Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

A/N: Once again I find myself at a loss for words...my undying gratitude will forever go to Ladyinthecloak and Lariope who have given many hours of their time to this story. They are the best betas a newbie author could ask for, thank you, ladies!

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Severus knew he was dreaming. He had had variations of this same dream almost every time he managed to sleep deeply enough to dream, without a potion, since the day in his sitting room. Hermione was spooned up against him, but this time she was wearing her robes, though they were riding up on her hips. He could feel his morning erection pressed into her lush backside. Enjoying the sensation, he rocked gently as he hardened even more. Severus could almost smell her scent, a mixture of sandalwood and vanilla, twitching at his nose. He let his hand drift up under her robes to cup her smooth, round breasts as he continued to gently rock; Hermione turned toward him, running her hands down his back. He was now rock-hard, pressing into the soft swell of her abdomen. He could feel her nails raking down his back and clutching rhythmically on his arse. Then she reached around to stroke his now straining member. This was nearly his undoing. It had been so long since he had lain with a willing witch.

Though he sought self-gratification on occasion, nothing could replace the feeling of having a woman's soft hand stroking that particular part of his anatomy. Tilting his head, he began to kiss her face everywhere but the lips, until she reached up and, holding his head, guided his lips to hers. The kiss soon overpowered both of them. They were straining to meet each other in a duel of tongues, teeth and lips. Severus blindly reached beneath her robes, pushing them over her head as he suckled her flesh. He could feel her welcoming warmth now teasing his near-painful erection. Her hands were everywhere, running over his back and arse as she rocked up in an attempt to draw him into her warmth. At last, with a flexing of his hips, he was sheathed within her hot, tight body. They both groaned in unison as black eyes met brown. It was then Severus realized this was not a dream.

He made to pull away, but Hermione would have nothing of it; as she cupped his arse, she pulled him in until he was consumed. There was no turning back as his hips began to thrust of their own accord. Hermione met him thrust for thrust, her eyes never leaving his face. Her nails raking his back, scoring his flesh, almost drawing blood in her heated passion for him only pressed him on to greater need. He could feel the tremors in her thighs as her desire built to match his own. As she pulsed around him in orgasm, he was lost, finding his own release. Too sated to do anything else, he collapsed on top of Hermione as she threaded her fingers through his hair, and they both attempted to catch their breath. Neither had uttered a word. When he had control of his limbs, he rolled off her sitting up, facing the wall.

Hermione watched as Severus sat head in his hands on the edge of the bed. She could feel the remorse pouring off of him. "Severus, please do not regret this; I don't." Hermione whispered.

"Don't regret it? How could you not regret it? I just raped you, woman! You had no choice! No say!" he shouted.

"How can you say that? Was I fighting you? Did I scream? I wanted this. I wanted you!" Hermione shouted back.

"I am supposed to think you wanted to shag your greasy bat of a teacher? Give me some credit--I know what people think of me," Severus snarled in reply.

"I have never called you that or any other derogatory name! I have only ever tried to show you respect and kindness."

"Respect, like you have shown every authority figure throughout your life. That only makes this worse," he sneered as he stormed out of the room.

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Hermione's mind traveled over the events of the morning as she set about making some homemade ice cream in the kitchen. The Headmaster seemed to be going through an inordinate amount of it, and she was now trying her hand at lemon drop-flavored.

Hermione had not been able to locate Severus in the house since he had stormed out of the guest bedroom. Circumstances could have been better, yet she did not regret what had happened during the morning hours...but obviously, he did. Hermione remembered lying in the bed next to him after he had toppled her off balance, and massaging his scalp. She must have fallen asleep. She had not intended to spend the night in his bed and most certainly had not planned the interlude. It had begun as a wonderfully erotic dream. She woke to him kissing her face and had acted reflexively, so aroused she might have hexed him if he had made to stop. It was only when he entered her that she realized he, too, must have been dreaming. When he had opened his eyes, they had gone from glazed over passion to horror. She had never experienced a climax so intense, and then he had the gall to say he had raped her. He would have pulled away when he had awoken had she not held him in place, but she refused to feel guilty.

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"Severus, would you please sit down and tell me what is bothering you?" Albus asked for what must have been the tenth time in as many minutes. "There must be something you can tell me; is it the potion?"

"The potion is progressing adequately enough, Albus." Severus replied in a somewhat pensive manner. "I feel as though we may be on the verge of a breakthrough; only one element remains elusive."

"Then what, or should I say who, has you prowling my chambers as if you were doomed to death?" Albus inquired with an annoying twinkle in his eye as Severus continued to pace the length of the room with his robes billowing in his wake.

Turning abruptly to face the Headmaster, Severus sneered, "Surely, you are not implying that that insufferable girl would be reason for me to impose on your gracious nature?"

Albus chuckled softly as he replied, "Severus, I am not implying anything of the sort; I am only concerned, as you seem to be on edge."

"I apologize deeply, Albus. Of course, I might have known you would discern my mood very easily by my retreat from my usual, cheerful disposition. Your concernis very touching," Snape hissed in a condescending tone.

"My boy, how many times do I have to tell you? You need to speak your mind. You've so much bottled up inside, you will explode if you do not release the pressure." Albus, too, was growing frustrated with his young friend's continued denial. He did not miss the jerking of Severus' head at the word explode, but he continued on. "Severus, tell me, how are you and Hermione getting along?"

"Getting along absolutely smashingly," he mocked.

"Really, Severus, must you be so sarcastic?" the Headmaster sighed.

"Must you be so bloody inquisitive?"

"I am merely asking if there are any difficulties. Miss Granger has been most hospitable and kind in her attentions to our comforts while we are staying here," the Headmaster replied in all innocence. "Do you not feel the same?"

"Of course she's been hospitable, more than expected, but the troubling aspect is why?" Severus relented.

"Are you asking why she is being kind and caring, or why it is troubling? Those are two very disparate questions and one, I fear, Severus, only you can answer."

"You grow annoyingly more cryptic with age," Severus snarled in frustration as he once again continued to pace the room.

"Well, what would you want me to say? Miss Granger is a compassionate person, and it is in her nature to treat people accordingly. I cannot answer why this is troubling to you; only you hold the answers to that riddle," Albus replied, twinkling all the more.

The room was once again cloaked in silence until the Potions master bade his leave to check on the potions brewing in the basement lab.

Though seemingly unsatisfactory, the conversation with the Headmaster did leave Severus much to remunerate upon. Why was it that he was so disconcerted with Hermione's care and concern? He should have expected no less from her, as she was always the one to express compassion for others, even the lowliest of creatures. This did not explain the interlude in his chambers. Even Miss Granger would not stoop to the level of offering her body out of pity. Why had she said she did not feel remorse...that she'd wanted me!? It was this question keeping Severus on edge all morning, pacing the Headmaster's chambers. How could she want him? Had he not made her life at school a living hell? Granted, he had been exonerated of his sins, but this did not remove the acts themselves.

"Why?"

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Severus had managed successfully to avoid Hermione since his disturbing visit with Albus, but as luck would have it, she was in the lab, when he went down to check on the potion, left brewing. Steeling himself for an emotional confrontation, he was taken aback when he was met with a neutral Hermione. She did not rail at him or try to poke at his lack of communication Just what is the witch thinking?

"It should be just about time to add the Boomslang Skins," Hermione stated, as if she might have been discussing the weather.

"Indeed, though I do not know why we bother; until we have found a way to counteract the lunar influence and stop the transformation, this potion will be the same as all of the others." Severus countered, quite disgusted with the lack of progress.

"I have an idea on that."

"And do you care to enlighten me on this untold brainstorm?" he asked drolly. Not wanting to give away, he was actually desperate enough to listen to the nattering of a mere schoolgirl.

"Well, I have been thinking," Hermione hesitated, not at all certain how he would respond to her bringing a non-magical solution to the table, "in the Muggle world there is a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD."

Severus simply quirked his eyebrow at her, indicating she should continue with her explanation.

"SAD affects Muggles who are sensitive to a lack of sunlight. In the winter months when there are less daylight hours, they actually become depressed and suffer other physical ailments. It is as if they become different people, almost like a transformation."

He was beginning to feel as though he were pulling teeth. What is the matter with the girl...couldn't she just get to the point? "And how, Miss Granger, is this of import to our endeavors?" Severus sneered.

"I suppose the disorder is not overly important, but the treatment, I think, could be the key," she continued, finally showing the light in her eyes that always shown brightest when she thought she had solved a great mystery. "You see, to counteract the lack of sunlight, they use artificial lights to trick their bodies into responding as if they were in the sunlight. This increases the production of Vitamin D."

"Miss Granger, fascinating as all of this is, I still do not see how it can possibly pertain to stopping a werewolf from transforming," the Potions master once again interrupted.

"The Headmaster has been craving dairy products right before the full moon. One of the key nutrients in dairy products is Vitamin D." She finished by asking, "What if we infused the Wolfsbane with Vitamin D to counteract the lunar influence?"

As preposterous as it sounds, this may just have merit, thought Severus. The one thing he had been struggling with in his research had been a way to counteract the lunar influence in transformation. The sun's energy in the form of Vitamin D might just be the ingredient he had been seeking. It would not be easy to extract this substance from the raw material of something such as milk, but it might be worth a try. "Miss Granger, I believe your hypothesis may have merit; we will need to extract the Vitamin D from the dairy products...."

At this Hermione began to laugh.

"I fail to see what is so humorous."

"Severus, we do not need to extract the Vitamin D from the milk ourselves." She continued to chuckle.

"Then just how do you suppose we would add this element to the potion?" he sneered.

"There is no need to be snide. Muggles have all sorts of vitamin supplements that are already in their pure form. We simply need to determine how much we need to add to the potion." With this, she produced a bottle of vitamin D she had already acquired from a Muggle natural food store that did not use additives.

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They had worked steadily for days, experimenting and calculating the appropriate amount of Vitamin D to add to the potion and at which stage it needed to be added to gain the most efficiency. Now, the first batch was simmering and would need to be watched and stirred at regular intervals, six counter-clockwise stirs every sixty-six minutes for the next six hours and thirty-six minutes. Neither was willing to leave the potions lab during this critical time.

Nothing had been said about what Hermione now thought of as the dream incident. She was currently sitting at one workbench, going over their calculations, while Severus had settled at the opposite end of the other workbench. Looking up, Hermione noticed that he was, once again, rubbing his hands over the back of his neck to ease the tension created, no doubt, from standing over a hot cauldron, stirring and chopping ingredients.

Snape looked up and caught her eyes on him, and she hastily looked away just as the timer signaled that it was time, yet again, to stir the potion. Hermione walked over to the simmering cauldron, as they had been taking rotation on who would tend to the potion. She slowly stirred the six counter-clockwise stirs and lifted the stir stick, so as to prevent any continuing rotation of the slightly thick substance. As she was returning to her work, she again glanced over to see Severus still watching her every movement. Feeling as if she were approaching a wild animal, she altered her course to go over to his workbench. He continued to watch her every step, his eyes shuttered from emotion or thought. Hermione stood before him, waiting for him to say or do anything.

"Miss Granger is there something you require?" he inquired, his voice lacking the venom she had grown accustomed to over the last couple of days.

Taking a deep breath, she stated boldly, "Actually, yes, I require your assistance," She knew he was once again riddled with tension, both mental and physical, and if it took a bold-faced lie to help him, then so be it.

"And how is it you require my assistance?" he asked, his voice lacking any derision.

"I was hoping you would allow me to borrow your neck and shoulders for a few moments," she rushed on hurriedly. "You see, being a massage therapist, my hands are accustomed to a certain type of exercise, and chopping potion ingredients just does not provide me with the proper form of exercise."

His eyes widened briefly in surprise and then quickly became shuttered. "I am sure you can find some other means to accomplish your goal rather than accosting my person," he sneered in his best Potions master voice.

"No, truly, I would appreciate your help; normally, I do physiotherapy for Harry and Ron after Quidditch practice to keep my hands limber," she answered brightly. "Since I have not been around them, I fear my hands will lose their strength."

Severus stared at her without seeing and only vaguely heard her ramblings. His mind had traveled back to remembering the feel of her hands on his neck and shoulders, relieving the tension that seemed to plague him night and day. Finally, after a long awkward silence, he sighed, a sigh of the long suffering and highly imposed upon. "If you must..."

Hermione wasted no time in moving behind him. "If you will just try to relax and rest your arms on the workbench," she stated.

"I will consent to this only if you hold your tongue," Severus snarled.

Silence reined in the potions lab as Hermione set about her task. This was the first time he had allowed her to come within arm's reach of him since that morning. Hermione always seemed to gain as much from giving a massage as those she gave them to. It was a very relaxing and soothing process. If she were able, she would have some soothing music such as Brahms playing in the background, and she would be using some of the aromatherapy oils she brewed for massage. She had missed the feel of his body, of his muscles and skin moving beneath her hands as she soothed away the aches of his body.

Against his better judgment, Severus found himself once again under the spell of Hermione's talented hands. The woman was definitely a witch. How was it she knew just where to press and where to soothe? Gradually, he began to place more of the weight of his upper body on his arms as they rested on the workbench; it could not be helped. His head and neck hung down, and he could not stifle the soft moan that escaped his lips as her agile fingers threaded through his hair to massage the base of his scalp. The sensation was hypnotic. Belatedly, he realized another head was also responding to her ministrations. Who would have thought a scalp massage could be erotic? Yet, he could not deny the arousal making itself known, as he now strained against his once comfortably fitting trousers.

Slowly, Hermione worked her way from his scalp down his shoulders to his back and further down to the expanse of his lower back, now exposed, as his shirt came un-tucked. At the contact of skin on skin, she found that she had to bite back a moan threatening her own lips. Never before had she become aroused while giving a massage, but the sight of her lightly tanned hands against his paler flesh sent shivers down her spine as another moan escaped Severus' throat.

Without lifting his head from the pillow of his arms, he almost sighed, "What are you doing to me?"