Chapter 10
Hermione made her way slowly back up to Gryffindor common room. Her eyes averted down, she began to think of how wrong all of her life was going here. Hot, wet tears began to prickle the back of Hermione's eyes. It was all she could do to blink them back and try to keep her emotions hidden.
What good is it for me to be here anyway? She thought. As the thought crossed her mind, she numbly tripped over one of the top steps and lost her footing.
Suddenly she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist for the second time in an hour. Hermione lost her balance and threw her arms back, trying to keep her footing. Her body was pulled flush against another and she felt more balanced at once. The strong hands that held her captive turned her body do that she could look up into his eyes.
"Severus," she whispered.
He lowered his mouth to her cheeks, kissing away her tears. "Why so upset 'Mione?" he asked, tongue slowly running across the seam of her lips.
Her breath hitched in her throat. When she failed to answer, Severus broke the silence.
"I heard you." He whispered against her ear, his breath hot and moist.
"Heard what?" She sighed as his tongue swept into her mouth.
"Heard you moan my name." He replied before he swept her up into his arms and began to carry her back down the stairs.
"Severus, what are you doing?" She asked, feeling very childish to have her tears kissed away and getting carried down the stairs. She also was beginning to feel self conscious of the edge of her skirt, which was dangerously close to his slender fingers.
"I'm taking you to my common room." He replied, kissing the top of her head lightly. Does he even know what he's doing to me? Hermione thought. It was as if he didn't know that the brush of his fingers along her thigh was sending shiver's down her spine.
Hermione wriggled in his arms. "Severus, please put me down. I feel like a first year!" She said moving more to get out of his grasp.
The things that he was saying coupled with his actions were causing her to become more than a little bit nervous.
What did he mean by, "I'm taking you to my common room."
Everyone knows what happens when a boy says that! Hermione was beginning to scare herself. The way his fingers kept pushing against her…she might be willing to do anything for him-- and quite frankly, that scared her.
He ignored her pleas to be let down until they came to the entrance of the Slytherin dormitory. He whispered the password to be let in, grabbed Hermione by her waist and pushed her through the portrait hole.