The Magical Third Act:

Hermione looked down at the man who was still intimately connected to her, who was giving her an astonishingly accurate interpretation of puppy dog eyes for someone whose favourite expression was a scowl, and essentially screeched out, "WHAT?!"

Severus winced, pleading expression fading into a look of heart-clenching resignation. "You heard me. I won't repeat myself if it offends you that much. I apologize for overstepping."

While she was still frozen in shock from his declaration, proposal, and immediate withdrawal, he picked her up off of him and placed her on the bed beside him. She sat on her legs and stared at the tense muscles of his lean back bisected by the bumps of his spine with wide eyes as he summoned his underclothes to hand. Her mind whirled.

He loves me? Severus Snape loves me? And wants to marry me? ME? The person who seemed to annoy him the most, with the exception of Harry, for the past eight years? Why?

Does it matter?

Well, yes.

But maybe not as much as it's going to hurt if he kicks you out of here for being an idiot. Is 'WHAT?' really the best you could come up with?

So sue me.

I can't sue myself.

Gods, he's going to leave me. Must stop him before he gets up!

Hermione lunged at his back as he was pulling on his black boxer briefs, hugging her arms around his chest tightly. "NO! Severus, no!" He froze in her hold, but didn't turn his head.

She hooked her chin over his shoulder. "You didn't overstep," she said softly. "I'm not offended. I was just completely surprised, that's all."

Severus inhaled deeply, shoulders and head sagging as relief overtook him. His hands rose, letting go of the material around his calves, and grasped onto her forearms like a lifeline. He closed his eyes for a moment, thankful he hadn't completely ruined everything by being too eager, and then turned to look at her, putting their faces only a breath apart.

She swore she could read the thoughts in his obsidian eyes; his regret for blurting out a marriage proposal out of the blue, and his hope that she'd come to love him as much as he loved her.

But surely that's crazy?

No its not, Severus thought in reply, as he shuttered his thoughts behind a light Occlumency shield until he could explain.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, eyes searching hers. "I guess I could have done that better, but I wanted to ask you before the scroll showed up."

Hermione's confusion over what she thought she saw in his eyes evaporated for the moment as his words registered. "The what?"

As if it had heard her question, there was a pecking sound at the tiny window high on the wall. They both looked over at it to see the silhouette of an owl against the daylight.

Severus snorted. Sometimes I hate being right. They must have sent the owl through a floo or something to get it here so quickly. It's only been a few minutes. Bloody, overeager, toadies. "The scroll. From the Ministry of Magic," he patiently explained. He flicked a finger at the window and it opened inwards, letting the small brown owl in. It flew right for them and dropped a scroll tied with a gold ribbon into Severus' naked lap and then found a perch on top of his wardrobe.

Hermione's gaze went from the scroll, to the bird that watched them with avid interest, and then back to the scroll which was now in Severus' elegant hands. "Why is the Ministry sending you a scroll?"

He sighed and kicked off his pants so he could move. Why am I not surprised that she doesn't know? She's not exactly the simpering, annoying, romance obsessed type.

Hermione watched with puzzled but appreciative eyes as he stood, flicked down the blankets, and then crawled back up to the head of the bed and settled with his back against the pillows. He patted the bed beside him, and she made quick work of sliding into the spot offered, tucking herself into his side as he pulled the blankets over them for warmth. How am I so comfortable with him already? Shouldn't this all be terribly awkward?

But it wasn't. It felt so right to have him wrap an arm around her shoulder and kiss her temple gently. She wrapped her arms around his waist in return, turning more onto her side and sighing in contentment. This is nice. Really, really nice. Who knew Snape was a cuddler?

She let the silence drag on for a minute as her new lover contemplated the scroll he'd dropped in his lap, long fingers plucking at the ribbon, but not actually undoing it yet. "Soooooo, are you going to tell my why the Ministry sent you a scroll or should we try twenty questions?" she finally asked, teasing lightly.

He gave her a flicker of a smile, still lost in the wonder that she'd so easily snuggled up to him. He'd honestly expected her to sit stiffly beside him, with a healthy distance between their bodies. That she'd immediately tucked himself to his side like she belonged there had absolutely flabbergasted him. "Sorry again. - Merlin, I'm saying that a lot. - I was just working out where to start."

"That's fair."

Severus' smile grew. He reached over with his free hand and brushed a few curly locks behind her ear for her. "What do you know about magical soulmates?"

Her dark amber eyes widened. "Magical whatnows?"

He chuckled. "That's what I thought. It's not something covered in school, and being a Muggle-born, you wouldn't have heard the tales."

She pushed off his chest a few inches so she could look at his face better. "Tales about what? Soulmates? Many Muggles believe that every person has a perfect soulmate out there for them somewhere."

Severus smirked, tugging on a lock of her hair a little as he wound it around his fingers in fascination. "Those ignorant fools would, wouldn't they?" He rolled his eyes slightly at her look of censure, but then conceded, "While I suppose it is possible that Muggles could find their soulmate, they'd never know for sure because they don't have the magic necessary to actually bind them together. And the odds of finding a soulmate, even in the magical community, are very low, which is why there are tales about them. Every young witch's dream is to find her soulmate and live happily ever after, but about ninety-eight point five percent of them will usually just make do with a finding a good match that they can grow to love. The only people I know who are magical soulmates are Arthur and Molly Weasley, and I've met pretty much every influential Wizard or Witch in Britain."

Hermione settled her cheek against his shoulder again, smiling to know that her favourite surrogate parents were soulmates. "Hunh. It's possible I've heard the girls in the dorms giggling about the topic, but I've always just tuned them out when they started talking about boys and makeup and clothes."

He chuckled. "You would, my swotty bookworm."

Hermione glanced at the bedroom wall space taken up almost entirely by overflowing bookshelves, with the exception of the wardrobe and the one wall that had the door to the potion's storeroom in it. "Something tells me that I'm in good company in that regard."

He kissed her adorable little nose. "You would be right. Now, back to the soulmate thing. When two magical people meet whose magic is perfectly compatible, there are signs."

Although the topic seemed a bit fanciful for someone like Snape, Hermione was finding it fascinating. "What kind of signs?"

"Firstly, an increase in power and abilities when they meet. One's natural abilities would work even better on their soulmate than on anyone else. There would also be an exchange of magic when skin is touching skin. When soulmates consummate their inevitable attraction, their magic will permanently combine and then both will have the innate abilities of the other and their power will increase again to the point where using a wand to focus their magic will be almost unnecessary except for the hardest of spells."

Hermione was seriously impressed. "I can see how everyone would want to find their magical soulmate, then, if they could."

"Yes. A new soulmate bond is so strong and sends out such a ripple of magic that even the Ministry imbeciles will detect it right away, which will prompt the immediate sending of a scroll for signing to finalize the automatic marriage of the couple."

Hermione's eyes flew down to the scroll with the gold ribbon, and just like that, everything he'd been patiently explaining clicked; like the way their magic seemed to interact and the gold glow when they'd climaxed. "Oh my God! We're magical soulmates?!"

"Yes, we are, My Own. If you'd been born knowing what you were, you would have known as soon as you sat in my classroom for the first time and experienced the increase in magic in your veins. It was no coincidence that you mastered your magic so easily. No coincidence that you were the best of your class at everything from transfiguration to wandless and wordless magic, despite being against other students who already came to school with that knowledge if not the actual ability."

She was both flabbergasted and devastated. "So everything I did was a lie, then? If I'd never met you, I'd just be an average witch?" Her lower lip trembled as that horrifying thought set in.

"Oh, no!" Severus gathered her up into his lap, displacing the scroll on the covers, and hugged her tight as tears welled in her eyes. "No, My Own. That's not what I meant at all!" He tenderly kissed the tears off of her cheeks that had escaped her determined blinking. "You were always special. No soulmate bond on the planet could make you as smart as you are or make you so gifted at everything you tried. All I meant was that your magic was a bit stronger than it would have been. I have no doubt that you'd still be the first person to float a feather, or make an advanced potion years before you should have been able to, or get an Outstanding in all of your chosen subjects. Those things are all you, sweetheart. You are brilliant, and you would always have been so. You just got a little extra zing of power to fuel your accomplishments, that's all."

Hermione sniffed not so delicately, wishing for a tissue. "Oh. Thank you, Severus." She looked up at him through her wet lashes and hugged him just a fraction harder than she already had been. "You know, I've heard more compliments from you today than I've heard you give anyone in the entire eight years that I've known you. You're going to give me a swelled head at this rate."

He wrinkled his decidedly large nose at her, doing interesting things to his face. "If anyone's getting a swelled head, it's me."

She raised one of her hands to stroke down the silky long locks of his pitch black hair. "Why's that?"

"Because I heard everything you and Ginny said about me today during class and while you were 'hiding' in the closet," he admitted.

"WHAT?!" she screeched again. "How?!"

Severus grimaced, his ears ringing from the close proximity. "I have very sensitive hearing. And… this is a secret you'll have to promise not to tell anyone, not even Ginny."

She nodded quickly, curious about the 'and'.

"I'm a natural Legilimens. I don't need to use my wand and say a spell to know what people are thinking. I only need to see their eyes."

"Holy cow!"

"I suppose," he chuckled at yet another weird muggle saying. (Who in their right mind would worship a bovine?) "I have to admit that the years you spent pining for Weasley damn near broke me, though. I was subjected to way too many of your fantasies in living colour when you stared blankly ahead instead of concentrating on your studies." He gave a shudder that wasn't entirely fake.

"I'm sorry. Not my wisest moments." She stroked her knuckles down the side of his face in apology, coming to a stop at his jaw. She smiled suddenly. "Now it's my turn to say it. Although… I'm not sure I'm entirely in love with the idea that you know my thoughts."

Severus nuzzled into her hand and kissed her palm. "I can teach you Occlumency for when you want to keep your thoughts private, if you want. I have no doubt you'll pick it up quickly." Unlike Potter, who couldn't pick up a stick if it landed on his shoe.

"Oh. That would be nice. I'd like that."

"I thought you would. Also, you can read my thoughts now too, if I don't shield, so we'll be equal. You already have, once."

Hermione blinked with wide eyes. "Really?" she squeaked out. "Oh Merlin, I did! I thought I was deluding myself."

He smiled softly, shaking his head, fingers once again happily getting tangled in her insane hair as he rubbed her back. "You weren't. I imagine, that with practice and our increased power, it might even get to the point that we don't need to look into the eyes to hear each other's thoughts."

"That… sounds kind of fun, actually, to be able to have private conversations without anyone knowing." Hermione snuggled a little closer into his chest, rubbing her cheek on the warm skin of his shoulder, all but purring with contentment at how things had turned out.

Severus tucked a knuckle under her chin, bringing her gaze back up to his, and dropped his shields. "I want to kiss you again, My Own."

Hermione's breath caught as she heard the unspoken desire in his eyes. "Wow. This is quite the power to have. No wonder you always looked like you wanted to strangle the students."

His mouth quirked up, black eyes sparkling. "You have no idea. Now, can I kiss you again?"

"Oh yes. Please do."

His head descended, and their eyes fluttered closed as mouths met like the touch of a butterfly to a flower and their magic danced along their nerve endings in shared joy. Hermione grasped a handful of his hair and his nape, tugging him down even closer to her, a hum of pleasure rising from her throat.

Severus couldn't believe just how perfectly they fit together, how perfect she tasted, how she gave every appearance of enjoying their caressing kisses as much as he was. He'd never truly believed that this moment would ever come for him because of his past and their shared history. He'd never believed that he was even remotely handsome enough to catch her eye. Never believed that he deserved to have such pleasure in his life.

But it was happening. And she was kissing him back with the most adorable little kitten sounds.

He wanted to hear her make those sounds for the rest of his life.

Of course, the bloody owl chose that moment to hoot rather demandingly, accompanied by an irritated shake of its wings. Severus seriously contemplated ignoring the beast, but he knew it wouldn't go away until the scroll was either signed or burnt, signifying a legal marriage or divorce. (As if anyone in their right mind would reject a magical soulmate.) So he reluctantly parted ways with her mouth with one final, slightly cheeky, nip to her bottom lip.

Her eyes fluttered open, the expression on her beautiful face one of whimsical dreams. "Why'd you stop?" she murmured, already tugging on his hair, asking for more kisses.

Severus flicked an annoyed glare towards the top of his wardrobe. "Because the owl wants the scroll back and won't leave until we do something with it."

Hermione blinked until her usually very capable brain rebooted. She looked around on the bed until she found the scroll that had rolled away a bit. "Oh! We're already married, aren't we?"

Severus found himself petting her messy hair like she was a cat again because he couldn't seem to help himself. "Essentially, yes. But if you don't want to be, then we can burn the scroll and it will be as if nothing happened. We'd be expected to go our separate ways, though, so the magical bond will fade."

She made a face at that option. "I don't like that idea. Not at all. I want to be with you."

He did a mental happy dance, but gently lifted her chin to make their eyes meet again. "Even though it will be in the papers tomorrow once the reporters glance through the public records? Even though I'm nineteen years older than you and an ex Death Eater who's done terrible things? Even though I've done absolutely nothing to deserve your affection and loyalty? Even though most of the world will think you've gone mad to have gotten anywhere near me to have initiated a soulbond in the first place?"

She cupped his jaw in return, fingers stroking over the lines of a face that had seen so much horror and abuse. "Even then. Because you're a hero, no matter what those ignorant people think. We'd never have won the war if it weren't for you. And I happen to like older men, so your age means nothing. Or everything. You are beautiful to me, both inside and out, so I don't care what others think of us together. And as far as my affection and loyalty are concerned, you earned those when I found out just how much you sacrificed of yourself to be an undercover spy. You have endured so much. Given so much. Protected us all. The whole world should love you like I do." She paused, a smirk tilting up her lips. "Okay, maybe not quite as much as I do, I'm claiming your body for mine alone."

Severus stared at her, completely floored, for a full half minute. And then he groaned before kissing her hard and fast. "Circe, I love you. You're the most amazing girl. My body and heart and soul are yours for as long as you want them."

She kissed the cute little dimple in his chin. "And I am yours. Always." As their bodies took on a golden sheen again from their magic celebrating their vows, she held out a hand while still holding his gaze, and summoned the scroll, vaguely marveling at how easy the magic flowed through her. "Let's sign this so I can have my wicked way with you again, Sevi darling."

His eyes crinkled at the corners in bemused humour as he plucked the scroll out of her hand, waving the ribbon off with the flick of a finger. "I disagree. I believe it is I whose turn it is to have their wicked way with someone."

Hermione felt her core clench at the husky baritone voice that sent her insides into a turmoil of need. "I think you're right."

"Of course I'm right," he said smugly. Severus summoned a quill and a book to use as a writing surface from his bedside table, showing off by floating both at once with a fancy bit of wandless and wordless magic. They unrolled the scroll on the book and read it together.

Certificate of Binding Marriage

This certifies that Severus Tobias Prince Snape (Half-blood wizard) and Hermione Jean Granger (Muggle-born witch) were legally married via Magical Soulbond at 1:18pm GMT on July 23rd 1999.

Signing below will render the Soulbond unbreakable.

Hermione and Severus looked at each other, nodded once, and then took turns signing.

The room flashed gold again, and then a new line of small print appeared at the bottom of the scroll.

Thank you. You are now officially married,

Department of Records & Information, the British Ministry of Magic.

Severus fairly hummed with satisfaction as he carefully rolled the scroll back up and held it while Hermione tied the gold ribbon back on. I can't believe I'm actually married. I don't know if I'll ever believe it. Maybe when we have grandchildren, it will have actually set in.

Merlin, I hope Hermione wants children.

Later, of course. Best not to push her now. And she'll want to establish her career first.

The owl swooped down and plucked the scroll out of his hand with dainty talons as soon as Hermione was done with her perfect bow. They watched it fly through the window, Severus closed the pane, and then they looked at each other again.

"Well."

"Indeed."

Hermione shifted on his lap, pressing her thigh against his quickly rising hardness. She traced a finger over his bare chest. He rubbed a thumb over her bottom lip. They both smiled slowly, like the rising of the sun on the horizon.

And then, with a flurry of movement that sent the book and quill flying, and the blankets almost all the way to the floor, she was under him and he was kissing the very breath out of her.