The challenge

HP and its world is not mine. Just having fun with it. This story is not DH compliant, it AU and OC. You have been warned.

With surprisingly long and supple fingers, his silken locks were placed delicately behind his ear. His attention, wrapped around the problem before him, hadn't wavered in the last two hours.

He swore with sudden irritation; Minerva and her wily Scottish ways, had produced an enigma that had to be solved! A friendly bet had been mentioned, well... as friendly as any gryffindor/slytherin bet could be; she had challenged him to put it back in the right order. It would seem that a very old bottle of Scottish whisky had been deemed the proper prize. And to the loser, you may be asking yourself, there would be a certain exhibition in the staff lounge. Wearing a pink corset and matching knickers, the loser would sing "A cauldron full of hot, strong love" to all at the next meeting.

Slytherin pride, be damned... she would not better him!! He poked and prodded, analysed and weighed the silly thing. His senses were on full alert as he touched the coloured cube, expecting the worst curses to rip him apart, but only getting the sense that he was being made a fool.

He took it with him everywhere, hoping to find a spare moment to test it some more. But then, one day, as he sat in the Restriction Section of the library, still fiddling with the confounded object from hell, a student passed by his hidey-hole and gave him the briefest glance. With a roll of her eyes, she stopped in her tracts and paced back to where he sat, a regal glare upon his face.

'Pardon me, professor...' she said in her own dulcet tones, a hand outstretched, asking permission to handle the dratted thing. His nostrils flared in anger, miffed by such brash and gryffindorish expectancy for him to obey her command.

As he was about to remove a million points from the Lion's house, his lips suddenly shifted from angry sneer to an evil smirk. 'Let the know-it-all swot do it' he thought with much glee. The girl would most likely fail in her attempt to solve the problem, or so he thought self-righteously. If he couldn't do it, surely this young girl couldn't achieve it either.

So, with sprightly swiftness, he stood up and handed her the brightly coloured cube, smugly crossing his arms over his chest, sneering softly to her.

'Miss Granger, I doubt that even you could possibly resolve this puzzle' he breathed threateningly, 'your house will surely want to skin you alive, after you lose the five-hundred points I will be removing after your failure...' He knew that this was the best way of getting a rise out of her. With one brow gently arched as he spoke his words, his inner satisfaction glowed, but would soon be greatly abused at the hands of this slip of a girl.

Hermione felt quite undaunted, knowing that this was a relative 'piece of cake'. With the skill and alacrity of an old hand, she twisted and spun the segments, one way and another. Never hesitating or showing any sign of distress, within minutes, the patchwork of colours that had covered the cube's surfaces, had been rearranged as it should; even colours of red, blue, green, yellow, white and orange on each of the six sides.

Snape's eyes became slits as he tried to understand what had just happened before his eyes, but Granger simply handed back the cube with a smirk firmly placed on her face.

'There you go, professor Snape! Its as easy as that... even a gryffindor can do it! she added snidely, 'So, what do I get for doing the task? Since I can't remove points from slytherin... ' Her large brown eyes fluttered with mock innocence.

His face contorted with white-hot rage, her complete cheek would cost her more than she had expected. 'Yes...' he hissed, 'what could you possibly get for doing such a simple task?' His mind went whirling with the different punishments he could inflict upon the girl. Some were quite straight forward, like detention with Filch. But in his mind, this situation needed a bit more 'oomph'!

She looked on, reading his expressions as they travelled across his face, trying to decide how bad the detention would be. But, since the war had ended and she had returned to school to finish her seventh year, the terrible potions teacher had wielded little fear in her heart. The war had toughened her out, made her more driven and confident in her capabilities. Detention was a minor blip in her world now. Let him offer his worst, she could deal with anything now.

Snape suddenly decided upon his next move and swished his wand in a small arc, extinguishing all the lights around them. After a minute of silence, his voice reverberated near her ear, sending a waft of moist, warm air on the skin of her neck. She shivered as goose bumps followed his breath down to her shoulders. Why was he standing so close to her anyway? That knowledge made her just a tad nervous.

'Go' he whispered, 'you are about to break curfew if you stay here any longer.' She felt him pass behind her back, his teaching robes displacing the air around them. More shivers ran down her back as she started to walk away from him, wanting to put a bit more distance between herself and the oddly acting teacher.

She was about to leave the Restricted Section, when she finally remembered to ask about her award for doing the cube. 'Professor?' she turned toward the place he had last stood, 'you didn't answer my question. Since I solved the cube's mystery without help, what do I get out of it?'

From the shadows that now enveloped him, he felt like laughing at her temerity. 'What could possibly crown such an achievement?' he spoke softly but with a certain edge to his voice.

'Detention! Tomorrow! My office!. Be there at eight or you shall be very sorry to have shown such cheek in my presence.' he barked at her, making Hermione jump from fright. She hadn't expected him to shout inside the library.

She was about to answer him when Mme Pince arrived on the scene. 'For the love of Circe! Severus Snape, what has come over you? Why all this shouting inside the library?' She gave him her best sour look, the one she usually reserved for ill-behaving students.

"Do I really need to remind you of the rules around here?' she shook her index at him. 'Miss Granger!' she said as she suddenly realised that a student was present, 'what are doing here at this time? The library is closed now, off you go before I remove any points from gryffindor.'

She kindly pushed Hermione through the Restriction Section's doors and closed it shut behind her. Hermione's eyes grew wide as she heard Mme Pince giving Professor Snape an earful. Shaking her head in total disbelief, she left the library, still wondering what Snape had planned for her detention.