Chapter 10: Unrelated to Science

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

Thanks go to VIVAvivacious for all of her help as the beta for this chapter.

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All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child.

– Marie Curie

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Greenwich, Ipswich: 20th September, 2009

Snape sighed and stared at the fireplace, the flames crackling gently with their movement before he moved his gaze to the window. He had been sitting in his study for the most part of the day. If he were totally honest, he had been rather unenthusiastic about anything for the past two weeks. He had not seen Hermione once during that time, nor had he left his house for anything other than essentials. A week before, he had received a letter from the Ministry of Magic, putting the official seal of approval on the potion and stating that the Ministry would be delighted to host a press conference for the two of them.

Snape neither replied to the letter nor gave it much thought. He had been too preoccupied with the reports in the Daily Prophet and the rumours that had already infected the public about a clandestine relationship between him and Hermione – a relationship that did not exist, and nor would it ever. Any hope that he might have had for a chance of returned feelings from Hermione had been dashed a fortnight ago.

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. All of this thinking in circles he had been doing was giving him the headache from hell. Earlier in the week, he had been on the cusp on making the decision to go and see Hermione and confess his feelings for her, and now he was back to square one, fretting and as nervous as a teenager. He was 50 years old, for God's sake.

When he opened his eyes, they fell upon the recording journal he and Hermione had been writing all their research and the actual potion instructions in. He hadn't touched it since the last time he had visited the Longbottoms at St. Mungo's. From what he had read in the paper and in letters from Neville, Frank and Alice were making quite a decent recovery. Their memories were still patchy in places, but it was a miracle that they had come so far. They would undoubtedly be in hospital for a few months for monitoring and to help them with physiotherapy and magical stimulation to get their dormant bodies used to movement again.

Neville had also reported that Hermione had been there several times to help with their therapy and to monitor their progress.

Hermione had been there without him, and she had not informed him she would be continuing on without him. He had not received a letter from her since the last time she wrote to convince him not to go into seclusion because of the newspapers. It was his own damned fault. He had not replied, and so she had not bothered to pry and bully him further. It had been what he had wanted at the time, but now he felt a fool for it. He was far too ashamed of his own behaviour to even face her at that point.

Growling in frustration, he hauled himself out of his chair and began pacing.

What the hell was he doing, wasting away in his house by himself? He was becoming a worse recluse than he had been before the fall of the Dark Lord. The only thing left to do was to pick himself up with what little dignity he had left and go to apologise to Hermione to patch up the friendship they had begun to form before he had drowned himself in his pointless self-doubt.

He was above letting the stupid, pitiful mongrels at the Daily Prophet bring him down with their lies and defamation. He was Severus Snape after all, and he was not a man who feared his reputation being tarnished. People were still afraid of him, and he had every intention of reinforcing that fear when he was finished speaking to Hermione and getting their potion completely sorted out.

Walking over to the mantel of the fireplace, he grabbed the small clock to check the time and balked. It was already after 10 p.m. He had no business going to Hermione's house at that time of the night. Sighing heavily, he leaned his head against the wall and returned the clock to its former position on the mantel. He would have to wait until morning to disturb her.

He had really hoped to be able to apologise to her for his severe overreaction that very moment.

Gathering himself together, he pushed away from the wall and sat back in his armchair, pulling the research journal towards him. If he wasn't going to see Hermione until the next day, he would at least get some work done in the meantime. Summoning a quill, some ink, and spare parchment, Snape finally got to work for the first time in many days.

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Wythenshawe, Manchester: 21st September, 2009

The sun was on its way up, and bright beams of light were filtering through the curtains in Hermione's bedroom when she finally woke up that morning. Yawning and stretching out like a cat, she turned on her side to find her wand and check the time. She saw that it was only 7:00 a.m. Groaning, she was sorely tempted to pull her pillow over her head and go back to sleep for another few hours. However, common sense kicked in, and she hauled herself out of bed.

She walked by the windows and opened the curtains more fully, allowing the bright morning sun to fill the room. It was the first day after two full weeks of rain that the sky was clear and blue. She opened the window a tiny crack and shivered. It was getting cooler every day as autumn set in.

After stopping by her bathroom to perform her morning ablutions, she pulled a deep purple wool sweater over her cotton pyjamas, stuffed her feet in black slippers, and made her way down to the kitchen. She put on the kettle and pulled out fixings for tea and toast. Ten minutes later she was sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling on her toast while her tea was steeping. She had a copy of the Daily Prophet as well as The Quibbler in front of her and was flipping through, not really paying close attention.

When both she and Snape had refused to react publicly to the claims in the Prophet two weeks earlier, the paper stopped making them front page news, as readers were obviously getting bored of the same old clap-trap. Hermione wasn't surprised. She couldn't think of anything more boring than reading about herself.

She lifted the lid of the teapot to check on the state of her tea. Happy with the darkness of the brew, she lifted the pot to pour herself a cup when there was a knock at the door.

Surprised that she hadn't felt a shift in her wards, she assumed it might have been one of the Potters or Ron coming by so early. She always left her wards open to the people she trusted. Pulling herself out of her chair, she went to the front door to let her visitor in. Without bothering to look through the peephole, she opened the door – and almost immediately regretted it.

Instead of her school friends, Severus Snape's dark, towering figure stood on her doorstep – with a look of surprise on his face at her state of dress, she imagined.

'Severus!' she exclaimed, her nervousness and embarrassment causing her to almost squeak at him. 'What brings you here so early?'

Snape opened his mouth to reply, but he said nothing and closed his mouth again. Hermione detected an air of nervousness about him, and she decided to spare him, even though she was mildly annoyed with him for closing himself off and not speaking to her for the past two weeks. She reached out and took his hand, leading him out of the cold and closing the door once he was inside. Ever the courteous host, she took his coat and hung it in the cupboard with hers and directed him to the kitchen so that she could return to her breakfast.

'Would you like a cup of tea?' she asked as she poured herself one and waved her wand at the breadbox so more bread floated into the toaster.

'Tea would be grand,' Snape answered, allowing her to push him down into one of the chairs at the table before she shuffled about the kitchen.

She grabbed another mug from the cupboard and collected the toast that was ready and brought it all to the table, placing a plate and knife in front of Snape and a mug of steaming, strong black tea in his cold hands. He had not worn gloves, and the chill in the air was enough to make them go numb if one wasn't careful. She finally resumed her seat and buttered a slice of toast for herself before coating it liberally with peach jam.

'So, you were going to tell me why you decided to grace me with your presence this early in the morning, were you not?' she said, taking a bite of her toast.

'Impudent woman,' he muttered, picking up a piece of toast and buttering it despite himself. 'I came to apologise for my lack of... presence, as it were, for the past couple of weeks. I was... wallowing.'

'I assumed as much,' Hermione said with a triumphant grin. It wasn't quite the apology she had hoped for, but it was probably the best she could expect from Snape.

'I am sorry, Hermione. I made a commitment to our work, and I have been remiss in fulfilling my part of this project,' he said, staring at the table.

'I accept your apology, Severus,' she said with a chuckle and a smile. 'You can relax now – I'm not going to bite your head off. I knew, despite our last conversation, that you were bound to reflect on the whole debacle poorly and compare it to all the other times you were publicly deprecated.'

Snape nodded and took a bite of his toast and a swig of tea. 'I know I have been a poor partner in our work recently, so last night I went to work and transcribed all of our work into a final and clearer copy, so we might refer to it instead of the journal with all its scribblings. It will make it clearer for documentation purposes.'

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. 'But this must have taken you all night!' she exclaimed when he pulled it out of his robes and enlarged the book. 'Did you make more than one copy?'

'I made one copy for each of us and filed the original journal in the warded section of my library,' he said, looking almost proud of himself.

She smiled. 'Thank you for doing this, Severus,' she said, reaching out and placing her hand on his, giving it a brief squeeze.

His hand tightened under her touch, and she quickly removed her hand. She had relished the brief moment of skin on skin, but it had not lasted long enough for her to truly enjoy it. Snape was not the kind of man one touched freely and often. He had a personal space bubble a foot out from his person.

'So, are there any other surprises you have for me?' she asked, picking up her toast and resuming eating.

'Well, as I am sure you know, we have been offered the opportunity to hold a public press conference at the Ministry. I sent an owl out this morning to the representative asking that one be organised for next Saturday morning. I hope that this is agreeable to you,' he replied, hesitantly.

'That's fine,' she answered. 'I will have enough time to prepare before then.'

Hermione looked up from her food to see Snape staring at her, his eyes wide and anxious. He looked as though he hadn't slept, which of course she knew he hadn't. He also had what looked to be three days worth of stubble, at the very least. She sighed inwardly. That man did not know how to take care of himself. Strangely, it was one of his more endearing qualities, and she felt her heart flutter in her chest just watching him.

She forced herself to be calm. It was no use losing her head over Snape, not when she knew there was no chance for him to return her regard.

'I have to teach today,' Hermione said, putting an end to the awkward silence.

'I'm not getting in your way, am I?' Snape asked.

'I don't have to teach until later today, but I will ask you to excuse me so I might go and change into something more appropriate,' she said, blushing. 'Had I known you were coming, I would have been dressed properly before you arrived.'

'It was my fault for arriving at your doorstep unannounced,' he said, bowing his head in apology. 'I can leave now if you'd prefer...'

Hermione shook her head. 'No, stay and finish your tea and toast,' she answered quickly. 'I was planning to stop in at St. Mungo's to visit the Longbottoms on my way to the Institute. Perhaps you might like to join me? I know Frank and Alice would be thrilled to see you again.'

Snape nodded in concession, so Hermione turned on her heel and headed up to her bedroom. She closed the door and leaned against it to give herself a moment to get it together. Her thoughts were scattered all over the place. She never thought that something so simple as having feelings for someone would make her think so irrationally. But, she reasoned in her mind, perhaps it was a little more complicated than she wanted it to be.

Snapping back out of her thoughts, she quickly shed her pyjamas and pulled on black stockings and a knee-length wool knit dress in violet with a turtleneck collar. She quickly tidied her hair and wound it into a bun low at the back of her neck. Pulling on a pair of black boots, she left her room, applying some lip balm as she walked down the stairs to the kitchen. She found the kitchen spotlessly clean and saw Snape with his shirt-sleeves rolled to his elbows. He was drying the last of the dishes they had used that morning by hand and floating them into the cabinet with the rest of her dinnerware.

'Thank you,' she said, a little stunned.

'It was no problem,' Snape said, hanging up the tea towel and rolling down the white sleeves of his shirt.

Hermione led the way to the front entry and handed Snape his frock coat and long, black winter cloak as well. She grabbed her black teaching robes and pulled them on, pocketing her wand. After she made certain that the wards were intact, she looped her arm around Snape's and they Apparated together. Hermione let go of his arm when they arrived in the lobby at St. Mungo's and followed him to the lift. They got off on the third floor, where the Longbottoms had been transferred to, and walked in silence to their new room.

Snape looked surprised to find that the room had been decorated in the same manner that their previous room in the long-term ward had been. Hermione and Neville had gone to the effort of transferring everything themselves a week beforehand when they had moved them.

'Hello, Severus,' Frank Longbottom greeted with a smile.

'Sorry that I haven't been by lately,' Snape said, walking into the room and taking the chair between Frank's and Alice's beds. 'How are you feeling, Alice?'

'I'm feeling much better than you are looking today, Severus,' she said with a soft chuckle. 'Have you not slept?'

Hermione laughed along with the Longbottoms at that and entered the room, walking directly over to Alice and giving the older woman a friendly peck on the cheek. Since Neville's parents had "awoken" from their state of vegetation as such, Hermione had been spending a great deal of time with them talking about their past, sharing stories about her own life with them in exchange, and just getting to know the people who missed out on the chance to raise their only son.

'Severus has been busy working on a few things for our potion,' Hermione said with a bright smile in his direction.

'This remarkable woman has told us all about your exploits over the past thirty years, Severus,' Frank said with a smirk that made her proud.

'I don't believe I gave her leave to be telling all and sundry the dark secrets of my past as a spy,' Snape said, looking up at Hermione, and she thought for a moment she saw fondness in his dark, inscrutable eyes.

She blinked and gave herself a mental shake, but when she looked back at Snape, he had returned his focus to Frank and Alice. Hermione pulled up a seat on the other side of Alice and listened while the three of them chatted and reminisced about their time at Hogwarts and the brief period during which they had served as members of the Order of the Phoenix when they had been younger than Hermione was that very moment.

After Merlin only knew how long, she looked up at the clock on the wall and saw it was thirty minutes until a class for which she was supposed to be giving a lecture was to begin. She stood and brushed invisible wrinkles from her robes.

'Well, as much as I am loathe to leave, I have to dash,' Hermione announced. 'I've got a class to teach.'

'I'll see you out,' Snape said, standing and following her out.

Hermione stopped him at the door and shook her head. 'I'll be fine, but thank you for the offer,' she said with a smile, and without thinking, she leaned up and kissed his rough, stubbly cheek.

When she pulled back and realised what she had done, she was mortified. Snape's eyes were unreadable, and she could feel her stomach tying itself in knots. Before he could say anything more, however, she fled, walking down the hallway without daring to look back.

She was not sure how she'd be able to face him again any time soon.

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To be continued.