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Landing by Warded_Portal [Reviews - 25]


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This is a sequel to Falling. Enjoy!
"Miss Granger. How... unexpected." And it was rather unexpected, to see the clearly dishevelled young professor of Potions at the door of his office at ten o'clock on a Saturday morning.

"May I come in?" Hermione smoothed a hand through her unruly hair and tugged on the tie of her ratty old bathrobe.

"No."

"Severus."

"I'm in the middle of --"

"I can't get back to my room." She crossed her arms over her chest, her shoulders rising near to her ears.

"... What?"

"I was in my room when the post arrived."

Severus exhaled heavily, crossing his long arms over his chest.

Hermione gave him a wary eye and forged on. "Harry's asked Luna to marry him and she said yes."

"Oh do pass on my congratulations to them for me, won't you?" Snape leaned against the door frame, making no move to invite his guest inside.

"Look, will you shut it and listen?" He raised an eyebrow so high she feared it might disappear into his hair, traverse his crown, and run down the back of his collar. "Anyway, I was feeling - never mind - I had an idea about the Verdesante and I thought I'd look it up."

"I returned the journals to the Restricted Section last week. I told you as much."

"Yes, I know! I was trying to make my way to the Library when the stairs went - wonky."

"Wonky? Is that another bit of Muggle you've picked up?" He tutted under his breath.

"Yes, wonky. I've no idea what else to call it. The southern stair refused to come up, so I decided to try the eastern stair, and it deposited me on the lower level instead of the second, so I decided to try the tower stair, you know that dusty old spiral staircase we're only supposed to use in emergencies."

Severus pressed his lips together into a fine line, waiting for her to spin down.

"Well, the door of the stair well closed behind me and I was on a landing. There was no stair leading up."

"What? Yes, there is. I take that stair all the time."

"Not today, my hand to Flamel. Anyway, I turned around to leave the stairwell, and the door was jammed tight. So I had to go down another level. Suffice it to say, the only door that worked spat me out on the dungeon level. And I couldn't find the stair to take me back up. It's gone."

"Granger, have you been snorting Floo powder again?"

"Severus, look, you're not helping. The only door on the whole corridor was your classroom. And that's why I'm here. Apparently."

"You expect me to believe you were going to the Library on a Saturday --" She raised an eyebrow at him, echoing his scepticism perfectly. " -- dressed like that?"

Her cheeks flushed with colour. She suddenly developed an intense interest in her thumbnail. "Not precisely." He thought he detected a bit of a chin wobble in her admission, but she covered it adequately.

"I was reading the post. And I was going to find Minerva to have a bit of a cry over it." She looked at him indignantly, daring him to make light of her situation. "And a gust of wind or something tore the letter out of my hand and sent it over the balcony. I still don't know where it ended up." Her shoulders sagged and she covered her eyes with her hands. "Look will you just let me in before someone sees me out here?"

He gave her his best disgusted look and moved out of the way, tacitly inviting her over the threshold.

"Thank you."

Severus stepped out into his classroom and disappeared from her view.

She stood, looking around, wondering what he'd been up to on a Saturday. There was a fire in the grate, a pot of tea on the side table, and a book face down on the wingback chair. A Muggle book, with a garish colour slip cover with a picture of a man in a fedora being held at gun point by another man. "The Glass Key," she read beneath her breath.

He returned and closed the door behind him, regarding her coolly. "There seems to be nothing wrong with the dungeon corridor now."

Her arms still crossed, she sighed, defeated. "Right. Thanks ever so." She moved passed him and as she reached for the door handle, the entire frame groaned and shifted just a hair to the left. She tried the door. It refused to budge. "Merlin's hairy bollocks, this can't be happening."

Snape slit his eyes. He waited until she moved out of his way and he tried. Nothing doing. "Oh you can't be serious. Really?" He seemed to be addressing the ceiling.

"I swear, if I'd have known this curse would affect your office, I'd have stayed away. I would have thought your wards would be suitably --"

"Granger, do you ever stop talking?"

She glared at him.

"Let's try the Floo, shall we?"

What followed was an amazing sequence of events that could not be replicated under the most tightly controlled scientific circumstances. Snape gave the door a searing glare and turned away just in time to see the mantelpiece shrug, like an ox deciding there were too many birds on its shoulders. Most of the items danced up into thin air and settled back down, unperturbed, save for the black and gold porcelain jar labelled Transitus Floovii. It twirled around, lid separating from base, did a triple pirouette and dumped entirety of its green powdered contents into the ash bin, before reassembling itself and settling as if nothing had ever happened.

Hermione and Severus gaped. They looked at one another and then gaped at the perfectly undisturbed contents of the mantel again.

"Why do you keep an ash bin?"

"For security reasons."

"Old habits?"

"You could say that. Shall we attempt to retrieve some more Floo powder from my stores --" A resounding boom filled the room as the store room door slammed shut, making Hermione jump and squeak. "Or not."

"Well. This is awkward."

"I'd say."

They each stared around the room, trying to think.

"Severus, this isn't a curse someone's cast on me, is it?"

"No, I don't believe that it is."

"It feels like the Castle itself is conspiring against me."

"Again."

"Again? What do you mean again?"

He looked at her, remembering that day. Had it only been last term that she'd borrowed his classroom and ended up in his arms after a run-in with a particularly vicious boggart? She returned his gaze, and he silently damned her big brown eyes. "So how's your paramour doing? Weasley still with the Cannons? Oh wait, was it Viktor this week? I can't keep up."

Her face fell. She looked at him like he'd Crucio'd that orange kneazle companion of hers and he knew he'd overstepped. "Severus Snape, you petty little -- bastard!" She took her wand out and started casting unlocking charms on the door. The lock twitched and jumped and did everything she told it to. The door still refused to open because it was physically held in the vice of the frame. She grabbed the handle with both hands and tugged, and then began pounding the bare wood with her fists.

"Hermione, stop. It's no use." She ignored him, letting loose a string of epithets that would have impressed even Albus, who had been quite the talented crafter of curses, behind closed doors. He watched her wince and shake out her fist before trying again, and he grabbed her by the arm. "Stop it or you're going to hurt yourself. You're acting like a first year! Calm down."

"Let go of me, you - overblown pompous prat! You self-obsessed twat! You insensitive prick!" He stopped her when she got to something about doing improper things to goats.

"Listen, what is your problem, little girl?"

"You! You are my problem!"

"Me!?"

"Yes, you! And your, 'here, I've come to lend you books, and oh yes I'll stay for drinks until two in the morning'!"

"Oh, my apologies. You didn't seem to mind the company at the time." He still held her by the wrists, mostly in self-defense as she seemed intent on either landing a punch to his jaw or inflicting some kind of hex on his person. "Did I get you in trouble with Weasley, is that it then?"

"You stupid idiot! Ronald Bilius Weasley is gay!"

"... What?" The question came out as a whisper.

"And so is Viktor Krum!" She jerked away from him and turned back to continue her assault on the door. "You let me out right this very instant! What gives you the right to interfere!?"

The door seemed utterly immune to her pleas.

She whirled back on Severus, wand at the ready. "And what do you mean, again? When has this happened before?"

"Well, not recently, and certainly not to this extent..." He made no move to defend himself. In fact, he gave her a look that made her heart ache. As she watched, he turned his back on her and moved to sit in the wingback chair, setting the book to the side and gesturing for her to take the matching chair. "Go on, Granger. Give it a rest. It's clear we're not to be allowed to leave until we've got this matter sorted, whatever it is."

"Tell me. What do you mean 'again'?" She followed, her wand tip dropping to the floor.

"That day in your - my classroom."

She frowned and gave him a wary look, slipping her wand into her sleeve and taking the seat facing him. She perched on the edge, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. He'd seen her do this only a couple of times before, typically late at night, when he was waxing rhapsodical about the uses of dragon's blood or powdered unicorn horn. "Go on."

"I was trying to get to the Library, while you were using my classroom. No, actually, it started before that, I suppose." He pondered. "It's how I found you in the teacher's lounge. You were so..."

She gave him a look that said she quite remembered how she looked that day and if he gave any name to it at all, he'd best have a method for reconstituting his constituent atoms close at hand.

"Anyway, yes, that wasn't the first time, but it's certainly the most - adamant I think it's ever been. Well, until today."

"Is it the ghosts?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Oh gods, is it Albus? That meddling sherbet sucking -- sweets fiend! I'll -"

"No, Hermione. It's not Albus. I'm sure of that."

"So what are we supposed to do?"

Severus bit his thumb and gazed into the fire, pondering that very question.

"You honestly thought I was seeing Ron again? After all these years?"

He looked up at her, trying to keep his gaze level and cool, but unable to hide the tinge of fury that shown through. "What was I supposed to think? He was in your rooms at one o'clock in the morning."

"Well, you drop by at all hours. As is evidenced by your showing up that night."

"Forgive me for believing I was the recipient of special privileges."

"Oh Severus... You are, you stupid git." She leaned back in the chair. After a moment, she started fiddling with her hair, trying to bring some order to it, bind it up with a knot. "It's just that Ron had some important business. And he forgets, we're not in the same time zone anymore. He'd come through the Floo from the States. And he'd come to ask me if I'd be a reference on his and Viktor's adoption application." She sounded so tired with the whole mess. She glared at the door again. "Now can I go?"

"I wish you wouldn't," Severus asked quietly.

"Severus I am angry and I am tired, and now is not the time to be having this discussion."

"We've been avoiding each other for weeks."

"Be fair. You've been avoiding me."

Snape's lips pressed together in a thin line. "Fine. I rather thought you'd appreciate the distance."

"No, in fact, just the opposite. I was enjoying having you - close."

Behind them, the door creaked in its frame. Hermione looked at Severus with an eyebrow raised. She stood and tried the door. It opened and she sighed, "Oh thank heavens, I'll just get out of your -" The door froze in its progress, not even open a full inch. The handle jerked out of her hand as it slammed shut again. She drew her wand and pointed it at the door, as if it would talk under threat of demolition. "What have I done to deserve this kind of humiliation?"

Severus stood, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt, taking a moment to compose himself. For a moment, pure instinctual reflex told her to cringe and await the explosion, but the curious twist of his mouth and the downright twinkle in his eye said otherwise.

"Oh so you think this is funny, do you?"

"You have to admit, it has a touch of slapstick to it. You're clearly being toyed with at this point."

Hermione's rage was so white hot, the charm holding her hair let go with a spark and her hair stood on end, crackling with fury. She stammered. She clenched her eyes shut. She vibrated in place like a tuning fork.

She felt the warmth of his presence as he stood before her and when she opened her eyes, he was looking down into her face. "You know," he drawled, "you are absolutely beautiful when you're angry."

She opened her mouth to hex his bollocks off and he kissed her. A gentle, relentless kiss, driving her back slowly until she was pressed against the door, her hand gripping the front of his shirt. Severus had risked his life in a thousand different ways. His wisdom and sense of self-preservation were hard fought and hard won. Such wisdom drove him now to keep kissing her until he felt the tension in her begin to fade, and more importantly, until her wand slipped from her fingers. The fact that she threaded her arms around his neck and pulled him close was an added benefit.

"You set this up, didn't you?" She murmured the words against his mouth.

"No, honestly. I did spend the morning wondering where you were and what you were up to, so perhaps you might assign some of the blame to me, but no. Not even were I still Headmaster could I command the Castle to bring you to me." His embrace around her tightened as he said the words. "And even if I could, I value my - mm - life, so to speak."

"Why didn't you ask about Ron?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I thought we trusted one another."

Severus closed his eyes at that, pulling her tight against him again before easing away, taking her by the wrist and leading her back to his chair, where he sat and pulled her into his lap. She started to bristle at the idea, but he gave her no choice, kissing away her protests again.

"You can't keep doing that," she muttered, making herself comfortable. "And it won't always work."

"You understand that trust is not something I come by easily."

She pulled back to look into his face, her brow knitted in a frown. "Do you know how ridiculous that sentiment is, considering how we began our relationship?"

"Oh is it a relationship now?"

She kissed him again by way of an answer. He let her, savouring her growing enthusiasm, her dedication to mastery, and her fervour. When she broke the kiss this time, they were both breathing a little harder. "What do you think, oh great and terrible Oz?"

"I think the Castle dumped you in my office in your bathrobe and now you're sitting on my lap, trying to snog me senseless."

"Isn't that a relationship?"

It was his turn to frown, and he did so, conveying the impression that she was speaking in a different language. One he'd heard before, around the high table, and one he never quite believed she'd succumb to. It sounded suspiciously like woman speak to him.

"My dear Hermione, a mortar and pestle have a relationship to one another. One that is clearly defined. A chair and the floor have a relationship to one another. Even the earth and the moon can be said to have a relationship. These things are empirically observable. I would hypothesize that what you and I have is neither clearly defined nor empirically observable. Certainly we are colleagues. We have a history as teacher and student. I would venture to say that we've become friends, of a sort, over the passed few months. As for the kind of 'relationship' I think you're intimating, I'm unclear on your expectations. I'm unclear on my own expectations. This whole morning seems to have been a sojourn from reality, and while diverting, I am greatly concerned for the moment," he reached up and caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers, "when we have to return to the world as it is."

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth of his hand for that moment. She kissed his palm and then leaned in to kiss him again, licking at his lower lip and moaning softly when he reciprocated, deepening the kiss. For a long moment, they dedicated their attention to this new and wondrous development.

Abruptly, Hermione pulled away, a fierce light in her eyes. "What about a date?"

Severus suppressed his displeasure at being interrupted. "Just one?"

"Well, no, perhaps a series of dates."

"All right. I must request exclusivity."

"Severus," she growled.

"I must insist. I refuse to be kept as part of a stable of men, hanging on your every whim --"

"You ruddy git. You're the first man I've kissed since I left uni."

It was his turn to look confused. "You --"

"Do you remember the part where I told you they were a couple? The two of them, in a committed relationship? Asking for my help with their adoption?"

"Right."

"There is no one else in my 'stable'," she said. "Wait, what about you and that blond I saw you with in Hogsmeade?"

"Colleague. Nothing more."

"What, Malfoy's taken to gender bending now?"

"I'd really rather not discuss it."

"Oh, me neither. Ugh." She pulled a face and he laughed.

"No, Narcissa hexed him for playing around. I was only keeping him company until it wore off. Took three weeks."

"No. Really." Hermione laughed harder and he joined her, holding on to one another until the giggles faded, leaving them resting forehead to forehead. "So an exclusive relationship," she sighed.

He hummed his agreement, enjoying simply holding her. He bent to whisper against her ear, "What about sex?"

She purred and murmured back, "What about it?"

"Well, I find the idea of you," he nuzzled her earlobe, "naked and sweaty in my bed," he took the delicate curve of her ear between his teeth and bit down gently, "to be maddeningly arousing." He soothed the bite with a swipe of his tongue and she shivered in his arms.

"Mmm, gods, yes. That sounds lovely."

There was a rumble and a gentle grinding noise, and both of them held tight to one another as the entire room shuddered and sighed. The door settled in its frame and then clicked once, swinging open as if someone had opened a window and a breeze had blown through. Severus and Hermione both exhaled.

"Do you have to go?" His voice was a quiet breath against her cheek.

"I'm in my bathrobe, Severus. At the very least, I should go and have a bath, and maybe do something with my hair."

"Your hair is fine."

"And you're a liar. We could meet for a late lunch?"

"Make it dinner. In my quarters."

"Severus, what kind of girl do you take me for?"

"My girl," he answered, kissing her thoroughly.


Landing by Warded_Portal [Reviews - 25]


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