The next day Severus browsed the poster session, carefully avoiding the corner containing Hermione's poster until twenty minutes before the end. He had read her abstract and was interested in the work she had done. He had enjoyed working with Professor Kietrys while at University and had been surprised to see that she was working with his former mentor. It did not surprise Snape to see Potter and Weasley making a hasty escape from the clutches of their friend after about thirty seconds of discourse on her topic. They were annoying and he attempted to avoid them at the various ministry functions that all the members of the Order attended. It was nice to see that they supported Hermione despite their obvious lack of interest and understanding of Potions. Severus made his way toward the only poster he had yet to look at, Hermione's.

He glided up and began reading her poster while she was deep in conversation with another of her professors, a man he vaguely remembered from his final year here. When she had finished she turned to ask if he had any questions and froze. "Miss Granger," he intoned.

"Professor," she nearly whispered, "do you…em, that is are there any questions I can answer for you?"

"No, no, your poster is surprisingly complete compared to others, although I am intrigued by your use of Gillyweed in the base."

"Oh, well it really was…"

"Would you do me the honour of discussing it over dinner?" he interrupted.

She stared at him for a moment then said, "You can't be serious."

"I am completely serious Miss Granger."

"I have a dinner with some of the presenters tonight but I'm free tomorrow, if that wouldn't inconvenience you. We could get coffee now if tomorrow doesn't work for you," she answered in a rush.

"Tomorrow evening would be wonderful. Shall we say seven?"

She nodded in response.

"I have heard of an excellent Muggle restaurant that serves Thai food, would this be agreeable to you?"

"Certainly, sir."

"I shall look forward to seeing you then. I am afraid I must return to Hogwarts for the evening otherwise I would see you at the dinner this evening. It seems that a cousin of Mr. Longbottom has created a rather unusual potion in my absence and none of the other staff are able to get it out of the cauldron."

"Very unusual," she agreed, with mock graveness. "Until tomorrow Professor."

"Good afternoon Miss Granger."

Hermione knew she should have been excited--she had just been asked to dinner by Severus Snape and he wanted to talk about her potion. She had attributed her earlier butterflies to the dinner tonight, during which she would meet a recipient of the Hengist Prize, the wizarding equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Now that she had eaten dinner, sat through the awards ceremony, and endured a dance with her least favorite professor she could firmly say that butterflies were from a different source. The butterflies reminded her of when Aidan had asked her out. Of course, she thought, Snape didn't ask me on a date, did he? She spent the rest of the evening pondering this, until she was able to make a subtle exit.

Thanks for reading! Remember to thanks my amazing beta Trish, she also named the wizarding Nobel prize. And lets all remember to do the "we love being sick with mono over Christmas dance". The next chapter will be longer.