In an Alternate Universe

Chapter 43 ~ Being “Adult”

As he was kissing Hermione, Severus shifted forward, trying his best to get the witch down to the sofa on her back, but . . . she resisted him. Finally he drew away.

Hermione looked at the wizard, her face flushed and lips slightly swollen. Yet she was scowling. His heart pounding, Severus studied her, perplexed. He was sure she’d kissed him back.

”What’s wrong?” he asked her, looking a bit worried.

Hermione knew she had to be patient. Ideally, she’d also be delicate . . . but Hermione didn’t do delicate well. Blunt was more her forte. But she’d try.

”Everything,” she said, sitting up straighter.

Now Severus really was worried.

”What do you mean?” he asked the witch. “Did I do something wrong?”

Hermione smoothed her hair.

”Sit back, Severus. We need to talk,” she told the wizard, who obeyed her, but leaned forward slightly, his dark eyes drinking her in. Whatever he did wrong, he’d fix it. He’d do anything to convince her to accept him.

Hermione sighed as she prepared herself.

”Severus, you want me to see you as a man, but everything about you screams ‘adolescent boy.’ I can’t help but to be aware of it, especially when you pounce on me every chance you get, trying to overpower me with your passion. I understand it . . . I do, but it’s not . . . what I need,” she said to him softly. “You have to be more . . . subtle. You have to take time and not try to force responses out of me. You have to learn to wait, to go slow and easy. That’s what men do, Severus. Men who are thoughtful and care about the witch they desire.”

Hermione had only had an experience like that once, with James. And although the encounter had been sweet and James patient, it still meant nothing in the end. He broke her heart. Hermione tried not to think about it, about the pain. Severus was here now, and she intended to enjoy him despite there could never be anything more between them than mutual attraction.

”I do care about you,” Severus said softly. “It’s hard not to want to just . . . just . . .”

”But you are going to have to learn how to control yourself, Severus, otherwise . . . it just won’t be good for me,” the witch said to him. “You climbing all over me as if I were a mountain to be conquered just doesn’t work.”

Severus felt his stomach tighten. It HAD to be good for the professor. How else could he win her heart? If he were going too fast, he’d slow down.

”I’m sorry,” he breathed at her. “I’ll try harder to control myself, professor. I know how to kiss better than that. Easier. The Kama Sutra tells all about it, how to do it.”

Hermione arched an eyebrow.

”I thought the Kama Sutra was all about sexual intercourse and positions,” she said, a bit intrigued.

”Oh no,” Severus responded, eager to show Hermione his knowledge. “It teaches about much more than that. The way to embrace, the way to kiss, the ways to treat women of different lands, although . . . that’s a culture thing. It doesn’t apply to you. I have to learn you as I go. It even teaches how to end it too. I know everything.”

Hermione fought back a laugh. Knew everything? Severus knew next to nothing in actuality.

”Well, you certainly aren’t sharing that ‘knowledge.’ You have at me with all the delicacy of a troll in rut,” she said to the young wizard, who scowled.

”I’m not like a troll. I’m just . . . spontaneous,” he argued.

”Trust me. You have no control,” Hermione said, “You have no art to your seduction. It’s ‘charge in and take her down.’ That’s not spontaneity. That’s youth and inexperience. I don’t care what you’ve read in a book, Severus. You could know all the mechanics about sex in the world and it means nothing if you can’t apply it. At this point in time, you can’t apply it.”

Now, if Severus Snape hated anything, it was being told he couldn’t do something. This set off the wizard’s competitive nature, and he would immediately set out to prove he could do whatever he was challenged with. Unless it was physically impossible, after a while he could master it. His eyes narrowed at Hermione slightly.

”I can be what you need,” he said, a bit of darkness in his voice. “I know I can.”

Hermione snorted.

”Maybe you will be eventually, Severus, but right now as a lover . . . you need a lot of work,” she said. “If you were being graded on your methodology, you certainly wouldn’t be receiving the marks that you’re used to getting. But . . . you’ll improve.”

Severus straightened, then rose from the sofa.

”I’ll be right back,” he said to the witch, striding into her bedroom and heading for the loo. There was a little angry stalk in his step. Hermione couldn’t help grinning at his consternation.

It seemed no wizard, no matter how old, liked his approach questioned. The Gryffindor had a lot of pride and she’d effectively damaged it. He was probably in the bathroom sulking. She settled in to wait for the tears to end.

But Severus wasn’t sulking. He was staring at himself in the mirror, frowning, determined to prove to the witch that he could be the kind of man that she needed, despite his youth. He went over everything he had read in the Kama Sutra. Not just about the positions, but how the man was supposed to act with certain women. Professor Granger didn’t fit all the molds, but she fit some of them a bit. The ones that had the “angry” lover. He’d just have to fine tune what he knew to the witch. He was sure he could do it.

Severus turned on the faucet and splashed some cold water on his face, drying it with a towel, then looked at himself in the mirror again.

”I’ll show her,” he swore, “I can make it good for her. I WILL make it good for her. She’s going to love me.”

Severus turned, exited the bathroom and headed for the witch of his dreams, determined to show her he could be the kind of man she wanted. According to the Kama Sutra, the “angry woman” had to be soothed with carefully placed kisses, caresses and passionate words of desire and longing until her body responded and pressed against his. Then he could go on from there.

He could do that. He had to.

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Hermione watched as Severus walked back into the study, his dark eyes resting on her intently. His walk had lost its anger, and actually he had a bit of grace to his stride as he stopped in front of her. The Gryffindor looked at her, his eyes vulnerable.

”I . . . I want to say something to you,” he said softly.

”Well, go ahead,” Hermione said to him, her eyes slightly narrowed.

Was he going to grovel? Good lord.

”I may be young, Professor Granger . . . and anxious. But I need you to know that it isn’t inexperience that makes me act the way I do. It’s you,” he said sincerely, “and how I feel about you. How lucky I am that you let me . . . let me . . .”

Severus faltered. Hermione had already said she didn’t like the use of the word “shag” because it sounded juvenile.

”That you let me make love to you,” he breathed. “It’s hard not to want to just lose myself in you. Kissing you . . . touching you. Sometimes . . . sometimes it seems as if this is all some kind of fantasy that will disappear if I suddenly wake up. Sometimes it seems it’s not real, so I want to touch you, to feel you every moment to assure myself you’re really here and I’m really here. That we’re really sharing this . . .”

He took a deep breath as Hermione looked up at him, no longer scowling.

”I think you are the most desirable witch on earth, Professor. You are strong, beautiful, tough and brilliant and I . . . I feel like I am the luckiest, happiest wizard on earth because of you. I don’t ever want you to turn away from me, or feel that I don’t care about you . . . because I do, and I always will. I’m going to show you that too. Anything good is worth taking time on and not rushing, and you’re good, Professor. More than good.”

Severus sat down beside her, and gently took her hand, kissing the back of it softly as Hermione stared at him.

”I know you don’t believe me when I say you’re the only witch I want, Professor, but I’m telling you that it’s true. I was born to be with you . . . it sounds . . . it sounds like another line, but it really isn’t. I was just born a little late . . . and that’s not going to matter after long,” he said softly. “It’s not going to matter at all because you’re going to wait for me.”

Hermione blinked at him, her eyes slightly wet. Hard as she was, she couldn’t help being moved by Severus’ sincerity. But still, what did he mean she’d wait for him?

”Wait for you? What nonsense are you talking about?” she asked him, her voice husky as he kissed her hand again, then shifted closer.

”It’s not nonsense,” he breathed, leaning toward her slowly, his voice just this side of silky, “but there’s time for that later. Now, it’s time for you and me, professor. Just you . . . and . . . me . . .”

The Gryffindor leaned in and gently captured Hermione’s lips between both his own, suckling them softly first in the “Clasping Kiss” then shifting into “Kiss of the upper lip” capturing said lip in question.

The young wizard didn’t attempt to deepen the kiss, or invade Hermione’s mouth. Instead, he focused on simply kissing her until she initiated more contact or gave him some sign she wanted more from him. It was a beautiful torture for Severus, the witch’s mouth so soft against his own, making him think of her other, deeper more compelling softness that awaited him. A small tremor shot through him, but he controlled the quaking.

Men didn’t quake.

Then he felt Hermione’s arms entwine around his neck, pulling him closer, her mouth opening slightly, inviting him to enter, to taste her warmth.

”Yesssss,” he hissed against her mouth helplessly before partaking of her heat, Hermione hands slipping into his silky black hair.

Together, slowly, so slowly they went down, the ardor of their kissing increasing as they did so.

”I want to touch you,” Severus breathed, his forehead pressed against Hermione’s, his black eyes hot and intense as they met her amber ones. “I want to feel your body under my hands, professor, that beautiful body. I feel so hungry . . .”

”Touch me then, “ she hissed, pulling him back down into another passionate kiss as his hand swept down her side, around the curve of her breast, over her hip and down her thigh, grasping it for an instant before beginning the journey back. Severus shifted, not mounting her body fully, keeping his loins and erection from her as he moved from her mouth and looked down at her.

The Kama Sutra gave the areas that should be kissed on a woman’s body:. the forehead, the eyes, the cheeks, the throat, the bosom, the breasts, the lips, and the interior of the mouth. Also on the joints of the thighs, the arms and the navel.

Since Hermione still had her nightgown on, Severus focused on those areas he could reach, Hermione purring as his lips moved over her face gently, reverently, kissing her forehead, eyelids, cheeks, chin, throat then returning to her mouth, his hands still caressing her lightly.

She felt she was going to explode if he didn’t up the ante. Now, he was going too damn slow.

Well it was time to speed things up.

Suddenly, Hermione shifted, Severus sliding against the back of the couch, shock in his eyes as the witch slid out from under him, stood up and pushed him completely over so he was on his back, looking up at the witch. He could see her nipples puckered beneath the green silk of her gown.

”What . . .?” he began, staring at Hermione, who had a hot, wicked look in her eyes.

”You want me to see you as a man, Severus? Then it’s time I treat you like one,” she said with deceptive softness. She sat down next to him and slowly began to unbutton his top.

”Oh my gods,” he breathed, watching her fingers move down the front of his shirt. Professor Granger was undressing him.

He hoped to the gods he didn’t explode in his trousers before she was done.

This was like a wet dream. It felt even more like one when she parted the fabric slowly, locked her eyes to his face, and slowly sank pressing her mouth to his chest, then licking it as if he were made of white chocolate. She raised her head and smacked her lips rather loudly, amusement in her eyes at his stricken, hungry look.

”You taste good, Severus,” she purred, lowering her mouth to his chest again, taking one dark nipple into her mouth and suckling it.

Severus’ entire body buckled at the delicious sensation. He held his hands up near his head, not knowing what to do with them as the witch began kissing, sucking and licking his chest, moving lower, over his tight abdomen, his belly jumping in reaction. Hermione gave a low sexy chuckle as she tongued his navel..

”Oh my gods, professor . . . ” Severus breathed again, his heart pounding as she moved even lower, her hands hooking into the elastic waistband of his silk trouser bottoms, her warm breath ruffling the fine hairs below his navel.

Hermione looked up at him, her eyes narrowed and a quirk to her mouth. She looked almost predatory as she considered him. Severus reflexively held his breath as she yanked on his trousers teasingly.

”The gods can’t help you now, Severus Snape. The only one you can call on for mercy . . . is me,” she said softly, licking her lips, “and as you know . . . I’m not particularly big on mercy. Now . . . lift your hips like a good little wizard.”

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A/N Mmmmbahahahahaha! Thanks for reading.