Animal Magnetism

Disclaimer: I, sadly, own nothing of the Harry Potter 'Verse. I just like to play with them time to time. Especially Severus.

Chapter 23

Having guiltlessly drained the robed man dry, a lot of the fatigue she'd been feeling faded and most of her wounds knit back up. And though there was still a slight feeling of her muscles being shredded and raw, it was almost bearable. Feeling the heavy fangs in her mouth as she traveled from the cellars to the main chamber, she tried prepared herself for the nightmarish scene she was about to face. But the few minutes she'd had wasn't enough. Harry impaled on a support beam, Ron broken and bleeding out on the floor by the Dark Lords' feet, four lycans on the adjacent wall, waiting for something. Only Severus' wasn't within their enemy's grasp but on his knees before him under the Cruciatus curse. Voldemorts' words were an inaudible hiss to her but they were not pleased despite the light side being down.

Hermione quickly calculated her odds. Not good, even if her love gave himself up early. The lycans were going to be the most immediate threat, with their enhanced senses and strength. And she couldn't mask her presence for too long in her condition, even though she'd fed. One turned her way, sniffing from across the room and as she panicked, her magic flared out with full body binds. She'd stolen her wand back from the guard with only slight damage to it. Hopefully no one noticed yet. She was tempted to run to her friends but knew it'd be a foolish move right away. She was running out of time, with the moon almost in position and no plan. But suddenly Severus looked up as if he could sense her, peering into the shadows.

She nodded to let him know she was okay, smiling briefly before glancing to Harry and tilting her head Voldemorts' way. His head moved a fraction of an inch, signaling back to her before cutting his dark gaze back to his former master. She almost wished she could hear what they were saying in low tones and hisses, but wasted not a second crossing the room while attention was averted. In a blink she pulled Harry from where he half-hung, casting a stasis spell then one for healing before his heart could stop. She blessed her catlike reflexes. Laying him to the ground like he just fell on his own, she spun and hid behind the pillar before the pair turned back around. Then she made her way up passed the frozen lycans… but froze herself when Voldemort lifted Severus up by the throat, squeezing as he slammed him into a wall.

Her own heart almost stopped, and she felt light-headed with worry. But his gaze found hers and seemed to urge her on. 'Oh God, he's gonna die trying to buy me time. That fool. Why?' 'That so-called fool loves you, and if you're smart you'll move your damn feet and save all of them,' a growl sounded from the back of her head. She swallowed heavily. 'Quick.' She leapt, sliding across the floor and pushing Ron aside with a shield spell seconds before knocking the Dark Lord over. Severus dropped with a thud and a curse but she gave him no time to stop her, just blowing him a kiss before rolling their enemy into the magicked cage in the corner. Not a second too soon too- because it seemed he was seized by the pains of transformation himself, fur sprouting along his leathery hide. While he was incapacitated she snatched his wand, tossing the broken stick out with her own.

"Hermione…" Severus started warningly, his wand trained on the shifting heap. She knew he'd try telling her to get out but she had no chance. And no desire to- she wouldn't allow him to hurt her loved ones anymore, and they had enough to worry about because she knew the binds wouldn't last long on the werewolves. This had to end now, whether or not she could use her magic here in the cage. And she was going to enjoy this. Just after his cue she was grabbed by the throat and lifted into the air with a snarl. 'Too late.' He was up- and stronger than ever. But so was she now, so her worry was not for herself. "Severus," she gasped, pointing. The bonds had broken, the lycans now fully transformed now the moon was high. Warning given, her claws were out. Game time. She sliced and kicked out, rebounding back. Two men enter, one man leaves. And it wouldn't be him.

She was having one of those dreams again. The good kind where she was safe and snug in her bed and Severus was kissing her and telling her how much he loved her… and then she woke up cold and alone. But at least she wasn't laced with deep gouges and sticky with blood this time… She jolted up, blinking and looking around. Wait… why wasn't she cut up and sticky? Her stomach dropped. She must've won. And Severus must've defeated the werewolves and rescued her. Warmth suffused her body as the memories did.

Fighting a monster-ized version of Voldemort in a magic cell made for his special creatures, clawing his flesh to ribbons one swipe at a time, being beaten senseless when she let her guard down, getting a few lucky jabs at Voldemorts' major arteries but bleeding out onto the floor from her own wounds… It all seemed so unreal. Did the last part really happen too then? Did he really kiss her and confess his love as he apparated her back to Hogwarts? Sighing, she kicked back the covers and stood up, pacing. She hadn't even told him herself yet. She had to- "Hermione, you're awake." That deep, silky voice floated from the doorway, surprised but pleased. She turned around alowly with a smile as a rumble heralded the storm outside.

Their gazes met and she gasped at the intensity, backing up a step as she felt her fight-or-flight mechanism kick into full, adrenaline-charged overdrive. He noticed the small retreat and something flickered painfully in his eyes. But his next words weren't meant to push her further, but draw her closer. They were frank and honest and heart-breakingly sweet. "It kills me, but I need you. I need to hold you, just for a little while. The emotion-it's smashing through me. Pounding through my body and my blood and my bones. Nothing in my life has prepared me to vanquish an enemy that lives inside me. I can't—I can't hear myself through all the noise."

He drew in a deep, shaky breath. "You calm the turbulence." "Yes," she whispered in response to his need, his desperate, silent question, her fear vanishing. "Yes, just for a little while." His entire body shuddered as he reached out for her and she went unhesitatingly into his embrace, breathing in his warmth. He touched her. It seemed all the heat in his body roared through his hands and stabbed through her skin. It entered every fiber of her being, spreading fire. But it didn't burn; rather, it melted. All senses fled and her muscles weakened. And suddenly the intensity didn't scare her anymore. This was what she'd been waiting for.

She did not resist when he drew her tighter into his arms. The appetite was immense, an implacable lust that could be sated only if they did not hold back. They needed to feast. He made a noise that was part moan and part growl. It had no words, but she knew what it meant: here lies madness, beware. So she'd been warned. She didn't care now. Especially not when he was touching her. And storms always left her feeling a little high and wild. "Severus." Windy fists, harbingers of that assault to come, struck the glass and stone, their power only slightly lessened by being diverted around the towers surrounding the castle.

"Hermione." Could he see that she hummed like a tuning fork? That her muscles had taken an electrical charge, drawing from the atmosphere of the room and the storm without, and they were begging for a chance to expend that energy? "Please." She didn't know who said it, if it was him, her, or them both at the same time. But she didn't care. She raised her mouth to his and it was like it was the first time. But maybe, in a way, it was. The first time in love. 'Mates.' It was like kissing lightning. Power poured from his mouth to hers, mixing with her own divine fire and then rebounding, stabbing through their nerves where the charge redoubled.

His hands were cool on her skin, but not enough to stop the heat rising in her. No, not nearly enough, as her hands slipped around his neck. She could feel the lightning beginning to dance over her skin. The reaction was almost too intense. Her kiss turned harder, less refined, but she knew he didn't mind. He cradled her to him in the relative coolness of his body, accepting her heat- maybe even demanding it. She wanted to devour him, to climb inside; she was going to detonate, perhaps electrocute them both. The electricity dancing over her skin was visible now and pouring over him as well. She slid up his body, legs whipping around him as if thoroughly securing him against escape.

The tempest was on her immediately. There was a flash of light, a sheet of whiteness that passed down their bodies in both directions, and she bit her lip to keep from screaming when the shock threw her body into erotic convulsions. Eerie, incandescent light surrounded them. The soul-searing joy of passion was so intense she momentarily flashed back to a time when she'd been so sad and lonely it hurt to breath because every inhalation reminded her she was alive and in pain. And now it was so opposite, so much in contrast it was like another life. And maybe it was. His eyes, when she moved her head to meet them, were deep pools she wanted to jump in and dive to the bottom where his thoughts lay.

But even before she could do that, she knew it wouldn't be enough. Was this the connection the headmaster had spoken of? His hands moved over her body and the desire snatched her mind back from its reflections and immediately plunged her into an ocean of molten lava. She could almost see the steam rising from their bodies, the coolness of his body washing over her, penetrating her organs and limbs and saving her from the volcanic heat. Outside thunder roared, shaking the windows. He claimed her lips again, fiercer than before and it stole her ability to speak [though she'd be hard-pressed for words now anyway], to think, and for a moment breath.

She rocked against him, a siren call to her- what? Mate? Prey? At the moment she didn't care. His body was steely to the touch, and she knew he was exercising the same extreme restraint she was not to take him right there on the floor. Her fingers vibrated with the pleasure of touching him as they stroked over his flesh, kneading his muscles that fascinated her so. She loved the delicate articulation of them as they jumped under her hands. "How you fascinate me," he murmured. A small shudder passed down his body. "You look at me with those wide eyes that show your desire as plainly as the sun or moon and don't hide it. You're half afraid of me, yet I know when I touch you, the fires will rise again and you'll burn along with me. Do you know how rare this is?" She nodded her head and then quickly shook it.

"You fascinate me too," she said a bit haltingly, unable to find a way to explain the fierce longing and attraction he had always caused in her. "You've always fascinated me. Your words reached across the room to touch me that very first day, years ago, took my mind from grief and solitude. Whatever those rational, timid parts of me want, how could I do anything but go into the fire with you?" His black eyes shone like a night full of stars as he brought his mouth back to hers. She reached eagerly for the embers that blazed to life between them. Tempests of pleasure ripped through them, making their muscles quake and her heart stuttered as hurricanes of need laid her low. He pulled her in close and tightened his arms until she gasped then took her lips in a hard, almost desperate kiss.

The floor melted away from under her feet. Nothing remained but a swirling tornado of emotion, and they both stood in the middle, clinging to each other as a drowning sailor clings to a piece of driftwood. Heat boiled in her veins with the intensity of a flash fire in the forest and she clutched his shoulders when her knees threatened to give away. His tongue swept through her mouth, claiming it, claiming her, for his own, and he held her so close she couldn't miss the hard bulge of his erection pulsing against her exactly where she needed him. She moaned, or maybe he did, and she tunneled her fingers through the long silky waves of his hair and pulled his face even closer to deepen the kiss.

Nothing mattered but that he kept kissing her. "Two decades of need churning inside me. And only you could move me." An explosion of pure sensation sizzled through her body, sensitizing every inch of her skin. His response was so intense and skilled she believed her bones were turning to liquid silver in his arms and she was helpless to do anything but cling to him. He was so hot- a burning flame in her arms pulsing and consuming. He devoured her as if the kiss itself was the only thing keeping him from shattering into pieces and flying off into the storm of passion. Exquisite waves of ecstasy washed through her just from the touch of his mouth and hands on her, and she knew she should remember all the reasons why this was such a bad idea, but all she could think of was two decades of need. How can a girl resist that?

He lifted her completely off the ground, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her into a dark corner, pressing her back against the cool stone. She wanted to climb inside him, ride his hot, hard body until the desperate need was sated. Seconds later he was lifting her sweater, and before the first chill could even spark goose bumps on her skin, his hot mouth covered one nipple and his hot hand covered the other. He made a humming sound against her breast and it tingled, but before she could react he sucked so hard she cried out. She tightened her fingers in his hair, and he took it for the encouragement it was, apparently, because he began rhythmically sucking and flicking with his tongue.

She squirmed against him, the hot, liquid desire pooling between her thighs, opening and readying her for him. She wanted, she needed, and oh yes, he pushed that big hard bulge of his erection against her. And he began pressing back and forth in the same rhythm that his mouth used on her. A flash fire of sensation raced through her veins, and she was so close to coming, just from his mouth on her breast. So close, oh, how could she be so aroused so fast? And then he bit down gently and his fingers pinched her other nipple, hard, at the same time and she cried out. The heat, oh the heat! The sheer driving, pounding force of her need was climbing through her and demanding more and more. More of the incredible sensation. More of him.

She was nearly crazed with the wanting, it was so powerful. Never, ever had she felt anything even close to this before. Desperate, she pulled at his head until he released her nipple with a wet, sucking pop that she felt all the way to her toes. He looked up at her and his eyes were glowing black coals. "Tell me," he demanded suddenly. "Tell me what you want." "You," was all she could manage. "All of you." He carefully released her until her feet were on the ground again, and she had to lean back against the wall to hold herself up since her wobbly knees were not cooperating. Then he stared at her, his gaze sweeping from her flushed face and swollen lips to her breasts that were still bare and so sensitive every breath of air touching them built her arousal even further.

Then he dropped to his knees. And with a wolfish grin he stripped her skirt and panties down to her ankles. Before she could even take a breath, or think, or move, he caught her hips in his hands and put his mouth on her. At the first touch of his hot, clever tongue on her clitoris, she cried out again; and then she couldn't scream, couldn't even catch her breath as he licked her and sucked her and swirled his tongue around her until she was almost crying with pleasure. "Please, please, please," she begged, repeating the word until it was a meaningless sound, just a wordless plea. But he held back, held out on her. "Love you." It was both sigh and command, confession and challenge as they swam over her. Through her. "Love you," she half-sobbed, half- panted.

And then it didn't matter, she couldn't talk, because he put his fingers inside he and drove them in and out, in and out, and began sucking with the same rhythm and pressure he'd used on her nipple. Then mere seconds later, when the pressure and pleasure and passion rocketed through her body, she found herself suddenly being lifted higher, staring down at him, and slowly, slowly being lowered again… Impaled. "Mate." His eyes were on hers, narrowed, blazing inky fire. Shudders wracked her and she sobbed for real, the words wrung from her [How could he expect her to even think now?], "Yes. Always."

The sensation, so slow, was excruciating … and then it was suddenly bursting out the top of her head and she screamed, calling out his name as the most powerful orgasm she'd ever felt took her up and over and into the universe. But he kept drawing her… more slowly still, down, down, down… until she sheathed him completely. Caught in the moment, her head flung back, she bit her lip, eyes squeezed so tightly shut. 'Too much, too much, too-' He angled her hips, hitting…just… that… spot. Then he bit her. And she cried out again, hoarsely, spasming. 'Perfect. Oh God. So very perfect.' His movements sped back up, his grip tightening, and then he was exploding inside her, sweet liquid fire…. At that moment she was truly lost, drowning. And she didn't care one bit. 'Love.'

The next morning they spent talking. Heart to heart. Just sitting there, on the bed, half-dressed or worse, talking about the future. Feelings, plans, where they would go from there…. Stuff they somehow never got around to before. Important stuff. Stuff that desperately needed discussion. Especially after all the time she spent avoiding him, or having sex with him then avoiding him. She knew this, she agreed with this, and yet… She couldn't focus. This was her future and she couldn't focus. Because all she wanted to do, now that she was awake and fed, was ravage him again. Ravage her man. Warmth suffused her body, a tingling ball of sensation in her stomach. Hers. And she was his.

She didn't have to run anymore, didn't have to fear. That was all she could bring herself to care about at that moment. Hers. And His. 'Mates. Finally.' "Tell me you love me again," she ordered breathily. Her pupils were dilated as she stared at him, growing dark with desire, and she licked her lips. He smiled; that slow, unbearably sexy, delightfully kissable smile. "I love you." The words echoed in her mind, shimmering in the air between them. He was touching her right now. His hand was on her knee, almost reassuringly, though she couldn't recall over what. Just that the touch did everything but soothe her. Just that it made her more hungry.

Her skin sizzled from the contact. He must've realized what he had done because his hand stilled, molding to the curve of her knee. Her breath caught, trapped in her chest as their eyes locked. Last night flooded back. Then his charcoal eyes took on an almost supernatural glow themselves, reminding her of polished stone. Her skin was warm where his hand rested. His fingers flexed over her knee. "But we should really go." The smooth expanse of muscled chest was irresistible to her hands and her fingers, unable to help themselves any longer rounded over his firm shoulders, curling around the bulge of his biceps. She'd behaved long enough. She'd tried to listen. She deserved this. She needed this.

All too aware of the deliciously wicked sensation simmering within her, she also keenly felt the stroke of his kiss, the barest brushing of lips, moving over her shoulder. "We should," she agreed, as his kiss ghosted down the length of her spine, his hand moving from her knee and up over her thigh. He came to the juncture of her thighs and she gasped, his fingers rubbed the moist folds through the thin cotton briefs. The fabric was soon damp with her desire. "Later," he growled against her mouth, wrenching the briefs free much as he had the previous night and sinking his member into her with one thrust. Filling her completely, he claimed her lips in a kiss at the same time, swallowing her scream. She felt boneless. Weightless, ravaged by hunger, yet fed as she never had been fed before.

They made love again. Perhaps she dozed; she wasn't sure- but they'd missed dinner again. Later, spent, she lay in the big bed and shivered as the fire of energy that had burst between them ebbed. Sometimes she thought she dreamed his touch, because every time she closed her eyes, she opened them to a new seduction. The sun was high and they were standing out in the middle of the forest talking… him smiling seductively as his hands ran temptingly over her curves and he kissed her softly, deeply, hungrily, teasingly... The sky growing dusky as they flashed inside, breath ragged as they tore each others clothes for a countless hundredth time as light flickered through the curtains. Back in his room after they very nearly got caught again, his lips dancing over her flesh and him seeming so fascinated just to touch her…

Gold and crimson flames seeming to leap and dance over them, touching her, warming her, bringing a buildup of heat and sensation that quickly set something ablaze within her. Then fire burned to embers. The moon waned in the sky. She woke again- chilled. She was alone. The fire had died completely. Outside, the sun was beginning to rise high once more, lighting on all the shadows and stark imperfections. And it left her feeling empty. Had they all survived or was this some twisted version of hell? Had it all been simply another dream?

Hopelessness reigned as Hermione quickly spelled herself some clothes, thinking maybe she should just leave- when her lover, her lover came out of the bedroom, towel drying his lovely, thick black hair. All the breath whooshed out of her body. It had been real this time. He was real this time. "Ready to go down to eat in the hall now, love?" he grinned at her, seeing her dressed but still slightly rumpled. "Yes," she breathed, dazed at the wealth of feeling on his face, in his voice. "I am, my love." 'And God, let this always be so perfect…'

The End.

A/N: That was it, last chapter! What a ride, huh? I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i've enjoyed writing it. And I'd love to get your reviews!