18Summary: Do to complications with Voldemort, Snape ends up staying with Hermione Granger over the summer. Takes place the summer before seventh year. A/U.
Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and will never own the Harry Potter series or it's characters, for they belong to JK Rowling. I just borrow them to have fun with. :)
A/N: Hey people! sorry about the long extended wait. Dont know what has come over me the past year or so. Thanks to all that kept adding my story to their favorites, and those that were adding to their alerts...when i started to get so many in, it kind of kicked my butt into gear. So now on with chapter 5...
Chapter 5
Last Chapter:
Sighing, he shrugged off his outer robes. The house was cool, but not cold enough to need them. He placed his robes in the closet, and went to the table next to the bed. He opened the drawer and took out a fine-toothed comb and a clear rubber band. He started to comb through his hair, and when he was done, he secured his hair in the rubber band at the base of his neck. He took one last look around the room to make sure everything was in the place he wanted them. ' Well, might as well head down and see what is so good about these BLT's that Miss Granger talks about so fondly.' With that thought in mind, he turned towards the door, and headed out, being sure to close the door behind him.
-Shr-
Severus walked down the stairs toward where he assumed the kitchen was. Then again, it wasn't that hard because he could hear someone singing and music in the background. That someone was Miss Granger and what he presumed they called a radio. Also, the smell of cooked bacon permeated through the house. He walked down the rest of the hallway, and opened the door. He could hear clearly what Miss Granger was singing as she was facing away from the door at the counter. As she sang, he could see her right hand moving back and forth with a knife. After moving a little closer he could see that she was cutting a head of lettuce. While he looked around the kitchen, he listened to what she was actually singing.
"I have a dream.
A song to sing,
to help me cope,
with anything.
If you see the wonder
of a fairytale.
You can change the future,
even if you fail.
I believe in angels.
Something good in everything i see.
I believe in angels,
when i know the time is right for me.
I'll cross the stream,
I have a dream.."
Severus raised an eyebrow. Something that he had done a lot of in the past hour or so he was there. He was surprised at the girl's vocal chords. Somehow the seemed to fit her voice. 'Not only is she perfect in her schooling, she paints, plays multiple instruments, has a book collection almost rivaling my own (but not quite), but now she also is a proficient singer.' Before he got too distracted, he decided that it would be best to interrupt her, and offer to at the very least help with lunch as she was being generous in letting him stay there. Yes, that would be the polite thing to do, only thing is that he was not a polite man. But the Headmaster had gave him a strict warning to show her some respect or something unpleasant would happen to him (well, nothing as unpleasant as if he was caught by the Dark Lord), but he still shuddered at the very thought. Yes, it'd be better to help.
"Hmm-hmm. Miss Granger?" He politely interrupted her singing. He, however, received no answer. He called her name out again but, as before, there was no answer. He called her name out a third time, louder than the two times before, and twice as impatient. Still no answer. Not liking being ignored, Severus walked up behind her, flicked his wand which turned the 'radio' off, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, and in the process, cut her hand with the knife she was still holding.
"OUCH!" She squealed, looking down at the cut on her finger. Before running to the Sink on the other side of the counter, she turned and glared at Severus. Severus felt a pang of guilt at her having cut her hand, but his mind told him that it was her own fault. He had called out her name three separate times. He rolled his eyes at the sight of Hermione running her hand under water, and then wrapping her finger in a dish towel that was nearby. That slightly annoyed him.
"Miss Granger, are you or are you not a witch? You could fix that right up with your wand, and have it stop bleeding faster than you can trying to stem the bleeding with a towel.." he motioned for her to come to him. Glaring all the way, she did. He took the towel from her finger, waved his wand, and murmured a simple healing spell. In moments her finger was as good as new. She tore her hand away from his and turned back to the counter to finish her task She put the lettuce in a plastic bowl, and put it in the refrigerator, then walked back to the counter to start on the fruit salad. He sighed, and walked over to her left side. He carefully took the knife from her hands when she froze up with him near, and nudged her aside. Surprisingly, she let him do it. He started cutting the fruits she set out for the salad, pausing only to tell her he would take care of the rest, and ask her to set the table.
-Shr-
Hermione set plates out, along with spoons for the fruit salad, and two knives onto the table. As she grabbed some napkins from the napkin holder on the counter, she took a chance to look at her professor. He looked very tired. He had bags under his eyes, and his eyes looked slightly sunken in. He was thin. Thinner than she would have guessed, but who would be able to tell with all the voluminous robes he was known to wear. But it was visible with the clothes he was wearing. He had opted for some black pants that led down to black socks, and then to black polished shoes. He had on a starch white button-up shirt with the first button undone. His hair, to her surprise was tied back at the nape of his neck instead of its usual lankiness. A few pieces had fallen out and was hanging around his face as he concentrated on cutting a some kiwi. She had always liked him. He was different than the other teachers, he didn't praise her. Instead he pushed her to the brink of insanity with all the name calling and stuff. But she knew he couldn't be as bad as everyone made him out to be. He was just like that because he had a double spy image to hold up. But no matter how much he teased her, she had liked him. But this, this was different. If he wasn't her professor, she would have thought he looked somewhat attractive. As if reading her thoughts, he looked up at her. Hermione felt a faint blush come across her cheeks. She turned back towards the table with the napkins, where she placed one at each place mat, and the rest in the middle. She then, plated the cooked bacon she set aside, grabbed the lettuce out of the fridge, and brought both to the table. Looking over everything, she saw she was missing the 'T' part of a BLT...the tomato. Luckily enough, she had some cut up tomato from a salad she made the day before that she hadn't used, and she grabbed that from the fridge as well as some mayonnaise. The rolls she had on the table earlier that she had never put away from breakfast. She looked to see Snape bringing over the bowl of fruit salad, which he put on the table along with everything else. Once he saw that Hermione had sat down, he sat himself down in the chair across from her. She looked at him.
"Help yourself, Professor."
He motioned for her to go before him so that he could see the proper way of making this "BLT". He watched as she took a roll, opened it, and slathered some mayonnaise on it. On came two pieces of bacon, some lettuce, then tomato. She closed the sandwich, placed it on her plate and helped herself to the fruit salad. He copied her, and had a sandwich and some salad on his plate a few minutes later. He was surprised at how good it was for something muggle-made when he bit into the sandwich. He ate it bite after bite, soon to look at his empty plate and an amused Hermione. He raised an eyebrow in question at her. She shook her head.
"Nothing, Professor. Nothing at all." He nodded in doubt at her answer to his unspoken question.
"Very well." He watched her look back down at her plate with the tinniest smile upon her lips. She got up and excused herself for a few minutes to go to the loo. When she came back, he was eating another sandwich, and she couldn't help but laugh this time. He had a little bit if mayonnaise on the side of his mouth from the sandwich. He looked at her questioningly again.
"What the devil are you laughing at, Miss Granger?" She just looked at him, laughed a little more then settled down. She handed him a napkin.
"I'm sorry Professor. It's just, it is not everyday that someone gets to see the Big Black Bat of the Dungeons with mayonnaise on the side of his mouth." She giggled a little at this. He stared at her for a moment, took the napkin and wiped the right side of his mouth. His cheeks tinted red a bit from the embarrassment of it all.
Hermione looked at him again, and grinned. He had missed a spot. 'Oh well. I guess if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." She grabbed another napkin, got up, and walked over to his side of the table. She reached down and wiped the part that he missed. He glanced up at her, and their eyes connected. Even though this was so wrong, they couldn't help but feel the gravitational pull between the two of them. All that was running through Hermione's head as she started to lean down, eyes still locked with her professor's, was how wrong it all was, but also how right it felt looking into his bottomless pools of black. Unbeknown to her, the same thing was running through Severus' head. Neither of them cared though.
They got closer and closer, almost an inch or so away from each other's face when Hermione sprung back as the sound of the kitchen door opening. It was no one other than Albus Dumbledore.
-Shr-
Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office talking with some of the portraits about some recent going-on's within the school. After he was briefed, he had decided that he had better drop in 'Drop in...ha..' at Miss Granger's to see if those two hadn't killed each other yet. He also had to have a short talk with Severus about what should happen if he was found out, and the Death Eaters came to get him at Miss Granger's. He got up, grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, threw it in the fireplace, clearly called out "Hermione Granger's house", and stepped through.
He stepped out of the fireplace into the Granger's living room, and followed the sound of laughter. Laughter wasn't what he had expected out of all things, but he guessed that it was a better start than if those two were fighting. When he reached the room that the laughter was coming from, he opened the door. What he saw, he suspected, was going to become something more if he hadn't stepped in.
While Hermione turned to clean off everything on the table, Dumbledore motioned for Severus to follow. He nodded and muttered a quick 'thank you' to Hermione and followed Dumbledore out into the Granger's family room.
Next Chapter:
Severus has a talk with Dumbledore, Severus and Hermione get into a fight, Hermione babysits and all hell breaks loose.
A/N: Well, there you go! It isnt as much as i wanted to write, but as it is one in the morning, and i am wicked tired from being at work all day, i will post this so you guys atleast have something. I should have another chapter up by the end of the weekend, Monday the very latest. I also would like to point out the reason i put in the "almost" scene (you guys know what im talking about XD) In this story, Hermione has always liked Snape. And he has always admired her, only not being able to express it because of his Death Eater facade. So for Hermione the feelings are there, and for Snape, he is just noticing her as a young woman. So his feelings arent as developed. The scene is in there becausse:
it adds a lot more tension between the two
it will come into play later in the story
it just felt right to put it there.
I know it may seem a bit rushed, putting that scene there, but it will help the story later on, so trust me in this. And if the chapter does does seemed rushed a bit, im terribly sorry. I havent written any fanfiction in the past year or so, so i am just getting back into the scheme of things. Will get better in the next chapters to come, i promise.
Now that i have written a novel-length Author's note (lol), i will only add a few more things (i promise!...*ducks from tomatoes being thrown at me*. I want to thank again, all those that have been adding me to favorites and alerts. You guys got my butt in gear. Secondly, i still do not have a beta for this story, so if anyone is interested, pm me. Thirdly...as always READ AND REVIEW! now that i'm writing again, lets keep those nice little reviews coming, and keeping my butt in gear so i dont stop again!
~OdangoAtama17