A Terrible Temptation

A/N – The poetry is all from Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, I cannot claim any of it. Deeble recognized it, Deeble is clever! If there were errors in grammar last chapter I apoligize, I do have a beta who cathces most of them and I wasn\'t hurrying any more than ususal. I will go back and check on that. Thanks to Kate for moral support as well as Grammar support.

Chapter 24 – Coming Together

Hermione had searched the library for a week trying to find a book of poetry thontaontained that passage but to no avail. She was frustrated and irritated. How was she to figure out the identity of her secret admirer without even the slightest hint?

When the next letter came she barely had it off of the owl’s leg before she had ripped it open.


The more of my poor heart you take
The larger grows my heart!
And, since some target I must show
For Cupid\'s cruel dart,
Oh, if mine own you deign to keep,
Then give me your sweet heart!
My heart to yours sounds but one cry:
If kisses fast could flee
By letter, then with your sweet lips
My letters read should be!
If kisses could be writ with ink,
If kisses fast could flee!


Hermione’s heart fluttered madly as she read the impassioned words. Reading the poetry made her flush with pleasure. There was longing in the letter and an erotic undertone that left her throbbing with desire.

Hermione lay back on the bed dreamy-eyed and fantasy filled. Who was he, this mystery boy? He must be clever and well-read to find something to send her that she had never seen. He had to be romantic; the poems were lush and filled with gorgeous imagery. He had to be shy or he would have approached her himself.

Her hands were moving over her body imagining her dream lover. Fingers caressing her soft folds, hands stroking her breasts. She closed her eyes and pretended it was a soft-eyed boy with gentle hands touching and caressing her. Just as she came, as lights sparkled behind her eyes, she saw Snape’s face as it had looked in the hallway, so hurt and angry.

She fell asleep quickly after and dreamed.

It was the garden again. She looked around in bewilderment. It had changed since last she had visited. The fountain had been cleared and sluggish water trickled in it. The trees seemed stronger somehow, the grass less brittle. She bent to examine a rose bush and discovered the tiniest of buds beginning to appear.
The boy came around a corner and spotting her grinned. He gave her a mischievous smile and then ran off again.

“Hey!” She called and chased after him. His boyish giggles floated behind him in the still air and she followed as fast as she could. A wall reared up as she turned a corner and in the wall a gate with rusty hinges blocked her way. She pushed at the door to no avail. Beyond it she heard something sad and mournful: sobbing and wailing. She needed to get through the door.

don don’t want to go in there.” She spun and the boy was standing there in his green wizard’s robes and black boots. He was not a handsome child, his nose was crooked and overlarge and his black hair was in a tangled mess. However, his black eyes were filled with merriment and his winsome smile would melt far harder hearts than hers.

“Why not?” She asked him.

“That’s where the bad things are kept. You should stay in the garden, we could play.” He looked up at her with a wistful expression.” She moved closer to him.

“Who are you?” She tilted her head and watched him as he dragged a toe in the dirt.

“I’m the last bit of joy left.” The boy responded and then took off running again, his laughter lingering in the air.

For some reason, his words made her shiver in fear. He was so small and young, so vulnerable, what if something happened to him? Hermione wasn’t sure how but she knew she had to protect this child. The need to do so was an overpowering urge.

“It’s so hard to hope.” Professor Snape was standing beside her suddenly. “It opens you to so much pain.” His voice was so mournful that her heart contracted in agony at the sound of it. She turned and slipped her hand into his.

“Hope is all that makes life bearable.” She wished she could reach him somehow. He looked down at her and gently ran a thumb along her jaw line. She trembled at his touch, awareness centering on his hand and the sudden rush of heat between her legs.

He bent down, his lips brushed over hers, and her legs went weak with the softness, the tenderness of the gesture. She looked into fathomless black eyes so dark she couldn’t see where pupil ended and iris began. He leaned in to kiss her again and she awoke, heart pounding, to find herself hot and aroused.

“Oh my God.” She whispered into the darkened room. Snape? She had been dreaming about kissing Snape?. Why on Earth did her subconscious have to choose her most hated teacher, the man who thought Gryffindor was another word for idiot? Wow, how completely hopeless.

Sev Severus found the note on his desk and frowned. There was a new cat in the castle? How very interesting. Someone must have brought in a stray. Usually at the beginning of the year, whatever cats had been brought in by the incoming first years were introduced and territory was decided then. This was November and all the new cats had been sorted out.

Crookshanks pushed through into the room, looking half-starved and pathetic. It was amazing really how a huge overweight tom could manage to look so very thin whenever he was looking for a handout.
Severus went to his cupboard and withdrew a packet of catnip that he set down before Crookshanks. The large orange tabby began to purr loudly and rubbed against his ankles. Severus had charmed his clothes to repel cat fur so he was unconcerned about the tomcat’s actions.

He shifted form and stretched languorously. In his animagus form, Crookshanks seemed huge and Severus padded alongside him companionably as they headed off to convocation together.

“So, Huntmaster, who is the new person?” Severus asked, addressing the other cat by ranking title.

“Well, it is She-who-provides-food; she has found her true form.” Crookshanks returned withreatreat deal of smugness. Severus was startled. Hermione was the new cat? She must have completed her animagus training in record time. That shouldn’t surprise him though; she wasve ave average in everything she did.

“Then you are sponsoring her?” Severus asked the other cat with a twitch of his whiskers.

“Yes, I am proud of her. She is very smart, for a human.” The true cats thought that the half-bits were amusing and sweet though not quite as clever or wonderful as they were. Severus didn’t mind being low on the pecking order in feline shape as long as he ruled on two legs.

“That she is, Huntmaster.” Severus agreed.

“Stalker, you must be nice to her, she is very nervous.” Crookshanks warned.

“Of course, I would never harm a kitten.” Severus gave a tail twitch, the feline equivalent of a shrug and they continued on.