Hermione was stunned, if Snape had the Maruaders map that must mean that the boys had been caught, she hoped that they weren't going to be in too much trouble.

"I found them in a cave below the school, your friends, all sitting round that cauldron, waiting for something to happen. They couldn't understand why I was laughing!" Snape smiled again at the memory, then continued, "When I told them, they all looked so disappointed! I almost felt sorry for them.. almost! I sent them all back to your common room, they certainly weren't very happy. I had to make a guess that if you weren't with them you were bound to be up here, because as you know the Marauders map will not allow me to view it," he pursed his lips at this, seemingly annoyed, then carried on, "and they told me you were in bed! I didn't believe it for a minute. Seeing as your experiment hadn't worked, I thought that you had probably been sent up here to check the book again"

"So what was it, what were you laughing at?" Hermione asked curiously

"Come here and I will show you" Snape replied, leading her over to the book she had been reading, still sitting open at 'Adsecular's'. He tapped his wand on the page and said his name out-loud. The words swirled a little, then reasserted themselves in their correct positions.

"See, we teachers at this school are not as stupid as you students would like to think! We aren't going to leave all the information to resurrect dangerous, possibly out of control monsters, just lying around! Not for students to find, even if the book is in the restricted, 'permission only' section, students will always want to look at things they are not supposed to. The full words to recite the spell will only come up to a registered teacher, no matter how powerful the students magic is!" Professor Snape explained

"So we did all that for nothing!" Hermione said then, feeling highly disappointed, but in some ways relieved.

"Yes, I am afraid so, but even if you had managed to re-create the creature, it would have done Harry no good anyway. The prophesy says that he has to fight Voldemort alone and that is what he must do, no-one and no thing can do it for him" Snape said, his tone serious but slightly softer than before

Hermione felt like crying; she always did when thoughts of Harry facing Voldemort came to her. She bowed her head sadly, leaning on the desk for support.

Professor Snape moved closer to her then and resting his fingers under her chin, gently pushed her face up to meet his gaze. He had a slightly crooked smile on his face and they just looked into one another's eyes for a moment, not saying anything. Hermione started to get lost in those dark pools, her breathing and heartbeat beginning to speed up again.

His hand slid around the back of her neck, his fingers pushing into her long, wavy hair, pulling her closer.

"No! Not again! You're not going to get to me this time, no!.." Hermione warned him, shaking her head, but in her heart she knew she was weakening, she knew that she no more wanted to move than he did.

"We have unfinished business you and I Miss Granger ...or maybe I should call you Hermione now. I haven't stopped thinking about you since that night, when we were last together and I don't think you've stopped thinking about me either. Why not bow to the inevitable.." He trailed off reaching down to kiss her, but she turned her head away.

"No, I can't! It's true, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you, but that doesn't make it right, in fact it's downright disgusting in some ways. This isn't me, I'm not the sort of person that goes around kissing teachers!" Hermione said, starting to pull away, but he wasn't giving up that easily.

"You want to be though, don't you Hermione? Curiosity always gets the better of you doesn't it? You're dying to know what it feels like to be a bad girl for a change. Even though you proclaim to hate most of them, you'd love to see what it's like to be a Slytherin. You've always been such a good girl, hardly ever putting a foot wrong, but those boys have been such a bad influence on you haven't they? You've tasted a little of what it is like and you want more don't you? I represent that dark side to you, the side that is dying to come out, why don't you just give in to it?" Severus said teasingly almost in a whisper, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her closer to him; but still she resisted. He seemed to be encouraged however by the fact that she seemed not to be resisting too hard.

Hermionefelt her belly tighten with nerves but also burn with excitement. Her mind may have been saying no, but her body was saying a definite yes! She didn't know how much longer she could resist him.

"Look it's not right, I mean you're my teacher!" Hermione argued weakly

"Would this help then?" he asked, stepping back slightly. Reaching up to his neck, he undid the clasp on his cloak and swirled it off dropping in onto the desk. Using his wand he undid the buttons on his jacket and took that off too, then undid the top few buttons of his shirt by hand.

Hermione looked at him; he did look good, when he was out of his 'teacher clothes' and in just that simple, white shirt. He had been taking care of himself a lot more recently; although still quite long, his hair was no longer greasy and he smelt good to, making an immense difference to his appearance.

He looked at her for a while, perhaps gauging her reaction, then stepped forward, sliding his hands around her waist again. Hermione looked down at the triangle of chest that she could now see and suddenly longed to stroke it, to feel its warmth. She gave in to this impulse and reached her shaking hand up to his neckline, brushing her fingertips gently against the sprinkling of hair that grew there. He smiled, then holding her head in both hands, leaned in to kiss her. This time she didn't move away, this time she didn't resist; allowing his tongue almost immediately into her mouth. The relief was immense, to give in to her desire at last, the desire that she had been trying to bury, hide or ignore for so long, was now surfacing with a vengeance.

Their kiss became more passionate and their breathing heavy, feeling as though they were melting into one another. Severus's hands had moved from her head and travelled down her back, sliding up again inside the top she was wearing. He then trailed his fingers down her spine, making her shiver and giving her goosebumps.

He pulled away from the kiss and grabbing the hem of her top, he lifted it over her head, Hermione stretching her arms up to help. He undid his own shirt also and pulled it free of his trousers, revealing his rather pale skinned chest. Hermione was pleasantly surprised, he looked good for his age, not as tightly muscled as Ron or Harry, but not bad at all. She took a deep intake of breath as she felt his naked skin come in to contact with hers, a sensation like electricity shot though her. Unbelievable feelings of pleasure were flowing through her now, like she had never felt before. Maybe it was the danger, the wrongness of it, she no longer cared, she just wanted more!

Sliding his hands around her bottom, then down to her thighs he picked her up easily, pushing her legs up to either side of his hips, placing her down on the desk that she'd been reading at moments before. They resumed kissing, Hermione now sliding her questing hands all over his back, sides and chest, enjoying feeling the warm, smooth skin beneath her fingers.

Everything she thought she knew about herself had come crashing down, smashing into little pieces. She was shocked that she was capable of something like this and that all that mattered to her now was being here with him in this moment.

As they kissed she felt him undo her bra and she made no objection as he removed it. He fondled her breasts gently for a while, then leant down to kiss them, using his mouth and tongue expertly, making her moan with pleasure. Standing up, he began pushing up her skirt, Hermione knew this was it; he was going to make love to her now. She knew she should stop him, but she was just too turned on to do so, but also had to admit that she wanted it now as much as he did.

She closed her eyes as she felt him remove her tiny pink g-string; one of her favourites. He pulled her hips towards his, lifted up her legs and after adjusting their position slightly, pushed himself inside her. She made a noise in her throat as he did so, as it felt so good and she started to breathe heavily. Even though she was a little tense to start with, as she soon let body move in rythm with his, she relaxed. The pleasure she was feeling was like nothing she had ever thought possible and after a while she knew that she was going to climax. A rush of feelings, like a tickle, but a hundred times stronger, flowed through her body, making her moan with the ecstacy.

She felt him do the same, panting heavily. He pulled away and they held onto each other for a while, still panting and perspiring with the exertion of before. Hermione was still buzzing from the orgasm and still felt quite shaky and weak from it. She was tired anyway, so she started to get comfortable on his shoulder and felt herself dropping off to sleep. But him moving away made her jump up, suddenly awake again. He was doing up his trousers and looking at her, smiling.

"Thankyou!" he said looking her up and down lasciviously, "I knew you were a beauty, but I couldn't have imagined just how beautiful your body would be" he proclaimed and reached out his hand to stroke her face softly.

Hermione looked down, suddenly feeling embarassed at being naked in front of him and slid off the desk. She grabbed her clothes, which had been scattered around and got dressed as quickly as possible. There was a moments panic when she couldn't find her knickers, but when she had got up off the floor, Snape had them dangling off the end of his wand, a big smile on his face. She grabbed them looking at him derisively and put them on.

"I'd better go, the others will be wondering were I am, they might even be out looking for me!" Hermione announced, feeling awkward now.

Severus Snape looked down slightly, pursing his lips, looking like he was suppressing a smile, "No they are not, I assure you." He said looking up now, a smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"How do you know? What have you done, given them a sleeping potion or something?" Hermione asked with a sarcastic tone

"No, they're very much awake, I assure you! At least they were when I left them.. . in Dumbledore's office! In fact, we should be heading that way too now, he's waiting for us. You're all in big trouble you know! I've told him everything!" Severus could hold the smile back no longer; it broke out into a wicked smirk, as he saw the look of complete shock on her face.

"What! You absolute shit!" Hermione almost screamed, "you did that to me, when all the time you knew I was going to have to face them straight away, afterwards!" Hermione was incredulous, she couldn't believe it, she felt like she had been tricked and lured in to some devious plan of his. At the same time, she couldn't help feeling impressed at his sheer audacity.

"Come on, we can't keep him waiting any longer!" Snape said, finishing dressing himself. They both left the Library and made their way up to Dumbledore's office. Hermione walked nervously along, not knowing how she was going to bear facing everyone, let alone Ron, after what she had done.