Chapter Three: An Unusual Evening

"Gaaah!"

"Hermione, what is it?" Ginny asked, sitting straight up in bed. They were having a sleepover in the sixth-years' dormitory. Lavender was out at the Astronomy Tower with Seamus Finnegan, and Parvati was sleeping over at her twin sister Padma's dorm, so it was just them.

"A nightmare...a really bad nightmare."

"You're shaking –what could possibly be that bad? Was it You-Know-Who?"

"Ginny," Hermione sighed, her flaming cheeks invisible in the dark, "do you ever have those weird dreams with -guys and –stuff?"

"Kinky sex dreams?" Ginny inquired cheerfully. "Who doesn't? I had a really neat one a week ago about Harry in the locker room after they beat Slytherin-"

"GINNY!" Hermione had covered her ears, appalled.

"What?"

"Never, ever tell me about dreams like that again."

"Oh, okay...you've smelled the locker room, haven't you?"

"No, it's just...Harry-"

"Oh, I see. It's too squicky."

"Yeah." Hermione lit up the end of her wand and took a sip from the glass of water on her nightstand. "Anyway, I've been having those kind of sick dreams as well."

"I don't think it's sick. It's just our hormones and imaginations running wild." Ginny was definitely the old adage 'it's always the quiet ones' personified. "So, where was yours?"

"In the Potions room."

"Ooh, kinky! Did you break vials and knock cauldrons on the floor?"

"God, Ginny! It wasn't the furious wild-hippogriff sort of dream, it was the –other kind."

"Oh, slow and sensual. Love that kind."

"What do you read in the library?"

"Lots of stuff. More details."

"Well, it wasn't really what I was doing that freaked me out."

"It was who you were doing, wasn't it?"

"Can we tone down the language a little bit, Ginny?"

"Hey, I have brothers. You learn all the terms with them." Hermione cringed and Ginny continued to smile. "So who was it?"

"You really don't want to know."

"Do you want me to guess?"

"Ginny!"

"Harry, right? I don't mind as long as it stays in yours."

"Ew!"

"Ron, then?"

"Disgusting. No way, Ginny."

"Lockhart?" Ginny asked with a mischievous grin.

"Virginia Weasley!"

"Me? Really? I'm flattered."

"Merlin's balls!"

"Seriously, Hermione, you can tell me."

"Secret?" They solemnly shook on it. "Professor Snape."

Hermione was prepared for disgust. She was ready for a threat to have her committed to St. Mungo's. What she was not ready for, however, was Ginny's reaction.

"He's really not so bad."

"What do you mean, he's not so bad? He's Professor Snape!"

"You didn't call him that in the dream, did you?"

"No, but- Ginny, that's beside the point!"

"So you dreamed about boinking a teacher. That's usual!"

"Usual! Have you ever dreamed about Severus?"

"No, but that doesn't mean –Severus?" Hermione went absolutely crimson. Ginny grinned. "Severus? You fancy our professor?"

"I do not!"

"It's probably just fantasies. I mean, the greasy hair, the hooky nose-"

"It's not hooky! It's just –Merlin's arse, Ginny!" Hermione got up and went to the door, pulling on her robe.

"Where are you going?"

"Madam Pomfrey's! I must be losing my mind!"

Hermione left Gryffindor Tower in quite a fright, wondering what mix of ingredient fumes could possibly have done this. Ginny stayed behind, giggling and committing this anecdote to her diary.

As Hermione raced through the darkened halls, her bunny slippers smacking the castle floors, thoughts of insanity and white-robed psychiatrists danced around in her head like drunken house-elves. Wondering whether or not house-elves even did get drunk, she forgot to look where she was going and ran into someone with a satisfying 'thump.'

"Miss Granger?" a familiar voice inquired.

It was as if her dream was happening before her eyes. She was lying on top of Professor Snape.

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A/N: Short chapter and cliffie! I'm sorry, guys. Reviews? Was I bad? Is this going well?
-J. McN.