Epilogue: Revision

Epilogue: Revision

AN: Well, here it is, the last part of this story. I hope that everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Once again thanks to all the wonderful people who put in the time and effort to put together the ss/hg gift exchange, and to fawkesflames whose idea this originally was.

Hermione smiled as she walked down the familiar stone hallways of Hogwarts. She had just seen her friends off on the Hogwarts Express, and the castle was eerily quiet and empty; devoid of all the students. She came to her destination and knocked on the large, wooden door. She didn't wait long before the door opened, and she was pulled roughly into the room.

'Sever...' she started to say, startled by the slamming of the door behind her.

He cut her off with a smoldering kiss as he grabbed her face in his hands and slanted his mouth over hers. Her eyes widened for a second before she closed them and slipped into the kiss, her arms wrapping around him. A few minutes later, he pulled away breathlessly to look into her eyes.

'I have been waiting far too long for this day,' he said in a low voice.

Despite the frequent detentions she had garnered in her last months of school, Severus had wanted to wait until she had graduated for their relationship to proceed past a few passionate snogs.

She smiled up at him. 'I love you, Severus.'

She watched as his eyes became even darker after her declaration.

'And I love you, Hermione. More than you could ever know. I am so thankful that you are so clever with Arithmancy.'

She smiled in response. He had finally acknowledged, grudgingly, that her calculations were correct and they were destined to be together.

Before she could say anything else, he was lifting her up in his arms and walking through the office to his quarters. She looped her arms around his neck and started nibbling on his ear lobe. One of her 'detentions' had revealed how hypersensitive his ears were to her ministrations.

He growled low in his throat when her tongue flicked along the shell of his ear, and she was abruptly dropped in the center of his large, four-poster bed. She looked around the room and was only able to take in the dark blue of his coverlet before he had joined her on the bed and was assaulting her mouth once again.

He rolled on top of her without releasing her mouth and slipped his leg between hers. She instinctively separated her thighs and bent her knees to give him greater access. She was kneading his back as he kissed her along her jaw line and down her neck.

His hand was warm and calloused as it moved slowly up her thigh from her knee, bunching up her skirt before coming to rest at her hip. He pulled back and looked her in the face, his eyes dark and glazed with passion.

Hermione felt a wave of elation rise up in her as she looked into the eyes of her lover. His lip quirked up on one side in a crooked smile that made him seem both vulnerable and sexy at the same time. Without breaking eye contact, he slowly started to flick open the buttons of her blouse. She could feel herself growing wet as he slowly peeled back her blouse to reveal her lace-covered breasts. He leaned down and started kissing the swell of her breast above her bra. He slowly pulled the lace aside as his mouth moved lower and lower, finally settling over her erect nipple as he lightly sucked.

Hermione arched her back and moaned as she felt his lips and tongue on her nipple.

He pulled her up slightly to remove her shirt and unclasp her bra before he moved his mouth over her other breast.

'Oh, Merlin, Severus, that feels so good... Yes, oh yes.'

She couldn't stop herself from moaning and whimpering as his mouth alternated between her breasts. She ran her hands through his hair as his hands moved to the waistband of her skirt.

In one smooth motion, he had removed her skirt and knickers, leaving her completely naked.

Hermione gasped in surprise. There was something strangely erotic about lying naked on his bed while he was still fully clothed. He looked down at her with wonder in his eyes.

'You are beautiful,' he said in a soft voice.

She smiled at him. 'Your turn, my love.'

She reached up and started to unbutton the buttons on his frock coat. She moaned in frustration when she opened up the frock coat to reveal a shirt underneath, fully buttoned up.

'How many layers are you wearing?' she asked breathlessly.

'Let me help you, love,' he answered before sitting up on his knees. He quickly peeled off his frock coat and started to unbutton his shirt. She sat up next to him and slipped her hands over his chest as he removed his shirt.

She looked up at him hesitantly for a minute before she leaned forward and kissed one of his flat nipples. She heard him suck in a breath, and she smiled slightly as she mimicked what he had done, alternating between sucking and kissing his nipples.

Severus sighed, and his head tilted back at the feel of her mouth busily moving over the expanse of his chest.

He stopped her only so he could stand up and remove the rest of his clothing, toeing off his boots and pulling his trousers down to reveal a pair of tented navy boxers.

Hermione's eyes widened a bit at the sight of his obvious arousal, and he smirked before pulling his boxers off to stand before her completely naked.

Hermione licked her lips tentatively as her eyes moved over his body, and he groaned before joining her on the bed.

He lay on his side and faced her on the bed, looking deep into her eyes for a moment before taking her lips up in a gentle kiss. His hand skimmed down her side, following her curves, moving lower and lower until he slipped his finger between her wet folds.

Hermione arched up and gasped at the sudden rush of sensation. 'Oh gods! Severus!'

She was wet and slick, and he easily slipped another finger in as his thumb caressed her clit. She was panting and gasping his name now as her hips bucked up to meet the movements of his fingers. She screamed as her orgasm ripped through her, incoherent in her pleasure. He muffled the sound of her scream by slanting his mouth across hers in a tender kiss.

She looked up at him with awe in her eyes. 'That was.... I never knew I could feel that way,' she said softly.

His lips quirked up in another of his crooked smiles.

'My love,' he murmured before kissing her again.

He rolled on top of her, bracing his weight on his elbows. She reached up and threaded her fingers in his hair as he kissed her face and neck.

He met her eyes one more time before thrusting into her.

Her eyes widened in pain as he stilled to allow her body time to get used to his invasion.

'I'm sorry, love; it will feel better in a moment,' he said softly as he stroked her hair in a soothing motion.

She grabbed one of his hands and laced her fingers with his as he tentatively started to move in her. He watched as the pain faded from her eyes and they started to glaze over with passion.

He groaned at the sensations flooding him as she started to respond to his movement. Her hips met his thrusts over and over again until he couldn't wait any longer. He could hear her cries of pleasure as he thrust one final time, calling out her name as he spilled his seed into her.

Severus collapsed on top of her, breathing hard as her hands moved up to caress his back.

'That was amazing,' she said breathlessly.

He couldn't manage much more than a hum of contentment as he rolled over, pulling her with him to rest with her head on his chest and one leg draped over his.

Three hours later, Hermione woke up and looked around the darkening bedchamber. They had napped through the rest of the afternoon, and she could see the rays of light fading from the window as the sun went down. She looked over at her companion and smiled. His face looked so innocent and young in sleep, absent of his usual scowl. She brushed some of his tangled hair away from his face before quietly slipping out of the bed.

After slipping his shirt on, she padded around his living quarters taking the time to look around. He had already asked her to stay here with him through the summer before starting her apprenticeship with Professor Vector in the fall, and she wanted to get a good look at their quarters. She walked into his sitting room and smiled when she noticed he had cleared off some of his bookshelves in preparation of her coming.

Next to the bookshelf in a place of honor was a piece of parchment, framed and hung on the wall. She felt tears well up in her eyes when she realized what it was; he had hung her Arithmancy calculations up on the wall.

She smiled wistfully as she remembered when she had finally shown him her calculations and notes. Although not as proficient in Arithmancy as he was at Potions or Defense, he had understood enough of the subject to concede that her calculations were 'most likely correct.'

At his suggestion, she would be improving on her method of combining Arithmancy with Muggle mathematics for her apprenticeship.

Hermione pulled the framed parchment off the wall to take a closer look at the calculations she had made in order to determine who her soul mate was. He had sneered with distaste when she had confessed to getting the idea from Lavender and Parvati.

The smile on her face was suddenly replaced with a frown of consternation as she looked over her calculations.

That can't be right, she thought to herself.

She had counted wrong when she calculated the numbers for his middle name. Chewing on her bottom lip, Hermione brought the framed parchment to his desk and grabbed a quill and spare slip of parchment.

**************************************************

Severus Snape woke up from one of the best naps he could ever remember taking and reached for the witch sleeping at his side only to find... nothing. He sat up and looked around the bed chamber, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. The sun had gone down while they had slept. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he grabbed his trousers and slipped them on, not bothering to button them up.

Then he heard it; a low murmuring coming from his sitting room. Following the sound, he walked out to see Hermione sitting at his desk furiously scribbling out some Arithmancy calculations as she muttered numbers to herself. She was wearing his shirt, her hair was in complete disarray, and she was nibbling on her bottom lip as she frowned with concentration. He decided that she was the sexiest thing he had ever seen.

He walked up behind her and massaged her shoulders, leaning over to kiss her on the top of the head. She jumped in surprise when she felt his hands on her shoulders, dropping her quill and slapping her hands down flat on the parchment.

'Severus, you scared me!'

'What are you doing, love?'

'Oh... I just wanted to start polishing out the methodology for my Arithmancy and Muggle mathematics calculations,' she said in a voice that sounded a bit breathless.

'Hmmm,' he said as he nibbled his way down the back of her neck, moving his shirt to give him better access to her collarbone and shoulder.

'I can think of a much better way to spend your time. You will have plenty of time to work this summer.'

She sighed with pleasure as he lightly sucked on her earlobe.

'Ah... well... I guess you could be right. Oh, that feels good.' She moaned.

'Come back to bed, witch,' he said, grasping her elbow and pulling her to stand in front of him.

She put both hands to the sides of his face and pulled him in for a searing kiss, soliciting a low hum from his throat.

'Go to bed. I will put this away and join you in a few seconds,' she said in a sultry voice, her eyes glazed over with passion.

Still trying to gather his wits from her kiss, he simply nodded and headed towards the bedroom.

Hermione released a breath as she watched him walk away, admiring the way his trousers looked riding low on his hips. After he had entered the bedroom, she quickly looked down at the parchment she had been working on.

When he had joined her, her hands had covered up her new calculations, re-done to account for the mistake she had made with his middle name.

With the new information, there was only a sixty percent chance that he was her soul mate. She nervously looked over the door he had just disappeared into.

Should I tell him?

Hermione thought of that last kiss they had shared and made her decision.

Sometimes it's best not to know the future and just go with your gut instinct, she thought to herself as she crumpled up the parchment and threw it into the fire. At any rate, I've never really believed in destiny, soul mates, or any of that twaddle that Trelawney is always spouting.

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled to herself as she went to join her lover.

END.