A/N: Thank you every for the lovely reviews. I loved reading them all. Thank you too to everyone still adding me to alerts and faves. I'm glad everyone loved the Christmas day chapter. I too loved the gift Severus gave to Mione. We're back to the normal every day grind of school and life now. Take Care Everyone and Please keep the reviews coming. I love reading them all.
Chapter 14
The next month passed and Hermione was back to being super busy. She hated that she was stuck sleeping in her own bed instead of Snape's since the return of the students, but knew she didn't have a choice.
She crammed hard and took her Arithmancy exam. She finally got her results from her potions exam and quickly went down to see Snape fighting a smile while still annoyed at the Ministry at their insinuations.
He had just finished with a class when he saw her looking very annoyed. She waited until every last student was gone before going into his class. He quickly shut the door, warding it and adding silencing spells.
"What's wrong? You look...upset." He said frowning at her.
She looked up at him. "I just got my potions results back."
He frowned at her. Had she gotten a troll after all? "Okay, how bad was your score? I know you didn't get under an E. Its impossible."
She felt her excitement start to bubble up at her score while still upset at the daft git who contacted her about it, but forced it down. When she didn't speak his frown deepened. "You better not have gotten under an A." He might just strangle her if she did. "If you had just payed better attention you would have gotten an O."
She cocked her head at him. "How do you know I wasn't paying attention?"
He stood there staring at her. Bugger. "You looked like you were in dream land most of the night." He said, going to check out his supplies.
She frowned at him. She didn't think that was quite true but let it go for now. "Well, paying attention or not, I still managed to get a score that no other student in the history of these tests has ever gotten." Her voice annoyed as she thought of the jerk who gave her the news.
He turned, his eyes widened. How bad did she do? "What score was that?" Bracing himself for the worse, hoping he didn't snap and hex her after all. A score no other student had ever gotten? That had to be bad.
She smirked at him, unable to contain it any longer. "A perfect score."
He stood rooted to his spot. He figured he must have heard her wrong. "What?"
She walked closer to him. "I didn't get a single question wrong, and my potion I made was beyond perfect too. I got a perfect score. A score no other student ever got before." Her smile bright and brilliant.
He stared at her. I might just strangle her after all. "You made me think you got something worse than a Troll. I don't even know what is worse than a Troll" His voice echoing off the loud room, his teeth clenching in annoyance.
Her smile grew. "I know. It was revenge for all the flack you gave me over going over those number charts over and over again last week for Arithmancy while sitting in your room. Plus, you rolled your eyes after finding out how many hours I spent in the library studying for it and said I was being ridiculous."
He glared at her. "That was not the same thing and you know it. I said you were being ridiculous because I knew you had it down better than even the professor teaching the class does and was exhausting yourself for no reason. You were just panicking like you did just before testing out my class." His voice a harsh growl.
She laughed and slipped her arms around him. "True. How about if I promise to make it up to you later."
He quickly stopped glaring at her. "I could be persuaded to let you do that." His voice back to being soft and silky.
She grinned at him. "Could you now?"
She leaned in and kissed him softly, then pulled back and smiled at him. With a growl he quickly wrapped his arms around her as he crushed his lips to hers again, his teeth nipping at her bottom lip for entrance to her mouth. His tongue warring with hers as she whimpered softly against him.
She always seemed to be able to do this to him. Even when he was mad at her. She would give him a gorgeous smile, or a soft kiss and he was lost in her. He should be further angered by it, but he wasn't. He found he didn't care, so long as she kept kissing him.
He finally eased her back, knowing if he didn't he would be in trouble. He might just forget his next class and ravish her on his desk again. Something he enjoyed doing very much. It gave him little reminders during the day that kept him in a good mood, even after a student pissed him off.
"So why the annoyed look then. Other than to extract your revenge of course." He asked, still holding her.
She frowned again. "It was the fact that I had to submit a pensieve of me taking the test to prove I didn't cheat." She saw his eyes flicker just a bit, but it was enough that she knew what he was thinking.
"I only submitted the memory of the written portion of the test. Not the actual potion making part. I told them that if they didn't believe I could properly make the potion after checking the pensieve on the written then I would be happy to personally come down and make the potion in their office. Blood prats. The nerve of them even hinting at me cheating on the test." She said with a frown while having vicious thoughts. I should send him some of Fred's special potion for Christmas in a bottle of fire whiskey or something.
The thought of the man taking a drink of the whiskey and gassing out his office while covered in explosive pimples was enough to make her smile. She glanced at Severus and found him chuckling, which made her stop again. Why was he laughing?
Shaking it away, she pulled out of his arms and walked over to his desk. She sat down on it and made him smirk at the memories of the last time she had sat on it. Catching him smirking at her she realized that she was pretty close to how and where she was the last time he had her on his desk and she blushed.
She quickly hopped back off. "I gotta run. You have another class, and I have to go study for Astronomy."
He grabbed her arm as she was walking past him, pulling her back against him. "You know, it has been a while since we did anything in this class room. I wouldn't mind you making things up to me in here." He said while smirking at her, his eyes raking hotly down her body. Not needing to see past her robes, since he already knew every curve underneath them.
She kissed him quickly, saying she'd think about it. Making him grin just a bit. He knew the look in her eyes meant yes.
He flicked his wand and unwarded the door, letting her out just as students started to file in. Unfortunately Ginny was in the class arriving, and she smirked at him when she saw Hermione leaving. He tried to glare at her, but he found it didn't work so well anymore. Not since Christmas.
He sighed. He should just be happy Ginny had spilled his relationship with Hermione to the whole school yet.
Hermione was on her way to her final class later in the day when Ginny stopped her. "Hey Mione. So what was that about today in Snape's class?"
Hermione's eyes widened and she quickly shushed her friend. Pulling her into an empty classroom. "Ginny are you crazy? You can't ask me things like that while we're surrounded by other people."
Ginny winced. "Sorry, I just wanted to know. I saw you leaving after the door had been locked. What happened? Did you two...wait, you two don't...you know...on any of the desks?" Ginny looked like she might be ill at the thought of sitting at one that Snape had gotten a bit freaky on.
Hermione laughed at her friend. "That my dear friend is none of your business. If we had, do you really want to know, and if we haven't do you really want details of where we have instead?"
Ginny quickly shook her head no. She may have thought Snape was a bit sexy, but she didn't need those kind of images that included her dear friend in her head. "So what happened today? Or is that part of the details I don't want?"
Hermione chucked. "No. Nothing happened, we just talked. Well, we snogged a bit, but that's all. I told him about getting my potions score back. Perfect O."
"Mione that's great, I knew you'd do well on your exams." Ginny frowned at her friend. "You know I always wondered what it would be like to be with Snape. Not that I want to mind you, I'm happy with Harry. I just don't know how you do it."
Hermione smiled. "He's actually a good guy Ginny."
Ginny smiled. "I know, I can see that. But how do you trust him not to peek all the time? How do you keep anything private?"
Hermione frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Ginny frowned at her. "I'm talking about his Legilimency."
Hermione stared at her friend blankly. Ginny raised and eyebrow at her while she spoke. "Hermione, don't you remember him teaching Harry to block the Dark Lord's Legilimency skills with Occlumency?"
Hermione drew a blank for a long time, then suddenly she remembered. It seemed like decades ago, but she remembered. How could I have forgotten about it? She knew how she had, she just had so many other things going on after that year that it just got buried in all the other horrible memories she was trying to forget.
A look of horror drew across her face as she realized all the times he seemed to know what she was thinking, or he would look at her and chuckle while she was thinking of something funny. He was reading her thoughts. How often had he done it?
Ginny looked at her friend and suddenly was kicking herself. She shouldn't have said anything or pushed it. "Mione, I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sure he wouldn't do it to you if you two are dating or whatever. I only brought it up because after Christmas, Harry and I were talking about it. He remembered Dumbledore telling him about how Snape could project thoughts, not just read them. So I was wondering was all."
Hermione stared dumbly at Ginny. "He can project thoughts too? How?"
Ginny swallowed nervously. Harry was going to kill her for telling Hermione. "I don't know how. I just know he can. Harry didn't go into details about it."
Hermione was suddenly thinking about the time before she took her exam in his class. "Can he project to someone and make them have dreams?" I'm going to strangle him. She thought.
Ginny frowned as she thought about it. "I don't know. I don't think so. I think it's like the Legilimency, I think he has to be in the room with a person to do it."
Hermione sighed. Okay he didn't make me dream of him, but he still has a lot of explaining to do.
Ginny knew they needed to go. "Hey Mione. Does my hair and makeup look okay? I can't use any glamors with the spell remover on the Great Hall door. I got used to doing them over break again with my wand and got out of the habit of doing it without magic. Not that I didn't do it with magic before. I tell you, I don't know how these muggle women do it. It takes forever to get ready without magic to help."
Hermione told her she looked fine, thinking about Snape's magical abilities. It wasn't until later she was sitting in her class that she suddenly sat up and inhaled sharply. A few students around her gave her odd looks but went back to their work.
Her dreams stopped after the spell on the Great Hall was placed to remove all harmless and easy spells. She had dreams still, but no where near what they had been for a while there. Had he placed a spell on her to make her dream of him?
After her class she ran straight to the Headmistress's office. Ignoring the people that called out to her. She had to know. At the statue she gave the password. Atomic Fireballs. She still wasn't sure why Minerva stuck with candies as her password, but at the moment she had other things to ask.
The statue moved revealing the staircase to the headmistress's office, dashing up the stairs, she at least thought enough to stop and knock. Hearing the headmistress call to enter, she slowly opened the door and walked inside.
Minerva looked up and smiled. "Ms. Granger, what can I do for you?"
Hermione licked her suddenly dry lips. "Headmistress, I need to ask you something."
Minerva's smile faded as she saw the odd light in the girl's eyes. "Is everything alright dear? You look...upset."
Hermione gave a harsh laugh. "I'm not upset yet, but I need to know something ma'am. You put that spell on the Great Hall doors to remove spells and said you would get a list of any students will spells on them and what spell it was. Am I on that list?"
Minerva knew she was. She had seen her name and quickly checked to see what it was. Seeing it was a dreaming spell she didn't think too much of it. It was harmless enough. Now on the other hand...surely he wouldn't have. Would he? "Ms. Granger, that was a while ago. Do you have reason to think you might be on it now?"
Hermione cocked her head as she looked at the Headmistress. Studying the woman in front of her for several moments before answering. "Headmistress, with all due respect, that doesn't answer my question."
Minerva smiled at the young woman. "Ms. Granger. Hermione is there a reason you think you are on it? If you are indeed on it, do you know who placed the spell?"
Hermione's eyes narrowed in anger. That prat. I'm going to kill him. "I knew it." She quickly stood up and made to leave the office.
Minerva stood up. "Hermione, sit down." Her voice stern as she gave the command.
Hermione turned, her face red in her anger. Not realizing she was glaring at the Headmistress, the woman she had always seen as a second mother to her.
Minerva didn't back down, she had seen the look on more terrifying people. Though it shocked her to see it on Hermione. "I said sit down Hermione." Her voice just a bit louder this time.
Hermione walked back to the chair and sat back down. "Yes, ma'am." She asked thru gritted teeth as she fumed at the different invasions of her privacy he committed.
Minerva sighed. "Hermione, I see you do know who did it. I seriously doubt you would be this angry about it unless it was someone you trusted. I'm sure I can guess who did it."
Hermione stayed silent as she fumed even more while staring at the floor in front of her. Minerva stood up walking around her desk and leaning against it. "Hermione, I understand why you're mad, but I'm sure he had his reasons for placing a spell without your permission."
Hermione's eyes jerked up to meet Minerva's making the older woman swallow at the intensity inside. "You're sure he had his reasons?" She jerked out of her seat, pacing as she filled even more with her anger. "What would those reasons be? There is only reason I can think of for him to do it."
Minerva watched the woman pace, seeing the anger rolling off her in waves. Maybe it would be better to let her get it out before she saw Severus and the school was suddenly in need of a new potions teacher. She thought. "So what do you think his reasons were?"
Hermione continued to pace. "Oh there are several actually. To be cruel? To humiliate me? To torture me? We all knew he hated me before this year. To get into my pants?"
Minerva frowned. "Ms. Granger. In your pants? Really." She said, scolding the young woman for being crude.
Hermione stopped. "Sorry Headmistress, but it doesn't change it by calling it something else. All those reasons all boil down to one. To use me."
Hermione flopped back down in the chair. I'm going to kill the bastard. She sat up just a bit, in all the movements the silver pendant she never took off was no longer hidden underneath shirt and robes, but resting right on top.
Minerva stood there seeing the anger and pain in the girl's eyes. She wanted to kill Severus herself if any of that was true. Then she saw the flash of silver in the light. Hermione shifted again causing the red and green stones to glint in the light as well and reaching out Minerva lightly grabbed the pendant, startling Hermione.
Minerva looked at it for a long time before gently setting it back against the girls robes. "You think he used you? The Severus I know wouldn't go to the trouble of having that made if he was using you."
Hermione looked down at the pendant. "What do you mean having it made? You mean the engraving?"
Minerva smiled softy. "No child. I mean he had it made just for you. Their isn't a jeweler around that makes a pendant like that. Gryffindor and Sytherin embracing peacefully, almost lovingly? Never. Gryffindors and Sytherins are enemies. There is no reason to create a pendant showing anything other than hatred towards each other. Sure you might find a lion fighting a serpent, but never embracing it. There is no way he even found his in a muggle shop by accident either with the colors of your two houses in the eyes. The ruby isn't normal ruby, this actually looks like the Gryffindor color. They're hard to find in this deep of a red."
Minerva walked back to her chair. "That isn't from a muggle shop either. I'll bet that is goblin silver. It's not easy to come by, or cheap either. It's also very hard to cut or melt into a mold, because it's very hard to break it or destroy it. A man doesn't give a woman something like that if he's using her."
Hermione sat there for a long time just letting it all sink in. She didn't know what to think about the whole thing. If he wasn't using her, why would he invade her privacy like that? What was his goal?
Minerva saw the young woman wasn't angry anymore, just confused. She knew Hermione needed time to think on it all. "Dear, why don't you go back to your dorm and just think on all of this. I would hate to find out I need a new potions professor because you hexed him into oblivion. Besides, you'd hate being in Azkaban. Terribly dreadful place for a pretty young woman."
Hermione smiled a bit. "I wouldn't really kill him. I know I'd yell a lot, but I'd never really seriously hurt him."
Minerva nodded. "Good. But you don't want to do anything you might regret later. Say something you can't take back after the anger dissipates. Sour and grumpy he as he is at times, he is also a bit sensitive and insecure too."
Hermione nodded. "Thank you Headmistress. I think I will go to my rooms for the night. Would it be too much to ask an elf to bring me supper in my room tonight?"
Minerva smiled sadly at her. "Not at all dear. I'll let them know you will be calling on them later. I'll be here if you need to talk more later."
Hermione stood up, walking over and giving the older woman a hug. "Thank you. I might need to."
Minerva watched the woman walk out the door. She turned to the picture of Albus. "Do you think I should have told her about her pendant?"
Albus smiled at her from his frame. "My dear you always know what is best for our young students. What did you feel when you touched it?"
Minerva sighed. Not many knew about the powers she carried with her. Albus was one of the few who knew the full extent of her abilities. One being able to feel spells or charms on items. Another was feel what feelings were attached to it too.
"I felt the emotions behind it. I felt his love when he gave it to her. I felt her love from wearing it. Neither one knows the other loves them, I'm sure. I'm not sure they themselves know that they love each other. I also know he placed a heavy spell on it. It wont come off from our spells on the Great Hall doors. It's too strong to be removed that way."
Albus looked at her. "What kind of spell is it?"
Minerva smiled. "Its a locating spell. He can apparate to her if he ever really needs or wants to. It will let him know if she's in trouble too and needs help."
Albus laughed softly. "Sounds like the boy doesn't want her to be able to get away from him."
Minerva chuckled, thinking that might be right too. That really didn't sound like a man using a woman. She just hoped they got over all of this and realized they loved each other. Realized it and admitted it to each other.