Chapter 2

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Hi! Here is chapter 2, I hope you'll enjoy :)

Thanks to my lovely beta readers Severusgirl and ABlack, and also to notsosaintly!

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Chapter Two

Of course, our relationship remained secret. I was a sixth-year student and, until my 18th birthday in the following September, even if I was of age in the wizard world, I was underage in the Muggle one. Besides, he was my teacher and was more than twenty years older than me. According to him, it was as inadmissible in the wizard world as it may be in the Muggle world. He said people wouldn't understand, particularly as it was him... he who changed sides fifteen years ago and who still aroused suspicions....

He said he was risking his career, I my future, and we our relationship. I knew he was right. But... after a few months, it began to take its toll. I couldn't stand anymore to be obliged to see him secretly at night, to behave as if nothing was happening during lessons, to pretend to hate him in front of Harry and Ron. I had believed I could feel alive with him, and did in private, but the constraint of concealment killed me the rest of the time. And I was afraid it would kill our relationship, more than people's looks and words might do.

First, I didn't tell him how it was affecting me, but I'm sure he knew it. He could see my passive behaviour at school; he could see my plate remaining almost full during meals. But he didn't talk about it. We had made our decision at the beginning, and it was a decision we had to stick to for as long as I remained at Hogwarts. Then, we would have to pretend our relationship was a recent one. We would have to lie... build our life on a lie....

I couldn't accept that, but I thought it was no use fighting. I loved him, he loved me, we loved each other, and we were the only ones to know it. I had to content myself with this.

Well, that was what the Gryffindor Hermione thought... But the Slytherin Hermione, who was born under her shady partner's influence, looked at things differently. She pushed me to suggest this bet; she, this innocently calculating, cunning part of me which had lain quietly dormant for years, waiting for her prince's kiss.

The stake was simple. If I lose, our relationship would remain secret. If I won, we would make it public. But not just at any time: Christmas, for our first anniversary, in front of everybody; whether there were ten or one hundred. As for Severus, he had to choose the terms of the bet, and I knew that would convince him to agree because I knew what he was going to propose and that he would be certain to win. I just had to make sure that I didn't make a mistake and hope that I knew him as well as I thought I did.

"If Longbottom gets an 'Acceptable' on the last Potions test next week, you win."

Did I say 'well'? I knew him inside out....

I had demanded the right to see Neville's completed exam paper and potion, and then the deal had been clinched. Severus displayed that arrogant smile I hadn't seen for almost six months. But there was something he didn't know: a few weeks earlier, Neville had asked me for help in my favorite professor's subject; since then, I had helped him almost every day to memorize the properties of various ingredients and to stick to the recipe.

We had used Moaning Myrtle's bathroom as a makeshift laboratory. It had been more than laborious at the beginning, but the result was more than satisfying, and there was every chance that I might win the bet. All I had to do was to hope that my emotional fellow wouldn't be too perturbed by my cold partner during this last assessment of the year.

Finally, my efforts had been rewarded. Severus, with his Slytherin slyness, had really tried to resist, but my arguments had defeated him and he had been obliged to grant Neville a good 'Acceptable'. Though, in my opinion, he deserved an 'Excellent'. But I couldn't quibble. I already had to distract my incredulous lover by saying some things couldn't be explained, before he could think about it too hard and realize Neville had had help. And that other things couldn't be controlled, like the sudden desire I had felt for him then... Slytherin Hermione....

So, then, he had tried to wriggle out of it and to act as though the bet had never existed, but it was impossible, and he knew it as well as me. I think that he just protested out of principle. I was simply happy. I knew there were six months left before we could announce our news, but it seemed to me like six days, now that I was sure it would be done. And as a matter of fact, it really went by like six days. Very quickly, maybe too quickly for me to make the most of it. But I was fine, simply fine, and even if Severus kept grumbling, he saw that I felt better. When all is said and done, I'm sure he was pleased to see me like that.

With these passing 'day-months', our relationship became stronger, more united, though it only existed by night. So, it was only with happiness that I could imagine how it would be after Christmas.

By the way, I had heard that there would be a Ball at Christmas. More than half the school would be there. I was bursting with joy. Severus was crestfallen. The more D-Day was approaching, the more I could feel his tension rise. On the day before the great evening, we had a discussion on the subject.

"Come on, Sev, please relax! You're going to give me your stress!"

"Oh, forgive me for fearing the moment when I shall have to tell the whole of Hogwarts I have been sleeping with a student for one year!"

"Of course, if you say it that way... Perhaps we could avoid the 'sleeping with' angle and talk about love instead? Don't you think it would go over better?"

"Grrmblgrlbglr."

"Oh, right, I'm just teasing you! Severus, it will be all right... There's no reason it won't."

"We already talked about that a hundred times, Hermione! There is no reason it will! I am your teacher, I am far older than you, and I am a former Death Ea... Well, for all those people, I am not the perfect man for a girl... woman, excuse me, of your age!"

"You are in my eyes, and that is all that matters. Maybe they will have difficulties understanding it, maybe some of them won't be able to accept it, I know that too well, but those people are not important."

"So why are you so bloody keen to let them know?"

"Because there are other people, my love, who will understand. I'm talking of people like Molly and Arthur Weasley, like Remus Lupin, who--contrary to what this growl has just insinuated--are really extraordinary and open-minded people. I've only named three people but I could refer to three hundred. Three thousand. Come on, three million! Well, for the first evening, I haven't got delusions of grandeur; we will content ourselves with thirty! Ah, you see, you can smile! Severus... my love... I love you, and I want everybody to know it."

"Hermione, my dear, I love you, but I persist in saying that is a mistake. What if it goes wrong?"

"I repeat to you, it w..."

"Imagine!"

"Well, we will face it together! And you'll get the satisfaction of having been right since the beginning...."

"That is not funny, Hermione. I am... Right, the fact is that I am afraid for you!"

"Afraid? Why?"

"You don't know how it is... accusing looks from people. I am used to it; they expect nothing good from me. But you... The whole community pins its hopes on you. You are known as one of the most brilliant pupils Hogwarts has ever trained! If they come to know... when they know, they will judge you, they will reject you, and they will treat you as less than nothing. I just can see that! Oh, the Granger girl! She had such a promising future, but she teamed up with that awful former Death Eater! Merlin, what a decline, I would have never expected that of her! Well, you know what I mean...."

"I see above all that you can do a very good impersonation of a gossip, but that aside... Oh, Severus, you dramatize everything! I swear it will be nothing like that! You may have met terrible, bad people in your life, but don't make generalities. People are not all the same; some are really good."

"Good? So good that they will say I must have drugged you or given you a love potion to drink! Frankly, Hermione, look at you! And look at me! They will never believe that..."

"Yet it's the case, isn't it? I have needed no love potion or drug to fall in love with you, Severus. Nor to fancy you. Those who don't understand are not those I would call good people! The good ones might be surprised, but only because of our age difference, and they'll get used to it! Stop belittling yourself; it doesn't suit you!"

"All the same, I have always wondered what attracted you to me. I had noted it at the time, but I have never understood why."

"There are some things..."

"That cannot be explained, yes, I know. And others that can't be controlled, that's right?"

"Indeed. Except that for once, I can try to explain you. What did attract me to you? Everything. Your intelligence, your sharp mind, your charisma..."

"I was referring to physical observations..."

"I'm coming to that. The velvet of your voice that made me shiver with each word that escaped your sweet mouth. The fineness of your hands, whose touch I longed for. The depth of your eyes, in which I could have drowned, feeling only delight and sensual pleasure..."

"Such poetry!"

"I'm trying to put myself on your level."

"Waste of time; I am matchless."

"Hey, you're spoiling my slushy moment!"

"Hahaha!" I could have added his laugh to my list, so rare, but so frank that it made me shiver from the inside. "Okay, I take your point! I believe you, I believe you, there is no need to flatter me that much! Aaaah... Hermione... My sweet, my beautiful Hermione, I could bless the Heavens every day for allowing Beauty's eyes to rest favourably on a Beast such as I." ⁽¹⁾

"Matchless, eh?"

"I was joking! Well, so as to come back to our subject... Okay... I trust you... Anyway, I have no choice! But if it turns wrong, don't say I did not warn you!"

"What could be worse than having to hide ourselves for another six long months and having to lie to everybody? My friends, my family... I won't be able to."

"I know, I know... But... I have a foreboding... which is far worse than what people will think."

"You should not. Come on, stop thinking about it until tomorrow. Oh, I think something is going to take your mind off things; yes, I think that one of these uncontrollable things is surfacing... oh yes, yes, that's right!"

"Oh, don't try to control it then!"

"Mmmh, Severus... You know, I think that my only drug is you...."

"This poetry suits you better. And I really like it...."

We made love all night, sometimes tenderly, sometimes... more savagely, yes, but each time passionately. With our bodies, our hearts and our souls. As though it could be the last time....

The morning of December 25th had found us asleep in his bed, lovingly embraced, happy. In a year, it was the first time I had stayed the whole night. I usually crept back to my room in the middle of the night, and it took me hours to fall asleep in a big, cold bed so I slept little. There, feeling this heat, and the softness of his body against mine... that was the best Christmas present he could have given me. Oh, except for tonight's declaration, of course.

It was then that I realised that I had no gift for him, and I apologised as soon as he awoke.

"My gift, Hermione, is you."

All right, he was matchless...

TBC....

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⁽¹⁾ This beautiful expression is property of Severusgirl ;) . I couldn't find a way to translate what I had written in the French version, and that is what she suggested. It's nicer than the original version :)

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