• 1-9am-1pm - unconscious thoughts
• 2-1pm-3pm - when but not why
• 3-what the hell was that?
• 4-sweetness and seduction
• 5-hushed and white with snow
• 6-It's just survival

5pm-7pm - sweetness and seduction

5pm-6pm

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes."

"Shouldn't they have brought us food by now?"

He pulled the blanket further around his shoulders.

"You have great faith in human nature, Miss Granger. Do you really suppose they care about feeding us? Be thankful we at least have water."

She stared at him.

"But thhave to feed us! There are rules...human rights..."

"Have you forgotten who we are dealing with? Do you imagine the Dark Lord follows rules and conventions?"

She continued to stare at him.

"So we could starve to death?"

"No," he said quietly. "I do not imagine that to be our fate; but they will feed us when they remember to do so."

There was a pause.

Then he remembered...

He patted his tunic, and then went to a pocket.

"Here."

He held out a twist of waxed paper.

She looked at him in amazement.

"You carry sweets around?!"

"A sweet," he corrected her. "It is one of the Headmaster's. He insisted I take one the last time I was in his office. I believe he called it a 'Devonshire Clotted Cream Fudge'!"

She laughed.

"Professor Dumbledore does have a sweet tooth, doesn't he."

She pullhe ehe ends of the wrapper and it twisted open. Inside was a large golden-brown brick of creamy fudge.

"We'll share it."

He looked at her.

"Thank you, no. I have no liking for sugar."

"I know it won't do much to keep the hunger at bay, but in these circumstances, sugar is good for you."

He continued to look at her. Here she goes again, he thought; and he was right.

"It'll help your energy levels. Walkers and climbers carry Kendal Mint Cake around with them, which is basically sugar. Hilary and Tenzing ate some on the summit of Everest in 1953...It can help keep you alive."

"That's very interesting, Miss Granger, but..."

The words dried as he watched her put the fudge to her mouth and slowly bite down on it. He couldn't believe it when she pulled her hand away and raised it, presenting the remaining half of fudge to his lips.

The whole thing had been so simple and yet so...so...

He swallowed, and looked down at the sweet hovering a moment from his mouth.

The fudge had been to her mouth; re on on her lips. He could see the marks made by her teeth, the bitten edge shining with her moisture - and she was offering to feed it to him.

Slowly he opened his mouth and allowed her to push the fudge inside.

He let it remain where it landed, just behind his lower teeth as the tip of his tongue ran over that bitten edge, gathering in whatever lingering evidence of her mouth he could.

he he finally allowed himself to chew, he hardly noticed the sickening, almost pure sugar taste of the sweet. Every taste-bud seemed to be leaning forward trying to capture that fleeting touch of her fingertip inside his mouth.

"Delicious, isn't it."

He chewed slowly, still dazed.

"Hmmmm?"

"I said, it's delicious. I wish you had more.ofesofessor Dumbledore always has the best sweets. They're even better than Honeyduke's. I think he magics them up himself..."

He frowned, confused. How could she be speaking so normally? Had she no idea what she had just done?

He looked at her.

she she probably hadn't. Little Miss Know-it-all was evidently naive in matters of seduction. What she had done, she'd done in total innocence.

But - she was eighteen! In a mixed boarding school. She couldn't be that innocent. She must have had some sexual contact with boys. She was so thick with Potter and Weasley, surely one of them..? Even a quick fumble behind a tapestry would have awakened her to the world of sexual behaviour. Ye Gods! They had Draco Malfoy in the school for the heavens' sake! He couldn't believe there was a female student who hadn't been groped by that horny little bastard...

6pm-7pm

Hermione snuggled back into the cloak, licked the remaining sweetness off her teeth and smiled to herself.

That had thrown him.

At least it had taken her mind off things for a little while.

She noticed it was becoming difficult to think of anything except the cold, and feeling hungry.

Even the Professor's cloak wasn't keeping the cold out as much as it had when he'd first put it over her. It was only a summer cloak after all. He must be freezing.

She couldn't believe the change in the weather. Just yesterday, she'd been dangling her feet in the lake back at Hogwarts...

"Professor, how come the weather has changed so dramatically?" And then suddenly a dreadful thought hit her. "It's...it's not a sign, or an omen or anything, is it?"

"No. It's just the natural climate around here."

"What do you mean? Where are we?"

< FAC FACE="Courier New"> "Miss Granger, we have been here for hours. Are you seriously telling me you haven't reached a conclusion as to where we are?"

"No," she said, piqued. "I just assumed we'd been thrown in the dungeons of Voldemort's...(sorry Professor)...castle or something."

He stared at her, rubbing his left arm at the same time.

"During the past few hours I have begun to notice several gaping holes in your education, Miss Granger. Shall I give you some clues? Which establishment do you imagine has its highest temperature set at winter levels? Which place is so secure, I won't even bother trying to escape. Do you honestly believe I would have let us both sit here, hungry, cold, waiting to die, if I had the slightest hope of escape?"

She looked at him in disbelief.

"Azkaban!?"

"Well done!" he said, scathingly. "Five points to Gryffindor."

"OH SHUT UP!" she yelled, jumping up, tears springing to her eyes. "This is hard enough to bare without your classroom sarcasm." She turned her back on him, instantly realising she'd shouted at a teacher. She cringed, waiting for the inevitable 'Professor Snape' reaction.

"Yes," he said, sounding almost apologetic. "I must try to remember, we are not exactly in a classroom environment at present."

She swallowed.

"How could we possibly be in Azkaban?" She turned to face him again. "It's Ministry-run. Who would lock us up in here?"

"The Dark Lord - when he took control and released his followers and remaining Death Eaters. It left plenty of room for his enemies."

"You...you mean, Harry could be here somewhere?"

"No. Potter is either still fighting, or dead."

He must have seen her stricken face because he quickly added,

"But I believe he must still be alive. We surely would have been approached by now, had the Dark Lord been victorious."

Hermione screamed as a clatter at the door sounded at that precise moment.

A small hatch near the bottom had slid open and a tray was shoved through, baring chunks of bread and cheese, and a flask of some kind.

The bread flew off the tray and onto the ground, the flask tipped over and the lid came off, spilling the contents.

Snape leaped forward and set fla flask upright before too much of the liquid escaped. He collected the escaped bread, picked up the tray and brought it to the table.

Hermione's heart was still in her mouth as she walked over and sniffed the flask.

"Soup? Oh, thank God!" she said, not sure if she meant because there was food, or from relief they hadn't come to get them.

"We shall have to use the goblet," he poured some soup into their water goblet and handed it to her.

She took a few mouthfuls. It was luke warm, but better than nothing. She then handed the goblet to him.

"I shall have mine after," he said, tearing at the bread.

"No, we'll take it in turns." When he looked at her, she pushed the goblet nearer to him. "Come on, don't be silly. You're just as hungry as me."

They ate.

Not full, but at least no longer hungry, she tore off a last piece of bread and went and sat on the bed.

He put the lid back on the flask. They hadn't eaten everything, although they wanted to. They had agreed to save some - not knowing when they would be fed next.

She looked up as something wet fell on her head.

"Oh, no!"

She jumped up in disbelief as snow began blowing in through a hole in the window and falling on the bed.

"Help me move the bed to the other side of the cell," he said, taking hold of one end.

She took the other and together they moved it, then sat down heavily, side-by-side.

"I really hope you're right; that it isn't an omen," she said, quietly.

"So do I, Miss Granger. So do I."