Chapter 6

These characters belong to JKR

Master of Enchantment

Chapter 6

Severus reached behind him on the bed and found his wand by touch.

"The spell will work more quickly and more easily if we maintain eye contact," he explained to her.

Hermione sat in the chair across from his place on the edge of Tonks' bed; there were mere inches between their knees as they faced one another. She responded, her voice low and husky with emotion, "Show me, Severus. See me. Feel me. Know me."

She saw the shudder ripple through him at her words. He held his wand between them, pointed it at her, and said in a powerful voice, "Legilimens!"

Hermione immediately felt him there, in the forefront of her mind; she greeted him joyfully, and he took her hand with a sad smile and led her forward. She knew, in some distant way, that both of them were still seated across from one another in the room of the inn, yet, at the same time, she had the distinct feeling of being led into the corridors of his being.

The sensation was of a sudden immersion into his emotions, accompanied by a succession of images, all filtered through his feelings. Hermione found it to be disconcerting at first, but Severus reached into her mind and steadied her; sensing his strength surrounding her, she was able to concentrate on the panorama of his life.

His earliest memories were of deprivation of touch. As a baby, a toddler, a small child, he was left alone, crying, reaching, needing; a baby who was not held and rocked enough, a toddler who was not cuddled and reassured, a small child left to his own devices. She saw his mother and his father, saw the war between them and the effect on their only prisoner of that war, their own son. She saw the dilemma that forged his early childhood: the love for one parent who overtly abused him and the love for the other parent who failed to protect him from the abuse. She felt the comfort he found in the boxed books and she saw the lure of the Dark Magic, as a very young wizard began down a path of need, driven first by the hope that he would learn the spell to change his parents, and then by hate and the desire for vengeance. He led her on, into his years at Hogwarts, the rituals of Slytherin House and the scorn of the girls and the ridicule of the boys with whom he was forced to pass his days. She saw his peers acquire a grudging admiration of his skills and abilities, which brought him a place among them, in spite of his caustic personality and his neglected physical appearance. She glimpsed the torment he suffered at the hands of James Potter and Sirius Black, the sight of the werewolf, the humiliation and frustration he felt when the other boys were not punished for his brush with death. She went on with him, saw his sexual initiation, somehow, in his mind, interposed on his Death Eater initiation. She saw the curses he hurled, the people who recovered, and those who did not. Deeper, deeper, ever darker, into an ugly place within him, a place of hate and despair, with the only positive voice being that of the one whom he called "Master." She felt her own revulsion at the horrible memories of the abasement he suffered at the hands of the Dark Lord, the death-dealing potions he brewed, and the people who recovered, and those who did not.

At this point, Hermione felt Severus attempting to disengage his hand from hers, but she held fast, urging him to show her more, ever more, of himself and how he evolved. Resolutely, Severus led her on, to memories of the faceless women, coins exchanging hands, acts of sexual abandon for which he paid dearly, in gold and in spirit. Now, here, the moment when he could no longer endure the senseless nature of the deeds he was asked to perform, the days of agonizing, the decision to go to Dumbledore; she saw Dumbledore's role in this man's life, the unblinking attendance to the recitation of his acts of damnation, the inexorable probing as he lay himself open for Dumbledore to do as she was doing now; the acceptance he received and the absolution he felt, even if he could not name it.

Hermione was awed as she viewed Severus's subsequent acts of heroism when he turned spy for the Order of the Phoenix and used his skill at Occlumency to go among the Death Eaters and learn of their plans and schemes. She recognized his innate sense of honor, the honor which had forced him to return to the side of the Light; she saw his tremendous courage in his unswerving conviction and dauntless resolve to do the right thing, regardless of his own personal safety.

Even as she thought these things, Hermione felt Severus push her admiration away from him. Insistently, he showed her his attempts to advance at Hogwarts, the other teachers he out-maneuvered to become Head of Slytherin House, and his machinations behind the scenes to gain the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, over and over again. She watched as he began to perceive Hogwarts and its staff as his home and his family, allowing himself a sense of security behind those ancient walls. She saw his holidays away from school, how he allowed himself to ease into the persona he thought of as Holiday Severus; she saw his plan for her to meet Holiday Severus on this trip. In his holiday memories, she saw a more relaxed Severus relating with strangers from whom he felt no threat and for whom he had no need to maintain his unbending facade.

Then she saw the advent of her beloved Harry and felt Severus' antipathy and aversion for this carbon copy of his old school foe; she saw herself as a bushy-headed, buck-toothed child and felt his impatience with her personality, as well as his grudging respect for her intellect. Interspersed with his fury of impatience over Harry's many escapades at school, she felt his rising awareness of the inevitability of another, final confrontation with the Dark Lord and his minions. She was witness to his dogged resolution to reclaim his place among the Death Eaters upon Voldemort's return; she saw a glimpse of the physical tortures to which he was subjected to prove his loyalty as a Death Eater. She was aware of Severus' attempt to dissuade her from seeing the memories cataloging his persecution among Voldemort's followers; stubbornly, she continued on through his physical suffering. At the end of it all, she felt his savage joy at the fall of Voldemort and his bone-deep relief that the struggle was finally through.

She saw then, with a blow like a Bludger to the stomach, their night at Grimmauld Place and its impact on him; she saw his agony, felt his longing as well as his determination to protect himself from this, what was happening right now - an invasion of his most private, secret self. In a blur, she saw his efforts to hold himself aloof from her, his final acceptance of their bond and his decision to pursue her.

Hesitantly, Severus led her to a memory that he, himself, now only visited in half-remembered dreams. He allowed her to see his one moment before the Mirror of Erised, many years before, in Hermione's first year at Hogwarts, when the Mirror had been used to protect the Philosopher's Stone. In the Mirror, Severus stood, relaxed and smiling, arm-in-arm with a faceless woman, while a small black-haired boy with warm brown eyes and a Snape-hooked nose played at his feet. As Hermione viewed this memory of the reflection of the deepest wish of his heart, the faceless woman took on Hermione's face; she and Severus recognized at the same moment that his mirror-child had, even then, her eyes.

They both paused for a long moment, studying this memory. Hermione felt Severus's internal struggle: his terrific need to control his life and protect himself at last surrendered in the face of his grim decision to follow through on his promise to show her everything and to hold nothing back. At the end of this journey into his very soul, Hermione watched as Severus acknowledged his deepest, most private wish - to share the Enchantment with his one true kindred spirit.

Hermione could feel Severus' emotional depletion at the end of this journey, but she was determined to finish what they had begun. She took both of his hands and pulled him back, through the corridors of his being, into hers. She was only half his age and a much more forthright person; the journey was much shorter and easier to navigate.

Hermione willed herself to be open to him; she was aware of his tentative hesitation to invade her being in this way. Severus reached for a memory, pausing as if for permission, and she gestured to him, see it all. As he viewed her thoughts and memories, she saw them, too. Her earliest recollections were of security and safety in her mother's arms, with her smiling and proud father in attendance. Next, a blur of successive childhood memories; her pet dog, her grief when her grandmother died, her joy in learning at her primary school, her ambitions to be the best and the smartest among her peers, her excitement when the letter from Hogwarts arrived so unexpectedly.

Severus looked carefully at her time as his student, at the many times she had doubted him and suspected him of wrong-doing. He saw her growing respect for his intellect and knowledge and her quiet admiration when his role as a spy was revealed to her. He saw her repeated, tireless defense of him to her cohorts, Potter and Weasley, who frequently suggested he was leaking Order plans to the Dark Lord. He saw her schoolgirl fascination with his hands, with his voice, with his body beneath his robes, and felt an odd gratification. He slowed as he looked through her thoughts about Potter, Weasley, and Krum very carefully, looking for signs of romantic feelings that may have been thwarted by the advent of the Enchantment.

He saw that she loved Potter as a friend and a brother. He saw her impatience and her persistent physical distaste as she attempted teenage romances with Weasley and Krum. He saw her wild excitement as she held Severus in her arms at Grimmauld Place, her confusion over where the sudden feelings had come from, and her despairing attempts to seek comfort and advice from him with her unanswered owls. He witnessed her few failed attempts to give herself sexually to Krum, and he found it within himself to feel a flash of pity for the confused young Bulgarian.

Hermione felt a moment of impatience with his uncharacteristic sympathy for Viktor; she tugged him on, urging him to see all that he wished to know. She felt him examining her thoughts about her career, her attitudes toward marriage and children, and, at last, her feelings about him, right now...

He was pulling her out of the chair and into his lap; their minds were still entwined, saturated each with the other's thoughts and memories, and now he was reclining on the bed, pulling her down beside him, so that they were eye to eye. She knew, without his words, that she had answered his question, and that he had answered hers - now, how did she wish to proceed, because he was entirely at her disposal?

Hermione leaned into him, searching for his mouth, and she found it. Oh, yes, this was a kiss, this scorching conflagration launched by his lips claiming hers, as his body rolled toward her, and his torso rose to loom over her. Cleverly, his tongue laved the inside of her mouth, teasing, caressing her tongue with his; her hands tangled in his hair and she gasped out loud as he released her lips and trailed burning kisses down her throat to the juncture of her shoulder. She could feel their hearts, synchronized and beating as one, and she knew the passion burning its way through her body was creating the exact same havoc for him. Her hands found their way from his hair to his back, and quickly she pulled his shirt loose from his trousers, running her hands up and down his back, feeling his spine, his shoulder blades, the muscles in his back as he shifted his position to look down into her face, completely suffused with the power of the emotions and sensations throbbing through both their veins.

Her eyes took in the cherished face, with its planes and angles, the thin, cruel lips, the hooked nose, and she could feel his wonder and amazement, to know, from inside her mind, that she viewed his face with desire and approval. This knowledge seemed to hit him fiercely, like a brutal blow - always, he had been told he was ugly, greasy, loathed, unwanted, undesired - she pushed her way into his mind with more determination now, showing him how she saw him, and with a groan, she opened up those fantasies of him that had sustained her for so long. Not only did she want him, she wanted him this way, and this way, and this way - he closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers; for the first time in an eternity, she heard his actual voice -

"Hermione - do you want - once we start, I don't know if either of us will be able to stop it ..."

"...why would we want to stop... YES, I want... please..."

She struggled to a sitting position and pulled the red dress over her head, letting it drop to the floor. Severus swooped and claimed her lips again, allowing his hands to grasp her waist and then begin a slow trip up her ribcage, gently cupping her breasts. When he brushed the pads of his thumbs simultaneously across her nipples, he was pleased to hear a moan that told him his lover was going to be a vocal partner. Quickly, he turned from her to retrieve his fallen wand, and he cast a Silencing Charm before letting the wand fall again to the floor with a moan of his own - Hermione had nipped his nipple with her teeth and simultaneously run an unsure hand up the front of his trousers, grasping his length through the fabric. With a whimper of frustration, she reached for his belt. Severus pushed himself off the bed, his black eyes locked on her face, and he undressed himself quickly down to his own black briefs.

At last he stood before her, whipcord thin and lightly muscled. Hermione grasped the top his briefs, and carefully, she pushed them down his hips to his thighs. The sight of his engorged penis elicited a little gasp of hunger from her as she cupped his scrotum, then traced her way up the arc of him to the glistening drops on the head of his erection. One touch there told him that he had best occupy her, or he would be spraying in her hand like a teenaged boy.

Severus stepped out of his briefs and stilled her questing hands, pausing to kiss each palm as he stretched out beside her. He kissed each breast in turn, opening his warm mouth to suckle one breast while he rubbed the alternate nipple between his thumb and finger. He moved his mouth from side to side, and soon she was angling her hips to rub up against him. Obligingly, he moved down her body, grasped the top of her knickers in both hands, and successfully stripped them from her body, letting them drop from his nerveless fingers as he gazed at her nakedness. He pushed gently into her mind to show her how she looked to him and to let her feel how the sight of her impacted him. She was gasping from sharing that emotion when he covered her body with his, catching her lips in a bruising kiss, taking a full breast in the palm of each hand. He kneaded her as she bit at his lips, and he gently nudged her thighs apart to let her brush her damp curls against his bent knee.

Hermione surprised herself with the way she bucked her hips and humped against his knee with such abandon; she had never suspected herself of having this passionate nature after her experience of such distaste for Viktor's caresses. Severus kissed his way down to her breasts, moving one hand to her mouth and letting her nibble on his thumb, while the other hand gently parted her glistening folds and stroked down her cleft as she jerked against him and cried out. Gently, he stroked her with his fingers as he sucked her nipples, and when she was writhing mindlessly beneath him, he kissed his way down her belly to more closely inspect her. Using both hands, he parted her lips and used his tongue to lick her from her opening up to the little bud, which he nuzzled before settling down to lick her nectar. Now she was truly moving her hips, pressing herself eagerly, ever more eagerly into his warm, wonderful mouth. Severus slipped one finger easily into her vagina, then followed with a second finger, slowly and gently moving his fingers in and out. He slipped in a third finger now, and pressed his long tongue through her folds, licking deeply, again and again, fingers in and out, tongue up and down, as Hermione moaned louder, and moved more frantically.

Feeling for her with his mind, he judged when, and took her little clitoris in his mouth and gently sucked, then flattened his tongue against it as she bucked and began to come, loudly, wildly. When her movements slowed, he slid up her body and took her into his arms, kissing her deeply with her own essence on his lips and tongue.

Hermione clung to her lover in the aftermath of the cataclysm that had been her first orgasm with him, joined to him in body by contact, in soul by the Enchantment, and in mind by Legilimency, and she wanted to feel the torrent move like a tide through his body, too. She reached for his erection, and he caught her hand, gently pressing it upward until her arm was extended over her head, with his hand imprisoning it just above her elbow; he sucked a nipple into his mouth, and caught her other hand in the same way as it headed south. He covered her now, with her arms pinned to the bed, and his penis throbbing against her belly. As he looked down at her, he saw her looking at the head of his penis, glistening with pre-come, and he shuddered at the sight of her licking her lips.

"No," he whispered to her hoarsely.

Hermione shifted beneath him, a gentle rolling motion with her hips, back and forth. "No to my hands... no to my mouth... what does a girl have to do around here to get a yes from you?"

Once again, she felt Severus reach for her mind and pull her to him. His fingers were now entwined with hers as he positioned himself between her thighs and kissed her mouth.

"Spread your legs for me," he whispered to her.

The pulsing tide was increasing; they were breathing now as one. Hermione spread her legs, and she felt one hand leave hers as he reached down to probe her with his fingers, then he slipped the head of his cock inside of her, and they moaned together. With an iron will, Severus kept himself from moving, allowing her to become accustomed to him. Then she shocked them both by moving her hips up, impaling herself more fully on him. He could see her discomfort, as well as her determination, as he moved past the membrane of her maidenhead. Her triumphant "YES" drove him to kiss her mouth; he moved his hips the slightest bit, pulling almost out, and slid back in. Hungrily, she moved her hips again, thrusting up, taking more of him; when she heard his groaned, "Oh yes, oh, fuck," she pushed again and wrapped her legs around him, this time taking all of him.

Severus looked into her brown eyes, brimming in tears, and because he was saturated with her thoughts, he knew that the tears were transcendence, not pain. He put his lips by her ear, and he said, "Many, many times, for the rest of our lives, I will be buried inside of you just like this, and many, many times, it will be more pleasurable." Slowly and rhythmically, he began to move back and forth, in and out, creating that unutterable friction that drives the human race. "No matter how many times I fuck you -" she shuddered as he said it, beginning to move with him, increasing the tempo, "I will remember this time, because it will also be the first time -" he slipped a hand between them and touched her clitoris and she cried out, "that I ever said," and his fingers moved in that age-old circular motion, bringing her right back to the edge with him, "I love you, Hermione," and she screamed his name with her orgasm, moving against him without inhibition, meeting his hip movements thrust for thrust, until he shot his come deeply inside of her, and he kept moving until the last tremor of his climax, repeating over and again into her ear, "I. Love. You. I. Love. You."

He had shifted enough to the side that he was no longer on top of her, and they were tangled together in a heap of legs and arms, sticky and satiated, drifting in sleep. Then there was a thumping sound, which became thudding, coming from the next room, just on the other side of the wall; it was the sound of a piece of furniture repeatedly bumping into the wall. Hermione roused from slumber, cocked her head to one side as she considered the possibilities, and realization slowly dawned. She looked over at Severus, who was already watching her with a small, crooked smile.

"The sodding fool forgot the Silencing Charm," he commented.

Almost immediately, inaudible voices, one a low growl, the other a higher chant, began. Severus rolled over to retrieve his wand with a small groan. "But we cast a Silencing Charm," Hermione protested as he pulled away from her.

"That keeps noises we make from being heard; it doesn't keep us from hearing other people's noise." Gathering his wits about him, Severus sat up and warded the room with a Soundproofing Charm. "Can't do a thing for the people in the room on the other side of them," he said.

Hermione sat up too, pressing herself against his back. "The Legilimency spell is gone," she mourned and pressed her lips to his shoulder.

Severus turned in her arms, surveying her dishevelment with pleasure. "The Enchantment isn't gone," he observed, capturing one of her hands and pressing it, palm to palm. They gazed into each other's eyes, feeling the coursing power flowing between them.

Hermione felt light-headed with her desire for him. "Is it always going to be this strong?" she wondered out loud, trailing her free hand down his throat, to his chest, to his belly, to his stirring cock.

"I hope so," he growled, beginning to pull the pins that held her hair, tossing them carelessly onto the floor before pressing her back onto the pillows with one hand tangled in her long curls, and rabidly devouring her mouth.

The next time she woke, it was near dawn. She felt the soreness in her lower regions with a certain satisfaction and reached for him with her arms. He was gone, the pillow where his head had lain indented but empty. Feeling abandoned, she sat up and switched on the lamp; she could hear the shower running in the bathroom. She went into the bathroom quietly and was pleased to hear him singing softly to himself in a pleasant baritone.

"Severus, I'm coming into the shower," she said and slipped past the plastic curtain.

He was standing with his back to the showerhead, rinsing her shampoo from his hair. Swiftly, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her mouth. "How did you know to warn me before you entered?" he asked as he ended the kiss.

Hermione chuckled, sliding her arms around his soap-slick body and letting her hands slip down to his delicious arse. "I saw Sirius Black come up behind you in the hallway at Grimmauld Place one time," she told him. "The clock was chiming the hour, so you didn't hear him. When the chime stopped, he continued walking, and you slammed him against the wall with your wand at his throat so fast it made my head spin. He shouted something really foul at you, and Mrs. Black's portrait woke up and the drapes flew open and she started screeching about blood traitors..." Hermione squeezed his arse cheeks and licked a nipple. "I warned you because I want to live to shag again..."

Severus picked up the soap and began to lather her body. "You do realize I'm forty years old?" he inquired conversationally.

Hermione released his bum to grasp his stirring cock and bring him to a full erection with three judicious strokes of her increasingly knowledgeable hand. "Yes, love, but how old is that in dog years?"

The sun was rising now over the deserted beach. Hermione and Severus walked the sand in their bare feet, allowing the morning tide to wash over their toes, her arm about his waist, and his arm about her shoulders.

"I never knew the world was this beautiful," Hermione said quietly, looking at the rosy dawn sky.

"The world hasn't changed, Pet," Severus replied.

Hermione stopped walking, and pressed herself against him, holding him tightly, clinging as she had in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. "Call me that again," she said into the white of his dress shirt.

Severus grasped the nape of her neck, under the heavy hair still damp from their earlier shower, and used his other hand to tip her chin, so that he was looking into her eyes. "Pet. My precious, beautiful Pet." He watched the beloved brown eyes tear up and moved the hand from her chin to her cheek, where he swiped a tear with his thumb, then brought the thumb to his lips to taste the saltiness. She shivered against him, then reached her arms up to pull his head down to hers for a sweet, searing kiss.

"I love you, Severus," she said against his lips.

"...and about time you said it, too," he answered, scooping her up and heading back to the privacy of the room.

They slept until noon and woke up ravenous.

Grudgingly, they pulled clothes on to brave the outside world. As Hermione was struggling to get a brush through her tangled curls, the French doors rattled, and Tonks' and Lupin's voices came through.

"You have to eat!"

Severus opened the door, eyeing the duo sardonically. "Can I be of assistance?" he asked.

Lupin held up bags. "Two words, mate. Chinese food."

Severus stepped back and made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "By all means, enter."

They spread the cardboard boxes across the dresser and filled their plates greedily. Tonks delved into the sack she was carrying and brought out iced bottles of beer. She and Lupin settled on one bed, while Hermione and Severus took up residence on the bed they had shared. There were several minutes of uninterrupted chewing and swallowing. Finally, Lupin pulled out another bottle of beer and twisted the top off, giving Severus and Hermione a bland look.

"Sleep well?" he inquired.

Severus glared at him. "Two words, Lupin."

"Yes, Severus? And those two words are..."

"Silencing Charm."

Hermione began to laugh, and Tonks inhaled part of a dumpling and began to cough. Lupin patted her helpfully on the back and looked chagrined as he said, "Did I forget..."

"How you expect anyone to sleep through that ruckus is beyond me." Severus gave Lupin a sneer and went back to his food.

Lupin capitulated and changed the subject. "What are our plans for the rest of the day?"

Severus raised a brow at him. "I don't know what your plans are, Lupin. Hermione and I are planning to have a swim, a nap, and dinner."

"Another nap?" Tonks mouthed at Hermione, who giggled.

"Shall we finish up our mini-break at the pub where we started?" Lupin suggested.

Hermione spoke up. "Yes, let's. It's a lovely pub."

Severus's lips quirked into a half-smile as he looked at her. "As you wish. Dinner at the pub." He turned a scowl on Lupin. "Provided we all make it out of our rooms, of course."

Lupin rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "Hey, I'm forty years old."

Tonks leaned over to Hermione. "Forty looks good on some people, whaddaya say?"

"Fabulous," Hermione breathed, looking at Severus, who was asking Lupin, "But how old is that in wolf years?"

Lupin and Hermione cleared away the remnants of their meal while Severus and Tonks moved their belongings to one another's rooms. Then they all changed into their swimsuits, swallowed sunscreen potions, and met outdoors. Severus and Hermione settled side by side in the wrought iron terrace chairs, while Lupin and Tonks walked down the beach and splashed out into the water.

Hermione was smiling upon the spectacle of her happy friends when she was reminded of her own happiness by Severus pulling her over onto his chest. "Do you think they suspect?" he asked glibly.

Hermione giggled at him, then leaned into a relatively chaste kiss. Pulling back from him, a thought came to her, and she said, "Severus, what are we going to do?"

He stroked one finger down her cheek. "I was wondering when you were going to think of that."

She sat up, looking at him seriously. "We've still got a symposium to plan, and I can't think straight when I'm sitting next to you. When I'm in the next room from you, all I can think about is being back with you. How can I work like this?"

Severus gently stroked her arm. "It's like the beginning of any love affair, Pet. In the beginning, all you think about is being with the other person. The difference with us is that the Enchantment drives us. Even for Enchanted couples, though, the initial furor calms down to a dull roar, so that they can get on with their lives." He studied her face for a moment, then said diffidently, "What do you want to do?"

Hermione took his hand and brought it to her cheek, turning her face to kiss his palm. "In a perfect world, I would want to go away with you and shag you senseless until I could be in the same room with you without wetting myself and could leave a room without your company and not die inside because of it."

"I don't see why we can't do that," he said evenly, rubbing her full lower lip with the pad of his thumb and watching her beautiful eyes darken with desire.

"But the symposium," she said, nibbling on the thumb at her lips and trying to keep her mind on the conversation.

"...can easily be planned by Albus and Minerva. Trust me, Pet, when I say that they foresaw this event and have planned for it." He smiled sourly. "Albus carefully orchestrates his little schemes. He deliberately brought you to Hogwarts to put you in my path, didn't he?"

Hermione nodded her head, now sucking on his thumb and insinuating a hand beneath his shirt to flick a finger across his nipple.

Severus captured the hand beneath his open shirt and removed his thumb from her mouth, pinching her on the chin. "I refuse to put on a public display for these Muggles, Miss Granger," he warned her sternly, his lips twitching.

Hermione shifted in her seat, saying peevishly, "I wish you would stop calling me that."

"That can be arranged, no doubt." He leaned toward her, his lips next to her ear. "What would you rather I call you, Hermione?"

Something in his tone caused her to turn her face so that they were eye to eye. She searched his face questioningly, her heart suddenly racing.

His lazy smile caused a wild swooping sensation in her tummy. "Perhaps you would prefer me to call you mine? My wife? Mrs. Snape?"

Severus cursed the damn French doors at least once before he had Hermione safely inside the room, where she could forcibly undress him in privacy, while she explained the reasons why she thought he had the most marvelous ideas.

That evening in the pub was markedly different from their first time, two nights before. There was a melancholy, end-of-holiday air, offset by a luminous, beginning-of-romance aura. Both couples were largely lost in each other and mostly oblivious to the Muggles at surrounding tables. There was a good deal of eye-gazing and hand-holding. Lupin and Tonks were utterly agog to see Severus smiling and laughing with Hermione. Albus had told them what he hoped for, but they had not believed it would actually happen.

At one point, when Hermione went to the Ladies', and Severus dropped a tender kiss on her lips as he stood to let her past him, Tonks leaned forward and said, "Is it the Enchantment, Severus?"

Severus curled his lip at her. "Was it a 'mate from work' who gave you the keys to the inn, 'Dora?"

Lupin reached a hand across the table. "Congratulations, Severus. I hope that you will be very happy."

Severus took Lupin's hand, with a rare smile. "Thank you, Remus. I hope you'll be happy, too."

Tonks goggled at him. "It has to be the Enchantment - it's bloody well changed your entire personality."

Severus stood to admit Hermione, who had returned from the loo. "'Dora says the Enchantment has changed my personality, Pet," he commented to her as she slid into her seat.

Hermione blushed charmingly. "Oh, did you tell them?"

Severus quirked an eyebrow at her. "I didn't have to tell them. Albus did."

Hermione turned to the conspirators with a shocked face. "Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded.

Tonks held up her hands defensively. "I swore to Albus I wouldn't say a word about it. Our only job was to get you away from Hogwarts and to bring up the Enchantment in conversation."

Severus narrowed his eyes. "I should wring that scrawny, ancient neck."

Lupin grinned at him wolfishly. "I imagine that scrawny, ancient duffer could still kick your arse, mate."

Severus replied with a sneer and a rude gesture that had both girls in gales of laughter.

Lupin pulled a handful of Muggle coins from his pocket. "Let's go spend these in the jukebox, 'Dora. I want to dance with you." He stood and held his hand out to Tonks, who flushed prettily and allowed herself to be led away.

Hermione leaned into Severus's arm and pressed a kiss on the pulse beneath his ear. "If you strangle Professor Dumbledore, who's going to perform our ceremony, hmm?"

Severus looked down into the warm brown eyes and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "We don't have to rush into anything, Pet. If you want a real wedding, we can take the time to plan it. A girl only gets married once - I want you to have what you want."

Hermione turned on him fiercely. "What I WANT is my honeymoon, thank you very much. I have never had some wedding fantasy -"

Severus interposed wickedly, "Well, tell me about the fantasies you do have, Pet..."

"...and I want to be married as quickly as we can. Why can't we elope? All we need is a magistrate!"

Severus glowered at her and spoke sternly. "I will not run off with you without so much as your parents' blessing. NO. We will follow our plan, speak to Albus, speak to your parents, send the owls to your friends, and we will plan a formal reception when we return from our honeymoon. No one is going to say that I swooped down on you and tricked you into anything untoward. This marriage will take place strictly on honorable terms, or it will not take place at all. Do I make myself plain?"

Hermione watched him with a wicked gleam. "Why does it make me so hot when you do that?" she whispered.

"Behave yourself, young lady, or there will be no pudding for you." He gave her a wicked gleam of his own and she sighed happily.

"Yes, sir," she replied meekly.

He stood and held out a hand to her. "Come dance with me."

A lovely melody was beginning as they joined Lupin and Tonks on the dance floor. Tonks had her arms wrapped around Lupin's waist, her cheek pressed to his chest, her expression one of dreamy contentment. Lupin's head was bowed, his cheek pressed to the top of her head, holding her as if she were a china doll, while they danced.

Severus pulled Hermione into his arms and they began to dance together, as they had the night - no, the lifetime - before. He knew it was dangerous, rushing into the future as they were, but the Enchantment made its own rules and he was never surer of anything in his life than he was of the rightness of their union.

The hour was growing late, and the Muggles had all gone home. Lupin poured the last of the pitcher of beer into their glasses and held his own aloft. "Here's to mini-breaks at the beach," he said, echoing the toast from their first night. Four glasses touched and each of them drank.

Severus replaced his glass on the table, looking at the other couple with a speculative eye. "What are you two doing next Friday night?" he asked.

Tonks grinned at him. "Want to make another weekend of it?"

Hermione said, "Severus and I have discussed it, and we would very much like to have you both stand up with us for our wedding, as best man and maid of honor."

A good deal of laughing, crying, hugging, and backslapping followed this statement, but it was agreed that Tonks and Lupin were indeed available on Friday next to attend the nuptials. Soon afterward, they left the pub and began their slow way back to the inn, speaking desultorily of meeting for breakfast early in the morning before Apparating back to their workaday Monday morning lives.

Severus led Hermione down to the beach, where they stood looking at the starlight on the water. "It is very sudden, Pet, this change we are making in our lives."

Hermione looked up into his face, his habitual arrogant sneer replaced by a look of warm concern. "Severus, I have wanted this ever since that night on Grimmauld Place. I had no idea why I wanted it, other than suspecting I had developed an incurable yen to devour you whole, body and soul. Now I know we've been given this incredible gift in the Enchantment. I don't want to waste another moment of my life away from you - and I know that every moment I have spent away from you since we first touched has felt like wasted time."

"You are a woman who is driven by ambition, Hermione. How will you realize your career goals buried in the wilds of Scotland, married to a Potions master?"

Hermione stamped her foot, her hands on hips and a martial light in her eye. "Do I question you about how you're going to accomplish your career goals married to me? No, I do not. I accept that you are fully capable of determining what you want to do and how you're going to do it while married to me. I don't know what I'm going to do with my career right now, Severus, and I don't HAVE to know right now. I'm going to get married, have my honeymoon, get settled in my married life, and then I will look about me and decide how I wish to proceed with my career. That is my plan. Now, do we have to cast Legilimens again for me to make my point?"

The Potions master stood in the starlight beside this incomparable woman, with whose love and everlasting passion the Fates had blessed him, and accepted yet again that he could not explain the workings of destiny. He placed his large, elegantly made hands on either side of her face, gazing into her eyes as they felt the ineffable magic of the Enchantment wash through them, synchronizing their very heartbeats, one to the other. "No, Hermione. That will not be necessary."

And she did not protest when he swept her up into his arms and carried her through the soft, summer night, to love her yet again.

A/N -- BelfryBat has done a piece of art to accompany a scene near the end of the story, which can be found here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/20562006/