Fourteen year old Hermione Granger, cheeks blushing red, made her way to detention. Severus was waiting for her.
"Good evening, Miss Granger. You may start on cleaning the beakers."
Hermione nodded, two ashamed to reply. She took the beakers and began scrubbing inside of them with the washcloth. Snape grabbed her shoulder. She involuntarily shivered.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
"I'm cleaning the beakers, sir."
"No, you're not. You're going to shatter the beakers into bits. I guess Miss Know-it-all doesn't, in fact, know it all."
"I can't say I've ever read any books on beaker cleaning." She muttered.
"You won't discover them in the restricted area of the library."
Hermione's blush was now somehow deeper. She was afraid a blood vessel might burst.
"It's your fault I was there any way!" She snapped, then put a hand to her lips. Snape raised an eyebrow.
"How's that, Miss Granger? Did I put a wand to your head and force you through?"
"Well, it was that stupid question! I couldn't find the answer anywhere in the textbook or any of the other books so I decided to check the restricted section, which I know is a terrible idea-"
"That word's not strong enough. Try horrendous. Next time I catch you there I will have you expelled. Understand, Miss Granger?"
She nodded. "I understand."
"Oh, and Miss Granger, I would never give a student a question that required them to break school rules to get an answer. I probably went over it that week you had the flu."
"Oh." She muttered, realization dawning. She went back to cleaning the beakers.
"Besides, why not just skip the question?"
"I've never done that! I always try to get every question right!"
"Admirable, but foolish. It's alright to mess up every now and then."
"Not for me it isn't." She said.
"Yes, it is. Mistakes are how we learn. Why are you so scared of failure? What is with your infuriating need to be right all the damned time? Is it because you wish to be better than everyone else? Because I assure you, you are not."
"If you had parents like mine you'd probably be the same way." She said. "If I made less than a perfect grade I got put on restriction for a week!"
Snape's face darkened. "I'd commit the worst sins imaginable if I could have parents like yours."
"You know nothing about my parents!" Hermione shot back.
"Restriction for a week? Really, Miss Granger that was your parent's solution to a poor mark, not beating you senseless with a belt or locking you in a closet or-and this one was my favorite as it was only emotionally painful-setting your toys on fire? Did you father ever do that to you?" His voice broke at the end. Hermione lowered her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't know."
"There are a lot of things you don't know about me."
"I didn't mean to offend you."
"Return to the beakers."
"Yes, Sir."
She cleaned the beakers in silence for a few minutes. "I'm sorry you went through all that. No child deserves that."
"Oh for the love of Merlin! You're in detention, this isn't a therapy session! Of course no child deserves to go through what I went through! But, it's in the past! Forget it, alright!"
Hermione continued cleaning the beakers before asking the next question. "Is that why you're always so angry all the time?"
Though Snape was hurt by the accusation he didn't even flinch. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for that. I'm angry all the time because I'm surrounded by idiots."
"Are you calling me an idiot?"
"No, Miss Granger. You are, however, a pretentious little know-it-all brat."
Hermione bit her lip. "I-I don't mean to be, Sir."
"Stop stalling and…oh, you're done with the beakers."
He picked one up to examine it. It was perfect. It was the most perfectly cleaned beaker he'd ever seen. Everything she did was perfect, annoyingly, infuriatingly perfect. It was disturbing. He placed the beaker down. She was looking at him with a look begging for his approval.
"This will do." He said. "Begin cleaning the cauldrons."
While she went to clean the cauldrons, her back turned to him, he took out his wand and muttered a spell to make the cauldrons dirtier. He knew it was horrid of him, but he wanted her to work hard at it and maybe even to fail. No one should be allowed to be that perfect. It should take her at least three hours to complete the task. The snarky professor smiled in perverse pleasure as his student cursed softly and scrubbed as hard as she could. An hour later she was sweating, near tears and finished. Snape shook his head. That simply was not possible. He went and expected each cauldron. He ran his hands around the metal rim. Each rim was free of dust. He could see his own reflection in the bottom of quite a few of them. He wasn't sure why this fact made him angry, but it did. How could she be that perfect when everyone else had to struggle and work at things? He made sure she wasn't looking then took out his wand and whispered a spell to make one of the cauldrons dirty again.
"Miss Granger, you skipped one."
Hermione's eye twitched. He wasn't aware that eyes could do that.
"No. I. Didn't." She hissed.
"Yes, you did. Do not contradict a teacher young lady."
"I heard you say the dirtying spell!" She said. Snape's jaw dropped. The girl had incredible hearing.
Yet another perfect thing about her.
"I did not." He lied. "Come over here and clean it again."
"I-I…" She growled softly in frustration, but didn't dare disobey the professor. She went over, picked up the sponge and once more began scrubbing the cauldron.
"Bloody bastard." He heard her mutter.
"Did you just curse at me?"
She continued scrubbing the cauldron.
"I asked you a question, Miss Granger."
She ignored him. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around so that she was facing him. She dropped the sponge. She looked up at him timidly. He saw fear and some other emotion he couldn't quite place. He didn't know what he was going to do with her. Spank her senseless, perhaps? No, he didn't wish to lose his job. She was closer to him suddenly than he remembered and her body felt small and fragile. He relaxed his grip on her shoulder, but didn't let go. She was shaking, afraid maybe?
"Miss Granger, I…do not curse at me." He said forcefully. She nodded. There was something else, a look in her eyes. He recognized it too late. Suddenly, her lips were on his. His eyes widened in shock. Yet, her lips tasted good. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her, drank in the kiss. It'd been ages since he'd known intimacy like this. His good sense suddenly prevailed and he pushed her away. She looked down.
"I'm sorry, Professor."
"So, you're not perfect after all. You have failings like the rest of us." He observed. She wrapped a strand of her unruly, brown hair around her finger.
"Yes." She admitted. "I feel like I know you more than you think sometimes. Both of us are cursed with brilliance and-let's be honest-poor social skills. Sometimes, I wonder…I mean, now I know….I mean…" The girl was now rambling incoherently.
"Detention is now over, Miss Granger. Go collect yourself." He said coldly.
She nodded. "So, did you like it too?"
"Miss Granger, to my great annoyance, you are also a perfect kisser."
She was positively beaming as she left detention.
(A/N-I am not advocating pedophilia. I am not saying I'd approve of a relationship between an underage Hermione and Snape. Hermione HAS to be below a certain age in the story, else she wouldn't be in trouble for being in the restricted section, Snape and her wouldn't have had the argument about her constant need to be right, which is what led to the kiss and so on.)