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Chapter 6: Cologne

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on Idea By: PookaSeraph

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Disclaimer: All J.K. Idea came from PookaSeraph

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            There were things hidden all around Hogwarts that few but the Founders knew. Hidden rooms and passageways could be discovered by a roaming student, but there were many undiscovered things that affected all habitants' lives greatly on a day to day basis. A moving stair could set you back ten or fifteen minutes, but Hogwarts castle could control many other things when it chose.

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            Hermione Granger had been getting used to waking up even earlier as a Professor than she ever had as a student. Even with her compulsive studying, she never woke more than an hour before breakfast. She yawned and swung her legs out of bed shocking some life into herself. "Wednesday." She shook her head, shower today, I suppose. She spelled her wardrobe open and sorted through.

            "Jeans and t-shirt." Even since Severus had mentioned the wonderful 'view' in Potions she had been wearing higher cut shirts. She stumbled into the shower and rinsed the sleep out of her eyes. She finished and wandered, clad in a towel, over to her vanity. She brushed out her hair and pulled through some of her own brew defrizzer before drying it.

            Hermione walked over to her desk and started working on plans for a few weeks from now. She figured that most other teachers would have planned lessons over the summer, so she was trying to catch up. She cracked her neck and got to work.

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            Twenty minutes before breakfast was due to begin she rose from her desk and sorted her papers into their place. I actually have papers now, she mused. Her desk was starting to look like a teacher's, a filing system and different color ink and a plethora of quills. She stuffed everything to near its respective place and got out of her chair moving to the door. She warded it after her and proceeded to the stairwell. While her classroom was in the dungeons, and she could get to her personal rooms through it, her door to the hall from her rooms led too the teachers wing. Because of the difference in temperature, she was pretty sure that her class was in the dungeons, while her own rooms were upstairs.

            It was of course known to her that the castle did strange things on occasion. One such thing that she read about in Hogwarts, a History was that the pictures in the corridor to the Great Hall. Every Wednesday the pictures would be fixed upside down. The wizards and witches in these pictures weren't very happy with the arrangement.

            Hermione paused briefly to observe the Earl of Denby trying to keep on his toupee. She laughed to herself and walked to the Hall, greeting a Ravenclaw third year in her class. "Do your note taking?"

            The Ravenclaw nodded with sleep in her motions and moved off to her table, dragging her feet.

            Hermione moved to her seat at the Head Table, next to the already present Bill, "Where's Charlie?" She slumped into her seat and poured herself a cup of coffee.

            "Still asleep, apparently he hasn't gotten into the teacher flow of things."

            Their chatter continued over a half an hour until Charlie stumbled in, unshaven, to his seat. "You look awake." Hermione poured him some coffee. He accepted it and drank it with eyes half closed. Over the next ten minute Hermione returned to speaking with Bill until Charlie had enough caffeine in his system to participate in the conversation.

            Once it was noted Charlie was awake, Bill poked him from behind Hermione, "What's got you so wiped? Late night get together?"

            Charlie shook his head. "I took my seventh years to go visit two centaurs. It wasn't planned until I got yesterday's weather forecast." He munched on some bacon. "I got them to see us cause it was too clouded over to do any weather prediction."

            Bill nodded. "Good to know you're not taking a tumble with any of your students."

            "Amen," he said and began eating.

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            Hermione worked her way through the throng of students down to the less populated dungeons. At the start it had seemed cold and dank, but it was growing on her with time. She definitely loved the solitude of it, Harry had come to visit her occasionally, he always seemed very distracted though. Ginny came to visit almost every other night, talking or for hair care. Last summer Hermione had introduce Ginny to the wonder of making her own hair and skin products, suited exactly to her texture.

            Hermione came to a stop at her classroom door. Lowering the wards, she stepped inside to ready for her fourth years, noisy little buggers. Yech, puberty. She glanced at her itinerary before setting out the ingredients for the Hapirus Potion. After she had finished she rooted through her desk for her lecture notes. Notes, notes, notes….No notes then, I don't need them, she thought, leaving her text book open to the proper page for reference.

As the first students filtered in she sat herself in the huge chair at the head of the room. She looked to her class and decided she was too far away for her liking. She wandered around to the front of her desk and leaned against it. Too close, she thought. She wrinkled her brow, is this honestly what teachers think about when the scowl at nothing? She shrugged to herself as her students looked on--convinced that their teacher was going nuts--as she wandered the area around her desk.

She shrugged to herself and hopped up to sit on her desk facing the class. They were all looking on, mildly interested, as their teacher settled. "Whether you've noticed or not, your fourth year will be focusing mostly on potions to control the mind, or alter the way it is working." She glanced at her class, "The range of this can be full control, highly illegal, to mental influences. We will be working on the Hapirus Potion. It works like an antidepressant, making your brain think you are more content that you are." She paused, "Dangers anyone?" She settled on the hells of her hands, until a red headed Slytherin raised her hand.

"Maria was it?" She asked. The girl nodded. "Continue."

"As with anything that can influence the manner in which you think, there are obvious dangers in an overdose, becoming completely oblivious, though content. They are also highly addictive if used for extended periods of time."

Hermione nodded, "Ten to Slytherin."

She hopped down off her desk and wandered behind it, "Begin on the Hapirus Potion, should take you three class periods to complete, instructions on the board, careful attention to chopping not grating the scales." She nodded and the class got up to work.

She settled to her desk, at least they're obedient little adolescents. She began doing a detailed sketch of an ominous looking light fixture. Ten minutes later she looked up to scan the class' progress as something was lobbed through the air from a Slytherin table, aimed at a cauldron on the other side of the room. Hermione pulled her wand from her sleeve. "Wingardium Leviosa," she murmured and observed.

A Slytherin at one of the back tables pushed back his chair, mouth wide, and stared openly at the floating object, "Mr. Willain," she said, keeping part of her attention on levitating the object. "Kindly step up here for a moment, the rest of you continue." Rostique Willain made his way up to the front as Hermione floated the object to her desk to rest in between them, shoving her picture under some student papers. "Care to inform me what this is?" She asked, gesturing to the Ridon egg in front of her.

"Ridon egg, Professor Granger." He stated.

She nodded, "Do you know what would have happened if you had succeeded?" Her voice was quiet.

"No, Professor." The kid was smirking at her.

"It would have vaporized the potion, at this point forming a sort of botched laughing gas that would have put everyone in this room in a coma for a week and a half." She said coldly. "Zero on the assignment, twenty points from Slytherin, and you will serve detention with Filch tonight directly after dinner until curfew." She smiled. "Clean up and do your homework until dismissal."

Rostique's mouth hung open as the punishment was dealt, but he kept his composure and slid back to his seat.

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            Severus observed as his Potions Professor hustled into the Great Hall ten minutes late for dinner. She made to her seat and had a few words with the redheaded monstrosities that were his Charms and Creatures Professors. While she was talking she grabbed a role and yanked out the inside, stuffing it with some soupy stew before taking her leave from the room.

            Severus turned to picking at his meal. He took a sip of water when Lucius elbowed him in the gut. He inhaled his drink and coughed until he could breath again. "Well that wasn't near as subtle as I was hoping for." Lucius said calmly.

            "Ever so sorry, what do you want?" Severus asked as he finished clearing his throat with his remaining water.

            Lucius continued hushed, "I'm out of the stuff…you know, I need more before the weekend."

            Severus snorted, "I was gonna go make some tonight."

            "Oh, uh, good." Lucius turned to his meal.

            "So…Who you trying to hook?" Severus inquired. Lucius cut off the end of his sentence.

            "Keep it down boy!" He looked around, "Weasley." Severus snorted again. "What? Better than your mud—." Severus glared. "—muggleborn."

            Severus shook his head and got up, "I'm gonna head down now, I'll have it by later tonight." He shook his head at the absurdity and wandered the halls to the dungeons.

            He was whistling to himself by the time he got there. He knocked on the door to the classroom, but it swung open of its own accord at his first knock. "That's had a good greasing." He looked around the empty classroom towards the desk, and behind. The door into the office was slightly ajar. He silently made his way over and lightly pushed the door open.

            He looked around and found the room empty. He shrugged to himself and went over to a bookshelf next to three feet of blank wall. Down on the first shelf there was a jar containing three free floating frog spleens. He tapped his wand twice on the lid and watched as a door slid open quietly. Still works after a few decades, he thought. Severus grinned as he saw his teacher with a cauldron beside her, bent over some—Trigod scales—by the looks of it. She had a knife and was chopping them into relatively uniform size.

            He sauntered up across the table from her and stopped. Realizing she still didn't see him he bent over and 'hmm'ed, looking at her potion.

            Hermione yelped and snapped up, dropping the knife trying to get to her wand. She looked at her attacker before seeing it was Severus, standing looking quite innocent. She sighed and settled back to her chair as the adrenaline drained away. She winced and looked at her hand. In her fright and dropping the knife she had sliced the side of her hand open. It didn't hurt so much as look gross.

            She looked up grumping at her student. He was fishing through his cloak, he pulled out a green handkerchief lined in silver, pressing it over the wound.

            "How Slytherin," she said, staring at the green cloth.

            Severus was rooting through her stores trying to find a healing potion. "Being nice? Not really."

            "The cloth, and there's cut salve in the bottom drawer." She enjoyed the view as he bent to the drawer.

            "Malfoy gift, monogrammed as well." He peeled the cloth off the cut, which had slowed bleeding. He dipped a clean corner of the cloth in the goo, and settled it over the cut, tying it to her hand. Hermione shivered as the salve cooled and healed. He closed the vial and placed it back in its place. He got to his feet as Hermione's eyes snapped to his face. "I'm sure you know, but let that sit for an hour or two."

            "How'd you get in here?"

            "Tap twice on the jar of frog spleens, bottom shelf next to the door. What are you making?" He asked looking to her cauldron.

            "Merlin's robe!" Hermione ran over to the potion and dumped in the Trigod scales. She held her breath and stirred three times. She let the breath out slowly as it came to the right shade of yellow. She noted the time on the clock and wandered back to Severus. "The antidote to next week's sixth year potion. The specific antidotes work faster than a universal." She shook her head. "Why are you here?"

            "Lucy needs a new batch of cologne, wondering if I could borrow a burner." She nodded and settled to watch her potion.

            She ran through the roll of all her classes in her head. No one named Lucy in Slytherin. "Lucius?"

            Severus nodded, "He swears by this stuff, has his eye on a girl."

            "Oh." Hermione said, feeling sorry for Ginny.

            Severus winced at her voice, keeping his eye on his work of prepping ingredients, "Ye don't fancy him do you?"

            "Hmm, course not, a friend does. Was just feeling bad for her, she was well good and decided on him."

            Severus blinked, a friend, he thought. "Aren't you friends with that sixth year Weasley?"

            She nodded, "She'll be pretty sad."

            Severus snorted, "One guess who Lucius has eyes for." He smirked.

            Hermione smiled, "Can I tell her?" She threw her best puppy eyes.

            He shrugged. "Lucius didn't tell me not to tell, so I'm not gonna tell you not to." He worked in silence for a minute.

            Hermione sat in a chair and observed him working. Hair was lank, but not greasy as it was older.  He had very steady hands, even at this age. She blinked, "When is your birthday?"

            Severus looked at her after throwing in a siren hair. "Why?"

            "Am I a friend?" She asked. She knew some of his older self had to be based on past, perhaps that reluctance to be close to people. She'd only known him for all of a week and a half.

            He thought for a minute, his magic jump to the future had smoothed a lot of things over. There were still pureblood ideals floating around, but with no grand master behind them there wasn't near as much opposition. He nodded, "Yes, I suppose so."

            "Well then, as a friend I should know." She didn't really have much or any logic to back that, but who cared.

            "Only if give yours first."

            "I think it was a week or two ago because of a time turner, but officially, 19 September."

            He raised and eyebrow at the time turner comment, but gave his as well. "14 November."

            She turned to his potion, "Why siren hair?"

            "Lucius likes to be irresistible, it gives off a magical pheromone of sorts. Very minor, he doesn't need much help. It makes people like him more, helps overcome him being a grand prat."

            She nodded, approving of the usage, and headed to her side of the work table, prepping ingredients that wouldn't need to be added for a while still. She looked to the clock, fifteen minutes yet. She settled and began to draw an ingredient rack on the other side of the room.

            She had never really fancied herself an artist, but she had never given it much of a chance, too much studying to be done to be doing art. It was sort of relaxing though, doing something that couldn't be graded. When the time came she mechanically added the ingredients and turned the heat down to simmer for fifteen minutes. She settled back to her paper as the rest of the room erupted on her paper.

            The heat in the room was becoming unbearable so she shucked her outer robe as Severus had done, as well as undoing her top two buttons. She had filled her paper edge to edge with the room, so she began drawing Severus.

            He was paying almost constant attention to the potion as it got more complex. She began sketching the area around him before filling him in the middle of the page. A graceful hand spread over the desk as he concentrated. She drew in his arms, one hovering over the cauldron as the other flowed from the hand on the desk up to his shoulder. Finishing his torso she started on his face. Sweat droplets gathered on his brow. She stopped drawing. One drop worked its way down the side of his face and cheek to follow his neck down into his collar. She swallowed, longing to follow its path with her hand.

            She gasped and pushed off the table, standing and knocking her chair backwards.

            "Hermione are you alright?" Severus got off his stool and started around the desk.

            She waved him off frantically, "Stay there. Is it tuned to females?" She waved to the potion. He nodded. "Apparently the effects are magnified during the brewing." His eyes widened. "If you don't mind I'll take my leave before I jump you." Her voice was saturated in desire for him. He moved swiftly out of her way. "Off in five minutes please. I'll come back later."

            Every instinct was telling her to turn around and jump the perfectly male specimen sitting in her work room. He needed to be hugged and cuddled and loved until he couldn't breath. She shook her head. I don't like him like that, her rational voice said. Yet, continued a primitive side that thoroughly believed that it was in all best interest to go snog Severus until her couldn't breath.

            She shoved out the door to her office peering through the door to close and ward her classroom door, she went to her rooms to go read a nice boring relaxing book.

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            Severus watched with wide eyes as his teacher and friend made her way out of the room to her office. He hadn't brewed this in anyone's presence except Lucius and the first time, his male Potions Professor, in fourth year. He felt slightly guilty, but it probably wasn't a good idea to go apologize right now. Five minutes later he removed her cauldron from the flame, setting it on the desk and extinguishing the flame. Ten minutes after when his own potion was off and cooled, he pulled two flasks from his robes on the chair and filled them with the potion, returning it to his robes.

            He cleaned all he had used, returning everything to its place. Making his way to the classroom he stopped at her desk, pulling out a clean piece of parchment and borrowing a quill.

Professor Hermione Granger,

Thank you for the use of your lab and various ingredients.

I am deeply sorry for the potion brewing side effects.

Severus Snape

            He made his way to the door and pulled on the handle. After another yank and a few charms he held his breath and made his way to confront his teacher. He pushed the door into her office open again and walked to the door to her personal rooms. She hadn't warded this door. He slowly pushed open the door. She was reading a book on her couch. "Professor, you locked me in the classroom." Hermione looked up from her book. She was feeling better apparently, at least she wasn't inclined to tackle him any time soon. "Are you felling better?" She nodded. At her confirmation he made his way over to the couch.

            Step by step Hermione felt the urge coming back. She froze. He was three feet away and bent in front of her. "Thanks ever so for the lab usage." He closed the distance between them and kissed her.

            At the moment his lips set on hers, her brain locked up and a carnal part of her mind took over. Her eyes glazed. Hermione's hand snaked around his shoulder to pull him sideways, throwing him on the couch and followed the momentum to fall over him. Severus was surprised, not displeased though.

            Hermione's mouth fell on his fiercely. His mouth opened under hers willingly deepening her kiss. When Hermione's hand snaked under his shirt he pulled her hand away. Kissing a teacher sort of against their will is bad, Severus. He managed to get her off him enough to slip out under her.

            She made to follow him, but once he was a few meters off she shook her head clear and settled on the couch. "I guess the fumes will take some time to get out of my system then. Thank you for stopping me."

            "No prob' Prof." He was trying to get his hair to set normally. "I guess I'll see you in class. Let me out?" He waved in the direction of the door.

            She snorted, "You are not going out through my personal chambers, you'd end up in the middle of the fifth floor teachers wing. What would that look like?" Besides what it almost was? She continued in her head. "Head to the classroom, stay well away from me."

            He hurried out and she followed him. She lowered her wards and waved him out, "Thank you," he called back.

            For what, she thought. She warded her room and went to take a shower.

            She was undressing when she realized she had his handkerchief still tied on her hand. She threw on a robe and wandered to her sitting room. "Dobby!" she called.

            There was a loud crack as the elf in question apparated in front of her. "Yes Professor? What can Dobby be doing for you?"

            She smiled and held out the hanky. "Could you have this washed and returned by tomorrow?" She hated using the house elves, but she had gotten to know Dobby, the elf wasn't in best form unless serving others.

            Dobby bowed and took the bloody handkerchief. "Certainly he can do that Professor. Dobby will see to it hisself."

"Thank you, Dobby." Dobby bowed again and disapparated.

She returned to the bathroom and shed her robe. Hermione decided she was in a bath mood and settled on a scent, scattering crystals in the water as it filled quickly.

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            Hermione woke the next morning and dressed and showered. She exited her chambers and settled on an oxford shirt and jeans. She dressed and exited to her study looking to her desk she found the green silk folded neatly.

She pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote a short note.

Severus Snape,

Thank you for your help yesterday. For reasons that

may or may not still be obvious, I shall not be giving

this back in person.

HG

She sealed the handkerchief in with the letter with a blob of wax and a press from a stamp she had made to make herself feel more adult and official as a teacher. She exited her rooms through the dungeon and made her way to the owlery. She meandered through the corridor in front of the great hall. She paused a moment, the Earl of Denby was upside down, grappling for his toupee. Her brows furrowed. Wednesday was it?

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Reviewer Responses:

Sarahamanda: Will try.

Fleria: thank you, both of those were written well after midnight.

Jen: I went and looked, but please tell me of anything specific you see.

Droxy: Happy with the kissing?

Slytherin Queen: My sis wants me to write a time thing with HGRL after I finish this.

Fuurama: whee, random acts of smooching

Artemisgirl: she was only gonna fix his memory if he wanted her to.

Elizabeth-Cat: Thanks for the review.

TiffanyK: All idea props go to my sister.

Jojo: yeah that was a big thing, I din know how Snape would act before he was all death eatery.

Hp-lover-fifi: will do.

GothPrincess: Heh, adolescent Snape is amusing.

Crazley: the idea was my sister's midnight ramblings.

Dark Lady Mara: tell me any specifics and I'll try to fix em. I try to write it well in the first place though.

Authoresses Notes: f you didn't notice, it was Wednesday two days in a row. It'll be explained next chapter I believe.  The Earl of Denby was sort of taken from the book Ella Enchanted, the movie was very, very good and you all should go see it.

Hapirus is me just making happy sound latin.