Severus sat in his office looking at the gift that Hermione had left in his rooms for him to find. A beautiful notebook personalised for him. Black leather with silver writing across the front spelling out 'Severus Snape'. It really was the most thoughtful and beautiful gift.

Guilt got the better of him when he thought that he hadn't got her anything. He looked around his room and saw nothing that he thought qualified as a gift. Pondering in the middle of his office he heard a knock on the door.

"Enter." He barked, not really meaning to but when he was deep in thought he had no control over his attitude.

"Hi Severus it's me…"

"Oh Hermione yes thank you for the…"

"Severus it was so thoughtful of you…"

"Pardon?" Severus asked as he realised she was holding something and glowing red with pleasure.

"The embroidered wand pouch. How did you know I needed one?"

"oh." Severus looked perplexed, "you know just a lucky guess."

"I'm only sorry…."

"That you didn't have time to write something in my notebook?" Severus asked with the tone of voice of someone who had just figured this all out.

"Pardon? But I didn't…" Hermione began and stopped as she came to realise just what Severus had realised.

Both looked straight at each other and smirked slightly.

"Albus." Hermione stated and giggled slightly. "You know that man scares me sometimes with how much he knows."

"Well he understood a lot more than we did."

"But Severus your married and you know that if I thought you would leave her or if she and you didn't have at least a little bit of affection left for each other I would pursue this but I know I am nothing to look at compared to her and you…. that's…. it." Hermione finished lamely. She had rushed every single word hoping that if she said it quickly enough she would have made her point.

Severus sat there for a few moments trying to make sense of the jumble of words that had travelled from Hermione's mouth to his ears without forming much sense. When he had finally pieced the entire thing together, making grammatical changes were necessary; he looked straight at the woman in front of him. She was glowing red with embarrassment, her hands were playing with her clothing and she was chewing her lip.

"Hermione I thought I made myself clear last night…"

"Yes about last night I don't know what came over me; I mean it was so forward of me. Coming down to your rooms alone and flirting with you. I can't believe myself."

"As I was saying about last night, I think your behaviour is perfectly acceptable. You had instincts and you went with them. If I felt in anyway uncomfortable do you really think I would have responded in such a fashion?"

Hermione giggled slightly and looked the other way.

"I mean I think your fantastic Hermione but I still have some willpower."

"Thank you Severus, thank you. You have made me feel much better."

She walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek before leaving. After the door had closed behind her Severus got up and began to tidy the room up a bit. He was placing the various books he had received in their rightfully alphabetised places on the book shelves.

"Merry Christmas darling." Came an ice cold, unfeeling voice from, doorway.

"And to you Eleanor." Severus answered with out even turning round. "And to what do I owe this pleasure, it's surely not a polite social visit."

"No as usual you are right I'm here about some personal business." A smile spread over her face. "Your Father is very ill. Your mother rang this morning."

"And I want to know this why?" Severus asked turning to face her. He showed no emotion, no flicker of feeling passed across his face.

"Because Severus you know what happens if he dies before you have a child. You didn't think I went through all these years of marriage with you to give up on this because of a tiny hitch."

"Eleanor this isn't a tiny hitch it's a child. You can't bring a child into a loveless marriage just to fulfil the requirements for inheriting my fathers money!"

Eleanor's eyes narrowed and her lips became thin as malice and hatred crossed her face turning her from beautiful to barbaric.

"Severus you don't think a want your children do you? You think I want to carry something that could turn out as ugly and disgusting as you for 9 months? Well then you're even more stupid than that fat slut you spend so much time with here. If she had any sense she would stay away from what belongs to me."

"I don't belong to you Eleanor. And if you touch a single hair on Hermione's head I swear to I will…"

"You will do what Severus?" Eleanor asked smiling smugly knowing there was nothing that he could do to hurt her.

Well, almost nothing.

"I'll divorce you." Severus said, getting a perverse sense of satisfaction from the look of horror on Eleanor's face.

"You wouldn't!" she shouted but didn't sound sure.

"Go away Eleanor."

With one last glaring look at hi she turned on her expensive designer heels, which could be heard clipping all the way down the stone corridor.

Hermione came out of her room wrapped up warm in an attempt to keep most of the blistering cold out. She was on her way outside for a brisk walk to the greenhouses for camomile. She needed it for her homemade shampoo, the only thing she found kept her hair under control.

As she reached the stairs in he entrance hall she saw Eleanor emerging from the dungeons. She willed her legs to walk in a straight line. As she reached the bottom of the stairs Eleanor saw her and glared straight at her.

"Erm good afternoon." Hermione said trying not to look at the woman.

Eleanor looked at Hermione in disgust and gave her the once over. Now looking twice as big as usual owing to the amount of layers she was wearing.

"Well I didn't know the headmaster allowed elephants in the grounds." She said and walked off.

Hermione stood there for a few minutes stuck for words. Eventually she managed to move again and pulled a small stone from her pocket. She squeezed it until it grew hot. This was how she comunnitcated with Remus. She would use it if she wanted to speak to him and he would usually appear at the gates or his head would appear in the fire. Suddenly the stone started to throb. This meant that he couldn't come to see her for whatever reason.

Hermione felt thoroughly pathetic and depressed. This woman was using playground bullying tactic and they were upsetting her this much. She had got through this sort of thing when she was in school why did it upset so much now? And as much as she hated to admit it she wanted revenge. No one had the right to treat her like this but how do you get to a women like Eleanor? Something that would insult her vanity would be the only way to do it.

She couldn't just insult her that was too simple too petty. But there had to be something…

Then it clicked Hermione was really going to get her own back. And it was going to be fantastic. Not only would it get back at Eleanor but Hermione would get something she had wanted for a long time……..….

A/N Tune in next time and find out which was sweeter the pudding or Hermione's revenge.