Disclaimer: same old, same old.

Chapter Eight

Hermione chose to ignore Severus's presence in the laboratory, and instead busied herself with laying out her ingredients exactly as she liked them.

It wasn't important. She knew that a real Dark Princess probably should not really be bothered if her bottles were not in alphabetical order, colour coded by potency and always dust free and shining.

But then, she also knew that her father wanted her to spend more time with 'the people', and not pore over books all day.

Hermione, however, had always come to the conclusion that she could affort to take liberties. It did not appear that anyone but her father had the power to change her, and he certainly was not about to make any changes soon.

Severus stood over Hermione, watching her trying to stop herself watching him. Brown eyes flickered back and forth quickly under long lashes as elegant hands fiddled with the bottles.

He watched, hypnotised, as she completed her work.

Hermione looked up, saw the man watching her, and was immediately put on the defensive. She hated it when he did this- people rarely managed to make her nervous. It appeared that Severus was the exception to this rule. He was not a huge talker- he just watched.

All the time.

"Hermione," he started, "I would like to thank you for saving me earlier."

"I don't want to talk about it. It means nothing."

"Why?"

The brown eyes hardened, and she frowned at him.

"I don't know what came over me. I have no idea why you were arguing with Draco, and nor do I want to, but I should have let him punish you. I'm just not myself today. It will pass."

"What is 'yourself'?"

Hermione froze. "'Myself'," she said slowly, "is a 'spoiled princess used to getting her own way', as you said yourself. This is just an off day. It won't happen again, I assure you."

Severus had no immediate answer to this statement. He stood by her side, and they began to add the ingredients to the potions. Once complete, they set it to simmer.

"You're not, you know," he finally said.

Hermione looked away from the simmering potion.

It was an entrancing sight- such a pale blue that it was nearly silver, light reflecting out of the tiny shards of crystal that had been added to it earlier.

A potion that could bring slow, agonising death.

Beautiful but intrinsically evil.

It was what Hermione liked to believe she was.

It was what Severus knew that she was not.

"Not what?"

Severus shook his head.

Hermione knew exactly what he was talking about. Still, he felt that he could lose nothing by telling her anyway.

"No matter how much you want to believe it, you are not a bad person. I know you think you are, but that will pass, and one day you will see..."

Although Hermione was hiding it flawlessly, she was boiling with anger inside.

How dare he do this to her? Was she not suffering enough?

"Tell me, Severus," she purred, "who I am."

He paused, appearing to have one of the internal debates that she so hated, then began to talk quickly and quietly.

Hermione listened in horror as he described the good person that he thought she was.

She outwardly shuddered as he told her of the sacrifices she had been willing to make for the people he said that she had loved, but knew that for her father, for Draco, maybe even for Severus when she came down to it, she would do exactly the same.

When Severus told her of her 'muggle background', Hermione laughed at him outright, but when he reminded her of all of the muggle ideas she had utilised in the design of her quarters, she was forced to fall silent.

Hermione was surprised at the extent of the love that everyone in the world that he believed her to have lived in had for her.

She was flattered at the respect that Severus said that everyone had.

She was jealous of the honest, undemanding affection that this false Hermione had clearly been showered with.

Overall, Hermione decided, she would not have minded living in this fictional world. Never mind that should she believe Severus, she would probably be killed by all these people in the middle of a trap set up especially for her....

It was always nice to dream.

Hermione suddenly noticed that the deep, silky voice had fallen silent.

Severus was looking at her expectantly. As she looked into his eyes, she saw not a trace of the fear that she was always hoping to inspire in him. All that she could find was... pity. Pity and affection.

This was not good. Not good at all. She needed to find a way out, make him see who she was, what she was....

She needed time.

"Severus," Hermione said softly. "You have not told me how you felt at me before this... change. What did you think of this Hermione you thought you knew?"

The man appeared to freeze.

He looked down at his hands, the fingers of which were knotted in a similar way to how her own had been earlier.

She could feel how tense he was from where she was standing, just a step away.

And suddenly, it all fell away. His shoulders slumped, and he let out a quiet sigh.

"As you were before? I respected you. I liked you, even as I hated your interminable friends. I..." he trailed off. She looked at him expectantly. "I didn't think they deserved you. Thought what a waste it would be if... if something like this happened... and you never knew..."

Severus stopped abruptly. He looked at her quickly, but as she met his eyes, he looked away again.

Hermione knew that Severus was not really making literal sense, but the little voice of reason inside her informed her exactly what he was trying to convey.

She was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea. Hermione drew herself up, and slowly closed the distance between her teacher and herself.

Severus looked up as she drew nearer to him. His eyes widened as the space between them shrank, but made no attempt to move away.

As Hermione looked up at him, she saw an affection that she had not seen for such a long time. It was less demanding than the affection she received from her father, more earnest than what she got from Draco. It was something quite different...

Something inside her told her not to carry out her plan, to let it go and not ruin what could be.

As usual, Hermione pushed it away and leant in to kiss the man that had frozen before her.

For a second, she thought that he was not going to respond, that he would shun her.

Just before Hermione was about to pull away, however, Severus appeared to come to his senses. He wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss, and she returned it eagerly.

As Severus picked her up and carried her out of the laboratory into his chambers, Hermione fought to remind herself that this was all an act, and that she felt nothing for the man that clearly felt so strongly for her.

As he whispered to her how much he loved her, and the life that they could live together, she repeated over and over in her head how it could never be.

Finally, Hermione decided to forget the act, the plan, the darkness. All that mattered was here and now.

Uh, I hate to tell you guys, but I don't write smut scenes. The next chapter is going to cut right to the morning after. If you want a smut scene, the go to the PWP section for a chapter! And yes, I know, Voldie and his dastardly plan made no appearance in this chap. And it was very short. Sorry!

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