Severus sat staring at the Healer that Durmstrang kept on staff. He had only met the man once to figure out what he needed to stock the Hospital Ward.

"You've beaten any previously set records," Robert Galen told him, pointing his wand at the gash on the side of Severus' head. "Any idea what happened?"

"I betrayed the cause that half the students' parents were supporting," he replied. While there was no proof that it was intentional, Severus was reasonably certain.

"Hello?"

Severus couldn't see around the screen, but he knew it was Hermione. "Here."

"Galen," he said. "Have you met Professor Hermione Granger?"

"No," Galen said, shaking her hand. "I apologize for my absence this summer. Robert Galen."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Healer Galen," Hermione said. She couldn't remember what his file had said, but he was younger than she had thought. The way that Severus had been talking she had thought he was older. "What happened, Severus?"

He looked at her sharply for what she figured was using his first name. "A potion that one of my students was making exploded."

"Don't look at me like that," she said. "I'm afraid that my reaction to overhearing one of the students saying you were injured in class will have people talking. Was it an accident?"

"That's not the current theory," Galen said. "I haven't heard the whole story."

"Heal first," Hermione said. "Story after."

Severus would have preferred that Galen looked at him while he was casting healing spells, but the Healer seemed rather focused on Hermione. It made him feel a bit better that Hermione didn't seem to notice.

When Galen pronounced him healed, Severus sighed and recounted his story. Galen was sworn to uphold patient confidentiality, he had already checked into that. The ingredient that had made the potion explode when he was standing right next to it had not even been in the classroom.

Hermione sighed. "It does sound suspicious."

Galen didn't say anything, but offered them tea.

"I think I'll just get Severus back to his quarters," Hermione said. "But thank you so much."

"How did you survive your first class and I didn't?"

"I survived both of mine," Hermione said with a small grin. "And I'll tell you at the end of the week."

She didn't want to jinx the good luck that she had had on her first day.


After she had convinced him that she would survive, Severus had decided to skip supper. Hermione was sure that his pride had been injured, although he seemed happy enough that she hadn't been injured.

Vik smiled as she sat down on his left. "How is Professor Snape?"

"Better," she said. "He often finds that he needs time away from students."

"Did your second class go well?"

"Very," she said. "Thank you. Professor Snape and I did have a question regarding out timetables, though."

"Of course."

"Will we be required to patrol the school?"

"No," he said. "We don't require any of our first-year teachers to do patrols. As you know, while the castle is not large as Hogwarts, it does have an above average amount of rooms. You're simply not familiar enough with the school. Or the students."

Hermione smiled. "Thank you."

"You've been here over a month, Professor Granger. How are you liking our school?"

"Give me a few weeks teaching and I'll let you know," she said. "I have to say that I'm not adjusting to the cold. I would have liked to talk to the other Charms professor. I can't imagine my students doing as well as they could if they are trying to keep their warming charms active while trying to learn new charms, as well."

"Durmstrang has never had very high Charms scores. It has never been a focus for the school. I feel comfortable telling you to do whatever you need to make your classroom as productive as you can."

"The Highmaster won't mind if things begin to change in his absence?"

"This exchange is part of changing, Hermione. Besides, the Highmaster is not here at the moment. If he's unhappy, he'll make sure to let us know when he returns."

Hermione smiled and turned back to her meal. She would have to tell Severus and in the morning, there would be a fire in her classroom.


Severus grew increasingly suspicious of her as the week went on. He had made sure that his seventh years were suitably punished, although no real confession had been made. He couldn't figure out why he had less problems as the week went on. By Thursday, his classes seemed to be running like a well-oiled machine. The students were better behaved than the ones at Hogwarts.

Thursday afternoon was also when he decided that he had had enough. When he asked her that morning, she had grinned and ignored his request. He would be damned if he didn't get an answer before dinner. When he got to her quarters, he didn't even knock before keying into her rooms.

"Severus!" she shrieked. "What on earth are you doing?"

His rant about keeping secrets was momentarily forgotten as he looked at her. The sight of her perky breasts peeking over the top of her bra was completely distracting him. It was only after a robe had been pulled over them that he regained himself.

"Severus?"

He quickly noticed that she was still wearing her skirt and then realized that it wasn't what he had come for.

"Answers!"

"To what my breasts look like?"

He glared. "What have you done to the students?"

The cryptic grin was back. "Am I allowed to finish getting dressed?"

"I don't believe you want met to answer that, Hermione."

Her small gasp gave him a great amount of pleasure before she disappeared back into her room. She was glaring at him when she returned.

"I'll tell you what I've done if you answer something for me," she said. He didn't feel too good about whatever question she had. He was not about to answer anything about his attraction to her.

"That would depend on the question," he answered.

"That Witch Weekly article came out almost a week ago," she said. That was certainly not the direction Severus thought the conversation was going. "I haven't received one letter in reply. No cursed envelopes, nothing. Why?"

"Are you complaining?"

"Not at all!" she exclaimed. "However, I would like to know why. Maybe there's a way to prevent it in the future."

Severus smiled. "Flipsy! Tea, please!"

Hermione sighed and joined him on the couch. "I'm guessing that won't happen."

"I believe our location may be the factor," he said. "Posting an owl here will be incredibly expensive and not many people have owls that could make the journey."

Flipsy popped back in with tea. "Does Professor Potions needs anything else?"

"No, Flipsy," Severus answered. "Now, Witch, I want answers."

The grin was back. He was growing fond of it. She got off the couch and went to her desk. She pulled out a large stack of papers and picked the one from the top to bring over to him.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I happen to know that you are very capable of reading, Severus Snape."

"Your Syllabus?"

"Yes," she replied. "My syllabus."

"How has this helped you?"

"Why don't you read it and find out?"

Severus looked down at the parchment in his hands. The top of it described the texts and was followed by the list of readings and assignments that were to be completed, as with any other syllabus. Hermione managed to make hers three times longer than he had ever done in his career, however, and he began to skim until he reached the bottom, where a student's name was signed.

"You had your students sign your syllabus?"

"Severus! You skimmed it!"

He looked up at her. "How did you know?"

"Why don't you pay a little more attention?"

"Hermione!"

"I'm serious. All the answers are right there."

Severus looked back through and on the way to the bottom he was surprised to find a few statements that didn't belong. The first of which happened to be 'students shall not discuss the contents of this contract' which was quickly followed by 'students shall behave respectfully and not speak against Professor Granger during class.'

"Hermione," he said slowly. "You made your syllabus a contract?"

"Contract work is one of the largest fields that those specializing in Charms can go into. This was both a practical lesson in Charm work and a way to make our lives a little easier this year. While there is nothing about behaving disrespectfully outside of the classroom, there are lines about purposefully injuring at anytime."

"How does this help me?" he asked.

"You didn't really think that I would forget you, did you?" She asked. "I believe I put you in after October."

Severus looked further down and found his name and then was embarrassed to find himself snort. "Are you serious?"

"I had to make the punishment fitting," she said.

The consequence of plotting to harm or kill Severus was that said student would turn into a Pygmy Puff until such time as Severus turned them back. He found where the punishment for plotting to harm or kill Hermione was and smirked.

"My dear, anyone who doubts you will certainly have another thing coming. Will this have to be signed every year? Something tells me that your students will catch on."

"No," she said. "The time frame for following all rules is from the time the contract is signed until the person signing is no longer a student. There are consequences to some things and Charms to actually prevent them from doing others."

"How did you even think of this?"

"I had something similar when we created the DA in fifth year. Now I know stronger charms and am better with words. I did explain this all to them after they signed it and taught them never to sign anything without reading it first. The only class I have left is my remedial one tomorrow. All but one of the students has another class with me, so after him, there will be no others. I can't believe that none of them read all the way through my syllabus."

Severus tossed the syllabus onto the table and looked at Hermione. "You realize what you've done?"

"You may not have guaranteed out survival," he said. "But if something happens our pool of suspects has gone down significantly. My brilliant witch. I need to go write Lucius."

Hermione was just as surprised when he kissed the top of her head and then was gone. Her door slammed closed and she fell back into her couch. That had been unexpected.


Severus finished his letter to Lucius and then realized he needed Nessie. It wasn't until he was about to leave that he realized exactly what he'd done. It had been uncharacteristic of him. Even as soft as Hermione was undoubtedly making him.

As he closed his own door and went to hers, he debated what to do. Her reaction would tell him whether his actions had been a good idea. He would simply see where she wanted to take it. Besides that, he would carry on as normal.

With that, he entered her quarters without knocking. She was still on her couch, sipping her tea. When the door opened, she looked up at him and smiled.

"I was just telling Nessie that she should prepare herself for a trip."

"You don't mind me passing this information onto Lucius, do you?"

She shook her head. "It isn't possible for anything to change the contracts now. Unless they want to fire me."

The last part was said with a smirk and he smiled back at her. "As long as you implicate me, as well."

"Why do you think your name is included?" She asked. "I couldn't get fired without you. Although I do expect you to come up with a contingency plan for if that happens."

Severus tied the letter onto Nessie's leg and opened the window for her.

"We should probably head down to dinner," Hermione said. "We wouldn't want to keep people talking about us."

He nodded and motioned towards the door. "After you."

They were both visibly happier at dinner, which probably did nothing for the rumors. Severus looked out among the students and for the first time did not see time bombs. Occasionally they shot glances up at Hermione and then himself and he knew that they were cursing them.

"It seems that you two are settling in very well," Gallagher said. "You've almost made it a whole week."

"I'm confident that we'll finish out the week with no problems from the students," Severus said.

"A little cocky, Professor Snape."

"Why should anything happen to us in the next day, Professor."

Gallagher didn't rise to the challenge and instead turned back to his meal. Severus looked passed him and saw Vik staring at the three of them. The first week of classes was almost over and the Highmaster still had not arrived.


Hermione waited patiently for the seven students in her remedial class to sit down. Three second years, a third year, two sixth years, and one seventh year. Although she knew that she shouldn't, she had prioritized them. The sixth years were most important. They were trying to gain the skills for their NEWTS. Their abilities would be needed for the test that would decide the rest of their lives. Then the third year, second years, and Martin Malm, the seventh year last. From what she understood, Martin had needed one more class and had not qualified for seventh year Charms.

After handing a standard syllabus out to the other students, she pulled Martin aside.

"Mr. Malm," she said. "The other students have signed a syllabus for me in their other classes. However, I'm going to need you to do the same."

"I'm not in your regular classes," he replied.

"No, Mr. Malm, you are not. However, you are in this class and therefore I need to make sure that you understand what is required of you."

"There's no reason for me to sign it," he said.

"If you don't wish to fail this class there is," she said.

"I've already informed my parents that you've managed to make it this long without someone killing you. Don't get comfortable, Mudblood. You aren't welcome here."

"Mr. Malm, your personal feelings about me are irrelevant. You will sign this syllabus or I will fail you. Take as long as you need to read over it."

He didn't even glance at the paper as he signed it. There was a slight look of surprise on his face when he found himself unable to glare anymore.

"Would you like me to give you your lesson for the day, Mr. Malm?"

"Yes, Professor Granger," he said, shock written on his face even as he said it.

"Mr. Malm, contract work is one of the larger areas of Charms. You have just learned the hard way to never sign anything without reading it first. On a positive note, you should be happy that you signed something for me and not a banker or business man trying to make money off of you. Would you like me to show you how to look for hidden charms within a contract? I did not place any on this one. The original has been sent to me and the one now on your desk is a copy."

"Thank you, Professor Granger."


Hermione was genuinely pleased as she made her way back to her quarters. She had a feeling that this would not be the end of her lesson with the syllabus. Students were bound to break the terms and she wasn't sure what the reaction to a sudden increase in the number of students turning into Pygmy Puffs would be.

Nessie was waiting for her when she entered her room, but the letter that she carried wasn't from Lucius Malfoy.

Hermione,

Hope all is well on your end. We just wanted to let you know about a few things going on over here. Mostly so you don't end up with any unpleasant surprises.

On a happy note, it looks like our Ministry will be sending people to you to check up on things. Although nothing is official, it does appear that the position will sadly be filled by Lucius Malfoy. I know that he's close with Snape, though, so perhaps this isn't as bad as we think.

In regard to your ex-fiance, he has not stopped kicking up a fuss. I'm not sure how much backlash you've gotten there, but there's been quite an uproar over here. There is a chance that you and Snape are going to have to appear before the School Board for conduct unbecoming of faculty members. Something that, once again, would be influenced by Lucius Malfoy. Also, the story was so popular, there's talk of a follow-up in a few months. That's according to Dad, anyway.

Ron isn't backing down on this, Hermione. While we aren't sure what he's hoping to accomplish, we do know that he's well on his way to turning the public against you. Now, we aren't saying that you have to, but in our opinion it might be beneficial to make some kind of statement of your own. With the support of Ron's twin brothers, I would say that whatever you came up with would be well received.

Please, let us know that you're fine.

All our love,

George & Fred

She had just finished reading it a second time when there was a knock on the door. Before she could answer, Severus walked in.

"How was your last class?" He asked.

"I was called a Mudblood," she said and held out the letter to him. "Fred and George just sent me this. Could you tell me what you think?"

While Severus was reading, Hermione went to her desk and pulled out all of the original copies of her syllabi. She duplicated them again and then conjured a box for the originals and then put a weight diminishing spell on it. There was no guarantee that someone wouldn't break in and destroy the original contracts. She would include instructions for Fred & George in the letter that she wrote to them.

"What kind of statement do they think that you'll make?" He asked after he had finished.

"The only thing that I can think is that he wanted to prevent me from being anything more than mother to his children."

"There are many witches who are perfectly content being mothers."

"I know!" she exclaimed. "And I don't judge them for it. Which is why I would have to be incredibly careful about how I worded such a statement."

Severus didn't comment. Unless she included him in her statement, it was really none of his concern. "They don't seem fond of Lucius."

"No," Hermione said. "They aren't."

"I think it's time to break out the wine," Severus said. "Celebrate surviving our first week of classes."

"Do they play Quidditch here?" Hermione asked.

"I've no idea," he said. "I would have assumed so. Although I'm not sure how they would figure out teams."

There was a hurried knock on Hermione's door and Severus shook his head at her. "Let me get it."

"Professor Snape! Good. You weren't in your quarters and I thought that I might find you here. I'm afraid I'm in need of a potion."

"Galen," he said. "Which potion?"

Severus had opened the door to let the Healer in.

"Professor Granger," he nodded. "It's rather embarrassing, but I forgot to include contraceptive on the list that I supplied you with earlier in the summer. I'm having sexual education seminars next week and I'm afraid I'm going to need them."

"There's a sex ed seminar here?" Hermione asked. She had often thought that Hogwarts should do something similar.

"Yes," Galen said. "As I'm sure you're aware, a lot of the families here are very traditional. In most cases, students, especially witches, are very unfamiliar with what they should know. Until we started having sexual education seminars, we had a significant amount of pregnancy among the student body."

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I will get them done this weekend," Severus said.

"We were just discussing whether Durmstrang had Quidditch or not," Hermione said. "Would you care for some wine?"

Galen looked between the two. "It isn't long until supper."

"All the more reason to finish the bottle quickly," Hermione said with a grin.

The Healer nodded. "No wonder you two always look so calm at mealtimes. We don't have Quidditch. There simply aren't enough students to play school wide. Some of the students do play amongst themselves, but most of the time that school is in session, it's very dark outside. It simply doesn't fit this climate."

"Is there something that they do instead?"

"We have very strong Dueling Clubs. I believe that they are one of the reasons that Durmstrang has such a reputation. Unlike many Dueling Clubs, our students fight not only with their wands, but with specially designed staffs."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, we saw those during the Triwizard Tournament."

"It's dangerous, but they learn quickly. The first couple of weeks that they practice, I work more than I do the rest of the year combined. Professors are only allowed to observe."

Severus was glad that neither of them would be called upon in this case and handed Galen a glass of wine. .

"Hogwarts has a Dueling Club, correct?"

"Nothing concrete," Hermione told him. "It really depends upon the students and who happens to be on staff in a given year."

Severus mostly observed as Hermione and Galen talked. Hermione didn't seem to be flirting with the other man, but Severus was going to have to be careful. Robert Galen was younger than Severus by a few years and was not hideous. While it didn't appear that he had as dark of a past as some of the other faculty, he did not come to Durmstrang because he was a saint.


-Thank you all so much for reading and the wonderful reviews! It's incredibly encouraging and I really appreciate it after being away from Fanfiction for so long. Next chapter will be posted this weekend!