Hard Times for Severus Snape - (Editing)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 23 ~ Terms of Engagement

Hermione dozed on the sofa until the Professor returned late in the evening. He entered the study and looked down at the sleeping witch, his dark eyes sweeping over her. He looked into her mind, but it was still. She wasn't dreaming. Suddenly her eyes opened and she looked up at him.

"Hello," she said sleepily, looking tousled and accessible as she stretched her body like a kitten.

"Good evening, Miss Granger. I trust you've slept well," the Professor replied.

"Yes. I guess I was more tired than I thought," she replied.

"You didn't sleep well last night. I could tell this morning when you arrived at breakfast. You seemed tired…and disturbed," he said. Then the Professor reached into his pocket and removed a folded parchment. He held it out to her.

Hermione sat up on the sofa and took the parchment from him slowly, unfolded it and read its contents. She lowered it, her eyes perplexed.

"It's from Eric. He doesn't want me to contact him anymore. He says he doesn't want to see me ever again," she said.

Hermione couldn't understand. Was he that angry she didn't show up that he decided to just end whatever it was they had? She wasn't in love with the wizard, but she had liked him well enough. She had considered him a friend. With privileges...but a friend.

"Did he say why?" the Professor inquired.

"No. He gives no reason," Hermione said, looking down at the letter again.

"So he sent you that letter out of the blue?" the Professor asked her.

"No. Not really. I wrote him to ask him if I could see him tonight," the witch replied.

"I assume he is one of the 'fuck-buddies' you told me about," the Professor said, her black eyes focused on her.

"Yes," she responded shortly.

"Well, he can't be a very good buddy, if he turned away from you," the Professor said.

"I guess he isn't," Hermione breathed. She folded up the letter.

The Professor looked at her. He was the only one she could turn to now.

"You haven't eaten," he said, rising. "I'm going to have something sent down from the kitchens since I haven't eaten either. Is there anything in particular you want?"

"A ham sandwich with Swiss cheese and a glass of pumpkin juice will be fine," she replied.

In a few minutes, both she and the Professor were sitting in the armchairs facing the fire and eating sandwiches. Hermione stared into the fire as she ate. She still felt the urge in her belly, but was a bit ashamed at how she had almost thrown herself at Severus this afternoon. Now she was back to square one. She felt his dark eyes on her and turned to look at him.

"What?" she asked him.

He looked at her thoughtfully.

"I was just wondering how you were feeling. You wrote Eric with the intention of engaging in sex with him. He turned you down. I was wondering how you felt about being rejected," the Potions Master said silkily. It was time to turn up the flame.

"No one likes rejection, Professor," she replied, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. "Eric is a nice guy, but I'm not devastated. I figure anyone who could turn his back on me so easily, probably never felt anything for me anyway. So he's no loss."

"But what about your needs? Can you turn those off? Obviously you wanted male companionship," he purred at her.

Hermione felt her stomach start to bubble a bit.

"I did…but," she began.

"You did? Or you do?" the Professor asked her, his silk voice washing over the witch.

She didn't answer him.

"It wasn't Eric you wanted. It was me," the Professor said to her, "It is me."

Hermione made to stand up.

"Professor, I'm going to go…" she began, when Severus reached out, grasped her arm and guided her back down into the armchair.

"You are going nowhere, Hermione," he breathed, his eyes smoldering, "You are going to sit here until you admit to yourself and me, that you are attracted to me, and you want me. You burn for me. No one else can make you feel like I do. You've been claimed and you know it."

Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Claimed by you? For how long, Professor? I know I am a pleasant distraction for you. Someone to conveniently stick your dick in for the summer," she retorted.

He scowled at her.

"What's wrong with you being a distraction, Hermione? That's all I am to you as well. You have no plans for romance or a relationship in the near future. I'm not sure if you will ever have room in your life for such things. You are a driven witch, Hermione. The quest for knowledge is your only true lover. Most likely you will bind yourself to your work like a nun binds herself to God. Never marrying, never having children. I know the type, Hermione. I am one of them," he said.

Hermione didn't like hearing this. It was as if the Professor was channeling her own thoughts about the future. It was true. She wasn't the least bit interested in finding a wizard of her very own, marrying and becoming a mother. To do so would tie her down, make her responsible for the care of a select group of human beings when she was driven to take care of the world as a whole. Hermione believed that ultimately she would end up alone with her labs and her potions. It didn't sadden her…it was just how it was going to be.

The Professor shifted his body toward the witch.

"Hermione, you are a beautiful, passionate young woman as well as a great talent. Yet you haven't realized you can't control every aspect of your life, and those things you can't control, you can't hide from either. You are afraid I will distract you from your goals, your work. But denying how I make you feel and suffering for it is even more distracting, can't you see that?"

Hermione didn't look at him. She looked down at her hands instead.

"Your logic is flawed, Hermione. I cannot distract you from your destiny. No one can. You are focused. What I do is I affect another part of your life, the part you try to keep a lid on. Your sexuality. You've kept it impersonal up to this point. Fuck a wizard here, a wizard there to keep your body oiled and your libido maintained."

Hermione winced a little at his accurate description of her sexual life. He continued.

"Then I come along and flood you, not only giving you what you need, but making you crave it, making you crave me. I make you lose control of everything when I fuck you, and it frightens you. You don't walk away from me with a 'thanks for the ride' on your lips. I would never let you do that. I don't intend to let you do that now."

Severus leaned toward her, his voice dropping low.

"Hermione, I think about fucking you every night. Every single night, knowing that you want me inside of you as badly as I want to be inside of you. Knowing the only reason I'm not is because of your need to either control a situation or discard it. Sometimes it is good to give control to another, Hermione. It is too exhausting to try to handle every aspect of life by yourself. That is why you think about me when you are alone in the dark. Because I take control. I release you from your stringent world of black and white. I let you let go. I help you let go."

Hermione felt herself quiver as Severus' words rang true. No wizard had ever possessed her like the Potions Master. He did know how to release her. How to make her let go and forget everything in her life except him. Severus noticed her tremble and continued,

"I am someone judged by others to be cold, controlled and disciplined to a fault, but I've shown you I am none of those things when it comes to possessing you. We are all more than we appear on the surface. You have your own mask of not needing anything but the facts. But when faced with the fact that you desire me, that you need me, you try to deny that fact. You try to push me out of your mind, when your very body clutches at my memory. I am here, however. I am Truth staring you in the face. And I see my truth mirrored by the fire in your eyes when you look at me, Hermione."

Severus felt a bit of pounding in his chest as he realized what he was about to say to the witch. It was as close to a declaration of commitment to a woman that he had ever given.

"Yes, you are only apprenticed to me for the summer…but just because you leave when your time with me is done, does not mean I can't come to you, or you can't come to me when we need release. Even when we need intelligent conversation, or just the presence of another human being. Just because you leave, Hermione, doesn't mean my desire for you will suddenly end. I am not looking for love or romance either, but I would like to have you for as long as you desire me. I would like to be the man you come to when need overtakes you. Unlike Eric, I would never turn you away. You wouldn't need anyone else to give you what you crave."

Hermione turned to look at him. Severus could see her inner struggle and frowned at the witch slightly.

"I'm tired of these games, Hermione. You're not a child anymore. You have to stop playing "Let's pretend it never happened." It's happened. I've fucked you and you loved it. I'm honest enough to say I want to continue enjoying your body and your passion. There are other things I enjoy about you as well, on other levels. But I'm tired of you trembling to be touched, and not being able to touch you. I'm tired of looking into those eyes and seeing them hunger after me, and not being able to feed that hunger. I'm tired of lying in my bed at night with my cock throbbing, knowing you would receive me if only you would be honest with yourself."

His frown lessened, his pale features softening a bit.

"Most of all I am tired of the spare witch I pick up here or there to relieve myself, someone I know anyone can have, someone I can't have a decent conversation with. It makes me feel dirtied. You on the other hand, make me feel dirty in another way entirely, a way I enjoy very much. We are two of a kind, Hermione Granger. Two very strange, very unusual, unordinary people. Our world is much different than the world of those around us. We are not easily satisfied with the simple things of life. But we are satisfied with each other when we come together, and any satisfaction two people such as we can glean from this world should be considered a great and rare treasure."

Hermione still didn't speak. He wanted her to say something, anything. But she simply looked at him silently. Exasperated, the Potions Master sighed

"I leave this choice in your hands, Hermione. As much as I would like to seduce you into my bed and my arms, I would rather you realize that you need me, accept what's happened between us and come to me of your own free will. I will be in my room, in my bed. I leave it up to you whether or not to join me. If you join me, know that joining will be an extended affair, not dictated by your moods or your sudden outbreaks of irrational Gryffindor values or your imagined fears about the future. There is nothing to fear with me."

The Professor stood up and looked down at the wide-eyed witch. He had a set to his face that was almost chilling in its intensity.

"However, if you don't join me, then I promise you Hermione, you need never worry about me touching you ever again. I don't do rejection as well as you," Severus said rather coldly, turning and walking into his bedroom, closing the door behind him, leaving a rather stunned and confused witch in his wake.

Hermione looked after the dark wizard. Had he just given her an ultimatum?

Yes he had. And he meant every word of it.

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A/N: Of course I couldn't let this story just go without on of those hot, sweet Severus speeches/seductions that cements their relationship before the final lemons. Now, come on Hermione, give in to the dark side, gal! Please review.