Chapter 61

A/N: This was originally the first part of HUGE chapter. So, there is more adventure and revelations to come. PLEASE REVIEW! This was the most difficult chapter I had to write for this fic. I do want to hear from you. Thanks!

***

Tonks was spending Christmas with her parents. It had been a while since she'd had a proper vacation. Molly Wesley had sent her owl after owl, begging her to come to the Burrow. She told her Remus was going to be there, but Tonks wasn't in the mood to deal with him.

Hermione packed and watched Tonks sulk as she looked out the window, sipping on her cocoa.

"Tonks," Hermione said. "You are going to have to make a decision. This living in limbo is tearing you apart. I hate seeing you so miserable!"

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I just love him. I love him and to be near him and not able to kiss and hold him is just torture! It will just hurt less if I don't go," she reasoned as she wiped her tears away with her sleeve.

Hermione was silent, but went and gave her friend a hug.

"Do you want him hexed? Poisoned? Honestly, Severus wouldn't be fussed, really," she asked with a sly smile.

Tonks laughed. "I love you, Hermione. Oh, God, why can't I just hate him or at least not give a flying fuck!" she said in exasperation.

Hermione clapped her hand on top of Tonks'. "I had to wait, and there were times that Severus thought it would be too much trouble. I had to fight and at times he did as well. You know, I think your absence at the Burrow will get him thinking. Don't give up, Tonks. I know he loves you. He looks at you the way a bloke would if he was in love!"

Hermione went to finish packing and headed to the castle. Tonks joined her since she was relieving Dawlish for guard duty. She hugged her friend good-bye, and Tonks shouted after her, "HEY, HAVE AN ORGASM FOR ME!"

Dawlish and Proudfoot roared with laughter. As she walked through the gate, she could hear the mocking noises of a bed creaking and the screams of a woman having an orgasm. Bastards! she thought.

The moment Hermione entered her home...for where Severus was, was home...she gasped as she was attacked from behind as her cloak and robes were stripped from her.

She giggled at the fervor Severus was showing at getting her naked.

"The little idiots are gone...finally!" he whispered lowly in her ear. "Now, we have exactly two weeks for me to fulfill every naughty, deviant, horny, little fantasy I've been wanking off to for the last few months!"

"Where do we start?" she breathed, completely turned on from the idea.

He spun her around. "You aren't afraid?" he asked her darkly.

"Honestly, Severus," she said. "What kind of deviant sexual naughtiness can embarrass me after all this time? Especially when I am the one who controls the whip ?"

***

He Flooed her inside the Gryffindor common room. He breathed in the smell of wood smoke and years of Gryffindors past.

"Severus!" she hissed as she covered herself with her arms and hands. She was freezing. "Aren't there any Gryffindors staying for Christmas?"

"Not one," he said lazily. "I checked the roster. Now, I want you to take that Gryffindor banner off that wall and kneel naked on it and give me head right on top of it."

"You are perverted," she said without hesitation at his request. "Besides, am not I in charge of your humiliation?"

Severus flashed her a very wicked smile. "There are only two Slytherins staying for Christmas, Hermione, and my word is law. How does the thought of me giving you oral pleasure on top of the Slytherin banner strike you?"

She smirked and bit her lower lip. "You're on."

***

The next morning, they stretched out in their bathrobes in front of the fire, eating a delicious breakfast. It was heavenly! Hermione opened her robe and crawled to him, snuggling on top of him as he rested his back on the end of the couch.

"Are you finished eating?" he asked as he slipped his hands underneath her open robe and stroked her back down to her bum where he cupped her cheeks and pulled her up higher onto him.

"I don't know," she said as she sighed in pleasure. "I love being like this with you. I think Christmas is my favorite time of the year!"

"Anytime I can be with you is my favorite time of the year," he declared.

"Do you have any other plans for us?" she asked. After last night, she felt incredibly depraved and impish. She was looking forward to doing more of the same.

"My plan is to eat, sleep, and make love," he said. "Of course not particularly in that order," he added.

"Well, we should sleep then," she decided as she burrowed into his chest. "I can't have sex on a full tummy."

"Well, there are some things we need to discuss, Hermione. I don't want to do this, but our time is so limited. These next two weeks we can digest it all and come to a conclusion."

"Oh, no," she moaned as she sat up. "I don't want to hear this, do I?" she whined. "At any rate, it's not fair! These were to be OUR two weeks of decadence and perversion." She climbed away from him in a huff. She crossed her arms childishly. "I declare ANY discussion that has nothing to do with the preoccupation of eating, sleeping, and fucking, to be a perversion! And, may I add that two out of the three said activities can be placed in the sexual column!"

"Well," he said, laughing softly as he lightly skimmed her naked breasts with his fingertips before closing her robe. "I'll begin with the easier development and try to make this as painless as possible. You know I would rather save any pain for you to wield. I was at the Slughorn party. I didn't plan on going, but you need to understand something. The Dark Lord has placed it upon me to watch over the young Malfoy while his father is still in Azkaban. He was caught trying to sneak in, and I was caught in the shuffle.

"Well, you remember Slughorn...the blowhard...he couldn't keep his trap shut about Potter. He jabbered incessantly about how brilliant the boy was doing in Potions. Of course, Potter didn't want to even look me in the face. He looked as guilty as I had ever seen him."

"Well," Hermione said as she threw up her hands, "Ginny told me Harry was becoming more and more obsessed about the thrice-damned book. It takes up all his time; he's infatuated with it. I daresay he'd shag it if he could."

"Well, I removed the spell," he told her. "I only placed it there so that if it were ever stolen, I would be able to find it eventually, since the dunderhead who purloined it wouldn't be able to resist showing it off and taking it with him everywhere. I will get that book from him, Hermione. I promise."

"Okay," she replied, deciding not to bring up Ginny's plan of stealing it. "That takes care of that issue. What else is there? Are we done?"

Severus got up from the couch and sat in a chair. Hermione sat on the corner of the couch, kitty-corner from him.

He began to massage his forehead. "Hermione, this is not easy to tell you, and I know you are going to be angry, but please let me explain and then you can rail at me."

Hermione was silent. She didn't know what to say. She felt her face was numb, like there was no blood in her head.

Severus continued. "It's a complicated story. You know that when the Death Eaters were rounded up and sent to Azkaban, Lucius Malfoy was among them. The Dark Lord is one vicious bastard. He is also quite vindictive and creative in his revenge. Lucius was in Azkaban, so he never had to face the Dark Lord to account for failing to produce the prophecy. The Dark Lord surprised us after the arrests to go over what our next attack would be.

"The Dark Lord said Dumbledore had to be murdered and that the honor would go to Lucius Malfoy's son, Draco."

Hermione gasped. "No," she breathed.

"Oh, yes," he insisted. "Of course, the little shite didn't have the withal to understand that he was being sent to his death in his father's stead. Well, you can only imagine Narcissa's reaction. She was hysterical and had to be contained by her sister."

Severus stood up and walked over to the fireplace, glaring into the flames as he continued.

"So, the plan went into action. I informed Dumbledore as always after a meeting, and not soon after, Dumbledore had me report back to his office. He is dying."

"His hand," Hermione whispered.

Severus turned around to face her. "Yes. However, he waited too long for me to heal him. All I could do was buy him time."

Hermione tucked her legs underneath her. "What happened to put Albus in such danger for his life?"

Severus strode to her side, leaned in, and said, "Now, what I am about to tell you is confidential. I'm telling you because you are my wife, and you deserve to know."

He took a deep breath as he knelt on one knee and said, "For years now, Albus has been collecting memories of people to aid him in his search for how the Dark Lord could finally be destroyed. Remember when we were seventh years, meeting under the owlery stairs? I told you then that the Dark Lord was obsessed with immortality. He chose Regulus Black to work with him closely on this obsession, and that was why he died. The horror of it unhinged him."

Hermione moistened her lips and furrowed her brow as he went on talking.

"I confessed I was making potions for the Dark Lord. I created a terrible potion, which I know now from questioning that wretched house-elf, Kreacher, that at one time was hidden in a cave where a locket...Slytherin's locket...was placed. It is no longer there. That was how Regulus died. He forgot the deadly effects of the potion, and now his body is in that cave...the one I tried to tell you about...one of the Inferi there in the lake. That was his family's punishment when the Dark Lord found Regulus' dead body there and Slytherin's locket missing. That locket is no ordinary wizarding locket. The Dark Lord had a part of his soul placed in that locket. When a person does that...splinters their soul and places into an object...the object becomes a Horcrux.

"After I had taken the locket from Kreacher, I Obliviated his memory and gave him a fake locket in return. He has no idea that he no longer owns the true locket.

"Now, the creation of a Horcrux is complicated and is the most dreadful, darkest magic there is. The Dark Lord learned about the incantations and intricacies of it whilst in school here at Hogwarts. When the caster speaks the incantation, it is not just a spell and a waving of a wand that makes a Horcrux. You must kill first in order to splinter your soul. Then the Horcrux is ready for creation."

Severus took Hermione's hands into his own and whispered softly to her as he kept his eyes trained on hers. "When the Wizengamot came rounding up all suspected Death Eaters, it was a part of my agreement in order to be under Dumbledore's protection to reveal everything to him about my involvement as a Death Eater. I did... save one. I knew about the Dark Lord's Horcrux. The Dark Lord is amazingly like his nemesis in the area of dispersing information. Both he and Dumbledore are fanatical about no one person knowing everything about their plans. Dumbledore forgot when he took me under his wing that I had extensive knowledge about the Dark Arts. He also forgot I am a spy. Nothing escapes my attention if it reaches my senses. Albus is ignorant that I know about the Horcruxes and the Dark Lord's ugly secret of immortality. That was Regulus' peace to make before his death. He informed me of everything I needed to know about that potion I made in ignorance for our lord. You must understand, Hermione. A man, such as I, in the work I do... I must have information that I can hold to myself for my own protection. Call it collateral if you wish."

Hermione was jubilant. She jumped up excitedly and said, "Let's go fetch it! Let's get rid of it because then he'll be fully human again. Harry can kill him now!"

Severus jumped up as well and placed his hands on her shoulders, urging her to sit.

"Hermione, you aren't paying attention! I said Horcruxes, not Horcrux. Plural, not singular! According to what I have witnessed whilst saving the headmaster's life and the years preceding, Albus has in his possession two Horcruxes. He was not cautious about keeping Tom Riddle's diary secret after Potter had destroyed it. He never said what it truly was, but I knew. It was then whilst looking into that bloodied up diary with its noticeable holes from a basilisk that I knew there are more than only one Horcrux. I knew the Dark Lord had created more than one. "

"Numerous?" Hermione felt her knees tremble.

Severus nodded as he slid his hands off of her. "Now, through my observations, Albus has destroyed some of these Horcruxes. I saw the ring that killed his hand. I knew it right away as a Horcrux from the broken state of the stone inside the ring and how the Sword of Gryffindor was out of its normal place on the wall. Yet, I believe, Albus has no concrete proof, but a hunch of just how many. Then, there remains an issue you need to be made aware that I am afraid will be too much for you to bear. I destroyed the locket. I took the Sword of Gryffindor and in Dumbledore's office, killed the bit of the Dark Lord's soul inside it.

"There are three ways to kill a Horcrux: the poison from a basilisk, Fiendfyre, and lastly, the Sword of Gryffindor."

"What does this all have to do with Draco?" Hermione asked, growing angrier at each word.

"Narcissa came to Spinner's End with Bellatrix the summer Wormtail was staying with me as a part of my punishment and atonement for marrying you. She was hysterical and demanded I help Draco to complete his task. Bellatrix was so smug, so sure I would refuse. However, I knew in order to keep my place in the Inner Circle, I would have to do it. I made an Unbreakable Vow to kill Dumbledore in case Draco became unable or unwilling."

Hermione was boiling with rage. "How could you do that?" she screamed at him.

Severus held up one finger. "Let me finish!" he snapped. "I knew Dumbledore had only months or at most a year to live. It was the perfect plan, he had said, to use what was killing him to solidify my standing with the Dark Lord and assure him, once and for all, that I am a true Death Eater. If it were not for the fact he needs me alive to create his potions and remain his spy, I would be dead. Now, I have a chance to be elevated to his right hand, privy to any and all information about each move he wants to make against the Order."

Hermione licked her thinned out lips. "Still," she replied in a staccato tone, "It was an awful chance to take with Bellatrix at Spinners' End. I doubt she has forgotten how I tried to strangle her."

Severus smiled wickedly. "My only regret is that I was not there to see that lovely bit of Dark magic!" he said dramatically as he kissed the back of her hand.

"Dumbledore knew Narcissa would be coming to my door, begging and pleading for assistance since Lucius was in Azkaban and no longer in the Dark Lord's favor. I swear at times, Albus has to really be a Slytherin deep down. He ordered me to swear I would consent. So, as a part of the Unbreakable Vow, I am to keep Draco in my sights constantly whilst in school and keep him safe, and for Dumbledore, keep him alive long enough for him to assist Potter in all the work he has to do."

"What work is that?" Hermione spat out, clearly overwhelmed.

"My guess is going through each memory the old bastard has collected, getting Potter to understand the Horcruxes: the importance of them, history behind them, and how to locate them."

"Wait," said Hermione as she held out her hand. "You said you know there are more than one Horcrux. What are they?"

She jumped up and sat at his desk, taking out a fresh sheet of parchment and dipped her quill in the ink. "Tell me," she ordered.

"You do need to realize that this is based on incomplete information. I do not know the number. I knew there was the diary that Potter killed with the Basilisk fang in the Chamber of Secrets. That tipped me off as to the fact there were more than one.

"Second, is the locket for which Regulus gave his life. It was during that horrible year the Order camped out at the Black house when I took and destroyed it.

"Thirdly, and this is where it all comes together, is a ring that belongs to an ancient pure-blood family, the Gaunts, who were the descendants of the Peverells. That ring was of legend, full of Dark magic and enchantments that claimed to be too powerful to resist. The night Dumbledore called me to his side, claiming he was dying, I saw that very ring. Dumbledore placed that bloody ring on his finger, and it began to kill him. He had no idea I knew about that ring's history. It had only been lore...that is until I saw it! He had taken it off and told me he destroyed it. I saw the large crack in the stone, and glanced to see that the Gryffindor Sword had been taken down. Another clue that the ring had been a Horcrux. However, the damage had already been done to Albus."

"The bloody fool probably thought he could withstand its power!" Hermione spat. She shook her head angrily. "Let's keep on track. And number four is?" she pressed.

"I honestly have no idea, Hermione," he told her. "I do have a theory, but I would need to do some research into Ravenclaw's history. I think the Dark Lord has taken items of significance from each house and made them into Horcruxes."

Hermione looked at what she had written down. "I see your pattern," she murmured as she nibbled on the tip of her quill. "Only the most exquisite and precious items would do."

"Yes, very astute," he said stiffly.

"We have four houses plus a diary and a ring... perhaps. However, Peverell... Peverell? Isn't that..."

"...Related both to Slytherin and Gryffindor," Severus finished for her as he walked up and down the floor in front of the desk. "Yes, there is even a more outrageous tale that goes much deeper, but I haven't the energy nor the interest to go into it," he said wearily. "Suffice it to say that it is Albus' personal quest that I can barely tolerate, let alone understand the obsession that goes along with it. I decided a long time ago, while we were apart those three years before the Dark Lord fell the first time, that it would do me no favors to focus on anything other than Horcruxes.

"So, what else?" she asked.

"I don't know of any more objects."

He reached to comfort her, and she flinched. "Wait, this is so... so incomplete in Arithmancy. Can it be that there are seven?"

Severus' face snapped up to look into hers. "I don't know," Severus said slowly. "Albus did hint, unknowingly, at the fact Potter could possibly be one. It would explain the Dark Lord's attempts at possessing his body, Potter's ability at speaking Parseltounge... I could go on endlessly about the connection between them."

"What?" Hermione said in a voice she never remembered using before. "Does Albus think Harry is a H-Horcrux and so what then? He has to be killed?" she shrieked.

Severus grabbed her arms. "Hermione, please! We don't know what will happen when the killing curse is cast. The last time it marked Potter. The next time, it could erase the Dark Lord's hold over Potter forever!" he insisted.

"Do you believe that?" she snapped at him.

"No," he whispered. "I think as Albus does. Potter will have to be sacrificed."

Hermione wrenched herself free from Severus. "That is total and complete bullshite!" she shouted. "You can't! You can't KILL him!"

Severus ran his hand through his hair. "You think I didn't say the exact same thing to Albus when he told me?" he snarled. "I was furious! I told him after all these years of keeping him safe and alive, not to mention all the fucking sacrifices that you and I have made in our lives, and now he was just going to hand him over for nothing?"

"And?" Hermione nearly shouted as she stood and crossed her arms.

"Albus remains undeterred. Although first things first: I have to make sure Albus dies like a martyr...which isn't a complete inconvenience. The down side to it is that he wants me to do it."

"HE WHAT?" Hermione roared.

"Hermione," Severus warned. "Don't do this!"

Hermione strode towards the fireplace. "That manipulative bastard! I'll kill him...he won't have to wait for the bloody performance with a crowd; I'll just do it short and sweet!" she shouted. "You agreed to this on top of making an Unbreakable Vow! My God, Severus! How could you place your life in such peril?"

Severus blocked her from the Floo and said, "Hermione, you're not thinking! You couldn't possibly cast the Killing Curse."

"You want to bet?" she shot back as she pointed her wand under his chin. "Don't forget that I placed Lucius under the Cruciatus Curse and nearly suffocated Bellatrix to death. I am more than capable of performing Dark magic! He's not going to do this to us! He's not!"

She began to break down. She wept bitterly as Severus held her.

"I-I don't want to lose you, Severus. I love you," she said as she continued to sob. "You will be an outcast...hunted down. You could be killed in your flight away from the scene of the crime! Don't do this to us!"

Severus held her tighter. "I don't want to lose you either, sweet girl. I will be all right. You will have to face the fallout, and I hate that I cannot take you with me, but you would never be safe with me. Hogwarts will keep you safe for a while, then perhaps on the run with Tonks or Remus...if they trust you. You have to brace yourself for the reality, Hermione," he said as he held her face in his hands. "You are going to be reviled, hated, and possibly become a social pariah."

"I'm afraid," she whispered.

"I am, too," he whispered.

"I hate Albus," she said bitterly.

"I just want to be free," Severus whispered. "Free from all the promises I made when I was just a stupid child. You were right, Hermione. I never should have returned. I should have disappeared into the Muggle world with you."

Hermione shook her head. "There is no use in 'what ifs,'" she said. "What's done is done. We'll get through this...won't we?"

Hermione was so sure he would agree with her, she didn't even think about it. But then his face turned dark and sad.

"Honestly, I don't think I am meant to survive this, Hermione," he whispered. "That is why I want to find this one Horcrux...for you! For you to use as leverage in case you are condemned as a traitor when I am dead."

"NO!" she shrieked. "No! We have our dreams, our life, babies, and our own business, with hugging, kissing, and tripping over toys...NO! I won't let them take it from us. Not after everything we've been through! NO! NO! NO!" she screamed again and again.

Hermione felt as though her heart were breaking in two. She couldn't breathe, and her chest was so heavy. Severus forced a potion down her throat and held her to him, stroking her hair.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I shouldn't have said that. I'll fight for us; I'll do it. I will do what I must to keep alive. Just have faith in me, and remember that we may have to endure another separation, but when it's over, it will be over for good, and then we shall never be apart again. Once the Dark Lord and Albus are dead, I will owe no one anything, and for the first time in my life, I will be free," he whispered. "Wewill be free."

Hermione had calmed down, and she embraced him as she straddled him. "I will do anything you ask. Just tell me what to do, and I will do it. I'll do anything to keep you alive," she whispered as she began to pepper his face with kisses. Severus thrust his fingers into her thick hair and kissed her with abandon.

"Make love to me, Severus," she pleaded once she freed her mouth from his. He was moving down her neck. He bit and nipped while he kissed her as if he were driven by a fierce need to possess her. "I want to feel us together as much as we can. I don't want to waste a moment when I could have you inside me."

Their coupling was frantic and desperate. The frenzied clawing in order to be as close as possible drove their desire to an impossible peak. They were panting and gasping for air as they both lay on the floor naked in front of the fire, clutching each other's body as tightly as they could, afraid and scared, just as when they were children, after his father's attack on her, and Severus had led her to his bed to hold and comfort her. How she wished they could go back in time and do it all over again differently!