Title: Other Lovers
Author: MelWil
Rating: PG
Feedback: Is great - lina_wilson@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: They belong to JKR not me.
Summary: Hermione sits on Snape's bed, reminded of the past.

~*~

"I've had lovers before." He sat in the low armchair across the room, still fully dressed. His arms were folded across his chest and she was reminded of the first Potions Lesson she ever took.

And now . . .

Now her former Potions Master was telling her about his former lovers. Telling her about the lovers he had before her.

She was sitting on his bed, clad in her usual teaching robes. She had taken detention in the evening and, rather than returning to her cold, empty office, she had sought him out.

He had been pleased to see her.

She tucked her legs up and removed her simple earrings, laying them on his bedside table. She stretched her neck, one side then the other and nodded at him.

"I should expect you've had other lovers, Severus. Once you've reached a certain age, it seems inevitable."

He raised his eyebrows. There were times, less frequent as they grew closer, that he treated her like she was still a child. She realised that this was going to be one of those times, that he would talk down to her, until she was able to talk him out of his mood.

It was a small price to pay for what he could give her.

"I had my first lover while I was still at Hogwarts."

It was nothing new, she thought, as she watched him delve back into his memories. Most of the older students were involved with each other - she herself had been involved with Ron before she graduated. She nodded and waited for him to continue.

"Actually, she was a Gryffindor."

"Really?"

"It would have been a rather big scandal if anyone had found out." Severus got to his feet and retrieved a bottle of elderwine from the top of his dresser. "Would you like some?"

"Yes, please." She waited while he poured her drink. "What happened to her?" She asked, toying with the delicate stem of the glass.

He shrugged. "We broke up." He joined her on the bed. "Then she married another Gryffindor and they had a son. There's not really much else to say."

He kissed the back of her neck and wrapped an arm around her waist. She leant back into him and tried to imagine a teenaged Severus Snape, one who snuck around falling in love with a Gryffindor.

"Why did you tell me about her?" She turned her head to look at him.

"I just wanted you to know that I'd had lovers before, that I wasn't some soulless creature." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I like to remember that there was a time when I wasn't a Death Eater."

"You're not a Death Eater now. You haven't been one in decades."

"People will always consider me to be a Death Eater. The stigma is deeper than the scar on my arm."

Hermione shivered. Even though the scar on his arm was totally inactive, she still hated to look at it, hated to be reminded of it. "I don't think of you as a Death Eater. You're just a Potions Master with an extreme dislike of misbehaving students, especially Gryffindors."

"Did I mention that I've had other lovers . . ?"