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Broken Dreams	By : onecelestialbeing Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 34536 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 13
Disclaimer: I make no money from this story, own nothing of Harry Potter, haven't met any of the people (except Alan Rickman and sadly that was brief)

Chapter List
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Severus' eyes opened reluctantly when he felt something brushing against his face. He opened his mouth to complain when he felt soft curls tickling his lips.

Furiously turning his head, he found that Hermione had for the most part remained on her side of the bed, yet her curls managed to drape over onto his pillow, nearly suffocating him in the process.

Pulling the errant brown tresses away from his face, Severus lay quietly in bed, looking up at the white ceiling and brooding.

He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that he'd shared a bed with anyone, much less a young slip of a witch that he used to teach. Further adding to his malaise was that he'd actually slept the entire night. Severus briefly contemplated the reason for his comfort due to the silence in Hermione's house.

'And who is it you're trying to convince,' he grumbled inwardly, knowing fully well that his rationalization was faulty.

Severus had never shared a bed with a woman. The brief sexual encounters he'd had were just that; brief and perfunctory. He always left afterwards, never permitting anyone to stay close to him whilst sleeping.

Hermione's body suddenly shifted, her hand moving her hair out of her face without opening an eye, traces of the vanilla scented shampoo she used wafting over towards Severus' direction.

To his dismay she kept wriggling about, her body finally stilling yet her head now facing towards him. Once he was sure Hermione was sleeping deeply again, Severus hoisted himself up and rigidly lay back against the headboard.

He'd been driven puce upon waking up the morning before to find Hermione curled up and shivering on the floor beside his bed. From both their positions it was obvious that they'd been holding hands, rather her holding onto his. Unsure on how to feel about the situation, Severus pushed it into the recesses of his mind with the intent of never thinking about it again.

Of course, Hermione had the ability of irritating him beyond reasoning and in a fit of nerves he'd blurted out their little unseemly encounter.

Severus was now looking down at the young witch that was half his age, and was unable to help feeling like a lecher. Grudgingly he would admit that she was attractive, even if her hair had gone messy and appeared to be swallowing her face.

Then there was the issue of her scent. Severus had never been close enough to Hermione to notice, but her skin and hair always exuded a sweet, appealing aroma. Growing increasingly anxious, Severus told himself that he needed to get out of bed.

Right then something happened that thoroughly flummoxed him. Hermione's amber eyes slightly opened and focused directly on the surly man, seemingly paying no mind to the affronted look on his face. A small smile graced her lips before her face went slack as she promptly closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

'What the devil is that about?'

Severus was suddenly met with an unyielding and resolute need to get out of the room, and away from the young witch. Moving stealthily enough off the bed so that Hermione's form wasn't jarred, the dark haired wizard hastily gathered his belongings and left the bedroom.

When Hermione did wake up, she debated with herself against opening her eyes, too nervous about what she might see. Without realizing that she was holding her breath, Hermione slowly cracked one eye open, exhaling in relief when she found that she was alone.

It had been one thing for Severus to find her at a mentally and physically disheveled state. It was another for him to come to her room in the middle of the night to find her crying in the midst of a bad dream.

Hermione had been so distracted with her angst that she'd noticed little else, other than the begrudging offer of sharing the professor's bed.

Pushing the errant thoughts from her mind, Hermione climbed out of bed, noticing how Severus' side had already been neatly made as if he'd never slept on it.

Fixing her side to match the opposite, she went to her room to dress and go downstairs.

Breakfast passed just as quietly as it had the morning before. The only thing Severus told her was that he'd be returning to Hogwarts that evening.

Hermione said that she would be returning to the school with him, only to be met with silence. Severus' demeanor had remained curmudgeon, as if they were two people passing each other in the checkout queue at Tesco instead of ones that shared a bed the night before.

Once the soundless meal was over with, Hermione inwardly mused that she was grateful for the first time in her life at the disappearing dishes.

'At least there's no washing up I have to take care of,' she thought indifferently.

Severus had taken his usual place in the living room, his dark hair covering his face with his head buried in a book. Hermione told him that she was going to put the bins out for collection, accepting his grunt as acknowledgement. Rolling her eyes she sorted the rubbish and dragged it out. Hermione then went round to the neighbor, explaining that she was going back to school and could they please put the bins back in the morning.

After the overly cheerful woman told acquiesced, Hermione went back in her house and dashed up to her room. She'd left her apprentice robes back in her room at Hogwarts, and only needed to pack her weekend clothes and few personal belongings.

Once everything was said and done, Hermione told Severus that she wanted to put wards back on her house. It was then that he closed his book and got up from the armchair.

"I think it best if you allow me," he replied withdrawing his wand.

"I'm more than capable-"

"There's no need to be so defensive, Miss Granger," Severus retorted tersely. "Your wards admittedly were good; mine are better."

Hermione grumbled inwardly but knew the man had a point. He was vastly more experienced than she, and if anything it was for her benefit.

Severus made short work of securing Hermione's home. He then questioningly looked over at the young witch whom was looking back at him apprehensively.

"Don't hex me," she suddenly warned, walking over to him. Hermione then proceeded to put her arms around Severus, who stiffly stood in place. "Thank you," she shyly told him once she released her hold.

Hermione didn't know whether to be amused or insulted. When she went in to hug the dour man he'd grown rigid upon contact, but she reasoned that he wasn't used to being hugged much less thanked by anyone.

"I'm ready," she then said, refusing to meet his astonished gaze.

"Miss Granger," he replied, offering his black fabric covered arm. Hermione tentatively placed her fingertips onto the edge of his sleeve, wrinkling up her face as they Apparated out of her house.

The two landed firmly in the headmaster's office. Severus then immediately waved her away, disappearing into what she presumed to be his private study.

Heaving a small sigh, Hermione made her way out of his office and into the castle's nearly empty corridor. Swiftly climbing the many stairs to her suite, Hermione was thankful that she'd had the sense to use a shrinking charm on her trunk. She would have died if she had to lug the thing all the way through the long corridors and up the steps.

After taking off her travelling cloak, Hermione sat down on her four poster canopy bed and pulled her shrunken belongings from each pocket. One perk of being Slughorn's Potions' apprentice was the private suite and its location.

Slughorn refused to take over Snape's old room in the dungeons, opting for a cozier spot on the fourth floor. That meant that Hermione wasn't required to take up residence in the dank, dark bowels of the castle.

McGongall had gone out of her way to make the previously unused space habitable for Hermione. It was nowhere near the Potions classroom, yet she didn't mind. Hermione expected by the time she would begin teaching that she'd work out a method of traveling back and forth across the castle with needed supplies.

Lazily swishing her wand around, Hermione properly resized all of her belongings. She then went through the motions of neatly putting everything away, unable to ignore her distracted mind. After spending the past few days in close proximity with Severus, it felt a bit strange being away from him.

She was unable to ignore the fact that he didn't push her away when she forced a hug upon him. Hermione knew that Severus would most like bristle at her maudlin behavior, yet found that she didn't care. Although he'd been nothing but contemptuous, Severus had still given the proverbial swift kick to her arse, something that catapulted her out of her funk.

Hermione knew that her mum was gone; a fact that was irrevocable. Sitting around moping wouldn't bring her back and Hermione knew that if her mum knew what she'd gone through with the war, the last thing she'd want her daughter to do was remaining stagnant instead of going on with her life.

'It still doesn't negate the hurt,' she thought to herself, feeling a tear work its way down her cheek as she stared at an inanimate photo of her and her parents.

Severus had barely been able to remove his traveling cloak when McGonagall came barging into his office.

'For the love of Merlin,' he thought despondently to himself. "Yes, Minerva," he asked in a low, irritated voice.

"Don't you give me that look, young man," she replied, one eyebrow arched over her spectacles. "How is Miss Granger?"

"You're more than welcome to go ask her yourself, you know. There's no need for us playing messenger.

"I didn't want to intrude on the lass; I wanted to give her time to settle in."

"Oh, yet intruding on me is all right?"

McGonagall flashed the raven haired wizard a withering glace. "I'm going to ignore that last statement," she told him.

"As you wish," Severus replied, settling down at his desk. "In any event I see Hogwarts is still standing; perhaps I should take a leave of absence more often."

"If it will get the long puss off your face, by all means," Minerva replied tartly, ignoring the scowl Severus shot her as she brushed out of the room.

Now that he was alone again, Severus found himself reflecting back to the brief hug that the young witch bestowed upon him. He hadn't meant to clam up when she hugged him; he just wasn't used to being touched by anyone.

He swore that he was able to still smell her vanilla scent from her hair brushing against his robes when she hugged him. Severus grew perturbed when he realized he was contemplating if Hermione smelled like vanilla from head to toe.

Nearly snarling to himself, he had half a mind to blame McGonagall for his discomfort. Had she not made him play nursemaid to the young woman, he'd have never gotten close enough to her to even know what she smelled like. Severus still refused to admit to himself that they slept in the same bed. Denial was weak method, but he was a man, one that found it hard to completely ignore the soft, sweet smelling feminine form that lay next to him.

Looking up at the clock, Severus realized that he needed to go to the Great Hall for dinner. Summoning the strength to move from his desk, he found that he had no will to deal with a group of loud students and chatty professors.

Severus longed for silence, but knew that McGonagall would stalk back into his office, threatening to lead him to the dining hall by the ear if he didn't show up.

'Much like you did to someone else,' he wryly thought to himself.

Hermione made her way to the Gryffindor common room. The password had changed and the Fat Lady refused to let her in. It was her luck that Ginny had just climbed out of the portrait and saw her friend standing outside.

"Hermione!" she cried, immediately squeezing her in a tight embrace. "How've you been?"

"All right, I guess," she replied with a small shrug.

"Don't give me that rubbish," Ginny snapped, sliding her arm through Hermione's and slowly walking her down the corridor. Once they were settled into a private corner, the redhead folded herself up on the stone steps and looked up. "I last saw you at…well you know and then you sort of disappeared. Is something else going on?"

"No," Hermione replied. "I just needed some time to myself. I've been home since Mum's funeral."

"I see," Ginny replied. "It's just that I'd sent you an owl and never got a reply. I even sent both Harry and Ron owls asking if they'd spoken to you and they told me no. I was starting to get worried."

Hermione was touched by her friend's concern, and instantly contrite for not responding. "I'm sorry, Gin," she apologized. "I was a bit out of sorts and not really myself. Professor McGonagall actually sent the headmaster to my house to make sure that I hadn't gone completely mental."

"Professor Snape was at your house?" Ginny echoed, her brown eyes going wide. "I mean, I know he's one of the good ones but still, he's a bit scary don't you think?"

Hermione laughed, thinking back to the past weekend. "He can be," she admitted, secretly remembering how the only time he wasn't intimidating was in the midst of sleep.

"What happened when you saw him?"

"The usual; I was berated, scolded, made to feel like a daft child and forced to eat."

"Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed, wondering why Hermione made being force fed by the headmaster no less sound so trivial.

"It's true," she replied. "To be honest, I needed it Gin. All I did was sit and home, pining away. I couldn't even read properly."

Ginny's mouth nearly fell open at that; she knew the day Hermione was unable to seek solace in a book was the day the sky would fall.

"Anyway, I feel better now," she continued lightly. "Where's Luna?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Off chasing down one of her imaginary creatures or looking for the right feet to her collection of trainers I expect."

Hermione giggled, thinking of the colorful footwear their friend owned. Luna seemed to own trainers in every color of the rainbow, some of them decorated with flowers or sequins or buttons.

"Oh, there she is now," Ginny said, craning her neck around the corner.

"Hello Hermione," came the dreamy voice.

"Hi Luna," she replied, looking next to her to see the blonde witch, wearing a fuzzy blue and purple vest and holding four mismatched trainers by the laces in her right hand. "How are you?"

"Better now," Luna replied in a misty voice. "I had to find my shoes; usually I wouldn't mind if others borrow then it became slightly uncomfortable wearing two left trainers."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, although she nodded in comprehension. Ginny was muffling her giggles between both steepled hands.

"I'm sorry about your mum," Luna then told her. "If you need to talk I'm more than willing to lend an ear. Or both," she replied as an afterthought.

"Thanks, Luna."

Once Luna had safely tucked her shoes away back in her dormitory, she met up with Hermione and Ginny for dinner. The girls mournfully parted ways in the great hall, Hermione moving to take her place on the dais.

Sitting next to the Potions Master, Hermione was greeted cheerfully by Slughorn as if she'd just returned from holiday. McGonagall was to her right and immediately patted her on the hand, not saying much else. Severus was in the middle of the dais and hadn't even glanced in her direction when she sat down.

Everyone else at the table greeted Hermione cheerfully, their attention remaining short on the young witch. No one else knew the reason for her absence, and Hermione had the idea she hadn't been missed either. It was just as well; she wouldn't be subject to any lengthy queries of her whereabouts.

Hermione looked at the carafe in front of her and was thankful that the professors were served more than just pumpkin juice. She was soon gratefully sipping at a goblet of wine; her mind already focused on the bundle of tasks that she knew would have to be handled the upcoming week.

Hermione found that working with Slughorn wasn't all bad. Despite being unconcerned for the most part with his apprentice he was a rather affable gentleman. Hermione had been free to tend to her work without him hovering over her shoulder. The downside to it all was the few rare times she did need assistance Slughorn had been either hard to find or hard to wake up.

The first time she sought out the headmaster he'd curled up his lip, querying as to why she wasn't asking the Potions Master. Hermione didn't want to blow the whistle on the older man and kept mum. Severus paid her silence no mind, muttering to himself that the man was most likely kipping in his office.

Hermione had bitten down on her lip to keep from laughing, but in the end the professor helped her, although he'd still been unable to reign in his waspish tongue.

Entranced in her thoughts, Hermione found that her goblet was now empty. She reached in front of her to refill it and caught a glimpse of Severus shooting her a dark look. He then looked away from her so quickly Hermione thought she imagined it.

'One little turn round the bend and suddenly I'm the town drunk,' she fussed inwardly. Furtively glancing to her left, Hermione found that Severus didn't appear to be looking in her direction, but she knew better. The man had a penchant for appearing unobtrusive, and she figured it was in her best interests to heed the sharp glare he'd sent her way.

When dinner was finally over Hermione nearly scurried off the dais. She'd been the object of Severus indirect yet intense scrutiny since she'd reached for the wine carafe and felt the need to abscond away from his watchful eye.

Hermione made small chat with Ginny and Luna outside of the dining hall until they both left for their respective common rooms. Wading through the throngs of students, Hermione made way to her own chamber.

Dropping down onto her settee, Hermione inwardly grumbled as she toed her shoes off. She felt too riled up to sleep and knew that the second glass of wine would've helped.

Hermione briefly considered traipsing back through the castle, banging on the headmaster's door and demanding a vial of sleeping draught.

'He'd toss me out on my arse,' she mused to herself.

After putting on a dressing gown and settling into bed, Hermione found herself staring up into the dark. Her room was entirely too quiet. Back home she'd gotten used to the beeping of an occasional passing lorry or such. The only thing she was able to hear was the crackling of the low burning fire at the hearth.

Tossing and turning for the next half hour, Hermione wondered how Severus was faring alone in his bedchambers. She didn't understand why he'd gotten so cross with her, or what he meant when he told her to leave him alone.

"Raving, mad wizard," she grumbled, punching at her pillow before turning it over and flopping back down. "Don't even know why I bother."

Hermione had been unable to sleep easily. Upon waking up the next morning, she felt drained and lethargic as if she'd spent the night going on a bender. She had just enough time to hastily shower, pull her hair back into a messy yet secure braid, and put on her apprentice robes.

Taking her place in the great hall, Hermione noticed that the headmaster wasn't at the table. She didn't know whether to feel relieved or worried about his absence.

Unfortunately Trelawney was at the table, and managed to find her way over to Hermione halfway through the meal. Hermione tried her best to not scoff into her morning tea when the woman began prattling on about a tall, dark wizard that would take place in her life.

"Okay, Professor. Thank you so much," she replied brightly, attempting to politely let it be known that she wanted to be left alone.

"I'm only trying to help you dear girl!" the woman continued, holding her fork midair in her right hand, her eyes wide as saucers and overly magnified by round spectacles. "You're already alone, but you don't need to be! Mark my words; my inner eye never leads me astray."

Trelawney had clutched onto Hermione's arm with her other hand, soiling her robes with what appeared to be remnants of porridge. Hermione's face grew pinched as she yanked out her wand and waved it over the stain making it disappear.

Too far gone with annoyance to care if she was being rude, she shoved the eccentric woman's hand away from her and stood up.

Hermione thenwalked as fast as her feet were able to carry her to the Potions classroom.

"Ah, morning dear girl!" Slughorn greeted her, not seeing the irate look on her face. "The first years are about to come in and I'm sure I'll be able to handle them with no problem."

"All right," Hermione replied evenly. "Do you need me to brew anything?"

"Well actually, if you don't mind I'll have you to collect some ingredients. We're running a bit low on nettles."

Thankful for the easy task, Hermione went into the stock room and dug out gloves and a small burlap sack. After slinging its strap around her shoulder, she made her way out of the classroom.

Purposefully striding towards the doors, Hermione couldn't help but to peek around, hoping for a glimpse of the headmaster. He was still nowhere to be found, and she continued on her way.

Hermione nearly rounded the part of the Forbidden Forest that was abundant in nettle when she happened upon Hagrid.

"Hermione!" he cried warmly, engulfing her in a nearly suffocating hug. "'Aven't seen yeh inna bit, everythin' alrigh'?"

"Well, my mum died; the headmaster granted me a leave for the past month," she told him.

"Noo, I'm sorry to hear that," Hagrid replied sadly. "No one told me anythin'. Well if yeh ever need summat, even if it's just a moment away from the loony professor of yours, yeh know where to come, eh?"

His black eyes twinkled kindly, and Hermione soon found her agitation thawed out by Hagrid's easy mood.

He told her to wait while he got Fang, and the two accompanied her into the forest. Hermione pulled on her gloves when they found a thick patch of nettles. She took great care in pulling up the flower, yet Hagrid easily pulled bunches out at a time using his paw-sized bare hands.

Hagrid filled the silence with his light banter, going onto ask about Harry and Ron. He looked at Hermione curiously when she shrugged and said she hadn't spoken to them in awhile but didn't press the issue.

With Hagrid's help her sack was soon filled to the top and he invited her back to his hut for tea. Hermione declined, saying that she needed to get back to the school to sort the nettle out, but promised to come back another day.

She was walking through a nearly empty corridor when she caught a glimpse of Severus. Hermione opened her mouth to say hello, cut short when the headmaster suddenly turned in the opposite direction and walked away. He hadn't so much as looked at her before taking his leave.

Hermione knew she shouldn't be but felt the slightest insulted nonetheless. Severus was doing nothing that was out of the ordinary for him.

Fuming inwardly, she continued walking towards the Potions laboratory, where she took out her anger on the pile of plucked nettle leaves.

The rest of Hermione's week swept past in a blur. She'd fallen back into the swing of things at Hogwarts, spending most of her time picking and preparing ingredients, or brewing potions.

She still hadn't been able to sleep properly and often stayed up late in her room, perusing over huge texts by wand light. Snape's presence was still scarce; she only saw him at dinner and he never failed to shoot her a brief scathing look before turning away.

Between the long work days and sleep deprived nights, Hermione found that her nerves were wearing thin. Friday evening at dinner she neared the point of lashing out at the headmaster from across the table, but managed to reign in her fury.

When the meal was over with, Hermione had nothing else to do besides go to her room. Ginny wanted to get her homework done before the weekend, explaining that she had a date the next day. Luna told both girls that all of the left pairs of her shoes were now missing, and skipped away.

Ginny and Hermione looked at each other before snorting with laughter. Hermione then walked her friend to the Gryffindor common room. On the way to her own room, Peeves happened to be floating down the hall when he came across the young witch.

"Well if it isn't the brains of the Golden Trio!" he trilled, immediately sauntering down to become a nuisance.

"Leave me alone, Peeves!" she snapped. "Else I'll have the Bloody Baron and the headmaster on you."

"Too big for your school robes eh? Come back to Hogwarts and think you're exempt from my mischief, is it?"

With that he flew at Hermione, making her shriek and scamper down the corridor. She flew past Filch, whom nearly dropped a snarling Mrs. Norris. The cranky old caretaker immediately let loose a trail of swears at her and Peeves as he awkwardly stooped down to pick up his cat.

"Damned Peeves!" Hermione groused once she was in her suite. She nearly ran most of the way to her room and was out of breath. Falling down into her armchair, she found that she was soon laughing to herself at the situation.

Peeves usually bothered the first years, but when he was in rare form no one was safe from his antics. She noticed that his mischief never trickled down to the headmaster. Knowing Snape he probably threatened the wayward wraith with a spell to permanently send ghosts away.

Shaking her head, Hermione pulled a sheaf of parchment on her desk towards her. She perused its contents, mentally taking note of the potions that she needed to brew for next week.

Hermione mentally griped when she found that she needed fluxweed, something that could only be picked at night and during a full moon.

Walking over to her window, she could only see a few stars from her side of the castle. A spark went off in her head as she instantly realized a place that showed a view of the entire sky. Putting on her cloak, she walked back out of her room and towards a rarely used area of the castle.

On her way she heard female giggling and then a male voice urging her to shush.

"I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear you, but you'd better get back to your common rooms," she told the not so subtly ensconced couple.

Two shy looking sixth years slid from the shadows beside a suit of armor. They were holding hands and the young Hufflepuff witch was blushing furiously. Hermione waved them along, making sure that they were walking away before continuing on.

Hermione climbed rarely used stone steps, the sconces on the walls lighting themselves when she drew near. Finally reaching the top, she pushed at the heavy wooden door that protested yet opened with a groan.

Looking up at the night sky, Hermione found that it was indeed a full moon. When she was still a student, there had been more than a few occasions where she wanted silence and privacy. On those nights she used Harry's invisibility cloak and snuck out of the Gryffindor common room, sneaking past the prefects and professors on patrol. She loved sitting on the castle battlements at night, feeling small and insignificant as she clutched Harry's cloak round her and looked up at the brilliantly lit sky.

A couple of times she'd met Dumbledore standing behind the parapets. He didn't chastise her for sneaking out after hours; he merely winked at her and offered her a piece of candy before commenting on the constellations.

Tonight someone was standing rigidly by the parapets, only it was a different headmaster.

"It seems that I'm to never have a modicum of privacy," he commented dryly without turning around.

"How did you know it was me?" Hermione asked, cautiously standing next to the stoic man. Looking to her side she saw that Severus was staring straight ahead of him, his posture tense and unyielding. He scoffed when he heard the inane question yet remained silent.

How could he not know it was Hermione? He'd been avoiding her for the entire week, still plagued by the memory of her sweet scent. She'd made a quiet entrance to the top of the castle but his well trained ears had honed in on the soft footsteps. The cold air only served to enhance vanilla aroma wafting from her direction.

"What are you doing out of bed at this hour?" he asked.

"I merely wanted to see if it was a full moon tonight. I thought I'd pick some fluxweed for a few of next week's projects."

"At this hour?"

"Well it's not as if I'm a student," Hermione retorted.

"You're barely older than one, that's for certain," Severus replied glibly, ignoring the cross look on the young woman's features. "Slughorn sent you out and alone this late, did he?"

"No, I chose to come myself," she replied after regaining her composure. "It's not as if I have anything else to do on a Friday night, or any other night for that matter."

"Still lacking that sense of self-preservation, I see," the headmaster scoffed, turning his head to face her. "Are you that dim-witted, Miss Granger? A full moon and you're contemplating roaming the Forbidden Forest alone and unarmed?"

Hermione flushed gently, hoping that Severus didn't notice. He'd however already turned his head back to its original place, looking out over the dimly lit area.

"I-I didn't think about that," she admitted.

"Clearly."

Hermione exhaled in frustration, fighting against the urge to stamp her foot. She decided to try another tactic. "Do you come out here a lot?"

"You of all people should know the rules, Miss Granger. No insipid questions. That goes double considering you're intruding on my solitude.

"Well it was as if I knew you were here!" she snapped. "Usually there's-" Hermione stopped short, not wanting to tell on herself.

"Usually what? Please finish your sentence."

"Nothing," she bristled.

"Nothing my arse," Severus replied. "I knew that you've been sneaking up here since your third year. Just like I knew about every other capricious act you and those other two miscreants committed."

Hermione swallowed hard, finding herself rendered speechless. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"For the Polyjuice potion…well let's just say that the ends justified the means. As for me turning a blind eye to you sneaking up the battlements, you were alone and I saw no reason to take points from your house."

"So I'm guessing that means you've caught others trying to sneak up here?"

Severus nodded his head ever so slightly, still refusing to look at her.

"What on earth would they sneak up here for? The view is beautiful and all but usually if I mentioned such a thing to my schoolmates I'd have been laughed at."

Severus arched a dark eyebrow slightly, this time turning his head. "I caught couples from every house in this school attempting to skulk up here at one point or another. What reason do you think they'd come here?"

Hermione continued to look perplexed until a knowing look came over her. Severus shook his head and then moved away from the parapet.

"You cannot walk the school grounds alone," he told her.

"Well how else am I to-" she began, her tone slightly snappish.

"Silence!" Severus interjected. "Now before you rudely cut me off I was going to say that I'd go with you."

Hermione felt the wind letting out of her sails at his comment. "Really?" she asked dubiously.

"Glad to see that your wits are still about you," he intoned dryly. "Did you bring a rucksack or something of the sort with you?"

"Err, no…"

"No matter," he cut in. Hermione watched as Severus withdrew his wand and conjured what looked like one of the collection bags from the Potions storeroom.

"Miss Granger," he stated, gesturing for her to walk ahead.

Hermione held her breath nervously, crossing over to the door. She couldn't help but feeling anxious, as if she was on her way to some illicit tryst instead of collecting ingredients for her work.
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Broken Dreams