Disclaimer:- I neither own nor own anything from this story. My plot is my own but the world of Harry Potter is the intellectual property of JK Rowling and associates.

oOo

A/N:- So, here is the next story I promised I'd start posting. Now, I know people get a bit sensitive about Ron bashing, and whilst what happens is Ron's fault, in this story I would not classify what transpires in the aftermath as 'Ron bashing', of course other's may look at it differently, so you have been warned. Of course, as is usual in my stories, the epilogue has been ignored and this is an AU story, oh, and Fred is also alive. Also be warned that this is a SS/HG romance, if you don't like it, don't read it.

oOo

Chapter One – Potions Mishap

Hermione Granger and Severus Snape started their day—a fine Friday morning in their current summer holidays—with a working breakfast. They'd been colleagues now at Hogwarts for almost nine years, in that time they'd become best friends and almost inseparable. This had led to much speculation amongst people that it was far more than that, but no one had the courage, or the stupidity, to ask such private people their business.

The truth of the matter was that both Severus and Hermione lived in a constant state of longing, because neither thought the other would want more than friendship. On top of this Hermione thought that she could not have children, and although he'd improved much because of Hermione's friendship with him, Severus was still a broken man after all his experiences in life thus far, so they continued on as friends and left it like that.

Severus had gone back to teaching Potions following the war, and over that last few years he'd wanted to branch out more into research, but he did not want to leave Hermione at Hogwarts, nor did he want to be without her either.

Hermione had apprenticed with Septima Vector straight out of school, and as soon as she'd been qualified her mentor had left her to it. The Gryffindor witch had found that teaching did not provide enough challenge, but she too did not want to leave Severus here alone, nor lose contact with him.

Therefore, he still taught Potions and she was the Arithmancy professor, and they did consulting work for Fred and George Weasley on the side, and it was this occupation that had brought them together—as it often did—this morning.

After breakfast they had a meeting with the Weasley twins, as they both had a lucrative side-line in helping the twins develop products. It was something that Hermione had gotten Severus involved in a few years earlier. The Potions Master had been hesitant until he'd heard how much the twins were offering for the development of products they no longer had the time to experiment on, nor in most cases the knowledge required for that experimenting.

This change of heart may have also had something to do with almost poisoning several of their student guinea pigs, and then Fred had inadvertently blown up the back room, and almost himself with it. Now, after almost losing his brother in the war George put a stop to the random experimentations and approached Hermione—not brave enough to approach Severus directly after the poisoning episode—who had always been their go to for any Arithmancy needs. They'd made it official while Hermione had still been an apprentice, and in due course, Severus also became an unofficial consultant who carried out the actual experimentation in his very controlled and expert environment.

Both Hermione and Severus took this change to mean that the twins had finally grown, up, and this theory had now been proven to be true. However, in truth, Severus had simply been looking for a project where he could spend more time with Hermione, as was completely besotted with her.

The Potions Master never showed his ardour, but keeping himself hidden away was something that he'd become a master at, it had been his life up until getting to know her as a fellow teacher, so it was normal to him. Sometimes it was difficult—actually often it was very frustrating—and he had a great deal of trouble stopping himself from acting inappropriately with her, but he could not bring himself to believe that she could feel anything more than friendship with him, even though most people around them could see that she was utterly devoted to him.

Therefore, as this duo ate their breakfast by the lake and discussed George's idea for a new range of Christmas products, their stolen glances at one another and the almost caresses of hands, elbows and knees as they sat so close to one another were so normal to them that neither thought anything of it. However, to another couple not specifically watching them, but sitting some distance off enjoying their own quiet breakfast on the beautiful summer day, they looked like the picture of devotion and love.

"I don't understand how she can sit so close to him without him telling her off," Neville Longbottom commented, as he watched Hermione seeming to snuggle into Severus' side to look at the parchment he was showing her.

Luna tittered. "He loves her silly," she replied.

Now the words love and Snape did not compute in Neville's brain, and his mouth dropped open. "What?"

"It's obvious, Nev, look at their auras," Luna replied, but of course, it was only her who could see them.

"Oh… umm, okay," Neville stuttered, his eyes going back to the couple further around, and seeing them collecting their papers and heading back to the castle. "Hermione has a kind of Gryffindor braveness that I'll never possess," he commented thoughtfully.

Luna laughed softly again. "She's a special girl," the little blonde said, her voice full of affection for her friend. Even if Hermione did not understand the nuances of divination, or accept them as fact, that didn't mean that they weren't happening all around her. Luna knew that they were, and that was all that mattered to her, not everyone thought the same way, and that's what made her gift so special. Hermione had different gifts, and that was all right too, and she made a mental note to go and visit her friend later before turning back to her breakfast with Neville.

xox

Hermione and Severus took a leisurely walk down to Hogsmeade, the meeting was happening in the Hogsmeade branch for the convenience of the two professors, and it was going well. However, no one was aware that Ron, who worked at the Hogsmeade branch, had snuck into the twin's rather small and messy disused potions lab behind the rebuilt office, and in hindsight they probably should have had the door locked. It was a really bad idea for Ron to think that he could experiment with potions, just as he'd seen his brothers do in the earlier day. Ron was unaware of why they'd ceased experimenting, but he thought that if they could do it, so could he, and he loathed having Snape around, the man hated him.

However, all that aside, even more disastrous than guess-work potioneering, was when Ron came rushing into the room as the consultancy meeting was taking place, holding out an open flask of what he was yelling was an improvement on a de-aging potion. He was only thinking that it had been a success because it hadn't turned to black sludge or blown up in his face, but again, that was beside the point.

Well, of course, Murphey's Law kicked in and he tripped on the rug as he ran into the room, dousing Severus of all people with the contents of the flask. It all happened in the flash of an eye, and far too fast for those already deep in discussion about the predictability of mobile snow in the charmed mistletoe globes to do anything about it.

As reality kicked in, Hermione watched in horror as the tall and elegant raven-haired wizard, who had just started to turn from his parchments started to disappear into his robes as his body became smaller until his robes literally engulfed him. No one had enough time to even think about a vanishing spell, let alone manage to do one, and all that was left was a pile of black wriggling robes as the professor fought his way out of his clothing.

What Ron did not know could fill volumes, and he looked on now in horror at what had happened. The youngest Weasley male assumed that the only reason that they had Snape around was because they needed him for the experimentation. Ron did not realise that whilst Fred and George came up with the ideas it was a very well paid Severus who developed them because they'd realised that they were not capable of anything too complicated; they didn't have the required expertise for it.

The problem was that Ron still hated Severus Snape—even though he, Harry and Hermione were in their late-twenties now—and he'd decided, in his very childlike outlook, to eliminate the Potions Master from the equation to help Hermione. Of course, the fact that Ron was only dabbling without any skill, and with the mistaken notion that it couldn't be that difficult to experiment with potions was only the beginning of his downfall.

Hermione was first to regain her senses, and she scourified Severus' robes to prevent any further contamination, and then she confiscated the remaining dregs of the potion left in the flask, levitating it out of Ron's slack grip.

None of this was helped by the fact the George and Fred were now having hysterics about the situation, but a swipe of Hermione's wand silenced them, because if they were going to laugh, Severus did not need to know about it. She placed the offending potion in a safe place, well, as far away from Ron as she could, and she turned on the hapless redhead.

"What the hell were you thinking, you bloody idiot?" she asked as she removed Severus' coat from the pile of clothing, knowing that his rather special jacket had many hidden pockets full of potions, and she did not wish to contaminate any of them if her magic should breech his security, not to mention any undetectable extension charms.

She felt very privileged to know enough about the man to be aware of this fact, and she started to shrink Severus' other clothing to fit on his de-aged body. However, Ron's reply made her head whip around from her spell-work and her eyes narrow further.

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" Ron crowed proudly, but his expression changed when he saw how angry Hermione was. "Shit!" he cried, and ran out the door with a cocktail of Hermione's most creative spells following him.

Then she turned to Fred and George, who had not stopped laughing but were looking on warily. "Better go find him and take him to Molly because I should imagine that he'll need his nappy changed just about now, and they heard a grumbling fart followed by Ron's muffled yelling as he emptied himself into the nappy he currently wore.

Fred and George took off after their brother only to collapse laughing at the sight of him, still full sized but wearing only a huge fluffy nappy, with a big frilly bib tied around his neck, and a pink dummy in his mouth.

Back in their meeting room. Hermione collected an unbreakable phial from her pocket. Tipped the contents of the flask into it, and after collecting all of their papers from the meeting she held her hand out to the small boy who was looking rather shell-shocked as he watched her with tears welling in his huge dark eyes and his bottom lip was quivering.

Her heart clenched in her chest, and she knelt down in front of him, instinctively brushing his raven hair out of his eyes. "Oh my, you're a beautiful child, Severus," she gushed. He looked up at her, and his lip quivered, so she pulled him into her arms. "Don't worry, love, I'll get you back to normal."

Hermione reckoned that his body was about five years of age, and it worried her slightly that he was acting very childlike, but with Ron's screams of intended retribution and Fred and George's roaring laughter in the next room—apparently they'd managed to unsilence themselves—she decided to get Severus out of here before she questioned him any further. Looking around to make certain that she had everything, she summoned Severus' coat and made certain she had his wand before she apparated both of them away.

xox

In the new and improved post-war Hogwarts, professors were able to apparate straight in and out of their rooms, and they landed in Hermione's small sitting room. She was still hugging Severus and she was shocked when he snuggled closer to her, seeming to gain much comfort from her presence. This was a situation that she'd longed for from almost the first moment that she'd accepted her position here, but she'd wanted it under very different circumstances.

Gathering her wits about her, she shifted to a squatting position, noting that he simply grabbed hold of her again, and she hugged him as she murmured, "Severus, is the grown up you in their somewhere?"

He nodded his head, but he refused to relinquish his position against her, his head firmly wedged between her breasts.

"Thank the gods," she said, rocking him in her embrace. "Because I don't think I can fix this alone."

Severus heard her, but his mind was otherwise occupied. Yes, his intellect was intact, but his decades long armour against any form of coddling seemed to have evaporated on him. All he could think was Merlin how he's wanted to hug this witch like this for almost the entire time she'd been a professor here. Something about her called to him, but he'd never had the courage to respond to her like this, but now as a child he could get away with it. Mind you, he was going to murder Weasley very slowly when he was himself again, but he was also going to cling to this soft, sweet-smelling witch for as long as he could too. It's a bloody good job that it's the summer holidays and there's no miscreant brats around, he thought.

Finally, Severus pulled back and looked at her. "Something strange is happening to my mind," he told her in a soft child-like voice. "It is like there are two parts to me now, and at the moment, the child part is winning."

Hermione cupped the little boy's cheek. She knew many things about the man's miserable childhood, they'd both spoken a lot about their childhoods, and she saw an opportunity to perhaps give this small boy some happier memories while they sorted this out. "I will not break, Severus, if you want to hug me I'm very happy to give you comfort, we're friends… I hope close friends."

He studied her with a flash of the scrutinising shrewdness she often saw in him, and he suddenly smiled. "You are correct, my adult self considers you to be very precious to him, although I'm certain that he would not want me to tell you," and as he said this, adult Severus' mind—for he certainly had no adult body—considered all the other advantages of having a child's lack of decorum.

As he was thinking this Hermione exhaled a long breath, and said, "I suppose that we better inform Minerva of what's happened," and she sounded resigned to that task being tedious. Minerva McGonagall was a very proper witch, and she was likely to make this far more complicated than it needed to be.

"Then we had best start in on the journey of finding out what the fool did," and Severus was very pleased to hear that his venom was not completely obliterated by the child's voice that he was currently speaking with.

Hermione suddenly gasped. "Actually, knowing how messy Ronald is, I bet that whatever ingredients he used to brew his mystery potion with are still strewn all over the lab space. I should have checked," she said.

"Then you best take us back there before we speak to Minerva, in case one of those twins takes it upon himself to clean up, because having raw ingredients will make analysing much easier."

"Agreed," Hermione answered. However, just as they were getting up to leave someone knocked on Hermione's chamber door.

"Hermione? Are you in there, Lass?" Minerva called.

Hearing the urgency in her elder's voice she looked at Severus and hurried to the door. "Yes, Minerva, we're in here."

"Oh my," the headmistress gasped. "It's true then," she said, looking around Hermione to the small raven-haired boy who'd followed her to the door.

Severus was wearing a scowl, but it softened somewhat as the old Scottish witch tutted.

"I remember you at this age, you were an endearingly handsome boy," she told him, and then added for Hermione's benefit. "I was friendly with Severus' mother's oldest sister, Theodora Prince; she was a Ravenclaw, and we were friends. After Hogwarts I used to help her sneak out to visit her sister," but then she cleared her throat. "But that's enough reminiscing," the headmistress said, seeming to shake herself. "George Weasley sent these for you. They are the ingredient's that young Ronald used," she told them, holding out some bags of raw ingredients

Hermione smiled. "Thank you, Minerva. I was just about to go back and see if they were still in the lab space," the Gryffindor witch said, taking the bags. "Then we were coming to inform you of what has happened. Would you care to step in now so that we can discuss it?"

"I think the only thing that we need to discuss is where this young man is going to reside," Minerva answered, "as he cannot live alone."

Hermione felt Severus grasp her leg, and she placed an arm around him. "He will stay with me, Minerva."

"That is improper, Hermione," the headmistress declared.

Here it comes, Hermione thought, but then said, "It is the summer holidays, and Severus is currently a five year old. Besides, I am hopeful that we will have our adult Potions Master back before school resumes, at which point he may move back into his own quarters if he wishes to," she stated bossily; she'd promised Severus that they would sort this out together. "Therefore, if you could request the castle to provide me with a second bedroom suitable for a small boy, then I believe that we will be fine."

"I see, and what happens if you do not manage to rectify this situation in that time?" Minerva asked.

Hermione glanced down at Severus, and she replied, "I am confident that we will, but perhaps we should evaluate this situation on the first of August if we have been unsuccessful by that point." As she said this, she considered that nothing magical Ron had ever done had lasted for long, when magical ability had been being handed out she contemplated that he must have been standing behind the door, so it might all resolve itself by tomorrow morning.

Minerva considered this for a long moment, but then nodded. "Then I will look forward to hearing that you've solved the issue," and she turned to leave, not appreciating her Arithmancy professor's directness, rules had to be obeyed, even if it was the summer holidays, but she also knew that Hermione Granger was one of the most honourable people she knew, and could be trusted to do what she said she was going to do.

The headmistress took her leave, and as she did so they heard the rumbling of moving masonry, and Hermione glanced over at the wall containing her bedroom door and saw extra an extra door appearing. "Shall we take a look, love?" she asked Severus, looking down at him.

The young boy looked up at her, his long dark lashes framing trusting eyes. It was a look that she'd never thought to ever see on his face, and even though it was on his younger counterpart's countenance and not strictly his, she realised that at some point little Severus Snape must have trusted his parents, or in his de-aged state he would not recall how to look at her like that.

Hermione had already formed the opinion that some sort of schism had occurred within his mind, and she feared that he might never be the same again, but she wasn't planning to say that to him. She led him into his bedroom, and encouraged him to look around the room. "You make yourself comfortable and I'll get us a snack before we set to work."

As she walked to the little kitchenette, Hermione considered that when she'd walked down into Hogsmeade this morning with Severus the grown man to attend the meeting with Fred and George, she would never have thought in a million years that now she'd be settling a de-aged five-year-old Severus into a room in her quarters.

They'd been becoming such good friends, and the entire faculty knew it, but she longed for him to admit that it was more than that, and she was suddenly wiping at tears that were blurring her vision. Would she ever know now?