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Chapter 5: The Battle Within

Few days after Snape and Hermione's encounter showed that Dracos' mischief benefited them…greatly. Hermione noticed that Snape was starting to treat her with respect set aside the occasional snarls and sarcastic remarks; she most of the time found those remarks to be funny. She was starting to discover the lighter side of him which she enjoyed very much yet decided to keep it to herself.

There had been more than one occasion wherein her former professor showed concern and kindness towards her like one time, wherein she sat on her chair looking exhausted and Severus approached and asked if she way okay. When she did not respond she felt the back of his palm touching her forehead, her cheeks which gave a churning feeling inside her stomach and she instantly liked the feeling of his skin touching hers. Without thinking, she held his hand and for a moment she felt his hand became rigid but did not remove himself from her gentle grip. She could've held him longer and would definitely not complain, but alas, Snape suddenly removed his hand in a swift and without another word, left her office, leaving her perplexed of what just happened. It was that moment that she realized that she was starting to feel something for the man. Not a simple admiration or friendship but more. She would sometimes found herself staring at an empty space dreaming him caressing her, kissing her with passion holding him as tighter as she could, never letting him go.

Snape did not expect after Draco's antics, that he would found himself seeing Hermione in a new light. He admittedly thought that she was indeed a grown woman and a fine woman she had become. He enjoyed conversing with her for he found her to be intelligent and delightful to be with full of energy that drags him right into her. Her smile lightens up his day especially when she laughs every time he gave a sarcastic remarks or a snide. He felt good with each moment that he was able to tickle his funny bone and he plans to keep her on laughing and making her happy. He never felt like that in awhile, not after what happened between him and Lily. 'Am I falling for this girl?' he thought. He tried his very best to avoid himself from getting attach to her but failed miserably. With each passing day he felt more and more close to her and more concerned for her which kind of irritates him in a way, feeling weak for falling for Potter's friend.

He arrived at the Ministry and saw Miss Ganger walking towards her office looking extremely exhausted. Seeing her enter her office without regarding her staff which is quite odd, his feet,which he thought had a mind of its own, dragged him towards her office until he realized that he was already standing in front of her door. His heart was pounding very fast, feeling his pulse jumping stronger than ever before, sweating profusely though the room was quite cold while his hand holding a tight grip on the knob slightly trembling. 'What am I doing? You're looking like a school boy! Be a man and approach her!' said the voice in his head. A slight twitch of the knob and a little push against the door would surely make a difference he thought, and he wasn't sure if he was ready for anything that was going to happen. 'Leave her there, it's none of your business anyway.' argued the other voice.

He had been standing there for quite a long time that Hermione's staff approached him and asked if he needs something in which he snapped back to reality and returned with a glare making the poor young man withdrew himself away from Snape's piercing eyes. Sighing heavily, Snape removed his hand from the knob and went to his room. He thought he was doing the right thing, trying not to show concern, yet something inside him felt that he was weak. He spent half of the day pacing back and forth in his office thinking on whether to approach Miss Granger, scowling at every person who dared to interrupt him from his reverie and then back to his thought. It was already lunch time when he heard Hermione's door opened and he went directly went outside his office standing at the frame of his office door staring at the object of his torment talking to her secretary. Though her hair was not as bushy as before, but was still a mess, her eyes were a little bit droopy and walks slowly as if she if she just woke up in the middle of the night.

'Oh Hermione, what have you been doing—wait, Hermione? Now where did that came from?' he was surprised at realization and did not notice her entering her office. He heard her closed the door and made the decision…he's coming in. He swiftly walked into her office and noticed that she was staring at the oblivion.

"Her—Miss Granger, are you alright? You looked like you've been run over be hippogriffs." He approached her and noticed that she was oblivious of his presence. She looked paler than ever and felt a knife had stabbed his heart. He then suddenly remembered what he had done and felt a pang of guilt. He had in fact assigned her tons of Potions to test and that moment he realized how insensitive he had been for assigning too much to her capabilities. Surely he did not expect her to object since she is stubborn, insufferable know-it-all that he now finds so irresistibly intelligent and radiant. Walking slowly but not removing his stare at her, he lifted his hand and touched her forehead with the back of his palm feeling the hot skin of hers touching his skin and he knew he cannot deny that he like touching her soft, smooth and gentle skin. He slid his hand and rested on her cheek, and saw that her hand raised and held his.

At that very moment, he froze, didn't know what to do but do no want to let go. He licked his lower lip with his tongue and swallowed his saliva as he stared at her hands then moved his sight onto her soft kissable lips. He wondered what her lips would taste like. Realizing his lust towards his former student, he removed his hand, immediately left the room without any word; he quickly walked towards his office, closed the door behind him and leaned his back against it panting very fast. 'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!' he told himself as he slapped his head with his palm. After that incident Snape began to avoid Hermione.

It had been weeks since their last encounter and Hermione was starting to get pissed at him yet miss him at the same time. But now, she was determined to face him whether he liked it or not. Holding a book, she opened the door of his office and saw a shocked Severus holding a quill; he apparently was busy with his parchment until she came. They stared at each other for a moment until Snape composed himself and cleared his throat snapping Hermione back.

"Miss Granger, you do know that it is rude no to knock at the door." Snape said trying to appear irritated unconvincingly. She remained her eyes on him and knocked at the open door and smirked. She saw the side of his lips and eyebrow raised and went directly to him without waiting for him to let her in. he was pleased to see her though he has no intention of revealing his feelings to her other than his pretentious contempt towards her which was failing miserably. He looked at her with perplexity as she put a thick book filled with gold pages that seemedto be quite old on top of his desk.

"And what is this Miss Granger?" he said not giving the woman in front of him a glace but instead focus his attention at the book caressing the cover with his fingers which sent Hermione shivers down her spine.

"It's a book." Snape rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"I know it's a book, Miss Granger"

"Well…" She clasped her hands together behind her back, walked towards Snape and stood behind his chair where he was seating. Sensing her presence closer to him, he began feeling a tingling sensation behind his neck. "It's a gift for you sir. " She continued.

"A gift? What for?"

"It has been a month since we first worked together which is unexpected actually. I figured you deserved a reward for doing a great job." He was confused.

"Is that so?" Hermione nodded. He felt terrible; he did not even thought of giving her any. It was like Hermione reading his mind as she told him that no need to bother giving her a gift in which Snape replied, "I was not planning to." She laughed.

"I'm quite sure you'll love it! I guess I'll leave you to it then." Snape remained looking down at the book and was starting to feel the emotion burning inside him. He wanted to stand up, grab her and kiss her so hard and hold her so tight but knew that it was a bad idea. Little did he know that Hermione wanted him to do the same though she new from the very start that it will never happen. As she was about to leave she heard Snape murmured something though she was not able to hear him very clearly but she knew he was saying 'Thank you' which made her giggle after arriving at her office.

Snape opened the book entitled 'Deepest Darkest Arts of Potion Making' and on the first page was note handwritten by no other than Hermione:

I know we may not be friends but I hope someday we will be. Thanks for the days working with you and learning for you. You truly are a Potions Master. You'll surely like the book since I know you

are very much interested in the Dark Arts and Potions.

I'm looking forward for the days to come.

Hermione

'So am I Hermione, so am I.' he said softly as he closed his book casted a shrinking spell and put the gift inside his pocket.

*****

Hermione went directly to Hogsmeade right after work to meet with the members of her staff because one of them is celebrating her birthday and Hermione happily accepted her invitation.

She felt close with her staff, in fact she treated them like her friends. They spent the evening laughing, drinking Butterbeers and Firewhiskeys, enjoying the night away in which Hermione had never felt in a long time since the whole Ron incident began.

"So Miss Granger, what's up with you and Mr. Snape?" said the youngest of the group. He was a lean boy and as stall as Fred and George; his hair was blonde and long tied in a pony tail.

He had so many freckles yet never fails to charm a few female co-workers. Hermione was surprised and she looked around and saw everyone's eyes were all on her.

"What so you mean?" she asked innocently yet failing to control the blush that was appearing on her face.

"Oh come on, I've seen the way he looks at you. " the woman seating next to him elbowed the young man at the ribs making him slightly groan in pain signaling to shut his mouth. The other member changed the topic and hoped that Hermione did not notice it. Hermione understood that even the staff observed something between her and Snape and was glad they did not pursue her to discuss what's happening since she herself has no idea what to say.

After the party, everyone parted ways and found herself the last person to leave the pub. She decided to walk instead of Apparating and feel the cold evening breeze. She stood for a moment in the middle of the street and sensed that someone was watching her from the dark…again. She had been feeling that someone was watching her for almost a month, every night on her way home which was starting to get on her nerve. 'Oh Snape it better not be you, or so help I will totally hex you.' she thought, though some part of her wished it was him watching over her and the idea of it makes her feel that she was safe.

She ignored the dark figure in the far corner and continued walking; but she stopped when a smelly drunk bald wizard blocked her way staring at her with hunger. She froze as her heart began to beat faster than normalcy could permit. The man was wearing a quite dirty sleeveless shirt and trousers; she can see his yellow stained teeth as man smiled at her slowly advancing forward, drawing closer and closer towards her. She immediately grabbed the wand from her pocket but felt a tight grip on her wrists and saw the man hand holding her so tight that she screamed of pain.

"Stop it! You're hurting me? What do you want you smelly old fool?!" she yelled trying to free her self from his grip and hiding her fear.

"Well what do we have hear, a feisty little lady you are, eh?" he chuckled and without a warning he bit the skin of her neck at the same time smelling her delicious sent. She felt his hardness touching her abdomen as the drunk wizard leaned his body against her. Tears was falling from her eyes as she screamed of agony.

"SNAPE!!! SNAPE!! HELP ME, PLEASE!!!" she screamed hoping he would appear and rescue her.

"Crucio!" was the last word Hermoine heard when both she and the man fell to the ground. Before she lost consciousness, she heard footsteps coming towards her and the cries of the drunken wizard trembling in pain caused by the Cruciatus curse.

"Severus." The last word she spoke before everything went black.

Any guess who that man may be?

I plan to post the 6th chapter after I got atleast 25 reviews...just a goal...Oh and I'm planning to live up with my rating so M rated chapters are coming but probably not in chapter 6

I'm so excited to publish the next chapters (I'm done with my 6th and 7th and i swear if I don't receive my 25th review those remaining chaps will go unpublished)

Tell me what you think....