Chapter 1

Hi! My first fiction in English! Ha, yes, I'm French, and even if I understand almost perfectly English, I have some difficulties to speak it... well, ok, GREAT difficulties! Fortunately, my dear Severusgirl (who wrote the wonderful "Twenty Four Little Hours") has accepted to correct the numerous mistakes I did in this translation of one of my French fiction. (For those who would be interested, the original title is "Dernier tango à Poudlard")

Oh, last thing: at the beginning of this story, Hermione is 17. Please don't hit me!!! In the wizard world, she is an adult at 17! :-)

Last Tango in Hogwarts

Chapter 1

The Christmas Ball. I had looked forward to it for months. Since June in fact. Since we had made this bet he was sure to win. But he had lost. Of course, he had tried to renege on the deal then. But it was a magical bet: no chance to slope off, no, no. I had reminded him of it a good hundred times as I gloated and teased him about his bad mood and my triumph. But, today, I wish these stupid rules hadn't existed. I wish I had listened to him, for once...

Our story had begun the previous Christmas Eve. No Ball this time, no--Hogwarts was almost empty. The only unlucky ones (or lucky one, in my case) who had stayed were Harry (of course), the whole Weasley clique, five or six Ravenclaws whom I didn't know, Hannah Abbott and another Hufflepuff, and a large number of staff.

We had eaten together and talked about everything and nothing. Well, someone talked less than the others... guess who? Yet I had tried several times to draw him out. I had questioned him on... well, everything and nothing... which had certainly been a mistake. He was not the kind of man to be interested by a seventeen-year-old's childish nonsense. Even if this child was one of the best pupils he had had in fifteen years. Modesty put aside...

It had already been few months since I had developed... let's say a certain attraction to him. Then a ghost of feelings for him. Incredible? Incomprehensible? Maybe, but it was true. Some things cannot be explained, cannot be controlled. Anyway, I had no desire to control them. It was the first time in my life I had felt this kind of thing. Nothing like my flirtation with Viktor, which was a (rather fruitful) attempt to arouse Ron's jealousy.

Ron... Nothing much there, either. Nothing really serious. Nothing more than a little girl fling. No real feelings for either boy. But for this man...

Love? I couldn't have said that at this time. But a desire... an irrepressible desire to be with him, to be his, to discover him, to let him discover me. A desire to love him, yes... And a desire for him. Some things cannot be explained, cannot be controlled.

So, that evening, I had decided to go for broke. I could no longer bear to feel guilty because of this attraction, to try and hide it. If anything was possible, I wanted to take my chance. I wanted to live this "anything." I wanted to live.

I had noted the sidelong glances he gave me during Potions classes, remarks becoming rarer and less acerbic. Once, he had almost congratulated me. "Decent, Miss Granger. As always..." I had nearly wept for joy...

Of course I put my impressions down to a self-delusion, reading more into it than was there. I suspect it was hardly possible that a respectable thirty-seven-year-old man could have designs on one of his pupils and show it. But someone told me once that hope springs eternal.

Why that evening? I don't know. I think I had felt that, had I not dared that evening--where we were half out the teacher-pupil framework--I would never dare. Oh, warning, I didn't try to seduce him, far from it! Not in front of everybody. Anyway, I wouldn't have known how to do it ... In fact, I had somehow groped my way. I had planned to talk to him and to see where this chat would lead us... hoping it would be in the park or some more intimate place... um... I wished to let him know what I desired, but I didn't know how to do it.

His lack of reaction had immediately discouraged me. I had thought I was stupid. How could I have expected anything else than scorn from the big devil Snape? However, I couldn't bear him a grudge for that. One can't change in hour a character skillfully constructed over fifteen years or more. But I was disappointed. I had left the nice dinner before everybody. I had apologized and said I was exhausted. Depressed, instead! I had indeed deluded myself. Sidelong glances? Were they really for me and not for Parvati or Lavender behind me? Less remarks? It was less interest in my work! You stupid Gryffindor!

I had said that out loud. And I had started when I had heard a voice answer me. His voice.

"I could not have said it better."

"Professor Snape?"

I had let the indirect insult go, as I was too surprised by his presence. He must had left the dinner just after me and had followed me... followed me?

"No. Just this once, it is Severus."

I hadn't realised how close he was to me. Very close. Much closer than propriety allowed. I hadn't understood what he meant. Was he allowing me to call him by his first name? Or was it a trap?

"You have run away very quickly, Hermione. Did the meal displease you? Or was it the music? Or maybe the company?"

Every step he had taken towards me obliged me to move back the same number of steps. I had eventually found myself with my back against the wall. A sort of tiny smile had curled up his lips, but it was not the sarcastic, petty smile he usually gave to his students. This one was different... Jubilation? Yes, he was playing, and it seemed to me that he enjoyed it. I didn't know precisely what the game was, though. Well, to be exact, I had an idea, but I couldn't believe it.

He had moved even closer until our bodies were less than one inch apart. I had smelt jasmine and coriander mixed with something like Napel. A potion. He had prepared a potion that day. This man never stopped working! Well, OK, that is the pot calling the kettle black!

I had to lift my head to look him in the eyes. His were lowered to mine.

My whole body was shuddering, but my brain was paralysed. Why was he so close to me? Why was he looking at me that way? And why had I become mute?!

"You do not reply? What is it? You seem embarrassed. Oh, maybe I am too close. Does it upset you? Still, you had at last seemed to attempt a reconciliation at the dinner..."

"At last?"

I had been highly surprised to have managed to articulate two words one after the other. Had he said "at last"? Did it mean that he expected it? That he wished it?

"Do you think I am blind, Hermione? Did you think I saw nothing? You probably believe that a very few women have... behaved in such a way with me. I have to admit that it's true. But that doesn't prevent me from recognizing unmistakable signs, my dear."

Half an inch... I swallowed with difficulty, hoping the sound produced had not been as loud as I thought.

"Such as?"

"Such as your glances, your blushes, your stammering. So many things that were not like you. Oh, at the beginning, I thought I was imagining these things. Then I thought it was one of your stupid Gryffindor pranks. But I finally felt it."

Had I shown such a lack of discretion? Possibly. But could I regret it now? It was neither a dream nor my imagination. I was in a corridor, stuck between a wall and a Severus Snape, and one of these two seemed very interested in what I felt (physically, in any case) for him. And it was not the one made of stone... Well, I knew now that at least one of them was not made of it...

This time, my shaking voice had managed to form three words, which was a feat in itself.

"Finally felt what?"

He had filled the last tiny space that separated us, and I felt his torso press gently against my breasts through the fabric of our robes. He had put his hands on the wall on both sides of my head, as he bent slightly in order to whisper in my ear, making me shiver with... with everything...

"Your emotion. I felt your thrills whenever we brushed against each other, every time I bent over you to check your cauldron. I smelt this very particular odour: your excitement. It oozed from every pore of your skin. It fluttered in the air with every breath you took. I have to admit I was surprised. But not unpleasantly, Hermione, not unpleasantly..."

His mouth had then moved down to my ear lobe, and his lips had sucked it for just a second. But that had been enough for me to let out a long sigh. He had straightened up and had continued looking at me with this almost arrogant little smile. I didn't know what to think. He had just told me it. He had just told me and shown me that the attraction was mutual. But I didn't know what to do, what to say. This is what happens when you're unprepared!

So I had found myself utterly inane in front of him, still not daring believe what was happening and not knowing how to react. But fortunately, he spoke first.

"I fear I have behaved like a bore this evening. I apologize; it's always difficult for me to adopt a sociable demeanor towards people used to seeing me as an awful anti-social. And besides... I must confess that I have enjoyed torturing you like this..."

Oh, had the reward been such every time, I would have been ready to endure tortures a thousand times worse...

"Now I am perfectly well disposed to undertake a conversation with you for as long as you wish, Hermione. But this place seems a little inappropriate. What about my quarters?"

"I... Professor..."

"Severus."

"Sev... Severus... You... Are you saying..."

"That the attraction is reciprocated? Yes, you are very shrewd, Miss Granger. You can understand as well that my attraction is not limited to the physical, but that it also extends to your extraordinary personality. Even if I have had no proof of its existence for a good five minutes... Perhaps something is disturbing you?"

He had pressed me further against the wall. His smile had broadened and I had managed with superhuman effort to smile him back. I was trembling with joy, with excitement... and with a little fear too, yes. Because I knew that if I followed him in his quarters, long and fascinating as our conversation would be, sooner or later it would end how I had imagined a thousand times in my fantasies. And that I had never experienced...

I had nodded, and as I slipped my arms around his neck, I stood on tiptoe and kissed him very softly. He had responded with a gracefulness I could never have expected from him.

A few minutes later, I followed him into his rooms, and the night had passed and ended as I had thought it would. Except it has been a thousand times better than in my fantasies...

TBC...

oOo§oOo

I fear that chapter 2 won't come before the end of next week, because I've lost the final version (the one corrected) !!! So I have to do it again, and to find the motivation to do this long and painful job (yes, painful!lol)...

Severusgirl, if you see this, thank you so so so much again for your great job!