Disclaimer: I obviously don't own it. It's all for fun.

Mak is of course my beta; who is amazing.

Review please, it helps me get motivated to write…

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Chapter Thirteen

She Didn't Want To See That...Or Did She?

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Oh my God! Oh MY GOD! OHMYGOD!!! Hermione had just shut the door of the banya and covered her eyes with shaking hands. She certainly wasn't expected to find a naked Severus in the cabin. How was she to know it was a steam room? She had walked down the pathway and stood in front of the house just looking around in a daze. I just got a glimpse of my ex-professor…naked! It was slightly horrifying, only in the way it happened. If she had been prepared…Prepared!? How could I have been prepared for that! Not that it wasn't good, but...

Hermione hadn't realized when Severus had walked up beside her, but she noticed and quickly looked away. She couldn't think of anything really to say to him, but the awkwardness was killing her so she blurted out the first thing she could think of. "Why is it still light out? It's after ten, but it looks like the afternoon." Oh that was stupid! "You have a beautiful garden…" Hermione! What is WRONG with you? Never had she felt so stupid. She couldn't even come up with a straight sentence. How embarrassing!

He cleared his throat and explained The White Nights and the positioning of St. Petersbutg. She only listened half-heartedly, but she got the gist nonetheless. Again, the awkward silence, but thankfully he walked past her. When his arm grazed her shoulder she stared after him and put her hand up to the spot he touched. It was like heat was radiating off that spot. Gods, he looks nice in simply a towel. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in shock. Did I really just think that? No. Simply not. Stop Hermione. This is ridiculous. Absolutely. And I'm still standing outside. Perfect.

Taking a deep breath she steeled herself to walk back into the house. As she entered the back door she saw the bathroom door was closed and heard the water running. Walking quickly past the room she entered the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water. Hermione needed to change but she really didn't want to see Severus walk out of the bathroom in only a towel, again. She set her glass in the sink and walked in the living room. There was no where for her to sleep and all she wanted was to fall asleep and not see Severus Snape for the rest of the night.

Hermione transfigured her clothing into pyjamas and settled into the couch. She just hoped Severus didn't take too long to get out of the shower. She was in desperate need of sleep. Hermione stared off in space for a few moments trying not to think of her ex-professor sexually. A door closing alerted her to the fact that she wasn't the only person in the room anymore. She tried not to look at him the moment he walked out of his room; she was trying to be inconspicuous. Hermione waited a few moments to let him have a few moments to himself before she asked him the question she really wanted an answer to.

Before too much time passed she turned around and asked him, "Where exactly am I going to sleep?"

She watched him as he carefully set down his book and approached her. Once he was directly in front of her, he explained about the bed behind the bookshelf. It was fascinating to her because she knew that there had to be an interesting charm to keep the books in place while the bed was down. Maybe I can ask him about it later, she thought as he told her about it.

Once he was done, she jumped up and explored the bookshelf to try to learn as much about it as she could. Even though she had been a part of the wizarding world for so long she found there was always more she could learn. Touching the left window frame the bed sprang down from the wall and fell neatly to the floor. It looked cosy and inviting and all she wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep.

"If that is all, I am going to sleep," she heard him say and quickly leave. Hermione didn't even look back all she thought about was sleeping. She slipped into the bed and under the warm covers. Sighing in content she fluffed her pillow and transfigured a sock into an eye mask. Slipping it over her eyes it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

Though she fell into morpheus' arms land quickly, her dreams weren't perfect. For a while, her dreams were repeats of her walking in on Severus and getting glimpses of him. Eventually, the dreams started to get longer in length, and instead of running from the banya she walked into it and up to him. Of course, she had woken up several times in shock of her dreams. When she went back to sleep, her dream would start all over again. Eventually she found herself face to face with Severus, who was covered with only his towel. His hands were clenched together, holding the towel securely at his waist.

Boldly, she cupped his cheek and then ran her hand through his lank hair. She pulled his head closer to hers and she kissed him. A second later, he was responding and she moved closer to him. Severus' hands moved from the towel and wrapped around her, pulling her against his hard body. Her hands fell from his hair and down towards his towel. Just as she pulled the towel away and looked down, she woke up. It happened three times and each time she woke up sweating and breathing hard. Her dreams were so realistic and as much as she wanted to fight her feelings, part of her wanted to walk in his room and strip him naked.

Finally, she was able to get a modicum of sleep. She woke up later feeling exhausted and absolutely freezing. Pulling the blankets over her head she shivered and curled in a ball for a little warmth. Great, I'm not going to be able to sleep anymore, she thought as she threw the blanket off and sat up. Hermione yawned and stretched until she felt better. She shivered again and transfigured a sweatshirt to pull on.

Once she stood, up she turned around and found Severus reading in the library. He was sitting there engrossed in his book and the image of him in the banya flashed into her mind. AGH! Stop! Hermione made herself stop thinking of him like that and busied herself with making the bed. She pushed the bed up back into place and went into the kitchen. The smell of fresh bread drew her to the table by the fireplace. A loaf of freshly cooked bread was sliced thickly and pieces of salmon were in a bowl beside it.

"Help yourself," she heard Severus say in his deep voice.

"Thank you," Hermione replied loud enough for him to hear.

Hermione fixed two slices of bread topped with salmon and filled a cup full of hot tea. Mmmm, this is good. Who knew he was such a good cook; granted he didn't really have to cook much. But still…Her random thoughts continued during her breakfast. I can't believe I'm in Russia. Hermione wanted to explore and hoped to do some in the afternoon. Maybe I can convince Severus to show me around.

When she had gone to clean her plate, Severus stood and entered the door beside his bedroom. Hermione had not ventured into this room and she wanted to know what was in there. Thankfully the door had been left open and she walked into the library to pretend to look for a book while she glanced into the room. To her surprise it was a potions laboratory and Severus was in there using his wand to clean the room.

He looked up as she was watching him and raised an eyebrow in question. "Sorry," she said quickly before turning back to the bookshelf. However, it wasn't as easy as that because Severus walked to the door and said, "Yes, well I am not surprised. Your curiosity took over and you just had to see what I was doing. Just like you had to look at my journals."

Hermione gasped as she turned her head to him, her jaw dropping in shock. "What!?"

"I assure you, I did not stutter," he said leaning against the door frame and crossing his arms.

"I have already told you I looked because I needed information to help you, you overgrown child! I swear you're almost worse than Harry is, you stubborn old fool!"

Severus narrowed his eyes and glared at her before adding, "A stubborn old fool who values his privacy!" With that he turned on his heel and entered the lab, slamming the door as hard as he could.

"The nerve…" Hermione said to herself. No! This has got to stop! Making a decision to settle this argument now, she walked into the lab and opened the door. Severus had been setting up a cauldron and looked up suddenly as she walked in.

"Listen here Severus; I have told you time and again I only looked to help you. The information I did find helped you to get out of Azkaban. If I didn't know about the potion to kill Voldemort you would still be there!"

"DO NOT say his name!" he yelled.

"IT'S JUST A NAME! HE'S DEAD!"

"I don't care!"

"Gods! You are being ridiculous. It's not as if I went through every single journal of yours just to see what you had done your whole life. I only looked at the most recent ones to look for clues! It's as if you think I would steal your ideas. Yes! That's it! You thought I would take your research and do my own experiments and take the credit. Oh that is a new low, even for you!"

"How dare you!"

"How dare I?" she interrupted. "How dare you think I would do something as horrendous as that?! I would never steal research." She had stopped yelling and sat down on the table closest to her with her head down. "Your work is amazing, by the way. For the Cruciatus Relief potion I think you could add lavender to step four and improve efficacy."

When Severus didn't respond she stood up from the table and started to walk away. "You might be right about the lavender," Severus said quietly.

Hermione turned around to see him pull out a jar of filed with dry lavender leaves. "You are more than welcome to assist me," he said without looking up. To say she was shocked would be an understatement. Well, it certainly isn't an acceptable apology, but I suppose it will have to do.

They worked silently until the fourth step where she prepared the ingredients and weighed the appropriate amount, or at least she thought. They discussed the properties of the lavender and decided on three ounces. Hermione had accidentally brushed her hand against his as she passed him the leaves. It was the same feeling she felt when he brushed by her yesterday but a bit more intense.

What is happening? Hermione had never felt like this before, especially not with Ron. She did enjoy their discussion over the potion and her possible solution to his problem with efficacy. Hermione had always wanted to be able to have an intelligent conversation with Ron, but, that was like asking him to chew with his mouth closed. Impossible. Talking with Severus had been a welcomed change; it was even better now that he wasn't berating her.

They worked into the early evening with small breaks, but eventually Severus' stomach grumbled loudly filling the quiet room and breaking the silence. Hermione chuckled and looked up to see Severus looking at her sternly. "How about we take a break and grab something to eat?" Severus looked like he was about to object, but she continued before he could voice his opinion. "Since you have been doing all the cooking, why don't we go out to eat? My treat," she said with a smile.

Severus finished stirring the potion without answering her question. Once he was done, he sighed and looked at her. "Very well; the potion needs to set for twenty-four hours anyways. Get ready and we will take our leave."

Jokingly she said, "It's not like I have much to change into."

"I suppose you don't. If you like I can call my neighbour to see if she has any of her granddaughter's clothes."

"No, you don't have to…" Hermione tried to argue, but it didn't work. Severus had already left the lab and was heading to the back door. She watched him through the window of lab, as he walked outside and started talking to a little old lady over his fence. She lived in the pink house and Hermione could tell they knew each other quite well. A few times, the old lady had pinched his cheek and doted on him as if he were her long lost son. It was an odd sight, for sure, and Hermione covered up a giggle placing her hand over her mouth.

Hermione could only hear mumbled sounds through the glass, but it seemed like Severus was getting what he wanted. The old lady walked quickly back into her house and moments later she was walking out with her arms full of clothes. She handed them over the fence to Severus and he thanked her as he started to walk away.

Hermione drew away from the window so he wouldn't think she was spying on him. She met him in the open space between the library and the kitchen. He transferred the clothes to her and said, "Good luck," before he turned around and went into the bathroom.

"Gee, thanks," she grumbled as she tried not to drop a single article of clothing. The clothing was stacked so high and in a jumbled mess she could hardly see. Falling clothes first onto the couch she sighed in relief before standing back up to pick through the clothing.

It took her no time at all to pick out a nice, plain dress. She noted that Severus had vacated the bathroom and headed in that direction to change. The dress fit perfectly, coming to her mid thigh. Maybe I can keep it, she thought as she looked herself over in the mirror. Before she could enjoy much more of it, there were three hard knocks on the door, followed by Severus's baritone voice, "What could take you so long woman! I'm hungry and we have a bus to catch."

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she exited the bathroom. Severus had changed into a pair of black slacks and a green long sleeve shirt. It was strange to see him in any colour other than black, well any dark colour actually. "You look nice in colour," she said to him as he was walking to the door.

Severus turned around and looked at her with a wrinkled brow in confusion. Looking down he shook his head in acknowledgement. "Yes, well, I suppose I can jump out of the monochromatic world and into the real world now." He looked her up and down quickly, and if she hadn't been staring at his eyes, she wouldn't have noticed. "You look quite nice."

"Thank you," she replied as she walked toward the door, which he opened just in time so she didn't have to slow her pace. She was joined by him at the bottom of the steps once he had locked the door and they made their way to the bus stop.

They arrived at the Metro after a short walk and caught the red line to Ploschad Muzhestva. Hermione was glad to have Severus around because the only thing she could decipher was the colours. They hopped on a bus to get to another Metro station, Lesnaya station. They took the Metro to Vladmirskaya to switch to the yellow line's Dosteyevskaya station. The yellow line took them to their final destination of Sadovaya and Hermione was glad to be done with the transportation system.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked as she looked around at their surroundings.

"This is Teatralnaya Square. Over there is the famous Mariinsky Theatre," he said as he pointed to a huge green and white building. The rest of what he said was drowned out because she was mesmerized by the site. The windows and framework were all in white and the rest was covered in a light green. The building was immense and she could not imagine what the inside looked like.

She was brought out of her reverie by Severus clearing his throat. He had a smirk on his lips before he suggested, "Let's see if a show is playing tonight and then we can eat."

Hermione nodded her head and continued to look around, still captivated by the site of the theatre. Once they were close enough to read the signs, well look at them in Hermione's case, Severus gasped in shock. "Luck has shined upon us, Hermione. Tonight is the final night for Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina. It is hardly ever done because of the cost of the costumes, set, and sheer number of cast needed. If we can get tickets, we will have to go." Again, Severus didn't wait for Hermione's response and headed to the ticket booth to purchase two tickets.

Hermione had decided to sit on a bench by the tulips opposite the theatre to wait for Severus. When he arrived he was almost smiling; the corners of his lips had turned up slightly. "So.." she trailed off in anticipation.

"I was able to procure two tickets on the balcony, centre stage. Fantastic seats," Severus said lightly. "Shall we eat?"