by donotsrock
A/N: This is an answer to the WIKTT Bubble Bath Challenge. Basically, Hermione and Severus are both stressed and end up in one bathtub.
Disclaimer: Of course, none of them is mine, but J.K. Rowling's. But the plot *cough cough*, all right, the thing vaguely resembling a plot, is, actually, not mine either. Because the is no plot. The whole story is about the things required for the challenge. Be nice, please!
Severus sighed. NEWTs were only three weeks away, and the students seemed to be thicker than usual. Except, of course, Hermione Granger. She'd finished her potion about half an hour ago, before most of the other students in his Advanced Potions class even had prepared all the ingredients. Now, she was writing furiously on her essay for Arithmancy, as he'd seen while making one of his rounds through class. He didn't really mind. He was far too stressed to take off points and give out detention for not paying attention. Besides, he could use a few moments of peace before one of those dunderheads would inevitably come up with another problem, or mess up his potion completely.
"Professor Snape," the frantic voice of Melissa Etheridge, a Ravenclaw, called from across the room. Everyone turned their heads toward her. The potion she was supposed to brew was boiling violently, and soon enough the huge bubbles started to erupt, spluttering the acid green liquid all over the girls' books.
He rolled his eyes, and got up. When he passed Hermione Granger, he could swear he heard her murmur 'Double, double toil and trouble; fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble'. Suppressing a grin, he went over to Miss Etheridge and her cauldron that was now calming down a bit.
Oh, it was so much like her to quote Macbeth, and especially the scene with the witches. Severus smiled inwardly. Well, he could hardly smile in public over something Hermione Granger said. Come to think of it, he couldn't smile in public at all. It would destroy his reputation.
With a flick of his wand, Severus cleared Miss Etheridge's cauldron, and told her to start over.
Soon, the bell indicated the end of the lesson.
"Leave a sample of your potion on my desk," Severus called, and then, a bit quieter, "Miss Granger, please come to my office."
Hermione looked up. "Yes, sir."
He opened the door to his office and waited for her to enter.
As soon as she was inside, he closed the door and pulled her closer. His lips found hers and they kissed for what seemed like eternity. Finally, he let go of her, and they stayed silent for a couple of minutes.
"Severus, I can't stay. I have to go to the library and study. I can't-"
He cut her off with an impatient gesture. "I know. I have work to do myself. After all, I have to prepare your NEWT tests, and my work only starts there. I'll have to correct them. But I can't concentrate. I need a break."
She sighed. "Sev-"
"No, Hermione. Listen. I know that you would never admit it, but I know you are as tired as I am. You are studying all the time. I doubt you sleep more than four hours a night. It's not healthy, Hermione. You need a break, too."
"You point?" Hermione crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"My point is: We'll spend the evening together. Take our break – together. I can think of more relaxing things than studying…"
Hermione sighed again. "All right."
Severus smiled. "Meet me in my quarters after dinner."
"Yes, okay. I won't work this evening. But now I have to go to Arithmancy, or Professor Vector will have my head. See you later, honey." She quickly pecked him on the cheek and was out of the room.
Severus, still smiling, went into his bedroom where he took off his robes. He proceeded into his bathroom, and took off his underwear as well. He watched as multi-coloured bubbles came out of the water-tap, their scent mixing with that of the lemon-scented candles placed all over the room. With a flick of his wand, he stopped the water streaming into the tub.
Grabbing the back scrubber, he lowered himself into the hot water, sighing. Maybe the day wouldn't be that bad after all.
+~*#
"Severus?"
Severus started. Hermione? But wasn't she supposed to be in class right now?
"I'm here!" he called.
The door opened and Hermione stuck her head in. "What are you doing?" she asked.
He rolled his eyes. For someone with her amount of intellect, she could be really slow sometimes. "I'm taking a bath," he said, pointing to the water, the bubbles, the rubber duck swimming in the huge tub.
"Oh, yes." She frowned. "Then I'll wait for you and then we can-"
"Hermione. You can come in."
"As you wish," she answered, but still didn't enter. She seemed a little unsure. "But I… Severus, I don't know."
"Hermione, we already talked about this." He crossed his arms and scowled. She'd spoil the whole thing with that rambling about moral and ethics. 'Blah blah, student-teacher thing, blah blah inappropriate, blah blah.'
"I know. But I still think that it wouldn't be right if we..."
He cut her off once more. "Why do you always have to be the voice of reason? Do you think I don't know that it's wrong for me to be in love with a student? Do you think I didn't think about this, too? Do you think I didn't try to keep away from you? But I realized that I can't, and now, I don't care any more. It's not important. What is important, is what we feel. And what we want." She came into the room and closed the door. Encouraged by this, he continued. "And I want you. Completely. And if it's wrong…well, frankly, Hermione, I don't give a damn."
She smiled. "Well, if you look at it this way…" She took out her wand and conjured a bottle of champagne. "Then we can as well enjoy a bath together, don't you think?" She smiled lasciviously and slowly took off her clothes. Severus couldn't take his eyes off her. She was perfect. Perfectly beautiful. A goddess. How come none of the boys in her year had noticed that already? Were they all blind?
"What?" Hermione asked when she stepped into the tube.
"You are beautiful," he said, smiling. She blushed. "And even more so when you blush," he added, leaning forward.
+~*#
A good hour later, many things had happened. The water was long cold, and Severus decided to pull out his wand and heat it up again. Hermione was leaning against his chest, a happy grin on her face.
"Could you give me my wand?" he asked. "I want to heat up the water."
Hermione reached for his wand, but instead of handing it to him, she quickly waved it in front of him, sending a wave of cold water to his face. He grabbed her wrists and took his wand.
"Hermione," he said reproachful, "don't you realize you shouldn't play with another wizard's wand?"
But instead of being intimidated, she broke into a fit of giggles. He finally joined in as he realized how ambiguous that must've sounded.
They were still laughing when suddenly the door flew open and Albus Dumbledore walked in.
They froze. Dumbledore seemed surprised, but he was still smiling. Hermione took this as a good sign.
"Hello, Headmaster," she said.
"Albus," Severus nodded. "You want something?" He shortly exchanged a glance with Hermione and she nodded. They both agreed to the unspoken arrangement of pretending as if nothing was wrong.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said. Then he turned to Severus. "Yes, actually, Severus, I wanted to borrow your lava lamp for this evening. And I was worried because you missed dinner." Dumbledore, too, seemed to pretend it was perfectly normal for the best student at Hogwarts and the Potions teacher to share a bathtub, completely naked, and obviously after passionate love-making.
"Er, yes. It's in the bedroom, on the desk."
"Thank you," Dumbledore said. But before he closed the door again, he winked, smiling, and added, "I'm only glad I didn't find the two of you in a compromising situation…"
Severus and Hermione stared at the door, then at each other, until they finally burst out laughing again.
Hermione leaned back when she calmed down a bit. "I can't believe this!"
Severus chuckled. "Well, you always knew that Albus had his own way of handling things. Besides, you should be glad he didn't expel you and ban me."
"Yeah, I am. But still…"
"Hermione. Let's just not think about it now," Severus said. He kissed her head. "This was supposed to be out day off. No study, no grading, basically not thinking at all."
She smiled. "You're right." She grabbed his 'wand'. "So, where were we?"
A/N: I know, I know. It's way below my standard. But I wrote this all in once, today, and I had no one to beta it (so please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes). And I couldn't make it longer, due to a massive lack of time – I still have to end my other story. Plus, I'm tired, and I should be reading some stuff for university right now. But I just had to write it, no matter how awful it ended up. I hope you can forgive me, and maybe you could even click onto the little button down there and review.