Chapter 2

The same disclaimers as for chapter 1 apply. Thank you to my beta-reader, Maggie, for always being so supportive.

The kiss was long and sweet. When they finally broke apart, Snape started to trail small kisses from her chin to her ear. He stopped when he felt her pulse beating wildly against his lips.

"My, my, aren't we excited?"

Hermione lifted her head. "Damn, I wish I could see your eyes."

There was a moment's silence.

"Not quite certain if I'm teasing or mocking, are you?" he said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "Let me show you…" He untangled one of her hands from his hair and moved it to his chest, where his heart beat rapidly against his ribs. "Does this feel like mocking?"

She didn't reply but drew him into another kiss instead, a deep, endless, and passionate kiss. And another. And some more. His hands wandered across her back and up and down her sides. When they brushed her breasts, she gasped, "We have to get out of here."

"Having second thoughts?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Not I, but I want to ravish you senseless before you start having them. Preferably somewhere more comfortable." Her fingers had sneaked under his shirt and were stroking the soft skin over his collarbone when they encountered something unexpected. "Are you wearing a necklace?"

"That's the locket with Dumbledore's portrait. You know, the one I showed the Order…"

"Hm, yes…" Hermione remembered how the portrait of Albus Dumbledore had told the Order unmistakably that Snape was to be trusted, no matter what he seemed to have done. She pulled at the thin chain until she could feel the locket in her hands. "But I can't open it… "

"Only I can open it without a wand. Why?"

"It should be connected to other portraits, shouldn't it?"

"Quite so. You should have reminded me of this earlier," Snape grumbled, but laughed quietly when she smacked him playfully. He briefly fumbled with the locket, and then the soft light of tiny, painted candles revealed an old man sitting in an armchair. He jumped up when he saw them.

"Severus? Miss Granger? Merlin be thanked, you're alive. Everybody is looking for you; where are you?"

"Stuck in a tunnel under Hogwarts, I think," Hermione said. "Can't you see us on the Marauder's map?"

"I'm afraid no one thought of it," Dumbledore replied. "You see, Harry and young Mr. Weasley are in the infirmary, and everybody else is still a bit confused after the fight. I will go and talk to Minerva. We shall find you." He turned around and disappeared from their sight.

"What happens after they find us?" Hermione looked tense in the dim light from the portrait, but Snape's eyes were… twinkling?

"Stuck here with you, I feel free for the first time in my life." He smiled. "And after we're rescued… we will have time to explore things. I recall a promise of being ravished senseless."

"Just don't forget it," Hermione murmured before she kissed him again. They were still busy when they heard the rubble being moved from the tunnel.

The End