Payback is a Witch

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
*******************************

Chapter 25 ~

Thursday night, Hermione and Bagheera were relaxing in the living room when there was a "Tap. Tappity-tap" on the window. Bagheera lifted his head.

"What is that?" he asked the witch.

"Most likely, Severus' familiar. A raven. A very snarky bird. I have to watch him every time he delivers a message," Hermione replied, sliding from under Bagheera who slumped back down on the sofa, his head resting where the witch was sitting.

Hermione looked out the window to meet the ever baleful gaze of Raucous. She still didn't know the raven's name. She opened the front door and the raven sailed in, flying to the living room and landing on the back of the sofa.

He watched Hermione approach, his head low. She was dressed in a woman's wife beater and pocketless sweat pants. No pockets meant no wand. The raven smiled to itself.

"What have you got for me?" she asked the bird.

Raucous clipped his beak at her nastily.

"Oh, we're back to this are we?" Hermione said, a nasty little smirk on her face, "Bagheera?"

Suddenly the raven found himself scooped off the back of the sofa and resting on top of something warm and furry. He looked up into a pair of narrow yellow eyes and huge glistening fangs. Bagheera snarled at him.

The bird turned completely white and fell over, his claws stiff and curled in the air.

"Oh my gods!" Hermione cried out loud, running around the sofa. "Bagheera, you've frightened him to death."

Bagheera snuffled the bird.

"He's fine. Just startled," the panther replied. "He should have better manners."

Hermione picked the stricken bird up gently. She reverted to thought-speak.

"Considering his master, I think this is actually the best he can be," Hermione said, carrying the raven over to the armchair and setting him down. She took the message off his leg, opened it and read it.

"It's just a letter about how many inquiries were made about the new spell I developed. It's going very well though there is some haggling going on about the cost of licensing it. But we have the upper hand there. Because of how useful the spell is, it will be pricey but whoever uses it has the potential to make a lot of galleons themselves…so it balances out," the witch said to the panther.

Raucous began to stir. Both the panther and witch watched as the bird rolled over. He was still white however. The raven opened its eyes and looked at the panther, then promptly fell back over.

"Shit. Severus will kill me if anything happens to that bird," Hermione said, picking Raucous up again.

She walked toward the foyer with him and opened the door so the night air washed over them. Raucous roused again. This time, he took off out of Hermione's arms, not looking back. He was still white.

Hermione watched him wing away, then closed the door and walked back to an amused Bagheera. He was lying on his back on the sofa.

"I think your Severus is going to have to find another deliverer," the cat said, stretching out his paw and flexing his claws.

"Probably. If I was that bird, I know I wouldn't want to come back here," she said, moving to the end of the sofa again.

Bagheera politely moved so she could sit down, then rested his head on her lap again. Hermione looked down at him, and caressed his head.

"You know Bagheera, you're going to have to sleep in the guest bedroom. Waking up with your nose in my face and your paw over me was…well…scary," Hermione said softly.

Bagheera stretched slightly, opening his eyes and looking up at his Mistress.

"But I like sleeping next to you. You are soft and warm," the big cat complained. "Your hair smells like flowers…"

"Be that as it may, Bagheera, you are too big," she said evenly.

"No bigger than that ugly wizard," Bagheera said sullenly.

Hermione stopped petting him.

"Bagheera, you are a cat," she said to him. "You have no business sleeping with a human female."

"Most cats sleep with their owners," the panther countered, "Anyway, how am I to protect you from the guestroom?"

Hermione smirked at the cat.

"The door will be open. If anyone comes in here I am sure you will hear them. That's no excuse Bagheera," she said gently.

"But you are my Mistress. I want to be near you," Bagheera purred persuasively, bumping his head against the witch affectionately and blinking his golden eyes at her.

Hermione looked at him and sighed.

"All right…you can sleep with me if you stay at the bottom of the bed. No more wrapping your paws around me and cuddling," she said firmly.

Bagheera sighed exaggeratedly.

"All right," he replied, looking forlorn.

"Stop it!" Hermione said, rubbing his head roughly.

Bagheera mouthed her hand playfully, holding her arm with his paws and biting her fingers lightly. Then he stopped.

"I think tomorrow night I must sleep in the guestroom," he said to her, his tail lashing. "Your ugly wizard with the big lingam comes."

Hermione frowned at Bagheera and pushed his head off her lap, standing up.

"He is only coming over to talk," she said, walking toward the kitchen. Bagheera lay on the sofa for a moment, then hopped down and followed Hermione.

"You don't want to just talk. I can feel your desire for him. He does good with you. Hard. Strong. Very dirty." Bagheera commented, sitting on his haunches as Hermione colored then went into the cooler and took out a pitcher of milk.

She poured herself a glass, then looked at Bagheera and got a bowl. She poured some milk into it and put it on the floor. The panther walked up to it and started lapping.

Hermione sat down and looked at her familiar.

"Bagheera…Severus and I have a history. He was…well…the first wizard I ever had sex with, and it wasn't…well…good. He was very selfish and thoughtless. Then…" she began as the panther finished his milk and looked up.

"Don't tell me, show me," he said to her. "Open up your mind and let me see for myself."

Hermione had never shared her relationship with Severus to anyone. But Bagheera was her familiar…and she felt it would be all right to let the panther see how it was between herself and Severus. Maybe he would stop implying there was more to them.

"All right," she said.

The panther looked at her intently for several minutes. He made small growling noises as he viewed what happened between her and Severus. Finally, he lay down on the kitchen floor and looked up at her.

"You have always desired him…even from the first time," the cat said, "but he wasn't ready for what you offered him. Pleasure was his only motivation. But he didn't take. You gave yourself to him, then blamed him afterward for being the man he was."

Then the cat cocked his head at her.

"You were a man?" he asked the witch.

"Only for a little while. I was in his body for a time," she replied.

"And did to him what he did to you. Kinky," the panther said, stretching his jaw a bit lasciviously.

Hermione colored.

"He was good to you that last time. He took you to the 'Wild Divine.' He knows you. Feels you. He is your man, Mistress. He came to save you…would have killed for you. He wants you desperately," the big cat continued. "It is a pity he is so ugly. Is that why you won't accept him completely?"

Hermione didn't think Severus was ugly. He had a distinctive look about him. His features fit him.

"Ah, you find him beautiful," the cat said, purring. "Then I do not understand your hesitance at all. He makes your yoni happy with his lingam."

"But our history…" Hermione began.

"All beautiful things start out with turmoil, Mistress. Look at the world. It began angry, fiery and chaotic. No room for life. But then it reached a state of balance and understanding. Now it is green, lovely and life giving. There are still inhospitable places, yes…but the world is a good place now. You too can find your good place with this very ugly wizard," Bagheera said.

The panther stood up and left the kitchen, leaving Hermione to her own thoughts.

"It is good I am here," the panther thought to himself as he hopped up on the sofa. "Without my advice, the Mistress' yoni would always be hungry for that ugly wizard."

**********************************

Friday evening, Severus stood in front of his mirror, brushing his hair and adjusting his robes fitfully. He felt nervous about his upcoming talk with Hermione. She would know everything he thought and felt about her. He would be baring his soul with no way to control what he told her. He had never been completely open with anyone in his life. Once you opened yourself, you could be wounded. Hermione had the power to wound him in a way no one else ever had. It was frightening.

He had been tempted several times throughout the day to owl her and call off the talk, but Severus Snape had never been a coward, no matter how frightening the situation. He'd been beaten and tortured for his secrets, and never revealed them. But now, a witch had broken him. How the mighty have fallen.

The wizard scowled. How he wished he hadn't indulged in Hermione's emotions. He should have tried to remain detached, unaffected. But he couldn't. He had occupied her body and learned it, felt her desires from the point of view of a witch. He knew what it was to surrender himself to another, and to want to be closer. He had felt her need, her deepest desires pouring over him, hungry and insistent and was able to fulfill them to both their pleasure. Severus had been given knowledge no wizard had ever experienced, and it changed him. Probably forever.

His sex life was a shambles now. He couldn't even bring himself to fuck another witch, feeling he would be disappointed before he even indulged. Not one of them would treat him with the passion and sweetness Hermione had exhibited that night. They had shared something other than their bodies…something that made sex transcend itself. Now that he tasted what it could be like…he didn't want anything else.

And the only one who could bring him that satisfaction, that connection…was Hermione Granger. He had to make her accept him. What would he do if she didn't? It was an uncomfortable feeling, knowing his happiness hinged on the whim of a witch…a very aggravating, independent, brilliant witch. He would have never seduced Hermione on New Year's Eve if he had any inkling it would come to this.

He supposed if she did turn him down, that he could still fuck other witches…but there would always be something lacking. Something he would miss. Something that would leave him dissatisfied. Depth.

Severus looked at the clock. It was a quarter to seven. He picked up the small glowing globe resting on his bed, put it in his pocket, took a deep breath…then disapparated.

The moment of truth had arrived.

*************************************

Hermione paced the living room nervously. Bagheera lounged on the sofa, watching her, his head swinging back and forth as she moved through the room. A small bottle of clear liquid rested on the coffee table.

"You are going to wear a groove in the floor, witch," Bagheera commented, "And my neck is starting to hurt from watching you. Sit down."

Hermione stopped and looked at the familiar.

"I can't," she said, looking at the clock. It was five to seven. She began pacing again.

"I don't see why you are so nervous. You have been with him before," the cat said.

"Yes. But not like this, Bagheera. He is going to tell me the truth about how he feels about me. I'm scared to death," she replied.

"You should be happy. Not many witches get a chance to know what is in a wizard's heart," the panther replied.

Hermione was about to answer Bagheera when a strong knock sounded on the front door.

"He's here," Hermione hissed out loud, freezing in place…unable to move.

Bagheera looked at the witch as the knock sounded again.

"Answer the door," he said to her. But Hermione was petrified.

The familiar sighed, leapt off the sofa, walked up behind Hermione and nipped her on the ass.

"Ow!" she cried, spinning and scowling at the familiar, whose lips rose in a toothy grin. "What did you do that for?"

"To wake you up. Now go let the ugly wizard in," Bagheera said, licking his lips.

The knocking was more insistent now.

"Fine. I will," Hermione said, taking a deep breath and marching toward the door as if on her way to war.

Bagheera hopped back up on the sofa and stretched out his full length.

"I had forgotten how complicated life can be as a human," the cat mused to himself, "I guess I should be thankful the gods left me a cat and not a man."

Bagheera adjusted himself to appear as regal as he could. He wanted the ugly wizard's first impression of him to be a good one.

*************************************
A/N: Well, got another chappie out. Bagheera seems to be the voice of reason here, though he really thinks Severus is ugly. lol. Poor Severus…so much is riding on this talk and he feels absolutely helpless concerning the outcome. It has to be hard for him. It seems the importance of this talk has finally sunk into Hermione, probably because of Bagheera's observations. Well, anyway…please review.