-1"What was that sound?"

Hermione opened her eyes from her nap and looked around. "I didn't hear anything, Professor."

A loud clunk and clang emitted from under the hood of the car as a billow of smoke erupted from the tailpipe.

Hermione twisted in her seat to see the thick black smoke pluming into the cold night sky.

"Looks like the engine blew."

"Blew what?" Snape had begun looking slightly distressed, peering through different windows to see what was surely being flung into the air.

"The engine blew up. It's a muggle vehicle, so it probably needed maintenance. I don't know if the Ministry would have thought to check the fluids."

He turned slowly to face the informative student. "And exactly what does that mean to us, Miss Granger."

"We're stuck."

"Say that again?"

"We're stuck here together."

Severus kept rapt attention to her as she said that. He would be alone with her. He barely caught her head twirl away to look ahead.

"PROFESSOR!" She pointed.

Severus whipped his head around to see a large stag standing in the middle of the road. He braked, but the car had not lost its momentum and kept barreling down the ice-slicked road. He turned the wheel to avoid the animal but lost control in his panic. The car veered off the road and skidded down a slope, until a large wall of snow came crashing down from the embankment with which they collided.

"Miss Granger? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You?"

"Acceptable." He reached for the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. "My door seems to have been pinned shut by the snow. Try yours."

Hermione tried to no avail. "No. It won't open."

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"Well, flooing is out of the question seeing as that we don't have a fireplace. And we need to stand to Apparate. We could send an owl, if we had one…."

"It was a rhetorical question, Miss Granger. Could you please keep you thoughts to yourself while I think of a way to get us out of this confounded situation?"

She looked to her lap twisting her glove-covered hands. "Sorry."

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose in deep thought. "What about breaking the windows? Do you have anything hard enough to shatter glass, Miss Granger?"

"No, sir. Besides, it's a Ministry car. They probably reinforced the windows to keep out spells."

"Indeed." Severus looked around for some way to get out of this mess. He was astounded that he could not think of something. He was going to be stranded in a car in the dark…with her.

"We might as well get comfortable, Professor. Shall I transfigure the seats to beds?"

His eyes shot up to meet hers. "Excuse me?"

Hermione just realized what she had said and decided that rephrasing the question would be best. "I only meant that we might need to sleep. I could take the back seat and you could sleep up here. I can make us a portable fire to keep the heat level in here more bearable if you wish."

Severus sat for a moment. He could hear the words coming from her lips, but he couldn't believe that she could be so calm about their predicament. He could swear she was almost enjoying this. He just sat there looking at her unable to form a conscious thought; completely enamored with her intellect and control.

"Since when did I think of a student as being enamoring?"

"Fine. You take the back. I will take the front. And I'm perfectly capable of transfiguring my own sleeping arrangements, thank you." With that said Severus waited for Hermione to move to the rear of the car before tapping the seat with his wand and muttering a spell. The front two seats meshed into one full sized bed, expanding the interior of the car to fit it. Hermione did the same to the rear, but it only made a twin sized mattress. It never occurred to her how close the two beds would be to each other. They were touching enough for it to look like an oversized king. "Thank Merlin, I'm the only one who noticed that," she thought.

Hermione pointed her wand at the interior compartment light fixture and conjured her bluebell flame to sit inside, emanating heat and light for the two of them. Taking her coat and sweater off, Hermione transfigured the two into a heavy blanket and comforter. She took one of her gloves and transformed it into a pillow. She took the other and did the same, offering it to Professor Snape, which he grudgingly accepted. The two of them gathered themselves in their respective sleeping arrangements and began to listlessly fall into dreamland. Severus took a vertical position, parallel with the line of the car; while Hermione took the horizontal, perpendicular to him. Severus stretched his arms over his head. Hermione curled up slightly facing the back window.

What seemed like hours had passed when Severus realized a lock of Hermione's hair had somehow became entangled in his fingers. Oddly enough, when left with nothing to do, Severus Snape twiddled his thumbs. At some point in playing thumb war with himself, the cinnamon tendril twisted around his index and middle fingers. He paused only slightly in his ministrations with the curl, remembering his long waiting ache to touch her hair. To feel whether it was coarse and dry or soft like cotton and silky. To his appreciation, it was the latter. He fought himself to let go of it and sat up; his conscience having won.

Severus turned to look. The moonlight passed through endless flakes of new fallen snow. Its light gently filtering through the white blanket and landing on her face. He thought it cliché, but she had an ethereal glow in the night's light. "Fitting," he thought. "She's more beautiful when surrounded by evening's sweet touch." He allowed himself a moment to drink her in, and then turned back to the ever daunting task of sleep.

It seemed to be morning, (according to the birds), when Severus stirred and stretched half-awake. His arm brushed that same lock of hair only this time it was beside him. He chanced a glance and saw two large amber eyes staring at him.

"I'm sorry. The heat was more abundant up here. I thought you wouldn't mind since having a student freeze to death on your watch isn't the first on your list of things to do today."

"For once, you assume correctly, Miss Granger." He noticed her chin quivering and her hands wrapped up in each other. "Are you still cold?"

"Yes. A little."

He reached for her hands and surrounded them with his own. He pulled them to his mouth and let out a deep breath. The heat of it seared her fingertips, driving her blood to return. Her own breath caught as her finger lightly grazed his lower lip. He noticed, but didn't let on. The feel of her touch lingered longer than her finger itself. He soon found himself in uncharted territory. Severus had been dreaming of warming her. He wanted her to feel the warmth of his skin against her. "Damn morals," he chided himself.

"My apologies, Hermione. I'm sure you are capable of doing that yourself," he said as he let go of her hands.

Hermione proved that she was and began exhaling against her knuckles. She almost turned over to face the window when the words struck her. "What did you say?"

"We are in a tight proximity. I don't believe you have a hearing problem that I'm aware of."

"No, I don't. You said my name," Hermione answered her own question with a bite of her lip.

Severus looked at her. Did he? He couldn't remember the words spilling from his mouth, but by her reaction, he obviously had. "Shall I call you something other than your name? I've heard a few choice terms from Mr. Malfoy."

The disdain her face almost took him by surprise. It was an underhanded tactic that he used often, however it was not appropriate in their given situation. He realized this. "Forgive me, Miss Granger. I am so used to having to deal with incompetent and asinine children most of the time who do not ever realize they have been insulted. You are neither incompetent nor asinine, and have a keen intellect."

The reproachful demeanor she displayed faded quickly. "Was that a compliment?"

"Yes," was his only reply.

Smiling slightly, Hermione turned to face the window once more. She couldn't believe what she just heard. The feared bat of the dungeons, Slytherin Head of House Potions Master Severus Snape, paid Hermione Granger, Head Girl Gryffindor Know-it-all, a compliment. She pulled the blankets up to her chin and drifted back to sleep…peacefully.