I'm thrilled to see that you like this story so far, folks! About the chapters' titles, I guess that I'm going to work on them soon, but I want to find some good titles first. :)

Thank you for you amazing reviews: Bluefirefly5 (my woooonderful Beta who gave me a bunch of ideas to make this chapter a better one), Petite Mule, Serasvictoria666, JaneDoh0 (by the way, I gave you some answers by PM, don't know if you checked it yet), Lorteck, Spikeecat, MarsUK, Isode, Jaxa, Imwaiting4myAliceandEdward, Sevmooniadayra, and Excessivelyperky (who just began this story. :))!

And here you go, chapter 9. Enjoy.

Becoming One

Chapter 9

When she woke up, Hermione was surprised to see that Severus was still sleeping next to her. Without even thinking about it, she pulled back the sheets onto her naked breasts and returned her attention to the ceiling.

She had made love with Severus Snape, again, and the worst part was that she had enjoyed it. She truly had, and it scared her. How on Earth something like that had happened? When she had been younger, she always had thought that he was an old man, old enough not to have any lustful teenager crush on him. Obviously, he was not that old, but still...

Oddly enough, Hermione never had thought before that she could have been in a relationship with someone that much older than her, especially not one of her former teachers. To be honest, the only love interests that she had had in her early years had been Ron and Viktor Krum. Krum had been different though, since he had just filled in for some weeks for the lack of interest of her friends toward her. Krum was older, but it wasn't the same: she hadn't shared anything more than a dance back then.

Ron, on the other hand, had had an important place in her life. Their friendship hadn't begun on the right foot, but eventually, they had grown closer with time. But sometimes, she was wondering why she had thought that something could have occurred between them: they were so different. Ron was still a young man, terrified by his feelings, while Hermione was aware of them and wanted to understand hers better in order to move forward. Sure, she had been terrified too when she had realized that Ron meant something to her, that she cared about him. But she was ready to face this reality. Obviously, Ron hadn't been.

A moment later, she felt Severus move against her arm, and she turned her head to him, meeting his dark gaze. He truly had the darkest eyes that she had ever seen. There was almost no difference between his pupil and his iris.

"Hello," she said in a sleepy voice.

"Hello to you," Severus replied, blinking slowly in order to get use to the rays of sun that were shinning in the bedroom. "It's odd to wake up in this bed...," he managed to utter in his usual baritone voice.

"It's weirder to wake up with another person in the same bed, if you want my opinion," she countered with a laugh in her voice.

"You've got a point here," he conceded. "Do you have things to do today?"

"I don't think so. You?"

Severus shook his head before gazing at her body, but noticed that it was hidden by the sheets. He sighed and eventually got up from their bed.

"Where are you going then?," Hermione asked.

"Why this question? Did you plan to spend your whole day in this bed with me, cuddling like two teenagers?," he laughed at her.

Hermione felt her cheeks blush, and it was through clenched teeth that she answered.

"Not at all," she whispered, offended by his assertion.

"Good then," Severus drawled before heading to the bathroom.

What a nice way to begin a day, Hermione thought, while letting out a sigh.

XxX

The next seven days passed in a blur for Hermione. Severus seemed to become nicer with each passing day, and his statement of the other morning had been forgotten after a couple of days. Nevertheless, Hermione was always on the defensive. Even if Severus was most of the time nice to her, it was hard for her to forget how mean to her he could be sometimes.

He was more and more thoughful toward her though, as if he was trying to behave like a husband should behave. He was brewing her contraceptive potions, urging her to drink them and only them every week. He had tried to make them undetectable to every spell that he knew, and he was sure that these potions were effective against an undesired pregnancy. Hermione had put them in a bag, and locked them with her own potions that she'd used to brew back at Hogwarts. She was thinking about asking her husband if there was any possibility for him to let her use his laboratory from time to time. Since she was about to begin her apprenticeship as a Healer, she wanted to be ready for it, and brewing potions was obviously an important part of her upcoming formation.

But at the same time, Severus seemed to see his laboratory like his territory, the only place where he could retire when things weren't easy between them. That was why she was still reluctant to ask him.

With a sigh, Hermione took one of the contraceptive potions from her bag, and noticed that its color was a little paler than usual. But a quick glance at the other phials taught her that it was normal, so she drank it with a face. The color might not be the same, but the taste was still horrid like every contraceptive potion, unfortunately.

That was the moment that Severus chose to enter in their bedroom that they were now used to share, closing the door behind him.

"Tomorrow is a big day," he said slowly.

"I can't wait," Hermione said ironically.

Tomorrow, they were supposed to have their first monthly appointment with Eterna Perkins.

XxX

"She is supposed to arrive in less than ten minutes."

"I know."

"Do you remember everything?"

"Of course, I do. Don't worry about it, Severus... And please, trust me," she sighed, nervously taping on her armchair.

They had spent many hours in the last few days talking about their behavior toward the Ministry employee. Many hours during which they had argued, Hermione thinking that it would have been a good idea to be honest about every point since they hadn't done anything against the law. But Severus wanted everything to be perfect, so he had thought about a better story about their relationship and their everyday life.

"Do you remember how annoying and noisy this Eterna Perkins had been during our check-up?," he had spat, his dark gaze darting on her while she was writing a letter to Harry.

"She wasn't annoying or noisy," she had uttered in a low voice, without raising her eyes from her parchment. "She was just doing her job, and you know that as much as I do."

"You weren't in this room with her...," he had begun, putting his large hands on her desk.

"No, I wasn't," Hermione had interrupted him, finally looking up to meet his dark gaze, "but you weren't with me either, so... I guess that we went through the same examination. Now, if you don't mind...," she had finished, pointing the half-written parchment with her hand.

She had been surprised to notice that this monthly appointment seemed to have a bigger impact on Severus than on her. He seemed to be truly affected by this meeting with the Ministry employee, and even more since they had received this letter informing them that the Ministry employee appointed to their case was Eterna Perkins, Calypso's sister.

Of course, Hermione was the only one between them both to know that Eterna had a sister, and that she was close to Kingsley on top of that.

Suddenly, a knock at the door took her away from her thoughts, and Severus went to the door, his face's expression cold as ice. Hermione rose from her armchair as well and bit her lower lip anxiously. Severus had told her earlier that it would have been a good idea to open the door together, but Hermione had thought that it was a stupid idea.

"Please, Severus, we're not children anymore," she had said under his dark look.

She heard the door flung open, and for a second, she regretted not being next to him to welcome their guest.

"Good morning, Ms. Perkins...," she heard Severus trail of. "Please, come in."

His voice was cold as ice, and Hermione rolled her eyes. He was the same Severus that she had first met eight years ago. She put a smile on her face when Eterna Perkins entered the living room.

"What a charming place you have!," she declared, advancing toward Hermione in order to shake her hand. "Ms. Snape, it's a pleasure to see you again."

"It's a pleasure for me too," Hermione answered, without abandoning her bright smile.

"Can I offer you a cup of tea, Ms. Perkins?," Severus suddenly asked, taking both women by surprise.

"Oh, sure. Thank you," she nodded, and eventually sat in the third armchair that was in the room when Hermione invited her to do so.

"I didn't know that you were the Ministry employee appointed to our case to be honest," Hermione began. "We only learned of it two days ago."

"And I hope that it was a good surprise," Eterna grinned, pushing away her long brown hair on her back.

"A delightful surprise, indeed...," Severus drawled with a smirk on his face, coming back from the kitchen with a tray, and three cups of tea on it.

Hermione swallowed hard. Severus had said that this meeting must go perfectly, and here he was, acting like he didn't care. She gently took a cup of tea from the tray, which he had put on the coffee table, and Eterna did the same.

"Well, it seems that you two have been living together since quite a long time."

"What makes you say that?" Severus frowned.

"These curtains," she explained, pointed at them with her cup of tea. "Only a woman could have chosen them. Right, Hermione?"

Hermione nodded, satisfied to notice that Eterna had dropped the "Ms Snape" thing. She remembered about asking the Healer to do so during her medical check-up, and that Eterna had been happy to oblige.

Eterna swiftly took a notebook from her bag, which she had put at her feet, and opened it with her left hand.

"Alright. Since I'm the Ministry employee appointed to your case, I've got a few questions to ask you two, if you don't mind..."

"Do we have a choice?" Severus cut her off. Hermione darted a warnin gaze on her husband, urging him to stop this nonsense right now. But she had forgotten that it was Severus Snape next to her, not Ron or Harry. He looked back at her, an eyebrow raised, before turning his attention on the Healer once again.

"Well?," he resumed, taking the precaution to fake a smile this time.

"I'm afraid that we don't have the choice, Mr. Snape," Eterna explained, a soft expression on her face. "Let's begin then. You just have to answer with yes or no for the first question, you don't need to explain further. Well, you can if you want," she added, "but it's not compulsory. You'll see it yourselves when a more complex answer is expected."

"We'll do our best," Hermione agreed, surrounding her cup of tea with both of her hands.

"Are you living together?," Eterna began.

"As you can see, yes," Hermione answered, not waiting for Severus' sign to do so.

"Do you share the same bed?"

"Sure, we do," she answered again, not paying attention to Severus who was moving in his armchair, frustrated not to talk.

"Would you say that your relationship work, even if you were forced to be together in the first place?"

"We chose to be together willingly, Ms Perkins, it wasn't the choice of the Ministry," Severus finally explained, putting his cup of tea back on the table. Hermione noticed that he had not even drunk a drop of the hot liquid. "Don't you have this information in your files?" he added with a smirk.

"Sure, we have it, Mr. Snape," she answered with a smile, "but I don't think that you would have agreed on a marriage so quickly if the Ministry hadn't forced you to do so."

Severus clenched his jaw, slightly irritated, but eventually seemed to relax a little.

"Yes."

"Yes?" Eterna repeated.

"Our relation works. Isn't that what you wanted to know?"

"Yes, it is," she confirmed, writing some things on her notebook.

Hermione bit her lower lip, disturbed by the tense atmosphere that reigned in the living room. She wanted this meeting to go well, well enough not to receive an owl from the Ministry urging them to fix things in their relationship. They didn't need that, not now that things seemed to be a little better than in the beginning.

"What else do you need to know?" Hermione eventually asked when Eterna put down her pen.

"Do you have frequent sexual intercourse?," she asked, not seeming to be embarrassed by her own question. It was her job, after all.

"We can say it like that..." Severus trailed off, with an evasive wave of his hand.

"Protected ones?," Eterna insisted.

"No, we don't use protection of any sort," Hermione explained quickly.

"We'll have to make sure of it with a spell at the end of this discussion, Hermione, so I'm going to ask it again: do you protect yourself from a pregnancy?"

The Healer's voice was soft as usual, and Hermione recognized that Eterna was the opposite of her sister, Calypso. Eterna was a caring woman, maternal even, while Calyspo was colder toward people, with something disdainful in the way she moved, the way she talked. Both of them were beautiful, and for a second, Hermione wondered if they weren't twins; but they looked too different to her eyes.

Hermione felt the dark gaze of Severus on her, and it was with confidence that she shook her head.

"No, I don't."

Eterna nodded, and wrote down a few sentences.

"Well, now, let's talk about your future. Where do you see each other in... five years, for example?"

Hermione turned to meet Severus' eyes, and she saw him smile.

"Since we have to submit ourselves to that law, I guess that surrounded by two or three children is a good answer...," he said with irony, looking right into Eterna's eyes. The brunette looked straight at him and let out a laugh.

"Don't play this game with me, Mr. Snape. In all honesty, what do you think your future with Ms. Snape look like?"

Severus put his elbow onto the arm of his chair and supported his chin with his hand. Hermione was looking at both of them intermittently, wondering what would be her husband's answer. Eventually, he let out a sigh.

"In all honesty? I think that Ms. Snape and myself have quite a long road ahead," he began, gazing at his wife. "We need to understand each other first, and then, maybe we'll have a child together. However, I don't expect more than one offspring. I think that it's quite a challenge already to have one of these little... things," he finished, pulling a face, while Hermione was blushing.

"You know that you have to conceive at least one child during the two first years of your marriage, don't you?," Eterna asked, frowning. "It's not a possibility for the Ministry, it's a fact. You are married together because you need to have an offspring in the next two years. I really mean it, Mr. and Mrs Snape," she continued, looking at them both. "I know that it isn't something nice to hear when you're young," she said to Hermione, "but that's the way it is. I don't agree with this Law, if you want to know everything, but my opinion in unimportant here..."

"So are ours...," Severus interrupted her in a low voice.

"So are yours," Eterna nodded. "But it's not because we don't agree that we can overstep the Ministry's authority."

A heavy silence settled in the living room, and Severus was trying to repress the desire to serve himself a glass of firewhiskey. But it surely wasn't the good moment to do so. Hermione stared down at the almost cold cup of tea that was on her knees.

"What would happen if we don't succeed?," she heard Severus ask.

"It's a good question, but unfortunately, I don't know. I guess that the Ministry can find a way to force you to do so or to punish both of you if they realize that you're purposefully sabotaging your chances to get pregnant, but really, I don't know. These are just suspicions. I just heard about a couple who had been separated by the Ministry because the woman couldn't have any child. But both of you are perfectly able to do so, then you don't have to worry about it," she explained. "Do you have any questions?"

Hermione shook her head in sign of negation while looking up at the Healer.

"Alright then," Eterna said before raising from her armchair. "Hermione, please, could you just raise your t-shirt a bit? I just need to see a bit of flesh. It will not hurt, don't worry."

The former Gryffindor took a deep breath and went next to the Healer. For a reason unknown to her, she had a bad feeling about this contraceptive potion. Of course, she had taken the potion that Severus had given her a week ago, but its color had been different than usual. And what if she hadn't taken the good potion, after all? She heard Severus mumbled next to her, and she closed her eyes when she felt the coolness of Eterna's wand on her belly.

"Hermione?"

The latter opened her eyes and saw Eterna frowning. It wasn't a good sign, she knew it before the Healer said anything.

"Yes, Ms. Perkins?," she said in a breath.

"You took a contraceptive potion. I can see it," she explained, looking truly disappointed.

Hermione swallowed hard, and looked down, her gaze falling on the red color emaning from her skin. "I didn't... I mean...," she tried to clarify.

"Did you take it?," Eterna asked softly.

"I think so," Hermione admitted in a little voice.

"What?" Severus rose from his armchair, eyes wide open. "You were supposed to..."

"I know!," Hermione shouted at him. "I'm sorry, I didn't think that..." she whispered.

Eterna Perkins shook her head, but eventually sighed. "Well, Hermione, it's okay for this time, but I want to have another meeting with you, in two weeks, alone. You have to understand that another employee would have alerted the Minister right away, but I'm giving you another chance," she said, looking at Severus as well. "Don't get me wrong: I'm on your side here," she added, putting a caring hand on the young woman's shoulder, "but I can't let it pass without a warning; I guess that you understand."

"Sure, I do," Hermione nodded. "Thank you."

With a smile, Eterna grabbed her bag and put her notebook in it. "Well, except this little... incident, this meeting wasn't as horrid as I thought it would be," she said, looking at Severus. "You'll receive another owl for our next monthly appointment, and," she added to Hermione's attention, "another one for our private session, Hermione."

"Let me see you to the door," Severus said in a low voice without a glance at his wife. Hermione said goodbye to the Healer and sat down in her armchair once she was alone. Severus didn't seem to be happy, she thought, taking her head between her hands. When she heard him closing the door, she bit her lower lip, wondering what would be his reaction.

"What was it? This potion is supposed to be undetectable, I made sure of it a billion times, if not more," he said icily when he was finally returned in the living room, facing her.

"I don't know," Hermione lied, not being able to look up at him.

"Look at me, Hermione."

"I don't know!," she said again, looking up at him this time. "I think that I messed up with the contraceptive potion that you gave me last week. Maybe that I made a mistake and took one of mine instead of one of yours, I don't know!," she repeated.

"Silly girl!," Severus roared. "How stupid can you be, really? It's not that hard to pay attention to what you drink, isn't it?," he spat. "And since when do you have your own contraceptive potions by the way?"

"It's not something new, I used to brew mine at Hogwarts, for your information," she explained slowly.

"But you were...," he trailed off, looking confused for the first time of the day.

"A virgin?," she completed his sentence. "Yes, I was, but this potion is not only used for a contraceptive purpose, I thought that you knew it."

"Of course, I know," he barked. "Don't do this mistake again."

With that said, he turned his back and aimed for his laboratory without another word for her. But Hermione noticed with amusement that Severus hadn't used his perfect story about their relationship.

XxX

"How do you find this place, Calypso?,"

"It's nice," the Auror said with a glance at Lucius Malfoy. The latter was pacing all over the living room, looking at every thing around him, a smile on his face. Things were exactly how he wanted them to be: close to perfection. He was supposed to marry this amazing brunette in less than two days, and he couldn't wait any longer.

It was obvious that Narcissa hadn't been that ecstatic about his future marriage; but she knew that it was for the best. Fortunately enough, Narcissa wasn't supposed to marry someone herself, since she was a little bit older than forty-five year-old. Lucius wouldn't have accepted to see her on the arm of someone else, walking to the altar. It was something to have to do it himself; it was another thing to see the love of his life doing the same.

"Make yourself at home...," he drawled while putting his walking stick in the corner of the room.

Calypso nodded, but her eyes were going through the living room, examining every furniture, every object, every trinket even, like Lucius did some minutes prior, but obviously not for the same reasons.

"Can I help you?," Lucius' icy voice raised on her back.

"No, it's fine." She smiled at him, desperately trying to turn his attention on something else. "Do you have everything ready for Wednesday?," she tried.

"Don't worry about that. Everything is under control."

"I'm sure that you took care of everything," she said in a seductive voice. "What about the guests? Do you plan to invite some of your friends?"

Lucius squinted, but eventually smiled back at her.

"Draco will be present, I guess. And I was thinking about a best man actually, but I have to ask him first. I don't know if his wife will be there too."

"Oh...," she let out, visibly disappointed.

"Oh?," Lucius echoed her.

"It's just... It's silly, never mind," she uttered with an embarrassed laugh.

"Go on, Calypso. What did you want to say?"

"I just thought... There's this gossip in town, I don't know if I should believe it or not."

Lucius raised a surprised eyebrow. What was she talking about? It was obvious that people were talking about him, since he was a former Death Eater after all. Many of them were thinking that he was the reason for their losses, and were talking ill about him, naturally. Obviously, even though Lucius had done not so glorious things in the past, he had done them for his family, mostly. Of course, he had been drawn to the Dark Lord, he had been willing to please him in many ways, but it had been nothing compared to his devotion to Narcissa and Draco. Both of them had been and still were his reason to fight during all this time. But at the end of the day, someone had to be the scapegoat for everything.

"Well," Calypso continued when she realized that Lucius was too deep in his thoughts to say something, "I thought that you were still close with your ex-wife."

Lucius froze in front of his soon-to-be wife, and almost forgot to breathe for one second. It was enough for Calypso to see that she had struck a nerve. Good, she thought.

"What make you say that?," Lucius said in an unctuous voice.

"Oh you know, people talk in the Ministry," she explained. "But I'm sure that it's just gossip, nothing too serious. Am I wrong?," she eventually asked in a candid voice, staring at him.

"You're not wrong," Lucius answered swiftly, his lips pursed. "I don't see Narcissa anymore, except when I have to do it in order to see our son. And I don't think that it's a crime; do you?"

"Of course not. It's just that I don't want to share you with somebody else...," she whispered in order to distract him from their discussion, reducing the distance between them. She held him by the collar of his robe and gave him a sensual kiss on the lips. Lucius didn't move and just closed his eyes when he felt Calypso's mouth entering in contact with his. It wasn't like with Narcissa, but Lucius thought that he could have done worse than Calypso Perkins. She was highly attractive, with her hazel eyes, which were turning green with the light, and her fit body. She didn't take long to kiss him after their first meeting at the Ministry and Lucius was pleased so far to notice that she was attracted to him the same way that he was to her, maybe even more.

How could he resist to such a beauty? He had always been faithful to Narcissa, but his own words, the words that he had said to Severus Snape a month earlier, came back to haunt him: "try to enjoy this time with her, one way or another". He was supposed to shag her in order to validate their marriage anyway, so what was the difference between today or two days later?

Without thinking twice, he took her in his arms and pushed her back against the closest wall, making her moan.

"Don't you want to wait for our marriage?," Calypso whispered against his lips.

"I'm too old for this kind of things...," he murmured before kissing her with fervor.

XxX

"Are you okay?," Severus asked in a concerned voice when Hermione entered their bedroom, after having refreshed her face in the bathroom.

"Sure. I've just got a headache, but it will be fine."

Severus nodded and returned his attention to his book, waiting for her to slip between the sheets. They hadn't talked further after their meeting with Eterna Perkins in the morning. Severus had been furious with her, furious to see that she hadn't listened to him, especially when it came to something that important. Eventually, he had calmed down, thinking that he couldn't hold something so silly against her. It had been a mistake and she had recognized it; that was the most important.

"I can turn off the lights if you prefer," he proposed in a low voice when she was next to him.

"No, it's okay, it doesn't disturb me," she smiled, turning her back to him in order to avoid the light. Severus understood that she wanted to have some quiet moment, and he turned off the lights even if she had said that it didn't matter.

A heavy silence fell between them, but Hermione coudn't close her eyes. She was waiting for him to say something, at least. She hadn't seen him during all day, since he had been confine in his laboratory, calling Gretchen when he had needed something. She knew that she had made a mistake, but he couldn't hold it against her forever.

Suddenly, she heard his voice raising from the other side of the bed.

"I am sorry."

These three words, almost murmured, were enough for her; but Severus didn't stop there.

"I'm truly sorry, Hermione," he repeated, louder this time. "I should have defended you against Ms. Perkins, and I failed to do so. I regret what happened this morning."

Hermione turned in order to face him and meet his eyes, then nodded. "Thank you."

Severus gave her a little smile, but didn't say anything more. Hermione repressed a smile and turned her back again, trying to sleep this time. But she just had just been trying to fall asleep for a few minutes, when she felt Severus' hands on her shoulder, then on her back.

"What are you...?," she began, but didn't have the time to finish her sentence. Severus' lips were on hers, gently kissing her mouth.

"I know the perfect remedy for your headache," he whispered, aroused by the fact that she was just wearing her panties with a shirt.

Like every first moments of intimacy with her husband, Hermione felt a certain reluctance to go further, but this feeling quickly disappeared when she noticed how hard he already was, close to her leg.

It was her who deepened their kiss, taking his head into her hands and standing up over him.

"What are you doing, witch?," he whispered, putting his hands onto her hips, gently stroking the piece of skin underneath her black panties.

"What you want me to do," she murmured close to his mouth, bending over to kiss him again.

It was surprising to notice how liberated Hermione had been these last few days when it came to sexual intercourse with Severus. Even herself was astonished to notice this sudden change of behavior. It was even more surprising when she was thinking about what she had learned about her husband a few days before. Kingsley's words were on repeat in her head, every day and every night. But all of this was forgotten when she was in his arms, oddly enough. He surely wasn't the most handsome man on Earth, but he was here, with her. They had been married for a month now, and everything was right when she was in his arms, especially after his apology.

And right now, he was giving her the most pleasurable caresses that she had ever had. It was the first time that she was on top, but it seemed to be natural for both of them. Severus' hands were all over her body, while he bent his head a little after removing Hermione's shirt in order to suck her nipples.

"Oh...," she let out, eyes closed in order to focus on what her husband was doing with her body.

"I want to take you now... I can't wait to see how wet you are for me...," Severus growled against her soft skin.

His voice was highly exciting, and she felt herself getting wetter at his words. Damn, who would have thought that she would be that aroused by Severus Snape's voice one day?

Hermione didn't answer, but didn't complain either when Severus pushed her panties aside; he didn't even take the time to remove them. A second later, he was sliding his already hard length into her dripping core, making her moan.

"Severus...," she whispered, her eyes still closed, as if she was trying to feel every movement of her husband into her. But unfortunately for her, he wasn't moving at all. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see a grin on his face.

"What are you doing?," she let out in a breath.

"What do you want me to do?," he asked back in a low voice, caressing her back with his fingertips. He saw Hermione bite her lower lip, and he had to control himself not to push further into her welcoming and thigh entrance.

"Tell me, witch...," he insisted, squeezing her hips a little.

"I want you to move...," she managed to say while putting her hands on Severus' chest.

"Why don't you move by yourself then?"

She gazed at him for long seconds, wondering what to do. Eventually, she raised herself from Severus' body, taking support on her knees to do so, and slowly impaled herself back onto his thick length, making them both moan at the same time.

"Damn witch, go faster..."

Hermione did as he said; she had never felt that full, ever. Severus' cock was stoking her inner walls with such experience that she thought that she was on the edge of a precipice. Her thrusts were frantic now, and Severus grabbed her hips in order to piston through her with all that he had.

"Oh, Severus, harder...," Hermione heard herself say, her head falling backward.

He was quite happy to obey, and it was with a groan that he spewed one, two, three long jolts of seed into her sensitive core, at the exact time when Hermione fell on Severus' chest and reached her orgasm, her mouth wide open, looking for air.

A few minutes later, they were laying on the bed, breathless but sated, at least.

Hermione took a few deep breaths in order to recover, before glancing at Severus. He met her hazel eyes and slowly covered her body with the sheet.

"You are going to catch a cold otherwise," he explained with a soft voice.

"Did you really cover me up, Mr. Snape?," Hermione asked, a laugh in her voice.

"Isn't it what a husband is supposed to do?" Severus raised a surprised eyebrow.

"I guess, yes...," Hermione whispered, visibly puzzled by Severus' attention toward her. "It's just that it's not something usual from you. I mean, you're not supposed to care that much about me."

Severus let out a laugh, and passed a hand in his long hair. "I have to care. We're stuck together, Hermione, and it would be a lie to say that I wanted this situation to happen. Unfortunately," he continued in a lower voice, "we have to make this marriage works, or at least we can try, don't you think? Until the abrogation of this Marriage Law, of course."

"It seems fair," Hermione answered, still surprised to hear Severus say something like this. "I'm sure that we can manage to live under the same roof without killing each other until the end of our marriage."

When Severus closed his eyes that night, he thought about the main purpose of his marriage with Hermione Granger, a month ago. He was supposed to become close to her, close enough to learn things about the Ministry, since her best friend was still in contact with Kingsley, according to Lucius. But now, four weeks later, laying on the bed next to her, he realized that he had spent more time arguing with her and making love to her, than asking her questions about what she knew about it.

It's something that I need to take care of, he thought, frowning, before falling in the arms of Morpheus.

Duh, stop spending so much time in a bed, you two!

Until next time, folks! Have a nice week.