In a Lifetime

In A Lifetime
Chapter 17: The Subject Was Roses

Disclaimer: I own nothing of what you’re about to read, with the possible exception of the plot, although I’m sure it’s been done before. The places, characters, etc. belong to JK Rowling. Thanks.


Hermione stared at Severus, unsure of what he had just said.

“You’ve been what?” she asked.

“Promoted,” he stated flatly.

“To what?”

“Deputy Headmaster.”

“But what about Minerva?”

“In a nutshell, my dear, here’s the sordid tale,” he said, sitting in his desk chair and pulling Hermione onto his lap, “Albus will be retiring in the next few years and Minerva will replace him. I will replace Minerva. But Albus mentioned something about promoting me now in order to help make the eventual transition seamless. He also mentioned something about Hogwarts expanding.”

Hermione nodded, “That doesn’t surprise me,” she said, “there was an increase in the population of the wizarding world nine months after the final battle, our own little wizarding baby boom, if you will. Those children will be at the age of admission for Hogwarts next term. It would make sense that they would have to expand in order to handle the influx of students. If my calculations are correct, the incoming class would triple in size. Hogwarts would have to expand or accept less students than would be qualified.”

“I never considered that,” admitted Severus, “all of the houses would have to expand as well as the classrooms.”

“And for some reason, there have been more wizard births in all of the years following the final battle as well. I would imagine having another Deputy Headmaster would be helpful.”

“As well as having more assistance in the hospital wing,” nodded Severus.

“Poppy will be retiring in two years,” said Hermione, “I’ve already been asked if I would be interested in remaining at Hogwarts following my internship. Ginny has been asked too. If the number of students at Hogwarts will be increasing, then it makes sense to have a bigger medical staff as well.”

“Will you?” asked Severus rather shyly.

“Will I what?”

“Stay on at Hogwarts?”

“Of course I will,” replied Hermione, kissing him softly on the lips, “the only family I have is here. The man I love with everything I am is here.”

“He is?” he queried, a sly look in his eyes as he brushed his hand over her breast.

Hermione felt her eyes close with his touch. She smiled at the response her body always had to this dark man she had given her heart to. One look in his eyes and she felt herself melting. One touch from his hands and she became like putty. All of her life, Hermione Granger had resisted being molded by anyone. She had thought that succumbing to another person would be the height of weakness. With Severus, she had come to realize that sometimes, succumbing made one stronger. She let out a small moan as he circled her stiffening nipple with a finger and softly nuzzled her neck.

“I have entertained such erotic thoughts of being taken in this room,” sighed Hermione.

“Have you?” he virtually purred in her ear.

“Oh yes…since I was a student.”

“And pray tell, who was the object of your fantasieen?”en?”

Hermione moaned louder as his clever fingers opened her robes and charmed off her clothing underneath, “Ooooohhhh,” she groaned huskily as those fingers brushed over her bare nipple, “Neville…I fantasized about Neville Longbottom.”

Hermione felt his fingers stop, still resting on her taut left nipple. She stifled a giggle as she opened her eyes to see the look of confusion in his ebony eyes.

“Longbottom?” he choked out.

“No, you dolt,” giggled Hermione, “I was just teasing. I fantasized about you, dear intimidating Severus. I had such a thing for you when I was in my seventh year.”

“You DID?” he asked incredulously.

“I wouldn’t call it a crush, though. It was more of this deeply charged erotic lust thing. Many were the nights I strummed myself to sleep thinking of you. You were quite the dashing figure.”

Severus finished opening her robes, pushing them open and exposing her bare body to the cold damp air of the potions classroom. Hermione felt her nipples stiffen even harder as the chill hit them. Severus eyed them appreciativ

“I have always loved a woman’s breasts,” he said, tracing their contours with his fingers, “the way the nipples respond to changes in the atmosphere and become so hard…”

Hermione groaned as her nipples swelled to the sound of his voice, “Oh gods, they ache right now. And they’re cold…I think they need a little warmth.”

“Like this?” asked Severus as he captured one between his lips and bathed it with his warm tongue.

Hermione nodded, “Did you ever think about me,” she said, “when I was here as a student?”

Severus looked up from his sweet chore at her nipples and shook his head, “Not sexually, Hermione, no. I did admire you as a scholar and as a strong example of young womanhood, but no, I never thought of you sexually. Not until much later.”

“You admired me?” she asked.

“Very much so. You were strong. They couldn’t break you. Oh, they tried. You were considered quite the sweet target for many a death eater. But they never got you, and they never broke you. Your intellect was, and is, as astounding as your courage.”

Hermione felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked down at the man she pledged to herself to spend the rest of her life with. There was so much more to him than she ever imagined.

“All this time, I thought you hated me when I was a child.”

“Yere ere profoundly irritating. Not unlike a grain of sand in an oyster. But eventually, that irritation becomes something beautiful,” stated Severus, kissing a nipple.

“Thank you ever so much for comparing me to calcium carbonate built up as a protection from an irritant,” she said, pulling his head closer to her breasts, “now, please suck a little harder.”

Severus nodded as he enclosed a hard nipple with his lips and after flicking it with his tongue, proceeded to draw it in and suck harder. Hermione loved the sensation of his mouth pulling at her nipples, punctuated by the occasionally nibble or nip. Hermione leaned back against the desk, still seated on his lap and gave his wandering hands better access to her warm wet pussy. He found her hardened clit and drew circles around it with a finger. With one smooth move, he lifted her bottom off his lap and placed her on the desk, running his hands over her beautiful body. He sat back down in the chair and pulled it closer to the desk, lifting her legs over his shoulders as he pulled her glistening womanhood to his mouth and kissed it, causing Hermione to moan and grip the sides of the desk for support.

“Oh gods, yes, Severus…” she moaned.

Severus smiled as he drew his tongue along her slit, feeling her open in its wake. He loved the taste of Hermione, like sweet yet salty seawater. He often wished he could bottle her scent and taste to tide him over when they weren’t together. He teased open her inner lips, then brushed his tongue lightly over her clit, causing her to jump slightly and quiver. With a smile, he flicked it harder, then brought his lips around it and sucked gently while he slipped two fingers into her wetness. Hermione brought one hand to her breasts, where she teased and pinched a nipple, harder with each lashing of his tongue against her throbbing clit. Feeling Severus working his fingers in and out of her, she squirmed on the desk, pulling her own nipples hard as she felt the tide of orgasm wash over her.

“Oh my gods,” she panted, when she was able to speak, “I have NEVER had a man do that to me with the exception of you and it ALWAYS feels amazing.”

Severus took in the sight of Hermione laying on his desk, her legs spread, trails of wetness down her thighs, her swollen clit visible through the trimmed hairs, her nipples slightly swollen and very red, her hair spread out over his papers, her faced flushed, and her eyes hooded. He felt his cock jump to attention at the vision of his sexual goddess.

“I am not yet done with you,” he said with a smirk, quickly divesting himself of his clothing.

Hermione looked down her body at Severus, smiling as she took in his rock hard cock, “I was hoping you weren’t finished. As nice as that was, I want to feel you ramming that into me. Now. I want us both to have climaxed and collapsed in less than 10 minutes.”

“As you wish, my lady,” said Severus, as he quickly entered her and proceeded to give her what she asked for, hard and quick no frills sex on his desk. Within minutes, they had both climaxed hard and Hermione was back on his lap, snuggling close to him, both bathed in sweat and completely naked.

“Wow,” was all Hermione could say.

“No kidding,” Severus replied, stroking her back, “I can’t remember when I’ve come so fast.”

“Back to what we were discussing before you made me come twice in less than 20 minutes…”

“At your request,” Severus said with a mischievous grin, “normally I can go longer.”

“Of course you can,” she said, patting his shoulder, “now, you said you admired me when I was younger.”

“Even though I really couldn’t show it, yes. I did. Very much.”

“Tell me about the roses, Severus,” she said, “tell me about Hermione’s Cinnamon Rose.”

“You saw…”

“Yes, at the back of the rose garden. The beautiful roses you always give me, the same ones that you’ve put on my parents’ graves for all these years.”

“I told you I admired you,” he said, looking deep into her eyes, “as something of a hobby, somethio keo keep my mind occupied, I was working with Pomona on creating some hybrid roses in honor of the true heroes of the Great War. When I accidentally created that particular hybrid, something about it reminded me of you. Delicate, sweet, yet strong with thorns that can prick the unwary. Have you ever tried to break or cut the stems of the cinnamon rose?”

“No, I haven’t,” said Hermione.

“It’s virtually impossible. Only magic can cut the stems, and only once. Once the stem is cut, it will not allow itself to be cut a second time. That reminded me of you. Once you were wounded, you would not permit them to hurt you a second time. You became stronger. Like the stems of the cinnamon rose. Plus, you always exuded a vague smell of cinnamon and apples back then. I could smell you before you entered the room. And I looked forward to that scent. To me, the scent of cinnamon came to symbolize hope. You were the hope of the wizarding world. You were the hope of your generation, not Potter. You were MY hope. The hope that your brilliance would survive and shine on, ushering a new millennium for the wizarding world. You were the underrated one. The forgotten one. You needed to have something of beauty in this world that would live beyond the moment of glory, beyon Orn Order of Merlin. You deserved the rose.”

Hermione once again felt the tears in her eyes as she recited the placard, “Hermione’s Cinnamon Rose. Bred 1998 by Severus Snape. In honor of a young woman of enormous talent and courage under fire. May she succeed where others have failed…even though she is an annoying know-it-all and I welcome the peace her departure will bring.”

“I do so have a way words, do I not?” he asked playfully.

Hermione responded by standing up and pulling him to his feet, leading him through his office and through the secret door to his chambers. When they reached his bedchamber, Hermione pulled him into a deep kiss.

“I love you, Severus Snape,” she whispered as she gently pushed him onto the bed and straddled him.

“I love you too, Hermione Granger,” he whispered back, as she slid him inside of her and began riding him slowly and sensuously.