Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Hermione woke the next morning with her head pounding. It was only after the pounding refused to stop did she realize that the noise was actually someone knocking on her door. She groaned as she rolled unsteadily out of bed. "Coming," she called as she put on her dressing gown and tottered to the door.

"Morning!" Serena greeted as the door opened. "You look terrible… Are you alone?" Serena wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Yes of course I am—oh…" Hermione cradled her head in her hands moaning. "What did I do?"

Serena made her was into Hermione's chambers as if she had known the other woman for years. "I don't know. What did you do?" She was almost bursting at the seams, eager for Hermione to spill the all the gory details. "You and Severus seemed really cozy last night—I did tell you so—and he walked you back. So?"

"So what?" Hermione was slowly pulling on her clothes.

"So how is he? He's got to be great in bed, well… is he?"

"I wouldn't know."

Serena's head snapped up from the photographs that she had been carrying. "What?!" she was baffled. "Why wouldn't you know? You two practically undressed each other in the bar to go at it on the table."

Hermione sighed and began to brush her hair, "I don't know. He said he didn't want me." Hermione considered this for a moment frowning. "No, he said he didn't want a one night stand with me."

"What? Why?!" Serena stood by her new friend. "That doesn't make since. I've been, I daresay, friends, with Severus for three years, and usually when he acts with other women the way he did with you last night, he beds them."

"I don't know, but thanks this is helping my self-esteem a lot," Hermione sighed.

"Well, we will figure it out. Come on lets go get some food in you."

Hermione sat at the table with Serena and nearly dry-heaved at the smell of food. "Oh gods, Serena, I think I'm still drunk," she managed.

Severus looked up at her from a few spots down and quirked an eyebrow, hiding a smile. He rose from his place and walked over to Serena and Hermione who had her head in her hands. "Elven wine does leave a particularly nasty hangover." He set a hangover potion down gently by Hermione, resisting the urge to brush her hair away from her cheek as he walked out of the hall.

Hermione moaned again after Severus left but quickly downed the potion. After a moment she felt well enough to start eating and looked at Serena speaking in low tones. "I practically threw myself on him last night. What have I done? Did you see that, he can't even stand to be around me." Hermione was working herself up and burning with shame.

"Hermione…" Serena looked at the remaining breakfasters and then in the direction that Snape had gone. "Honestly, maybe you are seeing this wrong. I mean it's not like he ran away from you."

"He might as well have—''

"He didn't. He even gave you a potion to make you feel better. And from the looks of it he hasn't been that kind to anyone else at the table." Serena motioned around to the hung-over professors that were attempting to eat. "So maybe you missed something he said, or misinterpreted."

Hermione thought as she chewed on a bit of kipper. She started replaying what happened last night again over in her head, and immediately wished she hadn't. It was awkward feeling the echoes of last night's passion while being in such a public place. Just thinking of how he had kissed her sent renewed shivers of anticipation and desire down her spine. She wanted more. She felt her cheeks starting to burn as she glanced at Serena. "No. He said he didn't want to sleep with me. Something about, not wanting to regret it in the morning." Hermione quailed at the look Serena had on her face, "I'm sorry! It's just all a little bit hazy."

Serena had excused herself from Hermione a little bit after breakfast with the excuse of having to re-plan a lesson. She wanted to talk to Severus herself. Not that he would actually tell her anything; 'damn gentleman that one.' She knocked on the door to his office and waited for him to answer. She knew there had to be more to last night than Hermione had said; she had gotten to know Severus well enough to know his likes and dislikes in women. And Hermione was definitely in the 'like' category. And he wasn't the type of man to kiss a woman then tell her to 'bugger off.' No, he was rude enough, or polite enough, depending on how you look at it, to start snarling before physical contact has been made. Finally Severus answered the door. "Hello Severus, might I speak to you a moment?" Serena thought she saw a trace of disappointment flicker across his features.

Severus opened the door to his office hoping to see Hermione, but instead he was faced with her new best friend. Inwardly he sighed thinking that maybe Hermione had just been drunk last night, and wasn't attracted to him after all. "Sure, won't you come in?" He opened the door wider and stood back allowing her entrance.

Serena smiled, "I thought you might like to see the pictures from last night. I made you a copy of the picture of you and Hermione." Serena handed him a few photographs and sat in one of the more comfortable chairs in his office.

"Thank you, but you didn't come down here to hand me a few photos." He pinned her with a stern look.

"You caught me!" She merrily shrugged, "I talked with Hermione earlier--"

"Stop. I know what you are going to ask, and it is inappropriate."

"It's inappropriate to want to discuss Educational values?" Serena feigned innocence.

Severus snorted, 'some spy you are; gave her too much ammo already.' "No, I'm not discussing Hermione with you."

Serena narrowed her eyes at him. "Then I'm going to discuss her with you. What did you do to her? She was feeling terrible this morning; she feels like she pushed her unwanted attentions on you and is burning in shame. She said that you told her that you didn't want her after you snogged her senseless. Severus, talk to me. You know I'm not going to gossip about, I just want to know how to comfort my friend."

"Apparently the elven wine gave her selective hearing because I never told her that I didn't want her." Severus glared as Serena gave him a prompting 'go on' gesture. "Fine. I am attracted to her, and what I told her is that I didn't want a one night stand with her."

Serena huffed; "I knew that—oh" Her eyes went wide as she put the pieces together. "Are you getting soft in your old age? Sevvie wants a real, honest-to-goodness girlfriend?" Serena clapped her hands delightedly.

Severus growled, "Kindly, refrain from calling me 'Sevvie,' and it's none of your business what I want."

"Oh come off it! Of course it's my business silly! I'm your friend, and conveniently, I'm HER friend too."

"And?" Severus was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He hated discussing 'mushy' stuff with anyone, especially when he knew that as soon as Serena went back up stairs, Hermione would know what they had spoken of.

"And, dear Severus, I might be able to save you both some agony. You know for two of the most intelligent people that I know, you two are dumb when it comes to inter-personal relationships." Serena blinked innocently at him. When she was a student, she never would have thought of having any sort of amiable conversation with him. But when she had become a teacher, he had been kind to her; in his own way, of course. In the last three years he had taken leaps and bounds in the aspect of his social life. He actually had a social life now. "Look, Severus, I know that since your divorce was finalized, you have become something of a man-whore. But what puzzles me is why stop last night? I mean, I've never known you to be that considerate of any woman, no offense. And if you are ready to actually have a relationship again, Hermione… well she may be IT. You know soul-mates, and all of that crap."

"I don't believe in 'soul mates,' or 'love at first sight.' You should know that. Hell, I'm not even sure if I believe in love." Severus paused and ran his hand through his hair. "I just refuse to cause her any more damage than what I inflicted on her when she was a student."

"So you don't have feelings toward her?" Serena frowned.

"Like I told you every other time you have tried to set me up; I don't kiss and tell. My feelings are my business." He fixed her with a stern look. "If you really want to help soothe Hermione's pride, tell her to come and talk to me herself."

"Well, she doesn't exactly know that I'm here." Serena twisted her hands.

Severus rolled his eyes and moved toward his desk hoping that she would take the hint that, as far as he was concerned, the conversation was over.

Serena made her way back toward Ravenclaw tower slowly. Her mind was buzzing with ideas and theories. After leaving Severus she dropped by to tell Hermione to go talk to him and clear things up, arguing again that she had probably misunderstood his intentions. But after leaving Hermione to her work, Serena could not help trying to solve the Hermione-Severus problem. Severus didn't believe in love; Hermione, for some reason yet to be determined, didn't feel that she deserved love, so she shunned it as a silly idea. Serena smiled to herself, she loved puzzles. She was a Ravenclaw, after all, this was going to be her greatest problem yet. She knew that with a certain amount of meddling and probably some help from the chief-meddler himself, Dumbledore, that she was going to get both of them to find love with each other. It's not like the feelings would need to be developed out of thin air. With that she retreated to her tower to scheme.

Hermione sat fiddling with her quill. She had been trying to conclude some research, but found herself zoning out thinking about Severus. "Honestly!" Hermione shook herself mentally. 'Since when did I let anything like this affect my work?' She scolded herself and looked back at her research giving it up for a lost cause at the moment. If one night and a few stolen kisses were affecting her like this, it was something she needed to examine further. 'Since when am I attracted to a man like Severus Snape?' Hermione grabbed a piece of parchment to do what she knew best; study the situation with logic. She began with basic facts and added in suspicion, and after a few hours of soul searching, she had a hypothesis.

She came to the conclusion that Severus was exactly the type of man that she'd dreamt about meeting, 'Crap!' He was intelligent, brave, and, in his own way, kind. She could converse with him on a wide array of topics, and she knew without a doubt that his sense of logic matched her own, as evidenced by the logic puzzle of his that she had solved in her first year. Not only that, but upon further examination of her feelings she realized something that she hadn't even allowed herself to recognize at the time; but she knew now that she had had a crush on him since her fifth year, 'double crap.' However in the back of her mind she had a few nagging questions that no one but he could answer. First and foremost was how could he be feeling even somewhat attracted to her? He had loathed her existence when she was a student; he had belittled her and insulted her. And now after only a single day of being his equal, he was somehow miraculously attracted enough to her to make out with her under the stars? It didn't make any since! 'I will not let him reduce me into nothing more than a pining school-girl.'

At that moment she made up her mind to have words with him. She had managed to work herself into a temper by the time she reached the dungeons, and when she knocked on his door she was already rehearsing her tirade.

Severus glanced up from the syllabus that he was preparing at the firm knocking on his door. He was surprised when he opened the door to see a very angry looking Hermione on his doorstep. He stood aside in a nonverbal gesture that she should enter before she began fuming at him. As soon as his door was shut she whirled on him eyes ablaze and ready for a fight. He couldn't help but notice she was beautiful even in temper. He steeled himself against the impending onslaught as she began in what he understood as a dangerous tone of voice.

"What do you want from me?" It wasn't the question she'd been intending on asking, but it came out anyway. Even through her temper, she noticed the change in his body language immediately.

"I beg your pardon?" His voice was flat and unassuming.

"What do you want from me?" She repeated her temper flaring high, "I've been thinking about what happened last night and it doesn't make sense! What game are you playing at, Severus? Since you have known me, you have hated me, and suddenly in one day your opinion has changed? Are you still trying to punish me for being Harry's friend? Or being too smart? What?"

Severus had to take a moment to wrap his mind around her arguments. "Hermione, I'm not sure I quite follow. It was not my intention to punish you for anything. But as we are on the subject, why don't you ask yourself some of those same questions. I don't delude myself into thinking that my students like me, in fact I make sure they don't. So why would your opinion change in one day? Not just that, but if you haven't noticed you are a very attractive woman, if you can't figure out why I responded to your advances, well…" He trailed off and Hermione stepped closer to him.

"I won't deny being attracted to you Severus. Not only am I attracted to you now, I have been since I was your student. But you still aren't making sense! If you were just a man responding to a woman, why wouldn't you sleep with me? Do you know how hard it is for someone like me to--"

"To what?" His voice was dangerously low. His temper was rising to match hers. He couldn't help, however, the little flop his stomach had made when she confessed her attraction to him.

"To prostrate my feelings out to someone like you, who I'm used to hearing nothing but insults from!" She stepped close to him threateningly as her anger took the better of her.

Severus reacted out of habit as she moved toward him. His hand shot out and wrapped itself around her throat, not hard enough to do any damage, but enough to scare her. He drew her even closer to him and growled, "Careful woman. You play with fire…"

"I'm a big girl; you let me worry about getting burned." Hermione held her ground showing no fear. They were nose to nose now and her skin tingled where he touched her, even though the gesture was meant to be threatening. Hermione couldn't help her pulse skipping in response to his proximity to her.

Severus saw her pupils dilate slightly the way they had last night when he had been about to kiss her and her pulse was ticking beneath his fingertips. He felt his own skin flush with desire as she glared defiantly up at him. Without thinking his idea through Severus increased his pressure on her throat but only to draw her close. He kissed her then but it was not gentle. He was not being kind or patient with her now. She told him not to worry about her getting burned, so he didn't. If she wanted a quick roll in the hay, fine. He backed her up to his desk one hand still at her throat; he hooked his other arm around her waist and lifted her so that she was sitting on the desk. He stood between her legs, moving one hand from her waist to her knee where he could hitch up her robes.

Hermione was floored by the amount of passion that was in his kiss. She responded to him eagerly, becoming aroused by him controlling her. As he started to lift her robes, Hermione fisted her hands in his hair pulling him closer. Once he was where she wanted him, Hermione grabbed to collar of his shirt and pulled with all of her might scattering buttons in every direction. Only then did Severus let go of her throat to disrobe her as quickly as he possibly could. As he ripped her clothes from her body he muttered a contraceptive charm and he began exploring her. Hermione had never felt anything like this. Her body was on fire with lust and passion. The slightest friction of skin on skin sent tremors through her core. They were racing at a break neck speed into oblivion.

After they were finished they stayed as they were supporting one another, shivering and trying to calm their breathing. Severus regained himself first and withdrew from her touch and began redressing. Hermione shifted to cover herself up and was about to speak when Severus spoke with his back turned. "You got want you wanted, now leave." He quickly exited his office for his quarters leaving her there satiated but extremely confused.