Sensibly, Hermione took off with a shot, her wings fluttering in a blur. Severus attempted to follow her glow – uncertain of the wings that carried him but trying his damnedest to keep up, as he was much slower than her lithe form. Losing her now would be disastrous.

Clattering whinnies and peals of riotous laughter chased them as they flew as fast as their beating wings could carry. Through leaves and brush with heartbeats pounding like drums they careened through the forest. Hermione stretched her hand out behind her, and Severus poured on the last ounce of speed he had to take it. She darted upwards, tugging him along, and crashed on top of a very large oak branch.

Laying over the branch, Severus aimed to keep his gasps for air as quiet as possible – not an easy prospect, but as his abundant ears searched for sounds of more of those little rotters, it was necessary. He could feel Hermione laying next to him, her arm protectively draped around his shoulders, and his hand still fiercely in her grip. If they'd have to flee again, she'd pull him along. The thought was both wholly emasculating and infinitely comforting.

"I think," she wheezed taking a deep shuddering breath, "I think… we're safe."

Severus nodded vigorously, too preoccupied with forcing air into his burning lungs. She held him tightly, closely, protectively, long enough for his head to relax against her form, cradled against her and taking liberties in the pitch darkness he'd never take. Had never dreamed of taking. Hermione stroked his sweat soaked brow, wiping strings of hair from his face and cooing lightly into his ear like a child.

"It's alright," she murmured. "We'll figure a way out of this."

Thoroughly dazed, he nodded again, slowly sitting up, and she released him to walk out along the limb. Severus quickly snatched a dry leaf to cover his bits.

"I think we'll need to find a place to camp for the night, and regroup tomorrow morning," she said as she paced back and forth. Severus cocked his head to the side, trying to focus on the heart shape of her face and not the rest of her. "We'll need to come up with a plan to alert others to our condition. I can only hope that our friends will track our wands once they discover we've gone missing."

She continued to chat animatedly about various plans of action while prancing in front of him like a dirty hippie in blue body paint, completely unaware of her body, or its affect on him.

Severus devotedly studied the pattern of the bark, and not his mate. No! She was not his mate. Hermione had never been his mate – would never be his mate. She was his …coworker. Hell, the witch owned a large portion of the shop. If he cocked things up with her, such as attempting to molest the girl – even while under the auspices of being blue and having extra bits and bobs – not only would things go all pear-shaped, it would violate at least half a dozen laws – criminal laws. That, and he strongly doubted he'd ever be able to look her in the face again. Though to be absolutely fair, ogling her nipples was bound to change some of their relationship dynamics.

Worst of all, his own traitorous body fought against him. He was tenting a damn leaf, of all the humiliating and degrading things. At least he had all of his facilities. His mind would never betray him.

He needed to just stay focused and remain as human as possible.

Something. He needed to think of something to focus his mind. There were …seven uses of Dragon's Blood? Seven was a good number. Certainly there had to have been at least seven uses for the overpriced stuff. It was good for -

Well, an anticoagulant was definitely one of them.

Probably.

Shite! He was doomed.

".. and I've got these strange cravings. I'm one hundred percent positive that it's not coming from me because I'm just as equally positive that I've never had the faintest urge to eat an acorn or to rut like an animal in heat on a bed of pine needles!"

Severus' head shot up.

Dear gods above the witch was naked. He knew this before, but now the sight of her gently curved belly and soft breasts drew his attention like the faint light emitted from her shimmering wings. Improper thoughts raced through his mind making him harder than the oak's branch. She turned coquettishly, her bum swaying with the femininity of her lush form. His heart stopped beating. She had a nub. No not quite a tail, but a little nub that swayed with her movement. What he wouldn't give to rub that nub. Give that nubbin some lovin'. Push her up against the tree… And if she wanted pine needles, he'd gather every last pine needle in the forest, lay her atop that bed and make sweet, sweet love to her.

Fucking hell.

"Hermione," he called.

"I don't feel the need to light a fire. You'd think I'd be cold, but I'm not. It's really curious, actually," she nattered on.

"Hermione!" he yelled to get her attention while staring at her little pebble toes. Pebbled toes that deserved to be sucked just as her ankles demanded that he kiss them… no! Bad thoughts!

"Hm?" she asked, coming too close to him.

"Have some decency, witch," he said with as much vitriol as his squeaky voice would allow. "Cover yourself."

She snorted. "Nakedness seems to be the least of my worries at this moment, Severus. Besides, what do you suggest I change into?"

"Don't get snippy with me. Just take a leaf, woman," he growled.

"Gladly!"

His oak leaf was stripped from his person in a single jerk, revealing the single thing in the whole world he desired to hide most of all.

Not that he wasn't proud of his cock, even when it was humiliatingly purplish instead of a nice pinkish color...

Before he could process her devilishness, she'd taken flight – her Pixie lit wings shimmering far ahead as a cackling laughter mocked his prudishness. Now, his mortification was complete.

There were ways to kill Pixies. The most painful was to rip their wings off – they'd twitch in agony for hours – not that he'd ever done so. But given the circumstances, it seemed like a fitting death. His fingers wrapped around one of his wings, Pixie Dust coating his palms, and began to wrench it free.

It felt rather akin to plucking out a vertebra with a dinner fork.

She buzzed back, circling their branch with giddy laughter.

"Isn't it marvelous," she sighed, diving deftly through the air. "What's funnier is that I always hated flying."

"It's brilliant," he gritted out through teeth, fighting through the lancing pain to rip off his wings.

"Oh!" She must have recognized his pathetic attempts to take his life because she stopped and crept closer behind him. "Oh, Severus, no."

Pity. Fantastic. Why not load up on the embarrassment all in one go?

"Please don't," she whispered in his ear, her fingers gently removing his grip from his battered and aching wing.

His teeth gnashed together, teeth that felt like jagged razors in his own mouth. Perhaps he could chew off a limb and bleed to death?

"I'm sorry, Severus. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I really didn't. I just have these mischievous urges. I don't know where they come from."

Great Merlin, was she nuzzling him? Pressing her body against his? The Pixie Dust must have addled her brains. Soft fingers trailed down his sides as she gentled him into submission. The harder he fought with himself, the more his body betrayed him. He ached for her touch. His logical mind hardly seemed to matter - sensible, reasonable thoughts were smothered. With his clothing and human body stripped away the Pixie had taken over.

"I fucking hate Pixies," Severus growled. If they ever got out of this mess he was going to pickle every last one of them.

"I know," she giggled into his sensitive ear. "But for the moment, I kinda like it."

Severus stilled, his whole body tense and overwrought, most notably his cock, which stood out proudly against his belly and begged for attention – the kind of attention she was giving his person.

"This is wrong, Hermione," he said with a choked voice. "It's not real."

"Then if it's not real, you shouldn't feel ashamed. Do you blame me for being naked?"

"No," he quickly answered.

"Why should I blame you then?"

"Damn it witch, it's not the same!"

Her arms reached around his narrow waist, warming his skin with a smooth friction he'd never felt before, to touch his cock.

"Because I don't have one of these?" She gave him a slow stroke that sent fire shivering through is veins. "Just because you can't see my arousal doesn't mean I'm not turned on. You have no idea how wet between my legs I am right now."

"Her-mione," he begged, even as he pushed against her. "Please don't."

There was hardly a drop of reserve left within him, barely anything at all that held him back from touching her most inappropriately. Severus swallowed the thick lump in his throat as she continued to touch him most inappropriately, his body electric and singing with each stroke.

For her, he'd carve out the tallest oak. For her, he'd build the finest burrow the forest had ever seen. And they'd fill their burrow with more children than the Weasleys could ever imagine. The mental image of her belly ripe with his child really was too much to bear. He didn't even like children - not other people's, and probably not his own screaming heathens, but he'd love hers. He was nearly tipped over the edge, the last shreds of his civilized mind intact and kicking and screaming with resistance.

She was obviously demented, succumbed to the squirrel-brained effect of their transformation. Come the day when they returned to human form, he'd once again be repulsive. The only logical conclusion in his albeit scrambled wits was she only desired him because she couldn't help herself.

"You know, Severus," she sighed wistfully. "As liberating as this is, I only wish I'd had the guts to engage you when we were human. Some brave Gryffindor I turned out to be. It only took me turning into a Pixie before I ever confessed that I wanted you."

Severus turned with a jerk, his stoic expression faltering. Eyes wide with fear, he sought hers out for deception.

"Please tell me you noticed. You must have noticed."

In truth, she didn't know what was worse: that Severus didn't notice her, or didn't care. Only the gut-wrenching fear of rejection had kept her from screaming in frustration, 'See me! Look at me! Don't you see I'm throwing myself at you?'

Even as her heart thumped staccato in her thin chest, ready to break, she had to resolve herself for his answer. If he rejected her she'd take the grant position in Leicester and finally move on. A wave of relief swept through her as heat flickered briefly in his eyes. No, she hadn't been imagining things – he did desire her.

Words failed Severus entirely, his mouth felt full of clay. How could he begin to explain he expected his love to go unrequited? It always had been. Without stuttering like a shambling fuckwit with platitudes, Severus did the only thing he could think of; he kissed her.

Severus fell upon her, drinking the taste of her lips and at the same time trying to pour into her every heartfelt emotion bundled tightly inside – now leaping to get out. He loved her. Had loved her for so long. Hands that were not allowed to touch, hands restrained by years of self discipline roamed freely – caressed reverently over soft curves. Hermione melted into his embrace, her hungry lips and happy sighs guiding him. Pressed up on her toes, she possessively pulled at his scalp, tangling her fingers in his hair to bend his head to hers; to wholly claim his mouth. Hungrily she kissed lips that didn't at all feel thin – they were warm and soft and when his tongue twined around her she rubbed against him with the desire to fucking purr.

Her body crushed into him, her features against his chest were divine, but kissing Hermione was a particularly intimate act that he had craved for so long, and now like a thirsty man at a wellspring, he couldn't take enough of his fill. For a lost length of time they eagerly explored each other's mouths, and the sensations coursing through them, bumping noses and tilting heads to mate lips and tongues together.

Winding her arms past his neck, she trailed feather-light touches along the wingtips he'd foolishly abused, soothing the aching hurt and replacing shivering chills in her path. What an imbecile he'd been, loony and unbalanced – pathetically attempting to take his life not moments before. Now he stood with his Hermione in his arms, her comforting fingertips upon him an expression of love. He needed her, needed more of her, to cover her body with his and mark her as his beloved.

She too needed him closer. Between their bodies the frozen winter's night held naught the slightest chill, the delicious heat, the warmth borne of friction of skin against skin, set every nerve afire. There was no space to pull him closer, his lean and hardened body pressed tightly against her as she clung to him, and yet she wanted – needed more. More closeness. More Severus.

"Please, Severus," she begged with a ragged cry. He stole the words from her lips with another scorching kiss – one that nearly robbed all coherent thought from her. "Please take me Severus. I need you within me. I need you moving inside me." She did. Her legs were like liquid, and without his sheltering arms keeping her standing, surely they'd fail her.

"Hush, in time mein nubchen."

His chocolate tones rolled across her skin as a vocal caress.

Planting teasing kisses along her collarbone and delving into the valley of her lush breasts, Severus murmured his delight and approval. The texture of her skin was slightly rubbery, but warm, and scented with the ambrosia of Hermione's female musk. Every Pixieish bit within him burned to do exactly as she said. His body ached to bury himself within her folds, like there was a beast within barely tethered. He wanted her legs thrown about his waist, her back pushed into the oak limb and to drive her across the branch, as she screamed her release around his cock and he pushed his seed deep within her - to drain himself in her fertile womb. He'd spend himself in seconds. The filthy thought alone caused his engorged cock to twitch against her belly.

Fighting with his feral Pixie mind, he had to warn himself to go slow. He compelled himself to suckle on her delicate nipples, relishing in the way he head threw back, moaning in abandon. To give over himself to all desires, to let loose the pure uninhibited want – would cause her pain. She wasn't just his mate, she was his Hermione. Forgetting that they were human, could prove disastrous.

He would restrain himself. Beat back the demanding lust-fuelled creature inside, because giving into the singular need to pound his life, his essences, the very marrow of his soul into her would not only bend wings and bruise hips, but if she rejected him…

He knew witches' affections were notoriously fickle, and she had the added excuse of Pixie-lust coursing through her veins... It was a thought that he could not handle.

He'd have to accept whatever fate she meted out to him – even if it meant dying inside.

Torn between the agonizing want of him moving inside her, and the mesmerizing pleasure of his delicious mouth, she yielded to his overwhelming passion. Hermione felt so light, her head dizzy and drugged that her wings took off on their own accord, her drenching desire thoughtlessly causing her wings to lift upward. Her arms reached lazily towards the stars like a willowy fey creature.

His love lifted in his arms, bathed in the soft ethereal glow of her translucent blue wings. Trailing finger tips down her skin, he marveled at her beauty as she stretched out high above him. Severus held on to her hips, mooring her lest she take off in flight, and caressed the flesh of her womanly hips. He pressed a soft kiss to the heated skin around her bellybutton, her trilling response of happiness causing his wingtips to shudder.

"My love," Severus hoarsely choked, honest and needy in his expression, pillowing his head on her silken thighs. "My love."

At his gentle coaxing, her shapely legs wound around him, parting before him. He inhaled her scent, her fragrant feminine aroma. It pricked his senses acutely and left his cock leaking with want. Every animalistic urge within him was cued to the scent of her desire. The warm scent of his mate's need electrified and ignited him – sending blood pounding in his ears.

In the bluish half light he could see her pearl, wet with dew, and moaned in pleasure. Beneath her crisp curls, her sex was spread open before him. Impatiently she wiggled in his arms, demanding satisfaction. Severus only hesitated a minute, his fingers clenching the curve of her firm buttocks, to caress her nub, and lightly stroke his fingertips along her parted crevice.

As she shivered in response, Severus seized the moment to latch on to her needy clit, his mouth worshiping her, and the tips of his straight and silken hair skimming her thighs as she clamped down around him, threatening to suffocate him. A frisson of lightning raced down her spine. Hermione writhed against his face as he laved her center and relentlessly teased her entrance. Fingertips tickled and trailed the tightened bud of her anus, as she clenched above him, riding his face with abandon. Hermione twisted and writhed, her twitches turning into thrashing, her fluttering wings beating erratically as sensations and synapses were overloaded. Severus latched down hard on her clitoris, sucking and flicking with abandon.

Blood rushed through her body, pounding outwards and centering on the places his feasting mouth touched. Deliriously wonderful and electric, she was caught in a swirling torrent of sensation, when he sucked in her clit and tugged.

Her neck stretched back, arched with her back to trill her orgasm into the night.

Hermione came atop him, bathing his face in her essences, which he greedily lapped up. She was still tense and shuddering moments later. As he ghosted his palms in circles over her legs he could feel the muscles taunt and twitching with the echoes of her pleasure.

Severus patiently waited for her to relax before unhurriedly pulling her down. Still buoyant and aloft, Severus pressed his nose into the curve of her jawline, scattering kisses across her neck and scenting her wild and untamed hair as she moaned. He could feel her hot core, the juncture of her thighs pressing against the glistening head of his ready cock. The needful desire to surge up within her was nearly overwhelming, as she encircled his waist with her calves and teased his length.

"Please," she moaned sensuously. "Please."

With a maddening slowness, he entered her, stretching and sheathing himself inside her wet welcoming depths with a hissing breath. Hermione's legs tightened about him even as her wings beat fast like a sparrow's. There was magic in their movement, his legs surging upwards to piston into her as her graceful winged body bobbed in counterpoint.

"More," Hermione begged her voice raw and thick with want.

He was aching – throbbing, the desire to fucking rut with her was all consuming. His cock and balls were so heavy and needy for release it hurt, but he kept his thrusts gentle and easy even as the fire built.

"More," she demanded, thrashing about, her wings threatening to carry them both in flight. "Severus, stop being so gentle with me… I want… I want…"

He thrust himself, pistoning inside her with a sharp violence he'd been denying himself.

"Yesss!" she shuddered, clamping around him.

"I'll spend," he shamefully confessed, dragging deep breaths into his lungs. "I'll spend quickly like an adolescent boy."

"Don't care. Fuck me again."

This time the word, 'Yesss,' hissed from his own throat. With her permission, Severus released the very last of his resolve, allowing his hips to drive harder into her, bowing over her body, plunging and grinding into her hips as he pushed her down into the rough tree branch. Hermione's fingernails bit the flesh of his arse to pull every inch of him into her depths. Distantly he registered her desperate shrieking calls for more. With thundering hearts and thrashing hips, they raced as one towards a pounding climax.

He spent quickly, popping like a shaken champagne bottle that drained every bit from him – poured all that he had into her. Slumped against Hermione's nubile body they panted and regained wits.

Moments later he discovered his virile Pixie body was quite ready and eager to go again.

As nocturnal creatures serenaded the moon, owl wings whispered, and other forest-dwellers bedded down for sleep, two lovers entwined together as one.

A/N: Beta'd by the amazingly talented christev and alpha-read by the extraordinarily mischievous mischievous_t.