A/N: This is the last official chapter, but don't despair, dear readers: there is still an epilogue to come after this.
Thank you so much for your continued reviews, faves and follows. Please leave a review; I would love to hear what you think! I don't have time to reply to them all, but I promise I read every one.
Thanks as always to my beta AdelaideArcher, aka the zed killer. Mistakes are mine.
Chapter 24: Morning Glow
The final battle banged and burned on without us. Severus and I hid on his four poster; we didn't speak, didn't move, only clung to each other as we watched the sky through the window turn from midnight to indigo to navy and the stars faded slowly into the light.
A quiet filled the room as a gold strip of light appeared on the horizon above the silhouetted hills that surrounded the castle grounds.
I watched for the red glow that would signal Voldemort's demise, remembering the Great Hall filled with light: red, green, and white crashing together in a brilliant burst of magic and death and freedom.
The crimson sky bloomed, and I felt Severus shudder in my arms, his left arm rising between us as he pulled back his sleeve. His eyes widened at the mark, once black, now faded to a faint pink outline, barely visible against his pale flesh.
I kissed the softness there, just over the skull, and then turned my attention to his lips, pressing into them with joy and affection.
"He's gone, my love," I whispered, smiling broadly. "Welcome to the rest of your life."
His fingers traced my jaw, the curve of my upper lip, his eyes dark and searching.
"Our life," he whispered.
His fingers slipped into the hair behind my head and pulled me down, kissing me deeply, his tongue sliding into my mouth. I let out a squeak as stripped us both of our robes with a flick of his wand and then rolled us over so he was resting on top of me, his hips perched between my thighs.
His mouth captured mine once more, and then drew away down my neck, sucking and nibbling over my pulse, across my collarbone, and down my chest before taking a nipple into his mouth. I moaned softly and arched against him as he flicked it with his tongue, my hands digging into his back.
"Inside," I panted, spreading my legs wider and tilting my hips up so my mound brushed against the hard length of his penis. "I want you inside me."
Severus released my nipple with a soft pop, and then slowly guided himself inside me, pausing once he was buried to the hilt.
"I love you," he said with glittering black eyes. I could see it, feel it as his body rested in mind so completely.
"I love you," I replied, my hands resting on his shoulders, and slowly Severus began to move his hips, his cock nudging the soft spot inside me that sent spirals of pleasure in my lower body.
I hummed in rapture as his pace quickened. Gods, he felt so good. So right.
Our eyes were locked together as he stoked the fire within us both, building it steadily into a blaze as the sun rose outside the window, spreading a soft orange glow through the room.
"Stay with me always," he whispered as he rocked against me.
"Yes," I said, my voice low and husky.
He felt incredible. My hands skimmed over his shoulders and down his back, fingers pressing into his flesh, hips tilting backwards a little farther as I pushed him deeper into my core. My mind was blessedly blank, the fire blazing inside me as I quickly approached my climax.
"You're mine," he purred against my lips.
"Yes," I moaned, "yes."
He kissed me deeply, and then gave few deep thrusts, plunging his full length in and out of me in fluid, powerful strokes that sent me into bliss. I was burning, on fire, shuddering beneath him and around him.
"Yes! Oh, Severus, yes!" I called, and his movements did not slow as my orgasm peaked and waned.
"Call me yours," he whispered, still pounding steadily into me.
"You're mine," I said with a smile, tangling my fingers in his hair.
"Yes," he said, his voice like a velvet kiss. "Again."
"You're mine, Severus," I said again, moving my hips in time with his once more.
"Yes," he said, his jaw muscles tight, his breath heavy and coming in puffs against my skin, and I knew he must close.
"We'll be together always," I hummed, feeling my own pleasure building inside me again. "Now come with me, my love. Make me yours."
His hips thrust into me sharply at my encouragement, and I could not help but climax once more, moaning his name and my love. I wrapped my legs around his hips tightly, holding him inside me as I felt him come undone, his seed spilling into me with a final push.
"Yes! Oh, Hermione!" he called loudly, his face screwed up in ecstasy.
Our bodies both spent and sated, he fell lightly against me, panting and coated in a sheen of sweat, and I smiled, my legs still tight about his hips.
"That was a much better victory celebration than last time," I said happily.
I didn't realise I had fallen asleep until Severus was shaking me lightly next to him. There were voices in my ears, and I blinked sleepily, Severus's face slowly coming into focus.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, yawning. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"No matter, my love," he said, pushing a stray curl behind my ear.
"But Hermione, you can't!" a voice yelled, making me jump.
"You and your friends are downstairs," said Severus, and I nodded, listening.
"I can, Harry. You need to rest, and people will freak out if they find out you've gone," said a bossy voice—my own.
"Then I'll go with you," Ron said. "And we'll save Fred too."
"No, Ron. I know it hurts—It hurts me too—but we can't save Fred. We were all right there when the explosion happened. It's just not possible. And you need to stay with your family Ron."
"Fred Weasley was killed?" asked Severus, talking over Ron's reply.
"Yes," I answered sadly.
"I'm sorry," he said, and I could only nod and give a wan smile. I'd have to remember that I'd had eight months now to deal with what had happened; when Severus and I finally went downstairs, it would still be fresh for the others.
"It makes sense for me to go," the other me was saying downstairs. "I know how to work the Time Turner, I have no family to go home to—don't give me that look Harry, I know you haven't either, but you have the Weasleys—and Professor Dumbledore said one of us."
"Always the know-it-all," Severus said. "But you are not expendable."
How did he know what I'd been thinking at the time?
I shrugged, only half-listening to Dumbledore and myself conversing below.
"What happened to your parents?" Severus asked.
"The Order couldn't spare anyone to protect them so I altered their memories so they wouldn't remember me and sent them to Australia," I said, feeling my cheeks colour. What would he think of what I'd done?
"I'm sorry," he said again. "Someone should have helped you protect them."
"It's all right," I said. "I just hope they forgive me."
"If they are at all like you, they will," he said, followed by a soft kiss.
"You don't fuck things up, Hermione, it's not in you. You'll do it," Ron said below.
"Shockingly, I find myself agreeing with Mr. Weasley for once," said Severus with a small grin.
Dumbledore was now instructing me how to find the Time Turner, and then it went quiet for a short while, before my voice from below screeched, "Sir, this doesn't go back by hours, but by months?"
"Why did you agree to come back?" asked Severus.
"You deserved to live," I answered simply. "I wanted to give you the chance."
"Thank you," said Severus seriously.
"I'm so glad you changed your mind," I said, resting my palm against his cheek. "I don't know what I would have done if you'd died."
Severus titled his head, kissing my wrist.
"It doesn't matter now," he said. "You were successful. I'm alive. I don't intend to go anywhere until I am old and grey."
I could only smile and kiss him in response.
"Eight months? Hermione you can't!" Ron shouted from below.
Eight months. Eight months that changed everything, I thought as Dumbledore began reasoning with us below. Severus wrapped one arm around me more tightly, the fingers of his opposite hand twined into my hair next to my neck.
"Once we leave here," asked Severus, "You really won't go?"
"No," I said. "You're stuck with me now too."
Severus let out a relieved sigh, and I kissed him once more.
"Listen, I'm about to leave," I whispered.
"I'll see you soon, Ron, I promise," the other me said from downstairs.
"Take this," said Harry, and I knew he was handing me the Invisibility Cloak that now lay on the dresser beside the bed. "Just promise me you'll return it."
"I promise," I said.
"Sir, I have one more question. How am I supposed to make it look like Professor Snape has died, without him really dying?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "Severus will give you that answer."
"Mysterious bastard," hissed Severus.
"Do you hate him for what he did to you?"
"Yes and no," said Severus. "I wish I hadn't had to do all those things, but in the end it was my choice."
"Thank you," I said, brushing my fingers through his fine hair.
"Thank you for believing in me," said Severus.
"One day I hope you'll believe in yourself too," I said, and then I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"I think I'm coming upstairs. Be quiet," I whispered, straining my ears.
A soft whooshing noise signalled that I'd opened the door, and then there were several more footsteps as I entered the room. Then it was quiet.
"I think I've left," I said.
"I apologise for the grumpy bastard that meets you on the other side," Severus said quietly.
"Yes, but you're my grumpy bastard," I said, kissing the tip of his nose, making his cheeks turn a subtle shade of pink. I smiled, thinking that I was perhaps the only human alive that knew Severus Snape could blush.
"Shall we go downstairs?" I asked.
"I'd rather stay here with you," said Severus with a grimace.
"Me too, but we need to go sooner or later," I said.
"All right," said Severus. "But I suggest we put on clothing first."
"Probably a good idea," I agreed with a grin.
Quietly we cast Cleansing Charms over ourselves and donned our clothes, listening to Ron and Harry chat below us.
"Do you think she'll come back here?" asked Ron downstairs.
"I expect so," said Harry. "Let's wait a bit. If she doesn't come back soon we can go look in the Shrieking Shack."
"Do you think she… after our kiss… you know, expects us to…?" asked Ron.
"You kissed the dunderhead?" asked Severus incredulously.
"Yes, I had sex with him too," I said matter-of-factly. "It was a long time ago."
Severus shook his head, buttoning up his sleeves.
"You're one to talk," I teased. I walked across the room and took Severus's hand, giving it a squeeze, and kissed him on the cheek.
"I love you, Severus," I said. "Don't forget that."
"It was heat of the moment, yeah? I thought we were going to snuff it. Bloody hell, I don't want to hurt her though," said Ron from downstairs. Apparently Ronald Weasley and I had similar feelings about our kiss. That's good, I thought, looking up at Severus.
"Bloody fool," hissed Severus.
"Be nice," I said. "Are you ready?"
Severus nodded and we made our way through the sitting room. Severus opened the door that would lead us downstairs, the door I had only been through three times over the past eight months.
"I'm going to miss these rooms," I said, pausing before stepping through. I looked back over them: the couches where we'd spent eight months of evenings drinking tea, where I'd first realised my feelings for the man, where he'd taught me to heal, where we'd shared our first scant kiss and our first night of passion, and where we'd figured out how to keep him alive.
I looked up at Severus and smiled. I took a deep breath.
"All right," I said. "Let's go. The rest of our life is calling."
We walked through the door hand in hand, ready for whatever the world would throw at us, knowing that no matter what happened we would tackle it together.
My last thought as we made our way down the stairs was, I did it!