It was only when they got home that Severus realised just how lucky he'd been.
Not only for Sam, but for himself.
Hermione had ran her hand down his face as they laid in bed, as if committing his features to memory, when she encountered the small nick on his jaw from the razor blade.
It was only when her widened eyes met his that he suddenly grasped the weight of the situation.
When he'd closed his eyes and looked away from the immune he was pummelling to death, he'd instinctively turned away to his right, meaning the left hand side of his face and all of his chest had been covered in blood. If in that split second he had turned to the left...then the right hand side of his face would have been covered in blood. The side with the cut. He would've been infected.
They didn't pleasure each other that night, they barely even slept. They just held each other closely and breathed each other in.
He traced her features with his hands, every line and nuance of her face and she did the same to him.
When Sam awoke from a nightmare that night, he crawled into the bed between them and into Severus's arms. He awoke with the boy pillowed on his chest.
The next day Severus was sick. It felt like a bad case of the flu, but there were no words that needed to be said between him and Hermione. With a longing look, he packed a bag and left the rail-house the next day. Sam had cried and wanted to kiss him, and it had broken his heart to push the boy away.
He'd never prayed for flu so hard in his lifetime.
He spent three days violently ill, sheltering in a van about an hour's walk from the rail house. When his fever broke on the third day, he wept with relief.
On the fourth day he returned to the rail house. When Hermione saw his bedraggled form walking towards her, she'd lifted her crossbow and aimed it with trembling arms.
When he smiled at her, she'd thrown the crossbow on the floor and ran the distance between them, throwing herself into his arms the same way she had done the first time she saw him.
She'd kissed the breath from him, and their tears had mingled as they both sobbed in relief. When he put her down a minute later a small form barrelled into his legs with such force it sent them all careening to the ground.
The boy wouldn't be dissuaded and planted sloppy childish kisses on his face, whilst wrapping his arms around his neck like devil's snare, until Hermione had to remind him that he still needed to breathe.
The boy loosened his grip, but wouldn't let go of him and Severus had to carry him back to the house.
oOo
On one of the trips to the town, they'd found an old folding room divider and decided to bring it back to the rail-house. It gave them some privacy in the bed, and gave Sam his own 'room' which he was thrilled with.
The night of his return, as soon as Sam was asleep, Hermione had dragged him forwards and proceeded to snog him so hard it made his toes curl.
With a blush she'd stopped him from touching her, and told him 'in a few days' , and he'd understood. It hadn't stopped her from touching him though.
They kissed passionately as she stroked him through his trousers, cupping and stroking the bulge that formed there.
She stroked his cock with her hand, in the same rhythm she stroked his tongue with her own. He was left a groaning mess before she even took him out of his trousers.
They'd never stripped fully, due to not having much privacy, and fear of being caught unawares, but with the rail house fortified, the screen divider and the fear and frustration of the last few days, she wasn't taking no for an answer.
He was aching for her as she eased him out of his shirt, and much to his pleasure took off her own. He palmed her breasts through the bra and moaned in delight when she took that off too, leaving her naked from the waist up for the first time.
Dropping his head to her chest he kissed her breasts, causing her to whimper in delight, then wrapped his lips around one rosy nipple.
She hissed at his actions, one hand fisted in his hair to keep him at her chest, the other reaching into his pants to pull out his weeping cock.
"Gods Hermione" he whispered into her chest and she used her feet to push his pants and trousers off until he was totally naked. Apart from his socks, which he tried not to think about.
Laid on her side, she pressed herself fully into him, until their legs were tangled and their chests were skin to skin. They kissed as though they could survive off the taste of each other alone, all the while her delicious breasts pressed into his chest.
He brought one hand up to cup her breast, running his thumb over the hardened peak of her nipple. She gasped into his mouth and squeezed his cock, which made him close his eyes in rapture.
It was awkward, how close they were pressed together, arms crossed, his on her glorious tits and hers wanking his cock to perfection, but fuck if it wasn't the most arousing thing he'd ever done.
She was the driving force behind the kiss, and he gladly went willingly wherever she wanted to lead him as she suckled, licked and nipped at his tongue and plundered his mouth, all the while her hand tugged on his cock like it was going out of fashion.
Moaning into her mouth, he felt his balls get tighter as she continued to pump his length.
"Fuck. Fuck Hermione...going to come " He panted quietly into her mouth.
"Severus..." She gasped back and kissed him.
"Fuck... Hermione...I Love you..." He meant every word of it...but hadn't meant to say it out loud.
His eyes widened when hers filled with tears, and he was afraid he'd gone and ruined everything until her hand increased the pressure on his cock and she sobbed into his mouth.
"I love you... Severus...I love you so much... come for me love"
It was the sweetest thing he'd ever heard, and as her declaration of love spilled from her lips his eyes rolled up and his back arched as he spilled himself over her hands and soft belly.
She brought him to climax once more with her mouth that night, and they spent so long kissing their lips were bruised in the morning.
oOo
Two more infected drifted through that week, leaving them on edge. One was killed by Hermione while hunting, another killed by Severus. It had got caught in one of the window trenches during the night while they slept, and he killed it before the others awoke.
One of the infected had come from Seamus's group as well. It seems they caught up with the herd. Or the herd caught up with them.
They had timed how long it took to go from the fields at the edge of their view, to the rail house, so every half an hour Severus and Hermione took turns to climb the wall and take a lookout around them. The overgrown farmers fields provided little in the way of cover, so it would be easy to see immune or muggles in their line of sight.
They were planning for another lock in. If the herd had got turned around, or there was another on it's way then they needed to fill the house with provisions.
Severus had managed to get an old manual water pump working. It was older than the rail house, and originally designed for animals , as it took water from a nearby stream. It wasn't the most sanitary, but it was safer and quicker than bringing bottles back from the river. For days they kept a fire going and boiled it first before bottling it up and storing it inside the house.
It was only a few days later that Severus was cutting down some trees and fortifying the rail house with even more wooden pikes outside, as well as cutting down smaller pieces for kindling, that were small enough to use with the tiny camping grill they kept inside the rail-house for when it wasn't safe to cook outside.
Hermione was sat by the fire, working with some rabbit furs. It was still summer, but she kept the furs of every animal she killed, and crudely tanned them. They wouldn't be winning any fashion contests with the discoloured furs, but winter was always on their minds, and the fur blankets she were making would be a godsend.
Sam was playing in the dirt near him with a small trowel, digging and making castles from the small pieces of kindling and Severus continued chopping wood.
Suddenly Sam screamed and Severus nearly dropped the axe on his foot when he turned around.
There was an immune almost upon Sam, it was rotten and legless and so had been dragging itself over the ground.
He lurched forward grabbing Sam and violently throwing him backwards as the teeth snapped towards him.
A vicious kick caved in the things skull and ceased it's movement, but Sam would not stop screaming.
He turned to see Hermione's distraught face, and dipped his vision to see where she was looking.
The blood on his hands.
Flowing blood.
It was his own.
He wiped it away enough to see the thing had bitten off the tip of his pinky finger.
Pain and regret flooded his system, and he turned to face Hermione.
She held the wood axe in her hand, and was sobbing.
"I'm sorry, I love you both" he whispered, and closed his eyes.
The last thing he saw was Hermione raising the axe towards him, then Everything went black.