She awoke the next morning to the sensation of gentle kisses being pressed against her neck and shoulders.

Ginny was aware of being nude between soft, silk sheets, and more aware of the warm body pressed behind her back – and of course of the hot, hard appendage not so gently making its presence known. She hummed appreciation of all those things, the sound vibrating against the cool of the silver necklace still on her neck. She traced the 'S' with her fingertips, thinking she would be more than happy never to remove it from her body.

Ever.

"Morning," she whispered, and the kisses became more insistent as Severus grabbed her leg, raising it just enough to slide his scorching erection between her legs. He nudged until he found her entrance and thrust home once more.

Ginny discovered just how good slow could be over the course of their weekend together. Severus had placed his flat under a Fidelis Charm years ago out of need for privacy (and a little paranoia about the past), so there were no unwanted redheaded visitors to interrupt their time together.

That was a very good thing indeed, since their time together had mostly been spent in bed until they were too hungry to make love anymore or until they desperately needed the loo or a shower, though those instances generally ended up with the same result as the bed did.

Ginny flushed as she looked at herself in the mirror of his bathroom Sunday morning, examining the stains of raspberry and mango juice on her skin amid the love bites that covered her body. She knew Severus had a sweet tooth just from the number of biscuits he ate over tea, but she didn't realize it would extend to the bedroom as well.

Of course, she too had found out just how much better certain things tasted when licked off of his skin …

"Thinking about me?" Severus asked, very cockily indeed, as he walked into the room stark naked as Adam must have been in the Garden of Eden. She turned to face him, herself as naked as Eve the day she was created, completely unashamed of her body or its immediate reaction to him.

He licked his lips as her nipples started to swell and darken just under his gaze.

"I think I missed a spot," he murmured, taking one in his mouth and sucking hard.

"I probably need to go home, love," she murmured later that afternoon. Severus had spent the morning making sure he had missed no spots on her skin, and she was a little afraid she was too exhausted to Apparate after the multiple orgasms that ensued.

"Just stay with me," he whispered, nuzzling her neck with his lips.

"I want to, but I don't have any clothes for work tomorrow, and the one place I won't go in those low cut robes is St. Mungo's," she said, giggling as he nipped her ear playfully.

"Can you fetch a few things and come back?" he asked.

She pretending to consider the question. "That I can do," she said, turning her head to kiss him. "But I really don't think I have the energy to Apparate. Could you Side-Along with me if you do?"

"I think I can muster it," he said. He left the bed to dress.

Ginny looked around, realizing she didn't have anything to wear other than her dress robes. "Can I borrow a shirt and trousers, Severus? I know they'll be huge on me, I don't even feel like trying to get back into those robes, and besides – you tore my chemise off me yesterday when we were acting out that – "

"I remember," he said, coloring slightly with the memory. He turned to his closet and pulled out an emerald green casual dress.

She raised her eyebrows, trying not to take offense. "I don't want to wear another woman's – "

"It's yours, Ginny. There are several things in there for you, if you would like to pick for yourself."

She couldn't find her breath for a minute as those words as well as the words from Friday night hit her in the chest.

"How long have you wanted me here, Severus?" she asked softly. She put on the dress and walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as he bowed his head.

"A long time," he admitted grudgingly. "Does it matter? You're here now," he said tellingly.

She shook her head against his back. "I guess not. I just wish you would have told me before. I feel like we may have lost a lot of time."

"You're here now," he repeated, covering her hands with his. "Stay?"

She nodded. "As long as you want me to."

He drew in a breath as though he might say more, but he stopped himself. Instead, he took his wand from the dresser, and they Apparated to her apartment with a slow, soft pop.

"Where have you been, young lady? We've been looking for you all weekend. Your brothers just left."

Arthur and Molly were sitting on the sofa in her flat. The living space looked as though it had been camped in by an army.

"Severus," Arthur said as though he were trying to sound as diplomatic as possible. "I think I need to speak to you in private."

"I would like to speak to you as well," he said. "May we step into the … "

He looked around Ginny's flat as though he just remembered it only had two room.

"The landing outside?" Arthur suggested, walking to the front door.

"Yes," Severus sighed. He walked through the opened door, which Arthur slammed loudly behind them.

"What on earth were you thinking, young lady?" Molly hissed as she grabbed her arm. Ginny shook it off as she went to her bedroom to pack up the things she would need for work.

"I asked you a question, miss. Showing up to the ball in that ridiculous dress, dancing with Severus like you did, and from what your father said almost shagging him in a coat closet – I didn't raise you to act this way," Molly accused as she followed her into the cramped room.

Ginny ignored her as she pulled out her overnight bag and stuffed her work robes in it along with her lingerie and a few toiletries. Not that she needed them – Severus knew what soaps and lotions she preferred and had already stocked his bathroom with them.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley, I will not be ignored," Molly said.

"Did you raise the boys to try to attack me and any man I might show interest in?" Ginny snapped and she shut her bag. She looked up and tried to fight the tears burning in the back of her eyes. "Because that's what they did and have always done. We wouldn't have ended up there if they hadn't run after us. And my dress wasn't as indecent as Angelina's was – we read in the Prophet this morning that one of her tits flew out while she and George were encouraging the orchestra to play something a little less sedate."

"Angelina is not my daughter, Ginny. You are," Molly said, grabbing a handkerchief from her pocket and twisting it.

"Yes, Mum, I am. And from what I've heard is that you put on quite a show in your day when you were going after Dad. Madam Hooch told me once about a pair of Gogo boots and a mini skirt that flew up during a Quidditch match – does that ring a bell?"

Molly flushed as she looked at her daughter. "Why did she tell you about that?"

"Because, Mum, when I was younger I used to be more embarrassed about my inclinations to be a little more scandalous, and she assured me that I was very much like my own mother," Ginny said, pointing her finger at her.

"I'm going to have to send Rolanda a Howler," Molly said, sniffling a little and holding her handkerchief to over her mouth. Her shoulders shook.

"Oh, Mum, I'm sorry. I wouldn't have mentioned it if I thought – "

Molly's giggles bled through the handkerchief.

"Oh that old coach," she said, laughing and wiping her eyes now. "You would think her eyes would be on the field rather than on what I was wearing in the stands."

Ginny kept her lips firmly shut.

"But, Severus? Really, Ginny, I just wouldn't think that you two had anything in common, and Merlin's beard he's my age," Molly said, still laughing a little.

"He's eleven years younger than you and dad, Mum – really. And we have a lot in common. We both love to fly, we have the same sense of humor, we liked the same subjects in school, we know all the same people – even if he taught half of them."

"Including you," Molly said.

"Including me," Ginny said sofly. "But that was a long time ago, and we're a lot different than we were then."

"Are you sure?" Molly asked.

"I love him, Mum. And he loves me. He's treated me like a complete lady, at least when he's not treating me like the dirty little – "

"Stop." Molly raised a hand over Ginny's mouth.

"Too much?" Ginny asked.

Molly nodded as she flushed. "Only so much a Mum needs to know."

Ginny smiled and hugged her mother tightly. It was then that they noticed the loud noises coming out from the hallway.

"Oh dear," Molly said. "I was afraid of that."

"What?"

"Your father was less than impressed with your language and actions in the Room of Requirement the other night. I think he's decided he wanted to protect your honor."

"Mum, my 'honor' was taken when I was fifteen. The jig is up."

"Ginny," Molly moaned as she walked out to investigate the noise. She opened the door to the outer hall with Ginny close behind peaking over her shoulder.

"Honestly, Severus, at your age you'd think you'd want to settle down with a nice Witch like Dawna Crouch. Not with MY DAUGHTER," he yelled, face as dark as a Red Myrrhe oil.

"Arthur, I love her – I've loved her for so long I've forgotten what it's like to even notice another woman."

"What?" Arthur asked, too quietly.

"What?" Molly asked, stunned.

"What?" Ginny asked, running to Severus and putting herself in between her and her father.

Severus's lips twitched and his eyes went a little blank as he looked down at her. "You weren't supposed to know," he said as he brushed a strand of her red hair behind her ear.

"Know what?" Arthur said, his voice ice cold.

Black eyes flicked up to blue and brown, then back to the impossibly bright cinnamon brown eyes that belonged only to Ginny Weasley.

"It was all done to protect you. All of the horrible words and actions against you and your family that I had a hand in."

"Severus," Ginny whispered, reaching up to hold his face in her hands. His expression was pained, but he continued speaking when she nodded in encouragement.

"He'd killed anyone I ever cared about; Lily, Charity – hell, even my own mother. I couldn't let him get to you, too. You were already enough of a target with being Potter's girlfriend. When you cast the Bat Bogey Hex on me during the Welcoming Feast that last year, and the only feeling in me was to laugh my head off instead of making you scrub cauldrons … I had to protect you somehow," he said, now turning to turn his face away.

Ginny heard her father's breath start to collect in a way that only meant trouble.

"Mum, take Dad and go back to the Burrow."

"Ginny – "

"I mean it Mum. This doesn't … this is about the two of us, and no one else."

She caught the sight of Molly's head nod briskly as she touched Arthur's arm and popped out of sight.

They walked back into the flat and shut the door.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Ginny asked, walking him to the bedroom.

"I hadn't planned on it," he said, sounding a little drunk.

"Me finding you in the Levels that day was an accident, wasn't it?"

He nodded and sighed as he sat down on her bed, moving her bag to the floor beside it.

"I didn't want to work where you did, but the job was what I've always wanted to do. I hated teaching," he said, smiling sardonically. "But I had a duty to protect Lily's son, after failing her so greatly."

"Then why did you come back and have me treat you as a patient?"

"I couldn't stay away, after having stayed away from you for so long," he said, his voice catching. "I wanted you to live your own life and not be burdened with the sentiment of an old man. I'd hurt you so much I never thought you would want to have anything to do with me. I was so terrible to you … "

"For a reason," she said, no longer fighting the stinging tears as they fell. "I'm so sorry Severus. If I'd know – "

"You'd be dead," he said, wiping her tears away with his fingers.

"You've loved me this long?" she asked, her smiling cheeks hitting the palms of his hands.

He nodded. "What Potter saw in the Pensieve was true, up to a point. I still had the strength to hide a few things from that last year. It wouldn't have done him well to know my actions were for not only his mother, but for the girl he fancied first."

"No," she said. "It wouldn't have. I guess you have a thing for redheads then?" she asked, giggling a little.

"Perhaps," he said, chewing his cheek slightly. "I think I more 'have a thing' for strong willed Gryffindors."

"Can I tell you a secret?"

He nodded.

"I have a thing for secretly sentimental, sensual Slytherins," she said, stumbling over the last words.

"I'll have to write that down," he laughed, no longer trying to hide it.

"Please do," she said. "But only after we christen my bed."

She took off her dress, revealing she hadn't worn anything underneath other than her necklace.

"Don't ever remove it," he said, tracing the 'S' with his fingers.

"I wouldn't dare, sir," she said, winking at him.

"Shamelessly cheeky, girl. Whatever will I do with you?"

She whispered something in his ear that made him blush so deeply she had to clap him on the back and summon a glass of water to their side.

"Never a dull moment," he said, laughing when he finally caught his breath.

"Do you want there to be?"

"No," he said, kissing her gently. "The reason I first took notice of you was that you made me laugh, even if I couldn't show it. Nothing ever made me laugh, or made me happy, until you."

"And here I thought it was all because of my assets," she said, arching her back suggestively.

He smirked and tweaked one of her nipples roughly. "I don't think I completely noticed you as a woman until you took of your coat at the pub, believe it or not. I loved your youth and your … vivaciousness. I think I fought anything else back to keep from feeling like an old letch. And then, there you were, looking like the most delicious red raspberry tart that I'd ever seen. I needed to take it slow just to prepare myself – my love for you became complete in that moment." He looked at her legs and bit his lip. "Where is that skirt, by the way. I might not be able to do what you suggested – at least not today – but I'd like to do something else I thought of that night."

She giggled as she went to her closet and put on the exact same outfit she wore the night of their first date.

He led her out to her kitchen table and bent her over it, so that her nose almost touched the wood grain top. Lifting the short skirt, he caressed her bare bottom.

"Forget your knickers?" he asked as he unzipped his pants.

"I did that night too," she admitted, looking back at him and grinning. Her grin changed quickly to a moan of delight as he shoved his cock into her pussy with one, solid thrust.

"When you gave that waitress the what for, I wanted to bend you over the table and fuck you right there," he said, gathering her hair in his hands and pushing it to the side.

"Do it now."

"Oh, I will Ginny."

Oh, he did. Again. And again. And again …

The couple started spending every night together in one of their flats (though usually Severus's as her parents hadn't figured out how to break the lock on his Floo).

Pretty soon after, Ginny gave in to his insistence and moved in with Severus. His place was bigger, after all. And the Fidelis Charm added some wonderful privacy of the likes she'd never known.

It wasn't really too long after, or really a surprise to anyone when …

A/N: I know, I'm terrible. 1 more chapter to go of all things not mine.