Hermione woke up with in her own bed with the disconcerting feeling that she was in the wrong place. It took her sleepy brain several seconds to work out that she had expected to wake up in Severus's private quarters, in his bed, and preferably to a repeat performance. Fortunately, depending on how you look at it she thought wryly, he had obviously thought it wiser for her to wake in her own room rather than try and sneak back in the early hours of the morning.

She stretched, yawning, and winced as several muscles reminded her of quite how vigorous the evening's activities had been. A bath was called for, but she would have to settle for a shower as it was nearly breakfast time.

She wondered if it would be as much effort to get Severus back into bed, or had last night overcome his moral qualms. Ah well time to get up.

As she descended the stairs to the Great Hall, she saw Professor McGonagall standing at the entrance.

"Good morning, Miss Granger", she said. "I hope you haven't been studying too hard?

"No, Professor." She felt the urge to share her happiness with someone, and it was only fair that the Professor should know about her and Severus bearing in mind she had been instrumental in bringing it all about. "I took your advice".

Professor McGonagall looked puzzled. "What advice was that, dear?"

Hermione got the message. It was to be their little secret. "oh, just that I shouldn't work so hard and should get some outside interests," she said airily, laying just a little emphasis on 'outside'.

"I don't remember giving you that advice, but it seems like a very sensible idea to me. All work and no play.." and with a broad smile she was off to the teacher's table for breakfast.

Hermione watched her go with a fond smile on her face.

For some reason Hermione was absolutely starving. She loaded her breakfast plate with scrambled eggs, mushrooms in cream sauce, some fried tomatoes, and maybe some of the potatoes if that wasn't too piggy...

She was surprised to find that all those innuendoes about working up an appetite actually seemed to be true. She just hoped that no one would take one look at her plate, and suddenly jump to the conclusion that she had had the shagging of a lifetime the night before.

For a second hunger was outweighed by sentiment, and she dwelled on the details of the previous night.

Her fond recollection was disrupted by Ron asking for the ketchup, and she had great difficulty resisting the urge to hex him. Apparently sex increased her appetite but did nothing for her irritability. It would be interesting to see if Severus - have to remember to call him Professor today - would be in a better mood in potions. Though presumably he had been in such a bad mood for so long that it would take more than one night's mind-blowing sex to improve his mood. That is, assuming that he had thought it was mind-blowing, maybe he thought it was just adequate.

Oh dear, that had really taken the shine out of her day.

Unable to concentrate on her pleasant daydream any more she came back to earth to hear Harry and Ron discussing Professor McGonagall.

"I bet she really enjoyed seeing Albus again."

"Sorry Harry", she said. "I wasn't really paying attention, what was that you just said about Professor McGonagall?"

"I said", he replied in tones of infinite patience that made her wand hand itchy, "that it must have been nice for her to see Albus again."

"So she went to see Albus yesterday?"

"That's what I said, you really need to concentrate on something other than NEWTS Hermione," he said.

"When exactly was this?"

"Yesterday."

"When exactly yesterday?" she snapped. Seeing his look of shock, she continued, "Sorry, Harry, but its very important. I thought I spoke to her last night at about 9pm, and she .." she couldn't think of a single reason why the Headmistress would be talking to her, that would give her a good reason to be worried that it was the right person, then it hit her - tap into their most basic fears - ". she gave me some extra homework. I wouldn't want to waste my time doing it, if it was someone's idea of a practical joke."

They both looked suitably horrified. "I think she got back this morning, so it couldn't have been her that you spoke to," said Ron.

"So when I bumped into in the foyer a few minutes ago, she had just got back?

"I think so. Just how much homework was it Hermione, you seem a bit upset," said Ron in a concerned tone. "I would be livid if someone had done the same thing to me."

"Malfoy!" spluttered Harry. "I bet it was Malfoy. He could get to Snape's personal supplies easily! It must have been him."

For a second Hermione played with the idea of letting the boys think it was Malfoy, and letting him take the flak. It was better than having to run the risk of what had really happened coming out.

Resigned to appearing like a complete idiot - but not as big an idiot as she would look if they found about Severus - she slapped her forehead and said, "No, its me being silly. I remember now, it was the day before that I spoke to her."

"You'll forget your own head next, Hermione! I suppose that means we can't go after Malfoy. What a shame." Harry looked disappointed.

"Sorry," she said. "Mind you, I don't see why you can't go after Malfoy."

"But he hasn't done anything wrong," pointed out Ron.

"He's a slytherin isn't he? Just because we don't know what he's been up to, doesn't mean he isn't up to something. And even if he isn't up to something at the moment, he will be in the future. It's just about getting your retaliation in first," Hermione said. For some reason, she couldn't quite put her finger on she was feeling quite anti-slytherin today.

The boys were struck by her logic and immediately started plotting, leaving her in peace to do some plotting of her own.

Bastard.

He was going to pay, oh HOW he was going to pay, for that little escapade. Gryffindor pride demanded it.

She had come so close to disaster this morning - one word out of place and both Severus and she would have been out of here before you could say, "Severus Snape is a lying, deceiving bastard."

Then it came to her. He didn't know that she knew, so all she had to do was strike up a conversation with the Headmistress about something. Hopefully he would sweat bullets worrying about his little scheme being uncovered. Hadn't thought that one through had he? Hadn't thought any of it through, really. Which was reassuring in a way. He was obviously thinking with his other, smaller brain, which meant two things. The first was, that maybe he was just a little besotted. The other, and perhaps more important thing right now, was that he would be an easier mark.

She told the boys that she had to have another word with Professor McGonagall, and set them scurrying off to Potions. "Be sure to tell Professor Snape where I have gone," she said, "or he will be taking points of Gryffindor."

She watched them go with a smile like a shark. If the boys had been paying attention they would have thought that it was more Snape-like than Snape. "Lets see if the student can outdo the Master, shall we?" she thought.