Her Twelfth Week

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!

June 14

Severus threw the copy of The Quibbler into the fireplace, ignoring Hermione's brief outcry in protest as she quickly Summoned it to her wandlessly. "I do not believe the audacity of that man to print such scandalous lies!" He'd come into the sitting room expecting to find Hermione lying on the floor in his dressing robe and tiny, sheer nightshirt, diligently working on the questions he'd set for her. Instead, she'd been sprawled on his sofa reading the trash-rag with one shapely, smooth, bare leg dangling over the other.

"What lies? We were seen together in each other's company, hence the photograph! I don't know what has your wand in a knot. The article merely stated that you are brewing again, supplying the apothecary with the more difficult and hard to acquire potions, and continuing to assist to those suffering from the war, which I happen to know is true. The caption under the picture only stated that you are alive and well fit!" she said as she tried smoothing out the page. "Besides, I think you look smashing in the picture! I wanted to keep it!"

"I do not want to remain in the public eye! I've had enough of that – thank you. There is only one recourse one can take to permanently to ensure that this nonsense is suppressed!" he snarled. "Of course, the surfeit of Aurors who'd like me to exercise my darker tendencies is the only reason I don't Apparate there immediately and shove this rubbish into his gut – from both accesses!"

"There is no point in being minatory about it," Hermione said, carefully wiping away the soot from the edges while she attempted to flatten the page. "Xeno Lovegood is really quite the raconteur. No one is going to believe this!"

"That is not all the article implied." Severus scowled at the picture in The Quibbler she was smoothing out on her bare thigh. "I do not like this hyperbole about our being paramours! How dare he. It's absurd."

"Why would it be absurd if I was dating you?" Hermione asked with a look that obviously indicated she was possibly insulted.

"What? You cannot be serious! You couldn't possibly..." He quickly controlled his expression back to his usual indifference. "What happened today could not possibly be considered a date. We were simply procuring necessary potion ingredients," he stated firmly to dispel her delusion.

"And having lunch in the Greengrass café," she said with a smirk. "I hate to apprise you of the facts, but you were quite the gentleman: opening the door, pulling out my chair, ordering for me, even selecting the wine, and the possessive hand on the small of my back. No, not date-like at all; you were just being a finely refined man with proper manners and taste."

"I am hardly a patrician," he sneered. A date? She took it as a date? That would be twice – no – this doesn't count! I was simply hungry and asked if she was and... Oh, shite! Just like last time.

"It could have fooled me. Look, you have always been impeccably dressed, and you have always conducted yourself well," she stated, looking up at him with an odd expression he didn't want to identify.

"Hardly," he sneered. "You have me confused with someone like Lucius."

"All right, so you've never been one to prink," she said with a smirk. "I have always found you handsome in a unique and dignified way – when you're not scowling and sneering at me or some student."

Handsome? Did she say handsome – first smashing and now handsome. When was she hit in the head with a Bludger? "And since when have you held to the delusion that I am handsome?"

She tilted her head, her gaze sweeping up and down his body as if assessing his appearance to rethink her opinion. "Since – I dunno – my second year. Or my fifth. Actually, it was my fourth. You have to admit you looked dashing in your robes at the Yule Ball."

The Yule Ball. Oh, he'd remembered it well. She had worn dress robes of the lightest periwinkle-blue, tamed her wild, curly hair into an elegant sleek coiffeur, and her smile all evening had been dazzling. It was the first time he'd noticed her and seen the potential for the lovely woman she'd become. "They were hardly bedizen in design and hardly ostentatious. They were simply my usual robes and frock coat," he stated.

Hermione grinned. "With a waist coat in the darkest green, tight black trousers that you'd tucked into a pair of black boots that went up to your knee. Hardly bedizen, as you put it, but definitely elegant."

He squared his shoulders and glared at her. So you remember my outfit for the ball as well. For the first time Severus was beginning to rethink the girl's actions these last twelve weeks. Could it truly be possibly that she has developed an infatuation towards me? He turned his head to the wall. The outfits, the sleeping arrangement, the dinners she prepares, the way she surreptitiously glances at me... He stepped up to the bookshelf as if simply making his choice for his evening reading. It's possible. Not that the female students didn't occasionally demonstrate such childish infatuations, but I'd just simply demolish any such nonsense as soon as it became apparent. Nevertheless, she's insinuating an attraction – to me. He was going to have to consider what the best course of action, if any, he should take in this matter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the next morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning after breakfast, he decided to investigate her intentions and her apparent crush on him. "I thought you were married to Weasley," he said as she handed him a plate. Hermione was washing the morning dishes by hand, which surprised him, especially since she'd insinuated he should dry them, and he'd relented only because it amused him to do so.

"I was never married to Ron. The Daily Prophet said that Ron and I got married; only they forgot to tell me about it!" she said venomously. "But from what I've read, apparently it was a lovely affair!"

Severus looked at her in complete disbelief.

"It never happened," she stated, handing him the second plate. "Okay! Fine. We were engaged – briefly. It was disaster and it's over. If I had married him, it would have never worked out."

"And yet you still wear his ring on your hand," he pointed out.

"This was my grandmother's. My mum gave it to me when I told them about what happened in the war, my part in it and all. She said I was just like her," Hermione said, slipping off the glove and gazing at the antique diamond ring on her right hand. She looked up at him, her eyes still glazed over in thought. "It's not what anyone thinks. Ron proposed at a Ministry party, in front of everyone, which just happened to be the week before we left to go retrieve my parents from Australia." She put the glove back on and turned back to the sink, cleaning the skillet as she continued. "Apparently fighting throughout a twenty-three hour flight, three weeks explaining everything to my parents, helping them sell everything and repack to return to London, and then having Ron sulk at me for another twenty-nine hour flight home because I wouldn't do it in the loo on the plane – constituted a wedding and honeymoon to Rita Skeeter!" She handed him the skillet and unplugged the sink. "Oh, and yes, apparently, it's normal to bring one's best friends, all four of them, a wizard from the Accidental Magical Reversal Office and a Healer along on a honeymoon. I only saw the article when I came home and it was already a well-circulated rumor."

Severus crossed his arms regarding her thoughtfully. Sounds like something Weasley would do – and that insufferable reporter as well. "How long do propose to continue this charade?"

"Pardon me?" she asked, confusion in her tone.

"This apprenticeship," he said curtly, crossing his arms. "How long do you plan on continuing this arrangement with me?"

"You want to be done with me?" she asked, somewhat choked, as she placed the two plates in the cupboard.

He was surprised that the hurt in her tone and reflecting in her eyes bothered him. "I thought I was done with you on June third, the day of the final battle," he said curtly, putting the skillet and teapot away with a flick of his wand.

She placed her hand on his sleeve, and his gaze fell to her hand. "Do you really want to be rid of me?" she inquired.

"I..." Well-guarded, dark eyes met warm brown ones full of wanting and need. It surprised him. "I find the arrangement convenient," he said, staring at her face, taking in the display of emotions she didn't try to conceal.

She nodded, turned, her shoulder slightly slumped, and walked away.

"Ms. – Hermione." He said her first name aloud for the first time in her presence, although he'd said in plenty of times in private.

She stopped in the doorway to the sitting room but didn't turn around. "If you really want to be rid of me, we could just say you've repaid your life debt to me in these last two months."

"That I've repaid you my life debt? In only two months?" he scoffed at her. "Do you really place such a low value on my life?"

"No!" she exclaimed, spinning to face him. "That I would consider the value of your private tutelage to be so high!"

"Hermione, why me?" he asked softly, walking across the room toward her.

She watched him approach, staring at his face. "To get to know the man that I think you are. To spend time with you – to be around you... I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have..."

Severus had moved swiftly and was standing right in front of her. He raised his hand as if to cup her cheek, but paused before making contact. Hermione tilted her head before he could retract it, resting her cheek against his palm with her eyes closed, and the acerbic mask he'd always worn, faded from his features. "You may continue as my apprentice, if you so choose."

"Thank you," she said, raising her head to look him in the eye. When she'd moved, he'd schooled his features quickly before she'd notice his momentary lapse and nodded. "So what are we going to do today?" she asked innocently.

Her question sent a shiver down his entire body. "Finish our potions for delivery, naturally."

~TBC~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o0o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authors Notes:

I thought I'd clarify what actually happened regarding Hermione's 'marriage' to Ron.

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

1. minatory

2. raconteur

3. surfeit

4. patrician

5. hyperbole

6. apprise

7. prink

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

minatory \MIN-uh-tor- ee\, adjective:

Threatening; menacing.

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

raconteur \rack-on-TUR\ , noun:

One who excels in telling stories and anecdotes.

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

surfeit \SUR-fit\, noun:

1. An excessive amount or supply.

2. Overindulgence, as in food or drink.

3. Disgust caused by overindulgence or excess.

4. To feed or supply to excess.

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

patrician \puh-TRISH-un\ , noun:

1. A member of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome.

2. A person of high birth; a nobleman.

3. A person of refined upbringing, manners, and taste.

4. Of or pertaining to the patrician families of ancient Rome.

5. Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high birth; noble; not plebeian.

6. Befitting or characteristic of refined upbringing, manners, and taste.

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

hyperbole \hy-PUHR-buh- lee\, noun:

Extravagant exaggeration.

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

apprise \uh-PRYZ\, transitive verb:

To give notice to; to inform; -- often followed by of; as, we will

apprise the general of an intended attack; he apprised the commander

of what he had done.

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

prink \PRINGK\, transitive verb:

1. To dress up; to deck for show.

2. To dress or arrange oneself for show; to primp.