Chapter 4

She appeared in his lab about an hour later than usual the next evening. She looked a little more disheveled and tired than she had in the past.

"How was your day?" Hermione asked him.

"I'm still dead. I didn't leave the house. I worked on my potion and did some research. I know that you're only bothering with the niceties because you want me to ask about your day, so spare me the formalities and just tell me already."

Much to his amusement, Hermione blushed a little bit.

"Well, my day was pretty good. You know that it was the first day of school, right?"

"Really? After you told me at least thirty times last night, it somehow slipped my mind."

"No need to be sarcastic. Anyhow, I had the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years in the beginning. They're kind of cute. I can't believe that I was ever that young!"

Severus snorted. The girl was setting herself up to get eaten alive by the children. "Cute? Don't be fooled into thinking they're cute. They're brats who will take advantage at the first opportunity. And yes, Hermione, you were that young and you were also a brat. A know-it-all brat, the worst kind!"

Rather than acting offended, she chuckled. "I'd like to see how you were at that age."

"Ugly, more awkward than I am now, and completely stupid and naïve." Hermione looked taken aback by his bluntness. She stayed silent for a moment, then finally spoke.

"I think that you're too critical of yourself, Severus."

"And I think that you're too eager to approve of everyone you meet. I grew out of my naivety, but it seems like you never will," he said viciously.

Immediately after he had said the words, he regretted them, for he could see the hurt in her eyes. Without thinking, he reached out towards her, momentarily forgetting that he was dead. "Hermione, I..."

He trailed off as his hand made contact with the skin on her arm. A strange feeling of warmth came over him, one that he hadn't felt in quite some time. He could feel the blood coursing through her veins, her pulse. It had been so long since he had felt human contact. She felt so alive, which reminded him painfully that he was still very much dead.

He could feel the inquisitive gaze of her hazel eyes. He was suddenly awash with desire, to touch her cheek, to kiss her lips, to brush several strands of her light brown hair away from her face. His gaze focused on her lips for a moment, then met her eyes.

A slight blush began creeping up her cheeks. Immediately, she turned her head away.

"I'm sorry, I should go. I'll talk to you again tomorrow night. Goodnight, Severus."

The skin, the heartbeat, the sensation disappeared all at once. His hand was now touching dead air.

Severus sighed. Had he crossed the line? Reaching out to touch her had been impulsive. She had felt so warm...he could only assume that he felt cold. That had probably been why she didn't want to continue talking to him.

Stupid! he thought to himself. He had most likely frightened her away. No doubt she thought he was nothing more than a creepy old dead man, which was actually pretty close to the truth.

The dead and living shouldn't communicate in this way, he thought. It's just not right.

That was why their experiment had to succeed. Otherwise, they would be doing this forever. Or at least until Hermione Granger got tired of him, which he hoped would never happen.

Severus spent all of the next day working on the potion. Since he had begun talking to Hermione, he had become extremely productive. He had gotten more done in the last few weeks than he had in the previous six months. Once he had found a way to get to the other world, his motivation had greatly increased.

If he continued at this pace, he could finish by Christmas. Hopefully she could create the complex charms and potions needed by then. Unfortunately, she actually had other things to do, whereas he could devote every moment of his time to this project if necessary.

But he had no doubt that she would succeed. He just hoped that both of their parts in this worked together.

"How was your day?" he asked when she appeared in front of him that evening. He had been worried that their conversation would be awkward after the previous night, but she just looked exhausted and unhappy.

"Um, it was okay."

"Just okay?"

"I had the second year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw class brewing a Sleeping Draught to be tested later tonight, but one cauldron exploded. And the next thing I knew, eight of them had turned bright purple and were fast asleep on the ground."

Severus chuckled. "I remember in my first few weeks, I tried to get my Gryffindor/Slytherin fifth year class to brew Polyjuice. After a cauldron exploded, most of the class, including me, ended up in the Hospital Wing. All of us were horribly disfigured."

Hermione grinned. "Really?" He was glad to see her expression change; he didn't want to have shared a rather embarrassing story about himself for nothing.

He almost smiled thinking of it. That had been the first day he realized how satisfying it was to take House Points.

"Yes. I hope you took off a hefty amount of points from the student who caused the explosion."

"Twenty."

"I would have taken at least fifty. How were your other classes?"

"I'm quite pleased with the Gryffindor and Slytherin classes so far. They've behaved themselves rather well. I mixed up the entire class so that every student is sitting with someone from the other House. So far, nobody has hexed another student in my class."

"That's good." His classes with the two Houses had always given him a lot of headaches. He wondered if the animosity between the two had cooled over the past five years. It was doubtful; the students were probably on their best behavior since it was the beginning of the year. Most likely Hermione would be pulling her hair out within a few weeks. "And the ability of the students?"

"Much better than I expected."

"I suppose that would be the case if you had no expectations whatsoever. I've always found that the majority of students lack the motivation and mental aptitude to gain more than a superficial understanding of the subject. Each year, my expectations got lower and lower. Rarely were they exceeded."

He could remember few instances where one of his students had done better than he had predicted. Hermione Granger was one example. Even when he first met her, he had not been overly impressed with her Potions ability. She certainly had much more motivation than her peers, but her high scores had been, in his opinion, due only to her talent for memorization. However, her work after graduation made him realize how extraordinary her ability truly was. Perhaps his inability to realize how capable she was had to do with his disapproval of her friends, who had been mediocre Potions students.

"How is the potion coming along?" she asked him, changing the subject.

"Quite well, actually. I added the phoenix tears today."

"Wow, Severus, that's wonderful. I'm planning to devote my entire weekend to our project. If I work every weekend over the next three months, I think I can finish it."

He was fairly certain that if he had had a pulse, it would have quickened at the sight of the look of hope in her eyes. Because he knew that the hope was for his future, his life.

After the two of them had said goodnight, he went to his living room and relaxed in a large chair by the warm fire. He thought...as he had many times in the last twenty-four hours...back to the previous night, when he had touched her skin. He wanted to do it again. Was it because of the life in her? Perhaps. But inside of him was a different feeling, one that he had only experienced with one other person.

He knew that it wasn't just because she was alive, or because she was there and nobody else was. The spark in her eyes, the passion in her voice when she talked about her work had all slowly worked their way into his heart. Every time he saw her, he felt almost happy. The amazing thing was that he hadn't felt this way since he was a teenager.

He was falling in love with Hermione Granger.

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The two of them fell into a routine. Severus would research and brew during the day while she was teaching. They would talk every evening after dinner for anywhere from two minutes to five hours. Hermione would usually spend the weekends working on modifying the Resurrection Stone.

She had slowly gotten used to teaching her classes, and she came to the realization that perhaps teaching was what she was meant to do. She enjoyed working with the students much more than doing pure research. She loved the looks of curiosity on their faces, the enthusiasm that some of them had for Potions. Of course, there were a handful of students who preferred sleeping to classes and practical jokes to Potions, but the majority of them were, for the most part, good learners.

The highlight of her day, however, always came after dinner. She really enjoyed talking to Severus Snape. In the beginning, he had been abrasive and some of his remarks had been downright cruel, but the two of them had warmed up to each other. She had spoken to him every night over the past three months, and she couldn't imagine not doing so.

She was a little afraid, though. What would happen if their project failed? Would they always talk like this, with only the Resurrection Stone to connect them? She would go insane.

Hermione sighed. Her feelings for Severus Snape confused her. She found herself growing more and more fond of him. She constantly thought back to the night when he had touched her. His hand had been cool, but a jolt of electricity had coursed through her. Had he felt it too?

He hadn't touched her since then. It was probably better for both of them that way. He had been right when he had told her not to get her hopes up. In the end, she might end up feeling horribly disappointed and heartbroken.

She had been making a lot of progress with the Resurrection Stone. She had brewed a complex, dark potion that she had poured on the Stone. Currently, she was at a point where she could charm objects, then give them to him while holding the Resurrection Stone in her other hand. In the past, they could see only each other. Now if she was holding something, it would actually appear to him, and he could keep it even after she let go of the Stone. It also worked the other way...he could give her an object from his world.

She had considerably weakened the barrier between life and death. It wouldn't be long before the two of them could pass through it.

"Hermione," Severus said to her one Saturday night in December, "I need your help with one more thing in this experiment. I need a special ingredient and only you can provide me with it."

"Oh?"

"I need a vial of your blood."

"My blood?" she asked with uncertainty in her voice.

He looked uncomfortable. "I wouldn't ask for it if there was any other way, but I've come to the realization that this will not work without the blood of a living human being."

She was quiet for a moment. Of course she should have expected it...human blood was necessary for a potion of this nature. But it felt strange for her. If the potion worked properly and brought him back to life, her blood would flow through his veins until he died a second time. It was quite an intimate thing to share.

Despite her reservations, she nodded. "Of course, Severus. Just give me a few minutes and I'll get it for you."

She put down the Resurrection Stone and walked to the Hospital Wing. Luckily, Madam Pomfrey was out and the few students who were present were sleeping, so there was nobody to ask questions. She found a sterilized needle and stuck it into a vein in her arm.

Hermione had taken her own blood before, but she didn't like doing it. She was certainly not squeamish, but throughout the entire time her blood was draining into the vial, she kept her eyes averted and told herself that it was absolutely necessary to help Severus.

"Here it is," she said after summoning him again. She gave him the vial.

"Thank you, Hermione." He stared into the vial for a few moments. Had she done something wrong? It was certainly human blood, but he seemed mesmerized by it. "Thank you," he said again.

She nodded. "You're welcome. Is everything okay?"

He snapped out of it and quickly changed the subject. "Of course. How has your project been coming along?"

"Very well; I think that I made a substantial discovery today. We'll see tomorrow."

"May I ask what it is?"

She smiled secretively. "You may, but I won't answer. It's a surprise."

She spent the rest of that evening and the next day working on the Stone. After trying an extensive number of charms, she was confident that it would work.

That night, she turned the Stone three times. Suddenly she was hit with a rush of cold air. She was no longer in her cosy sitting room at Hogwarts; she was now in his laboratory, in the world of the dead.

"Good evening, Hermione," he said.

Hermione didn't speak. She could only look in awe around her. As far as potions laboratories went, it was fairly ordinary. Perhaps the normality was what amazed her most about it. The setup was very similar to her own lab. It had white walls and several workspaces with a few stools. Various ingredients on shelves lined the walls, and several doors led to other rooms, presumably for storage. He had cauldrons of various sizes and materials, several of which had potions in them. She could see a large silver cauldron in the corner, and she knew immediately what it was.

Severus Snape had been watching her questioningly.

"Hermione, what in the world are you doing?"

"Looking around your lab. It looks very much like my own."

"You can see it?" he said. Although he rarely showed emotion, she could hear the delight in his voice.

She gestured towards the silver cauldron. "May I?"

He nodded and walked with her to it. She stared down at the deep red liquid, bubbling inside of it.

"I just added three drops of your blood into it last night. Now I have to let it sit for five days."

"And then?"

"I test it."

Chills ran through her body. Perhaps it was the cold air of death around her, but more likely it was the idea that it might be over soon. And she could not predict the outcome.

"Severus, give me your hand." He held out his right hand and she took it in hers, which held the Stone. Suddenly they were out of his laboratory and in her quarters.

She kept his hand in hers, knowing that if she let go, he would be gone.

"Hermione, this is amazing," he said. She looked into his eyes, which rather than studying their surroundings, were staring at her with longing. Her heart began pounding in her chest. For a moment, she thought that he was going to kiss her, but he just pulled her to him, his left arm around her. His right hand was still intertwined with hers.

He held her for quite some time that evening, neither of them wanting to let go.

Finally, she pulled back, still keeping his hand in hers. "I'm going to sleep, Severus. Good night."

Impulsively, she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she let go of the Resurrection Stone and his hand. The Stone fell to the ground and he was gone.

She picked it up from the floor and looked at it. Who would ever guess that a simple black rock could be so powerful?