A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad there's interest out there. I don't plan on making it too long, although one never knows.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
________________________________________________________________________
"That's it? She sold a few books to Snape. Someone alert the media!"
Ginny rolled her eyes, "I think we need to go back further."
"It wasn't until December of that year that Hermione started acting oddly."
Ron nodded while moving toward the other three journals.
"I'll take this one home, Ginny you finish reading that one, Harry here's one for you too, and George you can take this one…it's unfinished, so it shouldn't be too much for that pea size brain of yours to handle."
"Oi, I resent that."
"He's only teasing you," Harry smirked, shrinking his journal as well as Ginny's to fit in the palm of his hand, and then stuffing them into the pocket of his jeans.
"Well, I think we're done here for tonight. I say we all head home, looks like you lot have quite a lot of reading to do."
Ginny nodded with a smirk. "Yes, we do, which leaves you to finish up here."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Nope," George laughed slipping on his jacket, "come on you guys, we've got reading to do."
"But there are still four bookshelves left," he whined as Ginny and Harry Apparated.
"Ron, come on, at least help me with one bookshelf."
The youngest of the male Weasley shrugged before popping out of the room.
"George, George…come on…you git!"
With a waggle of his eyebrows, George was gone as well, leaving behind a mightily pissed off Fred.
"Bugger this," and with three waves of his wand, the wards were up, the roaring fire was out, and he was suddenly standing in the middle of his kitchen.
________________________________________________________________________
Ron sat in bed, his black rimmed glasses sitting on his lightly freckled nose. His eyes moved over the pages, devouring every word as if they were from Merlin himself.
_________________________________________________________________________
October 31, 2006
Another month passed before she saw him again, but this time around they were both in muggle London. Her eyes curiously took in every detail of his wardrobe, which no longer consisted of his usual pristine black robes. Instead, he wore a pair of very smart looking black trousers, and what seemed to be like a simple white t-shirt peeking out from the v-neck of his jumper.
A rather simple outfit, for such a complicated man, she thought to herself. Looking down at her book she couldn't help but slightly smile. He was indeed a complicated man, but an oddly captivating one. Although, he was a right terror during her schoolgirl days, it still hadn't deterred her from having the occasional day dream about her horrid potions professor.
She had even shared one with Ginny one summer – it wasn't as if they had much to do at the time.
__________________________________________________________________________
Ron rolled his eyes, his nose wrinkling in disgust.
__________________________________________________________________________
"Miss Granger."
A silky voice she knew far too well purred near her ear. Hermione looked up from her book, Snape longer conveniently in front of her, but rather besides her.
"I thought we agreed to dispense with the formal titles."
"Indeed, Hermione."
A more sociable man would have chuckled, but he wasn't sociable, nor was he known to chuckle.
"Fancy meeting you here, Severus."
"Yes, it seems are paths are destined to cross today. What brings you to London?"
"I was visiting my parents. I thought I stopped by and pick up a few muggle novels. What about you?"
"The same, actually."
"Retirement proving to be a bit boring?" she ventured to presume – Gryffindor courage and all.
Once more she could have sworn that the corners of his mouth made an upward pull into a semblance of a smile.
"I don't see how that's any of your business."
"I'll take that as a yes. Excuse me? Did you say something, I must have missed it."
Her brown eyes shined with mirth, as she realized that she was enjoying far too much teasing him. Something she would have never dared done a couple of years ago, but those were different times, and they were both different people now. Their roles were no longer that of student and teacher or elder and youngster.
Hardly, in fact the strong of heart could perhaps dare to call them equals. He was a wizard nearing his prime, while she was one of the most successful and respected book shop owners in all of the wizarding community, both were war heroes, as well as scholars in their own right.
Yes, they were definitely on equal ground. Why shouldn't she enjoy being able to tease him slightly? He hadn't chewed her head off yet, and Hermione always enjoyed pushing the envelope just the tiniest bit.
"That's because I didn't intend for you to hear it, but once again your insatiable curiosity seems to have overpower any sense of decorum you might possess. I called you an insufferable know-it-all."
He added the last bit, as an afterthought – voice never faltering from its usual indifferent, slightly pained, always smug tone.
________________________________________________________________________
Ron's lips curved into a knowing smile, before morphing into a worried frown. There seemed to be an awful lot about Snape in Hermione's journal. As to what extent, he would have to keep on reading to find out.
________________________________________________________________________
"Ah well, you see that would have bothered me once ago, but now I proudly wear the title. My ability to be insufferable has definitely opened a few doors, and gotten a few uncooperative book dealers to see things my way. And as for being a know-it-all, well that really can't be helped, can't it? I consider myself a serious scholar, and I would even go as far as to point out, with no ill will of course, that you could also be labeled a know-it-all as well."
"You're wrong, Hermione. I can hardly be a know-it-all, since I'm already the greasy bat of the dungeons."
"I never called you that…" she quickly interjected, but the words died on her lips once she looked into his eyes, the inky black depths twinkling against the fluorescent lights of the bookstore.
"Wait, you actually liked being called the greasy bat of the dungeons? You did!"
He shrugged, crossing his arms.
"And what if I did? It made me unapproachable, and thus untouchable. It gave me reign over the dunderhead, allowing me to rule with an iron fist. All I required to effectively teach my classes was obedience."
"What about respect?"
"I'll concede that respect does garner obedience, but so does terror. I really didn't care where it came from, just as long as I had it."
"I respected…I mean, I respect you."
His eyes twinkled again, as he leaned closer to her. "How…interesting."
Once more, he managed to make a quick retreat. A clumsy shopper bumping into Hermione, and distracting her enough to turn around for one second, to then find the spot he had occupied suddenly bereft.
"Indeed."
________________________________________________________________________
"Ugh, don't tell me she fancied Snape?"
Closing the journal, he placed it on the nightstand alongside his reading glasses. Why in the world had Hermione seen in Snape? It wasn't as if he was charming or good looking. Although, he figured, he was very clever, and so was Hermione.
Perhaps he stimulated her intellectually? That had to be it, he thought. He just couldn't keep his supper down if he thought about the greasy git stimulating her in any other manner.
TBC
