It Was Always You

An: Hey guys! So, this is just a little story I've decided to write as I have free time (something that comes very rare to me lately) and I'm trying to cure my durned writer's block on All That Could Have Been Said. Hope you enjoy it! At most a two-shot.

Continuez.

Hermione wasn't being herself. She couldn't keep her eyes on her paper; she wasn't taking her usual diligent notes. In fact, she wasn't even listening to Professor Snape, which was plain to her classmates. Ron kept staring at her with a hanging jaw, annoying his girlfriend Lavender, who kept flipping her hair, trying to recapture his attention. He wasn't the only one staring, either. So was about half the class.

But Hermione noticed none of them. In fact, her brown eyes were fixed on a certain Chosen One, who also happened to be her best friend, while twirling a brown curl absent-mindedly around her quill. Surprisingly, even though the rest of her class mates seemed to have noticed her drastically changed behavior, Harry noticed nothing. He sat, staring straight ahead, obviously pretending to listen to Professor Snape's gruesome lecture on the Unforgivables. He was one row to the right of her and a desk ahead, where he had been moved for some reason or other by Professor Snape, or else he would be sharing the desk with Hermione.

Hermione felt a dreamy smile light her features at the memory of Harry sitting beside her, close enough to touch, and some students out-rightly gasped. No one had ever been known to smile in a class taught by Professor Snape, unless you were a Slytherin or Luna Lovegood, and no one counted either of those groups. Hermione paid them no mind, but, most unfortunately, Professor Snape did.

"15 points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger, for disrupting my class and ignoring me," he snapped. "If you continue to disturb my class with your foolish daydreaming and disrespect I will give you detention."

Hermione's head snapped up, and she blushed, lowering her eyes and nodding mutely. Professor Snape turned back around and continued his lesson, conveniently ignoring the snickering of the few Slytherins in the room. Harry turned around in his seat, and shot her a sympathetic half-smile. Hermione's heart caught in her throat. Harry's apologetic grin suddenly turned mischievous, and, winking at Hermione, slowly raised a rude gesture at Snape's turned back. Hermione, along with the rest of the class, burst into laughter. However, Harry quickly dropped the gesture and the class shut up when Professor Snape whipped around. His merciless black eyes landed on Hermione, and he snapped, "What did I tell you, Miss Granger? Did I not tell you to stop disrupting my class? Did you think, just because a few teachers seem to think you're the brightest witch of your age, that I would not punish you? Well, then you would be wrong. Detention, Miss Granger, 8:00 sharp tonight."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Harry beat her to it. He stood up angrily, and yelled, "But it wasn't her fault!"

Snape turned angrily to Harry. "Oh, really, Potter? Was it yours? Then I guess it is acceptable for you to join her in her detention."

Harry opened his mouth angrily, but Hermione whispered out the corner of her mouth, "Harry, please. Don't get into any more trouble."

Defeated and resigned, Harry sank back into his seat, though he kept his ferocious glare on Professor Snape, who turned back to his lesson as if nothing had happened.

Hermione resumed her staring at the back of Harry's head, thinking. Many thought she fancied Ron; admittedly, at the beginning of the year, she had. But then….but then, after Harry comforted her on the staircase, she realized something. She may have fancied Ron….but she loved Harry. She just hadn't realized it until then. And so, for the last month or so, she had explored these new feelings, and gradually forgot about her feeling for Ron. He would never be more than just a friend, and often they had trouble just being that, she realized that now. Of course, she probably was in the same predicament with Harry. Just a friend. He obviously fancied Ginny, and as soon as Ginny caught wind of that, she would have him, and that would be that. Of course, it wouldn't be Ginny's fault; she didn't know how Hermione felt; no one did. Even still, the thought that they almost certainly would never be together was depressing. Just a friend….

It was with half her mind that Hermione went through the rest of the day. She had been acting this way for nearly a month now, worrying some of her teachers, and, even though he never let on, a certain Severus Snape. He had been watching the girl, usually so precise and practical, suddenly become disorganized and scatter-brained. Her work was not as it used to be; it was not bad, (It would not be in the nature of the girl to do bad work, regardless of what she had going through her head,) it simply wasn't the same. It was one of the reasons he had given her detention; he wanted an excuse to monitor her much closer. The fact that Potter was also to be in it was just icing on the cake.

At dinner, he watched her again as she made her way slowly to the Gryffindor table, staring blankly ahead. So fixed on whatever she was thinking, she missed the bench by about a foot and fell, landing on her bottom. The table laughed light-heartedly before turning back to their conversations. Potter knelt to help her, wearing a look of concern, and Hermione stared up at him, with that same adoring, half-witted stare…

And suddenly Severus understood. He was taken aback. Some small part of him had always felt like Miss Granger and himself were kindred spirits; they were both intelligent beyond their years, had been teased, and both had bright futures, but Severus never expected their similarities to go this far. It seemed Miss Granger was too in love with her best friend, who was coincidentally the son of Severus's only love. A quick look at Miss Granger with this new information gave him all he needed to know. He had been working with children for many years, and this was no "puppy love." Indeed, she looked like the female version of him when he was her age, the longing, loving gaze he had often used with Lily.

And it seemed, like Lily, Potter hadn't the slightest clue to her attractions. Instead he chatted and laughed with his mates, oblivious to Miss Granger's wistful gaze. And Severus knew this could not be. Look at what all had happened because Lily had not loved him back; it could mean the end of the wizarding world if Potter rejected her feelings. When you love someone as intensely as he had, and, as it seemed, Miss Granger did, that love never went away. And the longer it went undisclosed, the more it took over.

And so he hatched a plan.

Severus Snape was not a romantic in the slightest sense, but he needed to make sure Granger and Potter confessed their feelings to each other; the fate of the wizarding world may very well have rested on it. And, perhaps, it could help relieve some of Severus's own bitterness in the process