A/N: Chapter gets a little smutty toward the end! Just a warning! I had the amazing Gidgit2u beta this chapter and help me write the smutty bits! It was my first attempt, so they pretty much wrote the smut part. Thank you again so much for your help! Sorry for the long wait on this chapter, there's been a lot going on. Much Love- Bookworm

Though it took a while, things seemed to slowly get back to normal. Or close to what normal was for Hermione. One thing that had changed, or maybe wormed itself into her life, was Draco Malfoy. He had begun speaking more and more with Hermione and Neville, and they had even agreed to group up and had gone to Hogsmeade as chaperones. Though he still annoyed Hermione a bit, it was obvious to her that he really was putting in the effort he had promised. They had become something of friends.

"Alright. Let's go, otherwise we'll lose everyone." Malfoy said as they ushered the last students out of the gates. They trudged forward toward the sleepy village town. It was a dreary March day and was lightly drizzling. The three of them made a beeline for Scrivenshaft's; they all needed more supplies for their classes, and Hermione wanted to see their new book selection.

Hermione was next to a stand of newspapers and advertisements, flipping through a book, when Malfoy walked to stand next to her. She glanced at him just in time to see him pick a few of the ads from the display, and her eyebrows ticked up.

"Looking into real estate?" She asked him.

"Oh, no. This isn't for me." He said awkwardly.

Hermione tucked the book under her arm, and turned to fully face him.

"It's not?" She asked.

"No." He answered, turning away from her and walking away.

She watched him walk to the door of the shop, and turn back to wait for her and Neville. They'd made plans to go get butterbeers after they were done in the bookshop. Hermione figured that he was ready to go, as he not only had the pamphlets that he had stuffed into his pocket, but he also held a small package under his arm. She hadn't even noticed him purchase it, so into her book she'd been.

Hermione walked away from the shelves, grabbed some new quills, ink and parchment, and made her way to the counter to pay. Neville joined her, buying his own quills and ink pots, before joining Malfoy by the door.

They made their way in silence to the Three Broomsticks. As soon as they entered, the loud chatter and laughter of students assaulted their ears. Hermione made a face. She wondered if they had been this loud when they'd been younger, as she slid in beside Neville at the bar.

"Were we this loud?" Malfoy asked, as though he'd read her mind.

"I know how to find out." Neville said, raising his arm slightly and getting the attention of Madame Rosmerta.

"Hello dears, been a while." She greeted them. "What can I get for you?" She asked, giving them a smile.

"Three butterbeers please." Hermione asked politely.

"And a firewhisky." Draco added, rubbing his temples.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, and he sneered at her. "What? If I have to sit through this, I'm going to have to drink."

Hermione thought about it for a minute before shrugging. Who was she to judge? Rosmerta set their drinks down on the bar, and they all took a sip of the warm drink, savoring it.

"Rosmerta, we were wondering. Were we this loud when we were students?" Neville asked her, making her throw back her head and laugh.

"You lot? You are three of the quietest students I have ever had the pleasure to come across. Your friends though, they were loud." She told them with a wink.

"Well, I know what friends she means for us, but I didn't know you had friends, Ferret." Hermione said in faux sincerity to Malfoy. His face turned a slight shade of pink as he lifted his firewhisky and downed it in one gulp.

"I had friends." He muttered.

"Oh!" Hermione gasped. "Ones only you could see?" She asked in a false whisper. He glared at her, and Neville laughed.

"Oh relax, Hermione! Knock it off." He said, shaking his head at them.

"At least my friends didn't get the exams canceled almost every year." He taunted her, and her jaw dropped.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about, they would never. They loved school." She said.

"So much they didn't come back for seventh year?" He asked. She knew that he meant it as a joke, but her face fell and Neville became silent behind her. "Oh, wait- I didn't-"

"No. It's fine." Hermione said, absentmindedly rubbing her scar on her arm under her robes. "At least my nickname isn't because I was shoved down someone's trousers after a professor made me a ferret." She said innocently.

"Low blow Granger. Low blow." He said, shaking his head and mock-glaring at her.

"You know, I always wondered, do you remember that… excursion?" Neville asked.

"Unfortunately." Malfoy answered, shuddering. "I feel sorry for any bird that had a go at that." He said, and Neville choked on his drink.

"What?!" He gasped, wiping his mouth.

"Apparently, he went to France the summer before sixth year, and was fairly… entertained, by the women." He explained, a disgusted look on his face.

"No…" Hermione said, shocked.

"Yeah. He even wrote a few, showed us the letters, there was no way he could have faked that. His handwriting was atrocious." He told them.

"Oh god… I do not want to think about that. Please talk about something else." She begged them.

"Alright… you and Severus." Draco said after a moment of thought.

"What about us?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Have you two shagged?" He asked, quiet enough so only she and Neville would be able to hear. She turned red instantly, and her mouth fell open as Neville once again choked on his drink. He really did have bad timing.

"I-I don't see how that's any of your business." She told him, turning her attention to the drink in front of her.

"So you haven't then." Malfoy said, shrugging.

"What? You two have been together for…" Neville got silent, attempting to do the math in his head.

"Almost eight months." Hermione answered for him.

"Do you even know your anniversary?" Malfoy asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"July twenty-ninth." She answered.

"And it's the eighteenth now. Less than two weeks and you will have been together for eight months." Neville said.

"And you haven't shagged?" Malfoy asked again in a hushed tone.

"No! Okay, no." She whispered, glancing around to be sure that nobody was listening in on them.

"Well, why not?" He asked her, Neville leaned in on her other side, to hear her answer.

"Why do you care?" She asked, shaking her head.

"I'm invested in your relationship." He said with a shrug.

"Look… we only just started sleeping in the same room as each other. We just… we aren't there yet." She said, staring down at the bar top. She didn't mean it of course, she had been ready for a while now.

"Neither of you?" He asked, and Hermione sighed.

"Look, I want to. But I'm not going to rush anything. I want us to work." She admitted.

"Hermione, neither of you are getting any younger." Malfoy said pointedly. "Might as well have fun." He said with a shrug.

"I can't believe we are talking about this." Hermione muttered to them.

"Fine, then we won't." Malfoy said with a shrug. "But, maybe you should talk to him about it."

Hermione glanced at Neville, who quickly looked away from her and down. She let out a sigh, maybe they were right. They did need to talk. They had snogged plenty of times, but Hermione loved him. She didn't see what was holding them back. Her mind took her back to a conversation they had once had, one of the many times that Severus had declared that he was too old for her, and she wanted to slap herself. Of course they needed to talk.

Malfoy went back to the castle first, as Hermione and Neville had to go through the village and assure that every student had cleared out and gone back to the school. When she and Neville had finally gotten to the castle, Hermione parted ways with him and went down to the dungeons instead of joining him for dinner in the Great Hall. She was tired, and just wanted to see Severus.

She didn't bother knocking on the door to his chambers, he had insisted that she was always welcome as he considered them hers as well. She smiled as she entered, he was sitting at his desk flipping through some papers, and hadn't heard her enter. She quietly removed her cloak and set it down on the bed before walking up behind him and touching his shoulder lightly.

"Hello." He greeted her softly, reaching one hand up and placing it on hers. "How was Hogsmeade?" He asked her.

"Loud. Louder than I remember." She told him, kissing his cheek.

"Three Broomsticks?" He asked with a small chuckle.

"Yes, it's much louder with all the students in it." She told him before glancing down at the papers in front of him. Her eyebrows raised, as they appeared to be the papers that Malfoy had collected earlier in the shop. "Severus? What are you doing?" She asked him.

"Looking at houses." He said distractedly, looking intently down at the description of one. "What do you think of this one?" He asked, holding the paper up for her to see.

"Wait." She shook her head in confusion. "You're moving?" She asked.

"I never really thought of Spinner's End as home, and I think it would be nice for us to have a home that we chose." He explained with a shrug, and Hermione could have sworn her heart skipped.

"Us?" She asked, her eyebrows raised as she took a step back to look at him properly. He shifted slightly to look at her and raised his own eyebrows, smiling slightly.

"Yes, us." He clarified for her.

"You… want me to live with you?" She asked him.

"You did all last summer, I don't see any problem with us getting a new house." He said.

"Severus, I lived in your house as your apprentice. Separate rooms, remember?" She asked him.

"Well, yes. I just thought… never mind." He said, shaking his head and gathering all the papers together.

"Severus, stop." Hermione quickly said, placing a hand on his to still his movements.

"No, of course it's too soon, I'm sorry." He said, opening a drawer of the desk and shoving the papers inside.

"Severus, just wait. I'm just surprised, is all, I didn't know that you wanted to live together." She explained to him. "I would…. I would love to live with you."

"Are you sure?" He asked, glancing at her.

"Of course I am. Are you?" She asked him in return.

"Well, I'm looking at houses, aren't I ?" He replied cheekily. She smiled and shook her head, holding back a laugh.

"But Severus… I don't have enough money to help buy a house." She told him.

"I'll buy it." He said without hesitation.

"I don't want to ask you to buy a house meant for the both of us." She objected.

"You aren't. I have too much money as it is. I know what I can afford. I would be more than happy to buy a house for us." He told her, gripping her hand tightly in his. He was gazing up at her hopefully, and Hermione smiled gently at him.

"I could try to help a bit, I have some saved up." She told him softly.

"If you insist, that's what we will do, but I can buy a house. I've already seen what Spinner's end is worth, I could buy two cottages with what it would fetch for." He told her.

"Well… do you have a new house in mind already?" She asked him. He looked at her for a moment longer before pulling the papers back out and shuffling through them, separating two of them from the rest.

"I think these would be good. They are both in Hogsmeade, so you could stay teaching here and live in the house instead of living in the castle. They both have shops attached to them, I could open my brewery. In another year of course. Not immediately." He told her. She moved to stand behind him and looked at the pictures over his shoulder. The first was a plain shop that appeared to have a flat over it. The picture changed, and it showed the flat's layout and interior space. It was small and very thought it was fine but she wasn't overly impressed.

The second paper, however, made her mouth drop and she snatched the paper up from the desk. Instead of a flat above the shop, the house was the back half of the building. She quickly read the description that was underneath the picture:

Shop Space(2 floors):

-Large workroom/ stockroom (Upstairs)

-Lavatories for either public or personal use (Downstairs)

-Rest area for any employees (Upstairs)

-Checking counter (Downstairs)

-Ample shelving and floor space for product (Downstairs)

-Window display area (Downstairs)

Living/Housing(2 floors):

-2 Bedrooms (Upstairs)

-Study/den (Downstairs)

-2 Lavatories (Upstairs, one attached to master bedroom)

-Small sitting room (Downstairs)

-Kitchen (Downstairs)

The pictures of the shop reminded her of Flourish and Blotts, the description accurately described how much shelving was inside the shop. When she saw the inside of the house however, she knew that this was theirs. She had to live there, the house was really a cottage that they had adjusted into two floors, which thankfully allowed for the 'study' that she was sure would become their own personal library.

"This one." She said, still gazing down at the paper in front of her.

"Love, did you want to see-" Severus began, but he stopped talking when she shook her head.

"No, this is it." She said. She looked up at him, smiling hopefully. "We could really get it?" She asked.

"Yes." He nodded.

"Then this one." She said again.

"Right, well I can contact someone and put in an offer, we'll just have to wait until summer to move." He told her, gently taking the paper from her and grabbing a quill. He wrote a few things down, it looked like a short task list, before setting it aside and standing from his chair. Hermione admired him as he stood, it was so rare that he wasn't wearing robes. He was fit enough, you could see muscle showing in his biceps and back when he stretched.

"Why haven't we shagged?" She blurted out. As soon as the words left her mouth, she slapped her hands on her mouth and he turned to face her, his eyes were wide with shock, and his ears quickly turned red. This was not how she meant to start this conversation.

"What?" He choked out, staring at her.

She slowly lowered her hands, and felt the blush enter her cheeks, surely they were as red as his ears.

"Erm…" She let out a shaky breath, "It's just, we've been together for eight months and we haven't really talked about it." She told him awkwardly.

They had only spoken about this once before, but it had only ended with him telling her that he loved her. Severus let out a low breath and leaned back against the desk, blinking a few times.

"Well… you want to talk about it?" He asked her.

She felt her cheeks grow warmer, and was sure that the blush had spread to the rest of her face as well. She took a few steps back and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I think so, yes." She said, biting her lip nervously.

"Right then. Well… You know that I have… Experience." He said, carefully choosing his words.

"And I don't." Hermione said quickly.

"I don't want to rush you into anything." Severus said gently.

"Severus… I love you. We just decided to buy a house together. I… I don't plan on going anywhere." She told him.

"What are you saying?" Severus asked her.

"Severus I plan on spending the rest of my life with you." She said, looking intently at the floor in front of her.

"You…" Severus cleared his throat gently, "you mean it?" He asked in a gentle tone.

"I really do." She said, looking straight at him. "So, if you want to wait a little longer, I understand. But… I think you should know that I am ready whenever you are." She told him boldly.

"Hermione.. you are so young, you have barely lived.. how do you know?" He asked her, rubbing his neck with one hand.

"Severus, you and I both know I have lived more than most people. I don't want my first time to be with anyone else. I love you, and…. I couldn't imagine being happier." She told him.

He took a deep breath, they generally didn't have very many heartfelt conversations like this, and it was apparent to both of them.

"I… I love you. I never thought I would love anyone again. But you… you have changed everything. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. You are everything." Severus told her, his face becoming calm once more.

Hermione smiled at him slightly, and he went to her, enveloping her in his arms.

"I really love you." Hermione told him, her voice muffled slightly against his shirt.

"And I, you." He replied, kissing the top of her head.

Hermione wrapped her arms around him, and let out a deep breath, feeling relieved with their conversation.

"So." Severus said, taking a short step back but keeping his hands on her arms. He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but seemed to change his mind and instead ducked his head down, capturing her lips with his.

Hermione's hands moved on their own accord. Her one hand skimmed up along his side, absorbing the feel of his muscles below linen cloth as it moved to settle upon his shoulder. Her other tangled itself in hair the texture of fine silk. Her fingers tightened their grip as she felt him deepen the kiss.

She was held in place by Severus's hands, their nimble fingers splayed across the small of her back, anchoring her against him.

As his tongue swept against hers, Hermione felt a dam break inside her as a moan escaped her throat. She grabbed the fabric of his shirt and pulled it up and out from where it was tucked into the front of his pants. She began undoing the annoying number of buttons lining the front, before a thought struck her.

"Do you like this shirt?" She panted between kisses, tilting her head to give him access to her throat as he began nipping his way down. A soft sigh floated from her lips.

"Do I—"

Hermione didn't wait for him to properly answer, instead grabbing a side in each hand and giving a mighty tug. Buttons went flying onto the ground. Hermione was rewarded with the sight of his pale chest spattered with fine inky hairs.

"You do know you're a witch, love." His eyebrow was arched, but a smirk flirted with the corner of his lips as she turned her eyes upward. "And one quite talented with a wand?"

"Quite." She licked her lips. "But sometimes a hands on approach is much more… invigorating." She said, before leaning forward to kiss the center of his chest.

Severus's hands lifted the bottom of her shirt gently, a direct contrast to her own impatience. His finger traced along the gap between her belt and the edge of her shirt, teasing the exposed skin.

Goosebumps rose along her arms at the gentle whisper of his touch, and Hermione felt her nipples harden in anticipation. Going on instinct, she wrapped her arms around him, angling her pelvis so that it rubbed against him in the way she so deeply desired.

She'd kissed others before she'd begun seeing Severus. She'd thought she'd felt lust and all the wonderful hormonal trappings. But Merlin! She'd never felt the way she did in Severus's arms, the way his lips and touch drove every nerve ending wild. She couldn't get enough of the wizard currently enveloping her, and knew her heart was forever with the man in front of her.

She reached up and tugged his face down to hers, their lips meeting once again. This time the spark was a roaring inferno, their tongues and teeth and lips battling for dominance.

Hermione's felt as if she were in a dream. Surely this couldn't be real. As if they were of one mind, Severus began peeling her shirt up, however, Hermione stepped back.

"I'm yours." She said, pulling off her shirt in one fluid motion. She saw his eyes darken as they roamed over her bra clad torso. She'd never been so bare, so vulnerable, as she was in this moment.

Her breath hitched as a kernel of insecurity bubbled, ready to pop.

"You're…" Severus swallowed. "You're stunning."

The huskiness of his already knicker-drenching voice sent bolts of confidence into her heart. As his hands moved to caress her, his thumb trailed over the curve of her belly, the underside of her bra, she shuddered in pleasure. In desperate want of more, of everything he could give her.

Hermione took a sharp breath as Severus steered her back until her knees hit the bed. Sitting back gently against the satin luxury of his sheets, she pushed herself back on the bed, watching him intently as she did so.

Severus followed her onto the bed, his eyes glued to hers. Her hands rose to cup his cheeks, her thumbs stroking his face softly. Severus leaned over her, his forehead resting against hers, his eyes seeming to reach down into her soul.

Lying like this, him pressed against her, sheathing her with his body, she could feel his own excitement against her belly. Pressing against her through his trousers. Her heart was thundering in her chest. Nervous excitement and delicious anticipation threading itself through her veins.

She understood his concern that his experience would be an obstacle for her. At first, he'd been right. Insecurities and long held beliefs could be a nightmare in the early hours when logic gave way to fears.

However, after years of listening to her roommates talk and gossip about inept boys and fumbling fingers, she was relieved that her lover wouldn't fall into those categories. She knew that Severus would show her the proper way to be loved and cherished.

As his hand drifted down toward her arse, Hermione brought one of her hands between them, and undid her belt and the button at the top of her muggle jeans. Severus stilled, and locked his eyes onto hers.

"Are you sure?" He asked her softly.

"Yes." She answered immediately.

He remained still, his own nerves apparent. She realized she'd need to make the move, as no matter how many years separated them age wise, they were kindred souls of worry and caution.

She shifted her hands to his waistband, tucking both index fingers just inside the fabric and undoing the button on his trousers. She pushed both them and his pants down, just a little, which seemed to bring Severus back to the present.

"Off?" He asked, his eyes growing slightly wider.

"Off." She said. She threw a saucy smile his way, and was rewarded by a tilted lip of his own.

"My little minx," his voice was like smoked honey, smooth with dark undertones of desire.

Hermione shivered in want. In need.

He brushed a piece of hair off of her shoulder before moving off the bed just long enough to remove the trousers. He moved to get back onto the bed, but Hermione sat up and held up one finger.

"What?" He asked softly. She shifted her finger to point at his pants, and raised an eyebrow.

"Off?" He asked again.

"Off." She affirmed.

He paused for a moment before sliding his thumbs into the waistband and slowly pulling them down. Hermione watched him, feeling her cheeks get warm at the sight of him. Her breath hitched as he kicked them to the side.

"Come here." She whispered, licking her lips at the sight of him. He was absolutely magnificent.

He obliged, returning to the bed, and she put her hands on his waist, pulling him toward her to kiss him deeply.