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The Reckoning	By : Snapeoutofit Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 22043 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: All characters and settings are the creation of JK Rowling. I own nothing of Harry Potter and make no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 18-Eighteen
- 19-Nineteen
- 20-Twenty
- 21-Twenty One
- 22-Twenty Two
- 23-Twenty Three
- 24-Twenty Four
- 25-Twenty Five
- 26-Twenty Six
- 27-Twenty Seven
- 28-Twenty Eight
- 29-Twenty Nine
- 30-Thirty
- 31-Thirty One
- 32-Thirty Two
- 33-Thirty Three
- 34-Thirty Four
- 11
- 12
- 13
The following morning, Hermione woke with a start. She looked around in panic at a bright, warm light that was coming in through the high window.
“Severus, wake up! I’m sure we overslept,” she said as she began climbing out of bed. He wrapped his arm around her naked waist and pulled her back to him.
“Severus,” she muttered. “What’s the time? Is it too late for me to sneak back? Oh, bollocks!” She tried senselessly to break away from his embrace.
“Lay down, woman” he drawled without opening his eyes. “We’re brewing today. There’s no reason for you to make me look for you all over again.”
Hermione stopped fighting and looked at him. “Severus, my friends will know I’ve been out of bed when I don’t come to breakfast. Or have we already missed breakfast?” She raked her hand through her mussed hair; stress evident on her face.
“Do you not want them to know?” He asked sleepily.
Hermione inhaled deeply and was quiet for a minute. When she spoke, her voice was a whisper. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I will field any trouble that befalls you. Besides, your friends must suspect...something,” he said.
“Harry knows,” she conceded as she let her head fall back on his pillow. She stared up at the ceiling and Severus watched her. She felt frustration bubbling over. “This is all ridiculous anyhow. I should be able to do what I’d like, I’m of age.”
“I’m well aware,” he said.
She turned to look at him. “Why can’t I make decisions about what I want to do?”
“Who said you couldn’t? In fact, you haven’t said a single thing that you would like to do.”
Hermione thought for a moment. “Well, I want to brew; with you. Today, and pretty much every day. I enjoy potions so much-“
“And you’re quite apt at them,” he interjected.
She smiled. “Yes, well, I want to brew with you and I don’t want to have to go back to Gryffindor Tower... at all.”
“Never?” He asked with mock surprise. “But the alternative is, well, pretty terrible honestly.” He brushed the hair back from her face. “The only thing I can offer you is to share quarters with a man who I hear is a right git.”
“Share quarters? Severus, you’re mad. We could never...”
He rubbed her cheek. “Hermione, stop. Remember you are at Hogwarts of your own choosing. You don’t need to be a student here. What I am proposing is that you...work with me.”
Her brows furrowed in confusion. “Work with me? What on earth does that mean-“
“Become my partner. I need another pair of hands in order to get everything done here and elsewhere. I can’t teach all of my classes, brew all of the potions used here at Hogwarts, brew my ‘special interest’ projects and the like while also maintaining my duties as the Head of Slytherin House. And certainly not while Slytherin need so much good PR...”
Hermione stared at him unblinkingly. Her mouth dropped open as he spoke. As Severus continued to talk she thought the man had finally snapped.
“You are mad,” she said incase he missed the look of disbelief painted across her face.
“No Hermione, I’m not mad.” He stared at her for a long time before releasing a deep sigh and reaching out to smooth his hand over the curve of her shoulder.
“I have not brewed alongside another person since I left school,” he said. “Only you. Until the other night I have never brewed with a companion and yet, when I decided to have you brew the dreamless sleep with me I wasn’t even concerned about it. Hermione, I have never let anyone brew inside my private lab and then I decided to have you brew there with me without even thinking twice. Having you work alongside me was never even a question, or a cause for concern. The thought didn’t even cross my mind until after I’d decided to do it.”
“And,” he stroked her arm thoughtfully, “now that I’ve let you into my lab I see no reason for having you leave.”
A smile bloomed across her face. “Life,” she whispered. “I think you mean life.”
Severus looked confused. “What, n I--“
“No. You said ‘now that I’ve let you into my lab’... I think what you meant to say was ‘now that I’ve let you, Hermione Granger, into my life,’” she smiled again as she stressed the word life, and a moment later he smiled too. He grabbed her waist and pulled her hips flush against his, smirking when she gave easily to his advances.
“Let me show you why I really wanted to keep you in bed this morning,” he said as he pressed his hips into hers. She let out a heavy breath before he captured her lips with his own.
SSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHG
Hermione’s flicked her wand to stir the Wolfsbane while she jotted notes in her journal.
“I can just have those notes transcribed into your book if you’d like,” Severus said as he corked a bottle and returned it to the shelf. “It’s a simple spell.”
She looked at him indignantly. “Transcribed? No, thank you. Writing them myself is better for my memory.” He smiled as he shrugged and returned another bottle to the shelf.
Hermione peered up at him through fallen ringlets. “Alright,” she said, biting her lip. “Just add your notes,” she acquiesced and pointed to the page as she returned her attention to the cauldron. Severus laughed and flicked his wand at her open book. Hermione looked down at the page to see annotations in his spidery handwriting in the margins of the page. “Thank you,” she smiled in reply.
Severus nodded and finished putting away the bottles. He returned to stand next to Hermione and flicked his wand at the cauldron to give her a break from stirring. She placed her wand on the table and added a few notes to her journal.
“Do you remember when I stayed at Spinner’s End with you for four nights?” She didn’t look up when she asked the question.
He smiled. “Yes. And if I remember correctly, I spent the next two consecutive nights at your flat,” he said.
“And when night seven came and you had to-I don’t know, do whatever it was, you hadn’t said,” she waved her hand around and he smiled. “I had Harry come over and I mostly just complained about being lonely.” She laughed at the memory.
Severus laughed and smoothed his free hand down her back. “I didn’t have anything to do that night,” he said honestly, a humored smile playing on his face. “I just, I suppose I was worried about getting to attached to you.” He stared into her chestnut eyes for a long moment before shrugging his shoulders. “But I don’t know, I had never spent a week straight with anyone before so I guess I should have realized I was already attached.”
Hermione laughed and leaned closer to him. Severus moved his hand from her back to encircle her waist and pull her tightly against him while he continued to stir.
“This is nearly done,” he said. “After we bottle, I have some grading to do. I want you to take the afternoon and really think about everything we have talked about. Once we tell McGonagall we can’t un-tell her.”
Hermione didn’t feel like she needed to think about much, but she realized that Severus wanted her to be certain. She couldn’t blame him for that. She also hadn’t really thought about telling McGonagall anything, so time to think might be best. She nodded in reply.
“McGonagall has been saying for years that I need an assistant, so to speak, and that I have significant extra obligations compared to the other staff,” he said. “Needless to say I’ve always scoffed at the notion of needing any help, but we spoke this summer about splitting my position. Since becoming Headmistress she has been adamant about it, but she understands that I’d never take just anyone.”
“Of course not,” Hermione replied.
I have to be transparent with her, thought. About everything,” he said.
Hermione nodded and he kissed her forehead. “I agree.”
SSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHG
After the potion was complete, Hermione took a hot shower and reviewed her notes before the fire in the Gryffindor common room.
“Bloody ‘el, Harry! There’s a foreign Gryffindor on the sofa! Have you ever seen the likes of her before?” Ron erupted in riotous noise, and Harry slapped his arm. A small chuckle still escaped him.
“Oh do shut up, Ron,” she said without looking up from the book. She moved her legs so Harry could sit beside her and Ron sat on the rug. He leaned back against the sofa and chuckled. Hermione suddenly closed her book.
“Harry there is something I want to tell you. And well, Ron I can tell you too but I don’t want to if you’re going to be a prat.” She sat up to face Harry, and Ron turned to face them.
“I’m sorry Hermione, I’ll stop,” Ron said.
Hermione swallowed. “You both know...well...over the summer...I started to..oh screw it I don’t know why I’m starting at the beginning....”
They stared at her and she sighed, catching her breath.
“I love Professor Snape,” she blurted.
Ron and Harry traded glances. “Hermione,” Harry began, “we know.”
“Yeah, Hermione, you might as well tell us you’re a part of the Golden Trio or something,” Ron said sarcastically. “We all know you two have...a thing, or a connection,” he shrugged carelessly “whatever.”
Hermione let out the breath she’d been holding. “I think things are getting to be more serious between us.”
“Is that good?” Harry asked.
“Yes. It is good. It feels good,” Hermione confirmed.
“Well good,” Harry said. “Let’s go to Hogsmeade and get some dinner. You can tell us more on the way.” He gave her leg a reassuring pat as he and Ron went to their dorm to change.
Hermione opened her journal and traced the notes he’d left with her pointer finger. She smiled when her finger landed on one annotation she had not yet read: you are stunning when you brew.
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The Reckoning