Your Hand in Marriage

When Severus had made his way to his rooms from the front gate, he found Hermione curled up, asleep, on the rug in front of the fireplace. She had obviously been waiting for him to floo in.

Severus sighed in both relief and irritation. He was not used to caring for other people, and even less experienced in wanting to care for another person. It was like Hermione lit a fire in him with her willingness to embrace every part of him. She would never try to make him change who he was, even if she might get hurt in the process. She accepted that he was not white or black, he was merely innumerable shades of gray. When he got short with her in the morning she just laughed at him. She didn’t get moody with him like he thought most women might, and her tinkling laughter made his own moodiness dissolve away.

Even though his burden had become heavier in these last few days, he felt much lighter than he could ever remember.

He moved to pick her up and carry her into bed when she stirred, “S—Severus?” She rubbed her eyes and got to her feet, “Oh Severus, I was so worried for you. When I didn’t feel any pain I was concerned that maybe our bond wasn’t working at a far distance.”

Severus’ eyebrows lifted, “I’m sorry? You were concerned to not feel any pain?”

Hermione nodded, “What if he was hurting you and I didn’t know about it? Not knowing is the hardest. I couldn’t distinguish if my worry was solely mine or if I was feeling yours as well. If I felt the pain, I would have had a better sense of what was going on.”

Severus chuckled and shook his head, “Next time, try to be grateful that you aren’t feeling pain. I would rather you didn’t.”

Hermione merely shrugged and embraced Severus, taking in his scent. He was still a little stiff at being given affection, which Hermione noted. Well, she would just have to get him used to that.

They stood there for a moment, and Severus thought it would be a good time to put her in bed. Unfortunately, a just that moment the floo came to life.

Out of the hearth stumbled Lucius, obviously injured. Hermione gasped and ran to his side, catching his arm and leading him carefully to the couch.

His body was twitching and there was blood around his mouth where he had obviously been gnawing through his lip.

He took in a shuddering breath and lifted his eyes to Severus, “Well do be a good host and fetch your guest some hea—healing potions?”

Severus frowned. Typical Lucius. Grievously injured and yet the attitude remained. He gathered several potions and set them next to Hermione who had summoned a wash basin and cloth. She was cleaning his face, his eyes closed in pleasure at her gentle touch.

Severus scowled at the look on his face and for a moment wished he had been injured so that it would be her hands on his face and not pretty boy Lucius Malfoy, “Don’t get too comfortable Lucius, if you fall asleep in your condition you may die. And we all know what a pity that would be.”

Lucius smirked and then grimaced in pain from his thrashed lip, “I’ve told you old friend, to close in lineage.”

Severus rolled his eyes and began administering the healing potions, “Cruciatus curse?”

Lucius nodded slightly and swallowed a purple potion down, “Naturally. Since he could not punish you tonight, he decided I was somehow at fault for the information leak.”

Hermione frowned, “I thought we had covered that?”

Lucius smiled with his freshly healed lips, “My dear, do you really think the Dark Lord cares if it was actually my fault? He merely needed and outlet for torture. Had he truly suspected me I would simply have been killed.”

Hermione looked suspicious, “I see……so who died in your place then?”

Lucius and Severus shared a look. She was really much too clever for her own good.

“Are you sure you really want to know, child?”

Hermione looked wary, “I don’t understand how we can be doing the right thing and still be killing innocent people by proxy.”

“Madame, I assure you this man was not innocent by any means. He liked to take criminal advantage of children. It’s really a wonder he is not in prison. I would have killed him with my own hands if I thought I would get away with it.”

Hermione was extremely troubled, “But how can we judge a person and decide they deserve to die? Doesn’t that make us just as bad? How can that be right?”

Lucius laughed unkindly, “Right? Right! Oh, my dear, you are so naïve. Right and wrong. What do those things even mean? Like and unlike are the same. What you see as opposites are identical in nature merely different by degree. Extremes meet, and paradoxes may be reconciled. It is the Law of Polarity. Take, for example, heat and cold. Though they are opposites in their essence they are really the same thing. It is merely a matter of degrees.”

Hermione stared at Lucius transfixed.

“Look into Hermetics, the author of the Hermetic laws was Hermes Trismegistus. Your name is the female form of Hermes, which means ‘messenger’. I would not be surprised if that was the reason your mother named you as she did. Hermetics are a large basis for our family’s early education.”



At his, Lucius stood and stretched his now healed body “Thank you, as usual, Severus. Your healing potions are truly one of a kind. I do hope you will not object to my request to continue to call for them now that you have a domestic partner?”



Severus looked at Lucius sideways. He sort of felt like punching Lucius in the face, but it did not seem like the best course of action, “Certainly, Lucius. I will not deny you the expedited healing powers of my potion making. Particularly if you continue to divert a few Crucios from heading my way.”



Lucius laughed and made his way back to the fireplace looking to Hermione, “Well, child, I do hope you enjoy your Sunday. Come Monday all news of your union will be front page and I believe you have Draco in nearly every class?”

He smirked and waved his now gloved fingers. “Ta ta…”

And in a flash of green he was gone.

Hermione looked a little green herself, “Oh gods Severus, I cannot believe I have to face everyone come Monday. Some students are cruel enough as it is.”

Severus gathered Hermione in his arms, “I’m sure they will fear my wrath far greater than they desire to tease you for marrying me.”

Hermione smiled, “I do hope so. However, I am not above some nasty hexes, so unless they want to be sporting antlers, boils, or permanent pustules they had better keep it to themselves.”

Severus was pleasantly surprised that his wife was not as innocent as she seemed, “Well my scheming little witch, I must be off to the Headmaster’s study to debrief him on the happenings tonight. As you can see by my unscathed presence, the plan is working—for now. I do not believe we can fool the Dark Lord indefinitely, but hopefully we can hold him off until we are well-prepared to finish him off.”

Hermione nodded and kissed Severus lovingly on his hooked nose. He looked at her in surprise—she really was an amazing witch.

“I have half a mind to tie you up and never let you leave my presence, witch.”

Hermione’s cheeks grew pink and he felt a throb coming through his bond. He quirked his eyebrow in response and the rest of Hermione’s face colored.

“Well little witch, I will have to see about that rope when I get back.”

With a smile at her shocked face, Severus jumped into the floo, “Headmaster’s Office!”

~ * ~

Three hours and fifteen minutes later, Severus finally flooed back into his study. He saw Hermione was not in the room, so he concluded she must already be in bed. He was a little disappointed to be honest; he was really hoping to get another night of sticky sheets and sweaty ringlets.

He walked quietly into the room and stopped suddenly.

Hermione was naked on the bed, reading from a book, and trying a rope harness around her chest.

Severus backed up against the door, the noise alerting Hermione to his presence. She covered her mouth with her hands, “Oh. Hello, Severus. I was just… erm… doing some research.”

Severus shook his head as if trying to shake a haze and walked towards the bed. He picked up her book and looked at the cover, “Two Knotty Boys Showing you the Ropes? Decorative rope bondage.”

Hermione lost her shyness and got to her knees on the bed, “I hope you don’t mind. It just seemed terribly interesting. I particularly like this one…”

She pointed to a page in the book and Severus gaped, Good Gods, it’s got pictures.

Hermione was showing Severus a picture of a woman entirely suspended by rope, her legs bent at the knees and spread in wide invitation. It looked almost as if she was in a sex swing, but it was actually a rope harness suspended to bars.

Severus thought of Hermione in that position and grew hard, he looked at her naked body knotted in ropes and picked up some rope in his hands.

“As you wish, my little witch.”

Hermione shrieked as Severus used his wand to spell the silk ropes in the same manner he saw in the photograph.

Flushed and panting, Hermione looked down on her body, held snugly in rope. Her arms were bound above her head and she swung herself forward a little resulting in a rocking movement.

“Amazing,” she gasped.

Severus looked at her face, errant curls falling into her eyes, “I would have to agree…”

He divested himself of his clothing and knelt in front of where she was suspended on the bed and she pushed her pelvis forward in invitation. Severus shook a finger, “Ah ah ah, little witch. Now I’ve got you at my mercy and I’m going to make you suffer in the most pleasurable way possible.”

Hermione whimpered and pushed her pelvis forward again, effectively creating a swinging motion that nearly reached his chest.

He grabbed the hanging ropes and stilled her, “Naughty witch, all that moving is just going to prolong your agony.”

Hermione’s eyes widened at ‘agony’ and Severus grabbed her foot, which dangled from the suspension point at her knee.



He ran his tongue softly on the arch of her foot and she squealed loudly. Severus looked up with a smirk, “Now dear, if you make too much noise I’m going to have to gag you.”

A gasp and a throb were her response; “I’ll take that as a yes,”

He conjured a small horse bit, which was padded with leather and conjured it to fit loosely on her mouth. Her noticed a distinct increase in her visible wetness and he knew he had gone about it the right way.

“Now where was I? Ah yes..”

He took his tongue to the arch of her other foot and she uttered a muffled squeal and curled her toes. Severus moved up and laved at the hollow spot under her ankle to which she shuddered.

“So responsive, my little witch. Eager for knowledge always, even the most carnal?”

She nodded vigorously with glazed eyes and swung herself forward again.

“Tsk tsk, little witch. You don’t move until I tell you to or you will get nothing.”

Hermione stilled immediately.

“Good girl.”



Severus continued up her calf, make small nips that made Hermione twitch in her binds. When he got to her knee, which was bound above and below the joint, he ran a slip of silk across the underside. Hermione’s cunt clenched,

“Yes Hermione, it’s amazing what sensations we can get from the most underused parts of our bodies. We should never dismiss them just because they are used less often.”

He traced his long fingers up the backs of her thighs, which quivered in their bonds, and then bit down hard on her inner thigh. Hermione arched her back and bit down hard on bit. She had no idea that pain could be so pleasurable. She had never even thought of it as anything other than undesirable, but now- as he laved his bite mark- she felt there was a whole spectrum she needed to look into. She noticed he liked feeling her pleasurable pain as well, when hit bit her he has stiffened and thrust reflexively into the bed. She knew it must have been the feeling of the connection.

She suddenly felt his long finger caressing her folds and she bucked in response. He was being slow about it, taking agonizing time to trace around her nub, but never on it.

“Would you like my fingers in you, little witch?”

She tried to speak through her gag what sounded like a muffled please.

“Then fuck yourself on them.” He positioned his long fingers just out of reach of her nether lips and looked at her challengingly.

Hermione narrowed her eyes in concentration and swung forward, feeling the tip of his fingers barely graze her mound. She groaned and swung forward again and was rewarded with his fingers sliding barely into her cunt.

With one more swing she got his fingers in herself up to the knuckle, but whimpered sadly as she felt them begin to slip out as gravity swung her backwards.

Severus grabbed her bound waist and shoved his fingers deep inside her wetness, curling his fingers upwards, “Such a good little witch, I think I shall give you a reward.”

He pumped his fingers in and out of her and pressed his thumb to her clit, “Is this what you want?” Her muscles clenched in response, “Yes, I thought so…”

He scissored his fingers and she bucked, the ropes recoiling her like a yo-yo, but just as she began to tighten in completion, Severus removed his fingers.

Hermione’s bottom lip pouted out from beneath the horse bit until Severus replaced his fingers with his face. He buried himself in her snatch, tonguing deeply into her canal. His nose was rubbing her clit and he shook his face in her cunt. He moved his fingers back into her heat and sucked strongly on her nub, he felt her nearing her first orgasm like a rapidly approaching train and he gasped and pulled away from her cunt, propping her up to be still on his knee so he could rub her clit in circles with his free hand. He pumped three fingers against her g-spot rapidly as he rubbed her cunt roughly, “I want you to come for me Hermione, come all over my hand. Come for me.”

Hermione clutched him internally as she obeyed his command. She bit down hard and her bound hands pulled tightly on the rope above her head.

Severus positioned himself in front of her, his cock pulsing and purple-headed. He held it firmly in the hand the she covered her juices with, rubbing the head and mixing her cum with the weeping droplets from his own cock.

He lowered her restraints slightly so they were inline with his member and pulled the ropes so she began swinging towards him, grazing her sensitive slit on his cock. She gasped through her gag and rocked hard in the ropes, trying to get closer to his cock, “That right, witch. Fuck yourself with my cock. Earn my cock.”

She pulled herself up with her bound hands and let go, swinging like a wrecking ball onto his cock, they both groaned deeply as she sheathed herself completely, her tightness refusing to let his cock out of it’s grip.

Hermione rocked back and forth, trying to get some friction as Severus struggled not to lose himself. She found a rhythm and was swinging on the ropes back and forth as Severus gripped the bedpost behind him, his pelvis thrust forward for her to impale her self over and over as she swung from the ropes onto his cock. Her tits were bouncing in their roped confines, rubbing deliciously against the snug twisted silk.

Severus couldn’t take the slow torture anymore and with a growl he sprang forward and grabbed the ropes connected to her waist. He used the ropes for leverage, pulling her hot cunt onto him. Pummeling her with his tool, filling every inch of her sweet sheath. The head of his cock was brushing up against her g-spot and he felt the walls of her cunt shuddering. She was pushing against him with all her might and he let go of the ropes to take her waist in his hands. He thrust powerfully into her, gripping her hips tightly as he felt his release approaching with hers. His balls began to smack roughly against her ass and his cock throbbed and swelled in her wetness. As Hermione felt Severus’ cock swelling with impending release she looked at him, his head back mouth open in pleasure. As their eyes connected she tightened around his cock and arched her back in climax. Severus felt her orgasm wash over him like a tidal wave and he thrust once more through her tight, clasping walls and spilled his seed deep into her cunt. He fell forward, grabbing the ropes to keep himself upright as she continued unconsciously rocking herself onto his still throbbing cock.



He flicked his hand and her binds fell off, dropping both of them unceremoniously onto the sheets with a dual “Oof!”.

Brushing Hermione’s sweaty hair of her face he saw her laughing through her bit gag. He chuckled softly as he removed it by hand.

He rolled over and grasped her warm body to his and she trailed her fingers on the rapidly cooling sweat on his back.

“Severus?”

‘Mmpf?” was his sleepy reply.

“I think I’d rather like to try more things next time. Spanking, perhaps?”

This woke Severus up, “You think you want to try some BDSM, pet?”

“BDSM?”

Severus propped himself up on his elbow, “It stands for ‘Bondage, Domination, Sadomasochism’. I can show you some books so that you can see what you might like.”

Hermione smiled, “If you have the books, I’m guessing it’s something you enjoy. I was somewhat concerned you might think I was acting too slutty.”

Severus smirked, “You say slutty like it’s a bad thing. Sexuality is not bad if it is done between consenting adults who know each other’s needs and limits. And as long as it’s only with me. I’ll give you some reading material tomorrow. Now sleep, pet. It’s been a long day.”

They cuddled together under the satin sheets, and Severus turned the lights down. He kissed Hermione’s forehead and settled in for the night, thanking whoever was responsible for making women like Hermione in world.


A/N: Hermes Trimegistus was a real person- or was at least a supposed real person in Ancient Egypt and Greece. He wrote the Seven Hermetic laws, one of which is included in the above chapter. The etymology of their names is also correct. Hermione is the feminine of Hermes, both of which mean ‘messenger’.

Two Knotty Boys showing you the ropes is a real book on decorative, erotic rope bondage and rope tying. I own it and it rocks! There are no suspension guides in that particular book, but it’s a good one anyway.

Here is a Japanese artist's rendering of a pose similar to the one I describe in this chapter: http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.en/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/kenhamaguchi2.jpg

Thanks again to my reviewers. You inspire me to continue this story. If you have not reviewed, please do! Your comments and critiques help drive the story.