His Virgin Huntress - Part II

A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I put a lot of thought into this moment for Severus and Hermione. I hope it answers some questions about where Hermione is at this point and the meaning of Severus' new-found confidence and sensitivity. I truly believe that there are two sides to a man. There is an outer and inner side which can be as different as night and day. When I read the scene in DH where Snape was weeping over Lily's letter and photo, I knew this was the private and inner part of Severus Snape that only he would reveal to the woman he loved.

***

The two lovers lay in Hermione's bed. Severus was stroking her hair, and she was playing with the hair on his chest.

"When do you have to leave?" she whispered.

Severus kissed her forehead. "I have to be back for classes on Monday," he murmured.

She sighed. "This is going to become complicated, isn't it?"

He lay on his back, pulling her close to him. "You on one continent, I on an island...I don't see how we can avoid it."

"What are we going to do?" she whispered.

"Come back with me?" he proposed with a raised eyebrow.

"What...for keeps?" she quipped as she laughed, rolling away from him onto her side.

She felt him snuggle against her. "At least for a visit, so Alice can meet you. She talks about it so much."

"I'm afraid," she whispered as she stared off into the distance of her flat.

Severus kissed her neck and shoulder. "Afraid of what?"

"Afraid I'll cry, afraid I'll blurt out that she's mine, and I want her back with me, therefore, scaring the life out of her, her hating me, you, Neville and Luna," she replied, unsure of how Severus would take her meaning.

Severus' eyes roamed over her. "You're trembling," he whispered.

"I am so angry," she whispered quietly. "I never should have let her go. I never should have let Augusta talk me into letting her go."

"It had been Augusta's idea?" he said sharply as he sat up.

Hermione turned and faced him, pulling the sheet closer to her. "Maybe not at first, but when I started to change my mind, she told me that I had to think about what was best for Alice Hermione...that I was doing the best thing I could do by giving her to Neville and Luna, two pure-bloods who would save her from of lifetime of shame."

"Shame?" he spat.

"The rape child of an ex-Death Eater and a Muggle-born," she explained.

"You were Potter's best friend! He alone would have assured your standing in society..."

Hermione held her head with one hand. "But I couldn't do that. I couldn't keep her and have her know she existed only because of what her father did to her mother."

"At least that was what Augusta told you," he snapped.

Hermione moved away from Severus. "Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to her. But she was so compelling! She told me about the choice she had to make between her son and grandson...that it killed her to put Frank and Alice into St. Mungo's!"

Severus raged at her. "Hermione, that woman took a situation that was a choice between two people and formed it to fit yours...which was a choice between nothing! She used your weakened state to bully you and told you it was for your own good...for Alice's own good! Damn her!"

He flipped back the covers and put his trousers on. He turned around to see Hermione clutching her coverlet as tears ran down her face.

He sat back on the bed and reached for her. "No!" she shouted as she sat up and set her back to him. He watched her bowed head and the branded mark on her back. She summoned her silk robe and pulled it on quickly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough," she said as she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief she found in her pocket. "How was I to know you would even care? You hated me! You hated everything about me, and for one moment I thought I saw relief on your face when I returned, but the rest of the year, you were the same: cold, snide, sarcastic...you were such a bastard! What was I to do? Go up to you and say, 'Hey remember me? I was the girl in the muslin sack that you raped on your birthday. And guess what? I'm pregnant with your baby!'"

She dropped the false excitement and shook her head. "It. Was. Impossible!" she hissed through gritted teeth.

Severus sighed and let his hands fall on the bed. "It is not your fault. I've never blamed you; I never will. I'm angry with that wretched woman for manipulating you!" he snarled.

He started pacing around like a caged animal as he spoke, "A part of me wants to go there and take Alice away from all of them and bring her here, safe and sound where we can be together as a real family!"

"Is that what you want?" Hermione asked softly as she curled up on her bed again.

He stopped pacing, walked to her, and straddled her. "The first thought that came into my mind when I realized you and I were Alice's parents was to make us a family...just the three of us," he said as he caressed her face and hair. "I planned to court you and see if I could persuade you to fall in love with an evil bastard...such as I am...and then together we would get our daughter and be together."

Hermione snorted as they both laughed. "And then?" she whispered.

"Well, I wanted us to marry before we brought her home...wherever we decided that would be... and I thought, well, perhaps, you would want to have another baby with me," he whispered. "Do it right this time?"

Hermione felt strange. "I don't know if I would ever want to go though that again," she whispered.

Severus lifted her head with one finger under her chin. "It could be different. At St. Mungo's, I could give you potions to ease the pain, to even take most of it away. I would invent a new potion to give you to make you as comfortable as magically possible, and the hell to any Healer who stands in my way!"

Hermione giggled. He held her, careful not to touch the branded area on her back.

She grasped onto him tightly. "I've wanted this for so long!"

Severus broke their hold. "What?" he asked her as his eyes drank in her face.

"A wizard who would see how special I still could be...that I wasn't ruined because of what happened to me...what I did...I-I have so much guilt for giving her up. I feel like I gave up on her. As if she weren't enough to fight for...or worth fighting for. I don't want her to think my decision was easy or without pain because it was so hard!"

Severus kissed her soundly on her lips. "She will understand one day. Perhaps not now. Children are so bloody-minded about things. If they can't understand a situation, they blame themselves."

He kissed her passionately, consuming her mouth, pulling off his trousers, and untying her robe. His eyes roved around her exposed body, and he kissed her again as his hands roamed free to touch every part of her skin. "Hermione," he whispered.

She arched her back and let her head fall back as she gave herself over to him. "Please," she whispered. "Take me with you."

He rose over her and took his time to pleasure her, to awaken her body, every nerve, to what would come. She looked up at him, gazing into his face, and nodded. He wrapped her legs around his waist. He continued to kiss and tease her all the while slowly sinking a finger inside her. Hermione jumped at the foreignness of the sensation.

He removed his hand and stroked her hair. "It's okay, Hermione," he whispered. "I need to make sure you are ready." He stroked inside her, concentrating on her face while going a bit deeper with each thrust. He lifted her slightly as he pressed in further.

He silently withdrew. He pressed a couple of fingers inside her and began to move them around in a swirling pattern.

"I-oh-that's good," she breathed.

"That's right," he whispered in her ear. "I want you to feel good. Gratification and satisfaction."

His words swam in her head, and her mind went blank, focusing only on the decadent feeling that he was giving her, making her body shift and move in ways she had never imagined. Soon she was straining and arching, trying to get the contact with his hand to match that which was building up inside of her. "Faster!" she gasped. She felt her body instinctively take over as she ground her clitoris against the palm of his hand. The sensation grew more intense and then exploded, shooting outward, rolling through her even down to her toes. She shuddered against his shoulder, holding him tightly, then collapsed onto the bed, perspiring and spent.

Severus mounted her and ran the length of him across her sex. Severus hooked her legs over his forearms and slowly sank into her, moaning her name as he filled her completely.

Hermione pressed her knees to her chest, and Severus groaned loudly. He looked down into Hermione's large eyes. They were full of wonder and excitement. He kept his eyes focused on her, boring into her eyes to find if he could make them soft with desire. He rose over her and possessed her, filling all of her, completing so much that had been left barren inside. He worshipped her with his whole being, with words, his body, his soul, and with all he had within him, for he truly loved her. He took her with him to the height and breadth of passion, desire, and yearning.

"I-I," Hermione tried to talk as he drew her closer into his arms.

"Shh," he whispered as he traced her flushed cheek with his hand. "Don't talk, just feel."

Hermione relinquished herself to the spiraling and swirling feeling around her. She had never felt anything so amazing in her life. She gripped his back as he moved inside her. After a while, a keening sound came from deep inside her, and Severus was panting and calling her name. She felt a deep tremor within her that frightened her with its intensity. She felt a warm gush inside of her as Severus cried out sharply, and half-collapsed, spent and breathing on top of her.

He lazily scooped her into his embrace and took her with him as he fell onto his back and kissed her forehead. "Thank you, Hermione," he panted. "Thank you."

Hermione began to cry softly.

Severus leaned up quickly and started down at her. "What's wrong?" He asked in confusion, still breathing hard, but clearly alarmed that something was wrong.

"I've never felt that way. I feel I've shattered into pieces. I've never been so close to anyone before," she confessed through her sobs, "or so out of control of myself. I'm frightened how you make me feel."

He held her firmly to him. She looked so lost and broken, afraid and unsure of the intensity of what she had experienced. "I've got you," he assured her. "Don't worry, you're safe with me."

Her body was trembling and shaking. She looked up into his eyes. "Y-Your v-v-voice w-was s-so... h-hypnotic. When you told me to 'feel,' I-I felt so connected to you." She hung her head as she sobbed. "I-I don't want to lose that, now that I've found it!" she cried aloud. She broke down completely then, and allowed Severus to hold her as she wept.

After most of her sobbing subsided, Severus tipped her chin up and kissed her sweetly. "That's the way it should be. That's the way I always want you to feel in my arms. Forever."

Hermione looked at Severus with new eyes, and she loved him. It was time now to meet their daughter.