Part Two

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

A/N – The second and final part of my gift fic to WriterMerrin. Thanks again, my dear!

Also, a big hug of thanks must go to Sequana for being such a diligent and excellent beta! I can't thank you enough for all of the help you have been.

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Over the next week, the village got more than its fair share of rain. There was not one dry day. Hermione got very little research done, purely because the lack of natural light prevented her from doing so. She was very reluctant to use magic at the sites in case the spells should trigger any ancient wards that were already on the castle. The weekend that she spent without Snape seemed to drag on forever. It seemed time itself was working against her in tandem with the weather. She did, however, manage to get a good two thirds of the way through her holiday reading.

The week that followed was marginally better. The weather had cleared some, and she got a lot more work done on the third castle. She chose to leave the fourth castle until her companion returned that weekend. As Friday drew nearer, her anticipation heightened, and by the time Friday afternoon passed, Hermione found she had lost the ability to concentrate on her task. She returned to the inn early that afternoon and indulged herself with a long soak in a hot bath.

At exactly six that night, she went down to the dining room. To her delight, Snape was already there, and he glanced up at the doorway just as she was entering. He gifted her with one of his small, rare smiles, and she walked over to join him, trying not to run and throw herself at him. He stood and courteously helped her into her seat, dropping a kiss on her forehead before he returned to his own chair. She smiled in relief, glad to see him and even happier knowing he did not regret their night together two weeks beforehand.

'I missed my companion,' she said simply after they had ordered.

He flushed a little at her words, but smiled slightly all the same. 'I missed my companion also,' he replied, gratified to see her smiling so brightly.

She was so lovely when she smiled like that. After dinner, he took her up to his room, and they made love. For Severus Snape, this was a new experience. He had never made love to a woman before Hermione. He cared for her. There was a deep connection that he felt between them that went far beyond his physical attraction to her and his admiration for her intellect. Never had he slept with a woman he felt for before. If he were honest, it touched him far more than he thought was safe. He was in danger of falling in love, and in such a short time.

That night, they slept in each other's arms once more, and in the morning, Hermione surprised him by pleasuring him into wakefulness. He took her again before they showered and dressed for the day of research ahead. They had a quick breakfast before Apparating to the fourth and final castle. Hermione led the way up to the second floor, and they spent a good half of the day studying the runic markings together and deciphering them.

Just after midday, Hermione went up the stairs to the third floor.

A few minutes after she had gone from his sight, there was a loud rumble and a sharp shriek from above. Severus was on his feet before he could think and took the stairs three at a time with his long legs, trying to reach Hermione. What he found was that a column had collapsed, and one of the walls had completely crumbled with it. Hermione was nowhere to be seen, so she had obviously become trapped within.

'Hermione?' he called, beginning to panic slightly.

'Severus, my wand broke,' said her muffled voice, followed by a small sob. 'I think my leg might be broken, too.'

'I'll get you out,' he swore, beginning to move the stones as carefully as he could without disturbing any more or causing the pile to crumble in and crush Hermione any further. 'Are you short of oxygen at all?'

'No, there's a small gap on the left side,' she answered, sniffling.

Severus thought that she was being fairly calm for someone who was in the middle of having a brush with death, as she still wasn't out of danger.

He worked his way to the left side, where there was a gap as promised. There was enough room for him to reach his hand in and grasp hers for a moment before returning to his work of removing the rubble. It took over an hour, but he cleared away enough of the mess to lift Hermione out of her entombment and carry her down to the second level. He felt for the break in her leg and found it, casting a powerful healing spell on it to knit the bone back together. Silently, he packed their things up and shouldered both of their bags before returning to pick her up off the ground. Once outside, he placed her to sit on a sturdy-looking log.

'You gave me the biggest fright of my life,' he admitted to her immediately. 'What were you thinking, going up to the third level on your own? You saw how deteriorated it was before we even entered the castle.'

Hermione looked down at her hands in her lap guiltily. 'I suppose I thought it would be okay for me to look around for a few minutes on my own,' she said quietly.

Snape saw a tear fall and land on the hands clasped in her lap. Feeling guilty himself for scolding her like he would a teenager, he tilted her face up to look at him as he kneeled down before her.

'I'm sorry, Hermione,' he said, gently wiping her tears. 'I was afraid. I don't mean to scold you like that, but you had me so worried.'

'I'm sorry for going off on my own like that,' she told him, throwing her arms around him and hugging him fiercely.

They remained like that for a little while until Hermione felt like she could walk. Apparating them both back to the edge of the forest near the village, Snape escorted her back to the inn, leaving a hand to rest on her waist the entire time. They rested for the remainder of the afternoon on her bed and bathed together in the large claw-footed bathtub in her bathroom before dinner.

After dining that evening, the pair went for a short walk along the cliffs, looking out at the wild waters of the Highlands. It was mutually decided that they would not be returning to the last of the castles. Snape had gathered all the research that he required for his potion already, and Hermione simply had no wish to go back to the place where she had almost lost her life and, meanwhile, scared the living daylights out of Snape. They spent the day abed, reading together and going over all of the research they had done over the past weeks. Hermione compared her notes to his and found that there were a few similarities in their work.

Snape found that Hermione's notes were extremely thorough but more focused on the ruins and ancient symbols than his own were. Naturally, they were doing different projects, but he noted that their observations and sketches did overlap where the most important parts were concerned. He realised then that he might actually need her help with his project and decided to ask her for it, his pride be damned.

'Hermione, your holiday will be ending soon,' he stated simply.

'Yes, it will,' she answered softly. 'On the Friday of this next week, in fact.'

He nodded and turned to her on the bed, pulling her into his arms for a hug. 'I want to see you again, after tomorrow,' he told her.

Hermione's face lit up at his words. 'I would be happy to see you again after tomorrow,' she replied with an adoring smile.

'I want to ask for your assistance with my potions project,' he said carefully, testing the waters. 'It seems you have a lot of Arithmatic insights that could prove to be rather helpful for the completion of my potion.'

Her smile only brightened at that. 'You would trust me with your research?' she asked, her voice holding a hint of amazement.

'I would trust no one else with such a precious thing,' he answered. 'I know you would respect my work and appreciate what it is that I am trying to accomplish.'

'Severus, I am honoured that you would even ask me,' she told him honestly, leaning up to kiss him briefly on the lips. 'I will be able to help you whenever you like on my weekends off from work.'

'I think that would be agreeable to me,' he agreed. 'The summer is only a short few weeks away, and the examination period will begin soon. With all of my grading, there will be little time for me to give attention to my project.'

'I could help with that,' she said, smiling and cuddling up close to his side.

He nodded and put his arm around her, hugging her to him also when a thought came to him unbidden. 'Your children,' he said quietly. 'And your family and friends – they would not approve of you being associated with me.'

Hermione pulled back suddenly, shocked at what he had just said. 'They will do no such thing,' she said, frowning. 'Who I choose to see has never been any of their business before, and it still won't be.'

'I don't want to be the one who sits between you and having a normal life, Hermione,' he said carefully. 'Our relationship can't be known to them.'

Hermione opened her mouth to argue but stopped just short of it. He was a stubborn man who would undoubtedly think that his way was the only way their relationship would work. She would be his secret lover, and he would be hers. They would see each other only on weekends. Sometimes it would not even be every weekend because he had his duties, and during the summer, Hermione had her children with her every second weekend. She knew that allowing him to have his way would be difficult, but the last thing she wanted to do was tie him down.

'It'll be difficult that way, but if you want to keep this just between us, then I will be happy to oblige for now,' she agreed partially, meaning to change his mind in time.

Snape sighed and set aside their notebooks and journals. He removed his shoes, socks and shirt and slid beneath the covers of her bed, patting the pillow on her side to indicate that she should do the same. It was a good couple of hours until dinner time, and he was feeling a little lethargic from the excitement of their day. Hermione took off her shoes and socks also, joining him under the cotton sheets and the simple duvet on the bed, sliding right into the nook created by Snape's shoulder and arm.

They slept and woke two hours later, combing their hair and donning shoes quickly before they slipped down to their usual table. With it being Snape's final night at the inn, they slept together and made love in his room that night. The next day they spent outside in the sunshine, having a picnic lunch and reading together in the shade of a tree. If anyone that knew Hermione and Severus had seen them together that way, they would think that the world had gone mad. Everyone knew that Hermione Granger was a workaholic and that Severus Snape was one of the most unfriendly men in the wizarding world.

Nobody would suspect that Hermione would laugh so freely with such joy in her eyes. None would have suspected that Snape was capable of doing more than smirking, especially if there had not been a removal of house points from a Gryffindor. But the keeper of the inn had not known the pair before their arrival in the small village. All that she saw was two people that were falling very much in love with one another.

When the sun set that Sunday afternoon, Snape bid Hermione farewell. He kissed her hard and drew a promise from her to go to him at Hogwarts the next weekend. Hermione agreed and promised to use the secret entry by the forest. None of the students, least of all her children, would ever know that she had even come. He gave her one last, lingering kiss and Disapparated on reaching the edge of the forest. She returned to the inn alone and made plans to leave the seaside cliffs of Scotland the very next day. Before she went to bed that night, she settled her bill with the owner and climbed the stairs, suddenly weary.

The next morning, she awoke and packed her things, checking out and heading to the forest before breakfast even came about. While the entire place was still beautiful to her, it just wasn't the same without her lover and companion. Hermione Apparated home and unpacked again, Banishing her unclean clothes to the laundry and sending her books all flying back to her study, where they shelved themselves correctly. It took less time than she had wanted it to, so she had to find something else with which to occupy herself.

Later that day, Hermione owled Luna to see if her friend was home. She got a reply via the Floo soon after, saying yes and that Luna would be delighted to have her over. Pleased at having something to do, Hermione Apparated to Godric's Hollow into Harry and Luna's backyard. She entered the house through the back door, knocking and calling out for the slightly younger woman as she did.

'We're in the sitting room!' Luna called out to her in reply.

Hermione walked through the house and found Luna sitting with Albus Severus on the floor with a pile of books, some butcher's paper and tubes of paint. 'This looks like fun,' she said, joining them on the ground covering that was obviously to prevent paint from getting on the carpet.

'We got bored,' Albus told her with a grin.

'How was your trip, Hermione?' Luna asked, brushing a stray hair out of her face, but getting a smudge of blue paint on her cheek in the process.

'It was very interesting and worthwhile,' Hermione answered as honestly as she dared. She remembered her promise to Severus – no one could know.

'You look a lot more relaxed than you did a few weeks ago,' the blonde witch stated, causing Hermione to blush a little. 'Maybe you had a better time than you let on in your letters.'

Albus pulled a face at that. 'You two aren't going to start having a ladies' talk, are you? Because if you are, I'm out of here,' he said simply.

Hermione laughed at this. 'Now, whatever do you mean by that, Al?' she asked curiously.

'You know what I mean. You're going to start talking about boys and kissing and things like that,' he said, wrinkling his nose. 'You girls always talk about kissing and gross stuff like that.'

The two women laughed at that, and Albus took that as his cue to leave the room. Luna then turned on Hermione with a strange smile. 'I know you're not going to tell me who he is, but I know you took a lover,' she confided dreamily.

'Luna, how on earth could you have guessed that?' she asked seriously.

'I just sense a change in you,' she answered simply. 'You're in love with him, aren't you, 'Mione?'

Hermione stopped for a moment and thought about her answer to that. Her immediate thought was that she couldn't possibly be in love with him so soon. However, her next thought was one that was less rational but made more sense to another part of her at the same time. She felt her heart pound at the thought of him. She must be in love with Severus. Everything in her wanted to scream out yes. Only part of her brain, the sensible, uptight part, kept refusing to believe it.

'I think I might be in love with him,' she admitted regardless.

Later that night, as she was readying for bed, Hermione reflected that she had cast off a terrible weight when she had admitted her love for Snape to Luna. While she had not spoke his name or anything about him, saying the words out loud had been a great relief to her. As she lay staring at her ceiling, she wondered for a moment if he could someday feel the same way for her. She wondered how long it would be before he tired of being with her. She feared it, in fact. Her sleep was restless in the nights that followed, her fear growing every day that she did not see him and being reassured that he still found her desirable. It had been so long since a man had looked at her and touched her the way he had. She was reluctant to give it up so quickly.

Friday afternoon arrived quickly, after the first couple of days alone at her home. Hermione Apparated to the point Severus had told her to go to at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and went to the secret dungeon entrance. She walked down a dimly lit hallway until she reached a door with a brass handle. She opened it and walked in, only to find herself in Snape's office. He was not there, but she was reluctant to stray. Sitting in a chair at his desk, Hermione waited for a full ten minutes before the Potions master himself made an appearance.

He looked a little haggard, as though he had not slept well and had been terribly busy all day – possibly even all week. Hermione offered him a timid smile, which he returned slightly once the door was closed and locked behind him.

He led her through to his chambers, giving her his password freely and telling her that she was welcome there whenever she felt the need to be there. With that small gesture and his words, all of Hermione's fears from the week seemed to simply disappear. It seemed to her that while he was unwilling to commit in some ways, in others he more than compensated for that. They ate and made love that night amidst the Egyptian cotton sheets of his bed. Those and the black silk of his duvet covered them as they slumbered in the aftermath. The next day they got right to work on his potions project, and the rest of the weekend was spent in the same manner as they had while in the northern village: work during the day, play during the night.

Hermione enjoyed this routine for a few weeks before the end of the school year came, and she was then forced to see him only every second weekend or for only a couple of hours whenever one of them could find the time to get away. A handful of times, Hermione had been so busy at work and with her children that Severus had come to her for a few hours one night and made love to her in her own bed.

It was only when the summer was nearing an end that Hermione found that what they were doing was taking its toll on her. She was exhausted from work, tired from having to take care of Rose and Hugo and sore from everything that she was putting herself through. She knew she was in love with Severus, but even so, she found herself tiring of having to keep it all a secret from the other people she loved. Hermione had spent the entire weekend with Severus, and she awoke on the Sunday knowing that she was finally going to have to make a decision.

'Good morning, pet,' he told her as she sat up, the sheets sliding off her and revealing her upper body to his hungry eyes.

'Severus, we need to talk about something,' she said, knowing it sounded very much like the kind of line people used when they were about to break things off.

He sat up then as well and faced her. 'What is it, Hermione?' he asked her seriously.

'I can't keep seeing you like this, Severus,' she said simply, not bothering to sugar-coat it. She knew he would appreciate her straightforwardness. 'I can't keep sneaking around and keeping things from my friends and family.'

His expression became a mixture of confusion and annoyance. 'Hermione, we have been getting along fine like this for the past four months now; what has changed?' he asked.

'I have changed,' she answered. 'I'm tired – exhausted, actually. And if I don't fix it soon, I'm going to break down and break away from everyone I love.'

'Pet, I'm not sure I follow you completely,' he said, shifting over so that he could rub her back soothingly as she began to cry.

'I've loved you since the moment I saw you again those six months ago, Severus,' she said through her soft sobs. 'I can't deal with having two half-lives. I want you to be a part of my whole life – with Rose and Hugo too. They deserve to know the most.'

'They would only hate me more,' he argued.

'They would not,' Hermione assured him, turning her teary face on him. 'They don't hate you at all – in fact, Hugo said that you were his favourite professor.'

Snape snorted. 'I don't know how that could be possible,' he scoffed.

Hermione sighed. 'Well, believe it,' she said simply, standing and Summoning her clothing to her, beginning to dress. 'I have to leave to pick up Rose and Hugo from the Burrow in a little while. I'll get cleaned up at home first.'

'So this is it, then?' he asked. 'Are you ending things with me?'

'Only if you want to keep hiding things, Severus,' she answered. 'I'll not say yes or no definitely, but I'm leaving the rest up to you now.'

Hermione left his chambers then and Apparated straight home. She showered and redressed in clean clothes before heading to the Burrow to collect her two children from their grandparents' home. Rose and Hugo both seemed quite happy to see her. On their return to the Brownstone that they had grown up in, the pair had stuck by Hermione's side all afternoon as she read a book, and they either studied or played Exploding Snap. When the time to prepare dinner came around, Rose helped her in the kitchen, while Hugo set the table in the dining room.

Once dinner was ready, all three moved the serving dishes out to the table and served themselves. While Rose had taken after her mother and chosen to be vegetarian, Hugo still ate meat as hungrily as Ron ever had. Halfway through their meal, however, the front doorbell rang.

'I'll get it!' Hugo exclaimed excitedly, jumping down from his seat and rushing to answer it.

Hermione looked over to the doorway and strained to try and listen to the two voices so that she could hear who it was. 'Hugo, darling, who is it?' she asked.

'Mum, you had better come out here!' he called right back.

Hermione rose from her chair and walked out of the dining room, her brow creased a little in partial curiosity and panic. She made her way down the hall and nearly fell over when she that Severus was handing Hugo his coat at the front door. Her son was smiling at her, and she looked up to see that Severus' dark eyes were on her also.

'Severus?' she said softly.

'I don't want to be without you,' he said simply. 'I love you, too.'

Hermione's eyes filled with tears. She looked at Hugo who nodded and smiled at her and felt a hand touch her own gently. She looked beside her to see that Rose was also nodding and smiling, urging her forward to Snape. Smiling and crying softly, she walked over to the man she loved and threw her arms around him for a hug, kissing him soundly but gently on the mouth.

And as he lifted her easily into his arms and swung her around, she knew that everything was going to be fine from then on.

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Terminus.