AN: Awwww, you guys! What can I say, your comments were lovely. Some of you have been asking a few questions about the time frame of Severus' feelings for Hermione that I hope will be answered with this chapter. And there are others who've asked me where the lemons are. It just goes to show, no matter how creative you get with your author's notes, some people just don't read them. Le sigh. I hope this chapter is what everyone wants it to be. ENJOY AND REVIEW!

This chapter earns its M rating. If you are underage, please look elsewhere for your entertainment. Thanks.

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Chapter 4: Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

Hermione Granger woke up from what she surmised was a deep slumber. She had expected to feel groggy from the potions she had been dosed with for the past several days, but she was pleased to find that she was surprisingly well rested. She sniffed and cleared her throat experimentally-no bogeys to be felt or scratchiness…hmmm. These were all very very good signs. She smiled when she cast a temperatus* charm and found that her fever had gone!

She stretched languidly, feeling the creak in her back and elbows from being in one position for far too long, and with a huff she cast off the multitude of blankets surrounding her body and tentatively placed two feet on the floor. She shivered a bit at the cool hard wood beneath her, but was gratified that she didn't seem at all unsteady. In fact, she felt great! Padding her way into the living room, she found herself smiling like a child in a sweet shop when she saw the man on her sofa.

Severus Snape had been with her for the past two days, only leaving to replenish the potions he was giving her, and once when she'd threatened to hex off his important bits if he didn't go and take a shower. Really, she had thought, her being ill was no cause to take one's personal hygiene for granted. But truthfully it had pleased her to no end that he was so concerned for her.

He was sprawled out on her couch wearing only a button down white shirt and black trousers, the under-aspects of his usual teaching robes that he'd thrown over her arm chair sometime last night. She remembered only fleeting images from the past few days, she'd been a bit delirious with fever, but the things she did recall caused her heart to melt.

"Hermione, you must take the rest of the potion or your fever will not break. I must insist you stop this nonsense at once Miss Granger!"

"Oh, so now it's back to Biss Granger? I can't help it if I'b sick Seberus. You don't have to be so bean."

Severus looked mildly affronted and raised both eyebrows high on his forehead as he smirked at her. "I can honestly say that I've certainly never been a 'bean' in my life."

Hermione had thrown up her hands in exasperation, but her flailing movements had caused her to knock the ice baggie off of her forehead, causing the contents to spill all over her. "GODSFUCK!" She cried as one of the cubes traveled its way down her shirt causing her to shiver uncontrollably.

"Tut tut! Such language Hermione."

"Yes…well," she muttered, fishing out the remaining ice cubes from her blanket, "I'b sorry that I snapped at you, but that potion tastes vile!"

"But it will make you well. And the sooner you get well…." he trailed off, and Hermione had been pleased to see a slight blush creeping up his neck to his cheeks. Her eyes had softened and she'd reached up a hand to cup his cheek. It had felt cool to the touch. Perhaps she did still need that fever remedy.

"All right. I'll take it." She conceded with a soft smile. "But only because it bakes our future look a whole lot brighter."

Severus was snoring lightly, and Hermione cleared her throat gently so as not to surprise or scare him. It was never a good idea to surprise an ex-spy, no matter what your intentions were. He stirred and then woke, opening a sleep bleary eye at her and then popping both dark orbs open and sitting up abruptly.

"You are awake, Hermione." He said. It was a statement, not a question. His eyes appraised her body and a slow smile began to spread across his features as she made her way slowly towards him

"Yes. I'm awake," she said when she was only about five feet away. Her eyes held a purpose, and his were burning into hers. His adams apple bobbed in his throat.

"You don't feel congested?"

"Not in the least," she replied, only three feet away now.

"Your sore throat has eased?" She caught his eyes traversing a path from her face to her breasts, and absently she realized that her nipples were hard as rocks, quite visible through the fabric of her thin nightgown. She found she didn't care.

"It has eased considerably." She was now standing between his legs as he sat on the sofa, his hands resting lightly on his knees. She saw one of his long fingers twitch, and she felt a warmth spread inside her from somewhere quite deep at the thought that he wanted very very badly to touch her, but was resisting.

"And…"he breathed, she could feel his warm exhale on her face. They were eye to eye. "Your fever is gone?"

Hermione shook her head in the negative, and Severus frowned for only a moment. "Then…"

"I'm not feverish anymore…but I do feel…quite warm." She brought her face close to his, her face angled to the right.

"Ah. Indeed," he replied, his face angled to his right. "That is quite…"

"Fortunate…." she finished for him breathlessly, and then their lips met.

The kiss was not tentative or easy, both of them were too impassioned by this point for that. They'd waited long enough. Now was no time for patience. And neither of them had any.

Hermoine was tearing her fingers down the row of buttons on his shirt, her lips teasing his mouth, her tongue questing against his. He'd gladly opened his lips for her and he was searching her mouth with his own muscle, tasting, exploring, experiencing all that was kissing Hermione Granger. Her heart was beating rapidly as she finally managed to get his shirt off and she groaned aloud when his hands slid down her back to her bum, cupping and squeezing the mounds of her flesh in such a delicious way that she thought she would melt into a realized, absently, that at some point he'd vanished her clothes, which was all the same to her, though she wished that she'd thought of the idea in the first place.

He grunted when she thrust her hips experimentally and pulled her to him roughly, her already soaked slit meeting the hardness in his trousers. They sat there for a few moments, humping each other like teenagers, testing each others bodies for what they knew was to come. She muttered a spell through her kisses to him and felt the warmth and incredible smoothness of his bare skin between her thighs and both of them suddenly froze.

"Ohhhhhh Gods…" Severus groaned, letting his head fall onto her shoulder as he panted at the feeling of his erection pressing insistently into her sopping wet folds. Hermione moaned aloud as well, her pussy felt like it was sucking, drawing him in, she was so ready for him.

"I know," she moaned, "I know…." her hands raked through his hair and down his back as she rotated her hips against his straining manhood, pausing when the swollen, dripping head was poised just inside her tight entrance.

"Stop…stop just a moment, Hermione." He breathed, his voice husky with want, and his eyes came up to search hers, heavy lidded and blurry with arousal.

"Is everything okay?" She asked gently, scraping her nail lightly down his spine, causing him to hiss and shiver.

"Yessssss, Hermione. I just wanted…I just wanted to look at you for a moment." Hermione smiled and nodded. They could not keep their tiny, pseudo thrusts from happening, but she remained still for him as he had asked. His eyes remained locked onto hers as he raised an arm to trace a line all the way from the delicate shell of her ear, along the line of her throat, across her collar bone, and then down around a breast. Hermione mewled when he reached his head down and took one hardened bud in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the protrusion, laving her areola, and biting and sucking gently.

"Shhhhhit. How can it be so good, Severus? How can it be so good?" A gush of wetness escaped her body and suddenly she couldn't wait anymore. "Please…no more teasing. Just be with me."

"I am with you, Hermione," he sighed, and his mouth came away from her breast with an audible pop. He brought his head up so that it was level with hers and he smiled. "I've waited so long…" and then he thrust home.

They both let out a satisfied "unnnnngh" when the head of his throbbing organ smacked against the barrier of her cervix. He was so long, so thick…he went so deep, and Hermione had never felt so full.

"Sweet Merlin, Severus, if you don't start moving soon…" but she needn't have worried, and she didn't even get to finish. Severus had pulled back, his mouth slack, and shoved himself back inside, causing Hermione's vision to go white, and her head to fall back. She wrapped her legs tighter around her as he picked up his rhythm, his large hands bracing her hips as he thrust upwards over and over again, his eyes never leaving hers. She had never had a man look at her during sex. Not just watch her with mild, half interest as he plowed away at her, but really, truly looked. Severus was grunting, and muttering expletives here and there, laced with sweet and honeyed words that Hermione's ears caught only bits of it.

"So good….fuck, Hermione…so tight. So pure," his hands suddenly tightened as he stood to his feet with her in his arms, one hand on her lower back, the other cupping the cheek of her bum. He was still embedded deep inside of her as he stood and then gently, reverently placed her body on the pallet in front of the fireplace. This was no romantic gesture on Severus' part. The sofa just wasn't going to work anymore. He needed to possess her. And for that…he needed to be over her.

"You're so beautiful…" she whispered as his body came over hers, her back resting against the softness of the carpet. He looked powerful, sexy, and definitely in-control like this. His eyes glittered.

"You are mine, my sweet Hermione," he said forcefully. "Do you know how long I've waited for you, for us? For this? Since you came into that first damned staff meeting…"he groaned and pressed his lips to hers again, "Those bloody tight robes, those perfect tits," he grabbed a handful of said body part and pinched her nipple between his fingers, "You were so damned desirable."

"Well…ah!" she cried out as his teeth scraped against the pulse point at her throat, "why didn't you ever say anything?"

He looked down at her then, his eyes a bit softer than before, "I didn't think you'd want me."

Hermione grinned then and slid her hands down around his firm arse, pulling him into her body as tight as she could, making him hiss. "Guess you thought wrong, then."

And then with a growl that came from somewhere deep in his chest, he began thrusting himself into her as hard as he could in earnest, spurred on by her words. His hips were moving fast and hard, the sweat glistening on his pale skin in the fire light as he brought their bodies together again, and again, and again.

"Yes!" she cried breathlessly as he pounded into her, claiming her. Every inch of her felt like it belonged to him. "Yes, yours Severus, yours!" She moaned when he rotated his cock inside of her, hitting a spot that caused her pussy to clench uncontrollably around him and she keened his name long and loud as her orgasm crashed through her, causing her hips to thrash wildly against him, grinding her swollen clit into the curly hairs that framed his hardness.

It was too much for Severus. He could hold on no longer. The tightening sensation in his bollocks that had begun too soon during their encounter was surging, building, and with her sweet, tight cunt clutching desperately at his erection, he threw his head back and gave in to the instinctual and age old sensation or his own climax. His teeth were gritted together as he growled out her name again and again as he emptied all he had into her body. He felt like he'd never come so hard, never filled anyone so full as he had just now, and the hot spurts of his seed seemed to go on forever. Hermione was staring up at him, her eyes warm and sparkling, her lids heavy and stated looking, as she whispered sweet words to him as he experienced his "little death".

The aftershocks from their mutual releases were staggering for them and Hermione couldn't help but cling to him, the sweat of their bodies making their skin tingle as they cooled. Severus remained still and breathed heavily against her shoulder, taking in the salty, sweet smell of her skin. He moved his head around, lightly kissing here and there, a hand coming to palm the round fullness of her breast as she explored him softly in kind. He rolled off of her, finally able to move, and she sighed at the loss of him from her body.

When his breath seemed to have returned to normal, he turned his head to look at her, a small grin coming across his face and she returned it. "That was definitely worth the wait, love." she said, and snuggled into the crook on his arm. Wordlessly, he summoned a blanket to cover them both.

"Definitely worth the wait."

TBC…maybe?

I certainly hope that was "worth the wait." Please review! They are SOOO important to authors. I could really start my own crusade about them….

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