Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

We'll Always Have Paris

Empty.

When she woke up, Hermione found out that the place in the bed at her right was empty. She tried to hear a sound coming from the bathroom, but there was none. Severus Snape had left early in the morning, or maybe late at night.

Maybe that it was for the best after all, she thought, not knowing if she would have been able to discuss with him as if nothing had happened during the night. They had made love, and more than once... Severus had made her discover a world full of pleasures that she hadn't even imagined before. He had kissed her with such fervour, something that she wouldn't have thought that a man like him would have been capable of. The Potions Master had brought her to her orgasm in several places, in this bed, under the warm water of the shower, and even on the fluffy red rug at the foot of her bed. Hermione blushed when she remembered this moment when she had needed to lean on the bed not to fall when Severus had taken her from behind, his hand buried into her messy hair.

A mess. this evening and this night had been a total mess, but an oh so pleasurable and unforgettable mess. Inwardly, Hermione was regretting the fact that Severus had left without a word. Indeed, even if she wouldn't have been able to talk to him, they would have been able to continue their affair and take advantage of this little hour before the conference's resumption to explore their bodies a little further...

With a sigh, she jumped off her bed and decided to take a shower. A cold one.

XxX

When Severus took a seat in the conference's room, he quickly looked around, searching for Hermione. After a few seconds, however, he quickly shook his head and returned his attention on the Potions Master at his right who seemed eager to talk to him about some project that he was currently working on. Smirking unconsciously and nodding from time to time, he did his best to appear concerned by this discussion, but, inwardly, he was thinking about totally different things.

Severus was thinking about Hermione's body, her harmonious curves that he had touched and caressed during long hours, her little hands on his lower back, urging him to take her deeper and harder... Her cries of pleasure, her murmurs near his ear, her dirty words full of lust... Everything was coming back to him, and he was trying hard not to show any sign of what he was thinking about.

"It seems to be quite an intensive job," he managed to say at the end of the Potions Master's presentation, even if he had no idea about what the bold man was talking about. "But if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to someone about an important matter."

He had seen her, of course he had seen her from the moment that she had put her foot in the conference's room. She was wearing a thigh black dress with her usual high heels, her eyes looking around as if she was searching someone. Severus smirked, knowing perfectly well who she was looking for. In a heartbeat, he was in front of her and saw her biting her lower lip, like she had done several times when she had been into his arms the night before.

"Miss Granger," he greeted her, taking her right hand into his to kiss it.

"You don't need to be so formal," she muttered before taking her hand back. "You were much more... natural yesterday."

"Does it mean that you liked it?," Severus asked, taking a step to be closer to this intoxicating woman.

"I think that my reaction to your attitude was an answer enough," she answered with a smile.

Severus opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off by the conference's organizer who invited everyone to take a seat. Hermione quickly put her hand onto his forearm to prevent him from moving.

"I've got a reserved seat this time," she swiftly said, "but we'll see each other at the end of the conference."

The tall Potions Master nodded and stared at her while she headed to her own seat. He knew that she needed to leave Paris at the end of the conference, and he wanted to take advantage of every little moment that they could share before her departure.

XxX

The two-days conference ended with a supper with every Potions Master and Mistress, and this time, Severus and Hermione were at two different tables. As usual, Hermione overthought this simple fact. And what if it was a sign of what was about to happen? She needed to leave Paris at the end of the supper and return in London, to resume her boring life without someone at her side, without him at her side.

Her eyes were fixed on Severus during the major part of the dinner, and she noticed the blond woman next to him, the same woman who had tried to catch his attention the first day. While he hadn't seemed to be interested by her the first time, things seemed to be quite different tonight. Severus, the same man who had made love to her just a few hours before, was smiling at her, visibly content to share her company.

He's not yours, Hermione thought while finishing her glass of red wine. Of course, he wasn't, and he could do whatever pleased him, it wasn't her business after all.

But the more time passed, the more annoyed Hermione became. The blonde Potions Master's hand was on Severus arm, and she was laughing as if he had said something funny to her. Since when Severus Snape was a funny man, for Merlin's sake?

When she finished her dessert in silence, she noticed that he hadn't even tried to meet her gaze during the dinner. The last stroke when was Severus bent over the blond woman to murmur something near her ear, a flirtatious smile over his face. She couldn't help but compare this movement to the ones that they had shared the previous day. Hurt, and above all, humiliated, she didn't wait for the usual organizer's speech to leave the dinning room. She wanted to go back to London right now, and forget about everything that happened during this meeting. Everything.

"I need to take some fresh air, I'll be right back" she explained with a forced smile to the person at her right who seemed to be surprised to see her leaving the table.

Once outside the hotel, Hermione breathed in deeply, and looked up at the heavy clouds that was preventing her from seeing the stars in the parisian sky. Even the weather was against her, she thought with a delusional smile.

"A cigarette?," a man's voice raised from behind her, making her jump. She quickly turned around, and frowned when she saw Severus a few feet from her.

"What are you doing here?," she snapped, irritated to see him at this exact moment.

"The same thing that you are currently doing, I suppose," he drawled, and light up his cigarette. "Are you sure that you do not want one?," he insisted.

"I don't smoke," she dismissed his proposition with a shake of head. "And I didn't know that you were a smoker."

"I was not back at Hogwarts," Severus admitted. "I guess that living in Paris can change a few things about a man."

"Not for the best, unfortunately. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to be alone," Hermione retorted before starting to walk in the street, not paying attention to Severus who was following her. They walked together for a few minutes, but eventually, Hermione turned around and stopped in the middle of the street.

"I thought that I was clear when I said that I wanted to be alone," she hissed, eliciting a smile from Severus who get rid of his cigarette.

"And I thought that following you was a clear sign of my desire to be with you," he said in his usual low voice, a glimmer of amusement at the bottom of his obsidian eyes.

"Be with me?," Hermione repeated with an ironic laugh. "I didn't have this impression back at the dinner."

"You are jealous," Severus stated, surprised. "Hermione Granger is jealous, oh Merlin, this is one of the most surprising thing that I've heard since a long time."

"Don't try to be funny. I'm not jealous. You are just... just–," she began, searching for the right adjective.

"I am just...?," the Potions Master repeated with a smirk.

"Oh, please! Don't make me say it."

"Be my guest."

"Damn, you're so annoying!," Hermione said before turning around, bothered by Severus' attitude. But when Severus followed her for the second time and put his hand on her forearm, she stopped again.

"What do you want?"

"Please, come with me...," he said without his usual smirk this time. "I promised you a visit of Paris and it is now or never."

"I've just said that–"

"That I am the most annoying person in the world, yes, I get it," he went on. "But I can assure you that this visit won't be boring."

Hermione looked up at him, trying to see if he was kidding or not.

"I am not dressed appropriately...," she tried, but Severus shook his head.

"You are perfect."

In the end, she accepted half-heartedly, but, as time passed, she begun to relax in Severus' company. They walked a lot, using a cab from time to time, and Hermione was amazed by Paris' rich architecture. The Eiffel Tower was beautiful at night, and its warm orange colour was enough to make her fall in love with the monument. The Latin Quarter was also something unforgettable, with its small sloping alleys and its bars full of people. To conclude their visit, they walked along the Seine until late in the night.

"Thank you, Severus, it was amazing," Hermione finally said to him, her head full of bright memories.

"I am glad to know that you do not regret your decision to follow me."

"Of course not. This city is amazing, and I can understand why you are living here."

"My flat is not so far from here, if you want to stay the night...," Severus said in a low voice, staring at her intensely.

Hermione bit her lower lip, not knowing what to do.

"Of course," Severus went on, "I have two bedrooms if it is a problem for you..."

She shook her head. "It's not the problem."

"Then why are you hesitating?"

"I'm not anymore. Let's go," she answered with a smile.

XxX

Hermione realised that what she had said to Severus about his luck to live in Paris was an understatement when she entered into his flat. She wouldn't have thought that Severus Snape was living into such a beautiful flat, with its large windows and its mouldings on the walls.

"It's... beautiful," she stammered before sitting on the sofa, looking around as if she didn't want to miss a thing about the decoration.

"Thank you. Do you want to drink something? A glass of wine, maybe?"

"Yes, please."

With a nod, Severus headed to the kitchen and returned with two glasses of wine.

"Do you need to return to the hotel tomorrow to take your suitcases?," he asked.

"No, I took care of them this morning. They are already at my flat, in London."

"And what about your Londoner life?"

"Is "boring" a suitable answer?," Hermione answered with an ironic smile.

"It can be, but I am sure that you can do better than this. Boring is such a simple adjective."

"Alright... Well, it's different from here, of course. I have my little habits, my favourite places, my favourite bars... So well, basically, it's a boring life that I'm living," she said playfully.

"A life with a woman like you cannot be boring," Severus retorted, his voice almost hoarse.

Hermione noticed that his attitude had changed, and that he was obviously flirting with her. Like he did with this other woman, she couldn't help but think before sipping her wine.

"Is it something that you use to say to every woman?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"All this crap, all these things that you are telling me since yesterday. Did you say the same things to this beautiful Potions Mistress who were next to you during the dinner?"

Hermione was doing her best to remain calm, but it was hard to do. She saw Severus sigh before answering her question.

"It is not what you think. I did nothing wrong with this woman. Well, I admit that I drank too much wine during the dinner, which usually made me more... talkative. But trust me, our discussion was far from the ones that I shared with you."

Hermione pursed her lips, lowering her eyes to her glass of wine.

"You are the only woman that I want to make love to right now, Hermione," Severus went on, and Hermione felt a shiver along her spine.

What happened next wasn't deliberate, or so she would say the day after. Soon, Hermione put her glass of wine back on the coffee table and started to answer to Severus' kisses, lost into his painfully slow caresses. He seemed to want to drive her crazy, and he almost succeeded. But unfortunately for him, he couldn't resist any longer before burying himself into her dripping core, pinning her against the sofa. His breath next to her own mouth – a mix of cigarette and quality wine – was enough to make her lose any sense of reality, and they didn't bother to remove their clothes entirely. All that they wanted was to take all the things they could from the other, to pleasure themselves for the major part of the night.

Their lovemaking didn't stop for long hours, and it was with an aching body that Hermione eventually fell asleep, in the first day lights.

But when she woke up, late in the morning, she met Severus' intense gaze.

"Hi," she murmured, embarrassed to wake up next to him.

"Good morning."

They had brunch together, and Hermione noticed Severus' good skills in the kitchen.

"I guess that it is because cooking and preparing potions are so close," he explained while finishing his scrambled eggs.

"Well, I am a Potions Mistress myself, and I can't cook decently, so I'm sorry to say that it is an invalid argument."

Severus smiled, and eventually, it was time for her to leave.

"I would have stayed longer but... I have something scheduled for tonight," she explained, close to the door.

"A meeting with a lover, maybe?," Severus smirked.

"I already had this kind of rendez-vous last night, and even the night prior it," Hermione whispered, eying his thin lips.

"You are a lucky woman," the tall man in front of her muttered.

"I am..."

They remained silent for a few seconds, but Hermione broke this uncomfortable moment.

"I was wondering... Is there a way to see you again anytime soon?," she quickly asked, as if saying it quickly would help her not to feel ashamed about her question.

"We are living in two different countries," Severus stated, his expression undecipherable.

"I know that, but Paris and London aren't too far from each other, and–"

"I don't think that it is a good idea," he cut her off, and Hermione frowned.

"Why not? I mean, I am single, you are single..."

"Please, Hermione, both of us knew that it was just a matter of two-days, to distract ourselves from this boring conference."

Hermione remained silent, trying to remember when they had agreed about it. But while she couldn't find anything in her memory about it, she realised that she couldn't find anything about the contrary either. He hadn't played with her, he had just assumed that she knew the real nature of their relationship after all. Slowly she nodded.

"Yes, of course, I don't even know why... Well, let's just forget about what I've just said," she said with a forced smile.

Severus stared at her intensely, but eventually nodded.

"Be safe during your travel," he said before kissing her slowly on the cheek.

"Don't worry about me," she muttered and opened the door to leave.

"Miss Granger?," he said when she was about to head to the elevator.

She frowned when she heard him calling her by her last name, but she turned around to hear what he wanted to say, a glimmer of hope inside her chest.

"Yes?"

"We'll always have Paris," he said with a smile before looking at her disappear in the corridor.

Once she was out of sight, he closed the door behind her, closing a chapter of his life at the same time.

As you can see, it's a complete story. But I guess that a lof of you are not satisfied by this ending. If you are nice enough, I'll maybe write a sequel or an epilogue... ;)

But tell me guys, it is really wrong to share with you the creative process of this story? I mean, a guest told me that it was breaking the flow to say what the next chapter would be about (and I don't blame you, everybody can have his/her own opinion of course), so maybe that I need to stop doing it and just do it while answering to your reviews personnally? I can totally understand if you are here just to read the story and don't care about my usual rambling. ;)

Anyway. Until next time, lot of kisses for all of you!