Hilltop Cottage

A/N: I really couldn\'t leave you hanging... thanks for reading xxx

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For a brief moment, the silence in Severus’s lab was deafening. Barnabus Speight stared at Severus and blinked furiously behind his spectacles, and Alicia stood stock still but not making eye contact with either of them.



The only person who was actually thinking clearly was Severus.



‘I apologise, Barnabus, Miss Maines, but I need to leave immediately,’ he said hurriedly.



In a swirl of black, he dashed to the lab and into his quarters. Running to his desk, he opened a drawer and grabbed something, and then rushed to the Floo, where he called out ‘Hilltop Cottage’.



He arrived to see Lexie sitting on the sofa with Hermione, comforting her as she wept on her shoulder. The younger girl gasped as she saw Severus appear.



‘Miss Flint. I wonder would you mind taking Donovan out for a walk while I talk with his mother.’ He spoke in a calm voice that belied the emotions that were churning inside him. He had been a bloody fool not to realise what was going on, and now he had to make Hermione see it too.



‘Of course, Professor,’ she stammered. She pulled away from Hermione with a questioning look, and Severus felt a rush of relief when Hermione looked up at him with wet eyes and then nodded to Lexie.



‘I’ll be fine. Don’t hurry back, Lexie,’ she said quietly, rubbing at her face with the back of her hand lightly.



Lexie grabbed Donovan and took him upstairs to change into his outdoor clothes, while Severus organised everything she would need and assembled his stroller by the front door. Hermione sat in a daze and watched everything happening around her meekly. Within moments, their son and the hired help were gone, leaving them in silence.



‘We always make such a mess of things,’ Hermione said sadly.



‘I think we might have had some help this time,’ Severus said, sitting down slowly beside her.



‘What are you talking about?’ Hermione pushed her hair from her face and turned to look at him.



‘I am talking about your so-called friend Alicia,’ he said softly.



‘Don’t go bringing her into it, Severus. She’s been such a good friend to me, it has nothing to do with her,’ Hermione stated.



Severus looked at Hermione and his eyes softened. He reached out and took her hand in his, squeezing softly. ‘Trusting little Gryffindor,’ he said. ‘But you put your trust in the wrong person, Hermione. I don’t suppose she told you that she made a pass at me, did she?’



‘She did what?’ Hermione pulled her hand away and stood with her hands on her hips. ‘You’d better tell me what happened, Severus Snape, or so help me…’ she grabbed her wand from her pocket and twirled it in her fingers.



‘Nothing happened. But I know when a witch is making a play. Miss Maines made it very clear that it isn’t just friendship she is interested in.’ Severus said.



Hermione sat dejectedly beside him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Alicia wouldn’t do that to her. They were friends. That’s not what friends do. Her eyes snapped up to him.



‘Show me,’ she said firmly.



‘Of course,’ he agreed. What better way for Hermione to see what happened with Alicia?



He manoeuvred himself before her, and their eyes locked as he whispered ‘Legilimens’.



The memories sped by so quickly that Hermione had difficulty making sense of everything. Severus was so desperate for her to see the truth, but it was coming out in a jumble. He sighed and pulled away, breaking eye contact.



‘What was all of that?’ Hermione said exasperatedly.



‘I’m sorry. I just so want you to see the truth.’ He looked at her pleadingly.



‘Take a deep breath, okay? Try again, slowly. Otherwise I won’t see what I need to see and we’ll be no better off, will we?’ Hermione took his hand, and he whispered the spell again, this time taking it very slowly.



Hermione was furious when she saw Alicia touching Severus in the hospital. But by far the worst was what she said to Severus in his quarters. She had never said that he loved her more than she loved him, so why lie about that?



Severus pulled away again, and Hermione hung her head. ‘I never said that, Severus, about me loving you less.’



‘I know you didn’t. Tell me,’ he asked. ‘Did Alicia put the idea in your head that I only wanted to marry you for Donovan?’



‘Well, we talked last night, about you, Donovan and… and the wedding.’ Hermione’s voice broke slightly. ‘She said you were just doing the right thing.’



‘And you believed her?’ Severus said flatly.



‘Not really, but then she asked if you loved me, and I said you hadn’t actually said it, but that I thought you did,’ she said softly. ‘I put two and two together and what she said seemed to make sense at the time.’



‘And now, Hermione? What do you think now?’ he asked.



‘I don’t know what to think. Do you think I just came back so that you would be forced to be a father for Donovan?’ she said. She looked up at him, and he stroked her tear stained face with his gentle fingers.



‘No. You are far too honest for that, Hermione. I allowed Alicia’s words to affect me far more because I was missing you so much when she said them,’ he replied.



‘Oh, Severus, you do know that I love you, don’t you?’ she asked.



‘I know you do,’ he sighed. He sat back and reached inside his pocket, pulling out an envelope. He paused slightly, but then handed it to her.



‘This is the letter I left behind,’ Hermione said.



‘It is, and I think it’s time you read it. My feelings have never changed, Hermione. Every word is still true,’ he whispered.



Hermione traced her fingers lightly over his handwriting before opening the letter, and Severus sat in silence as she read the words he had written so long ago. He remembered exactly what he had said in the letter, because it was how he felt in his heart every day since she had left him. Hermione’s hands were shaking, and large tears were falling onto the creased parchment.



‘I can’t read it properly,’ she whispered shakily.



He took it from her gently and read out loud from where she pointed with a trembling finger.



‘…You must know that I do indeed love you, Hermione. I have never spoken those words to anyone, but if you were here with me at this moment, I would hold you in my arms and whisper them to you over and over again.



I love you… I love you, Hermione.’ He put the letter down slowly, and raised his eyes to hers slowly as if afraid of her response.



‘Say it again,’ she whispered, her voice so faint he hardly heard her.



‘I love you, Hermione. I truly love you,’ he said softly.



Hermione started to laugh through her tears, and she threw herself at him, her arms around his neck and her lithe body suddenly ensconced in his lap.



‘I knew that all along,’ she said, giggling softly into his ear.



Severus wrapped his arms around her, and held her so close he could feel her heart beating against his chest.



‘I love you,’ he whispered again.



Hermione tipped her face upwards, and he caught her bottom lip with his mouth, sucking slightly. She moaned a little, and the sound brought an immediate response from Severus’s cock, which twitched beneath her squirming bottom.



‘How long do we have?’ he whispered.



‘Long enough,’ she murmured, kissing him again and sliding her tongue along his lips seductively as she slid slowly from his lap. She took his hand and pulled him to his feet, leading him slowly up the stairs. Stopping half-way, she turned and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him passionately as he caressed her buttocks teasingly. He dropped his head and licked his way down her throat, and Hermione gasped as his hand brushed gently between her legs.



‘Bedroom,’ he growled.



Hermione didn’t need telling twice, and she leapt up the final steps with Severus hot on her heels. She had her clothes off before Severus, and he stepped up to her from behind, cupping her breasts in his hands and tweaking her nipples. Hermione pushed her firm mounds into the palms of his hands and rubbed her buttocks against the bulge in his trousers.



‘Bend over,’ he said firmly. Hermione felt a shudder of arousal hit her, and she did as he instructed, leaning her hands on the mattress and giving him a delicious view of her pert arse and a tantalising glimpse of her wet labia. She almost cried out when she felt his mouth on her and his tongue slipping between her folds. She was so transported by sensation, she was unaware he had released his turgid cock from it’s stifling confines, and he pulled his mouth away and slid himself against her, nudging her opening with the tip.



‘I need you,’ she begged.



‘I know,’ he growled, stroking her breasts with his fingertips and pinching at her nipples urgently as he slid his cock around her folds teasingly.



‘God, Severus… Please…’ she moaned.



With a swift thrust, he was inside her throbbing pussy as deep as he could possibly go, and they both cried out their pleasure as he started to move back and forth slowly.



‘Touch yourself, witch,’ he said hoarsely.



Hermione mewed quietly and her head hit the mattress as he grasped her hips firmly. She slid a hand between her legs and probed until she found her clitoris, erect and pulsing with want. Her fingers slipped over it and she started to rub herself in a rhythm to match Severus’s firm thrusting.



Severus almost came as her watched her pleasuring herself, and the sight of his cock disappearing inside her tightness was so exquisite he didn’t want it to end. He felt Hermione start to buck beneath him, and he held her tighter as she moaned incoherently. Her orgasm started, and he finally let loose, pounding his thick, hard length into her as she cried out his name and shattered around him. Severus grunted and bit his lip to prolong the sensations of her clamping muscles, and then shouted out loud as he finally shot his semen deep within her walls, thrusting in and out gently and slowing his pace as his climax ended, leaving him elated and desperate for more of her all at once.



They collapsed onto the bed, both sated and yet needing to keep some contact with the other. Severus gathered her to him and they kissed softly.



‘That was amazing,’ Hermione said.



‘You are amazing,’ he replied.



They smiled gently at each other, not wanting the moment to end.



‘We should dress, witch. Donovan will return soon, no doubt.’



‘I love you,’ she sighed, kissing him lightly and then slipping from him. They dressed silently, both still slightly dazed from their love making.



‘What shall we do now, Severus?’ Hermione asked him as they walked down the stairs, holding hands awkwardly in the narrow space.



‘Well, I think perhaps you should find your research notes for that Charm, and bring them to the lab at Hogwarts,’ he said, frowning in thought.



‘And what will you do?’ she asked.



Severus turned his serious gaze on her. ‘I will consider our next move in regards to Miss Maines, and I want you to promise me that you will pay no head to any more of her poisonous talk. No one knows what we have, Hermione, no one but us.’



He stroked her cheek softly, and Hermione smiled.