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 Four

After their second evening together in the Library, Hermione and Severus soon began spending their mornings together. And after about two weeks, the pair established a sort of routine.

Severus tended to awake first, unless he had been up late the night before working on an experiment. It was established, though, that whoever awoke first would make the coffee. This morning was no different from the others, and when Hermione ambled into the kitchen, she was not surprised to see Severus sitting at the kitchen table with Harry's blue monogrammed mug in one hand and his copy of the Prophet in the other.

"Good morning, Severus," Hermione said as she walked past the table where he sat to the kitchen counter.

"Hermione," he said in acknowledgement.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked as she poured coffee into her mug, which Severus had thoughtfully set out for her.

"Tolerably," he replied.

She smiled at him, though he did not see it as his nose was buried in the paper. She sat across from him at the table, and took a sip of her coffee. "Any good news?"

He cleared his throat. "Yes, I suppose. But not in the paper."

"Not in the paper?" Hermione echoed.

"Indeed," he replied, folding the paper closed and setting it down on the table. He picked up a piece of parchment that had been lying nearby. "Albus wrote me. It seems that the prodigal sons are returning."

Hermione grinned at this news. "When?"

Severus sighed and frowned. Hermione waited; he had a tendency to be a bit dramatic when giving information. "Today, apparently."

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "That's wonderful news!"

"Most wonderful," Severus said dryly, but made no effort to hide the amused smirk on his face.

"You know you've missed them both," Hermione teased.

"Yes," he nodded. "I am quite looking forward to having people around to cook my eggs for me."

Hermione laughed. "Oh, Severus," she sighed.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he asked, smiling at her.

She smiled back. "Our mornings will never again be peaceful, you know."

"I know," he said and sighed. "I will mourn the loss."

"We'll have to find another time of day to reserve for quiet and for intelligent conversation," she said.

He raised an eyebrow. "When exactly do we have intelligent conversation, Hermione?"

"Severus!" she exclaimed, in mock exasperation. "Fine, I'll clarify. We'll have to reserve another time for conversation that does not consist of quidditch, food, quidditch, Pansy Parkinson's lovely breasts, oh and did I happen to mention quidditch?"

"Mmm, yes, might have done," Snape replied, grinning at her.

Hermione felt herself blushing at his tone and at that smile. During their mornings together, Hermione had discovered that Severus Snape had many different smiles. This particular smile always made her blush and feel incredibly attractive. In truth, she very much liked it.

"Um," she began, clearing her throat as she realized he was staring at her. "Did the headmaster say what time they would be arriving?"

Severus must have realized this as well, for his gaze suddenly dropped down to inspect the surface of the table. "Sometime this afternoon, I believe," Severus replied with a frown.

"Oh don't look so upset, Severus. They aren't that bad," Hermione said.

"What?" he said, looking up at her quizzically.

"You frowned when you told me when they were coming back," Hermione explained, smiling at him. "Subconscious reaction?"

"Um, no…that is to say…" he trailed off and sighed, looking rather uncomfortable. "What are your plans for today?"

She raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change of subject, but did not question it. "I don't know, now. Make sure their rooms are ready, I suppose, and then maybe do a bit of reading. What about you?"

He shrugged, still looking away from her. "I suppose I will do some work in my lab."

"You don't sound terribly enthusiastic about the idea," Hermione observed.

He shrugged again and seemed to refuse to look at her. "I'm feeling a bit off, today."

Hermione felt a pang of concern instantly manifest in her chest. "Well, maybe you should just rest, then. Take a nap or you could come read in the library with me."

His eyes shot up to meet hers, bright at first but dimming almost immediately. "Yes, perhaps."

Hermione gave him her best encouraging smile, the one she'd used on Neville in many of Severus's classes, and reached over to pat his hand lightly. "Maybe I'll see you later, then," she said as she rose from the table.

"Maybe," she heard him echo as she walked out of the room.

After quickly straightening up the boys' rooms, Hermione headed down to the library. She accioed a few books off of the shelves, and settled herself upon the couch that Snape had slept on a few weeks earlier. She had been reading for about two hours when she took a break to stand up and stretch.

When Severus walked into the library, he raised an eyebrow as he looked at her standing there with her arms extended above her head. "What are you doing, Miss Granger?"

"Stretching," she replied, bringing her arms down. "I have to stretch occasionally when I read."

"I see," Snape replied, smirking.

Hermione smiled at him and settled herself back on the couch, watching as he walked from the doorway and seated himself on the opposite end of the sofa. "So what have you been up to?"

"Experiments," he replied. "And I took your advice and took a bit of a nap."

"Do you feel any better?" she asked.

"Well, a bit. I really just had to collect my thoughts," he paused to sigh. "Anyway, I've come a conclusion."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "A good conclusion or a bad conclusion?"

He shrugged. "The best conclusion, I suppose. The correct one, at least."

"You know," Hermione said, smiling at him, "I would not have imagined that you often have dilemmas when making decisions, Severus Snape. I always thought everything would be very black and white in your world."

"That only shows that you know next to nothing about me, Miss Granger," he replied with a frown. "But often, yes things are very clear cut for me as I do not tend to allow my emotions to get in the way of my decision making."

Hermione frowned. "Were your emotions involved in this decision?"

"Yes," he sighed, "I'm afraid they were. In fact, they seemed to want to be the driving force in this decision, but I could not let them be."

Hermione did not know if she was pressing for too much information. She knew that Severus was a rather private individual. Well, rather a very private individual and she did not want to make him feel uncomfortable by her pursuing the subject. She decided to push on, though, knowing that if he no longer wanted to discuss the matter, he would simply say so. "Why not?"

"Because, Miss Granger," he began, looking at her so earnestly that Hermione could not help but feel he was trying to convey a message with his gaze, "My emotions were leading me down a path that would make me quite happy, I believe, but it is a path that is forbidden to me."

Hermione froze suddenly understanding. "Why?"

He sighed. "It's an immoral path. Not to mention, it is an illegal one."

She could feel her heart start to pound, and ignored the urge to begin screaming at him. Didn't he see how ridiculous this was? Why was he even tempted? The dark arts did have a certain allure, she was sure, and she supposed that leaving Voldemort's side completely would be rather difficult. She had been certain, though, so certain that Snape had left the dark side for good. And now, here he was practically confessing to her that he was tempted to go back to the Dark Lord.

"Well," she said, trying not to sound like she was about to lecture him. "You will have to be strong, Severus, and remind yourself each day what is for the best and whose side is the best," she said, hoping he would understand that she knew what he was trying to say.

He gave her a very confused look. "Right."

"Oi, Harry!" a loud voice said suddenly from the doorway, "They're here in the library!" Hermione turned her gaze from Severus to look to the doorway and saw Ron strolling in, looking tan and very happy. "So," he said grinning at the two of them as he spread his arms open, "Did you miss me?"

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, launching herself off of the couch and into his arms. "It's so good to see you!"

"You too, Hermione," he said, pushing her back. "Do you like my tan? Isn't it great? I've never gotten so dark in my life. Usually it's just freckles, you know, but this time I actually got tan!"

"Yes," she said, laughing. "It's beautiful, Ron."

"What do you think, Professor?" Ron asked, turning to where Snape still sat on the couch.

Severus sneered. "It's magnificent, Weasley."

Ron grinned back at him. "Oh thanks, Professor."

Snape grunted in reply.

"Talkative as ever, Professor?" Harry said as he walked into the room.

"Indeed," Snape said to Harry.

"Oh, now you leave Severus alone, Harry," Hermione said, placing her hands on her hips. "He's not feeling very well today."

Ron and Harry exchanged a look of surprise. "All right," said Ron, giving his evil grin to Hermione before turning to look at the professor. "Harry's awfully sorry," he paused, the grin growing, "Severus."

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, glancing quickly at Severus. He did not say a word; he simply narrowed his eyes and gave Ron a look that could only be described as sinister.

"What?" said Ron, looking from Snape to Hermione and continuing to grin at them. "I was only teasing. So what do you two think of Harry's tan? Nowhere near as good as mine, right?"

Hermione was distracted from her friends when she saw Severus suddenly stand from the couch. "If you'll excuse me," he said as he frowned and walked past all of them and out of the room.

"Look what you've done!" Hermione said, glaring at Harry and Ron in turn.

"What's it matter?" Ron asked as he walked over and took the seat on the couch Snape had just vacated.

"It matters because Severus is having a rough day and he might have needed some companionship," Hermione said. "And the two of you go and embarrass him!"

"Hermione," Harry said softly as he came to stand next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Snape'll be fine. He probably just couldn't stand looking at me or Ron anymore. Don't worry about him."

"Yeah!" said Ron. "And why are you so concerned about Snape, anyway?"

Hermione shrugged, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "He said he wasn't feeling well, and he said some things to me…"

"What things?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing and his grip on her shoulder growing tighter.

"Oh, um…" Hermione didn't know whether or not she should tell them her suspicions. Now it seemed like she may have been overreacting, but that look and his words…

"Listen, Hermione," said Ron from the couch. "We're not totally dense. We've seen the way he looks at you."

"Right," said Harry, "and if he's laid one hand on you, we'll throw him right out of here. Even if the Headmaster wants him to stay here, Snape has to stay in line if he's to be welcome in my home."

She felt her eyebrows rise. "What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, staring at them.

"Snape," said Ron, "and what he said to you."

"Oh, it wasn't anything like that!" Hermione exclaimed, catching on. "He just said some things about his emotions leading him down an immoral and illegal path, and he said that he'd come a decision to not go down that path."

"Right," said Harry, "not to go down the path that leads to you."

"Duh," said Ron, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Hermione, I thought you were supposed to be the clever one."

"What?" Hermione said. "No, you two are wrong. He can't possibly….I mean, look at me and then of course he's an adult and…" She trailed off as images from past few weeks suddenly flooded her mind. There were snippets of conversations over coffee, smiles in the library, her mug set out for her in the morning, and those looks, the ones that seemed to be desperately trying to convey something to her. Something he could not say aloud.

"Oh," said Hermione as the truth suddenly hit her. "Oh, dear."

"Well," began Ron, "it's too bad we aren't in school anymore. This really could have been good for our marks."

"Ron!" Hermione and Harry yelled at the same time.

"What?" he replied, holding up his arm to inspect it. "Would you take a look at this tan…"

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. "Listen, Hermione, you just need to be careful. If Snape does fancy you, you don't want to lead him on. It would only hurt him in the end. I mean, being his friend is all right. He could certainly use a friend, but you don't want to get too close to him. It's just not safe."

"Not safe?" Hermione echoed, suddenly and inexplicably growing angry. "Not safe? Harry, are you mad? If I was worried at all about whether or not being someone's friend was safe, I would have avoided you like the plague. But I didn't, did I? Some friendships are worth the effort, Harry, no matter what the cost. I'll continue to be Severus's friend whether it's safe or not.

"You don't know how refreshing it is to have someone to talk about something other than quidditch and women. You have no idea how much I value the friendship I've developed with Severus. I mean, sure, it's a bit tense sometimes. He has that tendency to be an absolute bastard. And, sometimes I hate him, but other times I don't. And that's all right. It's all right, Harry, because when we don't hate each other, Severus and I get on really well." She paused to take a deep breath, realizing both of her friends were gawking at her, but not really caring. "And that's what's important."

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed in a scandalized tone. "You fancy Professor Snape?!"

"Did I say that Ron!? Did I bloody well say that I fancy him!?" Hermione yelled at her friend as she completely lost her temper.

He shook his head slowly. "No, but…"

Hermione took a deep breath and attempted to regain control over her emotions. "But what Ron? I said I didn't hate him, and that's exactly what I meant," she said, no longer yelling. "Now look you two, I am sorry for yelling at you, but you had to hear me out. Now, could we please just let it rest?"

"Sure, Hermione," Harry said quickly, taking a step towards her. "We didn't mean to upset you. I mean, we were happy without Snape, and I want us to be happy again when he leaves. We just want to be sure that you were happy with the way things were before he moved in."

Hermione sighed and looked at her two best friends, giving them the brightest smile she could manage. "I am. Really, I am."

They smiled back, believing that she was truly happy with the prospect of living without Snape. She only wished she could believe it, too.