Six Days and Seven Nights

You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of canon but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land beyond Book 7 whose boundaries are that of the imagination. Your next stop—AU Zone

…My sincere thanks to all of those who have encouraged me to continue writing even though the publication of Book 7 has thrown some of my plot elements into the realm of an AU. I hope this satisfies the thirst of all of those who still want more Snape after the last book.

Besides, I think Hermione is having much more fun here than she would camping in the middle of nowhere. :)

NIGHT 3

Severus didn’t come home by the time I had gone to bed. I started to wonder if he would return at all. Part of me even thought that his disappearance might be for the best. How could he ever explain the horrible thing he had done? Obviously he couldn’t, which was why he didn’t even try.

But he did come back…some time after midnight. He seemed insistent that we should forget the taboo interrogation from the afternoon, and he got straight to business. Still dressed in his day clothes except for his boots, he bent over my side of the bed and gave me a deep kiss that offered me no chance to ask where he had been.

I scooted over to allow him to lie on his side next to me. There was still little space for him at the edge of the bed, and I was conscious of the hand he placed at on my hip to steady himself. Like a dancer leading his partner, he used the slightest of pressure to guide me more toward the middle of the bed.

Once he was more comfortably situated, I noticed amidst our kissing that he did not remove his hand from my body. Its practical placement had now taken on more pleasurable functions and was now slowly caressing my waist. It was one of the first times he had actually touched me with anything other than his lips in bed. With his hand at this central location, I imagined all the places he might easily touch…my breasts, my stomach, somewhere lower…

Soon his caresses widened their breadth, and his hand gently grazed all the way from the arch of my hip to the side of my breast. I shuddered, open-mouthed, as his hand began kneading just below my armpit while his tongue continued its diligent exploration of my mouth. There was something startlingly seductive about this touch—something about the fact that he was so near to cupping my breast and yet so collected to keep from doing so. Again, I knew that this was no ordinary man.

Eventually his hand moved from my side to my arm, sending tingles to my fingertips as he stroked my bare skin. Under his touch, the strap of my nightgown slipped from my shoulder, which he kissed, working his way from there to my collarbone and up my neck.

Suddenly, I found myself resentful of all the clothes still on his body. With a surge of headily impassioned courage, I tugged at the fastener of his cloak and cast it to the floor. I was dismayed however, to discover all the layers of black underneath.

“Take them off,” he growled mid-kiss.

I did my best to obey while he continued to nuzzle my neck, but I struggled to unfasten each little metallic button of his vest blindly. Why did he have to have so many buttons? Leave it to Severus Snape to be contrary even in his dress.

When he realized that I was not going to succeed in removing his vest without being able to see what I was doing, he pulled away enough to allow me to see all the shining little buttons. Once I had undone the last one, he shrugged off his vest only to reveal a similarly over-fastened black shirt. Fortunately, these buttons were larger and more widely spaced, and I quickly had each of them released from their holes. This time, there were no more layers, and when he removed his shirt, he revealed a hard chest interspersed with a few wiry black hairs.

He took my hand and placed it on his chest, firmly guiding it up and down his body. When he leaned down to kiss me again, I found that my hand unconsciously continued exploring, circling lightly defined pecs and grazing the points of dark nipples. He took this as license to mirror my own actions, and his broad hands began an expansive sweep of my body. Not once did he grope, though his firm strokes seemed to conquer every hill and valley they encountered, from my breast to my belly.

I now felt like a train hurtling out of control. At the last stop I had left the part of myself that had threatened to hex Cormac McLaggen for taking similar liberties. Without that baggage, I felt myself hurtling blindly around corners and picking up steam. I eagerly anticipated his move when he let his hand drift to my thigh, and I bent my knee to ease his access to my nether limbs.

Engines at eighty percent.

His strokes eased up my leg.

Engines at ninety percent.

His hand slipped under my bum and gave it a squeeze.

Full speed ahead!

I pulled him down toward me and gave him a steamy kiss worthy of a good, long whistle-blow.

Then he was yanking the hem of my nightgown from under my bum and pulling it over my head.

Screeeech!

The brakes in my head might well have sent sparks flying. You’d have to ask Severus if there actually were any. The sudden realization that I was naked of everything except for my panties had suddenly derailed our progress. How could I be naked in front of Severus Snape? He would scrutinize everything about me. I drew an arm up over my chest to cover myself and expected him to mock me, if not for my scrawny body then for my sudden shyness.

“Magnificent,” he breathed and ran his hand down my face, over my shoulder, and down my arm. He might have touched more had I not still been trembling. Whether he thought I was cold or understood my shyness, he drew the covers up over both of us, making me feel a little less exposed. Then he returned to simply kissing like he had the night before. The familiar exercise steadied me until I finally drew close enough to him that our bare torsos brushed each other.

This time, when he let his hands trail over my body, he was much less insistent, almost reassuring. I slowly began to appreciate the feel of his calloused hands running over my tender skin. I remembered that that same sensuous feeling must work in reverse and, ever the teacher’s pet, sought to please him by resuming my own caresses over his body.

It was all quite pleasant until he broke from me to wrangle his trousers off underneath the covers. “Take yours off too,” he instructed me.

A lump rose in my throat. This was it—the last thing between us. I would take off my underwear and he would take my virginity. Obviously, there was no sense in waiting any longer. The spell book had said we must couple three times, and we were nearly half-way through the week. Severus had shown great restraint, but he simply couldn’t wait any longer. His manhood and his magic compelled him to consummate this partnership.

I lifted my hips and pushed my panties down my leg, shyly balling the slight cotton fabric into a discrete ball and depositing it on the floor. I waited for him to proceed, but instead he rolled onto his back.

“That’s enough for tonight,” he spoke into the darkness. I wasn’t sure whether it was to me or to himself.

“Good night, Severus,” I whispered.

“Good night, Hermione.”