The Wizards Breath

GASP...Just noticed I forgot my dis-claimer...UUmmm let\'s see...
All hail JKR, for she has made the world I spend more time in than
the one I\'m suppose to..she owns all, she made all...I just love it
when the Slytherins invite me over to play....I make no money
from this...I\'m just a poor bored DJ in juggalo country, and have no
smegging idea where this fic idea came from....he-he-he

!!!!If you don\'t like the idea of Snape and Hermione getting
red-eyed and doing naughty things...then please move to
the next fic. After all it\'s legal in Amsterdam...LOL!!!!

***New authors note 9-19-05: Hello readers, if any of you
feel I have left my fan fic to rot...please don\'t. Last fall I had
some legal troubles, and I have just returned from my state
issued vacation. This time I\'m home for good. It\'s hard to update
in jail, or else I would have. I didn\'t see a computer for close to
a year. This fic, and \"Eyes of Winter\" will have updates within the
next week. I\'m going to do type-o corrections and spacing issues first. Until then...wait for new chapters...or if you are new enjoy my work. Shaolin****
Chapter 1...

Hermione sat back in the large comfy chair as she read her latest
purchase. A wizarding book on advanced Medi-witch techniques
she had bought this afternoon. The sun was now nowhere to be seen, and it was the second time reading it. The sunlight was
gone, and it was now pretty dim in the small bar.

\'Some vacation,\' she thought. Ron and Harry had promised it
would be fun to see Amsterdam. They had went exploring today
and left her here. Promising to be back in a couple hours. She scowled as she thought where they could be. Lost in the
red light district no doubt. Wankers.

She had been here an hour when she finally took a look up
from her book. Sipping her now cold coffee, looking around the
small bar. Bastards, they had left her to read in a hash bar.
Wizards and witches at small booths and round tables smoking
from bongs, pipes, and other things that looked strange to her.

She had buried her nose back in her book and tried to ignore
it. Only every one in a while a wafting breeze would tickle the
sweet smoke under her nose.

\'Those two will have some major ass kissing after this
fiasco,\' she thought bitterly.

She stretched her cramped legs out on the chair next to
her. At twenty-two Hermione had blossomed into a
beautiful lady. Chestnut hair and eyes, and a pair of
unjustly long legs. She had been through much in the
last five years, including sprouting into her womanhood.

Voldemort now dead and gone, by Harry\'s hand, with a
little help from his friends of course. Victor had grown
too famous to talk to her anymore, and she and Ron
tried and had a miserable relationship two years ago.
Better as friends and they left it at that. A near whirlwind
of events in the span of the last three years. Thank Merlin,
things had calmed down.

Hermione enjoyed her Medi-witching and it kept her on
her toes. Working long hours, with little appreciation sometimes
got her down, but nevertheless she loved her work. Harry
had to plead to get her to come here with them. A two week vacation to beautiful Amsterdam, a much needed time to lay back and relax. So much for that.

She had to give them credit, they had tried to make her
happy. They visited a few art galleries and a museum, but
she knew they wanted to party. She guessed Harry deserved
it. Having had to be the brave,strong one for so long, and
Ron just needed to lighten up a bit. He was now just learning
how to live in Harry\'s shadow without being completely invisible.

Hermione glanced back around, eyes darting back and forth
over the top of her book. Lots of people in robes, and wizards
in muggle clothes too. She felt relieved they were dressed
almost normal. No men in dresses, thank Merlin. She watched
them intently at their little tables, sipping tea and blowing
smoke rings around. Not a one wore a scowl, they were all
laughing and joking like the whole world had no end.

Only in one corner booth there was a dark man, and he
was scowling through the smoke that curled around his
black hair in the dim lighting. Mostly trying to lurk in the
shadows that clung to that side of the room. Almost
looking as if he belonged to them.

Her brown eyes widened behind her book as she jerked it
up to hide her face. \'No, I\'m seeing things.\'

She snuck another peek at the dark corner from the side
of her book. He was looking at her strangly as he blew a
great cloud of smoke her way.

Ducking behind her book once more she felt her face go
hot. No denying it, her once feared, and at one time lusted
over Potions master was sitting in this place. Staring at her
no less. Slinking in the shadows, as usual.

\'Just like him.\'

Her leg twitched with the thought of his naked body. She
had seen him one night at Grimmauld place a year after
graduation. She had been staying with Harry over the
summer before her Medi-Witch studies had began.

Even though it was now Harry\'s house it still served as
a safe house, and meeting place. Harry would have it no
other way. He seemed to think that if Sirius had done it ,
he should too.

Snape kept a private room on the second floor, and
came and went as needed. Apperating here and there,
and sometimes staying the night. Usually they didn\'t know
if he was there until he emerged from the room, frowning and
stalking about the house until the business was done and he
could go.

Hermione had taken a late night trip to the loo, using only
her wand to quide her through the dark house. She had barely
found the doorknob in the blackness, and when she had
pushed open the door there stood her former professor. He
had just emerged from the bath, dripping wet with the smell of sandalwood in the air. Dimly bathed in the candlelight that
filled the room.

Hermione froze. He certainly had been hiding beneath all the
folds of his robes. Lean, but still muscular. Snape\'s smooth
chest was covered in a fine dusting of black hair that followed
down to his completely exposed neither regions. His long arms
were grabbing desperately for a towel as she snapped out of it,
and shut the door with a bang.

He was gone the next morning before breakfast. She could
not of brought herself to face him that morning, and now she couldn\'t keep her eyes off him. After that he had been her
fantasy when she closed her eyes. Seeing the searing eyes,
and being touched with the long fingers he possessed. All came flooding back as she dared another peek over the book. She whimpered to herself as he motioned silently to her to take
the seat next to him.


She hid once again behind her book. Thank Merlin, it was
a decent sized volume. The sweet smoke reached her nose
once again, and formed little gray letters in front of the page
she was hiding behind. Curling together to form words in its
own smoky way.

Miss Granger....

She looked up once again, and sighed. He had her trapped.
She stood up, and walked slowly over to where he sat in the darkness. Trying not to show her embarrassment from the last
time she had seen him. It had been four years ago, and it was
still burned into her mind. She had made sure of it.

Hermione sat softly in the booth, across from him and feeling
like she was back in his potions class.

\"Hello, Professor Snape.\" She managed to squeak out.

\"Miss Granger, it certainly has been awhile. I see time has been good to you. Medi-witching now I heard. At St.Mongo\'s I believe?\"

Hermione nodded, she didn\'t trust her voice now.

\"Pray tell me, what brings a former Head girl to The Dragon\'s Breath?\" He lit his pipe once more and inhaled deeply.

\"Dragon\'s Breath, Sir?\" She questioned him but tried to avert
her eyes from his.

\"Why yes. Certainly you know where you are. This is The
Dragon\'s Breath,\" he swept his hand through the air, \"A wizards\' hash bar. You did know that, didn\'t you?\" There was the definate
old tone of comdemnation ringing in his voice.

\"Well I figured it out once I was here. Harry and Ron left me
here to read and they haven\'t come back yet.\" She now met his eyes, she shouldn\'t have said anything about Harry. They were black, but didn\'t seem as harsh as usual. Maybe due to the reddish tint that now covered the whites of them.

\"Leave it to Potter and Weasley to leave you alone. A
beautiful young lady in a strange city. Obviously they have
not changed much, still thinking of themselves I see. Which
head are they thinking with today, I wonder?\"\"

She didn\'t answer. Normally Hermione would of defended
them till the ends of the earth, but it was true they had
forgotten about her once again. It happened a lot lately.
Harry and Ron were in their early twenties now. It was no
wonder they excluded her in some of their more \"manly\"
activities.

Who wants a girl as a third wheel when you go somewhere
to pick up chicks? She severely lowered their chances of
getting shagged. Witches or Muggles, they all were alike
when it came to the dating game. They didn\'t want a girl
around to rain on the love parade.

He cleared his throat, and pulled another puff of smoke
from his pipe. \"It has been a while since I\'ve seen you. The
last time, if my memory serves me correctly, was in the
bathroom at Mr.Potter\'s.\" Snape chuckled and set back
further into the shadow of the wall, watching Hermione
wiggle in embarrassment.

\"Yes, sir.\" She bit her bottom lip in frustration. How her
tongue longed to say more on the subject, but she
held it...barely.

He have her a long strange look, realization dawning on his face,
and leaned forward between them.

\"Miss Granger, you obviously have not partaken of this establishments fine goods. If you had I\'m sure you wouldn\'t
be so tense.\"

He waved the barman over, and mumbled something to
the short, fat man. He nodded and apperated a bag of
something that looked like green leafy clumps. Setting it
down in front of Snape. Was that what she thought it
was?

\"Thank you, Martin. Put it on my bill, please.\"

\"Very good, sir.\" Martin smiled at Hermione with a gly
grin, and returned behind the bar to wait on another witch
who was standing there.

Snape sniffed the contents of bag with a deep breath.
\"Mmm,\" he moaned softly, looking at her with a dark gleam
in his eye, \"Sinful.\"

Hermione felt almost like running, but she was glued to
the spot. Was she really going to sit here with her former
teacher and smoke pot? His actions were defiantly clear, to
sit here and get her stoned. She had only done it once, with
some of her muggle friends one summer before she returned
to the burrow to be with Ginny. And there had been so many of them she only got a little. No effect really. After that she hadn\'t bothered to try it again.

Harry and Ron didn\'t do it, at least she didn\'t think they did.
Who knew anymore?

She watched as Snape packed a large amount of the
substance into the bowl of a little ornamental contraption
on the table. It was a swirling brassy color, with two hoses
that ran from the sides of it. One for Hermione, one for Snape.

\'I\'m actually going to do this.\' She thought to herself as
she picked up the hose with her small hand. Snape was
certainly looking good, better than she remembered. Maybe
it had to be his face. He wasn\'t scowling like he used to,
more like his face had just....relaxed. He had to be pushing forty, but here right now, he looked thirty tops. Amazing.

\"Ready?\" He questioned, smiling like the devil on Saturday night.

She tried not to stare at those long fingers as he used his
wand to light the top of the bowl, moving the flame around
to get it all. Hermione could hear the hissing of air as he did so,
and the burst of smoke from his nostrils clouded her vision for a moment.

\"Your turn, Miss Granger.\"

She looked at him determined to do this right, sat as straight
as she could get, and brought the end piece to her mouth.
Sucking in, and watching the top of the bowl glow, and heard the burning and snapping. She snuck a look at Snape who was intently watching her, but suddenly she felt a fire in her lungs and it came rushing out with such force she saw his hair blow upward.

Hermione was coughing so loudly some of the other
customers were looking and shaking their heads with a smile.
Still coughing and sputtering, but in a way it felt
almost...good.

\"Crawl before you walk, Miss Granger. Take smaller puffs
until you get used to it.\" He rolled his eyes and sat back. \"Amateurs.\"

He her amazement it wasn\'t hateful in the least. He was
jabbing at her it seemed. Could it be? Could a simple plant be
the key to taming a snarky git like Snape? He puffed on his
end, still swallowed by dim shadows. Only the smoke coming
down signaled he was still awake.

Hermione was hell bound not to do that again, and she pulled
on the hose with small swift inhales. Surprisingly different this time. She made sure to make Snape see she had done it properly.

\"Pity there are no books on this in the Hogwart\'s library.
I dare say if there were, you would have been ready.\"

Another great cloud of smoke came billowing down from
his side.

\"Merlin,\" she asked annoyed. \"How do you do that?\"

\"Many years of practice, my dear. Now keep going,\" he scolded. She had stopped to watch him with her big beautiful eyes. \"Don\'t
let that go out. I\'ll make you relight it if you do.\"

Still commanding, even now, and it made her insides feel like
jelly. Making her feel like her panties were going to start sticking
any minute. She brought her long legs up underneath her to
help the situation.

She was almost his height now, and could see into his eyes
again. Still black, but now almost calm. Gone was their verocity
that had frightened her for years, replaced by an almost serine expression.
She leaned over on purpose, letting him get a good look
down the front of her plain blue jean shirt, pretending to get
closer to the hookah on the table. Taking a decent amount
of smoke into her, and blowing it softly out of her puckered
lips, looking at him through lidded eyes.

\'Wow, that certainly was ballsy.\' she thought silently. Her
mind rushed now with a combination of lingering hesitance,
and returning attraction for this man. It had to be the smoke
now getting at her, she was trying not to giggle and the
rings around her eyes were tingling.

\"As I was saying, Miss Granger. Last time I saw you I had just been from the bath.\"

She choked on the smoke she was inhaling and managed to sputter,
\"Yeah..(cough)..it was..(cough).\"

\'Holy Merlin,\' she blushed again at the thought of him in all
his naked glory. Black, brooding, and silent. Second time tonight
he had mentioned it. \'Gods, he wanted to talk about it!\'

\"You left in such a great rush, Miss Granger. You can\'t tell me it scarred you for life, now can you?\" He chuckled softly at his own joke.

Again with the humor. Where was the real Snape? Maybe
this was the real Snape. Whatever it was she liked it, and
she was beginning to enjoy his company. And the way he was moving his fingers over the hookah\'s hose
was driving her mad.

She smiled again, and laughed. The small laugh from her
sounding like music to his weary ears. She had became as
beautiful as he knew she would become.

She had been a late blossomer, but had now came into the
smooth looks that always had been under her baby fat. She
was taller, but still quite small, and her eyes were the color of leaves in fall.

\"No,\" she replied. Looking down at her hands. \"I can\'t say it *scarred* me. More like just surprised me. No one knew you
were in the house.\"

\"I bet Potter and Weasley got a good laugh from that.\" He
rolled his dark eyes, and scoffed. \"Hah, I bet the whole clan
laughed for hours.\"

Hermione took another good size hit from the hose. It just
kept getting easier. She exhaled with a large smile. \"I didn\'t
tell them.\"

\"Didn\'t tell them?\" Disbelief in his voice. \"Surely how could
have you resisted?\"

Hermione shrugged. \"Just didn\'t, it wasn\'t like that.\" She
looked at the hose, and took another long puff for good
measure. She had heard of courage in a shot. Did this count
as the same thing? Courage in a smoke?

Had to be the same thing....maybe.

\"Indeed.\" His voice interrupting her thoughts, rumbling straight
to her panties. \"How was it like then?\"

He was backing her into the corner again. Playing cat and mouse with her thoughts, that were now foggy from the smoke he had
just exhaled again. She decided to play along and be the mouse....this time.

\"It was,\" she looked at with a small grin, \"informative.\"

\"Hmmm...yes.\" He sniffed huffily, she had snuck by him
once again. Chalk one up for the Gryffindor. Little vixen,
like she had never seen a man naked. Well maybe not a
man, boys surely.

Before even thinking she blurted, \" I\'m thirsty, Sever....\"

She trailed off and bit her finger. \'Oh shit! Please tell me I
just didn\'t say that.\' She looked over at him expecting him to
be angry, but he was moving his graceful hand in a small circle. Signaling her to continue.

\"You were saying something?\" He leaned down wickedly.
\"Hermione.\"

It sent a shock wave from her ear to the ends of her long
hair. She could\'ve swore her eyes fluttered by themselves.
She quickly cleared her throat and finished.

\"I said I was thirsty,\" she balled up her courage,
\"Severus.\"

\"Very good. I would say under the circumstances such
formalities are not needed. It would be very sad indeed if
we could not get past our former student and teacher
re-la-tion-ship.\" He said it slow and teasingly.

Snape smiled, a very faint one, but it still was something.
He motioned for the drink waitress and ordered two ice teas
for them.

She bit the inside of her cheek. \'What did that mean?
Calm yourself, girl. He\'s merely talking about being two
adults that can speak with a civil tongue.\'

(But oh what she really longed to do with her tongue.)

She sipped her tea and watched him a little closer. It didn\'t
seem to matter now that she wasn\'t hiding it. He wasn\'t
watching her anymore anyway. He had his head lowered,
watching his own hands crumble up another green bud from
the bag.

Hermione could see his shiny black hair sweep back and forth
as he continued his task, it didn\'t look greasy right now at all.
She was slipping away into her own little world of watching it
when he turned his eyes to her once again.

\"Here.\" He pushed the pile towards her. \"I know how you
are are with \"ingredients\", I bet your dying to get your
hands on it.\"

Hermione smiled inwardly. He had foolishly mistaken her
look of longing for the pot and not him. \"Yes,\" she agreed.
\"I am dying to get my hands on it.\" She scolded herself
for being a brazen hussy, as her mother would say.

He raised a black eyebrow at her but said nothing. \'Perhaps
he knows, but what if he does.\' This thought made her return
to biting her bottom lip. She kept busy with the pile in front
of her, and tried not to think of anything else. She could feel
his dark eyes watching as she continued, he was also silent.

Severus watched her small nimble fingers work on the task he had given her.

\'Those little hands would feel so good right now.....\',

***************************************************
Smut in next chapter...be warned...I know they are kinda OOC,
but their STONED!!! Wouldn\'t everyone be then. Imagine if it really
did charm the snake, so to speak. Snape wouldn\'t yell anymore, and
Malfoy Jr. might actually learn to smile like a normal person....the worldmay never know...lol..hope you enjoy..sorry once again for spelling mistakes...please review...flames will be used to heat my cold house..Nah! Flamers you have no power here, now be gone before someone drops a house on you as well!!!
Shaolin