Squishy hugs to my beta, s and h forever.
Thanks again to those of you reading this. Special thanks to those who have taken the time to review. Keep them coming, if you see fit.
"Look ahead with hope and cheer. Look ahead with blazing spirits. 'Cause the one that made us wants us to spread joy amongst the living. And though times may be hard, and the week behind was painful, He won't ask us to shoulder a weight too much to carry on another Saturday." (Another Saturday, by Stuart Murdoch)
Hermione woke up the next morning, startled by her surroundings, completely forgetting that Severus had carried her to his room the night before. She tried to move but found herself unable, securely held by his strong arms. She panicked once more, thinking that they had both slept through the morning's Potions class, but after quick scan of her memory, going back to the day of her meeting with Dumbledore, she was relieved to realize that it was, in fact, Saturday. After she came to this conclusion, Hermione was able to relax, and she rested her head against Severus' chest once more. She smiled to herself as she felt the rise and fall of his breathing, finally finding herself exactly where she wanted to be. True to his form, Severus had never answered her questions from the previous evening, but something internal assured her that she would discover everything in time. Despite this, she couldn't help feeling that something horrible was going to happen soon. She remembered the tension between Dumbledore and Snape the day before, and hoped that at least Harry was aware of whatever situation it was in which they found themselves. Although she would have been content to stay in bed with him all day, Hermione had more pressing matters to which to attend, and she nudged Severus in the stomach gently with her elbow.
"Mmmm, what?" he groaned, clearly less than enthused about being woken up.
"Severus, let me go. I have to pee…" Hermione responded frankly. Normally, she would have considered her comment out of line, but she figured that if they were going to try to stay together, Severus had better be getting used to her candid comments.
"You have to wha – Oh, yes. Go ahead, Hermione," he mumbled quickly, turning over onto his other side.
She slid out of the bed the second his arms loosened around her waist and went into his bathroom, noting the extravagance to which he went in order to make his personal rooms as comfortable as possible. She would never have guessed he would be the lavish bathtub type, but she certainly wasn't complaining. When she came out a few minutes later, Severus had already fallen back asleep. She tried not to wake him as she climbed back into his bed, but even the slightest movement of the mattress caused him to stir. He turned back over to face her again, his eyes slowly opening.
"God, what time is it, Hermione?" he muttered sleepily. "We really should be getting up."
"No, we shouldn't," she replied immediately, sliding back into his arms before he had a chance to get out of the bed. "It's the first Saturday in ages that I've had to myself, and I'm sure you have nothing to do but grade papers; papers that you could just as easily grade tomorrow."
"True, but let's say that your little friends need to find you, and they look for you in the extra rooms they now know you have in the dungeons, and you aren't there. So, what do they do? They knock on my classroom door, assuming we're working. They know I won't be anywhere else, and you obviously are nowhere else in the castle; I must assume that Potter and Weasley would check every nook and cranny of this castle before forcing themselves to find me in order to gain an answer to their inquiries. What would you do then, Hermione, run out and apologize for spending the night with your professor, wearing the exact same clothes you had worn just the day before? Young Mister Weasley would at least be observant enough to pick up on that, I hope."
"Fine, you win. I'll go back upstairs," she conceded grudgingly. Severus smirked in satisfaction as he watched Hermione gather her things. "You know, though, this independent study hasn't been nearly as productive as it was in the past. Don't you think it's about time we actually started work on something new?"
"I'll speak to the Headmaster and confer with him regarding a new assignment. I will be sure to let you know as soon as I hear anything. Have a good day, Hermione. I'm sure I'll be seeing you at some point tomorrow. You'll know where to find me."
"Goodbye, Severus. If I can't stand Harry and Ron, you might be seeing me even earlier than that."
"It wouldn't surprise me," he responded, loving the sound of her laugh as she made her way out through his door and into the corridor. Alone and unfortunately unable to go back to sleep, Severus began grading the poor excuses for essays that he had been avoiding for days.
~o~
Hermione walked back up to the common room with no doubt in her mind that Harry and Ron would be relaxing there, still putting off the NEWT work that was quickly beginning to pile up as exams approached. Before she could even look towards the overstuffed chairs they might as well have called their own, she heard an exuberant greeting.
"Hey, Hermione! Where have you been this morning? We missed you coming in last night, too!" Ron turned to face her from his chair, but she hurried past him to set her bag down beside the chair she planned on taking.
"Oh, I didn't come in, actually. Professor Snape and I were working pretty late, so I just stayed in my 'dungeon room'. No big deal. Anyway, what's up with you two? Doing any work for the NEWTs? They're coming up awfully fast, you know." She practically jumped into her chair, already getting excited at the thought of the exams she'd get to take at the end of the term.
"Actually, Hermione, we've been talking about much more important things. Harry has a lot to tell you... you know, about his private lessons with Dumbeldore and all." Ron looked around shiftily, ensuring that no one was around to hear their conversation.
"Oh my God, Harry! I've been entirely too busy to even think about those! How have they been? What have you found out?" Hermione couldn't believe that she had allowed herself to become so detached from her friends but was glad that they had the entire afternoon to make up for their lost time.
"Wow, Hermione, you've really missed a lot, then, haven't you? Let me see how I can shorten this," Harry began. "Basically, Dumbledore and I have been viewing the memories of people who came into contact with Voldemort at various stages in his life; from childhood to the deranged killer he is now. After a while, Dumbledore was able to confirm his suspicions that Voldemort had been successful in creating a group of Horcruxes; seven to be exact."
"Harry, I never thought I'd have to ask you to clarify anything aside from the rules of Quidditch, but what exactly is a Horcrux? I'm sure there couldn't have been any way I could know about them. I mean, I've obviously read every book in the library… even in the Restricted Section. That must be horribly dark magic, if it's not mentioned anywhere in the Hogwarts library…" Her train of thought trailed off suddenly, and she rolled her eyes at the joyful look that passed between Harry and Ron upon realizing that their best friend had finally been stumped. Fortunately for Hermione, Harry continued his story.
"Well, from what Dumbledore's told me, a Horcrux is, in essence, an object that holds a part of a person's soul. It's used in order to keep that person from dying. So, let's say I had a Horcrux stashed somewhere, and you, for some reason, tried to kill me… because I killed Crookshanks or something. Because a part of me is hidden in the Horcrux, I'm not entirely dead and, therefore, am immortal as long as the object is not found and destroyed. Dumbledore hasn't told me exactly how one is made, but I know it involves murder and some other horrific act he wouldn't tell me about. Needless to say, Voldemort thought this was a bloody brilliant idea and went ahead and made seven Horcruxes, thinking they would make him more powerful. But tearing his soul so many times has made him weak. We know for sure that we've already destroyed two of them. One was Tom Riddle's diary that I stabbed with that Basilisk fang in second year. It turns out the piece of Voldemort's soul inside the journal was what had been possessing Ginny. And Dumbledore got rid of the second one… some ring that belonged to Voldemort's family. So, these Horcruxes are the key to defeating Voldemort, and it's up to us to find the remaining five. From the memories we've viewed, we're pretty sure that at least three are objects that belonged to the founders of Hogwarts. It's three instead of four, since Dumbledore's pretty sure that Voldemort hasn't gotten his hands on anything of Gryffindor's. So, that would make five, total. And we're pretty sure his snake is the sixth. Really, when it comes down to it, though, we don't have any real leads, but Dumbledore thinks that, with all of us working on it, we'll be able to bring Voldemort down." Harry shook his head almost in disbelief of his own story and leaned back in his chair, watching Hermione, open-mouthed in shock.
"And Dumbledore's told Harry that when he finds one, Harry can go with him! How cool is that, Hermione?" Ron chimed in, possibly more excited than Hermione had ever seen him.
"Wow. I don't know what to say. That's incredible… and indescribably dangerous! This is becoming so much more real than I ever could have imagined. I feel awful that I haven't been around for any of this. I've just been so preoccupied with –"
"Hermione, just stop." Harry interrupted. "You've been doing such amazing things this year. You invented a potion! How can you not be proud of that? You've accomplished more than Dumbledore and I have! Everything we've discovered is based on theories. Don't feel bad for a second!" Harry reached out a hand to touch hers reassuringly.
The three friends sat in the common room for hours until Harry and Ron finally decided to start on some work, work that Hermione had inevitably done already. She took the opportunity they presented her happily and made her way down to the dungeons to spend the rest of her evening with Severus. She was sure he'd be more than willing to oblige her.
She walked into his study and found him sitting at his desk, saddened at the thought of how much he had to work, both as a teacher and a spy. She walked over to where he sat, and her heart broke as he looked up at her, appearing even more tired and worn.
"Have you been grading papers all afternoon? Whenever I come in to see you, you always seem to be sitting at that desk. Please, just tell me you've eaten something." She moved behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, noticing the tension she found there.
"The long work hours I spend grading should not come as a surprise, Hermione. There is no 'shared' responsibility; I teach this entire school Potions. Although, I must admit, your most recent NEWT essay was a pleasure to read. Dare I say it, yours was the only articulate thing I read today." He bent his head back to the papers, intent on returning to his task, but Hermione wasn't about to see that happen.
"Oh, Severus," she sighed sympathetically, "you're too hard on yourself. Take a break. We can do something fun!" Her voice immediately raised an octave as she became excited about the night ahead.
"Hermione, I'd love to, but I think I'm a little too tired for fun. I'm sorry." Hermione knew he was right; the circles under his eyes were turning a worrying shade of grey.
"That's alright, Severus. Oh, wait; I know what I can do to make you feel better. Come with me." Without waiting for an affirmative answer from him, she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into his bedroom. "Lie down on the bed, facedown… don't look at me like that, Severus, I won't do anything terribly inappropriate."
Despite his reservations, Severus did as she asked until he almost threw her off the bed in shock when she moved to straddle him.
"Stop moving, Severus. This will never work if you're going to do that. Oh, and turn your head to the side. The last thing I want is for you to suffocate on your own pillow."
"You're awfully bossy, Miss Granger. Did you know that?" He chuckled, closing his eyes as she began pressing her hands to his neck and shoulders.
"Imagine being best friends with me for the past six years. I'll have you know that I used to be much bossier as a child. I'm surprised Harry and Ron managed to put up with me all through our first year. Although, there was that one night on Halloween with the troll… anyway, shush. I've always found that it's good practice to refrain from insulting the person that theoretically has you at her mercy." She continued her ministrations lower down his back, grimacing at the raised lines of the scars he bore. She could feel them even now, under the thin shirt he was wearing, and whether she could see them or not, they had the same effect on her. After spending quite some time in silence, she felt him finally relax under her touch. She confidently broke the stillness in the room.
"It seems that whenever I bring up a topic for us to talk about, I either end up yelling or crying. So, what am I allowed to ask you? I feel like you know so much about me, and I don't really know much about you." She dug into his muscles slightly harder than before, suspecting that he had almost been asleep.
"Hm?" he mumbled. "I don't know, Hermione. I prefer not to dwell on my past; it has not been happy for me. What would you like to know?"
"Anything you'd care to tell me, really. Things you used to do, what you enjoy now, things I wouldn't expect of you. Whatever." She continued to work on a particularly nasty knot lodged between his right shoulder blade and his neck.
"Things you wouldn't expect? Well, I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you to know that I have a penchant for classical music, but would you believe me if I told you I was once rather adept at playing the piano?"
"Severus, that's wonderful! I'm not surprised at all, what with the control you need to brew such complicated potions! Do you still play?" Hermione suddenly swung one leg to the other side of his body and was now standing at the side of the bed in her excitement.
"When I have the chance. If the opportunity ever presents itself, you might be lucky enough to persuade me to play for you. But for now, I think you deserve a thank you for relieving the tension in my back. I haven't felt this relaxed in years."
Hermione knew he wasn't exaggerating, and they switched positions, Hermione feeling strangely anxious as Severus moved above her. His hands found the juncture of her collarbone, and Hermione moaned audibly, if unintentionally, as he worked over her muscles. She could have sworn, after a few minutes, that she felt a sudden increase in pressure near the base of her spine, where he was straddling her, and smirked silently into the pillow beneath her head.
"I hope your afternoon was more exciting than my own." Severus began, hoping to change the course of conversation, moving its focus away from him.
"Actually, it was…" Hermione found it difficult to concentrate on speaking while Severus was kneading her back, sending her spiraling into a new level of comfort. "I had a really nice chat with Harry and Ron about everything I've been missing in their lives since I started spending so much time down here. Harry told me about his lessons with Dumbledore, Voldemort's Horcruxes, and how Dumbledore is hoping to find one soon and will take Harry with him to destroy it." Her head snapped up when she noticed that his hands had abruptly stopped moving. "Shit. I shouldn't have told you that."
"Why, Hermione, because you don't trust me? Is that it?" He turned from her quickly, moving as though he were going to leave, but Hermione sat up and grabbed his shoulder in response, bringing him back to her. She took his face in her hands and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Severus, don't you dare say that. I trust you more than anyone else in the world. But Harry doesn't, and I know he wouldn't appreciate it to know that I am telling you these things. I suspect you knew about the Horcruxes already, but if Harry's ri – well, never mind. Voldemort is an unpleasant topic of discussion, anyway. It's getting late. You should go to bed, Severus. You don't take care of yourself as well as you should. Do you mind if I stay here again? Ever since my 'accident' I've felt more at home down here than in the tower. It won't turn into every night, don't worry, it's just… well, I'd rather stay here… with you."
Severus looked at Hermione, clearly contemplating his answer, but considering that she had already made herself comfortable on what was quickly becoming her side of the bed, he agreed.
"Hermione, this is breaking all sorts of rules. I can't allow this to become regularity. You have to realize that. When I say leave, you have to leave." He knew she wasn't paying attention when he saw the speed with which she backed into his arms after he got in the bed alongside her.
"Mmmk," Hermione muttered drowsily as she buried her head in the crook of his elbow. "I love you, Severus."
"I know," he replied. And for what was perhaps the first night since their relationship began, Severus and Hermione slept well through the night, without any nightmares of the future to wake them.