"There's one thing I want you to know before I walk that door because when I do we… we're over. I love you." She kissed him and left slowly.

Behind her Snape was working his jaw, trying as hard as he could to get the words to come out, words he had been afraid to say and words he could not say since he became a Death Eater and a spy. Hermione was gone before a sound escaped his lips.


Chapter 12- He Burned, She Ached

When Hermione woke up she didn't smile. The prospect of a new day didn't make her happy anymore. It wasn't going to be a new day with Snape so it was a day that might as well not exist. She had hexed Ron several times and had gotten detention with McGonagall to whom she wouldn't explain her actions.

It had been a week since that cursed night that they had ended their relationship and they both had stopped going to meals. All those people who would just annoy them and they couldn't look at each other without floods of pain. It was potions class that was the worst. She now sat in the very back of the class and never did anything to interact with anyone and Snape carefully avoided her.

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By the time the third week rolled around Hermione was skipping his class every so often. He didn't report her or make any fuss about it, she always managed to get him the potions and work from class and left it on his desk when he was gone. Now that his evenings weren't preoccupied with their meetings and potion making he realized just how big of a part in his life she had become. And to be honest he missed her.

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It was the fifth week and "missed" was no longer the correct word. He yearned for her and the fire he felt when he had kissed her before he now felt when they were in the same room. His body yearned for her, for the kisses and the caresses. He longed to hear her cry out when he buried himself within her. He burned for her, for her smile and her intelligent questions, he burned for her to say those sweet words again though they echoed in his head. I love you, I love you, I love you.

And she ached, gods she ached. There was a hole in her chest where he had been, an aching hole with frayed edges and seeping blood. She had fallen in love, they had been together, but they had also parted and the separation hurt her far more than when he didn't even acknowledge she existed after she saved him. It was worse because this time, she had had a taste of what it was to love and be loved. And she wanted no one but him. He was her first passionate kiss and she wanted him to be her first. She wanted to marry him, grow old with him. And then this.

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It was the middle of the second month and Hermione thought she could make it, though the ache to be with him grew even more intense with each passing minute. She no longer went to potions, unable to bear her ache when he was so close.

If you asked Snape he would've said he could make it but really his burning was growing twice as fast as Hermione's ache. He had finally found someone who could love him for who he was. Someone who could love him at all and he had to push her away. The irony nearly killed him.

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"I can't wait, come with me now."

Hermione looked up in shock at Snape, his jaw was clenched and his eyes were boring into her. Forget the fact that everyone around them was staring, she was going to follow him like a lost puppy. Of course, it figured that they were staring, he was standing far too close for what was appropriate and the way he gripped her arm like a life line may have looked odd to any of the students.

Hermione nodded and Snape dragged her after him to the dungeons, his vice like grip never loosening. Some students stared after them others shrugged it off and thought she was getting into to trouble for skipping the greasy bat's class. The look on his face had many thinking the latter.

Harry was one of the people who watched her go with Ron and Ginny by his side. "I don't get it at all. She's been acting so off lately and now that git drags her off and she just lets him. I'd be fighting claw and tooth." Ginny shook her head.

"It's funny, the way things were going in potions before she skipped you'd have thought something happened between them. She moved to the back of the class and didn't talk and he stayed far away from her, didn't even make fun of her.

Ron stayed silent. He had known exactly what was going on and hadn't told anyone. It gave him a sick kind of pleasure to know that Snape was hurting. He didn't like that he hurt Hermione but after what she hexed him with the guilt went away a little.

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Two months. That's all they lasted. And Hermione didn't care, hell; she couldn't even open her mouth to express her relief. She watched as Snape warded his doors and placed a silencing spell around the room. He came over and muttered a spell that took her a second to register as a contraceptive spell and then lifted her to his hips. She wrapped her legs around his waist and moaned when his tight grip left her arm and his hands gripped her buttocks.

He captured her mouth and violently tasted her and battled with her tongue. Her grip tightened and she could feel his arousal pressing in between her legs. His kiss ended and he trailed his tongue across her jaw line and then nipped her earlobe. He kissed her neck and bit down where her shoulder met her neck, he heard her cry out and looked down at what he had done. He had punctured her skin in one spot and a single drop of blood hung there. It was his mark. She belonged to him, she was only his.

In a brief moment he laid her on his bed and looked down at her and for the first time since he was a little boy, Severus Snape smiled. He smiled and a breathless Hermione saw it and she smiled back and reached for him. He lay beside her, stretching his body against hers. He brushed his hand once down her body and then brought it back up to tease her nipple, and bent his head to suckle her, first fierce then gentle. He moved his hand slowly down her body until his fingertips rested on her soft curls. He heard her uneven breath and felt the heave of her chest beneath is head. He turned his neck to look at her and saw only trust and desire on her face, and in her eyes he saw her love.

He rubbed his fingers against her folds and heard her mewl. His soft strokes became more vigorous and in a moment he slid two fingers inside her. He heard her gasp and she clutched his shoulder but he hardly noticed. His jaw was tightly clenched as he tried to control himself. He didn't think he'd be her first but he could feel her barrier against his fingers. But more than that, he had wanted her for so long, slowing down now seemed insane.

"Severus, now!" Her voice wasn't more than a hiss in his ear but it was all he needed.

He stretched himself over her, moaning when their bodies aligned. He felt her breath hitch as she spread her legs beneath him. He had once last thing he had to do. "Hermione, I love you." And with one swift movement he entered her and they both gasped. She was shuddering her body quaking against his. He held perfectly still, unwilling to move incase he had hurt her.

But she wouldn't have any of it. She buried her hands in his hair and brought his head down for a passionate kiss, meanwhile wrapping her legs around him. Getting the message he began moving inside her, fast, hard thrusts that had them both moaning. Snape could feel her walls pulsing around him and he knew any moment now she'd come.

"Severus." She came, moaning his name her hand clenching at his shoulders, running a foot up and down his calf. Snape shortly followed breathing her name over and over.

After their breathing had returned to normal Snape gently pulled out of her and wrapped his arms around her. She nestled into him and breathed in the scent of him, sweat and their love making. He smiled at the top of her head. "My dearest Hermione, I love you, my heart, I love you."