Chapter 6

All canon characters are owned by JKR.

Thanks to June for being my beta.

Chapter 6

A little over a week and a half later, Severus and Hermione had finished arranging her new class schedule. It took dozens of changes, and at least four different drafts, before they both felt confident that the students would not blow up anything or anyone, at least not this year. She was getting ready to leave their meeting, when she decided to ask Severus if she could help him in his lab. After all, he had mentioned that he worked on surplus potions for Poppy. She wanted something challenging to help her pass the day, so she decided to ask if he could use some help. There was little less than a month left before the start of the new school year, and she decided she could not spend all of her time either at the library, or searching for the elusive Mirror of Erised. Besides, it had been a while since she had practiced any potions making, so why not help him; the worst he could do was sneer and say no.

"Professor?" she approached him warily.

"Yes, Miss Granger," he said, not looking up from his work.

"I was wondering if," she looked down at her feet and felt her courage waning. "I was wondering..."

He looked up at her and narrowed his eyes slightly. "Out with it, please, Miss Granger." He set down his quill and crossed his arms.

"Yes, I'm sorry, sir. I was wondering, could you use some help making the potions for Madam Pomfrey?" she asked hopefully and crossed her fingers behind her back, just in case.

He rocked himself slightly against the back of the chair, and then looked down at the pile on his desk. There was still much to do, and little time to do it all himself.

"I suppose I could use a hand. I am finding I need more time readying my DADA curriculum," he said as he steepled his hands in front of him. "Very well, Miss Granger, you may assist. I will be preparing several cauldrons of Pepper-Up Potion as well as Sanguis Serum." He noticed the puzzled look on her face. "Sanguis Serum comes in handy once the Quidditch season begins, as many students need it to replace loss of blood after the game. Meet me in my lab at seven tonight."

He picked up his quill and went back to his work, making it clear to her that they were done.

Hermione left with an extra spring in her step. She loved working on potions, and in the last few days she had also grown more accustomed to working closely with Severus. She could be with the two things she loved the most. She stopped abruptly then. 'Whoa,' she thought, 'Where did that come from?' Just when had she begun to use the word "love" and "Severus" in the same sentence? She had had a crush on him for years, and secretly cared for him. She had also hoped that they would perhaps become friends in time, but love?

* * * * * *

Hermione arrived at her rooms, wondering how he would react if she asked him out to dinner. 'No, that wouldn't be a good idea,' she thought; 'at least not until we've been working together for a while longer.' She had arrived at Hogwarts less than two weeks ago, and she was only now getting used to seeing him as a colleague. She was sure he would be feeling the same way.

The big problem was that she had only seen and known him as a man, an adult; in contrast, he had first seen her at Hogwarts when she was a child, and even though she was eighteen when she graduated he would still have seen her as a child, and recent ex-student. Now, at twenty-two years of age, how was she going to get that image of a little girl out of his head, and make him see her as a woman?

She looked out of the small window that had the same mountain view she had from the bathtub. By now most of her peers were either getting married, already married and starting families, or at the very least in some long-term relationship. Harry had been seeing Luna for ages, and even Ron had been seeing Susan for a while. Just recently she had gone to Ginny's wedding. Oddly enough, Ginny had married Draco Malfoy of all people. Hermione laughed to herself; if anyone could take on Draco, it would be Ginny.

Hermione turned away from the window, and walked to the fireplace. She picked up a small figurine her mother had given her upon graduation from Hogwarts. It depicted a little girl, wearing a very large graduation cap and holding a diploma. She looked at it and smiled; perhaps she would give it just a bit more time with Severus. After a while, maybe he would see how mature she was. She and Severus had many of the same likes and dislikes. They also both loved their privacy, as well as books and potions ... let's not forget potions.

They also hated crowds, parties, and being the center of attention. She recalled one particular night after the fall of Voldemort. The Ministry held a celebratory ball in the school's Great Hall, which had been decorated with twinkling stars and floating swirls of glittering clouds. There was also a ceremony to decorate the war's heroes, who were all called to the stage one by one. First up was Harry, then Severus, Ron, Hermione, Remus, Minerva, and ... of course ... Albus. They all received the Order of Merlin, First Class. She thought she would faint as she stood on that stage with all those hundreds of people looking at her. It wasn't until she felt two strong hands on her shoulders, that she realized how close she really was to landing face-first on that stage.

Severus had already received his medal, and noticed her swaying slightly. He steadied her, then whispered in her ear, "Take a deep breath, Miss Granger. Try to steady yourself; it is almost over."

She was not comfortable in those kinds of situations, and she thought it odd for him to even notice how unsteady she was at that moment. Now, four years after that Ministry ball, she wondered if he realized how alike they were.

Hermione decided to leave it alone for now. She was a patient woman, and her rewards would be so grand. "Severus Snape, evil git and greasy Potions Professor ... that's my reward," she laughed at herself. If Ron could hear her now he would drop dead right on the spot. She laughed again, "Yeah, and Ron would land right on top of Harry's dead body."

* * * * * *

Several weeks had gone by, and it was now two weeks to the start of the school year. Hermione had grown to be quite a fixture in Severus' private lab. He had allowed her to take over the production of the minor healing potions supplied to Madam Pomfrey.

Severus had been too busy to make potions, as he was devising his new curriculum for his first of what he expected to be many years of teaching DADA. He knew that Hermione was a competent young woman, and she would need no supervision, so he left her to take care of the potions for the hospital wing herself. He figured she would be taking over that task at some point anyway, so why not let her get used to doing some of it now. She had graduated at the top of her class, and by next year she would most likely be his full-time replacement in the Potions Department.

He had also decided that he would soon teach her how to brew the Wolfsbane Potion. He was only one of two Masters in the world who could brew the potion to perfection, and if he had anything to say about it she would be the third. She may not have reached full Potions Mistress accreditation, but he had decided that if all went well he would submit a petition to the University of Dover and count her year of teaching as an apprenticeship. This, along with her degree and brewing a complex potion like the Wolfsbane Potion, would be enough to earn her the title. It was hard for women to get ahead in Wizarding society, and even harder for someone who was Muggle-born. Hermione was an intelligent woman, and Severus was determined that she deserved to be given every opportunity.

'I must be going soft,' he thought. No, he was just doing for her what Albus had done for him so many years ago. He was giving her an opportunity to make something of herself; surely there was nothing wrong with that?

He had a hard time admitting it to himself, but he had grown accustomed to her presence. She had always been a serious and quiet student, that is when she was away from Potter and Weasley, but now she seemed to be, well.... grown-up. She was no girl, which was another thing he had a hard time admitting to himself. Since she had begun working in his private lab, there were times when several cauldrons were going at once, thus making the room quite warm. On several occasions, he had passed the open lab door on his way to retrieve things he had left in his quarters, only to see she had shed her robe. From the shadows, he would observe her working intently, wearing nothing more than a pair of hip-hugging shorts and a barely-there tank top. She kept quite a bit hidden under those robes of hers, he mused.

Severus enjoyed their conversations as well. They spent hours sometimes in discussing a wide variety of topics, from the possible uses of aconite in healing potions, to why anyone would prefer Roger Moore as James Bond over Sean Connery. He laughed as he recalled the look on her face when he mentioned how he thought that even the new man could not hold a candle to the original. Contrary to popular belief, Severus did not hate all things Muggle, nor was he completely in the dark as to many Muggle things. He was not the elitist some thought he was. He was an intensely curious man. Ever since he was a child, he craved learning new things.

After becoming a servant of Voldemort, Severus decided to see what the cause of so much hatred was. What was it about the Muggle world that Voldemort hated so much? One night after a raid on a Muggle home, Severus took the opportunity to stay behind in London and do some of his own investigation.

He had cloaked himself in an invisibility spell and wandered into a large building called a cinema. They were showing something called a movie, in which a story was acted out; it was like a play except it was projected onto a screen, with no live actors. When he was a student at Hogwarts he had overheard a Muggle-born boy describing a movie to another student, so Severus knew the basics of what movies were. On this particular night, he watched a group of men with very odd names causing havoc in a university. The movie was called Animal House, but frankly the only animal he saw was a horse, which met a most untimely and hysterical demise.

Severus prided himself on always being dignified and serious, yet for the first time in his life he laughed so hard his ribs were aching. He made it a point from then on that, whenever time permitted him to do so, he would come and watch movies. His favorites were the older Bond films, and of course all the classic Hammer Studios films. If he wasn't in the mood for a movie, he would wander into a Muggle bookshop. There he found treasures. Authors he had never before heard of ... Dumas, Brontes, Austen, King, Barker ... were all so different, yet they all wove tales which mesmerized him for hours.

And then there were the Muggle art museums. He lost himself in those museums at times. He remembered sitting in front of a painting called Flaming June for almost three hours. It depicted a woman sleeping on a chair of some sort. She wore a bright orange dress, and the fabric looked like the sheerest finest silk ever made. He felt as though he could just reach out to the painting and touch the fabric, and at times he thought he could almost see it move. There were many artists he loved, and it seemed he had a new favorite each time he visited a museum. The last time he ventured out, his favorite was Vermeer. He tried to remember when the last time was that he had been able to get away. It had been at least three months, maybe four.

He had always been a very private man, and so he certainly surprised Hermione and himself the day he told her of his knowledge and fondness of the Muggle world. Tonight, as he allowed himself to savor the first sip of his brandy while sitting in front of the fireplace, he thought perhaps he would surprise her once again. He would ask her to accompany him to dinner this coming weekend; after all, she was a colleague now.

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Hope you liked the chapter. I'll have more up soon.