Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A/N: for this story we will assume that Dumbledore never put Gaunt's ring on before destroying it, therefore, never consigning himself to certain death. Oh, yes, I own nothing, except Mallory Rickta.

Lucius wandered up to Hermione's desk, closely followed by Severus. Hermione noticed Severus rolling his eyes as he followed Lucius and bit her cheek so she wouldn't burst out laughing. She was happy to see Severus acting as his old self again. Lucius sauntered up and winked at Hermione.

"So, Professor Granger, would you like to have another round at dueling?" he asked sultrily.

Hermione frowned, but before she could say anything, Severus beat her to it.

"She already embarrassed you once, Lucius. You surely are a glutton for punishment."

"Oh, I just want another kiss, if I must admit it."

Hermione looked crossly at Lucius, but again Severus beat her to a response. He came around the desk and put his arm lazily around her shoulders.

"I've got some bad news for you, Lucius. After that pathetic attempt at a kiss the other day, Hermione and I decided that we would like to see more of each other. And neither one of us is the type to share."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. She quickly snapped it shut before Lucius noticed. Luckily, he was too busy staring at Severus to even notice Hermione was in the room.

"You . . . and . . . her?" he said incredulously.

Severus stooped down even more so he was level with Hermione. He kept his eyes trained on Malfoy.

"Yep. Sorry to disappoint you," he told his friend.

Lucius straightened himself and pulled his robes down. "Well then, okay. I guess you won this round," he said.

"I'm not some bloody trophy, Mr. Malfoy," Hermione said through clenched teeth.

Finally Lucius looked at her. He noted she was angry and decided that now was a good time to take his leave. He turned, but she called him back.

"Mr. Malfoy!" she said.

Lucius stopped abruptly and turned to look at her.

"I fail to understand why, with such a lovely woman as Miss Black being your girlfriend, you insist on trying to hit on me. If you would just look into your girlfriend's eyes, you would see her devotion to you, but instead, you ignore her and chase after other women who could care less if you existed on this planet or not. Is it the chase that excites you, Mr. Malfoy? Well I've got news for you. I wouldn't give you a second glance even if you were single. You're not my type! Why don't you enjoy what you have and leave me alone?!" Her eyes were shooting sparks at him. He smirked at her.

"Oh, you'll come around eventually," he countered with a grin.

She resisted the urge to pull him toward her and punch him in the face like she had done to his ferrety son.

"You're excused, Mr. Malfoy."

"Just give me a chance. You'll tire of Severus here. He's too . . . plain."

"You're excused, Mr. Malfoy!" she reiterated angrily. She cringed to herself. She could see the trouble she would be in if she attacked a student.

"Just wait," he said again.

Hermione stood up and looked contemptuously at Lucius.

"I said you're excused, Mr. Malfoy. That will be detention with Mr. Filch for disrespecting a teacher."

Lucius put his arms out wide in surrender. He gave her a heartbroken look and he backed away. Giving her a low bow, he turned and left.

As soon as he had closed the door behind him, Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at a desk. Poof, it shattered into a million pieces. She destroyed two more desks in frustration. She cried Reparo and the desks came back together again.

"That man is just as infuriating in this time as he is in the future, if not more so!" she cried.

Severus was regarding her proudly. The score was now Hermione-2, Lucius-zip. He suddenly thought of his arm around her. He had just done it to shut Lucius up, but when he touched her, he had felt . . . strange. It had felt comfortable, like his arm belonged around her shoulders. His insides seemed to flip flop as he touched her. He wondered why he had felt that way. He hadn't noticed anything those other times when she had embraced him in the Room of Requirement. Could he be attracted to her? No, he still loved Lily, didn't he? Snapping out of it, he looked over at Hermione, who was still seething.

"I'm sorry I made it look like we were going out." He saw her tense up. "I just wanted him to leave you alone."

She relaxed and turned to him with a smile on her face. "I'll admit that was a good one. I just about lost it when I saw the look on Lucius' face."

Hermione looked at Severus contemplatively. "Do you mind keeping up the pretense when he's around? It might shut him up."

"No, it won't. He'll just go on about how we will never last and I'm too plain and--" Severus stopped in mid sentence as he saw Hermione's face turn furious again.

"You are hardly plain, Severus Snape!" she spat angrily.

He smiled at her. "Thank you," he said simply.

Hermione blushed furiously. She hadn't meant it to sound like she thought he was good looking, although she did. She was, of course, making it worse by blushing so much.

Severus saved her further embarrassment by saying, "If you want to go along with it, I'm game. It'll be fun."

Hermione smiled at him and shooed him off to class. She watched as he left, following his slim build as he exited the door. When he had put his arm around her, she had felt a jolt run through her body. She wanted him to keep it there, but he had not left it there long. She shook her head. She was being ridiculous. She couldn't have feelings for this Severus Snape. He wasn't from her time, it wouldn't be right.

oooOOOooo

That evening she made her way to the Room of Requirement. She wasn't sure if he would be there; after all, she had told him everything about the future that she could, and they really had no reason to meet anymore. She was pleased, however, when she saw him sitting there waiting for her. She gave him a big smile and he got up and smiled back at her.

"So what do you want to do tonight?" she asked him. "We're pretty much done with twenty questions."

He looked a little embarrassed but finally asked her, "I wonder if you could teach me how to duel like you did the other day?"

Hermione burst out laughing and then began pacing in front of the room. The DA room appeared as Severus asked her what was so funny.

"You taught me half of those moves I used on Lucius."

He arched an eyebrow at her. She smiled back at him. She loved when he looked at her like that. She moved across the room and pulled out her wand.

"Alright, let's see what you've got, Severus Snape," she taunted.

Severus produced his wand and made a dueling stance. Soon they were sparring and moving around the room. He was really good, but not as good as he would be. She would never be able to best him in his adult form, but she was sparring and diverting his spells with relative ease. She finally cried Expelliarmus and disarmed him. Catching his wand, she gave him a smile.

"You're quite good," she told him while tossing back his wand to him, "but I can anticipate your moves. You hesitate slightly before almost everything you throw. Think ahead this time. Come up with five hexes you want to throw at me, and throw them silently, in succession, without pausing."

He nodded at her and they got ready. He cast the five spells quickly. She diverted all of them but the last one, which sent her flying across the room. She landed with a thud. Before she could catch her breath, Severus was at her side, offering a hand to help her up.

"I'm sorry!" he gasped at her.

She looked up at him slyly and smiled. "Now that's the Severus I'm used to dueling!"

She grasped his hand and he pulled her to a standing position. He looked at her sourly.

"I can't believe I used to hex a woman much younger than me across the room repeatedly."

Hermione giggled. "How else would I learn, Severus? If you hadn't been so unrelenting, I wouldn't have survived the final battle with Voldemort. You worked with all of my classmates when you taught Defense against the Dark Arts, and you never let us feel overconfident. You made sure that we were always on top of our game and always aware of our surroundings."

He stared at her silently for a while before asking, "When exactly did I teach Defense?"

"You taught it in my sixth year."

"I didn't keep the position?" he asked.

Hermione sighed. "It was cursed by Voldemort. No one ever lasted in the position for longer than a year until after his death."

"So I just went back to teaching Potions after that?" he asked curiously.

"Not exactly," she said hesitantly.

"Well then, what happened?"

"I told you that you made it look like you betrayed the Order. Well, you did it at the end of that year."

"What exactly did I do?"

She sighed. "You really don't want to know," she said absently.

"Oh, okay then, just forget it," he snapped. "Hermione, what did I do?"

"You tried to kill Dumbledore," she said hesitantly.

Severus' eyes grew wide. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because it's a huge convoluted story, and I didn't want to go into the why's and where's of it."

"I have all night. Tell me what happened," he demanded as he folded his arms in front of him.

Hermione began to pace as she started telling the tale.

"You see, Voldemort demanded that . . ." she hesitated. Should she tell him that Lucius has a son? What would it matter in the long run? Of course Lucius would eventually marry and have children. Continuing, she relayed, "He told Lucius' son to kill Dumbledore. Dumbledore became aware of the plot early on through your spy work. He devised a plan where you would attempt to take his life, thereby saving Malfoy from having to kill him. It would make it look like you had turned back to Voldemort's side and become a traitor to the Order, giving you the opportunity to get even more information than you had been before."

Severus narrowed his eyes at her in distaste.

"One night towards the end of the year, Harry and Dumbledore went in search of a Horcrux, but were unable to find it."

"What's a Horcrux?" Severus asked.

"It's an object that is imbued with a piece of someone's soul. Voldemort created seven of them to ensure that he would 'live forever,'" Hermione explained. "Dumbledore had been injured during their quest for one of the Horcruxes, and they returned to find that the Dark Mark was flying over Hogwarts. Malfoy had picked that night to let the Death Eaters into the castle, and he stood poised to take Dumbledore's life. Fortunately for Dumbledore, Malfoy's heart wasn't in it. You arrived moments later and shot Dumbledore with a spell that you and he had invented. To an onlooker, it would seem that the person had been killed, but it only sent them into a temporary coma. After cursing Dumbledore, you fled the castle. In all of the confusion, someone finally realized that Dumbledore was still alive and he was rushed to the infirmary, where he slowly recuperated. Unbeknownst to you, his injuries from searching for the Horcrux had weakened him considerably, so a curse that should have only taken a couple of hours to reverse itself completely wound up taking a full month.

"There was an all out manhunt for you. The Order was up in arms, thinking that you were a traitor, and most everyone in the Wizarding world hated you for trying to kill Dumbledore. Malfoy's son was hidden away until the end of the war, because he would have been killed for not being able to fulfill his mission, and Voldemort made you his right hand man, because even though you didn't accomplish the task in the end, you had tried and he was very 'grateful.'"

Severus frowned. "What other horrible things haven't you told me, Hermione?"

"Severus, first of all, I don't know half of the things you did as a Death Eater. I'm sure there are lots of unpleasant stories about that. Secondly, it doesn't matter. You have decided not to take the Mark; those things will not happen."

He regarded her for a minute, thinking about what she had said. "Are you sure there's nothing else I need to know?"

"Only that if you ever make fun of my teeth in the future, I will hex you into a wall when I return."

Severus looked from Hermione's eyes down to her perfect teeth and gave her a quizzical look.

"Suffice it to say my teeth weren't always so normal looking," she mused. "And thanks to the aforementioned Malfoy, they became even larger than usual for a short time, leaving the door open for you to make one of your caustic comments."

Severus didn't know whether to look appalled or to laugh. He stood there unsure of himself until Hermione cracked a smile.

"Obviously, I've forgiven you for that," she retorted. "Come on, let's continue our duel."

Severus let himself grin for a moment before walking back to his position and taking his stance.

"Alright," she said. "No more easy stuff."

His eyes grew wide as he realized she had been going lightly with him. She grinned and took advantage of his surprise, sending a hex his way. He barely had time to shield it when another one was coming for him. He fell to the ground and rolled away, pointing backwards and sending his own hex at her.

"Good one!" she cried as she dodged it and sent one directly at his prone body.

He scrambled to get out of the way, but caught the hex anyway. Ignoring it, he shot one at her.

"That's right, ignore what doesn't incapacitate you," she instructed.

Finally, after quite a few hexes and a lot of jumping around the room, Hermione caught him and sent him flying into the wall. He slumped to the floor, half dazed. She rushed over to him and extended her hand to help him up. He looked at her curiously, not knowing where he was for a moment.

"You're beautiful," he murmured as she knelt and looked at him with concern. His eyes looked hazy still. Hermione blushed and fished in her pocket, pulling out a small vial.

"Here, take this," she offered it to him.

He unstoppered the bottle and downed it. "Mmm, orangey," he said. "What is it?"

"A strengthening solution. I always carry some with me just in case."

His head seemed to clear instantly. "Why would you carry this around?" he asked her, staring at the empty vial.

She smiled ruefully. "Old war habit," she murmured. "It's an extra spurt of energy if I've been hit by a curse. It's supposed to give me an extra edge."

"Does it work?"

"Don't know. I never used it. I was always too busy ducking and fighting to even think about it. It's more of a ritual than anything."

She helped him to a standing position. "I'm exhausted," she told him.

Severus nodded his head in agreement. Hermione called a house-elf and asked him to bring them something to drink. He appeared in an instant with two tall glasses of iced water.

"Thank you, Nubby," she told the elf. He bowed low and disappeared.

We need a sofa, she thought.

Suddenly one appeared and she made her way to it. They both sat down and sipped their water quietly.

"Hermione?" Severus asked, breaking the companionable silence.

"Mmm?" she said.

"Would you mind if we kept meeting up here? I could do with a little peace and quiet to get my homework done. It's always as loud as a zoo in the common room, and I get tired of going to the library all the time."

Hermione's heart began to beat faster. He wanted to spend time with her.

"Sure, that would be great. I'll bring the mountain of exams Mallory hands to me every day. I swear that woman gives more tests than any other teacher I have ever met!"

Severus sighed. "And I thought it was just me thinking that."

"Don't get me wrong; Professor Rickta is a great teacher, but talk about testing a subject to death! Once a week per class is more than enough, but she insists on a daily quiz and bi-weekly exam. One thing is for sure, none of you will be failing your Arithmancy NEWTs."

Severus got a gleam in his eye. "Do you think we could brew up here?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I suppose," she said.

"Perhaps you could teach me a trick or two," he mused.

Hermione choked on her water.

"What?" Severus asked caustically.

"Severus, you have been more advanced than me in Potions since, oh I don't know, probably since you started here! There's not a thing I could teach you. However, you could probably teach me a thing or two."

"How do you know about my ability in Potions at this age?"

"Harry came across a sixth-year textbook that was owned by the Half Blood Prince." She smiled knowingly at him. "Your additions to the text were incredibly insightful. Even at your age now, you have a flair that few have for that subject."

"Have you ever brewed with me?"

She put her water down. "Actually I have brewed with you often. We would meet weekly to replenish the infirmary stores."

"And you never picked anything up from me in those times."

She scrunched up her face. "Well, yes I did, but . . ."

"So maybe you could teach me something I don't know yet?"

"Perhaps, but I doubt it. You're a genius when it comes to Potions, Severus. They should have just given you your NEWT last year without pretense."

He stared at her. She really respected him. He was five years younger than she, but she fully admitted that he had a talent that she didn't have.

"I thought you said you were a know-it-all."

"Oh, I am, and don't you forget it," she joked. "Believe me, Severus Snape, that's the only subject you'll ever outdo me in." She smiled at him.

"Ouch," he said.

She went on, "I hate to admit it, but you were right when you called me a know-it-all in my third year. I was very upset about it, but after that I tried not to look so snobby. I still answered questions, but I didn't try to answer all of them."

"I'm sorry I was mean to you as a teacher," Severus said quietly.

Hermione looked at Severus in shock. "Did you just apologize to me?" she said incredulously.

He nodded.

"Wow," she said.

He looked at her, wondering why she had said that.

"Thank you," she said finally. "I know apologizing doesn't come easily to you."

He looked at her curiously. "I don't have any problem saying I'm sorry when I need to."

She looked over at him, trying to see if he was serious. He was.

"I'm sorry then. I guess I'm confusing the future Severus with you. He never apologizes. Sometimes he would gruffly say that he 'hadn't meant for something to happen the way it did,'" she mimicked, her voice lowering considerably, "but he never apologized."

Severus scowled at her imitation of his future self and then looked at her meaningfully.

"I'll try to never become that gruff man who can't apologize, Hermione. That's not the man I want to be."

She smiled at him thinly. "I don't think he wanted to be that man either."

A/N: Next up: More Marauder teasing.

Thanks everyone for your reviews. ;)