Hermione has a Plan

'Severus!'

He turned to see Hermione smiling up at him.

'I thought you might not be coming tonight. I've been in this library for hours now, hoping to see you.'

He scowled down at her, even as he felt a wave of joy rush through him. She was back in his dreams.

'Yes, well, at least I have shown up. Hermione, you weren't in my dream last night.'

Her eyes darted away from his and she shot him a sheepish grin.

'I know you were mad, and I'm sorry Severus. I... took some dreamless sleep potion last night.'

'Why would you do that? Thank the gods you had the sense not to do it again this night. That potion is highly addictive, Hermione. You must be careful.' He wondered if he had imbibed too much Firewhisky. It wasn't as if she were a real person. He needn't worry about her taking too much potion; she was imaginary.

She nodded. 'I know, I know. Severus, I will explain everything very soon but for now, please believe me. I needed one night away from you, just to think some things over.'

She held up a hand to stop him when he opened his mouth to question her further.

'No, Severus, that's all I can say right now. Please trust me. I... just want to be with you right now. Do you think we could go down to your quarters?'

Severus continued to scowl down at her. Why should he cater to whatever she wanted? She was the one who had taken a potion to avoid him. Then he realized how ridiculous he was being. For some reason, his mind didn't dream her up last night. The fact that the dream Hermione had used a potion was proof enough for him that it was all in his mind. Of course my mind would go straight to potions for an excuse.

He held out his hand and led her down towards his quarters. Dream or not, he wouldn't waste it being angry at a figment of his own imagination. She had said she wanted to be with him tonight, and he was more than willing to comply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OOOOOOO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione was lying nestled in Severus' arms, feeling both tired and energized. Her back was to his front, but she felt him place a kiss lightly on top of her head as he held her. She sighed; the night and their dreams would be ending soon.

'I wish this were real, Severus.'

'As do I.'

She turned to look at him, placing one of her hands on the side of his face. 'Really?'

'You know I do, Hermione. I would be honored if someone like you chose to spend her time with me during our waking hours.'

'What if I said that I thought that this is real?' she asked cautiously.

Severus smirked and rolled his eyes at what he perceived was an old argument.

'Let's not start this again.'

Hermione sat up in bed in an effort to appear more serious, despite her nudity.

'Just listen, Severus. What if we are dreamsharing? Nobody really knows everything there is to know about it. Maybe we found some sort of... magical exception to the rules. Maybe we do share our dreams, even if we didn't have that close connection when we started.'

Following Hermione's lead, Severus sat up in bed and leaned his back against the headboard.

'Hermione, it's just not possible. Why would I, completely out of the blue, start sharing dreams with one of my students? No, not just one of my students, but Potter's best friend?. That doesn't make any sense.'

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip. How could she prove this to him?

'I still think we should be sure, Severus. There must be a way we could determine whether or not this is real. Would you please just humor me?'

He raised one of his eyebrows and looked at her imperiously for a moment before shrugging.

'Fine, I will humor you, a figment of my own imagination. What did you have in mind?'

She beamed at him before wrapping her arms around him and kissing him soundly on the mouth. He countered by grabbing one of her hips and pulling her to lay down on top of him, his lips beginning his own assault on hers. She pulled away before the kiss could get too deep.

'No, I want to talk about my plan.'

Severus growled and moved to grab her again, causing her to giggle.

'Severus! Stop, I want to talk to you.'

He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes as he leaned back against the headboard, causing Hermione to giggle once more. It was slightly unnerving to see him act like Harry or Ron.

'Well, madam, proceed.'

She re-adjusted her position by sitting between his legs and leaning back against his chest before she started talking. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin atop her head.

'I was thinking that we could make up some sort of code.'

He sighed, 'Code? Hermione, is this really necessary?'

'Yes. Now, stop interrupting me.

'As I was saying, we could maybe plan on you saying something in class. Something that is reasonable, so if we aren't sharing dreams, then it won't matter. But if we are sharing dreams, then each of us will know instantly when you say it.'

'When I say... what, exactly?'

'Well... I don't know... Let me think...' He leaned in and kissed the side of her neck. She absently made a 'shooing' motion with her hands, too intent on her thoughts to take too much notice of him.

'I've got it!' she said excitedly, making him jerk back in surprise.

'Severus, what were you planning on teaching in potions tomorrow?'

'First, I was going to demonstrate the proper method for skinning a two-headed snake. For the second hour I was planning on assigning a potion using that skin. Most likely a metal-animate potion.'

She wrinkled her nose for a moment, thinking about skinning a snake. The beginning metal-animate potions were easy enough. They were used on common household items constructed of metal to give them specific magical properties. She remembered checking out a few books in her first year about that after she has seen a coffeepot fill itself with water and coffee grinds.

'Okay. Well, now I know, so if you do teach about that, I will know we are really dream sharing... Oh. That won't help you at all, will it?'

He raised his eyebrow at her and smirked. 'No, it won't. Besides, Hermione, I always follow the order in the text book. It would be easy enough for you to figure out what I am teaching next lesson.'

'Well, can't you change it?'

'What? No, I have always followed this curriculum for seventh-year potions. My lessons build on each other, and the class is about to start learning more of the advanced animating potions.'

She let out a frustrated breath. He could be so difficult sometimes. 'Well, how about if you ask a specific question that nobody in class could answer? You can tell me the answer right now, so if I get it right, you will know that we are dream sharing!'

'I don't think I would completely trust that one,' he said, absently rubbing her arms. 'The real Miss Granger reads so much, there would always be a chance that she did know the correct answer to any question I ask her.'

'I am the real Miss Granger!' she said, getting frustrated. Who knew it would be this hard to prove it to him?

'All right. How about if I do something wrong in class?'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, maybe something that would earn me detention. I am normally well behaved in class, so if I mis-behaved by doing something you and I agree on ahead of time, you would have to believe that we are sharing our dreams.' She turned her head to smile at him triumphantly.

'All right, my love, I'll agree to that. What will you do?'

Momentarily side-tracked by his endearment, she smiled softly before trying to decide what she could do. This would be the hard part. Her own nature rebelled against planning to get in trouble.

'I don't know. Do you have any ideas?'

He raised an eyebrow. 'You are asking me to give you an idea that would get you into detention? I refuse to give you a means in which to disrupt class.'

She sighed. 'I don't know what to do. This is Harry and Ron's department, not mine.'

'Ah yes, your two compatriots, who if I am not mistaken, were the culprits behind the firework in Goyle's cauldron while you were just a second year?'

'You knew that was us?'

'Ah, well, not until I had to brew a number of potions to reverse the mis-use of Polyjuice on a certain Griffyndor know-it-all.'

She smiled at his affectionate tone of voice. 'That gives me an idea...'

'No, Hermione, don't even think of it.'

'Wait, you don't know what I was going to say.'

'Yes, I do. No throwing fireworks in anyone's cauldron. That was an extremely dangerous prank to play. A number of people could have been hurt.'

She grimaced for a minute as she thought about that. He was right though, it could have hurt a number of her classmates.

'Okay, you're right. I won't throw a firework. But, I could still melt my cauldron.' She smiled as she thought of that. The idea had merit.

'Yes, I'll melt my cauldron. I've always wanted to do that! If Neville can do it, then so can I.'

'Foolish girl.'

'No, it's going to work, Severus. If Hermione Granger melts her cauldron in class tomorrow, you will know that we have been dream sharing!'

He smirked. 'Fine then. Now that I have agreed, are you done wasting our time with this useless conversation?' He leaned down and started kissing her neck again.