A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any related characters

This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Assignment #1 Careers Advice Task #3: Write about being in charge of something or someone.

Word Count: 1601

He hated how he kept thinking about her. He hated how he couldn't help but notice she'd grown over the summer holidays. She wasn't a little girl any more, she wasn't even a girl anymore. He knew she'd had her seventeenth birthday. She'd been an adult before the final battle.

She'd been an adult when he'd almost died and then woken up in the infirmary still breathing for some reason. Someone had seen fit to save him. He'd never have expected it to be her. Why? Did she know his private thoughts, the thoughts about her that he tried very hard to keep hidden from everyone, the ones he denied.

"Why?" he rasped. She simply smiled.

"I liked the challenge," she answered, before sweeping off to help someone else. He watched her leave his side, watched the way she moved and tried, once again, to keep those thoughts at bay.

She could never be interested in a man such as himself. He was older than her, he was a Death Eater, he had killed people. He'd killed Dumbledore. She surely must hate him after all. He closed his eyes, wishing the world had ended with the snake biting his neck. Then he'd never have to confront these thoughts, these feelings that he hated.

"Good morning, sir. I've heard you're refusing to eat," she commented, looking at the tray on his table.

"It will do me no good, Miss Granger. What are you even still doing here?"

"Taking care of you, apparently, sir. Now, you're never going to get your strength back if you don't eat."

"I should have died."

"Yes, well, apparently not even Death wanted to deal with your surly attitude. Now, Madame Pomfrey said I could offer you two choices. Either you eat of your free will or I could force a nutrient potion down your throat. And no, I do not mean the newest one they've come up with, I mean the one that tastes and smells like feet."

He stared at her, wondering when she'd become so hard, when she'd become such a force to be reckoned with. He wanted to argue and even opened his mouth to do so, only to find it suddenly full of a forkful of scrambled eggs.

"Or I could just force you to take a bite every time you try to argue with me," she added, giving him a smirk.

"I'm not arguing with you, Miss Granger," he muttered. She raised an eyebrow.

"Are you you saying you were about to agree to eat your breakfast without a word, sir?"

"No."

"Then you were about to agree to feet flavored potion? I mean, if that's what you want, sir."

"You are an idiot. You should have just let me die."

"Now why would I have done that? We both know I'm a little know it all who spends too much time in the library and who might have found out something about the snake that thought your neck was a main course. I might have also managed to find an anti-venom in the same book, and just happened to have the knowledge to make it. If I had let you die from something I could fix, from something I had a cure for, all that knowledge would have gone to waste."

"You saved me purely so your research would have meaning?" he asked. He received another bite of eggs for his trouble.

"Why else would I have done it? It's not like you're someone I care for, you're a horrible man, you've made fun of me for my entire school career. Maybe I just wanted you to owe me?" she suggested, giving him another smile. He tried to ignore the thoughts filling his head. Thoughts of her smiling at him for an actual reason, not just to annoy him. He hated to admit he'd love to see her smile more.

"You don't care about me."

"Should I? I mean, I care that you're a person, I know the truth. I know you were a spy. I know you loved Harry's mum and that's what drove your every move."

He wanted to argue that statement. It had been true once. He'd loved Lily, but in the end, she wasn't even on his mind anymore. No, the witch for whom he'd done everything for recently was standing next to his bed trying to force feed him scrambled eggs. He'd never admit it. She obviously didn't feel the same for him, although... she had saved his life. Did that count for something?

"I would have saved anyone," she lied. He could tell she was lying. There was something in her eyes, a little gleam that always appeared when she lied. He'd noticed it her second year, noticed that she was lying about taking things from his supply cabinet. He's seen the same look in her eyes throughout the years as she'd grown.

She lied, her eyes gleamed. He'd never told anyone of this little tell. He liked the thrill he felt when he knew she was lying about something, just like she was lying now.

"No, you wouldn't have. Even you have people you'd leave to die, people you'd think twice about letting live if you had the chance," he stated. She kept silent, but looked at the floor.

"I know what happened to Umbridge, what you did."

"I simply did as she asked," she answered, her voice sounding innocent. Severus smirked.

"Of course you did, Miss Granger. She obviously asked to be led into the Forbidden Forest."

"She asked about the weapon, the one she was convinced Dumbledore had. She was in the way."

"The same as Miss Skeeter was also in the way?" he asked. She blushed brightly, looking away.

"That was... yes," she answered.

"You wouldn't have saved either of those two if they'd been in my place, Miss Granger. Why save me, and don't give me some nonsense about your research."

"Maybe I thought you deserved a second chance," she answered. She wasn't lying this time.

"Why? I've never been anything save cruel to you and your friends."

"Maybe because I know the truth. I know about what really happened with Dumbledore," she whispered, glancing around the busy infirmary.

"And how did you come by such knowledge?"

"I put two and two together, I'm not a dunderhead as you like to say. His hand, the ring, the fact Draco was slinking around, the attempts on his life, it was obvious after a moment. Not that anyone else seemed to think so. He was already dying, you just finished it. Made you a perfect figure of an enemy, secured your position as a Death Eater, a traitor in everyone's eyes. No one else knew, did they?"

"No, Albus wouldn't let me tell anyone. He forced me."

"Into making an unbreakable vow?" she asked, nodding slowly, as if confirming what she'd already known.

"Yes," he answered, watching her face. He could see the horror in her eyes, the anger that caused her face to flush. He nearly smiled. She was angry for him, furious someone had controlled him, manipulated him into being something. He almost wished he could have told her how that made his heart soar, that she seemed to care about him after all.

"He was a fool," she whispered.

"At least we agree on that," he muttered. She gave him a smirk.

"Pretty sure we agree on much more than that, but I'm not about to find out unless you do what you're supposed to do so you can get better and out of this infirmary. That includes eating without me vanishing eggs into your mouth every time you open it," she stated.

"You would have made an excellent Slytherin."

"Maybe the hat thought about that? Maybe it didn't," she teased.

He felt his heart skip a beat as she smirked, her eyes sparkling.

"You know, I know when you're lying, Miss Granger. You have a tell."

"One only you seem to have noticed, sir. Maybe I should ask you what it is, but then, what would we talk about once you're released from these white walls and free to accompany me to Hogsmeade?" she asked.

"What makes you think I'd want to go anywhere with you?"

"The fact you have a tell too, sir, one I've noticed when you're pretending you aren't looking at me, pretending not to be staring into my eyes. You also might have said a few things while you were not quite dead, some things that one might make in a death bed confession, ones about a certain witch who is most certainly not Harry's mum," she stated.

Severus' eyes widened.

"Don't worry, sir. Harry didn't hear a word of it, just me. So, what do you say about eating your breakfast, getting your strength back and then once you're well enough, accompanying me to Hogsmeade and maybe grabbing a meal together?" she asked, giving him another one of her smiles. He merely nodded and allowed her to hand him the piece of toast from his tray.

"I've got other patients to attend to, turns out being a healer is a profession I should have given a bit more thought to, I actually like it. I'll be back around lunch, you eat everything on that tray and I'll make sure you get a raspberry tart. I know they're your favorite," she laughed, touching his cheek softly before heading off into the infirmary. Severus watched her leave, smiling at the idea of sharing a meal with her. Maybe his thoughts weren't so insane after all.