Last chapter! Thanks for all the faves, follows and reviews!

The Leaky Cauldron was crowded on a late Saturday afternoon, the air thick with smoke, the lingering scents of cooked food and heavy with chatter. Still, all noise fell away as Hermione pushed through to a free table. There was one beneath a pair of soot-blackened lamps. Set before a white-washed arch, it was nice and central. In her wake, stalked the dark form of Severus Snape.

She smirked at a gaping witch and pointed a finger behind her. "Yes, I'm with him. Isn't it wonderful?"

The old witch blinked and stayed mute.

Severus pulled out a chair for her at the empty table and she beamed up at him before she sat. He shook his head. "People are going to think you're related to a clabbert."

She shrugged and circled her face with her finger. "This is me not caring."

He snorted and sat in the seat opposite. Tom hustled up with a menu and took their order for drinks. And the pub remained silent. Hermione cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Leaky Cauldron patrons. You can now go back to talking about us. It's fine. Yes, I am going out with Severus Snape. I'm not denying anything. Except about Carlos Diaz Garcia. I have not touched him. Wouldn't want to." She shuddered. "Do you know he smells like old dragon farts?"

Her words were met with shocked disbelief, whilst Severus' shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. "You can relax," he murmured. His eyes were warm and dark. He looked so…beautiful. "I think people know we're a couple now, Hermione."

She grinned at him and took his hand, her heart tight in her chest. A couple. He'd called them a couple. She was quite giddy.

After her announcement, which seemed to have absolutely stunned the watching crowd, the surrounding witches and wizards finally shook off their amazement and turned their attention back to their food, each other, and their drinks.

Hermione let out a long breath and played her fingers across Severus' knuckles. She wanted to touch him. All the time.

They'd woke a few hours before in a tangle of hot limbs, his hand cupping her breast, his thigh still pressed between hers and his face buried in her hair. She luxuriated in the whole length of his body against hers. Happy. She was just so unbelievably fucking happy to have him back with her.

She almost missed the first kiss, a light, feathery whisper against her ear…but then there was another. And another. And the sleep-gravelled, "You're truly here" broke a gasp from her.

She squeezed the hand that cupped her breast, before she turned in his arms. Sleep low-lidded his eyes and his hair was a tangle across his face. His cheeks had pinked. He looked…adorable. She stretched up to plant a kiss on the tip of his nose. "I will be. For as long as you want me."

"Then…always." And his mouth sought hers in a slow tasting. A half-groan escaped him and his arms wrapped around her. Tight.

The press of skin and skin, hot and wanted, the firm length of his cock against her belly. And the ache. The ache to put her mouth on every part of him, to reclaim him. No, to claim him for the first time. Her lover. Her wizard.

She glanced at the bedroom window, the shadows saying it was around noon. They were supposed to be having lunch…but, sod it. They'd have a late lunch. It wasn't as if the Leaky Cauldron ever shut—

"Hermione…?

She smirked up at him, it fading at the quick uncertainty in his eyes. "Checking the time. I'm opting for a late lunch." She trailed a hand down the firm paleness of his chest, the light scrape of her nails giving him the little curl of pain she knew he loved. It pulled a hiss from him.

Gods, she wanted him. "I'm going to kiss you. And lick and nibble you. Every sweet –and salty— inch. Then I'm taking you out to lunch."

"No."

She blinked, the sudden pain in her chest sharp and quick. Did he not want her like that? Her own fear crashed through any sensible thought. He didn't want—

Severus kissed her, hot and fast, pulling her too him. For a long moment, she lost herself in his touch, in the wild clash of lips and tongues and the fierce thrum of need.

"I'm sorry." He pressed his forehead to hers. "I meant, no, I want to return the favour."

Hermione pecked a kiss against his nose, her pulse still hammering, the mix of need and fear hot in her flesh. Fuck, they had to be so careful. "We're still…"

"Raw."

She closed her eyes at the pained word. But she pulled in a breath. She was not loosing him to her insecurities. And so she pressed another kiss to the corner of his mouth. Then a light brush to his lips. Her teeth grazed his full bottom lip. She planted a kiss on his chin. "I love you." She found the underside of his jaw and peppered that with kisses. "Every grumbling, sarcastic inch of you."

Severus huffed a laugh and rolled onto his back. He stretched and put his hands behind his head. "I believe…" He gave her that imperious eyebrow that made her blood hot and filled her with the ache to do very naughty things to him. "That you have a promise to fulfil." He waved a long, beautiful hand down the length of his body. A twitch of his lips and the dark shine of his eyes –was that a wink?— broke a giggle from her. "Proceed."

And she did.

Hermione stared at her wizard, sitting so nonchalantly across from her at the round, rickety table. The taste of him was still fresh on her tongue…and the renewed ache for him growing. They had a future now. One where they had to be honest. "Why didn't we do this, Severus? Come out like this?" She pressed her lips together. She knew her own selfish reason. But she didn't know his. "Why did you never ask?"

"Because in the beginning, I didn't see it as important." He stared at their entwined fingers. "Later, it became too important."

Hermione closed her eyes. He couldn't risk her rejection. And she would have turned him down… Gods, even though they were back together, there was so much she still had to put right—

"How dare you! I do not smell like…like old dragon farts!"

Hermione groaned, watching Carlos stride up to their table. He was pretty, all flowing hair, perfect features and expensive, tailored robes. Witches and wizards stared after him with hungry eyes…but, truly he did nothing for her. Perhaps being honest about Carlos had been a mistake. But she didn't regret it. He'd lied about sleeping with her. At least her declaration about him wasn't false.

"You do, Carlos." She shrugged. "I suppose working with dragons has to have its downside. Besides the threat of being eaten."

He sneered down at Severus, who'd sat back in his chair. "And you think to taunt me with this…this scarecrow?"

Hermione was on her feet with her wand at his throat. She twisted the tip under Carlos' jaw, drawing him up onto his expensively-booted toes. He tottered there, shock clear on his face. "He's worth a hundred of you."

"Hermione…"

Severus' voice was soft and sure and eased the wild panic racing through her. She wanted to prove to him that he was important to her. That she would chose him every time. Maybe she was going a little to far…?

"Sit."

She sat, her wand disappearing back into its sheath. She blushed. "Sorry."

Severus met the other wizard's eye. A glimmer of simmering rage shone in him. He had forgiven her, but Severus had not forgiven —nor forgotten— Carlos' role. "Whatever right you think you have to Miss Granger is over. All rumours stop. Now. And if I see you within twenty feet of her again, I will deal with you. Are we understood, Carlos?"

"Who are you to—"

"Do you know who I am?"

Hermione stared at the Spanish wizard. A frown had formed on Carlos' perfect mouth. Oh, he didn't know. Did he not read the papers? Or at least the parts that didn't feature him? It was true he'd only been in Britain a matter of months. But how could he not know who Severus Snape was?

A smile curled Severus' lip at the corner and a pulse jumped in Hermione's belly. Damn it, threatening someone should not be sexy. "I recommend research before you act too…rashly."

A couple of Carlos' friends appeared then and dragged him away, whispering as they went. The Spaniard blinked suddenly, his eyes wide, as he looked from her and back to Severus.

"You're… You…?"

Severus gave the wizard a cold smile. "Believe what your friends are telling you." His smile darkened. "It's all true."

Carlos paled and scrambled back, fighting the other men's hold to move faster, to the hell away from the dark wizard.

Severus looked back to her and shrugged. "I would've preferred to hex him, but that was quite…satisfying."

Hermione grinned at him, before thanking a nervous Tom, who slipped their plates in front of them. He whipped away just as quickly. She unwrapped her cutlery from its napkin. "Food, Flourish and Blots and more sex with you, I believe are my plans for the rest of the day."

"Hermione…"

She shook her head. "No. I lost you." She pressed her lips together to fight a pain that still held her, even as Severus sat right there. The agony of his being gone from her life wasn't going to fade for quite some time. "And it hurt." She willed a smile even as her eyes burned. "And I'm going to be honest with you. And open. And tell crups in the street that I love you."

His soft laughter warmed her heart. "You're such an odd little witch."

"Your odd little witch?"

He stroked her cheek. And there was love in his eyes. "Always."

Done and done.

Now I have to focus on A Soul-Mate's kiss this weekend and ignore pesky, onyx-eyed polyjuice bunny...

And I need to write original words. Lots of them. *sigh*