A.N:

I used this chapter to really open up Severus' heart and re-kindle Severus and Hermione's love since some of you thought that maybe they weren't as in love as they were. (They are!)

I hope you like this chapter, I put alot of time into it so I hope I get lots of reviews if you like it too

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Chapter Eleven: Grave Eye Openers

Foolishly, Severus didn't calm himself down before returning home that evening. With his hand bruised, swollen and bleeding – much like his temper – he burst into his quarters with no concern for the time, or the fact that Hermione may be sleeping, and poured himself an ostentatious measure of Fire Whiskey.

"What on earth has happened?" asked Hermione, emerging from the kitchen with a dish cloth flung casually over her shoulder.

"I'll break every bone in his fucking body," muttered Severus to himself as he clenched his fists and failed to answer his wife's question.

Hermione glanced at his balled hands and knuckles which oozed with blood and dripped all over the cream rug which footed the fire place. "What happened to you!" she asked hurriedly, using her dishcloth as a makeshift bandage to encase his hand; Severus did not push her away; he was far too focused on the situation that he had walked in on.

"Severus!" she demanded, putting a firm knot in the bandage which already showed signs of blood seeping through. "I said what happened?"

"Potter happened," he finally conceded with a snarl.

"Harry? Harry's here? And you hit him? Why?"


"Albus Potter," spat Severus as he pulled his injured hand out of Hermione's now firm grasp. "Albus, fucking, Potter!"

"Tell me you didn't hit a student! Severus," she added as his silence continued, "tell me you never hit him!"

"Of course I hit the disrespectful, impertinent, arrogant little bastard!"

"Why? You'll get us both fired Severus, never mind what Harry and Ginny will say-"

"I don't care what they say!" bellowed Severus, launching his glass across the room. "If you ask me, that boy should have had a good smack from Harry a long time ago, maybe this wouldn't have happened."

"What happened?" asked Hermione hopelessly, but before she had time to prompt her husband further, he cut in again.

"Yes, this is all Potter's fault. He needs to be shown a thing or two on parenting. Sebastian would never do that!"



"Until you tell me what Sebastian would never do Severus, I can not help you."

"I'm going to see Potter now actually, to explain what a scumbag his son is."

"You are not going anywhere in this state Severus," reprimanded Hermione, wrapped two firm arms around his back and pulling him into their bedroom. "Sit," she ordered and when he failed to comply, pushed him onto the bed.

"Get off me Hermione!" he spat as she pinned his wrists to the bed.

"I will, when you tell me what's happened to get you into such a state. I haven't seen you like this since-"

"Since when? When I took advantage of you fourteen years ago? When I took your innocence to save my own back?"

"Shut up!" screamed Hermione gripping his wrists tighter. "You know that is not how it happened so what has made you say so now!"

"He said so and quite rightly so. He was only doing what I did to you, and yet I will not stand by and let him ruin my daughter's life like I ruined yours!"

"Firstly, I cannot believe that you have the audacity to bring up our past and accuse that you have ruined my life. You make my life worthwhile Severus, you are the reason I still care to live. And secondly, is this what this is all about? Septima and Albus?"

"You knew?" asked Severus with a snarl, before he rolled her off him and sat bolt up right on the edge of the bed.

"Yes I knew that they were together because Albus asked me when he should tell you about them. He was petrified."

"Good."

"He loves her Severus, in a way that only I can compare to our love. It is true, it is pure and it is untainted."

"He does not love her the way I love you."

"I am not blinded by false pretences or an over zealous protective streak, thus I can see what you fail to. He loves her Severus!"

"They were having sex on the astronomy balcony!"



Hermione could not pretend not to be happy with this piece of news but did however, understand that her daughter was an adult now, free to do what she pleased. "She is a grown woman now Severus and not the child you would like to believe she is."

"She is mychild!"

"She is yourchild yes and will be until the day she dies but she is not a child."

"That makes no sense!"

"Yes she is your daughter, and yes it is your primeval instinct to protect her, but your Mother did not live your life for you, did she?"

"No."

"And were you still her son?"

"Of course I was-"

"Well then you will be able to see that Septima is capable of living her own life the way you lived yours. You will always be her Father Severus, and she will always need you. But at some point in any Father's life he has to pass that Protective Baton on, so to speak, and allow the next man of their daughter's life relieve some of your job."

"And you think that Potter is the one to take my baton? You think he can protect her the way I do… better than I do?"

"It is not a competition to judge power, because if it were no man would be powerful enough to take on the job. Severus, you are yes, the most powerful wizard that lives to this day, but take a look around you…are our children here, tucked up in bed and waiting for you to read them a bed time story?"

"No," said Severus with a drop of the head.

"They have grown up Severus, just like you knew they always would. It's time you did too and accepted that it is just you and I now."

"You're right," conceded Severus as he lay back onto the bed.

Hermione curled up beside him.

"I'm a fool Hermione, a fool driven by his love for his family. And this love has, I have recently realised, caused me to forget one of, if not the, most important thing in my life: you."



He rolled onto his side and stoked Hermione's hair with his bandaged hand. "Look at me," he said in nothing more than a whisper as he gestured towards his hand, "I'm a mess. I've been too wrapped up in playing the big bad Death Eater and playing a protective Father to be a decent husband to a woman who so rightly deserves it. I never tell you enough and I never show you enough, just how much I love you. When it comes down to it all Hermione, you are the one who plagues my heart throughout both my consciousness and sleep. You drive me to become a better man and you catch me when I fall. I love you."

"Then show me," whispered Hermione as she brought his face down to hers by a carefully snaked arm around his neck.

Severus brought his lips slowly to Hermione's, aided by her vigilantly assumed hand at the base of his neck. He felt the delicate softness of her lips as they reacted with as much zeal as they had the first time, and a warmth, that felt so familiar now, began to spread unreservedly through his body, which ached to be bare and touching his wife's.

Unable to resist the pressure and urge to go further, as his hardness pressed painfully against his teaching pants, Severus slid his tongue into her welcoming mouth and caressed hers, whist pressing up against her as she lay beneath him.

Noting his enthusiasm, Hermione began to unbutton his blood stained shirt, taking every care to kiss each section of newly exposed skin with an immense surge of love and passion. Severus raised himself slightly so that she could kiss his now bare chest and run her hands through the light hair which lay there. After taking all the kisses he could before exploding whilst constricted within his boxers, he lowered himself once more, perching his lips ever so slightly above hers.

With his eyes still completely focussed on her brown ones, and making sure their lips never actually met, Severus snaked an arm between their bodies to remove her black fitted teaching shirt, his gaze never faltering. The sultry emerald lace of her bra, that completely opposed her dark and formal shirt, stood out like nothing he had ever seen before, as he unbuttoned the first of many buttons. The naughtiness of her underwear made him ponder, for a short moment between kisses, whether she always wore such delectable undergarments, even if she was only teaching, and he made a mental note to find the answer to that one day soon.

When they were stripped of all of their clothing Severus lay flat between her spread legs, tracing the outlines of her features with a long finger. He wasn't rushed to actually enter her now that he was free form his pants, and found as much pleasure by simply observing her and re-realising just why he loved her so.

Hermione watched Severus with apprehension as he lay between her thighs merely observing her, and not acting on his evident arousal. Usually, in such a position, he wouldn't have showed such restraint and would have instead dived straight in. Tonight however he seemed different; like he had locked all of his cares and fetters outside of their bedroom door, and he showed her all the focus that he had when they first got together. She smiled as he nudged her cheek bone with his nose so 

that she would expose more of her neck to him. When she obliged he nibbled the bare skin just below her ear and kissed her neck for a long time, occasionally whispering words of love in her ear.

Eventually, Severus placed himself at her opening, and ever so carefully, as if it was her first time all over again, entered her, basking in the expressions which played about her face as he did so.

To Severus, Hermione was the same woman she was when she arrived back at Hogwarts as an ambitious twenty two year old Professor. She still made him laugh like she used to, she still looked as beautiful as ever, and in some ways she still irritated him in ways that she used to. Most importantly for Severus however, was the fact that she still after these many years, kissed him in the way that she used to. Despite their many years of marriage, her passion towards him was as evident as ever in the ferocity of her kiss; it never faltered like a watery sun, nor did it fall like a moon depending on the time of day. No, Hermione's love was still growing strong for him, as was his for her.

"What's the matter?" asked Hermione warily after five minutes of Severus merely lying top of her, naked, and lost in thought.

"Sorry," he said shaking his head, "I was just thinking."

"About?" she quizzed, intrigued on what had distracted him so at such an imperative moment.

"You, and how if it's possible, that I love you more now than what I did twenty years ago."

"Twenty? You mean fourteen."

"No twenty. I have always loved you Hermione, but it has taken this foolish old man to realise now that I did."

"And I will always love you…make love to me Severus," whispered Hermione into his ear and pushing on his hips so that he glided into her.

"Yes my love," answered Severus with a huge smile. "Always."