Dreaming of You

By: Acro

Chapter Four:

Unwell

Days passed and Hermione and Snape remained in a stiff silence whenever they met. Their dreams were just as graphic and real as they had always been. Hermione found herself not getting much sleep and going to classes tired. When her professors questioned her about it, presuming she was studying too much, she said she was fine and went on to the next class or to lunch. The truth was, however, that Hermione was not fine. In fact, she was far from it. Her exhaustion was pushing her to the limit. She couldn't study properly, she couldn't focus in classes, even her homework was becoming sloppy.

She was on her way to Charms when McGonagall pulled her aside one morning. Hermione gave the old woman a quizzical look.

"A word, if you please, Miss Granger," she said, motioning to her empty classroom.

"Er—sure, Professor," she replied, following her Transfiguration teacher into the room. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"That is exactly what I wanted to ask you, Hermione," McGonagall stated. "Some of your professors seem worried, including myself. You haven't been yourself of late. You've looked tired and your handed in assignments are not your best. I've also noticed that you don't eat much. Is something bothering you? You aren't overworking yourself, are you?"

"I'm fine, Professor. Really." McGonagall was not assured. "I've just been a little tired is all. Between Head Girl duties, classes, and studying for my NEWTs…" She paused and sighed. "It's just a little tiring. In a few days, I'll be right as rain. Nothing to worry about, Professor McGonagall."

"Well," began the older witch uncertainly, "I request that you eat!" Her voice was strict again. "I'll be watching you every meal. It's fine to skip every once and a while, but Hermione, that does not mean that it is alright to skip all the time. You cannot feed your mind if you don't feed your body. And NEWTs are months away. There's no need to worry about them so soon. If you're having trouble sleeping, then go to Madam Pomfrey and ask for some Dreamless Sleep Solution, she's more than willing to give that out, especially to you, dear. Promise me you'll try to recover. You're a brilliant student and I would hate to have you drop your grades because of some small thing like sleep. Promise me you'll try?"

"I promise, Professor," Hermione replied, forcing a smile on her face. "Er—will you write me a pass to class, please?"

"Yes, yes, here you are," McGonagall said, handing her a pink sheet of parchment. "Charms, right?"

After classes were over, she had an hour until dinner and then she had to go to the Potions classroom straight off. She yawned. She was standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall, debating whether she wanted to go to the library or the Gryffindor common room, when she heard thunder rumbling and the soft pattering of rain against the glass of the windows. She loved the rain. It always seemed to calm her spirit.

She moved toward the double doors at the front of the hall and pushed them open, sliding out into the soft drizzle. She closed the door and held her arms out from her sides, welcoming to moisture onto her body. Soon the rain, which had softly fallen onto her skin and clothes, began to pelt at the ground. She didn't mind it. Soon her clothes were drenched and her hair was slicked against her face. She took a step down the stairs, giving her body more access to the rain. She was going to take another step, when her body went painfully rigid, involuntarily, and she blacked out, tumbling down the stairs.

"Mister Potter, Mister Weasley," growled Severus, coming up behind the boys as they were headed for the common room from dinner. "Where is Miss Granger?"

"We don't know," said Harry, trying not to snap at the man. "Isn't she supposed to be with you? Aiding crap and all?"

"Watch your mouth," hissed Severus. "Do you think if she was with me that I'd been asking you this?"

He didn't wait for them to answer. He turned on his heel and started back down the stairs, his ebony robes billowing out behind him as he walked. He was heading toward the Great Hall when he spotted McGonagall coming out. She gave him a curious look as he moved toward her.

"Minerva!" he said, a bit breathily.

"Severus? What's wrong?" she asked, hurriedly.

"Have you seen Miss Granger?"

"Hermione? No. Not since earlier this morning. Why?"

"She never showed for her aiding session. I went to find her to make her explain and ran into Misters Potter and Weasley. Neither of them had seen her either," he explained. "She's not in the library or in any of the classrooms. I know Miss Granger and I also know that she would never intentionally miss an aiding period or any class. This is most unlike her."

"Oh dear," managed the Transfiguration teacher, a worried look on her face. "We have to look for her. I'll inform the other professors. I do hope she's alright."

Severus nodded and started for the dungeons, to check if she had finally shown up. She hadn't. He glanced along the staircases, hoping to spot her brown, curly head but didn't find her there either. He checked the Gryffindor common room, but she still wasn't there. He had almost given up hope when he pushed open the double doors leading to the grounds. He stopped abruptly, when he saw something lying on the ground at the foot of the stairs. It was her…Miss Granger. Her hair was wet and sticking to her face but was also a mess around her head as well. She had an injury above her eyebrow that was bleeding down her face, though the rain was washing the blood away. He skin was sickly pale and she was crumpled with half her body still on the stairs. Her clothing was pressed to her body and her robe was tangled around her limbs.

He nearly fell down the stairs himself, hurrying to get to her. He felt her face with his pale hand and jerked it back quickly. She was wet and ice cold. He scooped her up into his arms and hastened into the castle, pulling his robe off and wrapping it around her, though it wasn't much help since it was already soaked. Dumbledore and McGonagall had been hurrying down the stairs, warning teachers to look out for Miss Granger, when they spotted Severus running back into the school.

"Oh, my dear lord!" cried McGonagall, seeing the state of Miss Granger. "W-what's happened to her?"

"I found her like this, at the bottom of the stairs outside," he breathed. "I don't know how long she's been unconscious, Headmaster, but she's cold and her breathing is shallow. Her clothes are sopping wet and there's a rather nasty gash on her forehead."

"I presume your chambers are close, Severus?" asked Dumbledore. Severus nodded. "I hope you don't mind but we shall take her there. Minerva, tell Madam Pomfrey to come immediately to Severus's quarters to tend to Miss Granger. Tell her to bring—" but Severus did not hear the rest as he was already in the dungeons, hurrying for his office.

He reached his bedroom and settled Hermione on the top of his soft, warm black coverlet. She was soaked, shivering, and deathly cold. He stared at her for a moment before beginning to peel of her sodden clothing. First, her robe, second her shoes and socks…then he hesitated. He wasn't sure if that was what he needed at the moment, to be undressing her when he was having such sexual dreams about her…but he had to. Miss Granger's wellbeing depended on it, so, quickly, he took off her sweater vest, tossed it to the floor, and began on the buttons of her blouse. When Dumbledore walked in, she was in her undergarments. He was taken aback by a nearly naked Hermione lying on Severus's bed while the Potions Master himself rummaged through his wardrobe, pulling out a long, black robe. Madam Pomfrey stomped forward and took the robe from him.

"Thank you very much," she barked, "but I'll need to examine her first, completely naked, so you two—" She shooed the two men out and looked Hermione over.

Dumbledore and Severus stood out in the office. The Potions professor was staring at the fire behind his desk, sneaking furtive glances at the bedroom door. Dumbledore noticed.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Severus," comforted the headmaster. "She's very strong-willed."

Severus was silent as he gazing into the flames that were licking up at the top of the grate. "I noticed she wasn't well. She's been thin and pale and tired. I noticed but I didn't do anything about it."

"Severus, don't take the blame," Dumbledore murmured. "This isn't your fault. You couldn't have predicted this." He rested his hand on the damp material of Severus's shirt. "No one could have."

When the Medi-witch was finished, she allowed them to enter Severus's bedroom once more. Severus looked over at Hermione. She was tucked under his blanket, which had been magically dried, and in his long robe. Her skin was still sickly pallid and she was still shivering, but the gash in her forehead was nearly gone, leaving a white scar, and her breathing had become fuller. Madam Pomfrey shoved two bottles into his hand.

"She'll be staying in here, for tonight," she stated. "No point in moving the poor dear since she seems so comfortable. Give her the Pain-Relieving Potion when she wakes and the Pepper-Up Potion directly afterward."

"Yes, Poppy," growled Severus. "I know how to administer these potions since it was I who made them, remember?"

"Then make her eat!" the woman continued, pretending she hadn't heard him.

"Make her?"

"Yes, make her. Her body is poorly nourished and at a lack for sleep," Madam Pomfrey replied. "I'd venture to say that she passed out of lack of food and toppled down the stairs."

"Come along, Poppy," Dumbledore rasped, guiding her out of Severus's bedroom and into the dungeons. "I'm sure we can trust Severus to watch over Hermione for tonight."

Severus pulled the soft, cushiony chair from his nearby des over next to his bed. Hermione looked almost dead and he would have sworn she was if her chest wasn't rising and falling with each breath. She was motionless for a majority of the time he was watching her except for the few instances she muttered in her sleep or rolled over. It was nearly midnight, and Severus was drifting in and out of sleep, when Miss Granger awakened.

Hermione opened her eyes and stared around the room. She bolted up, or tried to, and a swift, pale hand forced her back down. She looked up and was staring into Snape's ebony eyes. He conjured up a cup with his wand and opened a bottle that was sitting on the nightstand. She groaned in pain at the soreness of her limbs and the pounding headache that was screaming through her skull. She was congested and her throat was scratchy and raw. Her lungs felt heavy and she was very cold.

"Drink this," Snape said, handing her a cup of dark magenta. Hermione took it and drank it down. The pain eased and he handed her another cup. "And now this." It was a steamy red liquid that Hermione recognized as Pepper-Up Potion. "How do you feel?"

"Cold," she said simply. Snape pointed his wand at the grate on the other side of the room and the fire, which had already been burning in it, intensified. He also covered her with another blanket, this one emerald green. "My throat hurts a little. Can I have some water?" He conjured up a glass of water. He handed it to her. "Thank you." She drank it down and her throat felt slightly soothed. "What happened?" she asked, after finishing the water and setting the cup on the bedside table.

"You don't remember?" he asked, arching a brow.

"I remember going outside and standing under the rain just after classes…but not much more," she replied, looking thoughtful.

"You were at the bottom of the stairs leading from the Entrance Hall to the grounds," he explained. "Madam Pomfrey says that you passed out for lack of sustenance and sleep. Thus, I am forced to make sure you eat." A small house-elf wobbled in with a tray and handed it to Professor Snape who, in turn, set it on the bed next to Hermione. "So eat."

On the tray, there were assortments of different fruits, toast, scones, and croissants, some vegetable soup, and a glass of freshly brewed mint tea. Hermione picked up a peach and bit into it, looking up at her Potions professor, who was watching her closely. She swallowed her first bite and then opened her mouth to say something but he held up a hand.

"You'll eat first and then you can talk your mouth off," he said and her face reddened in a slight anger. She sighed and continued to eat her peach, sipping on her tea.

When he had watched her eat a good portion of the food, he was sated, as was she. He made the tray disappear with a wave of his hand and then relaxed into the back of his chair. Hermione stretched languidly and looked down. She jumped when she saw that she was wearing a rather overly large robed that was opening to expose her bra underneath it. She clamped the robe tight around her body.

"P-Professor? I-I'm, well, I'm…that is…you…did you…?" She couldn't seem to form a sentence and her face turned white and then very red. "Is this…"

"My robe? Yes," he replied, crossing his legs and folding his arms over his chest. "I had to get you out of those wet clothes before you caught the flu or pneumonia. My students' health has been and will always be my foremost concern." Hermione's blush deepened. "Don't worry. Madam Pomfrey saved you from me just in time." It was meant to be a joke and she knew it, but she couldn't stop her eyes from widening and a gasp escaping her lips.

"That reminds me," she murmured. "Am I…in your chambers?"

"Yes."

"Why? Why am I here and not in the Infirmary?"

"Because you were in dire need of attention and my chambers are closer than the Infirmary from the Entrance Hall. It was the better choice at the time."

"Oh…" whispered Hermione, sounding a little put out.

"Miss Granger, what you are doing, not eating and such, is stupid. Why are you doing it?" he asked, giving her a meaningful look.

"When I'm tired, I lose my appetite," she said.

"And why are you tired?" he prodded. "Too much studying?"

"No." Her voice faltered. "It's because…of those dreams." Snape spluttered slightly, which was very uncharacteristic and made Hermione's brow raise. "I wake up from them and find that I can't get back to sleep." She closed her eyes. "I-it's not because they're scary or anything…" Snape let out a breath that he'd involuntarily been holding in. "It's…it's hard to explain. I wake up and I have this sort of tingling sensation in my abdomen. It doesn't go away for a while and it keeps me up." There was a slightly awkward silence between them for a moment. "If I'm taking up your bed, where are you going to sleep?"

"The sofa in my office, most likely," he replied, reclining in his chair. "I don't sleep much anyway, so where really isn't an issue for me." Hermione nodded sleepily while snuggling further under his blanket. "But you…you need to sleep as given orders by Madam Pomfrey. I'd give you some Dreamless Sleep Solution but the result of mixing Pain-Relieving Potion, Pepper-Up Potion, and Dreamless Sleep Solution could cause…complications that we don't want."

There was silence and Snape looked up, finding that Hermione had already fallen asleep.

A/N: Well…I still think something's missing…sigh…oh well, right? Anyway, tell me what you think. Reviews are our friends. I decided that I'm going to write a sorta sequel to this when I'm done but for right now I better just focus on this. IPTUS!

(CAN SOMEONE TELL ME IF I'M DOING SOMETHING WRONG?)

Acro