Severus stood behind his desk the next day, waiting for his seventh years to finally arrive. He was feeling slightly apprehensive about this lesson. Well, not the lesson exactly, it was a certain chocolate-eyed student of his, one who had filled his dreams when he'd finally succumbed to sleep last night, who was making him feel almost... nervous. As ridiculous as it sounded, he hadn't been able to get her out of his head he had seen her the night before. Of course he had tried. He had not glanced at her once at breakfast that morning, had deliberately looked the other way when they had passed each other in the corridor after the first lesson, he had even engaged in conversation with dull Professor Littleton in order to prevent himself from listening in on her conversation with the Weasel... and yet he was always painfully aware of her presence. How difficult would this lesson be? He could hardly not look at her, not address her, in a small NEWTs class of five students for a whole hour, could he?
He refused to look up when his students filed into the room. "Everyone sit down" he demanded, still shuffling through his papers. Then he realised that he was dangerously close to acting like a coward. Well, that just wouldn't do. He couldn't appear intimidated by a student, for Merlin's sake! He quickly lifted his eyes, determined to show all five of them who was boss. First the stupid Gryffindor Dean Thomas. "Ha!" Severus thought as Dean quickly lowered his eyes as soon as their eyes met, clearly slightly afraid, and in awe of, the war hero who had always picked on him and his friends in school. Next was Ginny Weasley. She wasn't even paying attention to him, she was staring dreamily into space, thinking of Potter, he assumed. Severus cleared his throat and Ginny jumped slightly before flushing a deep red. Clearly she was missing something mentally, he thought to himself. He then moved on to the two Slytherins in his class, Malfoy and Parkinson. They both smirked at him, expecting preferential treatment, with justification he thought, remembering all the times he had favoured them in the past. He glowered at them instead, causing them to look slightly surprised and affronted. Things were going to change.
Finally, his eyes found Granger. She seemed alert and had obviously noticed what he had been doing to the other students, the small smile gracing her lips clearly the result of Draco's mildly horrified face at his favourite teacher's clear indifference to him. Once again their eyes met. Severus could see the animated intelligence that lurked there; she was obviously enjoying watching him intimidate the others. But she held steadfast. She refused to be intimidated. She held his gaze, and the challenge he could see in her eyes sent a shot of heat right down to his groin. Shit.
...
Hermione couldn't believe the way in which her body was reacting to her potions professor. Again. When he had finally looked her in the eyes, after staring down the others, she had felt a sharp twist in her belly, heat pooling there immediately. Once again her heart rate increased, causing her to almost forget her confusion... why had Snape treated Draco and Pansy the same way as Dean and Ginny? It just didn't make sense, he had never so much as glared at them before. Perhaps he really had changed. Hermione tried to read the truth in his eyes, but they were impenetrable, even blacker than they seemed normally. She was determined to break through that barrier.
Professor Snape abruptly withdrew his gaze from her, instilling Hermione with a strange sense of loss... realising that she had just sat there, mooning over her professor who must have been wondering if she was still in possession of her full mental faculties, a warm flush spread across her cheeks and Hermione looked away from him and down at her book. If she didn't regain control of herself soon she was going to embarrass herself.
"Right. You five are the only Gryffindors and Slytherins who were deemed... capable of studying potions at NEWT level this year. Don't take that as a compliment, I remain to be convinced that you are not all as dunderheaded as your respective colleagues." Malfoy snorted. "Yourself not excepted, Malfoy. Don't illusion yourself into thinking you're any better than the rest of the idiots of your generation." Professor Snape's lip was curled in a way that had Hermione's heart racing again... But wait a minute... had he just insulted Malfoy? Impossible.
"Today, you can choose which potion you want to brew. I just want to see what you are capable of at this point. Don't worry, I do not expect much from any of you, it is pretty clear to me that you are all somewhat... lacking." Hermione could not help but smile at his sneering tone. She knew that she could brew most potions perfectly, and she knew that he knew it too. He just wanted to make them all feel as uncomfortable as possible. Her eyes darted towards him again, and when she saw the stern expression on his face, she couldn't help the bubble of mirth that rose within her, causing a small laugh to escape her. He quickly turned towards her, the horrified expression on his face only serving to increase her wish to burst out laughing... it took all her concentration not to explode into uncontrollable laughter, right then and there. She had no idea what was happening, why she was having this ridiculous reaction to her potion master's severity and sternness. She only knew that, while the others were frantically looking through their books, looking for a potion they could brew, she just sat there, her lips twitching, her eyes locked with Snape's.
"Does something amuse you, Granger?" Snape snarled, his lip curling again, causing something to tug at her insides.
"No. Sir" she replied, forcing a calm expression onto her face, still staring into his eyes.
"Then get working. Now!" he sneered, but still didn't break eye contact with her. Hermione thought she saw something flash in those black depths, and once again tried to work out what he was thinking, what he was feeling...
"Granger!" he snapped, shaking her out of her reverie, causing her to jump slightly. She suddenly felt like a complete idiot, and finally looked away from him, down at her text book. She knew most of these potions by heart, it shouldn't be difficult to brew one perfectly. She tried to force herself to think of potions, instead of the way a certain pair of lips were able to twist in a way that should have been grotesque but instead was oh so sexy.
...
Finally, finally, the Granger girl looked down at her book, releasing Severus from her penetrating, curious and laughing gaze. His heart rate began to slow again... had she been laughing at him? She had been clearly, and barely, suppressing laughter, but he had not felt under attack by it. No, it had almost been infectious! The mirth in her eyes, and the twitching of those beautiful, sensual lips had caused a kind of happiness to spread through him, the likes of which he had never felt before. Then, realising that they weren't the only ones in the classroom, yet unable to tear his eyes away from her to check whether or not the others had noticed, Severus had regained control over his expression. Snarling, he had ordered her back to work, hoping that she would break eye contact first, finding himself imprisoned by her eyes, completely unwilling to stop looking into those chocolate depths... they were so warm, so... sensual. He could have sworn that they were somehow darker than they seemed normally... was it possible that she felt the same tension he did? No. Of course not. "Granger!"
Severus regretted the loss of her eyes immediately. It took a surprising amount of exertion to turn away from her, to observe the others who were just starting to collect their ingredients. It was going to be a long lesson.