Still The One

Anti-litigation charm: Not mine, no money, all JKR

Chapter 2 – Back in the Day

Severus paced around his office, practically stalking from one room to the other, fury streaming out from every pore. How dare she taunt him. Did she even care that she’d opened old wounds? He knew no women looked at him that way. He was too pale, too thin, and too hard; women went for men like Sirius, and men like that Kalet would be when he was older. They didn’t go for old men with potion stains on their fingers and flat straight hair. They never had in the past.

And her… he knew she was teasing him, but when she’d leaned in to whisper, he had felt her robe fall apart as her tongue had darted out to wet her lips before whispering those erotic lies in his ear and he’d felt her breast brush over his chest briefly. She didn’t even seem to notice, but he did. In that momentary brush, he’d felt her nipple, hard and peaked against the thin raw silk of his shirt. If she’d leaned in any more, she would have delighted in the results that her joke had produced. His erection strained against his trousers even now, aching with desire. Would he like to watch? Well, in a simple word, Yes! He was a man and had desires, even if he didn’t have anybody to share them with. Damning her for her teasing and cruel nature, he wondered briefly if she’d owled her friends already to tell them about her joke on him. Oh ha-ha.

He sat down in his oversized black leather chair next to the dying fire and let his mind wander back to a day five years ago. He had gone down to Hogsmeade for something, what it was, he couldn’t recall now. Walking into the Three Broom Sticks, he looked around for a place to sit, but this being a Hogsmeade weekend for the students, the entire pub was full of rowdy, noisy students all trying to get the attention of somebody far across the room. The only seat, if he were inclined to stay, was next to Miss Granger at the entrance. He was about to turn around and leave when she’d placed a light hand on his forearm.

“Professor Snape, you’re welcome to sit here. Harry and Ron went off to Honeydukes and won’t be back for at least an hour. I am going to wait for them here.” With that she’d closed a red leather bound book with gold edged pages he hadn’t seen in many years.

“Are you enjoying the book Miss Granger?” Severus asked with forced nonchalance as he reluctantly sat down. It was entitled “The Dark Potions of the Mind” and the author was Anon. Very few people realized Anon was a nondeplume Snape had used many years ago in order to write a very detailed book on how to counter several of the dark potions Voldemort had him brewing at the time. Before Voldemort’s first fall from power, writing that book had been his penance to the world for the things done by the potions he researched and discovered.

“Yes! It’s fantastic. Why don’t we learn this stuff in class?” Hermione asked, her eyes bright with youth and exuberance. She opened the book at the simple marker she used and studied one of his detailed colored drawings.

“Even two weeks of studying this could save many lives during the war and the author was so passionate about how to perform every detail of the potions.” Her eyes drifted over the text as her fingers traced over a detailed drawing of the correct size roots to gather for a complex potion involving two types of elf bark and carryme.

“Miss Granger, not every student, and I dare say not every adult, is willing to learn,” warmth infused his normally cold voice. She was truly a gift to academia and one day she would make a brilliant research witch.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.” She took a deep breath and up to that point, everything was sailing along smoothly. “But he didn’t use very good methodology did he? I mean, really, could you believe he admits to trying the blood wart leaves and the tooth of a green-bellied long eared dragon in heat in the Protectius Lifius Potion? During my summer research, I found that those would cause the effectiveness of the potion to be cut in half within a week.” She spoke with such conviction about that certain potion which had been the bane of his research for years. When he wrote the book, he’d simply laid his research out for someone else to continue. Four years on the same potion, with four years of bad results had started him doubting his ability at all. And this... this slip of a girl was talking about it as if it was as simple as a headache potion.

“A small amount of distilled moonbeam dew would act as a buffer and keep the magic from fading for at least a month. I-”

“Miss Granger,” Snape interrupted her, “you have no idea of what you speak. You are unable to perform even the simplest task without undue chatter and you most certainly will never know as much as the author of that book. I suggest you go to your friends and talk about how to rush face first into a death trap again, as it seems to be the one thing you are truly good at.” Not his best scathing retort, but the look of shock on her face told him he had scored a hit.

Severus fumed because she had to be wrong. Moonbeam dew? Distilled moonbeam dew? Unstable under almost all potions expect when mixed with dragon's tooth under the full moon by a maiden, and it acted in unaccountable ways. She had to be mistaken. He would not have spent four years only to overlook such a simple…

“Professor Snape?”

He made a noncommittal sound for her to continue.

“Would you … I mean, could I ask you if you would be so kind as to –“

“Out with it girl.” He nearly yelled at her. “What do you want?” Students around them had stopped talking and were staring at the reviled Potions Master as he yelled at the Head Girl in the middle of a public pub. He knew he was being impossible; the glare he was giving her clearly told her how unwelcome she was at this table. Forgetting that it was her table first, he just wanted her out of his sight.

“Never mind,” She said, a false smile plastered on her face and her eyes growing suspiciously moist. “I’ll deal with it myself. I’ll leave you to your drink, shall I?” and without waiting for him to say anything she bolted from the table, almost knocking Dumbledore over at the door.

“Ah, Miss Granger seems to be in a hurry. I suppose you told her you’d help her out then?” Noting the blank look on his Potions Master's face, Dumbledore continued, “With her letter for Post Graduate work at the University. I was very pleased when she announced Potions as her focus. Brilliant mind that young woman has. Simply Brilliant.”

Snape frowned. She wanted to study Potions. In order for her to study potions at University, she had to have a letter from him, and instead of encouraging her, he had yelled at her for possibly finding a stunning solution to his oldest problem.

“I’ll have the letter finished by tonight.” And with that Snape said goodbye and headed back to Hogwarts.

Miss Granger had shown up at Snape’s office later that night with an anxious look on her face. He’d passed her a message to meet him to discuss something of utmost importance. He hated to think of that night at all now, because he had shamed himself and opened himself up to her trusting smile, only to be reminded of how undesirable others found him.

“Sir?” she had asked. “You wanted to see me?”

“I am given to understand you wish a certain letter from me,” Snape started in on a carefully thought out speech. At seeing her eyes widen, he knew she was wondering how he knew. “I will indeed write you a letter with a glowing recommendation which will assure you a place at any University you wish to attend.”

He held his hand up to stop her from saying anything.

“All you need to do is prove that you are, in fact, a know-it-all. You will need to correctly brew and test the Protectius Lifius Potion with the changes you… suggested earlier today. And since tonight is a full moon, and I can only assume you are qualified…?”

Hermione blushed. He was asking if she was a virgin. Watching her nod her head while looking at the ground, Snape smirked. Not even the great Boy-Who-Lived has managed to pry her away from the library it would appear.

“You will start now. You will use the ingredients from my private stores over behind that door,” He waved a hand towards a door which was cracked open; the same one she’d stolen from before. “I will monitor your work for the next eight hours until it is complete, and then, in the morning, you will test it.” He waved his hand to dismiss her.
The shell-shocked look on her face as she walked out almost made him laugh. He didn’t think she could do it, but if she was aiming to be a potion mistress, she needed to be able to work under stress and do things correctly without much prep work if need be. Frankly, the letter was already written and she would get it regardless, but he needed her… purity to test the changes she had suggested.


He had just finished grading papers when she came back almost eight hours later.
“Professor Snape? It’s finished, almost. I thought you might want to watch as the moonbeam dew is added.” Looking up he noticed she’d shed her robes. It was unusually hot outside this late spring evening and she had, of course, been working over an extremely hot cauldron for hours on end. Clinging tightly to her upper body was a damp white cotton shirt with tiny buttons running up the length of it. Her uniform skirt skimmed her thighs and left him unaccountably dry in the mouth. Following her out of the classroom and into the hot night air, he couldn’t help but watch her hips sway ever so slightly.

She prattled on about how excited she was and about which university she wanted to go to. He wasn’t really paying attention to her words, only watching her body lean over the cauldron as she added the distilled moonbeam dew. She really was very pretty, with long brown wavy hair, chocolate eyes, and pert breasts straining against… he shook his head. He would not think about a student like that, absolutely not.

A cheer broke through his thoughts and he looked over at her. A wide grin spread across her moonlit face as she held up a vial containing the shimmering blue potion. It had worked. It would need to be tested daily for the next month, of course, to be sure, but it had the correct color and radiated a certain magic that he had never been able to achieve. Four years of research on his part, and only three weeks of reading on hers. She was indeed brilliant.

Walking over to where she stood with the moonlight creating a halo around her face, he reached into a concealed pocket and pulled out a letter with his personal wax seal stamped on it, “Your letter Miss Granger.”

Her face went blank and for a moment he was afraid she was going to faint, but instead she rushed at him and embraced him in a tight hug.

“Thank you. Thank you so much Severus,” she’d murmured into his neck. That was his undoing, hearing his name roll like honey from her lips. He turned his head and grazed a kiss across her lips. It wasn’t passionate, but it was unmistakable. She pressed her lips to his without thinking, but before he could deepen the kiss, she pushed him away and pulled out of his embrace.

“We can’t.” She said simply. With that she handed him the vial and picked her letter up off the wet grass.

“It’s not right, not like this.” Her eyes were cast in shadow, but he knew rejection. He knew it well and he shouldn’t have believed she would actually want to kiss him.

“Understood, Miss Granger, understood” he stiffened his shoulders and set off for his dungeon to escape. Yes, understood perfectly.

~*~*~*~*~

That had been her first real kiss and she remembered it clearly. She’d finished the potion and held the key to her future in the palm of her hand. She had looked into the eyes of the only man, or person for that matter, to ever stir her – ever challenge her. Picking out books from a box, she placed them carefully in order on her bookcase. Old text books on the bottom row, potion reference books on the middle rows, herbology texts on the left upper row, and her private… reading material on the upper right row. Her first kiss. Oh, Viktor had kissed her – a bland brushing of dry lips with only awkwardness to show in the end and Ron had even pressed his clumsy mouth against hers a few times, but neither had made her feel like a woman. In the ten seconds of contact she’d had with Severus at the end of her seventh year, she’d learned that kissing didn’t have to be clumsy, dry, awkward, messy, or boring.

In fact, during her sixth year, she had started to wonder if something was wrong with her. Kissing Ron made her want to wipe the drool from her face and take a hot shower even though Ron was a very handsome young man, which led her to the next logical question: Maybe she simply didn’t like boys. Maybe she liked girls? She’d watched Lavender and a few other girls in her year for a few days after that thought. Lavender had told her once that she thought girls belonged together, because softness needed softness.

Whatever that meant.

But no feelings or desires ever welled up, which lead her to the next conclusion: Something was wrong with her. She wasn’t interested in anything having to do with sex- not kissing, touching, groping, or anything. Hermione had cried for days at that thought.
It wasn’t until weeks later that she started to dream about a tall dark stranger who came to her in her dreams and did wicked things to her body. She woke up one morning with her hands between her legs, rocking back and forth and before she knew it, an orgasm had washed over her. It was the greatest thing she’d ever felt. So maybe she didn’t need anybody else. She could do quite a good job on her own thank you very much!
Placing the now empty box near the door to be carted off in the morning by the house elves, Hermione sighed. Her only regret about that single kiss at the end of her seventh year was that she’d stopped him. She'd wanted to wait until after graduation, which was only a few weeks away. They would be free of the student/teacher stigma and then they could… well, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like she could picture Severus asking her on a date. Dinner and a movie? She thought not, but they would be free to at least finish that kiss.

She kicked the stack of empty boxes in anger as she remembered what had happened right after graduation. She’d worn her best dress, specially bought for the occasion in a muggle store. It was an ankle length creation covered with airy green gauze like material that flowed over her body like liquid. Silver spaghetti straps held up the form-fitting top and dipped ever so slightly to show off the very tops of her breasts. She had hoped she looked like a Slytherin dream in that green and silver dress. Underneath, she had worn only an extremely sexy silver pair of barely there panties, hoping against hope.
Covering her eyes and shaking her head she plopped down into the worn brown chair next to her desk. It had been a disaster. She’d walked into his office, nervous energy radiating off her in waves, carrying her school robes over her arm. She wasn’t a student anymore, and she didn’t want so blatant a reminder of anything that would put her firmly in the category of ‘too young’.

Severus had looked up at her and for a moment she had felt the same electric rush run through her body as when he’d held her close. Then, without a second glance he’d crushed her, admittedly showing her she had a schoolgirl crush on him.

“Miss Granger, put your robe back on. This is still a school. Did you need something?” Gnashing her teeth, she remembered her heart feeling like it was breaking. Holding her head high, she’d walked out and gone straight to University, studying Potions and thinking about him.

Several dates in her first and second year of University had convinced her that she’d left something behind with Severus. She wasn’t sure what it was, but during an angst-ridden night talking to a friend, she’d come up with two possibilities. Either she’d left her heart behind or she’d been unable to get over his rejection of her. Neither option was very attractive, but it seemed to be the only reason why every time a boy asked her out or tried to flirt with her, she would compare them to Severus and they would always fall far behind in the comparison. That damned ten second kiss had changed her life, and in her opinion, not in a good way.

That was part of what drove her to make those outrageous comments in his ear. She wanted to watch him squirm. She’d spent five years alone, thinking about him, and to see his low opinion of her… well, it hurt.

Hermione placed her last box next to the shelf and looked around. Finished at last!
A knock sounded at her door. At least he's knocking this time, she thought.

“What in the bloody hell do you want Sev…” She trailed off. Standing in her doorway wasn’t the moody Potions Master, but a clean-cut young man wearing an amused look.

“Professor Granger,” he began. “I’m Marc Kalet. We met earlier in the Great Hall.”
He smiled at her. “I was wondering if you needed any help getting settled in. A strong pair of arms always comes in handy while moving.” And with that he held his arm up and flexed while giving her a goofy grin.

Hermione laughed. “I just finished, but thank you for the offer, though, if you wouldn’t mind, there are a couple of boxes which need to be moved next door….” She trailed off.
He was looking at her clothes. Most Professors almost always wore robes, so seeing her in Muggle low riders and a tank top must have been a shock. His mouth was slightly ajar when she reached over and tilted his chin so he was looking at her face and not her body. “Would you mind?”

“I’m... so sorry Professor Granger.” A flush was spreading over the handsome face. She offered him a friendly grin to show it was already forgotten.

“No problem. These three boxes need to go into Professor Snape’s office, right next door.” She led him down the hall and knocked. “So you’re on the Quidditch Team Mr. Kalet? My best friends were on the Team too. I spent many evenings watching them practice, in fact some...”

Severus was standing in the door, “Let me guess Professor Granger. Perhaps you were going to offer to come cheer Mr. Kalet on? In your own special way, of course.”

The younger boy gasped at the comment and Hermione’s anger flared. “Professor Snape, I was saying to Mr. Kalet that in fact I spent too much time at the Quidditch pitch as Quidditch isn’t my cup of tea. You on the other hand seem to have found your niche. Insulting everyone who walks across your path must take up so much of your time.”
Kalet handed the boxes to Hermione and mumbled a hasty excuse to leave.

Watching him all but run down the hall, Hermione turned to Severus and said, “You’re a complete bastard. He only offered to help move your things out of my office.” She turned to walk away.

“Excuse me, Miss Granger. I mean Professor Granger, of course.” Gods, he was never going to let her forget that he saw her as a student. “It’s past time for our meeting. I said promptly at 8:30 and it is now a quarter till. Please come in and have a seat. The sooner we begin, the sooner you can scout out another… helper for tonight.”

Okay… so he was going to keep being an ass. She could handle this. She would be the bigger person. Turning to face him, she squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and swallowed her pride.

“Professor Snape, I am sorry for whatever it is I did to earn such wrath from you. I am sorry I’ve taken your storage area and I am sorry for being late. I will, in the future, be prompt. I would also like to start over. Let’s pretend tonight never happened. I was embarrassed to be caught, er… in the act, and said things which I am sure you found – distasteful. I regret that.” Good job Hermione. Very carefully worded.

Holding her hand out to him she said, “Professor Snape, I hope you remember me. I’m Hermione Granger. I’ve just graduated from your Alma Mater and have been hired to teach the first and second years with you. I’m sure we will work together wonderfully and I hope I will be helpful in allowing you more research time.” Her arm was getting heavy and he didn’t show any signs of accepting her offer.

Finally, he nodded and shook her hand briefly. “I do remember you. Please call me Severus as all teachers here are on a first name basis. I read your graduate paper, well done. Albus did a fine job in selecting you. Is there anything you require to get settled in?”
Relief washed over her. This might work after all.

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Kissing the Teacher – such a dark temptation

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