Disclaimer: I obviously don't own anything Harry Potter related, and I'm not making any money off the writing of this. It's all for my own perverted amusement! :)
Because I'm working on getting this caught up to what has already gone through the betas, I'm posting THREE WHOLE CHAPTERS tonight! :-) That is also my apology for the lengthy build up in the plot. Hope you enjoy them!
Thank you to my two amazing betas, Lorcalon, and VIVAvivacious - You both are amazing!
Hermione was quickly absorbed in the workbook she brought, reading through each of the exercises slowly. She wanted to get an idea of what she was subjecting herself to before she started attempting to answer any of the questions. Snape was busy checking the five cauldrons around the room that were still on the flames, stirring one, or adding ingredients to another. Occasionally, she would be forced to suppress a shiver as his boots thudded heavily against the stone flooring, reminding her of the footsteps of the man in her dream.
"Perhaps it would be prudent of you to focus on the potions once again, Miss Granger," Snape said softly after an hour, just as Hermione was about to begin scratching a response to the first exercise on the provided space of her workbook. Looking up at him with a startled expression, she nodded silently and slid the book and her quill back into her bag.
"Am I brewing another Blood-Replenishing Potion, sir?"
"Your previous batch will be sufficient. I would like you to brew a wound-cleaning potion next." Snape placed a new parchment of instructions on her table as he circled to one of the cauldrons in front of her. Hermione glanced over the ingredients list before moving to the small store cupboard at the back of the room to gather them. She prepped the base ingredients over the next thirty minutes before officially starting to brew, spending the next hour and a half bent over her cauldron and watching the potion turn from a pale blue to the desired shade of purple. As before, while she allowed it to cool, Hermione glanced over at Snape and noticed that he was watching her.
Feeling a blush creep into her cheeks again, she quickly looked away to check the temperature of her potion, only to find it still too warm to bottle. She shifted uncomfortably, feeling Snape's dark eyes still on her. After another moment, she heard the swish of his robes as he moved, and relaxed a bit. When he suddenly appeared at her side, peering over her shoulder at the contents of her cauldron, though, she stiffened nervously once again.
"Excellent work, Miss Granger." Startled by the compliment, Hermione looked up at him with wide eyes. The corner of his mouth twitched as if he was holding back a smile at her surprised expression. "I believe it has cooled enough for you to finish," he said, turning away towards one of the other cauldrons at the back of the room.
Shaking her head slightly, Hermione returned her attention to the cauldron on her table, checking the temperature again before taking up her ladle to begin bottling the potion. It took fifteen minutes to finish, and she carefully added the labeled bottles to the box Snape had provided. She had just placed the last inside when he gained her attention again.
"Miss Granger, come here for a moment." He made a 'come-hither' motion with two, long fingers, and she felt the increasingly familiar stirring in her nerves. She walked to the front-most table and stepped beside him to peer curiously into his cauldron. She noticed him glance at her briefly, a strange expression in his eyes, but he was quick to mask it. "What is the next step in producing the Draught of Peace?"
Hermione looked at the dark grey potion in front of her, wondering why Snape was testing her knowledge. "How long has the flame been lowered?" she murmured softly, pulling back from the cauldron.
"Two minutes." His lips twitched again, and Hermione thought back to the instructions from her fifth year.
"Add the syrup of hellebore in five minutes."
"Correct," Snape nodded. Hermione relaxed, smiling slightly to herself. Leaving the potion to continue simmering, Snape stepped around her and gestured her towards the next. "Invigoration Draught. What is next?" Peering into the cauldron at the dark liquid within, Hermione bit her lower lip as she struggled to remember. After a few moments, she pulled back, her voice confident.
"Three clockwise stirs, and one counter-clockwise."
"Correct again," Snape replied. She felt a swell of pride in herself then, and met his eyes. "Please take over this potion to its completion, Miss Granger, as well as the Draught of Peace."
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she realized why he had questioned her, and Hermione nodded slightly. "Thank you, sir."
Snape returned to the cauldrons at the back of the room, leaving her to finish the two potions at the front. After a moment, she added the hellebore to the Draught of Peace, smiling happily as it emitted a light, silvery vapour. Removing the cauldron from the flames to cool, she stepped over to the other to stir.
Within an hour, she had completed the second potion, bottling both and adding them to the collection of boxes at the front of the room. "Professor?" she asked, turning toward the back of the room to see Snape ladling the contents of another cauldron into vials. He didn't seem to have heard her, and she noticed an empty box sitting on the second back lab table, beside a collection of stoppered bottles. Without waiting for him to ask, she made her way to the table and began carefully moving each bottle into the box as she had already done several times that day with her own.
She looked up as she closed the box and saw Snape watching her from the front of the room where he had just placed his own packed box. His dark eyes seemed darker as he considered her, and another soft blush tinted her cheeks as she carried the packaged potions towards him.
As she set it beside the other boxes, he broke the somewhat awkward silence. "As it is nearly two in the afternoon, I would suggest a break." Hermione shyly nodded her agreement, and Snape led the way out of the lab and into his private office. "If you would prefer to venture to the Great Hall for lunch, please be sure to return within the hour."
The small voice in the back of her mind suggested a break from his presence would be a good idea, but Hermione shook her head slightly, ignoring it. "I would rather remain here, if that is all right with you, Professor. It would allow us to return to brewing more quickly than if I were to leave." She refused to meet his eyes as she spoke, knowing it would be all too easy for him to slip into her mind then and see that she was becoming comfortable around him. From the corner of her eye, she saw him nod slightly before calling for a house elf.
/-/SSHG/-/
The two of them passed a quick lunch in silence before returning to the lab. Throughout the next five hours, Snape occasionally pulled her from her own potion to test her knowledge of another. When her answers were correct, he allowed her to complete the brew. She was only incorrect twice, and he was quick to remind her of the proper answer before shooing her back to her own cauldron. At half past seven, Snape cast a stasis charm over each potion and asked her to follow him back to his office. Sitting behind his desk, he watched her shift nervously for a moment before speaking.
"As I'm sure you have gathered, Miss Granger, this arrangement was not my idea." Her mood visibly dropped, and she nodded. She had begun thinking he wasn't entirely put off by her presence, but his words dashed that small hope. "However," he continued, drawing her attention away from her thoughts and back to him, "your assistance has proved helpful. Therefore, the decision to end or continue this is yours." Hermione looked at him for a moment in surprise, turning her options over in her mind. He waited patiently for her to answer, holding himself stiffly in his chair.
"I...I suppose I'd like to continue, sir." The answer surprised her, but she knew that it was true, Merlin only knew why. Snape seemed to expell a breath and relax at her reply, then nodded slightly.
"Very well. I expect you at the same time next Saturday, then." He rose from his seat and turned back towards the door to the lab, casting a final look in her direction. Hermione shifted again under the intensity of his gaze as he looked her over, appraisingly. "You are dismissed for the evening, Miss Granger."
/-/SSHG/-/
Hermione made her way out of the dungeons, absorbed in her thoughts. Snape hadn't spent the day glaring and making snide comments as she had half-expected him to do. He hadn't gone out of his way to be kind, but he certainly had been more relaxed than she had ever seen him. As she made it to the first floor, the sound of a female voice hissing Muffliato caught her attention, and she looked up to see Ginny Weasley glaring at her.
"Hey, Gin-"
"Don't you dare 'hey' me, Hermione Granger!" the redhead snarled, stepping closer with a vicious gleam in her eyes. "You really think I'm going to be friendly after what you've been doing to my brother?"
Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion as she stepped back, only for her back to meet the wall. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't you play stupid with me!" she screeched. "I saw you sneaking into the common room the other day, running up to your room like Ron hadn't been waiting up for you! At first, I didn't think it was a big deal. But then," she continued, eyes narrowing as she stalked closer, "then, you refused to help him with his homework and ran off, not coming back until well after curfew."
"Ginny, I-"
"And then, you skipped class on Tuesday. Don't even try to lie, I checked your room between classes, and you weren't there. Still, I thought it must be something else. You wouldn't be caught dead running around with someone like that."
Her voice grew dangerously quiet as she stepped directly in front of Hermione. "Until Ron mentioned the rest of your strange behavior. Mysterious notes. Distracted. Running off suddenly. And now missing the Hogsmeade weekend. I saw you at breakfast this morning, and I saw you going to the dungeons afterward." Ginny placed her wand beneath Hermione's chin then. "You've been down there all day."
"Drop your wand, Ginny."
"The bloody hell I will! I'll be damned if I'm going to let you string my brother along while you snog some Slytherin!"
Hermione's eyes narrowed now as she began reaching for her own wand. "I'm not seeing anyone, Ginny, and that includes your brother."
"Liar! You're leading him on while you run around behind his back. Why else would you stay down in the dungeons all day?" Ginny pressed the tip of her wand harder against Hermione's chin as she spoke, her voice icy. "Give me one good reason not to hex you right now."
"Miss Weasley."
Hermione's eyes flicked instantly to Snape, where he stood aiming his wand at Ginny's back. She noticed a small crowd had formed and realized that the Muffliato had been canceled. She briefly wondered how much the other students- and Snape- had heard.
"Miss Weasley, lower your wand this instant!" Professor McGonagall reprimanded, and Hermione noticed she stood a little to the left of Snape. Ginny mechanically lowered her arm, holding it stiffly to her side as she continued to glare at Hermione. "Both of you in my office, immediately," McGonagall snapped, striding briskly away. Ginny rigidly fell in line behind her, while Snape fell in step at Hermione's side, though she wasn't sure why he followed as well.