One Hundred And One Ways To Brew Lust

8. The L Word

***

Next day in Charms class, Professor Flitwick started the week off by reminding them of the Yule Ball, which would be held as usual on the last day of classes before Christmas break. Ron looked hopefully over at Hermione. But Hermione was frowning to herself. “… And, a new theme has been suggested for the ball this year,” Professor Flitwick continued. “The Ball Committee has proposed a Venetian Carnival theme.” An excited murmur travelled across the class. Cho Chang was giggling across the room, looking over at Harry as she whispered frantically to her friend Marietta. When Harry looked in her direction, though, they both turned their attention swiftly to the Charms professor. “Which means, of course, that this year’s ball will be a Bal Masqué, or Masked Ball. Acceptable colours will be purple, green and silver, in addition to black and white.”

Ron breathed a sigh of relief. He could transfigure his burgundy dress robes to purple, avoiding the considerable expense of buying new ones. Mind you, with Fred and George’s business thriving, he reckoned they might offer to get him new ones, as his current robes were about a foot too short for him. He was too busy discussing all this with Harry to notice the way Hermione’s face lit up when Flitwick mentioned masks…

At lunchtime, the Great Hall was filled with chatter about the upcoming Ball, which was only two weeks away.

”So, Harry, you don’t seem too excited about the Yule Ball, mate,” Ron commented as he made short work of a chicken leg while trying to draw up a sketch of what he wanted his costume to look like. He’d discovered that a visual aid went a long way in helping not to botch up transfiguration.

“Well, the Ball will be my last night at Hogwarts before I have to go back to the Dursleys, won’t it?” Harry said miserably. “What are your plans for Christmas?”

“Well, Mum and Dad are having the usual over at the Burrow. But Fred and George have invited me to their flat in London for New Year’s Eve! We’re going to Trafalgar Square for the countdown to midnight. I’ve never spent New Year’s Eve amongst the Muggles. It sounds very exciting! And very crowded. They reckon the crowd will be as huge as a Quidditch World Cup match.

“Yeah,” said Harry wistfully, “I’ve watched the countdown from Trafalgar on the telly when I was living in Surrey, but I’ve never been to London to see it in person. I guess I’ll be watching from there again this year…”

Ron’s face lit up. “Harry! Why don’t you join me and Fred and George for New Year’s Eve! By the time it rolls around, you’ll have spent enough time with your aunt to renew the protection spell, right?”

“I dunno. I’ll have to check with Dumbledore.” But Harry’s spirits improved tremendously at the mere thought of getting away from the Dursleys for a whole day out in London.

“What about you Hermione?” Ron asked. Hermione jolted as though pulled from a reverie. “What is with you these days? Earth to Hermione! Where are you?”

“Hmmm? Oh! Sorry… I was just… planning the next stage for SPEW.”

With a quick glance at Harry, Ron quickly steered the subject back to holiday plans. “What are your plans for Christmas?”

“Oh! Well, I just got an owl from my parents saying they’ve been delayed in their round-the-world trip, so they’re stuck in Egypt. Something about increased security due to terrorist threats… No, Ron, don’t worry. That’s a pretty common occurrence in the Muggle world. I can’t Apparate over there for the holidays either, because I haven’t had all the vaccinations I’d need.”

Ron’s brow furrowed at this. “Vaxi-nations? What’s that?”

“Honestly, Ron! Don’t you pay attention in Muggle Studies? Vaccinations! It’s what Muggle doctors use to protect you from certain types of diseases,” Hermione explained.

“But surely you can just ask Madam Pomfrey to fix you if you catch anything?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Not every Muggle disease has a magical cure! That’s why even Madam Pomfrey uses Muggle vaccines to prevent certain diseases before a wizard travels. Honestly! We’re going to have to draw up strict revision timetables for your Muggle Studies class, or you won’t pass your NEWTs!”

Ron frowned at this.

“Anyway, the long and the short of it is, I’m staying at Hogwarts for Christmas,” she concluded glumly.

“Well,” Ron suggested hesitantly, “if you wanted to, you could spend New Year’s Eve with Harry and me and the twins in London… I’m sure you don’t need vaxi-nations for that!”

Hermione beamed at him. “I’d love that Ron! Thanks.”

Ron’s ears turned pink as Hermione planted a small peck on his cheek. Harry tried to suppress his snickers.

Lee Jordan called out to them as he left the Hall, “Come on, you lot! We’ll be late for Potions!”

Harry’s mood changed instantly, and they dragged their feet down to the dungeons. Hermione was briefly elated, then filled with a dread she hadn’t foreseen. How would she stop herself from staring adoringly at Snape?

***

Hermione took her seat between Neville and Harry and awaited Snape’s arrival with an increasing sense of doom.

He entered the dungeons and cast a menacing look across at the Gryffindors. “Today will be a surprise mock-exam in preparation for your Potions NEWTs!” A collective groan rose from the class. “Silence!” he said in his coldest, deadliest voice.

“I can’t believe this!” Neville muttered to Harry. But they had caught Snape’s attention.

“Longbottom! Name three uses for Mandrake Root.”

“Healing Potions…” Neville answered shakily. “Think, Neville! Think…” he muttered to himself. “Um… oh! And… oh! Potions for reviving someone after they’ve been petrified. Um, Reviving Potion?”

Hermione was getting that sinking feeling in her stomach she always got when Snape was about to blast a student. She dared a glance at him, and he was looking at Neville with such disgust, that she actually feared him. Maybe this won’t be hard to fake after all, she thought to herself.

“And…” Neville continued, trying to buy time. His mind was blank.

“Well, Longbottom, two out of three is just not good enough. A zero for you, then,” and Snape moved on to ask the Slytherins to…

“That’s not fair!” Hermione shouted out. She was now genuinely mad at Snape. “He got two out of three right, so he deserves a sixty-six percent!”

Harry turned to gawk at her as Neville tried to shrink himself under the table. How could she be so idiotic? Harry was thinking. After landing herself a week’s detention last time!

Snape turned his glare to Hermione, and his snarl turned into a… smile? Harry thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. No! There it was, it was his usual smirk, actually a rather ugly, wicked, nasty… ugh! Harry turned away before he petrified himself and needed Reviving Potion.

“Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger, for that appalling outburst. Obviously, a week’s detention hasn’t done you a bit of good. Two weeks more then, I think.”

Hermione’s jaw dropped in indignation, “But, Professor!”

“Silence,” he said slowly, “or I shall keep you in detention for the Yule Ball as well!”

The entire class gasped at this, and Hermione shut her mouth, keeping her head down for the rest of the period. Snape turned to Malfoy and asked him to describe the purpose of Wolfsbane. Hermione snorted at the easiness of the question. She quickly transformed her snort into a cough when Snape turned back to glare at her. Gosh, she thought to herself, he’s a bit too convincing …

When the last bell rang, she gathered her belongings into her bag, careful to avoid eye contact with Snape, muttering all the while what a ‘hateful, loathsome man’ he was.

Neville and Harry agreed wholeheartedly, but chided Hermione for falling so easily into his trap. She smiled to herself, thinking, “If you only knew!”


***

Hermione showed up to Snape’s chambers at seven that evening feeling rather worried. How would she get any homework done if she was to spend the next two weeks with him, from seven to curfew? And what about him? Didn’t he have homework to correct and exams to prepare? She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t think twice about entering his chambers when she found the door ajar.

It was only once she’d entered that she realised how dimly lit it was, and that Snape was nowhere in sight. She didn’t shut the door behind her, wanting to keep some illumination for the room…

“Professor…? Professor Snape?” she called out, not daring to call him anything else since the door was still open.

As she heard the door slam behind her, she was grabbed from behind. She let out a shriek which was muffled by a hand closing over her mouth, the other wrapping tightly around her waist.

“So,” Snape whispered into her ear, “It’s back to ‘Professor’ now, is it? What happened to ‘Darling’? What happened to ‘my dearest Severus’?” Hermione relaxed a bit once she recognised his voice. But Snape didn’t take his hand away from her mouth. Instead, he loosened his grip on her waist and used that hand to wander up under her robes. “I wouldn’t move, if I were you,” he said menacingly. She was breathing faster now, but not in fear. As his hand moved under her shirt and up to pinch her nipple, he brought his mouth to her neck and sucked gently on it. Not enough to leave a mark, just enough to get her attention. He lifted her skirt up roughly, intending to rip her knickers off, when he discovered she hadn’tn ann any. She flushed pink when she realised she’d been found out.

“Naughty girl,” he purred in her ear. “Do you know what naughty girls get?” He smacked her bottom lightly as if to answer his own question. Then he caressed her cheeks roughly, apparently distracted by their unexpected exposure. He nudged her forcefully up against the wall, grabbing both her hands and holding them behind her back, while unbuttoning her shirt with his other hand.

Snape released her for a moment when he realised that he wanted her naked. He removed her blouse roughly, and she started to turn around to look at him. “Don’t,” he muttered harshly. “Look straight ahead, don’t turn back.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than it became irresistible to Hermione to try to sneak a peak at him. She was reminded of the Myth of Orpheus, which she’d learned about in Muggle school before coming to Hogwarts. I must stop my mind from wandering so much, she chastised herself. He pulled her skirt off, removing her socks and shoes as he bent down. Satisfied now, he resumed his hold on her arms, so that Hermione felt like a suspect under arrest, with her hands behind her back, facing a wall. Snape pushed her forward until her nipples touched the wall.

He reached into his pocket and produced a silk scarf with which he bound her wrists. “Spread your legs a bit, my Sweet. You’ll be more comfortable that way,” he instructed her. She did as she was told, and he was met with the scent of her arousal. It produced a dizzying effect on him for a brief moment, before he returned to his task. He took one breast in each hand, and rubbed her nipples up and down against the cold wall.

She’d never felt anything like that before, and it made her knees go weak again, so she leaned back against him for support. He continued to rub her breasts into the wall like this for what seemed like an age. Then, without warning, she felt him enter her swiftly from behind. She felt no trace of pain as he pushed between her wet lips, grinding her pubic bone into the wall as he did so. The sensation was incredible. “Are all lovers this inventive?” she asked herself. She found herself wondering whether boys her age knew how to do these things to a woman.

Snape could feel her breathing speeding up as he continued to rub her breasts against the wall, and he sped up his rhythm to keep in synch with hers. Her orgasm rolled over her, and he continued to push in and out of her at a steady pace, nearing the brink himself. Then Hermione felt a strange thing. Instead of calming down as she had before, with a few aftershocks here and there, she seemed to be coming all over again. She cried out and rode a second, third… several waves until, finally, she collapsed backwards into Snape’s arms.

When she came to, it was to look into Snape’s worried eyes, as he held the sulphur smelling salts beneath her nose. She turned away in disgust and he knew she’d be alright. She pushed up, realising she was lying on his couch. “How long have I been like this?” she asked.

“Only a minute, my darling… I’m so sorry about that, I never meant to cause you any harm.” He looked upset as he held her hand.

“My God! That was incredible... No harm done, I promise! Where did you learn to do that?” she asked, dreamily. “Wait! Don’t answer that. On second thought, I really don’t want to know.”

Snape just smiled indulgently but held his tongue. Not going to touch that with a seven-foot wand, he thought to himself.

“I… I…,” Hermione was not often at a loss for words, as she had demonstrated in class time and again. “I’ve never come like that before,” she blushed deep red as she said this. “I don’t know what happened, I just couldn’t stop. I think… I think it knocked me unconscious!” she uttered in hushed tones, as though that would lessen the embarrassment.

“That’s nothing to be embarrassed by, my darling. It means you’re open to pleasure. And I seem to recall promising you something pleasurable if you were naughty in class,” he grinned at her. He kissed her gently on the lips, then kissed her neck, down to her navel, taking a short detour to suck on each nipple for a while, and down past her stomach to… What? Surely he wasn’t going to… She leapt out of her seat as his tongue licked her centre. “Ohhhhh!” she moaned. He lowered his head further, and licked up and down her slit, inserting his tongue into her as far as it would go. When he wiggled it around inside her, she jumped six inches out of her seat. She was panting now, and curling her toes. While he drew his tongue in and out of her, he used his finger to flick her clit a few times. But he’d promised to do it the other way around, so he licked his way lazily upwards, until he had her clit between his teeth.

He bit down ever so gently, and Hermione left her seat again. He was starting to enjoy startling her like this. But for today he would take pity on her. He drew the little bundle of nerves into his mouth and sucked avidly on it. Hermione felt the tension building up again in her stomach. But something was missing…. Snape was too cunning, though. He inserted a finger into her just before she was about to come and she yelled out her pleasure so loudly that he was grateful he’d placed a Silencing Charm on the room beforehand. He continued to suck her and pushed in and out of her with his finger, letting her ride the waves until she finally pushed his hand away and curled up on the sofa, pulling him down to spoon against her. “Never leave me,” she whispered to him before drifting off to sleep, leaving him frozen in shock with his arms wrapped around her.

***

Around nine o’clock that night, Hermione awoke to findselfself alone in Snape’s bed. She felt a moment of disorientation, followed by panic. But as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she focused her senses, she heard the rustling of papers next door and the scratching of quill on parchment, which told her he was probably correcting papers next door. She felt a pang of emptiness, wishing she could have woken up in his arms. As though sensing she was awake, he walked silently to his room and slipped under the covers with her. She pretended to still be asleep, but he whispered, ‘Morning sleepy head’ to her in a laughing voice.

“I can’t fool you, can I?” she asked him, stifling a yawn.

“Not tonight, darling. But if anyone could, you could. Do you know, I’ve just been reading your Potions essay, and I don’t think I’ve ever taught a student as bright as you are.”

Hermione was flattered, but also a bit irked to be talking of schoolwork in bed with her Professor. The uneasiness hung there, and she tried to hide her thoughts by teasing him,

“What, you mean I’m no longer an ‘insufferable know-it-all’? I think that’s what you called me a few years ago.”

“Of course you are! But I love you anyway…” Snape froze. He hadn’t meant to say it to her. Not that way, and certainly not this early. He braced himself for a bad reaction, but she flipped him over and climbed on top of him, pushing his arms back, holding them down and staring into his face earnestly.

“What did you say?” she whispered desperately.

“Hermione, I didn’t mean it to slip out that way. I don’t want to frighten you away. Just ignore it,” he turned his face away from her.

“Look at me, please.” She picked up his hands and placed them over her heart, saying simply, “It beats for you. Only for you.” And with that admission she felt tears pouring down her cheeks. He reached up and brushed them away with his thumb, kissing her hand, staring up at her.

“I wantfeelfeel you inside me again,” she whispered, and raised herself so she could achieve her goal. She moved slowly over him, and this time they maove ove looking deep into each other’s eyes, without need for further confessions.


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Author\'s note and warning: Just a quick warning that the next chapter is darker in tone, and I\'m rating it NC-17 for language and because it\'s more explicit. Worry not! This train is not headed to Angstville for good...