Chapter 22
Severus awoke the following morning after the best night's sleep he'd had for a month. So much for sex, dinner or talking; the two of them appeared to have relaxed so fully in each other's arms that they had slept soundly through the dawn, and the school Sunday breakfast bell.
She was still here.
He knew that without looking, without moving. He could just … sense her, even though they were not touching.
Turning his face to the left, Severus saw her, the only good thing in his life, asleep on the neighbouring pillow with her insanely thick and curly hair fanned out over the white cotton material.
How could something so beautiful and pure be forbidden? And yet she was. He had no business being anywhere near this girl apart from standing at the front of her classroom, as her teacher. It wasn't that he didn't have the strength to stop himself – with all that Severus had endured, over the years, he had no doubts about the fortitude of his own self-control, nor his capacity for self-denial.
But as he had said to Miss Granger, right at the beginning, when she had presented herself at his private laboratory and offered him something he had always desired, he had no wish to deny himself any more. It was as simple as that.
Severus had never felt more like a man than during the intimate moments that he had shared with this young girl. She had awoken something inside him that he felt unwilling to contain, any longer. And whilst he was on the subject of awakenings, his morning wood was pressuring him to take advantage of what currently lay in his bed, rather than yet another unsatisfactory wank.
Sliding his naked and well-rested body across the short distance between them, whilst simultaneously pulling back the eiderdown to expose her upper body, Severus wrapped his arm around her bare torso and began to gently kiss the side of her face to awaken her. As she murmured, he nuzzled his lips down to her ear, and to the curve of her neck, helping himself to a handful of pert breast, that he began to ply and fondle.
"Hi," she whispered, sounding delightfully bleary with sleep, before lifting a hand to cup the back of his head, pushing her fingers through his long hair to do so.
"Good morning," he rumbled, enjoying the touch of her hand in his hair, and beginning to kiss down her chest, replacing his fingers with his lips and suckling at her nipple, drawing it into his mouth with relish.
"We slept all night?"
"It appears that we did," he replied, keeping his lips close to her breast.
"Ungh," she moaned, softly, her hand seeming to guide the movements of his head as he tongued around her areola, flickering her nipple as he passed around it.
"You like that?"
"Yesss …"
"I do, too."
Severus stroked his hand over her stomach, enjoying the sudden lurch of her hips as he ghosted his fingertips further down and over her mound, pushing away the covers to expose more of her to his greedy eyes. Except it wasn't just his eyes, that were greedy.
He released her breast and moved swiftly down the bed, clambering between her legs and pushing her thighs apart before she realised what was happening.
"Oh!"
"Indeed," he smirked, carefully opening her labia with his thumbs before swooping down to delicately lick around her clitoris.
Already smelling her arousal, Severus kept her spread open as he delved further with his long, sharp tongue; flickering what he hoped were maddening circles around her juicy little clit, teasing it out of hiding.
"I thought you wanted to eat before sex?"
"Speak for yourself," he quipped, between licks. "I am already eating."
With that, he pushed his tongue fully inside her, snaking it around the wet walls of her cunt.
"Holy fucking shit!"
Her hips jerked upwards as she gasped the expletive, and Severus had to anchor her pelvis with both hands to avoid his mouth losing contact with his delicious prize. Granger rarely swore, so when she did, one knew that she truly meant it. If his entire mouth hadn't been otherwise engaged, he would have grinned like a fool in pleasure at his own sexual prowess.
Keeping her body in the position he wanted, Severus locked his mouth over as much of her as he could, allowing his tongue to work like an insane quill, bewitched to scribble out words at speed, to lick this girl everywhere he could, anywhere that would bring her orgasmic pleasure. His long black hair trailed across her thighs as he worked, and every so often she would clutch a handful of it, as if trying to keep his head pressed against her anxious pussy.
Granger should not have worried. He had no intention of removing his tongue until she had climaxed all over it.
Occasionally, he would move his head a fraction so that he could inspect his work. Her cunt was reddened and juicy, pulsing with arousal and dripping fluid from her hole. She was fucking beautiful.
"Come, beautiful girl," he said aloud, before letting his tongue loose upon her clit again.
"Oh … oh, yesss ... that's it, oh, please … Sir!"
Always with the Sir. Severus couldn't deny it was highly erotic to hear. He wondered what she was picturing in her mind. He in his teaching robes, perhaps?
His thoughts were interrupted by a jerk of her hips, followed by a few seconds where she was frozen, immobile. He lashed frantically at her engorged clitoris, for when the girl went still, it indicated that she was on the very edge of her orgasm.
"Ohhhhhhh …." she breathed, her pelvis shaking her climax free as she came hard, juices flowing freely from her contracting vagina as it begged to be filled.
Severus continued to nudge her clit with his finger as he watched her orgasm, his face close enough to see everything. He felt her hand tangle in his hair, and give it a tug, trying to pull him away.
"A little more?" he enquired, rubbing the hard little bud with the pad of his thumb.
"No more."
"Not even a little?"
Her pussy flinched away from his touch, but he kept gently irritating her clitoris.
"I can't …"
"I am sure that you could."
Granger did not answer, but gasped and wriggled as she tried to bear the feeling of him titillating her highly sensitive clit; when she had already climaxed.
"Gods! Please, Sir! Just fuck me, please!"
Severus had left his crouched position between her knees and was upon her in a mere second, his body spread the length of hers, crushing her beneath his weight, and the blunt head of his morning erection at her sopping wet entrance.
"What did you just say, Miss Granger?"
She gave him a cheeky smile, her clear brown eyes still drunk with arousal, and extended her neck upwards to plop a wet kiss on his mouth, hooking one arm around his neck.
"I said, I need you inside me, Severus. Please?"
"As if you even have to ask," he replied, gruffly, already pushing his hips forwards so that his desperate cock slid inside her wet heat, sending a jolt of excitement through his entire body.
He kept pushing until he was as deep inside her as it was possible to be, holding himself there, bottomed out against this tiny witch.
"This is the feeling that has carried me through the last month," he admitted, keeping himself pressed deep inside, before the urge to begin thrusting overcame him.
It felt dizzyingly good to simply be inside her, at this depth.
"I missed you," she told him.
"I know. I heard you say it, last night."
"Did you miss me? Or just the sex?"
What a time to ask such a question. And now he had waited too long to answer. Shit.
"I cannot answer a question that I do not yet know the answer to, Hermione."
"Yet," she repeated.
"Yet," he confirmed.
They were each staring into the eyes of the other, as if all the answers they sought would be found there. Severus could only hope that his were as open and honest as hers. Slowly, he began to move. He drew his length from her, enjoying the tug of her tight walls against his cock as he did so, before pushing back in, all the way, seating himself with a wriggle of his hips before pulling out again, repeating the same action, over and over, gradually increasing his speed in pace with his own mounting arousal.
Her lips were parted a little, and the skin on her upper chest was flushed red as Granger slid her other arm around his shoulders, the movements of her body following that of his own.
"That's good," she whispered. "Don't stop."
"I won't," he replied, taking a deep kiss from her lips, pushing his tongue into her mouth and mimicking the movements of his cock, knowing that she would taste herself as he did so.
Supporting himself on his forearms, so that his whole body still retained contact with hers, Severus rolled his hips to thrust into this sweet girl again and again, his orgasm building, and the desperation to shoot his load getting more urgent each time he plunged forwards.
A breathless gasp told him that she was also close to a second climax. Merlin, he wanted that. Severus was not so naïve that he presumed every sexual encounter would end with a simultaneous orgasm, but ye gods, it was fucking amazing when it did happen. He worked his cock rhythmically, hopefully pressing on that secret spot deep inside that would make her come.
He was now pistoning into her so hard and so fast that he thought his eyeballs would explode from the pressure, but yet there was no way he would be shutting them, not with such a delightful visual keening below him.
He felt her orgasm before he heard it, as her abdomen went into spasm as she came, and her thighs began to shake and tremble as much as his own were. With the long strands of his own hair sticking to his sweaty face, Severus thumped his hips against hers, thundering home in a flurry of final thrusts as his ejaculate was forced from the end of his cock in short, blissful bursts, massaged by the movements of her climaxing vaginal walls contracting against it.
"Fucking hell, fucking hell," he bit out, through a clenched jaw as he came, violently. "Fucking hell, girl."
All that could be heard was the sound of rasping breaths, and of their mingled juices squelching obscenely as he continued to pound in and out of her. He didn't want to stop, didn't want this moment to be over. Planting his sloppy mouth on her lips, Severus snogged her in a messy, desultory fashion that she didn't seem to mind, given that she was responding in the same way.
Being joined to Hermione Granger by the mouth and the cock, having just given and received one of the best fucks of his limited experience, was an excellent way to begin his Sunday morning.
-xxx-
A house-elf had clearly taken it upon himself to remove the uneaten dinner that she had ordered last night; and replaced it with a service of hot breakfast that had been placed under a warming charm. Snape had poured her a cup of coffee; and had curled his lip in disgust when Hermione had eschewed it, preferring English Breakfast tea to the tart, black coffee. Wearing the floral robe that she'd arrived in, the previous evening, she took a restorative first sip of the brew that ought to have been magical, it was so good.
In turn, she had poured him a tall glass of pumpkin juice alongside her own, and began heaping the delicious food, fresh from the Hogwarts kitchens, onto her plate, hoping he would copy her. Having missed dinner entirely, Hermione was ravenous, and her plate was soon full of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, and cooked tomatoes, and she was buttering two slices of toast on a side plate.
The wizard who had just reduced her to a boneless heap, in his bed, was standing in front of the fire, smoking a cigarette with one hand, and nursing his cup of coffee in the other, shifting from foot to foot on the thick rug that covered the unforgiving stone floor of the dungeon. He was wearing nothing but the thin black robe that was loosely tied around his slim waist, gaping open just enough for Hermione to see a good shock of his dark chest hair, which she had to admit she found rather attractive – it marked him out as a grown man, rather than a teenage boy. Ron and Harry had both been practically hairless on their chests, which she had seen a lot of. With the endless camping of the last year, there had been no room for modesty.
"Are you coming to eat?" she asked him.
"In a moment," he replied, indicating the final third of his cigarette that he had yet to finish smoking. "You begin. Do not feel that you have to wait for me."
If Snape thought that a Gryffindor would rank manners over food, he had another think coming. Hermione was starving, so she picked up her cutlery and began to cut into her food, letting out a small noise of pleasure as she ate the first forkful.
He flicked the cigarette butt into the fire and approached the table, with curiosity in his eyes.
"Have some juice, before you decide what you want to eat," Hermione suggested. "It may cleanse your palate from the smoking, which deadens taste buds."
He arched a questioning eyebrow at her as he sat down, which made him look slightly dangerous. Hermione swallowed hard before reminding herself that his was Severus, not Professor Snape. She wasn't scared of him.
"It does. That might be why you don't enjoy your food as much as you should, perhaps it doesn't taste quite right, or of anything particularly nice."
"Perhaps."
She pushed the two big platters of cooked breakfast food towards him, and then returned her attentions to her own plate, which wasn't a difficult task, since everything was so delicious. From the movements she could see in the corner of her eye, he was serving himself a decent portion, and once he began to eat, Hermione began a fairly light conversation about the latest Potions essay, eliciting a smirk when she asked him if he'd liked the addendum, which had of course been her note. It was enough to distract him so that he ate without realising, and she was pleased to see him finish his entire plate.
The house-elves had delivered a fat copy of the Sunday edition of the Daily Prophet with the breakfast, and they retired to the sofa to read it, dividing the different sections between them quite amicably. Snape sat in his usual corner, and Hermione took the other, putting her feet across the cushions so that her feet rested against his hip and thigh.
He looked at her, quizzically, before summoning a pouffe on which to rest his own feet, and then a large blanket to cover both their legs. Pushing his hair behind his ears, he unfolded the current affairs section of the newspaper, and settled back to read. Hermione had a section containing updates and information on vacant Ministry positions and news from the magical archives, and sat back herself, enjoying both the easy silence as they read, and the warmth on her feet that came from his body.
There would be the occasional rustle of paper as one of them turned a page, otherwise nothing. A short while later, Hermione felt him dip under the blanket and place his large hand across her bare feet, gently massaging absentmindedly as he continued to read.
It was a breathtakingly tender, and intimate, gesture.
-xxx-
Hours later, when Severus had to return to St Mungo's to assess Frank, and Hermione had absented herself from the rest of the castle for as long as she dared; they stood before the fireplace, his arms around her waist, and her hands resting lightly on his shoulders, saying a reluctant farewell.
His day had been superb. After they had devoured the newspaper between them, he had allowed the girl to peruse his beloved bookshelves, and she had selected an erudite wizarding novel; a sharp satire written almost one hundred years ago, but still amusing and relevant. Granger had reversed her position on the sofa so that she was now leaning against him, his arm around her, and Severus could feel every breath she took as they read their respective tomes.
It hadn't been long before he had snuck his hand inside the front of her thin dressing gown, seeking out a soft breast to palm, and the action had ended with both of them naked, their robes pushed from their shoulders in great passion, and Granger straddling him on the sofa, his eager cock fucking her for the second time that day, his face buried in the cradle of her bouncing tits as she rutted in his lap.
"Please," she asked, "don't leave it so long before we see each other again. And I don't mean just in lessons."
"I will not," he answered, honestly. "I will assess the situation at St Mungo's and see if I can reduce the amount of time that I am expected to be there. With a successful trial, it may be that my next objective is to patent the potion."
"Didn't you say that you created it for yourself?"
"I did, but with a recovery as astonishing as Frank Longbottom's, I would be selfish not to share it."
"True, but you deserve care, too, especially after the time and effort you have put in to this potion. You don't have to submit your findings until you wish to, until you are ready."
"You are too wise for one so young."
Granger smiled softly, and he splayed his hand across her back, pulling the girl towards him. It was still unbelievable to Severus that he held such an outstanding witch in his arms. He gently kissed her lips, allowing the touch to linger, whilst still remaining chaste and final.
"I will see you as soon as I can, Hermione," he promised, turning her towards the fireplace and opening the Floo connection with a wave of his hand.
He felt her loss keenly, even as he watched her spin through the Floo, away from him.
-xxx-
He had returned to St Mungo's shortly afterwards to find Frank Longbottom fully dressed. Apparently, he had taken exception at the indignity of wearing pyjamas all day long, and his son had summoned the grandmother, who had rushed to the hospital bearing a selection of Frank's old clothes.
Thankfully, the crochety old witch had departed by the time he arrived, so Severus was able to avoid running a gauntlet of questions from the notoriously curious Augusta Longbottom.
The boy looked exhausted, for he must not have slept well in the transfigured chair, and it prompted Severus to send Longbottom back to Hogwarts, with a note that requested Minerva grant him an open pass to return to St Mungo's whenever he did not have a lesson, or an appointment with Pomona Sprout, to whom he was apprenticed.
Severus gave Frank the potion dose, which the man swallowed gratefully, and held out his hand for the second vial.
"May I administer this to my wife? If I can do so, it would mean that you do not have to attend the hospital night and day, as Miriam Strout advises me that you have been doing."
Severus nodded, and handed Frank the vial, watching as he leaned over to his unresponsive spouse and held it to her lips. Alice swallowed it without protest or reaction. Seventeen years of habit, he supposed.
"Can you help her, Severus? Can she be brought back, the way I was?"
"I do not know. She has not responded to the potion in the way that you have, and whilst there has certainly been improvement, it has been marginal compared to your own recovery."
"But surely, given time, given more time, Alice could respond in the same way."
"Frank …"
"You will try?"
"Of course, I will try. But I do not wish to give you false hope."
There was silence between them, then. Frank climbed slowly off the bed, and indicated that Severus should follow him, through a door next to the Healer's office, that led into a small sitting room that contained a few armchairs and a couple of sofas. Frank chose a chair; and gestured that Severus should sit in the other.
"What happened to me?" he asked; once they were seated. "What caused me to be in that hellish place for so long?"
"I cannot tell you that, as I do not want to risk you remembering anything that would cause you to return there."
Frank's face fell. Severus had to give this man something, and searched his mind for the right words.
"You were attacked in the course of your work, Frank. Both you, and your wife. The attack was devastating, trapping you in the place I found you, yesterday. Your physical wounds healed, but your mind remained damaged."
Frank Longbottom nodded slowly, as if processing the information that he was being given.
"Is Alice in a similar place to me? Right now?"
"I do not know for certain; since I have not yet performed Legilimency on her."
"But would you think so?"
Severus sighed. He did not want to devastate the man, but nor did he deserve to be coddled, or lied to.
"I would think she probably is, and it is likely that her mind is more damaged than yours; since I am finding her harder to reach."
"Oh, Alice …"
Frank shook his head slowly, turning his face to the window, and Severus saw him blink back a few tears.
"Alice was a fine Auror, Severus. One of the best. Her mind was strong, and she was magically talented. A woman who works successfully as a dark wizard catcher is not going to go down without a fight."
"I agree."
"She deserves to see her son. Neville deserves to see his mother, to see the witch she truly is, not the empty shell he has looked upon all his life!"
"Indeed, he does. But I can only try. This potion is experimental, and it does not seem to be working on Alice the way it did with you."
"I give you my permission to try anything you want!"
There was a desperation in Frank's voice that would have broken Severus' heart, if he'd still possessed one. That had been trampled out of him many years ago.
"Thank you, and I assure you I will do everything I can."
"I need to get out of this hospital, and I intend to take my wife with me, whatever recovery she does or does not achieve."
"That is commendable of you, Frank."
"Not really," the curly-haired man replied. "That is marriage."
Severus felt discomfited at his statement, because a vision of a familiar witch, curled up under his arm and reading his books, flashed across his mind. He silently berated himself for even daring to connect the two together. In the unlikely event that anyone ever loved him enough to marry him, it would never be Hermione Granger.
"Do you have a wife, Severus? Children?"
"I have neither," he replied, curtly.
"Oh."
There was an awkward silence, only broken when Frank advised that his mother was taking him to Ollivander's the following day, to urgently purchase a new wand.
"Just as if I were eleven years old again, being taken by my mother to buy my first wand," he chuckled, good-naturedly.
"Your wand was not kept for you?"
"My mother gifted it to Neville when he started at Hogwarts. Neville tells me that he managed to break it beyond repair, at the Department of Mysteries, of all places! I have no idea what he was doing there, nor how he managed to break my wand, but no matter, I suppose."
"No matter? Did Longb … did Neville give you no idea of why he was present at the Department of Mysteries?"
"None whatsoever," Frank replied. "Why, do you know what happened?"
"Order some tea, Frank," Severus told him, "and make yourself comfortable. It is high time I told you what an exceptionally courageous young wizard, your son is."
Severus took a deep breath before beginning to speak, in a quiet, melodious tone. Frank leaned forwards, eager to listen, and hear news of his son.
It was time to repay seven years of debt, to Neville Longbottom.