CHAPTER 21
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 21 ~ Discovery
Severus and Hermione sat through ten more applicants, almost all of whom the Potions Master tossed out after grudgingly giving them their two galleons. But there was one young girl of about seventeen who played decently. The Potions Master believed she could be taught the proper way to play the piece if given time. Her name was Christa, and she had the most beautiful blue eyes Hermione had ever seen. However, Hermione shook her head and leaned over to Severus.
“When a Harper plays, there is an increase of magic that can be felt by those who listen, as well as a slight glow that increases. Neither occurred with Christa, though she played beautifully,” the witch said sadly. “It makes no sense to accept her when she doesn’t fit the description.”
Severus nodded. The witch was right. The wizard complimented Christa on her playing and told her to continue practicing, giving her three galleons and a half smile before she departed.
Hermione felt a little twinge of jealousy but didn’t say anything. But Severus wasn’t smitten with the young witch. It was the music which made him act less than snarky. Hermione didn’t know that however and it took a moment or two for the knot in her belly to loosen.
“What am I going to do?” she said softly, rising to retrieve the music from the stand. “Who am I going to find to play this? According to Ministry records, the last recorded Harper died over ten years ago. It is a very rare gift.”
The witch’s eyes began to glisten.
“Oh Harry,” she sighed.
“Leave the music, Hermione,” Severus suddenly said to the witch. Hermione froze by the music stand.
“Why?” she asked him.
Severus rose and removed both the violin and the bow from his pockets resizing them as the witch looked on, her eyes rounding.
“You play violin?” she asked the wizard.
Severus frowned at her.
“No, I play the drums,” he replied rather snarkily. “I carry them in this special case to throw people off. Now come sit down.”
Severus opened the case, then began unbuttoning his robes as Hermione sat down, looking up at him, a bit of heat forming in her belly as she watched him, remembering the last time he removed his robes. But this time he wore a white shirt and black trousers beneath them. He really had come to assist her. The witch felt a twinge of disappointment.
“I find robes restricting when I play,” the wizard said to her, picking up his bow and violin, then striding over to the podium. He leafed through the parchment, studying the new finished product, nodding as he scanned the notations. He looked up at Hermione.
“Well done,” he said to the witch, who flushed at his praise. The Potions Master never gave false praise.
“You are the first human being other than myself to hear me play,” he stated, “I presume this is a magic stand?”
Hermione nodded.
Severus brought the violin to his chin and closed his eyes, preparing himself to play the opening strains to Harry’s music.
Hermione blinked as she felt a slight stir in the air. She looked around the room, wondering if there was some kind of draft.
Then Severus began to play.
Hermione was immediately caught up in the clear, lovely, haunting tone of the violin as it sang the first few notes…but there was something odd about them, as if there were another undertone. Again there was a shifting of atmosphere, almost as if an oath were being taken.
Severus began to play faster, and the feeling of accompaniment grew stronger though it was nothing audible, more like something she felt. The Potions Master played beautifully. Hermione thought she never heard anything more poignant or seen a man more sensual as the wizard fell into the song, his bow flying across the strings, his eyes closed, a look of pleasure on his face as if he were making love with music, his lean frame swaying, turning slightly, his arm flexing, body following, hair swinging and tossing in time with his motions. Hermione’s eyes widened and stayed that way as Severus played the song as if his own soul depended on its proper conclusion. He played the last quiet ebbing strains, then ended with a flourish, lowering the violin, his black eyes opening and resting on the witch who was staring at him as if he had grown another head.
“Well?” he said to her, “Was that an adequate rendition in your rather flawed opinion?”
Hermione stared at him, her jaw working but nothing coming out.
Finally she squeaked something.
“What?” the Potions Master asked. What was wrong with the witch?
“You’re a Harper,” she said in a low, awed voice. “I felt the magic…and…and…”
”And what?” Severus snapped at her.
“And you glowed,” she finished, staring at the wizard. “You have the magic of music, Severus. You can fix Harry’s soul.”
Severus blinked at her.
“You’re mad,” he breathed, walking back around the table and putting his violin away, “I didn’t glow. It was your imagination.”
Hermione scowled at him.
“It was not my imagination, Severus. You glowed and I can prove it. Use Legilimency to see what I saw and experience what I felt,” she said, leaning toward him.
The wizard hesitated. The witch sounded quite sure of herself. But no. No, she couldn’t be right…could she?
“Fine. Legilimens,” the wizard said, looking into her recent memories. He started.
Dear Merlin…he WAS glowing. A fine white light silhouetting him at first, then changing to a slight golden hue…and she also felt the accompaniment, as if several other violins were playing with him, completing the symphony. And then, the unmistakable swirl of magic. He pulled out of her mind, his black eyes astonished.
“You saw it. You’re a Harper,” she breathed.
Suddenly Hermione’s arms were around his neck pulling him down and she was kissing the startled wizard, her soft lips moving against his mouth as her curves pressed against his body.
Severus was torn. His first reflex was to push her away, but his secondary reaction urged him to let her continue the kiss…and the third reaction was loin-based, definitely the most convincing reaction of the three so he wrapped his arms around the witch and gave himself over, allowing her access to his mouth, her sweet, seeking tongue entwining with his own. The wizard growled, crushing the witch against him, pressing his growing erection into her belly with some force. Hermione gasped into his mouth.
Severus lifted the witch and sat her on the table, pulling away from her mouth.
“What are you wearing under your robes?” he hissed at her, the blood in his brain draining quickly. Nature didn’t give men enough blood to maintain two heads at once and at the moment, the Professor’s lower region needed the corpuscles more.
“A skirt,” Hermione panted back at him, pulling him back down into another kiss. But the Potions Master’s arms didn’t go back around her, because his hands were too busy pulling his shirt out and unfastening his trousers.
Hermione took advantage of his lust. She released his mouth.
“You’ll help Harry?” she asked the wizard as he opened his shirt, his eyes on her thighs.
“Harry who?” he breathed, lowering his trousers, then his boxers, his huge cock springing out, dripping so fiercely the head looked as if it were drooling. He pulled her forward, impatiently pushing up her robes and skirt.
“Harry Potter. Will you help him, Severus?” the witch asked before shrieking a bit as the wizard pushed her rather roughly down on her back on the table and ripped her knickers off.
Severus grasped Hermione’s waist and rammed his cock into her with a groan, his eyes rolling up in bliss as the witch cried out at his sudden penetration. Severus leaned over Hermione, catching her wrists, black eyes blazing and began to fuck her hard and fast.
“Yes, yes, yes,” the wizard groaned as Hermione cried out rhythmically as her patron once again claimed his right to her body, his huge tool hitting her just right, the witch rolling her pelvis in reaction, causing the wizard to change his angle, realizing what she wanted. He shifted his hips, hitting a different part of her with each stroke, Hermione urging him on.
“Gods, Severus…oh damn!” she cried out, making the wizard increase his ardor, the entire table beginning to move. Hermione orgasmed strongly, her release squirting out of her, wetting his loins and his shirt, but the wizard didn’t care as he hissed, feeling her clench around him. He stopped, looking down at the witch, watching her face contort with bliss, his nostrils flaring as the scent of sex filled them. Fuck, he hadn’t meant for this to happen…but when she kissed him and pressed against him…
The wizard began to stroke her again, slower this time, easing her through the last bit of her climax, the witch purring now, her amber eyes half open as she jerked back and forth gently. He still felt delicious, his hardness filling her, caressing her, claiming her, his dark eyes meeting hers hungrily. Hermione found her voice.
“You’ll help Harry, won’t you Severus? We need you,” she said softly, reaching up and caressing the wizard’s lank hair as he fucked her gently.
Severus looked down at her, pleasure thrumming through his body as he immersed his cock in her softness over and over. Suddenly Hermione bore down on his shaft, making the wizard gasp in reaction.
“You’ll help me, Severus?” she asked again, “Please?”
The witch was a minx. How could he say no when he was burying himself up to his balls inside her? He could say no…but why?
“Yes, I’ll help you,” he breathed, “now be quiet.”
Hermione shut her mouth for a moment before it went slack, her amber eyes growing hotter as he stroked her, her body starting to writhe. She wanted more.
Severus’ face contorted.
“Better yet, don’t be quiet,” he hissed, pouring on the power again.
Upstairs, Eli shook his head as he heard Hermione’s cries.
“Mates,” he said knowingly, going to prepare dinner. The couple would be quite hungry indeed when they finally came upstairs.
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Severus’ black eyes returned again and again to Hermione’s tangled hair as they ate their supper quietly. He had scourgified both himself and the witch, but there was little he could do for her hair. It was a glaring reminder of what they had done in the Spells lab. He found he liked her locks wild and untamed when he was the cause of it.
“You’re very quiet, witch,” he said to her, cutting a piece of steak and popping it into his mouth and chewing.
“That’s because I have next to no voice left,” she said in a near-whisper.
Severus smirked. The witch made him feel as if he were the best lover in the world.
“I’ll give you something for that and your other aches after supper,” he said
“Thank you,” she said softly, looking down at her plate.
The wizard studied her.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
Hermione’s eyes rose slowly and she leveled them on the wizard’s face.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked her, putting down his utensils.
Hermione took a long drink of sparkling pumpkin juice. Her throat immediately felt better. She looked toward the kitchen a bit suspiciously, suspecting Eli added something extra to her drink.
Severus cleared his throat impatiently, and Hermione remembered he asked her what was wrong.
“I was just wondering when you would be returning to Hogwarts,” the witch said, thinking the wizard was sated and wouldn’t stay.
“Not tonight,” he replied.
Hermione smiled before she could help herself, then quickly looked down at her plate again.
Severus didn’t miss her smile. The witch was happy he was staying. Genuinely happy. The wizard couldn’t remember anyone being happy about his presence, except maybe the Dark Lord when he was being tortured.
“However, I am going to be magnanimous tonight. You have a choice whether to sleep in your own bed alone, or in mine with me,” he said to the witch. He was testing her of course. “I must warn you…if you choose to sleep with me there will be a hefty “sleep tax.”
Hermione laughed out loud, she couldn’t help herself as she looked at the sober wizard.
“A sleep tax? Is that what they’re calling fucking now?” she asked.
“No. That’s what I’m calling it for the time being. So what will it be witch? Your bed or mine?” the wizard asked, his black eyes glinting.
“I’ve always paid my taxes,” she said with a smirk, “there’s no reason to stop now.”
Severus felt a little swell in his chest and caught himself.
“I hope you realize that your sleeping with me makes no difference in the larger scheme of things. This is still a purely physical arrangement,” he said sharply.
“I know,” Hermione said, trying to hide her smile.
The wizard snorted in irritation as he saw it.
“I mean that, Hermione. Purely physical,” he declared.
“I’m not complaining. I’ve accepted the terms of patronage, Severus,” she responded, finishing her green beans, still wearing the annoying smile. “I know where I stand. And where I lie, bend, twist…whatever.”
“Good. I don’t want you trying to work any of your witchly wiles on me,” he continued, finishing his steak. “I won’t fall for them.”
“Of course you won’t,” Hermione agreed. “This is just a temporary arrangement after all.”
Severus’ belly tightened uncomfortably when she said that.
“Yes it is. Be sure to remember that,” he snarked.
But the tightness in his belly wouldn’t go away. He changed the subject as Eli entered with fresh fruit and cleared their plates away. The elf was smiling broadly, which also irritated the Potions Master.
“Do you have to walk around here grinning like an idiot, Eli?” he snapped at the elf.
“Why, yes sir,” the elf replied jauntily, walking back into the kitchen with a little skip to his step.
Hermione covered her mouth to keep from laughing.
“You are making my elf insubordinate,” Severus accused Hermione.
She scowled at the wizard.
“He wasn’t being insubordinate. He just answered you,” the witch said, biting into her peeled pear.
“Yes he answered me. Far too frivolously I might add. He wasn’t like that before you arrived. He cringed at my every word,” the wizard said, cutting a piece of his own pear and eating it.
“People change. Maybe house elves do too,” Hermione replied with a smirk.
Severus snorted and they finished their dessert in silence. Severus rose first.
“Come with me into the living room. We need to talk about this situation with Harry,” the wizard said, striding from the table and walking right past Hermione. The witch sighed, pushed her chair out, stood up and followed him. The Potions Master had absolutely NO manners.
He sat down in one armchair and gestured to Hermione to sit in the other.
“You have no idea what Harry’s situation is,” he said to the witch, his eyes resting on her.
Hermione frowned.
“What do you mean I have no idea of his situation? I visit him constantly. I see what’s happened to him,” she said, affronted.
The Potions Master sighed.
“You know outwardly, but not inwardly. You have no idea exactly how much of him is here…with us. No idea what goes through his mind, if anything. How do you expect to heal him, Hermione if you don’t know what he knows or doesn’t know? You have to investigate that. I’m surprised you haven’t perform legilimency on him,” the Potions Master said evenly. “This is what I meant when I said your research skills have atrophied. The old Hermione would have done such a thing right off.”
Hermione stared at him, shocked. How did she miss something so glaringly obvious? It was disconcerting to realize she was so far off her game. Then she looked at the wizard thoughtfully.
“No. I think you’re wrong, Severus. You are the one who is going to repair his soul as soon as I learn the ritual from the Harmonics book. You should be the one to find out what is going on inside him. It may help you,” she said.
Both of Severus’ eyebrows rose.
“Me? In Potter’s head?” he said, shivering a bit. He remembered going into the wizard’s mind years ago when trying to teach the idiot boy occlumency. It hadn’t been pretty and ended quite badly. The wizard’s black eyes washed over the witch. He didn’t have to do it. He could decline and still fuck her.
But the truth was, the situation fascinated him. If he were a Harper, it meant he had untapped powers. He would like to try them out, and currently trying to heal Harry was the only way to do it.
“Very well,” he said. “I’ll do it.”
Hermione gave him her brightest smile yet.
Severus knew to Hermione it sounded as if he had agreed to do something wonderful for another human being, when actually he had selfish motives. It worked out well in a Slytherinish kind of way. Plus, he was now her hero.
They hashed out the details. Hermione would research the actual ritual and Severus would spend the week practicing the score. They would visit Harry over the weekend and if feasible, attempt to restore him.
Hermione’s face was shining with hope and appreciation as she looked at the wizard. He was going to help her…and Harry.
“How will I ever thank you, Severus?” she asked him.
The wizard looked at her a moment, then stood up and caught her by the arm, pulling the witch from the chair and half-dragging her toward his bedroom.
“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” he purred.
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A/N: He’s got the power! Whooo! Lol. Ok, things are moving right along now. Hermione is sure Severus is a Harper. Severus doesn’t seem quite sure, but if he is, he wants to test it. So in a week, they will be at Harry’s. I wonder what Severus will see in his mind if anything. And what about the “ritual?” Ought to be interesting. Please review.