A/N:

Hey guys I know that you are starting to get impatient. I have gotten a few messages about it. But I have decided that they just cant get together yet it is just too soon.

I promise that it WILL happen and that it wont be in the last two chapters of the whole story either. You will have plenty of Hermione&Severus time. Remember I still have all of Deathly Hallows and after the war to write.

Chapter 20- New Years

The rest of Christmas break flew by. Hermione and Severus spent the remainder of their holiday working hard in the lab. The first time Hermione even had a chance to breath was New Years Eve. Minerva had sent her an owl the day before inviting her to tea around two today. Hermione, excited at the prospect of having tea with her Head of House, sent back a reply.

"Severus! I have to leave now, I'm already going to be late!" Hermione said in a frantic tone.

"You will only be late by your definition of the word! If you leave now you will still be five minutes early." He said teasingly.

"You know I don't like to be late. I told you that I wouldn't have enough time to finish the healing salve, but no you wouldn't listen to me!" She said in a scolding tone.

"First of all, I am your employer it is not the other way around, so if I want you to do something, you do it. Even if it means being late for tea."

Looking at her face as she worried her lip into nothingness, he started to feel bad. Like Hermione, he too liked being at least ten minutes early for everything.

Rolling his eyes he said, "Go, don't worry about the salve I'll finish it for you." He said nodding his head towards the door.

"Thank you!" She said skipping out of the room disappearing behind the portrait. Little chit, she really did have him in the palm of her hand. He thought shaking his head.

…..

"Hermione it's so good to see you! Sit down dear. Sit down." Minerva said gesturing over to the empty chair across from her.

"Hello Professor!" She said sitting down in the squishy red armchair.

"Please call me Minerva. Professor is much too formal. At least out of the classroom."

"Okay then Minerva." She said grinning as she tried out the name.

"So how has your holiday been so far? I don't think I've seen you since the Christmas Feast! Where have you been hiding?"

"Well Professor Snape and I have been working in the labs everyday. We have also been taking meals in his quarters it just saves so much time."

"Well don't work too hard I wouldn't want you to burn yourself out before the new term even starts." Minerva said with a worried look on her face.

"Oh I'm not over working at all I'm loving every moment of it. Working in the lab without interruptions is my idea of a holiday."

"If you say so my dear." She said chuckling. "So what did you do for Christmas? I hope you didn't spend the whole day alone in Gryffindor tower."

"Oh well Professor Snape and I spent Christmas together. I wanted to do something nice for him you see. And-"

"You mean to tell me that Severus didn't refuse your company? Nothing against you my dear, it's just that I have never heard of Severus celebrating with anyone, on any holiday since... well it's been a very long time." She said solemnly.

"It wasn't really anything special, we both just read. At one point I made Christmas cookies, he told me they could have been better but ate them all anyways, and then we came to the Christmas Feast." She said shrugging it off.

"I guess it's not that crazy that you two have become friends, considering all the time you spend together."

"I wouldn't say that we were friends." She knew she was lying but she suddenly realized that Severus might get angry about the Head of Gryffindor finding out about their friendship.

"Hermione, please don't insult my intelligence. I have known Severus for a very long time. He wouldn't spend Christmas with anyone unless he thought of them as a friend. But I'm glad that you are friends with him, he certainly doesn't have enough and doesn't acquire them easily."

"That's what Professor Dumbledore said as well."

"Well then it must be true. Why do you look so shocked?"

'Why are you okay with it?"

"What ever do you mean?" Minerva said bemusedly.

"Well it's just that shouldn't you be telling me to stay way, that it's not proper for a student and a teacher to be friends?" Hermione said looking at Minerva confusedly.

"I think that in this particular situation it is better for you and Severus to be friends. The two of you spend so much time together, it's only natural that you would form some sort of bond. If it was anyone else, I might worry. But you and Severus are very trust worthy people, I don't really see the harm in it." She said smiling warmly at Hermione.

Hermione just smiled back and took another sip of her tea. She wondered how Minerva would feel if she found out about Hermione's feelings for the Potions Master. She wasn't going to find out today that was for sure.

After that, the conversation moved onto other topics. They briefly discussed Remus and the progress he was making with the werewolves, which sadly wasn't much. It was then, that an owl, dropping a letter into Minerva's lap, interrupted them.

"I'm sorry Hermione it looks like I'm going to have to cut our chat short. I'm in charge while Albus is gone, which means that I will have to sit through another interrogation from the Ministry. They really are determined to find out what he is doing! It looks as though the man assigned to follow him has been stunned. No doubt they will want to try and arrest Albus for this! Ah well I better go do some damage control." She said getting up from her seat.

"Don't worry about it Minerva, I understand. Thank you so much for inviting me." Hermione said getting up herself and walking over to the door.

"Yes dear I'm glad as well! We will have to do it again soon."

"Bye."

"Goodbye dear."

…

"Were you planning on doing anything tonight? Hermione said looking up from her cauldron. They had spent the day locked up in his labs again, working non-stop on the anti venom. Honestly she was starting to forget what the outside world looked liked, and if she was honest with herself it was starting to get to her.

"Nothing especially thrilling." Severus said in a dry tone, as he added a unicorn hair to the batch of skele-grow.

"Well it is New Years Eve. I thought you might be planning to go to the faculty party. Isn't the Headmaster making you attend?" Hermione said looking up from her cauldron.

"Normally he would make me go but we aren't having a faculty party this year. Thank Merlin for that. Last time I was stuck talking to that insipid Trelawney all night. This year there aren't enough staff members here to make it worth it. Plus Albus has been out on one of his little trips for the past few days. I doubt he will be back tonight." Severus said bitterly.

"Oh I hadn't realized he had left again."

"Yes about three days ago. I'm sure he will be back before the rest of the students arrive."

Hermione nodded her head absentmindedly, lost in her own thoughts and theories about what Dumbledore might be up to.

Severus knew that Hermione was about to try and make some plan for this evening but honestly, it was inappropriate for them to be socializing like that. Yes, he had spent all of Christmas Day with her but what was he supposed to have done? Tell her to spend Christmas all alone? Besides he liked spending time with her, it was not as if she was a bother. "Did you have plans for this evening?"

At the question, Hermione looked up hopefully. Which of course made him feel worse. "No, no plans."

"Good I was thinking that we could take a break for dinner and then just keep working until the early morning." He said not looking up at her. He didn't have to; he could feel the disappointment rolling off of her in waves.

"Oh, okay."

They spent the rest of the night in almost complete silence only speaking to one another when they had a question or comment on the potions they were working on. Hermione was completely disappointed. She had been hoping to end early tonight, maybe have a nice dinner then sit in front of a roaring fire talking the night away. Wow. I really am delusional. She thought to herself. Why had she thought that this night would be any different? She had been hoping that this crush or whatever it was for Severus would have gone away by now. Instead of fading away however, it had only gotten stronger.

"Severus do you mind if I go?" Hermione said in a slightly melancholy voice.

"What happened to having no plans? I thought we were going to work late."

"Severus! It's quarter past one in the morning!"

"Is it?" He honestly hadn't realized that it was so late.

"Yes. It is. And I'm tired. I don't think I can get anymore work done tonight."

"Yes I suppose you're right I'm starting to get a bit tired myself. You may leave once the lab is clean."

…

Half an hour later Hermione was making her way up the secret passageway. She sighed as she thought about the past couple of hours. She had heard somewhere that the way you spend your New Years defines how you will spend the rest of the year. Merlin she hoped that wasn't true. Did this mean that she was going to spend the next year apart from her friends and family while pining after someone that she could never have?

"Baubles." Hermione said through a yawn in front of the portrait hole. Her present thoughts distracting her she hadn't even looked up when saying the password. When the Fat Lady didn't respond however, Hermione looked up to find the painting empty. That was odd. She thought to herself. How was she supposed to get back into the tower now? It was too late to call on Minerva and she didn't want to get Severus in trouble for making her work so late. She sighed again for the second time that night as she realized her only option. After waiting twenty minutes to make sure that the Fat Lady wasn't coming back anytime soon she turned around to make her way back down the secret passageway.

…..

"Severus!" Hermione said walking into his library. "Severus?" He couldn't be asleep already. Could he?

Hermione had only left the lab half an hour ago. Maybe he had some of her tea, in which case he was most certainly asleep already. Oh well she would just have to sleep on his couch without his permission. Yes, it was a bit risky but it wasn't as if she had never stayed at his place before, and this was an emergency.

She decided to read for a bit before turning in for the night. Her brain had perked up at the prospect of seeing Severus again. Which annoyed her to no end. She had been reading for about ten minutes when she heard the snappish voice of Professor Snape say, "What are you doing here! I thought you left!"

Hermione jumped in surprise. She looked up at him to see a very casually dressed Severus Snape. He was wearing black cotton pyjama pants with only a white short-sleeved vest covering his torso. This was the by far the least she had ever seen him wearing since realizing her feelings for him. And seeing him so undressed did not help the situation, she was amazed how he could look sexy even in cotton pyjamas. She quickly stopped that train of thought as she felt her face begin to flush. Now looking at his expression it was obvious that he was not happy to be caught so under dressed.

"Sorry, when I got to the portrait hole the Fat Lady was gone. It was too late to go to Professor McGonagall. I didn't know where else to go." She waited for a reply, but instead Severus just crossed his arms and gave her and angry look.

"Please Severus can I stay the night?"

"Why are you even asking me? It is obvious that you had no intention in doing so."

"I thought you were asleep. I called out your name but you didn't answer. And I wasn't about to go into your bedroom!"

"I was taking a shower." He said crossing his arms. After a moment of them both just staring at each other he sighed dramatically as he always did when giving into her. "Fine. You can stay the night. But don't make this a regular thing!"

"I promise!" She said beaming back at him.

"Mmhmm." He said doubtfully, sitting down next to her on the couch.

"Truly I am sorry Severus I don't know where the Fat Lady is! She's supposed to be there. I can't believe she would just leave!" Hermione said starting to get angry.

"I apologize. I should have told you. She usually spends her New Years with her friend Violet. They both usually end up drinking too much wine and don't fully recover for a couple of days.

"So really this is all your fault!" Hermione said with a mischievous grin.

"It just wasn't on my mind I don't really spend that much time thinking about Gryffindor's."

"I find that hard to believe."

"What do you mean?"

"Well let's see…" Hermione said sarcastically. "You're the head of Slytherin, so naturally you spend time hating them. You have an unyielding hatred for one and your best friend/lab assistant just happens to be one. You must think about us quite a bit." She said cheerfully.

"You have a point." He said reluctantly.

Half an hour later Severus looked up from his book to see that Hermione was staring into space, oblivious to the fact that she was being observed.

"What are you thinking about so intently?" He said marking his page and closing it.

"Hmm?" She said slowly coming out of her reverie. "Oh I just realized that everyone will be back soon. I am going to miss how peaceful the castle can be."

"Yes I love the castle this time of year, it can be quite nice."

"I'm not ready for the holiday to be over." She said gloomily. "I feel like it's the summer holiday all over again. It's been so nice not having to think up excuses and explanations to where we are or what we are doing."

At that moment, Hermione yawned.

"I forgot how late it was, we both should probably be getting to bed." He said standing up. "Yes I am starting to fall asleep." She said stretching out on the couch and yawning again.

"What are you doing?" Severus said looking at her getting ready to fall asleep.

"What do you mean? I'm getting ready to fall asleep."

"You're not sleeping on the couch. You'll take my bed." He didn't mean that he would be sleeping with her did he? No, no of course not.

"Severus I can't let you do that. Really I don't mind sleeping on the couch."

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm not letting you sleep on the couch." His voice made it quite clear that the matter wasn't up for discussion.

"Alright! Alright! Have it your way!" She said getting up and following him into the bedroom.

"Don't touch anything." He said as he grabbed a pillow for himself.

"Please Severus you know I wouldn't do that." She said getting into his bed. It was as comfortable as she had remembered; she inhaled the undiluted scent of Severus and then quickly remembered that he was still in the room.

"Enjoying yourself?" He said with a satisfied smirk leaning against the doorframe.

"I almost forgot how comfortable you're bed was."

He rolled his eyes at her. "A year ago I would have never believed that sentence to be true."

"It is odd isn't it?"

"Good night Hermione." He said in a low rumbling voice.

"Happy New Year Severus."

"Happy New Year Hermione." He said smiling slightly at her as he shut the door, leaving her in complete darkness.

The night had certainly taken a turn for the better. She got to have a bit of quality time with Severus. And now she was spending the night in his bed. Sadly without him but still it was definitely an improvement. She wouldn't mind so much if this night did define the next year of her life after all!

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