Her Tenth Week

May 31

Severus paced about his storeroom, trying to find the bottle of magnesium, finding his beryllium and boron on the shelf, but not what he was looking for. He finally found the empty magnesium jar in a box on the floor, along with many other valuable ingredients, including his piscidermis pods and wood-lily rhizomes.

Damn, blast-ended witch! Hermione had placed several jars and bottles in the box, most being ingredients that he'd collected himself. She had no right! Two months of this! No, that's not accurate. He looked at his calendar, mentally counting off the days she'd been here. Fifty days, not counting the weekends! That's a full two months and two weeks, and I still haven't made her scurry away. Not that he'd actually been trying as vehemently as he could have. The truth of it was that she was quite helpful when she didn't reorganize his shelves and remove valuable ingredients.

He picked up the jar of knotgrass, about to set it on the shelf, and noticed it was molding. He picked up the next jar, noticing that the frog parts were unusable, as were the jaberknoll parts, puffer-fish, lion-fish, Lacewings flies, Antlions, seaside billy witches and spang beetles... He quickly assessed each item in the box, nearly reaching the end when he spied a slip of parchment. It was a list of each ingredient, what was wrong with it, and the expiration date from each container, many of which shouldn't have expired yet. And she couldn't have put this on top of the box? he grumbled.

Well, I was going to the Apothecary today anyway. He didn't bother checking the rest of the shelves. Ms. Granger had apparently already done it for him. No point forgoing the inevitable. The question is do I take my apprentice with me. She will have to learn how to select the best quality ingredients from the mediocre. Besides, I like trading ribald jokes with Jenson, the man has a great repertoire of them, and it will be amusing to see if Ms. Granger can appreciate them.

The potions Severus required Hermione to brew were of reasonable quality, some he'd even rate as excellent, even by his own exacting standards. Jenson at the Apothecary in Diagon Alley had been quite pleased with them, offering top Galleon for his apprentice's work, which satisified Severus greatly. However, Plitheroa in the Cartwright Apothecary on The Promenade was refusing Ms. Granger's potions because of her blood status, even her Alexindora Potion, which most of the ladies paid dearly for. Somewhere out there are some truly witless purebloods refusing Hermione's potions simply because they refuse to believe that she's more capable than most of the nitwits I've had to teach all these years. His contention with such nonsense was tinged with schadenfreude for such idiocy. It's their own downfall over their complete inability to accept reality.

When he left the storeroom and entered the lab to tell Ms. Granger she'd be accompanying him, he saw her bent over his desk, obviously using some type of cleaning wax. It's not that he cared about the patina on his desk, but seeing her leaning over his desk like that definitely elicited those thoughts he'd been trying so desperately to suppress, never mind the way his body reacted.

She'd been so listless before lunch, not indolent, but certainly not her usual voluble self. However, after his sharp rebuke, she'd just shrugged, saying something about an article in the Daily Prophet having been ludicrous. "Lucius Malfoy apparently still harbors delusions of being a wizard grandee and is attempting to influence Ministry politics again," she'd said as she handed him her essays.

Now it seemed she was hell bent to drive him mad with her insistent cleaning.

She stood and looked at him. "I'll be in the sitting room reshelving the books, all right?" she said, her hand touching his chest as she passed.

"Granger!" he yelled for her.

With one arm on the doorframe, she swung around into the doorway, nearly colliding into him, but their faces touched, his lips to hers.

Without thinking, he cupped her head and tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her off balance so that she leaned against him as he deepened the kiss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Later that night~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What in the bloody hell was I thinking! Severus chastised himself as he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. I kissed her! I bloody kissed her!

The kiss had lasted only a few minutes. He'd been standing on the single step that separated his house from his potions lab when she'd swung through the door and kissed him. He'd reacted without thought or reason and embraced her. Well, if I hadn't the girl would have knocked me backwards on my bum, he rationalized. Still, he'd wrapped his arm around her waist and grasped her head, deepening the kiss when she'd lost her balance and literally fell into his embrace. She definitely hugged me back, or it could have just been that she was trying to grab onto me to steady herself – but she did not push away. She kissed me back. She kissed me... She's a child! Okay, that was a lie, she was a young woman, but that fact he wasn't ready to admit to himself.

I'm twenty years older than she is! Which was the average age difference in most pureblood marriages up until the last few decades or so. Nevertheless, it was still an acceptable age difference in the wizarding world.

I was her professor, and now she's my apprentice. Not that that would really matter in the social mores of their world.

She is the Potter's best friend and socializes with the Weasleys, Longbottoms, and Lovegoods. All now considered pillars of the wizarding community. She was a bane of my existence her entire school years! Which was true, she had really tested his patience, skills and fortitude countless of times. Not to mention Ms. Granger's friends – all of them! But the golden trio and members of the Dumbledore's Army were exalted heroes of the war.

Moreover, she's even considered an honorary member of the Order even though the girl was too young to have joined – and they will all flay me alive for seducing her. Besides, she was Weasley's wife, albeit briefly if you believe the press surrounding the girl. I'll have all of the Weaselys to contend with! Well, according to the Daily Prophet, but they were not always accurate with their facts.

Oh, this just cannot happen! I have to end this! I just simply cannot have an apprentice that – that – I want to sleep with! Severus looked at the clock on his bedside table. Three bloody in the morning! Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.

~~~~~~~~earlier~~~~~~~~

"Ginny, I did it! I kissed him and he kissed me back!" Hermione said as soon as she'd dragged her friend into the lounge.

"You did? Where?" Ginny asked, pulling Hermione's hand so that she'd sit on the sofa with her.

Hermione followed, eager to tell Ginny everything. "On the lips...in the doorway to the lab!" she said excitedly.

"You kissed who?" Ron asked, entering the room, scowling at Hermione.

"No one!" both girls exclaimed, then looked at each other and started giggling.

Ron crossed his arms, frowning so hard he looked comical. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me...fine!" he said as he turned and stormed out.

"Ron, what's wrong?" the girls heard Harry ask from the entryway.

"Nothing. Hermione's snogging someone," Ron answered, trying to push his way past.

Harry looked into the lounge and then quickly turned around. "She's not snogging anyone...that's Ginny."

"Well then you ask her because that's what she said...she kissed him!" Ron snarled. A few seconds later, a door slammed.

Harry looked at the girls, but they both only shrugged and looked back at him with blank expressions. As soon as Harry left, Ginny turned back to Hermione. "Okay, now give. What happened?"

~TBC~

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Authors Notes:

The cockchafer (or may bug, as it is colloquially called, or sometimes billy witch or spang beetle, particularly in East Anglia) is a European beetle of the genus Melolontha, in the family Scarabaeidae. Once abundant throughout Europe and a major pest in the periodical years of "mass flight", it has been decimated in the middle of the 20th century through extensive use of pesticides and has even been locally exterminated in many regions. However, since a change in pest control beginning in the 1980's, its numbers have started to grow again. As they don't tolerate pollution well, their presence is usually a marker of low pollution levels. Their use in potions is not canon and is my own assumption used for this story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockchafer

Thank you, Southern_Witch_69, for not only agreeing to beta each one of my drabbles in this saga, but for also giving us the list of vocabulary words so I can play with them! I'm really having a fun time seeing just how creative I can be with this!

The word list (swiped from the past week's list from dictonary.com) :

1. listless

2. vehement

3. ribald

4. forgo

5. schadenfreude

6. grandee

7. patina

-----------words with definitions- --------- -----

listless \LIST-lis\, adjective:

Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless.

-- listlessly, adverb – listlessness, noun

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vehement \VEE-uh-muhnt\ , adjective:

1. Characterized by intensity of emotions or convictions, or forcefulness of expression.

2. Characterized by or acting with great force or energy; strong.

------------ ----

ribald \RIB-uhld; RY-bawld\, adjective:

1. Characterized by or given to vulgar humor; coarse.

2. A ribald person; a lewd fellow.

------------ ----

forgo \for-GO\, transitive verb;

1. Inflected forms: forwent, forgone, forgoing, forgoes:

2. To abstain from; to do without.

------------ ---

schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy- duh\, noun:

A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.

------------ ---

grandee \gran-DEE\, noun:

1. A man of elevated rank or station.

2. In Spain or Portugal, a nobleman of the first rank.

------------ --

patina \PAT-n-uh; puh-TEEN-uh\ , noun:

1. The color or incrustation which age gives to works of art; especially, the green rust which covers ancient bronzes, coins, and medals.

2. The sheen on any surface, produced by age and use.

3. An appearance or aura produced by habit, practice, or use.

4. A superficial layer or exterior.