Disclaimer: I own nothing from the original Harry potter, all belongs to the marvelous JKR.

A/N: As this story was started before OotP I'm going to continue it as AU, using elements from OotP. Note also that it will eventually be SS/HG. Chapter One is fairly short, hope to get longer but depends how much writing time I have.

Summer Encounters

Chapter One

Hermione sighed happily, and sank gratefully into the near overflowing bath. Finally 12 Grimmauld place was empty, and she could use the bath without having to fight for it. She breathed deeply, and sneezed, despite the large amount of scent she'd poured in the bath, the pervasive odor from the room across the hallway-currently Professor Snape's temporary lab, still lingered in the bathroom.

"Bother" she muttered, irritably climbing out of the bath again and wrapping a towel around herself.

She walked across the hallway, and examined the closed door. Rather predictably, Professor Snape had locked it both with a key and magic. Hermione sighed, it seemed that she would just have to put up with the peculiar smell while she bathed.

Professor Snape frowned as he made his way up the stairs of Twelve Grimmauld place, curse those blasted children for distracting him, and he'd left a potion in his lab that needed to be heated regularly.

He walked down the hallway and was about to open the door, when he heard...singing?...from the bathroom. He stood next to the door, and then decided to push it open; obviously one of the female members of the Order had stayed behind to mess around with her hair or something equally pointless!

"Surely you have something better to do than..." began Snape as he pushed the door open, only to be interrupted by a shriek and a splash as the person in the bath yanked the shower curtain across it.

Shit!

His exclamation was purely mental, and a reaction both to the fact that he'd caught someone in the bath, and the fact that she had very nice legs.

"Sorry" he muttered quickly, and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

He entered the Potion room and locked the door behind him, meanwhile Hermione was completely shell shocked.

Snape saw me in the bath!

She quickly pulled herself together, forcing herself to think reasonably.

All he saw was your legs, Granger, no need to have a fainting fit!

Hermione climbed slowly out of the bath, grabbed a towel and sneaked back to her room.

She decided that, if she could get out of the house-without Snape catching her, he would never know that she had been there.