It couldn't have been more than 3 hours later that Hermione was woken from her slumber. She couldn't figure out what had disturbed her at first. Aside from the slight disorientation, followed by the 2 second panic once she remembered where she was, everything seemed dark and quiet and overwhelmingly normal. She was just shifting into a slightly more comfortable position, which isn't particularly easy on a second-best armchair, when she heard something that made her blood run cold.

"No." Whispered a miserable voice, very close to her. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom she stared over at Professor Snape, knowing there was no one else in the room. He was panting.

"You wait." He whispered. And Hermione waited, she was fairly sure he was dreaming but she daren't move a single muscle.

He let out a stream of mixed swear words and hexes next, as far as she could tell; he was speaking very quietly and not quite coherently. Then suddenly he was coughing and choking, she leapt to her feet and rushed to his side, lighting one of the torches as she went. He opened his eyes for a second, then closed them almost immediately, he was definitely asleep and nothing physical was causing him to choke. She knelt next to him, stilled by indecision. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus. She didn't want to wake Snape, he wasn't a dragon, but he was easily as scary as one at times and she doubted he'd be very pleased to see her. Sleep talking didn't seem very Snape-ish but it wasn't like he was crying or shouting or anything to indicate he was having a nightmare. She wouldn't wake him. It wasn't worth it; he was ok and so was she, and she'd really like to remain that way thank you very much. He was quiet now anyway.

"No." He moaned, louder this time, and her heart rate went through the roof. She looked at him more closely and saw that he was shivering slightly although his face was flushed; slick with sweat, and contorted in misery.

"I'm sorry." He whimpered, so quietly she had to strain to hear him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't – I didn't mean – not you – I'm sorry."

"P-Professor?" She breathed, her voice sounding pathetically timid even to her own ears.

"No, please, please don't go." He begged.

She opened her mouth once more but no sound came out; she'd just been about to say something else when a her Professor made a tiny little sound of absolute despair at the back of his throat, he was so tightly controlled she was sure it would have been full blown sobbing for anyone else and her heart suddenly felt like it had gained at least a stone.

She quickly sat up on the edge of the coffee table, the added height making her feel a little safer and leant over Snape, touching his shoulder. She felt his flinch like a physical blow. She gave him a gentle shake.

"Wake up Professor Snape." Her voice seemed very loud in the silent room.

It happened very suddenly. She was just about to tell him to wake up once more when his eyes flew open, he sat bolt upright and one of his hands closed around her neck while the other pointed his wand between her eyes. He looked utterly mad.

"It's – it's okay Professor." She gasped, his hand still firmly around her neck. "You were having a bad dream and I thought I should wake you."

He stared at her, looking thoroughly confused now, as well as utterly mad. He didn't move or release her. Acting on pure instinct she let go of the hand around her neck, not really realising that she'd been pulling on it, and forced herself to completely relax her body. Professor Snape would not hurt her. His grip slackened slightly and he looked rather dazed. Shit he's probably still drunk she thought wildly, and reached her right hand towards him slowly so as not to startle him. When he still didn't move she went to brush some of his hair from his sweaty face but as soon as her fingertips touched him he pushed her away and threw himself backwards, his reflexes still like lightning.

He still looked completely bewildered and she wondered if he was stuck somewhere in between being fully awake and dozing.

"Everything's okay Professor Snape," She told him carefully, leaning slightly toward him, "you're in your living room at Hogwarts and you're safe, you were having a bad dream, so I woke you up."

He blinked a few times then a great shudder ran through him and he flopped back against the chair, running his hands over his face and seeming to come back to himself.

"What in Merlin's name are you still doing here Miss Granger?" Snape demanded.

"I – umm." She faltered, caught off guard by his quick change in demeanour and his apparent alertness. "Well sir, you were very drunk, and then you were asleep and I was going to leave but – well – you were very drunk, I know I already said that, sorry. But then you started shivering and I remembered that you'd been knocked out and I didn't know how bad it was or if you had concussion or something and I didn't think I should just leave and then you were having a bad dream and then – well you know what happened then." She babbled. He continued to glare at her and a deathly silence settled over them.

Not daring to make eye-contact she conjured a glass and filled it with water, silently handing it to him and counting it as a minor victory when he took it and drank greedily, filling it up once again with his own wand. They sat in the quiet together for a time and she listened to his breathing slowly return to normal.

"How are you feeling?" She asked him cautiously and immediately wished she'd kept her big mouth shut; Snape looked furious.

"That is none of concern you insufferable little girl. I'm sure you're very proud of yourself, how noble you must feel, leaving your idiotic friends in the Hospital Wing to come and fuss over the greasy git of the dungeons, how wonderfully virtuous of you. Well I'll tell you now Miss Granger, your attentions are neither wanted nor needed, you are nothing more than a self-important, self-righteous, unbearable know-it-all and if you don't get out of my quarters in the next 30 seconds I will put you in detention every night until you leave this infernal castle for good. 30 points from Gryffindor. Now GET OUT." He spat.

She looked up at him for a second, angry, tired tears stinging in her eyes and saw the tiny flash of regret pass over his scowling face, and she then she wasn't so angry. Of course this was how he reacted, he was Snape. He hated her, and that hate definitely wasn't entirely unjustified. Plus he was a Slytherin, they were famed for their ulterior motives; obviously he wasn't going to believe that she had genuinely been worried about him, and even if he did believe it, he would see it as a character flaw anyway. And of all the people to see him in the state he's been in, and witness his nightmare, he probably hated that it was her; a 14 year old Gryffindor swot, best friend of Harry Potter; The–Boy-He-Hated-Beyond-All-Others.

"Yes Sir." She said, then stood and picked up her shoes from their spot next to the second armchair. She looked at him thoughtfully.

"I noticed last year that Madam Pomfrey keeps pain relief potion and a hangover-draught in her stores sir, that's rather curious don't you think?" He cocked his head to one side and with a somewhat grim smile, Hermione left and snuck back to the Hospital Wing, wondering just how bad Snape had found her attempt at being a Slytherin.

So here's chapter 3! I found this one quite hard to write so it may get tweaked a bit over the next few days but I hope you think it's ok. As I said before the pace of posting will slow down at some point but at the minute it's like the story's desperate to get out of my head! Thanks for reading.

Text in italics is from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K Rowling

Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus is the Hogwarts motto so all credit obviously to J.K Rowling

Text in bold and italics is from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.k Rowling

Text after that in italics is just for emphasis ;)

*SPOILER ALERT* Well not really.

Just in case you were wondering and I didn't make it as obvious as I was intending to, Snape was dreaming about when Sirius and James ambushed him after their OWL exam and he called Lily a "Mudblood". Some of speech is from Chapter 28 "Snape's worst memory" in Order of the Phoenix and some is from Chapter 33 "The Prince's tale" in Deathly Hallows. My reasoning was that the new events surrounding Lupin, Black and Pettigrew would stir up old memories and I'm thinking of saving the "werewolf incident" for a later chapter. Sorry for the rambling!