48Chapter 21: Lingering Affections
{A/N: Long Awaited Update...}
My Thanks to all my Readers and Reviewers Enjoy-S.S
Snape's Quarters, Slytherin Dungeons, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...
The Potions Professor's eyes opened and he found himself in bed with Hermione Granger. He could still feel the frequent tremors from the Cruciatus Curse, the dark lord had been very enraged due to his lack of progress in regards to the witch and wanted to make an example of him. Bellatrix LeStrange had gotten her jollies in the wake of his anguish. The tension in his muscles had eased only slightly since he had passed out.
It was evident that Hermione had taken the time to assist him.
The amber eyed witch had been sleeping with her bushy head rested against his chest. He had to admit she looked quite fetching in her slumber despite the added weight on his already tense chest muscles. The scent of jasmine from her hair had been intoxicating as the memories of their private encounter came flooding back in the worst way.
Snape gasped feeling his own arousal in the wake of the memories.
The warmth from the young witch had only made it worse. His memory of taking her for hours before the prying eyes of the death eaters counsel and the gleaming red eyes of the dark lord himself. Her mind was a maze of hazed visions and dark whispers at the time but his had been whole and his actions brazen in the wake of the darker parts of himself running wild.
"Hermione." said Snape feeling his body jolt in the wake of the tremors.
"I'm here." said Hermione opening her eyes and running her soft nimble fingers across his pale bare chest.
Snape's body continued to shake below her.
The young witch did her best to soothe him kissing his neck in a timid manner. The older wizard closed his eyes the moment her warm and tender lips grazed his sweat pricked pale flesh.
"H-how's the baby?" he asked.
"She's fine." replied Hermione with a smile that Snape liked to the morning sun.
"She?" he asked with an arched brow.
"Well, I'm hoping it's a girl." replied the cheerful girl. "At least then I could teach her things from actual experience."
"Which leaves me with a daughter." said Snape.
"I know." replied Hermione finding herself kissing him once more. "But something tells me you wouldn't mind it one bit."
Snape wrapped on of his arms around her slender waist.
"I've missed you." said he admitted.
"Have you?" she asked with an arched brow.
"Yes witch." he replied. "More than you know."
He chanced making the pain worse by capturing her lips in a full on kiss causing her to lean closer to him. His hand traveled along her belly noting the presence of their unborn child within as a sense of pride filled him he had never known before.
"My little girl." he said looking into the warm amber eyes of his young lover. "I would love to have a daughter...especially if she is anything like her mother."
Hermione seemed to be taking this all in stride. Her apparent affection for him seemed to be quite genuine of course they were born of a lie but that didn't stop Snape from enjoying them.
"How much pain are you in?" she asked suddenly concerned as she noted the continuation of the tremors.
"It doesn't matter." he replied.
"I-I could get you another pain potion." she suggested.
"It would only make me immune to the effects and the tremors worse." replied The Potions Master.
"There's got to be something we can do." she said.
"I'll be alright." said Snape sitting up despite the agony he felt.
"You shouldn't be teaching today." she said noting his rippling muscles.
"You think this is the first time I've gone through this?" he asked.
Moving rather slowly, Snape got out of bed and spelled on his teaching robes. He moved toward the door and leaned against it.
Hermione got out of bed and joined him worried he might collapse in the wake of the pain.
"I'm alright witch." he assured her.
"G-Get to class...ensure no one suspects anything." he replied. "I need to you to remain calm and act as natural about the situation as possible."
Hermione felt terrible about all those times Ron and Harry mocked Snape and she noted from the way his body seemed to cave in on itself that all those months of him snipping at the students and gripping his quill for dear life had been the result of the despot cursing him the previous night.
"Hermione please.." he urged her. "You must let it go...in order for me to do my job effectively...you must."
The amber eyed witch sighed knowing the words he spoke had some merit to them, he needed to keep up the pretense of being whom he was, especially to her when others had been present or the slightest divination from his initial approach would draw far too much attention to him.
Slytherins were quite an inquisitive lot when on their own but being death eaters would lead them down darker investigative paths.
"Alright." she said against her better judgement. "But once everything is said and done you are to get some kind of rest."
Snape chuckled a bit at the rather innocent thought she had about him being able to attempt any of the sort. The way Albus Dumbledore ordered him around like a collared pup was simply maddening. The dark lord had been no better, he had cared not that there were endless rows of Dunderheads to teach or parchments to grade, he summoned him just to humiliate him and assert his dominance over his perceived subject.
The dark mark, a symbol of the despot's affection and belief in one's ambitious efforts when Snape was a young impressionable wizard with no family in which to combat the ideals and no friends to show him the error of his ways became a hollowed mark of ownership and the realization that they were mere pawns in the grand game between two warring wizards with oppressive tendencies.
"Suffice if to say, Hermione...I've been at this for far longer than you've been aware of my true role in this war." he said taking a moment to catch his breath. "I'll be fine."
Hermione nodded trusting that the Potions Professor knew what he was doing, he was privy to his own limitations and knew how far to push himself after all.
"Alright, but the first sign of you having difficulty it's back to bed with you." she replied.
The look on her face proved she wasn't about to take no for an answer. Snape smirked noting the familiar traits of a concerned Gryffindor witch and their tendency to play mother hen the moment the need arose.
"Who am I to dispute such conviction?" he asked with a playful tone.
Composing himself, he allowed his professor persona to take hold and promptly exited the dungeons in a bid to prepare for class.
Hermione Granger prepared herself for class as well before following his lead and leaving the dungeons.
