A/N: Chapter Warnings – Possible mentions of sexual assault, violence, bad language and other sexual situations.

A/N: Once again thank you all for your responses and support, I'm glad you are all still enjoying the story, I think you all have been waiting for this chapter (and the next one). Enjoy! Many thanks everyone! :)

Chapter 40 – The Morning After, Order Meeting, and The Kneazle's out of the Bag

Hermione felt something lightly brushing against her forehead, she forced her eyes open and looked into the eyes of Severus who was lightly stroking her head.

"Good morning" she whispered.

Severus smiled at her.

"Morning love" he whispered back and kissed her cheek.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her gently.

Hermione moved her hips slightly so she could give him an answer and she grimaced.

"Slightly stiff and a little sore" she blushed.

Severus noticed her blush and noticed that she was a little embarrassed about having to mention something that was so intimate. Severus nearly chuckled but decided against it as he didn't want her to feel like he was laughing at her.

"I will get you some potions to help with that, they will give you a little relief but I strictly advise against any running or excitable activity for a couple of days" he told her.

She blushed again and went to bury her head under the duvet. But he stopped her by sitting up and pulling her into his lap and cuddling her.

This made her aware that they were both still very much naked. She paused for a moment, waiting for the terrible feeling that would have her scrambling for her clothes but there was nothing. She felt peaceful and well rested; she had never felt so good.

She could never have imagined that sex could feel that good, that amazing. She was lucky, when the other girls spoke about such things in the dormitory, they often hinted at their one night stands and never about having an actual loving relationship with someone. She knew, of course, that she and Severus were not in an actual relationship, he did not seem like the type. But she would take his love for as long as he would give it to her and she would consider herself to have been fortunate enough to have had it in the first place. After Sirius, she had never dreamed that sex would be anything but painful; she had always frowned and had always wanted to laugh cynically at the other girls when they had described how sex had been so emotional and earth shattering for them. But now, Hermione could relate and she never wanted to move from where she was ever again.

"Thank you Severus, last night was amazing and was better than what I had imagined it could ever be" she whispered her thanks to him.

"It should have been that way from the start" he told her again.

She nodded in agreement and bit her lip, she refused to feel anything but happiness today and she reached up so that she could gently kiss Severus.

Severus kissed back gently and they stayed like that for a few moments, in their happy bubble, they both knew they would have to leave soon and go back to reality but neither truly wanted to.

Severus broke the kiss and winced, he started to get up.

"Sorry love, nature calls" he said as he walked out the bedroom and towards the bathroom.

Hermione giggled and lay back down on the bed; she couldn't believe that she had finally felt what it was truly like to have sex. She felt amazing and she felt loved, she couldn't ask for more in that moment.

A few minutes later Severus came back into the room, carrying a tray.

"Breakfast in bed for the lady" he said, smiling at her.

She found that she was extremely hungry, the breakfast Severus had put together consisted of a selection of bacon, sausages and eggs – a mini version of a full English actually – and some apple juice. She wasn't normally a huge breakfast eater but today it seemed her stomach disagreed with her normal breakfast routine.

Hermione beamed at him and sat up, Severus was so sweet and she had been made breakfast in bed, she was so lucky to have him.

They ate breakfast and Hermione got up and winced, she really was sore but she really needed to use the bathroom and she knew she would have to get dressed soon, she knew Harry would probably come down here if she didn't made an appearance soon.

Severus noticed her wince and went over to her. She had already informed him that she was feeling some discomfort from their activities and he would be damned if he did not help her in some way, it was his fault that she was feeling discomfort in the first place.

"You're not going anywhere yet, I'm going to run you a bath and put some healing salts in the water, it should make you feel better" he told her, not giving her a chance to respond before he went back to the bathroom and she heard him turning the bath on.

She made her way to the bathroom and watched as Severus poured healing potions into the water. He noticed she was there and turned to her. He had a slight look of shame and a hint of self-loathing present in his facial features. Hermione frowned at his expression; she did not know why he was looking at her like that.

"I didn't mean to cause you such discomfort" he told her.

Hermione realised that his facial expression was because he blamed himself for her discomfort, she would not allow him to feel like that. At the end of the day, it couldn't be helped, she was aware before they had even begun to have sex last night, that she was likely to be sore this morning. She shook her head; it wasn't his fault at all, not from her point of view anyway.

"It's not your fault Severus" she told him.

He nodded but still did not accept her response.

Once the bath was run, Severus turned to leave so that Hermione could bathe but Hermione stopped him.

"Stay" she said as she slowly lowered herself into the bath.

Severus hesitated for a moment, having had intimate relations was one thing but for some reason, watching her have a bath seemed to be another level of intimate. Severus, after his moment of hesitation, did as she asked and put the toilet seat down so he could sit on it and talk to her while she relaxed and let the water work its magic.

After she was done, Severus helped her step out of the bath as her muscles were still a bit stiff and she dried herself and dressed herself.

Hermione went to the living room where Severus was waiting for her. She knew they would have to leave now and put in an appearance. Although it was a Sunday, people would still notice that they were missing, but Hermione didn't want to leave.

"I suppose we should put in our appearances then" she whispered regrettably.

Severus looked just as sad that their special night was about to end. But he knew that she would come back when she wanted to and that there would be many more nights like the previous one to come and he smiled at her.

"Yes we should, it would look suspicious otherwise" he muttered.

He pulled Hermione to him and they shared one last passionate embrace before she left. He waited about 10 minutes before he to left the room and headed towards the great hall.

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.

.

He knew that there was an Order meeting that afternoon, and he wondered if he would see Albus or Minerva before then.

He walked into the great hall and found Minerva still sat at the head table, still sipping her morning tea. She noticed Severus approach and smiled warmly at him.

"Hello Severus, how are you this morning?" She asked him.

"Fine, you?" He asked her.

"I'm well thank you, how was last night?" She asked him.

Severus' heart sped up, she couldn't know what had happened between him and Hermione could she? He was aware that he was taking longer than normal to answer, he knew he had gone pale and he could feel sweat beginning to form on his head and neck.

Minerva looked at him with interest before she followed up her question.

"It's just that I had no sheepish students coming to my office saying that they'd been caught snogging in the alcoves by you" she said.

Severus almost breathed a sigh of relief. She was talking about his patrol that he had to do yesterday evening.

"Nothing I couldn't handle Minerva" he smirked, remembering what punishments he had dealt out to those he had caught red handed.

Minerva smiled and shook her head, Severus would never change.

The pair talked for a while and had something quick to eat before heading towards Minerva's office to floo to headquarters for the Order meeting.

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.

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They were the first ones at Grimmauld Place and upon arrival; the first thing that Severus noticed was an angry looking Nymphadora, a miserable looking Remus, and a pale looking Sirius. He dismissed them immediately; he didn't care for petty arguments between them as so he left the room and headed for the library.

Tonks had been unhappy since the Order meeting that had taken place at Christmas. She knew there was something going on between Sirius, Remus, and Severus but no one was willing to tell her what was going on and it was frustrating her.

Remus had been coming to Grimmauld Place as little as possible in order to avoid having to answer her questions and Sirius just would not say anything at all.

Tonks knew she shouldn't have done it but she went through some of Remus' things and had found a letter about a meeting taking place between Remus and Severus so that they could have a private discussion. Tonks knew that the meeting had taken place that day in the library where Severus had punched Sirius. It meant only one thing, Severus knew exactly what was going on, and Tonks was going to do everything she could to find out what was going on.

She watched as the potions professor headed towards the library and so she got up and followed him.

She entered the library and Severus immediately looked up at her from his seated position on the chair in front of the fireplace.

"Miss Tonks, what a pleasure" he said sarcastically.

Tonks rolled her eyes and approached him.

"Professor, I'm going to be blunt, what the hell is going on?" She said as she folded her arms and waited for an answer.

Severus raised his eyebrow at the display.

"I'm not even going to pretend to know what you are referring to" he said dismissively.

Tonks was having none of that.

"Don't play stupid, it's beneath you. You know what I mean, you know there is something going on between Remus and Sirius, and I want to know what it is" she pouted but still stood her ground.

"I don't care much for their childish arguments Nymphadora, I suggest you ask them" he said.

She huffed.

"I have, they won't answer me and Remus is coming over less and less as a way to avoid me. I'm frustrated and I know you know what's going on" she told him.

Severus smirked.

"Ah, so this is about your lover not visiting you to attend to your needs. Your...frustration...has not been sated and so you feel the need to find out what is going on so you can get some attention" he smirked even more at her. It was just like she was a student once more, he relished in humiliating and making his students feel uncomfortable – even his ex-students.

She blushed, bright red, Severus was correct on the one hand but on the other, she really did want to know what was going on.

"Whatever, I know you know something because I found a letter between you and Remus-" she stopped talking, realising she had just admitted to snooping.

Severus grinned darkly.

"Looking through your lover's personal correspondence, naughty Miss Tonks and dare I say, it is very Slytherin of you, impressive. I wonder what would happen if he should find out. He would never trust you again; now I imagine that, that could have major implications on a couple's sex life, couldn't it?" He told her.

Tonks groaned, she had just provided a Slytherin with perfect blackmail ammunition and she knew she wasn't going to get the answers she wanted.

"I did look through his things, please don't tell him, I really do like him and it would kill me if he hated me. I will do whatever you want just don't tell him" she begged.

Severus smirked; he was hoping she would say just those words.

"You can leave me alone and never ask me about the matter in which you have been referring to again" he told her.

Tonks glared at him and turned on her heel to stomp out of the room.

"Oh, Miss Tonks" he called after her.

She paused and turned back towards the potions master.

"I understand that Miss Granger has been pestering Minerva about you, perhaps you could send her an owl to shut her up" he told her cryptically, hoping that maybe she would find the answers that she wanted if Hermione was willing to open up. He was lying about Hermione's pestering of course but Tonks would never know about that. He also hated talking about his Hermione like that but he didn't want to raise any suspicions, that wouldn't bode well for anyone.

Tonks looked at him confused before muttering some expletives and curses in Severus' direction before leaving the room.

Severus breathed a sigh of relief as she left. She was poking her nose in matters that she didn't need to meddle in.

Severus got up and headed towards the meeting room. He found that there were two seats left, one next to Tonks and the other next to Black.

He decided to make Black uncomfortable and so took a seat next to him.

Black quickly glanced at him before averting his eyes. Severus continued to stare at Black menacingly and he noticed Black start to sweat. He grinned in satisfaction.

"Enough Snape" Moody growled.

Severus turned towards Albus who was staring at him, along with a smirking Minerva.

"Anything to share Severus?" Albus asked.

Severus nodded.

"The Dark Lord plans to attack the ministry before the summer. There has been no official date set for this but it will happen" Severus said carefully.

"Did Voldemort say why?" Minerva asked.

"He is looking for something, and he believes that what he is looking for is in the ministry and he plans to go after it. He believes that it will be a useful weapon that will help his progress to winning this war" Severus said.

The Order was silent and they all looked at each other, hoping someone would say something to that.

"Did he say what it was he was looking for?" Moody asked.

"No, the Dark Lord hasn't told anybody what it is. Like I said, whatever it is, he thinks it's in the ministry so he's going to be going after it soon" Severus said again.

Dumbledore quickly went into setting plans with Arthur and Moody and the other ministry workers in order to ensure that there would be more security within the ministry.

Once the meeting was adjourned, everyone left the room. Severus waited until the hustle and bustle had gone and went to stand to leave the room.

Upon leaving the room he heard shouting and much banging about upstairs. He immediately went into defensive mode and ran up the stairs. He noticed that the noise was coming from Lupin's room and hesitated. What if Lupin had Tonks in his room? That was something he definitely didn't want to see.

However, the two voices were male and so Severus entered to room and paused at the sight.

Lupin and Black were having a full on fight and it wasn't magical duelling, they were physically fighting. There were punches being thrown and kicks, there was blood, there were bruises and Severus didn't know how to react.

The remaining Order members had clearly heard the commotion as well and had come to see what the fuss was all about. They all watched from the doorway as the two former best friends were fighting like muggles.

"What the hell are you boys doing?" Albus yelled.

The boys suddenly halted both realising that they were no longer alone. They both looked battered and angry. Sirius said nothing but Remus rounded on the aged headmaster.

"What are we doing? The better question is what the fuck have you been doing?" Remus snarled, shocking everyone.

The headmaster looked surprised at the turn of events.

"You have done nothing and that's the problem. You turn your head, you don't help. What happened to help will always be given to those who ask for it? Does that apply to everyone but her?" Remus yelled at Albus.

"Now Remus-" Minerva started trying to calm him down.

"NO! Answer me old man, what did she do to deserve any of this?" He shouted.

Everyone was looking at the headmaster confused. Sirius looked nervous and Minerva and Severus remained calm.

"Fuck you all! Leave me alone" Remus roared as he headed towards the door.

Everyone parted quickly to allow him to pass, scared to stop him. They knew it was nearing the full moon so he was a little more unhinged than normal, but now everyone turned towards the headmaster in question.

Minerva went after Remus and left everybody waiting for the headmaster's response.

"Tell them" Severus said, his tone calm and even.

Albus glared at Severus. The remaining Order members: Tonks, Arthur, Molly, and Black, were staring at the silent conversation that was occurring between Severus and Albus.

"Tell us what?" Molly asked, sensing something was going on.

"What did Remus mean Severus? Who is 'she' and what did Albus do to her?" Arthur questioned.

Albus was still glaring at Severus, daring him to say something.

Severus sighed and headed towards the door, he would never win against them. Then he paused, this was for his Hermione. Severus turned towards the questioning stares.

"Black sexually assaulted Miss Granger whilst she stayed here during the summer, twice. Albus knew and he covered it up, all for 'the greater good'" Severus said, unfazed by Albus' anger, and the gasps that echoed around the room.