I apologize for the long waits between updates. I'm an educator and school is about to let out, so I should have more time to write. I also owe all readers an apology for the short chapter. It's a transitional one, and it didn't make sense to continue writing just to make it longer. Sorry for that! Finally, thank you so much to everyone who has submitted reviews. You are all great. I appreciate the feedback. I think I may have let this story go unfinished a long time ago if it weren't for your reviews. Oh, and yes, I am taking this story in a particular direction. I already have the end in mind, but it's unfolding at its own snail's pace. Sorry for that too! To be completely honest, if I were telling this fic orally it would probably take me a long time to tell it. I tend to go off on tangents, even when talking about the most basic things.

Thanks again, Eclectic Moone

I do not own any of the following characters etc. here portrayed, and I am profiting in no way from the writing of my small offering to fanfic world.

********************************************************************

Clad in black leather pants and a heavy sweater, Severus Snape did not realize that he was cold until he'd been seated on the same park bench for several hours.

An eerie feeling that something was wrong had awakened him at dawn just in time for the sunlight to slither between the window blinds and shine with unacceptable brightness on his light sensitive retinas.

"Damn it!" he cursed as he gingerly removed an arm from beneath Hermione's sleeping form and covered his eyes before the light devoured his eye sockets whole. Without consciously exercising any muscle control his body propelled itself into an upright position. His eyes were drawn to Hermione. It was as if she were on display like a still life portrait artfully portraying the previous night's activities.

"Lord help me!" he muttered beneath his breath while easing his naked form from the bed without, "Thank God," waking the tableau that had become his most recent personal demon. As if mesmerized, he stood for a moment beside the bed and filled his soul with the sight of her fully relaxed form reclined upon the bed; her inhibitions three sheets to the wind. His eyes inhaled the sight of her as if they had taken over his lungs and were now sustaining his life with vision instead of breath. But without warning, unwanted feelings, such as the unavoidable consequences of having sex with a student, propelled him into sudden action.

"I've made a terrible mistake," he uttered to himself in panic.

Fueled by a sudden onset of tormented adrenaline, and barely cognizant of his own actions, he had dressed himself and was opening the bedroom door when he was confronted by yet another demon. Standing before him was the young wanker Hermione had brought home with her the night before. Despite the fact that he was in the process of abandoning her himself, Severus felt an unreasonable slick of jealousy as green as the colors of Slytherin house.

In as much as he knew he was too old for Hermione, somehow the idea of her involvement with the smooth-faced, callow youth before him seemed even more incongruous. The thought of her wasting even a moment of her time with someone so vastly inferior to herself was unthinkable. Furthermore, this opinion became an indelible part of his connection to Hermione even though he did not know the young man at all.

The boy stood swaying before him, eyes wide-open like a goldfish. He reeked of alcohol, and Severus realized that he was still inebriated from the night before. Although Hermione had also been intoxicated, his vast knowledge of the effects of substances on the body, in addition to the toxic odors emanating from the boy, made him realize that she had not imbibed as much as her obnoxious friend. He felt relieved that their shared passion from the night before wasn't entirely fueled by alcohol consumption on her part.

With minimal effort, he assumed his Professor Snape persona. The boy, as a result, soundlessly continued to gaze up at him as if he had lost the gift of speech. Severus reveled in a moment of nasty pleasure, as the familiar feeling of control replaced the unfamiliar jumble of emotions he'd been feeling previously. Scaring youth was what he did best, and this lad was no different than any Gryffindor hanging about Hogwart's hallways after curfew. He struck out with the sudden swiftness of a cobra, using the molten silver instrument that was his voice to its fullest effect.

"How did a pretty boy like you manage to hold her interest?"

The soulful, blue eyes grew even bigger with fright, and prompted Severus to continue.

"After all, this is a woman who possesses a profundity, depth, and intelligence that an inferior sort such as yourself could never begin to understand let alone satisfy."

Severus, his verbal assault still in its infancy, was just about to continue speaking when an all too familiar expression suddenly appeared on the boy's face. As head of Slytherin house, he well understood youthful folly in all its many forms. However, he was unable to step aside before the boy's mouth, through no control of its own, transformed itself into a circle as round as his eyes. Severus was rendered impotent, as the boy's mouth became a projectile tool that began spewing large quantities of vomit directly at him.

The smell was intolerable, as was the warmth saturating his pants and dripping downward into the insides of his shoes. "You little shit!" he cried out while grasping a handful of the boy's collar ominously. "How dare you contaminate my person with your filth you mongrel, you....."

Severus was interrupted by a fresh splash of vomit that successfully saturated his leather shoes in putrid warmth. The boy stood there gazing dumbly at him for several more seconds before the opaqueness evaporated from his expression and was replaced again with fear of the wrathful figure looming over him. "Susan?" he squeaked looking about helplessly for Hermione.

Moved beyond disgust, and without discretion, Severus removed his wand and muttered a cleaning spell. Jordan's eyes grew to twice their extended size. However, before he was able to filter these happenings through his brainwaves; he heard the dark force mutter something like "Olivier." Then he knew no more as he blacked out from the overwhelming combination of the obliviate spell, lethal doses of fear, panic, and the previous night's bingeing.

Severus quickly went about the distasteful business of removing the boy from the bedroom door where he lay sprawled out in an ungainly manner. Reluctantly, he used his wand to levitate the boy - to physically touch him was unthinkable. But once the young prat was floating alongside him, Severus was at a loss as to what to do. He cast a nervous glance at Hermione to reassure himself that she was still sleeping soundly.

However, the simple glance quickly became a look that transformed itself into a full-blown stare. It was as if his eyes were paralyzed. He couldn't get them to move away from the sleeping beauty.

"So, here I stand mumbling over a girl like a callow first year. Very well done Severus, he muttered to himself sarcastically."

Uncomfortable with is own self-reflective musing; he began to back away from the bed only to bump into the forgotten boy levitating just behind him. He was momentarily startled. "Blast it all Snape!" he spoke in self- castigation. "You're turning into a blithering idiot. It's as if she's given you a bloody love potion."

This latter sentiment emerged from his mouth as he simultaneously interpreted his own utterances as if he spoke a foreign language. Once he clearly understood what he'd said, he became consumed with fear. He was forced to acknowledge that the word "love," one of the most elusive words in his personal history, suddenly had a tenuous grasp on his psyche. "I've got to get out of here," he though in panic as once again he began to take action without thought. He decided to put the boy in bed with Hermione. "When she wakes up, she'll think she slept with him instead of me," he thought without using his own common sense. Once he decided upon his course of action, weak though it was, he felt a little more in control of his destiny.

Moving faster than he even known he could, Severus lowered the boy into the bed beside Hermione. He murmured a disrobing spell that removed the clothes from Jordan's body leaving him naked. He ignored the feelings of jealousy that vibrated through him as he carefully rotated the boy onto his side so he faced Hermione before lifting his right leg and placing it over her hip.

As Jordan's body came in contact with hers, Hermione shifted languorously in her sleep. Severus, in the process of leaning away from the pair, froze with his hands in midair above them.

"Oh God! Don't let her wake up now!"

His terror was short lived because she only snuggled closer to the boy and burrowed her face into her bedmate's shoulder. As he slowly began to creep away from the bed, Hermione sweetly whispered, "Severus," while running her hand sensually over the boy's shoulder and down his side. He stared at the two of them, momentarily at a loss, and then turned away as an onslaught of feelings that he was neither prepared nor equipped to interpret consumed him.

**********************************************************************

Several hours later, after performing his usual full-body morning bed stretch, Jordan opened his eyes and met the startled, but even gaze of..... "A woman!?!" She was naked, and so was he. While he could remember nothing that had occurred from the night before, he did recognize the woman staring back at him with an appalled expression.

"Oooooo, Girlfriend!" he cried out in an awed tone just a tad on the revolted side. "What HAVE we done!"