Chapter One: I Felt It

"Miss Granger," Professor Snape acknowledged as she approached his desk.

"Professor," said Hermione, "I've been meaning to ask you if I could … that is to say, Professor Dumbledore offered … Sir, do you think maybe you could..."

"Oh, just spit it out already, Miss Granger," Snape snapped, already annoyed by Miss Granger's uncharacteristic reticence.

"Sir, Professor Dumbledore called me into his office a few days ago and told me that since my other teachers consider me advanced enough, he would like me to take my NEWTs next week."

Snape glanced up from the papers piled on his desk and noticed that Miss Granger had caught her bottom lip between her teeth. "I knew this already, Miss Granger, from altogether too many staff meetings. How exactly does it affect me?" He already knew, of course, but it amused him to see Miss Granger nervous, a rare sight.

"Sir, Professor Dumbledore told me that after I take my NEWTs, I ought to choose one of my subjects to continue my studies in at a higher level." She paused and an expression of pure panic crossed her face. "I thought that since Potions is the one class I am still taking, I could continue my studies with you."

Snape frowned. Miss Granger was one of his best students, to be true – the best of all his students, if he was really honest with himself, better even than all his seventh year students – but he had doubts of her ever being truly great at the art. She followed directions too closely, feared experimentation and mistakes as no true master of Potions did.

He could, however, work on that, were she to study with him more closely.

Hermione grew more and more anxious as Snape's head tilted ever-so-slightly to one side. Her gaze flicked over him, drinking in his appearance. His pitch-dark hair, shiny with perspiration from the heat of the classroom after brewing. His onyx-black eyes that glittered like a pile of gemstones, with new, darker circles under them betraying his exhaustion. His long sweeping scimitar-curved eyelashes. His enormous nose, aquiline and stately. His thin lips, bare shades darker than his pale pale pale skin. His strong jaw, the same one that moved sharply when reprimanding students now cupped in one of his Potions-callused hands.

"Miss Granger," Snape hissed, as sharply as anyone could hiss. Hermione snapped back to attention. "You may continue to study Potions with me on a higher level, if you are willing to give up your evenings and weekends at first." It was the kindest tone he had ever used with her, and he found himself as shocked as she was by it.

Hermione gasped. She had thought for sure that Professor Snape would refuse. She had no reason to hope that he considered teaching her worthwhile. "Oh, yes, sir! Of course!" Professor Snape was one of her idols, a true genius – he'd invented the Wolfsbane potion at the age of twenty! "Oh, thank you so much, sir!" She exclaimed happily.

Δ

"Albus, I hope you did not encourage Miss Granger in the direction she has chosen," Snape muttered at Dumbledore after the staff meeting.

Dumbledore had announced Miss Granger's decision, as well as Snape's decision to let her take her Potions NEWT two weeks after the others.

"She may not have as much brewing practice as my seventh-years," he'd confided in Dumbledore, "but anyone who could brew Polyjuice in their second year can surely take their Potions NEWT almost two years early."

Δ

Snape sat alone in his rooms, cupping a large mug of strong tea between his strong hands, musing over the day. He certainly had not expected Miss Granger to look quite as intriguing as she had. Somehow, without his realizing it, the young annoying Gryffindor girl had become a bright young woman.

A/N: Well, this is my very first attempt at writing a fanfiction! I'm pretty excited, and hopefully anyone who reads this will like it...

I've been reading so many Severus/Hermione stories that I wanted to try my hand at one of my own, but I didn't have any ideas for a while. And then last night I had a bout of insomnia and had to resort to music to fall asleep. Normally I listen to 2Cellos to fall asleep, but for some reason I chose Kelly Clarkson. Thank God. The idea for this story just popped into my head as I lay there listening to the music, and thankfully it hung around through the night!

I'm using the Greek letter Delta for my story breaks, in case you didn't know. It's used in mathematics to symbolize change, and it seemed appropriate.

-KJ