A/N: So, as promised, I went back and edited the last chapter a bit since I was in a rush to get it out. Nothing drastic but I suggest going back and rereading before you do this chapter. I'm still not one hundred percent completely happy with chapter 10 but it was edited to death as much as it could be! Fanfiction probably hates me now… As always thanks to everyone who read and reviewed!

Disclaimer: Absolutely nothing belongs to me and everything belongs to the goddess JK Rowling.


Severus walked around in a blur the rest of the night, heading directly back to his rooms. He could still feel his face heating up from where her lips had made contact with his cheek.

'Like a bloody fourth year,' he thought.

He still couldn't believe his misfortune, or rather, his luck, as the damned werewolf had ruined whatever chance they had at truly conversing with one another that may have strayed from typical school-related discussions; however he deemed her, with her head lying on his shoulder quietly snuggled up next to him by a fire she procured, to not be a bad alternative.

Although he plucked up the courage to finally lay his head on top hers, he was berating himself for hesitating so long and not being able to bring himself to at least wrap an arm around her in the freezing temperatures, no matter that he had given her his cloak.

'She must now think me a coward. I am able to face one of, if not the most, darkest wizards of all time, and yet I cannot bring myself to even lay a finger on a girl- no, woman.'

He knew how inexperienced he was, he just detested himself for it. He almost felt…less of a man, not being so. Oh, he has heard the jokes, many years over, when staff and students alike thought he were not listening, how he needed a lay in the hopes it might make his mood a little better. He had never paid any mind to them, but now he couldn't help but feel a bit paranoid and wonder if it were so obvious he was such an…innocent.

He scowled. 'Nearly forty years old and still a virgin. How pathetic. And if she were to ever find out she will surely laugh in my face…And I am a pervert for thinking such things on a girl- woman- no, female, half my age! I must have clearly become so desperate for a shag, it's laughable. Not that she is undesirable, because she is, and oh damn I am doing it again.'

Forcing himself to stop thinking altogether, another thought didn't occur to him until he was lying peacefully in his bed, on the verge of sleep.

'She kissed me. Me. Again. On the cheek this time but…actually seemed to…want to.'


Hermione, again, woke in a pleasant mood. She was somewhat happy tomorrow was finally the weekend. It had been quite a few days since Ron's dismissal of her, and the werewolf incident, and the first few days of February had finally arrived. Over that short span of a week's time, Ron was still ignoring her and being a git, Harry still couldn't make him see sense, and Ginny was growing frustrated and getting peeved off not knowing why her brother was acting like a complete arse towards her best girlfriend and neither the boys nor Hermione would tell her.

But Hermione also felt her and Severus grow a tad closer since that event. She supposed almost being killed by a werewolf does that to a person. No, they were not friends or anything of the like, not yet, but had a sort of…silent understanding between the two of them.

This was not the reason she had imagined them growing closer from, but it had worked nonetheless. He helped her more, showing her the correct ways to stir and cut ingredients instead of berating her (even if she knew he knew she already knew how, she mentally noted); seemed more inclined to actually talk with her instead of the grunts and one word answers he had been giving her before, sharing his thoughts on potion theories and discussing the many different ways to create a potion, intriguing her of things she had never known that she speculated was likely in his self-titled 'Half-Blood Prince's' book; was polite to her, never becoming angry with her and using his manners, every once in a while joking in his dry humor she secretly adored to which she would pleasingly notice his cheeks taint slightly pink when she giggled at him; even his lips had turned up at her a couple times when she had retorted with an equally witty comment, which admittedly caused her to stop breathing a second.

She smiled dreamily, still lying in her bed.

But that was in detention, when they were alone.

During class, he was still the snarky teacher she remembered him as, but she noticed instead of him making any scathing comment to her like he would before, he ignored her for the most part, opting to do so to the other students instead. It was not lost on her, though, that he still came quite close to her while inspecting her potion, as opposed to the others.

He still wouldn't speak to her while in class however, she remembered, her smile faltering.

Rising slowly and sleepily, she rubbed her eyes before taming her hair and throwing on jeans she thought made her arse look particularly nice in and her favorite jumper under her robe. Heading to, yet again, another breakfast she knew would be tense and silent, she sighed.

Arriving during the rush when everyone else was still making it in, she pushed through the crowds, every once in a while excusing herself, and finally sat down. Neville offered a quiet hello, while Ginny apparently still didn't know whether to be angry or not at everyone leaving her in the dark, but gave a small smile anyway, whilst Harry gave her a knowing look before returning to his and Ron's shushed conversation. Ron, unsurprisingly, glowered down at his plate never looking in her direction, every once in a while looking up to Harry to whisper back in an agitated, sometimes heated tone.

Growing weary at witnessing another one of Harry's attempts to convince Ron, Hermione looked away, first down at her own plate then towards the Head Table. She started at instantly seeing him staring in her direction, a curious but irritated look crossing his features, his eyes darting from Ron and Harry back to her. He didn't smile or nod, didn't acknowledge her whatsoever, frowning and turning away.

Obviously her day was already not going to turn out as well as she thought, her once pleasant mood now dissipating.

Frowning herself and looking sadly down at her still empty plate, losing her appetite, she sat quietly ignoring and being ignored by everyone until it was time for their first class of the day.

Which was Potions. With him. All of them.

After a week of her friends treating her as if she were a disease and didn't want to be near her, namely some with pity and others with disgust, her mood was slowly reaching the point where it verged on sadness and depression.

Walking by herself behind Harry and Ron who were now full on arguing above whispers between them but not loud enough to draw attention or for her to hear, she looked away once more, feeling guilty for jeopardizing their friendship. It seemed they all felt angry with one another, besides Harry and Hermione's lasting friendship. She was definitely feeling as if she ruined everything right at the moment.

Arriving after what seemed hours of walking, Hermione instantly felt the dungeon's cold bite more into her skin than usual. She took her place next to Neville after giving a small hello and began working. She, for the most part, ignored everyone, and even when Snape made his way around to her table she pretended he wasn't even there.

Snape, being the talented people-reader he was, could instantly tell something was off with the girl, if her ignorance of him and the other dunderheads she called friends were any indication. He had noticed her quietness at the Gryffindor table and the students around her paying no attention to her at breakfast, talking amongst themselves, and Potter and Weasley seemingly arguing. He also noticed them occasionally glance to her, and then himself, and back to her before looking again to each other continuing in their little disagreement. Severus nervously wondered if either boy knew; or both. Going by the way each kept glaring at him, he could safely say that he was sure at least one of them did. He knew the only way they would know is if…she had told them.

He also noticed her having no reaction to him being so close to her, like she normally did. He would see her body stiffen, and her breathing becoming more quick and shallow, while her hand shook slightly while pouring in ingredients and stirring. He saw none of that happen today, acting as if he didn't even exist. While he could tell she felt guilty for one reason or another, he didn't know what her disregard of him meant. Could she be losing her feelings, if that's what he dared to call them, for him already?

He scowled. He knew he should have never gotten his hopes up.

Severus, now sitting back at his desk, jerked his head toward her. She was still working, a thin sheen of sweat covering her forehead, her head down. Why would she have kissed him, twice, seeming to want to, and then go and tell her friends?

'Damn it all; I should have known. Did you really think your life would ever go right for once? I was right; it was all just a bloody joke to her- to all of them. That's why she feels guilty and is now indifferent to me.' Severus thought furiously.

'But there must be a deeper reason as to why Weasley is ignoring her as well, other than what she told me that night.'

Shaking his head and deciding to leave it for now, he waited until the blasted hour was up.


Hermione felt miserable. She didn't think she had ever felt more alone and wretched than she did now. All her classes she could speak to no one but Harry, and even he seemed to be a bit distant lately. She knew this was all her fault. She had lost her friends, the ones who meant the world to her. She knew deep down Severus was worth it, but at the moment when both parties seemed to be rejecting her, it didn't seem very ideal.

After her last class of the day, she headed straight to her rooms and plopped down on her bed. She startled Crookshanks in the process, who yanked his head up to glare at his human but made no effort to move from his comfy spot. Hermione lifted her head to stare back before reaching out to pet his long, mangy hair.

"Oh Crooks," Hermione mumbled softly, "I've really made a mess out of things haven't I?"

Crookshanks stared back with large, yellow, unblinking eyes, before yawning and bringing his head back down to continue snoozing.

Hermione smiled slightly, combing her fingers through his hair, which she was prone to doing while deep in thought, before saying, "I guess you're my only true friend now Crooks."

The kneazle made no movement, besides the light rise and fall of his body as he slept. Hermione sighed and laid her head down next to her pet, closing her eyes and drifting off. She didn't very much want to go to dinner.


Severus could not ignore her absence. As much as he wanted to bring himself to be angry at her for telling her friends and paying no heed to him any longer, he couldn't help but grow worrisome over the young woman.

All day she had seemed…distraught.

He supposed he would find out in a bit, in detention. If she showed up, that is. And if she decided to actually speak with and acknowledge him.

He walked away from the Great Hall and to his class. He half-expected to run into Hermione on the way there, but no disturbance ever came.

He opened the door to his room and was surprised to see Hermione already sitting at a table, her elbows on the countertop and legs swinging back and forth, obviously waiting for him. Her head turned as he walked in.

"Miss Granger, what a pleasant surprise," Severus stated dryly.

Hermione, however, said nothing, choosing to continue to look at him, a tired expression crossing her face while he walked to the front of his room.

Severus sighed. "You may do whatever you wish tonight, Miss Granger. I do not care."

Hermione looked slightly astonished, but shockingly made no comment. He expected her to simply make a potion as it would be easy enough for her, but instead of getting out a cauldron and her book he watched as she made her way to his supply closet, most likely to clean and sort it, bringing her bag with her.

Severus watched until he could no longer see her from within the closet and sighed to himself once more. She was still ignoring him. She hadn't even said one word to him still all day.

He tried to convince himself, tell himself not to care; but found he could not. He was already in too deep for her; already craved her attention too much. He knew what he was beginning to feel, and knew that he needed to stop, to not get hurt anymore.

After what was maybe ten or fifteen minutes he was startled from his depressing thoughts at hearing a loud crash of many glass bottles breaking, and then a thud that sounded much like a person falling.

Hurriedly getting out of his seat he all but sprinted to his supply closet, where an unconscious Hermione lay splayed out in a blur of her robes and shards of glass.

Without thinking Severus slammed the door behind him, dropped to his knees by her, carefully avoiding the pieces of debris, and checked to see if she were breathing. He sighed in relief seeing she was, and wandlessly he muttered the Ennervate spell, not bothering to search for his wand.

Hermione instantly sat up, nearly bumping heads with her professor as he was still leaning over her, and took a deep breath before looking around, bringing a hand up to her head where he supposed was hurting and asking, "What…what happened?"

Severus sneered, "I see you are no longer restraining yourself from speaking to me."

Hermione gave a confused, almost hurt look before he continued, "Obviously you fell, climbing my shelves like you are not supposed to."

She could only stare back. At seeing no broken bones or any other immediate danger to her person, he sighed, "Are you alright, Miss Granger?"

Hermione continued to search his face for a few moments, before faintly nodding her head.

With that he stood up, brushing himself off before casting a quick Evanesco to rid of the shards, again wandlessly, and extended his hand out to her to take suddenly, Hermione leaning back a bit as it was maybe four inches from her face, before taking his offered hand and feeling him grip hers firmly in order to pull her up.

As soon as she was standing again to her full height, Severus turned away and walked to the closed closet door, gripping the handle and pushing, attempting to put as much space between them as possible- only to find it wouldn't budge.

Severus felt his heart drop to his stomach, before feebly attempting to push it open again, knowing it was useless.

"Sir?"

"It's locked," he explained, whispering quietly.

Hermione inaudibly sucked in a breath, staring at him with his back still turned to her.

"W-what do you mean?" she asked dumbly.

He whipped around on her, "Do you not know what locked means? It is shut, closed, warded, bolted. It. Will Not. Open," he told her bitterly.

She gave him another hurt look before schooling her features into that of mild anger and retorting, "I know that." He glared at her. "But why don't you just use your wand to unward it?" she asked as if it were obvious.

He scoffed, "If it were that easy, Miss Granger, I would not be making a scene of it and would have done so by now."

Hermione furrowed her brows, "Where is your wand?"

She saw he almost looked embarrassed for a moment before he hid his face behind his curtain of hair and seemed to think for a second before murmuring, "I had left it on my desk hurrying to you."

Her face fell, and said softly, "Oh."

"Yes. Oh," he mimicked, before sinking down to the ground, his back sliding against the wall, and upon reaching the floor brought his hands up, tiredly rubbing his face, then resting them on his knees.

She stood standing, not knowing what to do. It seemed she had now caused another problem between her and someone else she cared about. She hadn't meant to be ignoring him, she really did want to talk to him and vent to him like he allowed her to do already, but after everything that had happened including just that morning she was feeling a little run down, not wanting to talk to anyone, including him. She hadn't meant for him to take it personally, but obviously he was.

Deciding to copy him, she lowered herself to the ground on the complete opposite side of him, bringing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on top, facing him. There was maybe two meters of space between them in the cramped closet. He would not look at her however. She saw he was glowering at the ground instead.

"What-," she cleared her throat, "What do we do?" she finished softly.

Finally he dragged his eyes back to hers, "I suppose all we can do, Miss Granger, is wait."

"Wait? It'll be days until anyone would be in here! It's the weekend!"

She saw him close his eyes and lean his head back against the wall. "I am aware of the fact, thank you Miss Granger. However, if you have any other plans or means as to how we may get out of here, please enlighten me."

She huffed. "Well, if you can do wandless magic, why don't you just unward the door wandlessly as well?"

He looked pointedly at her, "It is not so simple, Miss Granger. I use rather complicated and intricate charms and spells to ward my doors. With my wand. I am not as powerful being wandless as opposed to being with wand; therefore, it would not work. I am not Dumbledore. I cannot make everything work to my own desire as he."

Hermione looked away from his face, turning her gaze on the hard floor. She felt her eyes start to prickle and didn't want him to see her crying yet again. She didn't know why she had been crying so much lately, and so much in front of him.

She turned her face away, looking downward and cradling her head in her hands.

Severus instantly knew what that meant, and was about to ask if she would be alright before he heard her whisper faintly, "Why are you angry with me?" in between her sniffling.

If he was expecting anything, it wasn't that. "What?"

She looked up, "You know what I mean," she said, her voice shaking, "This past week we were getting along fine. Growing closer even. And then today, when everyone is obviously upset with me you decide to shut me out too. Why?"

He blinked, "I am not mad at you."

"Then why are you ignoring me!" she snapped.

He narrowed his eyes, "If anyone is ignoring anyone it is you, Miss Granger. I could say the same about you. Obviously you are upset with Potter and Weasley arguing, but it is your fault you told your dimwitted friends, not mine."

Hermione gave an incredulous look, "Don't call them dimwitted! And what do you mean, I never told- I mean I never told Ron," she finished softly.

"Ah, but you told Potter."

"…Yes."

"He knows." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes."

He took a breath before she added, "You don't understand sir, I had to tell someone-,"

"Stop saying that."

"What?" Hermione asked disbelievingly.

"Sir, Professor, all of it."

She continued to gaze wide-eyed unbelievingly, and he added, "You have kissed me twice now, Miss Granger and it sounds almost…uncomfortable hearing it."

Hermione was shocked, but soon recovered, "Then I'm tired of 'Miss Granger', and you should call me Hermione."

"No…"

"No?"

"You are still my student and I wish to be reminded as such, to at least retain some of my dignity."

"That doesn't make sense! I believe it takes two to kiss don't you, Severus?"

He flinched at hearing his name come from her lips; normally he would have loved to finally hear her say it, but at the moment it just sounded spiteful.

"Perhaps it's hard for me to constantly hear you call me that as well," she added weakly.

"…Very well, Hermione." She knew he meant it sarcastically, but even when he said it in an unkindly, vindictive way it still sounded wonderful combined with his voice.

She blinked and nodded, not knowing where to go in the conversation now.

Before she had to think long he interrupted the tense air, "Then explain to me what is really going on and why you seem to be avoiding me."

She knew she had to tell him. He deserved to know.

She took a deep breath, "I know I haven't told you the whole story. The night Ron and I," she paused, "argued…it was because he suspected we," she motioned between them, "were…together. I tried to convince him we weren't, but he wouldn't listen to any of it. I didn't tell him of the kiss and I'm positive he still doesn't know. But being he thinks we are in fact together he probably suspects we've done…other things…as well anyway." Her face flushed, and Severus winced as he felt his face grow warm as well. "I'm sure he was just mainly upset because it's you. Of course he mentioned his suspicions to Harry, who in turn wanted to speak with me first to see if it were true. I didn't want to lie to Harry and I just needed to tell someone and not keep it bottled up, sir- I mean Severus, so I told him we…kissed."

"I can just imagine his reaction," Severus rolled his eyes.

Hermione smiled gently, "Actually you'd be surprised, he was rather…encouraging."

She laughed at his expression, which she thought if he were drinking something he would have spit it out like in a muggle comedy but knew she had to continue. "Harry's grown up now; he's not as bad as you think. And he's sworn not to tell anyone, and he threatened Ron not to tell anyone either- of his suspicions, not the kiss," she added quickly, "because Ron doesn't know of that, mind. And I trust him. Not so much Ron but…but anyway, the bottom line is, is that Ron hates me, Harry is my only friend whom I trust besides my cat, Ginny I'm sure is peeved at me as well as Harry for not telling her what is going on, I don't want to drag Neville and Luna into this and you…well I don't know where you land in all of this but I suppose I shouldn't have snubbed you this morning. I was just upset is all," she shrugged. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to ignore you, Severus. I would still like to talk to you, regularly, if that's alright," she asked softly.

Severus outwardly showed a blank expression but inside he was highly relieved and pleased. She wasn't angry with him, and she still wanted to talk to him.

Realizing he should probably do something other than stare, he nodded, turning his attention to a particularly dirty spot on the ground.

"For what it is worth, I apologize as well for making it seem as if I hated you, and for hurting you. It was not my intent," Severus said.

She smiled, "It's alright."

He saw, judging by her expression, she was battling in her mind trying to decide something before he watched her grab her bag that was next to where she sat, pulling out a book, and rising to stand and move over on his side, sitting rather close to him than what was necessary. Not that he was complaining.

"I brought this to…um, give to you." She said, handing him the tome.

At his curious look and slowly reaching out to take it, she explained, "It's the book you wanted from the library. Remember? I finished it, and brought it with me to give to you."

She was relieved to see him smile slightly, as he said, "Thank you. Quite honestly, though, I had forgotten about it," not about to tell her the real reason for "stealing" it from her in the library.

She nodded dejectedly. "So…are we…okay now?" she asked worriedly, biting her lip.

He was distracted by her little habit, watching as her bottom lip was being pulled by her teeth, wondering what it would feel like for him to do it for her.

Snapping himself out of it, realizing she was waiting for an answer with baited breath, he answered quickly, "Yes, I would like to think so."

She let out the breath she had been holding. "Good," she smiled.

He gave her a half smile back, and she added, "I would hate to lose another friend."

Friend? They were friends?

His head jerked back up to search her face, and saw a sincere expression crossing it, while he noticed a hidden curious one beneath it at his reaction to her words.

She cocked her head, "Do you not think of us as friends, Severus?"

"…I didn't know if it would be welcome to you or not."

"What? Of course it is! Why wouldn't it be?" she laughed slightly.

Severus kept quiet.

Hermione's face fell at his lack of reaction and words.

"Severus?"

He wouldn't look at her until he felt her small, soft hand come up to rest on his that was still atop his propped knees.

"Will you talk to me? I don't like when you go all silent like this. You know you can trust me, right?"

He looked in her eyes, and decided that yes, he thought he could trust her.

"I…I just can't understand…why you…," she waited patiently for him to finish, watching his face as new emotions she never thought she would see were crossing it- nervousness and uncertainty.

"Why you would…want to be…friends…with…me," he murmured.

Hermione sat listening, staring, not knowing how to reassure him how much she wanted to get to know him and how wonderful a person he truly was. He had been through so much in his life, including being lonely and used, and obviously it had slowly degraded his self-worth over the years.

With her hand still atop his, she scooted closer to him and began, "Severus," now feeling her eyes watering for an entirely different reason, "I really do like you. For as much as you treated me throughout the years, I forgive you. I know it was all an act, and why you had to."

He slowly brought his head up to finally look at her, and she watched as he thoroughly searched her face for any hint of dishonesty. Her heart broke for him realizing he truly didn't have any confidence of himself.

"You really are an amazing person. For someone to go through something that you did, it's astounding. And admirable. You were- are- truly a brave, loyal man."

She saw him begin to shake his head after turning away, and she quickly moved her hand from his to touch his cheek, turning his head back to her. She saw his eyes widen in surprise at her touch and her nearness, and she made sure he was looking at her before she continued.

"You are. And much, much more. You're…intelligent...bold, selfless, caring, funny- when you want to be-," she added, grinning, trying to come up with more adjectives quickly to add to her list, "modest, mysterious, different…attractive," she finished faintly.

His eyes widened substantially.

"I really do like you," she added, trying to convey more meaning into those few simple words.

Severus, meanwhile, couldn't believe what he was hearing. Here was this extraordinary, smart, and beautiful witch complimenting him and calling him attractive, wanting to be in his company, when she should just plain hate him. He had never seen those things in himself before, only loathing, and didn't understand how she possibly could. He didn't recall Lily ever saying anything remotely close to the heartfelt words she had just said about him. He didn't deserve her.

As if reading his thoughts, she said, "You deserve so much."

Severus, however, highly disagreed, and turned his head away again, attempting to hide his face and his emotions with his hair.

But Hermione was having none of it, and knew a higher course of action was needed in order to get him to listen and stop hating himself. To understand what she saw.

With a burst of courage and her heart beating wildly, holding in her breath, she again grabbed his cheek gently, brushing his hair away, turning it back to hers once more, waiting patiently for him to painfully bring his dark, beautiful eyes back to her own, before slowly raising her head and closing the space between them.


A/N: Poor Severus- he just wants to be loved. By the way I'm not sure if wandless magic works like that, but for the sake of this story I'm saying it does. Hope you liked it, more coming soon! And Please Review!