Remember

CHAPTER 9: Affection









When Hermione exited the common room door it was to find Severus leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he scowled. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and stepped in front of him, both hands clinging to the strap of her bag.





“You don’t have to do this, Severus. I can talk to the headmaster about letting me stay elsewhere for the break.” She said softly.







“Yes, I do have to do this, Hermione. I can’t leave you alone in this castle with Pettigrew. He isn’t right, Hermione. There is something seriously wrong there and it seems to be growing worse. You will come home with me.” He said, unfolding his arms and resting his hand on her shoulder. “I want you there…with me.”







Hermione’s brows lifted in shock and her lips parted on a soft sigh. He had voiced a desire for her company, the man who went on and on about how she constantly forced herself into his presence admitted that he wanted her with him.







“I want to be with you too.” She said, lifting onto her toes to kiss his lips gently. He flushed slightly, unused to easy affection or voicing his emotions, but he enjoyed it with her, it made him feel alive.







“Come with me, I need to get my bag and then we can head to the train.” He said, leading her down the hall and then the stairs toward the dungeons. “Most everyone is gone already; do you want to come inside?” He asked, whispering the password so that the common room door opened.







“Um….yes, I do want to come inside with you, but won’t you get in trouble?” She asked, following him through the doorway hesitantly.







“No, the head of house is already gone, besides, what could be more Slytherin than sneaking a girl into your dorm; he’d likely award me points since you are a Gryffindor.” Severus smirked, grabbing her arm and tugging her along behind him.







There were still a few students milling about, all of them stopping to watch Severus lead a girl up to the boy’s dorm. Several of them rubbed their eyes, sure they were hallucinating. Severus didn’t like girls, he didn’t like anyone!









He ignored his housemates as he shoved through the door and made his way to the end of the dorm where his bed and belongings were situated. Hermione perched on the side of his bed and watched him shove a few articles of clothing and his shower kit into a bag. She noted that he did not keep family photographs or anything on his bedside table, only books stacked five high adorned the top.







“Have you read all these?” She asked, running her fingers along the spines as she perused his books.







“Those are next on my reading list.” He said, picking up the books and stuffing them into his bag as well. She smiled; he was very protective of his books. Most young men coveted their brooms, their wizard trading cards, their collection of pornographic magazines, but not him, for him it was dusty old books he bought at tiny little hole in the wall bookstores. They were alike in so many ways and she wondered why she never noticed it before.







Severus watched her as she shifted back to lean against his pillows to stare at him. His cheeks flushed slightly as his body reacted to sight of her reclining in his bed. He lowered his eyes and focused on making his books fit into the bag.







“You plan on spending all of your time reading over the holiday?” She asked, laughing softly at his bag, now heavy and bulging with books.







“Well there usually isn’t much else to do; my parents aren’t ones for socializing.” He said. He straightened and stared down at her. She was smiling up at him, she was always smiling at him. It amazed him every time he looked at her that she seemed to genuinely like him. “We…uh….we should get to the train.”







“Are you anxious to get me out of your bed?” She asked coquettishly. Severus held his breath for a moment before exhaling slowly. She was joking, but the reaction of his body was no laughing matter. Since the moment things between them had shifted into the intimate zone, he had wanted her, wanted to be closer to her, a part of her. Now she was stretched out on his bed, smiling up at him flirtatiously and he wanted nothing more than to climb in there with her and close the drapes.







“You shouldn’t say things like that to me, Hermione.” He said softly. His dark eyes glittered heatedly as he stared at her.









“Why is that, Severus?” She asked, bumping the side of his leg with the toe of her shoe.









“You are too bold; you say these things with no regard for how they might affect me.” His voice was a low, purring rumble that made her shiver slightly, he sounded very much like his adult self in that moment.









“How do they affect you?” She asked breathlessly, her body suddenly hot and itchy. She wanted him to kiss her, she had initiated their previous kisses and she wanted him engage her, to show her he wanted her.







“You are fully aware of your power, of your allure. I may be antisocial, Hermione, but I am a man and I can not help but be tempted by your flirtation. I know you are teasing, playing the coquette quite effectively as it were, but do not offer what you do not want to give.” He said darkly. A soft flush crept up her neck to stain her cheeks.







“Are you saying I arouse your interest?” She asked, embarrassed yet drunk on the power of her sexuality.







“Yes. Enough of this, Hermione, we need to go before your teasing leads us into dangerous waters.” He said, holding out his hand to help her up. She took his hand but instead of letting him pull her up she tugged on his arm. He wasn’t expecting it and fell forward catching himself on his hands before he landed on her.







He ended up leaning over her, his hands braced on either side of her, his nose touching hers.







“Oops.” She said softly, smiling at him.









“That was no oops you did it on purpose, witch.” He drawled, his eyes falling to her plump, moist lips. “The question is why?”







“I don’t know what you are talking about, sometimes you talk too much.” She said softly, brushing her nose against his.







“You have no room to talk; you are the chattiest witch I have ever met.” He knew he should back off, they needed to get going but he just couldn’t bring himself to pull away without tasting her lips again. She had him addicted to kissing, at least to kissing her.







Severus lowered his lips to hers, opening them slightly and letting his tongue slip between her lips. He kept the kiss light; knowing that to press any deeper would be foolhardy. She had a way of making him lose his head. She slid her hands behind his neck and tugged, trying to pull him into the bed with her but he resisted, how he found the strength he didn’t know.







“Hey, look! Snape’s got a witch in his bed!” Severus looked over his shoulder as a few of his fellow Slytherin’s entered the dorm. “At least close the drapes!”







“We have to go, Hermione.” He said, taking her hand and pulling her from his bed. He grabbed their bags and pulled her behind him, ignoring the snickers of the other students preparing to leave.











**********************







Severus tossed their bags onto the rack above their seat and closed the door, secluding them in their cubicle as the train stuttered before rolling slowly into motion. He sat by the window and shifted when Hermione sat right beside him instead of across from him. She reached for his hand and threaded her fingers through his, resting them on her thigh before she laid her head on his shoulder.







He turned his head and breathed deeply of her sweet scented curls. She gave her affection so easily with no care for who might see, she was not ashamed to have others witness her regard for him. She kept him off balance.







“Will your mother be meeting us at the station?” She asked.









“No…Mum won’t come to London. There is a floo we can use in the 9 ¾ office.” He said. “I should warn you now, my mother…she is not always in touch with reality, Hermione. Years of living with my father have taken their toll on her and she is somewhat….detached.”









“Oh, how awful for her. Why didn’t she leave?” Hermione asked.







“I wish I knew. He is a brute. There is no kindness in him, no love. He drinks and he whores and he gambles endlessly.” Severus closed his eyes and shook his head. “Thankfully he stays away and is rarely at home anymore. She has a reprieve from his abuse.”







“And you?” Hermione asked softly.









“He has not come near me since I was fourteen and I drew my wand on him when he hurt my mother.” Severus answered. “Only a coward harms women and children.”







Hermione released his hand and slid her arms around his waist, snuggling into his chest and hugging him tight. Severus sat there for a long time with his hand in the air, not knowing what to do with it before finally letting it curve around her shoulders. She didn’t say anything, there was nothing to say. It was what it was; her understanding and her comfort were enough.







Severus lowered his head and gently kissed her temple, rubbing his cheek against her soft curls as she held him. He rubbed her back slowly and watched the scenery roll by outside. He didn’t see Lily standing outside the cabin looking in.







Lily watched Severus hold Hermione, bending down to brush a kiss across her temple and nuzzle her hair. His tender affections for the witch were stunning to see, his face softened when he was with her and the darkness seemed to fade from his eyes. He was stroking her back slowly as he stared out the window.







“What are you looking at?” James asked, stepping up beside her and looking into the cabin. “Snivellous and his girlfriend eh? Why would you be so interested in them?”









“Stop calling him that, James. I am sick to death of hearing it from you and Sirius. Look at him, he cares for her.” She said, smiling softly. “He looks…happy.”







“I thought you said he was too dark to care for anyone.” James said, observing the couple and realizing that Lily was right, Severus looked happy with the witch curled against him.









“It looks like I was wrong.” She said. “Leave them alone, James. You and Sirius need to back off.”









“Oh come on, Lil, its only fun.” James said.









“No, I mean it, if you want us to continue seeing each other you have to promise me you will leave him be, and you have to make Sirius do the same. Promise me.” She said.







“Ok, I promise.” James said, frowning and shaking his head as he headed on down the passage towards their cubicle.







Lily smiled softly and brushed her fingers against the window. Be happy, my friend. she thought before following after James and leaving the couple to their privacy.







******************







Hermione napped for the first hour of the trip with her head resting against Severus’s chest. He didn’t mind. Much to his surprise he enjoyed just sitting there holding her as the motion of the train lulled her to sleep. He couldn’t believe he had told her about his parents. His shame at having grown up in a house filled with such anger and destruction.







He didn’t let anyone come to his home, he never had. No one knew, aside from Dumbledore, the true horror that came from living with Tobias Snape. The man wasn’t just a brute, he was a monster, a demon sprung from the deepest pits of hell. His father resented the magic possessed by Eileen and Severus, was envious of their natural ability to gather and focus magical energy and he made sure they knew it, had beaten it into both of them for years.







He had watched his mother change, lose herself completely over the years. Not that she had ever been a boisterous or overly happy woman. Severus was a lot like her, sullen and withdrawn, keeping to himself primarily. In the last few years his mother had completely detached, slipping in and out of reality to the point that Severus began to wonder if he needed to put her in St. Mungo’s psychiatric ward.







He looked down at the witch sleeping against him and his lips quirked into a slight grin. She was a strong one, she would not be broken. This was a witch who would stand up to a man who dared to turn his aggression towards her. She would fight back and he had no doubt she would go to any length to defend her child from such a man.







She was a witch any wizard would be proud to call his own. He supposed that for the time being he had that right. They hadn’t discussed it, but he supposed she was his girlfriend. He chuckled softly at that thought. Severus Snape with a girlfriend, who would have thought it possible? He had never had a girlfriend before, never dated.







He was friends, to an extent, with Lucius Malfoy and Lucius always provided certain….entertainments… when he held his little parties. Severus was more than eager to take advantage of Lucius’s generosity, hell what young man wouldn’t. But while those women aroused his body, they had never aroused him. The only witch who had managed to do both lay against him, stirring softly.







“Have a nice nap?” He asked as she shifted against him, her hand running idly up and down his thigh.







“Yes, I didn’t snore did I?” She asked, tracing the crease on his trousers.







“Not that I noticed.” He said, shifting slightly when her fingers moved higher and higher along his thigh. “What are you doing?”







“Nothing….just…experimenting.” She said, her hand slipping inward so that her fingertip traced his inseam.







“Hermione…I want to…to use your words, experiment right along with you, but this isn’t the time or the place…anyone can walk by and look in here.” He said, glancing at the door and its clear, uncovered window.





Hermione looked up at him, a stunned expression on her face. She began to smile slowly, her cheeks flushed.







“You are flirting with me!” She said, laughing soflty.







“I wasn’t aware that it was forbidden.” He said, one brow lifting slightly.









“Oh, I like it, I just wasn’t expecting it.” She said. She looked back over her shoulder at the door to make certain that there was no one in the hall and shifted herself into his lap, settling her knees on either side of him on the seat. “So let’s discuss this….experimentation you would like to collaborate on, Severus.”







“You are a bold witch….someone could see…” He whispered, even as his hands settled on her waist.







“See what?” She asked, a naughty smile on her face as she threaded her fingers through his hair.







“Anyone who looks in here is going to think we are…doing more than snogging.” He said, glancing over at the window once more.







“Snogging? You haven’t kissed me.” She whispered.









“My mistake.” He said, his fingers tightening on her waist as he tugged her closer. She lowered her head and he captured her lips with his. For someone who had not kissed another witch he was a quick study. His mouth moved slowly and sensually against hers, his tongue tapping at her lips until she opened her mouth and granted him access.







Her hands tightened in his hair as his hands slid down over the curve of her bottom encased in soft, worn denim. She pressed her hips down into his pelvis, whimpering softly when she felt the hard ridge of his arousal pressing into her. She pulled her mouth from his and looked into his eyes.







“You do like me, don’t you?” She breathed against his lips.







“Do you think I would behave like this if I didn’t?” He asked, nipping at her bottom lip and causing her to squirm in his lap.







“So you and me….we are…I mean, are you my boyfriend?” She asked softly, not quite believing she was actually falling for Professor Snape.







“I suppose I am.” He said, giving her bottom another squeeze and pressed his lips back to hers. She moaned softly and wrapped her arms tight around his neck as they became lost in one another for the remainder of their trip to Kings Cross.







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Wow…and wow again! Thank you all so much for the amazing reviews on this story!!! In general, I do not like time travel fics, you can not begin to imagine my surprise when one began plotting in my head LOL but young Severus broke my heart and I had to write something that gave him happiness. :) Soooo…..its nice to see that everyone is as creeped out by Peter as I was LMAO. It is also nice to see that everyone was also sick of the perfect image given to Lily and the marauders.







Domine – I didn’t think I would like writing it at first LMAO, but then I sort of fell in love with young Sev and it was all over for me. Oh, and I will NEVER turn down anything involving a naked Snape/Alan Rickman







Twinsie – the juicy parts are coming :) never fear….a nineteen year old boy can only keep his hands to himself for so long….even when he is trying to be a gentleman LMAO







Utopia – you naughty thing! They are only nineteen LOL…..but in that same vein do not expect a nineteen year old boy to be content with “limes” for too long….not to mention a passionate, curious witch :) (Besides, it’s the 70’s. free love was all the rage)







AngelBaby – nice to see you reading, luv! Hubby is as fine as one can be from a war zone, I will be glad when he gets to come home. Life is always busy of late, but I still try to devote time in the evenings to writing, it just isn’t always FF, sometimes it is original fiction and currently some rewrites on a project. Already another fanfic is in the works however : )









ShilohDarke – Thanks for reading! SO glad you are enjoying and I was thrilled to see an update on “ghost”!