Disclaimer:- I neither own nor earn anything from this story. Harry Potter and his world are the intellectual property of JK Rowling and associates.
sSs
A/N:- Hello dear readers, thank you all once more for your reviews and alerts. Today's author's note comes with a couple of explanations. Firstly, I must apologise for not adding at the beginnings of this work (as I usually do) that my characters would be considered to be OOC. I did add the other warnings I have learnt I need to add to avoid receiving reviews telling me various things that are in no way constructive to my writing process, (well usually anyway) but I neglected to add this one this time.
Those familiar with my writing know that I write the characters, not how we see them in canon, but as I imagine they could be in other situations. Yes this story contains OOC behaviour (or as I prefer to think of it, as outside their canon role behaviour), and Ron's speech patterns are a part of that. He does tend to clip the ends off words and contract words (even in canon), and I've exaggerated this in this story deliberately.
Another question concerned drinking before church. I believe that a glass of wine with dinner does not constitute 'drinking', and especially the measured intake of someone who is very conscious of what she drinks, as Hermione is in this story.
Now, having said all that; please enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter Seven – Bonding
It was Christmas day when Hermione and Severus stepped back out into the clear, still night. The snow had stopped falling and the air was frigid, but the choir had been just as beautiful as she remembered, and they were both feeling very uplifted.
"I want to visit their graves," she said, suddenly.
"Are you sure?" Severus questioned, even as he saw the determination shining in her eyes.
"I've not been there yet."
"Never?"
She bit her lip and mumbled, "Harry offered to take me once I had found out what happened, but…"
"I see," Severus replied, his mind moving to all the possibilities.
Her eyes bright as she gazed up at him. "But tonight… well you're with me," and pausing her lip went between her teeth again, and then she said quietly, "You've always made me feel safe, Severus. Even more now, and I think I could handle it," she glanced at her feet and back up. "If you were with me, I mean."
Despite the fact that his head was reeling from Hermione's further admissions of profound trust, he managed to say, "Then how could I say no. Do you know where to apparate to?" She nodded, "Well, come then." He squeezed her hand in reassurance, and said, "You take us there."
xox
They landed in snowy parkland on a path lined either side with headstones, and Hermione moved closer, winding her arms around his arm as she started to walk, leading him slightly.
"How do you know where to go?" he asked, watching around them carefully after they had traversed several lanes all the same.
"My parents had already purchased plots adjacent to my paternal grandparent's graves, so I'm expecting that when their wills were read…" she explained, but stopped speaking when he nodded and she cleared her throat.
Severus was fairly certain that this was going to be far more traumatic for Hermione than she thought it was, especially if she couldn't finish that last sentence. She abruptly stopped and turned, pulling him to a stop as well. There in front of them were her parent's graves, and he watched as tears starting trickling over her cheeks. She would probably never recover from the guilt that she felt at having inadvertently sent them to their deaths while she was trying to save them, even if it hadn't been her fault.
He was certain however, that she had saved them from what would have been an awful death at the hands of lunatics like Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Lestrange, but she hadn't changed the timeline, they had still died. He watched as she conjured two large bunches of roses, and stooped to place them on the graves.
She was just straightening again when Severus heard the tiny meow for the first time. However, at that moment he ignored it, thinking he was hearing things and more concerned for Hermione. He found himself waiting to comfort her, and surprised himself at how easy it was getting as he pulled her to him, it seemed practice did indeed make perfect. Even if he did wish that she had not had to suffer any of the recent trials she had. Remaining silent, Severus allowed her to draw comfort from him as she cried, and even under the awful circumstances his heart soared at being able to do this.
Severus was still astounded at her admissions of trust in him, but he very much liked the idea of her feeling safe with him. He; supposed cold-hearted ex Death Eater was offering comfort and by extension, love, and something inside him broke, it was like a band that had barred his heart, and it snapped. This was the witch who now held his heart in her hand, whom he now realised would one day perhaps give him even greater gifts. He was comforting her and it felt wonderful to be doing so. It was as her sobs had lessened while he was pondering this that he heard it once more, another tiny and plaintive meow.
This time Hermione heard it as well, and wiping her eyes she started looking around from within the circle of his arms. "Did you hear that?" her cry-broken voice asked.
"Yes, I think it's coming from behind the headstone." Taking her hand, Severus leaned forward with his wand lit, because the moonlight didn't extend that far into the shadows. He let go of Hermione's hand and stooped to pick something up. "Shhh, little one," he crooned, "How did you get here?"
Hermione watched in wonder as the normally acerbic man straightened again, cradling a small black and white kitten in his hand.
He glanced at Hermione, suddenly excited at their find, but he exercised caution and cast all the detecting spells he could think of over the small bundle, only handing it to her once he was satisfied that it was indeed only what it appeared to be. "You said you wished to find a new familiar, what better one than one that's come to you at this moment, and is currently relieving your distress," and his stomach lurched when she beamed at him.
While Hermione cradled her new friend in her hands she watched Severus have a more extensive look to make certain there were no more, but it seemed to be the only one, and he came back to Hermione when he heard her speaking to him.
"Oh, the poor little thing's so cold, Severus, it's shivering. We better go home," she told him.
Severus smiled; something good had come of visiting here, and he watched Hermione recovering from her sorrow and wrapping the small animal into her woollen scarf for warmth, before her eyes came back to his in expectation.
Pulling her close, he concentrated and they landed in her sitting room in front of the fire. Hermione snuggled further into his arms with the kitten still safe and warm in her scarf between them; she had no immediate plans to leave his comfort.
However, finally when Severus tried to take a step back he found he couldn't. This initially startled them both, and Severus' wand was quickly in his hand. It wasn't until he glanced above them that he started to settle a little. "Bloody castle," he groused, pointing above them.
Hermione followed his gaze, "What?" she asked, but then spied the Mistletoe he was pointing at, suspended in midair, and she giggled. "Oh," she said quietly, and looking back to him she smiled, "then I guess you'll have to kiss me, won't you?"
His eyes came back to hers and he saw her hopeful expression. He had been longing to give her a proper kiss, and his head started to lower as he felt her rise up onto her tip-toes to meet him. Their small kisses had been leading up to this, and their lips caressed one another's in earnest now.
Severus adjusted Hermione in his arms and heard her whimper softly in the back of her throat. This spurred him on and he wrapped one arm around her waist while his other hand slid up into her hair to hold her head where he wanted it. After a moment he traced the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue as he nibbled on her bottom lip.
Hermione made another soft mewling noise and opened her mouth to allow him entry. She had never experienced a kiss like this, she had always disliked kissing Ron, it was too wet and mostly disgusting, but this was completely different.
Breathing in a long breath through his nose, she heard Severus swallow before he deepened their kiss, and Hermione shivered at the sound he made and enthusiastically responded. The mistletoe and the kitten were forgotten and they lost themselves in each other.
However, said small bundle of fur was not happy at being ignored and playfully flexed its needle sharp claws into the hand holding him, making Hermione jump and yelp.
Severus pulled back wondering what had happened until he saw the kitten playing in the scarf. "Spoilsport," he told the kitten, as he unwrapped it and lifted it aloft; holding it up in front of his face. Of course to a playful kitten these words were lost completely and it started to bat at a strand of Severus' hair with a tiny white paw.
Hermione laughed, rubbing her hand to relieve the sting, and said, "We're sorry little one, we got a bit carried away."
"Speak for yourself, I was enjoying that," Severus said, ignoring the struggling feline.
She glanced at Severus coyly, "I enjoyed that very much as well."
The side of Severus' mouth tilted up into a smile, but then he focused quickly back onto the kitten when it grabbed his finger and started pulling it to his mouth. "Oh no you don't, spoilsport, I am not your dinner."
"Oh, he's probably hungry," Hermione laughed. "Is he a he?" She took the kitten and rolled it onto its back in her hand to have a look. "Oh yes, you certainly are, aren't you, little man? What will we call you?" she asked, tickling his tummy as he turned his attention to her fingers again.
"I think spoilsport sums it up nicely," Severus grumbled, watching Hermione excitedly setting up an area for the kitten near the fire where it would be warm.
"Oh hush you," she giggled. "Once I have him settled, we can..." but she paused and blushed, "Well, do whatever we want really," she finally settled on. Her mind was still reeling at the sensations that his kiss had released in her. She needed more of this, this was lovely.
"Indeed," the raven-haired wizard considered, raising an eyebrow at her suggestion. She is very flustered for a supposedly experienced witch. I wonder just how much experience she has had? Severus pondered, watching his new love shakily calling an elf.
"I won't be a minute," Hermione told him over her shoulder, and went back to instructing the very earnest looking elf in how to care for her new familiar. I still miss Crookshanks terribly, she thought as she went through the steps the elf needed to remember. But… there's nothing I can do about it, I guess it just goes to prove that I never really owned him. Severus is right, this little creature has been revealed to me when I really needed cheering up, she cast a quick glance at Severus walking to the table and she thought, Just as Severus always seems to come to me when I really need someone.
Severus listened as Hermione lectured the elf about the kitten's needs and he chuckled quietly at the detail she was going into as he retrieved two glasses and a bottle of cider from the table before sitting himself on the lounge to wait for her.
He was completely exhausted and he really should have been going to bed. Looking at the mantel clock told him it was a little before two, it was a little less than twenty four hours since he'd had any sleep, and then only two. That was the last time he'd had a break long enough in the stirring phase of the potion he'd been brewing.
Well, I shouldn't complain, it was for a private patient who paid half my normal yearly teacher's salary for the brew… He poured the cider and accioed the biscuit tin, chuckling as he watched it soaring to him from her 'hiding' place as he poured their cider. Now, if I just close his eyes for a moment, he thought as his eyelids drooped.
He had only just started to doze, when Hermione's voice cut through the mist of sleep. "Severus, you're tired. I think you need to go to bed. We can have cookies and cider in the morning."
Forcing his eyes open again, Severus said, "No, this was part of your Christmas plan, and we will do it," he told her fighting his eyelids to keep them open.
Hermione plopped down beside him. "But didn't I tell you, love?"
"Severus found everything reacting to her new name for him, despite his tiredness, and he found that all he wanted to do was drift back into sleep and remember the first moment she had assigned him as her love. He kept trying not to smile like a loon as she continued.
"It's not when you have the cookies and cider, it's that you share them with the people… or person," and she gave him a significant look, "that you most care for."
"Oh," he gasped, and finally gave in and smiled tiredly at her. Reaching forward he picked up the glasses. "Well, to us then," he said handing her a glass and saluting her with his.
Hermione did the same and they clinked glasses before taking a drink. It was after she'd put the glass back down that she saw the cookie tin. "Severus!" she said, feigning displeasure.
He chuckled, "They just came to me," he stated with a straight face and opened the tin. "Here, have one."
Hermione laughed and took a cookie.
They had their supper and Hermione snuggled into his side as they sat by the fire, but soon she was dozing as well. "It must be very late," she said sleepily. She wanted to ask him to stay, but that wouldn't be fair, he was exhausted and there would be expectations if he stayed.
Seeming to sense her quandary, Severus said, "Yes, I think I better go, you're right, I do need sleep."
"Could we have breakfast together, perhaps?" she asked softly after she'd examined his face for signs that she had overstepped the mark.
"Yes, we'll have breakfast and then brew that salve?" he smiled. "I'll come back in the morning... well at least later this morning."
"Good plan," she replied, seeing him slowly getting up off the lounge. She didn't really want him to go, but she reminded herself that they had only just taken their first step towards being a couple, but she couldn't help pulling him into another hug. "Good night, love," she told him, and offered him a kiss.
Severus saw that she was disappointed when he only gave her a peck on the lips this time, and he lifted her chin so he could see her face. "I have had a wonderful time tonight, but I do not want to start something that is going to run out of control, too soon, I am hoping we can pace ourselves, this is becoming very important to me."
Hermione nodded, "Me too," she agreed, smiling. "So I can't dispute your logic, and you do need rest at the moment, not more… exercise," she told him uncertainly.
Severus was concerned by the way she spoke of sex. Exercise? his brain puzzled, but now was not the time for talking of that, for one thing he was far too tired. "Good night, my little- know-it-all."
"Good night, Severus," and she stood back to watch him go to the floo. Hermione checked on her as yet, unnamed new companion and when she found him happily curled into a tiny ball, sleeping, with an obviously full stomach she went to bed herself. It had been a wonderful evening, and it wasn't long and she was asleep and reliving it all in her mind.
xox
As he walked to his own bedroom, Severus was thinking similar thoughts, he couldn't have hoped for a better start to their relationship. He was finding that coming out of himself with Hermione was easy, far easier than it had been with Lily. Lily was his only other steady girlfriend, so he had no choice than to compare the two. However, Lily had been very vain and it tended to make you guarded about what you said. So, he had never been able to completely drop his guard with her, but Hermione, now there was someone that he could see himself never tiring of having for company.
The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him that she had referred to the most intimate activity between two people as 'exercise'. Mind you, if Ronald bloody Weasley lived up to Severus' expectations of him—which were not high—it is entirely possible that she thought making love was a hard fought wrestling match, and this angered him. For one reason, because his witch—and yes, he believed he was justified in thinking of her as such—had been sullied by that oaf, and two that her first experiences of physical love had obviously not been pleasant ones.
Reclining back with his hands laced behind his head, Severus tried to get his brain to calm down enough for sleep to take him. He wondered how long it would be before he could claim her as his. It had been a very long time since he had courted a witch, and he's only other attempted had failed dismally, although, he had watched others over the years, and learnt the dos and don'ts from observation.
He also realised that Miss Weasley and Mr. Potter would come with Hermione as a package deal, they were her best friends. So he knew he would have to get over his prejudice where Potter was concerned. He had no bone to pick with Ginevra Weasley, but he still had to remind himself that Harry Potter's only crime was the fact that he looked like one of the bastards who had made Severus' school days a living hell, and the woman that he had stolen away from him.
Of course if he was totally honest with himself, he knew that Lily Evans had never really been his, they had lost their virginity to one another, but a bit like Hermione and the ginger idiot, he had not been well suited to Lily. It had taken a long time—years in fact—to realise that, but by the time of Dumbledore's death, Severus had only just been able to confirm that he still cared for her. Now, that his promise to her was complete of course, she had faded back into the ether.
It would be awkward with Potter and Miss Weasley still being students, impossible almost, but Potter's appearance was not his fault, although Severus was aware that he had victimised him for it.
Well, tomorrow will be my first opportunity to start the process of getting to know them. Something I will only be able to do outside school until I am not their teacher anymore. I will escort Hermione to Hogsmeade for the morning, and take her to her lunch after we're visited the bookshop and where ever else she wanted to do.
Perhaps I will even take the opportunity to appraise Potter, and see if he does have the intelligence for a Defence teacher, then I can talk to Minerva about it.
That will put us both on the same level, training a replacement, running a school and teaching. Mind you, Potter's apprenticeship will have to be next year, and that means I will have to find a Potions… unless I can train him this year somehow. Could they do the same as Hermione? Poppy's been talking about retiring since the war, and I believe Hermione… but would that tie it up too neatly?
However, that was the last thought that went through his mind as his eyes finally closed and his mind thought no more.
xox
The next morning, Hermione awoke to the sound of purring. "How did you get here?" she asked, blinking at the little ball of fur snuggled up beside her. The kitten stretched and yawned, flexing its claws into Hermione's arm. "Feeling at home, are we?" She snickered, "Houdini, that will be your name, mister," she told him, and watched him now playfully batting at a strand of her hair. "Ouch, come on, off. I need the loo and then coffee." The kitten followed her, batting at the loose tie on her dressing gown as she shrugged into it.
Glancing at the time as she walked to the bathroom, Hermione decided to shower and dress before her coffee, because she didn't know what time Severus would return. It was just after nine in the morning, and she didn't want him to see her first thing in the morning face, well not just yet, anyway.
She was just drying her hair when she heard the floo whoosh, and she laughed as Houdini's hackles went up and he took a defensive stance in response to the sound. "Come on, you, let's go and say good morning to Severus."
She walked out of the bedroom door and the kitten bounded through, dancing around her feet. Then he saw Severus and in three strides he was sitting on his shoulder under his still damp black hair. "Oh my goodness," Hermione gasped, "He's going to need to stop doing that," but she giggled when the kitten rubbed his little head on Severus' cheek. "Awww, he likes you," she gushed.
Unamused, the Potions master reached up and picked the little black and white fur ball off his shoulder by the scruff of his neck. "Now you listen to me, spoilsport. I am not a climbing pole."
The kitten totally unaffected by Severus' patented scowl ignored him and started batting at his pointing finger with his front paws. Hermione chuckled, and walked over to greet Severus. "Happy Christmas, Severus. Did you sleep well?"
He nodded. "Yes I did, and Happy Christmas to you too." He leant forward as she came to a stop in front of him and kissed her. They were both wide awake this morning and their kiss quickly turned heated. Without looking, Severus placed the kitten on the back of the lounge beside him, and pulled Hermione up against him.
She slid her arms up around this neck and pressed into him in return. It was just as delicious as the kiss last night had been, and his freshly showered body smelt amazing as well. Her hands started wandering without her conscious thought, she usually had to think about doing it, and she felt Severus take that as permission to do the same. She was completely lost in the sensation of his tongue stroking and curling around hers, exploring her mouth while she moaned into his in return, and their hands discovering planes and angles of each other's sides and back. They kept it above the waist, and it wasn't until Hermione's stomach rumbled loudly that they broke their kiss.
Sliding his hands up to her arms and pushing her back a little he examined her well kissed lips and smiled. "Ah, breakfast calls," he said, raising an eyebrow.
"Mmm, sorry," she snickered, rubbing her tummy and feeling very guilty that it had interrupted their pleasure, as well as swearing that she was going to have more of that today.
"Coffee for two, and breakfast, please," Severus called, a coffee pot and an array of breakfast things appeared on the small dining table and they sat down to start their day.
