A/N: For this chapter, you need to imagine that Harry and Ginny were not together at the end of his sixth year.
I find that time he told me to take, purposefully locking my notes in a drawer, putting up a ward I will only be able to break in twelve hours time. I go into my bathroom, and draw in a gasp. Hogwarts has outdone itself. The bath is deep enough, long enough and wide enough for me to relax into it, up to my neck in hot water, lie back and close my eyes. There's a bottle of my favourite freesia bubble bath on the side - a Muggle product. Harry must have been scheming with Severus. I fill the bath, enchant the bubbles to stay as long as I want them too, and slide in. I heave a sigh of relief as tension I was painfully aware of slips off my shoulders. I would give someone chocolate if they'd massage my shoulders right now.
His voice was like a caress in of itself. He'd walked in and caught me - for the first time, the Room of Requirement hadn't given me the privacy I'd asked for. I was relaxed in the bath, the haze in my head sliding down my body, pooling in my belly. I hadn't heard the door open, but his shocked gasp prompted my eyes to open lazily. Somehow, I didn't care that he was standing there, staring, while I was naked in the bath. It was the day the end of year exams had finished, and I was spoiling myself. I was too relaxed to even attempt to cover myself.
"Harry, either come in or go, but whatever you do, close the door." He'd lingered for another second, before stepping boldly into the room and closing the door behind him. "As you're staying, perhaps you could do me a favour." I scooped my hair up, clasping it. "Could you give me a massage?" I heard his intake of breath, then his footsteps crossing the floor. His hands went to my shoulders - a Quidditch players hands, rough, callused, but at the same time gentle on my back, and they sought the tension and rubbed it away. I leaned into his hands, sighing. Looking back, I don't know why either of us made the choices we made. Perhaps we both knew what was coming, perhaps we knew that it was our last chance to let desire and lust rage for a time. His hands stroked my neck, no longer massaging. This was a caress, an outright expression of what would happen. If I had pulled back then, if he had, we would have stopped. But I turned, found his lips hovering a breath from mine, his green eyes meeting my hazel. It was permission for us both. His hands dove into my hair, tugging the clasp away, fisting my wet locks into his hands, dragging my lips to his. It was hot, hard, passionate - everything we'd ever felt was poured into that kiss. I dragged the shirt from his shoulders, my hands fumbling with his trousers. He enchanted them away, slid in, pushing me against the wall of the bath, laying himself against me.
"Hermione," he whispered, breaking our kiss, his lips tearing down my neck, his hands running from shoulders to breasts, cupping me in his hands. I gasped, my hips bucked, and I felt his hardness against my stomach.
"Harry," I gasped, rubbing against him. I didn't care what it might mean, what might happen because of it. I wanted him, I wanted to forget the world outside the door, all I wanted was for him to surround me with his touch. He lifted my hips, I wrapped my legs around him, held on as his eyes met mine. With a nod from me, our foreheads touching, his eyes on me, he slid inside. It didn't last long, both of us too agitated. It took one touch from him, a slight angling of my hips, a heated kiss and he took me hard and fast against the side of the bath. I came, gasping, clinging to his arms, and his head dropped to my shoulder as he hissed my name. we stayed like that for some minutes, waiting for breathing to level out, hearts to slow. We soaped each other in silence. We didn't need to say it. Both of us had needed something, and we had got it. It wouldn't be repeated or spoken of again. It was fine for us both. But he kissed me before we left, a lingering, gentle kiss. I felt him for the rest of that night, and slept better than I had in a long time.
And then we were leaving, going after Horcruxes, fighting and running, and there would be another encounter, more passionate and brutal that the time in the Room, and I would remember it -
I jerk back to the present with a splash of water. I soaped myself slowly, washed my hair, dried off and dressed in my nightgown and robe before going back into my room, putting the package onto my desk. I sit on the bed, and brush my hair out. What prompted that memory to surface again? Being back at Hogwarts, in that situation? The most carefree I've ever been, coming apart in the arms of my greatest friend. I go to bed straight away, forget about potions and pills. I don't have even a hint of a nightmare.
I'm woken up by a knocking at my door. I scramble into my robe, call out for them to come in. Draco is bearing the most welcome sight in the world - a cup of strong, hot black tea, and a glass of grape juice.
"Have you only just woken up?" he says, lightly, and there's a slight teasing tone to his voice. It isn't a tone that annoys me, instead it makes me laugh a bit.
"You woke me up, to be accurate. What time is it?"
"Eleven fifteen. I assumed you'd be awake by now, I'm sorry. I brought you tea and juice. I've learnt a bit about your habits recently. They've stopped serving breakfast, but the Headmistress said you could get whatever you wanted from the kitchens when you woke up, or wait for lunch."
"Eleven fifteen?" I splutter, looking at him. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"I slept for thirteen hours. I think that might be the best I've slept in - well, the best I've slept in six years."
"Maybe this place is doing you some good, Hermione. I told you it'd help you if you relaxed a bit."
"Thank you, for the tea and the juice. I think I'll wait for lunch, however."
"I'll let you get dressed. I won't be in the meeting later, but I wish you luck. Remember to take it easy during this break."
"You sound like Harry," I say, softly, as he turns to go.
"If Harry is worrying about your health, then I agree with him."
"Say that again, but let me cast a Recording Spell."
"No chance, Hermione. You work too hard - and I intend to see to it that you relax as much as possible."
I dress smartly, but in Muggle clothing, and then cross over to my desk. I notice the package from Severus - I must have forgotten all about it. I take the paper off, and it's a little box. There's a note in Severus' neat, but extremely italic handwriting.
Hermione -
Something I mixed up for you. And you and I, young woman, are going to have a very, very serious talk.
Severus.
I open up the box, a peer inside. The bottle is labelled, and it makes my heart sink a little. Patented Addiction Healer - Sleeping Aids. I drop my head onto my desk. I don't know how he found out, and right now I don't care.
I run into Minerva outside the staff room, right before three. I got some food brought to my room for lunch, determined to avoid Severus. God, I hope he hasn't said anything to her. Going by the welcoming smile and warm handshake, I guess that he's kept his concerns to himself.
"OK, I'll set them up for. They seem pretty keen on the idea of you helping out, but make sure you include them in your decisions as far as possible. I appreciate that some of what you do may be impractical to run past everyone, but if you notify me, I can notify everyone else. Happy with what you have to say?"
"More or less."
"The general plan for my first week here is to observe. With your permission, I will sit in on at least one of your classes during the next week. I am not there to judge your teaching methods, I am there to observe what you're teaching. I'm also making a study of the amount of pupils in each class. I am comparing it to the size of the class I was in during my sixth year. There were three hundred pupils in my year alone, and over one thousand five hundred pupils in the school as a whole. I am aware that the school's total population is now just eight hundred. I need to know why this is, and we need to change it. I believe that a major reason for this drop in numbers is because parents do not consider Hogwarts a safe enough place. This school is now forever going to be synonymous with the Final Battle. People died here, and people are not going to forget that."
"But The Dark Lord is dead, forever. We know that, everybody knows that."
"Yes, but people aren't going to just forget how many died here, who died here, who died so we would fight here. Hogwarts was breached - and people now think that anything could happen, that we couldn't protect their children. At the moment - my solution would be to make attendance here temporarily compulsory." I hold up my hands at the expected outrage. "I know, I know that that would be immensely controversial. But we need the children here, they have to be educated by people who are able to set them up for any career. It wouldn't just be for Hogwarts - the Ministry would benefit, the private wizarding companies would develop further. I think that's about covered the plan for this week, and I can't really plan for next week until I've compiled everything from the observations this week. Thank you. Any questions?"
"Will you tell us when you're coming?" Severus asks, pointedly.
"Yes, I have a timetable here. Professor Vector: Monday, first hour, your sixth year class. Professor Flitwick: Monday, third hour, your third year class. Professor Binns: Monday, fourth hour, second years. Professor McGonagall: Tuesday, second hour, first years. Professor Snape: Tuesday, fourth hour, fourth years. Professor Trelawney: Wednesday, sixth hour, fifth years. Professor Sprout, Thursday, first hour, third years. Madame Hooch: Thursday, second hour, first years. Professor Babbling: Thursday, fourth hour, sixth years. Professor Hagrid: Thursday, sixth hour, fifth years. Professor Sinistra: Friday, third hour, fourth years. And Professor Flint: Friday, fifth years, second years. The list will go up in here. Why don't we have a Muggle Studies class?"
"We do - we take turns to teach it."
"You all take turns - to teach a subject that is a highly specialist subject, in which none of you are specialists."
"Yes."
"OK, we will deal with it. I would very much like to observe one of these classes. Who'd like to volunteer?"
SPOV
Quite unsurprisingly, nobody jumps at the opportunity. I look at her. Glamour Charms and concealer - she's practically insulting my eyes. I know full damn well what damage she's hiding under there, and I know what she's been doing. I did it myself, after the war. She needs some help, and by Merlin, I will pin her down and have that talk with her. She can't play the avoidance card forever. She's made the big mistake of not only not putting anyone after me, but arranging my observation for the period before I have a free period. I will talk to her if I have to tie her to a chair.
She goes off with McGonagall after the meeting, and I write down the time of my observation. My ex-pupil is going to be observing my teaching. I'm reasonably sure that this should be illegal. Who is it in charge of legal? Finnegan, that's it. One of the less aggravating pupils I had to deal with. She doesn't show for dinner, and Blaise informs me that she's chosen to eat dinner in her room.
"How long is she going to avoid facing people?"
"I don't know. I think she's just tired. Although, she got enough sleep last night."
"Blaise, we both know that this has got nothing to do with how much sleep she's gotten. She just can't deal with people gaping at her."
"She's a war hero, not a bloody zoo exhibit. She deserves her privacy."
"Blaise, I'm going to say this once. You fuck with her, and I'll beat you bloody."
"Message received."
