To Save A Serpent

Panting and extremely out of breath, Hermione raced up the dungeon stairs two at a time. Her lungs tingled and her legs burned but she did not slow down until she bust through the doors of the Great Hall. “Severus!” her eyes began to weep.

“Hermione!” in swift strides he’d closed the gap between them and flung his arms around her.

She gripped him tightly, not caring who was watching, only knowing that he was in her arms once more. Her eyes twinkled with tears of joy and her lips met his. Those soft lips, the lips she’d come to love, pressed against her, and she sighed into them.

“Kill…” a voice hissed. Pulling back, eyes wide, she gasped as two large puncture wounds burst open and a shower of blood shot forth from his neck. At once his knees began to buckle and he fell into her, bringing them both to the ground.

“No!” she cried, pressing both hands to his neck, trying to staunch the blood flow. “Somebody help me!” she cried, eyes flickering across the Great Hall. Hundreds of witches and wizards stood there, statue like, gazes fixed on her. But their faces were hollow and their eyes seemed to move through her into a nothingness. “Please!” she sobbed, “Don’t just stand there! Help him!” Dark laughter filled her ears as her eyes continued to desperately search the crowd.

Severus’ voice forced her eyes to him. “Look…at…me…”

Hermione shot up tangled in the thick satiny sheets, her body drenched in a cold sweat. Her chest was heaving and she clutched both hands to her bosom. The room was dimly lit but she could hear dishes clanking from an adjoining room. The formal black dress robes clung to her body as she pulled the sheets from her body and came to her feet.

Blinking, she realized at once that she was in Severus’ bed chambers. Her heart made a great leap into her throat as she rushed into his kitchenette area.

“Good morning.”

“How did you— how did I—”

“You cried yourself to sleep in Bill’s arms and he, don’t ask me how, but he found— he brought you here. He asked me to stop by and check on you,” Ginny said, plate in hand. “I brought you some eggs and toast.”

“Oh,” she sighed. “Thank you.”

Both girls were quiet for a long moment before Ginny cleared her throat. “Well, I’m going to go. I think most of everyone is going home today. We’re all going back to The Burrow for a bit, Bill too, and Harry’s coming. I’m sure he’d love it if you came along. They both would.”

All she could do was nod in acknowledgement as Ginny left. There was no promise or commitment to go, and she sighed as her eyes fell to the plate of food. She wasn’t in the least bit hungry. Even the simplest food seemed to remind her of him, and her body was numb.

A hot bath was in order that was the only thing that came to mind. In no time at all she’d filled the large tub with scalding water and was sitting down in it, watching her skin turn pink and red, though she couldn’t feel it. Leaning her head back against the rim she stared up at the ceiling. The sound of her feet splashing at the end was almost like a metronome, ticking away the moments of her life, a life that seemed to stretch on into eternity before her, empty, pointless, and hopeless. Her eyes fell closed.

~*~

Professor Slughorn had allowed for Potions to end early and as it was her last class for Friday afternoon, Hermione found herself not minding it in the least. She’d practically raced to Gryffindor Tower and stepped through her fireplace into Severus’s chambers without so much as dropping her bag.

The idea of his large claw-footed porcelain bathtub had her stripping off her robes before she’d even made it to the bathroom. Yes the Prefect’s bathroom could be accessed whenever she wished, but it wasn’t private and lacked the intimacy she’d grown to associate with the tub she was staring at, and she certainly couldn’t take Severus there, though she’d tried to convince him several times to do so.

She’d filled the tub with hot bubbly water, sandalwood thick in the air as she slipped beneath the surface. As it was Friday afternoon she knew that he would be with the fourth year Hufflepuffs for a few more hours. The bath was relaxing, easing every drop of tension from her body, just the thing she’d needed after a busy week.

And those few more hours slipped right by Hermione as she lounged in the tub, drowsing in and out of consciousness. But she was startled to full awareness when a swirl of black robes stalked into the bathroom, continued straight past the tub, and stopped abruptly in front of the loo. Zip and then splash, and Hermione stared at his backside, watching him relief himself. From the sound of it, he’d unloaded a waterfall and she snorted. Her snort was lost with the flushing of the loo and the running tap as he washed his hands.

Severus rounded on his heel, stalked past the bathtub and back out of the bathroom. She started at the doorway, blinking. A moment later, and walking backward, he re-entered and did a double take in the general direction of the tub. “You should be in class.”

Her lips twitched a bit and she smiled.

With an exasperated sigh, he began to fumble with the buttons on his frock coat. “I’m not bloody covering for you.”

Again she snorted, this time throwing her head back into a full out laugh. “Like anyone would believe that I spent the second half of Friday afternoon’s double potions lounging in Professor Snape’s personal bathtub.” Slowly she rose to standing, bubbles clinging to the tops of her breasts. Pert rosy nipples peaked out from the white foam.

He’d shed his frock coat, simply letting it flop to the floor. His eyes raked over her figure, lingering between her thighs. “You’ve—”

“Last night,” she shrugged her shoulders and brushed the bubbles away, revealing a completely clean shaven mound. “Thought we could erm,” her cheeks flushed. “Well I thought that you might like— that it might be nice for us to try something a little different.”

“You mean to try to remind me of what an old, dirty man I am by denuding your womanhood.”

“You look terribly tense…rough day?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, shifting his shoulders a bit and nodding. “You still haven’t said why you’re not in class…” it was difficult to take his eyes from her bare mound.

“My professor ended class early.”

“Indeed.” His hands had slowly worked their way down the front of his shirt, deftly flicking button after button through its hole until he shrugged out of his classroom shirt. She gazed at his chest, it was unusual for him to don so few layers. He stripped down completely and then wrapped his arms around her, stepping into the tub behind her.

She relaxed back into his arms, letting her eyes fall closed as the water covered their bodies. “Mmm,” her moan floated through the room when she felt his lips on her neck, both his hands folded over her stomach, one sliding down to explore the now foreign territory of her hairless sex.

“Very unique, Hermione,” he breathed behind her ear. He watched the water form ripple after rippled as her body trembled. Two finger wriggled their way between her folds and worked their way into her warmth, eliciting a moan from her lips. He was quick to build her up to a feverish pitch, water sploshing over the sides of the tub as she arched down trying to force his touch deeper.

As his teeth sank into her tender flesh, she shrieked, coming against his hand, her body rocking with a passionate and almost violent wave of pleasure. He kept his fingers pulsing into her as best he could as she clamped down on his hand, her walls gripping him into place.

Panting, she rolled over and trembled against him, her head collapsing on his chest. Severus brought his fingers to her mouth, watching as she feebly attempted to clean them with her tongue.

“Relaxing bath?”

She nodded weakly, her eyes fluttering butterfly kisses against his skin. His erection was nudged firmly against her stomach, but to Hermione it felt as if it belonged there. It was moments like there that she was glad he was a patient man. Both of his arms were wrapped around her back, covered in bubbles. His lips were gentle, placing feathery kisses against the top of her head.

“Severus?”

“Hmm?”

“Could we go to London tonight?”

He paused for a moment. The more time he spent with the girl, the more dangerously involved he felt himself becoming in her. It had started as a physical fantasy, and all too quickly it had evolved into something much more serious. She had become his oxygen and he could barely tolerate to be apart from her. It frightened him. He’d never needed anything or anyone the way he found himself needing Hermione Jane Granger. “Won’t your friends wonder where you’ve gone off to?”

“No.” She stretched her arms up, shifting her body so that she was laying atop him, arching her sex over his erection. She folded her arms across his chest and rested her chin on them. “Early curfew because of tomorrow’s big Quidditch match.” Her lips curled into a smirk. “So if I head to the library and just don’t turn up before they turn in…they’ll just assume I’m studying late.”

Severus frowned. Her plan was thus far flawless. “And if I say I already have plans?”

Rolling her hips against him she pouted. “Then I’d know you were lying…” licking her lips only forced a groan from him. It was true, his Friday evening would otherwise be spent hunched over his desk, with a pile of scrolls, a pot of red ink, and a bottle of fire whiskey, at least until she turned up and proved to be a suitable distraction.

The idea both thrilled and frightened him. The more he was with her, the less he could stand to be separated from her. And they’d never been out in public together, not since their relationship dynamics had changed. Since when had he started referring to it as a relationship? “And what if I don’t feel like it?”

Hermione lifted her hips from his. “Then perhaps I don’t feel like staying in the bath?” Her eyes sparkled with an all-knowing twinkle. Dragging one of her hands down his chest, she allowed it to float above his erect member, fingertips tapping him lightly. “I think you want me to stay in the tub…”

He closed his eyes. “I want you to stay in the tub,” his hands moved to guide her hips down toward him.

“And I want to go to London tonight…”

Silence, and then he mumbled. “I want to go to London tonight.”

Her squeal practically pierced right through his eardrums but before he could chastise her, she’d forced herself down onto him and he gasped. “We’re going to London,” she panted, riding him up and down, pressing hard on his chest. “We’re going to London! We’re going to—”

His lips covered hers as he pushed up beneath her, kissing her, arms tangling around her. They sank back into the water, fully submerging him for a moment while she rocked harder and harder, filling herself with waved of pleasure. He growled into her lips, his member pulsing as his orgasm hit. She came, writhing atop him, just moments after him. It was not a gracefully dismount, as she fell off him, half leaning over the side of the tub, head nearly hitting the floor.

She was out of breath, but smiled up at him. “We’re going to London!”

~*~

Water fluttered against her nostrils and she spluttered, feeling it against her lips and face. She’d fallen asleep in the tub, and the water had since turned cold. It never used to turn cold when she and Severus would lie in the tub for hours on end, having sex and holding each other in the water. Pulling herself from the water she found a towel and wrapped herself in it, draining the tub.

She moved to the kitchen and dumped the plate of food, knowing the house elves would have to deal with it, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Moving to his bedroom, she laid in his sheets, just keeping the towel draped over her figure. “Severus, I miss you…” she whispered, closing her eyes again. It was going to be a very difficult day.