Chapter 3

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They stopped in a meticulously maintained garden about 100 meters from the house. Flowering bushes and trees lined the path; all were in the process of blooming, opened flowers wafting fragrance through the cooling air. Snape stopped. "Miss Granger, I have no doubt that all this is quite charming to one who enjoys that sort of thing, but I fail to see why you have dragged me out here under the pretense of showing me your 'work'."

"This is my work, Severus." He raised his eyebrows at the use of his given name. She raised hers back in teasing mockery. Clearly the days of her being easily intimidated by him were long past. He was strangely disappointed by this fact. Stubbornly, he folded his arms.

"Show me, then." And she did. Crouching beside a low bush that sported brilliant crimson blossoms, she cupped her hands around a still-green bud. She closed her eyes and exhaled, and Severus felt a palpable frission of energy tremble through the air. He blinked and refocused on Hermione, who opened her eyes and released from her hands a fully opened, perfectly formed flower.

Even Snape had to admit to being impressed by that. He was relatively sure that even Professor Sprout, with her decades of experience, had never even witnessed something like that, nevermind actually performed it.

"Impressive. I assume it is some form of transfiguration - but wandless... I've never seen anything quite like it." Hermione seemed to mistake this simple statement of fact for flattery, and blushed.

"It's not transfiguration at all, and there's no call to be impressed - not by me, anyway. You could do the same thing - hell, Neville Longbottom could, for that matter. It's not me, Severus, it's this place- can't you feel it? Couldn't you sense it when you first stepped onto the ground? There's magic in everything - the air, the water, the earth, even the sunlight. Elemental magic."

Severus had crouched next to the bush and was examining the flower that Hermione had bloomed. There seemed to be nothing to distinguish it from the flowers surrounding it, besides the fact that minutes before it'd been a week or more away from blooming naturally. "Show me what you did, Miss Granger. Slowly this time."

"I told you, it's Hermione. And I didn't do anything... it's Mother Nature. Or Gaia, or the Goddess, whatever you want to call her. It's the same things he's been doing since time began... only sped up a little. " Snape scoffed at the understatement. "It's not a conscious act on my part. I think she's using me, like a wizard uses his wand, to focus and direct power. It's something about this place that lets her do it. I went back to Britain and tried; stood there for a few minutes with my hand stuck in a bush feeling foolish. Anyway, look, you really have to try it for yourself." With that, she took his hands in hers and knelt across from where he was still crouched by the bush.

Her hands covering his much larger ones as best they could, she pressed them together around a puckered green bud. She closed her eyes, and Snape, feeling quite certain that nothing was going to happen, closed his as well. There was a moment where he was all too conscious of the warmth of her palms cupped around his, but that was forgotten as he felt a rush of pure magical energy flood through his veins. It concentrated in the tips of his fingers and his palms; he half expected to see them glow when he opened his eyes. Instead, when he parted his hands, he saw a fully bloomed flower released from between them.

For once in his life, Severus Snape was speechless.

Wordlessly, he looked up at Hermione. Her cheeks were flushed and she was grinning broadly and openly at him, as if expecting him to ebulliently gush over the experience. Her hands, he suddenly became aware, were still cupped around his. Abruptly he withdrew them and stood up, turning away.

"Severus...?" She seemed concerned. Not too concerned, he hoped; the only thing worse than being Albus Dumbledore's pet project was being Hermione Granger's.

"It's been a very long time, Hermione, since anything of beauty has come from these hands," he said quietly. She did not know what to say to this. After a moment, he turned back. "I believe you were going to show me your laboratory?"

She shook herself slightly. "Yes, yes of course. I'll apparate us, it'll be much easier that way." She stepped up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. Looking down into her strangely solemn eyes, he blinked and they disappeared.

***

After overcoming the momentary disorientation that accompanies every apparation, Snape found himself staring directly into Hermione Granger's eyes. He held her gaze for a moment, and surprisingly it was she who stepped away first, dropping her hands from his shoulders and turning away to show him the room.

"This is it... not much, but it's mine." Severus could not have imagined a lab more different from his own in the depths of Hogwarts if he'd tried. The room itself was rather small, clearly designed for no more than two or three researchers. The work tables were hewn from flawless white marble, apparently spelled to protect against burns and stains. The floors were similarly gleaming, and the walls were lined with set-in shelves holding options ingredients and equipment organized, catalogued, and cross-referenced in every possible way.

But the room's most arresting element was the wall farthest from the door. It appeared to be constructed completely out of glass, with shelves from floor to ceiling. Lined up on each of the shelves were uniform vials of liquid, each stained a different, brilliant hue. The light shining through them bounced off the walls and ceiling, creating a riot of color in the otherwise serene space. Snape walked over and picked up a vial, inspecting its contents.

"They're all liquids distilled from local plants and flowers," Hermione said. "They're naturally colorless; inert dyes make them easier to identify on sight and don't change their properties in a potion." She ran her fingers of the top of a line of vials, sweeping away non-existent specks of dust. "Plants here have distinct elements that aren't found anywhere else in the wizarding world. Elements that only grow stronger as they're exposed to the sunlight. This wall is spelled to remain in direct sunlight all day." Snape raised his eyebrows incredulously. She shrugged. "After attending a school whose staircases rearranged themselves at will, I suppose I don't find anything strange anymore. In any case, some of these samples have been aging since I arrived two months ago. I've started testing them in combination with more standard ingredients to see how the finished potions are affected." She motioned towards a series of cauldrons on one of the worktables.

Severus was intrigued in spite of himself. His... extracurricular pursuits when he was this age had left him with neither time nor freedom to pursue an independent research opportunity such as this. He clasped his hands behind his back and moved over to peer into the cauldrons. "Show me what you've found."

They worked together in the room for a length of time both would've been surprised to learn. Initially Hermione showed Severus the experiments that she'd yet to complete; when there was nothing left to show, they took turns prodding the cauldrons and making observations. Eventually they lapsed into a comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional 'excuse me' as they reached for the same piece of equipment.

***

Hermione studied Severus inconspicuously as they worked. He was an entirely different person when he let the Potions Master persona drop, she thought. He retained his intensity, his focus, but lost the aura of malice and superiority he usually kept wrapped tight around him like a security blanket. Utterly absorbed in his work, his face was intent yet curiously relaxed, almost at peace. She'd seen this side of him only once before, during her seventh year, when the teachers and students had begun working side-by-side in order to find a way to defeat Voldemort once and for all. More than one afternoon had passed in this way, working together - along with five or six other students, she reminded herself. And back then he hadn't pushed his shirtsleeves up to his elbows, exposing lean, muscled forearms, flexing as he worked... Whoa, girl, she reminded herself. It would not do to have impure thoughts about one's former professor. Especially not while working around open flame. Especially not here. She wasn't sure she completely trusted the magic that seemed to radiate from every atom in this place. Already she could feel it affecting her in subtle ways; for instance, her new insistence on calling Snape - Severus, rather - by his first name. Where had that impulse come from, she wondered, and suddenly felt rather foolish. Ah well. No use dwelling on it now. The Goddess, she ruefully thought, might be turning out to have a matchmaking streak uncomfortably similar to Albus Dumbledore's.

After a time, she realized she was squinting to see the precipitate in the beaker she was stirring, and glanced towards the horizon. Beyond the rows and columns of vials, the sun burned dim and firey as it sank swiftly behind the hills. She stood up and stretched the aching muscles in her lower back.

"Professor?" she said quietly, not wanting to startle him out of a deep concentration. He looked up from his position bent over the table, blinking slightly. "I think it's time to call it quits for tonight."

Severus stood up to his full height, suddenly formal. "I suppose you are right." He paused for a moment, apparently in indecision. "I can find nothing immediately wrong with your work here."

Hermione fought a smile. "I believe I'll take that as a compliment." She took her cauldron over to the glossy white sink set into the wall. "I've had the house elves take your luggage to your room. Are you hungry? I can have them bring you up something if you'd like."

"That will not be necessary. House elves, Miss Granger?" he asked, a smirk lurking around the corners of his mouth.

"Yes, house elves. I am no longer the idealistic girl I was five years ago. But you needn't look so smug - tomorrow is, after all, their day off." And for the first time in her life, Hermione swept out of the room before her former Professor.

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A/N: Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to review - JennyRad, Javen Green, GeekGoddess1, arcessita, Nemesys, Hawklaw, ifthisisreal, Sidra elf, Snapelover, HunnySnowBunny, samson, Art, Jolene, Skjeve, Ophelia, Lisa Meunier, and LauraW. I hope to continue my earlier WIP, Close Your Eyes, but I believe I am going to take it in a different direction than previously planned, and thus it will require some major replanning. It should be updated sometime in January. In any case, this fic is helping me to get my creative juices flowing again, and reviews always help! Thank you so much!