I had once again intended on this being longer, but the end of it seemed appropriate. Thanks to all who are reading!

Chapter 9

Their lessons together continued like this for the next three weeks. It was actually proving more difficult for Grace than for Snape, as she hated silence. She couldn't carry on as the students had started to notice.

She woke early on the first morning of the 4th week and decided to change her tactics. Putting it all behind them would be the best way to carry on.

She went to breakfast to find that neither Snape nor Evelyn had turned up. Evelyn frequently skipped breakfast to prepare lessons. It wasn't always advisable to do physical combat on a full stomach. While Snape did sometimes skip breakfast, he hadn't done so for several weeks. She thought nothing of it, and indeed found Snape already in the classroom.

"Good morning." She chimed as he looked up. He blinked a few times, obviously surprised.

"So, what do we have today?" She asked, smiling at him. He narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking she was up to something, but quickly brushed it aside.

"Quite a complex potion. It's a specific detoxifying potion, designed to rid the body of poisons, some common antidotes cannot."

"Ok." Grace nodded as the 6th year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws filed in. Snape set the class to their potions and Grace looked over the ingredients

"We seem low on some basic supplies. I'll go see Professor Sprout for some more." She turned to leave, but Snape stopped her.

"I'll go. You can watch over the class." He left Grace standing rooted to the spot. She'd never been left alone before, but was inwardly thankful.

Snape had spent nearly an hour collecting ingredients from Sprout due to her ability to talk heatedly at speed. He had been lucky to get away when he did. Walking back to the dungeons, he couldn't help but think of Grace and her smile. It had been hard trying to bury the memory of her mouth, the feel of it upon his own, her scent, her taste, her warmth. He'd woken up every morning since feeling like a teenager; an erection he struggled to get rid of with a cold shower, sometimes resorting to manual intervention. He quickly shook the images out of his mind as he could already feel his trousers becoming tighter.

When he arrived back in the classroom, the students had already finished their potions and were studying from their text books. He glanced at the blackboard and noticed that one of the ingredients had been changed. Before Snape could say anything, the lesson ended and the students filed out. Snape approached the board with curiosity.

"Did you change the potion?" He asked, trying not to sound bothered.

"Yes, it worked better and with fewer consequences, considering some of the skill some of the students have." She reasoned. They both knew that several of the Hufflepuffs were as accident prone as Neville Longbottom.

"I hope you don't mind. It also allowed them to finish it earlier, so they could pack up their desks."

"No, I don't… mind, but I would like to be informed before hand." Snape replied.

"Well, you weren't here, and I didn't want the lesson wasted. You're never going to let me teach again are you?" Grace asked, crestfallen.

"I wouldn't say that, but for your first lesson, it may have been wiser to leave them to the task I set them." Snape advised.

"Well, had I left the ingredients the way they were, something bad may have happened and there's no way I could have contained that kind of explosion. I have no want, or any powers. I changed them for safety reasons." Snape simply nodded. He was secretly impressed, but was trying to hide it. He'd never met anyone with such knowledge and initiative. Under normal circumstances he'd be furious if someone had changed anything in his lessons.

Grace cleared away the cauldrons ready for the first year's class. There wasn't much in the way of preparation to do as they hadn't moved onto actual potions. The lesson finished after what seemed like hours of silent copying from text books. They left for lunch, leaving Grace and Snape alone. Snape made no moves to go to lunch.

"Are you not coming?" Grace enquired.

"I have some research to do." Snape replied, not even looking up.

"You have to eat something, you weren't at breakfast."

"How do you know I haven't eaten here?" Snape retorted.

"You haven't. It's not easy to lie to an empath." Snape froze. She was starting to sense his basic feelings. It would only be a matter of time before she could read all the others. Deciding it best not to protest, he accompanied her to lunch. Knowing the kind of person Snape was, she figured it best not to push him into talking about himself; she decided to tell him about herself. She started with how she spent the years after her mother's death in an American muggle school while Evelyn attended the nearest wizard school. They were fostered by a family who were muggles, but knew of the Wizarding world. She told of how she had always felt like an outcast beside Evelyn. She told him of an incident at their 14th birthday's when Evelyn had been allowed to invite some of her magically inclined friends from her school. Upon learning that Grace was a muggle, they had taken the opportunity to test the theory and had performed the Levicorpus charm, while Evelyn was answering the door. Grace had been hoisted up into the air by her right ankle. All she could do was thrash about while the other laughed. Evelyn had come into the room to see Grace upside down dangling in the air, and had immediately thrown the spellcaster out of the window with her telekinesis power. The girl had broken her arm in the fall. Grace had run out of the house, intent on running away, but had been picked up by the police a few hours later. Evelyn had never spoken to those friends again, and they likewise had stayed away from her.

"All I wanted was to be like her. Was that so much to ask?" Grace continued. Snape listened knowing it was not all that different from his experiences at school with The Marauders. He had never been one to believe that purebloods were better than muggle-borns, and he had never really formed an opinion of muggles, whether a person had magic or not made no difference to a person's intelligence, or personality; but had had never met many muggles and so did have a tendency to revert to old stereotypes. Having spent time with Grace, he knew that stereotypes didn't work. He found himself feeling things about her he never thought he'd ever feel. He'd gotten so use to being alone and private and somewhat misunderstood. He used these acquired traits to his advantage; but right now, he could think of nothing more than embracing her.

He quickly came back to sanity when they entered the Great Hall. Evelyn was already eating, sat in Grace's former seat. Snape took his seat and began eating. Grace gestured to Evelyn to move back so she could once again sit next to him. She could see Evelyn was curious, so she let her place her hand on her arm; this allowed Evelyn to talk directly to Grace telepathically.

"I take it you've changed your mind at being mad at him?" Evelyn thought.

"Well, I figured the best way to know if someone likes you, is to get to know them first. If he wants me, I want it to be because of who I am, not because of the passion, although, we didn't actually get anywhere when it comes to that." Grace mused.

"You certainly made an impression on him, he thinks about you a lot."

Grace turned to look at her as she removed her hand. Evelyn smiled and continued eating.

Grace continued over the rest of the week to tell Snape as much as she could about her life, and she knew it was working when Snape started to let the odd comment slip. She deliberately avoided pushing when it happened as she was afraid of him closing up again. Although after a couple of weeks more, he'd stopped slipping up. Grace was starting to feel frustrated. He knew almost everything there was to know about her, but had revealed almost nothing about himself. He had been surprised at how interested he had become when listening to her stories. He simply couldn't return the honour and do the same. He didn't like people knowing about him, and he knew Grace wanted to know, and would probably keep pushing, albeit gently. But she couldn't find out about his past. Not ever.