Okay so this really isn't my normal genre but sometimes life imitates art or in this case fiction imitates life somewhat. Please review and tell me what you think :)
He could hear sobbing coming from the third floor corridor. It sounded female, but nowadays you couldn't really tell. Take Weasley as an example, he had once heard him crying because during one of his many order meetings his brothers thought that it would be funny to dangle him over the landing at the top of the stairs. Weasley screamed like a girl, but after knowing what dangling in mid air did to a person he took pity on the boy and countered the spell with on of his own.
On further discovery his found that the crying was coming from the library, there was only one person that he knew that frequented the library without being forced there and that person was Miss Granger. With the stealth that he still possessed from his spying days he walking silently up to the door, mindful of the creak wooden floorboards. He knew from experience that the door to the library screeched when moved, so he placed a temporary silencing charm on it and opened it with a gentle nudge so he could see the person inside.
He was right. It was Miss Granger, curled up like a cat on the armchair by the fire. She tried to control her sobbing, gulping in air like she had been stared of it all her life, but her efforts were to no avail. If he were an emotional person he would have felt her pain but he was not, years as a spy had conditioned him to not feeling emotions like normal people would.
As though she could actually see him, her head whipped around to face him. The bushy mess of her hair following the same movement and hitting her in the eye, he saw her wince but she did not break eye contact with him. The silent question of why he was standing there shone in her glassy eyes. Her breath had not yet returned to normal and he saw a lone tear making it's way down her face against her china like features.
Without out making a sound he approached her cautiously, not wanting to startled her with any sudden movement. Throughout his tenure as Head of Slytherin House he had learnt not to startled any of the girls who came to him crying as it had always been met with an adverse reaction. When he was mere meters away from her he guested to the chair that sat opposite her, and when she inclined her head slightly he took it as an invitation to sit down. When he was settled he noticed the crumpled piece of parchment that she clutched tightly in her hand. He would not speak first, he would allow her to, that was if she was going to talk at all.
Hermione looked at him, why did he of all people have to find her? She could feel the wetness on her face and tried not to let the knowledge that her potions professor had seen her crying unnerve her.
They had yet to break eye contact with one another and she found it oddly comforting that he made no effort to. She knew that he had seen the piece of parchment that she clung to and although he seemed curious he did not press her. She was grateful for that. The reason that she was crying, to her older self seemed understandable, but she knew had it been her younger self who thought study was everything, she would have thought she was crazy and perhaps she was for falling so fast.
"You don't need to stay Professor," those were the words that she mumbled after some time had passed.
While in her company he had noticed a few things, her eyes had flecks of gold in them, something which he had been oblivious to before. Above her right eye she had a small scar, something he guessed happened at the Department of Mysteries as it didn't look fresh and the edges were slightly curved. Her mouth was the colour of a delicate rose which had yet to bloom and her hair was not as wild as he previously had thought.
"You seemed to be experiencing some distress Miss Granger, it is my duty as a Hogwarts professor to comfort students who seem to be in distress."
He watched as a small smile found it's way onto her face. The eye contact that he had instigated had yet to be broken.
"Have you forgotten that school is not in session or that I am no longer your student Sir?"
"No Miss Granger I have not forgotten."
"The why Sir, as I am sure you have better things to do than sit around watching me snivel over a piece of parchment."
"At this moment in time I do not, the Dark Lord has been vanquished and I have been released of my debts. I was simply...Curious as to why a third of the 'Golden Trio' was crying alone in the Library over a 'piece of parchment'."
Sometime between him entering the room and when they had started talking her breathing had returned to normal and only the odd tear made its way down her face.
"I did notice you seemed more...Relaxed after the news Sir, do you know what you will do now?"
He noticed her avoidance of the topic but did not push her.
"I am going to teach my class the way I have always wanted to teach my class. While fear and intimidation may be useful over a short period of time, encouragement and offering the students help if and when they need it, as I have found during the last few months of the school year is more beneficial. Not only to them but to me also."
Hermione thought back to the months previous before graduation, he had seemed calmer and on occasion had helped Neville when he had become stuck. It had been a welcomed change and all the students felt that they could approach their Potions Professor if they needed help before their NEWTS.
"You have had fewer headaches also," she stated, and at his look of shock at her noticing she broke the eye contact that they had maintained and looked into the fire, "when you experience daily headaches you get to know the different signs that indicate when other people have them, you forehead scrunches up and the scowl that normally rests on your face is more..."
"Menacing," he offered when she had trailed off, trying to think of a word.
"Yes," the small smile that had left her face fleetingly returned and she let out a small chuckle.
"What's so funny?"
"You, if anyone had told me yesterday that I would be having a civil conversation with my Potions Professor I would have called them crazy, no offence Sir, you have changed and for the better, but a casual conversation was not something that I saw myself engaging in with you."
"No offence taken Miss Granger, at least it wasn't the one of the two nitwits I found crying, I think that they would have ran a mile had I stared at them."
She turned to look at him after the memorization of the fire had passed and took a deep breath.
"For the past two years I kept in contact with Victor Krum, it progressed, and this 'piece of parchment' told me that basically I was a big waste of his time, over the course of the past two years and that I will always be a stuck up bookworm with archaic sensibilities." Her face seemed calm when she said this but her eyes gave her away. They shone with unshed tears and the normal unshakable Professor found himself in a state of shock.
Whatever he had been expecting, it certainly had not been that. His spying years had taught him how to conceal his emotions and his facial expression, but after talking to her and sitting with her he found that at the moment in time it was an impossible feat to accomplish.
"I didn't know that Krum knew what the word 'archaic' meant." He said snidely.
What he said was so unexpected that the smile that had spread across her face progressed into full blown laughter, and after some time had passed that same smile still remained on her face.
"Professor," she said, the smile one her face making the tone of her voice sound warmer and less fragile to what it had been before, "I didn't know that you had it in you to tell a joke."
He had not realised until now that the corners of his mouth had turned up and he found that he liked making her smile.
"I am full of many surprises Miss Granger. But the Krum boy was not worth your time, you insulted your intelligence and your potential by crying over him, and it may sound cliché to say, but you are too good for him."
Severus Snape was normally a man of few words, but he found that this women that sat in front of him was so much more than what the words on the 'piece of parchment' had said. He found he needed to tell her this and almost laughed at the expression on her face.
"You know, after seven years of barely any compliments you do know how to make a girl blush."
"I stand by what I have said Hermione, you deserve someone better," he left off the part that he really wanted to say. He left off 'someone like me'.
Even though it had only been a short amount of time compared to the days and hours he had spent previously with her, he found that somewhere between her heaved sobs and her genial laughter he had fallen for her. Severus Snape, greasy dungeon bat of the dungeons had fallen for Hermione Granger, the know-it-all. He found that for once in his life he wanted to take a risk, wanted to be daring and see if she felt something similar towards him.
Her face turned pensive for a moment then she smiled knowingly at him.
"Severus, would be bad of me to say I'm already over him?"
"I think that is the best news I have heard all day." He said, matching the smile on her face with one of his own.
I wrote this and edited this in just over an hour, I know I should be updating my other fics but this just flowed and I had to write it. I am in the process of finishing off a few chapter though so please be patient. And I really need to say that I think this is one of my best pieces, I hope I don't sound to big headed :P
-Looney :)