Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Severus watched Lucius open the window to let the owl in, carry it over to the table and feed it some bacon.

'Bird lover,' Severus thought, his lip curling derisively. If he'd gone to retrieve the letter, he would have sent the bloody bird on its way, hungry and with smoking tail feathers to boot. Even if it was only the messenger.

Lucius untied the letter from the owl's leg. He stared at it for a moment, before passing it to Hermione.

"It's for you."

'What sort of wizard addressed his challenge to the witch of the household?'

Hermione broke the blob of wax acting as a seal and unfolded the parchment. From his position by her side, Severus could also see it. The scruffy handwriting looked very familiar.

"Potter," he breathed. For a horrible moment, he thought that the Chosen-fucking-One intended to challenge their marriage. Then he actually read the letter. Potter was arranging to meet with Hermione, as she had apparently asked. What could she possibly want to talk to Potter about?

"Quill, please," Hermione said. After Lucius passed her one, she scribbled 'Tomorrow, 11:00. HJG' on the back of Potter's letter.

The owl fluttered over to her, leg obediently held out for her to tie it on. That done, it flew off, the last piece of bacon still dangling from its beak.

"It was not a challenge, then?" Lucius asked.

"No. I've got something to discuss with Harry; that was his arranging to meet with me. It would have saved us a lot of bother if he'd known his schedule for the rest of the week at the wedding. I don't know about either of you, but the thought that Owl was a challenge made my heart skip a beat."

Despite her obvious relief that it hadn't been a challenge, Hermione looked rather grim to Severus. Whatever she had to talk to Potter about was not something she was happy about. Perhaps he needed to have a word with the brat too ...

"At least it wasn't a challenge. Regardless, it would be advisable to get on with the consummations. Might I suggest with Severus today and myself tomorrow?"

"I suppose we don't have a lot of choice," Hermione muttered.

"No choice," Severus affirmed, his eyes on the window as the almost-silent whisper of air under wings drew his attention to the second owl of the morning. "I suppose it's too much to hope that you're expecting anything from Weasley."

The owl landed on the table and tucked into some more bacon offered by Lucius.

"Provided the boy isn't foolish enough to challenge us after losing the first duel," Lucius sniggered. He yelped when Hermione swung her leg under the table. Severus winced in sympathy, and reminded himself not to mention that duel around Hermione.

Hermione took the letter from the owl with trembling fingers. She frowned at the seal for a moment, then rolled her eyes. "Honestly, he has rotten timing."

"Who has?" Severus asked, not recognising the imprint in the wax.

"Viktor Krum. We've been pen pals since the Triwizard Tournament." She unfolded the letter.

Krum's handwriting was neater than Potters. And the language oddly formal. In fact ...

"How can he?" Hermione exploded.

"A challenge?" Lucius asked, shielding what crockery was unbroken before Hermione's anger eroded her control over her magic.

"Gormless Quidditch jerk! If I needed his help, I'd bloody well ask for it." She screwed Krum's challenge up into a ball and tightened her fists around it until her knuckles were white.

"We can handle Krum. Triwizard Champion though he was, he is still no match for us."

Hermione unfolded the parchment and smoothed it out. She was scrawling something, an angry note most likely, to judge by the way she almost snapped the quill.

But then she grabbed the owl, walked over to the window, tied the letter back onto its leg and chucked it out of the window.

Severus watched, aghast. "Hermione, we needed to accept that challenge!"

"Relax, I accepted it."

"You what?"

* * *

Tricksy watches Master Snape stand over Missy Mudblood. He is yelling at her, treating Tricksy's new Mistress as she deserves to be, the filthy Mudblood taking the place of Tricksy's poor Mistress. Poor Mistress, what would she say if she sees Missy Mudblood in her home?

Missy Mudblood is trying to say something, but Master Snape isn't listening. He grabs hold of Missy Mudblood's shoulders. Tricksy hopes he will shake some sense into new Mistress, but Tricksy supposes bad blood cannot be shaken out.

"Severus, calm down." Master steps in between Missy Mudblood and Master Snape. "If this were anyone else, Hermione would have done a very foolish thing. But Krum seems to care about her enough to want to protect her from us. I seriously doubt that he will fight a duel with her. Few wizards would, come to that, but ..."

Tricksy's Master turns to Missy Mudblood. "Don't do this again. It's not worth the risk."

"I'm perfectly capable of fighting my own fights, Malfoy."

"Back to Malfoy, are we, Granger?" Missy Mudblood makes Master sad, Tricksy can hear it in his voice. Tricksy will make Missy Mudblood pay for that if she is not careful.

"I'm sorry, Lucius. It's Viktor I'm angry with, not you. He's my friend, yet he thinks I can't protect myself?"

Master seems to accept Missy Mudblood's apology. Tricksy does not.

Master Snape is whispering in Missy Mudblood's ear. Tricksy can still hear them, house-elves can hear the quietest whispers.

"I have half a mind to drag you upstairs now, but if you think that your friend will back out of this challenge, I should trust that. We shall wait until we hear back from him."

"But that could take quite some time if he's in Bulgaria..."

"Eager, are we?" Master Snape laughs softly. Missy Mudblood presses herself against him. Both ignores Master's distress at this, but Tricksy notices. Tricksy is a good house-elf.

"In all seriousness, the only way Krum, as a foreign national, could challenge this union, is if he is in this country at the moment."

The owl comes back after Tricksy serves lunch. The bad wizard who dares to challenge Tricksy's Master's marriage cannot be far away.

"He's backed out," Missy Mudblood says as she reads the letter. Tricksy thinks she is hiding something when she says no more.

Master Snape takes the letter. "What you neglect to mention is that he taunts us for hiding behind our woman."

"Typical," Tricksy's Master says. "I trust you will be no longer associating with such a charming young man?"

"Viktor's got another thing coming if he thinks I will."

Master Snape takes Missy Mudblood's hand. "Now is the time for us to ensure that our union at least can't be challenged again."

They leaves Master alone. Tricksy will stay with him like a good house-elf.

* * *

'We have to do this, but there's nothing to stop us from enjoying it.'

Hermione pushed Severus against the door to his room, her lips locked with his. One arm was around his neck, the other fumbled for the door handle.

She found the handle, but before she could open the door, Severus caught hold of her wrist. He used his other hand to gently push her back, breaking their kiss. Even so, she staggered for a moment, on tiptoe as she'd been, until Severus stabilised her with a hand on her elbow.

"Contraceptive potion," he explained at her questioning look. "It's still at Spinner's End, the house-elves only retrieved our baggage from the bedrooms and bathroom. Make yourself comfortable." With that he Disapparated.

Lucius must have modified the wards so that it was possible for them to Apparate within the house and grounds. How considerate of him.

Hermione opened the door and walked in. The bed had been made since she'd left the room. She felt a pang of guilt. Unfortunately, with the current situation, there was no way to avoid creating extra work for the house-elves. Oh, who was she kidding? The elves would probably thank them for it. The best she could hope for was to get Lucius to treat them better.

She kicked the door shut behind her, toed her shoes off and padded across the carpet to the bed.

'Well, he did tell me to make myself comfortable.'

* * *

Someone was calling her name from far away.

"Mmm?"

She heard her name again, but just rolled over and dozed off again.

...

Hermione came awake very abruptly, as if a mental light switch had been flicked.

"I know I said to make yourself comfortable, dear, but you were also meant to stay awake."

She glowered up at Severus, who just raised an eyebrow and set his wand down on the bedside table.

"What'd you do? I've never come across a spell to wake someone up." She had to get that spell out of him somehow ...

He raised his eyebrow all the more. "You've never come across Rennervate?"

"But... but that's just to revive Stunned people!"

"It also works to wake those merely sleeping. As you just found."

"Prick," she muttered.

If he heard her insult, he ignored it. "Here." He dangled a small vial of crystal clear potion in front of her. "One vial per day."

"Remind me why we decided on a daily dose," Hermione grumbled.

"Because, as you pointed out before our Muggle wedding, the Wizengamot may well alter the law to require children, outlawing contraception. In the event of that, a contraceptive lasting any longer than a day might land you in Azkaban. This type of potion also has the benefit of taking care of the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Better to be safe rather than sorry when you will have, however briefly..." He paused, his face tight, "...two partners."

Hermione firmly pushed that thought out of her mind. Yes, she had to bed Lucius as well, but she'd rather not think about it right now, thank you very much. Today was for her and Severus. Tomorrow – she shuddered involuntarily – could wait.

She took the vial, pried the cork out, and drained it. For a potion that had taken over a week to brew, it tasted rather like salty water.

Severus bent towards her to brush his mouth against hers. Just as she reached to pull him closer, he jerked away. She watched, baffled and a little put out as he snatched up his wand and turned back to the door. His wand danced in a series of complicated twists, flicks and swirls.

"What are you doing?"

He briefly halted his decidedly-not-foolish wand waving. "Warding the room. Lucius happens to be a voyeur."

"Why am I not surprised?" she muttered. Severus didn't answer, recognising a rhetorical question when he heard one.

Her blood felt as if it ran cold when a nasty suspicion struck her. "Severus, darling, did you set up those wards this morning too?"

Before Severus answered her, he finished his warding. "No, but Lucius was having his breakfast at the time." Then he replaced his wand and joined her on the bed, straddling her.

He was gentlemanly enough to keep the majority of his weight on his knees ... which reminded Hermione of something.

"You owe me," she stated, her conversational tone at odds with the flush she could feel rising on her cheeks, together with her deeper breathing as he began to explore with his hands.

He paused his caresses, his fingers lingering on neck and cheek. "I do?"

In answer, she extended her right hand to him, palm down. When he still looked blank, she moved it as if she was writing.

"Ah. Yes. I did promise to kiss it better. How remiss of me."

Severus took her hand. First he stroked the back of it with his fingertips, tracing over where the blood quill had cut into it. Then he bent over it, lips almost touching her skin. He looked up at her and smirked, before he turned back to his task and closed the gap entirely.

Hermione's lips parted as she inhaled sharply. Lucius's hand kisses had been pleasant enough, but this ... Oh, this was something else. Something more. A lot more, when his tongue started to trace over where the quill had sliced her own name into her hand. Granted, not exactly over, as the skin was no longer even tender, but she wasn't about to admit to that.

It didn't seem very fair to her that she was the only one to experience this. She reached for one of his hands, only for him to catch hold of her left hand to bring it to his lips as well. Now, that really wasn't fair!

While he was concentrating his attentions on her newly captured hand, she grabbed his left hand and gently pulled it towards her. He didn't bat an eyelash at first, perhaps thinking that she was merely going to give him the same treatment. She speared her fingers through his, spreading them in the act. Then, her eyes fixed on his as-yet-unsuspecting face, she took his forefinger into her mouth.

The movements of his tongue slowed. They stopped altogether when she sucked on his finger, and he looked over at her, his eyes wide. He looked almost like a deer caught in the headlights.

Her lips quirked as she did her best to smirk around his finger, then started exploring the hardened skin on his fingertip with her tongue. When his breath caught, she sucked his finger again.

With a growl, Severus tugged his finger from her mouth and moved his hands to hold her head, burying his fingers into her hair. His elbows on either side of his head to help brace his weight, he dropped his body down onto hers.

Hermione could feel his erection pressing into her belly. She shifted, but not to shy away. His breath hissed between his teeth, his eyes narrowed. Then he smothered her smug smile with his lips, and gently bit down on her lower lip to get her to open her mouth. When he slid his tongue inside, she sucked on it much like she had his finger.

Severus groaned into her mouth, a deep rumble of his chest, and bucked his hips, his erection grinding into her with the movement. He used his hands in her hair to tilt her head back, deepening their kiss even more.

It was her turn to moan. She went for the buttons on his neck, fumbling with them for a moment before she grabbed blindly for a wand on the bedside table. It was only after she had waved it and non-verbally Banished Severus's clothes that she realised that it was his wand. Her wand wasn't quite as heavy, and didn't actually feel right to her – it was still Bellatrix's old wand, after all. This wand, on the other hand, felt like it had been made for her.

Her ponderings on the matter were quite rudely interrupted when Severus placed his hand over hers and returned the favour, Banishing her own clothes.

They both inhaled sharply at the contact of skin to skin along the full length of their torsos. Hermione could feel his penis twitch against her, clearly more than ready to take her.

The wand fell out of suddenly nerveless fingers. Hermione dimly heard it clatter onto the floor as Severus redoubled his attack on her mouth. She put her arms around his neck as his hands slid up her sides, over the curves of her breasts until his thumbs slowly moved between their bodies.

Moving her hands to his shoulders, she pushed him back. He broke off their kiss and removed his hands. She dug her nails in before he could move off her entirely. That wasn't her intention at all.

"Touch me," she demanded – well, begged – and moved her hands down his arms to grip his wrists. She brought his hands back up to her breasts, and shifted them so that his thumbs rested on her nipples.

This time he got the message, and repeated his motions of that morning, this time on both breasts.

Hermione was just reaching between them for his penis when he shifted out of her reach. Before she could do more than draw breath to object, he bent his head to take a hardened nipple between his lips. Severus swirled his tongue around it, all the while keeping up his attentions with his hand on her other breast. She reached down to thread her fingers through his hair.

She was only vaguely aware when he shifted off her, caught up in the sensations he was still creating at chest level. That changed when his free hand moved between her legs, two of his fingers gradually thrusting into her vagina, his thumb on her clitoris.

After that morning, he knew exactly what to do, what motions would make her heart pound and her breasts heave.

Hermione gave a whimper of protest when his mouth abandoned her breast, but that was quickly stifled when she felt his hair tickle her on the way down to...

"Oh!"

His lips replaced his thumb on her clitoris. As he started to repeat the same swirling flicks with his tongue that he'd used further up, she couldn't keep herself from bucking her hips.

The pressure built ... and peaked.

By the time Hermione regained her senses, Severus lay between her legs, his elbows once more beside her head. He bent to kiss her once again, his taste an interesting – if slightly bittersweet and salty – blend of them both.

His erection prodded at the entrance to her vagina. She reached down to guide his penis into the right position. When she felt him barely within her, she closed her eyes. She put one arm around his back, keeping the other in his hair. This was it. The point of no return. She pulled him closer, winding her legs around his.

Severus gradually thrust inside her. He gave her time to adjust to his girth. Each careful move and slow thrust made her sigh until he was fully sheathed within her. His length didn't quite nudge her cervix when his first thrust bottomed out, and she couldn't tell if she moaned because she was relieved or disappointed.

At first they moved slowly together, just their hips gently rocking. But soon she found that she wanted more and she clutched at him, arching her hips against him. They moved faster. The power of the thrusts increased. Severus was positively pounding her into the mattress. When he hit her cervix, she sank her teeth into his shoulder and raked her fingernails down his back. Her legs parted even wider, wrapping around his body as high as she could, allowing him to penetrate her deeper.

She could feel her second orgasm build up inside her, a powerful sensation of need. She was on the brink, she just needed, needed ... helplessly she pushed herself against him and – he ejaculated, his penis twitching inside her.

And in the Ministry archives, or wherever they kept records like the accursed marriage certificates, the brown of dried blood would be turning...

'Don't think about it, don't think about it,' she thought. But it was too late. Her almost-orgasm receded, the mood was ruined, leaving her unfulfilled and aching. Then she frowned. What colour would the ink turn?

Caught up in thought, she only noticed Severus had withdrawn himself when he retrieved his wand to Evanesco the mess. Then he dropped his wand on the bedside table, yawned and proceeded to snuggle up to her. Dozing off in post-coital slumberous bliss, the ... the ... the man.

She poked him awake only for him to doze off again. Growling under her breath, she snatched up his wand.

"Rennervate." 'Hah! See how you like it, dearest.'

"What is it?" he grumbled.

"What colour will the ink have turned? Lucius didn't mention which out of silver or gold proclaimed virginity or lack thereof to all and sundry."

"I suppose it is better to discuss this now than over tomorrow's Daily Prophet," he muttered. "Both of our signatures will have turned silver."

Hermione blinked. "But you weren't the typical clumsy virgin."

He gave her a pointed look. "Neither were you."

"I'm not a ..." she trailed off. Had she forgotten such an intimate detail of her life due to the plague? She must have, though. She frowned. "But why did we go so gently at first?"

"It has been quite some time since you last had sex."

Hermione wondered why she felt so violated. Because that damned certificate would proclaim personal information to be reported to every reader of the Prophet, or because she couldn't remember losing her virginity, or because Severus knew of that when she didn't? Come to that, how did he know? According to him, they'd only been friends before the plague. She looked suspiciously at him.

"Before you ask how I know that, I'm the one you came to for your contraceptive potion when you were with Weasley."

Knowing the fecundity of Weasleys, going to a Potions Master for that had been a good idea. But had Severus harboured the feelings he had now for her back then? If he had, it had been a rather callous thing for her to do.

It seemed rather silly to apologise for something that she couldn't remember and might not even be the case, so she dropped the matter and cuddled up to him, doing her best to avoid thoughts of the next day. But she couldn't help feeling relieved that she'd forgotten about being with Ron, which opened another can of worms: guilt. She also wondered what else she'd forgotten about ... what else did Severus know that she'd forgotten? That memory regaining potion Severus was going to develop was looking more and more like something she herself should take.

AN: Many thanks to septentrion and JunoMagic for betaing, and to Kribu for alpha reading.

And thanks to catherinecookmn for this inspirational snippet with hand and finger kissing:

Severus was in his Ironic Gentleman mode, so he took Hermione's slim hand in his and held it to his lips, managing to smirk even as his mouth brushed against her flesh.

Ah, so that's how it's going to be, thought Hermione. With a smirk to match his, she held onto his hand, gently pulling it towards her own mouth... but before it arrived, she uncurled his index finger from its loose grip on her hand and, slowly, her eyes never leaving his, began to lick it.