A Living Secret ~ COMPLETED

Epilogue 2

Hermione stared at the lean, pale wizard, his eyes unfathomable as they met hers, the dark curtain of his hair framing his face, that prominent nose slightly flared as he held his hand out. Severus’ belly was taut, his words and inflated cock the only visible sign of his desire

Hermione felt as if she were caught up in some sensate dream as she walked toward him, the lace-wing flies in her belly growing to the size of dragons as she took the Potions Master’s hand and looked up at him.

Did Severus feel anything for her other than she was convenient and available? Did she dare ask him, knowing how painful his answer could be? The wizard had already said she was a diversion which meant she took his mind off of the desperation of his life. Now that his life was restored most likely he no longer needed a diversion and he was just…just getting a last shag from a silly, smitten witch who he had nothing in common with other than parts that fit together.

And what was worse…if this were true, she knew it and still was willing to fuck him, because of her own attraction and desperation to feel a part of him. It was stupid. It was worse than stupid but Hermione couldn’t help what she felt and didn’t have the strength to walk away with some dignity. He had given her the fantasy she dreamed of and instead of freeing her…she was addicted. What would she do after this was all over? Could she ever find anyone that made her feel the way the snarky Potions Master did?

Severus noticed the sadness in the witch’s eyes before they fell away from him, Hermione’s body language changing dramatically.

“What’s wrong, Hermione?” he asked her.

She didn’t reply.

”I asked you what is wrong, witch…now tell me,” he demanded, gripping her chin and forcing her to look at him.

“You must think I’m so stupid,” she said in a near whisper, “Just a foolish, love struck little witch. You’ve all but said this is going to be our last time together and instead of walking away myself, I’m going to do this knowing that when we’re done, you are going to walk away as if nothing ever happened between us.”

Severus looked down at her, but said nothing.

“I’m going to remember you for the rest of my life, Severus. You are the first wizard to ever…ever…” she began.

“Fuck you?” he said softly, his black eyes seeming to see right through her.

She nodded, shuddering slightly, her eyes falling to his chest. She couldn’t bear to look at him as she continued.

”You are the only one I ever wanted to be under, to feel inside me. I know there will probably be others…but none of them will be you. I will never meet another wizard like you. And that makes me incredibly sad,” she said.

Severus began to lead her toward the bed.

“Yes, there is only one of me, thank the gods,” he replied as he helped her into the bed, Hermione sliding over and lying on her back, looking up at him, “but, there is only one of you as well, Hermione.”

His eyes swept over her curves for a moment, then he climbed into the bed and lay on his side facing the witch.

”Only one young, brilliant witch willing not only to bed me, but risk her life for me. Do you think that doesn’t affect me, Hermione? Tonight you fought side by side with me. Tonight you willingly gave yourself over to the Dark Lord to help me, knowing you could have been killed. Yes, you were helping Harry as well but I know that you wanted my service to the Dark Lord to end, wanted my name cleared. You wanted me to be free,” he said softly, curling one finger in her hair.

Hermione’s eyes glistened. Yes, she did want those things for him. Severus drew in a deep breath.

”I know you think you want to continue with me, Hermione, but for me to do so would be unfair to you. You are young and ultimately need to be with someone your own age, someone you can relate to and grow with. I am too old a wizard for you to be in a relationship with. Too old and too set in my ways. I am used to being alone. Besides, you want the man of your fantasies…a man that doesn’t exist unless I purposely create him. But the reality of who I am is far different than the man you desire,” he said.

Hermione blinked up at him.

“My father was twice my mother’s age when they married,” she said softly, “And I’ve seen your reality…the way you took me after the fantasy. It was…was…beautiful. You were gentle, gentler than I ever would have imagined a man like you capable of. You’re not the kind of man that purposely hurts a woman…I know that now.”

Hermione lowered her eyes at her next admittance.

”You were right about me. I wanted you to hurt me, to punish me. Part of me thought you would like that…that you…that you might…might find me desirable for just that reason if nothing else. I thought that if I showed you that you could…could do what you wanted…you would…you would finally…like me,” Hermione said, her eyes flicking up to look at him again, “that you would finally see something about me that you approved of.”

“Are you telling me, Hermione, that all of this was about getting my ‘approval?’” Severus asked her, a strange note in his voice.

”Not all of it. Only part of it,” she replied.

Hermione felt this would be the last time she would be able to Severus this way. Once his role was found out by the public, he would be famous rather than infamous, the center of attention. More than likely there would be other witches, older and more experienced that would be flocking to him. Suddenly, Hermione didn’t want to talk anymore. It wouldn’t do to try and tell him how she really felt. He would never accept that she loved him, had loved him since her sixth year.

“I don’t want to talk anymore, Severus,” she said, a single tear running down her cheek, “I just want…want you…now.”

“Me…or the fantasy?” he asked her, shifting closer.

Hermione felt the weight of his cock resting against her thigh.

”I want you…and maybe a little fantasy,” she said softly.

”Tell me what your fantasy is then,” he asked her the witch beginning to shudder at his proximity.

Hermione inhaled as if preparing for some powerful exertion. And it did take all her strength to open up to the wizard. All he could do was tell her he couldn’t give her what she wanted.

“I want to believe that you feel something for me…that when you touch me, it’s because you want to touch me as much as I want you to. I want to believe this is more than an opportunity for you to shag a young infatuated witch, Severus. I want to believe you find me special, more special than anyone else in the world, and that’s why you’re with me now. I want to be able to pretend, just this one last time, that you love me… and will continue to love me forever,” she said, then…”I know it’s silly…”

Severus placed one long finger against her lips, shushing her.

”It’s not silly to want to be loved by someone,” he said softly.

The truth was, in his early years before he was so hardened by his life and his duties, Severus had the same desire as Hermione. But he was too strange, too ugly, too ostracized by the fairer sex to believe it could ever happen. So he gave up, accepting one-night stands with inebriated witches and prostitutes as a poor substitute for love. It gave him contact at least. But when it was over, they never saw anything more than the momentary pleasure, a pleasure they could get from any randy wizard…then they were gone.

Now Hermione was in his place…but it had to be more painful for her knowing that this wouldn’t last, that he would leave. But what she wanted…she didn’t know that was what she really wanted. She couldn’t. She had nothing to compare this to. The young were fickle creatures, subject to changing their minds at the drop of a galleon. And Hermione was just eighteen. He was twice her age. He hadn’t known about her parents’ age difference however. Hermione most likely truly did believe age didn’t matter when it came to love.

“You want to feel…loved?” Severus asked her.

”Yes,” she replied.

“I don’t know if I can make you feel that, witch. I have never been loved…I don’t know what it feels like…I have no point of reference,” he said honestly.

”It feels…it feels like this,” she said, drawing him down and latching her mouth to his, kissing the wizard with all the feeling she could bring to the fore, praying he could feel what was inside of her.

Severus gave himself over to her kiss, not resisting, not taking charge. Just feeling Hermione’s heat, her sweetness…her honesty. She wasn’t some randy witch looking for a simple release with any available wizard. She was a young woman trying to connect with the one wizard she wanted, trying to connect with him simply because he was who he was and there was no “substitute” as far as she was concerned. He felt her fire wash over him and began to return the kiss hungrily, as if he were starving.

Severus rolled to his back, pulling Hermione on top of him and wrapping his arms around her body, feeling her softness, her need, her desire for him and responded to it. The witch moved from his mouth and planted kisses all over his face, even down the long bridge of his nose. No one had ever focused on his face. Severus stopped her and Hermione looked down on him, his hair spread over the black pillow case.

”How can you kiss this face?” he asked, “This face has stopped witches in their tracks.”

”It’s a wonderful face, Severus. Your eyes are so beautiful and dark, your nose…distinguished, and your mouth…gods it’s so sensual,” she breathed, falling back to it, kissing him hungrily if artlessly. Severus found it very pleasurable…more than pleasurable. Affecting.

“Those witches should have kept moving forward,” Hermione murmured against his lips.

Severus chuckled.

“Flattery will get you everywhere, witch,” he growled, rolling over on top of Hermione and looking down at her. She looked so…happy. Genuinely happy. And it was because she was with him.

“I do think you special, Hermione Granger. Who but you could figure out how to identify a Horcrux? Who but you would desire to learn the truth so greatly that you would risk your life and meet up with a murderer?”

”You weren’t a murderer. You were a Horcrux,” Hermione said to him, “And you were following the Headmaster’s orders.”

”Yes, but you didn’t know that,” Severus said to her softly, “I could have simply lured you to me then killed you. You knew that.”

”I didn’t think about that aspect of it too much. I might have become too afraid. I preferred to believe you had something important to say to me, something that would make sense of everything. It was worth a bit of danger to know the truth,” Hermione replied, shifting under his delicious weight.

Severus lowered his head and kissed her, lingering a moment before breaking the kiss.

”You didn’t know the truth, yet you tried to save me from Marcus,” he said.

”Yes, but Dumbledore’s stone had glowed. I knew you were a Horcrux and had to be protected,” she replied, “I knew you hadn’t really killed him…that there was some type of plan in action. Marcus would have ruined it if he had captured you. I couldn’t let that happen if I could help it. I would have hexed him if I had to,” she replied.

“Such a courageous little witch,” Severus purred, “Such a Gryffindor. Such a…”

He kissed her again, savoring her lips and the taste of her mouth as he scoured it, relishing her willing acceptance of his invasion. He spent several minutes enjoying the witch this way, bringing Hermione closer to her fantasy with every passing moment. The way he was kissing her, how could he not feel something? If it were only sex, wouldn’t he already be stroking inside her body?

In the back of his mind, Severus was questioning the same thing. Why was he taking so much time? Initially he thought to bring her to the ROR, strip the witch down and take his final pleasure of her. But now, after the bathing and listening to the witch share her thoughts and feelings…something in him had been moved, shifted and brought to the fore.

No one had ever wanted him the way Hermione did. True, she was young and inexperienced with the way things worked between wizards and witches. She was not yet aware of the games, the cynicism, the separation of emotions from desire. Everything she felt was innocent and…real. She was not yet hardened. Severus knew this was a gift and as such, something to treasure while he had it.

Slowly Severus slid his mouth over the witch’s chin, then down her throat, his pale hands caressing her body as he kissed and suckled her skin, the witch sighing and arching as he moved over her shoulders and breasts passionately, tasting her flesh, feeling its warmth and softness under his lips. Hermione was sweet, delectable, damn near edible her hands entwining in his hair, her fingers scratching his scalp in reaction as she gasped.

”Oh gods…Severus, you feel so good…don’t stop, don’t ever stop,” Hermione moaned as he licked between her breasts, shifting lower, his mouth moving over her belly now, “I want to remember you like this forever. Forever”

He could smell her arousal, musky, cloying, heat rising from her apex as he moved lower and shifted her thighs to his shoulders and wrapped his arms around them, holding her firmly before breaching her core with his tongue, a groan erupting from the wizard at the taste of her, Hermione squealing and clamping her thighs tightly around his head as he slipped his hot, supple muscle between her labia over and over, tormenting her clit and making her buckle before moving to her inner thighs and collecting the honey that glistened there.

Hermione cried out, lost to sensation as the wizard returned to her core, lapping, tasting, reveling in her responses as he drank her in, Hermione’s thighs trembling, then her body following as he brought her closer to release. Finally, she blew, arching upward strongly as her climax hit her and flowed, the Potions Master drinking it down, his eyes closed in pleasure, sucking strongly, Hermione’s voice a song that overtook him.

Severus stayed with her until she calmed, pressing gentle kisses on her core before drawing himself up and resting on her body, ready for the next stage, his cock swollen and aching for submersion inside her hot, writhing body. He looked down at her, her hair in ringlets against her temple, her amber eyes languid and lusting at the same time. She was beautiful, though her features hadn’t changed. She was beautiful because her longing for him was real.

“Now witch,” he breathed, adjusting himself so his shaft rested against her labia. He ground against her with some force. Hermione’s breath hitched and even a blind man could see her readiness.

“Now I lose myself in your fire,” he breathed, sliding his hips back, reaching between their bodies and resting the thick head of his cock against her entrance.
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A/N: And the epilogue continues. I felt things needed to be said between the couple. It is clear feelings are there for both of them…but will they be recognized? Thanks for reading. ***