A/N: thank you for all the wonderful reviews that I have received for the past few days. They are greatly appreciated. Here is the next chapter.
Warning: Some content may not be suitable for some viewers. It is rated M for a reason!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter (no matter how much I may wish I do.)
Chapter 9: Rules of the Game
Hermione screamed until Pierre's hand covered her mouth, his other hand holding her in one spot as she struggled. Finally, Pierre dragged her to her room and pinned her to the bed.
***HGSS***
Snape followed Hermione after a few minutes of brooding over what she had said. Of course he wanted to know who Pierre was! He also wanted to know why she couldn't seem to understand that his demeanor toward her had nothing to do with her as a whole. It was solely who he was.
So, heading to her rooms, he found himself with Dumbledore and McGonagall, both headed towards him, stating that Pierre had escaped the room they had placed him in. They all ran to Hermione's room when Snape told them she had left minutes before.
Running into Hermione's room, they discovered Pierre pinning Hermione to her bed. Snape grabbed him by his shoulders and pinned his arms to his sides as he struggled. Hermione sat up in her bed and stared, wide eyed around the room. McGonagall went to her side and tried to comfort her like she had tried in Dumbledore's office, but Hermione screamed at her not to touch her.
Going into hysterics once again, Hermione curled up in a ball on her bed and began to cry in earnest. Snape was the only one remaining when she began to calm down. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking away from her, apparently listening to her sobs with a guilty look on his face.
"So who is he," he asked her calmly.
"I thought you didn't want to know," she said as she flung herself back into her pillows.
Snape turned to look at her and put his hands of either side of her body. "I only said that because I didn't want to deal with--"
"Me," Hermione interrupted.
"Let me finish," he said coldly. "I said it so I wouldn't have to deal with facing the fact that when I saw him try to hit you, I snapped. I wanted to kill him. And that is something I haven't felt since my mother's funeral when I wanted to kill her husband five years ago. Before that, I had never wanted to kill anyone. Not when I was a Death Eater, not even when I was a student here when Potter and Black were tormenting me.
"Then, I saw him in this bed, ready to--. I was so close to killing him that if there hadn't been two other people in this room with us, I would have done it without a second thought." He then leaned down to a shocked Hermione and kissed her lips softly, as if calming himself rather than comforting her.
She softened beneath his gentle strength and opened her lips beneath his probing tongue. He pressed his chest against hers and kissed her harder, his tongue moving sensuously inside her mouth. Suddenly leaving the bed, he discarded his robes and shoes, climbing in bed beside her.
He waited for a shocked or repulsive reaction from her, but none came. Hermione turned toward him and kissed him again. As he felt her wrap her arms around his neck, he slipped his hands to her waist. She moaned as he pulled her closer to him, breast to chest, hip to hip.
He stripped both of them of their clothes and then climbed on top of her. He looked down at her and said, "Stop me at anytime. Okay?"
She shook her head in understanding and pulled him down for another kiss while he breached her maidenhead.
***HGSS***
Hermione woke the next morning to find herself alone in her bedroom. There was a note on the pillow beside her that held the familiar script of Severus Snape. However, when she read it, it held the same cold and formal manner that he used with his other students.
Miss Granger,
There will be a meeting held in the headmaster's office after luch at one o'clock. I expect you will be awake by then. If you are not present at lunch, I will come to your rooms to wake you.
Professor S. Snape
Hermione looked at her clock to discover it was past lunch. Normally, she never slept so late, even thought it was a Saturday, but periodically through the night, Snape had reached for her again and again. Wrapping her sheet around her body, Hermione headed for her wardrobe and took out her school uniform, instead of her usual Saturday attire of jeans and a long sleeved shirt for winter.
As she got into her skirt, she zipped it and went for her button-up shirt when someone slipped their arm around her mouth and stomach. Hermione's eyes widened in fear until Snape's face showed up on her left side, smirking. He took his hand from her mouth and she sighed in relief.
"You scared me," she told him as she turned into his arms. She shivered as he kissed her neck.
"Finish getting dressed,: he told her, but didn't move away from her nor drop his hands from her waist.
They stood there together until Snape tipped her head back and kissed her. Then he pushed her away and spoke in his usual cold manner. "Get dressed. They're waiting for us."
Hermione's heart was heavy as she finished dressing. She thought that after the night they had spent together, he would change his demeanor towards her; at least while they were alone. But the only time he showed her anything other than his cold, formal self, was when he was holding her, or kissing her.
***HGSS***
The pair set out from Hermione's rooms towards the headmaster's office together. They entered his office after twenty minutes of complete silence apart from their footfalls on the stone halls.
The school governors sat at the long table they had sat at during the last meeting.
"Oh for the love of Merlin," Hermione said. "Not again. This is getting rather tedious." She slumped in the chair in front of the table and listened to the portly old man who spoke first. His hair was thinning and his face was sunken in.
"We're here to inform you that the rules have been changed."
Lucius Malfoy sat beside him with a smug look on his face.
The portly man continued with mo regard to the man next to him. "The other students and staff will be informed of the new rules at breakfast tomorrow by the headmaster. However, taking into consideration that you were under investigation and that you, Miss Granger, informed us of this rule, we feel informing you is more important than informing the others. We understand that Professor Snape cancelled your session last evening due to Pierreā¦" He waited for the last name to be filled in. When it became apparent that no one wished to reveal it, he cleared his throat and continued.
"There has been a change in the rules regarding the teacher - student relationship."
Hermione was handed a new rulebook and was told to turn to page six-hundred; the last page in the book. It was blank but for one rule. Reading it aloud, she informed the entire room of the new rule.
Any student discovered to be having a relationship with a professor that is deemed inappropriate by the school governors with be expelled without question or comment. The Professor that is having said relationship with the student will be paid his earnings and dismissed immediately.
