The Harder They Fall

Minerva’s hairpins were the last to go, right after her glasses. Ahrimanes undressed her, saluting each inch of newly liberated flesh with fevered kisses. By the time they were both naked in the middle of the ridiculous round bed, the lights were dim, soft music played in the background and the bed itself had begun a slow rotation.

“Why is the bed moving?”

“So the cameras can get you from all angles.” Ahrimanes pounced like a kitten and kissed the tip of her nose.

“What?!”

“Joke! Just kidding!” The demon discreetly removed all sharp objects from the vicinity of the bed and did what he could to ruin Minerva’s concentration.

***

Hermione turned away to hide her grin. She couldn’t stop smiling. Her cheeks ached from the involuntary contraction of muscles. They were going to do it again!

She rolled halfway off the bed so she could reach the natty black half boots still on Severus’ feet. Severus noticed this gave him a delightful view of her bare arse. He sat up, reaching over Hermione to attack the zipper running down her back. With a little cooperation from Hermione, Severus relocated her garments to the floor. Hermione, head down over the side of the bed, was still having trouble with the multiple complicated fastenings on his boots.

Caressing first her bared back, then the twin swells of buttock, his hands traveled down Hermione’s body, sweeping the backs of her thighs, her well shaped calves and finally stopping at her ankles where he encountered the resistance of her socks.

“You wear socks with a skirt? How… juvenile.” His idle comment was teasing.

“Good shoes and socks are easier to dance in than hose and pumps.” It was a practical consideration, very like Hermione. “You only just now noticed?”

Shoes quickly untied and pried off her feet, socks peeled off shortly thereafter, Severus felt as though he’d won something. She was completely naked and at his mercy, bent over the edge of the bed.

Hermione grunted. One of his boots went flying across the room.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like a little help?” Severus caressed her liberated feet and ankles, sweeping up her legs again to knead her beautiful firm young arse. He usually removed his boots with magic. It took too long otherwise, but he wasn’t going to volunteer this information.

Stubbornly, Hermione began working on the second boot. “No. I’m fine. I’ll get it.”

Suppressing a chuckle, Severus teased the flesh of her inner thigh with a gentle scratch of his fingernails. Hermione shivered, but kept her head down over her self-appointed task. He combed through her tangled pubic hair and returned his fingers to the moist explorations he’d had to abandon when their mutual need overtook them. Hermione inched her legs open even further, removing any doubts he might have had about taking advantage of her position like this.

With every stroke, Severus could see the tension building in her body. Her flanks quivered as she subtly urged him on. He used both hands, teasing her clitoris with the left hand, plunging deep into her with three fingers of his right hand. Hermione lifted her bottom to meet these strokes. Her hand tightened on his ankle. He folded his right hand together and spread her with four fingers deep inside.

His second boot popped off his foot, into the air, thumping against the door.

“Ahhh!” Hermione’s whole body shuddered with the contractions now squeezing his fingers painfully together.

“I’m sorry, my dear, I don’t think that was nearly loud enough. Shall we try again?”

Hermione laughed, her body still gently pulsing around his fingers as he slid them out of her warm wet grip. She lowered her head again, only to cry out in frustration. “Argh! You have buttons on the hem of your trousers, too?”

***

“I thought you said you’d removed your curse.” Minerva spoke to the top of Ahrimane’s head.

His mouth was busy at her breasts. He replaced mouth with hands to answer her. “I did.”

“Then why are they still…?”

Ahrimanes shook his head, nudging both of her breasts with the motion. “Pay no attention to the noises behind that wall.”

“If you’re lying to me…!”

The demon kissed his way across her ribcage before looking up at the furious woman in his arms. “Minerva, did you know you’re even lovelier when you’re angry?”

***

Scrambling off the bed, Hermione quickly located her wand. A quick charm later, and Severus Snape was as naked as the girl standing before him. “Stupid too many buttons man.” She clambered up between his legs with menace in her eye. “I’ll show you…”

“You’ll show me what?” Severus challenged her, smirking.

She watched him as she took him into her mouth. His smirk did not last long.

“Oh, sweet Merlin, woman! What are you…? Oh!”

Hermione lifted her head long enough to smile smugly. “Let me pleasure you. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”

The bitter old Potions Master could do nothing but watch. He was stunned. Hermione licked and sucked the length of him with evident enjoyment, moaning slightly and using one hand to assist her ministrations. She braced herself against his thigh, bobbing up and down, her hot mouth causing the most intense sensations.

“Gah! You can’t…! I’m about to…!” He wasn’t sure what to do with his hands. He wanted to stop her, he wanted to encourage her, he wanted to tangle his fingers in that gloriously untidy hair. Instead, his elegant hands flailed awkwardly above her.

Hermione grabbed his hips and held on for the ride. He came with her mouth tightly suctioned around him. She swallowed and grimaced.

“Oh, Hermione!” He didn’t know what else to say.

“I’ve tasted worse. Most of your potions, for example.” She grinned at him. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“You’ve never before…?”

Hermione shrugged. “I’ve read about it, but there’s always that gulf between theory and practice that is only bridged with experimentation. I’m afraid I’ve got too much of a gag reflex to do anything more exotic than what I did.”

“Anything more exotic and I think I might have fainted.” He summoned a glass of water for her. Hermione accepted the glass gratefully and drank. “What about all that wild sex over summer vacation you were talking about?”

She snorted, trying not to eject a mouthful of water. “If you want any kind of performance from a teen aged boy, rule number one is don’t ever give him any direct stimulation until you are about to come, and he is already inside you.” Hermione purred, slinking over him and tossing the empty glass to a soft landing on a pile of discarded clothing. “A more mature gentleman has a greater degree of control, I’m told.”

“This mature gentleman has no control whatsoever when you’re around.” At last, those breasts were within reach, and more lovely than he had imagined them. He reached, brushing Hermione’s already taut nipples.

She shivered. Presenting her chest to his gentle ministrations, Hermione straddled him once again, sitting over his groin. “I don’t know. You seem pretty controlled to me.” She moved, watching his face for a reaction.

“I’ve come twice in the space of fifteen minutes. That is not normal for a man my age.” Severus traced Hermione’s torso from collarbone to ribcage with light butterfly touches.

“Yes, but the curse...” Hermione swung her hips in subtle circles. She could feel him rise again beneath her. She’d come twice as well, and yet she was still aching for his touch.

“What do you think? Should we open the door to let more sound out?” Cupping her full breasts in his hands, he pinched her nipples gently.

Hermione threw her head back and gasped. “Amplifying charm, maybe?”

“We could simply invite the demon in to watch.” Severus bucked his hips to still her teasing motions over him.

The witch was smiling again. “We could invite him in to join us?”

Severus growled. “No. I’m not sharing you. You’re mine now.”

“For now,” she reminded him, lifting up and impaling herself on his staff. Hermione closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation more completely.

“Mine,” he growled, gripping her hips as she rode him. She took her own sweet time, letting the tension build and build until neither of them could think about anything but the friction where their bodies joined and the thud of heartbeats in their ears. Neither realized they were both biting their lips to keep from crying out.

***

“They’ve gone quiet again.” Minerva sounded worried.

“Hello! Cunnilingus here!” Ahrimanes sounded aggrieved. “Am I not doing it right, or something?” He propped himself up between her thighs.

“No, Ahrimanes, of course it’s lovely.” She patted the demon’s hair absently. “I’m just worried for them. They’re both such reserved people, normally. The curse is gone. Why are they still in there?”

“Maybe they’re really in love?” The demon traced arabesques over his lover’s stomach. “Or perhaps they’re both just very libidinous people.”

Minerva frowned. “Severus is usually quite tightly controlled. He’s had to be. He doesn’t just let loose on a whim.”

The demon nodded. “Well, there’s your answer. She’s tied him up to the bed and isn’t letting him go.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Hermione Granger I know. She’s usually so… Well, she’s not quiet, but she’s quite principled. She doesn’t even like asking the house elves to make her bed for her. I can’t see her tying anybody up against their will.” Minerva ran her toes along the back of Ahrimanes’ leg. “She’s usually so sensible. I can’t imagine her…”

Ahrimanes abandoned his station between her legs and kissed his way up Minerva’s body, from navel to nipples. “Did you ever think they might be in love?” His whisper tickled the fine hairs inside her ear.

“Severus? And a student?” Minerva couldn’t quite believe it.

“She’s not a student anymore,” the demon suggested, nibbling on her ear.

***

“Why me?” Severus whispered into Hermione’s hair.

She’d thrown one leg over him and rested her head on his chest, her arm across his body. He’d captured her fingers between his own.

“Why you… what?”

“Ahrimanes curse was pretty indiscriminate: pumpkin juice, lust whammy, you’re a mindless slave to desire. How did you get from the punch bowls, through a crowded hall of similarly lust crazed students, into my arms?” It wasn’t exactly the question he’d been intending to ask, but it was a good question.

Hermione giggled. “Well, to be honest, the process involved a certain amount of frottage.”

“What does cheese have to do with it?”

Hermione laughed again, the sound traveling through his bones and directly impacting his heart. “Not fromage, frottage. Rubbing up against.”

Severus loved the insouciant way she teased him. “Sorry. My mistake. Frottage, of course. My lust addled brain still hasn’t completely recovered.”

Her knee nudged his crotch meaningfully. “Not entirely, but you seem to be well on your way.”

“I don’t mean that brain.” He kissed the top of her head and held her close. “So, you’re trying to get through the press of bs ins in the Great Hall. You rub up against them and…?”

“Well, not exactly. I was trying to get across the dance floor and people kept rubbing up against me. It felt good, don’t get me wrong on that, but it felt… incomplete. Like a gentle touch.” She brushed the palm of his hand with her thumb. “It feels nice, but after a while, you want something a little more…” Hermione bumped his hip with hers. “You want something stronger, more intense.”

Severus considered this. “Okay. You wanted something more intense. So?”

“Now, this is going to sound strange, but I swear I could smell the magic in the air. It was like pheromones.”

“Except, humans don’t smell pheromones.”

Hermione nipped at one flat, male nipple with her teeth. “I didn’t say it was pheromones, I said it was like pheromones. There was one strong scent that attracted me more than any others. So, I followed it through the crowd to where you were standing. It makes sense. You and Professor McGonagall are probably two of the strongest wizards at Hogwarts.”

Severus Snape laughed, clutching Hermione close. “So, you’re saying if Dumbledore had still been alive, you’d be in his bed now, not mine?”

“Maybe.”

“And if you were in Dumbledore’s bed, do you think he’d do this…?” He pulled her on top of him, holding her tightly.

She kissed his lips gently. “Maybe.”

“What about this…?” He rolled over on top of her.

Hermione spread her legs to cradle him between them. “Maybe.”

“And do you think he’d tell you how much he loved you, and how he wanted to spend the rest of his days making love to you, and how he’s been foolish and blind and he’s very sorry he made disparaging remarks about your teeth when you were younger?”

“Dumbledore never made disparaging remarks about my teeth. That was you.”

“So it was.” He watched her, saw the confusion on her face, the faint hope in her eyes and the control of her prodigious mind as she carefully shuttered those emotions away. “Hermione, I’m very sorry I made disparaging remarks about your teeth.”

“That’s all right. I forgave you for them a long time ago.” Hermione closed her eyes and kissed him.

He pulled away from her lips. The pain in her expression caused a peculiarly uncomfortable feeling inside his chest. “Wait. I’m still lecturing.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You aren’t stupid. You’re neither blind nor an idiot. And I know that you know that one night of passion does not a relationship make.”

Hermione agreed sadly. “But it was fun while it lasted.”

“Shut up. I’m still talking.” He kissed her quickly to take the sting from his words. “One night of passion, however amazing and glorious does not mean a relationship between those people will work. There is so much more to a good relationship than sex. Common interests, similar intellectual capacity, compatible goals and dreams: these are all important, too. You understand that, right?”

Unhappily, Hermione nodded.

“So, that’s why I think we should maybe go out to dinner a couple of times to see if there’s something more between us. And then, if you find that you can still bear my acerbic self for more than a few hours, as soon as you get your apparition license we can take a long weekend and go somewhere together. I’m not promising roses and kittens, but if you want to…”

Hermione shrieked with glee. Her legs and arms captured him firmly. Tightly held, Severus Snape had the completely novel experience of having the breath kissed out of him by a woman who truly seemed to love him.

***

Resting together in the afterglow, Minerva and Ahrimanes breathed softly in tandem.

An ear-splitting shriek rent the air.

“Oh, merciful heavens! He’s killing her!” Minerva shoved the demon out of the bed and took the velvet bedspread to wrap nd hnd herself. She rushed over to the examination room door and yanked it open.

Hermione Granger and Severus Snape were busily engaged in mad kissing interspersed with fervent protestations of affection.

“Oh, I love you!”

“I love you, too! How could I have been so stupid!”

“I loved you first! Ha ha!”

“Stop saying that! You have to let me catch up. I love you, I love you, I love you!”

“Oh, just kiss me again.”

“I love you.”

“I know. I love you too.”

Minerva gently closed the door on the happily occupied couple, a bemused look on her face. She returned to where Ahrimanes sat in all his naked glory on the edge of the now stationary bed.

“You were right,” she admitted, sitting next to the demon. “It seems they are in love.”

“Ha! I told you!”

Minerva took his hand and held it. His skin was warm. “I just don’t believe it. It happened so suddenly. They’re both usually so untouchable.”

“You know what they say, Minerva.” Ahrimanes kissed her hand and grinned, anticipating his punch line with great relish.

“What?”

“The bigger they are, the harder they fa

***

A/N: One more chapterlet. I want to deal with the morning after and, of course, Fudge needs a little smackdown.