Here's the last chapter! I can't believe this story took me over 4 years to complete, but I'm so glad I managed it in the end. I've made this chapter extra smutty to make up for the time it took to get here ;) Please let me know your final thoughts in a review, they mean so much. And most of all: enjoy!

...

Hermione walked out of the headmistress' office beaming. That had gone remarkably well. After she had parted from Severus after his revelation all those weeks ago, she had put all of her energy into executing her new plan. It had also provided a necessary distraction from her ever-present longing for her potions professor.

It was the day before the Christmas holidays. She would be going to the Weasley's again this year. With her parents obliviated, Hermione had nowhere else to go. She could have stayed at Hogwarts, of course, but she had another motive for spending the next week with her friends – it was time to tell them about her relationship with Severus. If she wanted to be with him, she couldn't keep it from those closest to her.

As much as she didn't feel like any kind of confrontation, Hermione knew that it was best to let her friends know before they somehow found out about it themselves. Hermione didn't want to even imagine what would happen if Harry checked the Marauder's Map and found her in Severus' rooms at night. Because she was planning on spending her nights in those rooms in the near future.

After she had finished packing, Hermione went down to the dungeons to bid Severus goodbye. If she was lucky, she'd get a kiss out of it too. But she was going to hang on to her secret a little while longer.

…...

Severus sat on his sofa resting his head on his chin and staring at the little vial wrapped in silver in front of him. It was Christmas day and Severus had finally completed his cure for the after-effects of the Cruciatus curse. In all his determination to find the cure in time to give it to her for Christmas, Severus hadn't considered how he would get it to her. Surely it would raise too much suspicion to send it to her with a Hogwarts owl? And besides, the selfish part of him wanted to present it to her in person.

Severus had never really celebrated Christmas before. As a child, Christmas was always overshadowed by the abusive dynamics within his family, and since leaving home he had never had anyone to celebrate Christmas with. He usually spent it with a book and a bottle of good wine, and that had always been pleasant enough.

But now that wasn't what he wanted any more. Now he had Hermione, and he wished he could spend the day with her. Not that Christmas was particularly significant to Severus. He often found it beyond irritating, it was dragged out for far too long and was really just commercial and kitschy.

All the same... to spend Christmas with another person would symbolically mean that he was no longer alone. That he had family. That he was loved.

Love. Severus' chest warmed at the thought. Did he love Hermione? Undoubtedly. Did she love him? That was not a question he could answer. He would just have to wait and see.

As Severus started contemplating just how long he would have to wait before there could be any talk of love between them, there was a knock at his door.

Expecting to see one of his colleagues, although it was highly unusual for any of them to come to his quarters, Severus half-heartedly trudged to the door and opened it.

Only to freeze in surprise to see Hermione standing before him wearing a wide smile.

She launched herself into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him passionately. Severus barely knew what had hit him but responded with equal fervour while walking backwards towards the couch. He could feel his heart thudding and there was a rushing in his ears. Finally she was in his arms again. He dropped her on her back and followed her, covering her body with his long one, and pressing himself into her. They were kissing feverishly, their hands were wandering, and soon Severus' hips started thrusting into Hermione's.

Hermione's loud moan startled Severus out of his lust induced haze, and he reluctantly broke the kiss. He was breathing heavily and briefly buried his face into her hair before pulling away. Hermione took a few moments to gather herself, before she too sat up and calmed her breathing. Her hair was a wild, curly, mess and her lips were moist and swollen. Severus felt awe at the sight.

"Happy Christmas, Severus" she smiled at him.

"Happy Christmas indeed, Hermione, now that you are here. Why aren't you at The Burrow?" Severus couldn't stop his hand from caressing her blushing cheek. How could someone be so beautiful?

"I missed you. And I wanted to give you your present in person." Hermione looked excited and seemed unable to sit still. Severus noted that she had made no effort to keep the contact between them chaste, something they had agreed was necessary in order to make the wait bearable. What had changed?

"Me first," was all that Severus said, and he gave her the vial that was still sitting on the table.

Hermione took it and opened it curiously, admiring the intricate pattern of the glass vial and unable to recognise the clear blue potion inside. She look at him with confusion.

"I've been working on it since the end of the war, and since your time in the hospital wing I have spent all my spare time developing it, that's why I seemed so distracted. It's for you, Hermione. Drink it and there will be no more repercussions from the Cruciatus curse. It will have immediate effect and what it does is -"

Severus was interrupted by Hermione throwing herself at him again and attacking his lips with hers once more. His arms went round to hold her as their legs tangled, and his cheeks became wet from her tears. When he noticed that she was crying, he pulled away again. "Hermione," he whispered, "don't cry."

"I love you, I love you so much, thank you Severus, no one has ever -"

This time he interrupted her by taking her lips again. He groaned at the force of the feelings her words had evoked in his chest and cradled her head in his hands while rocking his body over hers. He felt crazed with the powerful desire that surged in him. She loved him.

She cried out as he tugged at her lower lip with his teeth and the feeling of his erection pressing against her own core sent a wave of heat flooding through her. She began grinding up against him and her breath quickened as their movements became increasingly urgent. She needed him desperately, she had never felt such a fierce need before. As he thrust against her, Hermione felt like she was burning up and she could feel a deep flush spreading over her skin. She moaned into his mouth and ground harder.

Severus knew he had to stop while he still could. He ripped his mouth from hers and stilled his movements, still lying over her and breathing heavily. The tension between them was almost unbearable, he didn't know how he would be able to let her leave again without satisfying it.

"Hermione," he said once he had regained his breath, "we can't do this, not yet. We've discussed this, but how can I stay away from you if you say such things to me? How can I bear to be apart from you now?" He kissed her again, hard and brief. "Take the potion, Hermione."

They disentangled themselves again and sat side by side on the sofa. Hermione was flushed but seemed unperturbed by his words of caution. She took the vial, unstopped it and drank it down in one, all the while holding his eyes, a sign of unconditional trust. "How does it work?" she asked when she had finished swallowing.

"It repairs nerve damage and expressly targets areas of the body with lingering traces of dark magic. I needed to develop a potion which could access those areas resistant to healing magic, so I had to find a way to disguise a healing potion and make it look like a dark potion. Anything else would have been rejected by the lingering dark magic."

"I can't image how much time that must have taken you. Nor can I adequately express how grateful I am to you. I mean it, no one has ever gone to so much trouble for me before. No one." Hermione couldn't continue and she wiped at the tears that had begun trickling down her face again, annoyed at herself for being so sentimental. But, oh, Severus was wonderful.

Hermione cleared her throat. "And now it's time for your present. It's a lot more selfish than what you did for me, but I believe you will like it all the same." Hermione pressed her lips together, suppressing her grin in anticipation of his reaction. She pulled a thin envelope from the pocket of her robes and handed it to him.

The envelope bore the Hogwarts crest. Severus looked up at her, confused. "What is it?" he asked.

Hermione laughed. "Just open it!"

Severus took the envelope and opened it slowly, a small frown between his brows as he tried to think of what it could possibly be.

His eyes scanned the sheet of parchment and flew up to meet hers, wide-eyed, before returning to the parchment to read it again more carefully.

When he was done, he set the parchment down onto the table. "You took your NEWT in potions." He stated.

"Yes." Hermione said, simply.

"You received the best possible mark."

"Yes." She said again.

"You sat the exam on the last day of term."

"Yes." Hermione said, smiling broadly as she watched Severus take in the news.

"I am no longer your teacher." Severus concluded.

"No, you are not." Hermione confirmed in return.

"You did this for me." Severus began again.

"No, I did this for both of us Severus."

"You love me."

"I do."

"I love you too."

Hermione couldn't say anything to that. She suddenly felt choked by the intensity of her emotions, and no words could pass the tightness in her chest.

Instead she moved from where she was sitting next to him and straddled him instead. She took his face in her hands and looked deep into his black depths, those depths which she had fallen into at the beginning of term and which had tied her irrevocably to him.

And then she kissed him. She kissed him slowly and deeply and with the satisfaction of knowing that there was no reason for them to stop this time. She poured herself into the kiss, giving him everything she had and absorbing him in return when he responded soulfully and passionately.

When Severus moved down to start kissing and nibbling at her neck, Hermione gasped out the last few things she still needed to tell him.

"I, oh God, told my friends that I'm in love with you and, Severus!, that I'm staying at Hogwarts with you for the rest of the holidays, ah! Yes!"

She tugged him back up by his hair and sucked his tongue into her mouth and suckled on it until he groaned and bucked up into her. His hands had found their way under her blouse and were stroking her soft skin, the rough calluses of his hands sending sparks of sensation running through her entire body.

Hermione needed to feel him too. As their tongues played and sucked and stroked, she unbuttoned his robes and untucked his shirt from his trousers and, finally, ran her hands over the baby-soft skin of his back.

Severus groaned deeply, unused to anyone touching him, let alone touching him so gently, and lifted his mouth from hers to pull her blouse up over her head, removing her hands from his body in the process.

Hermione sat on his lap, breathing heavily and lips swollen. Her upper half was bare but for a black lace bra encasing her breasts. Severus had frozen in place, his eyes locked to her chest.

"So beautiful" he sighed. Hermione took one of his hands in hers, brought it up to her face and kissed it gently, before moving it to her breast.

His hand was so large that it engulfed her, even though she could hardly be described as small. Heat radiated from his palm, and Hermione could only moan in response.

And then his thumb stroked her hardening nipple and a bolt of desire shot straight to her core and everything was wild after that. His mouth descended on hers again, and they kissed fiercely as Severus caressed both of her breasts with his hands. Hermione's hands grappled at Severus' shirt, undoing the buttons as quickly as she could as she ground herself onto his hardness.

When she had finally undone the last button, she pushed his robe and his shirt from his shoulders. As he shrugged out of his clothes, Hermione undid her bra and flung it across the room.

And then she was lying on top of him, their lengths once again stretched out on his sofa, the contact between their naked upper bodies feeling incredible. She could feel the dark hairs on his chest brushing against her nipples and she groaned, loudly and deeply, before attaching her mouth to his.

Hermione pressed herself into him, sucking on his lips and then his tongue, her hands tracing his face and his upper body. Severus was beside himself with desire, clutching her back and her arse, pulling her into his thrusting hips.

"I need you so much," Hermione gasped into his mouth, and Severus could only moan in response.

He flipped her onto her back and started undoing her trousers, clumsy in his need. Severus quickly slid his hand under her waistband. He whispered her name and buried his face into her neck when his hand reached her hot core. He found her clitoris and lightly pinched it with his long fingers.

"Severus!" Hermione cried out, bucking her hips into his hand as he rubbed her. Her hands gripped his hair tightly and she could already feel the pressure building in her core. Months of longing and desire crashed down on her and she came hard, head thrown back and panting.

She gripped his head between her trembling hands and kissed him hard. "So good, Severus, so good! I've never come so quickly before, I need you so much, I want you, now, please Severus!"

Hermione was aware that she was babbling, but Severus didn't seem to care. He sat up and pulled her trousers and knickers from her hips before he tugged at his own belt. Hermione adored the sight of his broad, firm chest, scars and black hairs interspersed over his smooth skin. And then they were both naked, gasping as they stared into each others eyes.

Severus' eyes were wild with need – feeling Hermione come apart so quickly beneath him had made him dizzy with desire, there was no stopping now.

She took his length into her hands, stroking him admiringly. He was long and beautiful, and so so hard. She needed him inside her. Now. She pulled him over her and kissed him deeply, entangling his tongue with hers and then sucking. Severus groaned out loud and shifted above her.

His hard cock was aligned with her hot core. Severus pulled himself away from her mouth to look at her for confirmation. The abandon and desperation on her flushed face told him everything he needed, and with a groan of fulfilment he buried himself inside her.

It was glorious. They held each other for a moment, revelling in the feeling of his hard length seated all the way inside her warmth, panting harshly against each other's necks.

And then they were moving. Severus lifted his hips and then surged deep into her again, and then repeated the movement, Hermione thrusting up to meet him every time. Their hips rolled against each other and they didn't say anything, just relishing the feel of the other as they gasped, their gazes locked.

Hermione's eyes were bright, her face and neck were flushed, and her beautiful breasts bounced along with their movements. It was the most wonderful sight of Severus' life.

His movements grew increasingly desperate as he thrust into her harder and harder, his buttocks flexing each time he buried himself into her. He reached up to grip one of her breasts, and Hermione cried out when he pinched her nipple, "Severus! Gods, yes! Finally finally!" She was almost sobbing.

His expression was fierce and beautiful, his normally stern lips parted as he groaned, his eyes closing in bliss as Hermione clenched around him.

He leaned over to kiss her again, needing to connect on every level, and plunged his mouth down onto hers. The change of position made him brush against something inside of her and Hermione cried out in sudden ecstasy. They were gasping into each other's mouths and Severus' hands were curled in her hair as he buried himself into her over and over again. Hermione raised her hips to meet him with equal enthusiasm at very thrust, her hands clutching at his back and buttocks, pulling him into her. She felt like they couldn't get close enough, like she would remain unfulfilled until they were one person.

Severus' thrusts increased in strength and speed until Hermione was crying out at every thrust. She had never felt so consumed in her life, each stroke stimulated her clitoris and that spot inside her. He was pounding into her, groaning almost continuously, his mouth still covering hers but they weren't kissing, just sharing their breaths as the pleasure built higher and higher within them both.

The way he was taking her was almost brutal, but to Hermione it just felt like a glorious claiming. She felt owned, in the best way possible, and at that thought her insides seemed to convulse, all at once, and she was sent spinning into the most tremendous orgasm of her life. Her nails sank into Severus' back, her own back arched, pushing her breasts into him, and her toes clenched in ecstasy.

Severus had been hanging onto the brink for a while, he had never felt anything as glorious as being inside of her. But when her whole body seemed to clench around him and Hermione screamed his name, all was lost. Her face was twisted in pleasure and it was so so beautiful, and when he felt her nails sink into his back, Severus threw his head back and shouted her name in return as he felt himself come in her warm, wet depths.

They lay against each other panting, revelling in the feeling of their bodies pressed against each other, sweaty as they were.

"That was amazing", Hermione said, chuckling. She turned her face towards Severus' and pulled him in for another kiss by his hair. This time it was slow and sweet, their desperation stilled for the moment. His lips stroked hers gently and his tongue caressed hers as if they had all the time in the world. Hermione smiled at the thought that they did, in fact, have all the time in the world.

"Indeed," Severus agreed after a while. He was smiling and it was glorious and still a sight Hermione wasn't quite used to. His whole face was transformed. There was a spark in the deep black of his eyes, and his cheeks were pulled up and slightly flushed, and his lips were curved so sensuously that Hermione couldn't keep herself from kissing them again.

Hours later, after lots of kissing and another bout of sex when the kissing spiralled out of control (probably Hermione's fault for biting his tongue and pinching his arse), Severus summoned a blanket to cover them, and they fell into an exhausted, happy sleep.

…...

Hermione awoke to the most delicious sensation. A mouth was sucking and nibbling at her breast, while fingers stroked her down below. A smile spread over her face as she remembered the night before.

She stroked his hair with one hand and pulled his head to look up at her. His dark eyes met hers in an intense, smouldering gaze. "Hello," she sighed. Her eyes were still heavy-lidded with sleep and she knew her smile was sappy.

"Hello," he replied, and his deep voice made her shiver again and recall what his fingers were still getting up to. She throbbed in response, her desire rising quickly, and she gasped as his middle finger penetrated her. He had a cheeky expression on his face. He seemed confident in her want of him and Hermione loved it. No more doubts, no more waiting.

And with that thought, she pulled him into a kiss. While he was distracted, she manoeuvred him onto his back and before he knew it she was straddling him.

She pulled away and this time it was her with the cheeky expression on her face.

"Oh Hermione," Severus groaned. He loved this playfulness between them. Sex for him had never been playful before. Or half as intense, wonderful, affirming or joyful.

She bit her lip in fake coquettishness, took his length into her hands, raised up onto her knees and sank down onto him. She moaned deeply at the feel of him sliding inside her again. She could feel him so deep inside her and he was large enough that it felt like he was stretching out every corner of her. He groaned deeply once she was impaled upon him and flung an arm out behind his head, his fist clenched.

She shifted on top of him and he moaned again, his hands flying to her hips to steady her on top of him. She could see the muscles in his arms and abdomen clench as he struggled to control himself. "Do it," he growled, "ride me, Hermione."

Hermione leaned forward and pecked him cheekily on the tip of his nose, before steadying her hands against his chest and raising herself up again. And again, again and again.

Soon they were both thrusting wildly against each other, their fingers had become entwined around the other's, and they were both moaning loudly, groaning out incomprehensible declarations of devotion and desire. Hermione was so wet that Severus' firm abdomen was glistening, and he was harder than he had ever been in his life, barring the night before, perhaps.

When Hermione came, her head flung back and curls tumbling down her back, her breasts thrust forward and her stomach clenching, Severus knew he would never see another sight as beautiful. And when Severus came, his eyes clenched closed and his eyebrows drawn, his black hair spread out on the cushion beneath him and his mouth open in a groan of pure pleasure, Hermione swore to herself that she would see that sight as often as possible and at least once a day for the rest of her life.

They showered together and couldn't stop touching each other, each caress and kiss placed on wet skin reassuring them of the other's presence.

When they were dried and dressed, Severus ordered a sumptuous Boxing Day breakfast from the house elves. They ate in harmonious silence, just enjoying being together and sating the hunger they had worked up together.

"I love you," Hermione sighed when they were done. She couldn't stop smiling, she was just so happy.

"And I love you," Severus replied.

"I'm so happy," she sighed again. "I've never been so happy. Thank you so so much, Severus, for being you." Her eyes were glistening again and if she hadn't been so happy she would have been embarrassed at her sentimentality.

Severus took her hand in his. He had never felt comfortable with expressing emotion, but this was Hermione. And she was part of him now. "Hermione, it is I who must thank you. You saved me and you gave me a reason to live. You pulled me out of utter despair and you've given me more than I ever thought I could have. And if I spend the rest of my life thanking you, it won't be enough."

"The rest of your life," Hermione grinned. "I like the sound of that. And how, my love, do you envision the rest of your life? Where do we go from here?" She was serious again. She had no idea of what she wanted to do with her future.

"I don't have a clue. And I don't care, so long as I'm with you." He caressed her hand with his thumb. "I mean it. I love you. We can do what ever we want. You could become a teacher and we'd teach here together. Or I could leave and we'll open a shop or go into research together. We could go travelling and spend the rest of our lives having sex on a beach. We could get married one day or we could not and live in sin forever. We could have children and we could not. I just want to be with you. We can work out the rest when it comes."

Hermione got up and walked around the small table until she was behind Severus. She hugged his chest and kissed his throat gently. It felt strong and warm beneath her lips. She felt him swallow.

"That sounds wonderful,"she said softly.

Severus turned and pulled her into his lap and kissed her firmly on the lips. Hermione could only cling to him. "I feel like I've finally come home." He said quietly after pulling away.

Hermione realised that she felt exactly the same way.

Just a few months ago she had felt lost and alone, fragile from the war and disconnected from her friends. And now, surrounded by Severus, Hermione knew she had found her place in the world.