Chapter Four -Surprises.

Although there was no tension between Hermione and Snape the incident had certainly affected Snape and he looked very happy. He was not even angry when Neville spilt a whole cauldron full of a freezing potion on the dungeon floor. He merely waved his wand and it did a sort of reverse spilling. Hermione had noticed this but she was not going to let this get in the way of her work. It was now mid December and the feeling of Christmas had set it. Hermione now had the ball to organise. The usual decorations had been put up and everyone was busy discussing what they were going to wear to the ball. This didn't distract Hermione from her usual work. Because of her role as head girl she had offered to help arrange the ball so she had that to keep her busy as well. Even Harry and Ron didn't seem to think that Hermione was struggling with her feelings but then they were trying to cope with their homework and yet again screw up the courage to ask a girl to the dance.

Hermione was very involved in this dance, as it would be something to keep her mind off the things that had happened. This ball was to be fantastic and Hermione had insisted on organising as much of it as possible. She had chosen a very good band called Olympian Destiny, to play at the ball. The menu had been sorted:

Pork Chops.
Beef Stroganoff.
Bouillabaisse.
Chicken Almandine.
Grilled Salmon.
Chicken Casserole.

She had chosen the decorations, there were to be banners of each of the schoolhouses round the room and in the centre of each table was to be a miniature replica of the school crest. She had even chosen what was to be on the snack table for after the feast. It was incredible how she could do all this and still have time to do all her homework.

One night Hermione was going over the list of things that still needed to be done for the ball when a small first year came running over to her.
"Excuse me but Professor Snape is outside the portrait hole and he wants to talk to you," he said breathlessly.
"Oh OK" she said getting up and putting the parchment down.
She left the common room and spotted Snape at the end of the corridor. When he saw her came running up and said in a hurry, "I was wondering whether you would like to dance with me at the ball?"
"You came all the way down here to tell me that?" she asked in a disbelieving tone.
"Erm … it's just that… I mean… Yes" he said finally looking rather sheepish.
"Well then, yes" she said blushing furiously. As she turned to go back into the common room when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Snape's face. He was looking at her with a pleading look in his eyes and she knew that her feelings for him were returned with that knowledge she turned and went back to Gryffindor tower. He grabbed her arm and led her towards the front doors. Before they got there Hermione pulled him into an empty classroom. Giggling she walked up to him. Suddenly they heard a noise. The classroom wasn't empty! There were to shadowed figures standing by the window. Curiosity took over both Snape and Hermione and they fell silent.
"I really do love you!" came a hushed voice.
"I know but I really don't know if I feel the same way about you." Came a second voice this time it was a boys.
At almost the same time Snape and Hermione realised who the owners of the voices were. The girl was Pansy Parkinson and the boy was Malfoy! Quietly they both left as Pansy began to cry. Giggling they made they're way back to Gryffindor tower and said goodnight.

"What did he want?" asked Ron with a surprised look on his face. It was obvious that he expected her to be in tears and not, as she was, smiling.
"He just wanted to ask me something" she replied in a dreamy voice.
Harry recognised that look on her face as that was the look he wore when he was thinking about Quidditch. Hermione not realising this walked past them to her homework sat down and resumed her writing.

~~*~~

Severus all but clicked his heels are grinned like a giddy school boy. Not only had he attained the woman, he done it alone, no magic at all. Suppressing the stupid smile that was threatening to spread across his face he made his way down to the dungeons.

He had reached the first floor before he met anyone en route. Unfortunately the first person he met was Sarah.

"Severus how nice to see you." She said her expression unreadable and her tone of voice sultry.

"good evening Sarah what is it that causes you to be out and about at this hour?"

"oh nothing. I just came for a walk hoping to bump into someone, I mean something to do."

~~*~~

Hermione sat in the common room trying in vain to concentrate on her work. After half an hour of staring at the half filled piece of parchment she gave up and decided to take a bath. She would of course need to use the prefect's bathroom. Running upstairs she fetched her bathrobes and towels and set of to the fourth floor and the prefects bathroom. She gave the password [merepeople] and went in. This was by far the best bathroom in the whole school. Completely made of marble with a bath the size of a small swimming pool. Hermione turned on a few of the taps and while waiting for the bath to fill up she brushed her hair. She got undressed and climbed in. It felt wonderful in the midst of all the bubbles. She lay back and relaxed letting her mind go blank. She was thinking about what to wear to the ball [pink robes or pale green] when she heard a noise outside the door. Assuming it was Peeves she got out hurriedly and wrapped her bathrobes around her. She stood there drying her hair when she heard the noise again. It didn't sound like Peeves. It sounded human, and pleasurable. She collected her things together and left the bathroom. She paused at the door and pointed her wand at the plughole, instantly the bath started to empty. Hermione opened the door and saw who was standing there.

"Severus!" Hermione yelled.
She had just walked in on a scene that she wished she hadn't. Standing in front of her was Snape and Belle looking rather nervous and very embarrassed! Belle had lipstick all round her mouth and she had evidently put her hair up as some of it was still up but most of it was tumbling down her back!
"I'm sorry I think I may have opened a door to a strange universe." Hermione said shocked and shut the door again. Almost immediately she opened it again.

"oh no I haven't . in that case I am sorry to have intruded and I'll leave you both to it."

She began to make her way past them hurriedly to Gryffindor tower.  Before she got more than 3 metres away she found she was unable to move she turned and saw Snape almost jogging towards her, his wand out.  
Snape caught up with her and took hold of her arm as she was trying to find her wand to remove the curse.
"Listen it's not what it looked like." Said Snape quietly.
"What was it the? Did you trip and land with your lips on her mouth?" Hermione asked sarcastically "I know what I saw Severus and that was not a mistake" Hermione almost growled those last words at him.
"I'm sorry but I did not mean for it to happen," said Snape quietly.
He moved forward to kiss her but she pushed him away.
"Don't you even dare think that you can do that to me after what I just saw! You are a lair and judging from the last month a very good actor! I thought I had really hurt your feelings that night when I left you at those front doors. In fact I can see you're a damn good actor I mean we all thought you were a mean sarcastic git but we were wrong you're a cheating pig, even worse, you're a man!"
Snape didn't let go of her arm he made to move toward her waiting for her to pull away. Instead she stood rigid as if frozen. Her lips were tight and she wore a look of defiance on her face. She looked down the corridor at a gob smacked Sarah Belle. She had obviously never been left for an imperfect being.

Hermione pushed Severus away with a self satisfied look and turned to go back to Gryffindor tower.

"When you decide whether you want me for sex or not let me know would you!" she called over her shoulder to Severus left in the middle of the corridor alone.

~~*~~

When Severus finally got back to his rooms he slammed the door shut and picked up the nearest thing he could lay his hands on, an ink bottle and flung it across the room.

"Damn that woman!" he spat. "I swore never to let this happen."

He took a decanter full of an amber liquid from the sideboard and pour some into a glass.

"I swear that she won't get to me and I swear I'll make her pay for what's she's done." He said before downing the contents of the glass, slamming it down and retiring to his bedroom.

~~*~~


It was very lucky that the holidays were finally here as this reduced the time in which those long awkward silences occurred. The last potion lesson had been nothing short of mental torture for Hermione. She wanted so much to hear him say sorry to her but his pride and her stubbornness were as strong as each other. He had taken to ignoring the fact that anything had happened. Occasionally they would look up to see the other watching them only to quickly turn away again.

Whenever Hermione had a defence class or met Sarah in the corridor it was hard to say whose glare was more likely to turn the other to stone. The temperature around them seemed to physically drop form the icy glares that came from both women.


The Christmas ball was almost here and Hermione had made sure every detail was perfect. She had chosen her robes (deep crimson) and tried all sorts of different hairstyles and now she was looking at make up. She wanted to look stunning; she wanted to make him feel awful, he was going to want to rip her clothes off and kiss her all over by the end of that ball! On the morning of the ball Hermione took out her robes and used a straightening charm on them. she went over to her dresser and tied back her hair. She made her way down to breakfast and sat down. She had finished her grapefruit and musli when the rest of the Gryffindor came downstairs. She had just got up to leave when Snape walked into the hall. She looked at him tossed her hair and walked out leaving him they're staring after her.

Hermione started to get ready for the ball at about 5pm as it started at 8pm. She went back to the prefect's bathroom for a bath and then to her room to dry and style her hair. She had curled it into ringlets and then tied some back to keep it off her face. It was tied back with a ribbon that was exactly the same colour as her dress. She did her make up and chose dusky pink for her eyes and lips and finally put her dress robes on at 7.30pm. She looked at her self critically in the mirror and there was no escaping the fact that now she did look beautiful! Her hair was soft and shiny and her skin flawless. She was not fat and as she stood there began to imagine Snape's face when she walked into that hall.