She'd only been working at St. Mungo's for a little over two years and rarely saw a name she knew. Well, yeah, Lavender Brown had come in once with a Poisonous Skink Skin stuck to her foot and Justin Finch-Fletchley had a bad case of Mad Dragon Disease, but this was different. It wasn't just any name, staring back at her from that scheming clip board. It wasn't just a student she'd known or a friend from home. This was him.

Severus Snape: Experimental Potions Accident

Augh. I thought I was done dealing with Snape when I graduated from Hogwarts. No use putting it off...

Hermione pushed the door open roughly, striding confidently into the room, "Alright, Professor Snape. What exactly did you..." she trailed off as she saw him, bits of black metal cutting through his t-shirt, "...do?"

He looked at her like a deer-in-headlights, blanching, "Ms. Granger? What are you doing here?"

Hermione smiled, composure regained, "It's Madam Granger now, Professor." Her finger tapped the star on her white robes, indicating that she was a fully trained MediWitch. "I'll be your healer today."

"I thought I was done with you when you graduated." His head flopped back, eyes finding the ceiling as if he could see a deity smirking down at him, "What on earth did I ever do to deserve this?"

She checked the chart on her current patient, "According to this, you blew up your cauldron. Miss me already, Professor?" she smiled. When on earth did she start teasing Snape!

Snape looked over at her, his voice scathing, as it always was when he spoke to her, "It was an accident, Madam Granger. There is nothing I can think of that would ever entice me to purposefully be sent to St. Mungo's and put into the care of a bushy-haired, know-it-all."

She just laughed, making preparations to begin the procedure, "I can well believe that, Professor, but it's a good thing I am a know-it-all because it means that you'll be receiving excellent care."

Snape sneered again and leaned back, allowing Healer Granger to do a preliminary inspection of his torso.

Hermione cast a couple of initial, less invasive charms on his body and as her hands ghosted across his chest she said, "Well, Professor, I must say that you're incredibly lucky." She ran her hands lightly across his arms. "It seems that all of your vital organs were spared and, when I'm finished, you will still have complete use of your arms."

"That's just wonderful. Now, if you don't mind, Madam Granger, would you get this blasted metal out of my body so I can get out of this white-washed prison?"

Hermione stopped her examination, looking down at him with a twinkle in her eyes, "Just get up and walk out?" She laughed softly, "I don't think so, Professor. Your cauldron exploded and decided to make a nice home in your arms and chest. You're going to be here for a while."

He grumbled softly and looked towards his window, trying not to smile. She wasn't going to let him bully her. This was her turf, he knew it, and he was rather surprised to see that she knew it as well. Well this was definitely going to be a ...stimulating visit; mentally of course. Heaven forbid he ever be attracted to this bossy, know-it-all.

Hermione reentered the room with her mind finally on her job. Her hands were full of salves, a binder and her wand. "Professor, if you'll just sit up and remove your shirt we can begin in just a moment."

Severus agreed placidly, carefully removing his shredded black t-shirt.

Hermione walked over and adjusted his bed to a ¾ sitting position, never quite looking at him as she cast an Ouchless charm, which had been contrived expecially for circumstanced such as these. The charm's main purpose was to keep the patient from feeling any sensations of pain, although he could feel everything else. It had been developed in the Pediatric Ward and was especially useful on small children.

"Alright, Professor, I think we're ready." Hermione finally looked up from her chart, taking in his lean, muscled chest, attractive despite the black cauldron shards. What had really taken her by surprise, though, had been the tattoo of a black raven flying up towards his chest, a rose clutched tightly in its talons, blood dripping down from the dark red, nearly black petals. It was on the front of his left hip, barely visible over the loose hospital pants they'd put him in.

Severus caught her looking, "You know," he sneered as she jumped, having been caught staring, "I am allowed to have more than one mark on my body." She noticed then that a piece of the cauldron had imbedded itself deeply in the middle of the Dark Mark on his arm.

She nodded, "Right... well." Suddenly all business again, she stepped towards him, her hands gliding across his chest to find the shallowest pieces, easing them out of his body and administering a Cauterizing Serum to seal the wounds.

Severus settled back against his pillows, eyes closed. Since he couldn't sense the pain he ought to be feeling, all he felt were the young woman's hands sliding across his chest. This was definitely something he was not used to. He resolved to get out of the dungeons more often.

As her hands floated across his ribs removing pieces of steel his breath caught and he squeezed his eyes tightly closed.

"I'm sorry, Professor. Am I hurting you?" She looked up at him finding her face only inches from his.

Her worried expression hovered in front of him and his breath caught again, making it difficult to speak, "No. Not hurting me..."

She smiled at him and went back to work as he leaned his head back again, trying to steady his breathing. 'Oh boy, now if that charm had only numbed me completely... that would've been good,' he thought as her hands slid lower on his body, her mind centered on her work.

Severus was forced to lie like that for a half an hour before Hermione finally left, promising to return soon with a Healer-In-Training. She didn't want to work with the deeper pieces without some assistance.

'This is a very bad idea, Sev. You know that right?' He stared out the window, thinking about the perky young MediWitch. She certainly had developed a biting wit in the last five years... when had that happened? Severus found himself holding a mental argument with, well, himself:

'She's cute admit it. You know she's cute.'
'Well, yes, she was always cute, prat!'
'Yes, but she's not a student anymore.'
'She's still too young! Do you have any idea of her age?'
'Of course I know how old she is! You know there is a certain advantage to...'

Severus' mental argument was interrupted as Healer Granger walked into the room with Healer-In-Training Pinman. "Professor this is Sophie Pinman she'll be helping me today. Sophie, this is Professor Severus Snape. Let's get to work." She grinned and walked over to him, recasting the Ouchless Charm.

Snape acknowledged Pinman absently.

"Sophie, I need you to apply Blood Slowing Charms as I work and use the Cauterizing Salve as the pieces come out, alright?" Hermione was already pulling her wand out, centering herself as she prepared to pull out the larger and deeper pieces of steel that Severus still could not feel due to her excellent charm work.

Sophie nodded, taking the salve in hands that had been washed in a special, medical cleansing potion.

"Now, just relax." Hermione cast a metal detecting charm on the professor, causing each piece to glow a bright blue colour or cast a blue glow on the skin above it. Slowly she got to work, shrinking each piece so as not to create exit wounds or rip already present wounds farther open. Each piece that emerged from his body was banished to the other side of the room into a melting cauldron.

It took almost two hours of painstaking work on Hermione's part to make sure he was clean. Sophie was allowed to leave halfway through when she'd determined that the large pieces had all been removed.

Hermione collapsed into the over-large, cozy armchair nearby, her face pink from the exertion, he hair damp from sweat, "Alright... you're good." She smiled faintly.

Severus looked down at his torso and arms, admiring her work, "Do you have something I can use to help reduce the scars?"

She laughed, "Of course I do! The Hogwarts Hospital Wing does as well! You should know, since you're the one who brews it for Poppy!"

"Right, right." He had been distracted by the Dark Mark, happy to see that there was going to be quite a large scar running through it. Hopefully it'd turn a pearly white, cutting a swath through the Mark. Yes, he definitely wasn't going to be putting salve on that one.

She stood up and placed a wound closing salve on his bedside table next to the scar reducing ointment. "Alright, let's get you all fixed up. We'll have your snarky butt back in that dungeon in no time."

That actually wasn't what Severus had expected to hear and it was not a welcome surprise. "Fantastic." He drawled. One minute she's telling him he'll be there for a long time and the next she's saying he's almost good to go.

Hermione raised one eyebrow, looking at him as she smoothed the wound closing ointment into the larger wounds, helping them close quickly to avoid infection, "You know, I was given a report on what happened. You wouldn't even be in this bed if you'd done your research properly, Professor."

He looked up at her, confusion etched on his brow, "Excuse me?" What did she know...?

She laughed harshly, "Research? That thing where you read books before trying something stupid..."

Oh yeah, she knew, but he didn't have to hand it to her, "I really don't know what you're talking about, Madam Granger." He turned his head and looked out the window, doing his best to replicate Malfoy's cool demeanor.

"Oh, come off it, Professor! How could you not know that Midnight Knotweed and Dragon's Breath Powder would have a volatile reaction!" Her hands stopped.

Severus' head turned back, a defensive look on his face, "It. Was. A. Mistake!"

Hermione laughed and shook her head, "At least you admit it!" She went back to work, closing his wounds and applying the scar ointment.

"Of course I've made mistake. Everyone has."

She looked at him, wondering how far to take this conversation. It wasn't like there was anything really important going on right now and the hospital wasn't even expecting her to be working that much, given the circumstances.

"You cannot convince me that you yourself are free of error." His eyes twinkled. Very Dumbledore, she thought. Alright, if he was going to monopolize her time she was at least going to enjoy it.

"Of course I've made mistakes, Professor." She settled back in her chair, looking at him.

"Well...?"

She laughed, "I was in Healer School and we were working in the Burn Unit." She settled back, "Well, they brought in this Half-Veela woman. Gorgeous hair, very pretty. Somehow she'd been hit with a pretty bad fireball and it gave her some pretty bad burns across the top of her head – she'd tried to duck it – and it was my job to heal the burns."

Severus was watching her. He'd never seen her like this before. Just relaxed and talking. The only interaction they'd ever really had had been in class and she tended to be a bossy, know-too-much little pest then... this was a different Hermione all together.

"Anyway, somehow one of my charms went wrong and the woman sprouted shiny, neon orange horns! Well, you've met Veelas before! The vain woman was convinced I'd done it on purpose and started screaming and screaming, trying desperately to convince them to chuck me out!"

His smile had been steadily growing as she recounted the episode, ending with him laughing boisterously, "You can't be serious. You actually gave her horns?"

Hermione nodded, "Well, I thought they actually looked quite fetching..."

He only laughed harder.

She smiled. This was definitely a side of her former professor she had never seen before. She wouldn't mind seeing it again, either. He was actually almost handsome when he laughed like that. She made a mental note to make him laugh more. He looked like he could use it.

After about two hours of comparing "I Screwed Up" notes, Hermione said she needed to go do rounds and left. She returned as her shift ended to check on him.

"Aright Professor..." She walked around him, pressing her hands to certain areas of his abdomen, now that the charm had worn off, making sure he didn't still hurt. She also made many notes on the clipboard she was carrying around, "I think you're clear to go." She scribbled out a note on a scrap of parchment and handed it to him, "Take that to Poppy when you get back to the castle, she'll make sure you get your salve."

Severus nodded, noting how her eyes were twinkling. There was also definitely a smirk hiding somewhere around the left corner of her mouth...interesting. Smiling roguishly at her as he pulled on his shirt, he asked "What, not coming with me to make sure I don't blow something up on the way back?" He'd forgotten how much fun flirting could be, particularly with someone who'd shoot him down continually, her wit as sharp as his own.

"You know, I do have work here, Mr. Snape." She grinned, 'Oh, he doesn't like being called that, now does he? No, not at all.'

He just laughed and got out of the bed, taking the scrap of parchment from her and heading towards the Floo network, trying to figure out what he'd blow up next to get himself sent to St. Mungo's.