Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. I'm just playing with her world

Chapter 2 - The Man Upstairs

Hermione hurriedly put him on the couch and went to get a blanket and pillow to keep this man comfortable. When she had been satisfied of his comfort, she sat down on a big, overstuffed, black chair. She grabbed one of the pillows and tucked it under her chin as she studied his harsh features. The worry lines from a hard life had not yet appeared on his face. In sleep, he looked quiet and friendly; this came as a very large contrast to his normal life. Well, the one she knew anyway. She let her eyes roam to his lips, full and not spread into a pencil thin line she had seen so many times when he got angry at anyone. His nose was still large but it wasn't crooked yet. 'That must have come from one of his Death Eater beatings,' she thought. A rush of sadness flooded to her, but she quickly pushed it away, wondering how she could ever feel sorry for Snape after all he did to her. But as she took a closer look at it, his nose, and she decided, it gave the appearance of aristocracy rather than ugliness.

"Oh, gods, how did you get here and what am I going to do with you?" she mumbled into the air, while using her forefinger and thumb to pinch the bridge of her nose.

A few hours later, a dazed Severus Snape woke up moving his very sore and stiff neck around, he was looking around the room not recalling it and had no idea how he had gotten there. He started to get nervous and made a break for the door to get out of this place.

"And where do you think your going?" Hermione was carrying in a tray of food and some very strong tea she thought that he would need.

Severus held up his wand and pointed it at her threatening. Hermione saw him point his wand at her, set down the food, and raised her arms in a non-defensive manner. Seeing this, he grew even more suspicious but put his wand down towards his side for the moment, still keeping a tight grip on it.

"Where am I?" Severus asked still weary of the girl in front of him, his eyes squinting.

"London, my house, where you saw fit to black out on my front steps."

"Who are you?"

"My, quite demanding with all these questions aren't you?"

"Just answer me!" Severus shouted. Spending 6 years in Slytherin taught him not to trust anybody no matter how innocent they may look on the outside.

"Alright, alright calm down. My name is Hermione Granger." She coolly and delicately sat down taking two cup from the tray and pouring the tea. She leaned back in the chair she had sat in to study his features and sipped quietly at her tea to let him take in all that happened and what he was going to do next.

Suddenly the next day flooded back to Severus and he jumped up and gave her the biggest bear hug she had ever received not counting the times with Hagrid, because, lets face it, nobody she had ever met gave a better bear hug than the half-giant. When he unexpectedly did this, Hermione's face changed from shock to nervousness as an unfamiliar and unpredicted tingling ran through her skin and color ran from her cheeks down to her neck.

He suddenly pulled back. "I have to get back to Professor Dumbledore; he'll know what to do. He always knows what to do. I swear that man can see everything that goes on anywhere when it concerns one of his students." As he hurriedly said all of this he shot through the room looking for his cloak.

"Wait! WAIT!!" Hermione yelled at him. This noise made him stop and look at her with an amused face, "how did you get here?"

"See, that's just it. I don't know." Severus said finally calming down enough to sit down and talk to her.

"Well, tell me what you remember before you got here." At this point she was starting to sound like a therapist. 'Wow I need to stop spending so much time in my aunt's office.' She thought to herself.

"Alright. I was walking down the hallway with Professor Dumbledore and we were talking about something but I really can't recall what, it's all still fuzzy. The next thing I remember I was walking through the dungeons with Lucius, when he shoved me and then I ended up in what I can only think is downtown London."

Hermione was getting more and more confused as the story went on. 'What is going on?' she thought, but the look on Severus's face told her that his tale was over. She shook her head to slightly clear her head of thoughts. Hermione sat up straighter in the chair and took some time to go over the story in her head.

"Well, what do you think of all of this?" He asked sounding inpatient but still looking at her excitedly.

"Wait..." realization just dawned on her. "Lucius?" 'Oh my gods I can't believe I didn't think of it before.' To this Severus just nodded his head making his black hair fall around his face, framing it almost perfectly. "When do you think this is?" furrowing her brow.

"Well, I haven't been out in the Muggle world for some time now so that won't help me. But, it's 1983 of course!"

Hermione's eyes grew wide as saucers as she took in what he just said. 'Oh shit, oh shit, oh bloody shit! What am I going to do?' She stood up and walked over to the fireplace and stared off into space trying to rationalize what she had just heard. This also gave her time to think of a plan of getting him back to Dumbledore and back to his own time as fast as she possibly could.

Severus looked up at her and studied her face and her body. He watched her get up and walk over to fireplace, and shifting from left foot to right foot. She got a very serious look on her face which made him smile and think about how he really wanted to kiss her. He was so avidly staring at her lips that he didn't notice she was looking at him with the same fascination as he was regarding her with.

"I'm gonna go to sleep, so please stay here and in the morning we'll figure out what we can to do about getting you to Dumbledore and hopefully back home.

"Alright, good-night Hermione." Severus said to her still in a daze from watching her lips and body move as she talked to him, but the habitual manners took over and he bowed slightly.

Hermione smiled a half smile at him. "Good-night Prof...Severus." She covered that up nicely. 'Can't let him know, no matter how weird it will be called Snape by his first name.'

He watched her walk up the stairs and heard her bedroom door click. He flopped very ungracefully on the couch as he thought of her. He thought of those lips and her brown eyes that seemed to look right through you. Those were eyes you could get lost in. They were a cinnamon color that just dared you to stare straight into them so they could suck you up and never, ever let you go. And he honey curls that looked so soft and fluffy. He wanted to touch them so badly he could already feel his fingers humming and quivering. And her smell. Oh, he shuddered, she smelled like lavender, honey suckle and pure white. 'I've known this beautiful women for less then one day and I already feel like I'm in love with her. Oh gods, help me with this.' Severus fell over on the couch and fell asleep with a smile on his face thinking about the witch upstairs he was going to make her own.

Hermione walked up the stairs and felt eyes burning into her back all the way up. As she heard the door of her bedroom click shut, she leaned back on the solid wood and let out a loud, exasperated sigh. Even though she tried to calm her body, her mind was having a war within itself. 'It's not supposed to be like this, I'm not supposed to like him. He's Snape, he's a Death Eater.' But a little voice in the back of her head wouldn't let that fly. 'No, No, not yet is he a Death Eater and besides you would like him anyway, you have since last year.' 'Nuh huh. No I haven't,' her logical side said as she shook her head violently. With the war in her head she collapsed down on her bed. No matter what she was thinking, one thing was constant. Hermione couldn't stop thinking about him. About his eyes, black pools you could drown in. Oh and his aroma, it was so manly and uniquely him. He smelled of sandalwood, spices, and he just had the musk of a man. Being so close to him made her head spin with all the scents flying at her. That night she fell asleep with a smile on her face thinking of the man downstairs.

In the middle of the night, Hermione was awoken by a hushed but very insistent pecking and tapping at her bedroom window. She may be a muggle-born but she knew after spending six years in the wizarding world, the sound meant that the mail was here. She groggily rolled over and looked out the window but didn't see anything. "Fine, fine I'm coming." She told the bird outside the window. She padded quietly over to the window and unlatched the lock of it, opening the window to the owl. And soon enough, a beautiful snowy owl flew inside and landing on her bed. "Hedwig, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked the owl. But its only response was to look down at the letter on it leg and back up at her expectantly.

Hermione flopped down on the bed next to the bird and reached out for the letter. She ripped at the seal and looked at Harry's familiar, scratchy handwriting.

Hermione,

Hey, Hermione, it's me Harry! Well, I guess you know that already since Hedwig is sitting next to you waiting for a response, since you don't have an owl to send a letter back to me."

'Wow, something's up. Harry never writes like this, I wonder what happened.'

"Um... ok, back to the point. I was wondering if you would like to come and visit me... and Remus and Sirius later this week since you're all alone. We could catch up on old times. But just write me back with your answer.

Your friend,

Harry Potter

"Wow!" Hermione exclaimed re-reading the note. She looked confused and was really curious as to why Harry would write like that and then sign with his full name like they hadn't been best friends for the past six years. But then all those thoughts went out of her head as she thought about the man sleeping on her couch downstairs and had a feeling it wouldn't be a good idea to leave him alone, so she quickly got a piece of parchment out of her desk and wrote her response for the patiently waiting bird.

Harry,

You really need to keep control of that bird. Hedwig woke me up at 3:30 in the morning. But you know I love to hear from you and Ron during the summer.

I would really love to come visit you, Remus, and Sirius, but I think I need this month by myself to re-coup and rest for the upcoming school year and I do still need to do the summer homework. Why don't you write me back when my parents come back in a month and invite me again?

I can't wait to see you guys, and I hope your doing well.

All the best,

Hermione

Hermione read her letter and thought it was good enough to keep Harry and his questions at bay for the time being. She took the letter, rolled it up, and tied it back to Hedwig's leg and gave him some of the toast she had laying by her bed from that morning. Hermiome petted the owl and it flew happily and speedily out the window off to 12 Grimauld Place.

Just as the first lights of morning broke through the sky, Hedwig flew into the window of Harry's room at Grimauld. Harry, who had written the letter at about 1:30 am, was still awake excitedly waiting for Hermione's reply. As Harry saw Hedwig land softly on her perch, he ran over and practically ripped his owl's leg off in wanting to see what Hermione had to say. This action gained a loud and very angry hoot from Hedwig.

He read the letter frantically and was disappointed to hear that Hermione was not going to come and stay with them but was giddy to find out that she was going to after her parents had gotten back from France. Harry laid down on his bed and re-read the letter many times, just taking in Hermione's handwriting. He finally laid the parchment on his bedside table and set his glasses down on top of it, to make sure he could read it again right as he woke up the next morning.

Author Notes: Thanks to everyone who keeps reading my chapters, and please review I would love to know how I'm doing! I know people are a little bit OOC but that will change. I'm just setting up the story. OMG thank you so much to Astaildiarfreak, Chainmailgrl, and GeekGoddess1!!! I love you guys so much, my first reviews. You completely made my day! BYE