Author's note:
A million thanks to all of you, who have taken their time to leave me a review! I have received so many that I could hardly believe it was true. Just a wonderful feeling which – I expect – every author among you can very well understand!
Madelynn Rae: Oh well, I've got no plans to die right now, so I won't give you a reason to kill me and so I post this chapter. Deal?
PhantomPirate: I guess your question will be answered in this chap!
Kazza: Thank you so much!
emilie: All I can say is: Would you react normally if you were in her situation? ;-)

...but read on:

Chapter 6 – A Fight in the Night

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"Love me or fight me – it's all the same!"

(C.D.)
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(Disclaimer: see chapter 1)

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"Miss Granger!" Snapes eyes blinked balefully and he didn't move his wand an inch away from her. He coughed and shouted:

"What the have you been up to?"

Hermione knew it would definitely be the better solution to answer, but her mind was empty and all she was able to do was to stare at him unbelievably.

"Miss Granger...", Snape hissed with glaring eyes and Hermione swallowed. She was in trouble. Big trouble, holy shit. She tried to think, what didn't work, so she acted instictively – turned around and tried to run away. She was sure Snape would put a spell on her, but instead he grabbed her robe and tore.

Hermione felt thrown around and almost landed in his arms, but he snatched her robe first and stopped her. She didn't dare to look in his face, because she knew what would await her there...

Instead she tried to fend him off, although she knew it was a bad, bad idea. But she didn't care about that at the moment. And besides – how could she've made the situtation any worse? In her eyes, this was impossible.

"For Merlin's sake!", Snape cursed and ripped her robe away, then used his other hand to grab her left shoulder.

Hermione thought she was about to die or something even worse, Snape opened his mouth to shout at her again, but the moment he touched her houlder, something strange happened.

With Snape.

He stood still, immediately, he even stopped coughing from one second to the other. His mouth was still opened and he stared at her with eyes torn open. With a slight amusement, which Hermione could not explain because this was definitely in no way funny, she realized that now he was looking almost the same way she had been before – but obviously by a different reason, what would prove to be true.

Then, all of a sudden, she noticed something in his eyes that made her freeze and that she had never wanted to see – knowledge.

With a harsh curse – that she would have never dared to repeat later - Snape pushed her away so fiercely, that she fell against the wall and onto the floor. Her head buzzed and her back ached, but apart from that she seemed to be alright. She would have killed Snape for that if she hadn't known the reason for his behaviour.

But Snape didn't give her any time to think about it, because he quivered and finally pointed his finger at her.

"You bloody, bloody little bitch!", he screamed as if hell broke loose. "What have you done to me!"

"ME? Well, if that's the way you want to handle it –fine! Let's insult each other!" – Now Hermione got furious, as well. "YOU have seduced me, you bastard! You brought me to your room!"

Snape looked as if he would have liked best to take his wand and bewitch her.

"You forced me!"

"Oh, how could I, Mr. I-am-such-a-good-teacher-of-defense-against-dark-arts? You watched that I was drunk and took advantage!", Hermione screamed back and stood up. Who did he think he was!

"This is all your fault!", she added furiously and glared at Snape who took breath.

"Oh no! YOU have been the one who has taken advantage of the situation! You've always been after me, you freaky little witch!"

This was too much.

Hermione howled and lunged at him to beat him with her lifted fists.
But Snape was fast enough.
He grabbed her wrists in midair and struggled hard to keep her away.

"Miss - Granger!"

Hermione's fury disappeared as fast as it had appeared and she let go and stepped back, taking a deep breath. This was definitely no level to communicate on, this would lead to nothing. But maybe her rage had been useful to switch her reason back on.

"Alright", she said. And with a cautious look at Snape, who seemed irritated, she added:

"May I propose to talk to each other like grown-up people, Professor?"

Mith delight she could read his mind with a look on his face and after a while of hesitation he saif through grit teeth:

"OK... So, what do you remember?", Snape asked plumply and crossed his arms in front of his torso.

Hermione hesitated. If she admitted she didn't remember at all, he'd certainly not tell her anything at all. Maybe she should play superior and hope this would work. So she tried to look cool and said:

"Enough, Snape."

But he didn't let go. Well, it had been worth a try.

"How much, Granger?"

His dark eyes seemed to look down to the deepest depths of her soul. Fine, and now? Should she be honest? Come on, Hermione, she told herself in mind, think! She needed to know if he was able to remember more than her, so she decided to put all her eggs in one basket and tell him.

"I...", she swallowed. "Alright, nothing. Just that I woke up in your bed – with your – and that..." – she could hardly say it – "...that we were both naked. I fled before you woke up."

She had expected him to laugh, to blame her, to do anything to humiliate her. But instead he just frowned and responded:

"Not more than you do. I didn't remember anything, either... at least until now..."

Hermione was taken aback. He did not just surprise her with his now neutral behaviour. He had not remembered. Now she realized what this meant.
H E - H A D - N O T - R E M E M B E R E D !
All this… it had been useless. This stupid performance had just caused his memory to come back!
She was desperate and her desperation turned to anger.

"I thoght you'd remember! That's why I broke into the restricted area of-", she broke off as she noticed she was about to admit a break of rules to a teacher and shook her head. "Forget it. I thought the Obliviate Spell was the only possibility I had!"

Snape laughed and funnily enough it did not sound cold or harsh, but just like an honest laugh that came from the heart.

"God, Granger! Have you any idea how difficult that spell is? Have you even thought of the consequences?"

Now, Hermione felt like a student again and frowned. Who was he to tell her about consequences... He had not acted the way a teacher should. But – and that was also true – she had not acted the way a student should, either.
Stalemate.

Snape seemed to realize he was not about to get an answer and the two of them stood quiet in the dark room, looking anywhere but not at each other and time seemed to stand still.

Hermione was near to tears and was convinced that she would have given her right hand to turn back time and make all this undone. But she knew that it was impossible to misuse the time-turner. She had just tried to solve her problem by use of witchcraft and it was a complete desaster. I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice, she thought by herself and sighed.

Minutes later, or maybe hours, Hermione was unable to distinguish, Snape cleared his throat.

"Well, I do not think that any more of this will lead us to a conclusion. We've had our fight, fine. I could bewitch you to forget about it, but I have intentions to stay a teacher in this school. Bewitching students would not do my reputation any good. Especially not bewitching pupils I have... erm, you know." His cheeks had reddened and he frowned again. "So I guess all we can do for our best is to forget it and never talk about it again."

Hermione nodded. She hated to agree to Snape's opinion, but this time he was right.

"I agree."

Snape nodded, turned around and left.

When he was gone, all of a sudden Hermione felt exhausted and could hardly hold herself on her feet. She stumbled backwards and took place on an old wooden chair, then she buried her head in her hands.She had been angry, she had been desperate, and she had been worried. But now she didn't feel anything as if she had died during the – mostly verbal – fight with Snape.
And if she was honest, reality was near to that. She was not dead, but her life as it had been until now was over. Within only a few days she had broken years of habit, she had not been herself anymore.
She looked up and saw her reflection in a small mirror on the far side of the room. It was dark, but still she could see the pain in her eyes. Nothing reminded her of the ambitious girl she had used to be.

Minutes passed in which she didn't move an inch, then she peeled herself from the chair, even though it almost surpassed her forces. But she knew she had to get into her bed before anyone found her.
While she turned towards the door and slowly walked out of the room she was down in the mouth.

They had decided to forget what had happened, but she knew she couldn't. It had changed everything. How could she ever hide it from Harry or the others?
How could she ever stand a Potions lesson again?

And above all, Hermione thought, and for a moment she was herself again, how shall I ever catch up on her studies for the exams?

to be continued...