The Seaside Retreat

Chapter 20... New Years

It was only two days until New Years Eve and Hermione found herself terrified of spending it alone or in company of her happily coupled friends. She had come around to the fact that Severus had made a fair point, but she felt so alone. Harry and Ron still hadn’t come to apologize and though they hadn’t spilled her secret to anyone, she wasn’t going to hunt them down and beg for their friendship. It had been this way as long as she could remember. The boys always banded together when one of them had an issue with her and she was left to fend for herself while they comforted each other without her.

She had checked out several books from the library and had begun taking her meals in her room. Minerva had stopped in to talk to her, and when Hermione asked her about Severus she said that he hadn’t been out of his rooms either. It was good to know some people still cared about her, but she wasn’t ready to face the world yet, so she continued her regime of being a hermit.


Little did Hermione know that while she was secluding herself in her room, Harry and Ron were scheming on how to win her friendship back. Being the boys they are and the lives they have led, they had a tendency to over complicate things. All they had to do was apologize to her and they could begin mending their friendship again, but all this seemed too easy to actually work.

In fact, at that very moment the boys were holding a brain storming session (Hermione would be so proud) about different ways to get her back in their live once again. After at least two hours of half hearted ideas such as flowers and candy, the boys finally realized that they had to do the unthinkable. They had to grovel to Snape. It was with resignation that they trooped down to the dungeons to implement their plan of attack.

When Severus heard the alarm signaling a visitor to his office, he was fully prepared to ignore it. However, when curiosity got the better of him he was surprised to see 2/3 of the golden trio looking decidedly glum. He opened the door with his best sneer in place, but unfortunately boy wonder and his sidekick never had enough sense to be properly scared of him.

“Well” he hissed “what do you want?”

It was Harry that spoke up first. “Sir, we screwed up. Badly.”

When Severus ceased to look surprised, but refrained from scathing comments, the boys took it as consent to continue, but this time it was Ron who spoke.

“Professor Snape, Hermione told us about the two of you. Unfortunately the rumor is that we acted exactly like the idiots you predicted, and now Hermione is miserable. She doesn’t have us and what’s worse, she doesn’t have you.”

“So” Harry picked up where Ron left off “We came to extend the proverbial olive branch. We acted like prats, and now that we have that out of our system we have decided to act like adults and do whatever we can to make her happy again. For some reason being with you makes her very happy. Professor Snape, it has been a long time since I have felt any ill will towards you. I fully admit that I said and did some things that would cause anyone to hate me, but I am not my father, and now I finally realize that I can love him without emulating every thing he was. He treated you like dirt and there was no reason for it. I am sorry.” When Harry finished his spiel, with Ron fervently nodding in agreement the entire time, he extended his hand towards Snape.

For his part, Severus was fully prepared to forcefully remove them from his presence, but when Harry looked at him with Lily’s eyes, the eyes he could never deny anything to, he found himself reaching forward and grasping hands with the boy. Well, man now.

“Alright apology accepted and I suppose I could have been a bit fairer to you through out the years as well. Though if you tell anyone I apologized to you, we are back to square one and I reserve the right to hate you again.”

Harry smiled at this and fervently agreed to the demand.

“Well I guess we better put our heads together and find a way to crawl back to her on our knees and grovel” Ron said.

“What do you mean? I was just going to floo into her rooms and apologize” Severus replied.

Both boys looked at him then like he was either the dumbest or bravest man on earth causing Severus to shake his head.

“Listen Mate” Severus looked startled at being called mate by the youngest Weasley male, but recover admirably enough. “You need to warm her up from afar first. She could do you some serious damage if you go barging in on her.”

“She wouldn’t hurt me! She is a reasonable adult and will give me a chance to explain, and then I will tell her that you two came to me to talk she will forgive you as well” Severus replied confidently.

Harry looked at him skeptically for a moment but just shrugged it off. “Have it your way sir. But, I think it’s only fair to warn you that she kept Rita Skeeter in a jar for two moths, just because she wrote some nasty articles. You broke her heart.”

Severus looked startled at hearing this, and quickly acquiesced to the boys’ line of thinking. He asked them to be in his quarters on New Years Eve by nine o’clock in the evening, promising to have them back in her good graces by then. Then he quickly excused himself and began to scheme on how to win Hermione back.

Hermione woke the next morning ready to begin another day of seclusion, but before she could fully awake, a sweet smell met her nostrils. When her eyes had fully opened she gasped at what she saw. All around her room, on every available surface were vases of flowers. There were lilies and orchids, Roses and Violets. The mingling scents were intoxicating and almost against her will, Hermione found herself smiling. It wasn’t long after she had wandered around the room smelling the individual bouquets that Dobby popped in with a breakfast tray for her.

“Dobby? What are you doing here? I didn’t ask for breakfast yet.”

“Dobby knows miss, but Master Snape asked Dobby to bring you this breakfast tray.”

“Oh, alright Dobby, thank you very much.”

When Dobby set the tray upon the small table in her room Hermione noticed the scroll on the tray and with a sigh she sat down to read it. She wasn’t ready to forgive him yet, but she must admit he was right and she would at least see what he had to say. She sat on the edge of her bed and with some trepidation unrolled the scroll and began to read.

Hermione-
I wish there was something to say to make you forgive me, but I fear that anything I could come up with would sound shallow and insincere in written form. I feel like the lowest form of creature on this planet right now, and after many bottles of booze and an equal number of sleepless nights I have come to a conclusion. I can not live with out you. For nearly eighteen years I have lived a miserable sort of half existence, but when the war finally ended I felt like even that half life was stolen from me. Where was my purpose in life now? Then you showed up. Sitting on the end of that pier looking like you would sprout wings and soar to heaven at any moment. My life hasn’t been the same since then, and if I die today I would die a happy man knowing I had at least six months with an angel. I would walk a thousand miles and go through a dozen more wars just to be with you again. For now, all I ask is that you continue to apprentice under me. Though the apprenticeship was a wonderful cover for us to see each other, I have yet to meet another as worthy of the title of Potions Master as you. Please do not allow me to ruin this opportunity for you. I beseech you to please meet me at my quarters at 9:30 pm on New Years Eve so that we may try to talk things over. I love you Hermione, and I always will, but if you don’t want to continue on with me then I swear on my Order of Merlin that I will remain your Professor and only that from this day forward.

I love you and will forever remain your servant,
Severus Tobias Snape

Hermione was openly crying by the end of the letter, so she sat at her desk to write a letter to him in return. She felt she should be a bit harsher on him then she was going to be, but in the end her heart was fluttering in her chest and she didn’t want to torture herself along with him. She smoothed out a piece of parchment and began to pen her response.

Severus-
I have received your letter and decided that I will join you on New Years Eve. I suppose you have heard by now that I told my friends about us. They, like you predicted, were not pleased and I apologize for my anger towards you. I do love you and I always will, but I think we need to have a serious chat about our future. I refuse to be treated like a proper partner one moment, but when we disagree with each other to immediately be lowered to the level of a subordinate. No matter what we decide, I will continue my apprenticeship with you, because in the end you are the foremost expert on potions in the country. So, I will see you tomorrow evening, and thank you for the beautiful flowers.

Love,
Hermione

She sent the letter through the floo to his rooms, and went to the bathroom to sink into a relaxing bath and plan her wardrobe for the next evening. She knew in her heart now that everything would work out, and she was able to enjoy the rest of her day. She even considered finding Harry and Ron, but decided that they needed to apologize to her first.

The next day Severus had several house elves to clean his room and prepare for guests. He had contacted Minerva and let her know that the group would be with him, and welcomed her to stop by later in the evening. It had been a long time since anyone but he and Hermione had been in his rooms, with the exception of Ginny that one evening. Of course thinking about that evening left him with a rather hard problem, and he was forced into his bedroom to rectify that situation.

He was rather ashamed of himself for wanking off when he should have been preparing for the evening, but a cold shower was not going to help him out in this situation. He lay back upon his bed and with agile fingers slipped his buttons through the holes and released his length, hissing when the cold air touched his heated flesh. He smoothed the pre cum around his engorged head smoothed his fist over the shaft tightening his grip and moving with controlled motions. It wasn’t long before hand had sped up and his movements became erratic while he thrust into his palm. The visions of that night with Hermione and Ginny were dancing behind his eyelids and caused him to come with a shout.

He took a moment to collect himself and scourgify the mess he had made before neatly tucking himself away and returning to work. He had brewed several bottles of hangover potion for the group and had sent a house elf to procure champagne, wine, butterbeer, and some of that wonderful butterscotch schnapps from muggle London. He had also sent another one of the elves on a special errand. The day passed quickly and before he knew it he was dressing for the evening, choosing the horrid light blue shirt that he hated, but Hermione swore made him look irresistible.

Nine o’clock rolled around and the group surprised him by not only showing up on time to wait for Hermione, but with platters of food and bottles of Blaise’s wine from his parent’s vineyard. The group sat and talked for the remaining half hour and Severus filled them in on his plans for the evening.

Hermione arrived at exactly nine thirty looking beautiful in loose black trousers and coincidently, a thick sweater in pale blue. She knocked on Severus’ door and when he opened it to her, they both looked embarrassed at their close to matching outfits. They looked away from each other in an awkward moment, but when he presented his arm for her to take, their uneasiness dissolved at the first touch. He smiled sincerely at her and led her to the sitting room where she was shocked to find her friends there waiting for her.

Something must have been put into the food, for poison was the only conclusion she could come to for Severus to allow six students, four of them Gryffindors, into his quarters. After she got over the initial shock of seeing them there, her anger came back full force, but before she could get on a roll, the boys recognized the warning signs and came forward with their peace offerings.

Ron came forward with a huge bouquet of roses and Harry was beside him with a stack of brand new books for her. They sure knew the way to her heart by now, though she did feel bad that she probably had a greenhouse full of flowers in her possession by now. They smiled weekly at her and began their well rehearsed speech.

“Hermione” Harry started “We were so wrong not to give you a chance to explain yourself, and you have every right in the world to hate us for putting you through that.”

“We have proved to you time and again that no matter how much we love you, we are still incapable of opening our mouths and having something useful come out of them” Ron finished.

“Boys, I accept your apology. And don’t say that Ron, you both are very intelligent and have wonderful hearts, which is why I can be so hard on you. If you would stop and think before you have a knee jerk reaction to something you feel, everything would be so much easier to work out. I am sorry too though. I never meant to keep how I feel about Severus from any of you, but I didn’t expect us to last past the summer, and by the time I fell in love with him, I was too far in to turn around.”

“We know Hermione, and to prove how sorry we are for not trusting you, we have spent the last three days doing all of our work through February and we have drawn up our own NEWTs study schedule and already begun it.” Ron explained.

She embraced the two of them and as soon as they moved away to get themselves something to drink Hermione joined Millicent and Ginny and thanked them for writing the boys NEWTs schedule and letting them take credit for it. The three of them laughed and smiled and it wasn’t long before Hermione had found her way back to Severus and had perched herself on his lap in his armchair. They had snuggled up to each other comfortably and while they weren’t looking Draco snapped a photo of the two. They had a wonderful evening together, and Hermione took Severus’ acceptance of her friends as more of a commitment then anything.

When midnight chimed the group lifted their champagne glasses in a toast and everyone was surprised when Severus lowered himself on one knee and proposed to Hermione. He opened the velvet box he had clutched the entire night, and presented her with a platinum band. It held a large diamond in the center, with smaller emeralds and rubies embedded in the band.

“I love you with all of my heart Hermione, and I know with out a doubt that without you, my life ceases to matter. For the first time in my life you have let me see the kind of man I could be and the kind of life I can live and I never want to live without that. We don’t have to get married right away; I will wait as long as you want, but these past few days without you have been hell, and please say you will be mine.”

Hermione beamed down at him and he soon found himself flat on his back on the floor with Hermione straddling him and kissing him soundly. When he emerged from under her red faced and out of breath sheepishly looking at her friends, the tension was broken when Ron stupidly asked whether she said yes or not. The group groaned and smacked him playfully, but quickly said their goodbye to the lovebirds, leaving them alone to “celebrate” their happy news.

They walked their guests to the door and Hermione gave hugs all around and promises to catch up with them tomorrow. She smiled as they retreated, already hearing Ginny and Millicent fighting over the color of the bridesmaids gowns. She chuckled lightly and closed the door turning to Severus and smiling widely. It took barely a second before they were intertwined with each other, kissing passionately and tearing at their clothes. Once they had stripped completely and made their way clumsily to his bedroom, Severus was surprised to find himself tied to the bed and being leered at by Hermione.

“I have decided that tonight I will take my time and learn every inch of your amazing body Severus” and with that she conjured a bottle of chocolate sauce and heated it. She dripped it over his body and watched as he squirmed against the restraints, his cock reaching out desperately for attention. The beautiful shaft twitched when she drizzled chocolate on it and Severus felt like he was going to explode when she poked her pink tongue out and began licking patterns in the sauce cleaning him off.

“Oh Severus, you make me so wet. I can’t keep my hands off of you, and when I watch you in class I have to use everything I have to not jump over the desk and fuck you in front of everyone.”

Severus was getting very turned on listening to her talk like that and he was getting very impatient with her teasing.

“Hermione love, let me go so I can pound into you. Don’t you want my thick cock sliding into you? You feel so good and so tight, like your cunt was made for me.”

“Oh Severus, I want to let you up so I can feel you inside of me, but I’m not done with you yet.” she replied in a throaty voice while before she licked her fingertips and ran them over her tight nipples.

She then leaned forward and licked from his kneecaps to his inner thighs before lightly sucking his balls into her mouth and running her tongue over them. Severus gasped and bucked, loving the feel of her mouth on him, and it wasn’t long before Hermione grew impatient with the light licks and touching and she waved her wand, releasing him from his bonds. With lightening fast reflexes he shot up and pulled her on top of him, his cock sliding home.

They fucked with wild abandon and they were both reduced to quivering masses, on cloud nine over one of the most passionate nights they had ever had. She rode him fast and hard and reveled in the feel of his balls slapping against her. He suddenly slipped out of her and thrust his glistening member in her face.

“Lick your juices off of my cock, love.” and when she moved forward to comply he groaned and encouraged her. “That’s right; use your hot little mouth to wipe me clean. Do you like the way you taste? I can’t get enough of your essence Hermione, its like ambrosia.”

He pulled away from her mouth and slid into her again, reveling in the moans she made. He surprised her however, by sucking on his finger and when it was good and wet sliding it into her ass. She bucked against him unused to the feeling, but it wasn’t long before she grew accustomed to it and was moaning loudly at the feeling.

“Fuck baby” she groaned “that feels so good. You feel so good. You fill me up so perfectly and ahhhhhhhhhh” she screamed out, seeing white bursts of light on the back of her eyelids as she came hard and fast. Severus felt her body tensing and gritted his teeth slamming both his cock and his finger into her hard and grunting when her body milked his release from him.

They collapsed in a heap together and took deep gulps of air trying to calm themselves. After a few minutes of lying motionless Severus rose to run a bath for the two of them and they spent hours planning their future and bathing each other.

A/N: Okay so I actually had no intention of having Snape propose. I was planning this whole pregnancy thing, but damn Severus popped the question before I could tell him not to! I look like half a chipmunk right now, because I only got the left side of my teeth pulled today and though I had planned on writing responses to your wonderful reviews, I am actually going to take a nap! YAY SLEEP! So I love you all and I will try to post again later tonight.