Strong Enough

CH 25 DIZZY

Zephyr, you rock

You know where the thanks are!!

Not mine, just playing

\"You\'re cynical and beautiful
You always make a scene
You\'re monochrome delirious
You\'re nothing that you seem
I\'m drowning in your vanity
Your laugh is a disease
You\'re dirty and you\'re sweet
You know you\'re everything to me\"

Dizzy, Goo Goo Dolls


Defence classes had been going for a month, and with great progress. The rivalries between the houses seemed to have calmed down a little bit under the watchful eye of Severus and Hermione, who found that this was the one subject they worked well together in, and the students were taking it very seriously. A few even going so far as asking Hermione if she had anymore muggle literature for them to read as they had found it inspiring.

It was a lot more tiring for the two teachers than they had anticipated, especially with potions lessons and patrols on top. The only time they saw each other all month was in classes.

As Friday afternoon’s lessons drew to a close and the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff sixth years left the room of requirements, Severus and Hermione found themselves alone for the first time in a week.

Hermione was sitting at a large desk at one end of the room, marking the progress of the students against her and Severus’s notes, and Severus was banishing away cushions, beanbags and other bits and pieces that had been pulled out during the lessons.

She finished writing, stood up and stretched her body out. \"Why didn’t anyone tell me how exhausting teaching was?\" She said, resting against the desk.

\"You never asked,\" said Severus, banishing the last of the defense items into a cupboard at the other end of the room. \"I thought that you of all people would be able to handle it, Hermione, being so tough,\" he smirked at her, to show that he wasn’t serious.

\"Oh ha, ha, I could take you in a straight fight any day, old man,\" she smiled, looking him up and down.

\"Old man?\" He said, one eyebrow rose. \"Saucy chit, are you challenging me?\"

\"Challenge the great and mighty Severus Snape, Never,\" she said, laughing and quickly jumpint oft of the way as he lunged for her. She was dancing around him, staying just out of reach.

He shook off his robes, undid his collar and cuffs and stood before her in his shirt and trousers. Placing his wand on the desk, he gestured with his hands. \"Come on then, my Dear, f goi going a round or two with an old man?\" He said smiling as they started circling each other.

\"Let’s go professor,\" she said, dropping her wand next to his.

They sparred for about half an hour, punching, kicking, but neither getting the upper hand, and both too involved to notice that a pair of wide blue eyes were watching them from the doorway.

Severus punched Hermione in the face and she swung her body around to kick him. Severus was a split second to late dodging and the sharp metal heel of her boot caught him across the cheek, followed by a thick ribbon of blood.

Her stance immediately changed from defensive to concerned and she went to him. \"Are you O.K., Severus?\" she asked, moving his hand from his face to check the damage and pushing him back to rest against the desk

\"Yes Hermione, I have had the Cruatius curse performed on me over 150 times, I am quite sure I’ll survive a scratch from a high heel,\" he said, pointedly. \"Even those high heels\" She had taken to wearing them all the time now, partly because she knew they turned him on. \"I am curious though, about how exactly you can wear them all the time, even for patrolling and fighting, they aren’t very practical, are they?\"

\"I’ll let you into a little secret,\" she said, while she gently healed the cut. \"They are charmed, so that when I put them on, they feel like running shoes, they’re mostly for effect,\" she said, giving him a wicked grin. \"They do the job don’t they?” She was standing between his legs as she finished healing him and could feel the effect for herself \"O.K. all done, had enough or do you want some more?\" she teased.

He looked down at her, and the thought came to him out of the blue. That in the middle of everything that was happening inside and out of the castle, he was becoming happy, for the first time in his life. \"Kiss me,\" he said simply.

She smiled and reached up to cup his face in her hands, standing on tiptoes she gently brushed her lips against his. \"I’ve missed you,” she said quietly.

He smiled, \"what an old man like me?\" He ran his hands through her hair, coming to rest at the nape of her neck.

\"Age is just a number Severus, It means nothing to me,\" she said seriously.

He pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. The kiss seemed more intense, to both of them, like something had changed between them since Christmas, like their emotions had changed but neither could have said to what.

\"Oh my gods, I’ve gone blind, or insane or Dumbledore\'s secret room is seriously malfunctioning!\" said an alarmed voice from the doorway, causing Severus and Hermione to break apart abruptly.

Ginny Weasley was standing in the doorway of the room, hands splayed out in front of her as if trying to ward off some kind of evil.

\"Ginny?\" said Hermione, in a shocked voice \"Ginny is that you? What on earth are you doing here?\"

\"Hallucinating, Obviously.\" Ginny replied in a panicked tone, not lowering her hands.

Hermione strode over to where Ginny was standing and pulled her hands down. \"Does everyone know you’re here? What happened in Australia? Why are you back? Are you O.K.?\" The questions were tripping off Hermione’s tongue faster than the speed of apparition.

Ginny Weasley had been seventeen, when Percy and Penelope had been killed and was immediately sent to a farm in Tasmania to stay with relatives of Molly, under strict orders not to come back until she was called. She had put up a pretty good fight, but eventually she had gone. Hermione hadn’t seen her in over two years.

\"It’s alright Hermione, I’ll explain everything but for now can’t you just be happy to see your best friend, and give her a hug?\"

Hermione stood awkwardly for a moment. She had long ago forgotten how to be a good friend. Ginny and Luna Lovegood had been her only girl friends, after the time they had spent together in the department of mysteries in her fifth year. She had cut them both more or less out of her life after she became an auror, for fear of them coming to harm.

\"Hermione? I don’t bite you know.\" Ginny said, getting upset at the defensive stance of her friend.

Hermione snapped out of her thoughts and wrapped her arms around Ginny, hugging her tight.

Severus watched the exchange, uneasily. He hadn’t given any thought to sharing Hermione or their relationship with anyone, and now he knew why. He didn’t like it. He was jealous that other people needed her and wanted her company, and that she might want theirs.

He picked up his wand and robes and strode across the room. \"Miss Weasley,\" he said by way of a greeting. He turned to Hermione. \"Miss Granger,\" he said in his best teaching sneer, \"I trust you will lock up when you are finished, and I will see you on Monday, good evening.\" And he stalked out.

Hermione frowned to herself, (what was that about? oh well, one problem at a time.) She turned back to Ginny \"I think you’ve got some explaining to do.\" She said sternly.

Ginny put her hands on her hips and flicked her long russet curls over her shoulder \"Oh no Hermione, I think you’ll find that its you who should be explaining, what I just walked in on,\" she said, an evil smile appearing on her face, \"Or perhaps I should just owl Harry and Ron and ask them if they know what you were doing sucking face with Snape.\"

\"It’s complicated Ginny, and I don’t want to talk about it,\" said Hermione, with a finality that said ‘don’t push it’ so Ginny let it go, for now.

\"Come on I’m starving,\" said Ginny as the dinner bell rang, and dragged a smiling Hermione out of the room, mentally locking it behind her.

~*~*~


Severus was nowhere to be seen at dinner and Hermione made a mental note to go and find him later.

Ginny spent the whole of dinner, regaling the staff with stories of her time in Australia, where their was no war going on. She explained that she had been training to be a mediwitch for the last two years and had owled Dumbledore to ask if there was any way she could come to Hogwarts and help Madam Pomfrey, as she was getting homesick. Dumbledore had cleared it with Molly and Arthur and she had apparated right away.

Hermione had mixed feelings about her friend being back. On the one hand, she was pleased to see her safe and well, on the other she wasn’t ready for anyone to know about her relationship with Severus. Also, she was sure that Ginny was hiding something, she was overly chatty and Hermione could spot fake enthusiasm a mile off, but decided that she really wasn’t in any position to start demanding answers. She made her mind up to owl Ron and Harry, to find out if they knew she was back and why. After they had finished their dinner and chatted for a couple of hours, Hermione made her excuses, and with the promise of more catching up over the weekend, she left the great hall.

Severus was sulking. He told himself that he was just too busy to go to dinner, but he was definitely sulking. He was working on a few experimental potions and had hoped that maybe Hermione would show up, maybe to help him, maybe just to chat but so far, nothing.

He had nothing against Ginny except for the fact that she was a Weasley, and she had Hermione. (My gods, man, she’s made you insane, were you always this jealous?) He thought. (Well, no, but I’ve never had anyone to be jealous about before now).

A knock at the door bought him out of his thoughts. \"Enter,” he said, in his best teaching voice, even though his heart was pounding at the thought of it being Hermione.

She walked in and sat straight down at the desk. \"Hi,\" she said, looking at some of the papers lying about. \"Do we have a problem?\" She looked up at him, with raised eyebrows.

\"No, why would we have a problem?\" He said, turning to his potion. He had to be careful here, they were both very volatile people, but she more so and he didn’t have the energy for a fight.

\"Well you left the room of requirements like a bat out of hell, so you’ve either got a problem with Ginny, with me, or with being seen with me.\" She said. She didn’t necessarily want everyone to know about them, but was quite hurt at the thought that he might not.

\"Not at all, I just had business to attend to,” he said, turning his back on her.

\"Yes Severus, because that answer worked so well last time you used it,\" she replied sarcastically, then more softly, \"tell me?\"

He turned back to her and sighed, why the hell did she have to be so damn insightful. \"I don’t like sharing you.\" He muttered, looking at her to see if he should duck or not.

The smile that came over her face, was so beautiful, he nearly forgot to breathe.

\"Really?\" She asked, surprised. She had been expecting a scathing remark or jibe, anything but this. He didn’t want to share her, meaning what? That he wanted her all to himself? It had been a long time since anyone actually wanted her for her. \"Thank you Severus, that means a lot to me. If you’re interested, I didn’t tell her about us for the same reason.\" She said, standing and walking around the desk to put her arms around him. \"I don’t think anyone else would understand anyway,\" she said with a sigh, \"not that it’s any of their business.\" She kissed him again and then left for patrol.

Severus was glad that everything was o.k. between them. He didn’t like this new, jealous side to him and knowing what his temper was like normally, he didn’t want to think what it would be like, when provoked by jealousy.


Come to Mama!

Aoibheann; Thank you very much!!

Flick; I’m not telling, you’ll just have to wait and see *evil grin*!!

Deb; To be quite honest with you Deb, I hadn’t actually planned to get them back in there at all, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing that occurred and was going to do the smut then but I wanted to concentrate more on the story. However, now that you have put the idea back in my head (bearing in mind that I write these well in advance) I might have to include it in a random chapter somewhere. Look out for it, I’ll dedicate it to you, either in this story or possibly the next one!! The Fred and Sarah thing came from the fact that I wanted Hermione to still be very small minded about Slytherins, despite her obvious attachment to one in particular! Did Albus see the ’Room of smutty thoughts’ Hmm, You think about this more than me!! I would like to think that, yes, he saw it and was very amused!! Thanks for the excellent review!! xx

Megan; Thank you very much. Is it to modest to say that I love my Hermione too!! A lot of her attitude is based on me and I like to see her holding her own against friend and foe. As for Sev, I think he is at his most sexy when he is being mean and sarcastic, you know how it goes, women always love a bad boy!! xx

Nesscafe; Thanks mate. I’m glad you would tell me if I stunk, I couldn’t bear to keep writing knowing that people were bored with it! As for me being a master, well *blushes* I certainly don’t see myself as that, and I can assure you that if you saw my story writing technique you would change your mind!! I’ll gladly offer myself as a beta for you if you are desperate, if only (as my own beta would say) so I could see the new chapters first!! But the fact that I need a beta just shows that I am not very good on my own, as you can see from the early chapters, pre Zephyr! If you are really stuck but want to continue I’ll have a go, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!! xx

PotionsMistressM; Ah, the multi talented MissM, we meet again *smirks* sorry, just been watching James Bond and have come over all arch enemy!! The boots, the boots, I can’t help it I just love them!! I am soooo glad that you liked this one as it’s one of my favourite chapters so far. Your ‘Romeo&Juliet/Romy &Michelle line made me laugh so much that I nearly fell out of my chair! It’s just the sort of thing I would say! Oh, and it does work both ways my dear, you keep writing and I’ll keep writing, Deal? xx
RedWritingHood; I was a bit worried about letting the students know everything but I thought long and hard about it, and in the end I decided to do it as a way for Hermione to be her true badass self!! I have always thought that any fanfic set in Hogwarts and including a romance between a Slytherin and a Gryffindor definitely parallels Romeo & Juliet, and it’s one of my favourites, It’s the whole love knows no boundaries thing!! I hate to think what you would do with the smart mouthed girl!! She was based on someone I knew at school, who reduced one of my favourite teachers to tears and I’ve never forgiven her for it!! thanks for reviewing xx

Slytheringriffindor; Thanks very much xx

Cookie; I’ll keep that in mind!! I’m glad you liked the tattoos and no it’s not a mirror image!! I do have five tattoos of my own but none of them where Hermione’s are, I think they would be too painful there!! I’m glad you’re liking it so far xx
Shiv; ‘determined to prod buttock’ Hilarious!! You know I can’t tell you the answers those questions, you’ll just have to wait and see *smile*

Right then ladies, works a bitch at the moment (I hate bloody Christmas, goodwill to all men? I don’t think so!!) but I am trying to update as often as I can.

If you have no life and would like to read about the fact that I have no life then you can visit my LJ (thanks Shem, I owe you one!) at: \"http://www.livejournal.com/users/grrarrg0908/\"

It’s where I go to rant and rave and generally be silly, but you are all welcome to come and have a good laugh at my expense if you like!!
Thanks again for the wonderful reviews, you rock!!
Kisses
GrrArrg