A Nose By Any Other Name

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*****
A Nose By Any Other Name.


Chapter 3 - Revelation

\"Did you find her Severus?\"

Dumble\'se\'s question grated across his nerves. Why couldn\'t the interfering bastard just leave him alone for one day. Even here in his chambers he was subject to the headmaster\'s visitations.

\"Yes.\"

The old man had been expecting more, but with malicious delight Snape decided to withhold the information as long as he could, he knew just how much monosyllabic conversation irritated him. The game was childish he knew, but he wasn\'t in the mood for this now.

\"And did you find out about the head?\"

\"No.\"

Don\'t ruin it now Severus he told himself. Smirking whilst winding up the headmaster was one way of getting Albus\' not-so-subtle revenge.

\"No! But you know where we can find her?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"You know her home address?\"

\"No.\"

And that hadn\'t been for want of trying he thought somewhat sourly, he had waited in an alley overlooking the staff exit for at least three hours but she had not appeared, so now he was tirhichhich didn\'t help his habitual irritability any. Willing the other wizard to just piss off he opened the conversation to words with more than one syllable.

\"I\'ll go again tonight.\"

For some reason he was loath to tell the headmaster that they had spoken, that she knew he had been at the club. He was still unsure of his own reactions to her parting words the night before, at the moment he was warring between fury that she had played him..HIM of all people like that, and admiration that she had been able to in the first place. It was sophistry worthy of a Slytherin.

\"You have to get it back Severus, it isn\'t safe in the muggle world, not now they are looking for it too.\"

\"You think I don\'t know know that Albus, if anyone I understand it the most!\"

He sometimes thought Dumbledore had forgotten his part in the war. Running a hand through his hair he sighed.

\"I\'ll find out about it tonight.\"

Positively radiating benevolence the ancient wizard smiled, graciously forgiving his short-tempered subordinate.

\"Of course my boy.\"

*****

When the old man left Snape warded and locked his rooms (he found you could never be too careful) and charmed one of the flagstones of his bedroom floor into a trap door, carefully pulling a tightly wrapped bundle from beneath.

Laying the contents gently on his bed he mused on the age-old question of what to wear. He couldn\'t in all honesty wear his everydobesobes, and whilst he hated the idea of putting on that damned contraption if he was going to in apparel of a similar nature to last night he had no choice. He cursed the particular character trait that meant if he did something he did it properly.

Oh and the fact she showed more interest in you dressed like that than when you dressed normally has nothing to do with it?

Merlin! When had he become this pathetic!

*****

Merlin! When had she become this pathetic!

Worrying over what to wear in case Snape showed up, she didn\'t even know if he would after yesterdays parting shot.
Bloody, bloody hell! It wasn\'t as though last night had been a date or anything and there was no way he\'d really be the slightest bit interested in her, after all she\'d had to remind him who she was.
But he did seem so much different away from Hogwarts. Perhaps if she got to know him better she could allay the nigglingce ace at the back of her mind that fed off of her paranoia about the remains of the Dark Lord, no that sounded like he was dead. Better said, what remained.

Grinning wryly at the remembrance of his eyes fixed firmly on her chest she reached into the back of her wardrobe.

Yes, she thought, I think that will just about do the trick.

*****

The club was equally as busy as last night but this time at least he knew where he was going and what to expect. She was not there when heivedived but he managed to just about convince himself she would turn up later. After all she had said she was always here.

He had polished off a good three quarters of a bottle of wine when he felt the presence approaching him.

\"Well...hello there..mind if I sit here?\"

The slurred and horribly familiar voice purred in his ear, coupled with the sour stench of alcohol it forced Snape to unconsciously slide several inches in the opposite direction. Malfoy took it as an invitation and slumped bonelessly onto the bench-seat next to him, Lucius would have had to have been very drunk indeed to have mistaken Snape for a woman he thought with dark mirth.

\"I haven\'t seen you here before, such a striking thing, I think I would have remembered. Although thinking about it you do have a passing similarity to someone. Do you have relatives in the Ministry?\"

\"Fuck off, I\'m not in the market!\"

His obscenity even surprised him, but he really was pissed off, half-way drunk and almost shocked insensible that Lucius Malfoy, the maggot who managed to survive all the convoluted mess of the war intact and credible, was making a pass, sloppy as it was, at HIM!

\"ohhh..feisty, are you that hot tempered between the sheets?\"

Snape remembered Malfoy social events well and drunk Lucius was amorous, not taking no for an answer. Denied and drunk he was down-right violent and whilst that could be sorted out at a wizarding party, this was a room full of muggles and Obliviating all of them was not an option.
There was the feel of a hand pawing rather roughly way too high up his thigh for comfort and before he even knew he\'d done it he had his wand jabbed discreetly, but he hoped painfully, between Malfoy\'s legs. Hissing with pure malevolence at the inebriated wizard.

\"Get your hand off me and remove yourself from my presence before I hex you into a eunuch!\"

Lucius shuddered, closing his eyes for a second.

\"Mmmm...I\'m a wizard too, so you want to see MY wand?\"

Giggling as thought he had said something frightfully funny he dragged his hand further up to the edge of Snape\'s stocking completely oblivious to the pair of slender, sharp-pointed silver-clad hands descending to his shoulders.

With an undignified squeak of surprise he was dragged bodily up to stand imprisoned between two of the strangest looking leather encased women Snape had ever seen, and THAT was saying something.
The hairs on the back of his neck began rising, odd, that usually only happened around Lupin.

\"That toy is not yours to be playing with pretty one.....

\"...alas, that one is already reserved by someone else.\"

The other finished the firsts sentence with perfect timing, identical pairs of ice-blue eyes appraised Malfoy as though he were a slab of meat.

\"Do not fret though....

...we will play with you instead.

To Snape that sounded a lot more like a threat than it should have.
As Malfoy was guided away he saw Hermione leaning against a table barely containing laughter behind a smirk. She was still wearing mouthwateringly tight but strapless trousers and he sternly told himself that drooling was not the attractive look he would have been trying for if he\'d thought he could he even had a chance with her.

Making her way over and sliding into the recently vacated seat she began to laugh with abandon...after a moment she caught her breath, wiping tears from under her eyes. He couldn\'t help noting how...well...pretty she was when she laughed.

\"Oh that was cruel of me but I couldn\'t resist. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard.\"

Feeling like he was missing out on an important part of the joke he glowered after the retreating forms noting the mixed looks of envy and sympathy following the th
Th
The touch of her hand on his brief as it was drew his attention.

\"How\'s your virtue?\"

\"Intact Miss Granger, but only just.\"

Curiosity won over petulance.

\"What will they do with Lucius?\"

\"Nothing he won\'t recover from, the sisters consider it bad form toak tak their toys. In case you are wondering though, the sympathy he\'s getting is from those who know the ladies and the envy from those they haven\'t got round to playing with yet.
You\'re safe though.

\"Yes, already reserved apparently.\"

He arched an eyebrow at her.

Snape couldn\'t be completely sure in the flashing half-light but he thought she blushed then and he felt decidedly wicked until she shrugged out of the leather coat she was wearing and all conscience thought was banished.

Great Hades! That top was indecent, all fishnet and ripped semi translucent pinstripe. Thank Merlin she was at least wearing some sort of bra thing or he\'d have hexed everyone around her, including himself, blind, actually that\'s not such a bad idea he growled to himself noting the looks she was gettirom rom some of the people nearby.

Staring down at the moving crowd she chewed briefly at her lower lip, something he remembered from her days as a student. It normally came before a question she was finding difficult to word.

\"Do you dance? I never saw you when I was at Hogwarts but I always wondered. In fact I was planning on asking at the graduation ball but you know...\"

Damn, he\'d managed to forget the reason he was here and to be completely honest with himself, which wasn\'t something that happened often, he didn\'t really want to remember.

\"Not as a rule Miss Granger.\"

\"Would you dance with me?\"

She was asking HIM to dance with her? Rather unsure what to do with that he fell back to the response he was sure he would give if he had ever been asked by anyone before.

\"No.\"

Then feeling churlish for dimming her smile he fumbled for an excuse.

\"I\'m not entirely sure how to in a dress and heels I am not accustomed to.\"

Her face brightened.

\"Oh, I understand.\"

Again the worrying of the lip. He wished she would stop doing that, he was running out of places he could look at her without drawing attention to the fact he was staring.

\"It\'s technically my night off so I thought if you hadn\'t eaten we could go somewhere? This isn\'t the best place for conversati"
"

\"I do not feel comfortable going out in public dressed like this.\"

She eyed him up and down.

\"You seem okay in here.\"

Yes but in here I am not concentrating on other people, only you, and the discomfort I feel then has nothing to do with how I\'m dressed. He thought it best not to voice that out-loud.

\"In here I look positively mundane compared to some.\"

\"You look a hell of a lot better than most.\"

Again the blush, Snape checked her for signs of insincerity but to his surprise could find none. Miss Granger was certainly keeping him on his toes in a way that hadn\'t happened for years. She was looking nervous again.

\"We could go back to mine and get a take-away?\"

Mentally he was jumping in the air with a wildly exclaimed \'YES!\', curbing the smirk threatening to break free he briefly nodded.

\"That would be acceptable.\"

Grabbing his hand she pulled him down the stairs and across the dance-floor towards the bar. If she hadn\'t had hold of him he was sure he would have lost her in the crowd but she tightened her grip and plowed through the dancers with steadfast purpose. Ducking around the bar she dragged him to the staff access then down a semi lit corridor and up some stairs.

It struck him then. That would be why she didn\'t appear to leave last night.

\"You live here?\"

\"Yes, it\'s not much but at least someone is in the premises at all times and I can\'t complain about the music. Most of the time I sleep during the day and work when it is noisy.\"

Reaching an unmarked door she took a key from her pocket and after unlocking it pushed the heavy thing open.

It took Snape seconds to scan the flat for any signs of hostility and check for a back entrance, less time to see the scrupulously tidy flat was tastefully if sparsely decorated and candles seemed to be the source of all the light in the room except for the huge fire-place dominating one wall. He would have thought it highly unwise to have one of those in her rooms.

\"You have a floo Miss Granger.\"

\"Hermione and yes, I often like the sight of a good fire, reminds me of my youth.\"

\"You make yourself sound positively ancient. Is it connected to the network?\"

He berated himself, well that was as subtle as a Bludger to the head wasn\'t it Severus.

\"I left the wizarding world two years ago professor, I am not planning on going back.\"

She looked wistful for a moment, then angry, pulling a small yellow square off of a bottle of wine with more force than was necessary.

\"You were one of my best students, it would be a waste if you did not.\"

The sound of the glasses she had in her hand slamming against the table-top made him wince, luckily none of them broke. Something dark radiated out of her, a mix of anger and suspicion.

\"Is this what this is about? Now you\'ve found me it\'s become your project to get me back? Or is Dumbledore interfering yet again where he is not wanted. Well sorry to disappoint on either count, I am HERE now, I don\'t want that life!\"

He asked it then only because he needed to know. He hadn\'t realised it had been eating at him for so long, since they found her wand, broken amongst the refuse of a condemned tenement. McGonnegal hadn\'t been the only teacher at Hogwarts to drink themselves to sleep that night.

\"Why did you leave Hermione?\"

Her teeth clenched, it cost her to keep her temper under control.

\"Sorry I\'m just touchy on the subject, can\'t we just leave it be for now?\"

He would check the floo later somehow to see if it was active, but for now it wouldn\'t do to alienate her now so he asked something else that had been on his mind.


*****

\"How did you know it was me?\"

Fairly calm now he had changed the subject she allowed herself a smile.

Ahh, yes she had been expecting this one and had actually spent time trying to formulate an answer that wouldn\'t sound like she\'d been letching over him, she had, but didn\'t necessarily want him to know that.
The nose issue was fairly safe so if he didn\'t ask beyond that she was sure to be on safe ground.

\"You did a really good job with the makeup and everything but I spent seven years getting familiar with that nose. More than most what with all the stuff we wit with the Order.
Still, and this is really embarrassing, I could have completely overlooked it. I mean at first I just got the idea that you looked familiar, yes this is really. really embarrassing...

Oh shit, her mouth had run away with her again. She hadn\'t meant for that to come out, she really hadn\'t.
He was looking at her with open curiosity. Still strange to see Snape\'s face with emotions other that the basic frowns, glowers and sneers she had been accustomed to at school.

\"What do you mean Miss Granger?\"

\"Itwasyourlegs.\"

Bloody hell! Now she was blushing and if he hadn\'t thought she was stupid before...well...

\"I beg your pardon?

\"Your legs professor, those things your feet are attached to. They were what gave you away.\"

\"My legs?\"

Yes you dolt, was her immediate thought, then, they\'re fucking gorgeous and if the ladies hadn\'t got to Malfoy first then she would have hexed him herself for getting in his skirts before her. Turning away she picked up a pile of menus with another smiley post-it on and braced herself.

\"Yes...I have this... appreciation of a finely formed leg and you wouldn\'t believe the amount of time I spent staring at both yours when I\'d finished class before everyone else.
Neville\'s Boggart didn\'t do you justice by the way, although the image certainly gave me something to think about..\"

Fixate on, obsess over, better not mention that out-loud.
Turning round she shakily flicked through the pile, refusing to look at him.

:So what do you want, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Thai.....\"

The lack of response followed by the oddest sound, a cross between a gasp and a cough forced her to look up.

\"Are you okay?\"

For the second time in two days Professor Snape looked like she\'d petrified him in a state of absolute, naked shock. It was one of the most beautiful things Hermione thought she\'d ever seen in her life.


*****

tbc

TeaRoses - Thank you so much! I am really flattered :-)
Snape\'s legs are a small fixation of mine...Couldn\'t guess that right? ;-)

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Aggie - Hmmmm...Slut!Snape *drool* Hugs for that...made me laugh.

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