Severus scooped her up, somehow managed to throw back the duvet and slide her underneath. Then, he joined her and pulled the covers up to their waists.

Hermione scooted over to him, wrapping one of her legs over his as her fingers stroked his exposed side, not to tease or titillate but because, sated as she was, she didn't want this feeling to end... ever. The knowledge that it must made her eyes sting as she tried to blink away the incipient tears.

Propped on one elbow, Severus used a gentle finger to ease her hair back from her eyes.

---

"That bad?" Severus asked, trying to make his tone light.

In answer Hermione rolled closer, using her leg to draw them together as she pressed her mouth to his with typical Gryffindor ferocity. "You know damn well you were amazing," she ground out before she tucked her head under his chin.

Severus waited, alternating between stroking her hair and whatever other parts were convenient. After a minute or two, he was rewarded with a muffled reply it took all his years of eavesdropping to interpret.

"That's why it hurts." She lifted her head to show brimming eyes but dry cheeks.

---

Severus kissed the tears from her lashes.

"Why is it that every time something wonderful happens, it can't just be wonderful?" Hermione asked. "There's always a catch."

"Like the fact I'm your greasy old professor?"

Hermione gave him a weak smile. "Hair can be washed. Years are not the measure of a man. And why would I regret finding a man who doesn't only understand me, no matter the subject I choose, but who challenges me and inspires me to be the best I can? A man who can make the heat coil in my stomach with just a look?"

---

"A look?"

"A look." Hermione tilted her head up to his for a kiss. "A word." She pushed stray hairs from his face as he had done for her earlier. "A touch. Even before I knew why. Even before I knew it was the love behind them that gave them power. I will never regret loving you. I will never regret being with you now." She pressed her hands against his chest, and he let her push him onto his back.

She straddled his waist, looking down into his face. "I only wish that this hour could last a lifetime."

---

Severus refused to pacify her with fairy tales of what might be. If Voldemort were defeated. If he were to survive the madman's whim. If neither battle nor treachery were to rend them apart and if... if justice could be appeased without loss of freedom. Far too many ifs to give her false hope.

"If we had a lifetime, you would grow tired of my foul temper," he said instead.

Hermione leaned into him, her breasts pressing to his chest, her lips nibbling their way from his collarbone to his ear. "If we had a lifetime, I would die content."

---

Hermione gave his earlobe a nip. "But, for now, we have this." She crawled backward down his body, kissing him frequently and lingeringly.

Severus let her take the lead, encouraging her with gentle caresses, with the occasional hiss of sharply indrawn breath and silken whispers. His fingertips softly traced the right side of her face from temple to jaw, letting his hand come to rest framing her head. He sighed as she twisted to press her lips to his palm.

She took his fingers in both hands and made to draw his arm straighter, but he tried to pull away.

---

"Not there!"

At the anguish in his voice, Hermione's eyes lifted from the raised skin that marked his left forearm to meet his own. "Does it hurt?" she whispered.

"Not physically," Severus answered huskily. "It's... filthy. You shouldn't—"

"Severus Snape," Hermione admonished, sitting upright. "You're not his. You haven't been his since I was in nappies. Once, yes, it signified the worst choice you ever made. Now, it's a mark of courage. For the last eighteen years, it's been about fooling him and his followers, knowing that your first mistake could be your last. I love you and it."

---

"No, you—"

Hermione stopped his arguments by means of a kiss, not releasing him until they both gasped for air. "Get this straight, you stubborn stupid man. I love you. I choose you. I know you. For Christ's sake, Severus, I've been inside your head. I'm not going to indulge your stupid ideas that you don't deserve to be loved."

"Some spots don't come off," Severus answered as if the words were dragged from him.

"Bollocks!"

Severus's jaw dropped open.

"Yes, I swore. Get over it. You doubt what I see, then look." She stared challengingly into his eyes.

---

"Fuck, no!" Severus reached up and clamped her head between both hands, holding her in place almost as if he would do as she asked. "You might as well ask me to rape you."

"Drama queen!" Hermione goaded, her hands gliding along his forearms, then coming to rest on his deltoids.

"You know damn well Legilimency is never pleasant. It's one thing when it's part of your training and it might save you from more serious harm at a later date, but I'm damned if I'll hurt you for no good reason."

"Then believe me, Severus," Hermione responded slowly, deliberately.

---

"I understand who you were. I forget most of the time because it's who you are that really matters, but I know. I do know what that brand meant when you took it and for maybe three, four years, and if I believed you felt now as you did then, I wouldn't be here. What it is now, what it has been for longer than I've known you, is a weapon in the arsenal you use against him."

"Hermione, you can't just wipe away what I did, who I was."

"Who you are is the bravest man I'll ever know."

---

Severus snorted his disbelief.

Hermione retaliated with a glare that Severus would have been proud to see in a mirror. "How many men do you think would trade places with you?"

Severus raised a trademark eyebrow. "Right this second? In bed with a beautiful woman astride me?"

"Stop trying to distract me with compliments, but that too. I scare men. They feel threatened by me. All of them, except you, Viktor and Neville."

"Illustrious company indeed," Severus answered with sarcastic humour. "Someone whose Boggart is a teacher sworn to protect him, and you forgot M^cLaggen."

"Given the chance, who wouldn't?"

---

"There is that," Severus teased.

"And M^cLaggen wasn't brave enough to knowingly take me on. He was just too arrogant to know what he was doing." Hermione shifted back slightly and drew his left forearm to her mouth, kissing the brand that was, to her, a badge of courage.

This time Severus didn't try to resist.

Hermione grinned and turned her attention to her lover's abdomen, her fingernails tracing the valleys between the muscles as she pressed her lips to the firm ridges. "So, how many sit-ups do you do?" she asked. "And why didn't I know?"

"You didn't ask."

---

"Hermione..."

"Mmmmm?"

"You don't have to—" His fingers twined in her hair and he tilted her head back until he could look into her eyes.

Hermione lifted her head with excruciating slowness, swirling her tongue over the tip of Severus's cock and then tracing the slit before she let him fall from her lips. "Mine," she whispered before she ducked her head again to lick him from base to tip, making him shiver. "All of you."

She shifted forward on her knees, stroking him with light touches until she raised herself above him and guided him to her core.

---

This time was slower. They exchanged sweet kisses as they moved together. Hands slid in whispering touches, leaving tingles in their wake. In the afternoon quiet, every sigh, every indrawn breath seemed to say as much as a thousand words, or as few as three.

Severus finally rolled them both until his weight added to the friction where their bodies joined. His chest grazed against Hermione's erect nipples with every deep thrust. His hands traced Hermione's sides, stretching her arms over their heads, twining her fingers with his. He leaned in to whisper in her ear. "You're mine."

They came.

---

They dozed in each other's arms, staying curled together when they woke. They drank wine as they planned for Halloween. Severus held her in his arms, her back to his chest, as they shared a bath. Tucking a towel around his waist, he helped her dress, recreating the persona of Olivia Prinz piece by piece.

They had stolen as much time as they dared.

Severus padded to his nightstand and withdrew a crystal vial. Hermione recognised the prophylactic potion immediately and accepted it with what she hoped was a grateful smile.

They kissed in the doorway. Then she was gone.