Something quite unfamiliar jolted Severus out of his sleep the next, what he bitterly assumed was morning. A light, gentle touch of a hand was felt near his face, but he already could guess whom it belonged to.

Opening one eye lazily, he came into view with the sight he already knew would be there. Hermione let out a soft gasp and pulled her hand away from where she'd been moving his hair from his face as Severus slowly opened both eyes.

Besides being far too lethargic to create an outburst, Severus found that the longer he allowed himself to gaze at her soft, unblemished face, surrounded by delicate brown curls, the more he realized that an outburst would not come.

Instead, he decided upon skirting around it with a bored voice: "And you're doing what, exactly?" He only half glared up at her, more with an uninterested, annoyed expression than anything else, suggesting that he was sleepy...not in the least bit prepared for any sort of conversation.

It took Hermione a moment to answer him, her thoughts tangled in a big mess which made it quite difficult to understand.

She had actually never had an intention of touching him by any means when she came up here in the first place. But she found when she arrived something couldn't quite allow her to keep her hands to herself...to put it into child's terms.

The man looked so peaceful when he was asleep. She found it incredibly hard to restrain her hand to move up to his strand of black hair and push it away from his face.

"Sorry," she muttered in what sounded like a whisper, looking down at her hands in her lap after finally making her mind move her mouth and vocal chords. "It's just, I..." she started, but already knew that she really had no explanation to her being there...not one that he would likely believe anyways.

"I should just go," she finally just said with a heavy sigh in frustration at herself.

"Do not insult my intelligence, Hermione," Severus said suddenly as she started to get to her feet from the edge of the bed where she'd been sitting. (How she'd possibly dared herself to do that, she was amazed.) "What are you doing here?"

It had startled her to hear him use her given name, but she stayed seated, waiting once again for the words to get out of her blasted mouth.

She sighed and looked back at her hands. "I was unsure...after last night...it just happened so fast..." It was all she could say. The rest of the words to complete actual sentences were in her head, but somehow she just couldn't get them to come out of her mouth, which was potentially a problem.

"Ah, so you regret it then?" Severus asked in the same tone, but raising one eyebrow slightly in questioning. Hermione's eyes quickly snapped back to him.

"Do you?"

A moment of silence passed between them before he answered.

"I did not mean for it to happen," he started with some thoughtfulness, trailing off slightly. Hermione's heart sunk slightly at these words and she looked away again, accepting that it had all just been in the moment; he meant nothing by it.

"...I do not, however, regret it," he finished, causing Hermione to look back to him once again. The expression he wore was unreadable, mostly because she was at an angle to him and also because it was so vague. But she could have sworn he wore the tiniest shadow of a grin...but then, she could just be imagining that.

Thinking to herself, she gazed across the room for what might have been several minutes. She nervously drummed her fingers on the edge of the mattress, unsure of what was to happen next.

A hand closing slightly above her wrist caused her thoughts to break again.

With one, swift motion, Severus pulled her down very close to him and held her there by the arm so that they were only inches away...again.

Hermione felt her heart speed up under her chest as they gazed at each other with both unknowing and certainty at the same time. It took what had just become the longest minute of Hermione's life for the gap to cease to exist between them and to once again feel his body against her own.

Hermione ignored the painful grip that held her arm in contact with his chest. Severus' other hand came up and rested gently on the side of her head as they continued to kiss more deeply than the night before.

When she finally needed to breathe, Hermione pulled away slightly, feeling his lips break into a slight smile against hers as she did so, which he quickly hid when she opened her eyes to look at him with a questioning expression as if to ask what on Earth that had been?

"Now that," Severus said in a voice Hermione hadn't heard from him before. "I did intend to happen."

The next few days went by as a complete blur to Hermione. She was uncertain of what was happening but somewhere deep in the most hidden folds of her mind, she knew she was starting have feelings for this man who she now found she trusted.

She also could tell that things were definitely changing between them.

Hermione knew it was slightly absurd, that it might even be crazy that one could even develop any sort of kind feelings for a person who had done nothing but make her life miserable for the past seven years. But looking past that, looking pastthis wall he'd put up against the world, she saw more, and that was what seemed to be making these feelings come to the surface.

In fact, they had always been there, this she also had realized. She had come to terms with the fact that she had always admired him somehow for his work and intelligence, also knowing that they actually had much in common. She realized, while the two of them could probably argue all day, in time they would both come to see just how much they were alike.

Nothing more had been said on the subject of meeting Neville in the kitchens. Severus had let the matter rest for the time being but Hermione was still thinking about it. She was also worried that because of it, Severus was giving Neville a harder time than usual during class.

Hermione thought briefly of bringing it up one night while eating supper but thought better of it after Severus had stalked in to the rooms, looking quite upset about something and in no mood to start an argument.

"Hard day?" she asked innocently and pouring over her soup when he shot her a glare from across the room. But it wasn't very intimidating, as he did seem to look very worn indeed. It was actually more of an accepting and annoyed look that told Hermione that Severus had in fact had a trying day.

Before, she probably wouldn't have cared...she might have even been happy for his frustration. But now, seeing as circumstances had...changed...Hermione was curious, if not a little worried at what was troubling him.

"Your friends infuriate me," Severus growled as he sat down heavily opposite of her. Hermione felt a slight wave of relief and shook her head, smirking slightly.

"And you find this amusing do you," Severus asked, sounding scandalized that she was practically laughing at him.

She straightened her face with some difficulty before looking up at him and saying, "did you ever stop to think that maybe it's because they're trying to overthrow you as Headmaster?" Hermione said it in such a sweet, innocent tone she thought Severus would be even more annoyed with her and the whole situation. But he only gave her an exasperated look, his eyebrows raised as if to tell her to stop pushing her luck.

It clearly had not been what he wanted to hear and it took all Hermione had to keep a smirk from creeping onto her face.

Rolling her eyes again and shaking her head, she sighed quietly and tried to look at him seriously.

"Ok, what did they do?" she asked in a tone suggesting he was overreacting about the whole thing.

"Never mind..." Severus grumbled as he roughly forked a carrot on the plate in front of him.

Fine, if you're too embarrassed at what they've done to you...

That did it.

"I am not embarrassed," he said defensively in a low voice that would have been angry-sounding were he not in the process of chewing a carrot. Clearly, she'd hit a nerve, which surprisingly made her smile slightly. ...Or perhaps it was just the way he sounded when he was trying to defend himself, and with his mouth full nonetheless.

"You know," Hermione said cautiously after a few moments of silence, "I could talk to them...tell them about, well, you know...everything." She waited. Severus was staring at the table. Finally he looked up at her.

"No."

She gave him a questioning look.

"I will not let it be me who allows you to commit suicide," he said seriously.

"They would never tell any—"

"Let me remind you this is a time of war...between magical beings, no less. In case you forgot, there are such things as truth potions. Not to mention the Imperious Curse...the Cruciatis Curse..." He let it trail off with an annoyingly obvious tone. "Believe me when I say that Death Eaters will not hesitate to use any of them if they are the least bit suspicious someone is holding a secret containing information on whereabouts of a Mudblood."

Hermione found herself slightly shocked at what he'd just said.

"That's an interesting way to tell someone you care about them," she said plainly, looking up at him with a slightly raised brow.

"Yes, well..." Severus said, brushing off her statement slightly. "Regardless, I feel you shall be safest if your presence here is," he paused, "unknown."

"But then there's Longbottom," he added with extreme disdain, answering Hermione's unasked question. He also sounded quite annoyed at the subject, telling Hermione that he was still upset by the whole incident.

As she watched him, Severus seemed to be thinking to himself, which made her slightly uncomfortable but she tried to ignore it.

"But that, I suppose, I will address in the morning..." he sad decisively, nodding a little and going back to eating his supper.

That didn't make Hermione feel any more settled on the subject, but she dropped it...for now.

It had become almost a routine now for the two of them to read by the fire after eating. Normally, they sat in opposite chairs, but Hermione was feeling brave tonight...not to mention she was determined to figure out just what was happening between them.

After picking up her book, she silently and casually walked over the couch where Severus was seated, close to one end, seeming immersed in his book. Biting her lip indecisively, she finally sat down on the couch, but deciding to make it so there was a significant distance between them.

Severus slightly glanced at her sideways but made no other movements, so she opened her book and began reading.

A slight shift of position towards her caught her eye. Severus, who had been leaning against the arm of the couch, seemed to have shifted so he was leaning more slightly towards her direction.

But it was minimal. After a few more minutes had passed, Hermione repositioned herself to "satisfy a kink in her calf" a few small inches to her right, closer to his side, making them only a foot or so apart now.

She saw his eyebrows go up just ever so much out of the corner of her eye and quickly resumed reading, trying to hide a smirk as she thought she saw him glance over.

Again, he shifted very slightly.

So did she.

Now it was close. Only inches more and they would be touching. Hermione found her heart had sped up against her will again. She wasn't reading anymore, just staring at the page, her eyes unmoving...waiting.

Finally, simultaneously, they both turned to each other and collided quickly but in the gentlest of ways. He took her lips to his with such calm ferociousness it startled her somewhat but all was forgotten within moments as she became lost in his touch.

Severus put his hand up to the side of her head, holding it there softly; her hands holding onto his robes, pulling him toward her, keeping him as close as possible.

Hermione leaned backwards, Severus following to keep in close contact with her as she lay back, now finding one of her hands had moved to the back of his head giving him the signal to keep going. He moved off of her lips and placed a single kiss on her jaw before leaving a trail of lingering kisses down her neck, all the way to her collarbone.

Hermione tilted her head back slightly to allow him better access as he moved along, slowly going up and then back down, only using the lightest pressure wherever he kissed her, knowing it would slowly drive her mad to have such contact and then take it away so quickly.

And it certainly did.

To see a man like him being so passionate was startling enough to her, but she was again lost for words or a thought, coming back to life when Severus moved back to her mouth, claiming power over her, not yielding in the slightest.

After a time, they just laid there together in the quiet of the evening and watched the fire go down. Severus held her from behind her around the middle, his hand resting face every so often.

Hermione curled up against him, holding onto the hand that was over her, wondering slightly how she ever had come to be in this time and place and knowing that she felt home; she never wanted to leave.

It was near one o'clock when the ashes glowed in the hearth for the last time and Hermione drifted out of consciousness and into a peaceful slumber, feeling Severus' chest rise and fall slowly telling her that he had already beat her to sleep.