Once again, sorry for the wait on this. I have been so busy, and indeed, will continue to be for a time to come. Thanks, as ever, for the lovely reviews. I know the last chapter was a little bit of a surprise to some people, but hey - variety is the spice of life! I think it fits in well with their mindsets at this point in the story, and shows how there are still issues to resolve (oh yes).

Apologies for confusing Professor Vector's gender! Thank you to those who pointed out that in the books she is a woman. The scene I wrote did not work with a woman! I have changed the name to ensure it is read as a man.

Just to say also - I am now off to post a Lucius/Hermione one-shot. It fits into my story, Discovering Beauty, but is from Lucius' point of view. To those who know DB, it is quite important. It's quite, err, florid. Not for the faint-hearted, but quite significant and deep too. It will be called 'My beloved spake', which is a quote from the Song of Solomon - that supremely erotic book of the Bible.

So, back to beloved Severus ... This chapter has some tender moments, and then some nice girly chat ... Enjoy! x


Hermione left the dungeons immediately. At first she was confused. What exactly was that all about? He had seemed to need to possess and control her, remind her of who he was, who she was. Had she angered him so greatly by walking out on him on Sunday? Surely not. She had apologised; he had accepted.

But as she walked, she could not deny how much it had excited and turned her on. She could not recall ever before bringing herself to such a powerful orgasm. And his actions immediately afterwards had thrilled and unnerved her equally. His complete acceptance of her body was sublime, but to show it in such a visceral way revealed further complexities in the man she was not sure she yet understood or ever would. Did she need to?

No.

She found his gesture intriguing and strangely touching. His intricacies were one of the main things that attracted her to him, and by the time she reached her room, she realised that what had passed between them, despite its apparently humiliating purpose, merely strengthened her connection with him.

They had not spent the night together since Saturday, and Hermione found herself longing to be in his bed again, to feel his arms around her properly, to be held and stroked and caressed. As she sat down to supper, desperate for a glimpse of him, she debated with herself how he would react if she turned up at his rooms.

He was not in the Great Hall, and she left feeling dejected and morose, unable to decide on her course of action. She went outside for a breath of fresh air, hoping the chilly night would fire her decisiveness. It did not, but as she stood, leaning on the cold stone wall, an owl suddenly alighted with a flutter next to her. Hermione jumped slightly, causing the owl to move back from her with an indignant ruffle of its feathers. But it waited until she had taken the small parchment gripped in its talons, then flew back up into a high tower.

Hermione unrolled the scroll as fast as her numb fingers could manage and read in the dim light: "Come to me tonight. Ten o'clock. Filch busy elsewhere at that time. SS"

Her heart leapt. The decision had been taken out of her hands. But she allowed herself a moment of concern. Did he intend to let her stay, or were there to be more power games? Hermione realised with no shame that she did not mind either way. She just wanted to be with him again, completely privately. They were never happier than when in his modest little rooms tucked away behind his classroom.

She read the note again, seeing with slight amusement that he had signed it 'SS'; one 'S' would have done. No kisses either. But then, that really would have been expecting too much. She smiled to herself and went back inside.

The evening passed slowly. Hermione sat chatting to Ginny for a while, but she went to bed early as she was feeling unwell, so Hermione took herself off to her room while the minutes until ten ticked slowly away.

At quarter to, she finally thought she could venture out, and, appearing as nonchalant as possible, she left the Common Room, mumbling something about a lost book. Nobody seemed to notice.

Hermione hurried silently and swiftly through the dark corridors. They were deserted, and as Severus had said, there was no sign of Filch or his cat. She reached his classroom rapidly and entered it, shutting the door tight behind her. She was surprised to find him at his desk, writing away as usual. She approached him slowly. Hermione half wondered if there was to be a repeat of the previous day. She was not sure she would have minded if there was.

He did not look up. She came and stood before him, waiting. He was silent, as was she. Hermione studied him carefully. His brow was furrowed; she wondered momentarily if he had even noticed her presence. His hand moved elegantly and fluidly over the parchment. He really did have beautiful fingers. Piano hands, her mother would say.

Still she waited.

Then at last, without looking up, he placed the quill down. She could not read his face.

He pushed his chair back and moved smoothly out from behind his desk, coming to stand a foot or so from her. She searched out his eyes, but he did not meet her gaze. His head was lowered slightly and he appeared awkward.

"I am sorry."

His words were quiet but clear. He at last raised his eyes through hooded lids and looked at her. She could see clear shame on his face now. It surprised her.

"It's alright." She spoke gently. "I liked it."

He lowered his head again. Neither moved not spoke for a while. Then the black gaze rose again to hers.

"You were sublime."

Hermione felt her heart swell within her, and rushed to clasp him suddenly to her. His hands engulfed her into him and moved urgently up to turn her head to his. His mouth crashed down onto hers. She opened it for him, his tongue slipping in instantly, ravishing what he found inside. She groaned loudly and reached up to his buttons. He gripped her arms, pulling her backwards towards his private rooms.

Once inside, they moved swiftly to the bedroom, and found themselves naked almost immediately. Hermione was vaguely aware that they must have used magic to divest themselves of their clothes so rapidly, but had no recollection of it. He lowered her onto the bed, and entered her immediately, thrusting in with a grunt of urgency. Hermione arched up towards him, drawing him yet further into her. He hissed out as her walls clamped around his desperate rigidity.

"Oh god, more, Severus, more. Please, oh god, I missed you ... I missed you inside me."

He did not speak, but continued to stroke along her urgently, his breathing becoming heavier and more rapid as he brought them both towards the deepest pleasure.

Hermione felt her muscles girding themselves and moaned incoherently as she focused on his rock hardness within her. As he moved, he rubbed along her inflamed clit, and it took only a moment more for her to come frantically around him. A cry was torn from her, and her body heaved with ecstasy. She gripped his back, her nails digging into his pale flesh. As he felt her spasming around him, his pleasure could no longer be restrained and he came violently up into her, his hot seed exploding deep into her velvet warmth.

He collapsed onto her with a groan of fulfilment. She drew her arms around him and they lay there silently while the night encroached around them, pressing them further into the other until they fell asleep.

Hermione awoke the next morning to find him still holding her tight. They were lying in their familiar pose, with him pressed firmly against her back, their legs drawn up together. His arm was resting languorously around her belly and she could not resist reaching up a finger and running it over his sinewy muscles. He stirred behind her and pulled her ever closer into him. She smiled and brought his hand up to kiss it tenderly.

At length, when she suspected he had woken properly, she rolled over and indeed found him gazing over at her, his eyes dancing in the early morning light. He greeted her with a gentle kiss, and they soon found themselves joined once again.

They had slept more deeply than normal and Hermione's mind had still not fully awoken. As he moved within her, the pleasure poured through her in an almost subconscious haze, building towards a sublime climax and bringing him with it. He groaned loudly against her throat and again she held him tight, almost afraid to let him go.

After their bodies had come down, she turned to him, stroking his face. "Are you busy today? I don't see you on a Tuesday."

"Unfortunately."

"Unfortunately you're busy, or unfortunately I don't see you?"

"Both."

"Can I come back tonight?"

"Need you ask?"

"Yes. I would never simply presume."

"You did once."

"Yes. That isn't an experience either of us want to repeat." They were remembering the first time she had ventured to his rooms and nearly been caught by Filch.

He smiled down at her a little. "Certainly not."

"You have to admit," she smirked, "it was just a teensy weensy little bit exciting though."

"Perhaps," he drawled before leaning down to kiss her again. "Now you had better go or you will be late for breakfast."

"You do have a bit of a thing about punctuality," she teased.

"Of course. One should always come at the appropriate time."

Hermione gasped in mock horror. "Why, Professor Snape, I do believe you just made a joke based on crude sexual innuendo!"

He stopped smiling but his eyes danced again. She beamed up at him, then rose rapidly and got out of bed. He watched entranced as she ran giggling from the room.

Hermione arrived at breakfast in ebullient mood. Ginny looked up at her and chatted amicably. "I've got a study period first thing this morning, 'Mione. Have you?"

"Yeah, I guess I do." Hermione hadn't really thought about it.

"I'm going to the library. Do you want to come?"

"Yeah, OK." Hermione smiled at her friend; she could detect a sense of insistence in Ginny's voice.

After breakfast they got their books and headed for a private, secluded part of the library.

They started to revise for Transfiguration, but Hermione noticed Ginny being more attentive towards her than usual, closer almost. At moments of quiet, Hermione would look up and find Ginny staring at her intensely.

She broke the silence by asking about her friend's health. "Are you feeling better? You were a bit poorly last night."

"Yeah, yeah thanks. Time of the month. I felt dreadful last night."

"I'm sorry." She smiled apologetically at her friend.

Ginny continued staring at her. Hermione was slightly unnerved.

"Yeah. In fact, the cramps got so bad last night that I really needed to take something. But I'd run out of the relieving potion."

"Really? Did you manage to get some?"

"No ... I came to see you actually, to see if you had any, or could make me some. I was quite desperate."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't hear. I must have been asleep."

"It was only just after ten. You don't normally go to bed that early."

Hermione could no longer look at her friend. "Yeah, well ... I was really tired last night."

"Because, you see," continued Ginny, "I didn't think you were in, so I thought I might try to find you."

"Did you? But ... where did you think I'd be?" Hermione knew she sounded nervous.

"Well, you see ... Harry leant me something for times like this. I mean ...it's not as if he needs it at the moment. I'd never thought about using it, but I really wanted your help."

Hermione's blood ran cold as Ginny reached into her bag and brought out an object all too familiar to her. It was the Marauders' Map.

She swallowed hard, but said nothing, almost imparted with a morbid curiosity to see what Ginny would say next.

"At first, I couldn't find you anywhere. There I was, looking for a little solitary set of HG initials, maybe in the library, maybe even going for a late night walk somewhere."

There was silence. Hermione found herself breaking it.

"And did you find me, Ginny?"

"Oh yes. And what a fool I was. I should have looked there first. I found you in a place that I suspect you have spent quite a lot of time recently, right next to someone else's initials. And there you stayed, all night. You were still there when I woke up this morning to check again."

Hermione was almost daring her to voice it. "And what initials were they?"

"SS."

The two women stared at each other. To Hermione's surprise, there was no shock, no horror in Ginny's eyes. Still, Hermione could not bear to look in them anymore and lowered her head rapidly.

"Hermione. I've suspected for a while you know. You can't keep your eyes off each other. You've even sabotaged my potion to get close to him."

Hermione's head darted up. Ginny merely smiled. "I just wish you'd told me before."

Hermione looked at her in astonishment. "Aren't you ... aren't you shocked?"

"I was at first, but ... I know you, 'Mione, and, despite my own opinion ... I know what he did ... who he must be underneath ... it all. You two have been through things that even I cannot imagine. Extraordinary things draw people together. Who am I to question or judge?"

Hermione could not believe what she was hearing, but found herself getting up and rushing round the table to embrace her friend fervently. "Oh, god, Gin, thank you. I wondered if you'd noticed. I so wanted to tell you, but thought you'd be so horrified you wouldn't speak to me. And I didn't want to betray him. God, you mustn't say a word, do you understand?"

"Hermione! You don't need to say that."

Hermione stared at her friend in amazed disbelief for a while, before sitting down beside her. "I just ... I just can't believe you're being so tolerant of it."

"Hermione. You're my dearest friend. I know you wouldn't enter into something unless you thought it was meaningful and significant. But ... I do worry about you. I mean ... surely your relationship is forbidden – you're his student."

"Yes ... but ... I'm not going to be here for much longer. And I hardly feel like a student. I wasn't sure I could stand much more of being here to be honest. I was desperate to take the exams and get out. I couldn't have felt anything less like a student. Strangely enough, he was the only member of staff who treated me like one when I came back. God, it pissed me off! Especially after all we'd been through together, all we'd witnessed."

"So what changed?"

"I ... I don't know really. He infuriated me, the way he insisted on treating me so coldly and callously, as if nothing had happened to me, or to him. I suppose I resented it. I resented the fact that he could be so in control of his emotional exterior, when I still felt like screaming and raging at the world. And I think in a strange sort of way, that connected me to him. And then, one day, I caught him looking at me, staring at me in the Great Hall one day, not with anger, but with ... curiosity, it seemed. And from then on, I couldn't stop thinking about him, and ... it became quite a physical obsession ... he was suddenly so ... so desirable." She looked quickly at Ginny. "I suppose you think I'm mad."

Ginny smiled. "I would have done until recently, but when you realise a sensible friend of yours fancies the pants off someone, you kind of look at that person in a different way."

"And ...?" Hermione was curious to find out her new opinion.

"He's got nice legs." They both collapsed into giggles.

"God – I hadn't really focused on his legs, but ... you're right."

"And he smells pretty good come to think about it."

"Oh god yes."

"And, of course ..." Ginny paused with a smirk.

"Of course what...?"

"His voice is as sexy as hell."

Hermione pressed her hands to her head in an attempt to stem the laughter. "You noticed."

"Well, yeah ... it's just that when it's deriding and mocking and belittling your every move, you don't tend to notice."

"It's just a defence mechanism, you know. He's afraid to give, afraid to reveal too much of himself."

"Probably," Ginny shrugged. "Doesn't make it any easier for the rest of us though."

Hermione lowered her head, slightly ashamed. She remembered how dreadfully he treated nearly all his students.

"He did save your life."

"Yes ... only after you tried your hardest to get rid of me!"

"Sorry about that."

"What did he say about it?"

"He set me an essay."

"Really!?" Ginny was incredulous. "Anything else?"

Hermione paused. "Not really." She couldn't stop a smile caressing her features.

"Go on!" Ginny sensed something more; her eyes sparked with excited curiosity.

"No ... I can't." She was firm.

Ginny stopped pressing her, but still burned with inquisitiveness. After a moment of silence, she spoke again, more secretive than ever.

"Well ... what's he like then?"

Hermione looked at her, then the two friends dissolved into suppressed laughter again.

After they had stopped giggling, Ginny still looked at Hermione. It was clear she wanted an answer.

"He's ... rather good ... very good ... actually," She couldn't stop smiling. "And ... improving all the time."

Ginny grinned broadly. "Attentive?"

"Yes."

"Unselfish?"

Hermione thought about it. "Most of the time."

"Varied?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, but nodded with a smile.

There was a pause.

"Experimental?"

"Ginny!"

"Sorry."

Another pause. Then Ginny spoke again with a smirk. "So ... you're satisfied?"

Hermione fixed her eyes into her friend's. "Oh yes. And then some."

"God, 'Mione! I'm bloody jealous. Harry's not nearly so ..." She stopped abruptly. There was a grimace on Hermione's face. Ginny had forgotten how she hated to think about Harry in that way.

"I have to say; I've never seen you so happy. I mean, I suppose I should feel some remorse for my brother, although I never thought you'd last. But I'm just so happy that you're happy. Poor Ron. I don't think he will be quite so ... understanding."

"Shit." Hermione froze. "They're coming up here in a few days. What if they find out?"

"Will it matter if they do?"

"Yes!" She turned to Ginny. "Won't it?"

"Well ... I don't know. I mean ... they'll have to find out at some point, won't they?"

"Oh god ... must they!?"

"Hermione. If this is what you want, you can't be ashamed of it. If you want to have a proper relationship, the world will have to know sooner or later."

"Later," she said emphatically.

"I can understand you keeping it quiet while you're here, you don't want to get expelled, but ... what's going to happen after you leave?" Ginny's voice was suddenly filled with deep concern.

An uneasy throb had started in Hermione's gut. She realised she had no answer. "I ... I don't know."

"I mean ... you might have great, naughty, secret sex, but ... there's more to a relationship than that. How on earth are you going to conduct yourselves away from here? And he works here anyway. What about his job?"

The feeling in the pit of her stomach grew worse.

"How serious are you, Hermione?" Ginny paused. "Do you love him?"

Hermione's eyes shot to her friend's and she stared deep into them, almost as if she was hoping to find the answer there. She did not reply.

There was silence between them. After a while, Ginny rubbed her friend's arm and got up to go to the bathroom.

Hermione stared blankly out into the still library. Her mouth opened and words came out, unheard by anyone, even herself.

"I think perhaps I do."


X

More as soon as I can ...

Let me know your thoughts. LL x