Hello and Happy New Year!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm currently in Austria, skiing, and the hotel where I'm staying has no Wi-Fi. I will be back home on Thursday so will put up the next chapter then, it's almost ready. I will reply to your reviews then.

I realised that the date 5 December didn't really fit in the time line of my story, so I've changed it to 11 December, hope you understand. Also, I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about Hermione having to take the elixir once a week, I just figured that it wasn't necessary to write about her taking it every time, hence it's left out. Rest assured that Snape keeps supplying it to her.

Hope you're well.

Andrea xxx

Snape's POV

Snape was the first of the two of them to wake up on the morning of 11 December. He awoke, feeling a soar ache in his back. It took him a moment to understand why; it was not often that he slept in one of his sofas. Come to think of it, this was the first time ever. He sat up slowly, thinking it would somehow relieve the pain in his back, and the memories of last night returned to him. I had a student sleep in my quarters, for the love of Merlin, what is wrong with me? He scolded himself mentally for letting a student see him at his worst. She had seen him cry and it was enough to make him feel more than a little embarrassed. Then again, she's not just any student, a voice in his head said.

He looked at Hermione's sleeping form; spread out in the sofa opposite to the one he was seated in. She was lying on her left side, her head on a pillow and her face turned towards him. One of her many curls had escaped the ponytail the rest of her hair was gathered in and hung limply across her face. Snape pulled out his pocked watch and looked at it, it was almost half past six. Why do I always have to wake up at this ungodly hour, he moaned inwardly. He straightened his robes with a quick spell and ran his hands through his hair, trying to smoothen it. Once more, he looked at the sleeping witch. The blanket covered her body up to her shoulders. She looked very relaxed. In fact, he didn't think he had ever seen her this relaxed. Then again, that was because she was always quite bothered by her scars when she was awake.

He realised that it would not do for her to be seen leaving his quarters in the morning and so decided to wake her up. His first thought was to wake her up with a spell and scream at her to get the hell out of his quarters. Then he thought of what they had discussed the night before and realised that she didn't deserve that kind of awakening. But it was not as if he could go up to her and touch her, could he? He decided to order some coffee, as it would give him time to plan his next move. Not because he knew she liked coffee in the morning. Then again, so did he. Yes, that was it; he ordered coffee because he himself wanted it.

When a house elf appeared with the coffee five minutes later, Snape had still not figured out how to wake the Gryffindor. He decided he would try with his voice first and hopefully that would work.

"Hermione," he said in his usual quiet voice. When she didn't show any sign of awaking, he figured he had to be louder. "Hermione," he tried again, to no avail. To wake her up, he decided to fire a quick noise hex, right next to her. He did so, wandlessly and wordlessly. The result was not what he had desired.

Snape watched in astonishment how Hermione went from lying down to standing up, with her wand held high, in less than a moment. When she saw him, she lowered her wand, exhaled and sunk down on the sofa.

"You scared me," she muttered and pulled the blanket over her legs.

"My apologies, I called your name numerous times but you would not wake," he explained, feeling slightly guilty at having scared her from her sleep.

"It's not your fault, it's just a habit," she mumbled, looking slightly embarrassed. She took in her surroundings and looked around with a sheepish look on her face. "I'm sorry I spent the night here, you should just have sent me away," she apologised.

He was quiet for a few moments, contemplating his answer. There was no way he could tell her that he had found her presence soothing and that this was the best he had slept on this particular date in the last twenty years. However, he also found that he didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable than she already looked.

"I gave you the blanket, did I not?" he replied curtly.

Hermione gave him a small knowing smile. Not knowing how to respond, he simply passed her a cup of coffee as well as some milk, knowing that was how she liked to take her coffee.

"Thanks."

"You should get out of here before the other students awake but you look as though you could use a strengthening cup before."

"I do," she replied with a smile. "About last night, I hope…" she said but was interrupted.

"There is no need to discuss it further," he said curtly, feeling slightly awkward.

"I just wanted to say that I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable and that I appreciate what you said," she continued in spite of his interruption.

Once again, her words made him uncomfortable and once again he was unsure as to how to respond or react to them. He gave her a quick nod and looked down at his coffee. As the topic of their conversation was slightly awkward, at least in his opinion, he decided to move onto safer ground.

"How far have you got with the reading list?"

"I've finished all but one book."

Whilst he knew that she was a fast reader, he hadn't expected her to finish all the books, most of which contained more than 400 pages, in two weeks. Especially not since she had her regular lessons as well as her assistant position to focus on. She really was a devoted reader. Obviously he did not want her to know what he thought so he said something completely different.

"You better finish the last one soon, we should start working in the laboratory as soon as possible," he said in a curt voice.

"Yes, of course, I'll finish it before Sunday night," she said hurriedly, obviously deducing that he thought that she hadn't been reading fast enough.

"How about you take the day off today and instead finish the book before Wednesday night? Then we can spend Wednesday night planning our research and hopefully start on some tests next Friday," he suggested. He wasn't sure why he had offered her the day off; after all, he never gave himself a day off. Ever. But somehow, it just didn't feel right to watch her leave his rooms now, only to have her return in two hours to start working again, especially seeing as she hadn't got a lot of sleep because of him.

"Are you sure that won't slow us down?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"We will manage."

"Then yes, thank you. I have some Christmas shopping I've been meaning to get done."

Snape gave her a small nod. To say that her next words surprised him was an understatement.

"Will you take the day off as well?" she asked curiously, looking at him with that look in her eyes that he had come to recognise as concern.

"No. I will be in my laboratory brewing pepper-up potions for the infirmary."

"Why don't you take the day of as well? You look like you could use one. I'm sure the hospital wing can manage," she said softly.

"Poppy wants the potions by tomorrow," he said in a bored voice, even though he was anything but bored. If anything, he was disturbed by her unhealthy concern for him. It was none of her business whether he took the day off or not. If this was the reaction he was going to get every time he offered her some slack, he would cease doing it, he decided.

"Frankly speaking, it is none of your business, Hermione," he added stiffly.

He noticed a look of hurt on her features for just a moment before her face turned blank, void of any emotion. Perhaps his words had been unnecessarily rough, he thought, but then again, it was who he was.

"I don't feel comfortable taking a day off when I know that you will be in here working," she said quickly, her face void of any emotion.

"Then you better get over it, like I said, Poppy needs the potions by tomorrow."

"I will be back at five o'clock, Severus, and if you have so much as started preparing the ingredients by then, well, let's just say that you will regret it," she said with a dark smile on her face.

Does she mean what I think she means? She'll help me? Why would she do that? He frowned in confusion.

"I am unsure whether I interpreted that correctly, did you just say that you will come down here on a Saturday night, voluntarily, to help me brew pepper-up potions for the infirmary?" he asked suspiciously.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, I like brewing and I don't have any plans tonight. "Will you accept my help?" she asked, sounding shy all of a sudden.

"I promise not to enter my laboratory before you return," he replied, unsure why he had just agreed to take a day off.

"I'm glad," she said and placed her empty coffee cup on the table in front of her.

"You are one strange student," he said with an odd look on his face, but his voice held no menace.

"So I've been told." She smiled and stood up, slipping her feet into her loafers that lay discarded on the floor. "Enjoy your day off, you deserve it," she said and left his sitting room before he had the chance to reply.

Snape sat still in his sofa for the next hour, contemplating what she'd said. No one had ever cared that he over-worked himself, no one. Instead, they had all gladly given him more work to do, knowing that he would do everything in his power to get it done on time. Even if it meant that he only slept a few hours each night. And now this girl, student, witch or woman, he was unsure what he should call her and so settled on Hermione, had made him take a day off. Fair enough, she had almost forced him to but he hadn't put up much of a fight. That in itself, was very, very odd.

Hermione's POV

The following Wednesday evening found Snape and Hermione sitting on chairs next to a worktable in Snape's personal laboratory. The room was large, almost twice the size of the Potions classroom. Hermione wasn't quite sure of how the big room fit into the dungeons, but she figured there was a great deal of magic involved. There were two long worktables in the room, each of which had six different workstations set up. Along the walls were bookcases and cupboards, containing tools and ingredients.

Snape was currently talking Hermione through his previous research on the subject and she was scribbling furiously in a notebook. At first, Snape had tried to find or create a spell that revealed the magical pattern and when that failed, he had tried to create a potion with the same purpose. When that had turned out unsuccessfully, he had tried to see if the magical signature witches and wizards left behind in wards they created and patronuses the conjured could somehow be altered into showing the magical pattern. As that had proven impossible he decided he had to think in different terms. His next idea had been using legilimency.

"So by entering someone's mind with permission you believe there is a chance that you could see the magical pattern of the person in question?" Hermione asked without looking up from her parchment.

"Exactly. When I first got the idea, I tried it out on two death eaters but as they were averse to my intrusion, their minds made my searching very difficult, hence it didn't work. There is no guarantee that it will work if the intrusion is permitted but it is worth a try," he said and watched her with amusement, at seeing her write so quickly, in his eyes.

"Yes, but that is assuming that the magical pattern is in the mind and not the body, physically. However, I haven't got a clue of how to find the pattern in the skin so I believe legilimency is as good a way as any to start," she commented. "Do you have a pensieve?"

"Yes."

"Good. I presume you'll be invading my mind and there are certain things I don't want anyone to see. Should we start tonight?" she asked enthusiastically.

"It is very uncomfortable and tiring to have someone dig around in your mind, Hermione. It's already past eleven, I suggest we start on Friday."

"Oh, of course," she replied, sounding a little disappointed. "Oh and I've been meaning to ask you, should we work over the holidays?"

"I will be here over the holidays, but I won't make you work if you don't want to," he muttered, sounding slightly annoyed that she didn't want to work over the holidays.

"I didn't ask because I don't want to work, Severus. We break up on Friday afternoon and then there are four weeks of holidays. Before we started on this project, my plans were to stay here for the holidays, excluding a couple of days over Christmas. If you would rather I stay over Christmas so we can work, I will."

"Going to the Weasleys', I presume?" he said with a sneer.

"No," she replied, feeling slightly annoyed that he still sneered or looked as if he had just swallowed something disgusting whenever he mentioned the Weasleys or Harry. "I am going to Berlin by myself," she said, looking him straight in the eyes, daring him to question her.

"I see," he said, sounding almost curious. "When will you be gone?"

"I had planned on going on the 22nd and returning on the 27th. Before and after that, I can work every day of the holidays."

"That sounds acceptable."

"Oh, and I've told everyone else that I'm celebrating Christmas with a distant relative so I would appreciate if you would keep the Berlin part to yourself," she said seriously.

Snape's face turned into a thoughtful expression. He was no doubt wondering why she would go on a trip alone over Christmas. After a moment or two, he gave her a small nod in acknowledgement of what she had said.

"Thank you. I am going to bed now, I'll see you on Friday after supper," she said with a smile and gathered her notes.

"You can leave those here if you want," he offered.

Hermione gave him a big smile and left the room.

Breakfast on Friday morning was far from a quiet affair. All the students were chatting about what they were going to do for Christmas, what presents they had wished for, who they were going to see, where they were going and so on. Now that Voldemort was gone, parents no longer felt that their children had to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays because of safety reasons; hence most of them were going home. As far as Hermione knew, only she, three Ravenclaws and two Slytherins would be staying for Christmas. She couldn't wait until everyone had left, she longed for the castle to be quiet.

"Are you sure you won't be lonely?" Ginny asked for the third time. "You really should come with me to the Burrow, we could have so much fun! And Ron and Harry will be there of course."

"Like I've said before, I've got some research to do, and Snape and I will continue working on our new version of the Wolfsbane. All the extra time will be great," Hermione replied and took a bite of her toast.

"Seriously Hermione, are you really going to spend Christmas in the dungeons with Snape?"

"Ginny, how many times do I have to say this, I'm not coming to the Burrow," Hermione said in a tired voice. She heard the owls enter the hall and looked up. To her surprise she saw Hedwig approach her and sit down on the table in front of her. She untied the letter the owl carried, tied around her leg, and gave her a piece of her toast. Hedwig chirped happily and left. She opened the letter and read it.

Dear Hermione,

I can't believe you're not coming to the Burrow for Christmas! I just heard that you weren't coming, otherwise I wouldn't have written to you sooner. Mrs Weasley said it's because you are working on the Wolfsbane with Snape, but seriously Hermione, the entire holiday? I was really looking forward to seeing you. Well, I hope that you have a nice Christmas with, who was it, your aunt's cousin? Perhaps we could meet up for a drink in Hogsmeade sometime over the holidays? Just let me know when you're free, we've got three weeks off school. I hope you're well and that Snape's not too awful to you.

Love,

Harry

Dear 'Mione,

Well, I just read what Harry wrote and I was going to write pretty much the same, but seriously, why are you staying at Hogwarts with Snape? You'll be bored to death. Though you've got the library so I suppose you'll survive, but still. Anyway, hope all is well at Hogwarts and that Snape isn't boring you to death. Let's meet up for a drink in Hogsmeade soon!

Love,

Ron

"What did Harry say?" Ginny asked, having recognised Hedwig.

"He and Ron wrote to say the same as you really, trying to persuade me to come to the Burrow for Christmas, here you can read if you want," she offered and handed the letters to the redhead.

Ginny read both letters and turned to Hermione.

"They're right, you know. I don't see why you should spend the holidays here. They haven't seen you in ages and I have hardly seen you since you began working with Snape, I was really looking forward to spending some time with you over the holidays," Ginny said.

"I'm sorry, it's just that it takes up so much time. I'll try to be a better friend next term," Hermione replied non-committedly.

If she was going to be honest with herself, she was more than a little annoyed at the three Gryffindors who were supposed to be her best friends. Harry and Ron had barely kept in touch with her at all in the last couple of months and Ginny, whilst she was sweet, always asked the wrong questions. All in all, none of them had any idea what was going on in her life. And who's fault is that, a voice in her head asked. Yes, she had gotten increasingly private since the end of the war, but none of them had even tried to see through the walls she had built around her. It annoyed her that all of them thought so little of Snape. Fair enough, they hadn't seen as much of him as she had, but there was no need for them to talk about him as if he was the devil. They were still as childish as they always had been, she thought with a sigh.

Rest assured that it will be explained later on why Hermione doesn't want to celebrate Christmas.