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Chapter 9: Annoyance, a Talk and no Interruptions

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since Hermione and Severus had been near the Shrieking Shack and two weeks since they had last spoken. To say that she was only a little annoyed was an understatement; Hermione was frustrated with the Slytherin's attitude which, she believed, was completely unnecessary. His annoyance that she had stood up for him with out letting him talk she could understand as she knew that a males pride and ego was their main thing. She had injured both but she thought he was mature enough to get over this fact and forget about them.

Unfortunately for Hermione, a few people had noticed their 'fall out' and had begun to question her on it. Remus had been the first to notice her presence in the common room was present far more then normal. He had approached her a few times, being shaken off each time as she said it was nothing but a small misunderstanding and that it would right itself soon enough. Remus had reluctantly accepted this and did not ask her again, instead doubling his efforts to make her laugh, though some would not leave the matter so easily.

Lily had been told by Remus that she had had a small argument, though it seemed to be affecting her more then what she was letting on. She had not let up on Hermione, demanding to know what had happened to the two of them. Hermione had been firm at first and only gave the very basic information on what had occurred in Hogsmeade, but this didn't last nearly as long as Hermione had hoped; only after an hour she caved and told Lily what had happened.

When Lily had been informed of what took place she almost walked out of the dormitories to go and give Sirius and James a piece of her mind, but Hermione had scrapped that idea. She wanted to face those two idiots herself, though Hermione did agree to Lily being there for support and in case she needed help bring those two down a notch. Hermione hoped to bring it down by several.

As the two girls approached the group of Marauders Sirius looked up and nudged James, nodding in the direction of the girls. James smirked slightly then schooled his face into a carefree expression attempting to look pleasantly surprised when Hermione cleared her throat. Needless to say he failed miserably.

"Ah, hello there girls. What can the Marauders do for you?" Sirius asked in a boyish voice, a wide smile on his face.

The smile, however, faltered as Lily narrowed her eyes, glaring at the ill fated Gryffindor let him know with her eyes exactly what she would like three quarters of the Marauders to do. James gulped slightly before regaining his composure, staring at the girls feeling slightly annoyed that they had not said anything yet.

"Look if you two just wanted to stare at us you can do it from where you we–" He stopped mid sentence as Hermione seemed to snap out of the thoughts she was in and began to talk, her voice slowly getting louder as she went.

"You James Potter are an arrogant prat who does nothing but pick on others and show off like you're the best there is!"

"You know what Storm you're absolutely right," Sirius stated, and Hermione's anger seemed to go down. "I'm the best there is. How could you James, trying to steal my place? Glad to know you ditched Snivelly too Storm," he added, completely oblivious to the rage that was building in Hermione's eyes.

"Now that his out of the picture you can ditch Malfoy too. Then you can hang around with us! I'm still willing to give you a go as long as you listen to James' and my advice and…"

"Stay away from Malfoy and Snivellus," James finished.

They looked up with smiles no their faces, both expecting the girls to agree with their, what they thought to be, wise statement. They were shocked when they saw the two girl's red faced and looking ready to breathe fire.

"You. Are. Such. A. Self. Centered. Jerk. And. You. Both. Make. Me. Sick!" Hermione's voice had built up from a whisper and ended in a shout. Her face was bright red from anger and her hair seemed to cackle with electricity.

Lily sneered at the two boys and turned to Hermione with a look of understanding in her face. She nodded to the door indicating that she would take it from here and that she ought to go and find Severus. Normally Hermione would have objected but at the moment she was to furious to speak, not that she could put her disbelief of their actions into words any way. She simply nodded at Lily and left the two Marauders to their fate.

Hermione wondered the school looking for Severus first checking the library. When she didn't locate him there she turned and head up to the seventh floor to try the Room of Requirement. She paced back and forth three times focusing on the lounge like room that she, Lucius and Severus had been in so many times before. To her relief when she opened the door she saw Severus laying on the leather lounge near the side of the room, his eyes closed. She wondered at first if he was sleeping until she noticed his eyelids were flickering.

Hermione walked over to where he laid and gently nudged his shoulder. His eyes snapped open and he grabbed her wrist before she could move her hand away. When he looked up to see who had disturbed him he stood, quickly releasing her arm and moved toward the door. As he got within a meter of it he was pushed back by some invisible force and, turning around, he saw Hermione had her wand pointed at the door, preventing him from leaving. She'd be damned if she were to let him get away this time when they had no chance of interruption.

"Let me go, Hermione," Severus said, his voice cold.

"No Severus. We are going to talk right now. No one can interrupt; this spell works on the outside just as well as it does on the inside."

Severus snarled and went to sit in the same couch he'd only just left, and looked at her expectantly.

"Now, I know that I injured your pride by defending you against those prats. Fair enough. That doesn't give you a reason to sulk around and ignore me like you have for two weeks!" Hermione's voice rose slightly. What he did was childish and she was going to let him know.

To her surprise, he did not deny it nor did he snap back at her. No instead he began to smile at her lightly. Now Hermione was confused, wasn't he snarling at her not moments ago? Had he not been ignoring her for the past two weeks?

Severus saw the obvious confusion on her face and began to explain his actions for the past two weeks.

"… So I'm sorry but it was the only way to know," he finished.

Hermione was not impressed.

"You're trying to tell me that you made me so upset just to see if I was going to remain your friend, all because of what those jerks said?"

"Well yeah, I wasn't sure if what they said kind of, I don't know, made you remember just who you had befriended," Severus said.

Hermione's eyes flooded with understanding. He hadn't being testing her per say, more seeing if she knew what she were getting into. And he had been scared of her reaction. Had this been here snarky potions master that had been scared over something like this she would have laughed out loud. But this was Severus not Professor Snape who, according to Hermione, were two completely different people.

Hermione took three large steps forward towards the waiting Slytherin and hugged him, causing him to stiffen immediately. He soon relaxed though and began to tentatively place his arms around her. When he pulled away he, just like out near the Shack, began to lower his head and Hermione slowly titled hers so it was level to his and as she moved forward their lips meet.

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Whoa that took a while to type. Hope you all think Sirius and James got what they deserved in the end! Please tell me what you think by kindly reviewing :)

Lady of Elysion