an overwhelming desire to win...

Hermione turned on the water in the kitchen, beginning with the dishes and sighed heavily. What had she gotten herself into?

She suddenly heard a yelp from the bathroom and looked to the direction in surprise. Suddenly her attention drew back to the running water over the dishes. Turn the water off you fool! He\'ll scald himself! Hermione gasped, shutting the water off instantly.

Great. Just add that to the list of things I\'ve done wrong to Severus Snape. The list must be miles long by now.

Her heart was still stinging in sorts, as she imagined Snape\'s face as she told him of her folly. He\'d be furious, she knew that much.

Severus Snape was not the type of man who stood for such adolescent idiocy. He was an obstinate man, one that was easily hurt emotionally, always putting up guards. And now, the one person he had confided in was her, and she was going to shatter him.

She was thinking to herself, putting the last of the dishes away when she heard the front door downstairs open slowly, and her mother\'s sing-song voice drifted upstairs.

\"-to Thursday. I mean honestly, what was Terrance thinking?\"

MUM AND DAD ARE HOME? WHY? HOW?!....Oh GODS, SEVERUS!

Hermione felt her heart stop, and she tried to move but found it impossible. She could still hear the shower running and she rushed to the bathroom, praying it was unlocked. It was.

\"Severus!\" she hissed, shutting and locking the door behind her. He stood, clothed only in the pink towel around his waist. He was looking into the mirror contemplatively as she stared at his impressive torso and bare legs a moment.

He turned his face to her and gave a shy smirk, and she noticed his hair was still quite damp. She felt her breathing becoming uneven. He was so statuesque, so brilliantly chiseled in all the right places. So unknowingly sensual.

\"You know, those knobs are strange.\" Snape commented as she came closer to him not noticing the look of hidden lust in her eyes. \"I turned on a bit of hot and bit of cold, and everything was fine. But moments later it suddenly ran blistering hot!\"

Hermione gave a worried shrug, her thoughts now back on the problem at hand. \"Err...you probably just didn\'t turn on enough cold.\" her voice grew hushed as she drew nearer to him, grasping his bare forearm suddenly.

\"Anyway, that doesn\'t matter right now. My parent\'s are home from their trip! Home..downstairs...no, probably upstairs now. In the kitchen for all I know! You have to be quiet.\"

Snape face blanched, as he looked to her in disbelief. \"Your...parents?\"

Hermione nodded, \"Yes. My Mum and Dad. They\'re probabl-\"

\"Hello?\" came a voice from the other side of the door, \"Hermione darling is that you?\"

Hermione gulped as she cupped her hand over Snape\'s mouth while he gave her a look of shock as if to say, Honestly…I wasn\'t going to say anything.

\"Yes Mum.\"

\"What are you doing here?\"

\"Oh..\" Hermione gave Snape a meaningful look, as she pulled her hand away from his mouth. \"Just felt like spending a bit of time at home.\"

\"Oh of course. How are Harry and Ron?\"

\"Oh they\'re fine Mum.\"

\"The Headmaster?\"

\"He\'s just fine.\"

\"Good...good.\" there was a small pause, \"And how about that mean Professor of yours, Snape? Is he still being cruel to you?\"

Snape smirked, looking to a flustered Hermione bemused. Hermione forgot how often she had complained about him to her Mother. \"Erm...yes, he\'s been quite...amiable lately. Not cruel at all.\"

\"Well,\" Mrs. Granger suggested gently, \"Perhaps we should have him over for dinner sometime then.\"

Hermione felt her eyes go wide as Snape stood, leaning against the sink, arms crossed over his delicious torso as he smirked at her openly. Damn him for being so calm about this disaster.

\"Uh...he\'s quite busy all the time Mum.\" before the woman could speak again, Hermione rushed on. \"Anyway, I just wanted to have a shower, so could we talk more later?\"

\"Sure honey.\"

Hermione waited until she heard her Mother\'s footsteps diminish into the kitchen before she braced herself against the sink.

\"So...\" Snape drawled quietly into her ear, \"How do you propose we get out of here without being caught?\"

Hermione shivered a bit of his breath in her ear and looked to him, so close and smelling so fresh. Before she could think of something logical to say she squinted at his hair, noticing its suddenly acquired healthy shine. \"Did you use my shampoo?\"

Snape looked to his reflection and nodded. \"Do you mind?\"

Hermione shook her head, looking to him a moment at a loss for words. Then shaking her head and looking from him,(since looking to him proved to be quite distracting.) she spoke.

\"What do you mean how do I propose we get out of here?\" her voice was hushed but intense, \"Just use your wand!\"

Snape rolled his eyes, and whispered back just as urgently. \"Honestly Hermione, don\'t you think I thought of that?\"

Hermione shrugged, \"So then, what\'s the problem?\"

He looked quite embarassed and miffed as he spoke next. Almost ashamed.

\"I\'ve left it in the kitchen.\"

Hermione could have strangled him. Of all the stupid things to do. He didn\'t know he\'d be stranded in your bathroom with your parents a mere few feet away.

\"Okay.\" Hermione said quietly, \"Alright. Give me a moment.\"

She sighed and then straightening looked to Severus evenly, giving no room for sarcastic comments from him.

\"Right. I\'ll grab your wand from the kitchen. Just..keep quiet.\"

Snape nodded, backing against the wall and looking after her impressed. He had worried she\'d flake out on him, tell him to go out the window or some such nonsense.

Hermione took a deep breath and opened the door a crack, seeing no one there she turned off the lights and opened the door wider, shutting if after lef left.

\"And so I told Markson that the filling was crucial and he gave me so-\"

Hermione sighed, her parents were in the kitchen giving some stupid speech about cavities and now it\'s be impossible to slide past them.

She walked into the kitchen airily, as if she was just passing by.

\"Hello darling.\" Hermione\'s mother said, giving her a kiss on the forehead and passing her husband the newly brewed coffee. Hermione nodded back, welcoming her parents and not bothering witall all talk. She casually inspected the starkly clean kitchen table in hopes of seeing his dark wand. Which she didn\'t. Oh God no.

\"Mum?\" she asked, her voice filled with panic. \"Did you clear the table?\"

The older woman nodded, \"Why yes. There were plates of food just left out, I mean th-?\"

\"Did you...\" Hermione interrupted, not wanting to ask the question, \"Throw everything away?\"

The woman smirked and then nodded, her dark eyes matching that of her daughters\'. \"Why wouldn\'t I?\"

Hermione\'s eyes grew impossibly wide as she looked to where the large trash bag was usually set out next to the sink. Her salvation lay inside. Where the hell was it?

\"Where is it?\" she screeched, looking to her parents in mute horror.

\"I put it out on the curb.\" Her father said matter-of-factly, \"Thought it may save time.\"

\"Oh holy God! He\'ll kill me!\" Hermione shouted, looking to her parents in shock. She rushed downstairs, and out to the door to where the garbage bag lay sadly on the curb. Hermione ignored the lone neighbor walking by her with his dog.

She ripped the bag open, digging about in its disgusting insides for the wand. Her heart was hammering as she groped blindly for it. Her parents rushed outside as well, looking to her in shock.

\"Who will kill you?\" Her father asked worried, rushing to his daughter\'s side. She held in the hopeless ss shs she mingled in the trash, looking for the wand. He moved back seeing her intensity.

Hermione didn\'t answer, only looked to her Mother with fury. \"HOW COULD YOU THROW AWAY A BLOODY WAND?!\"

Hermione\'s Mother shook her head, \"I never threw out a wand Hermione.\" She helped her shaking daughter up and back into the house, rushing up to the kitchen.

There she moved her hand to the window ledge by the sink and grasped the small stick between her hands. \"I moved it.\"

Hermione\'s mouth gaped open, \"You...moved it.\" she repeated, her eyes transfixed on the chance at Severus\' escape. She stood, kicking garbage out of the way, she washed her hands and then took it from her mother with shaking hands. That had been much too close.

\"Sorry Mum.\"

\"No, I\'m sorry darling.\" she pat Hermione\'s back soothingly, \"You must have had a horrid, yo, you seem so tense.\"

Hermione nodded, and then looked to apologize to her Father. He was gone. \"Where\'s dad?\"

Her Mother shrugged, \"Probably the bathroom. You know excitement stimulates his poor bladd"
N"
NOOOOOO!!!

Hermione\'s eyes widened even further as she dashed from her Mother\'s company and rushed down the hall, seeing the door shut and the lights on. SEVERUS! Her father most certainly would have noticed him. Oh no.

\"DAD!\"

She banged on thor, or, almost knocking it off its hinges. She called for her father screeching through the door and heard the muttering curses from him on the other side. She heard the sink running and suddenly the door flew open and her Father gave her a most unimpressed look. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

Please..please tell me he didn\'t se anything.

\"Dad...I-I need to have a shower. Now\"

He looked confused to her a nodded, \"You could have waited a moment.\" he noted exiting the washroom, “I wasn’t that long.” He saw the extremely pensive look on his daughter’s face and spoke again, forcefully.

\"You said someone would kill you?\" His lighter eyes boring into her own. His light brown hair stood frizzily atop of it head, obviously tried to be held down by gel. Hermione\'s glance kept going back and forth from the door to him, Just step away from the door!

\"Erm...\" Hermione\'s mind whirled, \"You see, I borrowed Ron\'s wand...for a project.\" she held up Snape\'s wand. \"He would have killed me if I lost it.\"

He nodded, seeming a little wary but believing her momentarily. Before he could question her more she spoke.

\"Well, I\'d better go have my shower....especially now.\"

She motioned to her filthy looking hands and shot her a confused look, then shrugging her father nodded. \"Alright then. But, when you\'re done please come out to the kitchen, I\'d like to have a chat.\"
Hermione nodded, \"Sure Dad. Anything.\"

He nodded, kissing her on the head and moving lazily back to the kitchen. She opened the bathroom door and saw it empty. Where the hell was he? She looked to the shower and seeing it bare looked to the only other feasible place, the small cupboard that stored their handtowels. She threw it open and concealed a ripping laugh.

Severus sat, scrunched up about in the cupboard, a small towel over his head as he looked to her angrily. “About bloody time.” He tossed the towels from him, and clumsily made his way out of the cupboard. She noticed rather sadly that he was fully dressed. He must have been sweltering in that damned cupboard.

“How long have you been in there?”

He shrugged, smoothing his rumpled robes. “A few moments. When your Father decided it was a most opportune time to relieve himself.” He shuddered.

“Sorry.” She said, handing him his wand as he grimaced, looking to the grime it had acquired.

“I had to root around in the garbage for it…well…almost.” She ignored his strange and perplexed look and took the wand from him, running it under the tap a moment and drying it with the small towel he still had on his shoulder. “Here.”

“Thank you.”

There was an unsettling pause, and Hermione knew that all chances of confessing the bet would have to wait. No point in getting him so angry that he screamed at her, and her parents found she and her Professor in a screaming match in their bathroom with towels scattered about on the floor.

“Will you see me again Se-?”

She hadn’t even the time to finish her question when his lips pressed against hers, grasping the back of her head and kissing her even deeper. A sd ofd of his hair brushed her cheek and she could smell its strawberry scent. Her heart hammered, even then as she kissed him back, matching his gusto and his pelvis brushed against her own as she suppressed a moan. She didn’t need her parents thinking anything else about her. Finally he pulled away, giving her a small wry smile that affirmed her query, and stepping back he spoke quietly, his dark eyes trained on hers.

“Thank you for a most…enjoyable although, bizarre evening Miss Granger.”

Before she could answer he was gone, a poof of smoke and a smirk later. She slumped to the ground, holding her hand and cursing under her breath as tears finally fell freely from her dark eyes and hit the floor with unheard splashes.

So close and yet so far.