Chapter Three


It was 9 o'clock on Tuesday before Hermione woke and remembered what had happened the night before and with a slight smirk got up and began to get dressed. She had kissed the oh so cold and unapproachable Severus Snape.

She knew that she would be too late to get breakfast so she headed to her first lesson. For the rest of the week she thought about Monday night and concentrated less than she ever had on her work.

The week carried on without anything-eventful happening until Friday. This was the day she was half-dreading and half hoping for. All week she tried to stop her stomach dropping every time she heard the words Snape, like or potions. She hadn't seen Snape all week and had a feeling that he was avoiding her and for this she was grateful, as she would have gone bright red in the corridors.

But nothing could stop the inevitable meeting when she had a potions lesson. As they lined up outside the dungeon door Hermione blushed very deeply and tried not to look at Harry and Ron's quizzical looks but instead busied herself by looking at her work from last lesson. As usual Snape beckoned them inside and as he caught Hermione's eye looked away with a slight pinkness round his cheeks. He didn't come inside the classroom till this pinkness had subsided. He then strode in and began the lesson as normal. When they had all set to work he sat at his desk and began to look at some new specimens on his desk, now and again looking up at Hermione as if to say something so her but deciding this wasn't the place or the time. After about half an hour of this looking up and then back to his notes Hermione saw Snape get his wand out and a moment later there was a message under her page of neat work:

I need to talk to you tonight.

Hermione didn't know what to say so she took out her wand and sent a message back saying:

About what? You can forget about what happened it was inappropriate.

Almost immediately there was another message under the first:

I don't want to forget it, I want to talk to you about it. The entrance hall at 10 tonight.

At this Hermione looked up and saw Snape watching her. She gave a small smile and a nod then returned to her work. Even after those messages Snape kept looking up every now and again; it was as if he expected her to be gone next time he looked up.

~~*~~

Severus had dreaded this lesson. So far it had been just fine, almost normal to the eye. The message had been sent and the time was arranged. This would be sorted by tonight and they could get on with it. But what exactly was it? Did he want this? Did he want her? He had lusted for her, but that was just that. Lust, curable and repressible.

He kept checking to see if she was still there. To make sure she hadn't run off to get away from him.

He wanted to test his real feelings. He had tasted delight and still wasn't sure. It had been over so quickly and it had been so long since that had happened that he wanted to relive it.

But did he just want that or did he want her? He couldn't decide just yet. He'd leave it up to her. It was her life too, he wasn't just going to ruin his own pointless life if he followed his wants.

~~*~~


When the lesson had finished Hermione felt almost back to her old self again and even did something she hadn't done all week, laughed. Harry and Ron had been very worried about Hermione's lack of happiness until now. They seemed to think that this was just a phase and her sudden and inexplicable cheering up on Friday seemed to confirm their suspicions. That night after dinner all three of them sat in the common room deciding what to do over the weekend. There was a good forecast for the weekend so they decided to go down to see Hagrid, or rather Harry and Ron decided while Hermione listened. When they had decided this Hermione went upstairs to get some homework and curled herself up in a corner to do it. She sat there apparently engrossed in her History of Magic essay, because when Harry looked at the essay it was just a page of doodles. At 9.45 Hermione got up and put her homework away and said that she had to go and see Professor Binns about her essay. At this she left the common room she kept looking over her shoulders, as she was keen not to be caught.

Hermione arrived at the front doors five minutes early and decided to wait inside until Snape had arrived. As she stood there it dawned on her how suspicious this would look. her wandering around after hours and meeting Snape at this time just added to the strangeness. While pondering this Snape arrived and not noticing her in the shadows he went straight outside. As much as she wanted him to kiss her again this was very weird. With this thought she fled. She was almost certain that Snape had seen or heard her running back be he did not call her or follow her. She went straight up to the boy's dormitory and stood at the door, took out her wand and whispered "Accio map". When she had done this the marauders map flew off Harry's bedside table and flew into her hand. She went back down to the empty common room put her wand tip to the map and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and the map began to appear on the parchment. Hermione scanned the map very carefully and finally found what she was looking for. Snape was pacing his office on the second floor and she suddenly felt a huge lump in her throat. She had left him there. She swallowed the lump and went up to bed.

~~*~~

Pacing round his office Snape cursed loudly.

"shit!" he said.

Of course a pretty girl like her wouldn't want someone like him. He was 23 years her senior and he was not the most handsome of men. Oh to hell with mincing words he was ugly.

He had thought she would have stayed though. He had thought more of her than that. He knew he wasn't that bad a kisser. Was he?

Yet again the girl had changed her mind and left him cold and lonely. Just like last time. Except last time his body didn't ache with pure lust and caring.

~~*~~


The first potions lesson in October Snape seemed to have a change of heart and seemed to show his sadness by acting twice as angry as he had been before the incident. This was clearly shown as when they walked in to the lesson Ron dropped his books.
"10 points from Gryffindor Weasly for being a clumsy oaf" Snape barked.
Hermione sat at her table with a very dutiful look on her face. She got on with her work as usual and when she had finished she sat back and read it through. When she got to the end of it she saw, yet again, a line of writing that she never written:

Please meet me tonight and don't leave straight away.

She looked up and saw Snape looking at her, brow furrowed waiting for a reply. She took out her wand and wrote a message back:

I'm not sure whether our meeting is a good idea!

She sent this and watched as Snape read it. His face looked as though he was trying to stop him showing any emotion or expression. He sent back another note:

Please I think we need to talk about what happened.

Hermione read this with her forehead furrowed and sent yet another note:

I will come to your office at 11 o'clock.

She sent this and watched again as Snape read the note. He looked up and nodded. Hermione knew that this time she would have to meet him, as she was the one who had made the arrangements to meet with this thought in her head she Raised her hand and said "Please Professor can I go to the toilet?"
Expecting Snape to shout at Hermione, Harry and Ron braced themselves and the Slytherins smiled. But the reprimand didn't come he merely nodded and said "take your things with you as the bell is about to go"

At this Hermione picked up her bag and left the dungeon, she then made her way to the toilet. About half way there she realised that she didn't really need the toilet and that now she had seen Snape's face when she had ran away from that first meeting, she couldn't hurt him again.

Hermione went about her business as normal that night and decided that this time she would have to use Harry's invisibility cloak if she had any chance of not being caught out of bed after hours.
"Harry can I use your invisibility cloak?" She asked as he and Ron were playing gob stones by the fire.
"Why?" he asked but paying by getting squirted by one of Ron's particularly large stones. " I need to get some books out of the library but Madame Pince will have gone by now" she lied
" Yeah OK but I need it back tomorrow" he said with a look of great concentration on his face.
At this Hermione went up to get the cloak out of Harry's trunk. She hid it in her bag and went back downstairs. It was only 10.30 so she sat down next to Harry to watch the end of the game. Ron won but only very narrowly and both were covered in the gob stone liquid. At 10.55 both Harry and Ron went to the bathroom to wash the stuff off while Hermione slipped out of the portrait hole. She covered herself in the cloak and set off. She quietly walked down to the second floor and took out the map to see if Snape was in his office. He was and by the way he was moving (he was walking in circles) he was very nervous. Hermione took off the cloak and knocked on the door. The sounds of movement ceased inside the room and after a moment's silence the door opened. There was a very tense silence as Snape looked at who it was at the door and made a gesture that clearly meant come inside. Hermione stepped inside and looked around. She had never been in here before. It was a fairly small room, but that could have been due to the fact that it had floor to ceiling bookshelves, which not only contained books but jars of strange specimens and dried plants. These were obviously potion ingredients and instead Hermione looked at Snape's desk. The desk was very tidy it had neat piles of parchment and a few candles there but that was it. Snape seemed to be looking at Hermione with an expectant look on his face. It was as if he was waiting for her to pass judgement on his office. Hermione had never seen this part of him it was almost child like as if he was waiting for praise.
"Well" began Snape.
"Yeah." said Hermione it was as if there were no words for what they wanted to say.
After another few moments of awkward silence Snape said, "Did you mean it?"
"Yes I did. I mean I do," said Hermione quickly
"I had hoped so but then you are. Well, your … younger" he said rather lamely
"Yes I know" know said Hermione with a down cast expression on her face.
"Would you like something to drink?" asked Snape sitting down
"Erm… no. Did you ask me to come all the way down here just to tell me I am too young?" asked Hermione choking back anger "or is there another reason because if there isn't I think it's a bit late for polite chatting and drinks."
Snape didn't say anything he just looked at her trying to think of what to say.
"Well if that is it Professor then I has to get back to Gryffindor tower." She said
She walked to the door but he go there before her. He took hold of her and pushed her against the wall.
"Severus I hardly think that this will make…up…for..." but he was kissing her passionately and she was not going to stop him. They were like that for what seemed like seconds (it was in fact 10 minutes) before Hermione pulled away.
"Am I too young now?" she asked.
Before he could answer she had pulled him towards her for the second time.