Reviews make me grin like an idiot.

As always, I own nothing you recognise.

Ps; have you seen the movie Armageddon? You know, the one with Bruce Willis drilling for oil, but then goes to space to stop a meteor crushing the world? It's relevant. Somewhat.

-o-

In the middle of August, Severus was running out of reasons to see her. She was controlling her nightmares, blocking him with her Occlumency shields in a rather impressive fashion, and soon he had no more to teach her.

But, they were friends, right? He didn't really need a reason for wanting to see her. Severus knew this, but his pride seemingly did not.

He briefly considered if Hermione was just using him because she wanted to learn from him, but quickly dismissed the idea. Even if Hermione had an agenda, this was not it.

She confused him, if he was to be honest. Hermione obviously wanted to be his friend, and Severus had no idea why. He was not a very nice person, quite frankly. He lashed out at her much too often, he avoided personal questions, he rarely contacted her first, and when he did, it was often in a rather rude manner.

And still, she didn't walk away from him. It was all rather confusing. And confusion made him insecure, resulting in him trying to hide his insecurity with heavy sarcasm and dark looks.

Eventually, he would drive her away, and it would be completely and utterly his fault. If he wanted to keep her in his life, he had to change. Or, not so much change, perhaps, but he had to at least try to open up to her, even if only a little.

It all depended on whether it was worth it, if she was worth it. She is worth it, he thought. You know she is worth it.

Yes, she was worth it, so why did he hesitate so? Because it will make you vulnerable, and it will hurt that much more if you muck it up and drive her away anyway. He sighed as he shook his head. Nothing personal, but damn you, Lily. Damn you for planting the ridiculous notion of 'opening my heart' in my mind. It's easier to just shy away from everyone.

Big risks, big rewards, was that the saying?

-o-

Severus had finally decided to at least give it a try, and spent the following week trying his best to not completely avoid her questions, and trying his best not to lash out at her without good reason. Not that she really gave him any good reasons, but 'without good reason' was a start, if nothing else.

-o-

August 25th was a Friday, and Severus sat in his quarters contemplating how he wanted to spend his last week of freedom.

The answer was rather clear, though. He would be so busy when the new school year began, and he wanted to make the best of his time. Perhaps even improve his 'opening up' attempt, because if he managed to improve slightly before the school year began, then maybe she wouldn't give up on him while he was busy keeping students from killing themselves in his class.

He wondered if she had any plans tonight. Probably, he thought. It's Friday night.

Sighing, he decided to not owl her, even if he wanted to.

-o-

At five o'clock, his mood was rather gloomy. Severus was bored. If this had been a year ago, he hadn't been bored. Or, he would, but that was basically his default state of mind, so he wouldn't have noticed.

Now, though? Now, he noticed. Rather excessively as well.

He considered owling her again, but his pride had no intention of dealing with the possibility of being rejected.

He was suddenly snapped out of his gloominess when there was a tap on his window. He ignored the fact that he almost ran over, grabbed the letter, threw a piece of toast at the owl, and almost ran back to read the letter.

Dear Severus

I realise this is short notice, but I decided to give it a try anyway.

I have planned to spend the night doing absolutely nothing productive, (unless you consider eating pizza and watching movies as productive) and was wondering if you wanted to join me?

My evening of doing nothing productive will begin in approximately one hour, depending on how fast the pizza man gets here.

(Perhaps you hate evenings of nothing productive? Oh, well, you are invited anyway.)

Love, Hermione

Severus found that an evening of doing nothing productive sounded like heaven compared to wallowing in boredom, so he wrote a quick reply to confirm, before hitting the shower.

-o-

Approximately one hour later, Severus knocked on her door, and momentarily forgot how to breathe when she opened.

She was wearing baggy pants that hung low on her hips, a t shirt that was rather tight, and she had put up her hair, making a messy bun on the top of her head. She looked happy, and completely at ease.

And she was utterly beautiful.

"Hi! The pizza is on the table, and I am currently trying to figure out what movie to watch. Want to help me?"

-o-

Fifteen minutes later, he was sitting in Hermione's sofa, holding a piece of pizza while listening to Hermione's pros and cons for the different movies.

It was rather hard to concentrate, because she was sitting next to him in the sofa, cross-legged, facing him, and she looked so completely relaxed that he found it absurdly surreal.

Oh, she was talking to him. "Excuse me, what?"

She rolled her eyes. "I said; I am assuming the whole romance-genre is out of the picture?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Your assumptions are indeed correct, Granger."

-o-

They decided on yet another horror movie, and it didn't take long before Hermione was looking at the screen with eyes filled with terror. She was even holding a pillow, which she held up to hide behind whenever the movie got too scary.

"It's zombies, Hermione. It's not even possible. There will be no zombie apocalypse, ever."

She looked at him with frightened eyes. "There is always the Inferi."

He rolled his eyes. "The day someone manages to pull off an Inferi apocalypse, Hell will freeze over."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know, I know. I have no idea why the concept of a zombie apocalypse scares me so much. It just does."

-o-

Approximately fifteen minutes later, Hermione was more or less constantly hiding behind the pillow.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Oh for Merlin's sake, Hermione." Not really knowing what had gotten into him, he leaned over, pulling her with him so she ended up sitting in the crook of his arm.

This was a bad idea, he thought as he wrapped his arm around her. Or maybe not, his next thought said, as she snuggled up to him.

-o-

She stayed snuggled up to him for the rest of the movie, and Severus was rather surprised that he didn't find it uncomfortable at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The movie ended, and Severus had to supress the urge to sigh when she got up from the sofa. Giving him a happy smile, she gestured at the TV. "Want to watch another?"

If you snuggle up to me like that again, I would like to watch ten movies, he thought as he raised an eyebrow at her. "Wasn't that the intention of this evening?"

She grinned at him. "Indeed it was. Romance is still out?" He gave her a jaded look, causing a pearly laugh. "Joking. How about a completely unlikely apocalypse movie?"

"Will there be zombies?"

She laughed again. "No zombies. A meteor on a straight course towards the earth is involved, though."

"I can deal with meteors."

"Alright. I'll be right back, we are out of popcorn."

He smirked at her. "Perish the thought."

She gave him an amused smile. "See? You're starting to get the hang of it."

She returned a few minutes later, levitating a huge bowl of popcorn and a bottle of coca cola. She levitated them to the table before turning around to put on the movie.

Oh, Merlin give me strength, he thought as she bent over, giving him a rather splendid view of her nicely shaped behind. Luckily, she got up a moment later, and Severus let out a breath he didn't know was holding.

He expected her to return to her former seat, where she had been sitting before he pulled her to him, but she didn't. Instead, she sat down next to him, lifted his arm, and pulled it around her as she snuggled up to him again.

Severus was so stunned that he didn't quite know how to relax, so he just sat there, looking at her with wide eyes.

She turned her head to look at him, and when she saw his expression she just rolled her eyes. "You started it. Deal with it."

His surprise changed to amusement, and he shook his head as he pulled her closer.

She sighed happily as she leaned her head on his shoulder and put her hand on his chest.

-o-

"They drill for oil, honestly." Severus rolled his eyes and gestured at the screen. "They wouldn't last five minutes in space."

Hermione giggled as she lifted her head to look at him. "Well, that wouldn't make a very good movie, now would it?"

He just raised an eyebrow at her. "True. But, honestly. They drill for oil. Also, you promised no romance."

She patted his chest and smirked at him. "Oh, come now, Severus, it was like two seconds."

"The song was killing me."

She laughed. "Me as well."

-o-

Although unlikely, the movie was rather entertaining. He was distracted when Hermione sniffled, though.

Was she crying?

She was crying.

"Why are you crying?"

She lifted her head to look at him, and he did not expect the amused expression on her face. Combined with the tears in her eyes, it left him rather perplexed.

"Passionately watching movies, remember?"

He gazed at her for a moment. "And that includes crying?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously it includes crying."

He pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at her again. "Of course it includes crying. How foolish of me to ask."

He realised that was the wrong thing to say when she paused the movie as her expression changed, and she sat up and turned to face him. "Do you like me, Severus?"

The sudden change in atmosphere left him utterly confused, and he just looked at her while figuring out what to respond. "What?"

She rolled her eyes. "You heard me. Do you like me, Severus?"

He frowned at her. "Why would you even ask that?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You are the master of deflection, Severus. But alright, I'll answer your question first. I'm asking because you have been..I don't know..different, perhaps, the last week or so. And I don't know what to make of it. I know I annoy you, I speak too much, I constantly try to prod your mind with all kinds of questions, and I frequently make you uncomfortable. So the last week I have been wondering if you perhaps are getting tired of me."

The woman was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. "It's rather ironic."

Sadness flickered in her eyes, and he realised this was the moment where he had to choose. He could swallow his pride and tell her exactly why he had been acting different the last week, or he could deflect her again, something that would most likely cause the beginning of the end for this friendship they had developed.

"What is ironic, Severus?"

He sighed. "Hermione.. I don't really know how to say this," he realised this was not the best way to begin when the light in her eyes faded. He shook his head. "No, Hermione, let me finish. I mean that quite literally. I really don't know how to say this. You are right about me being different the last days, but it's not because I'm getting tired of you." He sighed before continuing. "I don't know how to be a friend, Hermione. Basically, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I have realised something during the last months. I have realised I don't want to go back to how my life was before. And I only have so much time before you get tired of me."

"I won't get-"

He pointed a finger at her. "Please don't interrupt me, it's already difficult to tell you this. Yes, you will get tired of me, Hermione. It may take a while, yes, but eventually you will realise how much of a lost cause I am. And when that happens, I will go back to how my life was before. So I have realised; if I don't want that to happen, I have to make some changes. That's what I have been trying the last week. I have been trying to be less horrid. The problem is that I'm rubbish at it."

The light was back in her eyes, to his relief. "That is rather ironic, indeed." She gave him a small smile. "So you're not tired of me?"

He sighed. "No, Hermione. I'm not tired of you at all."

She cocked her head, looking at him with curious eyes, making him feel uncomfortable, and extremely vulnerable. "I'm not tired of you either." It seemed she realised how uncomfortable he was, because she gave him an amused look. "Do you want to finish watching the movie, and preferably never mention this conversation again?

He sighed in relief. "Merlin, yes."

She promptly turned around again, and before he knew it, she was back, leaning her head on his shoulder as she pressed play. She proceeded to levitate the bowl of popcorn over to her, gesturing to him. "Do you want popcorn? I do believe we are about to watch a very emotional scene. Perhaps popcorn will help."

He wrapped his arm around her as he grabbed a handful of popcorn. "Hopefully."

Well, that went better than expected, he thought as he chewed the popcorn, realising he didn't feel vulnerable. He felt..happier. Nuzzling her hair, he murmured softly. "You don't annoy me, Hermione."