AN: Thank you for all the support! It is very deeply appreciated!

Hermione held up her royal blue dress and cocked her head. "Is this too formal?"

Severus shrugged. "I haven't the foggiest clue."

She scowled.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I am no expert in fashion."

"Yes, but you are an expert in conferences and how to dress during them." She put the dress closer her chest. "So is this dress appropriate or does it scream, 'I'm trying too hard?'"

"It looks fine."

"Fine?"

Severus pursed his lips together. If she was still a student she would've lost fifty points for raising her voice to him in such a manner.

"I need more than fine." She threw the dress on the bed. "I need professional. I need distinct. I need fierce. I need…"

"To relax."

"Don't you dare to me to relax," she growled.

"I am only giving you my best advice."

"Take your advice and shove it."

"I suppose you don't want my help in selecting an outfit anymore."

"Not if you're going to be that way about it." She tapped her foot. "Except you are the one who knows best how these conferences and what people wear to them. From that angle I desperately need your help."

"Again, I'm not an expert on fashion."

"Ugh," she groaned. "You can at least give me some advice."

"I'm at a loss."

"Why? You've been to conferences before?"

"I barely paid attention to what the women were wearing during my presentations," he admitted. "I had other things on my mind."

"Like scowling at everyone?"

"Yes, amongst other things."

"That's it!" Her eyes lit up.

"What?" His glow flickered.

"Quick, where did you get your clothes?"

"Why would you ask that?" He drawled.

"Because I have the perfect plan."

He folded his arms over his chest.

"All I need to be taken seriously is to dress like you."

His eyes bulged.

"I'll bet if I wear your robes I'll leave a positive impression, or at least look imposing!"

"You will scare half of them to death."

"Intimidating is good. That means they notice me," she answered.

"You will not be receiving the type of attention you crave.."

"Yes, I will be." Her eyes glistened. "If I dress like you they'll have to take me seriously."

"Either that, or they'll think you're trying too hard to imitate a thoroughly unpleasant man they never want to see again."

"I would look rather ridiculous in black wouldn't I?" She sighed.

"Oh no, you are anything but ridiculous when you wear black." For a brief moment he turned pink.

"Really?"

"Yes," his glow brightened. "You command my complete and total attention when you wear black."

"In other words." She grinned. "Wear the black dress."

"You could, though I would save that for a Ministry Ball. After all you want them to pay attention to your research, not your appearance."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means." His glow pulsated. "You are stunning in that dress. Any man who sees you wearing it would know he was looking at an amazing woman."

"I sense a but."

"But you don't need to distract a man with your beauty. You will command their attention with your mind."

"I hope so anyway." She sat on her bed.

"You don't need a stunning wardrobe to capture anyone's attention." He sat beside her. "All you need to do is have confidence in yourself."

"I know." She swallowed. "I'm nervous though. All my life I've wanted to present my academic work to a research university. Now that I can though I'm afraid everyone else will think I'm nothing but a silly little girl, or someone who was only accepted by virtue of her fame."

"Anyone who looks at those formulas and the calculations you put into them will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you belong at that research center." He floated closer to her. "In fact, it would not surprise me if they offered you a job by the end of the experiment."

"Please don't joke about things like that. My time to be an academic has long since passed."

"I am being serious. You are just as skilled in potions as I am. If on numerous occasions I was offered a job at a research center, you should have no problem procuring a job there should you choose to take it."

"You were offered a job at a university?"

"I was offered several positions during the course of my life."

"If you hadn't made your deal with Dumbledore, would you have taught undergrads?"

"In a heartbeat."

She chuckled. "I it would have been much more pleasant to deal with undergraduates than preteens."

"Infinitely so."

Both of them fell silent.

"If you had to live your life again, knowing how much the Wizarding World needed the intel you provided," She swallowed. "Would you have decided to be a university professor?"

"Probably." Severus' voice was quiet. "As selfish as that would be, I would have liked to have spent my life creating potions instead of killing and spying."

"It isn't selfish at all."

"Still, if nobody else could've brought down Voldemort then it would be selfish to be a professor. Knowing that, I would have agreed to be a spy, though I would have warned myself not to give Voldemort the prophecy."

"Perhaps you could have been a professor and a spy."

"Who would have defended you then?"

She whispered, "I don't know."

"Neither do I," he answered. "For that reason, I am glad I taught at Hogwarts and spied for Dumbledore."

She put a hand through his, reveling in the warmth it brought.

"I cannot go back and change anything," he continued. "Yet you have a bright future. Don't squander it by worrying you aren't good enough for academia. I know these researchers. You have more brains in your little finger than they have combined."

"You really think that." She gave him a small smile.

"As I've said, there is no benefit to lying. It only tacks on more Purgatory time," his glow was a soft yellow.

"How does it feel being forced to be honest after spending most of your life lying to others?"

"Liberating," his lips curled up. "I can finally relax and show somebody who I truly was, and who I wish I could've been."

"It has been a pleasure getting to know the real you."

"It has been a pleasure to know you too."

Both of them turned their attention to the black suitcase on the ground before them.

"That being said." Hermione stood. "I'm still no closer to finding a week's worth of outfits than I was when you came."

"No, and we cannot allow you in your pajamas now can we?" He teased.

"No, although being in a ratty t-shirt would make my presentation memorable. All of them would be enthralled with my smiley pajama bottoms."

He burst out laughing.

"That being said," she pointed to the dress. "Please get off of that. I think I'm going to wear it."

"Very well then." He stood before she took it.

"Yes, and I have some tasteful business suits I could wear." She folded the dress. "Then there's a little gray dress I save for important meetings."

"A little gray dress?"

"Yes, I don't usually wear it, but this seems like an appropriate time."

"How many little dresses do you have?"

"Four. They were meant for dates, though I've only worn the black one around you."

"That is quite an honor." He turned pink.

"Indeed it is." She giggled before going to the closet.

"I swear if you wear that black dress you'll be the death of those researchers."

"Will they go to heaven or hell?" She rummaged through her closet.

"I would hope wherever they are I do not need to listen to their inane theories."

She glanced back. "You don't have a high opinion of them, do you?"

"Actually I hold them in great esteem. If I ever told you that outright though you'd think I'd fallen ill." He smirked.

She burst out laughing. "I would."

Severus watched as she caught her breath and pulled out a business suit.

"I still wish you could have come with me." She strolled over to the suitcase on the floor.

"I know, but I am only a prayer away."

"True." She put the outfits on the bed. "It won't be the same as having you with me though. I will miss having someone to talk to in the evenings."

"I admit that I will miss spending my evenings with you, especially given that my only social contact will be Black."

"That sounds like hell."

"You have no idea." He frowned.

"Hopefully when you go to heaven you will never need to see him again."

"One can only hope."

She took a gray business suit and put it up to her body. "Does this work?"

"It is adequate."

She frowned. "Just adequate?"

"No, it's perfect," Severus replied. "Still if I was too complimentary you would think I had received a personality transplant."

"I would never want that."

"Truly?"

She nodded. "I've grown to like you as you are."

"You are not terrible company yourself," he replied.

She blushed as she folded her suit. "I'll be sure to talk to you every day."

"I will do my best to answer every word, at least as much as I can." He promised.

They gazed into each other's eyes, both wishing they could tell the other how much they would be missed.