42 followers in less than 20 hours? Are you all crazy? :D Thank you so much for the follows and favs, it means the world to a writer. And special thanks to BregoAction, juliefjad, LoveInTheBattleField, KelseyChappell and Alanasibertelli who even took some time to write a review. You are the best!

Chapter 2 was supposed to be about their moments in Paris, but I decided that it would be nice to write another short chapter before. What was supposed to be chapter 2 will be chapter 3 then.

Enjoy!

We'll Always Have Paris

II

When she woke up the next day, Hermione had to take some deep breaths before getting up. And what if the previous night had been a dream, a crazy and unlikely dream? She closed her eyes, remembering the few moments that she had spent with Severus Snape in front of her door, remembering the kiss that he had put onto her shaking hand. She saw the moment when he had talked to her for the first time of the evening... "May I know what is funny, Miss Granger?"

Truth to be told, the whole situation was funny. The fact of being here, in Paris, when half of the guests wanted her to return to London right away; the fact of seeing him among all people, and, above all, the things that she felt when she was next to Severus, her former professor. Her thoughts weren't innocent, she knew it, and even if she knew that she shouldn't have such thoughts about this secretive man, she couldn't help but waiting for their meeting of the afternoon with a childish impatience.

What could she possibly wear?, she thought while getting up for good. She obviously needed to wear her black robe during the conference, but what about after? She couldn't possibly stay in this boring and too serious outfit to visit such an amazing city like Paris. She needed to wear something more casual, but attractive at the same time.

Right after putting on her clothes, Hermione took some time to gather all her notes for the conference. She was supposed to make a presentation in the beginning of the afternoon about the potion she was working on since last year, and she wasn't sure to be prepared enough to support the disdainful looks of the other Potions Masters. Last year had been awful, and she still remembered their laughs full of mockery when she had talked about her potion against teenage acne. Such a silly and non-necessary thing, they had said afterward, but Hermione had continued to work on it despite this. And she had been right: this potion had been one of the most sold in the last six months.

Her bag ready, she used her wand to dry her hair and to make it looked more presentable. Satisfied by the result, she swiftly left her hotel room, her heels hitting the wooden floor repeatedly.

XxX

Unlike the previous day, Hermione looked for Severus this time. The conference room was full with Potions Masters and Mistresses, and she was alone, like usual. Not that she minded, far from it; knowing that somewhere, someone was surely looking for her too was enough to make her happy. And it wasn't someone unimportant: it was Severus Snape, the best Potions Master of his era, without any doubt. Even if he hadn't been present during the last Potions conferences, there wasn't a single year when his name hadn't been pronounced. He had always been there, in a way.

She looked around for the umpteenth time, biting her lower lip like she used to when she was focused on something, her hands clenched around the handhold of her bag.

"Please, take a seat, the conference is about to begin," one of the oldest Potions Masters said, his voice amplified with a spell.

Hermione sighed and searched for her seat. Severus was nowhere to be seen, and for a second, she asked herself if he hadn't left the conference, not wanting to waste his time. Once seated, she tried to forget about him. After all, she had to be ready for her presentation and she needed to pay attention to the others' presentations too.

"I have waited for you," a silky voice raised from her right.

Hermione quickly turned her head and met Severus' obsidian eyes, before staring at his thin lips forming a smile. He had taken place next to her, and she could almost feel his leg caressing hers through the fabric of their robes.

"Excuse me?"

"I went to your room, but you were not there any more."

"Oh... I left early," she explained. "And I didn't expect you, to be honest. It's not... something that fits with your character."

"You still think that I am the boring and severe professor that I was before, don't you?," Severus asked in a whisper, taking care not to be heard by the others around them.

Hermione's look lingered on his lips, and she slowly shook her head.

"Of course not. To be honest, I think that you are really different from before."

"Is it a compliment, Miss Granger?"

"It is what you want it to be," she muttered, astonished by her seducing tone.

Severus looked straight at her, and Hermione wondered what he had in mind. His look was undecipherable, but she could see that he wasn't indifferent to her words. Just when he opened his mouth –his oh so desirable mouth–, the conference's main organizer started to talk. Hermione turned her attention to him, taking her eyes from Severus. Just when she did that, she felt Severus' face coming closer to hers, but she didn't move.

"This conversation is not over," he whispered next to her ear, making her involuntary shudder.

Oh, she surely hoped that it wasn't over.

XxX

Around one o'clock, they decided to go to the hotel restaurant to eat together.

"I would have taken you to this restaurant a few streets from here," Severus said when they took place at their table, "but I am afraid that we would have been out of time, since it is always full of people. And if I remember well, you are supposed to make a presentation right after lunch, am I right?"

"How do you know that?"

"I read it on the conference's schedule two days ago," he answered, with a wave of hand as if it wasn't something important.

"So you knew that I would attend the conference," Hermione noticed, her eyebrow raised.

"I know everything, Miss Granger," Severus smirked before reading the menu.

"Everything?," she repeated, amused by his self-confidence.

"Everything important."

"And should I understand that I am important to you?," Hermione laughed.

"You could be," Severus just answered, putting the menu back on the table. The young woman looked at him, disturbed by what he just said.

"Did you choose already?," he went on, gazing at the waiter who was coming toward them, not paying attention to her sudden embarrassment.

"Wh–? Oh, well, I'll take the menu of the day," she blurted out.

Fortunately, Hermione's embarrassment didn't last long: a glass of red wine was enough for her to be comfortable again, and they spent an hour together, talking about their past, about their future too.

"May I know why on earth a woman like you is single?," Severus eventually asked when they finished their desserts.

"I don't remember telling you that I am single," Hermione retorted with a smile, noticing the surprise in the bottom of Severus' eyes.

"You would not have been here with me if you were not," he said in a very confident voice.

"Can't a woman share a lunch with a friend nowadays?," she continued to tease him.

"Sure, she can. But since you are obviously flirting with me since yesterday, I assume that you are single," Severus concluded before drinking a sip of wine.

"Flirting?," Hermione raised a surprised eyebrow but couldn't retain a smile. "And what makes you say that I am currently flirting with you, Mr. Snape?," she asked, her voice low and seductive.

Severus leaned against his chair and played with his glass of wine, looking straight at Hermione.

"Everything: the way you talk to me, with this voice full of dissatisfied desire...," Severus began, his voice sounding like a promise to Hermione's ears. "The way you move when you are next to me, as if you wanted something, something that you would not dare to ask."

Hermione moved on her chair, suddenly uncomfortable. Of course, she knew that someday, Severus would have understood that she was physically attracted to him, but it was too soon to her eyes. She didn't want to be seen as a wanton woman, even if all that she wanted at this exact moment wasn't exactly innocuous.

"And what if I tell you right now what I really want?," she murmured, slightly bending over.

Severus smiled, visibly content by her question.

"I would tell you to wait until tonight, Miss Granger. We will have plenty of time for such... pleasurable things, trust me," he answered before asking for the bill, leaving Hermione lost in her thoughts.

XxX

For the first time in years, Hermione's presentation went well. And for good reason: the potion that she was working on this year was something that many of her colleagues had worked on for several years, decades even. All of them had failed, but it wasn't a reason enough for Hermione not to try. This potion, that she had called the Regen was supposed to regenerate the cerebral cells when they were not working any more. It was another step against death, and all of the Potions Masters were impressed by her presentation. She left the stage under shy applauses, but it was enough for her to be pleased.

She returned at her seat, next to Severus, and she saw that he was smiling at her.

"You did an amazing job, congratulations."

"Thank you."

"I will be glad to hear more about this project after the conference, if you do not see any inconvenient about it."

"I thought that you wanted to dedicate our time to some pleasurable things after the conference...," Hermione said, trying to show him her disappointment through the tone of her voice even if, inwardly, she was more than amused.

"And we will," Severus muttered, gently caressing her thigh through the fabric of her robe. "Do not be so impatient, Miss."

"I am not. I just don't want you to forget about your promises," she said, bending over him to whisper to his ear while another Potions Master was beginning his presentation. "It would be a shame not to take advantage of our time together to do better things than talking about work," she purred next to his ear, eliciting a groan from Severus.

She was playing with fire, and she was well aware of it. The man at the stage was still talking, and all that she was thinking about was to slip away from this room with Severus and to find a place to have sex with him. Because that was exactly what she wanted: to have sex with the Potions Master, to surround his waist with her legs, to take pleasure from their physical encounter and to give him some pleasure back. She didn't care to know that he had been her professor in the past, or that he was nineteen years her senior. He was a man, and she was madly attracted to him; she was charmed by his self-confidence, by his baritone voice that was sending shivers throughout her entire body.

Severus looked at her while she went away from him, his eyes fixed to her mouth.

"You don't even know half the things I currently want to make to you...," he muttered, his eyes full of lust, his hand still on her leg, slowly moving up to her centre.

Hermione bit her lower lip, but eventually found the courage to take Severus' hand into hers and to free her leg from his caresses.

"We'll have plenty of time tonight," she said with a mischievous look, repeating the sentence that he had said earlier at lunch.

This afternoon would be long, very long.

All this sexual tension must be really hard to live. ;)

Are you happy so far with this story? I really hope so. See you tomorrow!