Hey guys! I know it's been ages since the last chapters and I am truly sorry for it. There isn't really a good apology apart from the fact that I've been very busy at school. As is blocked at my school I was not able to post this a week ago, when I finished it, but I've got half term at the moment. I hope that some of you are still willing to read this one although I understand if you cannot be bothered to wait for the chapters. I hope you enjoy it.
xxx
The afternoon went by in a blur for Hermione as her mind was very obviously distracted. Ron and Harry asked her not twice, but three times why she was so happy all of a sudden. She just smiled back at them, pretending not to have heard the question. As midnight approached, Hermione pretended to go to bed. Fifteen minutes before midnight, she left the Gryffindor Tower which was, thankfully, completely empty of people. The corridors were deserted which did not surprise Hermione, as she knew Snape had a habit of finding every single student who was out of bed. When she reached the Astronomy Tower she found that Snape was already there, waiting for her. He motioned for her to be silent and gestured for her to follow him. They walked side by side in silence for about two minutes, until they reached an old classroom. Snape made sure that the door was locked and placed a silence charm over the room while Hermione transfigured a chair into a large, comfortable sofa. Hermione immediately walked up to her teacher and was on her way to kiss him when he took her hand and led her to the sofa.
"I am glad you came, I won't deny it", he began in a soft voice. "But there is something you have to understand, this is the first time that I have ever neglected my duties as a teacher. I do not intend to make a habit out of it".
"That's okay. I know you have a reputation to maintain and I respect that," she said and leaned on his shoulder. "Did anyone ask you where you'd been this morning?".
"Only Albus. What about you?", he asked and ran a hand through her hair.
"Harry and Ron. I just told them you'd given me an extra detention".
"I see. Are you still not on good terms with them?".
"Not really", she admitted.
"You really should sort that out. However, I am not going to tell you what to do", Snape said and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.
"I suppose you're right", she said.
"Of course I am", he said and smirked. He gently lifted her up and placed her in his lap. His hands slipped under her top and caressed her waist.
"That feels so good", she whispered.
"Good, because I'm not going to go any further tonight", he replied softly.
Hermione just nodded. She put one of her hands on one of his and directed it to her breasts but he moved it down.
"Hermione, I am tired", he began slowly. "And I don't want to do anything I might regret later".
"In terms of what?," she replied playfully.
"You know what I mean. I don't want us to move forward too quickly".
"It's alright. Let's talk instead. Tell me about your life at Hogwarts and after".
"Hermione, would you mind if we just relaxed?," he asked and placed her lying down on the sofa with her head in his lap.
Hermione nodded and looked into his eyes. Even though his face was as tense as usual, she could see that his eyes were smiling slightly at her. She noticed that he had very long, fine eyelashes and she wondered why she had never noticed them before. As she kept on eyeing his features she realized just how much he appealed to her. They were silent for a few minutes until Hermione broke the silence.
"You're very handsome," she said softly. She noticed that his face became as tense as it was when he was in public.
"Surely that is not true," he muttered in his deep, masculine voice. There was something in it voice that made it clear that he was not fishing for compliments.
"It is true in my opinion. I love your bone structure and the way you use your eyes to express your feelings. I love how I can feel that you are a man, and not a boy, when I touch you".
Snape smiled slightly at her last comment and told her that he would take what she said as a compliment he did not fully agree with. Hermione thought that that was probably the most satisfying answer he would give her and she therefore dropped the subject.
"Doesn't my age mean anything to you?" he asked curiously.
"Just one word: experience," she said and smiled cunningly at him.
"I see," he replied teasingly and caressed her collarbone.
Hermione shivered pleasantly under his touch and took it as a taste of what he was capable of.
"Don't tease me", she warned but her eyes held an amusing glance.
"Hermione, I am afraid I have to go, I have to patrol the halls. I will, however, send you a note tomorrow," Snape said and stood up.
Hermione rose as well and faced him. She ran a hand through his hair and rested the other one on his chest. After taking in his scent for a few moments, she did the top button of his shirt and placed a quick kiss on his lips. He responded by stroking her back, before turning around and leaving the room.
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The following weeks passed by in a blur for Hermione. She studied harder than ever before, determined to show Snape that she would not fall behind just because she was involved with him. As they were both very busy they did not have time to meet very often, there was only the occasional meeting in a deserted classroom in the middle of the night. When they met they rarely had time to exchange more than a couple of fleeting kisses and some caresses. Snape was adamant that they did not go any further than kissing and he was equally surprised every time she turned up to meet him. It was obvious that he was starting to feel quite a lot for Hermione but he tried not to show it. Hermione had indicated that she would not mind going a step further in their relationship but he always rejected her politely. There were times when she wasn't certain he actually wanted her but he always made those doubts go up in smoke when they met.
As Hermione spent almost every free moment studying, this meant that she hardly had any time at all for her friends, which they made her aware of on a regular basis. The apology she kept repeating was that she was preparing herself for the NEWTs. Another consequence of the massive amount of studying she did was that she skipped meals, which Snape often scolded her for. Hermione, however, didn't notice that she grew skinnier as she hardly ever looked at herself in a mirror. Fortunately, she had managed to stay away from alcohol and drugs most of the time. There was the occasional time when she knew Snape would be away from school for a day and she drank herself drunk, cherishing the feeling alcohol caused. She had found a recipe of a potion, which got rid of the alcohol in the blood, in a book in the restricted section of the library. Despite the feelings of guilt this caused when Snape tested her blood, (he claimed he had to keep doing this as he had to show the headmaster records of the tests), she kept on drinking alcohol she had stolen from the kitchens. She had, however, managed to stay away from drugs completely, which was quite an accomplishment in her eyes.
This particular evening, Hermione and Snape had decided to meet in an abandoned classroom on the fourth floor, at midnight. As the classroom was no longer in use, it was very dirty and dusty. Snape was the first one to arrive and he performed a cleanup of the place the second after he had put silencing and locking spells on the door. While performing locking spells on the door, he also put another charm on the door, which made it possible for him to see right through it. He removed his outer robes and unbuttoned the two top buttons of his shirt as he waited for her to arrive. As he saw her approach, through the door, he undid the wards and let her in. After making sure the door was heavily warded against intruders and put under a silencing charm, he approached her.
"You didn't think I was going to show up, did you?" she asked softly and put her arms around his waist. She leaned on his torso and breathed in his scent. "You always look so surprised".
"Let's just say that I find it rather surprising that I have managed to keep your attention for several weeks now," he teased her and embraced her after placing a quick kiss on her lips.
"Severus?" Hermione said and stepped back from him, after grasping one of his hands. "Are we ever going to move forward in a physical way in this relationship? Despite how much I do enjoy our conversations, and you know I do enjoy them; I do want more physical contact than kisses and caresses. It is not like I'm going to go somewhere else to get what I want, but still...," she said seriously and looked into his eyes.
"I can tell you are being honest and I will try to respond in the same way. The reason I didn't want us to go further is because I do not want us to do anything like that in an empty classroom," he said and gestured at the room around them. "I did not want to show you my quarters for I was afraid that you might run the very moment you left my quarters to tell your classmates about them. Forgive me for not trusting you; it is not about you. I have always found it very hard to trust people until they give me very good reasons for me to do so. I do, however, think that I can trust you so I will show you my quarters tonight. Follow me and let us pretend that I have just caught you being out after curfew. Leave the classroom at my signal". Snape removed the wards and stepped out into the corridor and looked both ways. As the corridor was empty he gestured for Hermione to follow him. He assumed his usual role as the snarky Potions professor and walked a few steps ahead of his student. Fortunately they did not bump into anyone on their way down to the dungeons. Once they were in the dungeons Snape looked around them once more to make sure there was no one there and he then whispered something to a portrait of a young woman dressed in green and the portrait opened itself. Snape gestured for Hermione to enter the hole and he did the same after her and made sure the portrait closed itself. They walked for a few seconds and then entered a room, which seemed to be the living room. The room was rather large and there were two sofas, four chairs and a fireplace. Creamy white was the colour of the walls but they were all covered by bookshelves, which were packed with books of all sizes. There were candlesticks on the few surfaces of the walls that weren't covered by bookshelves. The two bottom shelves of one of the bookcases had been replaced with a cupboard. There was a large, midnight blue carpet which covered most of the floor and there was also a small table, which was covered in parchment scrolls, between the two sofas with a candlestick on it. There were also two doors that Hermione assumed led to a bedroom and a bathroom. As there were no windows, the room was quite dark and the only light there was came from all the candlesticks, which were all lit. She assumed this was not a place where he worked. As Hermione looked up at the ceiling she was surprised to find that the room was a lot taller than she first thought. She also found that there were a number of candles floating in the air that contributed to the cosy lighting of the room. When they first entered the room, the fireplace had been empty but there was now a nice fire in it.
"This is my living room," Snape stated as a matter of fact. "This door," he said and gestured towards one of the doors, "leads to my laboratory. The other one leads to another small room which has a door that leads to my bedroom and another one that leads to my bathroom. Feel free to enter the bathroom but I would appreciate it if you did not enter my bedroom or my laboratory without me," he explained and sat down in one of the chairs. "Have a seat".
"It's a lovely room, very cosy. It suits you. Thank you for showing me this part of you". She sat down in one of the other chairs and looked at the bookshelves.
"Would you like something to drink?" he offered and walked over to the cupboard. "I am aware that I shouldn't really be offering you alcohol but I believe it is up to you to decide if you think you can handle it or not. There is some wine, whiskey, firewhiskey, beer, brandy but we could always order something non-alcoholic from the kitchen if you like.
Hermione felt rather guilty when she realised that he really trusted her with alcohol as he obviously believed she hadn't had any in almost two months. She did, however, manage to keep her emotions under control and he therefore didn't notice anything.
"I would like some whiskey, please".
Snape raised an eyebrow at her request but did not say anything. He poured two glasses of whiskey and handed one of them to her.
"Thank you," she said and took a large sip of it. She smiled slightly as she felt the familiar, burning feeling in her throat. "You know, it's quite funny because I always thought you were the brandy person, not the whiskey one".
"Well, I do enjoy a brandy once in a while but I have to say I do prefer whiskey most of the time. I have to admit that I am quite surprised to find you drinking whiskey. Many women tend to find the taste too strong".
"That's what I like about it though, the strong taste and the burning sensation it leaves my throat with," Hermione said and put the glass on the small table in front of her. "Anyway," she began and walked over to his chair. She took his glass out of his hand and put it down on the table as well. "I believe your body is way too covered for it to be healthy," she said and smiled. With a flick of her wand, all the buttons of his shirt were undone and she pulled the shirt away from his torso. His upper body did not disappoint her.
Please review! I know the end of this "chapter" is very weird but I couldn't really find a good place to stop so I just cut the text into two halves. I'm afraid the next update won't be here before Easter – once again I'm sorry.