A Literal Allure Between Him and Her

Disclaimer: This story's universe and characters were created by J.K. Rowling. I make no profit from it, and no copyright infringement is intended.

A head with lots of black, messy hair floated amidst the green flames of Hermione's fireplace, the flames enhancing the green of its eyes so that they shined like jewels. Harry greeted Hermione then asked, "Are you coming to the Barking Man with us tonight?"

"No, I won't be able to." Thank goodness.

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry said. "Ron said you could come."

Hermione rolled her eyes, unsurprised. "Oh, did he now? Remind me to thank him for being so kind."

Harry started to shake his head but choked on some ash. Coughing it out, he said, "Really, Hermione, Ron wants you to come. I talked to him, and he's willing to work things out."

Hermione stood up from her sofa, suspicions confirmed. "Work things out in what manner, exactly? He's not hoping we will get back together?"

The emerald flames did not completely hide the flush that crept up Harry's cheeks. "I don't know... Just come. We can still have fun...all of us together."

"Well, even if I did want to go, I cannot," she said. "I will be working tonight...and every Friday evening for the duration of the summer at least. Give everyone my regards."

Harry looked disappointed, but said, "Sure thing, Hermione. I guess we'll see you... later." The disembodied head vanished, and the magical flames disappeared.

Hermione entered Severus' office Friday evening, again donning flattering apparel. He noticed the smooth, black linen pants and the three-quarters sleeved, dark bergundy, button-up blouse she wore. The top button was left open, exposing a silver necklace with a silver charm that closely resembled the letter 'F' except its bars slanted downwards. It was Ansuz, the ancient runic symbol for inspiration, knowledge, and magical poetry.

She regarded him with a polite, kind smile on her face. "Hello, Severus. I hope you're doing well today?"

Severus nodded and smiled courteously. "Thank you, Hermione. I am doing well enough now that you have arrived."

Hermione had started to sink into a chair, but paused...in limbo somewhere between standing and sitting. She plopped down into the chair rather ungracefully.

"Now that you have arrived," Severus continued, "we can finally begin to get a good start on the Azkaban potions."

He heard Hermione sigh. She was looking down in her lap. He told himself to resist noticing, but it could not be helped. He wondered if he would have noticed how exquisite she looked if he had never seen what he did in the Mirror. How he loved to blame that damn Mirror!

Hermione raised her eyes to meet his, and so he busied himself rifling through the parchments, pretending to need one at the bottom of the stack. "Are you ready to go down to the lab?" she asked.

"Nearly." He thumbed through the parchment leafs distractedly.

"Shall I go on down then?"

"No, please excuse me. I only need a minute to collect something I left in the classroom." He pulled out one sheet at random, set it on top of the stack, then set the stack neatly in the center of his desk. "When I return, we can walk down together."

Severus swept out of the office, pausing once he had closed the door. He had no true need to go his classroom other than to compose himself. After taking a couple deep breaths, he leaned his head back and exhaled heavily. Polite. Professional. Courteous. Calm.

Running those words like a mantra through his mind, Severus returned to his office.

Hermione was startled by his sudden reappearance. She dropped the book she'd had open to a page in the middle, taken from his bookshelves.

"Stop dropping things whenever I walk into the room," he said amusedly.

"Oh sorry! I hope you do not mind that I was looking at your books?"

Severus reached down to pick up the book she had dropped, keeping his thumb on the page she had been looking at. "Not to worry, Hermione. How could I expect you to keep away from them? It is akin to a moth driven to flame. Or rather like a goblin to his treasure."

He looked down at the book. Shakespeare!

Hermione said, "I was not aware that you enjoyed Muggle literature."

"And why should I not? Witches and wizards cannot claim creativity as their own."

His eyes briefly scanned the page that Hermione had been reading, noting the page number, 472, before placing it back on the shelf.

Hermione took the liberty to scan the titles and authors represented on the shelves. Her eyes alight, she read off some names. "You read all my favorites... Austen, Eliot, Leroux, Ovid, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Twain, Virgil, Wilde... Wow!"

Severus laughed softly at her exuberance. Keeping his tone light, he said, "So it would seem that you are a know-it-all about even Muggle literature. How charming!"

Hermione's eyes traveled back to Severus. "You know," she said, "despite how much awe and wonder the wizarding world holds for someone raised in the Muggle world like me, after a while, I find I wish I had someone who would understand and share interest in some of the things the Muggle world has to offer, like literature and the performing arts."

"Indeed," agreed Severus. "Though the superiority complex of the purebloods has been subdued since Voldemort's defeat, the wizarding world on the whole is still far too arrogant to consider that the Muggles have anything valuable to offer."

"Right, it's as if they cannot fathom having a good time without magic involved."

"Yes, and the wizarding world often underestimates their cleverness as well. They have technological devices that can do more for them than our magic can do for us likewise. I've experimented with some of them to see if they could run on magical currents instead of electric."

"That's really interesting, Severus. Were the experiments successful?"

"Some were." He gave her the smile of someone enjoying their own private joke. "Perhaps I will tell you about them sometime."

Hermione stepped away from the shelves and came over to him. "I'll hold you to that, you know. And perhaps we could get together on occasion to discuss our favorite works. How about it?"

Severus smirked and said wryly, "What? We already spend three evenings a week working together. Perhaps we should just make our meetings a daily occurrence?"

"If you say so, Severus," she jeered back.

Severus took in the playfulness of their conversation, surprised at how relaxed he felt talking to Hermione. He noticed he was not even relying on his usual carefully planned words and responses. But now that he had noticed it, he could not continue in ease. "Perhaps we can find time to talk about literature sometime," he said seriously. "Now, come. We need to get downstairs and begin brewing."

Hermione was watching the mixture simmer. She had to allow it to do so for eleven minutes and twenty-two seconds exactly before alerting Severus that it was time to add it into the rest of the potion.

Snape was busy preparing the potion himself. He had not allowed Hermione to do much of anything. She was not sure why he even needed her help if he was just going to do it by himself.

He had said, "This is a delicate procedure, Hermione. I am afraid that you may only do some of the simpler parts at this time. There are a few procedural portions that still need to be fleshed out. As your training and skill increase, and when I can make these potions with complete certainty of the process, then I will have you assist more."

So, she sat on the stool in the back corner of the lab, resting her arm on the counter. Hermione was bored watching the time, so she began watching Severus instead. She noticed how diligently he would handle each ingredient. His every movement was full of fluid grace. He appeared calm, confident, and in his own element. A true master at work... Hermione thought she might even be able to sense the strong connection Severus must have with the potion as he was making it, so intense with magical energy was the air surrounding him.

Every now and then, a strand of his dark hair would fall forward into his eyes. He would break from his flow to shove it back behind his ear with frustration. Hermione wished she could do that for him.

His eyes were glowing. How he loved his work! He had removed his robes beforehand, as they would be too hot and cumbersome, so she was able to admire the way his black trousers and black, button-up, high-collared shirt were fitted to his body, and she could clearly see the outline of his tall, slender frame. And along with hands that seemed to caress everything they touched, piercing black eyes, long raven hair, a smooth and silky voice, and an affecting smile that she thought rather few people had seen...well, she was attracted to him.

It was undeniable at this point, and Hermione was having a hard time trying to conjure up the image of him that she'd had in her youth, as if she had always seen him this way. But she hadn't. Her later years at Hogwarts had been full of distractions. Ron could count for one. She had been so sure of them, just knowing that Ron would have to figure out how right they were for each other eventually. Hermione snorted at the ignorance of her youth.

The postwar celebrations and mournings could count as another. Those had taken precedence over anything that had once mattered to her. The joy and sorrow of that time had filled her completely. And when she returned to school as a seventh-year, her focus and determination was still hard to hold onto. It was all she could do to revise for N.E.W.T.s and fulfill her Head Girl duties. Needless to say, her life had not left her very much time to think about what kind of person would actually be good for her to be in a relationship with.

And Severus had certainly never let her...nor anyone else from what she had seen...close enough to have the chance to know him. And now she was in a place in life where she could not only know him, she could know what she wanted.

Hermione watched Severus pour a congealed, violet substance into the cauldron and lean in to sniff it.

Suddenly, Hermione became aware she had not checked the time in way too long a period. She feared she may have ruined the whole project if she had let it sit too long... Hermione breathed deeply in relief to see that it had only been ten and a half minutes. She was just about to tell Severus it was nearly ready when he turned around and said, "Hermione, will you kindly bring that mixture over here?"

Hermione rose, lifted the small cauldron by the handles, and walked over to where he sat stirring the main potion. When she set it down next to him, he reached to take it, and her hand brushed against his. Hermione felt a warm tingling rush through her again. Every time we touch...

She returned to the opposite counter where she had been sitting and grabbed her stool, carrying it over and setting it down right next to Severus. She sat down. When he looked at her appraisingly, she said, "I'll just watch you then, shall I?"

He nodded and, using both hands, began pouring the mixture from the small cauldron into the larger. Once again, a lock of hair framing his face fell forward, and Severus let out a frustrated growl since his hands were occupied and he could not move it out of his way.

Without premeditated thought, Hermione moved her arm forward and softly brushed back the recalcitrant hair, tucking it behind his ear, her fingertips gently running across his face as she did so.

He set the cauldron down rather abruptly. He turned to look at her, his eyes wide with surprise and question. Their eyes locked on each other's. Hermione licked her lips and leaned forward. Confusion spread across his face. He started shaking as Hermione drew even closer to him. His hand lay on the table, and she covered it with hers. He gasped softly, glancing down at their hands and returning his eyes to hers, but he did not draw away. He was staring at her searchingly, his mouth open in surprise. He wanted her to do it; she was sure of it. He would have stopped her by now otherwise.... She closed her eyes when her face was just before his own. He was still shaking, but let out a soft gasp when only a thin layer of air separated them. Her lips found his to be pliant and accepting.

Wham! As their lips moved and met each other's, she felt as if a fire had lit deep inside her, spreading and growing without abandon. She would not stop to consider the consequences of this decision. Fear of rejection would not hold her back. She wanted to feel this finally. Feel this heated passion instead of that burning desire that had been driving her crazy lately.

She gently sucked in his lower lip, and their mouths opened to each other.

Severus let out a soft, anguished cry. Worried, she began to pull away, but he wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her in closer to him. Supple lips moved together softly as they tasted and savored each other.

"Mmmmm," Hermione moaned, lifting the hand that was resting on his and putting it around the back of Severus' neck, deepening the passion in their kiss. Suddenly, he pulled away from her completely. Hermione opened her eyes to see him staring at her, his eyes glassy.

"My apologies," he said sadly, rising from his stool and walking quickly towards the door. "That was a lovely kiss, Hermione, but I cannot..."

"Severus, wait! Why can't you?"

He stopped walking, but did not turn around. Facing the door, he said, "I should not have let that happen."

"Did you not enjoy it?"

"I... It does not matter. You... This doesn't make sense." He covered his eyes with a shaking hand. "You can not possibly..."

"Severus... I want this. I do! Please tell me you do too."

After a long moment, he turned around half-way and said quietly, "I do. But I do not think this it is quite right..."

"Nothing interesting ever is, Severus," she said, hoping her smile and words would dispel his unease.

Severus looked back at the door, then glanced at her again before seeming to come to a decision.

Hermione watched with wet eyes as he reached the door, overwhelmed by soaring heights of joy turned into terrifying heights of tension. He stood with his hand on the door handle. She heard a loud exhale and watched as he stood straighter, his shoulders relaxing.

He spun suddenly, his eyes locking on hers with a smoldering intensity. He strode swiftly to where she sat, now the one doing the shaking. He stopped just in front of her. His sparkling eyes looked down into hers, regarding her with tenderness.

Severus smiled indulgently and whispered, "Interesting is right. Why does wrong have to feel so good?" He quickly bent down and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up to him and kissing her again with a passion that consumed them now that all hesitancy was abandoned.

They shared themselves with each other through the kiss until it slowed, their lips caressing as they moved them gently back and forth before coming to a stop. Hermione and Severus both took in a deep breath. The soft-spoken words in her ear made her shiver. "As interesting as this may be, you are wholly intriguing, Hermione."

She turned her head, breathing across his neck and planting a kiss there, just above his collar, before laying her head against his chest. "No, just wholly intrigued," she whispered back.