Part 2

When somebody knocked on his door, Severus was surprised to discover that it was 7 o'clock precisely. He was even more shocked to discover that while he had been plotting how to get out of that dinner date he had passed the time with showering and washing his hair, shaving and putting on cologne, dressing in his finest robes, setting a table with a white table cloth and a flower arrangement that he suspected he had transfigured from something or other, and lit several candles. He even had the bouquet from the mantelpiece in his hand already as he went to open the door, knowing that once he did he would be lost.

"Hermione, do come inside," he said and handed her the bouquet. "These are for you."

Severus was fairly certain he had just given her another handful of his best quills. If he was going to keep giving them away at this speed, he would have to go to Hogsmeade next weekend and purchase some new ones.

"I have some purchases to make in Hogsmeade next Saturday," he told her. "Would you care to have tea with me there?"

Not again! It seemed like it was completely impossible for him to say anything at all to her without asking her out.

"Yes, that would be nice," Hermione answered, and Severus heaved a mental long-suffering sigh. Apparently he just couldn't win.

"I must apologise for not having come to pick you up at your own quarters, though," he continued. "It wasn't considerate to let you walk through the corridors on your own at this time of night. Anything might have--"

"Severus, please," Hermione interrupted. "This is Hogwarts, remember? The corridors can hardly be compared to the seedy streets and back alleys of some ghetto. You shouldn't worry about it. In fact, please don't."

Severus frowned, unconvinced. He rather thought his current predicament to be fairly good evidence to the fact that not even the corridors of Hogwarts were entirely safe against unexpected and unpleasant incidents. Hermione ignored him, however, and sniffed her flowers. Shock, dread and panic rose in him when she fished a folded piece of parchment out from between the flower stems as if it had been a card. He knew that parchment all too well and could have sworn he had thrown it into the fire. He was even fairly certain that he had watched it burn.

He went to snatch it away from her, but she had already opened it, blushing at the sight of all the little hearts with their initials in them. Forget about holding her chair for her in the Great Hall during meals. Forget about serving her tea and biscuits at the staff meeting. Forget about giving her all his quills in the shape of flowers, kissing her hand and bowing to her. This moment was by far the most mortifying moment in this whole escapade. The only good thing about it was that now she would undoubtedly leave and if he was lucky she would also refuse to have tea with him in Hogsmeade. Surprisingly the possibility stung at his heart.

"Well," she managed after a moment and cleared her throat, trying to avoid looking at him. "I see."

She didn't look like she was going to flee, he noticed with equal parts of disappointment and relief. If the sight of that stupid parchment couldn't even scare her away, then what would it take? The part of him that had felt mostly relief was practically bubbling with glee by now over the fact that she hadn't objected violently to such a juvenile display of emotion. The only thing he could do about the situation now, though, was to just ignore it. He took her hand and led her to the table, wondering to himself what he might have asked the elves to serve.

Hermione also looked a bit uncertain, when he uncovered the meal. She was probably wondering whether or not he had ordered something to top that note in terms of sappiness. Severus' relief was great when he saw that nothing was flowery or pink or even remotely heart shaped. In fact the meal looked like it might be the exact same thing as what was being served in the Great Hall with the exception that Severus and Hermione's meals came with a bottle of wine instead of the selection of milk, water or pumpkin juice served to the students.

At least until the dessert appeared on the table:

a chocolate cake decorated with dozens of little hearts and red marzipan roses.

That did not look like a dessert served to the students. He stared at it in horror and managed a weak smile, cursing mentally at himself for having believed even for just a moment that he had been let off the hook.

"Oh dear, that's some cake!" Hermione giggled. "Well, it's only Valentine's Day once a year, I guess," she continued cutting herself a piece of cake.

Severus still couldn't quite make himself believe that cakes like that were actually being served in the Great Hall, Valentine's Day or not, but if Hermione thought so, he wasn't going to protest. Better than having her think that he had ordered that cake specifically for her. He had actually quite forgotten which day it was, and the thought occurred to him that having invited her to dinner this night of all nights had been an especially sneaky bit of trickery on the spell's part and that it had only dug this hole he was mired in so much deeper.

"Would you care for a cup of tea?" he asked her as they finished their dessert.

"Yes please."

Severus suggested they moved to the sofa and as soon as they sat a pot of steaming tea and two cups appeared on the coffee table directly from the kitchens. When he had poured a cup for them each, he leaned back and fished a small, thin book out of his vest pocket.

"Drink your tea, my dear Hermione," he said, "and I shall read some of this for you."

He opened the book and started reading, managing to get through four sonnets before he realised what he was doing. It was poetry! Severus had never been particularly interested in poetry, and he would swear he didn't own a book of sonnets. It wasn't exactly something the school's library would have on the shelves either, so that had to mean that he must have bought it. For money. Real bloody money wasted on a bloody book of bloody romance sonnets because of that bloody spell! It was just unbearable. No matter how he had procured the book, however, Hermione appeared to appreciate it, and she nudged his arm to make him continue reading.

If it hadn't been for the spell he would have given her the book and told her to read for herself, but he was compelled to continue until she started showing signs of being tired and he could escort her back to her quarters.

*****

As nice as it had been to begin with, Hermione was getting fed up. There were flowers everywhere. Every day she found at least one small bouquet on her desk in the library and a handwritten card containing one of the sonnets Severus had been reading to her outside her quarters or pushed underneath the door. Several times she had even come to the meals in the Great Hall to find roses on her plate. It seemed she couldn't go anywhere at all these days without an escort, and he was constantly asking to make sure that she was in good health as if he expected her to drop dead at any moment. All that bowing and kissing her hand was so not like him, it was beginning to creep her out.

She almost wished he would stop insisting on fetching things for her and holding her chair whenever she moved to sit or otherwise offer his assistance with even the tiniest of tasks. She definitely wished he would stop consistently calling her 'my dear Hermione' and just say 'Miss Granger' or 'Hermione'.

The culmination of the week was the invitation for tea in Hogsmeade. Even with that mysterious curse hanging over his head, she had expected him to take her to the Three Broomsticks. The last place she had expected him to take her was Madam Puddifoot's. She had never been there before, and she didn't like it one bit. Everything was too pink, too cuddly and too obviously designed to set a romantic mood that it very nearly made her feel physically ill. As if that wasn't bad enough, her reaction to all the pinkness made him ask about her general health all over again and contritely offer to follow her back to the castle. Her attempts to excuse herself by saying that she needed to run a couple of errands didn't work either. It just prompted him to escort her as she bought the things she needed while insisting on paying for everything and carrying her parcels. Hermione soon discovered that everything was a lot easier if she just let him have his way. In her head she kept a careful tally of his expenses, knowing that he would probably expect her to pay him back once this strange ordeal was over with.

*****

Severus slammed the door to his quarters behind him. That stupid spell was getting on his last nerve. It was taking over his entire life and forcing him to behave like a complete idiot towards the only female being in the entire castle who was relatively attractive and not either a student or as old as sin. He could tell during their entire outing that she was beginning to tire of his attentions, but the more he tried to stop himself the worse it got. They had only ended up in Madam Puddifoot's because he had been attempting to come up with just one slightly snarky thing to say to instead of all that sappy rubbish he was constantly spouting these days.

There was no escaping the spell. If he gave in to it and allowed it to lead him around by the nose, it just got worse. If he tried to fight it and resist it, it turned completely catastrophic. More times than he could count he had tried to write down what the root of his problem was, namely the mysterious spell, ask for her help in getting rid of it and request that she otherwise held her tongue and never breathed a word of it to a living soul again. He had done his very best to write down exactly the words that were in his head, and he had re-read each letter at least twice before pushing it under her door, but he still had a strong suspicion that Hermione had received nothing but sappy poetry and the like.

Well, tomorrow was Sunday, and he was determined to try to leave her alone at least for that one day. He had no classes and no other duties and could just avoid leaving his quarters at all for the rest of the day and all of the next. Perhaps if the spell wasn't 'fed' with her constant presence it would wear off and go away. There was only one flaw in this otherwise brilliant plan and that was the problem of how he was to stop himself from leaving the moment the spell took over. If he thought too much about Hermione, he had learned the hard way that there was simply no telling what the spell might make him do.

Severus pulled a bottle of firewhiskey out of the cupboard and looked at it. No more than a third was missing. It should be more than enough to get him drunk enough to pass out. If he was too drunk to move all night, Hermione would be safe, and he would be too hung over to bother her in the morning. Then all he would have to do was fight the urge to brew a hangover remedy.

It wasn't the best of plans ever hatched, he would admit that readily, but if it worked he didn't care.

*****

Hermione woke with a start when something tapped loudly at her window. Thinking it might be an emergency owl or something similar, she hurried out of bed and opened the window. No owls were in sight, but from the park below her tiny balcony, she heard a voice unmistakably belonging to Severus Snape, although it was somewhat slurred at the moment. Frowning, she went out on the balcony and leaned slightly out over the railing, trying to hear what he was saying.

"Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in Ethiop's ear--"

There was more but it was drowned in rustling sounds. This could just not be happening, Hermione thought. He was going entirely too far by this, and she had a disturbing thought that at any time he might start singing.

"Lumos!"

That had been a mistake. Sure, she could see Severus struggling with a ladder now, but the light of her wand seemed to encourage him further.

"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East and Hermione is the sun!"

There was a moment's pause while he dropped the ladder and picked it up again, aiming it at her balcony railing.

"Uh... Her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and..."

He missed the balcony railing and let go of the ladder to pick up something he had dropped on the ground. The ladder slowly started tilting to the side.

"Severus, what are you doing?" she called down to him.

"Oh, speak again, bright angel! For thou art as glorious to this night, being o'er my head as a winged messenger of... uh..."

Hermione pursed her lips as he tried to remember the words. If he thought she was going to respond with a 'wherefore art thou Severus', he was going to get sorely disappointed, she thought irritably. He had managed to get the ladder in place now and was climbing it slowly, careful not to drop a large bouquet of roses. Considering the bunch of quills she had found in a vase that morning, it didn't take a genius to guess where he might have managed to get hold of the roses. If this didn't stop soon, he probably wouldn't have a single quill left. In his present, odd predicament, he probably wouldn't accept his own quills back if she tried giving them to him, but perhaps she could smuggle them into his pockets or something like that.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he started singing when he was halfway up the ladder. Loudly, and not very well. Hermione didn't recognise the song, but she had a sneaky suspicion that he was making half of it up as he went. A couple of times he stopped to wave the bouquet imploringly and dramatically about in emphasis of his song before continuing on up.

"This has got to stop," Hermione said, grabbing hold of his arm and helping him over the railing.

He was still singing when she pushed him inside and shut the door. Hopefully, nobody had seen or heard anything. Since her quarters faced the park behind the castle, she thought there was a fairly good chance he had gone undetected.

Severus finally stopped singing in order to shove the bouquet into her arms and falling to his knees in front of her, kissing her hand tenderly. He absolutely reeked of firewhiskey and the front of his shirt was stained, providing her with the information that he had spilled some of it down his front. Distracted by this, Hermione didn't manage to tug her hand away in time to avoid a ring being placed on her finger.

"Hermione, I have loved you from the first moment I saw you! I humbly kneel before you imploring you to give me your hand in marriage," Severus gushed at her. "I've already owled your father for permission to take you as my wife."

The bouquet fell from her suddenly lifeless fingers, and she pulled her hand away from him as if burned.

"The first time you saw me, I was a child!" she reminded him, "and please tell me you didn't owl my parents."

"But I did. As soon as he approves my--"

"Stop. Please. Just stop right there," Hermione snapped and stepped away. "You did not just propose to me and you certainly did not owl my parents. Have you lost your mind completely?"

"But Hermione--," he started, reaching for her again.

Hermione stepped back and watched as he toppled over when he couldn't reach her. Moments later she heard snoring. Sighing she took the ring off, leaving it on the corner of her desk, and levitated him onto the sofa, covering him with a blanket. On second thoughts she added a Silencing Charm for the snoring.

It was getting more and more odd. Whatever it was that he had been hit with, it should have worn off by now, and instead it had just been getting worse. Hermione wasn't entirely certain where getting this drunk fitted in the theme of chivalrous behaviour that had been predominant all week. At least the worst of it seemed to happen when they were alone, but it still had to be a huge humiliation for him.

"What on earth has happened to you, Severus?" she whispered, brushing his hair away from his face.

*****

Severus groaned as he slowly and painfully regained consciousness. There was a foul taste in his mouth and his head was pounding. The sofa he found himself lying on was too short for his tall frame, and his muscles ached from the uncomfortable position he had slept in. With great effort he managed to pry one eye open and then the other, and realised to his surprise that he was not in his own quarters.

Realisation came slowly. Obviously the plan of rendering himself physically incapable of leaving his quarters hadn't worked. Suddenly his head filled with vivid memories of himself climbing a ladder to her balcony. Serenading her. He must have passed out afterwards. How incredibly embarrassing.

As he pushed himself up to a sitting position, he spotted the ring lying on the corner of her desk and felt his face turning white. It was a gold ring with a heart shaped diamond in it, and he realised that he must have proposed to her the night before. Drunk off his arse and in the middle of the night. If she had been annoyed with him before, she definitely wouldn't want to have anything to do with him now.

His heart sank. He knew that he was supposed to be irritated that he had succumbed to the spell again, but shockingly he found himself rather more upset that he had ruined things this way. Unlike the other day where it hadn't really been a problem, where he hadn't thought this ordeal could cause any actual harm other than to his dignity, he now found that he much preferred to have her like and appreciate his advances. He hadn't realised until now that would rather like to keep her.

It was too late for that now, though. His behaviour last night had more than likely taken care of that, and this overly romancing way was obviously not the way to get her back. Normally he wouldn't even tried it and expected it to work, but on the other hand he didn't really know how else to approach a woman. Since joining Voldemort Severus had never sought a relationship with a woman before, and he had no idea of what a modern woman would like. Definitely not this, he thought, disgusted at the memory of the night before.

It was probably better to just not think about it any more. People would just see the whole thing as a vicious prank played on Hermione and himself, but no real harm had been done to them. Unless of course you counted that fact that Severus now wished he could have truly won her heart. Nobody but he knew about that part however, so it shouldn't add too much further harm to his dignity.

Severus was brought out of his contemplations when Hermione entered with a breakfast tray. He eyed the vial easily recognisable as a hangover potion with something akin to pure greed. Apparently not even this spell could compete with his hangover for very long, and although he apologised profusely for his behaviour and for having been drunk in the presence of a lady, it was a half-hearted effort.

"Don't worry about it, Severus," Hermione said and placed the tray on the coffee table in front of him. "Just eat your breakfast. Then you'll feel better."

*****

While Severus ate, Hermione sat down in a chair next to the sofa with a book she had picked up on the library before he woke up. It was the same book that he had brought to her the first time he had gushed romantically at her, and she had a suspicion that it might be connected to whatever it was that had happened to him. If Filius or any of the other teachers didn't recognise it, it had to be rather obscure. Whoever cast it must have found it in a book, and quite possibly this one. The title 'Romance Then And Now: Spells, Potions And Divination Techniques' certainly fitted the bill.

Hermione decided that it must have been a spell. Divination techniques didn't interfere with people's behaviour, and she couldn't imagine that Severus would have ingested a potion without knowing exactly what it was. Even if it had been hidden in his food, he would most likely have noticed that something was off. Skipping through to the section on spells, Hermione started reading.

After a good while, she looked up to notice that Severus had finished his breakfast and was now sitting on the sofa with his hands folded in his lap, politely waiting for her to finish. As soon as he realised that she was aware of him again, he stood, bowed and once again apologised for his behaviour and drunkenness, and with a kiss of her hand he quickly left.

On the corner of her desk, Hermione saw the ring lying where she had left it. She hadn't expected him to take it with him, but she assumed that he would want it back. The gold looked old and worn and she thought it was probably heirloom. At least she had managed to sneak a good deal of his quills back into his pockets.

*****

It took a little while for Hermione to summon up the courage to go see Severus. She knew exactly what sort of behaviour he was likely to exhibit, and she even considered just sending him an owl in order to avoid the excessive apologies, bowing and hand kissing. Finally she pulled herself together, and with the book of love spells under her arm, she went to his quarters.

"Hermione, do come inside," he said, when he opened the door. He bowed and kissed her hand.

"Hello, Severus," she started, "I have something I ne--"

"Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Yes, please. Severus, I have someth--"

"Biscuit?"

"No thank you. Look, I've fou--"

"I must apologise for my behaviour the other night. It was completely inappropriate and unforgivable."

"Severus!" Hermione snapped, "Could you listen to me for a moment?"

"I apologise, I will of course listen to anything you have to say to me," he said contritely.

Hermione paused for a moment, glancing suspiciously at him. She didn't entirely trust him to not interrupt her again if he suddenly came up with more to apologise for. It wasn't until he raised an eyebrow, silently questioning her silence, that she deemed it safe to continue.

"This has got to stop, Severus. I know you keep telling me otherwise, but you are behaving extremely oddly and people are definitely noticing. It's a good thing for you that most of the student body is so afraid of you, they all think you're going to snap at any given second. The staff, however, is quite another matter. I think Filius has even been taking bets on whether or not I'm going to fall for it."

"What?" Severus exclaimed and shot up from his seat. "Placing bets on a lady? That scoundrel! Worry not, Hermione, I shall defend your honour!"

Hermione started and ran to throw herself in front of the door before Severus could leave. His face had gone almost completely white with anger, and he already had his wand in his hand.

"There will be no duelling! Sit down, Severus!" she snapped, holding her position in front of the door, as he tried to get past her. "Sit down, or I'll never speak to you again!"

It was a stupid sort of threat and had it not been for the spell it probably wouldn't even have worked. Now, though, it made him take a step back, then another and then sit down on the sofa looking rather ashamed of himself.

"I think I've figured out what's wrong with you," she said and sat down next to him, putting the large book of love spells in her lap. "It's all in here. It's a spell that forces you to um..." Hermione paused, blushing slightly, "to openly admit the woman your heart desires."

Severus looked startled for a moment, then he smiled at her.

"My dear Hermione, no spell is responsible for how I feel about you," he said.

"Maybe not," Hermione conceded, "but would you have told me so?"

Severus sighed and reached for the teapot to refill their cups.

"I am only an old man, worn and embittered by hardships and poor choices made in my youth. I'm hardly what you might call a catch. It is a true wonder to me that you would even consider spending even a small modicum of time in my company," he said, sounding slightly forlorn and avoiding looking at her.

Hermione couldn't help but smile. It wasn't exactly a clear answer, but it was enough. She was now certain that he had indeed been hit by the spell she had found in the book. Whoever had cast it had either gone a great deal out of his way to play the prank, or Severus had been hit entirely by accident. The latter was probably the most likely to have happened, considering that it had just been Valentine's Day a few days ago. Someone had probably wanted to find out if his or her feelings were returned. Hermione could only wonder if they had read the bit about the spell not taking effect until the person it was cast on saw the person their hearts desired most. Or if they had read the bit about the spell not wearing off for up to six months unless the person afflicted received a sincere declaration of returned affections or an equally sincere kiss. Definitely a spell to be used with caution.

Hermione tapped her finger against the page in the book and looked sternly at Severus.

"I am not going to wait six months for you to go back to normal, Severus, and I don't think I can make any sincere declarations of undying love. At least not any that could fool this spell. Looks like you're going to have to kiss me," she said.

Severus looked immediately contrite. It was beginning to become a familiar expression on him.

"My dear Hermione, if I had known that my advances were not--"

"I didn't say that," she interrupted. No more apologising. Please! "I just meant that it's too soon for that. Let's just get that spell neutralised, and then we can see what happens between us."

Severus nodded. There was a lot of hemming and hawing and more than a few clearings of his throat, but that was about as far as he got. Realising that she would have to take charge, Hermione leaned in and kissed him on the lips. He did his best to keep the kiss chaste, but Hermione couldn't imagine that the spell would be satisfied with that and pressed on, refusing to let him draw away by keeping a firm grip on a fistful of the front of his shirt. A few moments after she had managed to sneak her tongue into his mouth, she felt him grabbing her bottom with both hands. If that didn't mean he was cured, he likely never would be. She pressed herself a little harder against his body, telling herself that it was just to make sure that he really was freed from the spell.

Kissing Severus was surprisingly nice, Hermione found, especially now that he was kissing her back and one of his hands had stolen up under her shirt. She was vaguely aware that it probably shouldn't be allowed to go any further and that her goal had been reached when he was released from the spell, but she still couldn't quite bring herself to pull away just yet. It wasn't until she had managed to get the first two top buttons of his shirt undone that Severus broke the kiss and pushed her away.

"It's too soon for that, Hermione," he said, quickly buttoning his shirt again.

For a very short moment Hermione feared that he hadn't been released from that spell at all, but the lack of profuse apologising proved otherwise. Severus looked at her with a slight frown.

"No, I have not reverted back into spell-induced chivalry," he said with a slight sneer. "As much as I'd like to see that wilderness you call hair spread out on my pillow, this is hardly the right time." He paused, then continued in a less condescending tone, "I wouldn't object if you would agree to have dinner with me tomorrow evening."

"I'll be there on one condition," she said, making him raise an eyebrow in question. "That you try to moderate your romantic tendencies."

"I promise you I will," he said. "You have my permission to hex me severely if I don't. I'll expect you at seven o'clock."

Hermione smiled and nodded her agreement. Then she picked up the book of love spells and went to the door. Just before she left she turned around and took the ring out of her pocket, giving it back to him with a smirk.

"You forgot this in my quarters by the way. Don't worry, Severus. I've sent my parents an owl stating that you weren't in your right mind when you owled them to ask for my hand in marriage," she said, finding a childish pleasure in watching him pale slightly. Obviously he had forgotten about that. "I can't believe you threatened to duel Flitwick for my honour, though."

Giggling, she closed the door before he could retort and walked back to the library. All in all she couldn't say she was entirely displeased with this outcome of this ordeal. Somehow he had managed to endear himself considerably to her, even though she knew that he hadn't been acting like himself at all, and she couldn't help looking forward to having dinner with him again, this time under much more normal circumstances. Still, this book was definitely going to be put in the Restricted Section from now on.

Fin

A/N: Severus quotes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I don't own that either.

Prompt 22 - Snape is hit with a stray curse intended to make the

react? How will Snape react when the spell finally wears off?