A/N: It's been almost a year since I've updated this, but I thought I'd post this, and get working on chapter five. Reviews are appreciated. As always, any characters, places, etc recognized from the Harry Potter series are property of J.K.R.
Chapter Four
Severus Snape was a doomed man. He could hear Hermione's heels clicking against the stone floors as he led her into what served as his rooms during the school year. In the summer months Snape preferred to keep to the North Tower, and that was where he kept his library year round, to protect them from the dampness of the dungeon. He began levitating the few boxes, and Hermione spoke quietly at his elbow.
"What do you want me to do professor?" Her soft green eyes were directed at the flagstones under her feet, and she was biting at her lower lip nervously.
He gruffly pointed out a few boxes of books and potions ingredients for her to levitate, and she quickly and quietly moved the items. He twirled out from the room with his usual flare, but felt the sweatiness of his palms and the dryness of his mouth with outright irritation. "How could you be so stupid, Severus, the girl has better things to do than help you move things you don't actually need…" he thought to himself. Leaning against a wall he waited for her, and once Hermione was out of his rooms Snape replaced the wards and started toward the north tower, slower this time, allowing the girl to walk almost beside him. The scents of lavender and something he could only identify as youth floated up at him, and he was surprised to note that the impeccable Granger girl bothered with scents. Then again, the lavender could be used to combat headaches that he knew all to well to follow long nights of studying and working, mixing with the perfume of youth into a heady, dream like mix that Snape doubted she even knew she possessed.
He was roused out of his reprieve as suddenly as it had come, and found that he had stopped outside of a portrait of a dark-toned man sitting regally astride a black war horse. He muttered the password and the painting swung aside, revealing the inner sanctum of Severus Snape. With the slightest shudder, Snape stepped into the rooms, the girl behind him gasping softly as the light and dark that was his rooms engulfed her. He smiled to himself as he heard the boxes she had been in charge of clatter to the floor with a thump.
"Professor… I… I'm sorry that I…" Hermione blinked in surprise as Snape covered her mouth with one cool, calloused hand and simply said, with a distant look in his eyes ordered "Pick those boxes up and stack them neatly by that table" After doing so, Hermione uncomfortably took a seat on a small sofa covered in rich green velvet, and glanced around the room for signs of life other than the paintings and photographs that adorned the walls. The rooms held a magical quality, but at Hogwarts that wasn't out of the ordinary. She shifted on the sofa again, and gave a soft yelp as the sofa shifted with her in a way more than cushioning could. The plush cushion she was reclining on seemed to be consciously shifting to her body and her mood. Even as Hermione tensed, the sofa itself seemed to stand a little straighter, the cushions firming to the touch.
"Enchanted, the lot of them. Dumbledore thought that I'd need a place to rest completely in the summers and after particularly severe meetings with Voldemort. So he gave me this place. Amazing, in its own way, though if it gets any more accommodating, I may have to burn the furnishings. " Even as he said it, his eyes softened, and he ran his arm down the leg of the fine mahogany table that the tea service was resting on.
Hermione was shocked at the change in him, but it seemed that as soon as it had come, it was gone, and his face hardened visibly as she watched. With a shake of his head, Snape looked at her and said "If you are properly rested, Miss Granger, you would make this move much simpler for me by returning to your own room and leaving me in piece to my meager unpacking." Swallowing the last of her tea, Hermione handed him back the cup and stood, swaying slightly. She felt Snape's hand wrap around her upper arm for a moment, steadying her. She was glad for the touch, for though it was rough, there was a caress in it, and Hermione looked up at him to see his face contorted halfway between a sneer and a smile. Releasing her, she heard him whisper "You need rest Miss Granger, this has been a busy day indeed. Sleep, and I will see you at breakfast at nine in Professor McGonagall's office. " With that Hermione made her way out the portrait, and to her own room, head spinning at the events, and at the softness in the dark man's eyes.