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In Other Alternate Universes	By : Ms_Figg Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 8534 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Chapter contributed by : honeybee

A/N:
I promised to have this up several days ago, but it ran away from me
and ended up much longer than I expected. This is my first real
lemon, so please, please, please, tell me what you think, even if you
think it sucks. I don’t have a beta, so I apologize for any
mistakes; I’m too anxious to post already, so I won’t
read it through for a fourth time. I hope you enjoy this.
Ms_Figg, thanks again for the great prompt. This
is for you, lame as it might happen to be.

~ Deirdre

Rain
In The Desert

Professor
Hermione Granger was feeling bored;
incredibly and astonishingly bored. One would think that after
surviving the fall of Voldemort, she would be one happy witch—alive,
in one piece and not locked up in Azkaban. The truth was that after
the Snake Abomination finally had the grace to kick the bucket,
Professor Granger found her life duller than ever. She continued
teaching in Hogwarts for the remainder of the year; most of the
students had returned to finish the academic year. Most of the
Muggleborns detained by Voldemort’s regime had returned as
well, keeping a tight schedule to make up for the lost months. Not
Potter or Weasley, of course. The little wankers were offered
complimentary NEWTs and they gladly accepted.

.

Her
thoughts turned to Potter’s know-it-all friend, Severus Snape.
The boy hadn’t accepted his complimentary NEWTs and had stayed
in school to take the exams properly. He had asked for extra credit
in Potions and she had allowed him to brew Veritaserum in her private
lab. As much as it pained her to praise a Gryffindor, Snape had a
real affinity to potion making. He brewed with a natural ease that
she herself hadn’t possessed until the last years of her
apprenticeship. He visited the lab diligently even after he graduated
a week ago, in order to complete his project. She briefly considered
taking him on as her own apprentice-that would make her life a bit
more interesting, having someone with brains to talk to, for a
change.

Her
post-Voldemort life had the benefit of NOT going to Death Eater
meetings, listening to the insane rants of a power-crazed maniac and
taking an occasional bout of Crucio.
However, the spying had filled up a large portion of her time and her
thoughts. Now that she didn’t have to do that, she found her
life…bland. While the school year lasted, she had the
pleasures of making little children cry and humiliating snogging
couples. Now that the castle was deserted, she felt a kind of
hollowness that even a good book or a challenging potion couldn’t
quite dispel. All the other staff was on holiday. She didn’t
have anyone to go with, and she didn’t particularly care for
staying in her family house, it kept too many bad memories. So she
was all alone in the blasted castle. She could get pissed and sing
dirty songs from the Astronomy Tower and not a soul would be there to
see…

A slow
smile crept on Hermione’s lips. She opened a small closet in
the back of her quarters and rummaged through all the junk she kept
there. Finally she fished out a large box. She opened the lid and the
smile became a huge grin, a sight that would cause most of her
students a coronary or at least a nervous breakdown. Two objects
were removed from the box, dusted and set on the table; a record
player and a case with records with music from the 60’s and
70’s. Hermione had stashed them away the night she took the
Dark Mark. She had known than any association with the Muggle World
had to be forgotten. Now she was very glad that she never threw them
away. She poured herself a large dose of Ogden’s Finest,
muttered the charm to start the record player and picked up the first
record. Frank Zappa. Perfect.

**********************

Professor
Granger would be surprised to know that she wasn’t in fact
alone in the castle. In Gryffindor tower resided one lonely Severus
Snape. The boy had decided to stay in the castle for several days and
finish the Veritaserum. It also gave him the opportunity to observe
the Potions Mistress. He found her a very pleasant object for
observation and, given the chance, would do much more than observe.
Professor Granger was a dictionary definition of “untouchable”.
That made the young Gryffindor even more determined to find a chink
in her armor and insinuate himself through it. For now, he had
succeeded in getting extra credit and almost brewing it correctly.
The Professor had said that apparently he wasn’t such a waste
of time and ingredients as his schoolmates. From her mouth, that
meant he was a bloody genius!

Severus
looked through his notes again and consulted the Marauder’s map
he had from Harry. Professor Granger was in her quarters, two doors
away from her lab. He needed to sneak down and add an ingredient to
the Veritaserum that would reduce the brewing time by a whole week.
He wanted to surprise his teacher so he would do it secretly.
Hopefully she would be asleep.

As he
descended the stairs to the dungeon, Severus heard music. At first he
thought his imagination was playing tricks on him, but as he
proceeded the music got louder. There was also singing, quite out of
tune too. He knew that the only other person in the castle was
Professor Granger, but she definitely didn’t give the
impression of listening to loud music and singing out of tune.

Severus
reached the lab door and saw that the Professor’s door was ajar
and the music and singing were indeed coming from her quarters. He
paused for a moment to listen and grinned. What do you know; she was
listening to “The Doors”! He couldn’t resist
approaching the door and sneaking a peek. The sight made him double
over in silent mirth…after the shock wore off.

Professor
Granger was dancing on the sofa wearing a green dressing gown, with a
bottle of Firewhiskey in one hand. And she was singing very loudly.

“I’m
the crawlin’ king snake, and I rule my den.”
She screeched, waving the bottle in the air. Then she raised her left
arm, where the faded Dark Mark marred her skin, and saluted the
morbid symbol with the Firewhiskey.

“Cheers
to you, King Snake Master! Oh, oops, you are not my Master anymore,
because you are DEAD!”

Then she
collapsed on the sofa and cackled. At that precise moment her eyes
locked with Severus’s. Her smile actually didn’t falter
but grew wider. Severus gulped; if the Professor was smiling, he was
in a world of trouble.

***************************

Hermione
Granger was having the time of her life. After twenty long lonely
years of spying, getting pissed in her room and listening to loud
music was definitely a wild party. After a heartfelt rendition of
“Crawlin’ King Snake” and a vindictive toast to
Voldemort she found herself staring in the wide eyes of a very
shocked but clearly amused Severus Snape.
Her initial reaction was to hex the boy for being there and ruining
her time, but then another idea surfaced in her tipsy brain. Hexing
was expected from her, but if she invited him in, now that would
disturb him immensely. She smiled at him and gladly noticed a look of
anxiety crossing his face. Good.

Hermione
beckoned to the boy to enter. He stepped forward cautiously, probably
ready to bolt. She looked at him and twirled her wand between her
fingers.

“Well,
Mr. Snape, I was under the impression that
I was alone in the castle. As it seems you are here too, why don’t
you join me for a drink? It’s no good drinking alone.”

Severus
still looked worried, but nevertheless sat
down next to her and accepted a generous serving of Firewhiskey. He
sipped his drink carefully and tried to explain himself.

“I’m
sorry to intrude Professor. I wanted to check on the Veritaserum and
I heard the music, I apologize but I really needed to add something
to the brew…”

Hermione
listened to the boy’s babbling with an amused smile, noticing
him flinch every time her wand pointed at him. He wasn’t making
much sense but it was a pleasure listening to his voice. Severus
Snape had a very deep voice for a seventeen-year-old and said voice
had a silky undertone that was causing some weird sensations stirring
in long forgotten areas of her body. In her drunken state, Hermione
had no qualms perving over an ex-student. For once she took a good
look at him and noticed that his shoulders had broadened and his face
had lost some of its youthful softness in favour
of sharper, more masculine lines. The Muggle jeans and shirt he wore
complimented his figure. His nose was large as always, but she didn’t
mind. She thought the nose gave character to the face, and Severus
had character in heaps. She frowned…when had she begun
thinking of the boy as “Severus”?

“Professor?
Are you all right?”

She
snapped out of her reverie and looked at him again. He was staring at
her with his huge, dark eyes, head cocked slightly to the side in
question, his long, black hair framing his face. Hermione had a
sudden urge to touch him, but snapped out of it and leaned back on
the sofa, muttering, “I’m fine.”

She
heard a stifled gasp and looked in his direction. The boy looked
flushed and he was staring at her with an odd gleam in his eyes. Then
she realized that her gown had opened quite a bit and she was showing
a lot of skin. Severus was staring at her
breasts and it seemed he couldn’t avert his eyes. They had
become darker than usual and she recognized lust when she saw it.
Hermione smirked. “So, the little
Gryffindor had the hots for his Potions Professor. Let’s see
what will come out of this…”

***************************

Severus
couldn’t look away. He knew it was dreadfully rude to stare,
but the situation was not exactly ordinary. He was having a drink
with Professor Granger in her private quarters and she was probably
going to hex him anyway for seeing her like this. So he decided to
look at the tantalizing patch of white skin as long as he was allowed
to. To his surprise the Professor wasn’t angry when she caught
him looking. Instead she scooted closer to
him.

“Do
you like what you see?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and
leaning forward.

Severus
was suffering from a hormone surge at the close up and barely managed
a strangled, “Yes.”

She
licked her lips. “Would you like to
touch?”

This
time his tongue betrayed him, so all he could do was nod. She took
one of his hands and placed it on her breast. Severus’s eyes
almost rolled up in the sensation of touching her soft skin and
feeling her breast yield under his fingers. He still wasn’t
sure what she was up to, but there was no way in hell he would stop
until she asked him to. He looked at her face, eyes hooded, and a
small smile playing on her lips. Encouraged, he slipped his hand
under her robes and found a gloriously naked, full breast and a
hardened nipple that almost seemed to beg for attention. He hesitated
for a second and brushed it with his thumb. He was rewarded with a
soft moan as she arched into his hand and hissed, “More!”

Severus
pulled her gown apart to the waist and
groaned at the sight of her naked round breasts. He reached out with
both his hands and exhaled in awe, “Oh, Professor.”

Her
eyes snapped open and she growled.
“Addressing me by my title is not appropriate in this
situation. I believe we should revert to first-name basis for the
time being, Severus.”

Hearing
his name from his Professor’s lips almost made Severus burst
out of his pants. He took a long shuddering breath in an attempt to
calm himself and consented. “I agree…Hermione.”

************************

Hermione
was impressed. He didn’t bolt and he actually managed to
pronounce her name without much stuttering. Then she took a long
appraising look at him and noticed how his hands were squeezing the
life out of her dressing gown and his breath was labored. She
suddenly took pity on the boy. He was trying to present a brave
façade, but in truth he was just that—a boy.

“Have
you ever had sex?” she asked in a softer voice. Severus nodded
briefly, avoiding her eyes.

“Once.
It wasn’t really any good. It was dark and we had to be quick
because someone could catch us. It didn’t feel much better than
a wank.” He realized what he had just said and his eyes
widened. Hermione looked at his horrified expression and laughed. His
hurt look made her explain.

“I
wasn’t laughing at you, Severus. You look as if you just
admitted to committing murder. Don’t worry; I have a pretty
good idea what young boys usually do during their morning shower.”

He finally
looked back at her and she was stunned by the longing clearly written
on his face.

“I
really wanted to do it with you, Professor; but I never thought you
would let me.”

Hermione
decided to throw caution out of the window and abandoned her ideas of
playing with the boy. Bloody hell, he was of age, he wasn’t
really her student anymore except for the Veritaserum she had to
evaluate, and he was very clearly willing. They could have a good
time tonight without anybody knowing. Even if Dumbledore somehow
found out, he could bite her arse; she was
tired of teaching anyway. She pried his fingers from her gown and
stood up.

“Come
on. Let’s take this to the bedroom then. And remember, I am not
your Professor, even though I probably will be teaching you a thing
or two.”

She
turned off the music and strode towards the door of her bedroom,
leaving an open-mouthed Severus still sitting on the sofa.
Pausing at the door, she looked at him with some irritation. She
shrugged off her gown, remaining only in a pair of silk knickers and
stared him down.

“Well?
Are you coming or shall I ward my door and go to sleep?” Her
words sent the young wizard stumbling over
the sofa in his hurry to follow her. Hermione smirked at his
enthusiasm and flicked her wand to light the candles in the dark
room. She felt Severus’s warm breath at her neck and pointed
to the huge four-poster.

“Get
over there and undress. I’d like to see what I’m dealing
with.”

Severus
gulped audibly, but his eyes grew even more
heated as he walked over to the bed and started unbuttoning his
shirt. His eyes were roaming over her body and judging by the obvious
tent in his trousers, he liked what he saw. Hermione wasn’t
disappointed herself. When his shirt finally came off she could feel
moisture pooling between her legs as she observed his broad shoulders
and faint smattering of hairs on his chest. He still had the lean
body of a youth, but by Merlin, what a man he would become one day!

Severus
was smirking; he probably could see the
appreciation on her face. He stood up straighter and took off his
trousers and boxers together. Hermione’s chin dropped and her
eyes threatened to pop out of her head. Bloody hell, he was no boy,
at least in the equipment department. He wasn’t exactly huge,
but having in mind he was still growing, he probably would be in a
few years’ time. A light cough interrupted her train of thought
and her eyes snapped up to his face. The smirk had become a wide grin
and she realized Severus had seen her ogling his goods shamelessly.
Then, to her horror and dismay, she actually blushed.

“What the hell?! Nasty
ex-Death eaters don’t blush;
even when confronted with a surprisingly nice cock.”
She tried a sneer in order to gain the lost ground, but he had
already noticed her flushed cheeks and was advancing slowly on her.
There was something in the way he moved, similar to his voice. It
evoked disturbingly feline images of sleek black fur and white teeth.
He stopped exactly in front of her.

“I
think you apparently like what you see. Would you like to touch?”
he asked with a raised eyebrow, still grinning. Hermione narrowed her
eyes at his cheekiness and decided it was
high time to prove that she still had the upper hand. With a swift
motion she wrapped one hand around his cock and the other cupped his
sac. Severus groaned and his knees bucked. When she stroked him
lightly, he closed his eyes and purred. Hermione smiled. The
feline reference apparently has some merit.

She played with him for a moment, delighted by the strangled sounds
escaping his throat, and then she let off. He was young and she
didn’t want to push him. Spilling in her hand would probably
embarrass him and he would get cold feet; she didn’t want that.
For the first time in many years, she had a young, delicious and
willing wizard in her bedroom; she wasn’t about to let the
chance slip.

**************************

Severus
was extremely relieved when he felt Hermione’s hand retreat,
for her touches had nearly brought him to completion, and he wanted
to spend himself inside the witch. She was staring at him with a hint
of amusement in her amber eyes; she seemed to realize that he needed
a moment to compose himself.

After he
managed to slow down the blood bumping through his veins, he looked
at her and asked, “What do we do now?”

Hermione
covered her eyes with her hand and groaned,
“Severus, try acting a bit more grownup! When you ask questions
like this I feel like I’m robbing the cradle.” She took
his hand and dragged him towards the bed. She lay down on the
coverlet and closed her eyes.

“Do
whatever pleases you.”

Severus
didn’t waste time, easing his lean body next to his Professor
and smoothing his hand over a breast. The content sound she made
encouraged him and he leaned down to taste a nipple. When Hermione
bucked against him, he was sure he was doing the right thing and
proceeded with enthusiasm to touch, lick
and suck on her beautiful breasts. He caressed the side of her body
and squeezed a buttock. She wasn’t rail-thin like the few girls
he had touched; she had the body of a real woman-soft and rounded in
all the right places.

Hermione
didn’t seem to mind his touching; in fact it appeared that she
was enjoying herself. Then he dared to sneak a hand to the juncture
of her thighs and his eyes closed with satisfaction. Inexperienced as
he was, he knew that the slippery wetness that met his fingers meant
that she was really responding to him. When
he touched the small bundle of flesh protruding between her labia,
she actually lifted her hips from the bed, grinding into his hand.
Experimenting, Severus rubbed the slippery bud in a circle and
Hermione dug her nails in his back, moaning with pleasure. He hadn’t
even realized when she had put her arms around him. She opened her
eyes and looked at him with a heated gaze.

“If
you really haven’t done this a lot, I must say that you are a
natural not only in Potions.”

Severus
had waited for years to hear her verbally praise his brewing
abilities, but at that particular moment, he cherished
much more her comment on his prowess in bed. He continued to tease
her slick folds and dipped a finger in her opening. A fresh surge of
wetness met his digit and his sensitive nose caught a whiff of her
scent. He growled; suddenly he wanted desperately to see her, to
taste her, to explore completely the place where their bodies would
join. Crawling down the bed and splaying her thighs open, he held his
breath; she was wide open to him, her folds glistening with arousal,
her clit swollen and begging for attention. He lowered his head and
took a tentative lick. Hermione locked her fingers in his hair and
bucked against his face. When he caught her clit between his lips and
swiped it with his tongue, she almost screamed. He looked up at her;
she was staring at him with wild eyes.

“Who
taught you to do that?” she asked,
her voice hoarse.

“I
haven’t done it before. As you said, I must be a natural.”
He smirked and continued to lick and suck on her pussy. The only girl
who had let him have sex with her had been terribly afraid that
someone could see them. They were in a dark alcove and everything
happened in the course of ten minutes, leaving him spent, but not
satisfied. He had wanted to touch, to see, to taste,
but she didn’t allow it. Now, he had the real woman of his
fantasies writhing under his tongue, and he realized he wasn’t
really sorry that his only tryst hadn’t lasted. As far as he
was concerned, this was his first time.

******************************

Hermione’s
head was swimming in a sea of bliss. She kept thinking “If
he is like this with no experience, what about after several years?”
She shuddered at the thought. The boy was driving her crazy with his
tongue, but she wanted more, she needed to be filled. So with some
regret, she extracted her fingers from his hair ant touched his
shoulder. Severus looked up at her, his mouth and chin wet from her
juices and his eyes feral with desire.

“I
believe that is enough foreplay. Come here!” she whispered.

His
eyes widened and he climbed up her body until his eyes were level
with hers. The lust in his expression faded somewhat, allowing some
discomfort to show.

“I...I’m
not sure I’m going to last much, Pro...Hermione.”
He lowered his eyes. “I don’t want to disappoint you, but
I don’t think I can hold it for long.”

Hermione’s
expression softened. Suddenly she remembered the uncertainty of her
own first attempts, her desire to please and her fear of being
inadequate. She surprised herself and caressed his cheek.

“Just
go ahead, Severus. We’ll make do.”

Calmed
by her words, Severus took a deep breath and positioned himself
between her thighs. When the head of his cock nudged her opening, he
gritted his teeth and hissed. Pushing inside her inch by inch, his
breathing became erratic, coming in short gasps, and a vein pulsed
madly on his throat. Hermione was so transfixed by the sweet agony
clearly written on his face, that she almost dismissed her own
pleasure. But when he was completely
encased inside her, she could not ignore the exhilarating sensation
of feeling full to the seams and she let out a long shuddering moan.
Her long-neglected inner muscles clenched involuntarily around the
intruder. Above her, Severus’s eyes rolled back and his hips
jerked against her.

“Hermione…I
can’t…please, I’m sorry!” he whimpered and
she felt hotness flood her insides. The boy collapsed over
her, pinning her to the bed; he wasn’t too heavy, so she didn’t
complain. She understood perfectly that after all the teasing, it was
admirable that he lasted even this long. Only when a warm drop fell
on her arm, he realized that he was crying. A warm and unfamiliar
feeling rose inside her chest, clamping her throat and making it
difficult to breathe. She didn’t want to feel this way, but she
couldn’t help it. She knew how he felt; humiliation had been
her companion since childhood. So Hermione reached out and gently
pulled his face off her shoulder to look at him.

******************************

Severus
hadn’t felt this bad in his life, ever. He had had the perfect
opportunity with the perfect woman and he had wasted it. “How
can she want a silly schoolboy that can’t last even a whole
minute?” was the only thought in
his head. Numbed from the utter humiliation, he didn’t even
realize he was crying when she cupped his face and looked at him. He
didn’t see the expected sneer of contempt when he finally met
her eyes. They were full of warmth and tenderness, something he never
thought he could see there. It was as if the numerous masks she was
wearing—the Deatheater, the spy, the grumpy Potions
Mistress—were lifted, to expose the woman underneath. She wiped
a stray tear with her thumb and smiled at him; the first genuine
smile he had ever seen on her face.

“Severus,
don’t be ashamed. It’s only natural; you cannot force
your body to do the impossible. I’m
not disappointed. This is not worth your tears.”

At this
point Severus felt that his cheeks were wet. Utterly mortified, he
hastily wiped them with his hand. She stilled his fingers.

“Don’t
be ashamed about that either. Against all common belief, boys do cry.
We all have emotions and this is one way to express them. It’s
good when you can cry. It gets bad when you cannot anymore, even if
you want it with all your being and the tears won’t come, as if
your soul has dried up. That’s what you should be afraid of.”

Severus
looked into her amber eyes, saw the
underlying pain and realized she was talking about herself. All his
self-pity evaporated, replaced with compassion for the strong woman
beneath him, a woman who had chosen to reveal her softer side to none
other than him. He unconsciously mirrored her gesture and cupped her
cheek, forgetting about all the differences in age and standing,
feeling that in that moment, they were indeed equals.

“Even
in the driest desert it rains sometimes,
and then some of the most beautiful flowers bloom.”

With
these words he lowered his mouth to hers
and kissed her for the first time. After a startled pause, she
responded and soon tongues were caressing lips, touching, tasting,
each lost in the unique flavour of the
other’s mouth. Severus felt himself harden inside her—he
lacked stamina because of his youth, but he recovered quickly. And
the whole experience had become something much more than a shag with
his dream woman. He wanted Hermione to feel
desired and needed; he wanted to exorcise out of her the idea that
her soul was dry and dead. He kissed her lips and her throat, he
caressed every inch of skin he could reach, worshipping her body
while he moved inside her with slow, steady strokes. The urgent need
for completion had disappeared and he felt as if he could last hours
if needed. Her throaty moans and the scratching of her nails on his
back only steeled his determination. He changed the angle of his
thrusts and was rewarded with a high keening wail. It seemed he had
hit a sweet spot. Raising himself on his arms, he continued to thrust
at the same angle and looked at her face.

*****************************

Hermione
was staring at him with awe. She couldn’t believe that the
insecure boy in her bed had turned into this…this incubus!
Gone were the shyness and embarrassment in his eyes. Now she could
see only desire and fierce determination. He continued stroking her
most sensitive spot, with increasing force and speed. She felt a
telltale ripple in her insides, stronger than ever before. It seemed
that Severus felt it too, for he sped up even more. The tight knot in
her abdomen pulsed stronger and stronger until she felt she would
shatter in a million pieces. With the first wave of her orgasm she
sank her nails in his shoulders, holding on for dear life, and
screamed his name as pleasure fired up every nerve in her body.
Through her bliss she faintly heard him shout his release, and then
there was only blackness.

*****************************

Severus
stared at the woman sleeping soundly in his arms. He felt slightly
smug—his first real sexual experience and he had made his
partner pass out. But the real reason he felt elated were the tears
drying on Hermione’s cheeks and the look of adoration and pure
bliss in her eyes just before her pleasure washed her away. His own
orgasm had been pretty earth-shaking, but the physical pleasure paled
in comparison to the warmth in his heart. Even if she denied it in
the morning, she had opened up to him; he would never forget that.

Severus
sighed with regret and eased off the bed, covering her with a
conjured blanket. Hermione was a private woman and even after the
established connection, he was sure she would need her space when she
woke up. He picked up a piece of blank
parchment from her desk and wrote a note. After leaving it on the
pillow, he tiptoed out of the room and went to Gryffindor Tower to
sleep. Real sex was bloody exhausting!

***************************

Hermione
woke up better rested than she had felt in years. She rolled over and
gasped; the soreness between her legs flooded her with memories of
the night before. She closed her eyes and tried to set in order her
screaming thoughts. “I did
that…with him…and
it was…WOW!
He made me pass out!”
Then the conversation between them came
back to her and she groaned into the pillow. Bloody shite, what had
made her speak to the boy about that? After a moment, the answer was
obvious—on some unconscious level, she believed that he would
understand. And he had…

“…Even
in the driest desert it rains sometimes, and then some of the most
beautiful flowers bloom…”

Her hand
touched something; she opened her eyes and found a piece of parchment
on the pillow. When she took it, she couldn’t force back her
smile and immediately frowned—the skin on her face felt taut
and uncomfortable. She touched her cheek and stilled: unbelievable as
it was, she was touching dried tear marks.

“I
don’t know how I should address you, because it is already
morning, and we agreed on first-name basis only for the night. I only
want to thank you for letting me in…in every sense. I don’t
know how you feel about everything, and I didn’t want to
impose. This is the only reason I left; it wasn’t easy, believe
me.

I
have designed an improvement of Veritaserum that could shorten
the brewing time by a whole week but I didn’t manage to add the
necessary ingredient last night. I got sidetracked by some of my
favourite music and a very beautiful woman.
I am not the least bit sorry that I will spend more time in the
castle with you; I hope you aren’t as well.

If you
think we made a mistake and you don’t want to talk about it,
just snarl at me as usual when I come to the lab and I won’t
say a word. But I will always cherish the memory that I helped bring
rain to the desert.”

Real,
conscious tears streamed down Hermione’s face when she finished
reading. She flipped the note around and couldn’t help laughing
through her tears. On the parchment a Wizarding
drawing of a desert flower opened its petals to full bloom time and
time again.

*****************************

Severus
had butterflies in his stomach as he neared
Hermione’s lab. Steadying his weakened knees, he summed up his
resolve and knocked.

“Enter!”
she barked from inside and his heart sank. He had really hoped she
wouldn’t shut him off; apparently she regretted last night. He
entered and saw her in her usual place, brewing with her back to him.

She
spoke without turning around. “I have arranged for a
Ministry-employed Potions Master to evaluate your Veritaserum. She
will arrive in an hour or so.”

Severus’s
shoulders slumped. She hated him; he had ruined everything.
Devastated, he barely found his voice, “If
you think it’s for the best, Professor…”

Hermione
interrupted him, her back still to him,” It is for the best,
because otherwise it would be unethical, Severus.” She finally
turned around and his heart threatened to leap out of his chest. She
wasn’t sneering and her eyes weren’t cold; they twinkled
with mischief. In two long strides he was beside her, his long arms
embraced her and he let out a long sigh.

“Don’t
do that again. I thought you hated me and it ripped my heart out.”

She
squeezed him tightly. “I only wanted
to tease you for a moment. We have a lot to talk about, but it will
have to wait. Now I have a potion to attend and you have to prepare
all your notes for the Ministry evaluator.”

“What
are you brewing?” he asked, peeking in her cauldron.

“Contraceptive
potion.” she answered, stirring
vigorously.

Severus
blanched and gasped. “Didn’t you take some last night?
How could I forget the charm, I’m such a twit!”

Hermione
interrupted his self-berating with a hand pressed on his lips. She
looked at him, her lips curling into a smirk.

“Of
course I did. This batch is for tonight…and the nights after
that.”

Severus
gaped at the witch as she returned to brewing. Little by little a
huge grin spread on his face. Life was
good.
- 4
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In Other Alternate Universes