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Chapter 6

To avoid further hysterics from the children - albeit ones who were seemingly now older than Severus was - they waited until the others had been escorted to bed by various house elves before leaving the sitting room and exiting Malfoy Manor.

Severus wasn't quite sure what came over him to ask her to stay with him. For some reason she'd seemed so vulnerable after her moment in the drawing room earlier, and he could certainly relate to what she'd been through. And he genuinely didn't think her staying by herself after that experience was a good idea. If her friends had been more responsible, then certainly they could keep an eye on her, however they were seemingly no less immature than when they were at Hogwarts. He'd certainly spent enough nights when he wished someone else was around, and he didn't wish that for her.

He most certainly had seen the look Lucius had given him over her head though, and sent him a non-verbal hex which Lucius easily batted away. He didn't doubt that his old friend would have some choice words the next time the two of them were alone. However, all he was doing was allowing her to stay at his house. Or Lucius' house, anyway. It was therefore no different to her staying at Malfoy Manor itself.

They walked out of the front door and towards the apparition area just outside of the Manor grounds before she spoke.

"Thank you again for this."

"Not a problem."

"So where is the cottage? I'm not sure I'm wearing the right shoes to walk far."

He looked down at the strappy high sandals she was wearing. She was certainly right in saying that. The cottage could be walked to through woodland from the Manor, but those were not the right shoes to wear, and it was too dark to walk.

"It's about a mile through woodland, but we're apparating, not walking."

Before she had chance to protest, he pulled her body tight to his side and apparated them both the short distance to the cottage. He tried not to think about how nice she felt briefly in his arms. This was Hermione Granger after all, insufferable know-it-all and best friend of the Boy Who Lived To Be Annoying. But the fact was he was struggling to reconcile those two people in his head.

She squeaked slightly on landing, and stumbled a little, her hands going out to his arm to steady herself. Severus wandlessly lit the outside lamps and she looked at the cottage.

"I thought you said 'small cottage'?"

He snorted. "I did. But those were Lucius' words not mine. Believe it or not, this is genuinely his idea of a small cottage."

"I can believe that. The man is undeniably a snob."

"That he is."

"But he surprised me tonight. I never thought I'd hear an apology from him."

Severus led her inside and directed her towards the comfortable living room, and lit the fire to chase off the evening chill.

"The fact is I knew him over twenty years ago. It seems that the intervening years have changed him. I don't doubt that his second spell in Azkaban and Narcissa's death contributed to that. His relationship with Draco is also much improved."

"Hopefully that will make things better for me in the Ministry where he is concerned."

Severus shook his head. "Don't count on it. He might have apologised in private, but he won't change his public persona towards you. In that way, he'll still be the same Lucius Malfoy."

"I'll look forward to that," she said sarcastically.

They sat down either sides of the fireplace. "Can I get you a drink?"

"I probably should say no considering I've already had sober up potion, however I would like one. Thank you."

Severus got up and went to get a bottle of muggle-made red wine he'd picked up on a shopping trip to Waitrose and had been saving for an occasion. He wasn't sure what occasion he'd been saving it for, but this seemed as good a time as any. He poured both of them a healthy glass and went to sit back down, taking a large sip as he stared into the fire.

After a few moments, she spoke up. "Can I ask you a question?"

He snorted to himself and raised an eyebrow at her. "When has permission ever stopped you before?" She glared at him, but there was no ill-will in her look. When she didn't speak any further, he sighed. "Yes, you may. More than one, if you wish."

She nodded her head to him. "Thank you. What are you planning to do now? I mean, do you want to go back to teaching? You never really seemed to enjoy it."

"I didn't. You children were insufferable and self-interested, yet uninterested in learning. Not to mention down right annoying. I didn't meet one student that shared my love of the subject. That I survived teaching as long as I did was a miracle. Neville Longbottom might have been one of the worst students, but he certainly wasn't the only one with that such incomplete level of skill. I often felt that Dumbledore was punishing me by making me teach. There must have been another way I could have helped the order."

She smiled. "Probably. You know, you're still Neville's Boggart."

Snape glared at her. "I could have killed Lupin for that stunt. He made sure all the other staff saw his memory of that day."

"That's why you made it known he was a werewolf?"

He didn't believe it had been common knowledge that it was him that released that information, but it wasn't surprising that she knew.

"You are correct." Severus drained the rest of his glass and topped up both glasses. "Regarding your question, who are you asking as?"

"Not the Minister, if that's your question. Call it an interest."

He wasn't sure what to do with that.

"As I said back at the Manor, I haven't really thought about it. I'd focused on finding a cure for Astoria, and to be honest I didn't think I would find one quite so quickly. So what happens next, I have no idea. I always assumed that I wouldn't survive the war."

"That seems an odd thing to say for someone who clearly was prepared on how to survive."

"Maybe, but it could have happened in any number of ways. Some were more predictable than others, and as it happens, the Dark Lord was predictable. But there were many loose canons around, and many different cards in play. I had a few exit strategies in place, but if him or someone equally unstable like Bellatrix had decided to Avada me then I wouldn't have been able to make it out alive. I'm not an optimist, so assuming I would die saved me from that disappointment."

She studied him closely for a few moments, and he felt exposed at her gaze. She certainly now had the weight of experience behind those eyes unlike when she was a girl. He decided he was in dangerous territory and needed to shift the focus back to her.

"And what of you? Clearly I know the ending - you made it to Minister of Magic - but what happened in between. I'd assume the war gave all three of you an almighty step up."

She narrowed her gaze at him. "I told you earlier that I didn't cope well after the war." She paused for a moment, and he had fleeting moment of feeling a little guilty. "After it ended and the castle had been repaired I went back to Hogwarts. I found the normality comforting. But even then things were not the same. Harry and Ron had gone into auror training, and only a few eighth years had returned. Everyone there wore the weight of the war around their necks.

"Once I'd finished Hogwarts it was so much worse. Harry had warned me what people were like, but I didn't realise the extent of what he meant."

"What do you mean?"

"People were awful. And I don't mean that they were nasty to us, or sent curses our way, but everyone felt like they were entitled to a part of us. If any one of us went anywhere people would be constantly coming up to us and wanting to ask us questions, and speak to us as if the owned us. They wouldn't leave us alone. At first I didn't mind it too much, but it shortly became very intrusive. I started to not leave the house at all, or if I did I'd stick to the muggle world where I could be anonymous."

She paused for a moment staring into the fire. "I know you thought Harry always loved the limelight, always loved being a celebrity, but he really didn't. He struggled the worst with it after the war, but in some ways his job as an auror made things a little easier. He could at least legitimately threaten people with arrest." She smirked a little. "And I think he did arrest a few. Obstruction of justice, he called it. People did back off a little after that."

Miss Granger might have thought that of him, but the fact was he knew Potter didn't like his prestige. That was clear as day. That wasn't to say he had his moments, but maybe the boy did have a little Slytherin in him as he did seem to know when to use it to his advantage. But he was James Potter's son, and the enemy of the Dark Lord, so he had to bully Potter where possible, and he was always an easy mark, so it wasn't particularly difficult.

Miss Granger spoke again after a minute or so of silence. "After a few years people did get bored of us," she continued. "There are still some idiots who don't know boundaries, but I have worked hard to establish myself outside of being a war survivor."

"Some might say war heroine."

"Some might. I don't. I just did what I had to do to survive."

"I'm not sure I agree with that. You easily could have hidden or just left the country. It was your Gryffindor nature that made you stay and fight. Your bravery."

She gave him a wry smile. "You know Harry has often said that you were the bravest man he'd ever met."

Severus gave her a glare that would have made any Hogwarts student wet themselves. And some teachers probably as well. However she simply smiled back at him.

"Mr Potter needs to keep his mouth firmly shut."

Her smile increased. "He named his second son after you."

"So I heard," he spat. "Lucius and Draco had great fun in telling me that."

She was clearly trying not to laugh as she sipped her wine. He rolled his eyes and drained his glass, realising that the bottle he'd opened was now empty. He had a feeling that more alcohol was needed to get through this.

"Tinky?" He asked for the elf that Lucius had assigned to him. Miss Granger shrieked at the pop the elf made as he appeared in the room. "Could you please bring me a few bottles of Lucius' finest wine from his cellar."

The elf looked conflicted for a moment, before smiling back at him and disappearing with another pop.

"You have an elf?"

"One assigned to me by Lucius while I stay here. He was told to cater to my every wish, so if that includes raiding Lucius' wine cellar, then so be it."

The elf reappeared with ten bottles of wine, and presented them to him. Severus took the one closest to him and opened the bottle, instructing the elf to safely store the remainder in the

cottage. He leaned over and filled Miss Granger's glass before filling his own and taking a mouthful.

"I have to ask," she started, "exactly how did you cure Astoria? My understanding was that she had a hundreds year old blood curse that couldn't be cured. Daphne said that you used dialysis, which isn't exactly common in magical medicine. "

"You're right, I did. And let's face it, muggle medicine wasn't exactly something the original cursor could have predicted."

"Fair point. So how, did you cure her?"

"I ran some muggle blood tests and realised that it was kidney failure that was slowly killing her. As the solution to renal failure was dialysis, I hypothesised that would help her. I quite easily found a potion that would work to destroy the curse, but the problem was that the potion itself would kill her. So I contacted a colleague in Sweden who was using muggle technology and we realised that filtering her blood using the dialysis machine with the potion could work."

"Swedish colleague?" She asked tentatively.

"Yes. A muggleborn by the name of Erik Åkerlund." He noticed that her face reddened a little. "Do you know him?"

She looked away from him, clearly a little embarrassed. "Yes, we dated about five years ago."

He remembered that the man was horrifically good looking. "Didn't work out?"

"No. He was a nice guy, but we didn't have a lot in common. We didn't date for longer than a few months. " Severus didn't doubt that Miss Granger would certainly be a popular witch amongst the wizarding population.

They were back to a dangerous category of conversation again.

Miss Granger thankfully suddenly stood up, albeit a little unsteadily, and announced that she should probably get some sleep.

"I'll show you to your room," Severus told her.

He stood and led her upstairs to the five bedrooms the house held. He was trying desperately not to think of her in any other way than as a former student, and the Minister for Magic, but he was failing miserably. The fact was that she had turned into a lovely woman.

"Mine is the room at the end," he said pointing down the end of the corridor, "so you can take your pick of the others."

She looked around the landing for a moment, before placing a hand on the room closest to her. If he remembered correctly, that was a large room overlooking the gardens and decorated in muted teal and silver tones.

"Thank you again," she said moving closer to him. "I don't think I could have slept in my house alone tonight, so I do appreciate you letting me stay here." She leaned in closer still and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.

But she didn't pull away.

He wasn't sure which one of them moved first, but within an instant, the two of them were kissing like teenagers.

.

His lips were much softer than she'd imagined. And annoyingly, she had imagined his lips.

He placed a hand on her lower back and pulled her into him, and she melted into him, her body form fitting against his. She'd wrapped her hands and arms around his neck, and her fingers found their way into his hair. She was surprised that it wasn't as greasy as it had always looked like when she was a student, but was in fact just very fine. She imagined that it was the steam from potions that caused havoc with his hair. And she was hardly one to talk about bad hair considering what hers had been like as a teenager.

He pushed her up against the wall and she moaned into his mouth, her hands tightening in his hair. His hips shifted and he rubbed his clearly hard groin against her lower belly, which made her groan further.

"Fuck," she moaned into his mouth. "I want you."

He pulled back from her and looked into her eyes, although their lower bodies were still firmly in contact with each other.

"What do you want?"

"You." She leaned back in for another kiss, but he kept his distance.

"Why me?"

"Why not you? Because I want you, Severus." She was sure that she'd never been so forceful before, but she was also sure that she had never wanted someone so much. "Please."

He looked like he was internally debating something for a moment, before giving in and kissing her again, his arms wrapping tightly around her. He lifted her up with surprising strength, and she wrapped her legs around his slim waist as he carried her down the corridor to the master bedroom, lighting the candles as he went.

After kicking the door to the room shut, he sat her on the edge on the opulent four poster bed. She took a moment to take in her surroundings, realising the room she was in was huge with wooden panels on the walls painted in a Slytherin hue of mid green. The bedspread was a very dark green shade, and felt like real silk under the skirt of her dress which had ridden up her body during her trip into the room.

She eyed him with increasing passion, and wrapped her fists into his frock coat. She remembered that she'd always been fascinated by the buttons on his coat, but she hadn't quite had the same feelings that she'd had as a teenager that she had now. She smiled at him as she slowly unbuttoned his coat, keeping eye contact as she did. She'd never really thought before now how sexy the man was, but right now he was driving her crazy.

When his buttons were all undone, she pushed the coat off of his shoulders and let it fall onto the floor. His crisp white shirt had more buttons, and she wasted no time in starting to unbutton those. Once undone, she pushed that too to the ground.

Severus Snape had a body that was severely scarred from battle, but to her that only made him more attractive. She certainly had her own share of battle scars courtesy of both Dolohov and Bellatrix, so she could hardly call him out on that.

She placed her hands on his chest and leaned up for another kiss. He seemed a little unsure, but gave into the gentle pressure her mouth had on his. His hands went down her body and pulled at the hem of her dress, pulling it over her head and throwing it to the floor to join his clothes. When she was practically naked he leaned back to run his eyes over her, clearly appreciating the sight.

She took her hands off him and leaned back to unclasp her bra, his eyes following her movement. As soon as her bra was off, his hands moved to them and he cupped her breasts, his thumbs running over her sensitive nipple eliciting a moan of pleasure from her.

"Merlin," she moaned into his mouth. "Please."

He pulled back from her, and she watched as he unbuttoned his trousers and pushed them to the floor, leaving him in a pair of tented black boxer shorts only. She placed her hands on his bare chest and ran them up to his neck pulling his mouth back down to her, and dragging him on top of her as she laid down on the bed.

The weighty feel of him on top of her was supremely arousing and comforting at the same time, and she scraped her nails down his back as he kissed her mouth and down her neck. She was sure that nothing prior to this had ever felt as good or as right.

He leaned back from her, meeting her eyes for a moment, before he started slowly kissing and caressing down her body as he headed south. When he came across her plain white panties, he vanished them with a non-verbal wandless spell and placed his mouth over her centre. She nearly shot of the bed at the feel of his mouth on her, and he only made her more aroused by slipping a long finger inside of her.

Within an embarrassingly shorty time, Hermione was arching her back off the bed and grinding her centre into his face as she came hard.

"Fuck. You taste delicious," he said into her pussy, placing a chaste kiss in her clit as he gave her a look which very much looked like he was the cat who got the cream.

"Please," she moaned into him, leaning up and pulling her mouth into hers. She could taste herself on him, but she didn't care.

"Are you sure?" He asked, pulling back from her face and resting on his forearms.

"I have never been so sure."

His face looked pained for a moment. "It has been a while for me." He gave a half laugh. "Well, over twenty five years, to be precise."

She rolled her groin against his and they both moaned. "I'm hoping by that you're including the twenty-one years of the time jump, and not that you were thirteen the last time."

"Fuck. You'd be right there."

"I normally am." He rolled his hips again against hers, and she threw her head back in pleasure. "It's been a few years for me as well."

He stilled and looked sincerely into her eyes. "I'll be gentle."

He sat up from her a moment as he pulled his boxers down and threw them off the bed. Her eyes shot down his body to his groin, and she whimpered at the sight of him. Trust Severus Snape to be the most endowed man she'd ever been with.

She met his lips again as he crawled up her body and she spread her legs to welcome him into her body. His hand slipped between them to guide him into her, and they both cried out in delight as he slowly slipped into her. She felt him bottoming out at her cervix, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, she just felt enormously full.

As he started moving slowly she felt her fingernails dig into her back as she continued to kiss his sensuous mouth. He picked up the pace and in lifting her hips towards him he gave himself the perfect angle to hit that sweet spot inside of her.

It didn't take long at all before she came again, screaming loudly into his ear as he increased his pace and joined her in pleasure not too long after. Both of them were breathing heavy, and to save collapsing on top of her, her rolled to the side onto his back, and pulled her into his side.

Hermione snuggled into the crook of his arm and placed a hand on his chest as she snuggled into his side. He summoned the sheet up around them both and killed the lights in the room.

She didn't want to think about the reality of what they had both done at that point, as she was feeling far too content. That would be for the morning. Right now, she was planning on getting a well earned night's sleep.

She'd deal with the consequences in the morning.

…..

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