Judging Books By Their Cover

Hermione and Severus had neared that climax, and had held back. There was too much guilt, too much self-doubt to do otherwise, and so they had resigned themselves to sleeping in each other’s arms.

Hermione was gripping her uniform as she sat in the Headmaster’s office the next morning. It had been so wonderful waking up on the couch with Severus’ arms around her, but that feeling seemed distant compared to her nervousness of that moment. It wasn’t that she was afraid of getting in trouble for what had already occurred. Rather, she was afraid that what would come of it would prevent that trouble from escalating, regardless of the fact it might be for the best if things did end. Severus was sitting in a chair a few feet away, his back straight and wearing his characteristic frown. She wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but she knew that wouldn’t go over well.

“Perhaps you should tell me everything from the beginning, Miss Granger,” said Dumbledore gently. “Professor Snape informs me that you had a spell go a bit wrong and came to him for help.”

“Uh, yes,” Hermione said, glancing at Snape for reassurance she knew he couldn’t bring himself to give in Dumbledore’s presence. “Well, it started with this book...”

About half an hour later, Hermione was sitting in her chair finishing the story, and Dumbledore was sitting on his side of his desk in silence. After a silence that had her squirming even more in her chair, Dumbledore spoke. “I would never encourage a relationship between professor and student. Certain difficulties are bound to arise from such an arrangement, and it would not be seen as appropriate for me to know of such a relationship and to allow it. That being said, sometimes the letter of the law is not quite as important as what was meant by it. Miss Granger, you recently turned seventeen, did you not?”

“Yes,” she said, not quite sure where he was heading with this.

“And Professor Snape,” said Dumbledore, “you have not been giving any undue favor to her in class?”

“Absolutely not,” said Severus.

“Exactly as I had suspected,” continued Dumbledore. “From what I can tell, you are both of age and have not used your position for any inappropriate gain. So it follows that, so long as it does not become public knowledge and disrupt classes here at Hogwarts, I don’t seem to have any reason to punish or separate the two of you.”

Surprised at the twinkling eyes and words of the Headmaster, Hermione looked over at Severus, whose face was still characteristically blank, and found herself becoming infuriated. Damn that man, she thought to herself, he knew all along what Dumbledore would say and let me worry anyway.

“And the remainder of the spell?” she asked. “What is to be done there?”

“As to that,” said Dumbledore, “I doubt very much that there is any spell still in place. You reversed it, quite well I must say, and what remains is something that could have a non-magical cause.”

The rest of their meeting with Dumbledore went by in a bit of a blur. A non-magical cause. Surely, he didn’t mean... he couldn’t mean that. It was nearly as startling to her as the fact that Dumbledore hadn’t lectured them on the impropriety of their behavior and at the least forbidden further contact out of class. Oh, but Severus hadn’t been surprised, and Hermione hadn’t forgotten that particular detail.

She went with him to his rooms for the first time, and it was not quite like anything she had expected previously. It held a certain amount of chill, a certain lack of warmth that was mirrored in his personality towards most people. Yet there was something about him, and about his rooms, that relaxed Hermione and made her feel safer than anywhere else. They sat by his fireplace, trying to escape the chill that seemed inevitable in the winter months, and thought about all that had happened.

“How did you know?” Hermione asked, unable to resist the question.

“How did I know what?”

She glared at him, partly in jest because she was certain it was his own strange humor, partly serious because he would joke about something important to her. “How did you know Dumbledore would take the news so well?”

“Do you think,” said Severus, with a strange look in his eyes, “that I mysteriously began feeling affection towards you after you so insolently kissed me that first time? That there was no feeling or thought previously that might hint at some feeling for you?”

“I hadn’t really considered it,” she said honestly. “It had crossed my mind briefly, but there were so many things to consider that I thought little about it. And when I did think of it I didn’t believe there was hope that you had.”

“Well, Miss Granger,” he said, grinning at the look on her face when he addressed her formally, “it may come to a surprise to you, but it can be refreshing to be surrounded by someone who has a certain degree of intelligence rarely found in the student body at Hogwarts. I found your know-it-all attitude rather infuriating the first few years, I admit, but after that I felt some happiness that there was someone other than myself who understood the value of the subject I was teaching. Not to mention someone who absorbed the knowledge so readily. It’s often thought that Gryffindor and Slytherin are completely different, but I find there is a kind of loyalty to be found in both. As angry as it has made me on numerous occasions, I found your loyalty to your friends also refreshing. In my lifetime there have been few, if any, so loyal to me, and it has always been a weakness of mine to secretly crave such a companion.”

“The great Severus Snape admitting weakness?” she mumbled quietly. Severus looked at her for a moment, not sure what to think, then realized she was joking and pulled her into his arms.

“Yes,” he said, “Severus Snape admitting weakness. Don’t expect that to occur too often though.”

Hermione snuggled closer to him, pulling his arms tighter around her. “I don’t think I’d like you quite as much if you weren’t so stubborn and determined to have no weaknesses.”

“Oh yes, you of all people should recognize stubbornness quite easily.” It was his turn to mumble, and he seemed delighted by the opportunity to provoke her.

Hermione gaped at him. “What exactly is that supposed to mean? I am not that stubborn.”

“Hermione, you are among the most stubborn people I have ever met in my life,” he said, kissing her neck in between words. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly accurate.”

She turned towards him and kissed him back, starting things where they had left off the night before. It was a Saturday morning and neither had anywhere to be, so she felt little reason to hold back. They practically had Dumbledore’s permission, not that she thought they would have behaved anyway, all things considered.

“Is this how I’m to be treated whenever I admit weakness?” asked Severus, breaking away for a moment.

Hermione shrugged. “Perhaps.”

That slight smile broke across his face again, making him look almost boyish, and the next thing Hermione knew he was carrying her to his bed. The thought excited her even more, and she felt what was almost a chill run down her spine. Her hips ached, her stomach tightened in a pool of tension and heat – she needed him.

When they reached the bed she started unfastening his clothes, trying to bring herself closer to him. His kisses had been gentle enough, but through his robes she could feel his need as well.

The previous night had left them both aching, and neither wished for a repeat of that now. They alternated between trying to remove more clothing and touching and kissing what skin was already exposed. Every few minutes they would tear something unintentionally or some other awkwardness would occur, but within moments their desire for one another would have that moment forgotten.

Hermione wanted to kiss every inch of him, but Severus wanted the same and was stronger than she. Not that Hermione had much room for complaints, not as good as that man was making her feel. He kissed her lips, trailing down her neck to her breasts, and then her hips. She felt a bit of tension, not sure what she thought of where she believed him to be heading, only to realize he had skipped over a certain region and gone down to her ankles, working his way back up. By the time he neared her hips once more, Hermione was near begging for what she’d been so uncertain about before. She wasn’t kept waiting any longer, and through his lips, tongue, and fingers, Hermione found herself reaching heights she had never brought herself to on her own. Later she would wonder if it was having a man there that made the difference, or if it was just this man that was so remarkable, but for the moment she had little patience for such thoughts.

Severus found himself even more aroused by the soft moaning he was extracting from her with his efforts. He didn’t need to ask, he could tell by her behavior that she had never been with a man. Severus was determined to make it as pleasant, with as little pain, as possible. He made love to her body, knowing it would be a long time before he could do so in words, if ever. When finally he had tasted her enough, and he thought her ready, he brought himself to her opening and pushed gently. Just slightly, barely entering her though she gasped at it and he could feel her body move under him. Pulling out and thrusting back in, he gradually went deeper until he felt himself in her completely. She was so tight and hot, so welcoming to his attentions.

He had never expected to be with a woman who wanted him so completely. Oh, he had been with his share of women over the years, but they had wanted only a part of him if they wanted him at all. And here was this beautiful young woman, laying beneath him and opening herself to him. Her hips rose to meet each thrust, and her hands roamed over his shoulders and back, gripping him roughly at each new thrust. It had been a long time, and though he wanted so much to please her, the feeling of being inside of her and the sweet sounds he heard come from her lips finally overcame him.

Hermione had not done so much with boys as her friends, but she hadn’t closed her ears when friends spoke of it either. She had heard enough and read enough to expect some pain, some disappointment. But that was far from the case. There was pain when he first entered her, but that pain was replaced so quickly with pleasure that moments later it became only a faint memory. It went on forever, and yet not long enough. Hermione felt as if her eyes were going to roll straight back in her head and stay there, her body full of tension and heat that Severus released in her several times. The sensations were pure bliss, whether it was the slow movements he began with, the faster, harder movements at the end, or the varying ones in between.

Still, as wonderful as it was, she found nearly equal bliss in laying there in his arms afterwards. They said nothing, just laid there. It was so different from falling asleep in his office. More comfortable, to be sure, but mostly it was the fact that she felt no guilt in it. Not now.

Normally there were things enough to do on a Saturday, whether for enjoyment or catching up on a week of work. Neither felt much need to think of those things just then, and soon they drifted off to a very peaceful sleep, their still bare skin entwined beneath the cool silk sheets.

Severus and Hermione awoke from their nap soon after lunch, and ordered food from a house elf that was instructed quite carefully to speak of what they saw to no one. They could have spent the entire day together, but instead decided it would be too suspicious for her to disappear all day long. Severus, on the other hand, claimed he could disappear all he liked and none would be the wiser. However much Hermione thought that unfair, she conceded he had a point.

The rest of the afternoon Severus spent on potions, working on perfecting a few ideas and restocking the infirmary’s stores. He barely noticed when Dumbledore entered the room. Barely. There were still few that could go unnoticed by Severus. His life depended too much on being aware of everything.

“You seem at peace, Severus,” Dumbledore told him. “Surprisingly so. It is good to see. You deserve nothing less.”

Severus considered his words, and those of that morning. “You were far from surprised. In fact, you seemed almost delighted by what happened. Almost as if it were a plan you were watching come to fruition.”

“I would be quite thrilling were that the case,” said Dumbledore casually. “Of course, if I knew something of it I would not go around admitting it. It would seem, though, that all the two of you needed was the slightest push for this happiness.”

“Do you think we would have cared for each other eventually without that push?” asked Severus, slightly concerned at the thought that their affection was merely that of two people being manipulated.

“I think the two of you would have found each other eventually,” Dumbledore told him as he walked back out of the room.

“Thank you, Albus,” said Severus, unsure whether the Headmaster even heard him.