Hermione Granger groggily stumbled down the stairs toward the Potions classroom at precisely eight fifteen in the morning. She knew that she was late however she couldn't seem to make herself care. If it were any other class Hermione would have been running despite how tired and sore she was. As soon as she made it to said teacher she would have begged for mercy and then punished herself by eliminating reading time later on that afternoon.

Severus Snape was an asshole. Plain and simple, there was no other way to describe the man, and Hermione wasn't about to try. She knew as soon as she walked into the dungeons he would sense her presence no matter how sneakily she entered and sat in the back. He would then proceed to humiliate her ten different ways to Sunday and she would be laughed at by every Slytherin in the room which as a Seventh year student meant every other student besides Hermione.

Sometimes it was aggravating to be the only non-Slytherin in the room, especially considering no one wanted to be her partner for potions or bookwork, but Hermione made it work as she always did. Education always came over socialization any day, and Hermione would have told any one of those Slytherins that any day of the week.

Hermione neared Snape's door and her stomach turned. She desperately wanted to go back to bed and play sick but she knew she needed the class time. Every credit counted. Hermione opened up the door and to her dismay it creaked so loudly that it echoed four classrooms down. She cringed as Severus lifted his head from his desk and gave her the signature snare she'd been dreading since first year.

She crept to her desk, accidentally tripping over Draco's satchel and going headfirst into Pansy. The ugly girl threw Hermione off of her and she fell backward on her ass on the concrete floor. The entire room erupted in laughter. Hermione was utterly mortified.

"Now that the circus has ended could we get back to our text," Severus drawled, standing from his desk and walking slowly toward Hermione. He extended his hand to her and Hermione stared at it like an idiot for a moment before taking it and allowing him to haul her up to her feet. Severus turned and walked back to his desk, no insults, no injury.

Hermione was stunned. She brushed herself off in a daze and took a seat at the only empty one left next to a plump girl named Fawn and opened her book to the assigned page 583. She felt the redness leaving her cheeks but she was still in shock over Snape's behavior.

Severus stared at Hermione for a few moments before continuing grading papers. He knew for sure now who the cat had been. Hermione seemed tired and distraught and he knew that she was never late for a class. She also seemed stiff and achy in her movements. He didn't want to punish the girl. He wanted to follow her. Call it boredom, but Severus wanted to find out why she'd been in the cage and who had done it.

Classes dragged by ridiculously slow that day. Hermione finally ended up in an armchair in the library at eleven o'clock that night curled up with one of her favorite books. Even though she kept nodding off she was determined to finish her chapter before she went to bed. After all, curfew was one o'clock for seventh years so that they could finish their studies in the library or grab a rare meal in the Great Hall late at night.

Severus had just started his rounds and was walking around the lower levels trying to decide where he might find Hermione. Perhaps she would be in the library, he pondered. Walking briskly up the stairs he finally made it to the great room that housed Hogwarts favorite novels and periodicals along with every other type of book or paper known to man. Severus entered and immediately spotted Hermione yet again in a cage in her cat form yet this time she was fast asleep. The pranksters must have just gotten to her, he thought.

Severus released the lock and latch and removed the sleeping cat carefully, carrying it downstairs to the dungeons. Once he reached his private quarters he whispered the password and entered, setting the Hermione-cat down on his couch while he entered his bedroom to change clothing. He emerged about thirty minutes later after a shower and shave in a dark blue t-shirt and a pair of blue plaid pajama bottoms, something no one had ever caught Severus Snape in.

He sat in the armchair next to the couch, staring at the sleeping cat and beginning to wonder if it was just an unlucky cat that had been the object of a bored third year's magical experimentation. It wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. It was purring softly as it slept, unmoving. Severus sighed heavily and leaned back, deciding to close his eyes until something happened.

Hours passed by and dawn approached. Hermione finally opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away. She stretched and yawned, arching her back and enjoying the warm fuzziness that was the effect of a good night's rest. Suddenly she realized that she was naked. She blinked in the early morning darkness and came to another realization. She was sitting very close to a sleeping man in an armchair.

Hermione's heart spiked into her throat and she leapt up as quietly as possible and slipped toward the wall behind her, but tripped over the lamp beside the couch she'd been sleeping on and fell backward yet again on her ass.

Severus woke with a start, jerking his head up abruptly which caused a ridiculously painful crook in his neck. He hissed in agony and blinked in the darkness, his eyes widening when he saw a very inappropriate angle of one Hermione Jane Granger.

"Merlin!" Severus cried out, jerking his t-shirt over his head and tossing it her way before spinning around and covering his eyes.

"Well, I don't look that bad naked!" Hermione joked, trying to lighten the mood as her cheeks beamed a brilliant red. She pulled the t-shirt over her head gratefully and stood, tugging it down as low as she could. Thankfully it covered her lady-parts below as well as the ones above.

"This isn't the time for your wit, Miss Granger," Severus snarled, "Are you decent, for Christ's sake?"

"I wasn't aware you were a religious man, Professor," Hermione smirked, "Yes, I am."

Severus turned around slowly and collapsed in his armchair as if he'd just run a marathon, "What are you doing naked in my parlor at this ungodly hour of the morning?"

Hermione gawked at him, tugging the t-shirt down a bit more, "I was hoping you would be able to tell me the same thing!"

"I arrived here around two o'clock this morning with a tawny cat with ridiculous amounts of fluff all over its' body. I rested it right there on that couch and I showered, shaved, changed into my night clothes and sat here in my chair to read. When I awoke the cat was gone and you were sprawled out nude in my floor. So I am assuming you are the cat I keep rescuing from its confines," Severus smirked at her.

Hermione's cheeks flooded red and her eyes darted around awkwardly as she sat down carefully on the couch, knowing she was caught. Students were not supposed to be in their animagus forms at school unless given direct permission from the headmaster. Being that Minerva hadn't allowed it, Hermione could be in serious trouble.

"It isn't my fault," Hermione's eyes were pleading. She chewed her lower lip in anxiousness, "Malfoy and his crew keep catching me and forcing me into animagus form so they can cage me. It's been going on for two months now. The only time it doesn't happen is if I sleep in the shower. They cannot go in there," Hermione looked as if she were about to cry, "But my back hurts from sleeping there and I keep falling asleep in random places because I am so tired from trying to stay up all night."

Severus felt pity for the girl. She was obviously being tormented and he knew there was nothing he could do for her but tell Minerva and allow Hermione to face the consequences for illegal animagus training. There was another option that was looming at the forefront of his mind, however.

"You are welcome to sleep here on this couch as often as you wish. With clothes on, please," Severus added with a bit of color rushing to his face, "That way they cannot get to you as they can in your dormitory and you don't have to sleep in the showers any longer."

Hermione blinked back tears, "Professor, you hate me. Why would you allow me to sleep here?"

"I do not hate you, Miss Granger. I simply loathe parts of your personality," he said tactfully, "Now, I will fetch a pair of pajama pants for you to wear and you can sleep right there for the rest of the night. I have already rescued you twice this week and I need to sleep as well. So let's play it safe."

Hermione nodded her agreement and her thanks and sat waiting for him to return. He handed her the clothing promised and a pillow and blanket from his own bed and then he turned to head to his room, "Sleep well. I'm going to wake you when I head to class so that perhaps you can manage to be on time this morning. You have no excuse anymore for being late to my class, Miss Granger."

Severus shut the door to his bedroom and chuckled to himself. Students and their pranks, he thought, would be the end of him. As he climbed into bed and doubled the sheet, missing his blanket but knowing it was being put to good use this night, he couldn't help but think of the girl. He tried to bat it out of his head but his thoughts kept flittering back to her.