Chapter One: The Offer:
London England March 2004:
Hermione sat in her small but cozy flat brushing Crookshanks and working out a rather troublesome knot in his fur. As she eased it out he relaxed and purred letting her know she had not hurt him at all and he was glad for his human to take care of those knots he could not groom out. She had just finished her schooling this last year and had been working part time until just the right offer came along. There were lots of offers, she had turned down the ministry time and again over the years. At first Ron had thought her mental but he had respected her decision in the end, he was now an Auror and a very good one at that rising to a leadership position as there were very few who could match his strategy and wits. He was married now and had been for two years to Susan Bones and Hermione was very glad he had found her. Oh they had dated but it had never amounted to anything in the end, they were very good friends still and always would be.
What had surprised Hermione was the marriage of Luna Lovegood and Collin Creevy, they turned out to be perfect together. He worshiped the ground she walked on and even with his glass eye in place of the one he lost Luna saw him as her handsome knight. They were so sweet together and again Hermione was happy for them. Others had married too, Draco had got over the loss of Pansy Parkinson in the final battle and married Astoria Greengrass, Fred and George had married the muggleborn sisters Alice and Amy Spinet who were a few years older than them and had helped contribute to Weasley Wizarding Wheezes or WWW as most called it. The last wedding had been the best for Hermione and she thought it had taken a long time to get here, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley had finally got married on Valentine's day. Hermione had been a bridesmaid showing up in her best dress robes and so very happy for her friends.
"Crookshanks I wonder what offer I should take do you have any idea?" Hermione asked the bandy legged, orange squash-faced cat.
Crookshanks just blinked at her slowly and thumped his long tail on the desk then he looked out the window as an owl came to the window.
"You are so smart, maybe this is the offer I have been dreaming of." Hermione said.
She opened the window with her wand and the owl landed on the table sticking out it's foot so Hermione could take the letter. She stroked the owl and gave it some treats and water and with one last hoot it took off out the window and she closed it while reading the letter. A smile lit up her face, Harry had really done it, he had got a wing added to St. Mungos that dealt with the modern day scourge in both the magical and muggle world that of cancer. Witches and wizards could use magic to be sure but they were human and as such they suffered much of the same diseases that the muggles could get. There were a few diseases that only the magical world would get but most diseases were mundane and cancer was one of the worst. Harry had spent the past few years abroad becoming a doctor at Cornell university. Hermione had stayed in England and had studied hard to become both a potions mistress and get a muggle doctorate in chemistry.
Everyone had been surprised at Harry's choice in his seventh year, he had started to study very hard long before that getting his OWLs and Os but he was a man possessed during his seventh year. It was that year his cousin Dudley had been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and it was found despite the chemo and radiation to need a bone marrow transplant. Harry had spoke with the doctors and found his blood did match his cousins, however he was worried that as he was magical it would harm his cousin. To his surprise the doctor was a wizard too and there were rituals that would keep the magic out of his bone marrow so not to harm his cousin. That had opened up a new world to Harry and he had gone on to become a doctor and an Oncologist. He had come back to England to join a team devoted to fighting cancer in magical peoples and help find a world-wide cure. Hermione saw the position was for an Apprentice at Gorsemoor Labs, she wrote out her reply to accept this offer.
"So we could be moving my dear." Hermione said to Crookshanks.
"Meow?" Crookshanks said.
"Yes Birmingham, this will be fun, oh I am going to enjoy this!"
Hermione sent her letter off the next morning and went about her working knowing that this might be her last days working at the Apothecary but she did not mind. She came home that evening and saw a snowy owl waiting for her, she let Hedwig into the apartment and took the letter from her. She fussed over the snowy owl for a few moments before she saw that she had an interview the very next day. She went to pick out her formal business dress robes and grinned, she wondered who she would be apprenticed to. These robes were navy blue in color, they were high collared, long sleeved and fitted closely to the body coming to a point just below the waist with a full skirt to just above her feet. The sleeves were close fitting to the elbow and loose to the wrist showing off the dark blue cotton under dress under it. She was looking forward to tomorrow and she hoped she would impress whoever she saw.
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Birmingham Gorsemoor Research Laboratories: March 2004:
Hermione landed with a thump and stayed on her feet, she had wondered why she was given a portkey instead of going through the floo. She brushed off her navy robes with matching cloak and pushed back the hood, she had braided her long hair and did it up in a bun on her head, it kept her hair well under control that way. She saw she was on the outskirts of Birmingham right up against the mountains and was in the courtyard surrounded by four charming buildings each four stories high made of warm gray stone with slate roofs. She saw that each building had trim around their windows in different colors, one building had green, another yellow, another red and finally, the one she was headed for with blue trim.
She entered the building and gave the young witch behind the desk her name and sat to wait for Harry as he had got together the top minds together to solve the problem of cancer and this building was theirs to use on the Gorsemoor campus. She stood and smiled as Harry came up, clad in high collared robes of dark green that went well with his eyes. He smiled at Hermione and took her hand and then gave what he saw as his sister a hug. He looked so good, marriage really was doing him well, he looked relaxed but had not put on any weight, but Hermione was sure he would as Ginny was a great cook, just like her mother and in fact had gone into business with her mother at her baking business Molly's Most Marvelous Baking.
"How was the honeymoon?" Hermione asked.
"Wonderful, Disney World was amazing, muggles sure can do magic without magic." Harry said, "Ginny loved it, though she did make me go on this horrible ride called Tower of Terror it's not funny Hermione, I prefer to be in charge of flying when I fly and this thing dropped us several times."
"Sounds as if you had fun." Hermione said, "so what exactly will I be doing here?"
"Well you will work under the best potions master I could find." Harry said, "he is a bit sarcastic, moody and grumpy."
"I have no idea who you could be talking about." Hermione said knowing at once who it was and her heart leapt at being able to work under Severus Snape, "Horace Slughorn?"
"Are you mad? No I will give you another clue, he was our potions teacher in school, does not care for Gryffindor and calls me brat." Harry said smirking.
"Indeed." Severus said from behind Hermione. "You are a brat and always will be Harry."
"Severus Snape I would like you to meet Hermione Granger and vice-versa." Harry said.
She turned slowly doing her best to not look nervous and look up at Severus. She noticed two things, one she was taller so that he did not seem a giant over her and two he looked healthier than she had ever seen him. He was still in black from his high collared inner robes to his sweeping black outer academic robes and dragonskin boots. He smiled and took Hermione's hand and she was surprised at how gentle but firm it was and warm and callused. He seemed less tense than he had in school and seemed almost relaxed here. He regarded her coolly and she returned the look calmly, he had ceased to terrify her around her sixth year when she started to have other feelings. No she would not go there, after all she was but a child to a man, a wizard like Severus Snape and always would be.
"I am honored to be here, to work under you sir." Hermione said.
"You have done quite a bit of work outside of school." Severus said, "creating a calming drought that would work on children and not have adverse effects and your combination of chemistry and potions has been impressive."
"Thank you sir, I still have much to learn." Hermione said wanting to show Severus she was not the annoying know-it-all of her youth, "the more I learn the less I know."
"Very wise words, I believe it was Socrates who said that first." Severus said. "Come let me show you the labs and the library."
"I would enjoy that very much." Hermione said smiling.
She followed Severus down a hall and into a well stocked lab that would not have been out of place in either the magical or muggle worlds. Hermione could feel the protection wards that kept any explosions within the room and she saw that the room was lit by soft "muggle light bulbs" and a computer near the door. The rest of the room looked as if it could have dropped out of the middle ages with stone walls, heavy oak tables and a large stone fireplace. Everything was in order, there was not a potion or ingredient out of place and Hermione was very impressed by the ingredients organized alphabetically with clear labels on the front of each. Severus led Hermione to a small office with only a desk, chair, bookcases and computer on the desk and a fireplace but nothing else.
"This will be your office, you can decorate it as you wish within reason." Severus said.
"Thank you sir." Hermione said, "but professor why do I get an office?"
"You are my assistant, that means you need an office, Potter did you not tell her what her job entailed?" Severus said glaring at Harry.
"Well I wanted to leave that to you sir." Harry said, "you are better at that sort of thing."
"Very well, your duties will include research, writing up our findings and when needed, you will accompany me to conferences, also I need a few brewers the last ones did not work out."
"Well I cannot see why, you threw vials at their heads and threatened to chop them up into potions." Harry said looking amused.
"They were dunderheads, how they ever got a potions mastery is beyond me." Severus replied.
"I could ask Dennis Creevy, he just got his potions mastery and really his is a genius with potions." Hermione replied.
"When you move in to your apartments and start working you can call him in for an interview." Severus said then a thought struck him, "please tell me he is not like his brother."
"No Dennis is not like Colin was, Colin has calmed down, Luna tamed him and Dennis after his first year really settled down." Harry said.
Hermione smiled and liked how Harry and Severus got along now. It was Sprout of all people who had finally had enough of those two bickering and fighting and had locked them in a room with no wands to work out their problems. Hermione had wanted to get them out of the room but Ginny had sided with Sprout and so all Hermione could do was sit in the sitting room at Grimmauld place while Severus and Harry screamed at each other for several hours in the locked parlor. Even with a silencing charm she could still hear them and even Sirius was concerned and not just for Harry which showed he was turning out to be a good man. Finally after hours both came out and they looked pale, red-eyed but they refused to be separated and from that day forward they had created the friendship they had to this day.
"So you want the job?" Harry asked, "you know how Severus is you sure you want to work with him."
"Yes of course!" Hermione said, "I look forward to working and learning under professor Snape."
"You will have to call me Severus if you work for me." Severus said, "after all we are as close to equal as we ever will get. I of course am and always will be the best."
"Of course Severus." Hermione said, "when will you like me to start?"
"Two weeks to get you settled in?" Harry said.
"Two weeks it is then." Hermione said hugging her brother in all but blood.
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Severus is not out of character here, he is a man who no longer has to teach or spy. He survived the war, is well liked now and so he is more relaxed. He is still Severus as you can see in how he treats Harry, yes they like each other now but both love to be sarcastic here.