Hermione woke up with water dripping on her face. Opening her eyes she could see why. She was so tired she had fallen asleep under the tree she was working under. The rain had started to fall and no one had bothered to find her. No one cared enough to wet their feet looking for her.
Resignedly she got to her feet and wiped her face dry of rainwater. The walk up to the castle wasn't that far only a few hundred yards, someone could have at least shouted from a window or from the door to wake her up. But that would still be too much effort. Not she knew the only people that gave a damn now were Harry and Ron and even they were too self-absorbed and uncaring to walk down to the entrance hall.
Resignedly she got herself up from the damp ground and wiped the rain out of her eyes. Making her way to the entrance hall she began searching through her many deep pockets for her wand. Walking in the castle and ripping all over the marble floor, she located her wand her inside pocket. She dried her self with a spell and then gave the same treatment to her papers and bag. Unfortunately she had not left the weather outside, her mood was so dark that you could almost see the storm above her head.
Checking the large clock on her way past she saw that it was too late for tea and made her way straight to the library, again.
She even depressed herself with the amount of times her feet had brought her here after argument and bad moods. The only place she knew as her own was, the library. Oh well at least she had her own corner.
It was common knowledge that she came her almost 3 times a day and she always sat in the same place, the corner nearest the restricted section, and furthest from the door. On the rare occasion that some unknowing student had settled themselves in that spot, they were soon moved when Hermione entered with a sweet smile, the eye of the storm it was. Several first years that had done this had to be taken to the hospital wing in hysterics after Hermione had finished her ranting at them.
Hermione stalked over to her usual spot, passing several people checking out books and leaving to do homework in the comfort of their common rooms.
'that girl is turning into Snape.' One 3rd year said, loud enough for Hermione to hear.
Hermione chose to ignore this and started to see the plus side of their comment, at least no one would bother her, not if they thought they would get the same attitude from her as they did from the formidable Potions Master.
She hadn't noticed herself but there were instances where she had given detention, being head girl, for things such as laughing too loudly and looking suspicious.
She dropped her things on her table and glided over to the restricted section, she was doing a transfiguration project that needed some research, but that could wait, what excited her most was her NEWT potions project. Study on the mind and the potions that can make or break it. Aptitude enhancers, personality changes, truth serums and confusing concoctions, things like that. Things that are only made by professionals and closely monitored by the ministry.
This was her biggest challenge, she was a powerful spell caster, but potions went further than that, anyone could wave their wand and say a few words but potions, no you needed real talent, not the simple things that you learnt up to 5th year. Immense concentration, a vocation for it, a steady hand and above all a good teacher. The teacher, what she wouldn't give to have Snape's ability in potions.
She found the two books that she was looking for, 'Bewitch the Mind' by Amile Nightshade, and 'Ensnare the Senses' by Hamlet Caresse. She knew Snape hadn't made that speech up purely off his own back.
Hermione took her treasures and sat at her table, pulled out her notes and began comparing them to the findings of her experiments to what should have happened. To anyone else they were fairly close, close enough. But close enough was never enough for workaholic Hermione. She scrapped her last experiment and filed it as 'failed research' which she then changed to 'experimental research', not wanting the word fail to have anything to do with her.
"Madame Pince, 'Bewitch the Mind' and 'Ensnare the Senses' are both missing from the restricted section." Hermione heard an irate voice from the librarian's table.
"That would be because I have them." Hermione called to the Potions Master.
Snape stalked over to her table.
"You have them? Why?" he looked suspiciously at her.
"Because of my NEWT project, you know the one I left my 3 page proposal for on your desk, marked 'please read'." Hermione said testily.
"Right." Snape looked confused.
"Also," Hermione carried on. "I will require the use of some potions equipment to test my theories and for some primary research."
Snape looked at her.
"What wrong with the research your doing now?" he asked perplexed.
"What? Base my whole grade off secondary and tertiary research?" Hermione said scandalised.
For a moment Snape looked over the many pieces of parchment and crossing outs and amendments in front of him. She had done her research and the content was good, but he knew it wasn't perfect and that it grated on Hermione.
"Fine, use it when you like." Snape said almost cordially. "But," his voice turned ice cold. "Let me warn you now, don't disturb anything that is left out, leave me in peace while I work and don't tell your peers what you are doing. Do I make myself clear?" he asked close to her face, trying to intimidate her.
Hermione leaned forward slightly, "quite clear." Snape made to move away from her slightly, she carried on. "But don't touch my research, don't try to correct it, don't even try to assist me unless I state otherwise. Do I make myself clear?" Hermione asked with twice the coldness of Snape.
He didn't reply, looking shocked her; he turned and walked out of the library trying to make sense of how the tables had turned? Had she tried to intimidate him? Why had it worked?
The next day after a very boring, history of magic lesson and an incredibly frustrating transfiguration lesson, Hermione decided it was time for some much needed stress release. She made her way down to the dungeons and dumped her stuff under a table. She set up her equipment to make her own variation of her confusing concoction. Not the simple ones the lower years made, no this was her own variation that, not confused only a specific part of the mind. Strong enough to last more than an hour and could have serious side effects. This was what she wanted to eliminate, the side effects.
Severus came into his potions classroom to find an orderly mess of ingredients and apparatus. Amidst the debris sat Hermione. She didn't look up from the notes she was reading and her hand didn't stop stirring the mixture in the cauldron. All in all she looked calm, calmer than she usually was in lessons.
Taking this as a godsend Severus silently walked up to his desk and proceeded to mark essays and other pieces of work, which were at least an attempt at an essay. Some of the students seemed to play with the idea of the essay, much like a child will play with a broken toy, they throw it away.
For almost two hours not a sound was heard from either of the rooms occupants mouths. The bubbling of the cauldron, a scratching of a quill and the occasion pop of a stopper being pulled out of a bottle were the only sounds with in the room.
Soon Hermione's potion was done. She silently rejoiced in the fact that a concoction of her own design had been so well thought through that it hadn't exploded. That was a minor triumph; she had yet to find out what its exact properties were. For a moment she considered carrying on working and then seeing the time thought again. That could wait.
Taking out her wand she cleaned up any mess and banished her apparatus to a far corner table so it could be left without people meddling with it. Plus this way she didn't have to tidy it up. She looked up at the teachers' desk and saw Severus sat silently scratching away at something in front of him.
"How long have you been here?" she demanded all the serenity had gone.
"I have been here for the best part of 3 hours Miss Granger." Severus said trying be calm when the sudden temper of the girl could be triggered by such trivial things.
"Oh." Hermione said looking confused but still highly aggravated. "well I'm going now, that stuff," she point to the corner desk with her things on, "I'm leaving here. Be a good teacher and see no one touches it." She said sarcastically and turned to leave.
Severus stood up and leaned over his desk.
"I don't appreciate you attitude miss Granger, you are highly privileged, no honoured to be allowed use of the potions lab after hours. I will not put up it. Either you try and be civil…"
"Be civil?" Hermione screeched. " I will be civil only when I see fit, and quite frankly professor Snape, this in one of those times. I refuse to be civil to you! Your moody and unfair and the most uncivil beast I've ever met."
Hermione stopped to draw breath.
Inside Severus was shocked, deeply shocked, outside he was fuming, you could almost see smoke issuing from his twitching nostrils.
"Good night to you professor Snape!" Hermione said tartly, not giving him a chance to speak.
She turned on her heel and left the room and its only occupant.
Severus stood at his desk with the overpowering urge to break something. Severus began pacing the room, trying to count to 10 in a vain attempt to calm himself down. He was randomly walking round the tables and then he stopped, looking at a cask that was in front of him. Hermione's potion. The one she had told him not to touch, but then he was the teacher. How did he know this wasn't an illegal substance, he would have to test it himself.
He summoned the apparatus to him and set it up.
"This should be interesting." Severus said to himself.
He began boiling the potion and decanting as many separate ingredients that he could. This had taken nearly 2 hours and he hadn't noticed. He still had half the original potion left to test. This was going to be a fun night.
Hermione sat in her room. For the past 2 and a half hours she had tried to sleep, in vain. Her senses told her something was not right. Something felt wrong, she felt invaded but she didn't know how.
Finally she got up and made her way down to the dungeons hoping to find comfort in her project. She could hear bottle clinking and a cauldron bubbling from the other side of the potions lab door. She stood there from a moment in the corridor, wearing only her slippers, underwear and dressing gown, shivering slightly in the draughty passage.
Down here the feeling of invaded privacy was immense, whoever was behind the door was touching her things, someone was messing with her project. Anger filled her from her stomach.
She burst trough the door, her hair an explosive mess, just like her mood.
"Why are you playing with my project!" she screamed at the figure in front of her.
Severus turned round in fear, for some reason this girl intimidated him. She was a loose canon, unpredictable and he feared it. He was used to knowing what effect he could elicit from people. He was an occlumencist, he could read minds, but not hers, she could block him, she was strong. Her mind was far stronger than his could ever be.
He almost dropped the bottle in his hand as he saw the anger that contorted her face and made her unruly hair almost stand on end. He found his body reacting, not with fear but with arousal.
"I was testing the potion, miss Granger, testing that it was not an illegal substance, that the effects of it were not harm." He placed the bottle and the spoon on the table and as calmly as he could, turned to watch the girl.
"I told you not to touch it! Its my project, I am not so stupid to do what your insinuating!" Hermione was livid, she advanced on him.
The image of the irate girl in slippers and a dressing gown was almost comical. But his body didn't think so; he was becoming more and more excited by the passion of the teen.
She swept past him and tried to sort out her potions. Silently he tried helping her, she merely grabbed the items from his hands and glared. He stood back and watched her bending over the table. Watching how her dressing gown softly caressed her thighs, seeing that she wore not much underneath as the gown was riding up every time she bent further forward. His groin ached painfully and his nostrils twitched nervously.
Hermione could feel him watching her, watching her every move. What part of her he was watching she wasn't sure. Her attitude? Her hands? Was he watching in disapproval? In reproach?
"Why are you watching me?" she snapped angrily not turning round.
He remained silent, and then she knew. She had very little on and her dressing gown was probably not hiding much anymore. She had forgotten her attire.
Slowly she turned round and looked at him. He looked hungry, like he had an insatiable appetite.
"What?" she asked .
He said nothing. Trying not to she her thoughts she turned round and started to clear up again.
'Why not?' she thought, 'why not use him for pleasure? Heaven knows I need it.'
As if he could read her mind, he closed the distance between them. As he got closer Hermione felt warmth grow between her legs. Soon he was pressed against her. She stood still.
"Excuse me professor, what exactly do you think you are doing?" she asked harshly.
"Nothing." He replied.
But in his mind Hermione was sure she could hear him add yet as an afterthought.
"Then would you please remove yourself from my immediate vicinity?" she said again.
Severus didn't move he just looked at the girl pressed to him. He could see her unruly un-slept on mass of hair. He wanted to grab handfuls of it.
Hermione could feel his body, stiff and bony. She wondered if that hardness in her back was going to be everything that it was promising to be. She took her wand out from her pocket and muttered a spell.
Severus found his trousers unbuttoned and his erection on show.
"You have until I have finished clearing this stuff up." Hermione ordered.
Without any hesitation Severus reached up and pulled her underwear aside and slid into to her. It was delicious, wet, warm and the right amount of pressure. He began thrusting into her and she cleared up all of the mess.
She seemed not to notice what he was doing, as if he wasn't there. But inside, her chest wanted to heave, he throat wanted to voice the pleasure. Her clitoris was being for more but her mind was saying she must remain neutral. She had to win this little game and she was going to.
Severus was almost like an animal. As she was stretching and bending further over to reach objects and ingredients before using her wand to banish them, he could feel the movement, his cock was revelling in the pressure.
Then he felt it, his mind wasn't his anymore, there was someone else there too it felt too full. She could see his thoughts and his emotions. She was reading his desire to hold her and make love to her all night.
In his mind she laughed at him, she scorned him fro being weak enough to give into pleasure. She was not the student anymore; she hadn't been for a long time. She was his teacher; she was the woman that was going to strengthen his mind. Even if she didn't know it yet.
With a last insult and the last piece of equipment cleared anyway, Severus thrust once more and he could feel Hermione orgasm, he muscles contracting, milking him as he grabbed hold of her shoulders and spilled into her forcefully.
He had wanted to hold her, to kiss her and see that she enjoyed as much as he did. But he couldn't, she had pushed him away.
"Your weak Severus." She said softly, an edge of triumph to her voice.
He did his trousers up and looked at her. Her face was pink and her hair even frizzier. She was covering up heavy breathing. She was doing itl very well. If he hadn't just felt her orgasm, he would never have known she had had one.
"What a ridiculous mind frame you have!" she said laughing coldly. " Wanting to love me. As if you could. As if I would let you. Your old Severus. Your old and weak, now why would I want you?"
She waved her wand to rid herself of the semen that was threatening to run sickeningly down her leg.
"Why don't you?" he asked.
"I've told you why. You annoy me. Your arrogant and you can't even keep up the façade you have created for yourself. Every time a woman comes near you your drop your pants quicker than Sirius Black." She paused for breath watching the man in front of her snap. "You're a romantic fool, that need someone else's affection to make him feel whole."
"I could change." He said quietly. " Teach me to be strong."
"No." she said plainly and made for the door. "I can't teach anyone who I have broken to be strong. Next time find someone as equally pathetic as you are. A girl who would love a perverted old man like yourself. Someone who is after more than a stress relieving fuck."
With that she left. He was left again alone in the classroom. He knew she didn't mean all those things. She he was weak in comparison to her. But she wasn't the only one that could do occlumency.
He had seen her deepest thought and desires. He had seen her ideal life, and it included him. But she was right that he was weak, weaker than her. He couldn't keep up his façade, not when she was around. He loved her in the deepest way and loathed her for it too. The fine line between love and hate had been erased between them and they had no name for the emotion, it just was.
She would be back again, she always was. She needed him more than she could say and she wanted him even more. But that damn pride. Gryffindor pride. It had always been a joke before, now it was real, she just took it to the extreme. She would do anything as long as she didn't lose face.
Even if it meant lying to herself…