Disclaimer: You all know the deal. I don't own any of this stuff (except for my lame attempt at a plot), although if Tom Felton were on the market, I would gladly take him.
By the way, don't expect these guys to stay too in character. They're going to say what I want them to, and that probably won't work with the characters they are supposed to be.
Chapter 3: Sleeping potions are for the weak
She hadn't slept well in years.
Six years to be exact. After the Final Battle, sleep had eluded her. If she happened to doze off for even a second, she was bombarded with the images of that fateful night and that one scene playing over and over in her mind. She couldn't rest while she could still see that man hurting her family like that. And when those dreams did not come, she could hear an evil laugh growing closer and closer until she woke up sweaty and more tired than she had been when she had laid her head on the pillow.
Not that she hadn't tried ways to overcome those nightmares. But sleeping pills and dreamless potions can only go so far. And so she had spent the last six years in a zombie-like state, living her life in a trance while attempting to carry on her daily life as well as she had been able to before that night. She had kept her grades up of course, and had received the highest marks on her N.E.W.T.'s, but her teachers had become concerned when she no longer seemed as interested in her classes. Dumbledore had pulled her aside one day to talk with her, but she just gave him the excuse of being tired and went on with business. About the night of the Final Battle was the time Hermione had stopped believing Dumbledore to be a saintly man; seeing him instead as a manipulative person whose eye stayed only on the prize, worrying not what the cost might be.
And so it was that this night was the same as every other night. After four hours of tossing and turning, she finally gave up, wrapped herself in her robes and started to wander the hallways of the school she had come to hate. This might prove a useful habit once the students arrived back in school; while not as sadistic as people normally thought Snape to be, she would definitely derive a sick sort of pleasure from catching students in flagrante delicto and shaming them. Call it an odd sort of payback for the fact that she had never had the opportunity to be caught.
Walking around in the dark hallways had an odd way of calming her. The dimness had a way of enveloping people that made some feel claustrophobic, but to Hermione it was a blanket that would protect her from the horrors that existed in her dreams. Blackness was nothing, the absence of all color and light, a barrier from all things that might hurt you. She relished quiet, black nights when she might finally be at peace. This was the only way Hermione was able to look refreshed in the mornings; her nightly prowls provided her body with at least a semblance of rest, leaving her body capable of dealing with the daily stress. The silence was broken however, leaving her with the fear that she would not look well at all tomorrow.
"Miss Granger. Continuing the tradition of the Golden Trio and sneaking out after hours? I would have thought that would have ended when you left school, but I see that you have not changed as much as I had supposed."
"Hermione, Severus. My name is Hermione and I must insist again that you call me that. I must also insist that you please not describe me as a part of the 'Golden Trio'. I will not have you, or anyone else, reminding me of my student days here. I have spent enough time trying to forget them that I would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from bringing back those memories. In answer to your question, however, I was unable to sleep and decided that a walk would calm my spirits."
"Why did you not just take a sleeping potion? If sleep is really the only issue, I would be happy to supply you with something to aid your rest."
She mumbled under her breath that sleeping potions never helped, but unfortunately he heard her. For minutes that seemed years to her, they stood there, each examining the other fully. Finally Snape stepped a little closer to her and held his arm out to her.
"I find that the company of others can often relax one into the spirit to fall asleep. Might I invite you down to my chambers so that we might talk and possibly cure this sleep problem for the both of us?"
"I would be delighted." She took his arm and they set off for the dungeons in order to cure the others case of insomnia.
By the way, I'm Kit-Kat. If anyone of you wants me to add you to a review list or whatever, or have suggestions for what I could do with these two while I have control of them, just e-mail me. I think it's in my profile. Alrighty, coolness.
And by the way, I want to say thanks to the first two people who reviewed my story, lama and Moisie. You guys rock.