A/N:

Hey guys sorry this one is a bit shorter than usual but it just seemed like a good place to end it.

Hope everyone is enjoying it so far please tell me what you think of their relationship development so far is it too slow? Or can I keep it going for a while longer?

Please Read/Review!

Chapter 12: The Reconciliation

SPOV

It had been a whole week and Hermione still had not responded to any of his letters. She barely even acknowledged him. The only time she ever spoke to him was when she answered one of his questions in class. He had to laugh at that, even though she was furious with him she still pretended to act as if nothing had changed. The only difference was that when they passed in the halls she didn't say hello. When they were in the Great Hall she never looked up at the Professor's table. And she never came down to the lab. It was odd he didn't even seem to care about falling behind on the antidote. All he could think about was Hermione.

It had now been eight days since "The Fight" as he had come to call it and he was starting to get worried that she would never forgive him. Over the past couple of days he had come to realize even more so how important her friendship was to him. This had been the longest they had gone without speaking to each other since they had started working together and it was starting to take it's toll on him. He found that whenever he read an interesting article or one of the teachers, said or did something foolish his mind automatically thought of telling Hermione. And then when he remembered that they weren't on speaking terms he would get upset and then he would get angry at himself for depending on the bushy haired know-it-all in the first place. He had to fix this, and soon.

HPOV

"That man is completely insufferable!" Hermione said dropping her bag and sitting in between Ron and Harry in the Great Hall. It had been eight days since they had had their fight and Hermione still wasn't in any mood to forgive him. That night when she had returned to Gryffindor Tower she had received a letter from him but she had been too mad at the time to even consider replying to it.

She, Harry and Ron had just come from their DADA class, which unfortunately had ended with Gryffindor losing thirty points. "We know Hermione! Haven't we been saying this for years?" Ron said as he piled food onto his plate.

"We're glad that you are finally seeing things our way. We were a bit worried this summer." Harry said slinging his arm over her shoulder.

"I just can't believe that he took away points for finishing early! The nerve, he was obviously just trying to get a reaction out of me but really, how childish!" Hermione said her cheeks getting red with all the pent up anger.

"This isn't the first time that he has taken away points for no reason Hermione. Why are you getting mad now? Did you guys have a fight? It's been what, a week since you have been down to his lab." Harry said inquisitively.

Hermione had decided not to tell anyone about the fight, especially not Harry and Ron. She wasn't sure yet if she was going to forgive Snape or not and she didn't want her decision to be swayed by their feelings.

"No his bad mood just seems to have rubbed off on me I guess." After that the three of them ate their lunch in companionable silence until Harry and Ron started up a conversation about Quidditch and completely forgot about Hermione sitting in between them.

Hermione was in deep thought about what she needed to do before her next class when she heard her name being called. She looked up to see Ginny trying to get her attention.

"What's up Ginny?"

"I was just wondering, are you free tonight? There is something that I wanted to discuss with you."

"Umm yeah I'm free. What did you want to talk about?"

"Can't really talk about it now. Don't worry everything is fine I just don't want anyone else over hearing."

"Okay then we will talk tonight."

Hermione spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what Ginny might want to talk about. She figured it had something to do with Harry. They hadn't really had a chance to talk about her feelings for him since they had been back at school. Yes that had to be what it was about.

When Hermione entered the Great Hall that evening she made a point of not looking over at the staff table. She could feel his eyes on her and she refused to make eye contact with him. She looked over at the Gryffindor table to see that Ginny had saved her a seat. She smiled as she made her way over and sat down next to the redhead. "Hey Hermione, how was the rest of your day?"

"It was okay." She said not so convincingly.

"That bad eh?"

"Yes that bad."

"Come on lets just eat quickly and get out of here remember I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Okay."

And they both started piling food onto their plates. After they both quickly ate their dinner she and Ginny made their way up to Gryffindor Tower. Because dinner still wasn't technically over yet everyone was still down stairs in the Great Hall, which meant that they had the girls dormitory all to themselves. They both made their way over to Hermione's bed and made themselves comfortable.

"So what is this top secret thing that you couldn't talk about in front of other people?" Hermione said trying to hide her curiosity.

"Hermione why are you so angry at Snape all of the sudden?"

Hermione froze for a moment. This is not at all where she thought this conversation was going to go. "Umm… well… it's complicated. Well I guess I can tell you just promise me that you wont tell anyone, even Harry and Ron."

"Hermione you know I wouldn't tell them anything!"

"I know I know I just have to say it. Okay well the other day we sort of had a disagreement."

"Hermione it was more than a disagreement." Ginny said bluntly.

"What do you mean? How could you possibly know! You weren't even there!"

"Well that's not entirely true… I kind of saw the whole thing" Ginny said sheepishly.

"How could you have been there without us knowing? Why were you even down there in the first place? Wait how much did you hear?"

"Let me just start from the beginning. I will answer all of your questions." Ginny said trying to calm her down. "The other day I had a question about an assignment that I had gotten from Snape. It was also the same day that he and Harry had gotten into a fight. As you might remember he was not in a good mood that day, so I was afraid to go down there by myself. I had been hoping to go down there the same time as you so he might not be as rude to me if you were in the room. Anyways when I came down from the girls dormitory you had already left. When I asked Harry when you had left he said that you had only just gone and that I could probably catch up with you. But as I made my way down to the dungeons I never did. As I approached his door I almost didn't go in but then I heard your voice, and it sounded like you were yelling. I thought that maybe you were in trouble so I quickly went over and opened the door. But instead of seeing you being attacked I saw you verbally attacking Professor Snape!"

"But how did we not notice you?"

"You guys were a bit distracted I doubt you would have noticed Hagrid riding a unicorn around the room."

"Wait so what part did you walk in on?"

"Around the part where you called him a child."

"You heard that much?"

"Yes I did. And Hermione I couldn't believe how mad you got! My entire life I have never even seen you throw so much as a ball and then I walk into Snape's office to see you chucking pickled toads at him! And what was even scarier was that he didn't seem to get mad, or fight back he just took it and let you yell at him and mess up his office. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing!"

They both sat in silence while Hermione absorbed this new information.

"Hermione can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can."

"Are…..Are you and Snape a couple or something?"

"What on earth would make you think that!" Hermione said aghast.

"Well that fight just reminded me of how my parents fight, you were fighting how most couples fight. Plus I have never seen Snape take that kind of abuse from anyone without fighting back. "

At that moment there was a tapping on the window. They both looked over to see one of the school owls sitting on the windowsill waiting to be let in. Hermione got up off the bed to let the bird in. The dark brown owl hopped in and looked up at Hermione to let her know that the letter was for her.

"Who do you think it's from?" Ginny chimed in.

"I already know who it's from. It's from Professor Snape."

"How do you know?"

"He has been sending me letters all week and has been using the same school owl each time."

"He's been sending you letters? All week! What do they say?"

"The first was him saying that I was overreacting to what he had done. The second was him getting angry with me for not responding to his first letter. The third was him getting angry with me for not making eye contact with him all week."

"Hermione can I be honest with you?"

"Yes! Please I need honesty right now."

"I think that you are being too harsh on Professor Snape. I mean think about it. Think about how Professor Snape used to treat you. I'm sure I don't even know the half of how much he has changed towards you. But I do know that it is better than he treats anyone else. The fact that he made a little slip up after…. well… lets face it, after Harry was pretty rude to him, he just doesn't deserve this kind of punishment. The fact that he is even owling you and obviously still wants to be your friend speaks volumes for a person like him."

"You're right Ginny I know you are. The truth is I don't know why it's taking me so long to forgive him. We were such good friends before that stupid fight."

If Ginny was surprised by her last statement she didn't show it. She replied, "I think what happened was that you were just surprised. You truly trusted him and when he broke that trust you thought that he didn't care about your friendship like you did. When the fact of the matter is you're probably his only true friend in the entire world, the only person that doesn't want something from him."

Hermione sniffed a little. She hadn't even realized that she had started to cry until she was wiping away the silent tears. She looked down at her lap and was reminded that she still hadn't opened the letter. Looking down at the familiar scrawl she just smiled at the two words that he had written to her.

"What does it say?"

"I'm sorry."

"That's it nothing else?"

"That's all I needed."

"Wait so does this mean you're going to forgive him?"

"Yes I guess it does." She said now smiling at her friend.

"When are you going to go talk to him?"

"Right now I think." She said decisively getting up off of her bed.

"Now? Isn't it a tad late to be going to his office he wont even be there at this hour."

"It wont matter I have access to his labs he will probably be in there working on the project that I am supposed to be helping him with."

"Okay then I guess good luck."

"Thanks I'm going to need it!" She said as she walked down the stairs and out through the portrait hole towards the painting of the lion.

She walked into the lab expecting to see Severus but to her surprise he wasn't in there. She then checked his office to find that empty as well. Finally she made her way to his study, hopefully he would be in here otherwise that meant that he might be patrolling tonight and then she would have to talk to him tomorrow. She was tired of fighting with him she just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. Thankfully as she peeked her head into the room she saw Severus sitting in his usual chair by the fire. He must have been deep in thought because he didn't seem to have heard her come in. She quietly made her way over to him. She noticed that the chair that she usually sat in was gone. Her heart broke at that moment he must have thought that after their fight there would be no more use for it. She summoned one of the chairs from the other side of the room and sat down next to him. He still hadn't looked at her although now she could see the hints of emotion on his face proving that he knew she was there.

"What are you doing here?" He spat out.

"I have come to apologize."

"Really…. Well that is unexpected." He said still not looking at her.

"I'm sorry. You were right I did over react to the whole thing." She said in a pleading voice. At that Snape finally looked up and into her eyes.

"I just want to say again Hermione that I apologize for what I did. It was wrong and I shouldn't have done it."

Hermione smiled his favorite smile at him and said, "It's okay Severus I'm just glad that we are okay again. I just want it to go back to normal." She said finally relaxing and sinking into her armchair.

"Something isn't right." Snape mused.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked paranoid.

"Ah yes." And with a flick of his wand the chair she had been sitting in was transfigured into her chair. "Much better." He said with a faint smile.

Hermione giggled at his joke and made herself comfortable. "I have missed your wit."

"You mean to tell me that Potter and Weasley do not supply you with an endless amount material?"

"It has been utterly boring without you to talk to. Not that I don't enjoy my time with Harry and Ron but I missed working in the lab and our fireside chats."

"I must admit that I had begun to miss them as well."

"Had you now?"

Changing the subject Severus said, "Why have you been missing working in the lab? Surly you have been doing that in potions."

"Well yes I have, but it's not the same as working with you, where we are making it up all on our own."

"So how is Slughorn? Is he a better potions teacher than I was?"

Hermione snorted, "Certainly not! He is much too showy for my taste. He is also obsessed with celebrity and knowing all the right people. But he did give me thirty points for answering all of his questions correctly." She said the last part in a singsong voice. "So naturally I like him more than you."

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm just saying that you would never give me thirty let alone five points for anything." She smiled at him to let him know that she was only teasing him. "It's okay Severus I know why you don't and it's fine. Oh and speaking of working with you, when can we start again? Have you been doing work without me?"

"No I haven't done any work since we had out disagreement."

"Really? Why not?"

"I just didn't see the point really."

"Don't be ridiculous Severus it's very important! It's still early if you like we could start working tonight."

"I suppose you are right. What time do you need to get back to the dormitory?"

"Well it's nine o'clock I can probably stay until one or half past one?"

"Okay then I suppose we should start if we only have four hours." They both made their way into the lab. Hermione went over to her desk and gathered her papers.

"Hermione can you bring my papers over here as well please."

When Hermione handed him the papers Severus said, "Thank you Miss Granger thirty-one points to Gryffindor."

Hermione laughed and said, "You just can't stand me liking Slughorn more than you?" she laughed again.

"The idea is abhorrent to me. I will admit that the idea of him being higher in any regard is preposterous." Hermione laughed again.

"Okay Severus you are officially my favorite potions professor. Happy?"

"Exceedingly." He said with a small smile.