by Aurora
After a few minutes of small talk about the Decoration in the room,
Madam Vespasia then gave them instructions.
"Well then. Feel free to try on anything you like. The items may seem
big at first, but they'll shrink to fit you. Everything here has its exact
mate. So, if you choose lets say this ensemble....." She then pulled a
gauzy pink lace teddy from the nearest closet and waved it in front of
her.
"...Then there is a matching set of underwear for him. If you need
any help with anything or have any questions....need more tea....anything
at all...just pull on this" she gestured to a long velvet braided rope
that hung from the ceiling.
"And I will be here shortly. Any questions right now?"
Hermione shook her head and Snape commented.
"No, that will be all. Thank you Madam."
"You are quite welcome. Have fun." she said with a wicked grin before
closing the door behind her.
A short awkward silence followed. Snape sat on the edge of the bed,
keeping his gaze on Hermione.
She moved to stand directly in front of him before breaking the silence.
"Well then, what color would you like to try first ?" she asked, trying
to hide the nervousness from her voice.
"Hermione, are you going to be alright with this?" he whispered.
"Im feeling perfectly well today Severus, thank you for asking." she
said before kissing him on the cheek.
Before pulling away, she whispered in his ear.
"I did not think that it would be me reminding you that we may be watched."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"very well. I think we should start with black."
She strode to the closet in front of her and plucked a black corset
from the rack with a matching thong. She then grabbed a matching long black
skirt with a slit to her thigh. She removed her clothes slowly, aware of
his eyes on her back. She then put on the thong and skirt and tried to
put on her corset. To say she had a little difficulty was an understatement.
She fumbled with the strings endlessly until she felt warm breath on
her shoulder and equally warm hands cover hers.
"Let me help you." was all he spoke. She felt a shiver go through her,
and hoped he didn't notice it.
He tightened the strings until she made a sound of protest and loosened
them a bit before tying them. She then turned around and he had the hardest
time trying not to gasp.
The corset created the most voluptuous cleavage
and gave her a perfect hourglass shape. With her hair cascading down in
tendrils from her loose up do, she looked stunning.
Hermione noticed his dumbfounded stare and smiled wickedly.
"You like?" she said spinning in a circle.
He nodded, still not trusting his voice.
"Well then, lets try this..."
With each outfit she gained more confidence in herself. She flaunted,
sauntered, and practically seduced.
Snape finally had to sit down for fear his knees might give out at
some points. Especially during her ball gowns. After choosing many outfits,
she sat to rest and drink some tea.
"Your turn dearest." she spoke teasingly.
He grinned at her and proceeded to try on clothes as she did, modelling
here and there. She found out that she was glad she was sitting down to
begin with, because she would have had to either way. She had never seen
him in anything but his school robes, and seeing him in some of the outfits
her was putting on from suits to casual wear, she realized he was
very attractive. And then remembering what he looked like underneath all
of that, she decided she was very wrong about this man before.
She realized that she liked being in his presence. He always made her
feel at ease, even under their present circumstances. She felt safe. She
smiled ot herself before looking over and seeing him lay down on his back
on the bed.
"Tired?" she asked.
"A little bit, are you?" he asked looking up from where he lay.
"A bit as well." she said, glancing at the other closets.
"Speaking of sleep...." she mumbled before moving to the farthest closet.
She fumbled around in it before selecting something of pure silk. While
Snape was in his own world on the bed, she quickly changed in a whoosh
of silk against skin. She looked at herself in the mirror and evaluated.
It was long with a two slits to her hips. It was dark green with silver
lace at her bosom. It had spaghetti straps and the neckline plunged deep.
She saw the peaceful form behind her in the mirror and turned towards him.
She softly called his name.
"Severus..."
He barely heard it, but looked towards the sound. He immediately sat
up straight.
There she stood so innocently with her hands behind her back, in next
to nothing, standing somewhat pigeon-toed, in his house colors, and smiling
a very sultry smile.
Could she know what she was doing to him?
"Hermione..."
"Yes?" she asked moving to the edge of the bed.
"You look beautiful." he spoke softly.
She crooked her head to one side and studied him.
"Really?" she asked quietly.
"Really." he replied, reaching to move a stray hair from her face.
She smiled and reached up and pulled the clip from her hair, letting
it fall.
She giggled.
She made to move closer but tripped on one of his shoes and nearly
fell on top of him.
She couldn't help but start laughing.
"Oh now that was graceful!" she spoke.
"Definitely so." was his reply before joining in her laughter. Eventually
she realized she was still lying on him and made to move, but he stopped
her by kissing her.
She pulled back in surprise for a moment, but then closed the gap again.
He cupped her face as she ran her hands through his hair. He turned her
over on her back to put her in a more comfortable position. She let her
hands run down his back, over the tuxedo jacket he still wore. He shrugged
it off and threw it to the side, letting her hands be closer to his skin.
When he began to kiss the hollow of her throat she moaned and he felt himself
immediately react. As if by instinct her hands explored further down, smoothing
over his bum around to the frontal regions. When she felt the hardness
there that she had felt in the flesh earlier that day, she gasped. She
really did that to him. She moaned again as he found a sensitive spot under
her right ear.
But just as she started to work the buttons on his shirt, he stopped
abruptly and pulled her to him to whisper in her ear.
"Not here, not like this. You deserve a better time and place. We have
later this evening." he spoke before kissing her solidly on the mouth.
She looked back at him with glazed eyes and swollen lips. She felt something
strange in the pit of her stomach as he said those words and kissed her.
She felt something within her change. Somehow she didn't care anymore what
the real reasons were. She only knew that she felt strangely happy with
him and wanted him badly.
"Yes darling" she said with a husky voice.
They quickly changed and gathered the clothes they had chosen. They
shrunk all of the bags after Snape paid Madam Vespasia's and put them in
their pockets. Snape looked over at Hermione as her and Madam talked a
little about her experience. He felt a pang of fear for her. Somehow in
a course of a day, his whole attitude changed towards her. Sure, he wanted
to protect her before, but that was mostly because he HAD to. Now he really
wanted to, needed to. He was afraid of letting her do this. But they HAD
to. Otherwise they were both dead. When she looked over and smiled at him,
for him, he felt warmth. He thanked Madam Vespasia again before reaching
to take Hermione's hand. After recovering from shock she clasped his hand
in hers and they walked together to the spot were they had apparated to
in Hogsmeade and apparated back to Hogwarts. He then walked her to
Gryffindor tower in silence. When they reached a sleeping Fat Lady, they
both turned towards each other.
"Hermione, I..."
She cut him off.
"I want to thank you Severus."
"For what?"
"For what you did today. You respected me, and thought only of what
was best for me. I liked that."
He looked away for a moment.
"Hermione, Im sorry you have to go through all of this. Im sure you
would rather do all of these things we will do with someone your age that
you love and are attracted to. Im sorry it has to be like this for you.
You do deserve better."
She put a finger to his mouth.
"I would not say that. I definitely would not be doing this if I was
not ok with it, and if I really was not sure that I wanted it. If you remember
correctly Severus, I kissed you back." She traced his lips with her fingertip
before turning and tapping the portrait awake.
"Huh? Hmm....oh hello. Sorry I must have dozed off. Password please?"
"Fairy wings."
"Thank you." replied the fat lady, eyeing Snape suspiciously.
"Ill be in the dungeons at 8:00 professor to start my apprenticeship."
she stated.
Recovering from shock, he shook himself and conjured a reply.
"Very well then Miss Granger. Do not be late." he said with well rehearsed
venom before turning on his heel and heading down the corridor.
Hermione then turned to go inside, passing her friends in the common
room to go to her room.
"Hey Herm! Where have you been?"
"I went with Professor Snape to get ingredients for potions, remember?"
she replied to Ron.
"Oh yeah, forgot. I bet you had LOADS of fun spending your afternoon
with the greasy git then." Ron spoke, dripping with sarcasm.
"Actually it was rather engaging, if you will." she replied, suppressing
a grin. If you only knew, she thought.
"Sure Mione'. Are we still up for chess tomorrow?" asked Harry.
"Um, hopefully. It just depends on how far we get with our potion tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Yeah, we're starting some potion this evening that takes like 4 days
to make, if we get the first part done right."
"oh, well. ok Mione', if you have time then. Have fun tonight" Harry
said, adding sarcasm to the fun part.
She muttered her goodnights and headed to her rooms, pulling her bags
from her pockets. She put her clothes away, leaving out some nightwear
Snape didn't see her select while he was still dressing.
She smiled.
Tonight would prove to be very interesting indeed.