Snuffling into the shoulder of your former potions master is not always a good idea, you might just find that it's comforting and warm and that you fit just perfectly together. Something clicked in Hermione's mind as she considered this, 'Shit I have a crush on Severus Snape! This is not possible, he's a great bat, a greasy git, and he hates me! He's twice my age, used to be my teacher, oh shit! Oh God, now he's patting my back oh, those hand are amazing and he's got this cute freckle just below his ear.' This last thought was what ultimately woke her from her thoughts, Severus Snape was many things, but definitely not cute! She stepped away from him and burrowed in her bag for a tissue, finding one scrunched at the bottom she sat down and blew her nose. Taking a deep breath she composed herself and looked up at Snape with a wry smile. "Thanks, I needed that!"

He looked at her with one eyebrow raised and waited for her to continue; she said nothing, just gazed at him intently. He finally spoke in a voice dripping with sarcasm, "do I have something on my face Miss Granger?"

She looked at him again and burst out laughing, in between chuckles she managed to ask, "who the hell are you and what have you done with my Professor?"

With a perfectly straight face he replied, "I can't imagine what you mean."

She continued laughing and he gave her an evil smile, this just made her laugh harder and he joined in.

The other customers in the café were looking at them like they were insane but they couldn't stop laughing. Jamie wandered past and quipped that they were scaring people, but they continued to laugh.

Gasping for breath Hermione said, "can you imagine the look on Harry and Ron's faces if they could see us now?"

"All I can think of is Minerva rushing off to Albus, ranting that all that spying has to stop, 'Severus Snape has finally gone nutters!'"

She laughed again, "that was the worst impersonation of a Scottish person I've ever heard."

He snorted, and once again they dissolved into laughter. Jamie walked past again and said, "now you're scaring me!" Finally with tears streaming down their faces they stopped laughing. Snape exclaimed, "Gods it's good to see you Hermione! You remind me that there were some great things about my former life, excluding malevolent megalomaniacs of course."

She grinned at him and replied, "it's great to see you too, though if you tell anyone that I'll deny it vehemently! Do you want to see something?"

"What's that?"

"My house in the hills, as we are two eminently powerful people we could apparate there and be back in time for you to pick Jane up from school. It's beautiful, plus you can see my potions lab."

"Showing off to your old professor Hermione?"

"Yep, it's a beautiful lab! Now come on, lets go!"

Snape smiled at her and nodded, they quickly said goodbye to Jamie and they left to find a secluded spot from which to disapparate. Hermione grasped hold of Snape and in an instant they were in her kitchen. He looked around at the piles of books all over any spare space and quipped, "do you ever actually cook in here?"

"Not often," she replied. "Why cook when you can order in pizza? Molly would be horrified but the wizarding takeaways deliver everywhere."

"One of the greatest minds of our age? Think what you could achieve if you ate vegetables every so often. I never thought I'd agree with Molly Bloody Weasley."

She wrinkled her nose at him and said, "don't be such a dad!"

"I'm not your father Hermione."

"I noticed!"

"I noticed you noticing."

He was standing by the window now, looking out towards the forest that almost surrounded Hermione's little house. He softly took her hand and they stood side by side for a moment. He brought up her hand to his mouth and kissed he knuckles almost reverently. Hermione's knees nearly gave way and when he released her hand she brought it up to his cheek and carefully turned his face towards her. They stared at each other until Hermione smiled gently and he bent down and kissed her. And kissed her, and kissed her! Without breaking away they moved to the sofa and he pulled Hermione onto his lap then resumed his exploration of her face and neck. A few minutes later she rather abruptly stopped and exclaimed, "you didn't want to do this when I was a student did you?"

He smiled, said, "most definitely not, you were a pain in the arse!" And kissed her again. A second later he stopped and asked, "you didn't want to do this when I was you teacher? He looked horrified.

She smiled. "Nope I thought you were a pain in the arse then too." He glared at her and kissed her again, more fiercely.

She broke away "I'm not going to call you Seb either, I like your name, you are no criminal to be hiding behind an alias."

"You can call me anything you like!" He bit at her collarbone and made her gasp.

"Pumpkin?"

"Why not?"

"Gummybear?

"If you really must!"

"Even Snufflebunny?" She giggled as he kissed her gently just below her ear.

"Even Snufflebunny!" He laughed, "though maybe only in private," he glared at her again. "Now will you please be quiet, I'm busy." She sighed as he did the most incredible things to her ear. Then she giggled as he grumbled about insolent young people, the vibrations of his voice sending shivers down her spine.

"Albus!"

His head snapped up and he looked at her with shock. "No you bloody well can't call me Albus, that's disturbing!"

"Severus, he's behind you, his head is in the fire and he's twinkling at us."

"Shit! His faced drained of all colour, he pressed one kiss on Hermione's forehead and turned around to see his old employer and the more benevolent of his former masters.

"Good Morning, Severus my boy, I see Hermione found you then."

TBC...