I'm back with chapter 21, and I hope you'll like it because this was really hard to write in such a short time and if I'm not mistaken this is the longest chapter so far, full of Severus/Hermione interaction. :)

On the second note, I won't speculate about the next update, mainly because I don't know when I'll have the time to write (although I'll try my hardest to make it a week at the max.) and because I get fewer reviews if I tell you when I'll post the next chapter. (I checked, this is actually true, I don't really understand why...)

Have fun while reading!

Severus spent the majority of Saturday afternoon with setting up his lab for the work with Hermione the next day. He was excited to make some progress in their project, knowing that the time they could spend with it was limited at best. Not that he held it against the petite auror, because she was obviously overworked and barely had time for even taking a breath, and he was thankful for the effort she made to somehow fit him and his potion into her schedule.

Waiting for her on Sunday morning was pure torture in his opinion. He already checked his supplies four times – finding every ingredient in perfect order – and finished his breakfast by 7 AM. It crossed his mind that maybe he was a bit more anxious than he should have been, after all, this was not the first time they were working together, but he couldn't successfully calm his frayed nerves. In the end he opted for strengthening his occlumency shields to keep his restlessness hidden from Lucius and trying to get to the bottom of his unusual behaviour.

It was after a good hour of deep thinking that he came to a realization, one that surprised him, even when he knew the possibility was there, from the very beginning of their partnership. Making friends was not something that he was good at, and frankly, he preferred it that way, but now that the curly haired woman somehow wormed her way through his defenses he was hard pressed to ignore the fact that he was happy about the development. After he gave up on fighting the inevitable, and decided to give a chance to her he was still reluctant to let her closer than necessary – or closer than she would get by herself – but now he was eager to be in her company and share his opinion with her about any subject that came up in their debates. Her enthusiasm and seemingly inexhaustible energy when it came to learning new things and gaining knowledge about subjects which interested her made him feel appreciated in some way every time he lectured her about the various stages of brewing the last time they worked on it and although he would never go back to being a professor if he could avoid it, he had to admit that it felt quite good to teach someone who was actually interested in what he had to say. And in turn she had a brilliant mind that almost instantly grasped the concepts he was explaining to her and she always had an opinion or a different view which she was ready to share.

The Potions Master knew without a doubt that he'd most likely see sides of her in the future which would make him question his sanity at the time he offered her his friendship – like the side she warned him about when she hugged him. That, in itself caught him so off guard that it took nearly twenty minutes for him to recover. He just stood in the middle of the drawing room, torn between the two urges he felt – one that told him to snap at her for her insolence and one that told him to hug her back –, both of which were pointless, seeing that she left the manor long minutes ago and trying to remember the last time someone acted so boldly around him. Now, looking back at the incident, he knew that he would have to avoid the witch's similar actions as much as he could in the future because he still wasn't sure how he would react to them if they didn't stun him into inaction and the last thing he wanted was to offend her with being cold or harsh when she was just trying to be friendly. On the other hand, after many hours of tossing and turning in his bed that night he admitted to himself that the human contact he went so many years without felt really nice even if it was just for a few moments. Not wanting to give himself a headache before they started their brewing he left that train of thought to maybe revisit at a later time, turning his attention towards the fireplace which just erupted in green flames.

Draco stepped into the room in a less than stellar state, his clothes rumpled and his hair a mess and Severus raised an eyebrow at his godson's appearance, knowing that normally he wouldn't be caught dead looking like this. The young blonde seemed to understand the older wizard's curious expression and rolled his eyes.

"We managed to fall asleep on the couch in the middle of a movie. Hermione woke up ten minutes ago, went into panic mode in about a minute because she "slept in" and now she is late. I don't remember you two agreeing on a specific time to start your work today, but obviously she decided that 8 o'clock is late. And then she promptly kicked me out and told me to give you the message that she'll be here soon. I didn't even get a coffee." the Potions Master just chuckled at the disgruntled aristocrat as he made his way over to the couch and fell back on it with his right arm and leg hanging down from the seats. "Now is a good time to tell you this, on one hand because she dared me to and on the other hand because now it's even more evident than it was yesterday: you two are more similar than you'd think. I swear that both of you are mental when it comes to science, responsibility and punctuality. And when it's about punctuality to get to a gathering about science you feel compelled to go to because of your overgrown sense of responsibility I just don't want to deal with you. Either of you. I need at least two cups of coffee before I can put up with that."

His observation – even if it was voiced in a pouty whine – made Severus' eye widen for a moment before he regained control of his facial muscles. He didn't actually think about it that way, Hermione and him being similar in anything other than their constant striving for improvement in the intellectual sense, but now that it was brought to his attention it was hard to miss that, indeed, they were very much alike in other aspects as well. But that was something which he would have to think about in depth before drawing any conclusions.

"An interesting theory. But if you really can't put up with one of us before your first coffee I suggest you move your little pity party to another part of the manor because as you pointed out Hermione will arrive in a matter of minutes and then you'll have the two of us together to deal with." he couldn't help but smirk at the – highly exaggerated – terrified expression on Draco's face as the boy sat up in an instant and vacated the room with a hastily mumbled "See you both at lunch or dinner.".

Severus – in a good mood from the theatrical display of his godson – was left to wait in silence for about ten more minutes before the flames in the heart turned green once again, signaling the arrival of Hermione. She looked a little out of breath as she cleaned her clothes with a lazy flick of her wrist and scanned the room, a smile brightening her face as she caught sight of him.

"Good morning. I'm sorry about being this late, I don't usually sleep that long. I hope that Drake passed on my message." she was rambling and the Potions Master gave her a smirk.

"He did. And he mentioned something about a dare and that we're more similar than we'd think. It was quite amusing to see him like that. He was acting like a petulant child if you ask me. In my opinion it's better that we're only "mental when it comes to science, punctuality and responsibility" than if we were just "mental, period" like him." his light-hearted, but at the same time waspish remark about the Malfoy heir seemed to ease the brunette's obvious nervousness, which settled around her the moment he mentioned the dare Draco told him about. She giggled and nodded in agreement, her eyes shining with mirth.

"I'll tell him that the next time he complains about my habit of getting lost in my studies. He just can't believe that someone can enjoy a good book or a stimulating scientific debate more than a game of quiddich. And you have to admit that he's one smart cookie if he wants to be, he just prefers to hide behind the image of the narrow minded prat others think him to be." she gestured towards the exit with a questioning look as the dark-clad man gave a nod, agreeing with her assumptions about the young blonde. "Shall we?"

Opening the door for her he let the petite woman out into the hallway and then the two proceeded towards the lab. Having Hermione there, in his lab – where normally he couldn't even tolerate Lucius' presence, even if the Lord of the Manor had every right to venture inside from time to time if he decided to – felt normal and not disturbing in the least. Severus just chalked it up to the unquestionable competence of the witch when it came to handling the equipment and ingredients, and consequently his trust in her ability to leave the place intact and clean when she finished what she was working on.

That made his job that much easier when the two of them started with preparing the various components of the concoction in different areas of the lab. The silence between them was broken shortly after the auror began the process of extracting the silverweed needed in the potion from the substance it was conserved in and creating a smooth paste from it by mixing it with Bouncing Spider juice. She started the conversation with an offhanded comment about the not quite perfect consistency of the Spider juice, which led them to a long exchange about the deteriorating quality of potions ingredients sold by apothecaries in wizarding Britain, which – according to Severus – was caused by the loosening standards of education required to work in that field and in Hermione's opinion was thanks to the nearly non-existent control the ministry had over the imported goods that were sold to the unsuspecting costumers.

By the time one of the house-elves popped into the lab to deliver a big plate of sandwiches to the coworkers they were in a heated argument over the necessary and permissible actions that would be needed in order to finally get their society back to its feet after long years of feeble attempts. This proved to be a bad idea – the quarrel, that is – because their concentration wavered for a moment, which resulted in Severus' hand getting stuck in an exceptionally vicious Snargaluff. To the brooding wizard's dismay the brunette standing next to him and trying to keep the squirming and flailing vines of the plant at bay stared at his trapped limb for a moment, then started laughing like a madwoman. Scowling he used his other hand to dodge the vines that whipped through the air and came close to hitting him in the face.

"What, pray tell, is so hilarious about this?" from his point of view it was a beginner's mistake, one he was ashamed to have made.

"This happened to me the first time I handled this monstrosity. Hold on to the pod, I'll get it off you in a minute." the mirth didn't leave her completely, but her earlier ire brought on by their bickering was gone and her eyes sparkled merrily as she worked on freeing him.

She took an interesting course of action, one that the Potions Master has never seen while working with the plant. She stuck her arms out and into the tangled mess the constantly moving vines made and let them curl around her forearms. When she had most of them tightly around her hands she turned her wrists, caught the aggressive tendrils and yanked them towards herself, most likely to loosen them before she spread her arms out to the sides, successfully forcing the hole that closed around Severus' hand open. The man was fast to retract his arm with the pod safely in his grasp and finally the violent stump stayed still.

"Now, I really hope you have some tweezers around here." the witch's forearms and hands were dotted with tiny thorns imbedded in them even though she wore gloves.

"Foolish woman. What were you thinking?" a disapproving frown appeared on the Potions Master's face as he deposited the encasement of seeds cradled in his hands in a bowl.

"That maybe you would like to get your limb back. But next time I'll remember to leave you alone and wait for your results when you get stuck up to your elbow in an aggressive plant if you don't like my methods." she sounded more amused than hurt as she snapped back at him and the ex-spy couldn't help but smirk as he imagined the situation where she just stood by, enjoying the show as he fought his battle with the snappy stub.

"What I meant to say is that you shouldn't have turned yourself into a pincushion in the process of getting me free." she sent him a mock glare and attempted to pull a prickle out of her left thumb with little success. "Come, I have a pair of tweezers somewhere."

He directed her to a stool and ordered her to sit. Getting the tweezers he extracted the small spikes from her skin one by one, noting her admirable pain tolerance as she sat there without a word or grimace during the whole procedure.

"Here you go. I suggest we take a short break, it seems that the house-elves decided to supply us with some sandwiches." the witch just nodded and turned in her seat towards the counter on which the plate of food was put by the little creature that visited them recently. Taking a good look at her he saw that the brunette was more bothered by the small wounds than she let on as her jaw clenched and unclenched from time to time and he smirked at her stubborn attempt to hide her discomfort, probably thinking that he would think less of her if she showed even an ounce of weakness. Being familiar with the workings of a proud Gryffindor's mind Severus just shook his head and retrieved a small jar of healing balm from one of his cupboards, setting it down next to her on the counter before he took a sandwich for himself and leaned back against the wall to eat.

"Thanks." her voice was quiet, but filled with unmistakable gratitude as she finished her small lunch and opened the container to spread the salve over her injured arms.

The wizard left the sentence unanswered, with a hint of a smile and as soon as he was finished with his food went back to his work, opening the pod they acquired with more difficulty than they should have and depositing the seeds of the Snargaluff in the potion that was bubbling in a cauldron on the other side of the lab.

"You know, if you had been like this while you were teaching you could have been the favourite professor of many students." her observation surprised him greatly and it was only thanks to his many years of practice that he didn't miss the next stir.

"You know that's not true. And if you failed to notice, I wasn't exactly in the position to be like this back then. Of course, you could say that I didn't even try and you would be right, but why should have I bothered to be "nice" to those imbeciles whose presence I could barely tolerate? If I started to coddle them they would have been even more awful at what they'd been doing because they'd have thought that their mistakes would be forgiven and forgotten in a blink of an eye." his words were dripping with sarcasm and the petite woman – now busily chopping pieces of Vervain into small snippets – let out a small laugh.

"Yes, I guess you can look at it that way. But those who were terrified to make mistakes and because of that fear even more prone to make them would have been much better at what they were doing if you lessened the pressure." the Slytherin knew that she was talking about Longbottom, for example, but he just shrugged.

"And the other half would have gone lazy without it. I preferred it that way." he finished the stirring and crossed the room, stopping at the table across from her own to remove the Flitterbys from the Syrup of Hellebore they were immersed in for the last two hours. Gazing at her from the cover of his hair that had fallen into his face he became enthralled for a minute by her graceful movements as she continued to slice the Vervain with ease. When he became aware that he was in fact staring at her for long moments he pinched the bridge of his nose and turned his attention back to his own task. The fumes from the potion were messing with his concentration, no doubt.

"There, you said it. You could have been the most well-liked professor, you just preferred to be a mean, critical snake." it was her turn to smirk and Severus huffed, although he didn't have anything to say to his defense. "In that case, I feel honoured that you are this amicable now, even if I screw something up, like the simple task of pacifying a stupid weed while you seize it's pod."

"If I remember correctly it was my fault as much as yours even if it pains me to admit it. After all, it was me who started the argument that led to our lapse in concentration and I was the one who stuck a hand into that damn stump before it was neutralized, too." he winced when he heard her giggle and immediately regretted taking the responsibility.

"Now this is a first. Severus Snape admitting that he was wrong about something." her cheerful tone angered the brooding man for a reason he couldn't immediately identify. He took a deep breath and clamped down on the urge to snap at her and order her out of his lab. Instead he went silent, his cold mask shifting into place as he fortified the occlumency shields to keep his temper in check.

The Gryffindor's light-hearted comment hit him where it hurt the most, and even if he knew that she didn't try to offend him intentionally he became angrier than he felt in the last few years. And what was worse, she immediately caught on and put her knife down before waving her wand over the cauldron, putting it under a stasis charm and lowering the flames.

Hermione walked up to him and took the small strainer from his hand, swiftly removing the last two moths from the substance they were submerged in and setting the equipment aside. Then she leaned her hip against the table and faced him with a serious expression, her arms crossed before her chest.

"That was a bad choice of words, I'm sorry. But you know what I meant, don't you?" she was obviously annoyed at herself, but as the ex-spy turned to face her he saw that for some reason she seemed displeased with him, too.

"Do I?" from her heated look he quickly guessed that he just succeeded in making her furious. On second thought, maybe he would have been better off dealing with her while she was just sullen. Well, no use crying over spilled milk, he'll just have to withstand her rage.

"Of course you know. At least, you should." her cheeks reddened in a rapid pace and her breathing quickened, letting the wizard know that his little question did the trick and the petite woman was now royally pissed off. "I meant that you are proud and you'd have never admitted that you made an error in the lab while we were just acquaintances. I know damn well that you took responsibility for what you did before and during the war and I'd never bring up that subject, much less joke about it."

"I'd understand if you did. You never had the chance to express your anger towards me, first because I was your professor and after that because you were bound by that damn oath to "give the repenting Slytherins a chance and make them feel welcome on the good side". And you did your work admirably, and genuinely gave all you had to the task, going as far as alienating yourself from your childhood friends. And of course you gained a "family" - as you call them - in the process, but you never had the chance to voice your resentment of me in the form that Potter and the others did when they were no longer my students and could freely shout at me for the things I did." he knew that his nervousness in the morning was not unfounded, that something would happen that day, he just didn't count on it being the end of his short friendship with the curly haired auror he came to respect and – he barely even dared to think it, but – even trust in a way. His expression turned sour and he steeled himself for the inevitable. He gave her the green light, now she had the perfect opportunity she missed out on years ago to judge him – rightfully so – and although he was aware that he deserved every accusation and all the hatred directed at him he knew that he wouldn't be able to maintain his friendship with her if she said what she thought into his face.

"Are you serious?" her face was quite peculiar, a mix between raving mad and shocked, but even that sight couldn't hold the dark wizard's interest as he nodded, waiting for her to drop the hammer on him.

The next moment he was left with a smarting forehead and widened eyes as she hit him – not too hard, but still enough to hurt – with her knuckles and then took a half step back to look up at him with her fists on her hips and a glare so stern that Minerva would have been very proud of her protégée if she had seen it.

"Now listen to me and listen to me well! I didn't voice my resentment towards you because I didn't feel any. I know everything that you did, and I mean everything, because I was the one chosen for the task of keeping you safe from the Order if they decided to hand you over to the Ministry after the war. I was told more than you know and I never had any doubt that what I was entrusted with would devastate you if it somehow leaked out to the press. I could have shown my displeasure with your actions more efficiently than anyone else and I didn't do it because I didn't think you deserved that. In my opinion you are one of the bravest men who fought in that thrice-damned war. It is not my place to judge you for sins you committed at a time when I couldn't even talk or form an opinion. And if you ask me, you more than atoned for them." her passionate speech left her breathless and she quieted down for a few moments. The ex-spy just stood there, watching her as he struggled to make sense of what he just heard. The brunette started speaking again in such a hurry that the Potions Master nearly didn't catch her first words and he suspected that it was her intention to tell him what she wanted without him actually hearing it. "I was ashamed. Ashamed to be a Gryffindor and ashamed to be their friend when the Order members turned against you, dismissed you after the war without acknowledging the things you had done for them. For the longest time I was angry at myself for not being loud enough when I attempted to clear your name after Voldemort's demise. It didn't help that you sent me on my way when I offered my help to you directly, but I could have done more nonetheless. So it should be me – not to mention the wizarding society of Britain – that asks for your forgiveness and not the other way round. And you are the one who has the right to be angry. So forget the self-pity and get mad at me if you want to but don't expect me to voice hatred that I never felt."

The Potions Master just stared at the little warrior of a woman before him for long minutes and she looked him in the eye bravely, ready to take the verbal punishment for sins she never committed, to be the one to endure the anger of the unappreciated spy and forgotten comrade. Severus felt his already great deal of respect towards the witch grow and he shook his head.

And in the next moment he did something he couldn't remember doing since his friendship with Lily ended more than twenty-five years ago. He extended his hand towards Hermione and she took it with an inquisitive look before she was drawn into the first embrace that the wizard initiated in his whole adult life.

In the face of her confessions and kind words that left him speechless the usually eloquent man had no idea how to show her just how much what she said meant to him. So while he knew – hell, even felt it in his bones – that he'd regret it someday he did the only thing that could translate his thoughts into her language. And from the pats on the back he received he knew that she understood that he didn't do this for the same reason she hugged him days ago, but to convey a message. When he let go of her she stepped back, a brilliant smile on her still rosy face, then she did something that he appreciated even more than her understanding of his actions: she turned around, strode back to her own table and picked up her knife as if nothing strange had occured, sparing him the embarrassment that he'd have undoubtedly felt if he was forced to talk about what happened. After the third piece of Vervain she lifted her gaze to send him a smirk, gesturing towards the cauldron.

"You should add those Flitterbys before they dry." and with that comment she seemingly got over the whole incident, making Severus smile, a full –although compared to others still reserved-looking – smile. The man took a deep breath and redirected his attention to the potion, letting the familiarity of the brewing process calm him as he made a very important note to himself: there was a whole other side to Hermione Granger and however afraid he was to discover it in the morning, now he was just curious about what else he missed when he made his – obviously inadequate – assessment of her.

PS.: Nope, they still don't see each other in a romantic light, but they are making serious progress. :) They have many issues to sort out.

I'd like to hear your opinions if you're interested in sharing it.