off her from the pleasure he had given her earlier. Hermione kept her head raised to gaze down at him, but found her features creasing in expectation of what was to come. His tongue ran hard up her legs before finally reaching the place it sought. Once there, he quickly plunged straight into her, seeking into her eager pussy and plundering what he found. He groaned deliriously against her, the vibrations throbbing through her being.

Hermione brought her hand down hard to clasp his hair and could not prevent her head from falling back; it was impossible to focus. Severus licked and sucked desperately at her juices, drinking down every drop of her he could. His tongue came out and stroked hard from top to bottom, tantalising her needy clit as it went but more intent on absorbing all her pleasure on his tongue. His ardour overwhelmed her, and the sublime feelings he wrought brought more and more pleasure flooding to him. He lapped it up eagerly, his thirst unquenchable.

She was so close; she willed him nearer to her throbbing clit, but just when she thought she would come he pulled up and brought his head up to hers, kissing her hard, forcing his tongue deep into her mouth. She tasted herself strongly on him; it was a strange sensation, but one she welcomed if only for the passion he had displayed in taking it. He pulled her lower lip out with his teeth, his eyes burning into hers. Holding her head hard between his hands, he hissed low and desperate, "I am addicted to the taste of you, witch. I am addicted to the exquisite taste of your pleasure."

Her clit groaned in need. She moaned almost incoherently, trying to push him down again, "Please ... please ... go back ... I need you there ... oh god ... please." She was almost sobbing. He merely clasped her head in his hands, forcing her eyes to focus on him.

"Do you know what you taste of? Do you know what I taste when I suck your pleasure out of you?"

She shook her head blearily, taking in his passion but desperate for the feel of his tongue and mouth on her again.

"You taste of promise ... you taste of reawakening. You taste of life, witch."

At last Hermione listened to his words. But just as the depth of his sentiment started to sink in, he swiftly lowered himself again to her,and reapplied himself to laving her burning core with his tongue. She was now so primed that both her hands came down to push his head hard into her.

His brief absence had caused her clit to swell and ripen beyond containment, and with his words still ringing in her ear, his tongue swept hard up, at last encircling it fully. Her hands, along with her other muscles, tightened in expectation. Severus groaned with the sudden tug on his hair but did not pull back. She tensed, her eyes widening. Then the wave broke and Hermione convulsed hard over and over against his head, a deep gasping cry ripping from her. He drank in her ecstasy in long drafts, ensuring he caught every drop.

Only when he was fully sated, long after the last twitch of pleasure had left her body, did he at last raise himself up. He stood, looking down at her recumbent in the chair. She smiled blearily, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

Initially Severus seemed as incapable as her of moving, and it was Hermione who at length pulled herself up. She moved to stand against him, pressing her lithe body hard upon his tight frame, feeling him still hard and needy against her abdomen, despite all that had already passed between them.

Taking his hand, she pulled him gently towards her bed and there they made love, their bodies finding mutual release in each other.

As they lay afterwards, her head resting on his taut chest, she inquired tenderly, "How did you do that ... turn into that boy?"

"I shall tell you another time."

His words were gentle but she did not doubt his seriousness. "Was it Polyjuice Potion?"

"Not exactly. Again, I adapted it to suit my own needs."

"What would you call it?"

"Like many of the new forms of magic I have invented, I do not name them all. As I will be the only person using them, there is no need to do so."

"Don't you think that's rather selfish," she asked teasingly, "keeping it all for yourself?"

"Probably." He spoke without a hint of concern.

They lay still for a while longer, just looking at each other. She reached up a hand to stroke his face.

"You said something earlier."

He waited for her to continue.

"You said I tasted of life."

He did not respond.

At length Hermione spoke again, voicing words that had hitherto not been spoken.

"I was there, you know."

"When?" He was merely prompting her.

"When you were bitten. I saw it happen." Again there was silence for a time. "I saw your body lying there on the floor of the shack. I thought you were dead."

"Perhaps I was."

His words startled her. She stared intently at him. "But ... how is that possible ...?"

"It depends what you consider death to be."

"And what do you consider death to be, Severus?"

He was silent for a long while.

"The absence of meaning."

"I don't understand." She was pressing him for an explanation.

"When one no longer has a reason to be alive then one must die."

"That is ridiculous."

"Is it?"

"Are you telling me you no longer had a reason to be alive?"

"Yes."

"But you're not dead, Severus. You lived. How do you then explain that?"

"Something dragged me back."

"Dragged you?"

"I don't think I wanted to come. But then ..."

"Then?"

"I don't know. I cannot recall it." He spoke openly enough, but she wondered if he was holding something back.

In her heart she knew she was too.

"And what about now, Severus? Now that you have been dragged back?"

He looked at her for a while, his eyes once more searching her face. "I am content."

Hermione held his gaze.

She wanted to tell him more: more about when she had come to see his body in the mortuary, about why she had come, but the moment had gone. Enough had been said for one night.

Hermione lay her head on her pillow, feeling him pressed tight against her, and fell asleep with Severus in her room in Gryffindor Tower.

---------------------------------------------------

I am so enjoying your reviews and perceptive comments. Thank you all so much! x