September 18th, 1994

Hermione is 15

Snape is 35

"D'you believe it," Ron whispered in awe, "The Beauxbatons…."

"Are you sure it's just the Beauxbatons and not Fleur Delacour?" Hermione huffed impatiently.

"Guys," Harry sighed tiredly, "Could you just stop?"

The three fourth years were sitting in the common room by the fireplace, Ron gazing at a Wizard's Chess game, eyes glazed over, Harry flipping through a Defense against the Dark Arts book absentmindedly, and Hermione furiously taking notes on House Elves: A History of Worldwide Persecution and what we can do About It.

"Sorry, Harry," Hermione apologized, re-dipping her quill, "But Ron's acting rather foolhardy about this."

"She's part veela, Hermione; it's not completely his fault."

Ron started whistling to himself, the chess game completely forgotten.

"Really," Hermione huffed.

"If I didn't know any better," a redheaded girl propped herself over Hermione's chair, "I'd say that you were jealous, Hermione," she teased.

Hermione scoffed, "Of Ron? Please. Make yourself useful and help me with S.P.E.W."

"Er, I just remembered…have a Potion's essay to do…." Ginny scampered away before Hermione could catch her in her elfy-clutches.

Harry quickly ducked his head into his book, trying to look busy. Hermione sighed with frustration; obviously, her friends weren't going to be any help. It was only seven at night so she resolved to go down to the library and check out some light reading to take her mind off the injustice of house elf persecution.

"I'm going to the library," she announced.

"Okay," Harry murmured.

Ron didn't acknowledge her. After a closer examination, Hermione deduced that the boy was now asleep and had a faint trail of drool trickling from the corner of his mouth. Hermione rolled her eyes at one of her old friend, and, doing a rather good imitation of Professor Snape, she swirled her robes around her and exited.

"Do you remember," Lilith sighed in her wistful, low voice, "When we both were at that stream? Where Daphne's tree is?"

Macha, the goddess of war, looked up from her knife, slightly annoyed.

"Daphne's tree? Yes, why?"

"In a way, it reminds me of what we're doing to them."

This perked up Macha's interest, and she sheathed the knife. Daphne was a mortal who was a half-goddess that caught the interest of Apollo and turned into a tree to escape him from ravishing her.

"How?" Macha's voice was curious, and she watched Lilith's feathered wings flex in delight and flatten themselves against her back.

"Hermione…" Lilith smiled, mischief glimmering in her eyes, which was strange because they usually held comfort, even for Macha.

"Lilith, some of us don't have your talent for wisdom," Macha reminded her friend and competitor sharply.

"It's really not a matter of wisdom…or clairvoyance for that matter," Lilith skimmed her fingers on the surface of the rows of books. "If you don't realize the irony of Daphne and Hermione, then Snape can't either."

"You're irritating me."

"I'm just trying to help. Besides, Hermione will be irritating Snape too, so you have to learn how to practice your self-control and extend it to Snape."

"I still don't understand why Elli chose her," Macha huffed. She retracted the ghost of a book and flipped through it. It was about the properties of different invisibility and concealment potions. I should make a note of this for Snape's coming work, Macha thought to herself. Elli and Dumbledore's hint about the Order had unraveled her nerves.

"That probably won't help Snape," Lilith observed, "He could write that book under a week if he wanted to."

"Mind your own business," Macha snapped.

"To answer your question," Lilith glided along the aisle, so that Macha could only slightly see her form, obscured by the rows of books between them, "Elli didn't choose Hermione. It doesn't even have a lot to do with Eros' will although she's going to play a major role in this, nor Eirene."

"Then who exactly is behind this?"

"The universe," Lilith said simply, "Keeping stability from chaos, the timeline, random order, God."

Macha stopped moving, her body growing icy with fear.

"G-G-God?" she stuttered, her lips numbing with cold.

Lilith suddenly, in a blur so fast that Macha couldn't realize what was happening, moved from the opposite end of the bookshelf to in front of Macha so that their eyes were completely level with each other, Lilith's steely, stormy, grey eyes were boring into Macha's own gold-blue.

"Yes. The Lord Almighty Himself. The Creator."

"How—how do you know?" Macha's voice was very soft.

"Who else could it be? Things are so beyond our willful control, Macha. You'll come to see it in just two years from now."

"Two years!"

"Yes. The balance of good and evil, Earth, is all hanging on Snape and Hermione and their experience. My understanding of it is that it's such an incredible leap of faith for a teenage wizard like Harry Potter to defeat such a horrible and powerful evil like Voldemort…that…well, it's bordering on an action that can only be feasible in a universe governed by Chaos."

"Chaos!" Macha gasped in horror, "That…beast?"

Chaos was the most fearsome goddess of all, because she was the unprecedented, the unpredictable. She could break all the rules so she had complete power over all the goddesses' roles, including Elli and Lilith's and those two were strong ones.

"Beast she may be," Lilith said wisely, "But without her helping hand, Harry can never defeat Voldemort. We need one action that seems completely chaotic of the most powerful force. Which is where Eros comes in."

"She's the henchman for the goddess of Love!"

"Exactly," Lilith breathed, "As corny as it sounds to you Macha, Love is the most powerful force. If something completely chaotic breaks from it, Chaos, the goddess, will have the power to spread that great chaos to the only second most powerful thing in the world: evil. And with that chaos, the good will be able to triumph over the evil because it is so…unprecedented."

"That's…that's insane," Macha breathed, a thrill of horror coursing through her veins.

"No, it's completely illogical but it works. Shh, they're about to meet now…do try to influence Snape a bit more this time. Last time, he sent Hermione to her common room in tears."

Macha chuckled to herself mirthlessly.

Severus Snape didn't know why, but a thrill of horror had just shot through him, sending his mind reeling. He was unstable, and this was not enjoyable. It reminded him too much when he was a small boy and his father was acting…chaotic. Snape was in the Restricted Section of the Library, looking for Shakespeare's rare book on prose and poetry and their relationship with the strengthening of a potion. Albus Dumbledore had asked him to brew up several batches of Veritaserum for this year, the reason unbeknownst to Severus. He had also been given the express instructions to somehow strengthen it so that it would differ from regular Veritaserum potions—a mutation if you will.

Upon finding the book he needed, he was pleased to note that it was in a messy, 16th century English, handwritten scrawl with some Ancient Runes thrown in. It would not be easy for a prying person to read it.

He sharply turned the corner, robes billowing behind him, but instead of sailing smoothly on to his personal quarters in the dungeons, he bumped into someone much shorter and smaller than him. The person let out a small gasp, but the momentum of the impact sent both Snape and the girl tumbling to the floor.

Snape landed on top of the girl, surely a student, and he quickly got to his knees and hands to lessen his weight out of fear for Albus's wrath if he caught Snape manhandling a student and suffocating her.

His book was scattered with a copy of Deciphering the Runes and The Bard Himself: Shakespeare and his Role in the Wizarding World. For a fleeting moment, Snape appreciated the irony of how those two titles probably could help an offender translate the book he had just pulled from the shelf. The second fleeting thought made him instantly realize that there was only one student who would check these kinds of heavy books out: Granger.

He looked down at the girl he was still on top of. It was Granger, sure enough, her long, brown hair splayed out over Snape's hands, and her chest rising quickly with…fear? Anticipation? Uncertainty? Snape didn't know, but he knew that this was the most remarkable sight he would ever see. Granger was lying before him, not quite cowering, but there was a small line of determination set across her jaw as if she was daring him to scare her. The front of her robes were open so Snape had a clear view of her white blouse and short skirt. There was a patch of creamy, soft-looking skin from her neck and swelling up as it formed the contours of her chest—

"Pro-Professor Snape, if you could please…." Granger suddenly looked worried.

Hermione Granger had been looking for some light reading when she bumped into Snape. Snape, out of a rare episode of clumsiness had tripped over her and sent them both crashing to the floor. He'd been on top of her for almost ten seconds now, and Hermione had no idea why he wasn't getting up and deducting ten points for her not watching where she was going. Instead he was examining the front of her shirt thoughtfully, and Hermione could feel her heart quicken. This made her chest rise and fall faster, not helping the situation at all.

Hermione had never been looked at or examined appreciatively by an elder boy or man. She had just turned fifteen this September, but it wasn't till summer until boys her age started shooting second glances in her direction. It was probably because she had thinned down considerably since third year and had gotten most of her adult height and shape. She wasn't sure how to respond to her most feared Professor, his face inches away from hers, his hair hanging like a private curtain around them. His sharp, black eyes bored into hers and she felt a thrill of anticipation, but her more sensible part told her—

"Enough already, Macha!" Lilith snapped, "You've made your point! You've—MACHA, YOU'VE DONE YOUR PART!"

Macha, the war goddess, smirked at Lilith and she gently pulled Snape away from Hermione.

"You did tell me to do more."

"She's a fourth year. You can't do so much now. Just create small moments of building up tension. Nothing like this! This is reserved, even by Eros, for people who are of emotional age!"

"Pro-Professor Snape, if you could please…." Hermione finally found her voice.

Snape quickly got to his feet, unsure of what to say. Instead he simply picked up his own book, leaving Hermione's on the floor.

He struggled not to let his desire show—on his face and in…other places. It had been years since he was with anyone…and never had he had a partner, someone to appreciate. This experience greatly unsettled him, and it simply made him more determined to make Granger's life living hell. He would show her what you get when you tried to make Snape want something he couldn't have. His former Death Eater side was quickly boiling up in anger.

"I would suggest you watch where you are going next time, Granger, unless you like mauling your Professors. Ten points from Gryffindor for being careless, and…twenty points for lingering around the Restricted Section."

Hermione's face contorted in rage and she pulled her robes around herself protectively, "I was nowhere near the Restricted Section! I'm in the—

"Not. One. Word. Go to your common room immediately before you bring a week's detention upon yourself…with Filch." Snape's lips curled up in a sneer.

He had noticed how she pulled her robes around herself. A wise choice.

"Fine." She stooped down to pick up her books. Snape tried not to look at her bending form.

Snape watched Hermione retreat for a while before swishing his robes about him and, using his private entrance from his quarters, exited.

"If," Lilith breathed, "if you ever pull a stunt like that again—when my shadow is in such a formative state—I will be sure to take that sword of yours and—

"Lilith, please," Macha raised an eyebrow, trying to keep her voice calm, "it worked perfectly fine. It has made them aware of each—

"THEY ALREADY WERE! Snape views Hermione as a meddlesome student with potential. She had not yet won his complete respect, and exposing her to your shadow's libido like that was a dangerous move. It means that we now have to work very hard to preserve that growing respect Snape has for Hermione or it could be completely lost."

Macha didn't have a doubt about the growing fear inside of her. Lilith was dangerous, yes, but so was Macha. However, Lilith had an advantage over Macha: her intelligence. Her clarity, her insight. She knew more about the so-called "grand plan" than Macha and therefore, even though Macha didn't like to admit it, Lilith had a far better idea of what should and shouldn't be done.

To retain some of her dignity, Macha sharply responded:

"When you're not some foggy apparition, I'll pay more heed to you, but for now? It seems your shadow is not the only one around here who is in need of earning some respect."

A/N:This story does have a plot, I promise you:D