Coming Together

Chapter Three – What did he just say?


“And so I was wondering, if you would consider taking me on as your apprentice after I graduate, Professor.” Hermione drew breath as she ended what was undoubtedly a very long and well explained (and probably mostly unnecessary) explanation of her reasons for wanting to spend another three to five years with Snape. As she finally opened her eyes, which she had closed about three words into the conversation so that she wouldn’t have to see the look he was giving her, a small part of her was amazed to see that, not only was he still there, he was almost smiling at the fact that she was obviously uncomfortable asking him for anything. Of course almost smiling for Snape was a subtle twitching at the corners of his mouth, but still.

Severus stared at her for a long time. He had actually been attempting to come up with a way to get her to agree with an apprenticeship already. His motives were purely selfish, he needed someone to help him with his research and keep his lab clean while he was working on particularly hard projects, then again everything he did was selfish and she would at least be getting something out of it for herself. But he hadn’t actually believed she would choose to indenture herself to him of her own free will; he had assumed that he would have to resort to sabotaging all of her other opportunities until his was the only option left.

Given that he already knew the answer to her rather long ended question and he had already gotten over the initial shock of her actually asking it, the rather long and extremely uncomfortable silence that he was instigating now was solely for her benefit. It wouldn’t do to let her know that he would have said yes without any of her reasoning; that would make him look desperate and would give her an insufferable ego. So instead he waited until she was almost ready to run away and hide from his penetrating glare before he spoke.

“Well Miss Granger, I believe I would do just about anything to get you to cease your incessant rambling. Meet me in my office at eight o-clock tomorrow evening for your interview.” He drawled almost lazily and, before she had a chance to recover from her deer- in-the-headlights stare, he turned on his heel and disappeared back out the library door.


#########################################################


Hermione must have stood in the library for a full two minutes with her mouth wide open before his answer sunk in. ‘He said yes, he really did say yes!’ She nearly squealed the annoying way little girls tend to when they are very happy about something, but decided that Madame Pince wasn’t likely to enjoy that very much. So instead she squealed in her mind and rushed back to her room to get ready for tomorrow night.

Even though she had more than twenty-four hours to decide what to wear and how best to do her hair she was so excited that she needed to do something; and, given that she wasn’t speaking to Ginny right now, this was the next best thing to giggling like first years. She decided that she would wear her good school robes, not too fancy but not too plain either, and pull her hair back in a French braid, to keep it out of her face. Now that she had the best outfit to not annoy Snape with, she pulled all her notes on his research closer to her and reread them for what had to be the hundredth time. If she could only get her friends to talk to her, everything would be perfect.

Then the image of Ginny’s expression at breakfast came back to her and she sighed. ‘Oh well, you can’t have everything.’


####################################################


A/N – I hadn’t intended to write anything today because I wasn’t feeling especially inspired but then I saw the new reviews and I just couldn’t help myself. I know that this chapter is mostly filler but I needed to get it out of the way so I could continue with the good stuff. It will probably be a while before there are any lemons but I think that to do it any other way would be even more unrealistic than what is nessisary for HG/SS to work.

Thanks to all reviewers but here are a few that I felt needed responses.

hermioneandseverusfan – thanks… I know what you mean; they always overreact about little things and stop talking to each other. Even in the books. For as good and loyal of friends as they are supposed to be they wouldn’t actually last in real life for long.

Sampdoria – My longest review so far…I don’t like the pairing of Ron and Hermione either. He is sweet I guess and I really hate when people actually kill him but he is a dumbass and I can’t imagine someone like Hermione actually being happy with him for very long. I don’t intend for Hermione to even speak to them again until each and every one of them apologizes acceptably. However, I think that to try to make a relationship with someone as tortured as Severus work she will need the support of her friends, so a least Ginny or Neville will be back soon.

diamondmouse – The family that hexes ears together, stays together. Your review made me laugh thanks.

Hope to write soon… hope you enjoyed.