AN: Not mine, don't sue. Smut alert. Enjoy and review please!

Autumn Air 3

The Wizarding Wireless was playing an advertisement for new broom. Jumping the bonfire had been called to a halt in lieu of the Weasley men preparing the fireworks and effigies. Those who had been dancing were loitering around the fire and picnic tables scattered nearby in small groups, energy still high and chatting, waiting for the music to come up again. Nearest the glow of the fire, two smiling figures, a man and woman, were talking, their bodies mere inches apart.

"But, you didn't answer my question, professor," the woman smiled. The man looked amused.

The tinkling advertisement ended on the Wireless and announced it was going to play a classic song by a classic lady. Slow piano notes and a throaty, lilting voice began to wrap it's sensual tendrils of music across the field. Hermione heard a shriek, in the distance, Mrs. Weasley's, "Celestina! Let's dance Arthur!"

"I'd be much more inclined to do so if you returned to calling me by my given name," Snape declared.

Her eyes softened at this and she breathed his name. "Severus… Would dance with me please?"

Without a pause for thought and without saying a word, Severus stepped up to Hermione, closing the distance between them, and lifted an open hand for her to take. Hermione gloried in the feel of his arm around her and put one of her hands in his outstretched one. They began to sway gently together their feet shuffling just a little, in sync completely. There was no fancy footwork or dizzying circles round the bonfire, but Hermione's head was spinning pleasantly again in a similar fashion to the first time he'd kissed her. Although, she couldn't say whether it was the bit of spiked punch in her veins or the feel of him so near. While there were other couples dancing close by, including a dangerously listing Molly and Arthur, she couldn't tear her attention away from the man holding her. This was what she'd been waiting for. She hadn't dared make a move in the past interminable months, fearing any advance on her part might not be taken well. But, finally, finally he was here, holding her tightly and looking at her with black eyes that burned for her.

"I've missed you, you know," she softly admitted after a while, smiling ruefully. Ah, thank goodness for liquid courage. "There's no one to read with or eat desserts with when you're not around." Severus merely raised that mocking brow. "Alright, yes, there were people to eat desserts with, but nothing like…" she searched for the words. "Nothing like with you," she finished lamely.

He eased her body against his then, bending his dark head down until they were nearly cheek to cheek. "I'm glad," he murmured to her ear. She shut her eyes and breathed him in. He smelled something like fresh mown grass, new parchment, and a spicy and earthy something that had her turning her nose into his neck to get closer. They were still swaying, but only just, as their feet were touching and had ceased moving. Hermione was conscious of the hard planes of his body pressed lightly against everything soft of hers. Her body swelled to feel him skin to skin and she felt him take a shuddering breath. The gentle music was slowly fading away, so, taking what she thought might be a final opportunity, she raised her lips, just so, and pressed them to a point just beneath his jaw on his neck. She could feel his pulse jump and felt a sense of satisfaction. He wanted her, too. She knew it now.

When the song ended, a faster paced beat took over. The Hobgoblin's lead singer let out a battle cry that had the younger, drunker, partygoers howling and jumping back toward the open area around the bonfire. Some couples stayed to join the wild dancing while others headed back to the picnic tables or to get more drinks. In the transition, no one noticed as Severus took Hermione's hands and pressed a kiss into the palm of each, causing her to shudder deliciously. No one saw when he entwined the fingers of one of his hands with hers and led her away from the firelight, away from the picnic tables and torches, and toward a copse of bare trees some seventy yards from the carousing people.

The grass crunched beneath their feet as they made their way across the empty part of the field. The orange light of the fire began to fade away and the stars came out in their full glory, a small sliver of moon washing everything else in a soft blue. Severus was striding away in front of her turning back now and then to smile at her and grip her hand a bit more tightly. Happiness bubbled up within her and escaped as laughter. She began to run and was suddenly the one doing the leading. He started to run, too, letting his own laughter follow hers.

When they reached the first, naked tree, she leaned against the far side of it laughing breathlessly, her back facing the party. Severus was immediately upon her, hands cradling her face, then sweeping into the wild hair he was coming to adore. His mouth moved hungrily against hers and she pressed back, taking as much as she gave, all laughter forgotten. He let his hands sweep down the column of her neck, removing the scarf, past her shoulders, caressing the small of her waist, until they settled, gripping the soft flare of her hips. Hermione smoothed her hands up against the front of his robes feeling the lean muscles beneath her fingers, until her arms were wrapped around his neck and drew his body as close to hers as it could get. Merlin, he tasted even better than she remembered.

She tugged him closer, moaning into his mouth as his tongue did something wicked to hers. There was too much space between them and she writhed against him. His thumbs were caressing her hips in maddening little circles. She pressed her hips against his and with a groan, his hands slipped beneath the hem of her jumper and wrapped around her slim waist and gripped the smooth skin of her back. He heard her breath hitch sweetly as her fingers grasped his neck and felt his craving for her ratchet up another notch.

Hermione's head fell back against the bark of the tree as his lips brushed a spot beneath her ear, his nose tickling the soft lobe, sending a shiver down to her toes. She whimpered as he began to nip and suck on her ear and neck. His hands moved up her ribs and to the gentle curve of the underside of her breast and was stopped by her bra. He hesitated a moment, lips at her collar bone, holding up the front of her green jumper exposing her skin to the cool autumn air and pressing her against a tree. But then she moaned his name, "Severusss…" and rolled her hips against his again. Any hesitation flew away and he tugged down a cup of her bra to expose a rosy peak his greedy mouth.

She groaned loudly, heedless to thoughts of being caught, but no one could hear her anyway. The party was getting quite wild down by the bonfire and no one noticed an absent Hermione or Snape. She gripped his hair as he laved his attention upon her aching breast, and moaned again when he pulled down the cup to it's neglected other half and did the same to it. The things he did with his tongue sent waves of pleasure to her core making her feel heavy and empty. She tugged his head up by his hair and kissed him, aching for him to be somehow closer, to feel his skin against hers. Her hands fluttered down the front of his body to the front of his robes. She fumbled with the buttons as she kissed him distractedly. His hands moved down her front as well, past the soft skin of her stomach to the button and zipper of her jeans. He undid her pants quickly and slid a hand past the elastic of her underwear to the crux of her body. He groaned when he felt how wet she was already and moved his lips back to her neck.

Hermione had barely undone half of the buttons of his long robes revealing a pale, hard chest, but her hands stilled as she felt one of his long fingers slip past the damp curls and between her folds and sweep upward to the aching bundle of nerves. She cried out and could only cling to the open collar of his black robes. Her shoulders leaned heavily against the tree as he removed his hand for a moment to shove her jeans past her hips. In an instant, he had dipped a long finger into her tight heat, his mouth nipping at the point just above her collarbone that had her whimpering earlier. Severus moved his finger in and out of her silky depths and ground his palm into her lit, loving her panting breaths and mewls. Aching, he pushed the length of his hardness against her hip, trying to find some relief. Hermione, slid one hand down to the bulge in his pants, fumbling with the buttons, one hand still clutching his shirt to hold herself up. When she couldn't undo his pants, she settled for caressing him through the fabric. She could feel the heat of him and wanted so badly to touch him, to taste him, but was lost to the sparks of pleasure building within her. When he suddenly added one more digit to his movements and bent to take one of her puckered nipples into his mouth again, she fell apart, her body constricting around his fingers as warmth seemed to consume her and the world spun wildly.

Hermione looked absolutely magnificent when she climaxed. Severus pulled his hands away to grip her hips again and moved to kissed her. She pushed back against his chest. Confused, for a split second he thought she was upset, but the look in her eyes was determined, not angry. "Now, Severus." She bent to unzip her boots and pulled them off, then shimmied out of her jeans and knickers. "I need you, now." He became impossibly harder at her demand. Pulling him back to her by the waist of his pants, she began undoing them with both hands this time. Then, he brought his still wet hand to his mouth and sucked his fingers into his mouth. Her eyes shuttered as she watched him. Severus closed his own eyes briefly, savoring her taste. He'd have to have more of that later. When his cock finally sprang free from it's confines she wrapped her warm fingers around him. He groaned as she worked him back and forth. God's, it had been so long. She nipped his bottom lip with her teeth and flicked it with her tongue, murmuring, "Now, Severus, please."

He angled his hips to accommodate her. Hermione lifted one leg around his waist and used her hand, still on his rigid staff, to guide him to her entrance. When she seemed steady he thrust upwards. They both groaned when he sunk slowly and fully into her wet heat, her body fluttering around him tightly. His forehead fell forward into her sweet smelling hair and he laid a kiss upon her head. Her breaths were coming in hard pants, eyes closed and mouth fallen open. She was naked from the waist down, standing on one tip toe, the other leg locked about him, her arms holding on tightly to his shoulders. Severus hitched her other leg around him and pinned Hermione against the tree. He felt the silken slide of her along his shaft and he plunged forward, unable to stop his movements. Hermione was in heaven. He was driving hard in and out of her as she held onto his tightly tensed body, the sweet friction building inside her again. Every thrust produced little mewling cries from her sweet lips and brought her closer to the edge of the precipice. Severus had to taste those cries on his mouth and captured her lips in his, tongues tangling frantically. The change in angle caused his length to drag against the hottest point of her body at the next thrust and she saw stars explode behind her eyelids. She threw her head back, crying out his name to the night sky as she trembled, shuddering again and again as pleasure coursed through her. Severus continued to piston into her dripping, clenching tunnel until he felt her body squeeze around him again, almost unbearably. At her third climax, the tightness in his own body released in white hot spurts of pleasure and he groaned, long and hard, as the last tremors racked his body.

Severus's knees nearly gave way and Hermione immediately released him from her hold. Breathing hard and sighing she rested against the tree- the fabulously sturdy little tree. His own breaths were labored and his hands were above her ears, leaning against the trunk. His expression looked pained, so she leaned forward and kissed his sweaty neck and tense jaw and then kissed the thin set of his lips, saying between kisses, "That was perfect. You're absolutely wonderful. Please don't say you regret it."

He groaned. Possibly her new favorite sound in the world. "Hermione."

"Yes?" she leaned her head against his bare chest and he gathered her up in his arms.

"I just shagged you against a tree." He said it like it was a bad thing.

"Mmm… I know, Severus. I was there. I loved it every minute of it."

"You don't regret it?" the uncertainty in his voice was as endearingly out of character as it was irritating. She shoved against his chest, this time, actually a bit angry. Hermione glared at him.

"Severus Snape, do you honestly think that I would do something like this without thoroughly thinking through all possible outcomes? If I had come to the conclusion at any point that you or I might live to regret it, we wouldn't be here." She huffed, and began picking up her clothes and placing them back on, trying to determine in the darkness whether or not her knickers were inside out, mumbling under her breath about idiot men ruining afterglows. Severus tidied himself up and watched as she struggled to put one of her boots on the wrong foot, hopping around on the crunchy leaves. She was about to stalk back toward the bonfire when he caught her hand in his.

"I'm sorry," he grumbled. "I'm not-"

BANG! BANG! BOOOM!

There were bright flashes and sparks coming from somewhere. Earsplitting explosions filled the night and Hermione abruptly found herself, face down in the leaves, covered with a rather tall, rather heavy man. When all was silent, Severus stood up, pulling Hermione with him, both their gazes heads turned toward the bonfire. People were stumbling around, still stunned by the sheer noise. Without a word being passed between them, they both ran toward the sources of the explosion. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Lee, and Draco were sprawled haphazardly on the ground, giggling like little girls. The smell of burnt hair was starting to waft on the breeze when she found the straw Voldemort effigy, complete with red fire cracker eyes, split open in the middle, still smoldering slightly from the stash of fireworks that the boys had drunkenly thought to pack into him before throwing him in the bonfire. Thankfully, it seemed that one of the fireworks had propelled the big doll out of the fire, preventing most of the fireworks from going off next to the guess. Just to be safe, Hermione doused the thing with water spouted from her wand. Molly was already yelling at her boys, Ginny was yelling at Harry, and McGonnagal was lecturing everyone else who had helped with the effigy sabotage. The guests at the tables were laughing it off as another night to remember and took the explosion as the cue to make their goodbyes. Molly sweetly thanked everyone who came before continuing to rail at all of the boys involved. She whipped out her wand and cast a powerful spell that sent them marching back to the Burrow to be patched up with the sensation of very hard, pointy boots kicking them in their rears.

Soon, besides Severus and Hermione, the only people left in the field were Arthur, Ginny, and Luna who had all stayed behind as clean up volunteers. It was a quick cleaning. The left overs were floated down the trail into the kitchen and the slightly scorched picnic tables cleared and ready to be sent back to Bill and Fleur's in the morning. Scattered cups and trash were banished to a muggle dumpsite many miles away and when the Wizarding Wireless was shut off, Arthur, Luna, and Ginny began to quietly make their ways back home, leaving Severus or Hermione to extinguish the low burning bonfire. Ginny paused at the entrance to the field. She looked back and watched Hermione sit heavily upon the log still by the fire and saw Snape following her friend's movements. Ginny smiled, wondering if Hermione would spill the details over a treacle tart ala mode later, and turned to follow her dad out of the field.

Hermione wasn't quite sure what to feel at the moment. Her friends had just done something completely idiotic and had gotten injured… again. She just had the best sex of her admittedly inexperienced life with the man she'd been craving for the past three months. And she thought that maybe, she just might be falling in love with that self same man - who might not want her like she assumed. Honestly, who can shag like that and be unsure afterward?

Severus stood in front of her, blocking the view to the fire. She didn't say anything only looked up at him. His curtain of black hair, his shield from the world, fell in front of his eyes. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I don't regret anything," he spoke firmly and sincerely. "I only wanted…" He hesitated struggling to find the right words. "It's just not… I had hoped…"

It was her turn to raise a brow at him.

"Damnit, Hermione, I wanted to do this the right way!" he suddenly burst forth. Severus began pacing back and forth before the fire, his long legs eating up the distances. "You have done- You have been- You saved me!" he accused. "You deserve more than a quick fuck against a tree. You deserve better than… than… this,"he gestured to himself wildly. "I wanted to do this the right way!" he repeated to the autumn air. He suddenly stopped pacing and turned to face Hermione who was now watching him with wide eyes.

Severus sat beside her on the log and took her hands in his and said with feeling, "I wanted to thank you for saving me that day. I wanted to thank you for being the friend I needed afterward. I wanted to say that you are beautiful and that you are everything a witch ought to be. I wanted to tell you that I've thought about you constantly for the past three months. I wanted to ask… if you would let me court you… properly." He gazed down at her shining bright eyes, holding his breath.

She let the breath she was holding out and suddenly laughed. "Yes! Yes, Severus. And I don't care that we went a bit backward with the traditional courtship. I'm actually very glad you didn't go about it the proper way," she smiled slyly.

He smiled, releasing his breath, and wrapped an arm about her waist as she continued to look up at him. "I'm not an easy man to get along with, Hermione," he said. "I can be quite cruel even if the occasion doesn't warrant it, though I will try not be with you. You know more than most just how much," he sneered, "baggage, I carry."

"I know, Severus. And I'm still not running away. I'm very stubborn. Fair warning, when I want something I generally find a way to get it and when I'm right, I'm right," she shared seriously.

"Then, we shall probably run into many problems in this relationship, because I am told that I am very stubborn as well." Severus murmured. "We will surely row."

She grinned as a thought occurred to her. "Think of all the incredible make up sex we can have!"

He laughed and pulled her in to kiss her soundly. When he released her, the stars above were twirling and the world was muzzy again so she leaned her head against his shoulder. He gathered her closer and at that moment, quite unawares, by the dwindling fire, surrounded by scorched earth and smoke stained picnic tables, Hermione and Severus had the exact same thought: 'I've never been happier in my life.'

AN: Ahhh… Autumn Air COMPLETE! ^_^

Winter's next though I think I'll work on Cooks in the kitchen for a bit.

Tell me what you think. That was truly my first sex scene ever written. I've worked all day on this and hope you enjoyed it. Please review! It really makes my day ^_^

EDIT: Thanks for the love and reviews! I can't believe that this little fic has over 17,000 hits even for a 3 chapter story! WOW. You guys like your smut, eh? ^_~

For those of you who have not read it, I figured I ought to add the links to Summer Heat and Winter Wonderland. The order is as follows: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. Whee! I still love to hear what you think and constructive criticism is always welcome... (tries and fails to create a link to fanfic)

and I guess HTML doesn't work so... just remove the spaces::

http : / / www. fanfiction .net /s/ 6685048 /1/ Summer_Heat

http : / / www. fanfiction .net /s/ 6755437 /1/ Winter_Wonderland

Or save yourself the trouble and just click on my profile (well, now I just feel silly.)

~lovelielove