Disclaimer: It doesn't belong to me. Damn damn damn!

D is for Dungeon

Hermione made the walk to the dungeon for the last time. Her apprenticeship was over, but she wanted to say goodbye to the man who help shape her life so much. She was sorry that it was over. She'd grown so fond of the time that they spent together. He'd opened up to her so much. He was actually able to joke with her in a friendly way instead of the snarky comments she once thought were his whole personality. Just a month ago he'd been comfortable enough to work alongside her without his frock coat. He'd even allowed himself to push up his shirt sleeves to his elbow.

He didn't even get angry when he caught her staring at the long scar on his forearn where his dark mark once was. He saw her and allowed her eyes to linger and when she looked up at his face there was an open vunerability that she'd never seen before.

There was something there, she was sure of it. And yet he'd never done anything unprofessional even though there were times when she knew that if he had tried anything she would be completely receptive. He was always proper. Or as Minerva put it "so prude that he should just become a muggle Priest already".

She reached Severus' door and sighed with some sadness. It was going to be awful having to say goodbye. She knocked softly on his door. Instead of Severus' customary reply of 'Enter' he pulled it open immediately, almost as though he'd been waiting on the other side for her. He stepped aside and motioned her in wordlessly and she entered. He told her to sit and she answered in the negative and informed him that she'd rather stand.

"Well, you see sir, I've come to say goodbye. I have a position in Diagon Alley as a brewer and I'll be spending my time tomorrow packing and moving. I thought that it would be easiest to say goodbye now since I have more time to do so" Hermione said in a rush.

Severus' facial expression never changed Hermione held her breath, not sure of what to expect from the stoic man.

"Well, goodbye sir," Hermione extended her hand. "It was wonderful working with you."

He took her hand and shook it, but when Hermione went to pull away, he held firm. She stared at their hands and then to his face which was formed in an expression of curiousity.

"In all the years that I have known you, I don't think that I have ever held your hand." He turned her hand and grasped her wrist so that he palm was facing up. He ran one long finger down the center of it. "They are very tiny, your hands. It doesn't seem possible that these hands have sliced roots and brewed potions and held a wand which cast curses at Death Eaters. It doesn't seem possible that such small hands belong to a woman who has endured more in her few years than most witches or wizards face in their long lives." He turned her hand over and stared at the back of it with even more curiousity before bending over and placing a kiss upon the soft skin there.

Hermione could barely breathe. The intensity in his eyes was almost overwhelmning. "Sir?"

"Forgive me, Hermione, if this is unwanted, but I thought that perhaps now that I am no longer your teacher in any way we could begin again as something more. I understand if you want nothing to do with me, I am twenty years your senior and I was your professor. Perhaps I am so unused to the attention of a woman in any form that I misconstrued the signs, but..." he trailed off as if unable to finish his thought.

Later Hermione would only be able to explain what happened next by saying that she had a surge of emotions so powerful that she could only vent them through magic. She pulled her hand away from Severus and took his face in both of her incredibly small hands and pulled him down low enough to press her lips to his roughly. At the same instant the plants in Severus' office which he could never keep alive burst into green and leafy bloom.

A/N: Hey guys, sorry if there are a lot of spelling errors. I am an awful speller and my primary laptop crashed and it's in the shop being fixed so I'm working on my netbook which has a crappy word processer that doesn't check spelling. _ Anyway, Reviews inspie me so much and the more there are the faster I update and the more I write!