The Library

Disclaimer: These are only my toys, not my inventions.

Thanks to my wonderful Beta hp4freek. Thanks for all of your help! Thanks to Southern Witch for the once over and corrections. Thanks to all who have read and reviewed. I've enjoyed the constructive criticism and tried to put your suggestions to good use!

Chapter Four: The Library

That evening at dinner, Hermione and Severus were engrossed in conversation. They were becoming fast friends. Severus latched onto the attention because nobody had ever cared about him before. The closest thing to a friend he'd ever had previously was Lily Evans. Even then, the only reason why Lily retained such a title was that she occasionally stopped those Black and Potter brats from harassing him. She would sit with him for Potions lessons sometimes, where they would have conversations that were pleasant enough; but that was only when she was running late, and she was resigned to sit next to him.

Hermione had latched onto the attention because she wanted an ally in this strange time. Little did she know that befriending Severus Snape would inevitably alienate her from the entirety of Hogwarts. She ate her dinner relatively quickly. Hermione was enjoying her conversations with Severus, but she wanted to do some research. She never really had any intelligent conversations with Harry and Ron. She loved them dearly, but all they ever really wanted to talk about was Quidditch. They only ever really asked her about homework if they needed her to correct their work. But, they were friends, practically family even. They were always there for each other when someone needed help. She missed them, but she knew that things would get better now that she had a friend and ally with Severus.

"Sev," Hermione gauged his reaction for a moment before adding, "is it alright if I call you Sev?"

Severus thought about it for a moment. Nobody had ever given him a nickname before. He liked his full name and had often thought he would be offended if anyone ever tried to shorten it. He often thought he would be indignant to having a nickname. With Hermione, though, it gave him a bit of a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. He smiled at her. "No, I actually kind of like it."

Hermione smiled in return. "Well, Sev, I hate to cut this short, but I've got some work to do... I'll see you tonight in the common room though, right?" She added that last part hastily, when she saw his face falter momentarily. It was at that moment that she made the connection to what he had said this morning, about normally eating alone.

After a final smile to Severus, she picked up her bag, which she had brought with her to dinner, then headed off to the library. She wanted to do a bit of research about time travel. She didn't remember reading about any witches or wizards travelling back any substantial amount of time, only a few hours at a time with the aid of a Time-Turner. She may have to find a professor to give her a note to look in the Restricted Section. Perhaps Professor Dumbledore would be the person to ask for that. Hermione decided to concentrate on looking where she could now and worry about obtaining notes for the Restricted Section after she had exhausted her other options first.

Hermione walked through the library shelves and stacked books into her arms. By the time she completed her preliminary rounds, the pile of books was nearly taller than see was! She did a quick scan of the table of contents, before deciding how close to the top of the pile the book was, and then began reading. She had gotten through the first three books in the pile, when there was a noise immediately to her right. The table shifted slightly, and her pile of books looked in danger of falling. She looked up, ready to tell whoever bumped into her table "Watch where you're going." She saw a rather familiar face with a blush creeping up starting at his neck. Severus quickly tried to close his book and hide the title from Hermione. The mildly angry look on Hermione's face immediately changed, and a smile appeared in its place.

"Oh, hey, Sev; I didn't think I'd see you here."

"Oh, hi; I'm, uh, I'm just doing some, um, light reading..."

Hermione craned her neck to try to see what book he was so engrossed in that he was walking into tables. He pulled the front cover to his chest and tried to cover the binding with the draping sleeve of his robes.

"Oh, it's nothing, just some book on Potions; really dry reading, really. I'm sure you wouldn't like it."

"Actually, I find Potions really intriguing." Hermione made a final effort to read the book binding when she caught part of the authors' name. The book was by Pearsonelle H. Jean. "Is that the 'Potions for Personal Use' book? I've often thought of checking it for some sort of shampoo that would make my hair more... manageable. I never actually got around to looking it up, though.

"Really?" Severus asked her incredulously.

"Really. Really," Hermione assured him.

"My hair is a bit unruly itself. The only way I can get it to lay flat is if it looks like this..." The blush returned to Severus' face.

Hermione tried to dissipate his nerves. "Well, if you find something you think could be useful, we can brew it together, and we'll both give it a try. At least then, if something goes terribly wrong, we can look like drowned rats together."

Severus let out a bit of a nervous laugh. He was still a little embarrassed, but at least she wasn't going to tease him. "So, what are you looking up, anyway? There are so many books here, had I not walked into your table, I never would have seen you."

"All of this?" It was Hermione's turn to blush slightly. Severus didn't know the whole story, and she wanted to keep it that way. "I, um, I wanted to learn more about time travel. Sometimes I just like to research, you know? Pick a random topic and learn what I can about it." She lied a bit, adding in that last part, but it seemed like a reasonable lie. It would, hopefully, avoid any awkward questions regarding why she was so interested in the topic.

Severus smiled at this information. Maybe she would be interested in going through his personal library at some point. He made a mental note to let her borrow one of his books on the Dark Arts at some point, and gauge her reaction to it. She would be an interesting addition to the group he'd been spending his time with outside of school. He would spend a lot of his summer and holidays with Voldemort and his followers. He was a private political party. Voldemort was setting the groundwork to try to become Minister of Magic someday. He was a brilliant man, he really was. He wants to make some real changes to current policies. Minster Wanda DiFieet was a bit of an inept woman.

"Well, I'm going to get going then," Severus said, making an attempt to leave and research in private.

"Don't be silly, there's room for you here. You can join me if you wish." Severus thought his heart had bounded into his throat. He had never been asked to join anyone before! Hermione started moving books, so he had a place to work, and Severus gratefully accepted her offer.

Severus began flipping through the book he had taken, trying not to stay on any particular page too long. He didn't want to be caught on any page that could be considered too embarrassing. Pages that he passed included a hair-removing potion, a hair-growing potion, and various cleaning potions for household uses. The closer to the back he got the more questionable the information became. He found potions for medicinal uses, and he even stumbled across some sexual enhancing potions. He paled instantly with a blush creeping up his face immediately afterwards.

Hermione happened to pick that moment of horrification to steal a glance at Severus. A look of concern covered her face. "Sev, are you alright? You like a little ill."

He tried to collect himself, but found it difficult. "Unexpected part of the book..." Severus turned the book for her to see; he wasn't about to start reading from the page for her. Hermione glanced at the title of the potion and saw it was for endurance. Her eyes scanned down the page, and she was greeted with a cartoon-like image of a witch and wizard in mid sexual romp. The image seemed to be of the cartoon witch orgasming, and below that, was an image of a penis reaching climax, but remaining hard. A slight blush also came to Hermione's cheeks. She didn't have much experience with males and relationships other than friendship, but she had a feeling she knew more than Severus did.

Her relationship tally definitely wasn't very big. Hermione had her crush on Ron, of course, but nothing ever happened with that. He never acted on anything, and she decided that she loved him, but he was like her brother. The same went for Harry. There was Viktor in her fourth year. He'd asked her to be his date to the Yule ball. They hadn't done much more than had a few stolen kisses. They'd kept in contact with owls for a while, but lost touch; he was another one who wasn't much for intelligent conversation. There were a few Muggle boys from home, too. Nothing more than curling up together while watching a movie, or sitting together reading; maybe some hand holding and stolen kisses. She couldn't claim to have participated in any of the activities pictured on these two pages. She quickly turned the page, so she could stop watching that witch in the throes of passion. The next page wasn't much better. It was a potion used to enhance the sensitive feelings... down there. A deeper blush came to her face, and she found it hard to look Severus in the eye.

"I think it may be advisable to check the table of contents to see when this section ends. The potions only seem to be getting more inappropriate. It's a wonder this book wasn't from the Restricted Section." Hermione told him as she pushed the book back across the table.

Severus flipped to the back of the book. "It might just be from the Restricted Section; there's no place in the back to sign the book out." Severus decided to take this book with him. He wanted to do some reading, in the privacy of his bed curtains. He wanted a chance to carefully study this book. Besides, how will I be able to brew my hair care potions without the book?

Notes: I've gotten a chance to do some writing. I have the next chapter finished, and I'm working on chapter 6!