Chapter 14

Severus was in a place between dream and reality.  He was so sure that he was dreaming, yet he lay there, his eyes opened lazily and kept thinking what he had experience and what he was feeling then was merely a play of his most wonderful desires manifesting itself.  He found that the smells he was smelling – the wonderful fruity smell – was a sign he was going insane for it would never be possible that he would actually be fit for such a reward as the love of a beautiful witch such as the one living in his house.  He closed his eyes again and attempted to burrow deeper into his silky covers, but found that there was a soft barrier that came between him and his intentions.  He moved his leg, but found that it was somehow tangled in another pair of limbs, causing his eyes to snap to attention.  The limbs that did not belong to him shifted and a small mumble came out of it.

Dear Merlin, I slept with her!  Severus at first began panicking, thinking that he had merely taken advantage of the girl, but after a while, recalled that she had been just as willing as he was to do what they had.  His body began to relax and, upon doing so, had Hermione snuggling closer to him.  He noted that his hands were already wrapped around her as hers were placed palm up against his naked chest.  He almost smiled.  Ah, the contentment!  Had he ever felt this feeling of utmost perfection?  No, he couldn’t recall another time that matched that which could match the wonderful atmosphere of the hours that had passed just recently.

Almost immediately after that thought, the uneasiness began to settle in his stomach again.  Things changed after one slept with someone.  What would happen when she woke up and saw them as they were then?  She would cringe, no doubt, he thought.  Hoping only to regain his composure, he disentangled himself from Hermione, pushed the covers away from him and sneaked away from the expanse of his bed to the bathroom.  Only too late, he remembered that he had limited space to move and just as he was about to stop, he stepped just beyond the given boundaries, tugging Hermione out of sleep – and out of the bed in a swift movement.  He flinched at the squeak of surprise she emitted and the decisive sound of muscle and skin thudding against a carpeted floor.  He braced himself for a big assault.

“Damn you, Snape, you said that it wouldn’t happen again!  Bloody git, you are!” she ranted.  “I swear I could –”

She stopped at mid-sentence, puzzling him slightly.  He hazarded a glance and saw that she was eyeing him with a smug smile.  She had covered her body with the black silk coverings while he – while he…  Oh, Merlin…  Not thinking twice, he ran into the bathroom, dragging her along as she laughed loudly behind him.  He was butt-naked and hadn’t realized it until it was too late!  Oh the horror!  Swearing under his breath, he grabbed a towel from the rack and fixed it around his waist.  He was still glowering as he stepped out of the bathroom and set his eyes on Hermione, who was still smirking at him, her arms folded over her chest.

“Serves you right, Severus,” she said haughtily, her chin in the air as she spoke.  “Being jerked out of my dream isn’t exactly the way I wanted to be woken up after we had –” She cut off looking slightly uncomfortable.  “After what had just passed… between us…”

It was his turned to smirk at her.  “Looks like little Miss I-think-I-know-it-all still feels a bit funny about saying the big ‘S’ word.”

“Oh, do shut up, Snape,” she snapped.  “I can very well say sss…”  She blushed and pursed her lips.

“What is it, Miss Granger?” he asked in mock innocence as he cupped a hand around his ear.  “Turning Slytherin, are we?”

“Bloody hell, SEX!” she shrieked, then clapped a hand over her mouth as if she had just uttered the most profane word in the world.

He almost laughed out loud; instead he gave her a smug look and moved towards his closet to pick out something.  Just as he got there, she hurried to the bathroom, causing him to fall back and trail behind on the floor.  Knowing that their sparring would last for a long time, he settled on sucking in his pride and followed her in the bathroom to make amends.  They didn’t come out until hours later, with a definite satisfaction and regarding each other with arrogant looks.

“So,” Hermione began.  “Do you want to get some coffee now?”

“Certainly; however, I have to decline on going around the cottage absolutely naked.  I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be caught bare-bottom by the Headmaster.  Knowing him, he will be dropping by sometime today.”

As he spoke, he grabbed his trousers and put them on.  She, too, thought it would be quite inconvenient to walking through the halls in such a bare state and started to search for her knickers.  She glanced at Severus and found him swinging them around his finger as he smirked at her.

“Looking for these, my dear?”

Not wanting him to best her, she smiled sweetly at him and took his crumpled black shirt instead and moved to put it on.  “Nope, just this.

When she was finished buttoning it up, she walked saucily out of the room, knowing that he was watching her with those intense obsidian eyes of his.  Tagging along, they walked to the kitchen where they both found a pot of coffee and cups waiting for them on the table.  Hermione sighed and went over to pour herself some.  She was just about to take her first sip when Severus called her name.  Glancing over, she noted that he had an annoyed look on his face, which she gave a questioning one.

“We have unwanted company,” he said grimly.

She stiffened at that.  “What do you mean?”

He shook his head.  “It’s not like that.  Just come with me, Hermione.  We have to go to the living room.  The Headmaster is waiting for us.”  She relaxed visibly as he clarified what he implied.  Putting down her cup, she followed him to the living room and pushed open the door to take a look.

Just as he said, there was the Headmaster, seated upon the settee, comfortably, munching on a plate of lemon drops he had most probably conjured while he waited for the couple to show themselves.  The old wizard noticed them and with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, stood up to greet them.

“Ah, Severus, Miss Granger!”  There was a knowing smile on his face that said it was quite obvious what the two were up to.  Being who he was, however, he never said anything directly, unless it was quite important.  “I take it that the stay is not as bad as the both of you had anticipated?”

“It isn’t,” the Potion’s Master replied dryly, his eyes watching the older one warily as he looked at their clasped hands.  The three did not say anything for a while, each one watching the other two.  Severus finally took it upon himself to speak first.

“Albus,” he began, taking things from a more informal approach.  “If you have come to tell me I am not allowed to be a professor at Hogwarts anymore for this ‘scandalous’ relationship of Hermione and mine, then I willingly accept.  I cannot think of leaving her now.”  He tilted his head up and looked defiantly at the Headmaster, showing he was ready for what he was expecting and damn proud of it.  Hermione in turn looked at him in pure admiration.  She could never have loved him more than at that moment.

The older man merely chuckled.  “Now why would I do such a thing?  Miss Granger is certainly not a student at Hogwarts any more.  Of course she used to be, but then again so were you.  There is nothing really bad about your intimate association with each other.”

“Then, may I ask what you are doing here?  Have they added another condition that we aren’t aware of as of now?  Or is it something of greater importance than that?”

“Actually,” Dumbledore began.  “I merely stopped by to congratulate the both of you on your new-found relationship.  And also I hope that you have finally figured out the true power behind the auction.”

Hermione regarded the man with a confused look.  “I don’t follow.  What do you mean by ‘power of the auction?’  It seems quite ordinary to me.”

The twinkle in his eye grew and Severus tensed.  “My dear child, I have to say that I am quite surprised you could not tell.”  Tipping his head to let known he was about to unveil the truth, the couple unconsciously drew closer towards one another, as if afraid of what he was about to say.  “Very well; the truth is that the ones behind the auction wanted all their clients to be satisfied.  In order for such a thing to happen, the coordinators scrounged the world in order to find the match of each bachelor and upon finding them, had a bar of chocolate they produced sent out to each one and to merely disguise it so that it would be low profile, they added the other women who were already guaranteed not to win.”

Severus looked at the other man doubtfully, not really believing that what he said was true.  “How are you so sure that the ones that were ‘hand –picked for the bachelors’ actually won?”

“Dear boy, do you believe in fate?”

The younger professor shook his head.  Dumbledore then tried another angle.

“Do you believe in destiny?”

Severus gave the Headmaster a skeptical look.  “Do I look like a man who believes in such things?  I mean really, Headmaster.  You’ve known me for a long time.  Have I ever – in that span of time that you’ve known me – said anything that indicated I believed in the idea?”

The other man sighed.  “Well if you did believe in such, then you would know that such an outcome would be considered as one or the other.  As common as this may sound, the two of you were supposed to be together, despite age and background.  You match each other with wit, passion… even the sharpness of your tongues could be considered equivalent – if I do say so myself.”  The twinkle in his eye was prominent and there was a little smile under the massive snowy beard of his.

The couple looked at each other slyly.  What the old wizard said was true.  They were both the best in their grade and together they had their clashes, meeting the other with just the same amount of razor-sharpness.  And just a few hours ago, they found out just how much sexuality actually filled them.  It was quite disconcerting to know that they were meant to be, however, as they looked back on their impressions of each other with their previous relationship.  Severus, though quite grudgingly, had to admit that due to Dumbledore’s insistence to joining the auction turned out to be quite a good thing.  What he had thought would be a waste of a good vacation became an experience that he knew he would never want to relinquish, even the beginnings of their little week.  He actually ended up wondering what would happen if none of this would have happened, he would probably ended up spending his days grading papers and resenting his existence.  She was what he needed and it was a blessing that she had the desire to stay with him.  His envy of others had faded as he could now classify himself as one of them – someone who loved another who loved him in return.

Hermione knew she probably would not have thought twice about her lover had they not been brought into the scenario they were currently in.  For truly, would she have actually seen herself actually kissing a man who was considered an enemy to her schoolmates and house – a man who had been on the side of an evil entity for longer than she had been alive.  She had known nothing of him – and probably would have never known anything about him – had she not consented to joining in the auction.  Something niggled at the back of her mind, however, and she could not help but speak – no doubt on behalf of herself as well as Severus.

“But, Professor, if you truly honored the auction and its rules then why did you consent to the wishes of Meg by allowing her to find us?”  There, she said it.  Now, it was up to Dumbledore to answer.

What she had not predicted was the fact that he would regard her with a curious look.  “I never gave out any information to anyone concerning your whereabouts.  And I certainly do not know who this ‘Meg’ character is.”

“Wait a moment, are you telling me that you had not even met my muggle friend at all?  I thought Harry sent her to you.”

“The only person who has a name akin to ‘Meg’ is long since passed away, dear child,” he quietly informed Hermione.  There was a delicate frown on his brows and his blue eyes lost a twinge of its sparkle.  “I am telling the truth.  You know that I am not one to mislead if the subject is of importance.”

Severus’s eyes narrowed down as Hermione’s widened slightly with fear.  “If you had not given her access to my cottage… then –”

The two looked at each other and in unison they said, “Krum.”

~~ o0o ~~

Viktor paced his apartment, his hands wrenching at one another as the impatience and anger boiled inside him.  Another was with him, the name of this individual remained unknown to him, but he knew that person had business with Hermione.  The two had an arrangement.  Once he was finished with Hermione, the other would get her.  He only wanted to screw her anyway.

The two were waiting for the right time to move in as their previous plan of using that stupid little girl had failed.  It was quite inevitable that they would come to this stage where force was required to get her away from the old senile man.  Viktor’s partner sat quietly on a single chair, watching him as his constraint could not be kept any longer.

“That’s it!  I don’t care what you say,” he growled at his companion.  “I am going now.  Waiting is just a waste of time.  We could have her out of there right now if we didn’t have to wait a blasted lifetime!”

“Ah, but patience is as virtue and waiting for the absolute key moment is what we need,” the other said with serenity.

“Damn waiting for the bloody key moment!  I’m going at this very moment!”

With that said he disappeared with a pop leaving the other alone.  He did not see the lips quirk in dark amusement or hear the deep rumbling chortle that permeated through the empty room.  Things were going as planned and he didn’t even know that he was part of the whole scheme.  Getting out of the seat, the person whistled towards the large fireplace and took the powder from a little bowl on the side and throwing the stuff down just as the individual had been taught, shouted, “Hogsmeade.”

~~ o0o ~~

“Oh bloody hell, why didn’t I see that from the start?  Meg knew better than to do such a thing.  She respected my time here.  She was the one who told me to go!  How could I have been so slow?  That’s why she was –” Hermione rambled to herself, pacing in worry.

“Hermione that’s enough,” Severus commanded, taking her by the shoulders and stopping her.

She looked up at him with shimmering eyes and he scowled, disliking the fact that she was crying.  Dumbledore had been eating his lemon drops slowly as he watched in curiosity as to how the two would handle the circumstances.  So far Hermione was acting unnaturally impulsively, not using her intellect at all to keep level-headed.  It seemed that with Snape around, she could act as weak as she pleased.  Apparently, however, it was obvious that the potions master did not appreciate this and was doing the best he could to placate her.

“Dearest,” the younger man crooned, holding her close to him.  “I need you to calm down.  We cannot figure out what to do or how to handle this if all you do is act like a nutcase.”

Still as blunt as you always are, eh, Snape? the headmaster thought with a raised brow.  He still did nothing to interfere.  He watched as Hermione nodded her head against his chest and took in a shaky breath to calm herself.  Despite the crudeness of his words, it did wonders to Hermione’s state and in just moments the girl was looking clear-eyed at the two of them.

“The first place we must look is my apartment,” she stated grimly.  “That is probably the only place that Krum would probably strike.  I just hope that we aren’t too late.”

Severus nodded at her and Dumbledore slowly got up.  “If you would like, I am here if you are in need of assistance,” the old wizard offered kindly, placing a gentle hand on Hermione’s tense shoulders.

The soft touch seemed to sooth a part of her and she loosened up slightly, smiling gratefully at her old Headmaster.  “Thank you, Professor Dumbledore, but I think that the two of us can handle this alone.  We will keep in touch with you should anything turn up, however,” she said.

Nodding to her, he looked up at Severus, who looked grim as ever.  The scowl had not let up, but the nature of his expression was different, giving the headmaster a proud feeling.  He was hoping that somehow things would work out.  And it had.  “Take care, dear boy,” he acknowledged.

Moving away from the two, he went to the fireplace and took some floo powder before he spoke his destination clearly.  In a puff of smoke and ashes, the old wizard was gone.  Hermione let out a pent-up breath and leaned heavily onto Severus’s bare chest, needing his support.  She had thought that the terrors would be gone, but it merely seemed to escalate after she had kicked Krum out.  Her past problems resurfaced and it was now hurting her friend and great companion in the muggle world.

Abruptly she pulled away and hurried out the living room, heading to the bedroom.  Severus followed stealthily, knowing what she was doing and knew he was going to come with her.  By the time he got within his chambers she already had her undergarments on and was jumping about, trying to pull up her pants.  He couldn’t help but notice how adorable she looked doing that.  She paused long enough to shoot him a glance.

“Are you going to change or not?” she asked questioningly as she buttoned her pants.

“Yes, I will,” he replied silkily and made his way to the closet.  Upon opening it, he heard Hermione’s snort in amusement.  He turned and frowned, wondering what it was all about.

“Your wardrobe is colorful as ever I see,” she commented wryly.

Looking back at his clothes, he smirked.  On all the hangers and placed on the shelves were heaps and heaps of black cloth – not even a stitch had any other color on it.  He helped himself to a set of clean clothes and just as he put on his shirt, Hermione walked to the door.  “Come on, Severus,” she urged.

Knowing her impatience, he buttoned up the shirt quickly with the help of magic and followed her as she stepped out of the cottage.  She grabbed hold of his hand quickly and together they apparated to the shady nook that they had used as a place to arrive when they were visiting the apartment the other time.  Filled with dread, she clasped Severus’s hand tightly in hers and she made her way out of the shadows to the apartment.  As she went up the stairs, she gradually let go of his hand and began to run, feeling the fear peak as she neared her destination.

Upon arriving, she cried out, seeing that the front door to their apartment was ajar.  That was not a good sign at all.  From where she stood, she could hear no sound from inside – not the television sounding, the radio banging; nothing at all – heightening the panic that was already boiling over in her.  With a shaking hand, she pushed the door farther open and froze.

Severus got to her as quickly as he could and found her staring through the open apartment door with a blank expression on her face.  He came up behind her and peered in and saw a sight that he was hoping she would not have to bare witness to in her lifetime; something that he would not have to face directly again after the horror he had gone through in the past.  There on the floor of the main living room was the body of a young girl.  Blood had been saturated into the exotic-looking carpet that had adorned the place.  The girl in the middle of the living room floor was obviously dead; there was no rise and fall of her chest, just the mere presence of her being there – so still; so innocent.

Hermione shook her head and felt her breath hitch.  It can’t be… it can’t be.  Her eyes rolled back as her legs gave way underneath her and she fainted.

is front and waved the covers to envelope them, before falling asleep once again.  Snuggling farther into his embrace, she smiled contentedly and followed him to dream.