I don't own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling does. I had previously written an HP SS/HG but I felt it was going nowhere. I felt like writing a SS/HG, a solid one. I got inspired by reading some very good ones lately, especially by the infamous Lady Serade. Lovely work. Well here goes.
Brief Summary: Hermione Granger is in her last year of Hogwarts. She is the celebrated Gryffindor Princess. As head girl, she is allotted her own room and the privacy to engage in a secret relationship with the Potions Master. Tensions are high and they are in the middle of the War. No one knows when the Wizarding world will regain it's sanity. Hermione and Snape's relationship has been going on for six months. Working for both sides as a Spy, it is imperative for Snape that no one knows the status of their relationship, both for Snape's sake as well as Hermione's. Snape does the best he can to maintain her safety, but will that be enough? Will his efforts be enough or will they drive her away?
Chapter 1: Consider This
Hermione sat with a loud thump in her chair as she frowned at the dusty books in front of her. Hours earlier, she been sniping about how bored she was and how eager she would be to help with the war effort. No one had been in the room except Ron and Professor Snape.
Ron had been snoring away curled up on the divan, while Snape had been perusing his Potion specialty books in search for a quicker remedy to staunch internal bleeding.
The hour had been late in the evening. The house was empty and only Hermione and Ron had been left behind while the rest of the Order was out on tasks, doing various research or on guard duty that night.
Wistfully, Hermione mentioned practicing defense spells. That's when Professor Snape frowned and then set down the book he was reading.
"Really, Ms. Granger, your inability to look for the obvious astounds me." Waving his wand, he summoned three stacks of dusty tomes and maneuvered them towards Hermione's feet.
"Dust these" he ordered.
Ron snorted in his sleep while Hermione grimaced.
"Severus..." she began. Snape lowered his book and growled.
"It's Snape!" he whispered in a fierce tone. Hermione glanced at Ron and shrugged.
"He's asleep."
"It does not matter" Snape murmured. Ron snorted again and frown lines appeared in Snape's forehead.
"Just do it" Snape told her. He went back to his book.
Hermione tentatively lifted the cover of the nearest book to her and began to cough. Clouds of heavy dust floated out.
Severus smirked.
"Attack those" he told her from behind his book.
"I don't think so" Hermione murmured. "I have a touch of Asthma, as you know, I think I will ...go practice defense spells" she rushed out in a hurry, mumbling the last of her words. Knocking the stacks of books down, she scrambled out of her chair and out of the sitting room. The door to the basement shut with a bang.
Severus put down his book and sighed. Ron still snored serenely on the divan.
Down in the Basement, Hermione stretched out. Placing her her legs on either side, she bent and grabbed an ankle and held it as she stretched her hamstrings. Doing both legs, she flexed her fingers and leaned back, relaxing her lower back.
"To what do I owe this mood swing?" Severus asked, standing behind her. Normally, Hermione would have startled, surprised at a sudden appearance from behind her. But she knew Severus, and she knew that he was going to follow her to the basement.
"It's good to be prepared" she told him, now flexing and pointing her toes.
"I would have given you pickled Newt tails to prepare" he told her silkily. Hermione grimaced.
"I know" she said. Turning over onto her stomach, she began doing push ups. Snape watched her as her forehead beaded with sweat.
"Then why am I finding you doing this?" he asked.
"Look, I told you before, it's good to be prepared" Hermione huffed.
"The last few weeks, you and I have been preparing medicinal potions as well as researching. I thought that you would have been content with these efforts."
"I was" Hermione gasped before lowering herself in exhaustion on the floor. "My wand arm needs toning up" she said absently, rubbing her right bicep.
"I am not a foolish Wizard, Hermione. If I was, the Dark Lord would have killed me years ago. What is going on here?"
"Nothing, Sir" Hermione said, getting to her feet. Flicking out her wand, she began to warm up with some simple defense spells, aiming at the concrete wall that had been magicked to accept such treatment.
"Accio Hermione's wand"
"Hey!" Hermione turned around, face red. "What are you doing?"
"What are you at child?" Snape asked, holding her wand away from her grasp.
"Like I told you, before " Hermione began with exasperation "It does not hurt to be prepared."
"Doing research and brewing does not require you to have an extensive grasp of the Defense against the Dark Arts."
"Things might change" Hermione told him.
"How so?" Snape asked evenly, his face going white. Hermione looked away and began to fidget with her hair which was tied back in a bun.
"Harry needs help" she told him. "The war is not ending like you had predicted months ago." Severus nodded.
"Give me my wand please" Hermione asked.
"Continue" Snape told her.
"We are not in a classroom, Severus. I do not need to obey you."
With a swirl of black robes, Hermione felt herself being pressed against the stone wall. Snape's hand was cupping her throat. It was not a tight hold, but it was a hold nonetheless.
"When we began this relationship, I told you there were certain standards that you needed to meet" Snape breathed into her ear.
Hermione closed her eyes and nodded in remembrance.
"One them was that you would not seek out dangerous situations to place yourself in. You are kept safe by the merest thread of luck. If the Dark Lord ever finds out my regard for you, do not think yourself safe. He would kill you in a heartbeat. As it is, I will not hear of you deliberately placing yourself in dangerous situations just because that idiot Potter needs help!"
"But don't you want me to be prepared?" Hermione asked. Severus slammed his fists against the wall, this time making her jump.
"That word again!" Snape let go of the wall and paced the room in frustration. "I cannot protect you when I am distracted. Going off with Potter on his idiotic escapades..."
"You cannot protect me always" Hermione said in a small voice. "Did you read the paper?"
"What are you referring to?"Severus asked, his face warning her not to change the subject.
"The upcoming marriage law."
Severus tossed Hermione her wand. She caught it and held it to her chest.
"I did, and it will be months before they can pass it."
"Whose side came up with it?"
"Does it matter?" Snape asked. Hermione looked at her shoes.
"It would be the worse case scenario actually if it was the Light that came up with it" she said."Knowing that they are stripping away our rights but hiding it under so called mandatory laws, is the guise of totalitarianism."
"The Wizarding population is declining" he told her. "But there is time. Meanwhile, this law would speak devastation regardless of who is pushing, you are right though in that the Light does want it...but so does another group."
"They both want it" Hermione said in a surprised voice.
"Yes"
Suddenly Snape was beside her and then Hermione was pinned to the floor. Her wand clattered several feet away.
"You cannot even disarm me, Granger" Snape breathed in her ear as he grasped hanks of her bushy brown hair.
"You didn't mention it" Hermione whispered.
"Good" Snape whispered "Because I apparently don't have to. You are not prepared Granger." He pushed up Hermione's tee-shirt and began fingering her stomach, hands searching higher and higher.
He began to nip in the sensitive spot just below her ribs.
"Have you been reviewing your Charm work for the NEWTS?"
"I felt I did enough" Hermione told him. Severus moved her shirt to reveal a plain white bra. Placing his wide palms over the cups, he began to massage her through the material.
Hermione made a small noise of pleasure before her head snapped up, "Wait" she gasped. "Ron is still up there!"
"Muffliato and a small detection spell to warn us. That Dunderhead wouldn't wake up if the house was surrounded by Death Eaters." Snape replied in a muffled voice as he grabbed Hermione's bra with his teeth and ripped it aside.
Hermione struggled to raise herself, wanting to be on fair ground with Severus, but Snape held her back.
"Are you prepared?" He grounded out, moving his hands over naked upper body.
Hermione shifted and raised her hand. Brushing a stringy lank of hair out of his eyes, she said in a clear voice
"Always."
Later...
Getting dressed, they did not dawdle. They each did what they could to relieve the tension that had built up inside of the of them, but they did not kiss.
They did not hold one another and comfort one another.
They never mentioned love.
Neither of them was sure about the extent of their feelings for each. With the war and people from both sides dying daily, it seemed frivolous (despite what Dumbledore claimed) to speak of love. It made more sense to find a physical release.
Inside her girlish heart, Hermione however entertained notions of them possibly building a real relationship one day, one that was out in the open. She was young and therefore she thought this way. She never had a lover cut down before her very eyes. She had never been responsible for the life of somebody she loved. With the exception Harry's safety, she never had to protect someone that she cared for.
She never experienced loss. Not yet anyways.
Snape had, and he remembered these things all too well.
Snape harbored no such illusions about love and fairy dust. Although almost 18 years had passed since the Dark Lord cut Lily down in the prime of her life, he could never forget that it was he who was responsible for her early demise. The person he had loved most dearly had ultimately died because of his betrayal. He held no fantasies about love and happily ever after. Time had proven him wrong. Fate was his adversary.
That's why there was never any actual intercourse.
Snape never penetrated Hermione. They found other ways to pleasure themselves. The Potion Master was a skillful lover and could bring his partner to completion in any situation. Hermione found this most becoming about him, however she pleaded for the actuality of true love making.
He always denied her.
He told her that one day she would find a Wizard worthy of her affection and until then, she should keep herself for him. Hermione protested, saying that what he was professing was archaic and devoid of feminist ideals. She should be wanted for herself, and not her hymen.
He never listened.
Sometimes, she thought she stood a better chance of getting a wall to understand her. He was so hard and impenetrable. It infuriated her that he held up his hand to her and refused to listen to her, especially after sharing intimacies with him! He treated her like a first year.
Honestly!
The only way to get through to him, was to treat him in kind.
Inwardly, Hermione sighed as she watched Snape adjust his robes to his usual neat severity. She wanted him, and it was wrong of her. The age difference, the fact that he was her Professor, the ultimate fact that he was...well he was Severus Snape for crying out loud! All those things should have stopped her from kissing him in the Astronomy Tower last fall. As soon as his lips touched hers, all thoughts, incohorenet, reasonable, or otherwise, left her. She could only think of what he was doing to her. It was only later that she wondered, "Why?"
Hermione blamed it on the compulsivity of her age. Hormones. The war. She wondered what drove the Potions Masters to even entertain the notion of touching her, let alone talk to her without scathing remarks.
Mutual respect could only go so far. Although she touched his body and he hers, there was always so much distance in his eyes.
Hogwarts...
Hermione sat for her NEWTs exams.
She was not nervous of the actual test material. She knew this. Having memorized nearly all of her Seventh year books and notes, she was more than prepared. She was the bloody brightest witch of her age! Remus Lupin had declared her correctly all those years ago Therefore, it was with an air of calm assurance that she stepped into the first examination room for the beginning of the NEWTs.
Offering her fellow classmates smiles of reassurance, she calmly sharpened her quill in preparation. Without turning around, she knew that he was in the room as well. She knew that he was watching her. He was always watching her.
It comforted her and made the exams go by much quicker.
She heard heard the whisper of Severus's robes in the hallways and in the back of the rooms. She heard him conferring with other teachers and the exam officials. She saw him briefly during exam breaks. He watched her progress closely.
Hermione did not feel nervous as he watched her enter the room for the NEWT's Potion exam, or Arithmathcy, or Charms.
She felt the heat of his gaze though, when she entered the room for DADA.
Hermione had not told him that she was going to take the exams qualifying for the Auror academy.