Flame of Existence

--> See Introduction for warnings/disclaimer.

FLAME OF EXISTENCE
/ by Bella

Chapter Sixteen

It was the day of Hermione\'s eighteenth birthday... She woke up that morning early, as usual, and dressed and showered, muttering a quiet “Happy Birthday!” in a bored voice to her reflection.

Truth be told, she never really did like her birthday. The date never really held any weight with her, much to her family and friends\' dismay. After dressing herself, Hermione made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast and sat down between Harry and a very tired-looking Ginny.

“Happy birthday, Hermione!” Ginny and Harry stated in unison, grinning at her.

“Thank you.” She managed a weak smile before turning to Ginny. “Have you been to see Ron yet?”

Ginny nodded and looked away guiltily. “He\'s quite embarrassed, you know.”

Harry and Hermione stopped shoveling scrambled eggs onto their plate and looked at the youngest Weasley with interest. “Why?”

“Because that big oaf, Crabbe, attacked him. It\'s not necessarily something he\'s proud about. I mean, would you be?” She shook her head and shoved a bite of eggs into her mouth. “It hurt his pride.”

“That makes sense, Ginny,” Hermione mumbled, staring down at her plate. “Is that why Madam Pomfrey wouldn\'t let us in to see him?”

Ginny nodded and grinned. “She tried to keep me back as well. Didn\'t work to well, did it?”

Hermione laughed. “No, I guess it didn\'t.”

Hermione inwardly smiled at the thought that Ginny was taking after her two older brothers, Fred and George, more and more with each passing day.

Her current muse was interrupted as the staff door by the head table slammed shut. Billowing black robes caught Hermione\'s attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she would have sworn Professor Snape looked almost like a dementor with his ominous robes and smooth walk.

“Greasy git,” Ginny spat, staring at him. It was common knowledge that not a single Weasley liked Professor Snape.

Hermione suppressed a smile by shoving a fork full of eggs into her mouth and she stared at her red-haired friend who was sending glares up at the head table.

{--------------------------------------------}

The hospital wing was so busy, do to a pre-mature Exploding Blindias that emitted harmful gases to Professor Sprout\'s fourth-year Herbology class, that Hermione and Harry went unnoticed by Madam Pomfrey. The pair walked inconspicuously towards Ron\'s curtained-off area while glancing at the students cradling their heads in pain. Hermione cringed as she saw blood seeping out from the tear-ducts of one student, and then looked away quickly in hopes of keeping her stomach at bay.

Hermione was the first to enter Ron\'s bed-area, and she smiled at him quickly as he looked up from a book on quidditch that he was glancing through. She went over to him and hugged him quickly, noting that his face turned blood-red as she did so.

“Hello, Ronald. Are you feeling any better?”

Ron grumbled a response that sounded something like, “I\'m fine, and have been since I woke up.” He grinned sheepishly at Harry who was still standing at the entrance of the thin, white curtain with his hands in his pockets, smiling.

“Happy birthday, by the way, Hermione...” His blush turned even deeper when Hermione hugged him again. Truth was, Hermione didn\'t expect that of Ron, especially with all that he had been through lately. In fact, she had found it almost... touching that he switched his focus from himself, for once.

“Thank you, Ron. That means a lot to me, especially coming from you.”

“Yeah, well, um... So, Harry. How\'s practice been going?”

Harry grinned and moved over to Ron\'s bedside as he went into an in-depth story on the last practice where the Ravenclaw team challenged them to a “pre-game, just for fun.” Hermione stood back and watched, smiling and thinking that everything seemed almost normal - something that hasn\'t happened at all since their earlier years at Hogwarts.

After about a half an hour, Hermione noted a completely different tone in the boys\' conversation and snapped out of her silent reverie.

“Did Aurors come to take him?” Ron asked, fingering the seam on the edge of the white hospital blanket.

Harry nodded. “Two of them. He went kicking and screaming, I suspect.”

“Who would have thought it, Harry? I mean, at Hogwarts, right under Dumbledore\'s nose.” Ron\'s face wore no expression as he said this, just a blank stare directed to the end of the bed where his feet sat motionless. He was obviously thinking on it really hard.

Harry gave Hermione a what-do-I-say-now look as Ron fell even deeper in thought. Hermione looked almost pained as she shrugged her shoulders.

“W-Well... there is one advantage, I suppose.”

Ron\'s head snapped up, his eyes flicking to Harry dubiously.

“Well, I saw Lavender Brown out in the hallway the other day and she was mumbling something about you being noble or something, since you were sticking up for Hermione when it happened, and all...” Harry looked uncertainly at Ron, waiting for his reaction.

“Of course!” Ron boomed, grinning from ear-to-ear. “The girls will love me now. It makes perfect sense, Harry. Bugger... Why didn\'t I think of that before? The girls will be so easy--”

Hermione fumed, but was interrupted by a low voice somewhere behind her. “And that is all you could get, Mr. Weasley... girls. Little girls who don\'t know the difference between a man and a boy, like yourself.”

Three heads turned out the sound of the voice and stared at Professor Snape. Ron\'s face flushed again and his fingers clenched around the blanket in silent fury. Harry looked away uncomfortably as Hermione bit back a smile, thinking that Ron deserved every word the truthful Potions Master just spat.

“Miss Granger, I wish to speak with you for a moment. There are some matters about the upcoming event that need going over. Please accompany me outside.” With his face set in a sneer, he turned and walked from the curtained area, fully expecting Hermione to follow.

“Well, I guess I had better follow him. I\'ll come back later, Ron. Harry.” She nodded at the latter and exited the curtain. She saw the black robes a few beds ahead and she quickly made up the distance.

“Did--” She was interrupted with his low hiss.

“To save myself from your endless interrogation, Miss Granger, I came up here to deliver a potion to aid the other students in recovery from the affects of the gas.”

Hermione nodded and quickly walked through the door that he, surprisingly, held open for her as they exited the hospital wing. She was further caught off guard when he placed a hand on the small of her back and steered her into an unused classroom.

Standing in the middle of the classroom playing with her hands, she watched as he warded the door and placed a silencing charm on the room.

She found that she couldn\'t hold her tongue. “Sir, why are we in here?”

Snape turned and stared at Hermione with calculating eyes. “I wish to speak with you, Miss Granger. Privately, and I don\'t want any interruptions. Understood?”

Hermione frowned at him treating her like a child and calling her by her sir name, but as his black eyes bore into hers, she found herself reluctantly nodding. “Yes, Severus.”

Hermione watched him run a hand through his lank hair as he paced, and then as he pinch the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes shut. After a few moments of thought, he locked his eyes with hers again and began.

“Dumbledore found us in a very compromising position,” Severus stated firmly, his black eyes glittering, “After you left, he told me something very interesting... and very --unsuspected-- to say the least.”

Hermione nodded, still not speaking, but bursting with questions. Snape read her eyes and rolled his own. “He wasn\'t angry, Mi-- Hermione. I\'m also pretty sure he won\'t take your precious Head Girl badge away.”

His eyes dropped to her chest where the small glittering badge was pinned, and rested there for a moment or two, thinking, before he continued. His eyes raised and met hers, with such an intense seriousness that she had never seen before.

“We have to be careful.” His voice, which had just been snide seconds before, was now low with thorough gravity. She watched a flash of --regret?-- appear in his eyes before they turned black and forbidding again.

Hermione\'s brows knitted together as she scrutinized him. She didn\'t want to push him, in fear of pushing him away. Her voice came out softly. “What is it, Severus?”

He looked as if he didn\'t want to answer for a moment, but he changed his mind. “We were too careless the other night, Hermione. I realize that now, and it can never happen again. I won\'t compromise your education because of this.” He waved his hands back and forth between the two of them, indicating the \'relationship\'.

“And I won\'t risk you getting sacked,” she said firmly and mocked him by waving her hands as he had done.

Snape grinned and without a second\'s warning, closed the gap between them. He took her mouth with his own, eagerly kissing the younger witch. Hermione brought her hands up and tangled them in his hair as she opened her mouth to allow entrance for his tongue.

They stood there in the middle of the empty classroom for a while, snogging. If it hadn\'t been for the obnoxiously loud bell that rang, indicating the start of lunch, they probably would have stayed that way, caught up in each others mouths.

They broke apart, both flush with emotion. Snape shakily smoothed out his robes and cursed himself for not being able to hold himself back. He silently reminded himself what Dumbledore had told him the day before-- Make good decisions...

Snape unwarded the door and nodded at Hermione. “Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you, Severus.” She smiled at him.

Snape looked away, suddenly interested in a dust bunny that was rolling around on the floor in the corner. “You go first.”

Hermione nodded and walked past him, grabbing his hand quickly and running her thumbs over his knuckles. She smiled reassuringly up at him and then left, leaving in her wake a very disturbed Severus.

He stood there for a long moment, momentarily fazed by what she had just done. A simple gesture such as that one practically undid him - something that wasn\'t necessarily easy concerning him. The second Severus noticed an unfamiliar tightening in his chest, he shook it, and walked out of the classroom, glaring at any and all students who dared look at him.

He arrived to lunch only a few minutes late and took his seat beside Professor McGonagall and picked up a turkey sandwich from the stack in front of him.

“Severus--” Minerva began, but was cut off by him.

“I do not care to hear what you have to say, Minerva. My business is my own, as you shall very well know by now,” he said curtly before stuffing a quarter of the sandwich into his mouth.

Professor McGonagall sighed heavily and shook her head. ”As you wish, Snape.”

{--------------------------------------------}

That night, at the very end of dinner in the Great Hall, Dumbledore stood and smiled out over the students.

”Attention, all students,” he said, getting their attention. “Seeing as good news spreads quickly here at Hogwarts, I would not be surprised if you all knew about the upcoming Halloween Ball.” There was a loud buzz of excitement as the students began whispering between themselves. He continued, “The date is now set for the 31st of October, and will be held in a temporary hall in Hogsmeade.

“The dress is formal, so you will have to acquire dress robes. Also, to put a further twist on things, it will also be a masquerade, so masks are required. All third years and above can acquire masks during the next Hogsmeade trip, which is...” He continued on, telling the students of the minor details.

Hermione glanced up at the Head Table to find Snape staring back at her. She felt the corners of her lips going up in a faint smile as she looked at him, half waiting for him to show some kind of sign. He jerked his head towards the Slytherin table, and Hermione frowned slightly.

“HERMIONE!”

Hermione jumped in her seat and then turned to glare at Ginny. “Merlin, Ginny! What was that for?”

“I\'ve been sitting here talking to you for the past five minutes and you\'ve been completely ignoring me. What\'s going on?” The redhead looked somewhat annoyed as they all stood to go back to the common rooms.

Hermione walked beside Ginny. “Nothing, sorry. I\'m just thinking about some things Stephen Cornfoot and I have to finish before the Ball, that\'s all. The answer seemed to settle Ginny for the time being.

As they left the Great Hall, Hermione glanced back once more at the Head Table, only to find that the wizard she was looking for had already left.

End of Chapter Sixteen / To Be Continued

AN: Exploding Blindias - my own little creation. :) Also, I know Hermione didn\'t receive any gifts. Rest assured, she did, I just didn\'t include it. :D
Flash Forward: Hermione and Ginny go shopping, more of scary Stephen Cornfoot, Snape and his bloody feelings (or lack thereof), and more!

Off subject:
Anybody else ready for Half Blood Prince?
Anybody else going to be devastated if J.K. accidentally kills off our Snapey?