Albus pulled Harry and Hermione aside as soon as she returned, and they went back to Arthur's office, where they were joined by Arthur and Molly.
"You gave us quite a scare," he began as he leaned against the desk before them, his arms crossed, fingers twirling his white beard, his blue eyes lingering on Harry. "Would either of you care to explain?"
He shrugged. "I had to tell her about Draco and that potion, then I took her to my flat in Bucharest. We started talking and just lost track of time."
"I didn't realize we had been gone as long as we had. It felt like we were gone only a few hours," Hermione added.
Dumbledore glanced over to her, his eyebrows raising. "Indeed," he said, his eyes slipping back to Harry. "It would appear as if everything is in order, unless either of you has anything more to say."
"There isn't anything more," Hermione said, and Harry agreed.
"Well then, I believe we are finished."
"Harry, dear, Hermione, come on to the kitchen, you must be starving," Molly said.
"Ravenous!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. She followed Molly and Arthur from the room, but Harry waited behind, his eyes never leaving Albus's.
"I hope you shall use more discretion, Mr. Potter, in the future." He frowned and his manner grew stern. "I do not like to see my teachers obliviated."
"I didn't obliviate her," he answered, throwing his hands up in defense. "We just talked."
"Of course."
It became a battle of wills, Harry's brilliant green eyes against Dumbledore's blue, and Harry knew the old man knew, but that made him all the more stubborn. But Albus relented first, sighing, and looked down at his time-worn hands.
"I don't know about you, Harry, but I'm famished, and the only cook better than the Hogwarts elves is Molly Weasley. Shall we join the others?"
Christmas Day went by quickly, with presents and food, new practical jokes from the twins, quidditch talk, Molly pressing teeming plates of food upon them, pick-up quidditch games, more quidditch talk. Suddenly, it was midnight, no longer Christmas, and she and Ginny sat up for over an hour talking. Hermione finally turned off the light when Ginny started dozing off during her own sentences.
She woke up early the next morning, pulled on her jeans and new Weasley sweater and gathered her things. Molly guilted her into eating breakfast with the rest of the family -- Harry and the twins had already left, Harry to go back to Romania and the twins to London -- but she was glad to stay, if only for a bit longer. She sat with Ron and Ginny, talked more about quidditch and agreed to go see the Chudley Cannons play this season, as long as Ginny supplied the tickets.
Just a few minutes before nine, Arthur deposited his plate in the sink and kissed his wife and daughter goodbye, then left for the Ministry. Ron's chair scraped the floor as he pushed back, standing to take his plate to the sink, and Hermione followed him.
"I need to get to the office as well," Ron said. "I've got paperwork to catch up on."
"Are you coming back tonight, dear?" Molly asked, her voice hopeful.
"Mum, you know I stay in town during the week."
"But it's so silly, you throwing money away on rent for that dingy flat when you could apparate back and forth to work everyday just like your father does. Besides, I don't see how you can stand to live there, it's so -- so dark and depressing."
"Right, mum. I'll be over for dinner, but that's it," Ron said firmly.
"I had better be going as well," Hermione said.
"Did you get everything, dear? If not, we can always owl it to you, or even send Ron out to Hogwarts in a pinch," Molly twittered as she came around the table to hug her. "You're always welcome here if you need a weekend away."
"Thanks, Molly."
She hugged all the Weasleys, waited as Ron kissed his mother goodbye, and they walked outside into the ankle-deep snow.
"So everything's alright with Harry, then?" he asked.
"Alright. Got everything all sorted out."
"So he's really out in Romania?"
She nodded. "So it would seem." They stopped in the middle of the walk, facing each other. "So how's your arm doing?"
"My arm?"
"You know, the crazy witch--"
Ron's eyes lit up as he remembered. "Oh, her, yeah. It's alright now, went away on its own after a month, didn't have to do anything really."
"That's good."
"But I am considering what you said about tattoos, though. I mean, how many wizards do you know with tattoos?"
"Not many," she answered with a wry smile. "But don't tell your mom. If you thought she didn't like Bill's earring…."
"Yeah, I guess you're right about that," he said, his face dropping, until he perked up, his eyes shining, "but then maybe she'd quit pestering me about moving home. You know, this could be one of your better ideas, 'Mione!" He grinned and hugged her. "Better get on to work, you know, the exciting life of being an auror."
"Yeah, rub it in," she said, rolling her eyes. "Be careful."
He mockingly saluted her and disappeared. Closing her eyes, she smiled and apparated to the outskirts of Hogsmeade. She quickly set off to the castle, wishing that she had arranged for one of the carriages to pick her up.
Pushing through the great oak doors, she stopped in a moment of indecision. She wanted very much to see Severus, to try to talk to him, but she knew that he would still be angry with her, not that she blamed him. She started slowly towards the stairs, then she quickened the pace, veering off towards the dungeons. She told herself she would just check up on the potions, and if he was there, she could maybe try to talk to him and tell him what happened so that he could forgive her for hurting his feelings.
Hermione wondered when she had started caring about Snape's feelings. She stopped outside the door to the laboratory, suddenly remembering how she used to loathed him, but over the months of working with him, she had grown to respect, even esteem, him. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door, but the room was dark and empty.
She reached for her wand to light the candles in the room, when she noticed the faint glow of embers in the fireplace, but the room was warm, warmer than it should be for having no fire. As if he was here and left just before she arrived, extinguished the fire, as if he had never been there.
She lit the candles then checked on the potions. Her Veritaserum was still under a stasis spell so that it would keep for her seventh years. She crossed to the mortalis fallax, surprised to see it bubbling a greenish-black. It had been bright yellow before they left.
Hermione grabbed Severus's notebook from the table beside the potion, flipping through pages until she found what she wanted.
26 Dec 9:29 am
Added grd Egypt beetles, color is
He was just here! How had he known she was on her way to the dungeons? He left mid-sentence, his precious notes left unfinished, just moments before she had opened the door, and her heart fell, recognizing finally that she had come here not for the potions, but for him.
She picked up the quill that had been dropped haphazardly on the table and bent over the notebook, pulling her hair back with her free hand..
26 Dec 9:33 am
Color is greenish-black, on schedule
She set the quill down beside the notebook, leaving it open to the page.
Days later, Hermione still had yet to see Severus. He never came up from his dungeons for meals, never even left the dungeons according to the Marauder's Map. But he was avoiding her, she knew it. If he was in the laboratory working, he would be gone by the time she got there. She didn't know how he knew, but he wasn't being subtle about avoiding her.
She spent the days since her return going over her lesson plans for the spring term, spending a good deal of time on her fifth year classes to help prepare them for their O.W.L.S. Tired of working, she stretched her arms and looked out the window of her office, on the North side of the castle, which afforded only an unspectacular view of the edge of the Forbidden Forest, overshadowed by gray pillows of clouds that threatened more snow on that particular afternoon.
Her thoughts turned to Severus for the millionth time and she scowled. He was acting like a child by avoiding her, as if not speaking to her would resolve anything, except make the eventual conflict worse. She desperately wished that Albus would magically drop by with his infinite wit and wisdom so that he could impart some piece of information that would help her understand everything.
It occurred to her that perhaps he had put a spell on the stairs to the dungeons that alerted him if she approached, but he would have to walk past her to get back to his office and his quarters. Unless there was another way, a shortcut she had not noticed before. She pulled the Map out of the top desk drawer and spread it open, tapping the parchment with her wand, whispering the words, and the entirety of Hogwarts appeared. She trained her eyes to the dungeons, a grim smile forming when the figure Severus Snape was moving from his quarters to the laboratory.
She jumped up, grabbing her robes as she hurried out the door, double-checked the Map then shoved it in the pocket of her robes, hastening down the corridor. She slowed as she approached the second floor, since Filch's name had been lurking about on the Marauder's Map when she saw it last, and sure enough, Filch mopped at a great puddle of water surrounding the melting remnants of a snowman, complete with corncob pipe.
To her own dismay, Hermione felt obligated to offer assistance, but Filch waved her on, mumbling under his breath about "unruly students" and "lack of discipline" and "real punishment," and she hid the grin, her pace quickening as she rounded the corner. She finally slowed when she reached the marble staircase and descended to the main floor.
She found Severus on the Map, still in the laboratory, and she started towards the stairs, eyes trained on him, slowly pulling her wand. She started down, watching the Map, each step slow and deliberate, so she could find out exactly where the spell was located, but she began to wonder if she was all wrong about there being a spell as she neared the dungeon floor. Suddenly, her foot touched the next to last step, and the tiny figure of Severus Snape jumped up and moved to the far wall and disappeared into -- the ground! At least, the ground according to the Map, but his name continued to bob along even though she couldn't see him.
Must've been a corridor Fred and George never found, she mused.
As quickly as he disappeared, he reappeared in his own quarters. She would have to ask someone about this, someone who knew the castle very well. Not Dumbledore, because she didn't want him to know more than he'd already figured out, nor Filch because he would tattle to Snape. She'd have to think about that one.
She turned back to the second step, and pointed her wand around, her lips barely moving.
"Comperio invisus."
It took a moment, but she found it, a mirror that hung beside her, complete with enchantment. After a moment, she realized it would be very difficult to trick that spell to let her pass, as well as not alerting him to her tampering with his spell. She put away her wand and went back up the stairs, her brain already fashioning a plan.
Hours later, Hermione had figured out her best course of action. A quick chat with Dobby had supplied information about the mysterious hallway in the dungeons, as well as the entrance to it from the kitchens. Returning upstairs, she had an idea, and she pulled a quill and a piece of parchment from her robes and scrawled a note. She hurried to the owlery, where she found a barn owl to deliver her message.
She returned to the entrance to the dungeons, withdrawing her wand as she approached the second step. She murmured, her words echoing in the enclosed space. After she finished, she stepped back, pulling out the Map from her pocket to make sure Severus was in the laboratory. She had been unable to find a way to disable the spell he had placed, but she thought she could change just a bit without alerting him, or so she hoped. She would find out soon enough.
She went to the kitchens, thanking the elves who greeted her with loaded plates while trying to explain she wasn't there for food. She went to a door on one side of the kitchens, opening the door to reveal a storeroom. Undaunted, she closed the door, tapped the knob three times with her wand, and opened it again, grinning as candles flickered to life, revealing a dank corridor, moss growing on the stone floor, the air languid and oppressive.
Hermione cautiously shut the door behind her and turned to the left, towards the laboratory and his quarters, while she wondered what lay in the other direction. She would try to remember to chart this entire corridor later so that she could add it to the Map.
She eased down the hallway, stepping over the patches of moss cautiously. She slowed as she neared a door, the door to the lab, according to the Map, since her name floated beside the room. Severus was still there, reading by the fire, it would seem.
A week ago, I would have been in there, reading with him.
Her eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed. She missed reading in silence with him, missed watching him move about the potions, his quick intellect offering her a challenge, his sharp wit and dry humor.
I miss … him, she realized. Gods, I miss Severus Snape. Harry and Ron will never speak to me, ever.
She moved past the door, a bit angry for ever allowing herself to care for Snape. She glanced at her watch in the dim light and quickened her pace, rounding a corner and the heavy oak door that led to Snape's quarters. She watched on the Map as her plan came to fruition.
Eleanor Fawcett trembled slightly as she walked down the staircases towards the dungeons, her long black robes dragged the floor and bore the emblem of Ravenclaw. Her short, eleven-year-old fingers twitched a piece of parchment and she looked at it again.
Ms. Fawcett,
Please visit the dungeons this evening around 8:15 as I have a book on griffins I think you should like. I will be in the room past the potions classroom. If I am not there, the book is on the far right table.
Professor Granger
She quavered at the steps of the dungeons, praying that she wouldn't run into Professor Snape and have to explain her presence in his dungeons while he towered above her and glared. She, like so many students before her, truly feared the Potions Master. With a deep breath, she started down the stairs.
Severus sat in his chair by the fire, reading the latest potions journal. The mortalis fallax potion bubbled gently across the room, unconcerned with the events beginning to unfold. A small bronze bell sat on the table beside him, quiet, until it shot in the air and began jangling urgently.
Scowling, he silenced the bell and shoved it in his pocket. He didn't bother to extinguish the fire, since Hermione no doubt already knew what was happening. Still holding his journal, he moved to the bookshelf on the far wall and reached for the third book on the second shelf, the black spine so worn that the title could no longer be read. As soon as he touched the book, the bookshelf slid to the side and he walked out into the corridor. It was becoming quite tedious, always leaving when she came down to the dungeons, and occasionally caused disruption in the potion, though Hermione was astute enough to finish up whatever he might have been doing.
It had been five days, nearly a week, since the incident at the Burrow, and Severus was growing tired of avoiding her, but neither was he ready to confront her and have to explain his reasons for exploding when she and Potter had returned from their little jaunt. He couldn't continue this once term started because it would be impossible to avoid her entirely.
He sorted through the turmoil of emotions that ran through his head, frowning as he realized that in addition to anger, betrayal, and sadness, he had to add loneliness to the list. Even though he still harbored resentment towards her, he missed her too.
He rounded the corner to his quarters and stopped short when he caught sight of Hermione leaning against the stone, her arms hanging at her sides, her face yellow from the soft candle light, and his mind shut down temporarily as he tried to process everything.
No matter the eventual outcome, Hermione would remember this as a triumph, if only for seeing Severus Snape truly flabbergasted and at loss for words. His mouth opened and closed, then his eyes narrowed and he finally recovered enough to snarl, his voice low and utterly dangerous, "What are you doing?"
"Waiting for you." She crossed her arms and glared at him defiantly, refusing to be intimidated.
He matched her glare. Neither spoke for a time.
She finally broke from his stare, her eyes shifting to the wall beside him as she decided to attempt a neutral avenue. "Did you have any problems with the Belladonna?"
"Of course not."
"Of course not," she echoed with a touch of sarcasm, noting the flash in his eye.
Again they stared in silence, a pair of hippogriffs circling each other warily, watching for an opening for attack.
"Are you going to shun me until summer?" Hermione finally asked, but she didn't wait for his response. "Because if that's the case, then we should make a timetable for the lab so that every time I want to check on the potion, you don't have to run off to your quarters."
"Miss Granger, I do believe that might be your most brilliant idea ever," Severus spat.
"That's Professor Granger!" she snapped, taking a step closer to him, her hands balling into fists at her side. "And if you don't like it, I'd like to hear your suggestion."
"On the contrary, I believe we should put your suggestion to use immediately."
"If I had realized that my presence was so galling to you," Hermione began slowly, never expecting that he would agree to her idea, in fact she had been hoping he would protest, "I never would have assisted you on the potion, from the beginning."
He leaned back against the cold stone wall behind him, crossing his arms against his chest, and he watched her. "It was never my wish that you assist me on the potion."
"Whose was it then? Dumbledore?" When he nodded, she hissed through gritted teeth, "I should have known! I should have known that you would never voluntarily ask for help, least of all from me! In that case, I shall no longer bother you."
She pushed past him, forcing back the tears that were threatening to burst free. Startled, he threw out a hand towards her shoulder, but she brushed it off and continued down the corridor.
"Professor," he called. "I will not chase after you, so if you wish to hear what I am about to say, please wait, Hermione."
She hesitated, grudgingly stopping at the corner, then she half-turned to him. He moved towards her, his black eyes seeking hers, and he held her gaze as he crossed the corridor.
"It is true that it was not my wish for you to help with the potion. That idea belongs solely to Albus. However, in the months you have been assisting me, I have made more progress on the mortalis fallax potion than in the previous two years." He regarded her silently, and she studied the moss on the stone by her left foot. "Regardless of our personal feelings for one another, it is imperative that we continue to work on the potion, not separately, but together, because it is more efficient than passing notes to one another concerning ideas or results."
She glanced up at his face, surprised by the buried compliment in his statement. He must have recognized the surprise, for the corner of his mouth turned up briefly.
"Okay," she mumbled.
They stood in an awkward silence, the kind that follows a fight between new friends. Hermione's brown eyes watched him intently, and he looked away, shifted his weight. As if he was nervous, she thought.
Clearing his throat, Severus said, "The potions are alright for now. I believe I will retire for the evening with my journal. Goodnight."
"I'm sorry I left the Burrow and didn't tell you," she blurted as he turned towards his quarters. His brow furrowed and he stared at her. "I'm sorry I lost track of time and left you there waiting and worrying…. I let you down, I know I did."
She could see his face grow stony, could see him as he pulled away from her, his eyes distancing himself from her, but she refused to let him, and closed the distance between them, placing her hand on his arm.
"Severus, the last few days, I feel as if I've lost my best friend, but that's ridiculous, Ron and Harry are my best friends, and I'd never considered you as anything other than a complete and utter, well, bastard, but even still, I -- I miss talking to you and having intelligent conversations, and working with you and just … just sitting by the fire with you."
Her eyes pleaded with him, and he reeled in shock, trying to absorb what she had said, part of him unable to believe that she, or anyone for that matter, could have missed his company. He clenched his jaw and turned away, screwing his eyes shut. Why was she doing this now? He didn't want to think about it now, or ever, he wanted to go to his room and finish reading his damn journal by the fire, perhaps with a glass of whiskey as well, anything but think about her, and now she had guaranteed he would think of nothing else.
Watching him, Hermione realized that she was seeing the real Severus Snape, his mask had slipped and his face contorted as he wrestled his demons, and she understood the precariousness of the situation. She reached up hesitantly, her fingers caressing his cheek and he turned towards her, his eyes clouded, and she stretched up, on the tips of her toes as her fingers guided his face to hers, her heart thumping wildly, and their lips met shyly at first.
Severus continued to kiss her, even as his mind screamed that they were both in no condition emotionally to resort to physical pleasure, but then he realized he needed this just as much as she did, regardless of future consequences. It had been years since he had been with a woman, let alone a woman he desired, and for that moment, nothing else mattered.
His arms slid around her waist and pulled her to him, her mouth opening, and their tongues danced. His hands moved to the brass clasp that held together her robes, deftly unhooked it, then slid the robes off her shoulders, revealing a yellow v-neck sweater and jeans. She locked her hands behind his neck, drawing herself closer.
Hermione tangled her fingers in his hair, surprised by its softness, and gasped when Severus moved his lips down to her jaw, working his way down to her neck, where he teased his way down to her collarbone. He gently nipped and she moaned, her fingers tightening in his hair. He trailed his lips along her collar and cupped her left breast, his fingers grazing the nipple, and she gasped and arched into him.
"Severus!" she cried, her voice thick with desire.
"I believe this is highly inappropriate, Professor. What if another teacher, or gods forbid, a student were to walk by and catch us?" he asked, his voice silk, eyes burning his hand slid under the sweater and found her nipple through the cotton bra, rolling it with his thumb. "That simply would not do."
"Then by all means," she said, pausing to try to catch her breath, "let's go somewhere else."
He captured her lips and ravished them as his other hand slid down to her ass and yanked her to him as he pushed her backwards, pinning her against the stone wall, and she could feel his erection pulsing through the layers of clothing. She slipped her hands inside his robes, slid one hand between them to cup him through his trousers. Severus gasped, kissing her roughly until he broke away.
"Accio!" he barked, holding his hand out to catch Hermione's nearly forgotten robes as they sailed up from the floor. He turned back to her and offered his other hand to her, which she clasped on to like a life preserver. "Shall we?"
___
A/N:
I feel terrible that I made you guys wait nearly two weeks for the new ch! A few parts of this one gave me problems, and they took longer to work out than normal. That and this is the longest chapter so far, and just took a long time to write.
Upon further consideration, I have that Ch 20 will be lemon-free. I might come back and write a lemon later, if I post this fic on a more adult-friendly site.
Please, please leave me a review! Not one review yet for this chapter, makes me worry….