"I am not asking for your hand in marriage Granger. And you cannot deny that it might be fun to change things up a bit. At least pretend that we are normal." Draco explained uneasily, the poorly disguised panic made the candlelight dance in his eyes.

"O...Okay." She mumbled, more to ease his fears than out of any real decision making on her part.

"You didn't sound very sure. I am surprised you are having issues deciding. A date is not nearly as... intimate as what we have already done. Regardless, you can say no." Her clumsy answer had, of course, done nothing to appease his misgivings... If anything it seemed to make his agitation worse resulting in his hands starting to shake, a subconscious movement he tried to cover up by rolling them at the wrist.

"I know... It's just bizarre to hear you ask me. I never would have thought that you would be the one to be checking off my list of firsts like you are."

He scoffed in disbelief and started tallying on his fingers. "Krum. McLaggen. I am sure the Weasel has offered..."

"Uhhh... If you consider having a hundred sets of eyes on you the whole night a 'date', I suppose Viktor would classify. Spending time with Cormac McLaggen was the farthest thing from an enjoyable evening, as I have already explained to you." She made sure she had his full attention before continuing to blather out the truth. "And Ron has never shown an interest until very recently... Which he found out was a very stupid move on his part for many reasons that I do not feel the need to dissect with you. Suffice it to say I have never been on anything remotely in the realm of a romantic date, much less one meant to be a celebration of Valentine's Day..."

In response his head turned toward the window he had given his attention to earlier. He crossed his arms as he worked over her little rant, trying to decide if he believed her words to be authentic or not. What couldn't have been more than thirty seconds felt like forever but he did end up turning back towards her with that cocky smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "I guess we will have to change that."

"I guess so..."

He shook his head at her before sighing. "I really should let you get back to your punishment."

"Ughh... Yes, you really should." She groaned, glancing over at the taunting stack of essays.

His laugh reached her ears and pulled her eyes back over to him like a magnet. "Poor Kitten... At least now I know to wake you up before leaving. Live and learn..."

"Just go Draco..." She glared over at him, once again contemplating on telling Snape about who was responsible for the dungbombs as revenge. "Before I end up going back on my word not to cause damage to Professor Snape's classroom by hexing the ever loving piss out of you..."

"I'd love to see you try..." He taunted, the obviously empty threat was enough to cause a spark of danger to be added to the kaleidoscope of emotions swirling in the depths of his gaze. "Unfortunately, I am a busy man and I do have places to be. Let me know the night that would work best for you."

As soon as the last words were out of his mouth he leaned over and placed a quick kiss to her temple and then stalked from the room. Leaving her to sit there with her goodbye still stuck on her lips in the deafening silence that was left behind. It unnerved her to be the only one that was left in the classroom. The feeling was much more intense than it would have been if she was alone in any other teacher's space.

She quickly continued her work with a deliberate concentration, an easy distraction so she didn't scare herself silly. An intentional act that allowed her to pass by most of the afternoon. Other than when she would stop and wonder where Snape was... Or just how many dungbombs Draco had given Peeves for him to still be occupied elsewhere…

It was close to dinnertime before the door opened again, ending what had started to feel like a long sentence of exile. The man whose appearance she had simultaneously been dreading and eagerly awaiting stepped inside. He took stock of the room and found her in the corner lifting the third to last cushion onto the large pile of clean ones. His lip turned up in his trademark sneer. "I had such high hopes that you would have scurried off to find one of your hassle-inducing friends by now, Miss Granger."

Hermione stood up to her full height and ran the back of her hand along her cheek, trying to push aside some stray curls that had fallen and stuck there. Overtired, she didn't stop her irritability from coloring her tone. "I apologize for disappointing you. I will be done shortly, sir."

"Always such rancor from you Gryffindors." Snape said with a roll of his narrowed eyes. "By all means... Finish and get out."

She inclined her head in acknowledgement of his request before returning to her work of wiping down the last two cushions. Her thoughts shifted to heading down to a well deserved meal as she heard the man behind her make his way to his desk and sit down. Purposefully she kept her head down and didn't let her gaze wander, no longer willing to chance any more of the Professor's wrath when she was so close to escape.

When she was finally done she placed the last cushion on the cleaned pile while the corner of her mouth twitched with a smile. Pride at the fact she had accomplished getting all of the set-in blood stains out of the fabric, especially without the use of magic, inflated her ego slightly. Her parents' chosen profession had come with a lot of unsavory stains, ranging from sweat and tears to vomit and blood, and with it the necessity to learn tricks to rid their clothing of the various bodily fluids every night. Something Snape must not have thought through when tasking her with what was surely supposed to be a much harder undertaking.

Her sentence done, she turned and headed for the door just as her hand was about to clasp around the knob Snape's voice rang out from behind her. "Before you go, I have a question for you, Miss Granger."

She had to suppress a sigh but looked over her shoulder at the man, trying to keep her impatience from showing on her face. "Yes, sir?"

"If you could come over here so that we do not have to shout, that would be most courteous..." It looked as if he was trying as hard as she was to keep his annoyance from manifesting on his features.

With trepidation she slowly moved away from the passageway to her freedom and walked down the aisle between the tables. Somewhere in the back of her mind she noted that the stacks of essays, inkwells and quills had disappeared while she had been preoccupied. Eventually she found herself standing in the exact same spot she had stood that morning, waiting for Snape to find some fault with the Polyjuice potion.

The man sat there staring at her. Even though he was sitting and she stood over him, she had the distinct feeling that he was still looking down on her. He did not start right away, letting the heavy silence stretch out between them as he studied her. Just when she felt like she was going to scream under the weight of her ramped up anxiety, he opened his mouth and asked her an unexpected question. "Did Mr. Malfoy say anything to you while I was gone?"

She raised an eyebrow in shock but tried to keep the rest of her face neutral. "No sir. We... don't exactly have a cordial friendship..."

"Of course not, that is why I am asking. He did not attack you- verbally or... Or in any other way?"

Her words felt like sandpaper leaving her lips and she wished she could have a sip of water. "No sir... We did not speak. He finished grading his essays and left."

"I do not believe you, Miss Granger." He said simply, letting the weight of his pronouncement settle on her shoulders.

"Honestly sir, he..." And then she made the mistake of conjuring up the mental picture of the way Draco had looked right before he turned away to leave. As soon as the memory sprung up she felt an unfamiliar pressure in her head... Not quite a headache but the sudden pounding in her temples was not exactly pleasant either. Before she was able to register what was happening she was unwittingly pushed into a replay of what happened earlier…

"What did he say to you?"

Draco sat at the back of the room smirking at her. "I am supposed to 'Leave the girl alone". But the question is... Do you want me to?"

"Very funny..." She replied sarcastically, returning his smirk.

"I know. I am hilarious" He countered, leaning towards her over the table in front of him.

Just as abruptly as she had been thrust into the memory, she was suddenly back in the classroom. Her knees weak as she panted against the unforeseen invasion. It was nothing like the vicious assault Harry had described... This was as if a snake was slithering around inside of her head, poking at her most private self without any resistance whatsoever. Before she could formulate a plan to try and block him she was propelled back under…

Draco still sat at the table behind her, her favorite smile spread across his lips as he accused. "As for all that rubbish about breaking rules... Only half as many as you and your friends break at any given opportunity, so please spare me the lecture."

"Th... That... I wasn't going to lecture you!" She sputtered.

"Mmmm... For some reason I highly doubt that." He challenged.

"Why don't you get back to finishing your assignment Draco? Instead of trying to guess what I might or might not be planning to do..." She snapped and turned away from him.

"Nag..."

The playful dig reached her ears and she teased back. "Asshole..."

Her heart started to race in her chest as the stolen moments she wasn't willing to share drew closer and closer. She desperately clung to the words of Dennis Creevey's last paragraphs and when she got to the end she panicked... She fought to throw her hands up instead of permitting his arms to find her and in response the uncomfortable tension inside of her head suddenly exploded into an all consuming inferno.

Thankfully, her razing was just as swift and it didn't take long for everything to go black...

When she came back to reality she was clutching at the side of Snape's desk so hard that her knuckles had turned white in a desperate attempt to keep herself upright. Her lungs burned from panting as if she had just run a marathon. Tears stung her eyes as she raised them high enough to stare at his shoulder before she hissed. "How dare you..."

"How dare I? How dare you! You idiotic little girl! You have no idea what you are playing with..." His furious tone had her nightmares coming to life in one terrifying moment.

"I know perfectly well..."

"A CHILD PLAYING CHILDISH GAMES!" He bellowed. Pushing the chair back a few inches as he stood up so he was the one towering over her. "Typical Gryffindor to the core. Trying to play the hero... Get the information from him so you can be the savior of the day. Does Potter know your plans? Is he in on it too?"

Once again she found herself so shocked that she defied all reason and looked up into the man's face. And was surprised to find him not only angry but also genuinely frightened. His fear was palatable... Freezing her from the inside out in such a way that his fury never could have. This was a man who lived his life tip toeing between the good and evil found within their world. If anyone knew exactly what they would be up against it was him…

He took a step forward so she was forced to let go of the desk so he wasn't able to get too close. He leaned down and hissed. "Answer me."

"I... I... Oh Gods... I'm not trying to be a hero! I am much too selfish for that. Harry doesn't know anything. No one does. I... We... We never meant for any of it to happen... At least I don't think so... It just... And now..." She stopped being able to breathe and her knees finally gave out from under her as trembling sobs overtook her.

It was Snape's turn to look appalled as he stood over her defeated form, crumpled on his classroom floor. A distraught mess of emotions with secrets he could have never imagined finding. After a few seconds, he shook his head and glared down at her as he sat back down in his chair. "Get up."

Hermione slowly struggled to her feet and unceremoniously wiped her face on her sweater, which did little to stop the flow of tears and snot. Somehow, she was able to swallow down her sobs so that she stood there crying in silence, waiting for the man to continue to berate her for her choices. Would he call Draco down before or after getting Dumbledore involved?

"The only thing that I upon wished entering this school year was to keep Mr. Malfoy alive. Why must he, and now you, do everything in your powers to stop me from fulfilling said desire?"

"I want the same thing, Professor. I swear. We were stupid... Or at least I was. I don't know about Draco. He probably knew exactly what he was risking... But I didn't... Not until it was too late. And now I care much more than I should. I just... I just want us both to survive this..."

"Then tell me what he has told you about his plans, Miss Granger. Tell me and then leave him alone. Do whatever you have to do to end this thing between the two of you..."

She looked down at the ground and shook her head. "I can't do that sir. I... I told you, I care about him too much..."

Snape sneered at her and she could see the clear thought of her being an idiot flash in his dark eyes before he responded to her stammering. "Trust me, I need to know what he is up to so I can help him. It is imperative for you to tell me everything he has told you."

"I apologize that I did not clarify sir, but what I cannot do is end it with Draco." She explained quickly, staring at the ground as the blush she hated tinted her cheeks. A sigh lifted her shoulders before she continued. "As for his plans... He hasn't told me anything of worth. We have very clear boundaries set in place. That is one of the things we do not speak about."

There was a rhythmic tapping as his fingers started drumming against the desk while he sat and seemed to digest her words. Another awkward silence seemed to stretch out for an eternity that didn't affect him. He finally looked up at her and pierced her with a stare that she sometimes saw on the faces of those who had survived the First War. The one that told her they pitied her future…

"Since you will not take the best of my advice, I am hesitant to give you any more, but I will try to break through that stubbornness yet again. If you persist in this quest to destroy both of your lives you must do what your famous friend refuses to do. Safeguard your mind... Or you will never stand a chance at protecting anyone in the war that is coming. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir..."

"I am sure you have heard everything I have to say on how to do so from Mr. Potter. So thankfully my services will not be needed there... I hope you do survive Miss Granger. Unfortunately Muggleborns have a nasty habit of dying... " For a second she could have sworn she saw a wave of pain she could never guess to understand flash across his face and then the hard sneering man she was used to was sitting there. Just as predictably the next words out of his mouth were a threat. "Let's keep what has happened here tonight between the two of us. There is no reason for things to reach the ears of people they do not need to be reaching... You can run along to get into whatever trouble it is that you have devised with Potter and Weasley next."

Without saying another word she turned and fled from the room. Instead of going down to a later-than-usual dinner she headed the other way... Up towards Gryffindor Tower, where she could climb into bed and think about everything that had transpired over the entirely odd conversation.

There had to be something she was missing in what had transpired.

Because in that moment all that her mind could keep circling back to was:

Severus Snape had just verified it…

Draco Malfoy was going to end up being the death of her.

And she still couldn't find it in herself to regret the choice of being with him…

-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-

Well then... So much happened in this chapter I do not even know where to start!

What do you think Draco is going to pull out for this little date of theirs? Is Hermione going to tell him about the conversation with Snape? What about all the stuff Snape said... Will it end up getting to her when she is in the safety of her bed?

Let me know down below!

Once again I find myself so thankful for having such amazing readers. Each and every single one of you are awesome and it makes me smile to see so many of you enjoying! I hope your day is going wonderfully!

As Always…

Much love,

SlytherclawLuv