A/N: Thank you so much to all those who bothered to review, favorite or alert! Cookies to all of you. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and ate lots of yummy stuff! Hope you enjoy this chapter, especially all you who reviewed with anger at my cliffhanger and lack of updates… perhaps I will use that as motivation to update more frequently in the future… anyways, on with the story.

He suddenly realized his inappropriate closeness to the girl, and heard her draw breath when he left her mind. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them he leaned forward a tiny bit and pressed his lips to hers.

It took Hermione a moment to realize what was happening. The devil Hermione said that it was okay, she had a bit of a crush on him and he obviously liked her too. The angel told her that this was completely inappropriate; this was her professor kissing her. This was Professor Snape.

And we know how it goes with the angel and the devil. The angel Hermione took full control, and she just stood there, still trying to understand the situation. This was Professor Snape. And he was kissing her. She knew that it shouldn't even occur to her right now that she had a crush on him. She should be pushing him away. She should run to Dumbledore and tell him what happened. Snape must have sensed her thoughts, because he pulled away and took a step back.

"Miss Granger," he started, but by the time her title had left his lips she was gone. Hermione walked away. Knowing that her book bag with all her homework in it was still in his classroom but having no desire to go back and retrieve it.

Hermione walked all the way up to the Entrance Hall before reality hit her. She should be running to report this. It was completely inappropriate. Not only had he kissed her, but he had read her mind. An offense like that would lose him his job on its own. Everyone would congratulate her even more for driving the great bat of the dungeons out of Hogwarts and into Azkaban. But the devil took over. She didn't want him to go away. That childish crush kept her from reporting him, as she knew it would. She never had any real intention to report him, for although she didn't show it, he had been quite a good kisser. Not that she planned to admit that any time soon.

She returned to Gryffindor tower, and by the time she entered the common room she was no longer shaking. She headed up to her dorm to finish the one essay that hadn't been in her bag before going to bed. She worked quickly, hoping perhaps she could rewrite the other homework assignments before classes tomorrow if she stayed up all night. Not long after she had started working on her Ancient Runes essay, the one she had left in her dorm, there was a knock on the door. Ginny came in.

"Hey Hermione, how was detention?"

"Okay."

"What did he make you do?"

Other than kissing me? "I wrote lines."

"It could have been worse then?"

"I suppose. But now I'm completely behind on my work. I have this," Hermione said, gesturing to the essay she was writing, "And then I have to rewrite the others because I left my bag in Snape's classroom."

"Why don't you just go get it?"

"I don't think he would appreciate my presence," Hermione lied. He would enjoy it too much.

"Alright Hermione, what's going on? You were fine earlier, and now you're all uptight. What happened?"

Hermione muttered that sounded like 'you don't even want to know' to Ginny.

"'Mione, I'm not leaving you alone until you tell me the truth about what happened. And I'll know if you lie. You're such a horrible liar."

"Alright, Ginny, if that's what I have to do to get back to work, come on," Hermione said, moving to lounge on her bed. Ginny sat on the end. Hermione cast a silencing spell and a notice-me-not charm around her bed.

"What gives?" Ginny asked.

"I wrote lines. Then Snape got all weird. He said I didn't write what he told me, but I did. And then we had a shouting match, and every time I stepped back, he stepped forward, until I was against the wall. Then he kissed me," Hermione said. "But you can't tell anyone."

"Oh my dead wizard god! Hermione, this is Snape we're talking about. The greasy bat of the dungeons. You could get him fired for this!"

"I know," Hermione said, and sighed. "Ilikehim."

"What?"

"I like him," Hermione said, more clearly and slower. Ginny just stared. And stared.

"Oh my gods!"

"Just don't tell anyone, okay Gin?"

"Alright Hermione. You like him, he obviously likes you back. Prank him. Start like a war or something. It'll make it less awkward."

"That's brilliant Ginny! Why didn't I think of it?"

"You can't be perfect all the time, Hermione. It's what friends are for. I can't wait to see what you come up with for pranks. Now, I'll let you get on with your homework. I know you won't plan anything until that assignment is done."

"Thanks Ginny. See you tomorrow," Hermione said.

A/N: Next chapter is written, and I will post it on Sunday evening. (Eastern Time USA.) Please review! What did you all do for Thanksgiving? & if you're not American, what did you do yesterday while we were all stuffing our faces?

Review replies: Normally I don't do this at the end of chapters, and it quite annoys me when people do, but the links in the emails I've been receiving don't work, and I'm way too lazy to look you all up and PM you. So….

Neverest: The caps lock did get your point across… not quite as well as a howler, but I understood the gist of it. I hope you won't boycott my story because of this… but you have to admit, an update two days later is impressive for me, isn't it? Thanks for the review!

Villafoo: Thanks for taking the time to review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

5ky1ark: Thanks, glad you like it! I have noticed lots of spelling errors in stories… and am glad you haven't found any in mine. I do my best, but I don't nit-pick for spelling in fanfics… I spell check & read through it, and if I don't catch it then, I just hope no one else does. I hate when some people obviously can't be bothered to even hit spell check, or at least read what they write… don't you? It's so annoying….

TBug: Hopefully your questions were (sort of) answered in this chapter… and if not, they will be in the future… thanks for reviewing!

That's all for now! toodles…