Mi Morena (loose translation: My Brunette)

And so my love
The way you’re moving in your dress
To a nylon guitar
On wings of silk and lace
You lift upon the notes and slip away

Severus had no illusions regarding himself. He was not attractive by any stretch of the imagination; not in appearance and certainly not in personality. Yet Miss Granger wanted him to find out who his apparition was.

“Why?” He repeated yet again, this time to his glass of whiskey. When she had left he hadn’t been conscious of asking, it had simply slipped out. Why should he try and find her? It wasn’t as if he had any chance with her, whoever she was. He could see the scene in his head just as if it were another of his dreams.

He would walk out into the rain where his faceless beauty was dancing. He would slowly approach her, hoping not to startle her. In real life he would gently touch her shoulder and the most perfect woman he’d ever laid eyes on would turn to face him. If he even got as far as talking to her, as far as asking her to dinner, at that point she would do either of two things; politely decline, making some excuse as to why she couldn’t, or worse she could straight out laugh at his foolishness for even presuming she might be interested.

He couldn’t imagine being able to bear either rejection. He had too much pride, his instincts for self-preservation were too strong. Why would Hermione even suggest that he try?

His brow furrowed slightly as he corrected his own thought. “Miss Granger…” He didn’t waste time on thinking about the why, but even in his thoughts it felt inappropriate to call a student by their first name, even one he’d been working so comfortably with for months, so why had he so easily thought Hermione’s? It wasn’t worth thinking about now and he quickly dismissed it, rising from his chair to pace.

After a few minutes of staring at the floor through his still full glass he shook his head and placed it back on the bar. As he did so a clap of thunder sent a tiny tremor through his private chambers startling him out of his musings. For the first time he took notice of the storm that he assumed must have been progressing for some time.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Severus swiftly strode out of his rooms and up to the hallway where he had first seen the woman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He wasn’t going to come.

Hermione had been standing outside for half and hour, there was still no sign of her Potions Professor and she was beginning to shake with a combination of her cold surroundings and her indefinable feelings towards Snape and his presence… or lack thereof.

It had been a strange thirty minutes. Where usually she came out to find some semblance of peace with her emotions, tonight she only felt anxious.

Although, she mused silently and gratefully, at least I’m still feeling something. Instead of the hollowness of the few months after the war.

On this night, up until this point, she had only been half heartedly paying attention to the storm and its rhythm as she stared up at the sleeping castle, waiting for a sign that her professor was there. As she now resigned herself to the idea that he wasn’t coming, he wasn’t taking her impromptu advice, she gave up and gave herself fully to her dance.

She lifted her arms and tilted her face into the falling water. She let the storm overpower her thoughts and swayed while all nervousness and anticipation about Severus coming to her washed away.

With her eyes closed and her back tuned, she missed a soft light approach one of the windows toward the center of the castle, and then quickly extinguish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Severus stood at the window studying her, wondering how long the storm had been going on; how much he’d missed.

As he watched, he saw his beauty slow, and eventually stop dancing. She turned and faced the castle. He again cursed the darkness that hid her face from him as he wondered at her movements; her chin rising, her head moving from side to side… perhaps searching, but for what he couldn’t say. He then took a step closer to the window when he saw her face turn down and her shoulders just barely begin to shake. He couldn’t tell if she were laughing or crying but when her hands rose to her face and she very slowly sank to the soaked ground he couldn’t stand there any longer.

Without knowing what he would do when he got there, he turned away from the window and made his way as quickly as possible toward the entrance of the castle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione didn’t even know why she was crying. Tonight was no different from any other night.

Yeah… except for Snape. her annoying inner voice reminded her.

“Oh shut up!” she whispered angrily into the wind, but she still continued to think.

It was just a silly, fleeting infatuation with a man that voiced an attraction to you first. It wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t fairly safe, with little fear of rejection.

But it wasn’t really you he said he was attracted to. It was some stunningly beautiful dream woman he thought he didn’t know.

Damn that voice! Hermione wasn’t even actually sure what she would have done if Snape had shown up tonight. It isn’t like he’d still want her after finding out who she was.

Just as quickly as the tears had begun, they stopped.

“If he even believed it had been me in the first place,” she realized.

She hadn’t thought of the possibility until that moment, but what if she revealed herself to him and he thought that she was just laughing at him after he’d told her about his mystery woman. Through his eyes she could see how the deception would seem perfect. He’d told her what the woman had looked like, as much as he’d seen anyway, told her what the woman had done and how he’d felt when he saw her. She had then been silly and impetuous enough to tell him to find out who the woman was. To him it would be an ingenious set up. He was a brilliant man but he’d been guarded so much in his life and played so many mind games that he had no reason to be that trusting.

She still didn’t really understand her feelings but she knew she wanted a chance to explore them, hopefully with Severus, and if he found her here tonight that chance would be stolen from her.

She lifted her eyes and stood, then swiftly spun around when she saw a swish of black cape. Her eyes were adjusted to the night and although it was still too dark to be sure it was him, she could sense that it was.

She needed to think quickly to get out of this one.

She began to sway again, resuming the dance she had started so many months ago. Using her hands and the wind she lifted and moved her dripping hair so that it was partially covering her face. Hopefully enough so that if he saw her he still wouldn’t recognize her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As he swept from the castle, Severus spotted her almost immediately. She had just stood and turned her back to him.

He stood frozen, unsure if she had seen him. She then proceeded to dance and he couldn’t think as clearly as he had only moments before. His eyes were drawn to her feet, barely moving on the ground. Up her legs, plastered against the transparent gown she wore. When he got to her hips, swaying and twisting, his legs started to carry him closer, seemingly without his knowledge. As he finished his perusal up her body he saw his own hands reach for hers in the air.

He briefly registered that she didn’t flinch at his touch but was still too spellbound to think.

His fingers laced with hers and their bodies kept moving, his chest pressed against her back. She brought their right hands down, wrapping his arm around her waist and splaying their fingers over her lower abdomen. As he used that hand to pull her body closer to him he lowered his head to her hair. She smelled like the rain that was beating down on them and under that he could still detect traces of her own scent.

Lavender

He filed that the memory away for later, for his night and day dreams.

He loosed his fingers from her left hand and moved them to her right shoulder, tilting her head to the side as he lifted her hair and moved it off her neck. With the creamy slope bared to him he lowered his mouth to her soft, wet skin while her free hand made its way up to bury in his hair. Placing gentle, slightly open mouthed kisses to her neck where he tasted the salt of the rain and the sweetness of her skin. He also felt her heartbeat erratically pounding against his lips. She was either very nervous or very aroused, maybe both.

He had had enough; he needed to know who this woman was. Herm…Miss Granger said I should. The woman hasn’t run away yet… perhaps there’s a chance.

Placing his left hand at her shoulder and pulling their interlaced hands he spun her around to face him and promptly found his world even darker than it had been previously.

Confused, he reached for the hand that was covering his eyes but stopped with his fingers wrapped around her wrist when he felt a rush of warm breath at his ear and the whispered “Wait…” issue from her mouth. “Please don’t open your eyes.”

The voice sounded familiar but it was just a whisper through the wind of the storm and he couldn’t place it, instead he removed his hand from her wrist and placed it at the hip that was pressed close against his. At the moment he felt he would do anything just to be able to continue to stand next to this woman but still he wanted to see this creature that had occupied his thoughts for the last two weeks.

“Why can’t I see you?” He spoke in her ear as closely as she had to his.

“Because if you knew who I was you might go away and I don’t want that to happen tonight. I promise to let you know who I am, just not tonight…please…”

As if he would have refused her request even without an explanation; as curious as the explanation was. He decided to analyze her response later and for now simply nodded his head and kept his eyes firmly shut as she removed her hand.

They stood still for a few long moments, his only proof that she was still there was their still entwined fingers resting on his chest between them and her warm breath on his chin and lips. His guess was that she was making sure that he was in fact going to keep his eyes closed. A second later it no longer mattered as her free hand was placed at the side of his neck, pulling him down as her body slid up against him and she pressed her rain soaked lips to his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was slightly awkward at first, her being a bit shorter and him not expecting it, but while she continued to press her lips more firmly to his she was surprised to find they were strong and warm. It wasn’t much of a kiss but it felt wonderful to her, sending tiny sparks straight into the pit of her stomach, and she was happy to conclude that it hardly compared with those bestowed upon her by Victor, Ron, and the few others over the last few years.

Not truly willing to let it end but realizing he was barely responding, she drew it out by placing small open mouthed kisses on his lips and down his chin and throat as she lowered herself flat on her feet. When she opened her eyes she saw that he had barely moved except for the hand that was clinging to her waist, his long fingers gently kneading as if perhaps trying to bring her closer while never actually doing so.

When he still continued to stand there, unmoving, Hermione lowered her eyes from his face to their clasped hands on his chest and muttered a soft, “I think I’d better go.”

Before she had taken even half of a step back she found herself firmly pressed against her Potions Master’s body with the hand that had once been at her waist now securely tangled in her hair, lifting her face to his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No!” Severus gasped, dragging her body to his and using her own gasp of surprise to first find her lips and second to plunder her mouth with his.

Her mouth was still open and he wasted no time slipping his tongue past her lips and exploring the tastes and textures of this mysterious creature before him. When his tongue found hers he felt the urgency, which her close departure had brought on, leave him and a much more potent passion take over. He became even more aware of it when he heard a soft growl escape his throat while tilting his head further and deepening the kiss by sucking her tongue into his mouth and bringing their clasped hands behind her to rest on her lower back; this last action pressing her chest more fully against his.

He was almost sure that, even through all the layers of clothes, he could actually feel her hardened nipples, although he knew that was an impossibility. Severus was equally as sure all the sensations running through his body were overloading his mind but for the moment he could think of no better way to go as through the explosion this woman was bound to cause in him.

Their tongues continued to tangle and he could remember no better kiss he had ever experienced, although he expected that was natural as there had been few willing women he had kissed and dark revels were not the place of romance. He then felt her hand rise to his shoulder and travel up to tangle in his hair and it drew a soft moan from each of them as it caused his arm to tighten around her slender waist.

Severus could no longer resist the urge to explore more of her and get as close as possible. Tentatively he moved his hand from her hair to her cheek and felt the soft skin that was both cold from the rain and yet warm in her passion. Even as her lips continued to stay locked with his she managed to lean into his hand and he loved her a little then. Although he could have rested there he continued his exploration, slowly tracing her jaw line down to throat, letting his fingers follow his palm, examining what details he could make out from simply feeling.

He let his long fingers dance over the silk of her neckline briefly, gaging her reaction before allowing his hand to move to her breast. When her response was to arch into his hand he felt himself grow even harder beneath his pants that were swiftly becoming an unbearable nuisance.

Perfect, he thought. Her breast felt as though it were made to fit within his hand and he took advantage of that fact by cupping it, raising it slightly and running his thumb over the nipple that, although already hard, puckered more fully under his attention. He wanted to bend his head and let his tongue experience the pleasure his thumb was now enjoying but he couldn’t tear his lips away when he felt this woman’s moan vibrate into his mouth as she ran her tongue flat against his.

While he probably could content himself to play with her breast the rest of the night he quickly realized that his hand that was fondling her full orb was also putting more space between their bodies and he wanted nothing more than to be closer. After one last twist of his practiced fingers he let his hand drift further south, down her side and to her waist, bringing them slightly closer but still not close enough. Without further consideration his right hand moved to her hip and around to her lower back as he disentangled the fingers of his left from hers and directed it to join her other in his hair.

With both hands now free he bent his knees just slightly and moved his hands to cup her rear. It was just round enough to allow him a good grip and he used it, straightening back up and bringing her with him, pressing together as firmly as possible with their rain soaked clothes on and at the same time bringing his throbbing erection to rest closer to where he wanted it, just at the apex of her thighs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione registered the soft, almost purr like growl as her own and realized that it was brought on by the knowledge that the hardness between her legs was actually coming from Severus’ enjoyment of her.

And then reality hit her like the cold water that was slowly moving off away from them. Her mind began to grasp the idea that while she had an idea of what she was getting into, although the thoughts, and almost reality, of sleeping with a Professor was a bit new to her, she also realized that this very aroused man still kissing her had no idea who she was and she certainly wasn’t about to tell him right now. She needed to get away because there was no way to think when his hands and mouth were so wonderfully distracting.

So as not to alarm him, still wanting his eyes to remain closed as well as not wanting him to think that she wasn’t enjoying his attentions, she began to draw out her kisses more, becoming more and more chaste with each movement of her lips. She also began to use her hands to push against his shoulders, effectively lowering her to the ground with one last sweet press of closed lips together.

With her hands still resting on his shoulders she yet again raised herself up, brushing her lips against his ear as she whispered, “Thank you.” And not wanting to answer any questions she took off at a slow run toward the castle, hoping that all he might catch of her was her retreating back which he’d already seen.

A/N: Many of you are showing concern over our very able minded Potions Master not realizing the rain woman is a student. Never fear, he becomes startlingly aware in the next chapter. I'm just trying to find a beta to fix up some grammar before I post it. Thanks for reading and reviewing! :-)