Hermione officially finishes studying for her NEWTs by the third week in November. Snape promises her they will revisit everything in the weeks leading up to the tests. But for now, he actually convinces her to set aside her constant revising, with the exception of transfiguration and Defense, and focus fully on what interests her. True to his word, he has procured two more priceless alchemy texts for her, although he refuses to divulge where he procured them.
By the end of November, Snape has finished his work developing a new potion he thinks could prove helpful to Hermione.
"Miss Granger, come here," he beckons her over to a corner of his lab one evening.
She casts a stasis spell on the potion she is brewing and makes her way over to him. He is decanting a potion into a glass vial. The potion is viscous and dream-like, and he is concentrating very hard. She takes the opportunity to study him rather intensely. It isn't the first time she has done this. She's been doing it every chance she gets since Halloween.
Snape is carefully decanting a dose of his new creation into a glass vial when he feels Hermione looking at him again. She's been doing it for a month, now. Every time she thinks he can't see, she is studying him with a furious intensity. She is also being absolutely meticulous about keeping her thoughts to herself. That skill of hers, once a great relief to him, is becoming increasingly irritating. When it started, he couldn't make heads or tails of why she was staring all the time. The few times he has simply turned around, or looked up, and caught her, her expression has always looked slightly puzzled, as if she can't quite make out what she is looking at.
She stops next to him as he finishing decanting the dose. She stands elbow to elbow with him at the table, looking down at the glass vial in his hand. He turns to face her, and when he does she tips her face up to his. They are nearly touching. Where Hermione used to avoid his personal space, always standing as far away from him as she could, now she seems to revel in it.
Snape isn't completely unselfaware. He knows he is inappropriately attracted to Hermione, and castigates himself constantly because of it. He's never truly had a reason to be concerned, though. Not until now. As vile a man as Snape knows himself to be, he would never willingly violate that sacred trust between teacher and student. It's one thing to know for certain that he would never cross the line with Hermione, nor with any student, but he has never had to ask himself what he would do if SHE crossed the line with him. Until now.
Impossible as it seems, Miss Granger is showing every sign of being attracted to, and maybe even infatuated with, him.
Snape raises the glass vial between them. "I think this may help with your nightmares. Would you try it for me?"
"What will it do?" she asks, taking it in her hand. Her small fingers brush his long tapered ones as she takes the vial. The sensation of her fingertips on his skin, even just for the stretch of half a breath, is invigorating. He keeps his eyes on her face to watch her eyelids fall closed for just an instant when they touch. He is not the only one so affected.
"It will activate when you become afraid, and turn your nightmare into a lucid one. With a little bit of practice, you should be able to either change the dream so it is no longer frightening, or just wake yourself up."
Hermione looks down at the glass vial in her fingers with unabashed longing. "Really?" she asks Snape. "It sounds too good to be true."
"Yes, well, it might be. And because you will only be the second human to ingest it, I want you to spend the night in the infirmary tonight where I can observe you."
"The infirmary?" she asks. "Why can't I just stay here?"
'Because I am not a monk!' he wants to scream at her. Instead, after a quick intake of breath at the suggestion, he gives her his fiercest scowl. The one that used to have her on the edge of tears. Now, she just gazes back at him serenely. Sometimes when he scowls or snaps at her, she has the audacity to giggle.
"That would be highly inappropriate, Miss Granger. Madam Pomfrey was scandalized enough when I mentioned that I wanted to watch you sleep all night."
She shrugs, as if the indecency of what she is proposing doesn't bother her in the slightest. "Okay. Infirmary it is, then. Meet you there at midnight?"
"Outside your dormitory, Miss Granger. I will escort you up to the infirmary." He takes the glass vial back from her, careful not to let their fingers touch this time. "Go get ready for bed. I'll see you in a few hours."
"Yes, sir," she says.
He walks her out, as he has gotten in the habit of doing, opening both doors for her until they are in the corridor outside his office. He then casts a shield over her, and reinforces the tracking spell. The shield will only last about ten minutes, but it will prevent anyone from using magic against her or even touching her, as she and Ginny found out one night the hard way.
"Straight back to your room," Snape says to her in his stern Professor voice. But Hermione is smiling up at him, not even bothering to pretend to be even a little bit afraid. Cheeky brat.
"Goodnight, sir!" she calls out behind her as she takes her leave.
'So you say,' thinks Snape, as he slinks back into his lair.