In a Lifetime
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
28
Views:
6,476
Reviews:
134
Recommended:
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Currently Reading:
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Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
28
Views:
6,476
Reviews:
134
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
9: All Apologies
In A Lifetime
Chapter 9: All Apologies
Disclaimer: I own nothing of what you’re about to read, with the possible exception of the plot, although I’m sure it’s been done before. The places, characters, etc. belong to JK Rowling. Thanks.
Hermione opened the door to see Severus sitting at his desk, ruthlessly slashing through exams with a red inked quill. He heard her at the door, but refused to look up, afraid that his eyes would betray how deeply her words had hurt him. “…now Remus is lying in a bed in the hospital wing with no voice, no memory, and no magic. I can’t believe you could be so damned careless!” reverberated in his mind. He was careless. He should have brewed a reversal potion even though he wasn’t planning on giving the potion to the Dark Lord. He should have destroyed the potion.
“Severus,” said Hermione from the doorway, her voice uncertain, “we need to talk.”
“Do we Professor Granger?” he sneered, “Do we really have anything to say to one another?”
“I think we do. May I come in?”
“There’s no point. No point at all. You were right as always, Professor Granger, the Death Eater was stupid and careless. The lackey should have known that someone would steal the potion from the private stores. After all, you, Professor Granger, did just that very thing several times over the course of your tenure as a student here.”
Hermione winced each time he spit out the words “Professor Granger”. Each time was like a knife in her heart. A knife she realized she herself had stuck in his back when she jumped to conclusions and said those horrid words to him. She should have known better. She should have trusted that Severus would never have given Voldemort a potion with no antidote. She jumped ahead with Gryffindor bravado and never once thought to think before she spoke, to think or listen before she spoke.
“I was wrong, Severus,” she said simply, “I failed to listen to the entire explanation before jumping to an erroneous conclusion. I should have known better. I should have known YOU better.”
Severus looked up from his paperwork, “Yes, Professor Granger, you should have known better. After all these years, the one thing you SHOULve kve known is how careful I was when it came to any potion I brewed for the Dark Lord. But you were correct. I should have worked on the reversal potion, but since the Dark Lord was never to see the potion, I did not. I thought I had it locked safe and sound. Apparently, I did not. Somewhere between the time it was brewed and the time Remus disappeared from the battlefield, it was stolen from me. I should have been more diligent. Yes, Professor, this IS my fault. Remus’ condition is a direct effect of my stupidity and carelessness.”
“It’s not your fault,” whispered Hermione, tears welling in her earnest brown eyes at the coldness in his voice, “it had to have been Barty Crouch. He broke into your office in my fourth year, 13 years ago.”
“Yes, I know. In any event, he’s dead now, and what’s past is past. Now, if there’s nothing else, I have papers to grade,” stated Severus, the cold tone still evident in his voice.
“Severus, I’m sorry,” said Hermione.
“So am I,” he replied curtly, dismissing her with a nod of his head.
Hermione backed out of Severus’ office and into the corridor. She leaned against the cool stone wall as the tears coursed down her face. She should have known better. She should have realized the aftermath of her words. Severus was a man of immense pride and she cut him down. Taking a shaky breath, she walked back into the lab and poured a small sample of the notorious potion. She went to her work station and carefully set her vial in the holder. She wanted to work on the antidote, but realized she knew next to nothing about this potion except that it had a base of Obliviatus. As she pondered her next course of action, she was aware of the door to the lab opening.
“Obliviatus base,” said a velvety voice that Hermione loved more than any other sound, even though there was still a terse chill present, “strengthened with Masterwort and Pennyroyal, slivered Adder’s tongue – from the adder, not the herb, grated dragon scale, a trace of Datura, infant blood, Digitalis, a dash of unicorn blood, a bit of woody nightshade, and Lethe’s Trefoil.”
“What do you suggest as an antidote?” asked Hermione.
“The Obliviatus antidote to begin with, then I was thinking about adding the following; Galangal, Toadflax, Moonwort, Horehound, Bladderwrack, powdered bicorn horn, and phoenix tears.”
“Ah,” said Hermione, “so we need to adjust the amounts and the preparation form for the ingredients…”
“Yes, I’m sure that combination will work well, it is just a matter of ascertaining the proper ratio.”
“How will we know if it’s correct?” asked Hermione, trying to catch Severus’ eye.
“When it neutralizes the potion we have. None of the ingredients will harm Remus regardless,” was the clipped response.
Severus set up a cauldron and pulled the ingredients out of the storage cupboard. He paid no attention to Hermione, who sighed and did the same. They worked in silence until the early evening, when Hermione stood up, stretched, placed her work in stasis and quietly slipped out of the lab. Severus looked up from his work and watched her leave, then put his head back down and continued to experiment.
Hermione left the dungeons and headed to her quarters. Once there she grabbed a few items and flooed directly to Severus’ quarters. She had a plan and nothing was going to stop her from properly apologizing to her fiancé for her earlier behavior. She knew that she had hurt his feelings deeply and wanted to make it up to him. With a wave of her wand, she set a table for two complete with shimmering candles, set out wine and candles in his amazing bathroom, drew a tubful of gently sandalwood and pine scented water which she charmed to stay hot and bubbly, and charmed the bedroom with twinkling star-like lights. She slipped off her research robes and changed into a simple satin dressing gown with nothing underneath. She anxiously paced the sitting room awaiting his return. Severus was a creature of habit, always stopping his work and changing before dinner, whether it be a quiet dinner for the two of them or dinner in the Great Hall. She went back to the bedroom, to make certain that it was as magical a place as she wanted it to be. She stood still as she heard the door to the private chambers open. She walked to the bedroom doorway and stood there, looking at Severus with as much love as she felt for him. Severus looked back at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since that morning.
“I am so sorry for what I said earlier,” stated Hermione, walked over to Severus and unbuttoning his outer robes, slipping them off and hanging them up, “I do need to learn to listen and to think before I speak. It wasn’t your fault. You had the potion in the most secure place in the castle. No one knew that Barty Crouch was masquerading as Moody. He probably saw right into your hidden vault with that eye.”
“Yes, you’re probably correct. However, I should have just destroyed the potion,” replied Severus quietly.
“But what if you were put in the position where you had no choice but to turn it over? I understand why you kept it,” said Hermione, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek into his chest, “I love you, Severus. And I am sorry.”
Severus returned her embrace, kissing the top of her head, breathing in the fragrant smell of her hair, “I’m just not good at relationships.”
“Yes you are. It’s me who’s lousy at them,” smiled Hermione, cupping his cheek with her hand, “now, you look tired and in need of a long hot soak.”
Severus smiled at her, brushing back her hair with his hand, “That sounds wonderful.”
“Well,” smirked Hermione, gently leading him to the bathroom, “we need to get rid of your clothes.”
Severus quickly disrobed and pulled open the belt on Hermione’s dressing gown, slipping it off her shoulders and letting it puddle on the floor around her feet. He took in the sight of her, radiant in the candlelight.
“You are so beautiful, Hermione Granger,” he said breathlessly.
“In your eyes, maybe,” replied Hermione, shyly looking at the ground.
“I don’t think I’m the only one to ever have noticed your beauty,” he said, running a finger from her jawline, down her collarbone, passing over one nipple, and ending up behind her, pulling closclose to him.
With a small smile, Severus bent his head and kissed her softly on the lips, his tongue gently stroking her lower lip until she allowed it access to her mouth. Hermione loved kissing Severus. He poured all his heart and soul into his kisses and ever one left her breathless. Breaking the kiss, she guided him to the spring-like tub, where they settled in, Hermione’s back pressed up against Severus’ chest. He poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Hermione.
“Any luck with your formulations?” asked Severus, wrapping his free arm around her as the bubbles in the tub soothed and caressed their bodies.
“Not particularly,” admitted Hermione, “I thought I had something for a moment, but it was wishful thinking.”
“Perhaps not,” replied Severus, gently stroking her breast, “did you put it in stasis before you stopped working? We can look at it later. I had a small breakthrough as well.”
“I’m hoping that we’re a bit too busy later to go back to the labs,” said Hermione with a grin as she sipped her wine and pushed herself back further between his legs, feeling his cock jump slightly from the contact.
“Perhaps it can wait until morning,” agreed Severus, circling her slick nipple, “It really shouldn’t take us that long to formulate an antidote. I have many notes from when I originally created the potion. I just can’t believe I didn’t see it right away.”
“Well,” said Hermione, “the potion didn’t quite do what it was supposed to do due to Remus’ mutated blood cells, it really was a miracle that you even thought of that potion at all.”
“I supposed,” he said, slipping his hand down under the water and stroking her stomach. He put down his glass of wine on the stone ledge of the tub and wrapped both arms around Hermione, “I do love you, Hermione.”
“Phew,” exclaimed Hermione, “I am so glad we’re back to ‘Hermione’. I was getting tired of being ‘Professor Granger’.”
“I was sulking,” he admitted, “because you were partially correct.”
“Only partially, and I was out of line.”
“Yes, you were. Out of line and totally Gryffindor.”
Hermione twisted around in the tub to face Severus. Smiling at him, she drew him into a deep kiss, with a promise of more to come.
“When I get you out of this tub, you are in SO much trouble, Professor Snape, for that comment about my House”
“Why wait until we’re on dry land, Professor Granger?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow and pulling her onto his lap, his hands slipping down her wet back to cup her buttocks.
“Because I am starving, Severus, we missed lunch.”
“Actually, I am rather hungry myself.”
“So let’s get out of the tub, dry off, eat dinner, and then make each other pay dearly for our transgressions of this morning,” suggested Hermione.
“That sounds like an acceptable plan,” agreed Severus, pulling her back into a deep kiss, “but I suggest we eat quickly.”
“Agreed,” smirked Hermione as she lifted herself out of the tub and grabbed two towels, “I’m starting to feel like I need you sooner rather than later.”
Chapter 9: All Apologies
Disclaimer: I own nothing of what you’re about to read, with the possible exception of the plot, although I’m sure it’s been done before. The places, characters, etc. belong to JK Rowling. Thanks.
Hermione opened the door to see Severus sitting at his desk, ruthlessly slashing through exams with a red inked quill. He heard her at the door, but refused to look up, afraid that his eyes would betray how deeply her words had hurt him. “…now Remus is lying in a bed in the hospital wing with no voice, no memory, and no magic. I can’t believe you could be so damned careless!” reverberated in his mind. He was careless. He should have brewed a reversal potion even though he wasn’t planning on giving the potion to the Dark Lord. He should have destroyed the potion.
“Severus,” said Hermione from the doorway, her voice uncertain, “we need to talk.”
“Do we Professor Granger?” he sneered, “Do we really have anything to say to one another?”
“I think we do. May I come in?”
“There’s no point. No point at all. You were right as always, Professor Granger, the Death Eater was stupid and careless. The lackey should have known that someone would steal the potion from the private stores. After all, you, Professor Granger, did just that very thing several times over the course of your tenure as a student here.”
Hermione winced each time he spit out the words “Professor Granger”. Each time was like a knife in her heart. A knife she realized she herself had stuck in his back when she jumped to conclusions and said those horrid words to him. She should have known better. She should have trusted that Severus would never have given Voldemort a potion with no antidote. She jumped ahead with Gryffindor bravado and never once thought to think before she spoke, to think or listen before she spoke.
“I was wrong, Severus,” she said simply, “I failed to listen to the entire explanation before jumping to an erroneous conclusion. I should have known better. I should have known YOU better.”
Severus looked up from his paperwork, “Yes, Professor Granger, you should have known better. After all these years, the one thing you SHOULve kve known is how careful I was when it came to any potion I brewed for the Dark Lord. But you were correct. I should have worked on the reversal potion, but since the Dark Lord was never to see the potion, I did not. I thought I had it locked safe and sound. Apparently, I did not. Somewhere between the time it was brewed and the time Remus disappeared from the battlefield, it was stolen from me. I should have been more diligent. Yes, Professor, this IS my fault. Remus’ condition is a direct effect of my stupidity and carelessness.”
“It’s not your fault,” whispered Hermione, tears welling in her earnest brown eyes at the coldness in his voice, “it had to have been Barty Crouch. He broke into your office in my fourth year, 13 years ago.”
“Yes, I know. In any event, he’s dead now, and what’s past is past. Now, if there’s nothing else, I have papers to grade,” stated Severus, the cold tone still evident in his voice.
“Severus, I’m sorry,” said Hermione.
“So am I,” he replied curtly, dismissing her with a nod of his head.
Hermione backed out of Severus’ office and into the corridor. She leaned against the cool stone wall as the tears coursed down her face. She should have known better. She should have realized the aftermath of her words. Severus was a man of immense pride and she cut him down. Taking a shaky breath, she walked back into the lab and poured a small sample of the notorious potion. She went to her work station and carefully set her vial in the holder. She wanted to work on the antidote, but realized she knew next to nothing about this potion except that it had a base of Obliviatus. As she pondered her next course of action, she was aware of the door to the lab opening.
“Obliviatus base,” said a velvety voice that Hermione loved more than any other sound, even though there was still a terse chill present, “strengthened with Masterwort and Pennyroyal, slivered Adder’s tongue – from the adder, not the herb, grated dragon scale, a trace of Datura, infant blood, Digitalis, a dash of unicorn blood, a bit of woody nightshade, and Lethe’s Trefoil.”
“What do you suggest as an antidote?” asked Hermione.
“The Obliviatus antidote to begin with, then I was thinking about adding the following; Galangal, Toadflax, Moonwort, Horehound, Bladderwrack, powdered bicorn horn, and phoenix tears.”
“Ah,” said Hermione, “so we need to adjust the amounts and the preparation form for the ingredients…”
“Yes, I’m sure that combination will work well, it is just a matter of ascertaining the proper ratio.”
“How will we know if it’s correct?” asked Hermione, trying to catch Severus’ eye.
“When it neutralizes the potion we have. None of the ingredients will harm Remus regardless,” was the clipped response.
Severus set up a cauldron and pulled the ingredients out of the storage cupboard. He paid no attention to Hermione, who sighed and did the same. They worked in silence until the early evening, when Hermione stood up, stretched, placed her work in stasis and quietly slipped out of the lab. Severus looked up from his work and watched her leave, then put his head back down and continued to experiment.
Hermione left the dungeons and headed to her quarters. Once there she grabbed a few items and flooed directly to Severus’ quarters. She had a plan and nothing was going to stop her from properly apologizing to her fiancé for her earlier behavior. She knew that she had hurt his feelings deeply and wanted to make it up to him. With a wave of her wand, she set a table for two complete with shimmering candles, set out wine and candles in his amazing bathroom, drew a tubful of gently sandalwood and pine scented water which she charmed to stay hot and bubbly, and charmed the bedroom with twinkling star-like lights. She slipped off her research robes and changed into a simple satin dressing gown with nothing underneath. She anxiously paced the sitting room awaiting his return. Severus was a creature of habit, always stopping his work and changing before dinner, whether it be a quiet dinner for the two of them or dinner in the Great Hall. She went back to the bedroom, to make certain that it was as magical a place as she wanted it to be. She stood still as she heard the door to the private chambers open. She walked to the bedroom doorway and stood there, looking at Severus with as much love as she felt for him. Severus looked back at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since that morning.
“I am so sorry for what I said earlier,” stated Hermione, walked over to Severus and unbuttoning his outer robes, slipping them off and hanging them up, “I do need to learn to listen and to think before I speak. It wasn’t your fault. You had the potion in the most secure place in the castle. No one knew that Barty Crouch was masquerading as Moody. He probably saw right into your hidden vault with that eye.”
“Yes, you’re probably correct. However, I should have just destroyed the potion,” replied Severus quietly.
“But what if you were put in the position where you had no choice but to turn it over? I understand why you kept it,” said Hermione, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek into his chest, “I love you, Severus. And I am sorry.”
Severus returned her embrace, kissing the top of her head, breathing in the fragrant smell of her hair, “I’m just not good at relationships.”
“Yes you are. It’s me who’s lousy at them,” smiled Hermione, cupping his cheek with her hand, “now, you look tired and in need of a long hot soak.”
Severus smiled at her, brushing back her hair with his hand, “That sounds wonderful.”
“Well,” smirked Hermione, gently leading him to the bathroom, “we need to get rid of your clothes.”
Severus quickly disrobed and pulled open the belt on Hermione’s dressing gown, slipping it off her shoulders and letting it puddle on the floor around her feet. He took in the sight of her, radiant in the candlelight.
“You are so beautiful, Hermione Granger,” he said breathlessly.
“In your eyes, maybe,” replied Hermione, shyly looking at the ground.
“I don’t think I’m the only one to ever have noticed your beauty,” he said, running a finger from her jawline, down her collarbone, passing over one nipple, and ending up behind her, pulling closclose to him.
With a small smile, Severus bent his head and kissed her softly on the lips, his tongue gently stroking her lower lip until she allowed it access to her mouth. Hermione loved kissing Severus. He poured all his heart and soul into his kisses and ever one left her breathless. Breaking the kiss, she guided him to the spring-like tub, where they settled in, Hermione’s back pressed up against Severus’ chest. He poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Hermione.
“Any luck with your formulations?” asked Severus, wrapping his free arm around her as the bubbles in the tub soothed and caressed their bodies.
“Not particularly,” admitted Hermione, “I thought I had something for a moment, but it was wishful thinking.”
“Perhaps not,” replied Severus, gently stroking her breast, “did you put it in stasis before you stopped working? We can look at it later. I had a small breakthrough as well.”
“I’m hoping that we’re a bit too busy later to go back to the labs,” said Hermione with a grin as she sipped her wine and pushed herself back further between his legs, feeling his cock jump slightly from the contact.
“Perhaps it can wait until morning,” agreed Severus, circling her slick nipple, “It really shouldn’t take us that long to formulate an antidote. I have many notes from when I originally created the potion. I just can’t believe I didn’t see it right away.”
“Well,” said Hermione, “the potion didn’t quite do what it was supposed to do due to Remus’ mutated blood cells, it really was a miracle that you even thought of that potion at all.”
“I supposed,” he said, slipping his hand down under the water and stroking her stomach. He put down his glass of wine on the stone ledge of the tub and wrapped both arms around Hermione, “I do love you, Hermione.”
“Phew,” exclaimed Hermione, “I am so glad we’re back to ‘Hermione’. I was getting tired of being ‘Professor Granger’.”
“I was sulking,” he admitted, “because you were partially correct.”
“Only partially, and I was out of line.”
“Yes, you were. Out of line and totally Gryffindor.”
Hermione twisted around in the tub to face Severus. Smiling at him, she drew him into a deep kiss, with a promise of more to come.
“When I get you out of this tub, you are in SO much trouble, Professor Snape, for that comment about my House”
“Why wait until we’re on dry land, Professor Granger?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow and pulling her onto his lap, his hands slipping down her wet back to cup her buttocks.
“Because I am starving, Severus, we missed lunch.”
“Actually, I am rather hungry myself.”
“So let’s get out of the tub, dry off, eat dinner, and then make each other pay dearly for our transgressions of this morning,” suggested Hermione.
“That sounds like an acceptable plan,” agreed Severus, pulling her back into a deep kiss, “but I suggest we eat quickly.”
“Agreed,” smirked Hermione as she lifted herself out of the tub and grabbed two towels, “I’m starting to feel like I need you sooner rather than later.”