A/N: Based on how my Severus character developed and the worst review I've ever received, who literally wrote an essay on how bad my story, characterizations, and writing was, (which I took great satisfaction in deleting) I made a few small changes to chapter 1 around 2pm, Mountain Standard Time, on Feb 5th, 2020. I wouldn't say it's necessary to go back and reread it, but you can if you want. :D

Thank you to everyone else that supported this story with kudos', favs, follows, and encouraging comments; I write for you guys. Here's some more lemony goodness (or badness, depending on your point of view) to show my appreciation. :D

And The Curtain Falls:

About five hours after entering Severus' bedroom for the first time, Hermione was woken by the familiar sound of a wand buzzing an alarm.

She groaned as the echoes of a most pleasant dream were chased away like wisps of fog and rubbed her face against her odd feeling pillow that smelled strongly of spicy male and held her hand out blindly to Accio the offending stick of wood so she could make the chiming noise stop.

A wand landed in her hand, but the unfamiliar feel of it had her eyes popping open in an instant. She stared with a rather stunned gaze at the ebony wand in her hand as it chimed away. What in the world?!

A deep, rumbling chuckle under her ear turned her focus elsewhere.

Hermione's head turned and she was greeted by the sight of a pale, lean, male chest. She blinked and looked further up to see a black stubbled jaw surrounded by long black hair. Using the hand that held the buzzing wand, she pushed off the chest until she could look down on her bedmate.

Severus Snape grinned up at her with sparkling obsidian eyes and plucked his wand from her loose grip. The buzzing stopped as he thought, "Finite." Then he set his wand on the bedside table again.

She gawked at him for about three seconds as the entire afternoon of discoveries and brain-sizzling pleasure flooded back into the forefront of her mind. Her core clenched in automatic remembrance, and her cheeks heated. Oh my god! It wasn't all a dream!

"No, My Own," he rumbled out in an even sexier version of his voice, husky with sleep, as he cupped the back of her head, burying his fingers in her bird's nest of curls. "This was most definitely not a dream. It was even better."

A smile of wonder settled on her face and lit up the room far more than the floating candles and the sad amount of daylight that angled in through the small window ever could. "It was, wasn't it?" She leaned down and kissed her new husband with heated enthusiasm, ignoring for the moment the fact that her body was starting to demand that she see to other, more necessary, needs.

Severus mumbled an agreement into her kiss before taking control of it and turning it into a languid seduction of her tongue, coaxing and teasing it to play with his own.

As they kissed, Hermione wondered how she could have forgotten, for even a moment, how perfect and real their new relationship was. "I guess you officially blew my mind, Sevi Mine."

"The feeling is mutual, believe me."

She smiled against his mouth, ending their kiss with one last peck. "As much I'd love to keep doing this, I really need the loo. I'm assuming you have your own?"

He kissed her nose and then glanced towards the door to his sitting room. "Through there and it's the next door to the left."

"Thank you." She shot him a grateful smile and then basically flew off the bed, leaving the warmth of his body and the thick blankets. She had every intention of naughtily streaking, completely starkers, to the bathroom and back, but two steps out in the cold air, and she came to a dead stop and whirled back around. "Merlin, it's freezing down here! Robe. Robe. I need a robe!" She looked all over the parts of the floor that she could see, but couldn't find her robe.

Severus couldn't help but silently laugh at her abrupt about-face despite how much he sympathized with her as she wrapped her arms around slender-but-oh-so-curvy form and shivered. He found her robe on the other side of the bed and called it to his hand, cast a warming charm on it, and then tossed it to her. "Here, love."

She caught it gratefully and tucked her arms into the sleeves as fast as humanly possible. "Ooooooo. Thank you!" She hugged her toasty warm robe closed and beamed at him and then spun again, a cheerful, "Be right back!" floating on the air behind her as she made a quick exit.

After watching until she was out of sight through the doorway, Severus reclined back on his pillow, linking his hands behind his head, and just grinned up at the ceiling like a fool for a few minutes. I am a very, very lucky man.

Soon enough, his own bladder made itself known, and he sighed in resignation that he had to abandon their love nest too. From long experience, he Accioed a warm dressing gown from his wardrobe before he tossed off the blankets and rose to his feet, grateful for the rugs he'd put over the cold stone floor long ago. Slipping his arms into the patiently hovering robe, Severus then tied the robe closed and made for the bathroom.

He arrived just as Hermione was emerging and they exchanged suddenly shy smiles as they switched places.

"Your turn?"

"My turn." He stopped with his hand on the doorway and turned back around to find her still watching him with a fond smile. It filled his chest with a quiet joy. Adding air to his lungs as well, he tentatively asked, "Would you, perchance, be interested in sharing a shower with me?"

Hermione beamed at him. "I would. As much as I love your scent, I don't think I want to go the feast smelling like we just spent the afternoon shagging like bunnies."

"No?" he laughed.

"No."

"Pity. I suppose it's too Neanderthal-like to want you to smell like my essence so all of the other males know that you've been claimed, isn't it?"

"Just a bit."

"And I assume you're going to cover up my mark of possession too?"

Hermione's hand flew up to the reddish bruise on her neck and she giggled. "Unfortunately. My dress has a high collar."

He sighed mournfully. "Oh well. There's always tomorrow."

"Yes." Hermione glanced around the sitting room, looking for a clock and not seeing one on first glance. "Hey. What time is it anyway?"

He winced slightly, knowing she wasn't going to like the answer. "My wand was set for five thirty, which means the party starts in about fifteen minutes."

Her melted chocolate eyes widened impossibly and her hands fluttered. "Oh gods! I have to get ready!"

She moved to spin away, but Severus stepped forward and snagged her around the waist, turning her back into his chest. He cupped her cheek. "Relax. We can be a bit late. You know I like to make dramatic entrances."

She sagged a little in his arms as the sudden adrenaline left her. She laughed ruefully. "Do I ever."

He tugged on a lock of her hair gently, a cheeky grin playing with his mouth. "Well. This is going to be my best dramatic entrance yet, with you on my arm."

Her eyebrows rose and she shook her head at him fondly. "Do you really think we should break it to them so soon?"

He shrugged slightly. "Better tonight than have everyone you care about see it in the morning papers instead."

"True."

"Good." He kissed her quickly and then led her into the relatively large bathroom in front of him. "Hop in the shower, and I'll join you in a minute."

Hermione gave him a bemused look as he set the clouded glass enclosed shower to running for her and shrugged out of her robe, letting it fall to the grey tiled floor.

Severus turned around, saw her standing there in all her naked glory, voluminous hair tumbling around her shoulders and halfway down her back, and nearly suggested that they skip the evening's much anticipated celebrations and just stay in his rooms for their own private party. But Minerva would undoubtedly come looking for him and all but drag him up to the Great Hall by his ear like she'd done on numerous occasions in the past when he was feeling unsociable. So he held his tongue. Just.

Instead, he gave her a blatant up and down onceover, letting every ounce of appreciation and longing he felt for her show on his face. "You are exquisite, My Own. Absolutely exquisite."

Hermione blushed. She couldn't help it; the look in his eyes was setting her on fire. "Thanks." She stepped forward and brushed her hands over the quilted cotton covering his chest, eyes drawn to the V of pale skin showing between the soft fleecy lapels of his dressing gown. Heeding the urge that said he needed a little worshiping as well, she kissed the center of his chest in the natural indent between his pectorals. Glancing up at him through her lashes, she bit her bottom lip and then said, "I like your robe. You look very debonair and shaggable in it."

Severus groaned as his libido shot through the proverbial roof. His arms came around her and he found himself grasping her perfect bottom and grinding himself against her stomach. "Merlin, Hermione. Do you want to get to the feast anytime in the near future or not?"

She smirked like a vixen. "If we're going to be late anyway…" She let the sentence hang on the air.

His eyes flashed with midnight fire, and he lifted her up via her arse. She met him halfway, hands moving up to hold his head as they kissed almost frantically.

Eventually tearing his mouth from hers, Severus spun, all but dumped her in the steaming shower stall, and backed off. "You are too fucking tempting, witch."

She grinned and slid the shower door closed in his face.

He muttered curses as he tore his dressing gown off and stomped over to the toilet to empty his bladder, snarling at the raging erection that was going to make the process less than easy.

In the shower, Hermione was giggling, hearing the vast majority of Severus' curses in her mind, fairly certain he was sending them to her on purpose. Most of the time, I'm very happy that I'm a girl.

"I will never disagree with that," Severus thought to her, between curses. "I'm glad you're a girl, too."

She laughed.

While he was dealing with nature, she started washing herself quickly with the spicy smelling liquid soap she found on a ledge on the wall. I'm going to smell like Severus, no matter what I do. And I don't think I care.

Merlin, this stuff is amazing! She just wanted to roll around in the scent like a cat. And the slippery stuff felt wonderful on her skin, tingling slightly as the magic infused soap cleansed her pores. I bet he makes it himself.

"I do. I can make you your own soap that suits your natural scent if you want."

"Ooooooo. Yes, please!"

"Consider it done."

"You're the best."

"Thank you."

She was reaching for another bottle, identical except for the word, 'shampoo' scrawled on the side, when the shower door slid open and Tall, Dark, and Horny stepped in. "I wouldn't use that if I were you," he said as he crowded up against her and plucked the clear bottle from her hand.

She looked up at him in askance as hot water poured over them and he put it back on the ledge. "Why not?"

"Because it's designed for my fine hair. It took me way too many years to perfect the formula, but I finally found the right one that was immune to the fumes of all of the potions I work on and actually left my hair looking like hair instead of greasy strings. I have a feeling, that on your curly hair, you'd end up looking like a tumbleweed."

She snorted in agreement. "Most likely. My hair has enough volume, thank you."

Severus fingered a wet lock that now reached her waist with the weight of water forcing it straight. "I like your hair. It's like you, rebellious and brilliant."

"Awwww." She wrapped her arms around his neck and rubbed against him, enjoying the feeling of having her breasts squashed up against his chest. "Thank you. But I thought you hated when Harry, Ron, and I broke the rules?"

He cupped her bottom and picked her up with a smirk, secretly exalting when she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist. "As a professor, and as someone who cared dearly whether or not you got yourself hurt, yes, that's true. But as someone who also broke as many rules as possible while in school, I like knowing that we're similar."

An imagined picture of a delinquent teenage Snape, skulking through the dark halls of Hogwarts while up to misdeeds popped into her mind, sending heat through her core. "Why am I not surprised that you were a bad boy?" Her sultry laugh was cut off as he stepped forward and pressed her up against the wall, hands kneading the soft flesh of her arse. "Oh!"

He ground himself against her, sliding his length along her warm folds, and bending to kiss the spot behind her ear that made her shiver every time. "And why am I not surprised that the thought of my being bad turns you on?"

The husky words whispered in her ear were literally the last thing she needed to make her ready for him, and he knew it.

Severus groaned as he felt a slippery heat coat his cock. "Merlin, woman, I wasn't even this horny when I was fourteen. You'll drive me mad."

She gasped and clung harder to his neck and waist as he lifted her little higher and effortlessly found her entrance, surging inside. "And I've never been this horny ever, so I think we're even," she panted as he set a fast and demanding pace, their wet bodies making rhythmical slapping sounds.

Severus grinned through gritted his teeth as her channel drenched him even more and her fingernails raked his back demandingly. He shifted a bit, bracing his legs better, pushed his chest harder into hers, and slapped a hand against the wet tile, which allowed him to thrust up even harder. "I think. That it's the…" he gave up trying to vocalize anything other than an occasional grunt that would make a caveman proud, and switched to just thinking his thoughts again. "I think it's the magic. Our soulbond is exchanging magic all the time, which is keeping our nerves on edge."

"Or… It's the simple fact that you are one sexy beast and every time I look at you I want to jump you, and you're picking up on that," she countered with, moaning with delight as his teeth gently locked on her neck again and he sucked. Hard.

"Or that. I admit I've wanted to jump you since Christmas of your Fourth year. You looked so fucking beautiful and grown up in that pink dress. I have literal years worth of fantasies saved up about you."

Hermione's mouth stilled on his stubbled jaw, where she'd been kissing a path towards his mouth. "Normally… that would just be flat out disgusting and stalkerish. I was only fifteen! But… now that I know about magical soulmates, and knowing that you knew I was yours all these years, I'm actually going to give you credit for your restraint. I can guarantee that if I'd known back when I was fifteen, I would have probably attacked you after class. I was so desperate to be loved back then."

Severus was inspired to speed up his pace and finish the journey of their mouths towards each other, plastering his lips to hers with a groan of surrender "Fuck. I don't know if I would have been able to resist you. And then I'd be in Azkaban for initiating a soulbond with a minor."

She kissed him back just as desperately. "And that would have been a tragedy. Perhaps it was best that I didn't know and spent a few years fixated on Ron."

"Best, yes. But good for my poor, whimpering heart? Not so much. Until recently, I honestly thought that I was going to have to wait for Weasley to kill himself playing Quidditch or something before I would ever get a chance with you."

She tore her mouth from his. "Severus! That's not very nice!"

His black eyes glittered amidst the drenched strands of his hair and his hips stilled. "No. It's not," he growled. "But that was my reality. And I've spent a great deal of my life being 'not very nice', so you'll just have to live with that side of me." His expression softened, filling with regret at his outburst. "That is, if you can? I promise to try and be 'nice' as much as possible, but old habits die hard, and I doubt I'll ever be entirely civilized."

She melted against him, wishing that she'd never scolded him and just laughed it off. Pushing his hair off his face and behind his big and adorable ears that were decidedly prominent with his hair slicked to his skull, she kissed him again. "Of course I can live with your wicked side. It's part of what makes you so attractive, as you already pointed out. I think I'd be disappointed if you turned into a model citizen."

He smiled in relief into her kiss and resumed his thrusting, slowly to start, to match their loving kiss. "That's good to hear. Now, what's it going to take to distract you enough to make you come sooner than later? Shagging against a wall is all well and good, but it's not the easiest position to maintain on a slippery tile floor."

She laughed as she nibbled on his bottom lip and he sped up a bit. "You could try talking dirty to me in that voice of yours. Show me a little of your bad side."

"Fuck. You asked for it."

Severus sped up again, back to his previous pounding. Then he planted his mouth by her ear and whispered, "I want you to come for me. I want to feel your hot little cunt squeezing the spunk out of my cock. I want to fuck you until you can't walk straight. I want to watch you swallow my cock down your tight little throat until there's nothing left to take. I want to fuck your breasts and cover them in my seed. I want to see you ripen with a child that I planted in you. I want to take your sweet little ass and make it mine until you scream and squirt your juice all over us. I want…"

"Fuuuuuuuuuuck! Severus!"

His words stopped abruptly as Hermione cried his name and tensed into a quivering frame of muscles over bone. Her channel clamped down on him unmercifully and started to flutter. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I fucking love you, My Own!" he cried back as her orgasm dragged his own out of him, flooding her insides with his seed.

Hermione collapsed, boneless in his hold, forehead resting on his heaving chest. "Love you more, Sevi Mine," she thought back, too breathless to speak. "And I'm holding you to all of those things you just said."

He chuckled weakly and performed a semi-controlled collapse to the floor of the shower, where she ended up in his lap and his back was against the wall. When he could breathe properly again, he kissed her forehead in a long, lingering kiss and hugged her tight.

"We should probably get up and get ready," he thought after a good five minutes of happy snuggling had occurred under the waterfall of warm water.

"We should."

He tipped her chin up and kissed her softly, which turned into an extended expression of their love via mouth to mouth communication.

It was Hermione who eventually pulled away and dragged herself up to her feet. "Right. Getting ready now." She stepped out of the shower as he rose as well, and turned back, sighing in pleasure at how sexy he looked, all wet like that. "Meet me at the stairs to the Entry Hall in twenty minutes."

Severus smiled like a little boy who'd just been given an entire basket of candy. "I will." He flicked a finger at her and she was magically dry from head to toe, her hair mercifully behaving from his spell, and drying into glossy curls.

She beamed, said, "Thanks, love!" and closed the shower door.

Severus sighed like a besotted idiot, shook himself like a dog to inspire himself back into action, and then reached for the shampoo bottle.

Hermione sped through the process of making herself pretty in a dorm room that she shared with Ginny, Parvati, and another seventh year called Shira. The room bore the scattered remnants of the other girls' war with their own beauty regimes, with articles of clothing strewn everywhere. Then she moved into the attached bathroom and found even more signs of rushed preparations in the form of makeup and hair supplies on every available flat surface.

She went to the section of drawers in the large vanity that where 'hers' and started opening drawers.

In the top drawer, she found some pretty, pink crystal flower barrettes to hold the sides of her hair back from her face. The rest of her curls, she let fall over her bare shoulders and down her naked back.

In the second drawer she saw her stash of potions, and almost slammed the drawer closed before a thought had her snatching up a vial from the back and gulping it down. Thank goodness I still had one contraceptive potion left over from my Ron-shagging days. Severus seemed rather excited about the idea of kids, but I'm not ready to start a family yet.

Moving on, she opened her last drawer and found her pathetic supply of makeup. She applied a faint smear of pink eyeshadow, swiped on a bit of mascara, dusted her cheeks with a hint of blush, and then dabbed some shimmery gloss to her lips.

"Good enough," she said to her reflection. Her reflection nodded back with a wink.

Snorting at it, Hermione turned to leave and caught sight of her reflection again in the full length mirror on the back of the door. She paused and studied it, looking for any obvious flaws and finding none.

Her hair and face was as good as they got. Her dress was held up by a strip of fabric around her neck that had a built in gold filigree choker necklace. From the choker, her dress veed downwards, just barely covering her breasts and scar while leaving her shoulders and upper back bare, except for her hair, which offered a peep show as she moved. The rose pink satin covered in a layer of black lace hugged her curves to her hips and then flowed out into a sweeping skirt that would twirl with her as she danced. And on her feet, she wore low heeled, strappy black sandals that left much of her feet bare and showed off her pink nail polish.

Her dress had originally been Gryffindor red with gold lace, but after Severus had said he'd loved her pink dress from years ago, she'd changed the colours. Her shoes had undergone a colour change as well.

I hope he likes it, she thought before she rushed out of the room.

Severus did.

In fact, Severus was in awe as the goddess who was his wife walked down the stairs to meet him. Merlin, she's beautiful. So very, very beautiful.

Hermione could hardly believe the man waiting for her.

He'd changed his usual clothes for something decidedly more spectacular and it made her heart beat frantically in her chest with appreciation.

Instead of being buttoned in from head to thighs in severe black, and covered in multiple layers of dress shirt, waistcoat, frockcoat, trousers, and billowing black robe, Severus had left the robe and waistcoat off entirely and found himself a hint of colour and freedom.

Starting at the top, she swept her gaze downwards.

His silken hair flowed down his back in a black waterfall to his shoulder blades, pulled back from the temples in a similar fashion to hers, but she had a feeling his was held back a simple elastic instead of shiny barrettes. His white dress shirt had been left open at the throat and was tucked into his usual belted trousers, showing off his slim musculature in a very mouthwatering way. He was still wearing one of his many-buttoned brocade frockcoats, but he'd left it open, and the patterned fabric was actually stitched in bright Slytherin green instead of the usual shiny black, and the buttons were emerald green as well.

He looked like a cross between a pirate, 18th century royalty, and a rebellious schoolboy.

She wanted to jump on him again.

They smiled like fools at each other as she came to a stop on the last step, leaving them almost of equal height.

"You look amazing," she breathed. "Green suits you."

"You look even more amazing," he husked, holding out his elbow for her to take. "And green bloody well better suit me. I am a Slytherin, after all."

She smirked, wrapping her hands around his arm, and they turned towards the closed doors of the Great Hall, which were holding back a quiet roar of voices. "And don't I know it."

They walked slowly to their nearby destination, eyes only looking at each other. When they came to the doors, they stopped and both took a deep breath.

"Are you ready for this, My Own?" he asked, determinedly quelling his own fear at being so on display and open to ridicule for his actions with Hermione.

Hermione tilted up her chin in a very Gryffindor way and nodded. "As I'll ever be."

Severus waved a hand at the doors and they opened to reveal a magically expanded Great Hall, decorated in festive lights and summer flowers, to accommodate a dance floor and tables for everyone that been invited to celebrate the first ever Leaving Feast of two Years at once. Everyone who had survived the war and had previously attended Hogwarts as a student had been invited (which was the vast majority of Wizarding Great Britain), and from the looks of it, almost all of them had accepted the invitation.

As Hermione and Severus stepped into the five times bigger than normal Hall, a hush started at their end and quickly took over the entire room. Severus squeezed the hand that was clutching his arm in a death grip as they halted again, feeling the weight of hundreds of shocked gazes. "No matter what happens, knowing that we're together is enough to get me through the inevitable inquisition."

She exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and looked back up at him, seeing the love in his eyes. She smiled. "Seconded, Sevi Mine."

They bravely walked on.

A/N: Okidokey. You're probably expecting me to write another chapter in this one, but I'm not going to. Hehe.

What I am going to do is start Part 2 of what is now going to be a 4 part series, and you'll get reactions from our other important players in their own stories, along with an eventual epilogue for the whole series at the end of Part 4.

Next up, we have Ginny and Draco's story, 'A Comparable Status'. You can expect the first chapter of that to be posted in 3 or 4 days. (Real life willing.) After that, because I feel bad about bashing poor Ron and Harry so much in this story, I'm giving them Happy Ever Afters as well. Ron's story will be, 'A Comparable Whimsy', and Harry's will be, 'A Comparable Guilt'. I'm not saying who I'm pairing them with yet, because I want it to be a surprise, but you're free to guess. :P