A/N: I'm attempting to get back to a writing schedule after a couple of weeks of radio silence so two Snape chapters in reasonably quick succession seems appropriate; might even be three as I'm itching to write the next. Also, I have fallen victim to my own cliff hangers and really can't wait anymore; at least for this part. Please enjoy… reviews, follows and favourites are, as always, always welcome.

Chapter 14 – Hermione's Crush

Hermione took a deep breath. This was it; this was the moment she finally revealed what she knew, how she knew, why she knew and how she saved him. Trusting herself to get through the whole story without crying or spontaneously bursting into flames from embarrassment was a monumental feat but she had to start somewhere. It was difficult for her to pin down where the beginning was exactly so she asked:

"Would you like to know how or why I saved you first?"

Severus sat at the opposite end of the velvet chaise to her, sipping his second fire-whiskey and remaining silent; he shrugged loosely at her question, as if her story was only of mild interest to him. Years of practice in the art of misdirection was a hard habit to break and he knew he had to school the innate curiosity that had been plaguing him for days.

"Ok. Fine, be like that. I won't bother asking your opinion next time." She took a deep breath to still her frustration with his seeming lack of interest and continued. "Well, I suppose I should start at the most beginning point I can think of, which would be during the battle at the Department of Mysteries. I think that is where most of these circumstances began to…"

"Two years ago?" He asked casually. "That's when you decided you needed to save me? That's when you developed these… feelings?"

Should I really be honest about when I started to fancy him? What if it puts him off? There's a reason I hid my interest, my fascination, infatuation from literally everyone, including him. How would I even phrase that? Erm…

"The saving thing was gradual over the last two years… I'm getting to that. As for the feelings, they have been developing for much longer, more like almost six years but I'll get to that later too."

"Six years?" Finally the calm, unflappable façade cracked as his eyebrows rose and his mouth dropped open. "Hermione, you were a child."

"Ok, I guess I'll get to it now. I was a very advanced child, if you remember? It was never about doodling love-hearts in notebooks with your initials in them; my feelings for you started with respect. I remember the exact moment it really changed from the respect I have for all of my professors to particularly favouring you… it was when you knocked Lockhart on his arse during that duelling club demonstration in second year. I was like most young girls at the beginning of that year, practically drooling over the handsome and famous author; it was more about his being an author for me than the handsome and famous bit but it didn't take me long to realise just how much of a poser he really was and by the time the duelling club happened I was over it. The way you… well, your prowess during the duel, your magnetism, stance, power; I didn't realise all those things at the time, but my respect and admiration was won in that moment."

Well, now I've done it. Goodbye Severus, have a nice life. Hermione thought with a cringe at her own childish god-worship of the man. She knew she had babbled like a twelve-year-old with her first crush; she knew she sounded awed and dumbstruck and he was probably going to lose any respect he may hide for her all in the instant she declares hers for him. Oh the irony!

Severus noticed as he watched her describe the day he had won her respect and admiration that she did not flush scarlet at the admission; the feelings and journey she was sharing with him did not make her feel embarrassed or ashamed. That more than the details of Hermione's tale made his heart swell and his chest tighten. He nodded his acceptance of the praise with a small but genuine smile, unable to speak without betraying emotions he wasn't quite ready to share himself.

She nodded back, seeming to understand him and smiled before continuing.

"It seems the story that led to this moment… to… us, began even earlier than I realised but then don't all good stories have something like that? Some big realisation that it all began so long ago, that it was 'meant to be', that the drama and happenstance around it is just to enthral the audience?"

"Perhaps. Much of the drama and happenstance, in your case, however, seems to be of your own making. I am curious when your feelings changed once more… from the admiration and respect, which I do, by the way, appreciate, to something entirely more… hormonal?"

She smiled shyly, blushing a little and looked down.

"So coy, Hermione? After your declarations and our exertions in the Shrieking Shack, I would have believed you beyond shyness?"

"On the whole, I like to think I am but stating these things out loud and especially to you makes me feel like a silly little school girl with a crush again. The truth is, the hormonal side of things, as you call it, I assume meaning when I more specifically started to find you attractive, was in fourth year. Again, the girls had others to lose their head over… Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum… my head wasn't turned, much. I won't deny fleeting interests; Cedric was… well, the whole school fancied him and as for Krum, well he invited me to the Yule Ball as I'm sure you remember, so I don't have a leg to stand on to deny my interest there but it was really all to make Ron jealous and while I didn't really mind Viktor and he was technically my first ever date so I'll always remember him fondly, it was never like we could have been anything serious, I mean he lives on the other side of Europe somewhere and…"

Severus held his hand up to cease the run on sentence.

"Hermione, breathe. If you do not, I fear you will expire before you reach the end of that long-winded sentence, never mind the whole story."

Hermione took several very deep, calming breaths, narrowing her eyes maliciously at the interruption.

"Right, yes. I was just trying to make the point that…"

"Yes, yes. You were a teenage girl getting caught up in all the usual things that teenage girls do; namely, teenage boys." He smirked.

"Well, yes. Fine. I'll own that part. But my point is that it was fleeting. My interest in teenage boys was short-lived; my attentions were much more inappropriately directed, or more appropriately depending on your point of view, at a certain professor." She said with a smile.

"So it would seem. From what point of view could your interest in me ever be considered appropriate? Not that you ever made it known."

"Well that would have gone down well, I'm sure… 'Professor Snape, I'm having problems concentrating in you lessons. The problem being that all I can think about is how much I want to snog your face off while undoing all those blasted buttons that make seeing you shirtless a most impossible task.' How exactly would you have responded?"

Seeing her point he cleared his throat.

"Erm… I imagine not well. I would perhaps have had you adjourn to the hospital wing, maybe even St Mungo's for a clearly addled mind. I would have believed it to be the effects of Amortensia in your morning pumpkin juice, possibly the imperious curse as a worst case scenario."

"Well, isn't that charming? Suffice it to say, I held my tongue and my heart for a reason. And as for 'from what point of view my interest would seem appropriate', well, that would be from my point of view, naturally. I understand others would see it as misguided but it made sense to me… you were, and still are… magnificent. I know you're going to hate the term 'hero' but it does stand… the dark hero, if that makes you feel better… the sharpest wit, the driest humour, blindingly brilliant mental capabilities, strikingly attractive, worthy or respect and admiration and despite what the rest of our world thinks, trust. You were everything, you still are… and now I'm learning still more, such as how utterly self-deprecating you are and there's actually a spark of amusement in your eyes when you look at me like I'm crazy… that spark right there…" she pointed her right index finger directly at his face. "Who else could ever capture my interest so completely that even in comparison to books, it is as if you blot out the sun?" She put her hand down. "Who else could I ever fall so desperately in love with that I would submit without argument, fight or flight to a magically cursed bond or two? It seems the bond, at least the one I know of, marks me, marks us both as damned to an eternity with each other but I honestly and truthfully…" she moved closer to him, giving him the opportunity to kiss her if he agreed, "consider it a blessing."

She loves me? She just said she loves me. She said a lot of wonderful things but I think the love thing tops them all. She brought up the bonds too… ok, Sev, time to come clean. She loves me! She loves me? Yes! She loves me. Has anyone ever said that to me before? Ok, focus on the bonds, come clean, and think about the love thing later. She loves me. Hermione Granger loves Severus Snape… Skeeter would have a field day. She loves me.

He took the proffered opportunity and pulled her into his lap. His lips crushing against hers in a searing kiss which was to leave her in no doubt of his approval of her declaration as he positioned her to straddle his lap. He grabbed her hips and yanked her closer to him, feeling his cock stir at both her proximity and declarations. He couldn't remember ever feeling more wanted.

Fuck it, we can talk later. Except I want her to say it again, I want her to say she loves me over and over again… as she falls apart against my fingers and my tongue, as she rides my cock and screams my name.

"Oh Gods, Severus. Your kisses are heaven and hell all at once, I never want to stop but we have to… I need to… oh fuck that feels amazing…" she said as he moved his drugging kisses to her neck and down her shoulder.

"I am pleased you brought up the bond. Can I lure you into continuing to seal it?" He asked against her neck a whole octave lower than his usual delicious tone. She shuddered in response.

"Gods, I want to, I can't think of anything I want to do more; I would love it in fact, but there is so much more to tell you and…"

"I don't care about the rest of your story, just as I doubt you will care about mine. I am much more interested in doing this…" His hands moved up her sides, pulling the v-neck white t-shirt with them and over her head before dipped his head, and more specifically his mouth toward her breasts. His hot tongue traced the lace edging of her bra, his hands peeling the fabric down to reveal her soft mounds and their tightened peaks.

"Severus, we need to…"

Her determined speech broke into a moan as his mouth latched around one nipple sending a thrill directly to her clit; the deft fingers of his beautifully talented hands pinching and rolling her other nipple until she forgot completely that there was ever a need conversation. All she needed, all she wanted was this, him and her locked in this endless moment of bliss and togetherness, of possessiveness and claiming the other. It was all she had hoped for, all she had fantasised about and more. He was so everything.

"Hermione, you are perfect. So beautifully responsive. I love every moan, every breathy whimper, mewl and groan and when you grind your hips like…" she ground her hips against his very tight trousers and his eyes rolled back in his head at the sensation, "mmmm, like that, I can barely think long enough to speak."

"Your voice washes over my whole body, it sends shivers up my spine and…. Oh my God…" she halted her praise as his other hand moved up her spine. "And makes me ache, I ache so much to have you inside me, right here… "She rolled her hips again, making him growl.

"You are a siren, Hermione. How have I lived my whole life without such bliss?"

"Make love to me, Severus."

Severus Snape had never been a man who needed to be told twice, about anything, and this was certainly not going to be the day he made an exception. His hands returned to her hips and as he stood she slid her legs around him, not wanting to lose any contact at all. He turned on the spot, apparating them to his bedroom, landing perfectly before the bottom end of his four-poster, black draped, bed.

She giggled at his enthusiasm and pulled him into the first kiss she had so aggressively initiated as he placed her to sit on the edge of the bed and they worked to remove each other's clothing; switching from fast and frenzied to slow and seductive. Both feeling the urge to claim and be claimed, both wanting to savour each divine and lavish attention of the other.

It took barely a minute for Severus and Hermione to be clad only in underwear, hers lacy, his silk and they ripped at the last vestiges of their modesty, feeling none at all. The request Hermione had made for Severus to make love to her had quickly demanded a much more frenzied approach and as he lined himself up with her sopping wet entrance, she amended the request.

"Fuck me, Severus."

He slammed into her with every ounce of strength and feeling he possessed.

"Yeeeeeees. Yes, yes, yes. Fuck me Severus." She cried out as he set a gruelling pace, his hips ricocheting off the cradle of her thighs as he pistoned in and out of her.

In barely a minute or two she was feeling the familiar coil of tension inside her abdomen and womb; she urged him deeper with her heels as they dug into the base of his spine and dug her nails into his shoulders as the tension increased…

"I'm… I'm… Severus, I'm going to…" the stuttered, almost incoherent sentence broke as she felt her whole body shudder with release, her internal walls clamping on the rock solid arousal of the incredible man inside her, his name wailing from her lips like the cry of a banshee.

Unable to stop his own release, Severus growled her name and spilt his seed, decorating her womb like a Jackson Pollock painting before collapsing over her, panting hard.

Matching his unsteady breathing rhythm but cherishing the weight of him sated and collapsed on top of her, Hermione let out a contented sigh, with only one thought screaming in her mind… 'I love you Severus Snape'.

Luckily or unluckily for the wizard in question, given that he still had not revealed his secret of the last couple of days, his mind heard every word of the declaration her mind played like a mantra on repeat. He wondered if he had ever felt more content in his life and feared that it may all end with his confession.

Now? He wondered. Is now a good time to tell her? It probably is. I have time to try and explain while she gets dressed to bolt out the door.

"Hermione…"

"Oh Gods, Severus, you're amazing. I've dreamt about this, fantasised about it for years but I never imagined you would be so… oh gods, I don't know, so… everything."

He rolled off of her, smirking and lay on his back beside her. She didn't look at him when he moved, her eyes still closed, enjoying the post-coital warmth that still caressed her.

"You're smirking, aren't you? She asked, amusedly.

"And so what if I am? You are very generous with your praise Hermione, praise I am not used to. Allow the indulgence of preening under the admiration of a beautiful young lover."

"Did you just call me beautiful?"

"I remember you being much more retentive in lessons. Perhaps you are losing your hearing?"

Hermione playfully swatted his chest from her position just as there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"If you do not wish to bare yourself to Weston, you might wish to slip under the covers." Snape said and waited for her to do so before bidding the house elf to enter.

"Good evening Master. My apologies for the interruption. Dinner will be ready in forty minutes and there is a patronus message in the collection wards."

"Thank you Weston. I shall see to it. Please direct Miss Granger to the master bathroom if she requires the facilities and show her back to the library." Snape said with absolutely no modesty in front of the elf as he stood and donned a robe before walking from the room.

"The facilities is just through the door on the left there, Miss. Call for Weston when you is ready to be shown back to the library."

Severus left the bedroom and made his way downstairs, into his private study to cast the spell which allowed patronus messages out of his collection wards. It was a fascinating little ward that he created in the summer between Hermione's third and fourth year. It worked very much like a muggle answering machine; allowing him to receive messages when he was ready, as opposed to when they could impose on him at any time, such as an inopportune moment. He could only cringingly imagine what the effect of hearing Dumbledore's voice, or Potter's might have been whilst he was fucking Hermione. If he'd have managed to power through that it would have been a miracle.

He wandlessly released the trapped patronus from his ward, rolling his eyes in exasperation when the corporeal silver smoke of a stag began to glide toward him. Begrudgingly, he had to hand it to Potter; the boy had become remarkably adept at the Patronus Charm – shame he couldn't master occlumency in such a way.

"Snape, it's Harry. I'm assuming you're still with Hermione somewhere. I checked the Shrieking Shack and found it deserted so I assume she healed you enough to apparate as well as take advantage of you. After seeing your memories and what you've done, what you've been though, neither of you need to worry about my interference with whatever you two decide to turn your situation into. All I ask is that you try not to hurt her, in the past seven years she has become as dear to me as a sister ever could be and while I can forgive you for being curmudgeonly bat of the dungeons and a thorn in my childhood, I am incapable of forgiving anyone who causes my best friend a moment's pain more than what she has endured. Also, please let her know we knew all along that she had a 'thing' for you… she's an awful liar… your name was written all over her diary. Please look after her and you'll never hear a cross word from me about your… whatever it is.

I'd also like to say, in regards to my mother that I understand your dislike of me much better now; obviously with me looking so much like my dad, I must have been an unpleasant reminder of your heartbreak from all those years ago. On her behalf, I'd like to say thank you for protecting me, even if it was begrudgingly and out of guilt for calling her that word; I'm sorry she never forgave you. It was a one-time slip up when you were hurt and angry; in my eyes and hopefully hers from where she is now, you are beyond exonerated. I love my parents but the bubble has well and truly burst on the childish worship I once had for them; they were human, they made mistakes, just like all of us do. I'm sure you don't like to rake over the past too much so that is all I'll say on the matter unless you bring it up in the future.

Will you ask Hermione to message me please? Kingsley is acting Minister for now and wants her to provide witness statements surrounding Death Eaters. I'm planning to speak for Draco Malfoy and was hoping Hermione would do the same… he was a fucking kid when he got drew into all this mess, just like me, just like her and while I'm sure he's still a little shit, he doesn't deserve a lifetime in Azkaban for decisions made about his life that were out of his control.

Well, I think that's everything for now, you're probably rolling your eyes at how long I've subjected you to my voice but it felt important to let you know I hold no ill-will toward you, about anything. I'll send another message when your pardon is official."

Severus wiped a tear away from his left eye as the stag patronus faded away. He hadn't realised how much he wanted or needed validation from Lily's son about his decisions over the course of his life. He had never sought it out, so imprisoned by his role as spy, his servitude to both Dumbledore and Voldemort; so conflicted about protecting the boy of the woman he had loved, who had rejected him. It was a balm hearing Harry Potter accept all the decisions he had made, a tonic for the soul to hear the boy apologise for his mother's rejection, to say he saw her in a more realistic light because of him. In that moment, feeling carried away by sentiments – something he had not had the freedom to do in such a long time – Severus chose to return the boys message.

"Expecto Patronum…"

The form that burst from his wand was not the doe he had been expecting; the doe which represented his love for Lily Evans; the die which had saved Harry Potter's life in the Forest of Dean. To his surprise, the silvery smoke that erupted was a phoenix…; it glided through the air to him on silent silvery wings to await instruction.

This isn't possible. The phoenix was Albus's thing, not mine. It doesn't even have anything to do with Hermione, or the soul bond or Merlin's magic. It's just changed out of nowhere. Granted there have been cases of patroni changing after traumatic events but why a phoenix? Is it because I almost died? Is it because Hermione healed me with phoenix tears? With Hermione's love have I finally, somehow, let go of Lily?

"Erm…" he began, clearing his throat. "Message for Harry Potter… Miss Granger and I are both safe and in a comfortable location – she will be taken care of. She intended to inform you of us relocating but we were… talking," he made the word 'talking' imply that they had done no talking at all, which he supposed was practically true.

"I appreciate your sentiments, Mr Potter. As you are now aware, your mother and I were close pre-Hogwarts and during our first few years. I regret the disgusting slur I called her which ended out friendship, as you say, I was angry and upset; I lashed out in the heat of the moment. Rest assured, it is not a reflection of my true feelings regarding muggle-born witches; then or now.

As for Hermione and I… we are still working out the finer details of what we are but I believe we both wish for us to be a 'we'. Not that she or I require your blessing, Potter, but it is respected all the same; you mean a lot to her and I am sure your approval will make the backlash we shall receive from the general public, easier to deal with.

In regards to my pardon and trials and witness statements, etcetera, I expect Hermione will be in touch in due course. Please pass on my congratulations to Kingsley on receiving the Ministership; he is deserving of the position and I hope he keeps it. Also, please inform Minerva that I wish to rejoin the staff of Hogwarts and reclaim my position as Potions Master if Horace would like to return to his retirement; I shall speak to her after the paperwork for my pardon has been completed and made official.

Finally, Hermione will not forgive me if I do not say this at least once but know that I do not plan to make a habit of it, even for her…

Thank you, Harry."

Snape flicked his wand and the phoenix flew through the wall of his study, towards, Harry Potter and he assumed, Hogwarts.

"Thank you." Hermione's voice came from the open doorway behind him and a moment later small arms were wrapping around his middle from behind. "I know that couldn't have been easy for you but it will mean a lot to him and it means more to me than you will ever know."

"Anything to stay in your good books, Miss Granger." He replied sarcastically.

She laughed.

"The phoenix must have been a surprise?" she asked.

"It was. I cannot explain how or why it has changed; perhaps the trauma of almost dying, perhaps that you healed me with phoenix tears; maybe something to do with finally being able to let go of the past?"

"I know why it's changed." Hermione stated, very determinedly.

"Do tell…"

"Well, the thing is…"

A/N: As much as I have fallen prey to my own cliff hangers, I'm not planning to stop them. My only explanations being that I am a Slytherin and I love to tease myself with these things as much as all my lovely rabid readers.

As always, please review… your comments are the inspiration and motivation that keep me writing.