Disclaimer

Oh, Dearest Ms. Rowling

How ingenius you are

To let me use your characters

You should also, get a new car

The Morning After

A knock on the door awoke me.

When I first opened my eyes, panic surged through my veins. For a second I couldn't remember where I was or how I'd got there but the memory soon returned and I sighed.

I figured it was Snape knocking on the door so I slid off the bed and walked, I am pleased to report, painlessly and barefoot, over to the door. To my chagrin, however, there was no one there when I opened the door. In fact, Snape wasn't in the living room at all.

More knocking and the source was coming from the entrance. I shrugged helplessly to myself, padded over, and opened the door carefully.

A bit more silver-haired than I remembered, Professor McGonagall said, "Severus, I need—" She seemed to realize that I wasn't Snape. "Oh, I wasn't aware he had company…wait." Alarm filled the witch's face as she looked over me from head to toe and back. "Miss Granger??"

I smiled warmly and opened the door wider. "It's lovely to see you again, Professor! Do come in. I don't know where Severus went but we can visit until he returns."

She blinked at me from behind her eye-shaped spectacles. "You look as if you just woke up."

She finally stepped in and I shut the door behind her. "I did, but don't worry; you didn't wake me. I think I was easing awake anyway."

She only looked at me in horror as if the mere thought of sleeping were atrocious and taboo. She opened her mouth to speak when a voice suddenly greeted—

"Minerva? What brings you here?"

I looked over her shoulder to see Snape. Professor McGonagall whipped around and gasped aloud.

I didn't blame her. For Snape had stepped out of the loo in nothing but flannel trousers, i.e. he had no shirt on. Now I had previously assumed he was really thin.

No, I was wrong; he was lean. His body looked like it could possibly be on the cover of any ladies' magazine, and possibly a few men's. Those abs and that chest were beautiful, a sin to have been hidden, and I felt myself flush from my frizzy head to my no-longer-painful feet.

I don't think McGonagall had gasped for the same reason I did because she was now looking back and forth between us and practically yelling, "Severus, I demand you explain this NOW!"

He looked all innocent (at least from the neck-up) and asked, "Explain what?"

Her face turned eight different shades of violet as she threw her arm wildly in my direction. "Did she sleep here last night?"

There was a slight smile on his face as he folded his arms (doing wonderful things to his muscles) and answered, "She did."

"In your room?"

"Yes."

"And is that your shirt she is wearing?"

"That along with my boxer shorts."

She whipped to me and eyed my waist as if it were a dangerous snake. To him, she asked, sweeping her hand in the direction of his ensemble, "You slept in that?"

He smirked devilishly. "Most of the night."

I had a sneaking hunch why McGonagall was angering and precisely what he was doing.

I thought she was about to either cry, pass out, or both as she asked in a voice that

trembled all over the place, "Where did you sleep, Severus?"

One of his inky black eyebrows went up provocatively. "Where do you think?"

"You took advantage of her?!" she shrieked.

Before she could strangle him and throw me into a convent, I interjected, "Professor, he slept on the couch."

She looked at me almost pityingly. "Dear, don't cover for him."

"Really. My feet were in a right state from my shoes and he took me here to cure them. The potion he put on numbed my feet and he let me take his bed while he slept on the couch. Yes, these are his clothes but I borrowed them so I wouldn't have to sleep in my skirt."

"Yes, Minerva," came Snape, "What did you think happened?"

She opened her mouth and closed it, then repeated the action two more times, looking very much like a hungry anglerfish.

Both of his eyebrows were in his fringe now. "You surely didn't think I seduced her into my bed and shagged her all night until she was within an inch of her life? You should be ashamed of yourself. How little you think of me! Not to mention Miss Granger's ability to resist my charms!"

She glowered up at him. "You did that of purpose and you know it."

He chuckled. "Getting you in turmoil is a hobby of mine. I thoroughly enjoyed your scolding. I think you were about to murder me."

"I would have had you actuallyseduced her."

Looking pointedly at me, he said meaningfully, "It wouldn't be me to do the seducing. And if I did, I would need the aid of Jane Austen."

Oh, I hated him.

Thankfully, my former Transfiguration professor didn't catch on. She turned to me.

"I'm sorry, dear. I cannot believe I jumped to such conclusions. Of course, you are old enough to make your own decisions, even if that means sleeping with him. I just worry. You know that I will always view you as my student, as will most of your professors." At the last part, she glanced at Snape, who raised his hands in a "What?" sort of way. Back to me, she said, "It was nice to see you again. You were a great student, so bright."

"Is there a reason you came here, Minerva, other than to accuse me of things I didn't do? Again."

"Oh, of course. I wanted to know if you would take my nine o'clock patrol tomorrow if I take your Hogsmeade chaperoning today?"

He shrugged. "I suppose."

She thanked him, apologized to me once more, said goodbye to us both, and left with a flourish of her robes, leaving Snape and me to stand there awkwardly.

After several ticks of the clock, I told him, "Well, I suppose I'll go."

I turned to go back into the room as he said, "You won't have breakfast?"

"No, sorry. One, I'm not going to wear those shoes and don't want to go into the Great Hall barefooted. Also, I have things to do, such as murder Ginny."

He nodded and I returned to the room to change back into Ellen's outfit. I folded Snape's things, set them on the dresser, and picked up the shoes. I definitely wasn't going to wear those again.

When I stepped out, I found Snape waiting for me. "I'll walk you out if you'd like."

"Thank you," I said. Especially since I didn't really remember where the Apparition point was.

We exited both his quarters and classroom, ascended the staircases, walked through the sunny courtyard, and walked away from the castle.

I stepped cautiously, so as to avoid any poison ivy, sharp stone or roots, or burrs. We walked in comfortable silence…until we reached the Disapparation point, that is.

"Thank you again for helping me and letting me sleep there," I said.

He held out an object to me. "I don't mind. Here, this is for you for your stay in Azkaban after you murder your friend."

I took it. It was a book, the title reading, Pride and Prejudice. I scowled up at him.

"You're terrible, you know that?"

He looked very pleased with himself. "Bye," he simply said and stalked back down the hill.

Instead of Disapparating to my flat, I went to Ginny's. First things first…

-------------------------------------------

"What were you thinking?"

It was the first thing I demanded so it was completely understandable that Ginny didn't understand at first. But she would. Ohh, yes, she would.

She sat on her couch, still looking a bit flustered at my suddenly appearing in her living room. "Hermione! I th-thought you'd be over after your date."

"Don't change the subject. You know, Snape told me he had a little chat with you."

Her smile fell and her eyes went downcast. "Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'. Ginny, why did you tell him all those embarrassing things? He's going to hold it over my head for the rest of my life." I thrust the novel at her. "He even gave me this as I was leaving!"

She stood up and put both her hands out. "Now, I understand why you are angry but I have a good reason."

Oh, I couldn't wait to hear this.

"Now, I was visiting George and Fred in their shop in Diagon Alley. I was in The Leaky Cauldron when in walked Snape. You see, I went over and asked him if he remembered me and he did and I told him that I knew of the scheme you two had cooked up and…I told him how to seduce you."

What? "How does that atone for saying that?"

She shrugged. "Well, I thought I would help you two get together."

That was enough for me. Before I collapsed onto the floor I moved to the nearest chair and buried my head in my hands. I know I sounded like I was whining but I really didn't care. "But, Ginny, you promised!"

"No," she said matter-of-factly. "No. I said I wouldn't bring it up with you anymore. Well, I didn't. I never said I wouldn't say anything to Snape."

When I glared up at her between my arms, she rolled her eyes, sat down, and placed a motherly hand on my knee. "I was only trying to help. I figured you'd be happy with him; you seem happy only pretending to date him, why not the real thing?" She sighed and lowered her voice. "Look, I promise I won't say anything more to him, ok?"

I reluctantly looked up at her. I didn't like to argue and I wasn't really mad at her but just at having to deal with it. She was my friend, and who likes arguing with their mates?

She sensed my resignation because her tone brightened. "Now that that's all over and done with, Let me just say how glad I am that you're wearing a dress, and you look beautiful."

"Thank you. But it was only a one time thing."

"Why?" she asked, her face curling up into a question mark.

"It was only for my date last night. And I only wore it today because I didn't stop home to change before coming here."

"What do you mean you didn't…did you go to an all-night restaurant or something?"

What was she on about? "No, we left the Frog Prince at about ten, why?"

I knew exactly what went through her mind as her eyes went colossally wide. "Its not what you think." As cliché as it sounded, that was all I could think of to say.

She shook her head, her now hanging jaw scraping the floor. "You stayed over at his flat."

"Because of my feet. The shoes gave me horrible blisters and…" Judging by her expression, the only way to convince her that nothing happened would be to let her see it for herself. I touched the tip of my wand to my temple and extracted the memory. I tapped it into a conjured vial and handed it to her. "There. Now I am going to return these to Ellen and rest the rest of the weekend. You can see the entire thing for yourself and how wrong you are. Good day."

I love proving my point. Especially if it is a matter that I am not well equipped with.

I didn't lie when I told her what I was going to do. I did suddenly feel as if it'd been weeks since my last sleep and I did have to give Ellen back her outfit and demented shoes.

A/N: Who loved my innuendos? Ah hahaha. That was the funnest chappie to write. How lovely we all got to see shirtless!snape. Ahhhh. This is all too fun.

Again, sorry for any OOCness. I just had to do it.

More bad poetry!!!!

Betas, oh betas

How thankful I am to have thee

If you were a tree

You would not be editing this story

R&R!

And next chappie...Hermione gets down to business...