Author's Note: Sexytimes ahead! ;)

Chapter 10: The Heart of the Matter

Hermione breathed him in- a hint of nutmeg, earthy musk, and shivered with anticipation.

"Your hair is like spun starlight," he whispered breathlessly against her neck, and she moaned in reply.

"Your scent...it's maddening…" She nuzzled his nose and pressed her lips against him, savoring the taste of him in her mouth.

His kisses were soft, yet insistent, and she could feel her body roaring to life with arousal and desire. There had never been anyone after Ron had died- after she'd lost everything, including her ability to feel. But this...this was like a steady, undying flame slowly melting her icy heart. Though she couldn't say how she knew it, a bond had begun to form between them the moment she'd caught his scent...and the moment he'd caught hers.

As he lay on top of her, he was gentle in exploring her body, not rough and handsy. It seemed almost as though he was perched on top of her; fighting between the urge to intensify their connection and the fear that made him want to pull away.

"Please," she whispered back, cupping his face in her hands, "I want you to stay...if you want to, that is…"

"Nothing would make me happier," he replied hoarsely. His eyes were half-lidded and she was struck by how thick his eyelashes were at such close proximity. No wonder why his eyes were so imposing. He nearly looked as though he had permanent eyeliner and mascara, though she could tell that it was nothing of the sort. It was just...him.

She could feel his cock hardening against her leg; velvetine and quivering as his breaths grew heavier and heavier with exertion. He must have caught her eyes glancing downward, for he flushed scarlet and apologized immediately.

"I can s-"

"No. No, I want this….I want you…." Hermione hoped she sounded as adamant as she wanted to sound, despite the fluttering, frantic beat of her heart. "Look into my eyes...read my mind if you still doubt my honesty…"

At first, he looked at her somewhat shyly as though ashamed of being suspicious, of believing it too good to be true, but when she gave him an ardent look and kept her eyes open, he prodded gently with his Legilimency skills, his expression somewhat hooded for a long moment.

His eyes went wide for a moment, and a tiny cry escaped his lips as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, drawing even closer than before.

"I had never hoped...never dreamed…" His voice cracked and Hermione wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly.

"You can feel it, can't you?" she asked, her lips against his ear.

He nodded. "Our manticores. It feels…"

"...like they're purring from deep within…" Hermione finished.

Their kisses became more feverish with need as they began their ministrations anew. Hermione's nipples were hard and she gasped as they rubbed gently against his chest as they writhed together. Soon enough, his fingers found them and gently massaged the soft pink points of flesh in such a way that she bit her lip and threw her head back, her eyes rolling back into her head when he began licking and sucking on them in a way that made her wonder if he'd ever practiced this heavenly technique before.

But before she could think much more about that, his lips were pressing hot kisses against her chest, up past her heart and neck until they were at her ear.

"I...please...I cannot hold myself back for long...please...please tell me…" his voice was no longer the carefully controlled drawl or the snarling sneer. It was undone and full of rawness that Hermione wanted to protect to her dying breath.

She raised her legs up, rubbing the head of his cock against her thigh and savoring the sharp moan of pleasure this elicited. His hips began to move against her, grinding gently as she pushed back, the pressure enough for her to get a good idea of his size without having seen much of it due to the angle she was at, while his eyes were half-lidded with a dreamy, faraway look.

"More," Hermione demanded softly, wiggling her hips and smirking when she could feel the heat of him near her labia.

He stilled and stared, wide-eyed into her eyes.

"More?" He asked, his voice breaking.

"Yes," she replied, wiggling a bit more until she could feel him centered over the entrance to her core, "please."

That final please seemed to undo the remaining bit of resolve that he had left to himself and he groaned, grinding gently at first and then slowly pushing down until he was buried all the way to the hilt, the both of them pressed firmly against one another, their breathing labored from the pleasure of their position.

And then, slowly, he began to move within her, drawing out a stream of words that seemed nearly nonsensical from Hermione's lips as she felt something light up deep inside of her core, so deeply buried that she thought she'd never feel it again in her lifetime.

A pulse of magic radiated out from her heart like a ripples in water. Hermione could feel it slowly growing wider and filling her with a sense of indescribable pleasure that made her body sing with power and completion. Severus moved above her, his eyes wide and always upon hers. She could hear his gasp as her magic hit him like a shockwave, and soon after, she could feel waves of a warm, familiar heat bathing her in its pleasure-filled glow. It was his magic echoing from the core of his body in reply. They shuddered together, crying out as they both reached their respective limits, their bodies rocked with simultaneous orgasm, only to be caught in a loop of magical pleasure that echoed the physical until they were unable to handle it any longer and collapsed in a sweaty heap onto the cushion by the hearth, their bodies slick with sweat as magic echoed out weakly from where they lay before drawing back inside of them again.

Hermione kissed Severus softly as he lay on top of her, his head resting heavily against her shoulder. His eyes were closed and he was breathing deeply, the fingers on his right hand still entwined with the fingers on her left. As she shifted her legs to a more comfortable position, Hermione knew she'd be a bit sore, but it was a happy sort of sore she'd welcome any day compared to the hollow numbness she'd known for so many years.

And then, she could feel her body humming with a different sort of power, one that had nothing to do with the carnal pleasure that was still fading slowly in the whole of her body. This time, the transformation was gentler, as though she were slowly transitioning from human to beast. Nothing contorted painfully, even as her body rearranged into furry paws and shaggy lion head. The only thing that was uncomfortable was the fact that she was now lying on her back with her wings pinned under her, but she was able to scoot her shoulders enough to extend them flat and the discomfort was minimal after that.

The warm, thick fur of her underbelly must have been very soothing indeed, for Severus moaned softly in his sleep, snuggling his face into it before shifting to his side and curling up on top of her. It was funny, in his human form, he was tiny compared to Hermione, but she knew that his manticore form was larger than she was. She wondered at the feeling of his weight, which had been so great only moments before, now so light and easy to take that he might have been a kitten dozing on her belly.

Hermione knew, somewhere in the back of her mind that she should wake Severus- he would be angry for wasting time here when he could be in the lab. But she thought back to the wards, so hastily thrown up by him and mirrored by herself, lying to herself about why they were there. They were to keep two nosy kids from coming in, not to keep manticores out.

Severus must have known. From the first moment she'd caught his scent, some part of her mind had known as well, but she was so hardened by years of numbness that it had taken a long time for her to realize. Also, nearly dying probably hadn't helped.

Another thing struck he as odd as well. She recognized the gentle feeling of shifting into a manticore. Before, it had been violent and frightening, but now...when she'd expected it, especially after her rather enjoyable experience with Severus, it was almost like changing into an outfit that had been new and uncomfortable before, but was becoming more and more enjoyable to wear as she broke it in.

She snort-growled with realization, then sneezed because it tickled her nose, accidentally shooting a glob of manticore spittle onto Severus' head.

He didn't seem to notice, though, dead to the world as he was, and merely began to breathe in deeply as Hermione craned her neck to desperately try and groom him so that he wouldn't find out.

Though, on second thought, she supposed that his damp hair would at least alert him to the fact that something had happened.

And besides, she'd need her human body to actually explain the brilliant thought that had come to her.

Severus slept, and, when Hermione finished licking his hair into a damp cowlick that he was sure to take major issue with once he awoke, she yawned and closed her eyes, sinking into a sated slumber of her own.