"Just how did you know?"
Snape brought the attractive Magical Life and Culture professor up short, cutting off her path further down the corridor. He had used his power of broom-less flight to turn himself into a furious flurry of black smoke, swooping down the stairs from the Headmasters' office and along the stone passage, swirling around the retreating witch before re-materialising directly in front of her. She pulled up short, clearly startled.
He drew himself to his full height, folding his arms and looking down at her imperiously.
"Notthat it matters in the grand scheme of things, as I plan to declare us imminently, but it will be on my terms and in my time. You will not agitate the situation by publicly revealing what you think you know to be true."
Sabrina had recovered her composure and placed her hands, unwelcome, on to his folded arms.
"Severus, darling. Do not make a spectacle of yourself by declaring. You know as well as I do that this is just one of your passing dalliances. I fully plan to continue our ... interactions just as soon as you are more comfortable with the idea of me living and working alongside you. I assure you I am very discreet. There is nothing she can offer that I cannot give you ... in a more refined manner."
He flung his arms open, ridding himself of the touch of her hands in disgust.
"One of my passing dalliances? You flatter yourself, and most certainly overestimate the depth of your connection to me. You know nothing, Professor Cordoba. Nothing of me. And certainly nothing ... of her."
He opted not to mention Hermione by name, just in case Sabrina was bluffing and did not actually know the identity of his partner, but had merely spotted the incongruous lacy knickers peeking out from under a wingback chair in his office, and thus had no idea that they belonged to the Minister for Magic.
Sabrina placed her hands defiantly on her hips, seemingly unperturbed by the speed and disgust with which he had reacted to her touch.
"I know everything I need to know about you, Severus Snape. Samara was frightfully keen to share allthe lurid details," she spat, her eyes flashing with self-satisfaction.
Samara Cordoba.
Sabrina's sister.
Samara was a nondescript witch that he had spent the night with a few years ago. He did not think that Sabrina had known he'd shagged her sister, but clearly, she did. Not that it had any relevance now. He could barely recall the details of their tryst, it was entirely unmemorable.
"A wizard who likes to fuck and run."
"I beg your pardon?"
"That is how Samara described you. Skilled in the bedroom arts, oh yes, she gave me all those details, but nothing more than that."
Sabrina drew an excited breath before continuing.
"But she also advised me that you are a wizard so scared of commitment that he never allows a woman closer to him than the base of his cock."
"I have no comment to make on that, Sabrina. I spent only one night with your sister a good few years ago. You have no knowledge of the man I may have been then, nor of the man I might be now. Not, I might add, for the want of your trying."
He narrowed his eyes and forced her to remember the times she had fruitlessly attempted to engage him.
"You are fooling yourself if you think you have changed your spots, Snape. My sister never recovered from how you loved her and left her."
"I did not love her, nor did I leave her. It was a one-night arrangement. It was just sex. Both of us were aware of that. This is how such liaisons work."
"There was never another, after you," Sabrina told him, in a low and somewhat threatening manner. "You took the rest of Samara's life from her. You, your dark, intoxicating manner and your intense sexual power."
"That is surely an exaggeration and I do not believe you. Samara is still a relatively young witch, magically speaking. She will have other lovers."
A fire lit in Sabrina's eyes and a glare of fury swept across her beautiful features. Her accusing finger hit Severus square in the chest.
"She cannot! She never will! Because she is dead!"
"I am sorry to hear that," he responded, his cordiality attempting to protect him from this Medusa raving in front of him.
He attempted to speak in a gentler tone.
"But Samara's death is not my fault and you cannot make it so."
Sabrina seemed to calm somewhat.
"How did she pass?"
"Spattergroit. Earlier this year. She died in a stinking heap of her own pustules," she replied, brutally.
Severus winced at her explicit choice of words.
"I am sorry for your loss."
"You see? You have no personal feeling of regret that she has passed. She meant nothing to you."
"That is not fair, Sabrina. I knew Samara for only one night."
"As I said; you are a man who fucks and runs. That's your style, is it not, Headmaster? Why you think this particular witch is different is beyond me. Maybe her lofty position of power at the Ministry excites you. Everyone knows you need a dominant partner in your bed."
Sabrina threw the cruel words at him with a satisfied expression of a woman who believes herself to be utterly vindicated.
"I have no idea of whom you speak," Severus drawled, icily.
"Halloween, Severus. You missed breakfast in the Great Hall the morning after. Heavy night, was it? You forgot that my chamber windows look directly out upon the front gates of the school."
His heart plummeted a little, remembering their Apparition to the gates.
He had landed them there, embraced Hermione deeply, and then allowed her to Apparate him to her flat. His face must have shown comprehension at Sabrina's words, and drew a surprisingly soft smile from the black-haired witch.
"Whatever she has promised you, whatever temporary excitement she is providing you, remember this. I can offer you so much more, Severus. I have admired you for so long; and now it is my time. I know you feel the same way about me, but you are restraining yourself due to our relative positions here at Hogwarts."
He attempted to refute her insane notions, but Sabrina was in full-flow and did not allow him time to interrupt.
"What you fail to realise, is that living alongside each other is the best possible outcome for a long-term relationship, for a marriage. Why, we are already exactly where we need to be. Once, of course, you have fucked this other witch fully out of your system."
She smiled in what he presumed was meant to be an alluring and seductive manner, but he found it abhorrent, now preferring the simple, natural and genuine expressions of Hermione Granger.
Sabrina placed a hand on his chest, her sharply-manicured black nails long and shining.
"I will so look forward to seeing yourself and the Minister at the Ball. What a divine couple you make ... for now."
She removed her hand from his chest in a significant gesture, sidestepped past him neatly, and continued to click her way down the silent corridor.
- xxx –
It was the night of the Yule Ball, and Hermione took a deep breath as she prepared to enter the Great Hall of Hogwarts on the arm of Severus Snape. They were, for better or worse, going to declare their status as an official couple by virtue of her appearing with him at a public event as his partner. There would be no grand speeches, explanations or excuses. They were together, and the wizarding world would just need to get used to that.
He proffered his arm to her, and she hooked her arm through it gratefully. Severus looked devastatingly handsome in his dress robes, accompanied by a cravat of the darkest green tied carefully around his scarred neck. His hair shone so glossily black that it looked almost blue under the festive lighting, and his eyes, as always, were endless inky pools, and utterly focused on her.
Madam Malkin had outdone herself with the dress. Not wanting to embarrass Severus by dressing in defiant Gryffindor red, or to look subservient to him in Slytherin green, she was wearing a strapless gown of the darkest black. The bodice pulled to the left, meeting in a cluster of black roses which continued down the whole side of the gown, growing larger as they fell lower, in a floral waterfall. The skirt was form-fitting, but full enough to drape and for her to need to lift it as she walked. Her hair was pulled softly away from her face and then cascaded down her back in pristine curls, reaching just past her shoulder blades.
They looked good together. They looked right. This was her wizard, and she was his witch, and she would show her pride at being escorted by him. They were a mature couple of forty and sixty - this was no youthful dalliance, and she would not allow the opinions of others, and there were sure to be many, to affect them.
Severus conjured a small black rose and tucked it into her hair using a skilful twist of his wand.
"Either you have a secret supply of those, or you have been stealing from Neville's greenhouse," Hermione teased.
"Both your theories are correct," he answered with a quirk of his mouth. "I do indeed have a secret supply, and that supply is to be found in Professor Longbottom's private greenhouse."
She gave him a wide smile.
"Thank you for my stolen goods. Shall we?"
"Indeed. Let us do this, Miss Granger."
As they entered the Great Hall, decorated lavishly with ice sculptures, frosted Christmas trees and even lightly falling snow, many heads swivelled towards them, and a hush of sorts fell across the room. Severus, after decades of practised ignoring of people in general, led Hermione across to where the staff had congregated.
"Minister Granger! How lovely to see you! Severus did not tell us you would be in attendance tonight?"
Pomona Sprout was the first to find her voice, a slight questioning inflection in her tone.
"Just Hermione tonight, please, Professor Sprout, since I am not here in my official capacity."
She smiled at the stout, elderly witch.
The teachers within hearing distance looked at her quizzically and she clutched Severus' arm imperceptibly a little tighter. He discreetly returned her squeeze.
"Tonight, I am here as Headmaster Snape's partner. I am so happy to be back at Hogwarts for such a festive occasion."
She gestured at the Great Hall's magnificent decoration. Severus recognised it was the appropriate time for him to play his part.
"Can I get you some wine, Hermione?" he asked her.
"Yes please, Severus. That would be lovely."
He released her arm but not her hand, pulling her gently towards him and planting a ghost of a kiss on her forehead.
"I shall return momentarily."
He walked away towards the drinks table that contained the alcoholic beverages reserved for staff and seventh years only.
The expressions of utter shock on the faces of the gathered staff, and the few students brave enough to be within earshot, were making Hermione want to stuff a wad of handkerchiefs in her mouth to keep from laughing. She contented herself with biting the inside of her cheek instead.
She decided to be kind and break the silence, turning to Pomona Sprout who had first spoken to her.
"Professor Sprout, you must tell me about the Halloween mini-pumpkins. Severus told me you managed to cultivate thousands, and smuggle one on to his desk?"
And just like that, the deed was done. Pomona launched into a long and enthusiastic story about how the idea for the mini enchanted pumpkins had come to her, how she had kept Neville's Herbology students away from them, and cackling loudly as she confided to Hermione exactly how she had snuck one into the Headmaster's private office.
Severus watched Hermione from his vantage point across the room at the drinks table. Within minutes she appeared to have most of the staff eating out of her hand; he could see laughing, smiling, and enthusiastic conversation happening. His witch was truly outstanding - like a true politician she had converted a semi-hostile crowd almost immediately.
The noise level in the Great Hall rose again, students turned back to each other, and the teachers clamoured to welcome and talk with the Minister of Magic, who was, for tonight, just Hermione, the Headmaster's girlfriend.
- xxx -
Severus and Hermione enjoyed a wonderful Yule dinner in the company of Neville Longbottom and his wife Hannah, along with Rolf and Luna Scamander, who were indeed expecting their first child as Severus had suspected. Well, children, rather than child, as the former Miss Lovegood was pregnant with twin boys. Pomona Sprout and her long-term partner, the flying instructor Rolanda Hooch, had also been placed at their table. The company made for excellent repartee and lots of good natured ribbing.
He was gratified to see they had been placed a good distance from Sabrina, who appeared have got over Severus' refusal to accompany her with miraculously good cheer, as tonight she was escorted by Beau Lestrange, a dark-haired wizard with a manicured beard and slick looks. Beau had not been known to be a Death Eater, but as the son of Rabastan Lestrange, and therefore the nephew of Roldophus Lestrange and his mad wife Bellatrix, Severus did not feel inclined to extend any particularly warm feelings towards him.
All too soon it was time to rise as the tables were magically cleared, and for the evening dancing to begin. Severus led Hermione to the floor along with the other teachers and their spouses, plus the Head Girl and Boy with their respective partners. He enjoyed Hermione watching Teddy Lupin with an indulgent, almost maternal smile as he led his girlfriend Victoire Weasley in the dance. Of course, both Mr Lupin and Miss Weasley were surely as close to Hermione as family, she had told him so.
He had to fight the urge to grin like a crowing teenage boy as he led his stunning partner around the dancefloor. His hand at the small of her waist, the black roses of her dress lightly tickling the inside of his wrist, he stood tall and straight as he led the dance. The black ballgown was sweeping elegantly across the floor as they moved, and her hand was warm in his, her touch light upon his shoulder. Merlin, he wanted to kiss her, thankfully remembering his position and the occasion, which called for slightly more decorum.
She's mine, you bastards, he thought smugly, all mine, and am I not the luckiest wizard in the world?
He couldn't help the smirk creeping to his face, and it was returned by Hermione's wide smile and honest eyes. No doubt the perceptive witch had an inkling of where his thoughts were drifting to.
After two dances Severus declared himself out and returned to the drinks table along with other older members of staff. Hermione teased him for being 'past it', and stayed on the floor for another few dances, being whirled around by her friend Neville and looking to be having a glorious time. He eyed her over the top of his goblet of red wine, and enjoyed watching her. He allowed his thoughts to turn to exactly how tortuously slowly he would be removing that black rose-strewn dress from her body in his chambers that night, and was rewarded with a rush of blood to his groin in anticipation.
Hermione was leaving the dance floor with Neville at the other side of the hall, when Sabrina Cordoba approached them.
"Minister Granger, could I borrow you for a short discussion?"
"Of course. Professor Cordoba isn't it? You are the one who has made such an incredible start to introducing the Magical Life and Culture lessons!"
Hermione was genuinely pleased to make the acquaintance of the professor who was delivering her long-awaited syllabus for Muggle-borns, and Sabrina smiled at her colleague Neville as he bowed his goodbyes and set off to find his wife.
"Thank you for being so kind, Minister Granger. I am really enjoying delivering the subject. I was completely enthralled with your reforms and I just had to make sure I got the job, I wanted to be involved with getting this long-overdue education out to the Muggle-born students," Sabrina trilled.
Hermione smiled; clearly Severus had made an excellent choice for the first MLC professor.
"I have a couple of ideas that I would love to seek your opinion on, if I am not keeping you from your ... partner?"
Sabrina's heavily made-up eyes flicked across the room to where Severus was standing, drinking with Rolf Scamander and Hetton Whinstanley, the DADA professor. He had not yet seen her and Hermione conversing.
"He seems to be coping admirably well without me," she smiled. "I'd be delighted, Professor. I am always open to new ideas, and the classes have been going so well under your tutelage that I'm sure any suggestions you have are worth my time in hearing."
"It is so noisy in here," Sabrina complained.
The gentle ballroom music had changed pace after the initial dances to some loud, thumping modern beat that the students were clearly enjoying immensely.
"Shall we go outside in the rose garden for a breath of fresh air and a quieter place to discuss?"
Hermione agreed, and the two witches walked outside into the sculptured rose garden, so beloved of errant students looking for a private place to snog their current paramour. They walked together before turning left at the first path, between some high floral bushes. Sabrina started to speak about additional topics being added to the new curriculum.
Hermione never saw who cast the Stupefy that hit her.
- xxx -
As he drained his first firewhisky of the evening (he, Rolf and Hetton had decided to move on to something stronger after the disappointment of the limp wine) Severus realised that it had been a fair while since he had last seen Hermione. She had been on the dancefloor cutting a rug with Longbottom during the more formal numbers, but the Herbology professor was now dancing with his wife, getting on down to the popular music with the students and Hermione was nowhere to be seen. Odd.
He knew she could look after herself, but nonetheless he excused himself from his colleagues and pushed his way across the crowded dance floor with ease; students parted the way quite easily in the face of the Headmaster, and grabbed Longbottom's elbow.
"Have you seen Hermione?" he demanded, without preamble.
"Hermione? Not for half an hour or so. She went off with Cordoba after we'd finished dancing. I think they went outside," Neville replied, and unconcernedly returned his attention to his wife.
Severus felt his anxiety levels rise sharply, as if he'd been hit in the stomach with a particularly fierce stinging hex. What did that bloody witch want with Hermione? He would wring her fucking neck if she was blabbing any ancient history that didn't concern her.
His heightened sensitivity to the Hogwarts wards told him that both women were still within the school perimeter, somewhere. He would start by looking outside, since Longbottom had said she had left with Sabrina. He strode out into the ornamental rose garden, finding nothing but snogging teenagers, who thanked their lucky stars as the stern headmaster billowed straight past them, unseeing and without issuing reprimands.
Severus reached the top of the hill that led down towards the Forbidden Forest. Looking down into the blackness, he saw a strange silvery light emanating from near Hagrid's hut. It was oddly enticing, as if it were calling him down there. Flicking his internal caution switch on to high alert, a throwback from his double-agent past, he cast a Protego shield charm and a Disillusionment spell around himself, and Apparated down to land in front of the old gamekeeper's hut.
Hagrid was not at home, since he was currently up at the castle with the other revellers at the ball, sitting in a giant-sized chair drinking vast quantities of oak-matured mead. Tiny, his huge canine familiar, was however at home, seemingly locked in and barking madly.
Severus heard moaning from behind the hut, accompanied by gasps of profanity. If any of those little fuckers were shagging, they were not only breaking a host of school rules but displaying intense stupidity by letting their guard down so close to the Forbidden Forest. He would expel them faster than they could pull their trousers up. He silently moved around to the back aspect of the hut.
What he saw made him want to empty his guts on to the ground in front of him.
Hermione was backed up against the wall; head thrown back, the stunning black dress rucked up around her hips, moaning with pleasure as she was repeatedly impaled by the cock of Beau Lestrange.
- xxx –
For one moment, Severus thought he was dying. His heart thumped wildly and he fell to the floor, clutching his chest. Although Disillusioned, he had hit the twig-strewn floor hard, making enough noise to disturb the lovers. Hermione looked up at the place he had fallen, as if she could see him, and smirked.
He could do nothing but watch from the cold, damp grass as Hermione seemed to go up a gear having noted a presence observing them, with all the pleasure of one who enjoyed such voyeurism. She growled instructions at Lestrange to kneel down and lick her, starting at her heel-clad feet. He complied willingly, settling his knees into the mixed ground of mud, grass and sticks.
She teased him as he trailed his eager tongue up her legs towards her pussy. She denied him access and forced him down to start again. And that's when it clicked. This wasn't Hermione.
It started to rain - hard, fast and cold. Excellent timing.
During the few months they had spent together, he had learned how sexually reserved Hermione Granger was, almost to a point of submission, and how much she loved it when he controlled their lovemaking. His Hermione would not have a lover knee-deep in mud that was quickly turning to mulch in the deluge, with a rapier heel dug into his thigh whilst barking instructions.
Severus rose to his feet, cancelling his Disillusionment charm but keeping the protective shield around him (because who knew what kind of mad fucker he was dealing with?) and cast Finite Incantatum at the witch he believed not to be Hermione.
At the same time, he cast an Alohomora at the door of Hagrid's hut to release Tiny, who sounded like he was clawing out lumps of the wood to escape. Severus' inherently Slytherin nature thought the giant Bernese would be good manual back-up, if needed.
Tiny launched himself at Beau Lestrange, who stumbled to his feet and backed away from the huge dog and 'Hermione', who had morphed back into Sabrina Cordoba at the casting of his spell. The witch looked at Severus - not in horror at being discovered, but in hate and anger.
Beau grabbed Sabrina's hand and they made a run for it, struggling through the sopping grass in the direction of the main school gates, and therefore the Apparition point. Severus looked around for Tiny, who strangely was not in pursuit of the retreating couple but instead hurtling towards the Forbidden Forest at a rate of knots.
Fuck, he thought, I cannot lose the dog, especially as it was I who let it out.
He looked ahead and saw that Tiny had not gone far into the Forest, but was only a little way in, barking at a tree. He used his broom-less flying skill to transfer down there, not trusting his currently erratic and thumping heartbeat with the exertion of running.
Hermione was tied to the tree, secured not with ropes but with writhing rings of dark magic. Her face was strewn with hot tears that were tracking down her cheeks in an express of utter anguish. He reached out to touch her but was shocked back by a nasty zapping hex that sent painful shockwaves through his body as he breached the confines of the dark bindings. At the buzzing noise, Tiny startled. His work done, he shot off, no doubt back to the warm fire in Hagrid's hut.
Severus cast a Fianto Duri at himself, and a blueish-white light shot out of his wand in bursts, hardening and strengthening the Protego shield that he already had in place. He tried again to touch her, feeling the zapping of the dark hex hitting the shield, but not hurting him. He stepped through the shield and was surrounded by a halo of blue light. Not wasting any time, he grabbed Hermione tightly around the waist, pulling her inside his shield and them both out of the ring of dark magic that had been pinning her to the tree.
The darkness in the conjured bindings had obviously been suppressing her magic and restricting her voice, otherwise she would have called out; she had been so close to the hut. The thought suddenly dawned on him, that she would have seen everything that had just occurred between 'herself' and Beau Lestrange.
Hermione flung her arms around him, crying with relief. She felt a violent surge pass through her body as her suppressed magic refilled her veins, and needed to release it. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around him, holding his dear face between her hands and covering his mouth with her own, forcing her tongue through his lips and finding him willing and ready.
The rain poured down on them both as they kissed open-mouthed and passionately, uncaring that it was soaking them through so their robes were drenched and their hair plastered to their heads. When he felt the spike of her returning magic begin to dissipate, he pulled out of the kiss, shaking slightly from its power, and using one of his hands to push his wet hair back roughly.
"You have no idea what that did to me, watching you, a person I believed to be you, with that bastard, Lestrange."
He buried his face in her neck, biting and kissing, trying to rid himself of the false memory.
"I watched them, Severus. I watched her pretend to be me. I could do nothing, they trapped me here."
Her teeth chattered with cold and anger.
"No, Hermione, you don't understand."
He moved from her neck and looked her straight in the eyes.
"Let me tell you how I felt. I thought I had died when I saw them. The thought of you with another wizard made me want to die. I could never bear it if you were to be with another. I love you, do you hear me? I love you. I love you beyond all reasonable belief."
He gave her a little shake with the vehemence of his words, setting her on her feet in front of him, holding her upper arms tightly and continuing to declare his deepest feelings, which were spilling unbidden from his mouth with no hope of stopping until they were all revealed.
"My life would be nothing without you. I do not care if we have been together days, weeks, months or years. I do not want to spend another day without you by my side. I do not want to be your boyfriend, I want to be your husband. I am sixty years old, Hermione, and I do not want to waste another second before claiming the happiness that has eluded me for six decades. You have walked into my life and turned all my beliefs on their heads. I want to stand by you and tell the world you are mine, and mine alone."
Hermione stared at him, water dripping down her face and her hair so wet and heavy that the curls were weighted straight, and everything suddenly became crystal clear.
"Bond with me, Severus."
"What?"
"Bond with me. Bond with me now. Tonight."
"Now?"
"Now. It took me forty years to find you. I am not waiting another forty in case someone better might turn up. I am not a stupid witch, and I know what I want. You are the wizard I desire, for all time. Accept my bond. What say you?"
He crushed his lips to hers in response, bringing his wet hands up to cup her soaking face, holding her head at such an angle that he could plunder her mouth with his tongue, both of them shivering with lust and cold. The rain cascaded down on them through the forest canopy above, but they cared not, both their jaws moving together as they devoured each other in with their sealing kiss.
As they kissed, they were squeezed through the tunnel of his superior Apparition. He landed them in the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge, a site where the very land they walked on was imbued with old magic and ley lines.
Hermione looked around in wonder, feeling rather happy that it wasn't raining at Stonehenge, and then slightly embarrassed by having such an insipid thought at such a profound moment.
"I wanted somewhere infused with the most ancient of earth magicks as our bonding venue," he whispered in her ear, by way of answer both to her previous question and explanation for the venue.
The wind came rolling and roaring across the chalk plateau of Salisbury Plain, whipping around and through the huge and complicated arrangement of slabs and pillars that made up the monument of Stonehenge.
Severus took out his wand, and using great sweeping moments with the full length of his arm, he cast enormous blue arcs of protection around the outside of the stone circle, rendering both himself and Hermione invisible and inaudible to anyone or anything who may be near. His hair was electrified with the current of powerful magic surging through him as he cast, and she gasped at this large-scale display.
Her powerful wizard, for now and evermore. Hermione had not a single doubt in her mind that he was the right choice for her. She had found the most perfect bond in a place that no one else appeared to have thought to look.
He took her hand and led her towards the flat, centre stone. They placed their palms against it, feeling the powerful earth magick within it recognise and respond to the touch of two magical beings. Infused with elemental magick, they turned towards each other, clasping hands.
"I, Severus Tobias Snape, offer my hand to bind and my magic to bond. Whilst I cannot believe our road ahead will be easy, I promise to stand by your side for all time, to guide and support you, to love and protect you, in this life and beyond. Will you accept my bond?"
His black eyes flashed with love and power, squeezing her hands hard, as if willing her to accept. He didn't need to.
"I accept your bond."
From his right hand, which clasped Hermione's left, two illuminated jets of magic, one blue and one black, burst out and entangled themselves around their joined hands, and stayed there, glowing brightly with magical energy. He smiled at her, a real, honest smile that radiated joy across his austere features.
"Now you."
"I, Hermione Jean Granger, offer my hand to bind and my magic to bond. Whatever life has in store for us we will face together. I will be the protector and keeper of your heart, your love and your soul. I am proud to stand by your side, and will do so, in this life and beyond. Will you accept my bond?"
Speaking through the tears that were hurting her throat and pricking at her eyelids, she looked at Severus, so strikingly handsome in the darkest night, lit by the powerful spells he had cast, long raven hair blowing wild as the wind swept across the plain and whistled through the stones. She loved him - unreservedly, unexpectedly and passionately.
"I accept your bond."
The rumble of his deep voice completed the ritual.
From her right hand which held his left, two further jets of magic broke forth, this time gold and green, snaking themselves around their clasped hands.
He leaned forward and captured her mouth with his, using his lips to gently prise hers open and find her tongue, which she swirled eagerly with his. Both of them felt a magical thrum form around them, rising from the ground up, encircling them like a cyclone. As they kissed, the magic travelled up their bodies, taking the bonds from their wrists with it.
As the bonds released, they threw their arms around each other, pulling closer, stroking and soothing as the magical cyclone eased off over their heads, making their hair stand on end.
"Did it work?"
Severus burst out a sharp bark of a laugh, a welcome relief after the intensity of what had just occurred between them.
"Always with the questions. Look at our hands."
She looked down at her left hand and saw a silver band on her wedding finger, and the same, but thicker and larger, on his. She smiled.
"We are bonded," she stated, simply. "I love you, Severus."
"And I love you, more than you could ever believe possible. I may just be the luckiest wizard on this earth to be bonded to such a witch as you, Hermione."
He pulled her towards him, wrapping his wet cloak around them both.
"Can I suggest we return to my chambers? We do have other problems that require our attention, but there is nothing that cannot be left until the morning. Right now, wife, we should remove this sodden clothing and we also have a bond to consummate. I would say that the two occupations are not mutually exclusive?"
He raised that suggestive eyebrow of his as he looked down to her upturned face. He really was impossibly sexy, and she hugged him to her tighter.
"Side-Along me, husband."
Crack.
