***I do not own these characters just borrowing for a little while.***
Hermione arrived at work the next morning feeling elated. Severus had been up and about and they had discussed what he was going to have her start on that morning, sending her with a list of ingredients to gather from the apothecary that evening.
Julie caught on to her mood the second she saw her, "Hey, so it looks like you had a good night."
"A good morning actually. Severus and I had a long talk at lunch yesterday and we are going to start working on a potion this weekend."
Julie smiled, "I'm sure you are."
Hermione turned to look at her, "What on earth are you talking about?"
"Oh you know what I'm talking about. You two going to brew a little love potion this weekend?"
"No way, that would be way too complicated at this point. He wants me to start with a boil remover."
Julie's expression changed to a look of repulsion. "Oh, you're talking about actually potions aren't you?"
"Of course I am. What else would I be talking about?"
Julie just gave her a knowing look.
"Oh god Julie, not you two!"
"What do you mean 'oh god' Hermione? Have you not seen the lovely piece of man you have chasing you around town? You can't honestly tell me you haven't even thought of Severus Snape as more than a roommate?"
"No, of course not. I have known him a long time; he was my professor for crying out loud."
Julie just grinned, "Even better, I can think of a few Profs that us girls in school would have loved to have fulfilled some fantasies with if given the chance."
"Oh for crying out loud Julie, be serious."
"I am Hermione and if you don't decide to start being serious yourself soon I just might make a move on that. Just think about it, that tall lean frame, that deep, smooth voice and those dark eyes. I would love to have the chance to just stare into those things."
Hermione threw a book at her coworker snapping her out of her revelry. "Is this what you said we had to 'get into' yesterday?"
Julie shrugged, "I'm just saying, you really need to start paying attention."
Hermione shook her head, "Can we get to work please?" with that she headed over to her desk and grabbed a work order to start researching.
About twenty minutes later Hermione noticed she had read the same paragraph twice. Her mind kept wandering back to the day before, standing in front of the wall when he lifted her chin up and held her gaze. Thinking back on it now she kept picturing how dark his eyes were, the irises were barely distinguishable from the pupils. And of his voice and how deep and passionate it got when talking about potions. She couldn't help but wonder if he ever sounded like that when he spoke of anything else.
She didn't hear Julie walk up behind her, "You're thinking about it now aren't you?" She said quickly, leaning over her shoulder.
Hermione jumped and felt a blush spread across her cheeks. "What uh no I'm er…"
Julie just smiled, feeling her point had been proven and walked away to start work on a clock that kept changing what time zone it was in.
Now that the seed was planted Hermione couldn't stop thinking about what Julie had said. Oh just stop it Hermione, she kept telling herself, this is ridiculous. He is your friend, he was your teacher, he is going to be your teacher again, and he would never be interested anyway. Just be happy he is helping you and is willing to be your friend.
Finally the work day ended and Hermione rushed out of the shop, anxious to be away from her boss who kept smirking at her all day. She picked up the potions ingredients and quickly dropped them off at home before grabbing an overnight bag and heading to her parents. She needed to get her head on straight before the weekend and spending an evening with Severus wasn't going to help. She put everything on the kitchen counter and left a note letting him know she would be at her parents and would be back on Friday after work.
On Friday Hermione arrived home feeling much better than when she had left. Her head was clear and she was ready to spend the weekend learning. She came in to find Severus in the garage setting out the potions things she would need for the first potion. She was curious as to what he would do to teach her how to read the potions like he was able to.
"Hello, Severus." She greeted him.
He didn't look up at her greeting, "Are you wanting to start now or do you need to eat first. You will need to be fully focused if you are going to create this potion."
Ready to get down to business Hermione pulled a hairband off her wrist and twisted her hair up into a messy bun and moved to stand beside him.
"I had a late lunch. Where do we begin?"
"You are going to create a boil removal potion. It was something you learned in your first year so it isn't a terribly difficult potion. However, you will have no book to follow. If you want it to end correctly you will need to read the potion to find what to do and when. You did the readings I gave you on the different ingredients used in the potion?"
"Yes." She said.
"Then begin. And Hermione," She looked up from where she was starting to sort ingredients, "don't be afraid to fail."
She nodded and started. An hour later she was standing over a finished product with a smile on her face.
He walked over and inspected her work. With a flick of his wrist he vanished her potion. "Hey," she shouted at him, "That was perfect, why did you get rid of it?"
He shook his head at her. "Yes it was perfect, it was textbook." He put emphasis on the last word to catch her attention.
"Oh" was all she said.
"Did you memorize the recipe?"
"I can't help it."
"Do you have a photographic memory?"
She shook her head.
"Then you can help it. Don't do a single thing it says in that recipe unless you know it is the best thing for the potion. If I were to use the potion you just finished on a boil it would clear in 10 minutes. If you do the potion the best way, not described in the book, then it clears them in five. Figure out how to make that potion. Take a break and come back in thirty minutes and try again."
She went into the kitchen and fixed herself some tea and toast. She was working hard to not be angry with herself for failing. It was strange to know she had done something how it was supposed to be done, down to the last detail and be told that it was not good enough.
She thought back over the recipe and attempted to erase the instructions from her mind. She needed to go back to how she felt when she made the anti-venom minus the stress of a life hanging on the results. When she had been brewing that she hadn't thought of anything but the substance in front of her.
Thirty minutes later, as told, she walked back into the garage. Without saying a word she walked back up the cauldron and started again. She thought over each ingredient before adding it.
If the directions she knew from the book matched with what she knew to be the best use of the ingredient then she did it. A few times she found herself hesitating, finding the directions not quite matching with the ingredient. About half way through the potion turned a dark brown color and was ruined. She took a deep, calming breath knowing that Severus was watching and fought back frustration. She forced herself to instead take note of what she had been doing when it changed and thought of how to correct it when she got to that point.
It took her three more attempts before she was able to get the potion through to the end.
Severus came over and looked over her work. She waited for the vanishing but instead he grabbed a vial took a sample and dated it. "It is passable. While not where it needs to be it is acceptable for today. Now that you know what to do to get to the end, tomorrow you will tweak the process until it is truly perfect. For now I suggest sleep and time away from potions."
She silently cleaned up her mess and went upstairs. She was exhausted and fell into bed fully clothed. Tomorrow she would have to do it all over again but for not she would just sleep.
By Sunday evening she had finally figured out the boil potion and could create the desired result each time. The thing she noticed the most about brewing this way was the process was not the same a single time she did it. She was constantly changing the timing on adding ingredients or the number of stirs due to the difference in the ingredients quality each time.
She had a hard time working on this one and the following weekend Severus was going to give her a more difficult potion, starting with a pile of reading to do until then. She decided to forgo the studying for the evening and spend it instead with her parents.
Before heading out she stopped at the garage a last time, "Severus would you care to join me for dinner at my parents? I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you tagged along."
"No that is fine. I am sure after a weekend working in here with me you would like some time alone with your parents. I don't want to intrude, you go on."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded and she left him to himself, figuring he wanted to be alone after the long teaching session.
"Ok well how about Christmas then? It is coming up soon and I talked to my parents already and we would all love it if you came to join us for dinner."
He gave her a disbelieving look. "As much as I appreciate the offer, I'm not the most Christmassy of people, in case you haven't noticed."
"We are not super religious so you don't have to worry about that. We are just planning a quiet dinner and conversation. Nothing to pressing or Christmassy, as you put it. I would hate to see you here alone for Christmas. Please come, besides it would give my parents a chance to meet you properly and not as the scary potions professor or creepy guy who tied them up in there house." This last was said with a small laugh as Hermione attempted to keep the mood light.
He stared at her for a moment before answering, "I will consider it."
During the week she spent her free time reading as much as she could, trying to learn everything about the varying potions ingredients she would be working with. Severus also spent his weeks going over the potions task. He had never thought to train someone like he was with Hermione. In addition to his own potions tasks, he would take time each week to go over the samples he would collect from her finished works and tear them apart going over her methods and writing down what could be done better to go over with her before they started on a new potion. She was a fast learner and while he would never tell her this, he was amazed at how well she did once you tore away the books. She really did have a bright head on her shoulders and was becoming attuned to the workings of her potions after relatively few failures. He was also noticing that each failure was starting to affect her less and less. She was learning to take it in stride and use it instead as a tool to learn from.
Christmas day arrived and Hermione happy left to spend the whole of it with her parents after finally getting Severus to agree to show up in the afternoon.
He arrived four o'clock and was greeted at the door by a smiling Hermione. "Happy Christmas! Come on in."
He followed her into the sitting room where he was offered a drink. He accepted, feeling it would give him something to focus on other than the social situation he found himself in. After some stilted conversation, Mrs. Granger asked Hermione to come help her in the kitchen for a moment leaving the men alone.
Severus attempted to break the silence, "So Mr. Granger, how is the dental practice going?"
"I have actually taken a break from my practice for now. It was easier than trying to explain to my patients that I am actually a different person. I may start over with a new office and work for someone else so that I don't have to worry about my old patients coming to me thinking I am a new dentist in town."
"I can see where that would present a problem."
"Yes, it has been a little difficult but I am happy to have my family back how it was meant to be. Elizabeth and I are also talking about just moving back to England as we do still have the house there; but we are undecided at this time. It honestly depends on Hermione at the moment. We want to stay near her and she doesn't seem to be in any hurry to return home. We figure she will start to miss her school friends but she needs this time to heal from whatever it was she went through last year. Besides, now that she is 18, who knows what she may plan to do. What about you Severus, how are things in the potions world down under?"
"I have something set up currently with a local shop but I can't do much until I have my potions mastery approved here."
Conversation halted with work being exhausted and both men looked around the room, one in search of conversation topics the other as a way to hide his dislike of such social situations.
The women soon returned and conversation picked back up as the Grangers asked about the brewing lesson from the weekend. Hermione talked hesitantly about what they had done over the weekend and what she was reading on for the following session. Severus added a few points about how she had done without giving any actual praise or critique on her work, which surprised everyone in the room.
When dinner was almost ready Hermione was asked to set the table and Severus offered to help her. They moved into the dining room where Hermione pointed out where to find the place mats and napkins while she levitated plates and silverware into the room. They chatted quietly while they set things out with flicks of their wands.
Her parents moved to watch them from the doorway. Her father surveyed them critically before addressing his wife. "You don't think there is anything going on between them do you? He asked.
She cocked her head and watched as her daughter and Severus move around each other getting things set out without missing a beat in their conversation. "I don't think so. He does seem much more relaxed around her than anywhere else, but I don't think anything is happening. He is much older than her; I don't believe Hermione would go there with someone almost our age. They are just friends and both are recovering from something neither of us understands."
Her husband stared at them a moment longer before moving to help his wife get dinner from the kitchen. While he agreed that nothing was happening now that didn't stop him from worrying. Severus may be older but he looked at Hermione in a way he didn't quite comprehend. Maybe his wife was right and it was just that they had been through a difficult time and were relying on each other to heal. For now though, he would continue to monitor the situation.
After dinner, Hermione and her parents exchanged gifts. Severus sat back and watched as Hermione handed out gifts to her parents and was shocked when she placed a small wrapped box in his hand as well.
"What is this?" he asked her.
"It's a present, now open it."
He looked down and the box then back at her. "I didn't get you anything."
"I know but you didn't have to." She moved and sat next to her parents, smiling first at them then back at him. "You gave me my parents back Severus, that is bigger than anything I could ever get you, so open it."
He slowly opened the package to find a pocket watch. He looked back up at her
"It has a timer set in it so that you will remember to take breaks from brewing. A customer brought it in last week saying it didn't work and that if we could fix it he wanted to sell it on consignment. I noticed that you hadn't been eating really since I've been here and not home to remind you to leave the garage, so I got it for you."
He turned it over in his hands examining it. "Thank you Hermione."
He stayed for almost another two hours before he stood saying that he needed to leave. Hermione stood to follow him. "Wait for just one second and I will come with you." She bid her parents a final Merry Christmas before walking with him out the door chatting about the ingredients they would need to order from the apothecary on their way out.
A/N: Okay, I have a question. I have the weekend off and was wondering if people like the slower posting of a couple chapters at a time or would people like to me pound out the rest of the story. It is finished and the editing doesn't take long so I could get it out in the next few days, it's up to you. Let me know either through the review box or just PM me.