Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter.

A/N: Thank you Marriage1988, Luna525, Claire and whoever the "Guest" was for your wonderful reviews! I hope you all enjoy the second chapter.

Warning: There are some aspects of Noncon in this chapter but nothing that will change the rating.


"Hermione." He purred and her chest hurt in a whole different way. He moved towards her, his eyes burning into hers and reminding her that whatever laetitia cordis was, it was also laced with one of the most powerful lust potions that could be made. She scramble backwards and held out her arm to somehow keep him back even as he advanced towards her.

"Snape wait!"

He didn't almost batting her hand out of the way he grabbed her by the back of her neck and yanked her against his chest. She turned her face away and tried to turn but his arm wrapped around her back and trapped her in place. Her arms tugged against the chains but they were too far from the wall and she could do nothing. She whimpered as his mouth came down as hers. But even though his arms crushed her, his lips were gentle and pressed softly against her unyielding lips. Slowly he moved his head and kissed the corner of her mouth.

"Severus." She managed to get out. He kissed her cheek and temple.

"Hmm." He started to kiss back down her face as his hands moved into her hair and down her back.

"Severus stop." Her voice seemed to be far away and she felt as if she were shouting from a great distance so that it only came out as a whisper. He was kissing her neck now and she gasped as closed his mouth on the junction of her neck and shoulder.

"Stop!" She finally managed to yell. He paused for a moment and she could feel his breath on her neck.

"…you don't want me to stop…"

"What?! No, listen! Severus this is a potion, please you have to fight- ahh!"

His hands clenched fists pulling her hair and jerking her forward.

"No." his voice was distant and breathy as he came nose to nose with her. Even though her eyes were beginning to water she could see that his were glazed over.

"It's okay Hermione." He said, kissing her again. "Okay. We are married."

"What?!"

"You married me." He said more forcefully. Not like he was telling her though; he was telling himself. "You love me. You don't care who I was and you love me." He was pulling her down to the ground and she truly began to cry. "You married me and we will be together for the rest of our lives."

He was on top of her now, rocking his hips into her and kissing her again.

"I love you Hermione." He whispered into her ear and she sobbed, trying to buck him off.

"No…"

But he pressed his hand onto her hip and held her down.

"We are enjoying our wedding night." He said as if describing the scene. Like he was recreating a fantasy… laetitia cordis suddenly made sense. The heart's delight.

His hand unbuttoned her slacks and began to inch in.

"Waitwaitwaitwait." She begged as she tried to pinch her thighs together "Severus please wait!" His hand stilled.

"What is it, my love?"

Her breaths came in trembling gasps. She had to try to work within the fantasy.

"Can we go slower? Please?"

He chuckled warmly.

"How slow? It's our wedding night, love." He kissed the corner of her eye. "I and don't know how much longer I can wait." To emphasize his point he rocked into her once more and she felt his erection through his pants. Hermione swallowed thickly and tried to think.

Was not going to lose her virginity on a dungeon floor to a man under magical influence. She had to work a way through this.

"But you promised me we would wait, lo- Severus."

He looked confused for a second.

"We did wait."

"No we will wait. You just today asked me to marry you. I said yes. But we are not married yet." She said trying to sound sweet. She had no idea if she could manipulate whatever reality he was living at the moment but she was going to damn well try.

"You agreed to marry me." He said as if going through it.

"Yes. You asked me just today. We went on a picnic next to a stream and you asked me to be your wife. I said yes and you gave me a beautiful ring."

She figured the more she helped him see it, the more likely he would latch onto it. Snape smiled that beautiful smile of his that transformed his face again.

"My mother's ring. I knew you would love it."

Hermione let all the air out of her lungs in relief. But he was kissing her again.

"Then we made love by the stream." He said.

"Actually, we agreed to wait." She said, the last word of her sentence coming out weird as he cupped her breast. "I grew up with muggle parents with old fashioned values."

She hadn't. The Grangers were very forward thinking.

"I've been saving myself for marriage."

She wasn't. But the tentative things she did with Victor and the empassioned kiss with Ron in the midst of battle never really came to much. Both relationships had ended amicably on both sides. She just focused on her studies since then and did not believe that sex was one of those things you did because you felt like it. She believed that it was supposed to be something special. She wanted it to be something special and no one so far had acted like she was special in a romantic way.

"Saving yourself." Snape whispered back almost reverently. "Why wait if we are already committed to each other?"

She knew that it was mostly the potion but she was getting really tired this crap.

"Gods Severus! Is that really all you want?! Will you say anything just to shag me?" she turned her face away from him and wished so very much that she could get away from him as tears leaked out of her eyes.

"Hermione." He said as he gently cupped her face and turned it back. He wiped away her tears and kissed just above each eye.

"You will never be just a shag, you will be my wife. I love you Hermione and I want you so very much." Fresh tears came and ran down the sides of her face and he dutifully wiped those away as well. "But I will wait as long as you want."

She continued to sob and he kept petting her hair and trying to sooth her.

"Can we just lie here together?" he asked "Not doing anything, just holding each other?" Hermione sniffed loudly.

"Okay."

He smiled again and nuzzled into her hair as he shifted to her side and wrapped his arms around her. He tried to bring her arms down to him as well but the chains kept them stuck above her head. His hands brushed across the manacles and he looked up at the in confusion for a second then smiled.

"You wear the oddest jewelry, Hermione." He said teasingly.

"What you don't like them?" she asked, her voice still thick from crying. He frowned.

"To be completely honest with you, love, I hate them. Why don't you take them off?"

"Wish I could, but they seem to be stuck on. Per-perhaps you could use some wandless magic to get them off for me?"

Snape reached up again and took one of the manacles in his hand. Hermione felt magic wash over it but it did not pop open.

"Hermione, did you charm these bracelets to stay on?"

"Uh, yes. A bit."

He laughed.

"Trust you to use an ancient binding charm for getting dressed. I'll need my wand. Now where did I put it?" He searched around them for a couple of minutes before shrugging and turning back to Hermione. His expression when he looked at her made her want to squirm away from him. It was warm and affectionate and it made her feel guilty, like she was tricking him. She cleared her throat.

"Can we sit up, Severus?" she asked.

"Of course. Do you want to lean up against this tree?" he said gesturing to the wall.

"Uh, sure. If you could just help me sit up?"

He did and with some rearranging of her 'bracelets', she was soon snuggled into his lap with him leaning against the 'tree'. He kissed her temple and ran his hand down her leg.

"Tell me what you want at our wedding Hermione."

His hand was coming back up a little too sensually though.

"You behave now." She said moving his hand back to her knee "I will be wearing white on that auspicious day, remember."

He gave a long suffering sigh but smiled at her.

"Shall I wear white as well?"

She snorted.

"I think that your normal black will suffice, though I think that a charcoal cravat would not be out of place."

"I believe I could make that sacrifice."

Hermione found herself smiling at him and thinking that now that she wasn't in danger of being raped, that spending time wrapped Severus Snape's arms was actually quite pleasant.

"And what kind of house shall I build you?" He asked.

"Build?"

"Only the best for you, Hermione. I have quite a bit squirreled away and spending it on starting a life with you sounds like a perfect use for it."

"Severus you don't have to-" His arms tightened around her briefly.

"I will build you the perfect house." He stated and she knew that the potion was enforcing this thought. She looked away from him and hated herself for it but was afraid that he would revert but to the first fantasy if she didn't enforce this one.

Forcing a smile, she said:

"The biggest room has to be the library."

"Well, of course. As long as the second biggest room is the potion's lab."

"Well, of course. And there must be a garden."

"Mmhmm."

"I would want the house to have character though." She said, allowing herself to get carried away with the idea of it.

"And how does a house have character?" He asked beginning to play with her hair.

"Well most houses are set up basically the same way. The kitchen goes in a certain place because that is where kitchens goes, the living room goes in a certain place. Not that I would want a house where all the rooms are in random places." She explained. "But I love houses that have things about them that are different. Non-traditional."

She looked up at Snape and couldn't help but glance at his nose.

"I like things with character." She said softly. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards and she could have sworn that hid cheekbones turned a light shade of pink.

"I like things with character as well." He said pulling a curl down and watching it spring back. "How many bedrooms should I build in our home?" he asked quietly, looking intensely in her eyes. It took Hermione a second to figure out what he was asking with that stare.

"Oh. Um. Uh… I don't know. How many were you thinking?"

He shrugged with one shoulder and looked away with a boyish grin plastered on his face. Hermione never really thought that she would ever use the word 'boyish' to describe Severus Snape but she also never thought he could look so damn charming at the same time.

"Maybe one or two." He said "Or five."

"Five! Severus Snape I hope you plan on inventing a potion that allows for male pregnancy because I hate to think what my hips would look like after five children."

"So you want me to get a fat arse instead?"

"Well you could stand to put on some weight if you want my opinion."

"Hermione love, I couldn't invent a potion that would stop you from giving your opinion."

She smack his chest.

"Ow! Damn your bracelets are heavy. Promise you will never wear those infernal things again."

"Oh, I promise." She muttered.

The two of them sat in silence as Snape slowly circled his thumb on her knee and seemed content to simply look at her.

"S-severus can you tell me what the laetitia cordis potion does exactly?" Hermione asked and held her breath. Snape pulled back a little.

"Where did you hear about that?" He asked cautiously.

"Oh, I was reading a book and it was mentioned in a footnote. I h-haven't researched it myself yet and I thought I would ask you…is it dark?"

"Yes and no." He said frowning. "It is also know as the fantasy curse."

"Figured it was something like that given the Latin, but what does it do exactly?"

"It makes people believe that their deepest fantasy is real and to act on it?" he explained and took a deep breath "But that is not why it is considered dark. Think about it, what if all your dreams came true and hours later you found out it was all a lie? It was originally meant to show the true nature of the one who took it. If their deepest desire was to kill or something horrible then you would be found out and exposed. Unfortunately almost everyone that took it committed suicide afterwards. Either out of shame over what they did or because they tasted pure joy and could not go back to life without it. Hermione, why are you crying, love?"

She could speak though so she just buried her face in his chest as her shoulders shook.

"Shhh. Its okay. It was outlawed a long time ago." He said rocking her back and forth.

"What if it was laced it with a lust potion?" she forced out while still hiding her face from him.

"This is upsetting you-"

She grabbed onto the front of his frockcoat in a tight fist.

"Please tell me."

"…most of the time that resulted in rape. Though it depended on who the potioned person was around. If he was stuck in a room with someone he never fantasized about, generally he just acted like a randy bastard."

"What if he did neither?" she aske finally looking into his eyes and searching for the truth.

"Love can always trump a love or lust potion. Only those truly safe from the laetitia cordi are those that are already in the deepest part of the imbiber's heart."

Hermione slowly brought her hand up to his face and cupped his cheek. He leaned into the contact and she leaned forward kissed him with all the tenderness and feeling that she truly felt. He tried to deepen the kiss but she pulled back.

"It is such a warm and lovely day right now, Severus." She said hand still on his face. "Why don't we take a nap?"

"Are you sleepy?" He asked.

"Well the food you prepared for our picnic was delicious. You should be sleepy too. Why don't you let me sit against the tree and you can rest your head in my lap and sleep without a care in the world?"

She was taking a risk again that she could manipulate the fantasy like this but she needed to. She almost exclaimed success as she watched his eyes grow sleepy and he let them shift positions. Soon he was drifting to sleep as she ran her fingers through his hair. Not that greasy, she thought absently. He just needed better shampoo…

Hermione felt like her heart was on fire as the strength or her conviction overcame her. She would not let this man die. She just needed to figure out how to stop it.


A/N: Please review! Tell me what you liked and maybe what you didn't. I think I can make updating a weekly occurrence, so expect the next chapter in another seven days. Thanks for reading!