The first month of classes passed with much speed, and Hermione found she loved teaching… and she hated it.
It was so hard to encourage students who had no interest - or no talent - in her class! She raged about the thick-mindedness of the students as her fellow instructors gave each other knowing, amused glances. She was their youngest teacher in two decades, and they recalled the last 'youngster' doing much the same thing during his first year… whilst teaching the very same class.
One night at supper, when Hermione had had a particularly trying day - she'd given out 8 detentions! - Minerva leaned towards the dark wizard and muttered "Reminds me of someone," with a small grin. He scowled in response, and returned to his meal.
In his time, he'd been the youngest teacher that Hogwarts had had in several decades, though his situation had been more directly influenced by the rise of He-Who-Had-Finally-Been-Defeated. He had never looked forward to finding out what new mental mush he would receive from his students each year, and had done - and continued to do - much the same thing she was doing now: showing his frustration via excessive detentions. He wondered idly if there were other things she was frustrated with, and his contemplative look was not lost on the Headmistress.
Is it time to add more kindling? Minerva thought merrily as she watched Hermione engage Severus in animated conversation, commiserating about how amazingly close-minded and oblivious the young were. The young were, at that moment, watching their exchange with open mouths and muttered words: when had their snarky but controlled Professor start talking with people? Well, without a scowl?
The Headmistress watched the conversation shift and the atmosphere between the two teachers change subtly. Hermione's eyes were afire as she spoke about her present magical/chemical research; she was talking and gesturing animatedly. Severus Snape was nodding in agreement, but his eyes were starting to smolder. His responses were also getting more animated; once or twice, he almost looked as if he were enjoying himself.
The staff and students watched open-mouthed as, oblivious to the rest of the world, Severus Snape pulled out Hermione Granger's chair and escorted her from the Great Hall, still caught up in their conversation.
They're not a bad-looking couple at that, thought Minerva as she finished her pudding. I wonder if they're making the progress it seems they are?
Minerva had intentionally quartered her new teacher in the lower levels, very near her former instructor.
When they had each complained, she justified her decision by saying, "You'll have to share the lab in any event, as it would be wasteful to build another. Your floo can place you in your respective classrooms, but not in the lab. It would be a terrible waste of time and resources for you to be further away than necessary", thinking all the while that it would be very convenient if the lab became their meeting ground: each had an adjacent door in their studies to access it.
She smiled to herself as she started back up to her office. Those two were in for such a journey together. They were made for each other. She had even thought she saw a smile play at his lips when they'd exited the Hall together.
"Ah, I wish you could have seen him like this," she mused to the portrait of Dumbledore as she began her after-dinner paperwork. Since having his portrait mounted in the Headmistress' office, he had yet to move.
"How far along is the experiment?" Severus Snape asked as he and Hermione briskly walked down to the lower levels.
"I am near the end of the 27 hours of waiting. Next, I'll add the Christmas crab shell, the powdered echidna liver, and the Aricai venom. It should be ready in three more days."
"I am… impressed at your progress. How confident are you of success?"
"Oh, about 95%. I know there are some variables I can't control, such as how much pre-preservation contact there is with other skins, but just think! If I can get this correct, those poor kids won't have to suffer anymore."
Severus thought about how beautiful she looked, her face flushed and her eyes shining in the dim torchlight. And what a brain! What he'd found unbearably annoying when she was his student and irritating when she was his erstwhile assistant during the war now pleased and amazed him at least once in nearly every conversation. She was his intellectual equal - she may even exceed his prowess in some areas - and he was beginning to fall for her. He surprised himself by not minding too much.
They had been taking this after-dinner stroll for 6 weeks, whenever they both had a free evening. Oddly, the detentions they both handed out were becoming fewer and fewer in number.
When they'd first begun to discuss Muggle chemistry and physics combined with Potions and spell work in earnest, they had volleyed back and forth, engaged in heated discussions on the properties of ingredients and subjects, what the interactions were, how to prepare variations to improve what now existed… all the things that two brilliant experts in their fields would find interesting. Having finally taken the Defence of the Dark Arts position, Severus found this return to and expansion of his former subject amazingly exciting, and now looked upon the Potions Mistress by his side with respect... and other less clear emotions.
Hermione found herself looking at her former instructor in adoration. He is so different than he had been: now, he is animated, interested, and almost… warm? They had spent several nights in a row in discussion, Hermione leaving to her rooms in the early hours of the morning through her lab door as Severus left through his.
"Well, full completion should take 4 more days, then we can try it out."
"I will make certain we have a supply of animals sufficient for testing."
"Thank you. This would have taken twice as long without your input – and your help." She said as they finished cleaning the lab.
They both stared at the pristine counters and accoutrements for a moment, then took a long glance at each other.
"Well… goodnight, Severus," she said as she made her way to her door.
"Goodnight… Hermione," he replied.
As she took her leave, she felt him staring at her hungrily. She shut the door and pressed against the cool wood for a moment to get her breath back. He'd looked like he wanted to devour her, and she desperately wanted him to.
But she would wait. She needed him to make the first move, now that she knew he was able to look at her in that light. She needed to give him the time and space to do so at his own pace. That was the only way they could come together right. Oh, this will be difficult, she thought to herself as she readied for bed. She was burning, wanting him to come to her soon, now, immediately. Her shower was more a disappointment than it had ever been.
What she didn't realize was that he was burning with need for her mere feet away. He threw himself out of bed after several futile hours, going back to the lab to brew long into the night, trying to force her out of his mind.