Trial and Error

Hermione and Professor Dumbledore reached number 19 very quickly. Dumbledore opened the door with his wand and they stepped inside. It wasn\'t very tidy and Hermione wrinkled her nose as they walked past a pile of dirty laundry in the middle of the living room floor. \'They should have cleaned before going on vacation!\' she thought disgustedly. Dumbledore seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as he gently pushed her hastily away from the filth. The living room wasn\'t that big, but by the time they had dodged all of the books, magazines, dishes and clothes on the floor, they felt as though they had gone through a land mine field.

At last, they reached the fireplace. After a quick spell, flames leapt in the grate. Dumbledore stepped back and held out a bag of floo powder towards Hermione. Grasping a palmful, she made her way to the flames. She could almost feel them licking at her robes. She looked up at Dumbledore expectantly. Raising an eyebrow, he stared back at her before realising what is was that she was asking him, however silently.
\"Ah, yes. Of course. You need to know to where you are going.\" Hermione grinned. He may have occasional stressed-induced \"senior moments\", but he was just as good at reading minds as he had ever been.

Returning her smile, Dumbledore told her, \"Say \'Hogwarts Potions Classroom\'. Normally one would not be able to floo right into Hogwarts, but it being the quickest way to get there, I made arrangements for Professor Snape\'s fireplace to allow us entry. It will be closed as soon as we exit the grate, mind you.\"

Hermione nodded and stepped into the flames, throwing the powder down and shouting \"Hogwarts Potions Classroom!\" as clearly as she could; she did not want to go through what Harry did in 2nd year. She snapped her arms to her side as her body began to spin faster and faster; she found herself wishing she had held off on the toast and jam earlier. Then, as quickly as it had started, the spinning stopped and she was thrown onto the hearth of the very familiar potions classroom. She barely had time to stand up and dust herself off when her Headmaster came whooshing out of the grate behind her.
Albus, of course, landed upright on the hearth, but his pointed hat had fallen of his silvery head. After retrieving it, he pointed Hermione to a door in the classroom she hadn\'t noticed there before.

\"This, Hermione, will be your quarters for the summer.\"

He opened the door to reveal what looked like a cozy two-room apartment. Hermione\'s mouth dropped as she stepped cautiously inside. The walls of the living room were a beautiful cream colour and it was complete with a sofa and coffee table littered with magazines on potions, spells, and the newest line at Gladrags. She went over to the bedroom door and peered inside. Light blue walls graced this room along with a queen sized mahogany four poster and a matching bureau. Albus stood smiling from the doorway while she went inside and explored the room that would be hers for the next two months. Hermione looked at the window above the bed where magical light streamed in from the morning sun. \'I really have got to learn how to do that. It would nice to make windows in my parents\' basement...\'

Albus cut into her thoughts. \"Is this acceptable for you, or should I make some adjustments?\" He held up his wand as though waiting for her to tell him what she wanted changed.

Hermione laughed. \"No, sir. It is wonderful the way it is. This (she held her hands out to indicate the rooms) wasn\'t always here, was it?\"

Albus shook his head and smiled, running his fingers along his wand lovingly. \"I put it here last night while you were at the headquarters. I took a wild guess at the colours,\" he said, twinkling his blue eyes at her. \"Severus should be here in about an hour. I suggest you take a nap or get letters written in that time, because when he gets here, there will be no time for anything but work. Please let me know if you change your mind about this. I do not want Gryffindor\'s best student falling behind in her studies OR in her health, you understand?\"

Hermione nodded and tried to hide ble blush on her cheeks by rubbing her face with her hands as though she was tired. She really was tired, though, and realised at that moment that she wanted nothing more than to lay in a bed and let Dreams take over. Albus smiled at her knowingly and walked back out the door.

*****

About an hour later, Severus Snape came through Hermione\'s living room and knocked on her bedroom door.

\"Miss Granger, I\'ll expect you in the potions lab in 10 minutes time. Your things are by the sofa..\" pause \'\'Miss Granger...are you awake?\" Snape rapped on the door again. No answer. He tried the door; it was unlocked. Easing it open, he peeked inside. Hermione was fast asleep and curled up with her arms wrapped around one of the pillows. Severus opened the door wider, entered the room, and walked over to where she lay. \'She looks so sweet and innocent sleeping like that; pity she isn\'t always this quiet...\' he smirked to himself and poked Hermione in the shoulder a little harder than he meant to.

\"OW!\" She awoke abruptly and glared at the man who was standing next to her bed with his finger pointed at her shoulder.

\"What the bloody hell was THAT for professor??\" she shrieked at him, while rubbing her shoulder.

Severus opened his eyes wide in shock that she would use that tone of voice with him, but quickly narrowed them to glare right back at her.

\"Well, Miss Granger, if YOU had not gotten lost in Dreamland, I would have had no reason to use so much force in waking you, so you see, it is really YOUR fault that your shoulder is bruised and I think you owe me an apology for speaking to me in such a disrespectful way.\" Hermione just gawked at him. He smirked again, reveling in the fact that she could come up with no response to what he just said. \"As I said before, whilst you were wasting time sleeping, I will expect you in the potions lab in.... 6 minutes.\" He turned and swooped out of the room with the eyes of a very angry young woman glued to his retreating form.

*****


Exactly 5 minutes and 43 seconds later, Hermione stepped into the potions lab. She had changed out of her pajamas (which she was wearing under her robes when she arrived) and into a pair of black flowing pants and a red spaghetti strap top. Knowing it would be in the way otherwise, she had tied her hair into a knot at the nape of her neck. A few strands had made their way out of the knot and were winding themselves around her neck and tickling her shoulders. This is what Severus first noticed as she came in. One stray curl was touching a small, blue-ish mark on her left shoulder.

\'Damn!\' Severus thought to himself. \'I didn\'t realise I had poked her THAT hard. No wonder she screamed at me.\'

Hermione noticed his scrutiny and demanded, \"What are you looking at?\"

He ignored her question. \"What the hell are you wearing?\"

\"There is no point for me to wear robes during the summer, especially when they will only get in my way while I help you make the wolfsbane potion, professor,\" she replied, adding a sarcastic note to \"professor\".

Severrowlrowled deep in his throat, but made no reply. He just pointed to a table with a large book on it and snapped, \"Sit. Read. Now.\"

Hermione stalked over to the table and began to read the pages Severus had marked for her. She needed to get at least a general understanding of the wolfsbane potion before assisting Severus in making it. There were 215 pages to read. Hermione got lost in the book right away; it started off with the history of werewolves and moved on to the discovery of the potion and then on to the ingredients and preparations to make the potion...nothing less than fascinating to someone like Hermione.
*****

Severus sat at his desk writing notes about the current potion he was attempting to brew. It would most likely turn out to be one of many failures in his cure for werewolves, but he took down the notes anyway. After about and hour and a half, he looked up to where Hermione was reading the book on the wolfsbane potion. He started; she was almost done with the pages he marked. \'Let\'s just hope the words had time to soak into her mind and didn\'t just slip out the moment they went in...\' he knew there was no reason to think this. Hermione had ALWAYS remembered everything she had read. She was a teacher\'s dream and nightmare all in one. He smiled to himself as he remembered her first day of potions. \'I thought she was going to jump right up into the ceiling when Potter didn\'t know the answers to the questions I asked. I was a bit harsh with her, I suppose.....nah...bloody hell, the girl is obnoxious! There is no such thing as being too harsh with her. Then again, she almost cried when I told her I saw no difference in her teeth the day that blasted Malfoy hexed her...surely she knew I was saying that only as to not raise suspicion? No. She really was hurt.\' Severus sighed and looked at the girl--no, woman--who was currently occupying his thoughts.

She was sitting forward with her elbows resting on the table and her head nearly laying on the book. She was biting her lower lip thoughtfully and absentmindedly twirling stray hairs around her finger. Severus started again; she had never looked so beautiful to him than she did at that moment; her bare shoulders, sprinkled with adorable freckles, the slight red in her cheeks from the heat of the lab (which was much warmer than the rest of the dungeons as fires were always lit under cauldrons), and the way her eyes narrowed when she read certain parts of the book were enough to make Severus wish he had been 10 years younger and in her house at Hogwarts.

He watched her until she had finished the last page of the book and quickly turned back to his notes. Hermione got up from the table and stretched her arms up into the air, causing her shirt to go up above her belly button. Here, Severus took a sideways glance at her and wished he hadn\'t. It had been so long since he had seen that much flesh of a woman, he had to try hard not to let his imagination get carried away. Hermione made it all the worse by moaning softly as she stretched.

Severus slapped his quill down on his notes and got up from the desk so quickly, his ink well tipped over and almost ruined his whole roll of parchment. Hermione looked up at him in puzzlement. He, of course, was not going to say what was the matter even if she asked. \'I am NOT this weak!\' he kept telling himself.

Struggling to gain his composure, he said \"Miss Granger, if you are done reading the material, please make yourself useful and start preparing the ingredients for the potion, starting from the top of the list and working down, but save the fluxweed and ginger root until after you\'ve done the rest.\" He gathered his notes and made to check on his attempted cure; sure enough, the potion was dark blue and watery. Grumbling to himself, he vanished the potion and stormed through the door to where Hermione supposed his bedchambers were.

\'Good. He needs a nice long nap.\' She thought smugly to herself and proceeded to chop up the bowl of dragon liver Severus had set out for her.

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THANK YOUS!!!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed my first two chapters! I love you guys! ::grins at DanaBanana:: I\'m trying to put the advice I\'ve received into practise and I am trying to update as quickly as possible. The story is still forming in my mind and I can\'t decide which way I want it to go yet. I won\'t keep you waiting too long, though. I know how frustrating itto wto wait for the next chapter of a story. :o)

Keep reading and reviewing (good AND bad reviews are welcome). I need people to tell me if I need to work on anything.

I want to thank everyone personally, so here we go.....

**Wendy, thanks for being my first reviewer! :)

**Maddy, you\'ll get a little bit of each, don\'t worry.. ;)

**ChevyBaby, are my chapters easier to read now? :) I rewrote the second one to make it match what you said.

**Petra, thank you! I like Severus and Hermione the best, too. :)

**Irol, I am trying to update asap! :-D Three chapters isn\'t to bad for 4-5 days, is it?

**June, thank ye kindly! I keep rereading the chapters after I post and every little mistake drives me up a wall so I have to go and change it. I hate reading fanfic with too many mistakes, so let me know if there are some I miss.

**ssar, as long as people are interested, I\'ll keep writing. :)

**animegrl, I believe you are my most enthusiastic reviewer. Congratulations! :) I look forward to our reviews probably as much as you look forward to my updates. :)

**Miss Dana....I do not appreciate your tone and would like to remind you that under no circumstances is ANYONE to call me Gwen. ::tries to glare Snapishly, but fails:: :-D Love ya DanaBana!

**Nevillus, I agree with you that there is NOTHING worse than an ooc Snape. Please hit me over the head if he starts to not seem like his snarky self. Obviously there will be....unexpected....moments, but he is NOT going to be a fluffy little white kitten who purrs while you stroke his chin. :) About the \"lemony goodness\"...Good things come to those who wait, dear Nevillus. :-D ::cackles evily::

**animegrl, again, very enthusiastic. :)

**Laerai, it\'s hard to be perfectly unique; I mean, how many different Snape/Hermione situations can there be? I\'m trying to make it different by adding the...competition...of Remus.

**nesscafe, I\'ll never tell who she\'ll end up with!! HAHAHAHA!!! :)

**Draco_fan, read above. :)