AN: I absolutely adored the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson BBC adaptation of 'Jane Eyre' from a few years back, so will use snippets of their interactions rather than relying wholly on the dialogue as was written in the original.

Lady Sabine of Macayhill; thank you for your reviews for the last three chapters, and I hope that you like this one just as much!

Master Snape's ankle proved to be nothing more than a sprain, whereas Healer Clearwater diagnosed several cracked ribs for Hermione and bound them up tightly before advising strict bedrest for forty eight hours to give the healing potions time to work. Fleur brought a bouquet of freshly picked flowers into Hermione's room and bemoaned the fact that Monsieur Severus was to give her lessons until Mademoiselle was back on her feet. Minerva had advised Hermione that Master Snape had looked over Hermione's lesson plans and noted that day had been given over to Potions work and he saw no reason for those plans to change. Fleur reported back at lunch time that Monsieur Severus had given her a bunch of ginger root to finely slice, but he hadn't been satisfied with Fleur's methods and so had made her do it again and again until he was satisfied that they were of a consistent thickness.

'Fleur, my sweet…consistency is vital in preparing potions ingredients, you know that.' Hermione frowned at her charge and Fleur nodded slowly.

'But Mademoiselle…ginger is so icky!' Hearing the very English colloquialism spoken with a heavy French accent made Hermione chuckle even harder, and that made her healing ribs ache so she waved Fleur out of the room, warning her to pay strict attention to what 'Monsieur' had to teach. Hermione spent the forty eight hours on enforced bed rest fine tuning her lesson plans for the rest of the year, and by the third day was more than ready to emerge from her chamber. Master Snape confined himself to his potions laboratory for the entire day and Leah popped in and out with sustenance for him; after the evening meal Hermione was reading quietly by the fire when Minerva hustled into the sitting room with an air of urgency.

'Hermione, Master Severus has finished in his laboratory for the day and wishes to see you,' Minerva tugged the book out of Hermione's hand and flicked her wand over Hermione's grey robes to tidy them; the creases smoothed out and the white collar brightened a little but nothing could hide the drabness of the material or the plain cut. 'That will have to do, perhaps we can order some robes in from London to smarten up your wardrobe a little.' Hermione said nothing, just nodded slightly as she followed Minerva along the corridor and stopped when the older woman came to a halt outside a set of double doors. 'Master Severus likes to relax in front of the fire in the library of an evening, he's expecting you…go on child, there's nothing to be afraid of.' As if he could see through solid wood, one of the doors creaked open as if drawn by an invisible hand…

'Miss Granger, I presume?' the Master's silken tones called out from a high backed chair near the fireplace and Minerva gave Hermione a little nudge to enter further into the room. 'Thank you, Minerva…you may leave us for the present.'

'Ah…Mademoiselle Granger!' Fleur's lilting tones called out from a corner of the room, and Hermione's nerves vanished as she took a few paces further, Minerva stepping back out into the hall silently. 'Monsieur Severus, did you bring a boite for Mademoiselle?' Fleur's command of English had improved immensely but she still dropped a few words of her native language into conversation whenever she was excited. Fleur leant over from where she was stroking Fang's fur and looked expectedly at her guardian.

'A boite for Miss Granger? Did you expect a present, Miss Granger?' Master Severus lounged languidly in his chair, almost disappearing into the depths with his figure cloaked entirely in black, from his old fashioned frock coat to his dragon hide boots.

'I hardly know Sir, I've had little experience of them.' Hermione replied in a demure tone, hovering just outside the circle of light cast by the low lamps and the glow of the fire. Master Severus glanced over his shoulder and waved his hand toward the low backed chair on the other side of the fire.

'Come join me by the fire, it pains my neck to talk to you over my shoulder,' Hermione gave him a brief nod of obedience and then settled herself in the low chair with Fang immediately abandoning Fleur to lean against Hermione's legs.

'I see that you have bewitched my hound as well as my horse,' Severus drawled silkily, crossing his long legs at the ankles.

'I did not bewitch your horse, sir. I was waiting for you to go past,' Hermione denied, her fingers stroking the soft fur behind Fang's ears and causing the hound to lean even harder at the skirts of her robes.

'Waiting with your wand lit bright enough to blind even the darkest of creatures…No, you were hovering, waiting to cast your spells like the witch that you are.' Severus replied and then flicked his hand toward the fireplace, making the flames leap higher. Hermione was impressed by his command of wand-less magic, she herself could only cast the simplest of spells in that manner. They sat in silence for a while, before Severus suddenly leant forward in his chair and said; 'Tea?' At Hermione's nod, he called for a house elf and soon a tea tray appeared on the low table that separated the two chairs. Fleur was engrossed in the large gift box that Severus had transported over from his study, and the girl peeled back the layers of tissue paper to find an elaborate set of silk robes that Fleur enthused over. The girl left her guardian sharing tea with her tutor as she ran out of the library clutching the silken garments to her chest in search of Sophie.

'Minerva tells me that you were from Lowood, how long were you there for?' Severus' mouth twisted into a slight grimace as he named the wizarding institution, as compared to Hogwarts it was little more than a slum.

'Eight years, six as a pupil and then two as staff,' Hermione replied, sipping her tea slowly.

'I'm amazed you survived. You're so small, didn't they feed you?'

'Rarely…sir,' Hermione quipped and that raised the corner of Severus' mouth very slightly.

'And how is it that you find yourself here and not still there?'

'I advertised, sir,' Hermione replied calmly and that brought a full smile to Severus' thin lips and he snorted rather loudly as he shook his head.

'Of course you did,' he set his teacup back on the tray and then leant back in his chair, hands laced together loosely in his lap. 'And what of your family?'

'I have none sir,' Hermione replied quietly, setting her teacup down having lost all taste for the liquid.

'None whatsoever?' Severus mused, and seeing the slight flinch flicker across her face took that as a negative. 'Friends?'

'I had a friend once…' Hermione replied, the faint glimmer of tears prickling at the corner of her eyes; 'but she died a long time ago.' Severus dropped his line of questioning, but wanted to keep the flow of conversation going. 'Fleur tells me that you are quite the charm caster.'

'I know enough so that Fleur won't feel lost when she starts attending school properly,' Hermione replied, straightening up in her chair now that the conversation had turned to something she felt more comfortable with.

'Elaborate please, I've read your lesson plans but I'd much rather hear it from you directly,' Severus requested politely and Hermione was only too happy to enthuse about something that she loved.

'We've gone through the levitation, softening and fire-making charms; paying particular attention to the importance of correct wand movements – Fleur's already looking forward to next week when we move onto the dancing charm as I've promised that she can cast it on one of her dolls.'

'Go on,' Severus urged gently, when Hermione paused for breath.

'In Herbology we've been looking at the uses of particular plants and how it links to not only potions ingredients but wider implications. We spend an afternoon in the gardens and then make potions from what we've picked; Fleur can then see the application and she seems to have grasped both subjects a lot easier that way. We extracted the essence from a batch of dittany and then Fleur used the potion on a cut finger that she obtained the next afternoon and was able to see it work for herself.' Hermione paused again and glanced over at Severus who waved his hand for her to continue. 'I've covered basic Astronomy, but as I couldn't lay my hands on a telescope we had to make do with what she could make out with the naked eye.'

'I'll have a suitable one procured and set up in the small room off the lower balcony,' Severus interrupted, and looked rather stern at the thought that Hermione hadn't brought it up sooner. 'Please see to it that I have a full list on my desk tomorrow morning with anything else that you may require.'

'Of course, sir.' Hermione made a notation on a small notepad that she carried in the pocket of her robe and then looked up with a raised eyebrow. 'Should I continue, sir?'

'You mean there's more?' Severus exclaimed, 'my Gods woman, you've already covered most of the first year curriculum at Hogwarts and you say there's more?'

'Only Transfiguration, Defence and a few basic Healing lessons…' Hermione said quietly, 'I'm sorry, sir…I only taught Fleur the same curriculum that is used at Lowood for the younger age groups, I didn't mean to overstep my boundaries.' Severus looked up to see that Hermione's shoulders had slightly hunched inwards and her previous animation had left her face looking pinched and withdrawn.

'My dear Miss Granger, I'm not cross with you in the slightest…on the contrary, I am delighted that you've been able to teach Fleur all that in the short amount of time that you've been at Thornfield…feel free to teach her all that you think she is capable of; you have my complete confidence…Now the hour grows late and you'd better check on your young charge, if not prompted she will stay up far too late gossiping with Sophie.' Hearing the dismissal in his tone, Hermione rose up from the low chair and bid her employer a good evening; he barely acknowledged her leaving as his attention was devoted to watching the flames dancing in the fireplace as he was once again reminded of a woman whose hair was the exact colour of the flames leaping about.

'So, what did you think of the Master, Hermione?' Minerva asked as the two ladies shared a pot of tea the next morning. Severus had taken Fleur on a foraging trip into the nearby woodlands to explain the differences in the types of fungi used in various potions, and so Hermione had been granted an unexpected few hours of leisure.

'He seemed very interested in Fleur's curriculum; but I found him to be changeable and quite intrusive with his line of questioning.' Hermione hadn't intended in being quite that forward with the housekeeper and murmured a swift apology as she bent her head over her teacup.

'No need to apologise, dear.' Minerva assured Hermione with a warm smile as she refreshed their cups with a quick motion of her wand. 'I've grown accustomed to his quick silver nature that I forget how it might seem to one not used to his ways. Master Severus hasn't had the easiest of lives…until nine years ago he was the potions master at Hogwarts but then his brother died and the estate passed to him; with all of the family debt along with it.'

'He seems fairly comfortable now though,' Hermione mused as she glanced around the pleasant room that they were seated in and thought about the promise of a new telescope for Fleur along with the very expensive Abraxan that he had rode in on…those horses went for thousands of galleons at a time dependant on their bloodlines.

'He left Hogwarts to start his own brewing business and that proved very profitable; he now travels all over the world for only the finest of ingredients and has a whole team of brewers working for him in different branches… He's always been a fairly solitary person, but there was a girl once that he was very fond of; but his father refused permission for Master Severus to offer her marriage and she wed another; that seemed to change him even more and he's been alone ever since.' Minerva's thin lips twisted into a moue of displeasure as old memories flittered through her mind. 'I don't think he would have been happy with the girl in the long run as she seemed to treat her new husband very poorly, hating the way he would spend time with his friends and begrudging every moment he spent apart from her…insisted on a full binding ceremony, so the poor lad had little chance of getting out of it however much he came to despair of her in the end. They moved away eventually, and he lost contact with most of his old group; the last I heard they were living somewhere near Massachusetts and he was teaching Defence at the Salem Institute.' Hermione kept her thoughts to herself and merely nodded every now and then, but thoughts of how disappointed Master Severus must have been at the thought of seeing his true love married to another crowded her mind, leaving little room for anything else.