A Different Kind of Magic--UNDERGOING EDIT

Special thank you to VIVAvivacious, my wonderful beta, who has once again begun cranking out the chapters for your reading enjoyment. Beta's make the world go round. Three cheers for beta's, hurrah!

Now, here are some lemons for making you wait two weeks for an update.


Chapter 26 – Frantic Submission

Hermione could feel the sun as it came up to warm the Earth. It was a barely imperceptible feeling, but as she pressed a hand against the frigid stone of the dungeon room, she felt the living vibration of the ancient castle hum in response to the dawn. She had always loved mornings at Hogwarts. Weekend lie-ins with her roommates, tumbling matches between the boys in the common room, curling up in the library with a good book before anyone else was up. It brought back many fine memories that resided in a special place in her heart.

Her thoughts lazily drifted about on the clouds of her memories until they unexpectedly landed on her encounter with Severus at the door to the loo the previous day. Hermione could have sworn he had heard the way her heart was hammering away, ready to burst through her chest. They had both stood gazing at one another until he had finally turned aside and swept out his arms in a ‘ladies first’ gesture, helping to settle her back on the bed. After inquiring after her health and studying her curiously with those deep, brooding black eyes of his, he had left her to entertain the facilities himself. It had been a close call, and she wondered if he suspected anything had been going on. He did not question her about the additional razor blade on the sink, so she did not volunteer any information.

For once, Severus was still asleep, and Dobby was no longer babysitting them as their health had improved well enough for them both to be re-located today. Hermione’s heart trilled in anticipation of seeing the family, smelling Mrs. Weasley’s delicious food, and raiding the new library they had built onto their once humble home.

Ava had told her Albus had left a sizeable fortune to the Weasley family. Their modest, rickety house had apparently been transformed into a small estate complete with guest rooms, a library, a formal dining room, foyer, and of course, a gourmet kitchen for Mrs. Weasley.

She couldn’t wait to see it. Her mouth watered at the thought of all those books. Albus had a sizeable collection, and combined with the Black family volumes transferred from Grimmauld Place, it was bound to be as big as the restricted section at Hogwarts, and that was saying a lot.

Hermione smoothed her hands over her newly-transfigured robes. She usually preferred Gryffindor colors but realized she really looked better in earth tones. A pale cream blouse blended nicely with her brown pants. New reinforced and waterproof boots, a decidedly Slytherin green travelling cloak, and a transfigured handbag completed her ensemble. She was very pleased despite never having been vain. Madam Pomfrey told her it would be several more days before the bandages could be removed from her head, but she didn’t mind. It felt good not to be dirty, hurting and in a nightgown anymore. She hadn’t felt like herself in a very long time.

Hermione went to stand by the dark form deep in slumber on the bed. She studied his face. It never failed to fascinate her how his features were so calm and rested while he slept, yet so expressive and repressed during his waking hours. She wanted to reach out and smooth away the frown lines on his face.

Before she knew it, her hand had found its way to the corner of his mouth, her fingertips tracing the deep line down to his strong jaw. Next, she quietly lowered herself to the bed, letting her other hand grace his cheek to draw lightly past his bold nose and over those gentle lips. He had kissed her so tenderly with those lips.

Severus had been nothing like Brian. Her lips curled in derision at the memory of that terrible day when he had forced himself on her. It didn’t detract from her attraction to the professor. Her demoralizing sense of self-loathing warred with her intense attraction to this profound enigma before her. It was his unconventional looks that drew her as well as his intellectual prowess. There was something sexy about the way he sneered. She knew the emotion behind it was entirely different than what others perceived. When he smirked, she wanted to kiss it off his lips, feel it melt into the part of her only he had ever touched.

No one would ever call him beautiful. He was a wounded animal, kicked and abused for so hard and so long it was indelibly etched as part of his person. No amount of love or scouring of the soul could erase the scars reflected in his mannerisms. She didn’t blame him for putting up walls to the outside world. He had known nothing but pain from an early age. It was a miracle he had let anyone in; she just hadn’t imagined it would turn out to be her. She didn’t deserve him; he was worth ten thousand of her. A snake whose venom could have killed ten men with the one bite hadn’t even taken down the strong man. Unworthy wasn’t even in the same league. He was so far superior in his strength and glorious recovery, it made her eyes sting to imagine how he could stand being in her company. The pedestal she had put him upon would never be high enough in her eyes.

Hermione gasped when he suddenly grabbed both of her wrists, his eyes snapping open in surprise. Realizing it was only her, Severus immediately released his grasp on her and let out a loud sigh.

“Hermione, you must never wake me in such a manner. If I had my wand you may very well have been blown across the room by now. You’re a lucky witch I didn’t.”

He rolled over and away from her, grumbling. “What were you doing, anyway?”

Hermione jumped over him with a mischievous look in her eye. She pressed her palm and stone into his. ‘I was admiring you.’

A devilish curve appeared on his lips. ‘Were you, now? And did you like what you saw?’

‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’

‘Do not tease, Hermione.’

‘Then yes, I very much like what I saw. Do you… like what you see when you look at me?’ If she could offer him her body, and it pleased him, she would give it to him in small penance for her failure of him at the Manor.

He studied her face curiously then, amazed she saw anything good in him at all. ‘You have no idea how beautiful you are, my sweet Hermione. You are a vision more lovely than an artist’s masterpiece.’

‘Who knew? Severus Snape, a closet romantic.’

‘If you ever tell anyone, I will vehemently deny it and call you a besotted stalker.’

‘Than I shall have to take your secret to my grave, my dark knight.’

A deep chuckle escaped his throat. ‘Really, Hermione, is that how you see me? Some mysterious figure, borne on the wing of a dark force, come to bear you to the netherworld?’

‘You are a mystery to me, but you don’t scare me, Severus. You never have. I merely appreciate in you what others never have seen.’

‘And what is that?’

‘A very remarkable man. You are at once dignified, dangerous, magnanimous, have a superior intellect and an intense nature. You appreciate beauty and knowledge, music and culture. There is no second skin when you speak. A man of few words to others needs no more when he speaks the truth. I don’t deserve you. You have my adoration and admiration, both as a friend, if I may be so bold, and as a…”

Her thought trailed off as she turned her face away from his, their hands intertwined around the brilliance of the stone. It reflected off her profile, casting a dancing silhouette on the wall behind her. The shadow weaved and bobbed with a life of its own like a ghostly, grotesque puppet about to pounce. There was a melancholy echo to her conjecture, something hidden he was unable to place, but he brushed it off as part of her healing process.

‘And as a what, Hermione? Come now, we have no secrets between us. You can tell me.’

She looked back up at him with a stark desire that burned into his very soul.

‘As a lover, Severus. My lover. My esoteric, profound, arcane, feared potions professor. My paramour. I adore you. I can scarcely believe your affections for me are real. You’re like a dream. I can see you, but when I reach out, I expect to feel only the coldness of a ghost. I don’t deserve you.’

The normally unflappable Severus Snape was dumbstruck. His brain told him she was delusional. His heart screamed it was the truth. His body didn’t care either way. It simply burned with desire for her in response. It vaguely registered the fact she had twice now mentioned she didn’t deserve him. For the second time, he brushed it off without a thought and allowed the burn of his lust flow through him without hindrance.

‘Kiss me, Hermione.’

She didn’t hesitate. Her lips were upon him in a heartbeat, opening her mouth to him as they pressed together with frantic desperation. They kissed like they were the last two shreds of humanity left on the planet. He was on top of her, clawing at the buttons on her blouse, shoving off her robe and fumbling to unsnap her brassiere. Hermione sat up to help him. The stone dropped to the floor and rolled under the bed.

Her hands were everywhere, lifting his nightshirt over his head, tangling in his greasy black hair and dragging over the scars down his back. It drove him mad. Everything about her drove him completely insane with lust. All ability to slow down was lost when her touch found his straining erection.

Hermione wasted no time releasing it from his boxers. She was panting heavily under his ministrations, as eager a participant in their frantic endeavor as he.

They released each other momentarily to shed the rest of their clothing, and then he was back on her, inside her, moving with reckless abandon. His wiry forearms were braced on either side of her as the familiar pain shot down his bum leg. He ignored the burn and drove himself into her harder, their coupling wanton and furious with need. Sweat slicked his brow, dripping off his nose and onto her breasts, which bounced from side to side under his brusque thrusting.

A roar burst from his chest as his orgasm erupted through his tightly strung body, aching muscles straining to force every last bit of him inside her.

She looked delirious, drunk on his passion. Her fingers pinched at her nipples and pulled them for his viewing pleasure until he collapsed on her in a quivering mess of long black hair, sweat, and semen. Hermione tried to rub herself, but he stilled her hand.

“Let me.”

He lowered himself to her delicious, soaked mound and sucked feverishly on her clit. Hermione arched into him, her breath hitching with arousal and need. Severus snaked his tongue over the tight bud, possessively lavishing it with tender abandon. Her hands smashed into the back of his head and suffocated him while she ground her cunt against his face, rubbing her clit over the hook of his nose. The warmth of her release bathed his facial skin with her pleasure. He greedily lapped at her essence mixed with his own and felt himself grow hard again.

She released his head and he flopped on the bed next to her, both recovering from their frantic lovemaking, each as shocked as the other as to the desperation of their ardor for one another.

Hermione playfully grabbed his newly erect cock, but he shook his head.

“I can’t. I’m not exactly recovered, and it’s too painful with the state my leg is still in.”

She looked guilty as she glanced down at his leg.

“Don’t feel bad. I wanted this as much as you did. You are worth the pain.”

That seemed to make her happy. After awhile they both took a hot shower together, Severus helping her wash while avoiding her bandages and her assisting him while keeping his leg dry.

Hermione wrinkled her nose when they walked back into the bedroom. It reeked of sex again. Neither had a wand to clean it up, but it couldn’t be helped.

Snape’s infamous smirk graced his features. “I can’t wait to see the look on Minerva’s face when she comes down here this afternoon. It’ll be worth the disdain, I’m sure. Doesn’t seem like she picked up on it yesterday. I think Potter cast something to get the funk out of the air.”

Hermione blushed and goosed his arm.

“I hate it when you do that!”

After fishing her charm out from under the bed and enduring the professor’s taunts of trapping her under there, they settled in for lunch and a quiet game of chess until their departure later that afternoon