Severus checked the ancient clock in the corner of the darkened room.

Five minutes until she arrived.

He set down the stack of essays he had been marking, which were exceedingly disappointing as usual. With a flick of his wand, he sent them gliding through the room for him to work on later.

Although he stayed on top of his duties as potions master without fail, recently it had been difficult to maintain concentration. Dumbledore had set him a deadly task, with the timeline closing in at an alarming pace. The great wizard's life was coming to an end thanks to his foolish lapse of judgement when he had placed that cursed ring on his finger, and along with this, the Dark Lord had risen once more.

If Severus was a self pitying man, he would be angry with Dumbledore, angry that there never seemed to be an end to the constant pressures and responsibility that the man placed on Severus's shoulders.

He had spent endless sleepless nights worrying that at any time his mask would slip and this would all have been for nothing. Accompanying this was the severe mental strain of having to be in a constant state of occlumency with the Dark Lord, and on top of that he now had to kill the old wizard and once again be thrust into the role of the villain.

After Dumbledore died at his hand, Severus knew he would be shunned by his peers in the Order and surrounded instead by those who he no longer wished to associate himself with - his fellow Death Eaters - and the man who he hated more than anyone, the man who had sentenced the love of his life to death.

Again, Severus was not a self pitying man, not one to wallow in his own problems, but if he was, he would no doubt drown in them.

There had, however, been one speck of light in this year from hell, though one which he was not proud of. Severus blamed his severe stress on this one particular interest, his brain no doubt having created it from nothing in order to distract himself from the constant darkness in his life.

Granger.

Ashamed as he was to admit it, Severus had found himself fascinated by the muggle-born witch this year. Surprising, as he used to find her nothing more than a know-it-all pest, especially after she lumped herself in with Potter and Weasley. He had never spared her much of a thought, though he could begrudgingly admit she was more than adequate at potions.

This… interest started over summer, when he had frequently been visiting Order headquarters at Grimmauld Place. Potter and Weasley had been staying along with Granger, and Serverus had unwillingly crossed paths with the trio a few times.

It was during one of these unintentional encounters that Severus had overheard a conversation between Granger, Potter and Weasley. He had been lurking in the shadows, as usual, waiting for Dumbledore to arrive, when he heard Granger's voice ringing through the house from the next room.

She had been defending the rights of house elves, of all things, to Potter and Weasley, who seemingly didn't care to listen or agree with her. As Severus had listened, amused, he had heard a statement which shook him to the core.

"Are you saying that because these elves don't have as much power as the pure-blood families they belong to that they should be treated however any wizard likes? What about me? I'm a muggle-born, pure-blood wizards believe they have more power than I do, so does that mean I should have no rights?" Granger had said, her voice breaking at the end.

To Severus, it was like being hit with a train from the past. Immediately, he had been hurtled back to 1975, having the same conversation with a distraught Lily Evans. One of the last times they had spoken, she had asked him if he truly believed that as a muggle-born, she didn't deserve the same rights as pure bloods. At the time, he had said nothing. It was one of his biggest regrets, one which still haunted him to this day.

After that, he had noticed similarities between Granger and the woman he had dedicated his life to. They were both muggle-born, a fact he had never truly considered with Granger. They were both passionate and driven, and both seemed to enjoy the company of loud mouth Gryffindors. They even both excelled in classes, and the more Severus took in of Granger, the more he began to appreciate.

Like how she truly seemed fascinated by magic and everything about it, and found time to achieve top marks in every class. And despite being surrounded by two bumbling idiots, she always spent her time helping them with their own studies, meanwhile helping Potter untangle himself from whichever life threatening situation he had gotten himself into that year. He had always thought Potter simply had a never ending supply of dumb luck, but now he saw that it was in fact Granger behind the scenes helping him with everything he did while taking none of the credit.

Severus tried to bury this fascination deep down, and continue as normal. However, it no longer felt right to berate her in classes, so he chose instead to steadily ignore her - which was proving more difficult by the day.

For one, she had gotten even better at Potions making, and he had often had to stop himself from looking impressed when she consistently achieved perfect results. And for another, she made herself extremely hard to ignore, constantly pining to answer every question he asked and always being in his line of sight, so much so he had to force himself drag his eyes away from her more than a few times this year.

But, this was all completely innocent. She was, after all, his student. He had a position of power over her and she was only 17 years old. It didn't matter that she had clearly grown into her looks this year, no longer the buck toothed and frizzy haired girl she once was. Now, she carried herself with an air of grace, and he had caught Weasley staring at her like a love sick fool often.

Severus wasn't sure what he had been thinking when he had given her detention. Was it that she had once again been arguing on Longbottom's behalf, and Severus had been sick of seeing her constantly fighting for those less competent or able that she was?

Whatever his reasoning, he had now put himself into a position which he had been avoiding all year - and had to spend an hour alone with Granger.

Severus glanced once more at the clock. She was one minute late.

He quickly smoothed his hair and tightened the collar around his neck, trying his best to act as sullen and dismissive as he usually was.

At that moment, she burst through his door.

Without sparing him so much as a glance, she stomped to the desk in front of him and dumped her things onto the table, huffing.

Severus knew he should say something about this attitude, but the words died in his throat as he took her in.

Her chestnut hair piled on top of her head, with spiral tendrils falling on to her forehead. Her eyes stood out even more than normal, with smoky brown outlining them and perfectly plump pink lips pursed into an angry pout. She had her uniform on, but the contrast of seeing her in it with what was clearly a glamorous look to her made Severus's chest tighten, and he forced himself to look away and she crossed her legs and her school skirt hitched up her bare thigh.

Eventually, he forced himself to come to his senses. If she saw how he was looking at her, she would think him depraved.

Masking his face in his usual scowl, he drawled "Well, Granger, it's an honour you have finally decided to grace me with your presence. How very inconvenient for you, that you're running your mouth has gotten in the way of what I'm sure were fun Friday night plans."

He once again eyed her hair and face, noting that she must have plans after this to have made such an effort. He inwardly glowered at the thought that she could be going on a date with the idiot Weasley, although he reminded himself it was not his place to take interest or even care about her romantic life.

Granger finally looked up at him, seeming to remember who she was with and wiping the angry look off of her face.

''Sorry, Professor. I didn't mean to be late.'' She said with a sigh, as sunk further into her chair.

Severus found himself curious about the apparent bad mood she was in, but it would obviously not be appropriate to ask. Instead, he just raised his eyebrows and flicked his wand, conjuring a cauldron in between them.

''Open your textbook to page 439. You will be brewing a love potion antidote, my supply is running low now thanks to a certain red headed duo's goods circulating this year and wreaking havoc. It should take you one hour, if you are competent enough to complete it as per my instructions.'' He stated in a falsely bored voice.

Granger opened her book dutifully and surveyed the instructions, a furrow appearing between her brow.

"But Sir, these instructions are too complex for the potion to be brewed within the hour. It states that the potion should be brewed with a partner." She said in a wary voice, nibbling her lower lip in worry. She clearly thought he was trying to set her up to fail.

Severus once again stared at the girl with a masked expression. "I'm well aware, Granger, of how long the potion would take when prepared individually, since I have been brewing it myself all year. However, I will be assisting you with this potion. We will work in a pair."