A/N:

Hey guys I know this is a short chapter but it just seem a good place to stop.

Hope you enjoy!

Read and Review please!

Chapter 3: Fleur Delacour

It was now the second week in July. A month had passed since the day Snape had attacked Jarvis. Of course Hermione thought of it as the day she had started her new job. She and Snape had now gotten into their own routine and it seemed to work for the both of them. They started their work day everyday at eight, first they discussed what they were going to do that and then they were off each in their own part of the room. Sometimes they had lunch together depending on what they were working on. Hermione always had dinner downstairs with everyone else insisting that she had to, because it was the only time she ever got to see anyone anymore. Snape would go down for dinner with Hermione every once and awhile, but more than often he would refuse to come down and take dinner in his bedroom.

At first Ron had been furious that she had agreed to work for a man who had just attacked his last employee. But when Hermione explained the situation to him he did seem to become more reasonable he was still however upset that she had taken a job that would take up most of her time and leave very little to hang out with him. The rest of the house had been quite understanding and while they thought it was weird how Hermione could easily tolerate spending all day with him they never commented on it.

At the moment Hermione was cleaning up for the day she had been unlucky today and had a fly land in her potion, which of course ruined the entire batch. Unfortunately she had to start all over again and was only now just finishing. The entire afternoon she had had to listen to Snape making dry comments about insects. At this point however she had become impervious to his little jabs. She had learned that that simply was just Snape being Snape and that there was no reason to take it personally.

After she was finally done putting everything away she went and sat down at her desk. Snape was also sitting at his desk. He had been silently reading there for the past two hours. He said that he just liked the chair but Hermione knew that he wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't need any help. This was her favorite part of her day. When she and Snape sat and talked after a long days work. It was never for more than a few minutes. But Hermione felt that in those few minutes she could visibly see him relax and let his guard down. He never liked to "socialize" during the working hours he believed that it was too distracting especially so when handling volatile ingredients. So he and Hermione had a silent agreement to these little chats at the end of the day.

"So have you heard the spectacular news?" she said with mock excitement.

Snape rolled his eyes. "No. Please don't tell me Potter is coming here I don't think my eyes will be able to take the glow of the golden trio." He said sarcastically.

Hermione laughed. "HAHA. No actually. But someone is coming to stay here for awhile." She said with a smirk. "I heard last night at dinner that Fleur Delacour is coming to stay. She is to arrive in two days"

Snape groaned.

"I take it you're not too happy about this news?" Hermione said.

"No certainly not! She is a complete and total dunderhead. When she was competing in the tournament all she ever did was complain thank goodness I don't have to be in her presence too much. How long is she staying a week?"

"I can't be sure but it sounded like she might be here for more than a few weeks actually."

"MORE than a few weeks! I wont be able to avoid her for that long!"

Hermione chuckled at the look of horror on his face. "Well at least we will have a good excuse to get out of the house next week."

"What do you mean?" Snape said looking at her hopefully.

"Well consider this my weeks notice that we need to go purchase some ingredients. We are starting to run low on a few items so we will need to go soon."

"Okay we will go sometime next week we will save it for an especially vexing day."

"Sounds good to me!" Hermione was excited to go shopping with Snape she knew that she would learn all kinds of tricks as to how to buy the freshest ingredients. "Well I guess I better get going dinner should be soon. Are you coming to dinner tonight?" she asked hopefully. She hated thinking of him eating all alone up here.

"Yes I believe that I will be coming down this evening."

"Okay good! See you down there in a bit then?" Snape nodded in answer. Hermione smiled and then turned around and left.

Hermione went back to her room where she took a shower and then got dressed. After standing over a cauldron all day there was no way she was fit to be seen or smelled before she took a shower. As she was descending the last flight of stairs she could hear a distressed voice coming from the library as she neared the door to investigate however the door swung open and a very upset and teary eyed Tonks fled from the room and out the front door closely followed by Lupin. "Tonks wait!" He shouted to her but she was gone before he had even finished the sentence. He looked down at the floor and seemed to be just as distressed as Tonks had. "Remus whatever is the matter with Tonks?" Remus looked at her for a long moment almost as if he was trying to think of something to say, "I think that she is feeling guilty about Sirius' death."

"Why on earth should she feel guilty?" Hermione said in shock.

"Well before Sirius was dueling Bellatrix, Tonks was. And I think she feels as though it is her fault for not defeating Bellatrix, that if she had defeated her then Sirius would have never died."

"Oh poor Tonks!" Said Hermione worriedly.

"Don't worry Hermione she will be okay. It just might take some time that's all."

Hermione nodded in understanding.

"Lupin dinner!" Came the voice of Mrs. Weasley.

As they went through the kitchen door Mrs. Weasley exclaimed "Oh Hermione dear I was under the impression that you would miss dinner this evening! I'm so glad you are able to join us let me just get another plate!"

"Actually you will need two extra plates Mrs. Weasley Professor Snape said that he would be joining us for supper tonight."

"Splendid it has been far too long since he has had a meal with us! I don't like to think of him eating all alone up there!"

"I'm not always alone Molly sometimes Miss Granger eats with me as well." Snape said walking in as Molly was finishing up her thought.

"Oh Severus I didn't realize you were already downstairs!" She said quite flustered and blushing from being caught talking about the potions master.

"Indeed." He said with a sly smirk as he sat down next to Hermione. Hermione was secretly grateful that there had been a seat open next to her for when he was stuck in between two Weasley's he usually lost his temper and almost never made it to dessert.

Dinner went by without any drama except when Mrs. Weasley got into a rant about having Fleur coming to stay in a few days. Fortunately Mr. Weasley was able to calm her down before she got too out of control. As soon as Snape had finished his dessert he excused himself from the table and went Hermione presumed to the library to read.

"Finally I thought he'd never leave." Whispered Ron.

"Ron he really isn't that bad! You just don't give him a chance." Hermione argued.

"Hermione he barely said two words throughout the entire dinner! He hates coming down here and everybody knows it!"

"Well of course he would hate it! Who would when he is treated like a criminal every time he walks in a room!"

"Hermione he is a criminal." Ron said exasperatedly.

Immediately Hermione stood up and threw her napkin on the table

"Good night I see we will just have to agree to disagree on this particular subject!" And with that she got up and left the room. Normally she would go to the library and read for awhile but she was so tired and so frustrated she knew that she wouldn't be getting any reading done tonight and just went straight to bed.

Two days later Hermione woke up to the sound of Mrs. Black screaming. Apparently Fleur had arrived. Knowing that, she now had no desire to get out of bed that morning. She decided that she would just skip breakfast rather than go downstairs and have a chat with Fleur about how wonderful it is that she is getting married to Bill. She looked at the clock it was seven thirty it was definitely time to get up.

When she went into Snape's lab she was instantly hit with the smell of a fry up. She looked over to see Snape looking at her with a smirk on his face. "What?" She asked curiously as she walked over to his desk and pulled up a chair.

"I take it that you skipped breakfast this morning?"

"Yes how could you tell?"

"As soon as you smelt my breakfast you started to drool." He said chuckling slightly.

Hermione's hand flew to her mouth self-consciously. "I did no such thing!" she said outraged. "Really how did you know?"

"When I went down to get my breakfast Molly told me to bring you some food since you hadn't been down yet this morning. She was afraid you were going to faint before lunch time if you didn't eat."

"Oh so all this food is for me?" She said cheerily.

"Certainly not!" Hermione's hand paused on its way to pick up a piece of whole-wheat toast.

"It's for the both of us." Hermione rolled her eyes at this. Sometimes that man could be so tiresome she thought as she bit into her toast.

"Remember we will be adding the dioxsis root to the potion today."

Hermione nodded her head in acknowledgement as her mouth was full of eggs at the moment.

"Which means that we wont be able to go down to lunch today." He said with a knowing smirk.

"Hermione gave him a knowing look. "You planned this didn't you? We could have easily don't this yesterday but you let me go early I was wondering why you did that!"

Hermione said with a smile.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Snape sipped his tea innocently.

"Well I guess we better get started then there is no way Mrs. Weasley will let me miss breakfast, lunch and dinner today!"

"Oh yes you will have to go to dinner tonight wont you. So sorry I couldn't plan a longer day for you."

"I don't know why you're smiling you are coming to dinner too."

"I most certainly am not!"

"Oh please Professor! You can not let me deal with her all alone!"

"I will think about it I am not promising anything but I will think about it."

Hermione knew she had won if he really had no desire to go then he would have flat out refused.

Before they knew it, it was half past nine and they were heading downstairs for dinner. They decided to go down early to ensure that Snape was sitting next to Hermione and that neither of them was sitting next to Fleur. When they went through to the kitchen Molly was just finishing up dinner while chatting to Kingsley. "Ah Hermione it is so nice to see you it has been so long!" Hermione went over and gave him a hug. "Its nice to see you too Kingsley I have just been working so hard I barley have time to see Ron anymore and we live in the same house!"

"Yes I heard that you had started working for Severus. I hope he isn't working you too hard though." He said light heartedly, looking over at Snape for a moment. Hermione giggled "Oh no not at all! I mean its hard work but I enjoy it very much!"

"Well that's good to hear I'm glad that you are enjoying it so much."

"Oh! Kingsley could you do me a favor!"

"Anything my dear! What is it that I can help you with?"

"Well" Hermione whispered conspiratorially "As you know Fleur is here and I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind sitting next to me you know to save me from having to sit next to her?" Kingsley let out a booming laugh. "Of course anything to help my dear!"

"Ah Her-mi-oh-nee it iss so nice to zee you!" Hermione turned to see the silver goddess floating over to give her a hug and a kiss.

"Fleur how have you been. It's been so long!" Hermione said with a false smile plastered across her face.

"Oh I am sooo well thank you for asking! I hear zhat you have been working on potions. It must be soo nice not having to care about what you look like when going to work!" Fleur said staring at Hermione's hair. "Oh Professor Znape!" Fleur turned to Snape not giving Hermione another thought. "It iz so nice to see you again!"

"Yes it's a pleasure." Looking at Snape's face there was no way that you could believe that he actually meant what he said. Fleur seemed to be an exception however and seemed not to have the slightest clue to his real opinion. "Oh Professor you are just zee same!" Laughed Fleur.

Hermione was starting to feel guilty for making Snape come down tonight. She decided that it really was only right to go save him he really did look like he was having a horrid time. "Umm excuse me Fleur do you mind if I have a word with Professor Snape for a moment I just had a question about something that we are working on at the moment."

"Yes of course I think I will go tell everyone it iz time for dinner!"

Hermione sat down next to Snape giving him an apologetic look the whole time. "Sorry I didn't think that she would want to say more than two words to you."

"Yes well you would be wrong then wouldn't you?" he said in a disdainful tone.

She was going to apologize again but at that moment the rest of the house started piling into the room to sit down and eat. Fleur was just about to sit down next to Hermione when suddenly Kingsley was by her side. "Oh Fleur I was hoping to speak with Hermione tonight I had some matters that I wanted to discuss with her do you mind if I sit here?"

"Oh Kingsley it iz no problem at all!" She said as she moved down a seat to make room for him. Hermione gave him appreciate look but didn't say anything in fear that Fleur would hear here. Kingsley winked at her in reply. After dessert Snape got up as usual and went to the library to read. Hermione was deep in conversation with Kingsley when suddenly she heard Ron interrupt excitedly. "Hey Hermione!" Hermione turned to look at him but before she asked what he said, "Guess what! Harry is coming next week! For the rest of the summer!"

"Really that's great! Oh I'm so glad Dumbledore is letting him get away from those horrible people! It really is so unfair that those are the people that he is most safe with."

She started saying this more to Kingsley than to Ron who was now talking excitedly to Ginny about it now. "I wonder why Dumbledore is letting Harry leave the Dursley's now of all times. Its not as if this house has more protection on it than it did last week. Why now?"

"Well I heard that Dumbledore is taking him somewhere first and only after they do something are they going to come here."

"Do you know what Dumbledore is planning?"

"No idea. But I suppose if I did know I wouldn't be allowed to tell ye would I?"

"No I suppose not." She said deep in thought.

Hermione finally made her way out of the kitchen when a thought hit her. Maybe Snape knew what Dumbledore had planned for Harry. She ran down the hall to the library but when she opened the door he wasn't in there. "Hmm" she thought he must have gone to bed early this evening. She couldn't blame him really they had had a very long day and after the amount of work they did it was a miracle that they made it through dinner.

As she went to bed that night she decided that she would ask him tomorrow at the end of the day. She had noticed that every time she brought up Harry his mood always worsened and she wasn't about to put him in a bad mood at the very beginning of the day.

Hermione was woken half an hour later to a knock on her bedroom door. "Come in." she said sleepily.

"Oh hi Hermione sorry did I wake you?"

"Its alright I've only just gone to bed. What's up?"

"Well I just hadn't been able to talk to you about Harry at dinner I was wondering if you knew that Dumbledore was taking him on some sort of mission first?"

"Yeah I heard something like that but I don't know any details. Do you know any?" she asked curiously.

"No I don't know any details. But I think that it might have something to do with the prophecy. I'm not sure if you have been reading The Prophet but I have and the stuff they are saying about Harry. Well… it really sounds like it could be true."

"Yes I was thinking the same thing. Even though we don't know for sure I don't really think it could be anything else. But do you really think that Dumbledore is taking Harry on a mission? That sounds very dangerous to me I cant believe that Dumbledore would put Harry in such unnecessary danger like that!"

Ron grunted at that "Dumbledore is nutters it wouldn't surprise me at all!"

"Well I guess we wont know anything until Harry arrives next week."

"Yeah I guess." Ron said sounding like he was deep in thought.

"Ron I'm really sorry but I have to go to bed I am so tired and I have to get up at seven is it alright if I go to sleep now?"

"Sorry yeah I forgot for a second how early you get up. Good night then." He said quietly as he walked out of her room.