A/N: Thank you so much for everyone's kind reviews! They make my day!

Chapter 5- Ginny's Gift

By the next morning, although the rash had not gone away completely, Hermione was feeling much better and decided to return to work. She had been in her office less than an hour, though, when Harry showed up.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as he sat in the chair across from her.

"Well, I received an interesting visitor at work yesterday," Harry said looking at her expectantly. "Why was Snape so concerned about you that he had to bully me into giving him your address?"

As embarrassing as it was, Hermione couldn't help but feel touched at Severus' behavior. She had never seen him show concern to another person before and she couldn't fathom why he was bestowing the honor on her.

"Oh, he was just upset that I wasn't at work for his appointment," Hermione said hoping Harry would blow it off. He looked at her skeptically.

"Hermione, if it was anybody other than Snape, I would have thought he was worried about you."

"Well… would it be that outrageous if he was worried about me?" she huffed.

"Yes!" Harry said laughing. "This is Snape we're talking about. He doesn't care about anyone."

"Honestly, Harry, you know that's not true. If he didn't care about anyone, he never would have helped you destroy all those Horcruxes."

"I didn't say he was evil!" Harry said sounded defensive. "I just don't understand why he's so worried about you!"

"Well, yes. I'm sure it is shocking that someone worries about me," Hermione snapped. "Is there any other reason you're here, Harry? Or were you just planning on insulting me?"

"Bloody hell, Hermione! I'm not trying to insult you! Why are you defending Snape so much? What is going on with you two?"

"Ugh! Nothing!" Hermione nearly yelled.

"Hey! What's going on in here?" she heard Ginny's voice from the doorway. "Merlin, Harry, I'm a few minutes late and here you are picking a fight with Hermione."

Ginny walked into the room, her hands on her hips and a glare fixed on her fiancé. Harry seemed to cringe under the weight of her stare.

"I'm not picking a fight, Ginny," he said. "I just thought the whole thing with Snape was weird."

"Harry, I told you yesterday, if Hermione wants to have a relationship with Snape, that's her business."

"I am NOT having a relationship with Severus!" Hermione growled but as soon as she spoke they both turned to look at her.

"Severus?" Harry asked, his voice rising in shock. "Since when do you call him by his first name?"

"Fine!" Hermione said throwing up her hands. "You think I'm so crazy for Severus? I'll prove you wrong! Ginny, I know what I want for my birthday!"

"Uh… okay…" Ginny said clearly unsure of how to respond. "What's that?"

"A date!" Hermione said triumphantly.

"Um… Hermione? That's real flattering and all but…"

"Oh honestly, Ginny! I don't mean you! I want you to set me up on a blind date! You always seem to have plenty of single friends."

"Oh!" Ginny said sounding relieved. "Well, alright…"

"Good," Hermione said, sounding as if she had just set up a business meeting. "You will let me know the date and time."

Harry and Ginny exchanged looks of surprise.

"Well, okay, Hermione," Ginny said, clearly confused by her friends behavior and Harry also rose from his chair. "I'll floo-call you later this week."

Hermione agreed and turned away as her friends walked out the door, wishing she could hide her burning face. How had she let Harry get the better of her on this? Although it had been part of her original plan to have Ginny set her up, she had since changed her mind. She didn't want a blind date at all. She wanted… The thought that popped into her head was too shocking for her to even think about and she quickly went back to work.

Ginny told Hermione that she was to meet her date at the Leaky Cauldron the following Monday evening. Although Hermione thought this was a strange day of the week for a date, Ginny assured her this was the only day this person could meet. As the week passed, Hermione began to regret this request more and more. She didn't want to go through with this.

Monday finally came and with it came a sense of dread. Hermione, determined to at least look the part, took extra care when dressing that morning and tried to tame her unruly hair. The day passed with agonizing slowness and it seemed it would never end. She was so concerned about the date, that she nearly forgot that Severus would be coming for his weekly appointment. As soon as he appeared at the entrance to her office she felt a sudden surge of guilt, which she could not understand, and she found she had trouble looking at him.

"Come in," she said looking down at the parchment in front of her. He entered and sat at the chair across from her without saying a word. It was several minutes before Hermione managed to clear her head get his paperwork straight. "Are you making your usual withdrawal?"

"Is something wrong, Hermione?" he asked and she looked up at him.

"No! Why do you ask?"

"You seem to be behaving a bit strangely today," he said. "You seem… distracted."

"Well, according to everyone, I've been acting strange for a while now," Hermione said sighing and rubbing her head that had begun to ache. "I just have a lot on my mind.

"Well at least you appear to be feeling better than you were a week ago," Severus said with a smirk. "And it appears that you actually bathed today, which is also an improvement over last week."

Hermione gave a dry laugh, unable to feel any real embarrassment and when she smiled at him it was genuine. "Thank you for your help with that. I seem to be doing nothing but getting myself into messes lately."

Severus said nothing but his eyebrow arched as he signed his parchment and Hermione handed him his Galleons.

"I will see you next week, Severus," she said.

"Have a good evening, Hermione," he said and he left.

Hermione quickly tidied up her office and once again found herself making her way down Diagon Alley to the Leaky Cauldron. She stepped into the dim light of the bar with enough caution that it looked as if she were expecting a Death Eater attack more than a date. Ginny had told her he would be sitting at the table in the corner that they usually sat at and so Hermione's eyes immediately went there first. She could see someone sitting there, but their head was turned and the light was too dim to make out who it was. All she could see was dark hair and a dark cloak. She sighed with frustration and walked over to the table.

At the sound of her footsteps, the person at the table turned and Hermione was able to get a good look at them for the first time. Hermione stopped in her tracks unsure if bursting into nervous laughter was appropriate at such a time.

"Hello Neville," she said as he rose from his chair.

"Um… hello Hermione," he said equally nervous. His lack of surprise, however, suggested that Ginny had already told him who he would be meeting. She wasn't sure if this made her feel better or worse. "I haven't seen you in a while."

Hermione felt this was a gross understatement. She probably hadn't spoken to Neville Longbottom in more than five years. He looked older and more mature than she remembered him, but she supposed she did as well. Aging had a way of doing that to a person. Still, though, he looked as sweet and friendly with a round face and kind smile as he always had.

"So what have you been up to?" Hermione asked as she sat, after Neville had ordered her a butterbeer.

"Well, I'm a Healer at St. Mungo's," Neville said proudly. "And I have a greenhouse that I work in during my spare time."

"Oh… that's right. I had heard you were a Healer," Hermione said and mentally she thought that this must be why Ginny had picked him for this date. Ginny had told her before that they worked together.

"So what about you?" Neville asked. "I always thought you'd be Minister of Magic by now."

"Oh…" Hermione suddenly felt embarrassed. Everyone seemed to have such important and worthwhile jobs. "I… um… I work in the War Reimbursement Department of Gringotts."

"Oh…" Neville appeared to be at a loss of what to say and an uncomfortable silence descended on them. Hermione desperately tried to think of something to say.

"So… you said you have a greenhouse?" she finally asked cringing to herself. The last thing she wanted to do was have a conversation about magical plants, but she could think of nothing else. "That must be really great for you."

"Oh yeah!" Neville's face lit up like a lumos spell had just been performed on it and he began to launch into an in depth description of the plants he was growing.

Hermione estimated that her concentration had wandered ten minutes into the conversation and by twenty minutes her eyes had glazed over. Not since Professor Binns' lectured during History of Magic had she had this much trouble paying attention. Neville did not seem to notice, though, as he continued on in his one sided conversation. Her mind's wandering, however, was interrupted by Tom calling over to them.

"Hey! Longbottom! You have a floo-call!"

"Oh!" Neville said as Hermione sat up a bit straighter in her chair. "I wonder who that is. I better go check."

Hermione watched him walk over to the fireplace where she could see someone's head in the flames. Neville only spoke to them for a moment before they disappeared and he returned to the table with an odd expression on his face. To Hermione it looked like forced disappointment.

"That was another Healer at St. Mungo's," he said reaching over and grabbing his cloak. "I'm sorry but there's an emergency that's come up so I'm going to have to go."

"Oh… well, that's too bad," Hermione said hoping she sounded genuine. "Well… maybe some other time…"

Neville stopped halfway through putting on his cloak and looked down at her with… was that pity on his face?

"Honestly, Hermione, I don't think this was such a good idea," he said in a tone that matched the look he was giving her. "I don't think we would have much in common."

Hermione could feel her face flush with embarrassment. She was being blown off by Neville Longbottom? Really, could this get any worse? Apparently it could because he continued talking.

"I mean, I'm sure some guy would be happy to date you, but I think I'm looking for someone a little… more like me. I'm sorry." Neville leaned down and gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek.

As he walked out the door, Hermione felt a numb sort of shock. She wasn't sure she had ever been more humiliated or insulted in her life. She sat in her chair and cursed to herself as she felt hot tears on her cheeks. She swiped at them fiercely, furious with herself for actually crying! Over Neville! But the thought of it just made the tears come quicker and she was losing the battle of brushing them off her face. She had just reached for a handkerchief so she could do the job properly when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hermione? What's wrong?"

Hermione quickly wiped her eyes and nose and smoothed down her hair before turning around, plastering a fake smile on her face.

"Severus! I figured you'd be long gone from Diagon Alley by now," she said as friendly as she could manage. She could tell from the look he was giving her that she wasn't being very successful at it. He walked over to her until he was towering over her, a frown creasing his face.

"I had some errands that required some time. What's happened?" he asked.

"Oh nothing," she said with a dry laugh and motioned to the chair. "You may as well sit if you want. The seat isn't occupied."

He did sit and stared across the table at her. He looked at her for so long and so intently that if Hermione didn't know better, she would think he was using Legilimency on her. Finally he leaned back in the chair, a knowing look on his face.

"Let me guess. Something to do with your birthday?"

Hermione snorted. Maybe he was using Legilimency after all. "How did you guess?"

"Well, considering that your birthday appears to have been the cause of quite a bit of emotional and physical upheaval in your life lately, I figured it the most likely culprit. So may I ask what has happened this time? Please tell me it isn't so outrageous that you've landed yourself in Azkaban."

"No," Hermione said with a small smile. "Nothing so outrageous as that."

Severus arched an eyebrow at her as if to tell her to continue.

"If you must know, I was on a date," Hermione said in a huff. She noticed that his jaw seemed to clinch momentarily and she felt her heart skip a beat. Could it be possible that he cared if she dated someone? "A blind date, set up by Ginny at my request. It didn't go well."

"May I ask who this date was with?" Severus asked, his voice and his eyes a bit colder than they had been.

"Nle Lbtm…" Hermione mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Severus asked. "Who?"

"Neville Longbottom," Hermione finally said and she watched as the corners of Severus' mouth twitched.

"Don't laugh!" she said heatedly. "Do you know how humiliating it is to not only be set up with him, but to be told that he didn't want to see me again? He actually felt sorry for me!" Hermione could feel her eyes well with tears again and the amusement that had been present in Severus' eyes disappeared. He moved his chair closer to her and took her hand in his. Hermione was surprised how warm his skin felt; so in contrast to the person most people thought he was.

"Hermione, don't tell me you have feelings for him," he said quietly.

"Merlin no!" Hermione said, nearly choking in shock. "No… It's not that I wanted to see him again. But honestly, what has my life become? I work in a dingy office in a bank and I don't do anything that I ever dreamed of and I'm now an object of pity for people that I had to help tutor all the way through school. Here I am, a day away from my thirtieth birthday and I'm all alone and I hate my job and I'm miserable."

"So that is what this has all been about?" Severus asked as his mind began to put all the pieces together. "You have been doing all this because you're unhappy with your life?"

"Yeah, I guess I have," Hermione said, reluctantly removing one of her hands from his to finish her now lukewarm butterbeer. "Pretty pathetic huh?"

Severus felt the overwhelming urge to shake her. How could this brilliant witch think so little of herself? How could she be so unaware of how important she was to so many people? Of how important she was to him?

This thought made him pause. Where had that come from? When did seeing Hermione for fifteen minutes on Mondays, go from being a somewhat pleasant interaction with another human being to being the most important part of his week? Somewhere along the line this woman had become far more important to him than he liked to admit. He looked down at her tear streaked face and felt a surge of emotion unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

"No, Hermione," Severus said wiping a stray tear off her face. "You are anything but pathetic and you should never be the object of anyone's pity. Certainly not Neville bloody Longbottom. You have so much to be proud of. You helped defeat a terrible dark wizard and you fought with enough bravery to merit an Order of Merlin."

Hermione wanted to roll her eyes but the moment the look of skepticism crossed her face Severus cut her off.

"Don't underestimate what you've done with your life, Hermione. Most of our world has forgotten, but I, for one, have not." Somehow Severus had ended up with his hands cupping her face and his dark eyes boring into hers and Hermione felt the breath leave her body. "And if that isn't enough for you, you can rest assured that even if Longbottom does not appreciate your company, I do."

"Oh…" Hermione whispered and her eyes drifted towards his lips, which were now only inches away from hers and all she could think of was how to close the distance between them.

Severus saw her eyes drop and he smirked as he lowered his mouth toward hers.

"Longbottom is an idiot," he murmured and then his lips were on hers, softly, gently while his thumb stroked her cheek. Hermione reached up to run her hands through the hair at the nape of his neck and he wrapped his other arm around her pulling her closer to him as he coaxed her mouth open, sliding his tongue against hers. He could feel her shudder against him and he slid his hand to the back of her neck, tightening his hold on her.

It was several minutes before they finally broke apart as they both seemed to become aware of their surroundings at the same time. Severus looked down at Hermione who was smiling shyly up at him, her lips were swollen from the kisses and her hair was rumpled from where he had run his hand threw it. He suddenly found it difficult to breathe and he wondered if it were actually possible to be bewitched, because these feelings coursing through him could not possibly be normal.

"Would you care to join me for dinner?" he asked suddenly with a hoarse voice. He wondered where that had come from. He had not planned to ask her out. Mentally he prepared to hear her excuses but when he looked at Hermione, her smile was bright and his breath left him once again. Really, she was going to have to stop looking at him or he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

"That would be lovely," she said, sounding a bit breathless herself.

Severus scooted his chair back and reached for her cloak, helping her to fasten it while never taking his eyes off her face. He led her out of the bar and Hermione realized that it had grown dark since she had first gone in and the air had grown cold. Instinctively she moved closer to him, tucking her hand under his arm and absorbing his body heat as they walked.

"Where are we going?" she asked as they crossed the street and moved into Muggle London.

"It's a Muggle establishment that I frequent," Severus said. "I have found that anonymity can be enjoyable and when I'm around Muggles I can at least count on no one knowing me."

"Won't we look a bit odd?" Hermione asked glancing down at her robes and cloak.

"No odder than I do by myself. So far no one has commented on my clothing."

They walked in silence for a while, enjoying the cool air and each lost in their own thoughts. It was Severus who broke the silence first.

"May I ask you a question?" he asked as they walked down a narrow side street. Hermione glanced up at him speculatively.

"I suppose."

"Why did you start working at Gringotts?"

Had it been anyone other than Severus asking, Hermione supposed she would have been offended. But considering everything she had said earlier, it was a valid question to ask. She sighed and took a moment to answer.

"After the War, everything was in such a mess. Not just our world in general, but my life. Harry was recovering; many of my friends were dead. We had spent years preparing for that moment and then it was all over, just as fast as you can say Avada Kedavra. It was hard for me to know what to do with myself. I knew I could have my pick of jobs; just like Harry and Ron. But it was harder for me to know what that would be. Harry always wanted to be an Auror, so for him it wasn't a problem. Ron used to say he wanted to be one too, but I think the horrors of war woke him up to the reality of it and he lost his taste for catching dark wizards. So he chose to go into the family business. But I didn't know what to do with myself. I was so disillusioned with the Ministry after their treatment of Harry, but there really aren't a lot of jobs out there. I worked for a while at Flourish and Blotts, but as much as I love reading books, selling them is a bit different. So when they asked me to be in charge of the War Reimbursement Department, I though that would be for the best. Even though I wasn't doing anything important, at least I could be helping out people who had."

"And now?" Severus asked. "What has changed?"

Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Nothing maybe… maybe everything. I feel like I'm stuck. Nothing in my life has really changed in the past ten years and I see my friends around me moving on; with their careers, with marriage and I'm still Hermione Granger, former Head Girl, former war hero and currently not much of anything. "

She paused and she could feel Severus' eyes on her but she didn't look at him. She suddenly felt like she had said too much, exposed herself in a way she hadn't intended. But she felt comforted when he took a hold of her hand and gently squeezed her fingers. After a moment they suddenly came to a halt and she finally gathered the courage to look at him.

"We're here," Severus said stopping outside the small building. He led her inside the small dimly lit restaurant. No sooner had the door closed behind them, and the maitre d' had hurried across the room toward them.

"Mister Snape!" he said with a broad smile. "How nice to see you! Your usual table?"

Hermione looked up at Severus, an eyebrow raised in surprise. Severus, however ignored her and curtly nodded to the other man who led them to a secluded table in the far corner of the room.

"Anonymity Mister Snape?" Hermione asked once they were settled in their chairs. "It appears that you are anything but anonymous."

"Well… I suppose I used a very broad definition of the word," Severus said smirking. "I will concede that they do know my name, however I at least have the luxury of not having to hear the words 'Death Eater' being whispered behind my back. Besides, their wine list is impeccable."

Hermione grinned at him and returned to studying the menu.

The evening ended up being more enjoyable than Hermione could have imagined. After she had spilled all her feelings and frustration regarding her own life, she was surprised when Severus had discussed everything he had been doing since the end of the war. He told her that he was currently contracted by the Ministry to develop a potion antidote to the Imperius Curse and she was even more surprised to discover that he and Remus Lupin had just recently patented an improved Wolfsbane Potion that was set to hit the market within the next few months.

Over dessert, the topic turned back to Hermione and she talked about how much she missed some of the subjects she had learned about at Hogwarts and the joy they had brought her.

"I had always envisioned myself going into Arithmancy or something like that," she said as she took a sip of wine. "Something where I would be able to spend my time learning and discovering things; not just filling out forms and counting Galleons." She smiled and looked at Severus who appeared to be listening intently. "But, this month has taught me one very important thing."

"What was that?" Severus asked.

"I definitely could not play Quidditch professionally."

Severus laughed, not loudly or for long, but it was the first time Hermione had ever heard him laugh outright and she chuckled with him. As they left the restaurant, Hermione once again tucked her hand under his arm, reluctant to let the evening end. Severus also seemed to be hesitant to say good-night as they walked down the sidewalk.

"Can I Apparate you to your flat?" Severus asked, a little nervously. Hermione smiled. She had never seen this strangely unsure Severus.

"Actually, I usually go the Muggle way," she said motioning toward the nearby steps leading under the city street. "Would you like to join me?"

Severus looked at her, alarmed and she laughed. "Hermione, do you mean to tell me that you get on one of those… things? And you say you don't like flying."

"Yes, well, I live in a Muggle neighborhood and it's easier than worrying about someone seeing me Apparate all the time. Besides, sometimes it's nice to experience the magic of the Muggle world."

Severus looked at her confused for a moment, but then he seemed to understand what she meant and nodded. "Very well. I will not be joining you, however, unless you're interested in seeing me turn green."

"Alright," Hermione said with a sigh. "Perhaps someday." She felt her own heart leap as she saw the hope in his eyes at her mention of future interaction. She reached up on her tip toes and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"I had a very nice time tonight," she said softly.

"As did I," Severus said before leaning in for another kiss. "Have a good evening Hermione."

"Good-night," she whispered and she turned to head down the steps. She looked back just before Severus disappeared from view and saw him still standing there, a smile on his face.