Bonds of Duty

Chapter 4: Awakenings and Answers

Her head ached, a terrible, tired ache. That harsh buzzing in the background wasn\'t helping things at all. Hermione moved her head slightly against the pillow. It didn\'t feel right; she wasn\'t in her own bed. She groaned, as memory returned. She\'d been lying on the hard stone floor of the dungeons, helpless, possibly unconscious at times. Who knew how long she\'d lain there? Then, finally, after what seemed like forever, there\'d been a scuffle of feet, followed by the sound of voices. Young voices. Student voices. Gasping in surprise and then arguing about what to do. Eventually, they\'d decided to take her to the hospital wing. The last thing she remred red was a boy\'s voice, nervous but clear, casting *Mobilicorpus*. She opened her eyes to see the familiar environs of the hospital wing. Well, at least they\'d managed to get her here more or less in one piece.

The buzzing grew louder, and Hermione groaned again. The sound was coming from outside the room. All of a sudden, the doors burst open. The buzzing abruptly became about a hundred times louder and turned into an angry conversation between Madam Pomfrey and Snape, who came storming through the ward straight towards Hermione\'s bed.

\"I will thank you to mind your own business,\" Snape was saying.

\"As long as she\'s in my hospital wing, she *is* my business,\" Madam Pomfrey retorted, hurrying to keep up with Snape\'s long strides.

\"That circumstance can easily be remedied.\"

\"Not until I say she\'s fit to leave, it can\'t.\"

\"Of course she\'s fit to leave!\"

\"I\'ll be the judge of that,\" Madam Pomfrey told him firmly as they stopped beside Hermione\'s bed.

\"Ah, Miss Granger,\" said Snape, pointedly ignoring Madam Pomfrey. \"Awake at last, I see. I trust you are ready to depart?\"

Madam Pomfrey responded anyway. \"As I have told you repeatedly, Professor Snape, Miss Granger will not leave my care until I am satisfied that she is fit and well enough to do so. Now, if you will get out of this room so that I may examine my patient-\"

\"I\'m not leaving here without her.\"

Pomfrey looked slightly taken aback at that. So did Snape. He looked annoyed at having given away more than he had intended.

Hermione decided it was time to enter the fray. \"I\'m not going anywhere until Madam Pomfrey examines me,\" she said, pushing herself up in bed until she was sitting up against the pillows.

Pomfrey flashed a smile of triumph at Snape.

\"However, I think Professor Snape should stay, as he has a… certain vested interest in my condition.\"

Pomfrey\'s smile faded somewhat at that. \"Just what exactly-\" she began.

Snape then surprised Hermione utterly by taking her hand. \"Because I adore her and cannot live without her. Obviously,\" he said in a flat voice.

At that, Pomfrey just looked irritated. \"For goodness\' sake, Severus. There\'s plainly something going on here that you neither of you want to tell me, but at least give me credit for a little sense.\"

\"Then give me the credit to know that she would be far better off in my quarters than here, where anyone might see her.\"

\"It\'s a bit late for that. Plenty of people have already seen her,\" Pomfrey pointed out. \"There was quite a crowd of spectators out in the hall as she arrived, and I imagine that the story of the unconscious witch in the dungeon corridor has spread around the school like wildfire by now.\"

\"Oh dear,\" said Hermione.

\"Indeed,\" said Snape, rubbing his eyes in a tired gesture.

\"I suppose you\'d better get on with it, Madam Pomfrey,\" said Hermione. \"The sooner I\'m out of here, the sooner the whole thing can die down and be forgotten.\"

\"I see that the five years since you left this establishment have done nothing to cure that ridiculous optimism of yours,\" Snape observed.

\"That\'s the spirit, dear,\" Pomfrey said to Hermione, taking out her wand as she did so. \"Just pull the sheet down a bit. That\'s right.\" She turned to Snape. \"Take a seat and keep out of my way, if you *must* be present.\"

With a jerk of her head, she indicated a chair which sat near the foot of Hermione\'s bed. Surprisingly, Snape obeyed, and sat down. He leaned back in the chair and it occurred to Hermione that he looked very tired, though he kept both eyes trained on Madam Pomfrey\'s every move.

\"Have you ever fainted before?\" she asked Hermione.

\"No, never,\" Hermione replied.

\"Been feeling dizzy or light-headed lately? Off your food?\"

\"Um, well.\" Hermione felt suddenly guilty. \"I have been feeling a bit light-headed, and I\'ve skipped a few meals recently, but I often do that.\" Madam Pomfrey frowned. \"I lose track of the time when I\'m working on something important,\" Hermione explained hastily. \"I don\'t skip meals on purpose.\"

\"Is there any chance you might be pregnant?\" Madam Pomfrey asked, still using the same businesslike tone.

\"I really don\'t think...\" Hermione began, looking anywhere but at Snape. She cleared her throat, and started again: \"I\'ve been using the standard Contraceptive Concoction. In fact, I took it just before I left Professor Snape\'s quarters-\" Oh dear. Now Pomfrey would really wonder what was going on.

\"I prepared it for her,\" said Snape expressionlessly.

\"But I really don\'t think…\" Hermione said again. \"It\'s only been in the last few weeks that I\'ve started using – I mean, *needing* – I mean, I really don\'t think that I could be pregnant.\"

Pomfrey\'s face betrayed absolutely no curiosity, her calm, professional nurse\'s mask totally in place. \"I think we should start with that first, just to rule it out, if nothing else. Now, let\'s just tuck this sheet out of the way. This will only take a second. Just a quick little incantation and ill ill all be over.\" She waved her wand over Hermione\'s torso, and murmured a basic diagnosis spell.

Hermione felt the power of the charm the instant it touched her. Her head fell back against the pillows as the room whirled before her eyes. She was vaguely aware of Snape springing to his feet and a voice shouting \"Stop!\" and then it all faded away.

She came round to the sound of voices again, though this time they were in the room with her, right up close beside her. She groaned.

The noise didn\'t abate in the slightest.

\"Don\'t you dare tell me what to do in my own infirmary. I\'ve been treating patients here longer than you\'ve been alive!\"

\"I don\'t care how long you\'ve been patching up students in this place-\"

\"That is abundantly clear. Now get out of the way and let me examine her properly.\"

\"Do you wish to kill her?\" Snape didn\'t shout, but his voice was hard and clear.

\"What do you mean?\" asked Madam Pomfrey.

\"Yes, what do you mean?\" Hermione echoed, staring at Snape in shock.

Snape looked back down at her, arms folded in front of his chest. \"I\'m surprised you haven\'t put the clues together yourself. You always had the answer to everything when you were at school.\"

Hermione almost bristled at that remark, but for once she could detect no mockery in the tone of his voice or the expression on his face, all intensity and seriousness. \"What clues?\" she asked instead.

Madam Pomfrey nodded. \"I\'d appreciate being let in on that information myself.\"

\"You didn\oticotice her reaction just now?\" This time Hermione had no trouble detecting the familiar mockery in Snape\'s voice.

\"Of course I did. That is why I need to examine her properly,\" replied Madam Pomfrey, not sounding at all impressed with Snape.

Snape made an impatient sound. \"Which is exactly why you shouldn\'t be let anywhere near her! Have you been in this medical backwater for so long that you can\'t even tell an adverse reaction to magical energy when you see one?\"

Hermione\'s eyes opened wide as all the parts of the puzzle fell into place. \"Of course!\" she said. \"Oh, I don\'t believe I didn\'t pick up on it. As soon as I drank the potion, I felt much worse. And then, when I was brought here, they used *Mobilicorpus* on me. And there were other times today when I used magic on myself. There must have been a cumulative effect, so when Madam Pomfrey used the diagnosis charm…\"

Snape nodded. \"It appears that your much vaunted brains haven\'t deserted you completely.\" The corners of his lips curled into a slight, unpleasant smile.

Hermione coloured. With the benefit of hindsight, it seemed so obvious. She could have kicked herself for ignoring all the signs.

\"And exactly why do you both seem to think it\'s likely that Hermione should suffer such a reaction?\" Madam Pomfrey asked, her eyes narrowing.

\"That is something which need not concern you,\" said Snape, drawing himself up to his full height and looking down his nose at Madam Pomfrey.

\"If you think I\'m letting her out of here without making sure that she\'s well enough to go, you\'re very much mistaken.\"

\"I\'m quite conscious now, you know,\" Hermione interjected pointedly, not appreciating the way in which the other two were giving every appearance of squaring up for another round. \"Before you try to fight this out between you, I\'d just like to say that I think Madam Pomfrey has a point.\"

\"Miss Granger, I trust I do not have to remind you of the importance of *certain things*?\" Snape turned his hard gaze back on her and Hermione shifted uncomfortably against the pillows.

\"No, of course you don\'t,\" she snapped. \"I\'m simply pointing out that we don\'t know very much about\" – Snape glared at her in warning – \"… all this. I\'d rather stay here until I\'ve regained a bit of my strength.\"

\"It would be best if you returned to the dungeons with me as soon as possible,\" said Snape. It sounded much more like a command than a suggestion.

\"Actually, I don\'t think I have much choice about that,\" Hermione responded evenly, trying to remain calm in the face of Snape\'s high-handed attitude. \"Until I\'m well enough to walk out of here, I won\'t be going anywhere. I hardly think that travelling by Floo or another round of *Mobilicorpus* is a wise course of action right at the moment.\"

\"I\'m glad to see your sense hasn\'t deserted you, Hermione,\" said Madam Pomfrey, shooting a sidelong glance at Snape as she moved closer to fuss with Hermione\'s bedclothes and rearrange her pillows.

Snape stood a little way back from the bed, scowling fiercely. \"It appears that these fainting spells have addled your wits, Miss Granger. Or has it simply slipped your mind that you need to be *elsewhere* tonight?\"

\"No, of course it hasn\'t slipped my mind, but I won\'t be much use to anyone if something worse than fainting happens to me next time, will I? Unless you can think of some non-magical means of moving me. Or were you planning to throw me over your shoulder and carry me all the way to the dungeons?\"

Snape hissed something through clenched teeth which sounded very much like \"Don\'t tempt me,\" before stalking around to the other side of the bed, where he resumed his seat.

Studiously ignoring him, Hermione turned to the matron, who was still hovering close to her pillows and asked, \"Madam Pomfrey, you haven\'t mentioned whether the diagnosis charm worked. I\'d like to know the result, if there is one.\"

\"Yes, of course it worked.\" Madam Pomfrey sounded slightly cross, which wasn\'t really surprising considering how often Snape had called her competency into question since Hermione had awoken.

\"And?\" Hermione knew she must be sounding impatient and less than polite, but she couldn\'t seem to stop herself. She was surprised to find that she was quite nervous about the answer. It wasn\' tho though there was any real likelihood that she was pregnant. It was just – what if she was?

\"The result was negative, dear. Just as you expected.\"

\"Oh, thank goodness,\" said Hermione.

A snort came from the other side of the bed, and Hermione glanced over at Snape. He looked affronted, presumably at the inference that anyone could doubt that a potion brewed by him could ever be less than one hundred percent effective.

\"I must say, I\'m relieved that that\'s the case,\" said Madam Pomfrey. \"Given the effect magic is having on your body at present, it\'s entirely possible that the potion might not have worked.\" She paused, and then added in a lower voice, \"My dear, are you sure you know what you\'re doing? This sort of thing can be very dangerous.\"

Taken by surprise, Hermione was momentarily speechless.

\"Keep your nose out of matters which don\'t concern you, you interfering old busybody,\" Snape snarled, getting to his feet and looking daggers at Pomfrey.

Pomfrey held herself very straight and stood her ground,pingping her eyes fixed on Hermione\'s.

\"What sort of thing do you mean, Madam Pomfrey?\" Hermione asked, finding her voice again.

\"Hermione, I am not a fool, despite what some people may think.\" She didn\'t even have to look in Snape\'s direction. \"There\'s a reason why the Ministry has banned the practice of most forms of magic which involve sex as an integral component.\"

She did look at Snape then. He didn\'t flinch under her hard gaze, instead responding with an equally flinty look of his own.

\"How do you know-\" Hermione paused. \"All right, so the situation must be obvious to you from what we\'ve been saying.\"

\"As I said, my dear, I am very far from being a fool, and it\'s my business to know about the effects of any and every kind of magic on the human body. I am fully aware of just what a serious business this sort of magic is, and I sincerely hope that you are also aware of that.\"

\"Of course she is,\" growled Snape before Hermione had a chance to answer.

\"I also hope very much that you haven\'t been drawn into a situation that is not of your choosing,\" Madam Pomfrey continued, as though Snape had not spoken.

\"I know what I\'m doing, Madam Pomfrey. Really. I do. I wouldn\'t have even considered becoming involved if I hadn\'t been convinced of the need,\" said Hermione.

Hermione\'s words were intended to reassure Madam Pomfrey that she she\'d known what she was getting herself into. Instead, they seemed to have the opposite effect. Pomfrey first looked shocked and then indignant, and then she rounded on Snape.

\"How could you?\" she demanded. \"She\'s barely more than a girl. Only a few short years ago she was a child under your care!\"

\"You\'re even more of a fool than I took you for if you think that I somehow lured innocent little Miss Granger into my evil clutches,\" he said with cold fury. \"You weren\'t paying much attention all those years she was at school if you could believe that my poor powers of persuasion would be sufficient to cause any of Potter\'s friends to do my bidding.\"

\"You are a grown man-\" Madam Pomfrey began.

\"I wasn\'t the one who convinced her, you silly old biddy! Do you hony imy imagine that we would – or could – carry out this sort of thing at Hogwarts without the appropriate authority?\" Snape said angrily.

Madam Pomfrey was red-faced and breathing hard. \"I don\'t-\"

\"Professor Dumbledore knows exactly what we\'re doing, Madam Pomfrey,\" Hermione interrupted in as calm a voice as she could muster. \"Please do ask ask any more questions. We really can\'t give you any answers, even though we\'d like to.\" A rumble from Snape\'s direction suggested that she was speaking for herself when it came to that last bit. \"Thank you for your concern, though. I appreciate it.\"

Madam Pomfrey drew in a deep breath, visibly trying for a semblance of calm. \"Very well,\" she said in a strained voice. \"I think, perhaps, that it is time for Professor Snape to depart and let you recuperate in peace.\"

Hermione met Snape\'s hard stare across the pillow. \"I don\'t think-\" she said.

\"I\'ll be staying,\" Snape said flatly.

\"I don\'t-\" Hermione started again.

\"If you cannot move from here, then I must stay. It\'s quite simple.\" Snape didn\'t look happy about having to say it.

Madam Pomfrey gave up attempting calm at that point. \"I am not a fool, Severus Snape,\" she said.

\"So you keep telling me.\"

\"Don\'t try to divert my attention. I know exactly what your staying means,\" Madam Pomfrey continued doggedly. \"I can\'t imagine that Professor Dumbledore would allow such a spell to be cast within the walls of Hogwarts. He wouldn\'t countenance it. Not unless…\" Her voice trailed off and a look of horror took over her face.

\"Yes, exactly. I see that the situation is now quite clear to you\" said Snape. \"I\'ll need the use of your Floo so that I can retrieve certain necessary items from my quarters.\"

Pomfrey looked at Snape as though he were mad. \"I can\'t possibly allow you to do that, Severus.\"

\"Surely we don\'t have to go through it all over again? I thought we\'d finally got to the point where you had reached a rudimentary understanding of the situation.\" Snape sounded put upon.

\"On the contrary, it appears that I have a better understanding of the situation than you do, or have you completely forgotten just why Miss Granger ended up here?\"

\"What do you mean?\" Hermione asked, though she had a pretty good idea of where this was heading.

\"Explain your point,\" said Snape.

\"I would have thought the matter to be perfectly obvious to a wizard of your perspicacity and … experiences, Severus.\" Snape\'s lips curled into a sneer at that. \"If Miss Granger is suffering an adverse reaction to magic, then surely you are in a similar danger. Apart from any other reason, as a Healer, I simply cannot allow either of you to expose yourselves to such a hazard.\"

Hermione nodded. \"I think she\'s right,\" she told Snape.

Snape didn\'t say anything but the look he cast at her said very clearly \'You would.\'

\"Go back to your rooms and get whatever you require for the night,\" Madam Pomfrey instructed him. \"I\'ll have the bed next to Miss Granger\'s made up for you in the mean time.\"

\"You appear to have reconciled yourself to the situation very quickly,\" Snape observed.

\"I\'ll also be going to see the Headmaster while you\'re gone,\" Madam Pomfrey told him.

\"Of course you will,\" said Snape, with the hint of a mocking smile. \"I would haven den disappointed if you\'d done otherwise. You\'d better make haste. I won\'t be long.\"

And with that, he got up and disappeared out the door without another word.

Madam Pomfrey looked after him as the doors swung shut, then turned back towards Hermione\'s bed and busied herself in smoothing down the coverlet one more time. The small task seemed to soothe her because after a moment she looked up, her expression all calm efficiency once more.

\"I must go now, Hermione, but I\'ll be back shortly,\" she said.

\"I wish you wouldn\'t, Madam Pomfrey. And I wish you wouldn\'t worry. I know what I\'m doing.\"

\"I hope so, my dear. I really do. However, other people also knew what they were doing when they persuaded you into this – and that\'s why I\'m going to see the Headmaster. In the meantime, make sure you get your rest.\" She patted Hermione\'s hand, then walked away swiftly and had quit the room before Hermione had a chance to say anything more.

Hermione was left alone. All in all, it was quite a relief. She lay back against the pillows, deciding to get what rest she could before the next round commenced.

***

As it turned out, Madam Pomfrey returned to the hospital wing rather sooner than Professor Snape.

Hermione was looking out the window by her bed, bored, and wishing that she\'d thought to ask Snape to bring one of her books up from his quarters. As it was, her only distraction was watching a group of students practising on the Quidditch pitch in the distance. It wasn\'t really much of a distraction. She looked around quickly when she heard the doors open; relieved, and yet not, when she saw who had entered the room.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head as she crossed the room to Hermione\'s bed. \"It is really most annoying. I arrived at the Headmaster\'s office to find that he left the school half an hour ago and will not be back before morning. It appears that I will be unable to bring this matter to his attention until tomorrow.\"

\"He really does know about it, Madam Pomfrey. It was his idea,\" said Hermione.

\"I\'m not doubting your word, Hermione. I\'m sure that he impressed you with the urgency and direness of the situation. The Headmaster always has a host of excellent reasons for any course of action he takes.\" She smiled grimly. \"All the more reason for me to give him a piece of my mind.\"

\"Madam Pomfrey-\"

\"Now, to get this bed sorted out.\" Madam Pomfrey said briskly, pointing her wand at the bed closest to Hermione\'s. Immediately, the covers drew back to allow the pillows to rise into the air where they fluffed themselves out, before floating gently back down to the bed and settling back into place. Madam Pomfrey considered the bed for a moment then summoned an extra blanket from a nearby cupboard. It unfolded itself and tucked itself in at the foot of the bed, somehow managing to appear slightly nervous of Madam Pomfrey\'s scrutiny.

Satisfied, Madam Pomfrey turned back to Hermione. \"I know where you must have been sleeping of late. However, for a number of reasons I\'d much prefer that you kept to separate beds while staying in my hospital wing. The proximity of these two beds should be close enough to satisfy the requirements of the spell. For one night, anyway.\"

\"Thank you,\" said Hermione.

She was saved from having to say anything else by the opening of the door. The new arrival turned out not to be Snape, as she\'d expected, but a schoolboy of about fifteen or so. He was quite tall for his age, and thin, with curly dark hair and a large-ish nose. His hands were thrust deep in the pockets of his robes and he looked more than a little nervous.

\"Hello, Madam Pomfrey,\" he said. \"I just came to see if the… Miss… your patient was all right.\"

\"As you can see for yourself, Mr Parsons, she is well on the road to recovery. Thank you for your concern, but Miss Granger needs to rest so you must leave now,\" said Madam Pomfrey.

Hermione recognised the boy\'s voice. \"Wait just a moment,\" she called out, as the boy turned to go. \"You\'re the one who cast the *Mobilicorpus* on me, aren\'t you?\"

The boy flushed slightly. \"Yes, that was me.\"

\"Hello,\" said Hermione. \"My name\'s Hermione Granger. Thank you for helping me.\" She held out her hand.

\"I\'m Kevin Parsons,\" said the boy, coming forward and shaking hands with her. He seemed relieved when Hermione let go of his hand again.

\"You\'re a Ravenclaw?\" Hermione asked, noticing the insignia on his robe.

He nodded.

\"I was a Gryffindor, though my friends sometimes said I should have been a Ravenclaw because I studied so much.\" She laughed gently.

\"And now I really think it is time for Mr Parsons to depart,\" Madam Pomfrey interrupted. \"Miss Granger needs her rest and-\"

They all looked around as the doors burst open yet again. Snape strode into the room, carrying a black leather bag which reminded Hermione of an old-fashioned doctor\'s case. His eyes fastened on the boy standing by Hermione\'s bed.

\"Just what do you think you are doing here, Mr Parsons? I was not aware that the hospital wing had been designated a student recreation area,\" said Snape, every word dripping sarcasm.

\"It hasn\'t been, sir. I just wanted to check that Miss Granger was all right,\" said Parsons, looking apprehensively at Snape and sounding even more nervous than he had before.

\"He was one of the students who brought me here, Professor Snape,\" Hermione explained.

\"Well, you\'ve seen her,\" Snape told Parsons, still staring down at him in displeasure. \"Now get going. Five points from Ravenclaw for loitering.\"

\"That\'s not fair!\" Hermione said indignantly.

Snape\'s cold gaze moved to her. \"Parsons is a student at this school. I am a teacher. I will continue to award and deduct points from students as I see fit. Please do not attempt to interfere in matters which do not concern you.\"

\"Of course it concerns me. He came here to see me,\" Hermione exclaimed.

\"Ten points from Ravenclaw,\" Snape said quietly.

\"It\'s all right, Miss Granger,\" Parsons said hastily. \"I need to start on my homework, anyway.\"

He wasted no time in getting going, though he did cast one last, curious look over his shoulder at Hermione before the door closed behind him.

Hermione looked back at him. She did not intend to forget his kindness in coming to her aid when she\'d been lying helpless in the dungeons; nor would she forget Snape\'s unfair treatment of him just now.

As soon as the boy was gone, Snape turned on Pomfrey. \"What were you thinking, letting him in here like that?\" he demanded. \"Surely you understand the need for discretion in this matter?\"

\"Of course I understand,\" Pomfrey snapped back at him. \"He was only here for a moment, and it\'s not as if he didn\'t already know that Hermione was here. There\'s no harm done.\"

\"Of course there\'s harm done! It just draws more attention to us. Or didn\'t the Headmaster make it clear to you that this is meant to be a clandestine undertaking?\"

\"The Headmaster is away from the school and won\'t be back until tomorrow,\" Pomfrey admitted grudgingly.

\"Really?\" asked Snape. \"How inconvenient for you. Still, I expect you\'ll be down to see him as soon as he returns.\" He turned away from her, set his leather bag down on the empty bed and began unpacking the contents. It was an unmistakeable dismissal.

Madam Pomfrey stood there, staring at his back and fuming. After a moment, she took a deep breath and turned to Hermione. \"If *you* need anything, Hermione, just pull the tassel on your bedpost and I\'ll be back directly.\"

\"Thanks,\" said Hermione.

Madam Pomfrey nodded in acknowledgement before walking away, not so much as glancing at Snape as she passed him on her way out of the room.

Hermione lay back against her pillows. The room was quiet, the only sound the gentle rustle of Snape\'s robes as he continued to unpack his things. She looked out the window again, but the Quidditch players were gonee gre grounds seemed to be deserted. Hermione shifted restlessly and turned her attention to Snape. From this angle, all she could see of him was the back of his long, black robe and his lank, equally black hair. All that unrelieved black only served to remind her of how pale his skin was in comparison.

Abruptly, Hermione looked away, uncomfortably aware of how vividly she could recall the sight of him lying in bed with his naked back to her. Had it really been only that morning?

As if aware of her discomfort, Snape chose that moment to turn around. \"I brought this up for you,\" he told her, thrusting a large book at her. \"Since you are stuck here for the moment, you can, at least, use the time productively.\"

Hermione looked down at the book in her hands. It was the book she\'d brought back with her from Number 12, Grimmauld Place, the previous evening.

\"You will also be needing these,\" Snape added, placing her notebook quilquill on the stand beside her bed.

\"Thank you,\" she muttered, suddenly acutely aware that all she seemed to be doing recently was sit around in bed and thank people. She needed to get back to doing something useful.

Snape went back to sorting out the items he\'d taken from his bag. They were spread out on the bed in front of him. There seemed to be rather more things there than should have been able to fit inside something so relatively small. The bag was obviously charmed with some sort of containment spell. It was a neat bit of magic and if Snape had been just about anyone else, Hermione would have asked how he\'d incorporated the charm into the substance of the bag. However, Snape was Snape. Hermione opened her book.

She found it difficult to concentrate on the words on the page before her thanks to her aching head – she wished that Madam Pomfrey had been able to give her something to ease the pain - and to the fact that Snape was still sorting through the things he\'d brought. Hermione could see him moving about out of the corner of her eye.

Eventually Snape settled down in a chair between the two beds. Now Hermione could see all the things that he had set out on the bed. Surprisingly, most of them were books. Snape had another open on his lap.

He raised one eyebrow as he caught Hermione staring. \"You aren\'t the only one capable of conducting research into our situation.\"

Hermiconsconsidered him for a moment. He stared back. Apparently, no one had ever told him that it wasn\'t polite to stare.

Finally she said, \"Yes, but I think you know a bit more about it than I do, even though I\'m the one who\'s been doing all the research until now.\"

\"Why do you say that?\" Snape asked, looking suddenly wary.

\"You knew that I was having a reaction to magical energy.\"

\"Any competent magical practitioner should have been able to deduce that from the evidence.\"

\"Yes, given time and knowledge of the pertinent facts, anyone who knew what they were doing would have worked it out.\" Hermione looked straight into Snape\'s dark eyes. \"But you worked it out very quickly without even knowing how many times I\'d used magic on myself today.\"

\"I am a competent magical practitioner, obviously,\" said Snape.

\"You\'ve seen this before,\" Hermione said, only completely sure that she was r whe when she uttered the words.

Snape said nothing.

\"Haven\'t you?\" Hermione prompted.

Snape blinked once, slowly, and returned his attention to his book.

Hermione didn\'t look away. Instead, she kept her eyes firmly on Snape. After a little bit, she tried another approach. \"I\'m surprised you didn\'t cast a forgetfulness spell on Madam Pomfrey. She worked out a lot more than I would have expected her to.\"

Snape sighed ostentatiously and looked up. \"The Headmaster frowns on that sort of behaviour. It\'s simply not the done thing to go about *Obliviating* one\'s colleagues at will.\" Hermione\'s face must have betrayed her surprise at the idea of Snape worrying about observing the proprieties, because he frowned irritably and clarified: \"Too many people saw you being taken into the hospital wing to be able to get away with it. Causing old Pomfrey to forget would have created more problems than it solved.\"

\"I see,\" said Hermione, a wealth of meaning in her tone.

Snape ignored that. \"And now, if you\'re quite finished?\" he asked pointedly, and held his book up in front of him so that Hermione could no longer see his face.

Disgruntled, Hermione looked down at the book on her own lap. The sentence at the top of the page was familiar: she must have read it ten times since she\'d first turned to that particular page last night. She really needed to get past it.

Before long, both Snape and Hermione were buried deep in their respective books and muttering under their breath as they scribbled notes in their respective notebooks. Much to Hermione\'s surprise, the ensuing silence turned out to be oddly companionable. Over the past weeks, she\'d always found Snape\'s presence a hindrance to her concentration when studying in his quarters. Now, on neutral ground, they seemed to have reached something like a truce. An armed truce, true, but still a truce.

She turned the page.

Time always had a way of passing quickly whenever Hermione was engrossed in a book, but she was still surprised, when she looked up some time later, to discover that it was growing dark outside. The candelabras set into the wall sconces came alight all at once and bathed the room in warm, yellow light. Smiling slightly, Hermione returned to her book.

A while after that, a house-elf brought them dinner on trays. By tacit consenhey hey ate quickly, and then turned back to their books.

Eventually, Madam Pomfrey came in, looking very much calmer than when Hermione had last seen her, and requested that her patient get some sleep. Once she had made sure that they\'d not only closed their books but put them away, Madam Pomfrey bade them good night and left them alone.

Snape disappeared behind the screen in the corner – it served the purpose even better than the wardrobe door back in his quarters – and emerged a few minutes later, his long, grey nightshirt covering him from neck to below the knee. He came back to his chair, and sat down to remove his boots.

His bed was still covered in books. Hermione expected him to start putting them away, but instead he got to his feet and looked at her, an unreadable, unnerving expression on his face.

\"Aren\'t you going to-\" Hermione began.

\"You know that we must sleep in the same bed each night,\" he stated baldly. \"Make room for me so that we can both get some sleep.\"

\"Madam Pomfrey said that we\'d be all right in separate beds for one night,\" Hermione replied.

\"And you\'d rather take her word over mine, after the way in which she demonstrated her skill when she almost killed you earlier today,\" Snape said blandly.

Hermione bit her lip, hard, and moved over.

The hospital bed wasn\'t nearly as wide as Snape\'s bed. Hermione lay poised uncomfortably on her side, as close to the edge as she could manage without actually falling out. Even so, there was very little space to spare between her and the other occupant of the bed. After a couple of minutes of this, Hermione admitted that she couldn\'t possibly stay like that all night. She rolled over onto her back. There was just enough room, though her arm was pressed hard against Snape\'s. She could feel the muscles tense at her touch, just as they had the night before.

But of course tonight was not going to be a repeat of the night before.

Snape shifted in the bed, so that their arms were no longer touching. So that their bodies were no longer touching at all. Hermione wasn\'t sure how he found the space to manage it in the terribly narrow bed. She *was* sure that she wasn\'t going to get a wink of sleep. It was impossible to relax when so tense and aware that the person lying next to you was going out of his way to avoid the least physical contact with you.

Hermione lay theryes yes closed as she listened to the sound of Snape\'s deep, regular breathing coming from the other side of the pillow.

She was still listening when sleep claimed her.