oO Three Weeks Later Oo

Severus had never felt a warmth so completely envelope his soul as he did when he opened his eyes. The world around him was suspiciously hazed with soft purples and gentle blues. His body felt completely out of his control, though his mind was supposedly turning.

The warmth that had encased him began to move and so did this dreamlike world. He was sure he wasn't dreaming, everything felt too sharp, too real, yet he couldn't be sure. His head rose slowly from the soft pillow beneath, the world gave way to a most beautiful—though mischievous— smile.

His tongue did not obey his command to inquire nor did his arms come to remove the angelic like vision before him. Granger's hair shielded everything from view as she came closer. Her eyes bright, no line to mar their wonderous shine. He could feel his throat contract when she leaned ever closer.

Her breath wafted over his frozen lips and though he tried, there was nothing to stop their softness from pressing against his own. The world turned on its side as it suddenly became clear that there was nothing between them. Though he was very certain he had gone to bed wearing clothes they seemed to have vanished.

Her weight, though unimposing, rested just over his hips. The heat between like an inferno. His own body burned with desires he would have never allowed himself. It was then his brain jolted, alerting him that this couldn't have possibly been reality. Despite this, he found himself watching her lean back onto her heels over him. Her body arching up towards the sky. Her skin glowed in the ambiance of the room as smooth and as perfect as the day she was born. Her hips shifted and there was a moment where he felt their souls connect in the most primal of ways.

"Please...hurt me..." Her words came from a memory, a deeply repressed and painful one that made his stomach churn despite the pleasure their union sought to provide.

Severus jolted sharply, his breath inhaling so quickly he nearly choked on dry air. The room around him had gone dark, his limbs sluggishly reacting to his hasty command to come to his rapidly moving chest. A quick assessment of his person told him that the image that had just dissolved was, in fact, a dream. Though his heart couldn't be sure until he cast a silent spell over to the bedside lamp illuminating the darkness.

His body turned heavily onto its side as he blinked his eyes into focus, searching through the receding blackness. A heavy breath left his chest and nearly collapsed him onto his stomach when soft curls a safe distance away came into focus. Her head was turned towards him, but she was laying on her back. One hand had come to rest over her head while the other was tucked awkwardly under her chin. It was an odd pose but it was most certainly better than finding her curled into a small ball inside the blankets she would steal from him.

As it was, the blankets had made it halfway down her frame. Resting just above her hips were a small bit of skin showed through from the ruffled shirt she had taken to wearing to sleep in. It was his, of course, captured for her nightwear. She had originally taken to wearing boxer shorts as well but since he'd managed to transfigure her underclothes for her more feminine figure she had completely forgone the extra bottoms at all as the shirt was more than long enough to serve as a night dress.

A small pulse ran from his head towards his groin and he knew there would be no more rest until it was dealt with. A glance towards the drawn curtains told him that dawn was quickly approaching and he carefully pushed himself from his side of the bed with a heavy groan of pain. A quick look over his shoulder released only some of the tension in his back as the girl merely turned her head the other way.

The weeks that had passed had been an emotional rollercoaster of long nights, screaming nightmares and breakdowns. He had been steadily returning the memories she had hidden away inside the orb but it hadn't been an easy process. The more he returned, the more unpredictable her moods had become. Going from quiet and following orders blindly; to nearly destroying the entire trunk with the both of them inside it. He had no idea what would have happened to them had she actually succeeded but he never wanted to find out.

Her magical prowess was steadily increasing. She was just as an astute student as she ever was, taking on average only four tries to successfully complete the new spells he'd given her to practice. He hadn't wasted much time on teaching her things she would have already known as he'd discovered with the return of her memories the spell knowledge came along with.

Her physical strength was also increasing at a steady and healthy pace. The wirey frame that denoted her malnutrition was no more; she had grown into a lean and equally as deadly, jungle cat. Her body was nothing but solid muscle mass. Her punches definitely hurt when they hit now, and more than once he'd had to swallow his pride and put bruise salve over his abused frame.

Her new favorite past time was sparring. Something Severus had never taken great skill in but he could street fight to some degree and when she'd expressed interest he'd obliged if only to keep her from breaking her knuckles on one of the dummies meant to test spells. It hadn't even occurred to him that she'd have any talent in it until she'd all but kicked his arse three ways to Sunday during their first match.

It was only later when he was returning more memories of her childhood that he'd discovered her parents had enrolled her in martial arts classes as a way to try and get her out of the house more. She'd only participated for two years, but like everything else in her life she'd ever done, she did so to her fullest. It was a surprising twist, to say the least.

A hiss left his throat as the cold water ran down his sleep-warmed frame. He closed his eyes tight as his body began to unwind. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up with this particular 'problem'. He was a viral male after all. It was part of his biology. It was, however, the first time he had ever had an image to ignite such a biological response. A weaker man would have let himself fall into the pleasure of fantasy. He was no such man.

A soft knock to the bathroom door broke the small bubble of silence he had created for himself and he couldn't help the snarl that crawled over his face, nor the sharp whip-like tone that passed his lips, "Yes?"

"Can...I use the toilet?"

Her voice sounded heavily muffled with sleep and the wood that stood between them. His eyes shot over towards the small closet that housed the toilet away from the rest of the bathroom and growled low in his throat. The shower door was more than concealing and he was sure she was much too sleepy to even dare to take a peek of his form, not that he could ever imagine that she'd want to.

"Alright."

Hermione let out a heavy body shaking yawn as she turned the handle. The warm air that wafted over her face felt near heavenly. The air of his rooms had turned cold with the season and she had a bad habit of kicking the blankets off during her sleep. His body heat alone was like a personal space heater. She'd woken only minutes after he'd left, the warmth he provided gone.

She didn't even dare to raise her head as she dragged her feet past the shower, though the cat of curiosity was clawing away at the back of her mind. He had respected her privacy through all of this and even though circumstances had revealed all of her to him the opposite could not be said. He was still very much her elder, though she was no longer technically a student it was still very difficult at times to remember that the barrier between them had long since been broken down.

Severus tracked her until she slipped into the small closet and let his head fall back under the spray of water. Had he no space to call his own anymore? Nearly every moment of every day had now been taken over by this woman who was never meant to be there at all. He had pleaded with the powers that be to provide him with an opportunity to let her loose but his heart had kept him from actually going through with anything. He didn't want to admit it, not even to himself, that he desperately needed the companionship. The human contact. The interaction. His life of self-imposed solitude had surely built a wall but its hold on his heart was steadily crumbling. He wouldn't say he cared for the girl beyond what was respectable, but he surely cared.

"Thank you..." Hermione paused in the doorway, turning her eyes up to the head that was just visible over the fogged glass, "Please come back to bed when you're finished? It's barely 4 am..."

"I'll consider it..."

Severus' heart ticked just a touch at the small dreamy smile that floated over her lips before she slipped back through the doorway. A small shake of his head lowered his it down and he found that his previous problem had resolved itself. With no other excuse to stay in the shower and a body much to heavy to do much else than stand, he shut off the water and cast a quick drying charm over his frame.

Hermione wasn't as naive as she appeared to be, she had taken note of his almost routine retreats to early morning showers. Sometimes she'd sleep through them but her nose would always alert her to his fresh scent. There was very little that could hide from her heightened senses. That in combination with her returning critical thinking skills it hadn't taken her very long to understand why he would suddenly get the urge to shower at ungodly hours of the morning. She wanted to tell him that his...condition, didn't bother her. That she knew he wasn't like the others, that she wasn't afraid of him because of his...perdiciment. She just didn't know how to bring it up in polite conversation.

A deep groan passed her lips as she crawled back into their bed. It still made her feel a little odd to call it theirs but there was no way she was going back to sleeping separately. They had tried once, it hadn't ended well. Her nightmares were still as present as ever but she was able to self-sooth so long as she could feel him beside her.

Another soft sigh brought her to her side taking up the warmth his body had left behind. Her mind was becoming clearer and clearer each night, though she wasn't sure how, it was like pieces of her soul were slowly being replaced. Piece by tiny piece she was becoming more complete. The only constant was the presence of the man beside her. She didn't want to lose that progress even though she was quickly reclaiming the ability to stand on her own. It was too precious.

"You're on my side."

"I am."

"You're not going to move are you?"

"Nope."

Severus ran a tired hand down his face before pulling the covers from her grip. Her soft squeak of surprise only made his lip twitch with revenge-like humor before he was rolling her out of his spot with a well-placed hand to a particularly sensitive ticklish spot around the dip of her waist. Her hand came out to push at his chest but he caught it easily enough.

The small struggle to keep him out of the bed took a small twist when Hermione gave his tank top a sharp pull. His own startled noise left his throat as he landed squarely over top of her, their foreheads actually thumping together rather nicely before his head was buried into the pillow under her head. Her lips pressed hard into his ear and for a moment he thought he'd injured her before a soft chortle rattled through her into him.

"Well, that's one way to get into bed." Hermione shifted her head as best as she could with her hair trapped under his hand. Her own wormed their way from between their chests to try and make some breathing room. She could feel a warmth growing in her stomach when he fumbled to get his bearings. When he finally managed to get to his elbows and one knee she couldn't help but smile at the look of shock over his face.

"One...that I don't wish to repeat." The words were a salty lie, even as he said them he could see the small light of humor that had grown in her sleepy eyes growing dim, "At least...not right now..."

Hermione's fractured smile twitched and she couldn't stop herself from reaching between them to push the hair back behind his ears, "Noted..." Her eyes lingered over the way his eyes turned down to watch her hands and for a moment she thought she saw just a hint of something she didn't dare to give a name. She herself couldn't even understand how perfect it felt to have his entire frame pressed against her own. He had held her yes, but this was different somehow, a way that she couldn't quite identify.

Severus swallowed and carefully shifted his weight back onto his hip. Another small adjustment from the woman beside him brought harmony back to the bed and they each settled down into their respective positions before Granger decided to cross the invisible barrier. He watched  dumbly as she settled down in front of him with her back to his chest.

"Hold me?" Hermione watched his lost look from over her shoulder before reaching back for his hand that hovered near his own hip, "Please?"

"Will you promise to rest?"

"I will." Hermione opened and closed her hand impatiently until she felt his fall inside. A deep sigh of contentment left her chest as she pulled it around and up to her chest. Her lips rested along the back of his fingers tips as she settled back against him. She could feel his body going tense from their contact but didn't relent in her hold.

It took him a good thirty seconds before he actually relaxed himself down, his arm coming under the pillow. She adjusted her head to its addition before pressing her lips, like a soft kiss, against the backs of his lax fingers and closed her eyes.

oOOo

"I can't believe you can't remember where you buried it."

"I wasn't exactly thinking clearly, Ron." Harry huffed softly and took a deep breath against a nearby tree, "I think Hermione's journal was right...the Horcruxes...they do something to you...I mean...we haven't always got on all the time but we've always stuck together when it counted."

Ron nodded his head solemnly, they had both apologized for their roles in their argument that had set them apart. Each had taken the time to reevaluate just where exactly they needed to go from there. Now that they had the sword, the could actually do something about the horcuxes they would find. A soft sigh pushed him up from where he'd taken a rest, "You still having that dream?"

"Yeah..." Harry pushed the cold sweat from his brow and turned his eyes out over the vast lake, "It's like...I know who that was...I just...I can't think of who..."

"Well you said the Patronus was a doe...maybe it was some divine intervention?"

"Yeah, maybe...I don't know but the woman I see in my dreams is most certainly not my mother...they almost looked...like a demon or something? But without the malicious intent, you know?"

"I guess..." Ron scratched at a random bug bite under his chin, "Do you think we should try to look for the other horcuxes and come back to this one?"

"No...I think the simple fact that no one has come to cut off our heads over this one leads me to think that he's protecting the others...No, we start with this one... Hermione's journal hinted that the Ravenclaw one was probably at Hogwarts and you and I both know that neither of us are going to march up to that castle and live to tell the tale."

"Yeah..." Ron nodded his head puffing out his cheeks, "What about the other one? The cup?"

"No idea where to start on that one... We've already looked where Hermione's journal suggested, it wasn't there."

"Where would old snake-breath put something he didn't want to be found easily?"

Harry shook his head rubbing his temples, it was hopeless without some sort of clue, and of those they were running thin. They'd had no contact with anyone outside of the other the past few weeks and the isolation was leading them to think in circles, "Maybe we should try and contact the order? See if maybe...they've heard anything?"

"I guess...we're not doing anything here..." Ron picked up a random stone and tossed it out over the partially frozen lake, "Next time you decide to hide something, at least draw a map."

"Noted...come on, lets go back to the camp and get warm."

"Right..."

oOOo

"I want to try this one." Hermione lifted the book from her lap to show to the man who was bringing in their lunch from the office. They had both risen shortly after breakfast wrapped in each other's embrace. Neither one had known what to say about it and had thus silently separated to go about their morning routines. Hermione would have been remiss to say that she didn't enjoy waking up held so tightly in his arms but she wasn't so sure he'd felt the same given the speed in which he had dressed that morning.

Severus spared the page a glance as he set down the tray on the coffee table between the chairs, his brows rising to his hairline, "Fiendfye? That's extremely powerful and very difficult to control."

"I know, but I do have an amazing tutor." Hermione bit back the grin when his face twitched and pulled her legs out from under her, "You can do it right?"

"Of course." Severus felt his feathers ruffle just a bit and his glare showed it, however, it had lost all of its previous intimidating power against the girl and he could only let out a heavy breath through his nose, "We'll need a safe place. Someplace that won't try to kill us if you fail."

"Any suggestions?" Hermione set down the book beside the tray taking her plate into her lap.

Severus' brows furrowed as he thought deeply about where such a place might be. It would have to be outside, someplace where the likelihood of someone stumbling across them would be slim. He wracked his brain as he took his seat across from her. His mind continuing to turn over the such a place before the chime to his office sounded.

"Saved by the bell." Hermione tried to hide her pout but it was impossible as she flopped back into her chair. Sometimes it was easy to forget that there was a world turning outside those four walls. That there were people—other people—living their lives day to day in the company of more than one person. It was a loneliness that had settled heavily in her heart but she wouldn't allow herself to be weighed down by it. After all, there were many things yet to come.

"Quite." Severus pushed himself up from his chair, "Eat."

She gave him a mock salute to which he rolled his eyes and continued onward. Just one more day to get through, just one more day. One more step closer to the end of it all.