Take Me
Chapter Four
By: politelycynical
Hermione was avoiding him. She had been for two weeks.
She had spent all of her evening in the library trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Was it metabolic? Was it a side effect from the spell or from the cure? She couldn't know anything for sure.
And something new had started to happen to her. She was being watched. There were no other girls in her year in Slytherin. Hermione couldn't recall a time in her recent life that allowed her as much privacy as being the only Slytherin sixth year girl.
But strangely, she never felt alone. It was as if someone was always hovering nearby. The back of her neck would tingle as if someone were about to whisper in her ear. She would shrug it off. It was another side effect, nothing more.
The air was the heaviest when she was alone in the middle of the night. She started to stay up later and later in the common room to avoid the unbreakable silence. There was a lingering feeling of… something not being quite right.
She sat at the fireplace and turned another page. She tried to ignore the fact that Severus was nearby lounging on a couch. He hadn't bothered talking to her since her second night in the castle, and she was grateful. The next day, she had thought over what he had said and had been furious with him.
Why did he have to make her feel like some kind of slut for something that had clearly been beyond her control? Why couldn't he just be a civilized human being?
She wondered if he would walk around like such a privileged snob if he knew how miserable he would be in the future.
She shook the thoughts from her head. Of course he could never know.
Hermione considered how lucky it was that no one had actually asked them where they had come from. It turns out it really was true, no one cares about something that doesn't involve them. None of the boys that witnessed their arrival had made any kind of suggestion that it had been out of the ordinary.
Severus crossed his legs at the ankles and turned a page of his book.
She was positive that she was losing her mind. Her research had turned up nilch on the side effects of not dying from a sacrifice, but so far she was positive that it had affected her cognitive abilities.
She found it harder and harder to concentrate on what she was reading. Her body always seemed to be in overdrive. She wasn't even sure what it all meant, but she felt her pulse racing all the time.
His shirt rode up, exposing a bridge of the creamy pale skin underneath. She knew from experience that his stomach was covered in taut lean muscles. She took a deep breath.
It's like she was becoming some kind of deviant. He was an asshole. He was horrible to her. He made her feel like garbage, and all she could think about was what kind of sounds he would make if she were to climb on top of him and undo his belt buckle.
She tore her eyes away from him.
She had yet to have any other crying blood episodes. Harry had the Marauders behaving around her. She didn't know exactly how he had convinced them, but she was sure that he had said that she had some kind of hormonal disorder from being a woman. It was degrading the way that men always associated a sign of weakness with her gender. It was the way of the world, sure, but she didn't have to like it or agree with it.
Severus shifted slightly on the couch, lifting his hips to scoot to a more comfortable position.
Damnit.
She closed her book loudly and left the room. She had decided that he was a tease. There was no doubt about it. Of course, they weren't even on speaking terms at this point. So, she figured it could be completely possible that he had no idea of the effect that his proximity had on her.
She walked into her empty room. The other beds had the curtains drawn from their lack of use. The whole room seemed to be shrouded in shadows no matter how many lights she turned on. She pulled her uniform off.
There it was again.
She unlatched her bra and felt it. The sensation of being watched. She looked around the room warily. She was sure that she was alone… but… she was also sure that she wasn't. It was a strange feeling. She quickly pulled on her nightshorts and a large tshirt, and climbed under the blankets. She begged the phantom feeling to let her rest. She had been so tired lately.
Whispers.
You.
You are walking around as if you never left this world at all.
There are prices for magic, dearie. There are consequences.
Followed by shouting that must have been right beside her ear. The blanket was torn off of her body. LISTEN TO ME!
Hermione flipped the light on quickly. Her blanket was across the room. But other than that, everything else was completely normal.
She breathed heavily. Someone had been there. She knew that someone had breathed over her body. She stood with her wand pointed at the seemingly innocent other beds.
Boo. A whisper from her left had her whipping around in fright.
Nothing. Her hair lifted unnaturally off her head. It felt like someone was running their fingers through it.
A hand reached out from beneath her bed and grabbed at her ankle.
She kicked her way out of its grip and bolted from the room as fast as she could.
She sat in front of the dying embers in the common room praying for morning.
Severus descended the stairs from the boy's dormitory quickly. Any morning where he was up and ready before his housemates had even rolled over was a good one for him.
They were all idiots, and although they were easier to be around than other students in this school, they still wore on his nerves.
His glanced up the staircase. He knew that she normally came down moments after he did. They were both early birds. He tried not to think that meant anything.
She hadn't said a word to him. He regretted horribly the way her eyes at widened at his implications that night by the fire.
But it couldn't be helped. He couldn't get close to another girl and have her smash his heart into a million pieces when she inevitably rejected him. Not after Lily.
He walked over to the bulletin board to check for any memos from the faculty.
That's when he saw her. She was in front of the fire. Her hair was everywhere. She had a throw blanket draped over her middle.
She was snoozing softly. Her bare legs were bent at the knee. Her shorts had ridden up high enough that he could see the inviting curve of her bottom. He knew just how good her butt would feel pressed up against him. He tried to will the excitement that was growing in his belly away. Then he noticed that she wasn't wearing a bra. Her nipples were hard against the cold morning air and visible against her shirt.
This girl. She was just… ugh. "Wake up, Granger." He barked at her, looking away.
She jumped up suddenly, glancing around the room as if she didn't recognize it. "Wha' time is it?" She said tiredly, rubbing her eyes and pushing her hair away from her face.
"Six thirty. Did you forget the way to your dormitory?"
"What?" She looked at him, bleary eyed.
"Why are you asleep in the common room? It's not permitted."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You're insufferable." She stretched.
He glared at her. "Go up to your room. There are children about in this school. You shouldn't be walking around here looking so indecent." He scolded her.
She glanced down at her clothes. "This isn't indecent, you prude."
"Go."
She sighed, grabbed her wand off of the coffee table and hesitantly walked to the staircases. She stopped with her hand on the rail, not daring to ascend onto the first step.
"Is there something wrong?" He asked her boredly.
"I think that my room is haunted." She glanced over her shoulder at him.
He smiled. "You're new here, but ghosts are common at Hogwarts." He teased her.
"This is a different kind of ghost."
"Silly girl. Scared of a ghost."
"I think that it wants to hurt me." She told him warily.
"You are obviously batshit crazy." He said smirking.
"Shut up!" She growled at him.
"Class starts soon. Are you going to wear that?" He gestured to her bare legs.
She looked uneasily up the staircase. "Come with me."
His eyes bugged out of his head. "No." His voice cracked.
"Please?" She begged. "You're a prefect. You have duties to ensure the safety of your fellow student."
He sighed. "Fine. I'll tell your ghost to go away and then we can go back to ignoring each other." He stomped past her up the stairs. She followed him slowly, as if she were about to face the firing squad.
When he opened her door, he was shocked at the horrible mess. "How the hell can one girl destroy a room like this?"
"What are you talking about?" She glanced around his narrow shoulders. Her room was not the way she had left it. It looked like it had been ransacked. Her dresser was lying on its side. Her clothes were strewn all over the place. Her bed was sitting near the window, stripped of all of its linen. "Oh my god." She whispered into the room. "I didn't do this."
"You are obviously messy." Severus said with an air of disapproval.
He stepped towards her bed to check it for damage. All of the Hogwarts beds were supposed to be bolted magically to the floor. How did she even manage to detach it? She quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards the door. "Don't get too close to it!" She held his arm against her chest. He could feel her soft breasts pressing against it through her shirt.
"Why not?" He said, glancing at the delicate curves that were clinging to him.
"Something grabbed me last night. Just stay away from it, okay?" He felt disappointed when she let go of him to run to her dresser. She grabbed a beaded bag from her trunk and began to stuff all of her clothes into it.
"Going somewhere?" He watched her with interest from the doorway.
She yanked a school uniform out.
"Shut the door." She called out over her shoulder.
He started to step into the hallway so that she could get dressed. "No, no, no," She stopped him. She forced him back into the room and shut the door behind him.
"You want me to stay?" His voice cracked in a humiliating way.
"Don't leave me alone in here." She reached around him to engage the lock. And then ran back over to her overturned dresser. He watched her pull a bra out. This was the best day ever.
"Turn around." She glared at him.
He sighed and faced the door. He took a step back and glanced at a mirrored vanity in the corner of his eye. She pulled her shorts down over her curvy hips. He felt himself harden. She just barely turned out of his sight to pull her bra on. He saw the gentle swell of the side of her breast. She stepped into her skirt and pulled the zipper up slowly. Across the room, a book fell off the shelf. They both jumped, she rushed to his side and stood behind him. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"What was that?" He asked as he was pulled into the hallway.
"The ghost." She pulled her shirt on and began to button it in front of him. …what ghost? He couldn't concentrate. She was covering up every delicious inch of skin. He watched her cleavage disappear behind her pressed shirt button by button. She laced her green tie through her collar. He glanced up at her. She was glaring at him.
"What?" He asked. He was surprised at his own voice. It was deeper and raspier than the last time he had used it.
"You're looking at me."
"Don't blame me. You have no sense of modesty." He scolded her.
She put a hand on his shoulder and balanced against him as she pulled her shoes on. "Whatever."
He reached out and absentmindedly ghosted his finger across her slim waist. He watched her shirt yield to his touch.
She stepped away from him, a desirable scarlet heating up her face. "Thanks for coming up here with me."
"For the record, I don't think that your room is haunted," he told her. "The ghosts of Hogwarts don't tend to hide from people."
"Believe what you want." She stepped past him.
After classes she joined Harry and the others on the quidditch field. She had known that their training regimen would start today. She hadn't known that last night would be spent scared out of her mind in the Slytherin common room. She lagged behind the others while they ran laps around the field.
Harry raised his eyebrow at her, but didn't say anything. He had been letting her get by with a lot lately. There was a distance between them ever since they had arrived. She would see Harry, Neville, and Ginny laughing at their lunch table and felt a heavy sense of longing.
It's like she didn't belong anymore.
Her body was sore. Every step back to the common room seemed to take all of her energy to accomplish. She dreaded having to sleep it off on a hard leather couch. The couches in Gryffindor were fluffy, but the interior decorators of Slytherin were obviously going for style rather than comfort. She walked into the common room bathrooms and pulled some supplies out of her bottomless bag. She quickly took a shower and put on her bed clothes. She made sure to pick something more decent looking so that Severus couldn't hound her about corrupting the youth.
She took a seat next to the fire and laid her head on the arm of the couch, waiting for her hair to dry. Students milled about around her. She just watched the flames, blocking them out.
The cushion beside her sank. "You can't sleep down here."
She glanced at him. Severus had a book open and wasn't even looking at her. Did he just speak? Had she imagined it? She was too tired to know the difference. She answered anyways. "I'm not going back up there."
"There's nothing there. You're scared of your own imagination."
"I don't care. It's safer down here."
He scoffed. "You're honestly lucky that I was the one that found you down here this morning." He said cryptically, turning the page.
She tilted her head. "Why?"
He met her eyes and lowered his voice. "Because you looked… inviting."
She gaped at him. "You're a creep."
"I only looked. There's no telling what some of our housemates would have done." His turned back to his book.
She tried to think clearly about what he was saying. "Well, if they touched me, they wouldn't be allowed to keep their limbs."
"You don't know how dangerous some of these guys are. If I were you, I'd take my chances with the ghost."
She rubbed her tired eyes and laid her head against his shoulder. "I'm so tired. I just want to go to bed." She whined.
Severus tensed up at the uncharacteristic contact that she was displaying in her weak moment. "Then go to bed." He told her.
"I can't. It'll get me." Her eyes drooped. He was warm. She scooted closer to him, soaking it up.
"You know, spirits are mobile. Even if one was after you, it could just as easily get you in the common room." Her breath tickled his neck.
Her eyes snapped open. "Why would you say something like that?"
"It's true." He deadpanned.
"Oh my god." She ran her hands down her face. "I can't ever go to sleep again."
"I'm positive that you're just hallucinating anyways. You're probably safe." He tried to back peddle. Maybe she would feel more comfortable and put her head back on his shoulder if he made her feel better. "You could tell the professors."
"Everyone would think I'm crazy." She said, shaking her head quickly.
"Well, you can't sleep down here. I'm serious. You'll wake up to someone touching you. Not everyone has my kind of control."
She sat her head against the cushion. "Why if I really did imagine it?" She could barely remember the night before. She was so tired, maybe she had made it all up.
"Then you're putting yourself in danger for nothing." He shrugged.
"Sleep with me." She said suddenly.
He coughed loudly. "What?" He asked in a panic.
She laughed at him softly behind her hand. "I mean, will you sleep in my room tonight?"
"That's… completely against school rules." He knew he deserved a punch in the gut for turning her offer down. He hated his response the moment that it spilled from his lips.
"I just need to prove to myself that I'm imagining it all. And I need someone else there to tell me if what I'm seeing is real."
"Ask one of the girls. Or just anyone else. I'm not interested."
"Please, Severus." She grabbed his hand and held it in both of hers on top of her thigh. "I don't trust anyone else, please."
He gulped, looking at where she had moved his hand. She didn't even seem to notice that her little gesture was anything less than completely innocent. "Why do you even trust me?" He looked at her skeptically.
She looked uncomfortable. "I just do." She said simply.
"You shouldn't." He warned her.
"Please?" She whispered.
He sighed loudly. "Fine. I'll go get something to sleep in. You go upstairs and try to sort through that mess that you like to call livable."
She declined immediately. "I'll wait for you down here. I'm not going up there alone."
"Just as well. We have to wait for everyone to clear out of the common room anyways. If anyone sees me going up the stairs, the rumor mill will undoubtedly catch wind of it."
He stood up quickly and walked up to his dormitory to change clothes. He tried to keep the bounce out of his step. He quickly tore his uniform off, and cast a nervous glance at his bedside drawer. He kept muggle condoms in it. He wondered if he should bring one.
Would she want to?
He eventually talked himself out of it. Nothing was going to happen. He pulled his pajamas and a soft t-shirt on.
He met her back down in the common room. It wasn't long before she dozed off against his shoulder again. He took the opportunity to trail his fingers through her hair. It was silky against his skin.
When the last student had drug themselves up the staircase, Severus woke her up. She let him lead her to bed, barely able to ascend the stairs in her exhaustion.
The house elves must have fixed everything. Other than the book that had fallen off the shelf earlier in the morning, her room looked completely untouched. Severus led her to her bed. She suddenly snapped into full awareness. "No no. Not there."
"Isn't this your bed?" He asked her raising an eyebrow.
"A hand grabbed me from under it." She reminded him. "I'm not.. No." She said firmly.
"You should pick out another one then." He gestured to the rest of the room.
She crossed the room and hurriedly chose a bed that looked innocent enough. She glanced nervously around the room and climbed under the covers. He paused.
Should he get under the covers with her? Wasn't that the reason that she wanted him here? For comfort?
He mulled it around in his head. He finally pulled back the curtains of the bed next to hers. She clutched her hands to her chest and stared at the ceiling. "Please let it not be real, please let it not be real," She whispered into the silent room.
"It'll be okay." He said to her. "You'll be okay."
She nodded at him and closed her eyes.
He drifted off soon after.
The blanket was being lifted off of him. He snapped his eyes opened.
Hermione climbed under the blanket with him hurriedly, pressing her body against his.
"Wow." He whispered.
She shushed him. "Listen." She seemed to hold her breath. He did the same.
He could only hear his own heartbeat. She had her hands resting against his chest. They both looked around the dark room, trying to discern any kind of sound that was out of the ordinary.
You..
His eyes widened. She covered her mouth and pressed more firmly against him. Instinctively, he placed an arm around her.
Did you trick me? It whispered harshly.
"We should go." She breathed into the chilly, unmoving air.
You're not going anywhere.
The bed jerked. It hopped across the floor, screeching as it dug into the wooden floor boards. Severus had never been so scared in his life. She held onto him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her and prepared himself for death.
The bed rumbled. The curtains on the empty beds moved from a breeze that wasn't there.
Hermione yanked the blanket over their heads.
And everything stopped.
He met her eyes in the almost pitch black space that they were in. She looked as surprised as he felt. He had pulled her against him. He was suddenly aware that he had her thigh pulled up against his waist. He must have done it when the room was shaking.
Her eyes searched his. She leaned forward and kissed him gently. Her lips were so soft. It was much different than the first time they had kissed. She probed his mouth delicately with her tongue. He responded whole heartedly. He had heard before that some girls were turned on by getting scared, but this was ridiculous. She crawled on top of him.
He put his hands on her hips and pulled her hot center roughly against the front of his pajamas. He leaned up off of the bed the kiss her feverish lips. Her whole body was so warm against his. He unbuttoned her pajama top and kissed across the swell of her bare breasts.
She hastily tried to undo the rest of her buttons, while rocking her hips steadily atop his. "You feel so fucking good." She pushed down hard against him. A groan poured out of him. He kissed up her throat.
"I want you." He whispered against her skin. He pressed her against his throbbing erection. "Can't you feel how much I want you?"
She whimpered and captured his mouth again. She nipped at him with her teeth and shrugged her pajama top off. He immediately placed his hand over her breast and palmed it gently. She continued to gyrate on top of him. "Fuck me, Severus." She pleaded with him. "I need you, please."
He nodded quickly. He flipped them over and dragged his clothed cock against her warm, inviting heat. He kissed her lips slowly, trying to savor every moment. Her hands trailed between them and began to untie the drawstring on his pajamas.
This was it. He was going to have sex. He was going to lose his virginity to this girl that had plagued his every thought since she had crashed into his life.
Her hands reached under his waistband. She curled her fingers around him and placed hot open kisses against his mouth. He felt like they were sharing air. He moaned into her when she tugged on him gently. Her tongue darted into his mouth in a wicked come hither motion. She smiled while she kissed him.
He felt so disappointed when she pulled her hand out of his bottoms. It was probably for the best though. Her touches had already brought him very close to the edge. He wasn't sure how much he could take before he met his end.
She grabbed his hand and placed it under her waistband, but above her panties. She was soaked. She kept her hand above his. She guided him, and manipulated him into touching her. She placed her finger above his, swirling him around her clitoris. She breathed airily into his ear. He repeated the motion while she kissed up his neck. He walked his fingers up to the waistband of her panties and found the courage to dive beneath them.
She quickly returned her hand to his, taking him lower this time. She pressed two of his fingers into her and her hips came up off the bed. He curled his fingers inside of her and rocked his thumb across her in the way that she had showed him. She rocked her hips against his hand. "Please." She whispered into the air. "Oh…. Yesyesyes… please. Oh my – oH that feels so good." She encouraged him. "Don't stop." She commanded against his neck.
He wouldn't dare. He added another finger into her and pushed a little deeper into her. She clutched his torso. She pulled at him mindlessly as her body grew tenser and tenser. She was completely uninhibited. She was rocking her body forcefully against his hand, whispering nonsense. "Severus.. oh fuck. Please. Oh my god. I—Oh… That's just.. I need—" She cried out, her hands coming to either side of his face. He felt his fingers getting slick and her body clenching tightly—unbearably- around his digits. She kissed him as she came. He continued to touch her while she moaned into his mouth.
He was painfully hard against his pajamas. He wanted so badly to pull her clothes off and bury himself inside of her. If her cunt felt this good on his fingers, he couldn't even imagine what it would be like to fuck her.
She opened her eyes. He still had his fingers inside of her cunt, lazily swirling them in her heat. "Severus.." She whispered. He met her gaze.
And realized his horrible mistake. Her eyes were black.
He froze and pulled away from her. Oh my god. How long had her eyes been black? He rolled away from her and stared up at the ceiling.
She didn't seem to notice his discomfort. "I want you inside of me right now." She started to climb back on top of him.
"Hermione. No." He told her. It was hard to turn her down. He wanted her so much. "I can't have sex with you... tonight." He added it as an afterthought.
Her eyebrows clenched together. Her dark eyes looked inhuman against her delicate features. "Why? I want to." She insisted, sitting up in the bed.
"I think that the ... ghost… is in you." He told her.
Her eyes widened. She turned a lamp on and jumped out of bed and dashed to a nearby vanity. "Oh my god."
"I'm so sorry." He sat up in the bed and let his feet touch the floor. "I didn't notice until just now. I promise that I didn't know."
She covered her face, hiding the evidence from him. He readjusted his bottoms uncomfortably. "You believe me, right?" He whispered to her.
She met his gaze. Her large pupils seemed to be retreating back to their regular size. She started to look normal. But she continued to look scared. "I believe you." She looked back in the mirror and sighed in relief. She walked back to the bed and pulled her top back on. "I'm so sorry." She told him.
He shook his head quickly. "It's fine."
He saw her eyes sweep over the front of his pants. "What about-?" She trailed off.
He shook his head. "I'll be fine."
"I could touch you." She suggested.
He considered it. He was sure that it wouldn't take much stimulation from her for him to come. "I don't know if it's you speaking or not." He probably shouldn't chance it. He would hate it if she hated him in the morning.
"It's me. This is me." She ran her hand up his thigh. "I want to."
He bit his lip. She did look normal again. He leaned forward and kissed her. She reached inside of his pajamas and wrapped her hand around him. His penis was practically statuesque against his stomach. He would have loved to last a little while the first time that he came in front of her. But it admittedly didn't take much. Her warm hand around him, the thoughts of her whimpers in his ears from earlier, and the sweet heat that he had pumped his fingers in and out of was enough to have him tumbling over the edge quickly. He groaned into her mouth when he came. Hot semen spurted against his bare stomach rhythmically with his heartbeat. Her hand was dripping with it. He opened his eyes and was happy to see that she was still herself. She was looking down at her hand, inspecting the fluid that coated it curiously. He let his head drop to her shoulder and took a couple of deep breaths.
Words: 4753
Notes: Just a warning: I am submitting this at 1 AM after writing it for 5 hours. I'm not positive if it's readable or anything like that. Normally I am in bed much sooner, but I drank a latte at like 7PM tonight, so I am abnormally awake. I will read over it in the next day or two and try to correct any errors that I can find. Now-Wow. I just—I like this chapter so much more than the previous one. The ghost parts scared me a little when I was writing them. But the end was... worth it. By the way—how great am I for updating twice in one day?
