Fire and the Dragon

A/N: Hello happy readers! YAY, I finished a chapter today...I did not think I would get it done. Thanks again to all my readers. My nerves about posting a story are beginning to settle, though not much. I read other stories and love them, but they do say you are your biggest critic. You guys are the absolute best! And don\'t worry, Severus and Hermione will work through things...Christmas is coming soon after all. The season of miracles.















Ch. 12 Nightmares and the Dragon



Severus and Hermione did not discuss what had almost transpired in the moonflower field over the next couple of weeks. The only mention of it was a conversation Hermione overheard between he and the Headmistress the morning after:







“Snape, a word please.”



“Why Headmistress, what brings you so far down in the dungeons?”



“Do not chastise me, Severus. What is going on between yourself and Ms. Granger?”



Hermione could almost visualize Severus’ scowl.



“Whatever are you muttering about woman? She is my assistant.”



“Oh stop it. Hagrid told me he saw the two of you near the forbidden forest. Honestly, Snape, the girl just began to get over a sexual assault.”



“You need not remind me of that, Minerva. Unless you have forgotten, I was the one who found the poor girl.”



Hermione could hear the older woman sigh deeply.



“I will be watching you, professor Snape. I do not doubt her feelings for you, she has been hiding them for the past 4 years, but she is a girl, Severus. I will not allow you to trifle with her.”



“Fear not, Minerva, what happened last night was a moment of weakness. It shall not occur again.”









After that, work and life went on as usual. Severus was not coming to visit her as often and he tried to refrain from any contact.



The staff of Hogwarts and Hermione’s friends noticed that she was not as withdrawn as she was, and they were glad to see the change.



One afternoon, near Mid-November, Hermione was sitting at her desk, grading more potions’ essays. Severus came through her door and she offered him a warm smile. He inclined his head slightly.



He dropped another stack of papers to grade on the edge of her desk and sat down across from her. “Hermione, I have completed the potion, should you choose to not continue with your pregnancy.”



She glanced up from her papers, chewing furiously on her bottom lip. “I am sorry it has taken so long, some of the ingredients were difficult to acquire.” It was partially true. A few of the ingredients were not so easy to get, but secretly he was biding his time for her to make a good decision that she could live with.



She put her quill down and took a deep breath. “Thank you, Severus. I appreciate that you took the time to brew it for me.” Severus held his breath as she continued. “However, I am not going to need it. I have decided to keep this baby.”



Inside, Severus was relieved; on the outside he gave a slight nod and got up to leave. “Very Well, Ms. Granger. I shall leave you to your work.” His robes rustled about him as he walked out of the door.



Hermione sighed, ever since the almost kiss, he had been treating her cordially, but as though she were nearly a stranger. He had started keeping her extremely busy grading papers and sorting potions or textbooks.



With a heavy heart, she looked at the new stack of parchment. This was going to take her all night. She decided to have a bite of dinner before resigning herself to a long, lonely night.



When she sat back down at her desk, she stretched her neck and arms and dove straight in. She had no idea how long she sat there, but she began to doze off. She fought the impending sleep as long as she could, Severus was counting on her to finish grading these.



She slapped her face slightly a couple of times, stood up, rubbed her eyes, nothing was helping. After what seemed like hours, she had fallen asleep in her chair, head on the desk.



Severus was patrolling the halls again. Looking for randy, older students trying to get ‘laid’, as they called it, in deserted classrooms or dark niches. Since his night with Hermione, he had backed off and allowed her more distance and space.



His feelings had not changed towards the girl, but he could not get involved with her. She was vulnerable and young. He had years of practice at hiding his emotions behind a wall and it had been fairly easy to do so again in this situation.



When he was sure he was not going to catch any miscreants out of bed, he made his way back to the dungeons. He saw a light coming from under Hermione’s door. Foolish girl, he hadn’t meant for her to complete her work in one night.



He shook his head and unbuttoned his cuffs, rolling them up enough to wash his hands. He leaned over to turn the water on when he heard a piercing scream coming from Hermione’s room.



Wand out and ready, he dashed to her. Imagining every possible horror that could cause the woman to scream like that. He found her, still at her desk, alone, sound asleep. She was thrashing, kicking, and screaming.



He put his wand away and walked to her desk. He touched her shoulder. “Hermione,” he whispered, trying to rouse the girl. “Hermione…” he said a bit louder.



“MS. GRANGER!!!” He shouted as loud as he could. She jumped awake and toppled backwards out of her chair, her head smashing into the bricks surrounding the fireplace. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked around in alarm.



“S-S-Severus. I’m sorry….I thought, I mean, he was here, he took the baby…the trees were talking.” She was rambling, still half-asleep.



He leaned down to her and helped her to a sitting position. “Why were you still awake at this hour? Those papers need not be graded fully until next week.”



“I wanted to make you happy.” She sobbed. Severus felt a pang of guilt in his gut. “I am sorry if I woke you, Professor.” Tears still flowed freely.



“I was not asleep, Hermione. No apology is necessary. We can not control what happens in our dreams.” He told her softly. She craned her neck to look at him, and hissed in pain, grabbing her head.



Severus pushed her hair out of the way and slowly moved his wand over the spot she had grabbed. She instantly felt a cooling sensation and the pain was gone. “Thank you.” She whispered to her clasped hands.



He stood and extended his left hand to assist her in getting up. She caught a glimpse of his dark mark and shied away. Severus noticed her reaction then what she reacted to. He snatched his sleeve back over it.



“I am not a nice man, Ms. Granger. You know of my past, though there are many things no person on this earth shall ever know. I will be repenting for my crimes until the day I leave this world.” He hissed at her in a low voice.



She reached her hands up and allowed him to pull her up beside him. “Are you well?” he asked her, his hand on her abdomen. She blushed and nodded her head. “Just the same, it would a wise decision to be checked by Madame Pomfrey in the morning. I am sure she will be more than willing to dote over you.”



She agreed that she would stop by the hospital first thing before breakfast as she sat down on her bed. She crawled under the covers as Severus was about to go through the joined bathroom “Wait.” He turned at the sound of her voice.



“Stay with me, Severus? Please don’t ask me to sleep alone.” The desperation in her voice called to him more than the words. “Hermione, I do not believe this is a good idea.”



“Please?” she begged him with innocent eyes. “Just for sleep.” She insisted. He knew he was done for with those big eyes. He huffed and came to the bed. He slipped his shoes off and shrugged off his shirt.



Hermione was peeking at him from under the covers. His back was lean and well sculpted. Along its entirety was a tattoo of a black dragon. Her mouth made a small bow shaped ‘O’ before she turned over to her other side.



She felt the mattress shift as he got comfortable. He stayed on the top of her blankets and accio’d a blanket from his bed. It was deep green. She had never been in his rooms, she could only imagine what they looked like.



With a secure smile, she drifted off to sleep. Severus followed suit shortly after. When he woke in the morning, there was a warm body cuddled nearly under him, his arm was wrapped over her waist, and her hair was fanned out above her head.



Oh merciful Merlin, he could get used to this. That thought scared the dour Potions Professor. He decided to forget about that at the moment as he closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of lavender radiating off the young woman, drifting off to sleep for a while longer.