Remember When It Rained

Remember When It Rained
Chapter Twenty Two
It Is You…I Have Loved All Along

Severus Snape stood in his customary dark corner, contemplating the festive ribbons and flower balls that hovered below the clear star light that shone upon the enchanted ceiling.

This was a scene, he thought, that he would be sneering at on any other occasion, but tonight he was too nervous to consider it. His stomach wouldn’t have borne it, roiling as it was.

The Great Hall was alive with the chattering of new graduates and the music of the band hired to play for the party that was now, fully underway. It was the last party that he would attend as a Hogwarts professor, for his retirement had been announced that day, at the ceremony. The announcement was met with a surprising amount of astonishment by some, and a not so surprising amount of joy, though muted for decorum’s sake, by others


He looked away from a hovering flower ball of scarlet and gold roses, his eyes seeking and finding her in the sea of brightly colored robes and gowns. She wasn’t hard to miss in his eyes, and never more so than this evening.

Resplendent she was, he thought, as he watched her take a turn around the floor in the arms of a smiling Albus Dumbledore. In the crème colored gown he had sent her last evening, along with a jeweler’s box containing a necklace and earrings of gold and grass green emeralds. The gown was, as he thought it would be, perfect on her lovely figure. The plunging, squared neckline accented the soft curve of her shoulders, the silk casting a soft sheen to her skin. The bodice clung tightly to her tiny waist before cascading out into an Elizabethan flair. The simple elegance of the gown was only heightened by the upswept way she wore her hair, and the emeralds that shone at her throat and ears.

‘She,’ he thought. ‘Is breathtaking.’

As if Albus had sensed the wizard’s eyes following them, he made a point of sweeping Hermione around the floor and past him, and he caught her breathless giggle as they flew by. Severus followed them with his eyes and wondered, as he had for the last month, how he had been so fortunate as to have gained the love of that witch.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cool stone wall and sighed.

She had been so nervous, he remembered, on the evening of their last meeting alone. It was the night after their first night spent together in the Forbidden Forest, the night that he told her that he had tendered his resignation.

“Do not worry, ma petite,” he had told her. “Headmaster has assured me that you shall not be expelled.”

She looked at him as she stood by the fireplace, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“When do you go?” she asked her voice choking. “What will you do? Oh Severus I am so sorry!”

He crossed the room in three strides, and standing toe to toe with her, he wiped the tears that had started to fall away with the tips of his fingers. “Shhh,” he whispered, as he took her into his arms. “Hermione, don’t fret. As I said this morning, I am hardly a pauper, and as to when I must go, Albus has asked that I stay to finish the term.”

“Oh!” she gasped, burying her face against his woolen jacket.

“But he has asked that we not be alone together any more, Hermione. At least not until you have graduated, and in this we must obey him.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide and wet from her weeping and nodded. “I understand,” she said softly. “But Severus June is so far off!”

He smiled down at her, and brushed a last kiss against her forehead before releasing her.

“I know ma petite, but the days will pass.”

And so they did.

For the sake of the couple, as well as for the sake of decorum, Albus had removed Hermione from Potions class. Hermione had told her friends upon their angry inquiry that the Headmaster had said that she was so far ahead in the class due to her diligent studies and her apprenticeship, that she could forgo the class and sit her NEWTS when the time came.

Albus Dumbledore developed an interest in the Potions masters curriculum as regarded apprentice studies, which led him to spend his time in the dungeons with the pair while she was present. Being the gentleman that he was, he never failed to escort her back to the entrance to the common room, giving the lateness of the hour as a standing excuse.

‘All in all,’ Severus thought, as he opened his eyes and looked for her again. ‘It has been a miserable month.’ A month of seeing her, and not being able to touch her. A month of trying to court her without it looking like he was courting her. A month of her, in his labs the smell of carnations, her scent, threatening to overpower his senses and make him throw her over his shoulder and flee the castle. A month of Albus’ damn twinkling.

An entire month leading up to this afternoon, when he managed to contain the proud smile that threatened to breakout on his face, as she crossed the dais to accept her parchment. She chit had smiled at him, and winked, as a flush spread across her face. He saw the desire and joy in her eyes for the brief moment they had looked into his. He let his scowl deepen. It wouldn’t do to have anyone faint and ruin the ceremony if he should smile, or even better, pull her into his arms and kiss her.

That was for later.

“Don’t you think that it’s time, my boy?”

The voice of Albus Dumbledore startled him from his reverie, causing him to jump slightly.

“You’re lucky that I knew you were there,” Severus said in a whisper. “Otherwise, I might have mistaken you for a student and hexed you.”

Albus’ laugh eddied softly over him in the shadows. “She is lovely this evening Severus, and at last she is no longer a student here.” Severus felt the man’s touch on his arm. “Go to her, my son. As I said, don’t you think it’s time?”

Severus watched her as she talked to Longbottom, who was still simpering over her all these months after the accident that had nearly killed her. His stomach lurched as the nervousness he had nearly tamped down rose again. What if she didn’t like it? What would she say? Was he being too damn soppy? Why had he listened to Albus in the first place?

“Go on Severus,” the old wizard said. “She won’t bite. Well not yet anyway, but who knows eh?”

He closed his eyes as his former Headmaster walked off chuckling, and vowed to never think on that remark again. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the shadows and moved in the direction of the woman that he loved more than anything in the world.

Their eyes met from across the room, and she stood still as if frozen, a cup halfway to her lips, as Longbottom continued his incessant prattle without noticing that she was no longer paying attention. From the corner of his eye he caught Potter and Weasley sliding up beside her as they shot glaring looks his way.

Then, he was before her, the scent of her perfume engulfing him, threatening to drive all sensible thought from his mind.

“Miss Granger,” he rumbled, as he begged the Gods to not let him throw up. “Might I have a word with you?”

She smiled a small, polite smile at him as her heart began to pound in her chest.

“Of course, Sir,” was her soft answer.

Turning, she put her cup down on the table behind her, willing her hands not to shake. She turned back to him and smiled again, as he extended his arm.

“Shall we walk?” he asked, and they stepped away from the astonished trio, two of whom swiftly made to follow.

“In private!” he growled at the Boy Who Lived and his redheaded friend.

“Really you two!” Hermione chided. Turning back to the dark man beside her she continued, “Professor? Lead the way.”

No one, save Albus and her astonished friends noticed the pair, one dark and one fair, making their way from the room, so busy as they were enjoying their last night of childhood.

~*~

“Where are we going?” Hermione Granger asked, as she walked by his side though the warm June night. Above them the sky was clear, the stars twinkling against the velvet blackness of the sky. The Moon was a perfectly round disk against that backdrop, its opal light shining down upon them softly.

“You shall see, ma petite,” was the enigmatic answer Severus provided to her question. She looked up at his face, and smiled at the seriousness of his expression.

“You look as if you are about to take house points,” she teased softly. She thought that she saw him grimace, but the expression was so fleeting, she dismissed the thought.
Sensing that silence was called for, she said nothing further, and allowed herself to be guided by her lover’s steps.

They walked in silence for a few moments more, before they came upon a small clearing that lead into a maze made of tall hedges. She looked up at him, her face reflecting the myriad of questions flitting about her mind, as he stopped before the entrance.

“Come,” was all he said to her, as he stepped away from her side, and held out his hand. She smiled at him, as she took it, shivering at the feel of her hand brushing against the roughness of his fingers and palm. His hand was cold, and out of instinct, she squeezed it, as he gently pulled her into the maze.

Her heart was pounding madly in her chest, as she followed him through the shadows cast by the high shrubbery. His silence was beginning to puzzle her, but she followed on, and asked no questions.

Instead, she allowed her eyes to drink in the dark man before her. That he loved her was a constant source of joy, and puzzlement. This brooding, tall wizard, who held her hand in his own, loved her, and had made love to her, little more than a month ago. It was a night that she replayed over, and over again in her dreams. Dreaming of him, she thought, was all that she could do, during this last month of term.

How embarrassed she had been, at Albus Dumbledore’s nightly presence in the lab, as he feigned interest in the apprenticeship of his best student. She struggled not to laugh outright, at his blatant lack of subtleness in assigning himself the role of the pair’s chaperone.

Truth be told, she had hoped that the Headmaster would have seen fit to ignore the rules, as he had so often done in the past, and let Severus stay on as a Professor. Yet, there were some rules that, once broken, could not be ignored. Making love to one’s student was one such rule.

Suddenly, the maze ended at a small clearing, and Hermione gasped at the sight before her. In the center of the clearing stood a small table, draped with a pale damask. Upon the surface, sat two crystal goblets, and in a silver urn, a bottle of what appeared to be champagne.

“Severus!” she exclaimed, as she took in the simple elegance of the scene.

He turned to her and grasped her other hand. Bringing it to his lips, he pressed a gentle kiss upon it, and softly said, “Do you like it?”

“Oh, yes!” she cried. “It’s beautiful, Severus. I don’t know what to say!”

He chucked, relieved at her reaction, and said, “That is a first, I believe, my dear.”

Their eyes met, and before either of them realized, they were kissing each other with the hungry abandon, of lovers long separated.

His heart raced, as he felt her small body pressing against his, her hands tangling in his hair, as she tried to pull him closer. Wanting to taste her further, he nipped at her lower lip, and she moaned, opening her mouth to give his tongue access. Their mouths tasted each others, tongues swirling and dipping. She sighed, and he inhaled the sigh, as if to draw her essence further into him.

She pressed herself further against him, wriggling against the hardness pressing into her belly. Fire burned hotter in his veins, the heat running through him, and centering in his loins. He bucked against her, as his hands ran down her back and to her skirt, where they sought and found her behind, underneath the material of her skirt. He pressed her against him, as his tongue swept her mouth once more, before he reluctantly pulled away from the kiss.

“We had best stop now, Hermione,” he said breathlessly. “Otherwise, you shall have your skirts tossed at this very site.”

“Toss away, my dark man, I am all yours,” she answered boldly, even as she blushed.

He smiled at her, as his eyes drank in the sight of her in the moonlight. “No, ma petite, for I have other intentions for this spot. Come and sit, Hermione. I wish to celebrate with you in private, for the rest of the evening.”

She followed him to the table, and sat in the offered chair, wondering just what he had planned for them tonight. She hoped that it included having, as he had so quaintly put it, her skirts tossed, if not here, then in his bed. Or hers. It mattered not to her, so long as it happened.

“You must be thirsty,” he said, in his most velvety tone. “Champagne?”

She nodded, as he began pouring out a glass for each of them. Her fingers toyed with the stem of the goblet, as he finished filling his. Standing over her, he raised his glass, and said,

“Hermione, I-,” he paused and gulped, his Adams apple bobbing in this throat as his nerves failed him. Thinking, this wouldn’t do, he drew a breath and began again. “Hermione, I congratulate you. You have finished your seven years here and have surpassed all of your class mates.”

He watched, as she took a sip of her drink, her face paling at his words. They had sounded too formal, he thought, even to him. He quickly sipped from his glass, downing its contents in one gulp, and said, “I can’t do this, Hermione, it isn’t right.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, as she watched him turn from her, his head bowed.

“Wh-what isn’t right, Severus?” she whispered, rising from her chair, her heart clenching in fear. “I don’t understand.”

He turned back to her and, seeing the sadness of her expression, he grabbed her hand and held it to his chest. He knew what she was thinking. She thought that he was going to send her away.

“No, Hermione, it’s not what you are thinking,” he chided softly. “I am not leaving you, nor will I ever allow you to leave me, my love.”

“Then what is wrong? Please tell me,” was her whispered plea.

He drew a breath and continued, “Do you feel my heart, how it is pounding? This is what you do to me. It is what you have done to me, ever since you started running into me all of your sixth year. It is what you have done to me all of this year. Even as I yelled at you, scolded you and berated you, I was falling in love with you. I just didn’t realize it at the time.”

“Oh, Sev-“

“Let me finish, Hermione, before I lose my nerve,” he said, cutting her off in a harsher tone then he had meant to use. He drew breath again as she winced. “I am a taciturn man, my dear, and while I may snap at you, or go through the day in silence, never forget that I love you. Never forget that I made you mine, that night in the forest. Never doubt my love for you, my dear Hermione, my little lioness.”

With his words, she threw herself into his arms, and kissed his lips, with a ferocity that she had not known she was capable of.


A/N: Muwahahahaha! One more chapter, full of lemons and other delights. Please review, they really make my day!
Live long and prosper, Titania