Having gone back up the telephone booth, Severus decided to side-along them back to Spinner's End.

One they arrived in the familiar area, Hermione allowed herself to relax and bounce excitedly behind Severus, happy with her grade. She had received her first OWL and had gotten and Outstanding on it. It was a shame she wouldn't be able to take all of her OWLs at the Ministry if it meant getting her grade back the same day. Now they would go over any questions she missed or miswrote, which she knew was a luxury since usually only their grades were mailed back to them. This would give her an insight as to what she may have missed or done wrong.

Ironically the practical portion was making a calming draught. Of which she knew she made recently, so it was fresh in her mind. She had to stop herself though from changing the recipe that was given to her with the tips that her master had given her.

The dark wizard stepped in and held the door open for her, catching her bubbly excitement. He noticed that she held herself different while they were out, reminding him much like his pureblood friends and old brother-in-arms. If he hadn't dealt with his Slytherins on a daily basis he would have been concerned, but his snakes normally held themselves differently in the halls of Hogwarts compared to their common room.

While the older ones started to further cultivate their public face with trusted friends, the younger ones would occasionally watch, taking mental notes. Of course their families taught them how to behave from an early age, but spending most of their time at Hogwarts after they turn eleven they had to teach themselves. They got traditional family lessons on holidays, so they could properly act in the manner that befit their family name.

He shouldn't have been surprised with his apprentice also knowing proper public behavior, but took it in stride. What did surprise him was her polite deference when dealing with Lucius, however he wondered how long that would last. Or if it was only something that would exist in public, especially considering that they were at the Ministry…

As she walked past him with a bounce in her step he couldn't help but notice how content he was knowing she was happy.

The curly haired witch walked through the backdoor into the kitchen. She kept walking, taking a seat at the breakfast bar. Hermione looked into the living room, taking in the comforting looking room, before turning around to look at the kitchen and finally her master. She didn't have time to look around before due to his discomfort.

Severus closed the door quietly, keeping a close eye on her. He was grateful for the previous private lessons at with the witch as it left him accustomed to her presence in close quarters. As she inspected his living room and kitchen curiously, he was hit with a sense of belonging for the first time since he was a child. It was almost overwhelming and he was almost unsure of how to proceed until she looked at him. The hazel eyes rimmed with more with gold in his home than it had been in the Ministry, gazed at him trustingly.

He mulled over an internal conflict for a moment before deciding it was best, even if he felt it was too soon. Other purebloods knew, so their children would obviously know, even the goblins knew…

"Hermione, I… we have some things to talk about before we move on," he said, looking at her intensely.

The witch in question's heart dropped at his tone, unsure of why it made her anxious.

"Yes?"

Noticing her the change in her composure he walked and leaned back against a counter, facing her, and crossed his arms. His posture was completely nonchalant, the witch's heart skipped a beat at the entirely domestic sight, leaving her further confused.

"First, I do want to tell you how proud I am of you. You did extremely well even though I expected nothing less from you."

She smiled shyly at him.

"Second… this one is rather heavy," he shifted his weight, "As you know I'm a half-blood. I was raised in more of a muggle-styled background. While my mother was able to tell me some of the magical community, she was restricted in other ways because my father detested magic. So she wasn't able to teach me all basic things she knew, although she taught me some family spells and potions. Frankly, I learned more from my housemates at Hogwarts. Common things like fairy-tales, and other basics. Of course it's hard to teach someone else something that comes as second nature to you, so they struggled. Some things they missed until it came up."

Hermione nodded knowing exactly what he meant. She was able to research a lot in the year before she started Hogwarts, but still learned things from her classmates all the time just overhearing their conversations.

"Honestly, despite being part of the community for so long I'm still learning things and one thing was brought to my attention recently," he self-consciously leaned forward so his hair fell in front of his face, "When a master takes on an apprentice they're usually old or already bonded, married, or even betrothed. If not their first apprentice is almost always the opposite of their natural attraction. So a wizard will usually have another wizard for his first apprentice or witch if he is attracted to wizards. It is usually is set so one or both are uninterested in the other. The same goes for an apprentice despite it being such a prestigious position. Normally one or both are already… taken so to speak, even the younger apprentices are already betrothed, being pureblood."

Hermione nodded slowly, following his words with bated breath.

"Usually this is because the bond is so sacred, so intimate, that a special bond is formed… I've been told that the relationship between master and apprentice is so special, on another level of intimate, that they almost always… end up bonded to each other. There are a few rare cases, but those don't truly have any weight as they ended up with one or both dead. I didn't know until after I asked you to be my apprentice. If it's something that troubles you, I offer you my apologies. However… I must admit I'm… genuinely pleased with the turn of events," he finished with a blush, turning his head to the side so she wouldn't see despite his hair being in his face.

Letting out a long slow breath the curly haired witch sat silently processing the huge load of information. It gave what the metalsmith was talking about more depth. The process was taking a bit longer than it usually did for her due to the shock factor.

'It was unintentional, but he's not unhappy with it. I should be upset or something, but I'm just… warm. I suppose I don't have to worry about my hormones,' she thought distractedly, 'It'll be weird calling him master in private now, knowing what's most likely going to happen. I should… probably say something so he doesn't think I'm upset. He's obviously embarrassed or something by the turn of events.'

She looked at the wizard peculiarly, "I have to admit I'm a bit shocked… but not unhappy… not … forlorn if you will. I will probably need a bit longer for it to settle that one day we may be… bonded. I don't want to rush into anything, I don't think I'm ready. Meanwhile, knowing that I should probably just get used to calling you Severus. I… I hope to get to know you better sooner than expected, and I hope that we'll be able to take things slow. I'm still…" Hermione turned bright red, "I'm still… vanilla… and a virgin. So please… I don't normally want or ask for it but do mollycoddle me in that aspect."

Severus slowly turned and looked at the witch across the kitchen from him, his face still tinted with a small amount of pink. She didn't bust out into a fit, she didn't break down crying, it was obvious she was in shock, but taking it rather well. He wasn't sure if her admittance was out of shock or not though, but did tuck that piece of information in the corner of his mind.

"I hope likewise and I believe I'll be able to comply with your requests."

They sat in comfortable silence taking in the considerably large turning point in their relationship. A few moments later Severus had to ask a question that had been bouncing around in his head.

"How do you know the term vanilla? While it's common knowledge you read a lot I wouldn't expect the term to show up in your normal type of reading material," his voice was light and eyebrow was arched in a manner that showed how perplexed and curious he was.

Hermione blushed brightly and crossed her arms, she turned her head quickly, her hair swirling around her.

"If you must know I do read a wide variety of books. When my parents gave me the 'talk' my mom gave me some of those… romance novels, to supplement my understanding," she pursed her lips in mild annoyance.

His eyebrows furrowed letting his mind process that bit of information…

"Your mother gave you erotica so you would understand sex?"

"Yes. My mother gave me erotica so I would understand the process better instead of just textbook terms. I understood the basics and just assumed it was a rather plain and bothersome process, but with the books I learned it was not that simple."

Severus pressed his lips together in confusion while also trying very hard not to laugh at how innocent she was.

"It seems as though it was helpful. However I doubt your mother would give you a book that was anything but vanilla."

Hermione blushed harder wishing she would just accidentally apparate home under her bed.

She took a loud breath, "I liked them and I decided I wanted more. So I had my mum go to a specialized shop that I thought looked interesting. I was too young so I had her go for me and buy a few different books," her voice was defensive.

The wizard tried to imagine Hermione and her mother conspiring behind her father's back to purchase obscene erotica. Hermione walking down the street and trying to nonchalantly look at sex shops with a Gryffindor's stereotypical definition of discreet. After today he knew she was probably a lot better at it than he was imagining, but he couldn't help it. The image playing through his head caused him to stifle a laugh. He tried to play it off by coughing.

Finally after controlling breath Severus stood up straight and spoke plainly, "I did say that I would give you a tour of the house once you finished your exam. I'll look over your answers later, I'll need time to read them."

Hermione looked up at him and then gave him a small smile chuckling at the blatant subject change, "I would like that."

Arthur stepped out of the floo, dusting himself off with a practiced wand motion. He heard his youngest children arguing through the window from their backyard, so rightly assumed that the twins were in their room creating bits of magic.

"Arthur! You're home rather early, is everything alright?" Molly asked, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Yes, I just decided to leave earlier than usual," he said taking off his outer cloak.

"Oh, nothing serious then?" she asked again.

"Well nothing really, but I found out something that I think is rather important to our situation with Hermione."

"Oh?" Molly asked, all of her attention suddenly focused on her husband.

"Yes. I saw her earlier and noticed she was taking her OWL, like we knew she would, so I decided to apologize to her while she was there."

"Good. Did she accept your apology?" she asked with a bright smile.

Arthur looked at his wife sternly. It was apparent that she took Ron's word over the twins'. The twins were mischievous but they weren't liars. Ronald on the other hand had occasionally lied or purposely kept information away from them. Out of all the boys he was the least observant. He loved all his children, but he was just as aware of their faults as he was their strengths.

"No, Molly she didn't."

The plump witch bristled, "Why ever not!?" she shrieked, "That insolent little witch! How dare she not mind her manners!? She should know better to respect her elders!"

Her yelling sparked her brood's curiosity. It was something they all learned early on was when their mother yelled it was best to be informed about what it was she was angry about. The twins crept down the stairs, being sure to avoid the ones that creaked when stepped on. Ginny and Ron however flew towards the house, hopping off their brooms and walking through the back door.

"What's going on, mum?" Ron asked, knowing that she wasn't mad at him.

"That bratty witch wouldn't accept your father's apology!" she barked without thinking.

"Who wouldn't accept Dad's apology?" Ginny asked curious.

"Hermione!" she snapped, bristling again just mentioning the young witch's name.

The twins winced at their mother's volume. They knew that she said something horrible to Hermione, but they didn't know why she would expect the witch to forgive her so easily.

"Molly!" Arthur yelled over his wife.

All noise stopped in the Weasley household as the patriarch rarely raised his voice.

"You didn't let me finish. Hermione knows how you feel about muggles and muggleborns. You may have hidden it well over the years, but anyone who knew you from your Hogwarts days knows how you feel. Anyone who remembered you before you became Mrs. Weasley remembers how you feel. When you snapped at her, she was able to see exactly how you felt about muggles and muggleborns, like her. It's not something easy to forgive! Not to mention that Malfoy interrupted while I was trying to fix things."

"What was Malfoy doing there?" Ron asked with a sneer of distaste on his face.

"Malfoy was there to congratulate Hermione. He found out a bit of information about her that has changed his demeanor towards her entirely," he said with slight loathing.

"What did he find out about her that made him want to congratulate her? Congratulate her for what?" Ron asked with his face screwed up.

He was unable to imagine anything that would make a pureblood like Malfoy treat Hermione anything less than the dirt under his boots.

"A few things, Ron. Firstly her apprenticeship. Hermione is now an apprentice under Professor Snape. Secondly she took her OWLs, I assume she did extremely well. And lastly Hermione is… Hermione is actually Lady Hermione Granger. She's a member of the royal family, which makes her a very important person," Arthur said, his voice was calm.

Ron stood there dumbfounded before his face screwed up again. Molly however lost all the blood in her face, turning whiter than her clean sheets.

"So what? Harry's important," Ron said with a scoff.

Ginny turned and looked at her brother with furrowed eyebrows. She knew her brother could be stupid, but even she knew how great an achievement it was to be an apprentice. Added to that Hermione was part of the royal family, which she really didn't understand, but she knew that royalty was more important than Harry, who was seen as a hero. Hermione was born important, Harry achieved importance.

"She's Apprentice Lady Granger?" Molly asked weakly.

Ron turned and looked at his mother who looked horrible. He didn't understand the importance, after all it was only Hermione. Apprentice or Lady or not, she was still just bookworm Hermione.

Arthur nodded.

Fred and George looked at each other seriously taking in the new information concerning the curly haired witch. They were glad that they were friendly with the witch, even if in passing even privately, because she was bound to make waves when news reached Hogwarts.

Sitting in the library together Severus was reading over the written portion of her OWL before remembering something.

"I think tomorrow I'm going to invite a few friends over and introduce you," he said aloud.

Hermione was slightly startled, not expecting him to say anything until he was done reading over her exam answers.

"What?"

"Tomorrow after your lesson I think I should introduce you to a few friends. You already know them, but I think it would be nice for you to meet them in an informal setting," he said, his eyes were still looking at her exam.

"It's not Malfoy is it," she asked gruffly.

"No, but that will be as inevitable as meeting the Dark Lord. It's actually Minerva and Hooch."

"Professor McGonagall and Professor Hooch?"

"You're not a parrot, Hermione, but yes. Outside of classes they're Minerva and Hooch. Rolanda doesn't really like her name so we just call her Hooch. They also have unlimited access to my rooms so you'll see them a lot during your apprenticeship."

"Do they know about your… position in the Order?"

"Minerva does, Hooch is not aware and I would prefer her to stay neutral. So I will most likely have to cut time with her short as she likes to do shots when she visits. Not enough for us to be intoxicated, but enough for us to loosen up. I can't afford to be loose now though…"

Hermione nodded in understanding, both surprised and sad. Surprised at his activities and friendships, but also sad that he would have to keep a friend at arm's length.

"Master, aside from avoiding intoxication, despite how minor, why would you have to hold Hooch at arm's length?"

Severus looked up at her quickly before looking back down at the paper, "Because I expect the Dark Lord to call me at random times. He always calls after curfew, as that is also the time that those who work in the Ministry would also be at home. We cannot ignore a call…"

"So you wouldn't be able to come up with excuses with her in your rooms…. Even though she has unlimited access to them."

The dark wizard frowned at the paper, "I see your point… I'll think of something."

Hermione nodded.

"Your answers were almost all textbook perfect. I'm pleased to see some of your intuition showing for once in a test. Granted they were things we spoke of recently, but it was your curiosity and your ideas, I merely confirmed them. A perfect O. Would you like to go over any of the questions?" he asked smoothly.

Hermione grinned and leaned forward immensely delighted to discuss academics with him.