A Rose By Any Other Name.
By Kes.
Disclaimer: SS and HG and everyone else do not belong to me.
There was a knock at the door.
Severus grumbled and put the brandy bottle that he had yet to open away. He stood by the door to his quarters for a few minutes; not opening it, hoping the person on the other side of the door would just go the hell away. It was New Years Eve and he wanted to get drunk and pass out to say goodbye to the year like he always did. Did this person have no respect for tradition?
Hermione was once again reminiscing about what had happened just under a week ago. Severus left. And what did I do? Sit there. That's all I did! I mean for God's sake, I've met Voldemort, I helped kill the bloody bastard, and yet I was in shock when Dumbledore actually acted like a Headmaster! What the hell was wrong with me?! She shivered in the cold, and wrapped her cloak around her. Finally, she managed to gain the nerve to speak.
"Well are you going to open this damn door or not? I can get my wand out and blast through it you know…"
"Hermione?" Questioned Severus. He had not seen her since Dumbledore's office, though he had observed her leaving about five minutes after him. What had they talked about? Me? Her? Us?
He could sense Hermione rolling her eyes on the other side of the door. "No. It's Harry Potter. I wanted to give you a good night kiss, sir."
Severus smiled for the first time since Christmas and slowly opened the door. "Hello Herm-" He found it was rather difficult to talk when Hermione had pushed herself upon him and kissed him. Right…if only I understood what was going on, I could enjoy this experience more.
As she finally broke the kiss, he stared at her. "What are you doing? You heard Dumbledore…" His semi-harsh tone had no effect on Hermione as Severus was grinning like a fool at the same time.
"Who gives a toss about what a world-renowned 100+ year-old wizard who defended muggle-borns like myself and others without anything in return? Right now, not me. I'm actually being headstrong after thinking about it first…not very Gryffindor I know, but I'm sure it'll result in the same thing…" She was babbling in nervousness but she grinned playfully. "Besides, he doesn't know everything…does he?" She bit her lower lip, now unsure of herself after openly defying the Headmaster.
Severus sighed. "Well no…he can't…not really, I mean it's impossible. When's he ever…been in love before anyway?" He was unable to look Hermione in the eye as he said the latter, not yet used to displaying emotions that he actually had.
She smiled at him, understanding how difficult it was for him to say it, and appreciating the sentiment even more. She herself was really unable to tell people how she felt, even if it was as simple as friendship. The voice of her father ridiculing her manifested itself into her head every time she attempted to voice her feelings, and so she stopped herself before she had to experience more humiliation, rejection and depression than she did at home.
That sobering thought somewhat dampened Hermione's resolve, but she was determined to carry on as she had set out. It was all going according to plan. More or less…
She smiled wickedly and leaned towards him. "Severus." She whispered seductively in his ear, tickling it slightly with her breath. "I want you to do something…"
She heard his voice crack slightly. "Anything…" He was carefully avoiding eye contact.
"Could you make love to me?" She grinned once again at the look on his face.
"Al-alright…I mean, yes… Oh, dear…are you…sure?" Hermione looked at him. Severus Snape is stuttering. Oh my God. I've done it. I've made him crack. Why is he stuttering? Doesn't he want to?
She saw him swallow and once again skilfully avoid eye contact. His breathing was erratic and he looked as though he was about to faint.
"What's wrong? Don't you want to?" Hermione sounded disappointed and was beginning to feel humiliated. Her father's voice was once again laughing at her.
Severus' eyes widened. "What? Oh course I do! It's just that…well, I'm not exactly used to beautiful young women throwing themselves at me, especially after someone openly dissuaded them from doing so. So, as you can-can see - " He breathed in again. "-It's a bit of a shock…" He looked at her, apprehension evident in his eyes, as if fearing her reproach and waiting for her hysterical laughter, as though all of Gryffindor house would now pounce out of the woodwork like they had so many times before in his fantasy of this moment.
Hermione took a step forward. "Severus. I love you. I have for a while. I now feel ready to go to another…stage…in our relationship. However, I totally understand if you don't feel it's time yet. After all, this is a relationship. We make decisions together and all that other stuff that Ricki Lake blurts out…"
He smiled and breathed in deeply. "I don't know who Ms Lake is, but right now I feel I must admit I don't really care either…" His voice went lower, to a deep kind of rumble and Hermione sighed.
"What?" He asked worriedly.
She smiled sheepishly. "Nothing…just that voice of yours…"
"Oh…alright…" Severus was embarrassed – damn this cursed voice of mine! - but decided to see what would happen. "Is it when I talk like this…or like this?" He asked, consciously lowering his voice even further, making Hermione's toes curl up and loving the chill that ran down her spine.
As Hermione smiled, he leaned in and kissed her gently, a kiss full of promise and desire barely hidden beneath the surface. His right hand became engulfed in her hair as he ran it through his fingers as his other hand possessively pulled her towards him from around her waist, causing Hermione to yelp slightly in surprise at the feeling of…something…by her leg. She sighed happily.
Hermione's hand instantly went to his hair, once again obsessively feeling its silkiness and thinking to herself that she must be the only person alive who knows what Severus' hair feels like.
At the same time, her other hand carefully weaned its way down his chest, causing Severus to inhale slightly as he did every time she did that, and then underneath his loose shirt, again as before, but this time their experience was more heightened as there were no rules, no sudden stopping themselves before they lost control, no boundaries to cross except the ones they set for themselves. This was for them and only them. No one could tell them what to do.
As Hermione instinctively backed against the wall and moved so that her neck was on display, Severus groaned deeply, looked at her hungrily and began to kiss her neck fervently, causing her to shiver with barely-hidden pleasure. Briefly, she thought about the mark they would leave in the morning, but this thought was soon abandoned as she felt Severus gently massaging her breasts through her top, her nipples already peaked and visible even through her Gryffindor top.
She felt the need to do something in return for this ecstatic pleasure which she was feeling – and had to admit that Ron had never provoked such a response in her – so she roughly pulled him back up and kissed him so hard that he thought he was going to fall over. She softly pulled her leg up to graze his and saw his knees nearly buckle and she laughed lightly.
Severus reluctantly drew away, and pulled her arm gently in the way of his bedroom, carefully avoiding her legs and anything else that could provoke him in his now overly sensitive area. At her questioning look, he barely answered with a "Bed…room…now…" with something in there about "special".
Once in the bedroom, which Hermione had only seen once before, Severus lit the candles with a simple wandless "Lumos" – albeit in a rather disjointed voice, but extremely deep and erotic nevertheless.
Hermione smiled shyly, overly self-conscious due to the fact that she was about to have sex with her teacher and actually wanted to do it, and that he wanted to in return. But what if he laughs at me? What if he thinks I'm disgusting? What if…?
Severus saw the look on her face and walked slowly over to her, gently raised her chin and kissed her in what he hoped was a reassuring way. Waiting for her to make the first move, he once again entwined his fingers in her hair and smiled into the kiss as he felt her hands go shakily towards his shirt buttons.
She undid each one steadily, purposely making herself slow down. As she slid the shirt off him, Hermione lightly stroked her hands over his chest and smiled at his intake of breath.
Severus pushed off her Gryffindor outer robe which she wore despite it beings the holidays, and saw the light blue tank top underneath. Hesitantly, he lifted it over her head and saw her matching light blue bra.
Severus noticed that she shivered slightly as the cool air washed over her skin. He gently caressed the goose bumps that quickly covered her flesh. Carefully, he reached behind her and unhooked her bra, slowly taking it off giving her an opportunity to stop him. But she didn't.
He dropped it silently on the floor, forgotten, and stood back to admire her. He noticed that she looked more than a little scared, so he leant down and whispered seductively in her ear "You're beautiful". She smiled shyly, still unsure.
To take her mind away from the fact that she was half naked and blushing like a tomato, Hermione gently put her hand on Severus' belt. This was going past their 'above the belt' rule, although neither had ever divulged as much clothing as they had already, and so Hermione was a little apprehensive but managed to summon some of her Gryffindor bravery.
Carefully unbuckling the belt and pulling it through the trousers, Hermione dropped it on the floor. She then focused on the button and fly of his trousers. Never had they seemed so interesting. Slowly, she reached forward and undid the button and fly as Severus did the same to her jeans.
Hermione looked at Severus, to see if he was as nervous as she was. Fortunately, he seemed to be and for some reason, this gave her courage. She leaned forward, almost stepping on his toes and kissed him passionately, feeling the bulge tighten in response. She giggled and placed her hand on the fabric of his trousers.
"Oh, God! Hermione no…" She suddenly stopped, confidence gone and now paranoid.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"
Severus laughed in a deep velvety voice and Hermione thought she would faint. "No, far from it…I'd just like to…er…last a little longer."
Hermione blushed at the implications of what he had just said. "Sorry."
"Hermione my dear. If you ever do that to me again, never be sorry…"
She grinned. "I'll keep that in mind…do you know all the clichés by heart?"
He leant forward and whispered in her ear "Not all, but most" and proceeded to taste the flesh of her neck.
Hermione groaned a deep throaty moan that she had never heard herself make before and Severus became even more aroused. She grinned.
He continued to kiss her neck whilst also caressing her breasts. Hermione's eyes lit up. "Oh, please...".
Severus stopped abruptly.
His eyes darkened with fear. "That's what she said…"
"Who?" At any other time, Hermione would have felt at least a little insulted that someone else had been mentioned, but the sadness in his tone and fear that was more than evident in his eyes showed her that this was serious.
"The girl that I was forced to…had to…"
Hermione gasped, remembering what he had said about the muggle girl Malfoy had forced him to rape. She understood. "You won't hurt me Severus. I don't think you're capable of it. You did not rape that girl of your own free will."
She walked towards him, attempting to close the space he had purposely put between them.
He looked at her sadly. "I should have tried. I should have done something, I should have stopped…" He stared at her, hopeless.
"Severus." She began, gently caressing his cheek. "You couldn't have done anything. You tried your best to stop, but you couldn't. I know this sounds stupid, but you are not to blame. In a sense, you were abused as well as her. Malfoy used you. You have to trust me when I say this. I love you. I always will, nothing can change that, and I know that you love me. You wouldn't hurt me. It's not in your nature." She gently kissed his lips. "Please Severus." Tears were in her eyes. "Please believe me when I say you cannot hurt me. I love you."
She smiled weakly at him, and kissed him once again. Slowly, he joined in, and the kiss grew in intensity, but he was still unsure.
Carefully, she reached down and once again began to caress him gently through his trousers. This engaged him, he suddenly sprang into action. He ran his fingers down her spine and around her waist, taking off her jeans in the process and slipping them down to her knees. Once there, Hermione kicked them off and began to repay the favour which he had bestowed on her.
She undid the button, slowly pulled down the zip and slid her hand into his trousers, his eyes widened and he gasped in a mixture of pain and pleasure. Grinning from ear to ear, she slowly slid down Severus' trousers and watched in amusement as he hastened to remove them fully from his person. Now all that was left was their pesky underwear.
Hermione moved towards him, her hips swaying automatically, causing Severus to consciously attempt to slow his breathing. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him passionately, not caring about boundaries any more, just wanting, needing Severus. Right now.
A deep primal growl escaped his lips as Hermione was leaning in on him, touching a very sensitive area in a very nice way. Hermione pulled away abruptly, there was fire in her eyes. She looked at him, and said "Fuck me."
My knees are going to buckle. A sexy, beautiful woman just told me to fuck her and I'm going to collapse…
He smiled at her a very sexy smile that he rarely used and Hermione was sure that if he did, he would definitely be as popular as Lockhart. Severus Snape – Sex Symbol. Well, it turned her on…
She saw his eyes darken even more with desire as he pushed her roughly on the bed. Now this is more like it! He pulled down her panties, and listened to her gasp as the cold air hit her. He grinned.
Hermione's eyes went wide. What was that? She looked at Severus and saw that he was touching her. Down there. Oh my god! Ron never even tried to do that. She groaned, her hips bucking upwards, attempting to push his fingers in further. He gently stroked her. The last thing Hermione felt was his tongue. Hermione shivered, she felt her pulse racing, images flitting before her eyes, Severus' tongue, his lips, his hands, his skin, oh god his voice!…they all rolled up into one extremely nice image –
Then it stopped.
She looked at him, confused. "Not yet my love. That would be far too easy…"