Summary: Do to complications with Voldemort, Snape ends up staying with Hermione Granger over the summer. Takes place the summer before seventh year. A/U.

Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and will never own the Harry Potter series or it's characters, for they belong to JK Rowling. I just borrow them to have fun with. :)

A/N: This will be a fic that will have the relationship between our favorite two characters progress slowly.

Chapter 4

Last Chapter:

Severus glanced down at the paper Dumbledore had given him. It held the address, and picture, of the residence of where he was to go to. He glanced back at the castle, and stepped out of the gates. He took a last look at the picture, closed his eyes, and apparated. A second later he re-opened his eyes. His eyebrow shot up. The house he was standing in front of was medium sized, and white. He cringed as his eyes fell over all the window shutters. They were painted pink. He rolled his eyes heavenward as he stepped up to the door. He raised his hand to knock. His hand froze as the door opened to reveal...

"Miss. Granger..."

-SHr-

"Professor Snape?..." Hermione, much to the confusion of Severus, stood in the doorway for a moment, then laughed. He raised his eyebrow.

"Is there something funny, Miss Granger? Or are you going to stand in the doorway all day yacking like a Hyena?" That had shut her up. She gave him a glare that could almost rival one of his own, almost. She stepped away from the doorway and motioned for him to step inside.

"I'm sorry, sir. It is just, I was told to expect someone, but I didnt think it would be you of all people. Well, are you going to come in or not?" He was still standing outside the door. Giving her an scathing look, he stepped inside and she shut the door behind him. Severus stood siffly as she walked around him and down the hall. After some self-debating, he followed her. As he walked, he took in everything around him. After all, he would be staying here for the next two months. He walked on. The walls of the hallway were white, and littered with muggle pictures. He stopped at one. In the picture stood a man and a woman in wedding attire. The man had sandy brown hair, glasses perched on the end of his nose, and his arms were around the woman in the picture. The woman had blonde hair that was piled on top of her head, with a few tresses hanging down around her face. They both had brown eyes that twinkled in happiness, and big smiles on their faces. Severus was so engrossed in looking at the picture, he didn't notice Hermione walk up beside him.

"Those are my parents on there wedding day. Come this August they would have been married for twenty-three years. I miss them greatly... " Snape broke his gaze from the picture to look at her. He took the moment to study her. She was tall, not as tall as he, but she came to slightly over his shoulder. She had on a pair of dark denim jeans that belled at the bottom and a black turtle neck. Both were very form fitting. Snape felt heat rise into his face. ' This is the girl I have taught for six years? No...she is no girl. She is very much grown up.' He shook his head slightly, and resumed his previous actions. Under the crease of the turtle neck hung a silver neclace that had a small silver cross on it. He raised his eyes to study her face. She had indeed grown up. Her face had lost any baby fat that it had held when she was a child. Her eyes were a deep dark chocolate brown and held a sadness in them. Her hair had, instead of the unruly locks of her childhood, smoothed out and fell in waves down her back. After a few moments more, she must have sensed him studying her because she turned to look at him.

"Professor?" Once more he shok his head slightly. He looked her in the eyes.

"I'm truly sorry, Miss Granger." She waved her hand as to dismiss it. She turned to continue walking down the hall.

"Shall we continue, Professor? I'm sure you would like to get settled in." He nodded and followed her down the hall. They came to a room, also white, that had two doorways off of it, one to his right and one straight ahead. Next to the door on the right were two staircases, one heading to the second level of the house, and another heading downwards, to where he didn't know. On his left there was an entry way that led into, what he presumed, the family room. He heard Hermione clear her throat.

"Professor, this room is where pretty much everything lead off of." She pointed to her right (his left)."That is the family room. And acroos from there is the downstairs loo. And that," she pointed to the last door, "leads to the kitchen. The stairs on the right lead up to the upstairs bedrooms." Snape inclined his head towards her in understanding.

"If I may ask, Miss Granger, where does the other staircase lead to?" She looked at him a moment, and a slight smile graced her face. She walked towards it, and motioned for him to follow. There weren't many stairs, maybe about ten or twelve, and the curved to the left. His eyebrow popped as he walked to the middle of the room. The color of the walls were not white this time, but a relaxing shade of purple. He looked around. One wall was completely encased in shelves of books. Next to them was a desk, facing the wall to the right. On the other side of the wall of books there was another table, but longer this time. What was on top of it made his eyebrow raise a bit further. It was all her potions equiptment. Filing that away for later use, he continued to look around the room. On the other side of the room, in the left corner, a painters easel stood with a clear canvas on it. Looking closer, he noticed that it was indeed not clear but had light pencil markings on it, apparently it was still in the planning stages. All around the easel on the floor, were little bottles of different colored paints. On the walls around the easel area looked as if paint was simply flicked onto the walls, and let dry. Quite fitting for a place to paint, he thought. He turned to the opposite corner. There was an assortment of instruments on stands. A clarinet, a flute, a violin, an acoustic guitar, and even a harp. His other brow joined its twin. On the walls on this side, instead of just a myriad of paint flicked spots, there were music notes of all kinds, as well as base notes and clef notes. He turned to Hermione who was watching him.

"You have the top grades of your year, and here not only do you have an impressive book collection, you play music wih multiple instruments, and you paint. You truly are a know-it-all." He said all this with a smirk. She nodded. The professor had given her, what she translated it as, a compliment. Those from her professor were few and far between...well, more like never. For the first time, she was actually flattered about something he said to her. She blushed for a moment, and then got herself under control.

"Thank you, sir. This is my room, to do what I wish. A recreation room, so to say. This is also where I do my summer school work. Are you hungry?" she watched him nod, "Come on. I'll show you to your room and then I'll head to the kitchen and make something to eat. Does BLT sandwiches sound good? Maybe some fruit salad too?" He looked at her questioningly as he followed her back upstairs to the main floor, and then, again, up the stairs to the second floor.

"BLT?"

"Oh. Its bacon, lettuce, and tomato on bread. Its really good. I have an aunt that lives in America and I went to visit her one summer when I was younger. She always made them for me, and I fell in love with them. So naturaly, when I got back home I made my mum make them for me all the time. Ah, here we are. This is the guest room. My room is that one there," she pointed to a door slightly a ways down the hall. "And the door across from mine is the upstairs loo. The room at the end of the hall was my..." she paused but quickly regained the strength to say it, "...my parents room. Well, I should go start on lunch. See you in a bit Professor." With that she turned to go downstairs to the kitchen. Snape turned the brass door knob, and pushed. He walked in the room. He was surpised. He honestly expected the walls to be white and the room being rather uncomfortable like. But, no. The walls were a shade of dark blue. The spred on the large four poster bed was a rich dark forrest green with dark blue sheets under it. By the bed, was a table that had a lamp on it, and a small black box that had glowing red numbers on it. The furniture, a dresser and a desk, were all of a deep mohagany wood and there was a closet on the left of the door coming in. The Grangers, if this room was anything to go by, had some taste. Atleast, it made up for those horrid pink shutters around the windows he saw coming in. Severus reached into the pocket of his robes, and pulled out his shrunken luggage and put them onto the bed. With a wave of his wand, the luggage engorged to its original size. He waved his wand again, and all his bags opened, except one, and their contents scattered across the room to the places that they would be kept during his stay at Know-It-All Granger's house. The bag that had not been opened was the one that he brought any potions equiptment that he would need to continue some of the experiments he had been working on for some time. Although he would need to talk to her to see if he could possibly either work in her area that she had set up, or talk her into letting Dumbledore come transfigure a room for him. To his misfortune, he wasn't as adept at transfiguration.

Sighing, he shrugged off his outer robes. The house was cool, but not cold enough to need them. He placed his robes in the closet, and went to the table next to the bed. He opened the drawer and took out a fine-toothed comb and a clear rubber band. He started to comb through his hair, and when he was done, he secured his hair in the rubber band at the base of his neck. He took one last look around the room to make sure everything was in the place he wanted them. ' Well, might as well head down and see what is so good about these BLT's that Miss Granger talks about so fondly.' With that thought in mind, he turned towards the door, and headed out, being sure to close the door behind him.

A/N - Yay!!!! Took me a while for this one...I am starting on number 5 right now...but tomorrow i have a family party to go to for the WHOLE day! ugh...but be asured, i have alot of ideas for this, and i will try to update more. Also as, i mentioned before, i am looking for another beta...so if you are interested, please contact me. Thank you to all those that have reviewed and have added my story. well, enjoy. Read and Review as always. :-)

OdangoAtama17