Hey! Well…I am officially on holidays. That means I can write a lot more now. I am planning on finishing this story before the end of year, how does that sound? I want to thank you all for your wonderful reviews and I want to send a special hug to Sylvia Potter, my beta.

Maddy-Riddle… ¿Do you live in Palermo? I thought no Argentinean would appreciate SS/HG. Go and see love actually then… it features Alan Rickman!

Anyhow… here it is… chapter 29… enjoy!

Chapter 29: You are the only one

One could say that appearances- or keeping them, in any case- were the main priority in Hermione Granger and Severus Snape's lives and, indeed, you would not be mistaken if that thought crossed your mind for many things relied on their success with the Malfoy's. Yes. Oh, so many things! We are not speaking, of course, about their own right to breathe but about the right of so many others to do so. In fact, their only aim was not only to survive and rejoice in victory but to save the lives of many muggleborns, half and pure blood wizards.

One could say that. Yes. But rumour has it that neither Hermione nor Severus were focused on their façade but in other relevant topics as well. Let's say… each other, for one. Oh, how wonderful it is to be in love! Even if one knows that it will not last forever, even if one knows that this feeling will bring as many deceptions as delightful memories, even if one refuses to admit that love is not something created by our hearts but by our brains due to a chemical reaction… above all that, all you need to smile is love. And to be loved for there is no greater emotion than to feel the warm feeling of being cherished by someone who owns your heart entirely. No. There is not.

And so when they reached their chambers for the weekend, for one reason or another, the topic of discussion was not Lucius Malfoy or their past actions. The current topic of interest, however, was the other's skin, the other's mouths, the other's sighs for love weights far more than other feelings. 

"Oh, love," Hermione murmured in Severus' ear as he lifted her up from the wooden floor at Malfoy Manor where Malfoy was the Lord of the Land. And Severus quite not depicted why the word "love" had such an enormous effect upon his mind, upon his heart, upon his soul but above all… upon his body. He loved her so! There are no words that can really describe the feelings that blossomed in their hearts but sure enough their skins were burning with lust. They were going to make love- not just collide in an animal encounter- inside the very walls of evil where wicked plans had once been hatched by the Darkest of Death Eaters including Severus himself. Now, however, Hogwarts most feared Potion's Master had different plans in mind at present.

So when Hermione's back smashed into mahogany wall, pain was the least of the all the sensations she needed to worry about. In fact, the situation was so arousing that she could not help but to wrap her legs around his waist while slowly unbuttoning his chaste robes from neck to pelvis. And it was just then that she introduced her hand inside the black cloth that used to cover his magnificent chest from the eyes of the world and started caressing his slightly haired chest. Those tiny black hairs of his not only eroticized her but made her feel young and protective. Sure enough those would never be found on an adolescent torso.  How much life had changed in so little time! And how happy she was while slowly being licked by the man she loved the most. Her nipples were painfully erected though impatient about the pleasure that was to come.

"Hermione," he whispered while tracing a path of kissing through her neck where he also lubricated certain spots with his hot saliva. Once he reached her mouth, however, nothing- or no one, not even Lucius Malfoy- could have prevented him from devouring those prominent lips of her so red and delicious to him! And on top of everything, they were his! Hermione Granger was his!, "You are mine," he shouted clearly enough for Lucius Malfoy to hear from the other end of the corridor where Narcissa was snoring loudly, as cold as a cube of ice.

"Disgusting mudblood," he hissed, unable to control his rage and thus destroying the book that lay open in his hands.

Nothing, nevertheless, could stop the couple from demonstrating how much they loved the other.

"I love you," she confessed while being passionately pressed against the cool wall. She never thought he would stop his rhythmic movements for those three special words. But he did.

"You do love me, do you not?," he asked more to the gods than to Hermione who was staring intently into Severus' beady black eyes.

"Of course," she asked caressing the tiny black hairs in the back of his neck, "And you love me too," she added though now her eyes were not searching for Severus' soul on his.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I am not sure, nonetheless, that this is the best moment for me to say it out loud. Is it not so much better for our bodies to do all the talking? We are complicated people, my darling, immersed in a very complicated situation, if I may add" he started to explain but it was high time for Hermione to hear that pathetic routine of his; a routine she hated more than anything in the world. 

"I believe I have listened enough of this," she started to say, slowly walking to where he was, "I reckon that the best way for us not to die is to play our roles the best that we can. Fortunately for us, how can we play this part wrongly if we love each other so much? And yet the fear of losing the other haunts our every actions, wouldn't it be better to stop pretending?," she dared asked, reaching for his cold hand- that big hand of his- through the dark room.

"Dear, pretending is what we do best," he simply said turning around and facing his wife.

"And yet, I know for a fact that your eyes speak of love, of redemption, of passion," she explained while a tear of frustration ran down her cheek.

Severus Snape remained stiff and still for quite a while. He could not control his body language in front of Hermione Granger- a creature that had transformed him, that had given his rotten heart hope.

"I cannot lie," he said while caressing her cheek fondly, slowly removing her tears, "I love you as well, dear Miss Granger. You have become the angel of my life; the person who gives my lungs the energy to gasp for air when I have run out of it. You are, indeed, in me all the time and your image, your smell, those curls…," he whispered in her ear while smoothly introducing a hand through the hem of her robes and penetrating her knickers with two fingers, checking if her curls where still there, "…I love you so much that the bare thought of losing you pains me more than one thousand stabs. I love you so much that the mere thought of you losing your life because of the cause I defend pains my soul to a degree unknown to me before. I am so sorry that I love you and yet I cannot help myself. I cannot force my heart and I cannot freeze my mind and my soul any longer; you need to know," he confessed while caressing her palms with love.

"I know," was all she said, "I love you, Severus,"

And with that he carried her to bed and introducing his rigid member inside her he thrust in and out until they both climaxed in wild ecstasy. But make no mistake: this was not an obligation or a preparation for the plan to succeed; this had everything to do with pleasure and love, for there is no greater feeling.

Meanwhile at the very end of the corridor a very angry Lucius Malfoy had woken his wife and after removing his robes, he had penetrated her senselessly, for there is no greater motivation than envy to rescue from the back of our soul a long lost desire.