Chapter 3.

Severus loved Thursdays. It was his free day, sort of. Two Aurors would come to escort him to Diagon Alley, Muggle London and wherever he wished to go. They weren't nosy; they only followed him around at a distance, mostly minding their own business. Thank Merlin for small mercies.

There were far less people around on Thursdays than on weekend and this gave him the opportunity to quickly grocery shopping, gather potions ingredients and relax. He always spent nearly all of his free time inside his favourite bookshop, a small from outside yet huge place once your found yourself inside. It was ancient and located on a side street in central London, squeezed between two modern flats. The place was all wooden boards, paper sheets and leather, with the beautiful smell of books filling the air. It was tantalising to pick up a book from one of the shelves and sit down in one of the sofas in front of the windows and read with a dim light casting shadows on the walls and a very low slow music playing around. He loved it.

With his last purchases shrunk and safe in his pocket, he went inside. The older man with grey moustaches behind the counter greeted him as usual, he had been a customer for years but only after the war he had started going there weekly. He would spend a lot of money in there and the man left him alone, not prying nor following him around, knowing that at the end of the day he would show again at the counter with an armful of books ready to be bought. They always seemed to know what he liked because every week he would find some new very interesting title in his favourite corner of the bookshop – the second-hand corner.

He usually started from there, lazily making his way back to the entrance. When he passed between two aisles at the back of the bookshop, he came across a person he hadn't seen in many years. He could still remember the deep emotions he had seen reflected in her tired and sad eyes the last day at the court when the Wizengamot had decided to clear him but still put him under house arrest. Their gazes had locked just one moment but it had been enough. Back then, she hadn't been the annoying girl who had tried to flaunt her intelligence at every turn in his class, but a young woman who had valiantly fought a war. He had had to give her credit for that.

The girl, whose difficult hair where pulled up in a loose bun, was waring an oversized light pink jumper over black leggings and had hair nose buried between pages. When she looked up and spotted him, her cheeks flushed just a little bit and she closed the small book. Her eyes were alight and the small shy smile she gave him left him somewhat speechless, even though he couldn't for the life of him understand why.

"Miss Granger." He said politely with a nod.

"Professor!" she softly exclaimed moving nearer to him.

"I have not been your Professor for years, Miss Granger." Severus pointed out, matter-of-factly. It didn't happen often, but when it happened to meet some of his former students, they always addressed him with the title of Professor, like it was engraved in them.

"True, but…" she started saying, then changed her mind. "It's been so long. How are you?"

"Seven years." The wizard replied in a serious tone before letting a small smirk play on his lips. "I am well, or at least I was before happening on you."

"I'm happy to hear your sarcasm and acerbic wit haven't left you, sir." She smiled softly, humour clear in her eyes, before becoming serious again. "But really, how are you?"

He had no idea why he had stopped by her or why he was still there chatting with a former student. He probably was so desperate for a conversation that even Hermione Granger could do in that moment. Anyway, it had been years since someone had sincerely asked him about his wellbeing. Dumbledore had inquired, and so had Minerva and Filious when he was younger, but after the Headmaster's death no one had ever bothered. He had always been alone, and perhaps he didn't want to be anymore. For this reason, he found himself replying to her question and asking her the same.

"I am well, Miss Granger. And you?"

She appeared somewhat startled by his question but content if her light smile was any indication. The girl shifted the book she had been holding between her arms and a slip of the title caught his eye. Interesting. Very Interesting, indeed.

"Everything is fine, sir."

"What do you have here?" he asked moving quickly near her and plucking the small book from her hands. She squealed in terror trying to get the tome from him, but he was still taller than her and faster. He had taken her by surprise, she definitely hadn't been expecting that. He hadn't expected her to read such things either.

"Give it back to me immediately!"

"Words of pleasure." He read smirking. "Not exactly what I thought a good girl like yourself enjoyed reading."

He was taunting her, making her annoyed and angry, just for the pleasure of seeing her reaction. As he had said to Alba, people were never completely good or bad and reading about eros and sex definitely didn't make you a bad girl. However, her flushed cheeks and angry look made him smirk. He was a bastard, he knew that. I'm going to have some fun today.

"It's none of your business what I read or not read, Professor. Now give it back to me, now." She stretched her hand waiting for the tome, but he didn't give it to her, putting it instead in his inside pocket.

He moved around the book covered wall, longingly grazing the spines of the volumes with his fingertips. His eyes were half closed, and his belly hummed with need thinking about his new friend and all the wicked things he would like to do to her. He stopped just an inch away from Hermione, his mouth a breath away from her ear while his raven locks caressed her cheek. A whiff of her sweet scent reached his nostrils and he inhaled deeply.

"Let me tell you something, Miss Granger." He whispered in her ear with his deep voice, enunciating each syllable clearly. "You can't learn from a book how to give pleasure, how to make someone tremble. It's not much about words but about how you use them, and what voice you employ to deliver them. It's something which comes from the inside. You need to feel it and only then magic will spark."

He felt the girl shiver near him, and he knew his message had touched her. But then again, the girl surprised him by bringing her small hand to rest on his clothes covered chest. She looked up and met his gaze before whispering breathless.

"And what do you know about pleasure, Professor?"

"More than you, girl." He said, his gaze intently on her caramel coloured eyes. They were slightly dilated and so dark they rivalled his own obsidian ones.

He wasn't flirting with her, but the conversation had taken a turn he could never have predicted. With a student. Damn me, I'm an old fool! And I desperately need a good shag!

"I'm not a girl anymore, you know."

"Are you not?" he taunted her smirking. "Show me, then."

Never leaving his eyes she smirked back, and her hand suddenly grabbed hard his crotch. He shuddered at the sensation and closed his eyes, breathing hard, before slowly opening them again. Hermione Granger had a sly smile on her lips and an hunger he had never seen reflected in her eyes. She wasn't a schoolgirl anymore.

"I'm not a girl anymore." She repeated, this time softly before pulling open his dark coat and removing her book from his pocket. "Have a good day, Professor."

With that she was gone and all he had left was the lasting sensation of a hot hand on his crotch and the sweet smell of her skin in the air.

His brain stayed in a cloud all day after what happened with his former student, and when night came, he couldn't resist the urge to contact Alba. They had had sex and talked more those last few days, after she had told him about why she had started using YCatch. That day she looked to be in the mood herself and he took advantage of that. He made her come and she reciprocated by pulling out from a drawer her dildo, giving him one of the most pleasurable orgasms he had ever experienced at his own hand.

What surprised him was when at nearly 2am, more than three hours after they had come together in front of the screen, she sent him a new message.

-I want more., she wrote. -I want more, please.

His cock had immediately started throbbing at those words, which his mind had envisioned as a tiny whimper full of desire. He had never stripped naked in front of her and neither had Alba, but that's what they did then. She had asked him if he could go first and he had obliged, slowly unzipping his trouser and freeing his member. He had watched her with intent eyes while he bared himself to her for the first time and his breath had caught when she had smiled and licked her lips.

She had showed her appreciation with a few words which sent his blood boiling, then she had moved a little from the screen and pulled up her feet. She had stayed still for a few seconds, his anticipation growing with his erection, her knees closed together. Then, they had slowly parted revealing her most intimate part with her moist folds and not yet engorged nub. He had to swallow to control himself, she was so beautiful with her rosy femininity and triangle of thin chocolate hairs.

-Do you like what you see?, she had asked writing slowly on the keyboard as if unsure of herself. And maybe she really had been.

'I love it; and you are beautiful.'

She had smiled shily at him and he had felt his cheeks heat with colour. He didn't know what had got into him but in a way he liked the girl, stupid as it could be since he had known her only for a few days, and masturbating with her naked before his eyes had felt totally different from all the other times he had done it since creating an account on YCatch. She was nothing like the other women in there and he could feel it.

Severus was in deep trouble but didn't know it yet.