Disclaimer: The characters, settings, etc. of the Harry Potter series are not mine. I just play with them.

A Summer at 12 Grimmauld Place
Part Three

Hermione was surprised to find her first week of Snape sitting pass rather quickly. The day she had spoken with the Headmaster had gone on to be fairly uneventful. She'd spent much of it in her room, of course, and had only headed downstairs when she heard the boys return.

Dinner that night had gone on without a hitch. Harry and Ron were more than capable of keeping the conversation going with minimum input from her and Snape. In fact, she and Snape only seemed to have to speak one or two sentences the entire evening, for the boys were very enthusiastic about their upcoming work for the Order.

"It's top secret work," Ron said, his excitement obvious. "I can't believe out first assignment with the Order is to…"

"Ron," Harry would interrupt, telling him to shut up through the gravity of his tone. It went on for all of dinner. In Hermione's count, by dessert Ron had almost given away the secret thirteen times.

That night the boys packed what they'd need for the next few weeks, and tried to cheer Hermione up as best they could. Ron told her to be brave, but echoed the Headmaster's sentiments that Snape was nothing she couldn't handle. Harry was more comforting, promising to check in on her at least once a week.

The next morning they stood in the living room after breakfast and said their good byes. Hermione was struck by the realization that she was going to miss them very much. "I don't know why," she said as Ron pulled her into a tight embrace, "but I am really sad to see you go."

"'Course you are," Ron mumbled into her hair. "We'd feel the same way if we had to spend the next few weeks alone with that greasy git."

"Don't make the situation worse, Ron," Harry said from beside them. "Honestly Hermione, I doubt you'll even notice that Snape is around. You know he likes to make himself scarce. I'm sure he'll spend most of the time holed up in his room." He paused when Ron released Hermione and pulled her into his arms. "Anyway," he continued as he held Hermione, "I gave him permission to use one of the spare rooms as a potions lab. So, I'm fairly certain you won't see him at all, really."

Hermione sniffled against her best friend's chest. For some reason, the prospect of not seeing Snape at all made her feel worse, not better. "It'll all be fine," she said against Harry's chest.

"That's right," Harry said softly, planting a light kiss on the top of her head as he stepped out of the hug. "Everything will be fine."

Hermione smiled up at Harry. "All right," said Ron, "Let's get going. No use standing around."

"Right," said Harry, picking up his luggage. "See you later, Hermione," he said and disappeared with a gentle pop.

"All right, Hermione," said Ron. "You take care, and don't let Snape use my mug, all right? The git might break it on purpose or something."

"Ok, Ron," Hermione nodded, grinning at him. He smiled back before disapparating with a pop much louder than Harry's.

And so, Hermione Granger found herself to be standing in the living room of 12 Grimmauld Place feeling more alone than she had in her entire life. She spent the rest of the day busying herself as best she could. She started out by cleaning the kitchen, and after only a short time, found every inch of it spotless and shiny. She moved onto the living room. She vacuumed the carpet and dusted the furniture. Next came Harry and Ron's bedrooms. Ron had again left his bed unmade. Hermione stripped both of the boys' beds, though, and remade them with fresh sheets. Though she didn't know exactly when they'd be returning, she thought they might appreciate the effort.

She spent most of the afternoon cleaning the bathroom the boys shared. With enough bleach to burn her lungs and about four consecutive hours of work, Hermione finally cleaned the bathroom to the point that she was certain no alien life forms were breeding in the corners.

By the time she'd finished, it was time for supper. She walked through the silent house to the kitchen, and was not surprised to see no sign of Snape when she entered the empty room.

After making herself a sandwich and pouring a tall glass of pumpkin juice, Hermione settled herself at the table. She was looking at the copy of The Daily Prophet someone had left there when she suddenly felt uneasy. She hadn't seen Snape once the entire day. For all she knew, he could have left sometime in the middle of the night.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was concerned. What if he had left, despite being ordered to remain where he was? Dumbledore couldn't put an electric fence around the house to keep Snape in like a dog, could he?

It wasn't that she wouldn't mind if he had snuck out and ended up being caught by a member of the Order. In fact it might be kind of funny. She could just see Dumbledore scolding Snape as if he were a first year. She might take some pleasure in seeing that.

But what if it wasn't a member of the Order who found him? What if a Death Eater found him first? Snape would be dead and who would be to blame? Well, apart from the Death Eater who did it, Hermione supposed Snape would be. He was the one who would have left despite being told to stay put. It would be his own fault.

Though, she would feel guilty if he turned up dead. She knew she would. She was partially responsible for Snape now. Albus Dumbledore had asked her to stay with him, and while the request was simple, she knew the implied one to be of greater importance. Dumbledore had asked her to take care of Snape, and if he died, she would have failed.

Hermione Granger did not like failing.

She pushed her half-eaten sandwich away from her and took a gulp of pumpkin juice. Just because she had not seen Snape did not mean he wasn't in the house. It was just like Harry had said, Snape liked to make himself scarce. And if Harry had given him a lab, then there was no reason for him to come out at all, was there?

She decided that she wouldn't worry until there was reason to do so. If she didn't see him in two days, then she'd go looking for him. Until then, she'd leave him to his own devices and hope he was quite happy.

For three nights since the arrival of her former professor, Hermione had been able to fall asleep with little trouble. On the fourth night, however, her insomnia returned with a vengeance.

She again tried everything. There was the usual sheep counting and the daydreaming. She'd even tried pacing around her room, but all that did was cause her to become even more alert and definitely did not tire her out. Finally, she gave up and left her room.

As she walked through the hallways, Hermione found the quiet to be rather disturbing. Usually, as she crept through the halls of the headquarters, it was to the rhythm of Ron's snoring. Ron snored very loudly, and never seemed to remember to close his door or place a silencing charm when he went to bed .

The first night she'd spent there, she was surprised to see that Harry kept his door open despite the noise. She supposed, though, that after seven years of sharing a dormitory, Harry had probably grown accustomed to Ron's snoring and might even miss it when it was gone.

However, there was no noisy snoring now. There was only the soft padding of her bare feet on the floor as she made her way through the house. She stopped by the kitchen to get her warm cup of milk before continuing on to the library.

When she opened the door to the library, the first thing she noticed was that the lights were already lit. And when she stepped into the room, she noticed something else. Severus Snape sat in her chair, at her table, and was slumped over a book, fast asleep.

She imagined if it were someone like Ron, she might think it cute. Actually, if it were Ron, she would think it more amazing than anything else. She was fairly certain Ron had never once set foot in the library in his entire stay in this house.

But that was unimportant. She supposed that if it were Ron or Harry or someone else she liked slumped over a book and sleeping peacefully at her table, she might find the situation charming. As it was, with Snape sleeping there, she found that she was just annoyed.

Hermione crossed over to the table and sat down in the chair opposite his, setting her cup of milk onto the table with a decided thunk. She was happy to see Snape lift his head immediately.

"Miss Granger?" he said, his voice groggy.

"Good evening, Professor," Hermione replied. "Or should I say good morning. I think it's just after midnight now."

"What?" Snape said, sitting upright and staring at her.

Hermione was surprised when he struck her as attractive. When he wasn't scowling, he could be said to be rather handsome. "It's just after midnight, Professor. You must have fallen asleep earlier on this evening."

"Indeed," Snape said as he ran a hand across his forehead.

"Where have you been, by the way? " Hermione asked, keeping her eyes on her milk.

"What do you mean, Miss Granger? I've been here, obviously." Snape replied, his voice regaining its usual sardonic overtones.

"Well," said Hermione, glancing up at him, "I haven't seen you since we all had dinner together the day before yesterday. I've been worried about you."

Snape shrugged, though his eyes were narrowed suspiciously. "I've been working, Miss Granger. Keeping busy so that I don't go mad."

"Oh," she said. "I see."

"What have you been doing?" he asked.

It was her turn to shrug, doing her best not to wonder why he cared. "Cleaning, mostly. I did a bit of reading yesterday, but nothing other than that really."

He nodded. "The headmaster didn't assign you some inane task?"

"No," Hermione said, frowning. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason," Snape sighed. "He's just fond of it. A favorite pastime, I think, driving people insane by giving them pointless tasks to complete."

"I see," Hermione replied.

"Mmm," said Snape.

Hermione did her best to ignore the uncomfortable silence that immediately descended upon them. She first focused her attention on her milk, imagining she could watch the heat leaving it slowly. The she turned her gaze to the bookshelves. She wasn't sure which book she'd read tonight, and at the moment, she wasn't exactly sure she was up for much reading. It seemed odd to be reading with someone else in the room and did not think she would be comfortable doing so.

"Tell me, Miss Granger," said Snape, distracting her from her thoughts. "Why didn't you go with your friends?"

Hermione cleared her throat. To tell the truth or not? It was quite the dilemma. "I was asked not to leave headquarters, sir," she said. It was a half truth, and hopefully that would be enough.

"Ah," he said, nodding. "They kept you here to watch me."

"Oh, I doubt that," she responded quickly. "They know you're perfectly capable of watching over yourself."

"Yes, but they don't want me getting depressed like Black did."

Hermione sighed. "No, I doubt the Headmaster would want that."

Snape raised an eyebrow and seemed to inspect her face for a moment. "Miss Granger," he said softly, "may I ask you a personal question?"

"Um, yes," she replied, "yes, all right." What would he ask her? Oh, goodness, what if he confronted her about stealing from his stores in second year? She supposed she could tell him the truth; he couldn't have her expelled now. Though, he could still become very angry.

"Which one of your housemates are you currently involved with? Weasley or Potter?" he asked, staring at her from across the table.

Hermione felt her cheeks turn red. She certainly hadn't been expecting that question. "Neither, sir."

"Oh come now, Miss Granger. You can't honestly expect me to believe that. You must be romantically attached to one of them."

"But, I'm not, sir. I'm not at all," she said, still blushing.

"Hmm," said Snape, sitting back in his seat and watching her carefully. "Why not?"

Hermione sighed. She hated explaining this to people. "Harry and Ron are like brothers to me. My feelings towards them are very much platonic. In our sixth year, Ron and I tried dating, but it just didn't work out. There wasn't anything there. He kissed me and there was nothing," she paused and shrugged. "Just nothing."

"Well, what did you expect would happen?" he asked, leaning forward slightly in his seat.

"Oh I don't know," Hermione said and felt her cheeks reddening again. This was not a conversation she ever expected to have with Severus Snape. "Something more, maybe. At least some surge of feeling, whether it be disgust or joy or I don't know. I just thought I might feel something instead of nothing."

It was slightly disconcerting when Snape just watched her instead of saying anything. After a few moments of being silently observed, Hermione cleared her throat. "Can you please stop staring at me like that, Professor?"

Snape blinked. He opened his mouth and then shut it. A few moments later he opened it again. "I'm not your professor anymore, Miss Granger."

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Hermione said.

"Do you think," Snape began, looking away from her and clearing his throat. "Do you think you might call me Severus?"

Hermione's jaw dropped before she even had time to think about it. She watched the man who sat across from her in a stunned silence as he lifted his eyes quickly to her face, then again averted his gaze as a blush rose on his cheeks.

"Why?" she asked, softly. Why on earth would he ask her to do such a thing? The headmaster had warned her that Snape might be a bit nasty in this situation, but apparently he had been very wrong. She never would have thought Snape to be the kind of man to make the best of poor circumstances, but here he was, practically asking her to be his friend.

He shrugged, but she noticed that the blush on his cheeks deepened. "When one considers the intimacy of our situation, Miss Granger, it makes sense that we call each other by our first names. I think that when people live together they often refer to each other in that way."

She smiled. "So when Harry and Ron come back you'll be calling them by their first names, too?"

Snape looked up at her and scowled, the flush fleeing from his cheeks. "I most certainly will not!"

She laughed in response. "But you will call me Hermione, won't you," she paused to grin at him, "Severus?"

He blushed again. "Yes," he replied quietly, "Hermione."

Though she wasn't quite sure why, Hermione simply laughed at this, and was quite pleased to see Severus grin back at her sheepishly.

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading, and thank you so very much for all of the kind reviews I have received. Your words are very encouraging. I'm happy to report that the story has been finished, and now just needs to be tweaked and edited. So, I should be posting updates fairly regularly, in case you are interested. Thanks again!