Hello! I know I said I wouldn't post today, but I have to. Too angry, too sleepless, to… everything, lol. Hope you like it :-) thank you for all your reviews, I just love getting them! I want to reply, I really do!

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Chapter Thirty-One

Seeing the anger that had sparked on Snape's face when she had mentioned Harry having the Potions books, she had been hesitant to tell the Professor that she now had possession of the book. However, the do-gooder in her had come to life, and the words had spilled from her lips before she could stop them.

"I have it."

She watched through the curtain of her bushy hair as the anger turned to shock." You? You have it? How? Potter, hand over a book filled with such… such... things… to someone who might have actually have a shred of sense?" Hermione recognised his almost compliment, but chose not to mention it.

"He doesn't know that I have it," she whispered. "He put it in the room of requirement last year, and I retrieved it on the first day back this year before anyone could find it. It… fascinated me." She kept her eyes focused down, despite not being able to see beyond her feet in the darkness.

His voice was dangerously low. "You studied my book."

A heat in her cheeks told her that she was blushing furiously. "Yes, sir," she whispered.

"Your studying of my books ends right now, Miss Granger. I want my book returned to my office in twenty minutes, not a moment later." He did not have to make the threat to let her know it was there. She watched as he took the little light hat surrounded her and strode away into the darkness, leaving her alone and feeling glum.

Seventeen minutes later, however, she stood outside his office door, clutching the book tight. She had tried hard to slip unseen into the Gryffindor common room, something that was near impossible, due to the latest common room password being a loud "ROAR", which the Fat Lady took quite delight in making the students scream to get in. After ignoring her friends, she had fetched the Advance Potions book from her third drawer and now waited to turn it over. Willing herself to stop trembling, she raised her hand to knock.

Quite suddenly, the door was flung open by the Professor, whose terrifying sneer was even more pronounced. Hermione tried hard not to step back out of fear, as he loomed over her. "Do you have it?" He snarled.

Shaking, she held up the book. "Yes, sir."

He snatched the book from her hands and strode into the office, leaving the door wide open. "I did not intend for anyone to find this book, Miss Granger." He murmured as he sat behind his desk, setting the book down in front of him. He did not touch it, resting his hands on either side of it, his lank hair falling forward to cover his face. Hermione found herself quite suddenly wanting to brush the hair away to see his face. "I do not know how Horace Slughorn managed to ever find it, let alone Potter."

"Professor Slughorn gave it to Harry, sir," Hermione informed him.

"Figures, that fat piece of lard never noticed anything in front of his face unless it spelt out on the front cover that he could benefit from it." He shot a dark look at her, then waved his hand. "Sit, Miss Granger," he snapped. "I wish to discuss what you may have read in my book."

Carefully, she sat in the harsh wooden chair before his desk, folding her hands in her lap. "You don't like Professor Slughorn, sir?"

"No, Miss Granger, I most certainly do not. How often do you hear of my liking anyone?" His mouth twisted into a bitter smirk. "I've little time or patience for someone who does not appreciate Potions. While Slughorn may have talent, he never bothered to learn how to really appreciate such a fine art that is Potion Making." Hermione did not fail to catch the gentle caress that wrapped around those final words. "He does nothing out of love, simply out of upping his own personal status."

Hermione's mind flitted back to the conversation they had a little over half an hour ago, and the reasons before Professor Snape handing the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts job over to the fresh faced Professor Reginald Hammond. The man clearly enjoyed his potions. She wondered if there was anything else the Professor before her actually liked doing. Her mind came back to the conversation at hand as Snape opened his old school book.

"I trust you've not written in my book," he whispered in a dangerous voice.

Quickly, Hermione shook her head. "No, sir, I've not. I just read it."

He looked up at her, his teeth bared. "I'm glad you found my book so… fascinating was how you put it, I believe. Though after the marks Potter managed to achieve with it, it's hardly surprising that you would have wanted to read it."

"Professor…" she took a breath, wondering what kind of punishment she might find herself with. "I think it's wonderful."

He considered her for a moment; his eyes searching her face and Hermione wondered what he was looking for. Finally, he glanced back down at the book and spoke. "No doubt you would, Miss Granger, with all the potions I managed to perfect, all the spells I managed to write in my final years at Hogwarts, all recorded in these book. I spent so much time on those things, only to have it all fall into the hands of bloody Potter. Tell me, did he know it was mine?"

Hermione swallowed. The last thing she wanted to do was tell Snape what Harry had told her of the last time anyone saw the Potions Master before Remus Lupin found him. She simply settled for "No, sir, he did not find out until after he had thrown it away."

"So you knew when you retrieved it?"

Blushing, she lowered her eyes to study the floor beneath her feet. "Yes, sir," she whispered. "I was just so interested in what you had written, how you had managed to correct all those potions."

"You'll do anything for knowledge, won't you?" the sneer that should have accompanied those words was no where to be seen, much to her surprise. She dared a look at him, and his features were cast in a way she could not read. She wasn't sure how to answer him, so she chose to be quiet, letting a silence fall over them. He turned his attention to the book, turning the pages carefully, running his long fingers down each page. Never had she seen him so gentle towards anything except the actual potions ingredients. Then she remembered the way he had applied her healing potion over the time she had been ill. Quietly, she watched him for a few more moments before he glanced up at her. "What are you still doing here?"

"I… I was hoping I could make use of your private library again, after dinner on Tuesday. I have rounds to do, so I'd be gone by nine."

Definitely not for the first time in her life, she watched as one Snape's eyebrows rose beneath his raven hair. "Your friends, Miss Granger?" Apparently the book beneath his fingertips had been forgotten for now.

Hermione met his gaze squarely. "They have to learn beyond the classroom, Professor, in all aspects of life."

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With a scowl, Harry watched Hermione re-enter the Gryffindor Common room. Her presence had been announced by her roaring quiet literally at the Fat Lady. While at first the Gryffindor's had been amused by this new type of password, the joke was soon wearing thin.

Ginny must have felt his tension spread when he spotted the Head Girl, because she pulled him a little closer as they both sat, reading. "What's going on, Harry?" she asked, running a hand up the back of his head.

He could have pretended he didn't know what the red-head was talking about, but he knew it was pointless. Sometimes he wondered if she knew him better then he knew himself. Which, he mused, was really quite likely, seeing as he thought he hardly knew himself anyway, especially now that the war had passed. So he chose to answer his girlfriend honestly. "I'm worried about Hermione."

"You can't stop her from studying so hard." Ginny murmured as Hermione lowered herself to a table with several large books. Harry scowled again as he wondered where those books might have come from, whom they might have belonged to.

Turning back to the fireplace, he slid an arm down Ginny's back. "No, it's not that. I mean, yes, it is, but it's in a different way." He took a breath, seeing the expression on Ginny's face – he knew that curious look all too well. The fiery witch wouldn't rest until he'd told her everything. He took another breath. "She's been spending a fair bit of time with Snape." He was shocked when Ginny's face turned to a calm expression. "Gin, she spent the night in his chambers last night!"

"Have you spoken to her about it?" she asked quietly. Harry might have been amused at any other time by the fact that she had not bothered to ask how he had known. When he nodded, she asked him what she had told him. After he had finished explaining what Hermione had told him, he was surprised that Ginny turned her attention back to her Defence Against the Dark Arts text book.

"Ginny!" Harry whispered in astonishment. "What kind of reaction is that?"

Ginny turned her attention back to him. "Harry, as much as I love you, perhaps you're simply reading too far into things, you know, jumping to conclusions." She grinned at him. "It wouldn't be the first time. Besides, you said it yourself; he can't be all that bad, not after what V-Voldemort made him do. If he were bad, wouldn't he have done that himself?"

Oh, how Harry hated it when his intelligent girlfriend could use his words against him. "This is different Gin, really. She's been disappearing at night after dinner, and not coming back until after curfew. She's not in the library, she's not in her room, and she's not scheduled to do rounds. I felt like she was lying to us the other day, how could she had gotten back without us seeing, there's no other way." He paused. "She told us she just hadn't answered the door, but I just know she wasn't in there. And Snape wasn't at dinner that night. Then she goes and spends the whole of last night with him."

"Harry, what if she's just studying? NEWTs are coming up, and you know she gets frantic. She's found somewhere to study, it doesn't matter where it is, she's going to take up that chance. And how many times have we found her asleep in the library?" Ginny shook her head. "Hermione wouldn't do anything like that with Snape; he's her teacher, and a greasy bat at that. But, she did spend a week with him, and he did seem to take good care of her. What if now he's just helping her study? What if it's just like she said – she fell asleep and he took care of her?"

Harry knew his girlfriend was coming up with a perfect explanation, and he kept telling himself that he was foolish for not accepting it. But even if Hermione was just spending her time down in the dungeons, studying, then why did she lie about it, not tell them where she was and go running off into the dungeons? Probably because she knew you'd be a moron about it, Harry thought.

Truth be told, Harry knew he simply did not want to accept that Snape might be a decent guy, after all the crap he had put Harry through over the past seven years. Then a terrible thought loomed over him – the past two years contained crap that Snape had not even had control over. What if Hermione was right, he was okay, and just hiding it because of the threat that always loomed over his head, always was there. Now, with every particle of Voldemort's soul gone, every Death Eater rounded up, there was no more.

Perhaps his Potions Professor was free to be who he wanted. But Harry felt sure that man did not want to be the man Hermione was painting him to be. Surely he couldn't be that kind.

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Hmm… well, considering most of this was written on a way back from a trip down to the city, it could be worse :-)

It's 4am now, so all hail insomnia and a fight with a friend which fuelled my need to write. Lol, enjoy it! It felt good to write it :-)