"Wondered?"
"Could you blame me? I mean, and please forgive me for saying this, but you've become a looker." A grin formed across her lips.
"Am I to believe that you, Mr. Snape have just complimented me?" asked Hermione.
A blush crept up Severus' neck. "As it pains me to admit it, yes." Her grin grew. "Don't read anything into it, Miss Granger."
"Oh, I wont." she pretended to be hurt. "It's just that you so rarely compliment someone. I'm just touched that you, of all people, would find me a 'looker,' as you so colorfully put it."
'I should have just kept my mouth shut.' he said to himself.
Hermione knew that Severus was feeling a little on edge and didn't want to make him angry, so she changed the topic. "Did Dumbledore tell you what this new seer would look like?" He shook his head.
"All he told me was that the girl would have brown eyes."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Way to narrow that down!" Severus had to chuckle. "At least you know that this seer is a female. And that she had one of the worlds most common eyes color."
"Yes." Severus looked back down at Hermione's ankle. The swelling had slightly gone down. He still held her tiny foot in his hands. He gently started to massage the arch. Hermione's head fell back and a small grin formed on her lips.
"I strongly suggest you don't do that." she whispered.
"And why is that?"
"You'll never get me to leave." Severus filed that info away for later. He continued to rub her foot.
"So what have you been doing with yourself since you left school? Besides giving your former professors lap dances." Hermione's head shot up, he gave her an evil grin.
"I was under the influence!" he just shrugged. "You keep bringing that up, am I to believe that you enjoyed it?" again he just shrugged. "Well, well, well who would have thought that the big scary potions master is into kinky play." this comment caused Severus to cough.
"I hardly call a lap dance kinky." Hermione started to laugh. She pulled her foot away from him and offered him her other.
"I was only kidding." Severus unconsciously unbuckled Hermione's shoe. "As for what I've been doing, I've just been attending college and perfecting my potions." Severus gently started to rub her other foot. "My new professors think that I could become a potions mistress with the right training. Granted I still need some more work. In the next few months I'm going to need to find someone to apprentice for. I've already had a few offers."
"I know of a few good wizards that wouldn't mind having an apprentice. If you wish I can have them give you a floo." She nodded. Her head fell back again and a slight moan escaped her lips. "Am I to understand you enjoy this?"
"With hands like yours, hell yeah." she quickly covered her mouth. "I...I didn't...I didn't mean it like that." she said quickly.
It was his turn to smile. "If I knew it would be this easy to have a woman melt in my hands I would have done this years ago."
"Oh Severus." she laughed. "With your charming wit who wouldn't want a fine catch such as yourself?" Severus grunted. "What? It's true. Goddess, everyone of my girlfriends in school thought you the mysterious potions master. Bloody hell we even had a bet going as to who would have gotten you to at least smile once and a while."
"Oh?" he asked. "And who won this bet?"
"By the end of my seventh year the pot was two hundred Galleons, ten Sickles and fifteen Kunts."
"And who brought that prize home, just for making me smile?"
The corner of Hermione's lips curved. "Me."
"And what did you do with your prize?" he asked.
"I have it sitting in a potion jar; that I took from you, I might add, and have it sitting on my fire place mantle."
"So, you've had a small fortune sitting on your mantle, collecting dust, in a jar you stole from me, for nearly five years?" she nodded. "And why pray tell do you still have it?"
A blush crept up Hermione's face. "Well, it was the only thing I've ever won in my life."
"What about the Order of Merlin and you making Valedictorian. Plus, what about your award for all your efforts at Hogwarts?" he asked quickly. "What makes this one so important?"
"It's nice to see you paid a little attention to me while I was in school. But the reason this was so important was because it had nothing to do with how smart I was. It only had to do with the kind of person I was. And believe me when all you've had is your smarts it's kind of nice to be told that you can even soften the stone face of the potions master."
"My face isn't made of stone!" he stated. Hermione leaned forward and reached out. Her soft hand cupped his cheek and she allowed her thumb to slowly rubs his tender skin.
"Oh, I know this. Not many would know that you spend your time reading muggle novels and your need to sneak into the Herbology greenhouse and tend to the plants when Professor Sprout is away." Hermione quickly took her hand away. Severus looked her deeply in the eyes.
"How? How did you know that?" he asked in a dangerous whisper.
"I...I don't know." Hermione brought her hand to her head. She could feel a headache coming on. "You read muggle novels?"
"I...I don't know what your talking about." he said quickly, turning away from her. "How did you know that?"
"I told you, I don't know. All I did was touch you and I saw you sitting in that chair," she pointed to a leather chair next to the fire place, "reading some book called Flowers in the Attic, drinking red wine and listening to the sound track to Titanic." she couldn't help but chuckle. "That sounds like something I would do."
Severus quickly stood up. "Albus you stupid, neurotic, old coot!" he started to pace the area between the coffee table and fireplace. "The least you could have done was tell me before hand! Bloody Hell! I swear the next time I see you I'm going to..." he stopped when he noticed that Hermione was still sitting on his sofa. She had pulled her legs up under her so as not to be stepped on during Severus rant. "Tell me your eyes aren't brown."
"I like to think of them a cinnamon, but on my driver's license it does say bro..." she stopped quickly and caught on to what he was thinking. "No! No way, nuh uh...besides I only worked for Crag for three weeks. There is no way that I could be the person he was talking about."
"You took divisonation in school, did you not?"
"Kind of, I kind of walked out on Trelawney when she told me and I quote 'I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity of the resonance of the future.' The woman was no more a seer then you or I."
"That doesn't bold well for you, or myself, in that case." he said. "Sibyll was indeed a seer, just not a very good one. I myself have a gift of foresight. A poor gift, but one nun the less." his brow furrow. "But you, you predicted everything that happened last night. And just by one touch. Once again, I do believe Sibyll was wrong."
Ok, Ok, here's another chapter. Don't ya'll love me? Anywho...the quote is a real quote from the Prisoner of Azkaban on the bottom of pg. 107, if you wanted to know. Anywho...here it is...um...might do another chap. if ya'll want. Let me know. hugs all who read and review and those who just read