Evening Schnapps

A/N: Here’s an early Christmas present from me to you!

J.K. Rowling is the owner of all except specific characters, situations, and plot bunnies that are unique to this story. I make no money, but lots of satisfaction from taking out her characters and playing with them for a while before putting them back.

Many thanks to my ubber-beta SignoraAligheri, and my sweetie Evan! They just prove that you really can’t do anything in this world without people looking out for you.

So, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and here we go!


Chapter 15- Waking Up Warm

Severus felt weight shift next to him on the bed and a leg glide over his, coming to rest across his thighs. It was morning, and he could feel the light from Hermione’s window illuminate his face. Not wanting the day to begin yet, he kept his eyes closed and took a deep breath, trying to will himself back to sleep. He hadn’t intended to spend the night, only to be where when she woke. He had assumed that worry would keep her waking up every hour or so. Instead, they had slept through till morning. Feeling the witch curl her leg around him was an unexpected pleasure. He frowned, knowing that sleep was masking his identity from her. She was only curling up to a heat source.

He thought about the young woman lying next to him, and the possibilities this position might give him. It would be pleasant, but this type of happiness was beyond his realm of experience. He wouldn’t be able to attract a woman half as beautiful and intelligent as the one he found himself next to, and he knew it.

‘Still,’ he thought smirking, ‘she’s here. I might as well enjoy it.’

He flexed his arm, intending to move it around the witch and stroke her back. Something made him freeze.

It surprised him to discover that his arm was already around her, holding her close to his chest, his hand resting lightly against her back. But was he really wasn’t expecting, and didn’t think he would ever experience again, was that his hand was resting against her bare skin.

Hardly daring to look, he opened his eyes just a sliver. Peering out between his black eyelashes, he saw a naked Hermione curled up around his long clothed body. The quilt she had been wrapped in the night before was pushed down and draped around her hips. Her left leg rose out of the soft fabric and crooked up, her smooth inner thigh resting a hairs breadth from his groin.

Severus frowned, trying to make sense of what had happened. He had intended only to be here, in a blameless fashion, prudent and clothed. He valued their developing friendship and hadn’t intended to risk it by making her feel awkward. Comprehension dawned upon him suddenly. She had been naked under the quilt.

‘Of course,’ he thought, ‘the rain must have soaked her to the bone. She must have come back here and stripped herself down, bundling herself up and was warming herself in front of the fire.’

Feeling foolish, Severus tried to figure out how to extricate himself from her arms and legs without waking her. He respected this woman and didn’t want to embarrass her by allowing her to wake up, naked and curled up around a fully clothed wizard.

Finally, he gently lifted the arm draped across his chest and moved it slowly over to rest on her own hip. After pausing for a few moments, to make sure he hadn’t woken her up, he began to slide sideways, hoping to move out from under her leg, but still unsure how to get her head clear and remove his arm out from under her.

“I hope you aren’t thinking about gnawing your arm off.”

Severus froze for a second time that morning. Looking down to his chest, he saw Hermione looking back up at him.

“Why would I do that?’ he asked, genuinely puzzled. He felt her spasm with unvoiced laughter as she buried her face in his shirt.

“It’s an American saying, Severus.” Hermione looked up at him again, her copper eyes shining. “’Coyote Ugly’. Someone you wake up next to, after an ill-advised tryst, that you find to be so ugly, so repulsive, that you’d rather gnaw your arm off, like a coyote in a trap, than risk waking them.”

Severus felt his face flush. He had been on the receiving end of that treatment before. It cured him of wanting to fall asleep after an encounter. He always made sure that he got up and left. Finally, he just stopped accepting offers all together.

“No,” he said flatly, “ I assure you, I was not considering the coyote’s method of escaping a trap.”

Suddenly unsure of what to do next, he simply lay still, staring at the ceiling and feeling awkward.

He was surprised when Hermione laid her head back onto his chest and snuggled in again, getting more comfortable.

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Hermione lay against the dark wizard, feeling warm and content. She had woken up some time ago, realizing what must have happened. She was tucked into the space under Severus’ arm and he was holding her tightly to his chest. She lay there, afraid to move, not wanting to disturb this fragile thing that had happened. She glanced down and saw that her quilt had come unwrapped during the night and was around her hips. There was no helping it without risking waking him up. So she just lay there, tucked in against him and listened to his heartbeat and breathing.

Eventually, her legs began to ache. She had fallen asleep in the chair that night without properly cooling down from the days hike. Finally, risking waking Severus, she pulled her left leg up and bent it, resting it along to top of his legs. She felt his breathing change and realized that it had woken him up. She held herself still, waiting to see what he would do. She was pleased when she felt him tighten his grip on her, and began to relax thinking that he wouldn’t be weird about their current position, but then she felt him freeze up. When Severus began to try and slip away, she lay there, thinking about letting him. But then, she felt something extraordinary against her knee as he tried to slip out from under it. Severus was apparently excited by her proximity.

Thinking furiously for a moment, she decided that she couldn’t allow this possibility go unexplored, so she said the only thing she could think of.

Now, glad that she had been granted a moment to prolong the crossroads she found herself facing, she listened to his heartbeat. It had sped up considerably.

Finally, she built up enough courage to say something.

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Severus felt Hermione grow still, and then begin to tense up. He was sure that she was embarrassed and he tried to think of a graceful way to exit, without upsetting her, or exposing her nudity more than she already had. Finally, he felt her take a deep breath.

“Severus,” she said, still looking at his chest. She seemed to be focused on one of the buttons on his linen shirt. “Do you think you could ever be attracted to me?”

Severus thought his heart would burst from his chest before he would be able to catch his breath again.

Apparently, she took his shocked silence for rejection. He watched horrified as she pulled away from him, standing up and wrapping the quilt around her. She moved swiftly for the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

He lay there and wondered what the hell just happened to him. This beautiful witch whom he had known since she was a child, whom he admired greatly as an adult, whom he quelled illicit thoughts about on seemingly a nightly basis, had just asked him the most astonishing question. It couldn’t be happening. Even in his wildest thoughts, she remained nothing more than an unobtainable dream, forever slipping from his grasp.

He sat bolt upright.

“Bloody hell, if I don’t at least try.”

Climbing out of her bed, he made his way across the room in his stocking feet, towards the bathroom door. Cautiously, he knocked and opened the door. He caught sight of Hermione through the mirror. She was hastily wiping her face and smoothing some errant strands of her unruly hair back. She looked up at him and gave a tight smile.

“I’m sorry, Severus,” she said quietly, “I know that was out of line. Just forget I said anything, all right?”

Severus moved across the stone floor and stopped in front of her. She dropped her eyes, obviously wishing to be anywhere else. He stood in front of her, staring down at her eyes. Finally, he reached down and took her face in his hands, gently pulling her face up towards him. Bending down slightly, he kissed her lips slowly. Taking in her warmth and her scent, he tasted her skin, moving his kiss over to her cheek and up to her eyes. He let his lips touch lightly against her trembling eyelids and finally moved down her other cheek and back to her lips. When he finished his pass, he paused.

“You asked the wrong question, witch,” he said softly. “A more appropriate question would have been whether you could be attracted to someone like me.”

He watched as she took a deep breath, letting out a slow shaky sigh. Then, impossibly, the creature standing in front of him looked up and smiled.

“How can you ask that, Severus?”

He stared at her, waiting for her to come to her senses and reject him for good and for all. While he waited for the boom to drop, he studied her eyes. They were copper, but with an impossibly metallic sheen, he could see a subtle texturing along the iris. Her pupils were jet black, and he could just make out his shape reflected in them.

“Severus?” Hermione reached out and touched his chest. “Severus, I…”

She shifted her weight and slipped her arms around his chest, pulling at his back until they were touching from their chests to their knees. He felt her rise up on her toes and stretch to kiss him. He bent in and kissed her again. He couldn’t believe that she wasn’t rejecting him.

He slid an arm around her back and swept her up, tightening his grip as he crushed her to his chest. Feeling her heart beating out a hummingbird’s rhythm against his ribs. Frantically, hardly daring to believe that it was happening, he drove his tongue between her lips, feeling her accept him and return his kiss. Breathing in through his nose deeply, he felt intoxicated. Finally, he lightened the kiss and pulled back from her.

Hermione was looking into his eyes and smiling softly, her lips parted slightly. Severus felt his heart catch; it was astonishing to him that such a woman could look at him with such gentleness and tenderness. He had spent so much of his life being viewed with suspicion, derision, disgust and outright hatred. As he looked into her eyes, he felt his heart swell painfully.

Carefully, cautiously, he took the edges on the quilt covering her and pulled them back. When the cloth came free, he let it go, watching as it slid down to the floor, across the witch’s curves. He noted her form with relief. The months at Hogwarts had put some weight back on her body. Still muscular and fit, she now had the curves a healthy woman should have. He took her hand and led her back into the bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt with his free hand.

Reaching the bed, he turned back to face her.

“Hermione, are you sure?”

She reached up and cupped his cheek in her palm for a moment. Smiling, she reached down and took his waistband into her strong hands. Her fingers worked at the buttons as she spoke.

“Severus, I don’t know where this might end up in the long run, but for this, I am sure.”

He scowled, looking down in the top of her head. Of course she wouldn’t be looking for anything long-term with him, who would? He almost reached for her hands, to stop her from undressing him, but in the end he decided one moment with her was more than he could hope for. He took a deep breath and slid his hands up her shoulders and wove his fingers into her hair. It was softer than he expected, still unruly but not wiry. Her skin was warm, and the sunlight streaming in the window behind her cast a halo in her hair. He guided her face up to his and engaged her lips in another deeply satisfying kiss.

He felt his pants loosen and slip from her hands. He stepped out, and wrapping his arms around her, lifted Hermione and took the final steps to the bed. He laid her down, using his hand to cushion her head as she settled onto the pillows. He leaned back, watching her stretch and settle into the soft bed, her toes curling and her chest arching up. She used quite a bit more goose down than he did and she took a few seconds to finish sinking into the bed. When she was done with her breathtaking stretch, she looked up and reached for him, smiling again.

Severus leaned down and kissed her again, feeling her hands slide down his back, and her fingers drift over his ribs on the way back up. His erection felt heavy and aching, and he was overwhelmed with a sense of urgency. He struggled to control himself as he wrapped his arms tightly around her again and rolled over onto his back and carried her over, so that she was resting on top of him. He let his hands drift down her sides as he kissed her, exploring the sensitive areas below her breasts and in the curve of her hips. He felt her tremble as his hands came to rest on those hips. He allowed his thumbs to wrap around the bone and dig lightly into the gently sloping hollow below her waist, into the sides of her belly. She pulled away from him, pushing herself up and sat straddling him. He growled as her weight pushed her warm, moist center down around the base of his erection.

He paused to look at the amazing woman sitting on his lap. He thought back to that evening with Minerva, before Christmas. He could not fathom that the events of that unwanted errand would have lead to this moment. He let his hands drift down Hermione’s thighs, to her knees and then he pushed his hands back up all the way to her ribs, carrying the motion and sweeping her up in the momentum, lifting her off of him and allowing his head to spring up and catch between her legs. Still holding her weight, his breath seemed insufficient as he felt her roll her hips until he was pressing into her. He looked up and their eyes locked as she pushed herself down onto him. He let up on her ribs, allowing her to lower herself down. She paused, hissing as he felt himself tap her cervix. It was his turn to hiss as she rolled her hips, adjusting and making room for him, allowing him to press further up and slide past the sensitive spot. He was astonished at her tightness. He had been told he was well endowed, but it still took a considerable effort to push up into her, more than he had previously experienced with other women. At the look of hunger and need in her eyes, he felt himself rush towards release. He sat up quickly, reaching forward to grab her legs and pull them around behind him. The abrupt change in position was enough to get under control again.

Hermione smiled down at him, leaning in and kissing him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and letting her the backs of her fingernails drift down across his back. He rocked his hips back and thrust up experimentally. As tight as she was, he worried about hurting her. But she broke the kiss and sighed into his hair and rocking her hips to meet him. The intense pleasure rushing up through his nerves took his breath away. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips into her collarbone as her held her tight with his fingers twinning through her hair, thrusting up into her, and feeling her push back onto him.

As they found a rhythm together, he began to thrust harder, pushing himself deeper. Taking long strokes and burying his head into her breast, he listened to her sighs become ragged and high-pitched. It seemed an eternity that they remained so, moving as one, wrapped around each other. Eventually, Severus pulled at her hair insistently, until her head came back and he was able to look up into her eyes again. The heat and passion he saw there excited him anew and he began to thrust even harder, penetrating her as deep and hard as he could. Trying to dive into her wholly and join her at a level he had before never shared. He felt her walls begin to tighten around him and became aware of her sudden silence. Her breathing had become shallow and he watched in amazement as her shining copper eyes became dark. Finally, they became as coal black as his own.

As the light disappeared from the witch’s eyes, Severus felt her spasm and shake, as her orgasm possessed her, clutching at him as if she were drowning. His grip on her tightened as he felt her walls clamp down on his length and girth. The additional pressure on him was nothing compared to the energy he felt flowing through her. It was as if lightning was coursing through her veins, and being inside her allowed him to feel it without being struck. That alone was enough to push him over the edge. He felt his eyesight narrow and felt as if his world was exploding from him and he fell into his own release. Clutching her to him, he rolled them back over and pounded long strokes into her until they were both spent and utterly exhausted.

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Hermione lay snuggled up against her dark lover. He had taken her breath away and as she watched him sleep, the sun working its way slowly towards the point where they would have to get rush to make it to classes on time, she wondered what would come of their relationship.

If it were only to be one time, she would accept it gracefully. After all, most of her relationships were along those lines. She had always been too busy at college to spend much time with anyone, beyond the occasional tryst. But, over the months she had developed a soft spot for the snarky, sarcastic and at times, bitter man. She had also noticed that recently his abrasive nature was usually not aimed at her. It could be very nice to continue with Severus, particularly if this morning was any indication. Unfortunately, if they didn’t get moving, they would be late to classes.

“Severus,” she said softly, “we need to get up. It’s almost time for our first classes.”

She felt his chest rumble as he growled. His strong arms constricted around her, making it difficult for her to breathe. She watched as he slowly opened his eyes and looked down at her. There was muted passion there, but also a deep disappointment that Hermione found charming.

“Come on,” she sat up and pulled at his hand, “let’s take a shower before we go.”

She laughed as he growled again, but felt him get up and follow her into her bathroom. She paused at her shower, reaching in and starting the water. As she turned back, she saw Severus standing over by her deep pool that doubled as a bath, looking at her expectantly. Smiling, she walked over to him and put her arms around his neck.

“If we use the bath, we’ll never get to class on time.”

He chuckled and bent down to kiss her lightly on her forehead.

“You are right of course, Hermione. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a woman in such a fashion. I wouldn’t rush.”

The heat in his eyes had her hoping that they would have the opportunity to test that someday. She sighed and walked back over to the shower.

“Come on,” she said as climbed in, “let’s get clean.”

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Severus scrubbed her back as they stood under the pounding water. He found himself resenting having to teach that morning. Normally, he took great pride in his job, but today, he would give up that pride in order to prolong the astonishing situation he found himself in.

“Severus?” Hermione turned, taking the cloth from him and moving around behind him to return the favor. “What on earth was going on last night?”

He had almost forgotten for his initial reason for being in her rooms.

“That was your social experiment pushed a bit,” he chucked as he proceeded to tell her about his plan. The fabricated crisis, pushing Maddox and Tybalt together, isolating them from the rest of the students, even the fact that the young Hufflepuff was involved. She was a girl that Severus had noticed in his classes. On Monday, he had overheard her complain to another student about the House rivalries. Voicing that she felt it had gone overboard and had become destructive, hurting the students at Hogwarts. He hadn’t taken any points from her for interrupting class, but he had assigned her detention that night.

During that detention, he obtained her duplicity in the plan. She wouldn’t speak of her role, having agreed to allow Minerva to alter her memory and make sure she was unconscious through the entire event.

“You see,” he finished, “I assume that this morning will bring witness to a new dimension to the relationship between Slytherin and Gryffindor.”

He felt the witch stop for a moment and before she ducked her head under the water, he thought she muttered something than sounded like ‘You’ve got that right, mister.’

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A/N: Well, Holy Odin! I bet some of you thought that would NEVER arrive! ;)

Juls- Yeah, I admit to being creeped out while writing that bit! Glad you liked the chapter, hope this one is up to snuff, too!

Pickles- Extra work before Christmas is always good! Especially with wee ones underfoot. I finally got a tree this year, I spent so many years married to a grinch that I got out of the habit. Nice to have a tree (and someone warm to share it with! *wink* I can’t picture Severus not giving everything to save the kids. Snarky Rat Fink, yes, but he is forever throwing himself in front of the kids in the face of danger. Love to see the pics, just send them to my badsquire@yahoo account. Missed HP & SS here, stupid state culture, not ‘wholesome’ enough for the folks who live here, so we didn’t get it. Buh, can’t wait to move!

Ruby wolf- THAT was a St Nicolaus Day gift, THIS is for Christmas. After all, isn’t it traditional to slip a little citrus into the presents on Christmas??? *tee hee* Hope you liked!

DoomGreen- …and yet a third!

Randomreader- fast enough for points? Puh-lease? Pretty please with lemons on top? Heh heh, glad you like this story, it’s been a blast to write.

Moyra- boy, you spotted that morning surprise in a hurry. Resolution to your satisfaction? Thanks for the review!

Amsev- Finally, a chapter without a cliffie, huh? Glad you are enjoying. As for my Clue take-off, I plead temporary (or permanent) insanity! And, given the proper care and feeding, I suppose it could be considered a very magical critter! ;) And yes, it means EXACTLY what you think it means. I moved around lots when I was younger and picked up interesting slang from all over. *blush*

Bill- You bet you get tornadoes out there, we get them here, too! It was something else when the last one ran through downtown. Imbedded Styrofoam coffee cups 2.5 inches deep into solid granite walls. The physics behind the things is extraordinary. We get water funnels over the Salt Lake every year, and still people were caught on TV saying ‘I just don’t understand it, we never get tornadoes here!’ I was embarrassed. Truly, embarrassed. Hope this update warmed your toes.

Raug- welcome to the Evening Schnapps, pull up a cozy chair, a glass of your favorite drink, and join us! On a side note, all 14 chapters at once?! DAMN! That’s a compliment! Thanks!