AN: Thanks for all the reviews, favoriting, alerting, and just for reading! I'm so glad that people enjoy this! BTW I have finally finished this story. It will be 50 chapters if you include the epilogue. It's a little bittersweet since I do love this story, but I've got another one in the works (if I can ever find time to write it.) Anyway, remember also that this is the last day to vote in the poll. I'll announce the results tomorrow.
I still don't own any of this.
"Twenty rotations clockwise," Hermione muttered to herself as she stirred the cauldron.
Snape was bottling some polyjuice potion as he watched her stir. He admired the profile of her figure as she stirred, her eyes hard with concentration and ambition, yet her skin still appeared so soft. He wanted so badly to go over and touch her, just kiss her on the cheek or something. Knowing his luck though she'd fall into the cauldron and scream at him for making her lose her concentration, or worse, become scared and run out of his life forever. Snape sighed. Hermione looked up and put a stasis spell on her potion. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.
He shrugged and looked down at the polyjuice potion. "I was thinking that maybe it was time for lunch."
She gave him a look of concern. "You looked a little pensive for it just being time for lunch."
He smirked. "I was wondering what to eat."
"I hope that they have a nice chicken salad. I'm hungry, but I want something light," she replied. "I don't want to get too sleepy this afternoon."
"Last night getting to you," Snape replied.
She looked down. "Not really. I think that your obsession with being alert is just rubbing off on me."
"There are worse obsessions to have."
She smiled. "I suppose."
He gave her a small smile back. She stepped towards him, unaware of what she was planning to do. Before she could do or say anything though, they heard the door open. They both frowned when they heard some one yell, "Severus! Hermione! I have something to show you!"
Snape covered up the newly made polyjuice. Together, they walked out of the labs into Snape's classroom, both slightly irritated. "What, Neville, is the meaning of disturbing us?" Snape asked.
Neville smiled, though they could tell that he was nervous. Hermione looked and saw the plant. Her eyes widened. "What is that thing?"
Neville beamed and set it down on a front desk. Snape and Hermione approached it and stared at it. "It's a Venus Flytrap," Neville replied.
Snape smirked. "I was hoping that you'd get one! I've needed the Venus Flytrap Teeth for a couple of experiments."
"Where did you get this one?" Hermione asked.
"There's a fairly large wizarding community near Wilmington, North Carolina. They exist because the Venus Flytrap's natural habitat is nearby. It's about an hour or so away. The wizards cultivate them in their natural habitat and sell them around the world. It really works well all things considered."
"Interesting," Hermione replied. "I would've never thought there'd be one around there."
"Most wizards don't," Neville replied. "Except those in Herbology. The wizards in Wilmington are renowned for their research in the Venus Flytrap, among other insectivore plants."
"Fascinating," Hermione replied. "I've seen one of these on TV when I was staying with my parents, but I never thought that I'd see one up close."
Neville looked confused. "It's a muggle device," Snape told him. "It shows moving pictures to put it simply."
"Oh," he replied still confused but trying to hide it.
"Anyway, they really are cool in how they work! Do you have a fly?" she asked.
"I have a slug!" Neville replied. "They really like those."
Neville pulled out a slug from his pocket. Snape watched it inch up one of the stems until it reached a head. It crawled inside and the trap slammed shut. Snape smirked as Hermione's eyes grew big. "That's amazing," she whispered.
Snape admired her look of amazement until Neville continued, "The Venus Flytrap was named after Venus, the Greek goddess of the hearth. Her Roman counterpart was Hera."
"Really?" Hermione asked.
"No," Snape snapped.
Hermione looked at him completely stunned. Then, she recovered from it and glared at him. "Severus," she hissed.
"Hermione, the whole story is wrong," he replied.
"Okay, then what is the story?" Hermione asked.
Snape smirked. "Venus was the Roman goddess of love, not the hearth. Her Greek counterpart was Aphrodite."
"Aphrodite?" Hermione asked her eyes now huge with interest. "Like the one in Ron's letters?"
Snape nodded. "Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love."
"Was cupid her father?" Neville asked.
Snape ignored the smirk on Neville's face. "No," Snape answered. "Cupid was Venus' son. Eros, his Greek name, was his Greek counterpart as you put it. Supposedly Eros was the son of Aphrodite and Ares, though there are variations on the myth."
"Interesting," Hermione replied. "Where did the muck come from though?"
Neville almost gasped when he saw Snape give Hermione an affectionate smile. In all the years of knowing Snape, Neville had never seen him smile. They didn't notice him though. They only saw each other in that moment. "Aphrodite was conceived after Cronus uh, castrated Uranus."
She suppressed a laugh. "Go on," she answered.
"The, uh, discarded parts landed in the sea. Out of the foam Aphrodite rose. Some say that she road on a sea shell as she rose. There's a famous picture where she's standing on a seashell rising out of the foam. I always thought that would be quite an image though, watching the most beautiful woman in existence rising from the ocean, seashell or not. I could always picture her looking at me with her light brown eyes, and for one moment at least I'd know that I was safe and loved," Snape answered.
"Wow," Hermione whispered. "That's beautiful Severus."
A smile crept across his face. "My mom used to tell me Greek myths. She was a pureblood, but I guess in an effort to learn about muggle life she'd bought a few books on them. She really enjoyed them."
"That's beautiful," Hermione replied. "I remember a few, but not many."
"Let's just say that I remember them because they were a bright spot on my childhood," he answered. "One of the few."
"That's really interesting," Hermione answered.
"Indeed," Snape replied.
"If you could, could you tell me the one about Hades and Persephone?" she asked. "Ron writes about that a lot and while I remember some of it, I don't remember it all."
"My little know-it-all doesn't remember something?" Snape teased.
She gave a shy but playful smile. "Is my big bad professor willing to teach me?" she asked.
Snape felt himself becoming aroused by the statement, but took a deep breath and calmed himself down. "Sure, I can teach you some basic Greek myths."
They began to walk out of the room, side by side. Snape began, "Before one can understand the myth of Hades and Persephone, one must understand that Hades was the god of the underworld. He became this after he drew lots with Zeus and Poseidon for the underworld, heavens, and sea…"
Neville smiled as their voices became softer. He picked up his Venus Flytrap and left the room. He had proven what he'd wanted to prove. There was no doubt in his mind now as to the answer of his question: Severus Snape had written the letters.
Hopefully Hermione could figure that out for herself as well.