enchantement - SOULBOUND I̲̅ || SS/HG ✔️

23. Unbreakable determination

"There's something strange on your face 'Mione" pointed out Ron as they left potion class, "something with your eyes, they seem -"

"Determined" finished Harry, nodding back at his friend, agreeing with him. "If I didn't know better, I would say you've taken on a challenge."

Hermione's smile radiated, her eyes spitting fire like a dragon protecting its castle. Stepping down the stairs, she couldn't help but deride at Harry's observation, "I haven't, but if I did, I would win."

Harry and Ronald exchanged glances, befuddled by their friend's unexpected attitude. They had seen her act on an impulse, her tenacity whenever exams were coming up, or the drive in her peepers when she duelled assiduously in the Room of Requirements. Nevertheless, it was the first time they've discerned a distinctive light - like a meteorite, flamboyant, vibrant - flickering dangerously behind the veil of amber draping her orbs.

"'Mione I was thinking" muttered Harry as they reached the library "are you taking anyone to Slughorns' party?"

Snickering, Hermione remembered her ghastly decision - in her dimension - to take Cormac McLaren with her. She wasn't going to make the same mistake this time. Or was she?

"Actually, I'm going with McLaren" she decisively announced, her nose gingerly wrinkling - spurning the idea of spending another evening in his repulsive presence. "He seems....fascinating."

The rest of the day was spent studying, or for Hermione, planning. She knew that the only way to get any reaction from Severus was to make him jealous. After all, men are like hunters. If their preys are served on a golden plate, their eyes wouldn't glimmer as brightly as they would if the hunt became challenging. Besides, she knew her husband and his jealousy meter. Taking McLaren will only make his blood boil and his knuckles blanch.

As the golden trio joined the dining hall, Hermione made sure that Severus was paying attention to her before gently stroking Cormac's back - all the while looking straight into Snape's midnight eyes.

"Good evening Granger" laughed seductively the Gryffindor, "how can I help those delectable fingers of yours?"

Trying not to cringe at his inappropriate comment, Hermione leaned over his ear, purposefully descending her hands towards his torso - rubbing his muscles. "I need a companion for Slughorn's party this weekend, care to join me?"

On the other side of the hall, the potion master's eyes were not moving away from the girl's actions - resenting every move, every touch, every whisper. He entered the boy's mind, incapable to contain himself from intruding his thoughts. His jaw tensed and his leg started shuddering in a neurotic way as images of Hermione's naked body being devoured by the blond boy projected from his mind.

Joining her friend back on their table, her eyes discretely drifted to the professor's table. A satisfied grin spread across her face as she was met with the most rewarding sight: Severus trying to lacerate Cormac through his death glare.

"What was that Hermione?" Questioned Harry, feeling uncomfortable by the incessant lip-licking coming from McLaren a few seats away. "He's fowl, what do you think you're doing?"

"Until you haven't sorted things with the ferret your advice is going straight to the gutter" she joked, winking at him. "I need to do something, and Cormac is the missing piece of the puzzle before I obtain my painting."

Harry nodded, knowing it was pointless to dig further - unwilling to start an argument with the Gryffindor Princess. Searching for Ron, who had disappeared a few tables away to share bacterias with Lavender Brown, he saw Malfoy, his under eyes shadowed and his alabaster skin sick-looking.

"Malfoy looks awful" he noted, his verdant eyes glued to the Slytherin, analysing his morose expression, "I've never seen him so..."

"Lost?" Added Hermione, "you need to talk to him, Harry.  If he was truly ecstatic by what was ordered for him to do, he would be skipping around, not gliding hopelessly around Hogwarts."

"I was thinking of following him after dinner."

And he did, but Hermione's focus was on Severus. After all, she wouldn't be called the brightest witch of her age if she hadn't thought about everything already.

Once everyone left the dining hall towards their towers, Hermione waited patiently for her potion professor to reach his chambers.

She bit her lower lip, holding a chuckled as he hastened passed the corridors leading to his room, his eyes piercing through the void in front of him.

Jealousy is a cruel mistress, it can make you say or do things that you making you act 'out of character'. Yet for Severus, it only made him question his attraction towards the young Gryffindor. He knew that he adored her soul, who she was - especially following the war. She was strong, and her she radiated confidence. Furthermore, he couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to feel her naked body glid, nuzzling against his body.

"Stop it Severus" he growled to himself.

He quickly shrugged the thoughts away as he remembered the way she flirted with the dunderhead Cormac McLaren. Severus had always disliked him, now more than ever. He was attractive, popular. Any woman would hex only to spend one night in his company. And so it seems, Hermione had become one of them.

Once he reached his living room, he lit his fireplace with the help of his wand and strolled towards his secret cabinet, taking a bottle of muggle Bourbon. Drinking his sorrow away had become a habit of his since Lily Potter had died, yet this time, he condemned himself for pushing Hermione away.

She was so close to his crip, hocked to his touch - literally. Yet his fears and doubt consumed him, freezing his limbs, preventing him from making love to her.

Severus would never admit it to himself, but he felt lonely. When Seraphina had arrived at Hogwarts, he was hypnotised by her alluring and tempting voice. He had never felt so loved until her mouth reached his most sacred body part. He had relished every sexual encounter with her. However, he knew he was missing something. Her touch wasn't intoxication, it wasn't consuming his soul the way Hermione's had. It had taken over his whole being, her tongue twirling around his making him feel like he was savouring the most sacred fruit. Since then, like venom, the lack of her touch was torturing him, his body aching for his antidote.

A knock on his door stripped him away from his mind. Grumbling in nuisance, he stood up - his crystal glass of Bourbon now empty - and reached his wooden door. His heart skipped a beat, as if it knew before its owner who was standing on the opposite side of the wall.

"Severus" hummed Hermione as he opened the door, her cloak covering the entirety of her body, "may I come in?"

His eyes glided from the tip of her curly hair to her heels, his tongue darting out of his mouth to wet his lips. Trying to gain his manly composure - thanking Merlin for his over-sized mantle, he spoke sternly "I'm busy grading Ms Granger, I would advise you to leave this instant."

He blenched when he discerned the glimmer in her eyes, her pupils dilating perilously, "I don't think so, Severus."

Gently, tormentingly, Hermione brought her hands towards the opening of her cloak and deftly opened it, before letting it fall to the ground.

Severus' body had become none-responsive as the woman that stood before him was now completely naked, her perky nibbles and oiled up skin alerting his senses.

▽ϟ▽

A/N: The classic naked-under-a-big-coat scene. However, is it really going to happen? 📝♦️💋

🗝💙💡
P.S. For those that like to play Sherlock Holmes while reading mystery novels, the last two chapters each contain one secret information for the future of this book. Do you have any idea what it could be?
💡💙🗝

Stay tuned for more,

XOXO ⭐️😘👑