DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling, the only creative control I have is the plot.

Feel

Chapter One: Overdosed

Severus's POV

I watched her stumble into the Great Hall; all but deserted by everyone but the two of us - at least at this moment. It was Christmas Holiday, and 99% of the student body had gone home to celebrate with their families, and 99% of the staff had as well. Tomorrow they would all be back, but for now it was about as barren a place any muggle who walked by would see.

She had come back to make up for her seventh year that was lost during the war, along with her friends Potter and Weasley, who were, needless to say, back at the Burrow where the Weasley's had lived for Merlin-only-knows how long. Why Granger – why Hermione had stayed – no one really knew, and it wasn't something she cared to talk about, not to anyone, even her closest friends.

I watched as she struggled to sit up right, an odd, loopy look on her face as she looked down at her hands, spread across the wood of the table, her eyebrows knitted together. In watching her I must have made a slight noise, because all of the sudden her gaze had drifted up to me.

"Professor Snape," she slurred. "Didn't realize you were here, sorry, thought I was alone." I looked down at her, a suspicious look on my face as I stood up and began my way towards her. "Oh, don't look at me like that," she told me, turning her attention back to her hands. "I am not drunk, I am not stupid. It's the pain potion that Madame Pomfrey gave me. I tried to tell her she was giving me too much… The woman wouldn't listen, saying: you may be miss goody-two-shoes who knows everything but I am the professional here and I know what I am doing! Honestly," she said while bringing her hands up and cupping them over her face. "I haven't been able to focus for hours, I can't even walk straight. And it's like I am walking on air. I mean, yes, I am grateful that that blasted migraine is finally gone, but I can't say if this is any much better," she went on, dropping her hands and looking over at me as I sat down on the bench beside her. "I mean I am not joking you Professor, I can't feel a thing!" she told me as she reached her hand out and wrapped it around mine. She pulled it against her stomach and held it in both her hands, looking up at me with glazy, bloodshot eyes. "I can't feel it."

But I could… I could feel the soft skin of her hands, the warmth, the smoothness of them as they held mine tightly in hers. I had never felt anything so… so strong in my entire life. I had never touched her before, never been touched by her before. As she held my hand between hers… it felt like I had held her hand a million times before. Electricity was racing up my arm, sending my heart into overdrive. I couldn't look away from her; I couldn't force myself to if I wanted.

"You're high," I told her after a moment, swallowing down the lump in my throat. "It is not a frequent happening with the potions we have, the only potion I know of that causes it is Felix Felicis; the luck potion. Poppy must have really overdosed you. How much pain were you in?" The internal struggle I had to keep my free hand down, and not raise it and run it along the side of her face took all the strength I had. But it couldn't mean… surly her merely taking my hand into hers, holding it there… the feelings it filled me with… surly that couldn't mean, it didn't mean that I loved her?

"Felix Felicis?" she mused. "Yes, heard of that one. Harry had to take it back in sixth year to talk to Hagrid – won it from Slughorn in class for being best… bastard," she added under her breath. "Anyways, it is horrible. I hate it. I hate this feeling, you were potions teacher for years, Professor Snape, please," she begged, scooting closer towards me on the bench, her eyes pleading. I knew she wouldn't have done otherwise if she weren't so high from the overdose of potion, but she dropped herself into my chest, and my heart nearly stopped. She smelled like honey and roses. "Please tell me there is something you can do, Professor," she asked again, nuzzling her head into the crook of my neck.

This was wrong… I was her professor… her much older, well, not that much older, professor… we shouldn't be doing this… no one was around…

Merlin. I forced back a moan, the desire to wrap my arms around her and not let go filled me, fought with me. It was all I could do to stop myself.

"I am sorry, Miss Granger," I told her with a rather unsteady voice. "But if there was anything I could do, I do not know of it, and," I added, looking down at her and breathing in her sweet scent. "Besides, even if I did know something to reverse it, the risk of your pain coming back tenfold would be too great, and I would not risk that."

"You've always loved my suffering in the past," she told me. "Mine, Harry's and Ron's," she went on. "What is the different now?" she pulled her head away from me and looked up at me expectantly.

God. Her beauty… it radiated sunlight.

I couldn't stop myself; I took my hand and ran it down the length of the back of her head, brushing my fingers through her silky hair. I loved her. I loved her, I loved her, I loved her.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head into my hand. "Mm," she hummed. "That feels good… Please don't stop." It killed me to no end knowing the moment the potion began to leave her system, she would regret all of this, remembering it, and hate herself for it. "It's like I've gone from feeling nothing," she told me, partially opening her eyes, "to feeling everything." She looked up at me, smiling. "And it feels absolutely amazing."

I shouldn't be doing any of this… this was so wrong… so wrong… so bloody wrong… But it felt so completely right…

"It's because," I said softly. "The potion is at its high point right now, it is at its strongest."

"Okay," she breathed. "Now I get it… Now I get why people like this feeling, it is amazing. Oh," she added quickly, looking up at me pleadingly. "Don't tell Harry," she begged me. "Or Ron… or Ginny, Neville, Seamus… Just don't tell anyone, please. I don't know what they would think of me if they knew how much I was enjoying this," I wanted to ask what, what was she enjoying so much? The feeling of every nerve ending in her body being a livewire, or the feeling of me… toughing her, caressing her and holding her against me…

"I promise," was all I am able to manage.

"Thank you," she told me with a smile, placing her hands onto my shoulders. She looked down to my lips, her smile slowly fading, and my worst thought screamed inside my head: it is leaving her system; she is realizing what she is doing… What should I do? I had to think fast, come up with an excuse as to what I was doing with her, touching her and holding her like this, but before I had a chance to come up with anything, she was stretching up on the bench and leaning her face in towards mine. She licked her lips slowly, looking up into my eyes, and whispered, "I wonder…" Her lips were on mine; her hands cupped around the back of my head, holding my lips to hers. I slid my hands from her sides and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her tightly against me.

She opened her mouth for me and pulled herself into my lap, straddling me. With my tongue dancing in her mouth, I slowly ran my hands down her back and took her ass into my hands, pulling her tighter against me still. She moaned as our sexes touched, pressing herself more firmly against me and slowly pushing her hips into mine. I gasped, moaned into her mouth, and began doing the same with my own hips. "So… good…" she breathed, breaking our kiss, and slowly leaning away from me.

The way she kept her hands wrapped around the back of my head, the way she looked at me… it took away all the fears I had, and confirmed only my own feelings: she loved me, too.

She leaned her lips into mine once more, kissing me tenderly. She then leaned her forehead against mine, smiling. "After all these years," she whispered, leaning in to kiss me once more. "Professor Snape," it was like she was saying it, I love you, without really saying it.

She left then, pulling herself away from me and off the bench. I watched as she stumbled from the Great Hall, not looking back once, but I couldn't even blink as she left, not wanting to miss even a second of seeing her.

"All right students," I said the next morning, brushing my hands together after finishing writing the days' lesson on the black board. "Christmas Holliday is over, so no fooling around. Wands away, read the assignment, and begin," I told them. "If you have any questions, read the book and stay quiet."

The door was pushed open, and in she rushed, her bag hung heavily at her shoulder as she dropped down at the only remaining seat: the one directly in front of my desk. She pulled out her book. "I'm sorry Professor, I had to see Madam Pomfrey before class about a last minute thing," she explained, reaching into the inside pocket of her robe. "I have a note," she thrust it into the air, and as I took it from her, our fingers brushed.

"Very well," I said, turning away from her and walking up to sit behind my desk. I set the note down and was ready to dismiss it when a familiar scrawl caught my eye, and I took the note back into my hand and read it more closely: Sorry I am late, I couldn't stop thinking about yesterday… maybe you could give me a private detention sometime..?

When I looked down at her again, she was smiling.

"Yes," I cleared my throat, hiding my answer in my words. "Miss Granger, you will see the assignment on the board, you may begin with the rest of the class."

Her smile widened, and I hid my own behind a very large and bulky book, that I lifted up and placed in front of my face.

To be continued...