Severus sat there for a little while longer, enjoying the comfortable silence when he heard Hermione yawn. "I am going to return to bed... Thank you," he said quietly, standing up and giving her the slightest of smiles.

Hermione smiled thankfully, rubbing at her eyes. "I'll see you in the morning then. Unless you have another nightmare," she said simply, glad to have helped. "Good night, Severus. If you still can't sleep, I find reading something usually helps." She wanted to help, but she wasn't sure how he would react to her saying too much. He might push her away again...

"Good night, Hermione. I may do just that," Severus said simply. "But I think I can sleep now."

He turned away from Hermione and headed out the door quietly, closing the door behind him so that she could have her privacy and go back to sleep. He had woken her up in the middle of the night after all. There was no way she was not tired... He entered his own room, closing the door behind him and flopping down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

She actually was a decent person... It really was shocking. A Gryffindor. Was decent. To him. The concept was completely foreign, and he had issues wrapping his head around it. He had though Lily was an oddity when she became a lion and found out how the others acted. Then he had met Hermione, and she was just as nice... If not a bit nicer. She seemed to understand being the oddball. Whereas Lily had always had always fit in. She never understood why he wouldn't go making friends with a lot of people. They always judged him the moment they saw him...

He slowly drifted off in his comparisons, exhausted, and slept through the rest of the night easily.

While the next few days went by rather easily, Severus and Hermione slowly grew closer. Bonding over books and their studies, it was obvious they were two very similar people. They became rather pleasant around each other and worked well together as well as taking to talking by the fireplace after dinner most nights.

Molly smiled as she watched the two teens in her care talking by the fire after dinner one night. "Arthur... I don't ever remember seeing Severus make friends so easily. Do you?" she asked, looking at her husband. She had watched both of the kids slowly overcome their differences, mostly differences of house. It was nice to see Hermione making more friends as well, but she had always worried over Severus, even now that he was a grown man.

Though grown-up Severus Snape hardly appreciated it and brushed off any of her attempts when they even saw each other.

Arthur looked up from his newspaper and watched the two for a moment. "He's prickly, Mols. Well, the older one is. We never knew him as a child," he reminded. "He obviously changed between sixteen and thirty-six. Which is only to be expected. But maybe Hermione is good for him. She always was nice to everyone."

"Well of course he's changed!" she said, smiling and shaking her head before quickly lowering her voice, not wanting to draw their attention. If they realized she was watching them, they might stop getting along. "But... I don't know. They get along like they belong together..." She trailed off a curious thought hitting her. Even if she loved the idea of Hermione officially joining the family with Ron, she thought they might make a cute couple. Well wasn't that just a situation.

Arthur groaned quietly. "Molly, don't interfere with their relationship. It's not fair anyways. He has to go home eventually, and it will leave her heartbroken. I doubt the current Severus would return her feelings, if they develop, by now. Twenty years is a long time," he said.

She sighed and shook her head, watching the two a moment longer before turning away and waving her wand to direct dishes towards the sink. "You have a good point. Still. They would be perfect for each other, and you know it," she said simply as she walked towards the sink to finish cleaning up.

Hermione could be heard laughing in the other room, smiling brightly at Severus. "There's no way that could work you know... Just because some potions taste bad doesn't mean that you can simply add peppermint or some other flavoring. It would offset the whole potion," she said, shaking her head at him.

Severus snorted. "If you use other ingredients to balance it out, it would not only taste better but it would feel better going down. Some potions have a funny texture but a little honey or peppermint would be a great help," he said. He had tried it before, after all. "Besides, you said you aren't any good at Potions. How would you know?"

Sticking her tongue out at him, Hermione folded her arms across her chest. "I understand Potions' theory better than the actually making. It shouldn't be able to work that way," she argued, frowning.

"How about I make one my way, and you make one the normal way. Then we'll test them?" he offered with a slight smirk.

Hermione's face broke out in a grin. "Sounds good to me. You're going to lose," she said. "But it has to be something simple that we can both make and know it will come out perfect with on a normal basis. Got it?"

He nodded. "Sounds good. We can start that tomorrow," he said, offering a hand to seal the idea off.

The brunette grinned and took his hand. "Deal."

(Little shorter than they usually are. I apologize for my long disappearance. I sincerely hope I didn't disappoint anyone. Please tell me what you think and if I screwed up or not! Thanks. :) )