Chapter 21 - You Take My Breath Away
Following the feast, everybody in the great hall rose to their feet as Dumbledore vanished the house tables with a wave of his wand. Before long, the celebration was well underway with live music, dancing and drinking. Hermione stood by the edge of the dance floor, laughing softly at some of the more raucous movers.
Without warning she heard a soft and slightly slurred voice right beside her, its owner's breath tickling her ear. "Don't think that I don't know what you're trying to do, Miss Granger." It was Severus. Without looking at him, Hermione replied as nonchalantly as she could, though her skin had erupted in goosebumps. "I'm surprised you're still here Professor. Surely, your duties as head of Slytherin have all been attended to. You'd better hurry off to bed." He placed his hand lightly on the bare skin of her lower back. Hermione did not have the power to stop him. "The green is a little overkill, isn't it? You could have tried for some subtlety in your quest to manipulate me."
His calloused fingers began to play across her soft skin, dipping slightly below the silken material of the dress. A jerk in her lower abdomen brought Hermione back to reality. She grabbed his forearm firmly, placing it definitively away from her body and looking directly into his eyes, their pupils a little dilated. "Well, it is obviously working, isn't it?" He sidled a little closer and sighed deeply as in times of old. "This has been driving me mad. I need to hold you again, if only for tonight. Dance with me." It was not a question, and his authoritative tone tempted Hermione to forego all decorum and take advantage of his drunkenness. But she could not fall, not yet. She murmured, "You know why we can't do that, Severus. And if all you can offer me is tonight, then I don't think you know what it is that I've been waiting for." With that, she walked over to her friends on the dance floor, leaving him standing alone, swaying slightly.
Hours later and well past midnight, the revelry had not ceased. Severus had disappeared from the great hall long ago and Hermione, finally tiring of celebrating, found herself treading the moonlit Hogwarts hallways. Her emerald green dress floated in her wake as her heeled feet clicked across the stone floor. Very slightly inebriated, her mind was racing with the encounter she and Severus had shared earlier. What could have it possibly meant? Was it merely alcohol-fuelled desire or the unresolved emotions of a man still in love?
She passed a doorway opening out into one of the many castle courtyards and noticed something a little odd. A hunched figure sitting on an ornate stone bench. She could not see the individual's face, and though it was dark, she immediately knew who it was. And though it looked as if he wanted to be alone, she could not help her feet from walking towards Severus Snape. He did not look up as she settled beside him and gave a start as she spoke in a quiet voice. "Trying to sober up a little, Professor?" He quickly straightened his back and feebly attempted to arrange his face into an expression of self-assurance, before allowing it to crumple into shallow lines of discontent once more. "Oh... It's you."
His black tie was hanging limply around his neck and the top three buttons of his collared shirt were open, revealing the sparse dark hairs upon his upper chest. "I'm sorry, by the way. For what I did back there. I should not have forced you into such a situation." Just as she was about to give another sarcastic response, Hermione quickly changed tactics. She placed her hand hesitantly on top of Severus', her fingers trembling a little.
"What are we doing here? Seriously. We need to move past this and return to what is right. And I know that you haven't forgotten what is right, Severus." He locked his slightly bloodshot eyes with hers and gripped the hand atop his tightly. "You should get away while you can, Hermione. You deserve so much more. I realised that again while I was watching you with your friends tonight." Hermione sighed and grasped the side of his face gently, with her thumb moving back and forth against his stubbled cheek. "The problem is, I think that I'm too far in to get back out. I'm caught in this web and I'd be surprised if I'm ever going to be able to remove myself. Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me." And just before their lips came together after so much time apart, Severus whispered a question, his words still a little slurred. "How could you possibly think that I wouldn't like it?"
It wasn't long before the pair was stumbling over the threshold of Severus' quarters, the owner of each limb within the tangle quite indistinguishable. As they moved towards the bedroom, losing garments as they went, Hermione's now bare feet lifted from the cold dungeon floor. She wrapped her legs around Severus' waist and he carried her to the bed, placing her tenderly within the folds of its blankets.
He stood for a moment, merely staring at her. She was looking back with wide eyes and slightly parted lips, propping herself up on her elbows. Hermione was now down to her underwear, also made of silk with a lace trim, and in the darkest shade of black. It contrasted starkly against her porcelain skin, framing her figure beautifully. And Severus had never seen anything so seductive. After stepping out of his trousers, he lowered himself slowly onto the bed, enveloping her in his arms and whispering into her ear. "Despite evidence to the contrary, I do possess the ability to learn from past errors. So before this becomes any more compromising for either of this, I must ask you... Are you absolutely certain that this is what you want?"
In response she kissed his neck, just below his ear, passed her left hand behind her back and undid the clasp on her bra. The pair lay there for many minutes, merely holding onto one another with all their might, relishing in the feeling of skin against skin. Hermione, after so much time, was finally where she wanted to be. And Severus, despite his earlier reservations, couldn't stop himself from smiling into her hair, which had lost some of its sleekness and was returning to its natural state. He hooked his thumbs under the top of her panties and slid them slowly down her shapely legs, before raising his hips so that she could do the same. He placed a hand on her inner thigh with a feather-light touch as she grasped his chest. Hermione shivered as he moved his hand higher at an achingly slow pace.
"Mmm, Severus. Please. Just... I don't know how much more I can take." And with that, he moved so that he was lying over her. He locked his eyes with hers once more and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I love you, Hermione." She smiled widely and mirrored his actions, also tucking an errant black strand away. "I love you. And I've missed you." Then, with a tenderness that a year earlier she would never have believed possible from the potions master, he positioned himself and moved forward.
…
Well that was certainly a lot of fun to write. I'm not sure how well it turned out, but I hope it's alright. I did consider going further and into deeper detail with that last encounter, but to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm capable of writing something like that without having it dissolve into trash. And I think they deserve a little privacy! I hope anybody still reading enjoyed the chapter. :)