A/N:

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Chapter 21

Back to Reality

Hermione woke up the next morning feeling quite refreshed. Seeing no clock in sight she cast the tempus charm to see that it was just after ten in the morning. She quickly jumped out of bed; it was rare that Hermione ever slept past nine. The fact that she was in Severus' bed made her feel even worse. What if he needed to get something but was afraid of disturbing her? As soon as her feet hit the ground, however she yelped quietly. It was a lot colder in the dungeons. Seeing a pair of Severus' slippers by the bedside, she quickly slipped them on and made her way across the room. Dressed in the clothes that she had been wearing the day before, Hermione made her way into the kitchen for a cup of tea. What met her eyes when she walked in made her gasp. Severus was still in his pyjamas sitting at the table drinking his coffee and reading the morning paper. None of these things were that out of the ordinary however. What was unusual was the mouth-watering spread covering the table.

"What is all this?" Hermione said in amazement.

"Good morning to you too." He said in a gravely voice. Obviously, he hadn't been up that long either.

"I'm sorry. Good morning Severus. Did you sleep well?"

"As well as I ever do. Did you? I hope my bed was comfortable." He said with smirk on his face.

"Oh it was lovely!" She gushed. "So? Are you ever going to tell me where all this food came from?" She said taking a bite out of an impossibly red strawberry.

"Not many people are up to breakfast in the Great Hall after New Years celebrations, all the professors get their breakfast served to them like this on the first day of the New Year."

"Well I think that's quite a lot of extra work and a lot of food wasted just because people don't want to make the effort!" She said indignantly.

"Hermione please, not this early in the morning." He said taking a sip of his coffee.

Hermione giggled at the look on his face. He was quite adorable in the mornings.

They sat together in silence for another half hour of so sharing the morning paper. It seemed, to Hermione at least, that they both didn't want to let this moment go. They both knew that this time tomorrow the castle would be full of students, and they would be back to reality on Monday.

"Severus?"

"Yes?" He said looking up from his paper.

"Why don't we have a quiet day today."

"It's as if we share a mind." He said with a small smile.

Hermione beamed in response.

"I thought I told you not to touch anything in my room." He said suddenly.

"What are you talking about?"

He gave her a pointed look towards her feet.

Hermione blushed; she had totally forgotten that she was wearing his slippers.

"I'm sorry Severus! I didn't go snooping if that's what you're worried about. The floor was just so cold and they were right there I couldn't resist."

"Obviously." He said pretending to be angry. It would have convinced her if she had not seen the smile he was trying to hide.

…

"Would you mind if I stayed here again? Tonight I mean." Hermione said after twenty minutes of deliberating whether to ask him. It was now just after dinner, and they had only just gotten back from the Great Hall.

"I thought I said I didn't want you making this a regular thing." He said raising an eyebrow at her.

"I know, but I won't be. This is the last night that I will be able to without anyone realizing that I'm missing. I'll go to bed early this evening, wake up early and have breakfast in the Great Hall just in case any of my friends arrive early."

"You haven't been back to your dorms since yesterday afternoon, I'm sure someone has noticed already. We are both getting sloppy."

"I'm the only Gryffindor, there is nobody to notice." Hermione said in a somewhat desperate tone.

"What about Minerva? I'm sure she has been wondering where you have been this entire vacation."

"She knows that I'm with you. I may have told her that we were friends."

"When?" Severus said now giving her his full attention.

"Yesterday when we had tea. I'm sorry she asked me how my Christmas went and I didn't want to lie to her." At seeing his expression worsen she quickly added, "Don't worry I didn't tell her that we exchanged gifts, I just told her we read all day and that I baked some cookies."

"That's all you told her?"

"Yes I swear!"

"Calm down woman! I'm not going to hurt you. There is no reason to swear, I believe you. I just don't like other people knowing my business. You do realize that anything you tell Minerva, Albus Dumbledore will eventually hear it too. Don't you?"

"I hadn't really thought about it to be honest."

"Well next time you might want to. That man can be impossible to live with, if he has any sort of dirt on you."

"So now our friendship is dirt?"

"Of course not. I just don't like people knowing my business, and I consider our friendship my private business. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the way I am with you is different from the way I am with everyone else." He said a bit angry.

"No really? I hadn't noticed." She said sarcastically.

At that, Severus cracked a smile. "I just hate it when that man gives me that knowing look. He can be quite infuriating at times."

"Yes, I'm familiar with the type. So can I stay over or what?"

"As long as you leave early so there is no chance of getting caught."

"Thank you Severus!"

"Hermione if you don't mind me asking why do you want to stay another night?"

"I had such a good night sleep and then I woke up today and we had that lovely breakfast together, I guess I just don't want the day to end." She said with a lopsided grin.

"It has been a nice day hasn't it?"

That night they both went to bed early in order to make sure that they woke up early before the rest of the occupants of the castle. After saying goodnight to Hermione Severus was lying on the couch thinking about the woman in the next room lying in his bed. How on earth had his life turned into this? It was then that his thoughts were interrupted by a burst of green flames. "Severus? What on earth are you doing sleeping on the couch?"

"It's a long story Headmaster I'd rather not bore you with it." Severus said getting up and walking over to the floo. "Is there a particular reason that you are here in the middle of the night?"

"I just wanted to let you know that I was back. I hadn't planned on cutting it this close!"

"I presume that the trip was fruitful?"

"It went as well as can be hoped."

"I heard that you sent an auror to St. Mungo's Minerva had a right mess to clean up after that."

"Yes Minerva has already scolded me about openly attacking members of the Ministry." He chuckled lightly. "But never mind about that. The real question is why is Miss Granger asleep in your bed?" And there it was -the knowing look that he had been dreading, along with a teasing jibe into his private life.

"It was late. She was tired. What was I supposed to do." He growled out.

"Of course m'boy I understand completely."

"Stop doing that!" Severus snapped back.

"Stop doing what?" He said innocently.

"Stop giving me that look!"

"And what look would that be?"

"You know what look I'm talking about! Do not play dumb! I will see you tomorrow Albus I hope by then you have regained your senses."

And with that, he shut the connection to his floo and went to bed.

That was certainly a horrible way to end what had been the best day he had had in a very, very long time.

….

"Good Morning Minerva!" Hermione said brightly sitting down next to her Head of House the next morning.

"Good morning Hermione. You seem in a good mood."

"I had a wonderful sleep last night! I'm also excited to see Harry and Ginny; it will be nice to catch up. Oh speaking of Harry I was wondering if you could not mention the fact that I stayed here over the holidays. I don't want him to feel guilty that I was here alone."

"Of course my dear I wont say a word. So how was the rest of your New Years?"

"Pretty uneventful we just worked in the lab and then I went back to my dormitory." And then I went back and haven't really left since. She thought secretly.

On the other side of the table, Severus and Dumbledore were having a similar conversation. "Really Severus I'm so glad that you have a friend. It's about time you had one!" Throughout this whole monologue, Severus had been staring at his plate adamantly ignoring the Headmaster.

"Is that why you agreed to let me off the hook for Christmas brunch? Because you were trying to make sure that we would be friends? I don't understand how after all these years of me begging you to skip those dreadful events and you saying no, she asks you once and you say yes." He said in a hushed tone.

"How could I refuse that face? I'm sure you know what I'm talking about." He said chuckling, while Severus just growled in response.

When Hermione heard Severus growl she looked over at him to see what the problem was. She laughed when she realized that he had been right about that look that Dumbledore was famous for. Poor Severus. She thought to herself.

"Oh by the way dear I forgot to mention there is a new password for Gryffindor Tower. The password is abstinence." Minerva said before taking a bite of her toast.

"That seems highly appropriate."

"I see that you had some trouble with the Fat Lady." Minerva said smirking.

"You could say that. Well I better get going I wanted to go visit Hagrid before Harry and Ginny return, bye Minerva!" She said practically running out of the Great Hall. That had been close. If she had stayed a moment longer she was sure that Minerva would have asked about what exactly happened with the Fat Lady.

"Miss Granger! Before you leave do come here for a moment." She heard Dumbledore call to her. What on earth did he want to talk about? Surely he didn't know that she had been sleeping in Severus' rooms did he? Praying that that wasn't the case, she walked over to stand in front of the smiling Headmaster. She noticed that Severus was going out of his way not to look up at her.

"Yes Professor?"

"I was wondering if you could give this to Mr. Potter when you next see him. It is quite important that he gets this."

"Of course Headmaster! I'll be sure to give it to him as soon as I see him." She said taking the scroll from him.

"Thank you ever so much Miss Granger. Please do say hello to Hagrid for me."

"I will! Good bye Headmaster, Professor Snape." She said as she turned around to go.

…..

"Harry! Ginny!" She said hugging them both fiercely, while ignoring the obviously uncomfortable figure of Ron standing next to Harry.

"Hey Hermione!" They both said together.

"I've got something for you Harry. Ohh hang on….. Abstinence!"

"Precisely."

"What's up with her?" asked Harry as he stepped into the common room.

"Over indulged over Christmas apparently." She said rolling her eyes as she led the way into the packed common room. "She and her friend Violet drank their way through all the wine in that picture of drunk monks down by the Charms corridor. Anyway," She rummaged in her pocket for a moment, and then pulled out a scroll of parchment with Dumbledore's writing on it.

"Great!" Said Harry, unrolling it at once to discover that his next lesson with Dumbledore was scheduled for the following night. "I've got loads to tell him, and you. Lets sit down." But at that moment Hermione and Harry were startled to hear a shriek and then a girlish voice say "WON WON!" Hermione looked over to see Lavender throwing herself into Ron's arms. She laughed at seeing how silly they looked and also at how embarrassed Ron looked at the display.

"Look there's a table over there. Coming Ginny?"

"No thanks, I said I'd meet Dean." She said glumly, Hermione did feel sorry for her it was obvious that her heart belonged to someone else.

"So how was your Christmas?" He said sitting down.

"Oh fine." She shrugged. The last thing she wanted to discuss was what she had done over the holidays. "Nothing special. How was it at Won Won's?" She said sarcastically.

"I'll tell you in a minute. Look can't you-"

"No I can't." She said cutting him off. She knew what he was going to say and she didn't have any sympathy for Ron he had treated her horribly and on top of it all hadn't apologized to her. "So don't even ask."

"I thought that maybe, you know, over Christmas….."

"It was the Fat Lady who drank a vat of five hundred year old wine Harry, not me. So what was this important news that you wanted to tell me?" She said giving a look that told Harry that the subject was closed.

"Well it's about Snape actually. And Malfoy, I overheard one of their conversations during Slughorn's Christmas party." Harry went on to tell Hermione everything that he had heard that night. When he came to the part of the story where Severus had admitted to making an unbreakable vow. Hermione's eyebrows shot up involuntarily at hearing the shocking news. He made an unbreakable vow! Does he not care about his life at all? When did this happen? Luckily, Harry was too busy telling the story to notice her reaction to this piece of news. By the time he looked at her, she had schooled her face in to one of somebody in deep thought. She was definitely going to have to have a word with him. She was barely able to hold her anger back. After another half hour Hermione made an excuse about having to check something in the library and quickly started to make her way to Snape's quarters.