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"Enter," he drawled.
Minerva entered the room, not looking at Severus, but rather studying the room for others who may be present.
"Can I help you, Minerva?" he asked.
The old woman pulled out her wand and waved it at the empty air, causing Severus to almost snap at her until he realized there were now two people standing near his door.
"Hermione asked to come, I thought it was alright being that classes are currently in session and I was there to escort her," Minerva said before shutting the door.
Severus had all but forgotten the work he was just doing as Hermione happily walked over and took a seat in front of his desk with a grin on her face.
"Hello," she said with a happy sigh.
"Do you realize what-"
"Oh, I'm fine, how are you doing?" she asked, cutting him off with a pointed look.
He sighed and resumed writing.
"Good afternoon, I am pleased to hear that you are fine. I, on the other hand, am tired and too old to be doing paper work like this," he muttered.
"It doesn't look so bad," she muttered walking around his desk and peering over his shoulder.
Severus could hardly think straight, smelling the vanilla aroma that usually clung to her person. Dumbledore's words began to echo in his head, and he cleared his throat.
"I never said it was difficult, just tedious,"
"Here, I'll do it," Hermione said reaching over and taking the stack of parchment from him, with her still bandaged hands.
"You are incapable of writing,"
"I'll manage. You can rest now," she said resuming her seat and taking up his quill.
"And what of my signature?"
"When I'm done you can go through and sign things that need to be signed," she replied without looking up at him.
Seeing no way out of it, Severus moved to the living area and stretched out across the sofa, sighing deeply. Within moments, his mind was fuzzy, eventually slipping into darkness. His dreams mocked him, showing him Hermione just out of reach, with Dumbledore's words repeating like a broken record. He couldn't reach her, but followed her into a house; the floor was covered in dust. It was there that he saw her limp figure on the ground, wide yet glassy eyes, with a single tear leaking from the corner. Black smoke suddenly wrapped around her, and she vanished.
Severus awoke with a start and instantly sat up, peering around. His eyes locked on Hermione's form, now sitting at his desk, furiously scribbling away while chewing on her lip with a crease in her brow. Severus wished he could keep that moment forever in his mind, replaying it over and over. She looked stunning with the sun spilling over her, catching her wild hair and eyelashes.
Hermione's eyes suddenly flashed to his, and she offered him a breathtaking smile, one she rarely gave others.
"I'm just about done," she said happily before returning to her work.
Severus stood from the sofa and stretched his muscles. Slowly, he made his way to the desk and sat down opposite of her.
"You work quickly," he mentioned, seeing the numerous sheets that were filled out.
"I suppose. You have been asleep for quite a while,"
Severus checked his watch as saw that he had slept for nearly three hours.
"Did anyone knock?" he asked slightly worried.
"No, no one,"
Severus nodded and pulled forward the finished stack of papers before he began to scribble his signature along the bottom. The two worked in silence until the last of the signatures were scrawled along each page.
A sudden rumble beneath them signaled dinner time in the Great Hall. Severus sat back in his chair and stretched while Hermione flexed her fingers as much as she could with her bandages. She lifted her eyes as he was studying her, and gave him a gentle, yet tired smile.
"Maybe you should help with paper work more often,"
"If you didn't let it build up, you wouldn't have to spend so long on it," she replied playfully while straightening out the pile.
Suddenly her smile slipped from her face as her fingers pulled out a single sheet of paper from under a book. Severus watched her, confused for a moment.
"Neville, Luna, and Ginny were caught in here?" she asked quietly as her eyes darted across the report.
Severus was instantly tense and on guard.
"Yes, they were,"
"What…what happened to them?" she asked, raising her eyes to his.
"I told them not to do such a thing again, and assigned them lines,"
Severus felt uncomfortable with her intense gaze and stood to send the papers with the owl he had called earlier.
"That's all that happened?"
"Yes, as long as they kept their adventure a secret, nothing else would happen,"
"But what about his expectations of punishment?" she pushed.
"What he doesn't know certainly can't hurt him, can it?" he said with his back still turned to her.
Severus heard the large chair scrape across the floor and turned just in time to have her arms wrap around his body.
"Thank you for not hurting them,"
"Just because I am ordered to do something, doesn't mean that I have to do it. Plus, I knew you were acquainted with them,"
Severus found that his arms were wrapped around her form, but couldn't remember doing so. Immediately his eyes drifted to the portrait above them and was met with twinkling eyes and a rather large grin. Severus pulled away from her and straightened out his robes.
"Come, we'll have dinner,"
Severus cast a quick spell over her and the two quickly walked back to his chambers, beneath the chaos of the school.
November passed quickly, with no large incident for either of the two. Severus had come back on numerous occasions from his meetings covered in cuts and bruises. Hermione often tended to him, and he lied to her about why he had received them. He told her that they were just the standard rituals, but really, he was begging the Dark Lord to allow Hermione to go back to Potter in order to retrieve more useful information. Finally, he had agreed, no longer holding his dead line of the New Year.
Hermione potion had finally failed. Severus knew that the brew would not survive. Too many things were going wrong and eventually the brew turned into a tar like substance and eventually burst into flames. Hermione had all but given up on the brew, but Severus made some key points to her which renewed her interest in her own recipe. He would often sit near the fire with a book in his lap as she scribbled notes and ingredients down while asking him questions, which he always readily answered due to the fact that he enjoyed the way her facial features changed while she was listening to what he had to say.
On the first of December, Severus returned to his chambers to find a large tree stuffed in the corner of his living room.
"What the bloody hell is this?" he asked before the door had closed behind him.
Hermione turned to him, grinning ear to ear with her hair in a ponytail.
"A Christmas tree," she said happily. "Dobby helped find it; he did a wonderful job, didn't he? It's beautiful,"
Severus turned and saw the small elf cowering behind Hermione's leg. Before he could say another word, Dobby vanished with a pop. Hermione sighed and turned back to the tree.
"You could have been a little nicer to him, you know,"
"Why do I have to have a tree in my bloody living room?" he asked, staring at the eye sore.
"It's for Christmas," she replied with a large grin. "It's my favorite time of year. I love the snow, the decorations, the presents, the food, everyone is always so nice. I just love it,"
Severus couldn't bring himself to say anything do to the pure happiness that was on her face. She was positively beaming in the light of the fire, spreading the branches of the tree. Instead, Severus picked up a novel, pulled off his teaching robes and sat down in the arm chair, pretending to read.
Severus did not read a single word on the page; instead, his eyes were trained on her figure, gracefully moving around the tree, adding decorations here and there. Her wand work was beautiful; the subtle twist of her wrist, the twinkle of her eye, the moment of concentration when she would pull her lip between her teeth. Gently she hummed Christmas tunes quietly to herself sometime muttering the words aloud.
Eventually, she reappeared in the room with a book, and spent a moment looking over the words before turning back to the tree. She waved her wand, causing some silver bubbles to come from the tip of her wand and drape across the tree. A moment later, she waved the bubbled away.
"Trouble?" he asked, turning a page in the book he was not reading.
"I can't get these bubbles right," she muttered, trying again, but failing once again.
"Do you want help?" he asked.
Hermione turned to look at him for a moment, as if she couldn't believe that he was offering her help, before she took the book and handed it to him. Severus quickly read over the directions and smiled to himself. Pulling out his own wand, Severus began conjuring the silver bubbles.
"Oh, they're beautiful," Hermione sighed looking at the bubbles as they wrapped themselves around the tree, making a beautiful pattern around the entire tree.
Crookshanks suddenly found his way to the tree and began attacking the decorations.
"No, Crookshanks!"
The ginger cat had already attacked the silver bubbles, pulling them from Severus' wand. Hermione scooped the cat up, with the silver bubbles hanging from his mouth.
"That wasn't very nice," she murmured, kissing the cat gently on the head.
Severus finished the bubbles with a single wave of his hand and closed the book Hermione had given him with the directions. Hermione spent the rest of the night decorating, and Severus spent the rest of the night watching her every move. Even if Severus wasn't a fan of Christmas, he certainly didn't remember a happier time in his life than the one he was having right now.